Updates from the Farm: Broilers, Layers, Milk & DIY Cheese
Good morning from your farmers!
With the hustle and bustle of spring, it’s been a while since we’ve sent an update from the farm.
Let’s catch you up on the latest activity around the farm! Stick around to the end to get some insight into making cheese from your kitchen!
There has been a lot going on - from cleaning up the barnyard from the winter, moving cows around in the pasture, and our ongoing construction progress with the “shouse” project.
The soy-free broilers were moved out to the pasture last week and have been enjoying the fresh air along with their luscious salad of alfalfa, clover, bugs, and more each day!
Butchering is scheduled for the 27th. We will be in direct contact with those of you who placed preorders earlier this year in the next couple of weeks.
While on the topic of chickens, we have had some predator challenges with our pastured layer chickens this spring, which has greatly diminished our layer flock (also contributing to the delay of putting the broilers on pasture this spring).
Our layers have unlimited access to our pasture - unlike conventional “Free Range” chickens. This makes for much healthier chickens and eggs, but does bring some additional challenges that confined operations do not have to deal with. To make our pastured eggs sustainable, we are needing to re-adjust our egg prices from $5.25 to $5.75/ dozen (before subscription discounts).
Our layers are also fed organically raised, non-GMO, soy-free feed. The nutrient-dense rich orange/yellow of our egg yolks is completely natural - originating from their diverse diet.
When you are picking up your milk for the week, it is the perfect opportunity to grab a dozen eggs or two! This is also the best way to show your support, enabling us to provide pastured soy-free eggs for all of you.
On the dairy side, we have been maintaining a relatively steady supply and demand. We do not have a lot extra milk currently, but also have not been running short.
The cows have been enjoying our diverse pasture this spring, a welcome change from their hay diet over the winter. If you make butter from our cream, you will probably have noticed it became more yellow due to this change in diet.
We believe that a large part of building community is by sharing resources and information to improve our health and quality of life. There are many excellent resources for making traditional dairy products from your raw milk. One of the best is “Cheese from Scratch” by Robyn Jackson. She does an excellent job walking you through the process of crafting your own delectable cheeses like people have done for centuries.
We would highly recommend getting this book if you would like to add some culture (pun intended) to your life. We are not sponsored - this is just our honest recommendation if you would like to experiment with natural cheese making.
Click here to get the cheese book!
We appreciate your faithful support as we strive to bring ancestral and nourishing food and wisdom to our community!
Your local farmers,
Caleb & Faith Schrock