Back in stock

We’ve had a roller coaster ride of weather this week, with lows starting in the single digits, then we peaked at 42 on Friday afternoon, and by Sunday morning close to 0. With the help of some machines and a good friend we moved the tiny house that Racey and I lived in for almost 4 years while we lived on 3 different farms before settling here. The house is headed down to the barn for some TLC, including replacing some rotted boards, installing a new front door and some interior decorating. When the weather allows some exterior painting as well. Like all treasured relics of the past we have loved that house with benign neglect and we are excited to see some new life in the old house.

I’ve also been doing some coordination and planning with some farmer friends of ours to address some of the items that have recently gone out of stock in our store. We ran out of our Ground Beef and we do not have beef due to come back from the processor until late April. One of my favorite things to do, in general and in farming, is to collaborate with others. So I reached out to our friends Sarah and Josh Kingzach at KZ Farm just down the road in Westport, NY. Sarah and Josh worked with us when they first moved to Essex from Northern California. They raise excellent beef and we are proud to offer their ground beef until we have more of our own back in stock.

I’ve also been working on figuring out how to bridge the gap in our chicken inventory as we begin to run out. We have a number of good friends we could reach out to for excellent quality, 100% Grassfed Beef. However, on the chicken front, there are very few Certified Organic Pasture Raised Chicken producers. Try googling it, you’ll find deceptive ads for Crowd Cow, Cooks Venture, and other large food companies that even say in their tag line “Organic Pasture Raised Chicken – Delivered to your door” but if you look at the chicken products, they are NOT Organic, and the animals are fed non-GMO feed.

I was interested to find a few actual farms on the first page of google, Elmwood Stock Farm in KY and TC farms in MN that are also raising Organic Pasture Raised Chicken. I don’t know the folks at these farms, but I am always heartened to find a website of a farm owned and operated by people. I’m curious what others find when you search for “Organic Pasture Raised Chicken” does our website come up? Can you email me and let me know?

Luckily for us we also have our good friends Dave and Rachel who own and operate Wrong Direction Farm in Canajoharie, NY who also raise Organic Pasture Raised Chicken just like us. Dave and I have been working out the logistics of how we could carry their chicken in our store as our own products run out. As well as carry some of the products that we do not have like Ground Turkey.

Dave sent us some samples to try, since we don’t eat many other farms chicken because we have our own. It was of course delicious, but also different in subtle ways. I will be very curious to hear what other folks have to think about the differences in taste. But please know that the chickens live a great life on their farm, they are Certified Organic and so receive no hormones, antibiotics and their grain is grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. I hope to have chicken breast back in stock by the end of the month and keep all chicken products stocked until May when we start our own processing again.

If you have any questions about chicken from Wrong Direction Farm please let me know or check out their website, or contact Dave directly he is always generous with sharing his knowledge and farming practices.