A month makes a big difference

first week of March

first week of april

first week of march

first week of april

What a difference a month makes.  Soon there will be duck for dinner.

$9.00 chicken quandary

I finally got to read the whole study about the cost of eating health food.  It just confirmed the quandary I'm facing.  I find my self approaching the problem of food from three different, and sometimes irreconcilable perspectives. As a local food activist I'm working to promote buy local even if it costs more.  As a producer I'm trying to produce great food and make enough profit that I am able to continue producing and expanding my business.  As a wage earner near the bottom of the wage scale I'm looking for the best food I can get for the limited money I have.  My $9.00 chicken sits right in the middle of this.  It costs to much for people like me (most of my county) to buy.  If I sell for less I don't make any money so what's the point of offering it as part of my food business.  The easiest way to balance this all is to scale up.  Tyson and co. can sell chickens for what they do because they pay a lot less for feed and processing  than I do, and because when you sell millions of chickens you can afford a much smaller profit margin.  I'm looking for creative ways to solve these problems while staying true to my vision.

I'd love to hear what you think.  Maybe together we can plot a course forward.

We still have some openings for our summer and fall chicken CSA at our Local Harvest Store.

"but I can get it for half that at Walmart..."

I was talking with a potential customer about our chickens today.  The topic of price came up.  Our chickens weigh in at 4.5 to 5 lbs.  They are raised on organic or non-gmo feed and pasture.  Most of the feed is produced within 100 miles of where we live.  We work every day to shrink that circle.  Average time from pasture to your freezer would be at most 5 days (mostly shorter, but some of our birds are held for people living farther away.)  The cost comes to $9.00 a bird.  What you get is a naturally raised, young (10 week old) chicken.  Nothing added.  YOU CAN'T BUY THAT AT WALMART.

I welcome comments.

Getting Bigger

The chicks and ducks are growing FAST!  They are already scruffy, awkward looking teenagers.  Soon they will be dinner!   The Spring CSA is sold out.  We still have some openings for the Summer and Fall CSA.  If you are in Ohio and interested, let me know.

Baby Chicks ... WHAT WAS I THINKING?

It was 5degrees F. when I got up this morning.  Kind of cold for baby chicks on pasture.  But don't worry, right now they are warm and happy in my seed sprouting room.  In about a week we will move them to a large pen in the greenhouse.  There they will have lots of room and they will start on sprouted grains and greens.  As it warms up outside and they get bigger we will open the greenhouse during the day so they can go out and forage. By April I expect they will be outside all day long.

Still have a few openings in our Spring Free Range Broiler CSA.  If you live in central Ohio, it is a great way to put some premium chicken in your freezer.

Spring Peeps are here!

The first batch of chicks is here.  Got them settled in and ready to grow.  These will be the first of many meat birds for our pasture chicken CSA.  If you live in the Columbus, Canton-Akron, Cleveland, or Zanesville area and want naturally grown pasture raised chicken, this is a great opportunity.   Sign up deadline for the spring CSA is March 14th, 2014. We will update the progress of these birds here.