Really Natural Chicken
We are involved with and deeply committed to alternative poultry
production. We are not selling confinement raised poultry, shot full of
chemicals and mass produced. The buyers of our poultry are concerned
consumers that want to purchase food products from pasture raised
animals, animals treated humanely and raised naturally without the use of
antibiotics and growth stimulants and food that is minimally processed.
These consumers are educated, health conscious and prepared to pay premium
prices for high quality, hard to get food products. That is what we are
selling.
That said, many of our customers are restaurant owners that serve
gourmet meals to high income patrons and so quality, not price, is the
primary issue. These chickens are raised on pasture on several farms in a
Mennonite community in Kansas. Their formulated feed is entirely
vegetarian - no animal by-products. These folks maintain their own breeding
stock, hatch the chicks and raise the birds to market weight. The birds
are processed at a local family operated USDA processing plant in Kansas.
The chickens are AIR CHILLED. Not sure if you know what that means, but
I doubt you can get air chilled poultry from anyone else. It is very
uncommon and a far superior processing method than the water chilled
method commonly used in industrial poultry production. Water chilling
employs soaking the freshly butchered chicken carcass in vats of water and
bring down the temperature of the chicken. During this process the
carcasses absorb water, water that is full of chemicals to prevent disease,
salt, phosphate and all sorts of blood and gut particles from all the
other chickens in the water. Up to 5% of the carcasses body weigh comes
from this water. You will never see on our labels “up to 5 % water
content”. Our birds are truly minimally processed. This results in a bird
with a much richer flavor and meat texture; one that not only is raised
humanely, naturally and free of medications, but one that does not have
a lot of chemicals added to it through processing. And a meal that
provides unparalleled taste. The chickens are heritage breed chickens, not
the industrial white meat birds raised by commercial growers. They are
genuine Cornish Game fowl and Plymouth Barred Rock chickens. These are
the breeds our forefathers raised on small family farms and a tradition
maintained by the Mennonites.
The prices for these chickens are higher than the prices of
industrially produced birds for many reasons. Unlike industrial confinement
operations, these farmers own all their equipment and infrastructure. An
agribusiness conglomerate does not come in and set them up, providing them
their buildings, feeders, waterers, and everything else. These farmers
maintain their own breeding stock,
have their own incubators and raise the chickens from birth all the way
through market age. Raising birds humanely and non-intensively requires
a lot more time and labor compared to factory production. Heritage
breeds grow slower than industrial strains. Poultry raised in this fashion
can not provide the quantities of birds that commercial operations can.
Air chilled processing is more expensive. And these are real life
farmers; they have families to support,
taxes, insurance, and dreams to fulfill. Sustainable agriculture is not
subsistence farming.
We can provide wall mounted placards that describe these birds and
tell their story. I can get laminated cards for placement on diner’s
tables that explain why they would want to eat a meal prepared from these
birds. We can help educate the consumer, and the buyer. These birds
will be a harder sell for you. If you don’t put out the effort, it won’t
happen.
Everything is shipped frozen; some product is available fresh, if
ordered before the birds are brought to market. Currently availability is
limited: 300-400 Plymouth barred Rocks per week, and 100-150 Cornish Game
fowl per week. Whole turkeys and geese are not available till the
fall. Upwards to 300 ducks per week are available. Ordering in advance is
highly recommended.
Please let me know if you have any questions or if you want us to send
a price list.
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Organic Butter
