It’s spring on the farm already–or rather, we can see spring from here. Last week we received our first batch of chicks for the season. Dorothy is raising the heritage breed roosters this year. We have one chef that has mastered the different cooking technique for these birds. They have a lot more flavor than the broilers and tend to be leaner. There is a lot to recommend them for butchering, but folks are used to the broiler hybrids who are bred specifically for food use. Even though these breeds require more time before they are ready for processing, they can forage much better so I figure the feed conversion offsets the time. While the roosters can be raised in chicken tractors, that isn’t ideal conditions. These guys are “lone free rangers” and like to have more room to roam and a roost to sit on at night.
The kids can pick projects as an enterprise and they bear the responsibilities, but can also reap the profits. They have several ideas that are in the works. An e-book on building chicken tractors is being written, chicken tractor kits will be available, and turkeys are being planned again. The farm is as much about having a place to grow and nurture our brood as a place to raise good food for you.
No matter how the pig issue goes, we’ll keep busy. I made out my wishlist for garden seeds last week. We are planning some Saturday classes. Right now we have a chicken raising class planned, and are open to other ideas as well. We also are planning to offer our meats in a CSA format so you can pre-order chicken and beef and (maybe) pork. As always, we will be raising lots of chickens and processing our own birds as well as custom processing for others.
There will likely be a few more Fridays of downhill skiing, but spring is in view!