Details here: http://www.dropstonefarms.com/2010/08/chickens-round-3-pickup-august-21-23

Order here: http://tinyurl.com/chickens2010-3

Skip the deposit, since the mail probably wouldn’t get to us in time.

Two things that may or may not have happened:

• A bag of chicken kidneys was set aside for one of our more adventurous helpers. This may have been handed out to a customer instead of a bag of giblets! Our giblets baggies include heart, liver, and gizzard, and not usually kidneys. In any case it isn’t meant to be just kidneys. Apologies if you received this! Please feel free to enjoy them or bring them back to me (probably put them in the freezer at this point) and you can get extra giblets next time.
• I thought I counted three birds with limbs damaged in processing — one broken wing and two broken legs. We put them in to chill with the others, intending to mark the packaging to indicate that they were damaged. After the birds were all packaged up, though, we found only one broken wing and one broken leg indicated on the bagged birds. But I might have counted wrong and there may not have been 2 broken legs. So, there may or may not have been a chicken with a broken leg that was distributed like a whole one. If you got this broken chicken unknowingly, let us know and we’ll hook you up with a discount next time.

We’re getting some good feedback, which is really gratifying — thanks to all our customers! We love to hear from you and we’d like to hear the constructive criticism as well as the “OMG nom”s and the delicious recipes.

We’ll be at market at least once for this next batch of chickens, as well as taking signups online as usual (form’s not ready yet, but it’ll be soon). We may also have a signup sheet at the farm stand on Day Road. Stay tuned for more info.

That batch of 75 birds all got claimed by existing customers, blog readers, or via word-of-mouth, so that was nice too — less work for us to market them!

Coming up soon here we have another smaller batch. These guys are the ones that the raccoons got into when they were still at home, so the flock is small. We will take reservations for about 35 chickens, then a waiting list beyond that. Eight are already claimed, so get your name in soon if you want chickens! They will be ready on July 31.

Sign up for this batch here: http://tinyurl.com/chickens2010-2. Don’t forget that the WSDA requires you to pick them up from us within 48 hours of processing — so you’ll need to be around on the 31st or Aug 1-2 for pickup.

Unless we sell out more quickly than I expect, I’ll be down at the farmers’ market next week (the 24th) taking reservations and meeting new customers. You can bring deposits to me there, if you like.

As always, thanks for your support!

We are now accepting reservations for our first batch of chickens! Sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/chickens2010-1.

We are aiming for these chickens to be ready the second weekend of July, the 10th-11th. They are pastured this year at Day Road/Suyematsu Farm, home of Laughing Crow Farm, the Bainbridge Island Winery, and more. For now, we will take reservations for approximately 60 birds out of a flock of 75. We opened signups to our notification list subscribers first, so there are about 25 left unclaimed. (Subscribe here for priority notification next time!)

For your reference when ordering, we will have at least two more batches of 60-75 birds, approximately 4 weeks apart. So you can expect to be able to order more in about a month.

The cost will be $5 per pound total, with a $5 deposit per bird, to be paid when you reserve them, to cover initial feed costs. This deposit will be deducted from your total when you pick them up.

Most of the details are the same as last year:

• We are raising a breed of chickens that is developed from French and Amish heritage breeds: “Freedom Rangers” from JM Hatchery.
• The chickens are fed Certified Organic grains grown in Canada, and the pasture is untreated.
• The WSDA permit that applies to farms of our size requires that the end consumer (you) pick up the birds on farm within 48 hours of processing. If you can’t make it in person, you can have someone else pick them up for you.
• Orders will be allocated first-come, first-served. We will take reservations for fewer chickens than we have in each batch, in case of flock loss. This batch consists of 75 chickens, so we’ll take orders for 55 to start with, and keep a waiting list after that. Folks on the waiting list are likely to be able to get chickens.
• In the unfortunate, and (we hope) unlikely case of significant flock loss, the last to sign up will be the first to have their deposits refunded and their orders canceled, and our sincere apologies — and priority ordering on the next batch.
• We will also likely have “factory seconds” available for less — as a result of errors in processing, these may have broken wings or legs, or need to be skinned, or otherwise be cosmetically damaged but perfectly safe and delicious. Please let us know if you would like to be on the list for these!

More info about our chickens and the ordering process is available on our About our Freedom Ranger Chickens (formerly called Colored Range chickens) page.

New this year: Your order will not be considered finalized until we receive a deposit from you! You can send a check for $5 per bird to the address listed on the signup form. If you prefer to pay with cash, or in person, or via trade, or some other alternative arrangement, let us know and we can work it out.

Reserve your chickens here: http://tinyurl.com/chickens2010-1

Please feel free to let interested friends & family know. And as always, please contact us with any questions, comments, concerns, or ideas, or just to say hi — we love to hear from you!

