Farm Week in Review: Price List & Chicken Orders!

We finally have a price list for the 2015 season! While we have done our best to keep prices affordable (we think all budgets should have access to good food) we are increasing our prices approximately 50 cents, give or take a penny, across the board to account for rising cost of production and our switch to 100% non-GMO feed.

While our non-GMO grain costs 5-10 cents per pound more to buy as a raw product, when that cost is calculated over the life of animal, the overall cost of product increases.  We are so happy to be able to offer non-GMO food now, but it does come at a slight increase in cost, in addition to the general rise in food prices we’re also seeing at the grocery store.

• Eggs $4.00 per dozen
• Grassfed Beef $4.99 per pound (hanging weight)
• Pasture-Raised Chicken $3.75 per pound
• Pastured Pork $3.99 per pound
• Thanksgiving Turkey $4.50 per pound

The only product that won’t be changing price is our milk, which we feel already has a healthy margin on and would like to keep as affordable as possible for folks.

Just a reminder, we will have eggs available again beginning in the spring with our new flock. Pork will be available in the fall and early winter – watch for updates on this! Turkey is processed once a year for Thanksgiving so make sure to reserve yours early since we usually sell out by mid-fall. Beef is still TBD – again, check back for updates on this.

We are now taking pre-orders for 100% non-GMO pasture-raised chicken! We are taking orders now through Friday March 20 and the birds will be ready for on-farm pickup in mid to late August. Price is $3.75 per pound based on a whole bird, which will be gutted & cleaned but contain the neck and giblets inside the body cavity for eating and broth-making. Expected weights are 4-5lbs per bird for the more natural Freedom Ranger breed. We are asking for a  $4 deposit per bird and a 5 bird minimum per order.

Due to the impending arrival of our newborn son in the next few weeks, we are unable to personally raise the chickens on our farm this year – they require too much time & physical labor while Dan continue to work off-farm and Whitney is home with a newborn and toddler. Instead, we have contracted an Amish farmer/friend to raise the chickens just like we do. He will be using our chicken tractors to move the chickens daily to a fresh banquet of grass, bugs, and grubs and they will be supplemented with 100% non-GMO grain grown and milled in the Amish community.

We are really happy with this arrangement since it expands his market and revenue for the season, while still allowing us to provide our customers with a top quality product. This is a great opportunity to stock your freezer for the year with completely natural, hormone & antibiotic-free, non-GMO chicken for your family! Email, call or just send us your deposit to reserve yours soon – we take cash, check or secure online payment through our Make a Payment page. (Please add $1 + 3% to your total for the online trans fee)

Dairy Update: with the addition of Peggy Sue, we also had our milk tested for the month of February and our results came back this week – as usual, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Aerobic (Total) Plate Count

• Desired Range: less than 1,000 cfu/mL
• Our Result: 780
• What this is: an indicator of the level of bacteria capable of growing in an aerobic (exposed to oxygen) environment and a mesophilic temperature (medium range). Generally, an indication of how sanitary the equipment and general milking conditions are. Directly tells us the number of bacteria (beneficial or otherwise) living in a food product.

Total Coliform Count

• Desired Range: less than 50 cfu/mL
• Our Result: less than 10 cfu/mL
• What this is: another indication of sanitation and the number of potential pathogens/bacterial colonies present in a food product. Looks more specifically at fecal contamination than equipment sanitation (like plate count does), which potentially creates a hospitable environment for strains of pathogens to flourish. In the State of Michigan, the limit for milk transported in bulk cooling tanks containing raw milk is 100 cfu/mL. Once the milk is pasteurized, the required coliform level is 10 cfu/mL. Our coliform levels, therefore, are actually cleaner than pasteurized milk from the store.

Somatic Cell Count

• Desired Range: less than 200,000 per mL
• Our Result: 57,624 per mL
• What this is: an indicator of white blood cell count, which shows if an infection is present in the cow (and thus the milk). Mostly, we’re concerned about mastitis, an infection in the udder, which is caused by a combination of poor health and poor hygiene in the cow, and the milking/living environment. Levels higher than 200,000 indicate the presence of a sub-clinical to clinical infection and SCC is the best indicator of overall milk quality – from its ability to keep fresh for longer periods of time, to how good & clean it tastes and how well it can be converted into other dairy products.
• Quick note: Our “desired range” comes from the State of Vermont’s Raw Milk guidelines for retail sales, which is the strictest in the country. In Michigan, SCC for Grade A fluid milk must be less than 1,000,000 per mL -levels this high guarantee that milk from cows with mastitis (and the accompanying pus & blood) is being used and is on shelves. Pasteurization will kill most of the bacteria and pathogens, and that dead sludge is then homogenized into the milk.