Month: February 2019

So you want to eat healthy? You go to the grocery store and you buy organic meat because that is the best, right? Well, not necessarily. Did you know that an organic chicken can be raised in a confinement chicken house? Even “free range” chicken is often raised in confinement houses. According to USDA regulations, a couple of access doors can qualify the chicken in an operation as free range even though the house is 24,000 square feet and the area outside the house is a fraction of that. By simply giving the birds “access” to the outdoors the big guys skate around common sense and decency.

Let’s compare what we’re doing to the way 99.9% of the chicken in the supermarket are raised. First of all, our chickens will be raised on fresh grass, moved daily from the time they come out of the brooder until they are processed.  There are so many reasons, too many to list them all, why this is key. They will ingest grass and bugs and eat a more natural diet than chickens raised in a confinement house.  Because the chickens are moved daily, their manure is spread out across the pasture allowing it to be a great fertilizer and cause even more grass to grow. Alternatively, when birds are housed in a confinement facility, they don’t see sunlight or grass or eat bugs or get to express the chickenness of a chicken in any meaningful way. In fact these “free range” or “organic” chickens are debeaked because there is such a problem with cannibalism in these facilities.

Below is a cheat sheet for the terms that are often thrown around:

Conventional Chicken = grow houses, antibiotics & vaccines, gmo feed

Organic Chicken = grow houses, antibiotics & vaccines, organic feed

Free Range Chicken = grow houses with a door, antibiotics & vaccines, any feed

Pasture Raised = no legal definition (unregulated living conditions, may include antibiotics, vaccines, gmo feed)

Bailey Farm Chicken = 24/7 outside, NO antibiotics, NO vaccines, foraging for bugs, grubs, seeds & worms + supplemental non-gmo feed

With all of that said, I hope it is abundantly clear why you can’t trust a label. What’s the solution? To get to know your farmer, look him in the eye. Pick up some product at the farm. You should know where your food is raised and who is raising it. The fact that nobody does says a lot about how far we have fallen. But there is hope, by supporting local farmers you can rest assured that you aren’t feeding your family and yourself the garbage that is all around us. If you’re in the greater Memphis area, give our chicken a try. I promise you it will be raised to the highest standard. And at the end of the day, what is more important to our health than the food we eat?

I have booked my processing dates and ordered the chicks, we will have baby chicks on farm the week of March 21st and they will be going to the processor May 22nd.  I will be picking them up the 24th and I will have on farm pickup May 25th and May 26th.  I am opening up orders now for our first batch, contact us now to support our farm and make sure you get some of the best chicken you can purchase.

Before you place your order, allow me to tell you a little about what you are purchasing and why you can feel good about your purchase.  For our first run, we will be selling only whole birds.  While that may be a little different than what you are used to purchasing from the grocery store, don’t let that intimidate you.  There are a lot of benefits to getting the whole chicken.  The bones and the skin both provide a lot of nutritional value that are not present when you buy boneless, skinless chicken breast.  Purchasing the whole bird allows you to get the breast and the wings without paying the markup that would be on those cuts if they were purchased individually and the other cuts will allow you to try out new recipes and make stock.  Or you can just cook the bird whole on the grill or in the oven.  Whichever way you choose I know you will enjoy the superior flavor and quality of a pasture raised chicken.  Speaking of quality, these birds will be fed exclusively gmo free feed, never be given antibiotics, and be on fresh grass everyday after they leave the brooder.

We are now accepting orders for the first batch.  Since pickup will be the weekend before Memorial Day get some birds to grill out with your friends and family.  Our next run of poultry will not be processed until sometime in the summer, most likely early July, so be sure to get some now.  There are 75 birds available for pre order so get on the list today.