They seemed happy and came up to the gate to say hi. We got a stick and scritched backs while they all jostled for places by the fence (including one or more who seemed to be trying to eat the fence). They wiggled their noses through the fence at us and I was surprised to note it was hard to restrain myself from touching them! I kept looking at their soft-looking pink noses and wanting to poke them, just a tiny bit, but then remembering how much I like having fingertips.

laurenipsum’s Pigs photoset
www.flickr.com

Next time I see these pigs they will be all cut and wrapped and ready for the freezer or smoker. Thanks, pigs! Thanks, farmers Adrienne and Mark!

Our pretty Blue Slate hen turkey met an untimely end back in October, about four weeks ahead of schedule, when she got over the fence into the neighbor dogs’ yard. Poor girl. They didn’t kill her, but we had to. Wanting to make the best of it, we were able to salvage about 3/4 of the meat, only discarding the portions with puncture wounds and bleeding.

After also checking Julia, Bittman, and some butchery books we have around, I consulted the one with the best photos — The River Cottage Meat Book — for info on breaking down a bird, since it’s not something I’m very good at. I’m the Evisceratrix, but a carver I am not. At the same time, also in the Meat book, I noticed the author suggested using turkey legs to make coq au vin rather than a, well, coq. So when I bagged up Poor Girl, I set aside the legs, thighs and drumsticks still connected, in their own bag, ready to be coqauvinified.

We started by cubing and frying Garth’s home-cured bacon, made of Skagit River Ranch pork belly. Removed that from the pan and added one chopped shallot, organically grown by Alvarez Farm just outside of the 150 mile range, over near Yakima. Removed the shallot and then pan fried the turkey legs, separated into thighs and drumsticks, which we’d lightly rolled in flour seasoned with salt and pepper.

And then! We have hit a milestone in our cooking lives! We added a quarter cup of vermouth (it called for brandy, but we had none) and lit it on fire, on purpose! It was neat. Whoosh! Then chicken and vermouth were removed, and wine went in to deglaze, and then some stock. The whole mess — bacon, shallot, and turkey legs, plus chopped homegrown carrot, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and market bay leaves, and homegrown and -canned tomatoes went in to the pan. At that point it just simmered in a 250° oven until the turkey was fally aparty — a couple of hours at least. Then we put it back on the burner, removed all the solids from the broth, and added some butter and a couple pinches of flour and whisked to make a thick, delicious gravy.

I also made some quick oven fries from Yukon Golds grown by farmer Laura at the Soup Garden here on Bainbridge — just toss the cut potatoes with some oil, salt, pepper, and minced garlic (Laughing Crow, as usual). If the fries are accompanying burgers or something less rich and flavorful than coq au vin, I often also add ground cumin and cayenne. I cook them at about 425° until the fattest fry is cooked all the way through.

Coq au vin and oven fries, garnished with homegrown parsley, and served with island-grown and -produced wine, made for a fantastic Solstice meal and celebration of the past year and the year to come with the returning light.

Homegrown: turkey, carrots, tomatoes, parsley, rosemary, thyme
Bainbridge Island farms & market: garlic, potatoes, bay, drinking wine
Local-ish: shallot (Alvarez)
Organic: butter (Organic Valley)
Unknown: the usual (salt pepper oil), cooking wine (from somewhere in France), vermouth

This engaged most (but not all) of our cast iron pans. Potatoes & leeks in the front; kale with garlic; duck. Also, I need to learn to use my shiny new camera, so I can stop using my tiny, crappy point&shoot. Also, pictures of shiny things (like potatoes in duck fat) are hard.

Went with simplicity today; though duck is not on most folks’ regular rotation, we have several to last us the winter and we figured now is the time to learn about it. We roasted it very simply with just salt and pepper. I used a baster to suck up the duck fat to pan-roast the homegrown Swedish Peanut (we think) potatoes with farmers’ market leeks, and to sauté the homegrown Lacinato and Red Russian kale with homegrown garlic (variety lost to history). All the preparation methods were simple, easy, and comforting. The potatoes turned out to be fantastic, and the kale too, though a bit greasy (I didn’t want it to burn to I put too much fat). The duck was very tasty, though a bit overcooked (my fault).

Conclusion: Yum.

Homegrown: duck; potatoes; garlic; kale.
Local: leeks (Peresphone Farms, Indianola)
Regional (150-mile): wine (Snoqualmie Vineyards)
Origin unknown: salt, pepper as usual.

Lessons: I overcooked the duck a bit. Live and learn. Also, we might not like duck skin — handy, as is a BIG pain to pluck them. If we can skin them in the future instead of plucking, that would be nice. Don’t put so much fat on the kale (I do this when I’m cooking with olive oil too).

