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We have another Youtube video up. Now that the fall rains have come, the cool season grasses are doing great in the wake of our mobile chicken coops. Just enough chicken manure plus scratching has resulted in visibly better growth compared with grass nearby where we did not run chickens.
Check out the video:
We did a video on the chickens as they were getting ready to leave the farm and head to the processor. This batch of chickens turned out plump, healthy, and delicious!
The time has come and the pigs are soon heading to the butcher. If you're wondering how to order a half hog custom butchered for your family, here's what we're doing this year. Maybe you'll get some ideas!
From the front of the pig to the back:
Shoulder: 5 pound roasts, leave a very generous fat cap of at least an inch.
Picnic Shoulder: 5 pound roasts, leave plenty of fat.
Tenderloin: Pull off and cut in half.
Bone-in pork loin chops, double-thick (1 1/2 inches thick), 3 per package, leave a generous amount of fat on the chops.
Country ribs (these are "button ribs"). 3 per package.
Cut fresh pork belly into 3 pound roasts. (Bacon is good too, but we get plenty of bacon.)
Spareribs: half racks.
Ham: cure. Cut 1 inch thick center-cut ham steaks, one per package.
Ham hock: smoke.
Sausage: Half breakfast sausage, half plain ground pork.
Keep the extra trimmed fat (we'll make lard.)
Keep the offal (liver, kidneys, heart)
Keep soup bones
Keep the head to make head cheese
Thanks to all of you who ordered, we are sold out of pasture-raised chickens for July. We will be doing one more batch of chickens available for pickup in early October. We encourage you to place an order as soon as possible, as these will be the last chickens we have available before next year.
Would you like to get one, two, or more pasture-raised chickens every month or two during the summer of 2019, delivered to a pickup location near you, so that you can have healthy, tasty, natural chicken all summer, at our bulk order price, without having to fill up your freezer? Please let us know if this interests you and make sure you sign up for our newsletter.
We are ascertaining interest only; you need not make any commitment at this time. Over the winter we will contact those interested with potential pickup dates and locations, and you can place a subscription order at that time if you would like to do so. Please note that while we hope to be in more farm markets next year and you can of course buy from us there (details to be announced), we will only be offering our bulk order pricing to pre-order customers.
Hi folks, these are Cornish Cross broilers fresh home from Jenks Hatchery near us. They hatched the morning of the video and we got them home safe and warm in the brooder here at the farm. They’ll head out to the field just as soon as they grow up enough to keep themselves warm at night.
Read MoreHere are some examples of how to have a half hog cut to fit your cooking style and the needs of your family - or to split with someone else.
Read More
Functionality has inherent beauty?
To raise our chickens outdoors on pasture while keeping them safe from predators, we provide them with mobile shelters that provide shade, protection, and feed and water. The shelter design has removable wheels so we can wheel them to fresh grass throughout the season and the chickens don't spend too long in one place.
The bottom of each of these "chicken tractors" must be flat. There is no floor, which means the chicken manure fertilizes the pasture as they go. So the edge of the shelter must be flush to the ground so predators can't reach underneath it while the chickens are inside. Putting a half-lap joint into each bottom corner helps ensure it stays flat and there are no gaps. And even though the other corners could probably be held together by just a few screws, putting in joints will make the structure stronger. Also, it just looks better!
Anchor Ranch Farm is a family farm in pastoral Scio, Oregon. We raise healthy meat animals naturally on pasture. They have space to roam and act as animals should. It's good for them, it's good for our customers, and it's good for the land.
Sign up for our email newsletter (extremely infrequent!) to be notified of pre-order and other discount opportunities and occasional farm updates. We will never share your information with anyone else without your specific permission or as required by law.
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