Truly Pasture Raised Heritage Breed Chicken: Slow Cooking

Read more about our Pasture Raised Chicken:

We believe that animals should be raised in a way that mimics nature and ALWAYS treated with the utmost respect and care.

"Why does our heritage breed chicken taste so much better and different than other pastured chicken?"

✓ Heritage breed chickens grow slowly. It takes us nearly 3 months to raise each bird on lush green pastures. That slow growth creates flavor that typically isn't found in chicken. Nearly every other farm (including pasture based farms) raises ultra fast growing hybrid "cornish cross" type birds that can go from egg to plate in just over 5 weeks. Curious? Ask any other farm what breed of chicken they raise.

✓ Perhaps it's because we NEVER feed corn or soy. Again, nearly every other farm (organic or conventional, pasture or confinement based) feeds a steady diet of corn and soy. It's cheap and puts weight on incredibly fast. Corn heavy diets contribute excessive levels of linoleic acid (omega-6) to food and soy is not a natural or healthy source of protein for chickens. Curious? Ask any other farm what they feed their chickens.

✓ It could also be that we prioritize a low stress environment. We are calm, quiet, and slow around the birds, barely speaking above a whisper and moving gently through the flock. This keeps them at ease and stress to a minimum. Stress creates hormones that can directly impact the flavor and texture of meat - we avoid it at all costs.

✓ Or it could also be that we hand-butcher our birds directly on our farm. There is no transport induced stress. On processing day, we gather them when it's dark out (they are in a trance like state when it's dark) and carry them calmly to our zero-waste, mobile processing trailer. Every part of the bird that isn't packaged (ie. feathers, etc.) gets composted so that their nutrients are returned to our soil.

✓ Maybe it's because our chickens are raised on lush green pastures, full of grass and clover. Our pastures are 100% zero spray - no herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, or any o ther toxic chemicals are ever used, not even organically "approved" ones. Twice a day, our birds are moved to fresh grass. The tractor pulls the specially designed shelter forward and the chickens run ahead, eager to forage on the new grass.

We think that all of these reasons combine to create the absolute best tasting, most nutrient dense chicken. It requires a lot more time, investment, and work but the resulting meat is far superior to any other chicken. We don't know of ANY other farm raising chickens like this.

In addition to what they forage for, we supplement with a specially formulated certified organic mix of field peas, oats, alfalfa, kelp, probiotics, vitamins, minerals, and Redmond Sea Salt.

This is truly pasture raised chicken!!

When you raise healthy animals in a way that mimics nature, you create the most nutrient dense foods! We let our chickens be chickens - they're free to peck and scratch in the fields during the day while safely roosting at night. We encourage this instinctual behavior. Happy animals that live in a low stress environment create delicious, healthy food.

Why do we raise chickens this way?

Chickens are meant to live their lives outside, growing slowly. These are not the lazy modern industrial chickens engineered to gain weight so rapidly that their legs crush beneath them - instead, these are heritage breed birds that grow much more slowly and are perfectly suited for living a life on pasture. We raise our chickens on our lush green fields, moving them to fresh ground twice a day. Our birds actively forage for bugs, worms, and a full salad bar of plants and grasses including clover and dandelion. This high foraging content of their diet makes their meat extra high in CLA and Omega-3's. It is very typical for the fat to have a yellow hue, as this is a direct result of beta-carotene in the plants. Just like with our beef, pork and lamb, it takes MUCH longer to raise chickens this way and costs significantly more, but to us it's worth it. Here on our farm, it takes us double the amount of time compared to the commercial poultry industry to raise our birds, requiring us more than 3 to 4 months of grazing time out in the fields. This is not the bland, flavorless grocery store chicken. This is real chicken with FLAVOR and TEXTURE! We've had many customers tell us this is the best chicken they've ever tasted and we couldn't agree more. We're convinced you'll feel the same way too.