Bye, Bye, Rosie: The Search for local Free Range Chicken

by Jack & Joanne

Jack and I listened to Michael Pollan speak at a Napa Slow Food event in St. Helena last weekend. He was truly inspiring and is a wonderful speaker. I'm very eager to read his new book, Omnivore's Dilemna, especially the chapters where he follows a Whole Foods meal back to the source, which he talked about that evening.

Already, as a result of his talk, I have to go find a new chicken source. Rosie (which is the organic brand local to us – from Petaluma Poultry) which Whole Foods carry and we've been eating, apparently does not meet my definition of free range.

According to Pollan, chickens are housed in 100ft long barracks with a little roll-up door at the end which leads to a beautiful green lawn. The door is locked until the chickens are 5 weeks old. (Can't go out earlier as they might get sick.) Then chickens get a "holiday" opportunity to go outside for the final 2 weeks of their 7-week-life.

There is little use, though, as by the time they get to be 5 weeks old the chickens have never been outside and everything they need is inside (they are fed 100% organic feed) - so why would they ever venture on that holiday? This was not my vision of the “free-range” nature of the “Rosie” chicken. Hence my pending search.

So far I’ve found two Marin sources: Marin Sun Farms is supposed to sell poultry at the Marin Farmer’s Market (how did I miss this?) and Clark Summit Farm (I got from Eatwild.com) in Tomales Bay, CA, are supposed to offer organic free range chicken. They have no website and I guess we will have to go to the farm to get them.

I have yet to find a Sonoma County chicken source – if you find one before I do, please let me know! - Joanne

Jack & Joanne live in Sonoma County – not just wine country, but food country! They create/write the website Fork & Bottle which focuses on artisan food, wine and cheese along with information on gardening, what to feed kids, gourmet food reviews, etc., etc.

Comments

[Melissa]

This is a great website and I applaud your eat local challenge. What a neat online community trying to raise awareness of local foods. I am with you on the challenge, but I'm too busy to write about it. I'm glad you all are documenting this. Maybe next year I can 'formally' participate! Community, small farming systems are the future!

[Birdsong]

You might try a local 4-H or FFA group, the kids usually raise animals in smaller numbers and outdoors. I agree with Pollan, you want the chickens eating bugs and grass. Check out Liz's post from 4/15 at www.pocketfarm.com to see the difference in yolk color. Amazing!

[mimulus]

I live in Santa Rosa and I also buy Rosie and Rockie chickens...I knew it wasn't all sunshine and green grass, and at least they dont confine them several to a cage and cut off their beaks....but still proabaly not the best chicken around. I am seeing however that the eat local challenge is very hard on the pocketbook...a former vegetarian I am finding it hard to shellout $34 for a piece of pork that feed 8 and $18 for a single Rosie chicken that feed 6...with leftovers for stock or soup.

Maybe it will be a lot of eggs this month and a weekly meal of meat only.

[Liz]

"Pastured" is a good key word to look for, if you want chickens that are not raised in confinement. Mimulus raises a good point that clean meat is expensive (as it should be), and perhaps should be less of a focal point of our meals.

[Sarah (Mrs. Irani)]

We only eat meat every other day or every few days. Good meat should be expensive and we ought to eat less of it. It is great to use as much of the bird as possible and use the carcass for stock. Fortunately we get venison from my parents, but our freezer is empty now. We've been eating a lot of beans lately!

[patrick]

the "free range" question becomes even trickier once you raise chickens yourself and find out that they actually prefer enclosed spaces, such as the corner of the coop, or the shady spot under the rosemary bush. The popular vision seems to be one of chickens throwing off their chains of oppression and running free among the flowers and grasses ... but they'd laugh at you if you told them to do that. "Run in a field?" they'd say. "Are you nuts? And get eaten by a hawk? What am I, chopped liver?"

Furthermore, to raise chickens (profitably) without using antibiotics, it's essential to keep them inside for the first 5 weeks, because they are very prone to disease at that age and if you do let them out and they get sick, they'll require some kind of medication, rendering them unsaleable.

Our chicks didn't even leave their basement brooder until they were 5 weeks old, and then they were kept in their 6x3' outdoor enclosure for another two weeks under a heat lamp. Chicks need to be kept warm, 70 to 90 degrees F, for the first eight weeks of their lives, yet most of the "fryers" we eat are six to eight weeks old. If you want to eat chicken that has experienced pasture or free range, I'd think you'd need to eat older chickens.

Make no mistake, though -- chickens do love to get outside and root in the soil and eat the grasses and weeds. And eggs from pastured hens show the difference in their deep golden/orange yolks.

It's the eatin' chickens that confound me. If the chickens we're eating are only six weeks old, how could they be free range? As far as I can tell, if you want young, tender chickens to eat and you want to ensure that they were raised humanely, the best way to do it would be to raise them yourself in your garage or basement.

[Tana]

Oh, crap, I bought a Rosie chicken on Monday. I didn't know.

I'll be getting mine now from TLC (Tastes Like Chicken) Ranch.

[Joanne]

I talked with Marin Sun Farms today. They were offering chicken as an experiment and will have another batch ready in 4 weeks which can be pre-ordered - that would be the 2nd batch.

They expect to be sold out this week. So much for that as a regular chicken source at the moment.

I saw a sign in Sebastopol that we'll try to follow up on. But still no big breakthrough - and we're starting to CRAVE chicken.

[Jack at Fork & Bottle]

UPDATE: Clark Summit Farm, in Valley Ford, now sells fresh and frozen chickens.