Notes From Your Farm

I've posted a second harvest ticket this week because we had to switch things around a bit between Tuesday and Wednesday. Only Tuesday large share subscribers received the giant zuchs. I'm going to allow our zuch garden to provide another batch of giants, and hand out to Wednesday large shares either this coming week or next.

Eggs! We now have increased our egg productin to the point where we can accept 5 or 6 more orders a week! If you'd like to have a weekly dozen or half dozen added to your CSA box, email us!

Our eggs are remarkably special. First, we feed them with a top-notch, certified orgtanic, soy-free feed (from Modesto Mills) along with garden and orchard scraps. Chickens love melons and oranges, by the way! They're free to roam inside a coyote-proof enclosure and have a large red barn to escape the elements and roost in at night. We have a pet llama, Couscou, who shares their space and protects them as well. Since Couscou moved in, we haven't had a single bird lost to owls, or other predators. Couscou has discovered he likes chicken feed, unfortunately; and our feed costs have soared, however. We're working on outsmarting him today!

The eggs themselves are rainbow colored, and come from heirloom chickens that aren't "culled" when they stop laying. In factory egg production facilities, chickens' egg yields are documented and when the feed to yield ratio drops to al certain points, the chickenis removed from the facility and killed. Part of the cost of our eggs includes the cost of feeding our chickens as pets for life. We don't have any way of knowing which chicken is "high" yielding vs. "low" yielding, anyway; as they are truly free-ranged. (Even Certified Organic, factory free range eggs will leave you incredulous at the low bar definition of "free range.") Each chicken has a favorite nest, and nests are shared. Because our chickens have plenty of space to live; they aren't stressed and don't peck at each other or require antibiotics. In commercial facilities, they do; and part of their beaks are removed, which is just inhumane.

Although as tiny producers, we don't intend to invest in the cost of getting our chicken facility certified orgtanic, their feed and living conditions meet and exceed the requirements to be certified. At most, we provide eggs for 15 or so families each week, and at some point hope to double that.

If you'd like to be included as an egg add-on subscriber; the cost is $4 for half dozen and $8 for a full dozen, which we add to your CSA invoice. We don't provide our eggs to non-subscribers.