The chickens (affectionately known as nuggets) moved to pasture the last weekend of September, just before the TWL Harvest Fair. Thousands of people attend the Harvest Fair so the chickens had a busy first day, and it seemed we prompted a lot of family conversations about where meat comes from (which I think is good). From there, we moved the tractors the hill towards the top, then over towards the orchard, then back down into some extra-delicious juicy green grass, then sideways towards the cropland area — basically in a big rectangle to avoid some trees and some really hilly areas.

By the time we got back to our starting point, about 6 weeks later, and looked at the path up the hill that we had already grazed, we realized that the grass where the chickens had been (scratching, pooping, scratching, eating, pooping) was greener, thicker, and taller than the paths we had left between the tractors. Part of the reason we do chickens in tractors — aside from the extremely important fact that it’s the most humane, safest way for the chickens to spend their lives — is the soil improvement that comes with rotating poultry through a pasture. It was really gratifying to see it in practice. We were able to re-graze them on the land they had already passed through because the soil and grass had improved so much.

One of the first times we moved them, shortly after the Harvest Fair, I noticed one chicken with some sort of morsel that he had just found, and everyone else was chasing him around to try to get it. Kids at the Harvest Fair had been running around with balloons and I heard several of them pop, so I went in to chase him around to try to get it, too, to verify that it wasn’t balloon. It was a little salamander or newt. I felt sorry for the little guy but he was already beyond help, so I left the birds to finish their game of keep-away.

Never let anyone tell you chickens are naturally vegetarian. If you see “vegetarian” on the egg carton, you know those hens were never outside.

It only took a couple of days for them to realize that when we started pulling the tractors forward, instead of running away from us (towards the back), they should run forward to the nice fresh grass that we were dragging them towards. Chickens love grass.

We lost a few of them here and there, a couple for reasons we could identify (ate too much) and a couple we couldn’t. We had one bad day when the biggest tractor blew down the hill and ran over a couple of guys partway, leaving them pinned under the end — one was gimpy but still getting around OK enough to not let us catch him easily, so we left him; the other had a broken wing and a pretty mangled leg. He was big enough to keep so we processed him and were able to keep all the meat except the bad leg and wing. Poor guy.

This weekend we processed everyone who was left, minus the one little girl who was too small and cute to process, who we will keep until she gets bigger or starts laying. We had lots of helpers (though many novices — not like we’re experts!) and we processed all day Saturday and Sunday. By midday on Saturday we got into a rhythm and everyone was pretty comfortable doing all the jobs, so we were able to take breaks and work in shifts and move around between stations for some variety. It was great to see customers again — lots of people were really excited — and to hear about how folks are going to cook them. Lots of barbecue and roasting (my favorite), and some folks with Romertopfs, plus some recipes that might get me eating liver yet … breaded and fried; sauteed; pâté …

It certainly doesn’t make for a good day, and it shouldn’t be, but it’s a day of completeness. It’s thanksgiving all the time on the farm.

Thank you, chickens.

We have been going to the Bainbridge Island Farmers’ Market pretty regularly, Saturdays 9am-1pm. Last week we finally had a sign with our name, and two local folks recognized us from our twitter, so that was nice. We’ve been selling plums and figs, as well as whatever small amount of squash, cukes, herbs, etc we have on hand. The fruit sells well and is a good draw for our boothmates, the friendly ladies of Terra Bella Farm. I’m working on getting them to get a website.

The nuggets have come and gone and are very tasty. It took us about 4 hours to process the 25 birds with just one helper and a plucking machine. This is probably because it took me some time to hit my stride with eviscerating, but I did eventually and I was moving through them pretty quickly. I expect the next session to go yet faster.

… and that next session will be the week ending October 30, as we have ordered 150 chicks that will arrive next week and be ready to process and sell that week. We’ll have a signup form ready soon, so if you’re interested in fresh, local, organic chickens, watch this space!

We went to see Food, Inc. last night at the Firehouse Theater in Kingston, which is brilliantly also a video rental place, and which was enjoyable. The movie itself was nothing new for us but I’m so glad to see it out in the world making people talk and think. Plus, that Joel Salatin can gut a chicken FAST. I took notes.

Blueberries are … berrying, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

This year we are allowed to let our blueberries set fruit. We won’t get much, but I’m excited!

The Wyandottes are learning about the world, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

Our Wyandottes are fifteen weeks old, and all grown up! They are starting to venture out of the coop when we open it up to let them out. They have discovered they love the grass and the sun.

Crimson-flowered fava beans!, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

I sprouted these beans in a dish of water, which worked beautifully, and then I waited too long to plant them and I didn’t think any of them came up. I was sad. But then I noticed these lovely flowers! I know the replacement beans we got didn’t have beautiful red flowers, so I was very happy to know that I hadn’t killed the first batch.

