We often have people ask us why our chicken tastes so much better than the stuff from the grocery store. After helping Greg raise chickens for the past 3 years I finally have the answers.
The process starts off with Greg’s careful planning. Before he was a farmer, Greg was an atmospheric chemist, which, among many other things, means that he had lots of practice with synthesizing numbers and making analytical decisions. He uses those skills for many things on the farm, including determining how many chickens we will raise in a given year and how to distribute them through the season so that we have a plentiful supply of whole chickens and chicken parts for our customers.
He carefully plans where (meaning on on what pastures) we will raise these birds and then starts seeding those pastures in the early spring with the types of grass and legumes that chickens LOVE to eat. This ensures that the pasture will be ripe for the picking when the birds hit the ground.
Within 24 hrs of hatching, we get the early morning wake up call from the ladies at the Rush Post Office telling us our birds arrived. The peeping chicks make A LOT of noise and the ladies always seem to be relieved when Greg shows up in his truck.
We bring the chicks back to the farm and place them in our “brooder” which is a warm cozy area in our shed where the chicks stay until they are strong enough to go outside. They have constant access to heat lamps and plenty of food and water. They stay here for about 2 weeks until we move them outside.
From then on, these birds have access to fresh pasture every day of their lives. They scratch up the dirt and eat bugs, roots and all the special grasses and legumes that Greg planted for them. They are moved every single day (yes, this requires a lot of physical work) so that the manure does not build up and so that the birds stay healthy and have the ability to graze ALL day. It is this DAILY rotational grazing, along with certified organic grains, that helps create a meat chicken that is juicy, tender and flavorful, and sets our product apart from what you get in the grocery store.
Lastly, unlike many farms that send their chickens off to a processing plant to be butchered (which is stress-inducing for the birds and might affect the quality of the meat), we do 100% of our poultry processing on the farm now. This means that every chicken (and turkey) you buy from us is not only certified organic, but pasture raised and has been personally raised and processed with great care by Greg and me! This level of quality is rare these days and shines through to your plate and your taste buds!
Fresh chicken season starts May 13th, so be sure to mark you calendars! This happens to coincide with the first outdoor BFM and Mother’s Day!
We will continue to bring fresh pork to market as well. The next fresh pork day is this Sunday – we will have EVERYTHING available including chops, shoulder roasts, ground pork, spare ribs, bacon and deli ham! We hope to see you then.
All the best,
Your Farmers
Jenney & Greg
PS-Egg Share Sign-ups close this Sunday evening so be sure to sign up online here if you want to guarantee yourself Stonecrop Eggs every week (or other week)