Questions to ask your Farmer
Do you, like most consumers, assume the food at a Farmer’s Market is better than store bought? Well it could be, then again maybe not. This is when questioning the farmer comes into play. The majority of farmers welcome questions. They may change the way they raise food to satisfy customer demands. This will be a series of blogs to help consumers make informed decisions.
Do you know how your food was grown? Was it Sustainable, Pastured, Grass fed, Regenerative, Organic, Cage Free, Conventional the list goes on. So how do you as a consumer know that farmer’s are raising your food to your standards? You have to ask questions and know what answer you want.
For example, a customer asks “ Are your chickens free range?” The easy answer is yes, but what is free range. According to the USDA for chickens to be free range, the birds must be "allowed access to the outside." Most consumers picture the chickens living most of their lives outdoors, retreating to their coop only when weather or other factors require them to do so, in practice it can mean the chickens spend all their time in cramped, indoor pens that have a small door opened to the outside for just a few minutes each day. This is where asking the farmer to explain the term they a using is useful.
If you ask how our chickens are raised, this is our answer. They are pasture raised in chicken tractors that are moved every couple of days depending on how fast they eat the grass, bugs, seeds, etc. They are fed a custom organic feed that we mix ourselves. We use 4 square feet per bird to figure how many birds go in a tractor. We have to use the tractor because dogs, coyotes, hawks, foxes, and just about any predator likes chicken. We still lose some each year to predators. So far this year we have lost 38 chickens, 2 turkeys and 2 ducks to predators. We also lost 3 chicks to a snake. Another reason we use the tractor for the chickens is fertilizer. By moving the chickens to fresh pasture it spreads their manure across the farm in an orderly fashion that we control. Our chickens lay eggs with orange yokes instead of the pale yellow yokes most consumers are used to. Our meat birds actually have flavor. According to numerous studies birds raised this way are higher in omega 3, iron, antioxidants, and lower in saturated fats.
During your next visit to the Farmers Market please ask questions, most farmers enjoy sharing the how and why of raising your food with you.
We welcome visitors to our farm. We enjoy showing our animals and vegetables to you, and for you to get a better understanding of what and more importantly why we do what we do.