Chive blossoms with honeybee, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

The chives overwintered, though I thought they hadn’t, and now they have beautiful purple blooms that the bees love.

This week we got the first batches of chicks and turkey poults (babies) that we will raise for meat and ultimately slaughter. They are awful cute but I am fairly confident that we will be able to dispatch them when it comes time.

Faceplant turkey faceplants, and narcissist turkey examines self in mirror, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

The turkeys, pictured here on their first day home, are so funny. The yellowish one in the front has learned about reflections!

Our first batch of meat chickens arrived on Friday, and Garth took this lovely video of the box before opening it. Starring: Ruby dog; box of peepers.

SQUEAMISH VEGETARIANS may not want to proceed — there are some non-graphic, at-a-distance pictures of chicken slaughter day below.

Laura at (not so) Urban Hennery raises a flock of chicks a couple times a year, and before ordering chicks she puts out a call to interested folks who can claim a few chicks. The deal is, you pay some deposit money for feed, and then you come help out on slaughter day too, and at the end pay a total for average weight minus the deposit you paid. It works pretty well. Slaughter day was this weekend, and pictures are below.

Kimberly, Jessi, and Megera at the eviscerating table, with Laura instructing and Garth lurking in the background, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

This weekend, we went up to Arlington to help slaughter some chickens that were raised by Laura. I did a lot of gutting, but I took a break to take a photo.

The guys are plucking chickens, originally uploaded by laurenipsum.

While we were gutting and finishing up, the guys were plucking and queuing up birds for us.

Phew! We’ve been busy.

This is a great, common sense piece of legislation because, if small-scale chicken operations don’t require WSDA inspection, why should other poultry? Conversely, if other small poultry require inspection, why don’t chickens? It’s just inconsistent. The only reason I can think of is that, when the legislation granting the exemption was originally written, they simply overlooked other meat birds. This has now been corrected. Our regulatory apparatus for food is seriously and epically flawed–I won’t argue that–but this is yet another example of how I’m seeing our state-level regulatory bodies doing a great job of improving things.

So, if you want a turkey or a duck or a goose for the holidays, let us know. We’ll see if we can raise one (humanely, happily, cleanly, and deliciously) for you. It’s legal now!

On a similar note, I posted another rant about regulations here at the Civil Eats food policy blog. I’m kind of pleased with it so I’ve reproduced it below.

“As a farmer and an eater, I believe very strongly in regulation. I just believe in good regulation.

Despite the poorly written and ill-conceived regulation that are coming out at the (usually) federal level, there are some bright spots in food safety. One example with which I’m familiar is the Washington State Department of Agriculture who, from the ground up, are coming up with some very sane regulations that both ensure safety more effectively (in my opinion) and are more small-farm-friendly than the cumbersome and prescriptive regulations that we love to complain about.

For example, at a Tilth Producers conference a couple of years ago I attended a session on small dairy certification hosted by a farmer and a representative of the WSDA. The farmer indicated that one of the challenges of certification in Washington is that the regulations specify *results*, not methods. It’s left to the farmer to figure out how to meet sanitation goals, not how to pay for the specified equipment. As an eater, I don’t care how far the domestic animals are from my greens, I care that the result of the handling is food free of contamination. A small farmer can spare the attention to detail to manage handling as intensively as a small farmer must manage production.

An example of WSDA’s sane approach to regulation is that, when a farmer found the requirement for a commercial dishwasher too onerous, he was able to demonstrate to the local inspector that a consumer model dishwasher offered the same results as the commercial dishwasher at a fraction of the cost. Thus, the inspector was (rightly) satisfied, the farmer was able to produce dairy at the appropriate scale, and the consumer was assured of a clean and wholesome product thanks to the active, critical, and results-oriented involvement of the agency as well as the diligence of the farmer in researching the problem instead of being forced to focus on regulations.”

Remember folks, good government matters and small changes can make a very big difference on the local level.

We set up a processing line under the guidance of Nikki of Pheasant Fields Farm. Nikki also supplied a mess of equipment and a neato keano eviscerating table. Eviscerating tables are awesome. It’s just a seamless stainless steel table with a hole in the middle you can use to wash away… let’s go with “material.” My contribution was enthusiasm and a Granton boning knife.

The transition from animal to food was surprisingly quick, I’m relieved to say. Processing chickens is an unpleasant and pretty distasteful chore, but it does not entail either cruelty or untoward angst.

Some things that I’d recommend for processing chickens:

1) Wear rubber boots. There is a lot of water sloshing around.
2) Bring more ice than you think you’ll need.
3) Bring more cutting boards than you think you’ll need.
4) Sharp knives. More humane, less work, safer.
5) Bring pliers for plucking feathers. The plucker won’t get everything.