CHICKEN ORDERS:           $6-8 per 3-4# chicken

 TURKEY ORDERS:             $40 for approx. 20# turkey

                                                $35 for heritage 10-15# turkey

 RESERVE YOUR POULTRY NOW ________________

 FREE RANGE and CHICKEN TRACTOR POULTRY  

Susan Rausch

Over the last few years, I have become very concerned with the food we are feeding ourselves and our children.   As many of you might know, much of the meat we find in grocery stores come from animals on “factory farms.”  These farms are not the picture perfect farms we may see in our mind with chickens pecking in a field of grass for insects and seeds, or cattle grazing on a large pasture.  They are usually large farms or stockyards with large numbers of animals in a small area, often on pavement or in the mud.  There is not enough pasture to feed these animals, so many are fed the genetically modified grains from the big corporations whose profit is shared minimally or not at all with the farmers.  As far as poultry go, many of the birds never see daylight.  Egg layer chickens are put 2-3 in slanted cages, which overlap each other – a pyramid kind of structure.  With one button they are fed, watered and eggs simply roll down the slanted floor to a conveyor belt where they come to be sized, processed and boxed.   For more information and suggestions on films and books see our blog Earth Connection Talk.

If you have attended Camp Earth Connections, you know we have been raising some of our own chickens and turkeys during the summer.   This last year, I raised an extra 10 chickens and 3 turkeys to feed my family.  Although it was hard to select the chickens that would feed us through the winter, it felt good to be serving meat that is nutritious and came from animals who were allowed to live their lives (although short) in a humane way.  The chickens that remain are graciously supplying us with more then enough eggs.  Although there are differences of opinions as far as whether we (humans) should continue to eat meat at all, I certainly feel if I am going to eat meat and feed my family meat, I want to ensure that I am feeding them “healthy meat” and I am respecting the animals which lives are taken for this purpose.  This year Darin Golden (he has been our camp maintenance person and an educator at the camp) and I will be raising chickens and turkeys for meat and eggs.  They will be brought to a slaughterhouse in late September and early October and immediately frozen and available to be picked up.  There will be two pickup dates for those who would like to order.  The birdes will be grazing during the day, but locked in at night to protect them against their natural predators (coyotes, raccoons, and local dogs.)  The birds we raise for meat will be separated from the camp birds (which are our egg layers.)  They will be kept up in the woods and fields above the camp.  If you are interested in ordering meat chickens or turkeys, we are asking that you place a pre-order now, so we can see how many people are interested and the number of birds we need to get. 

            There are a few things you should know about naturally raised birds.  These birds have a diet of more insects, and get more exercise so their meat has less fat and is a little drier and some consider it tougher (but this varies depending how you cook it.)  We do not actually raise the “meat chicken hybrids” as they required extreme amounts of high protein grain early on, so our chickens tend to be small, about 2 pounds.  When they are cooked correctly though they are delicious.  One of the favorite dishes my family enjoys in Chicken Paprikash (from my Hungarian heritage).  They also make good chicken burritos and of course delicious chicken soup.  The turkeys we raise are the meat turkeys that get large very fast.  We are going to try and raise some heritage breed turkeys that run a little smaller in size 10-15 lbs, but those chicks are quite expensive so they won’t be a lot cheaper then the larger birds.  We are estimating the turkeys wills sell for 2-2.50 per pound for the large birds (18-24 lbs) and the heritage turkeys will sell for about 3.50-4 per pound for (10-15 lbs.)  In talking with people, about this idea, many have said turkeys often have too much meat and sometimes food goes to waste, this is why we are looking at raising some of the original breeds that don’t get so large.  The other benefit to raising heritage breeds is their ability to reproduce, giving us homegrown chicks.  

We also expect to have some eggs available by November, when our young birds start laying.  We expect they will sell for 2-2.50 per dozen.  Place your pre-orders today by e-mailing me at director@campearthconnection.com