Seasonal Ethics, Bastrop Market News, and New Website Pages

Greetings on this hot, dry Texas day... yep, another hot, dry day here in south central Texas. I'm glad that, except for the 16 'keepers', all our chicken flocks have gone to processing, meaning they are not here to swelter in the heat; rather, they are chillin' in the freezers on their way to market.

We do not intend to have chickens in pasture during August or January, when temperature extremes are most likely (like we didn't have 100 degree days in June this year!). This seasonal approach to raising animals fits with our values about providing the best possible environment for the animals in our care and building in some relative down time for ourselves. We know this isn't the most lucrative approach in terms of keeping as many chickens as possible out in the marketplace  at all times, but we are aware of many farmers who take this approach and make it just fine. Some raise only enough to fill the requests of customers who pre-order a quarterly number they commmit to buying or pay for in advance. At this point in time we choose to take a looser approach and see if it's possible to keep raising poulty for the general public while exploring a strategy to raise some flocks that meet specific contracts... all based on seasonal times of availability. This means there will be times of having fresh never-frozen chicken, frozen only (which is all we can offer at the market, due to regulations) and hopefully minimal periods of being completely out until the next flocks mature. If we can make this work we will be happy farmers indeed-- with happy chickens whenever they are here.

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We are now selling at the Bastrop 1832 Farmer's Market on both Fridays (1-6) and Saturdays (10-2). Even though we'll be out of town for almost a month, Erika at Bradshaw Farms will continue to offer our chickens for sale to keep availability for customers, which is good for everyone. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to Erika for her support! The sense of community and fun amongst the vendors at the market make the work a joy, even in these hot hot days.

On Saturday September 13th, Shades of Green Farm will offer a demonstration at the Market in preparing  our wonderful chickens~ we hope to see you there!

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To address the wishes and needs of customers, I've added two new pages to this website/blog. The first provides a place to express yourself~ called "Compliments, Critique and Comments", it's meant to be a forum for feedback and input; the other page is entitled "Recipes and Suggestions for Cooking" and is self-explanatory.

Well, I couldn't get the pages to accept comments, so they are now new posts under similarly named categories... works the same, in terms of going to the post and contributing via posts. And thanks!

Comments

[susan]

what a lovely and enlightening entry. I love your approach to raising happy healthy chickens. Put me down for 8 in early November please.