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Just like any profession, farmers need a way to keep up with the news in their field. One of the sources we use is Country Folk’s Grower newsletter.

The Grower newsletter is free (paid for by advertising) which makes it accessible to any size farm. It covers topics such as notable farmers, social trends affecting farmers, and ag-related issues, like pest control and soil fertility.

The September 2017 issue pictured above featured stories about farms ranging from a 3-acre vegetable farm run basically by one person to a much larger farm with 10 – 15 employees. It also covered trends in Christmas Tree production, common crop pests, and factors affecting growing in a high tunnel.

There were two take-aways  for me.

One article featured Jim Sollecito and his Syracuse nursery/consulting business. It reminded me that he has a series of podcasts that I want to check out.

I also learned about an online resource I can use to identify pests in the garden.

What resources to you use to stay updated in your fields of interest?

Last fall, in an effort to help you get our meat more easily, we started our twice-a-month Meat CSA.  It turned out that it was too much meat for most families. We want to help you, not make you have to figure out where you are going to squeeze that next roast into the already full freezer. So we have trimmed the Meat CSA (pun intended) to a monthly Meat Subscription.

What is a Meat Subscription? Each month you can choose to get Beef and/or Chicken delivered on the first Thursday of the month.  Our online store will also enable you to add on extra items that are available that month, like pork, extra beef cuts, honey, vegetables, etc.

Here’s how it works: As a subscriber, you will receive an email near the beginning of the month telling you that the store is open.  You will have 3-4 days to visit the (online) store. At the store you will choose to purchase either a chicken ($25) ~5 lb. and/or a beef option ($30). The beef options are:  4 tubes of ground beef OR 2 packages of beef steaks ~3.5 lb OR 1 beef roast ~3.5 lbs. Other options include choosing to pick up the order and either paying online or requesting to pay upon delivery.

We do have a delivery range.  If you are outside of that range, we will add some money on to compensate for the extra distance.  And if the cost of gas should go up significantly, our delivery charge will go up as well.

If you decide that you need a month off, just don’t click on the link for that month’s subscription.  No meat will be delivered.  The following month another email will come, and you can then get meat that month.

So how do you subscribe?  Click below to go to the subscribe page.  You will need to give your name, address, and phone number.  These details are just so we can get the meat to you and can call you if we have questions or need to text you if there is no person or cooler to receive your meat.  (By the way, we don’t share your personal data.  Others don’t need it.)

We hope that you will continue to get your local pasture-raised meats from us. 

This post outlines the basic steps we take when we process our chickens.

1.    We slaughter the chickens with cones made from old buckets.

2.    The carcass is scalded in water held between 145 and 155 degrees. (This scalding bucket normally sits on a propane heater, not on a chair!)

3.      Feathers come off in the whizbang chicken plucker, built by one of our sons.  The chicken is then placed in ice water until the next step.

4.      Innards come out on a stainless steel table purchased when a butcher shop was closing. The cleaned bird goes into a second ice water bath until it gets a final check by the quality assurance team.

5.     Our certified scale gives us the weight of the final product.

6.     Our chickens are generally in the freezer within two hours of slaughter.

…as a bryd that retorneth agayn to his owene nest.

The above quote indicates that even in Chaucer’s day, people noted the tenacity with which chickens will return to their roost at night. The phenomenon has even been studied scientifically, with the study authors noting “When perches were not accessible, the hens showed signs of frustration and/or increased exploration.”

Our layers’ roosting houses were moved in small increments a few times from March through June. In July we finally had the opportunity to move the houses 150 feet away. We thought it would be close enough that the chickens would see the roosts and adapt to the new spot.

Alas, it was not.

We realized several days after the move the the chickens were assembling at their old roosting spot, which was outside the new boundary of our livestock guardian animal. One of the indicators that something was up was that our egg production seemed to go way down. In reality the chickens were laying in more odd places because the nest boxes were also moved.

We ended up moving the roost houses within 30 feet of their old location, with an absolute clear line of sight, and with a little help the chickens were able to re-orient themselves back to safety.

Such are the trials of chicken farmers when they fight a bird’s natural instincts.