Little Sprouts Eggs improving!

The good news about our required reshuffling of the animals is an improvement in egg quality!

As you may recall, we purchased a young flock of birds to add to our existing flock, effectively doubling their number. Unfortunately we didnt have time to think through where to put all these birds in a pinch, so they all went together in the existing egg laying spot.

It didnt take long, and all the green grass and plants were eaten or trampled. Too many birds in a smaller area does that.  But now, with the reshuffling, the birds are back out on green pastures with plenty of grass and weeds, and of course, bugs!

What does this mean? you can expect the eggs immediately to take on a deeper orange color. The color of the yolks is directly related to the amount of greenery in the bird's diet. The more living green foods, the deeper orange and thicker the yolks are. The effect is almost immediate.  So expect to see a change in the next delivery!

Here is the shot of the new locations, if you look way back in the center, you will see the chickens are now placed (in their laying trailer) right between the sheep and goats! There they have access to both pastures freely, and the abundance of bugs that both herds bring.

The grass back there is about 4 to 6 inches tall, so it will last a while!  The trailer will move back and forth within that protected paddock to spread out the "fertilizer" and provide new grass continually.

While there is no verifiable health benefit of eggs that are grass fed from eggs that are grain fed, there is a noticeable difference.  We are going to do out best to keep these girls on tall grass for the duration of the summer. And hopefully bring online our "bug barn" and its designed in supply of 100,000 mealworms per day! (stay tuned on that!)

Eggs now available for sale!

Starting this week, we will have eggs available for sale to new customers. We have reached the end of the waiting list, and filled everyone's desired quantities, so we can now take new customers!

Our chicken eggs are, what I like to call "ALL OF THE ABOVE". That means we do all of the "good things" that you see on egg labels, all together so you don't have to choose between. Organic, pastured, etc etc. Ours are:

Organically fed
Soy free
Non-gmo
Pasture raised
Heritage breed
Humanely treated
Antiobiotic free
Vaccination free
Chemical free
Unsorted
Multi colored
Farm fresh
And just plain yummy!


There are two ways to buy eggs: alacarte, or subscription.

Subscription simple means you are "subscribing" to a certain quantity of eggs delivered with each delivery, every other week. You don't have to do anything except set how many you want, and until you cancel, the eggs will show up every two weeks on your door step. No extra cost, no upfront payment. If you need to skip a delivery, there is a vacation hold for that. All we ask is that you remain on the subscription for a minimum of 3 months.

The advantages are:
1. Savings! Subscription prices are always a bit lower
2. Filled first. If anything happens to the available quantity, we always fill subscriptions before ala carte orders.
3. Automatic ease. Do nothing and the eggs arrive every other Saturday. Billing happens the night of delivery

Ala carte ordering means you go online before the cutoff day for each delivery and order eggs for that delivery. if supply is sufficient, orders are filled on a first come first served basis.

Either way, we are happy to be able to offer the best eggs to you and your family, and now your friends!

posted from Bloggeroid

Farm fresh eggs available and increasing

Supplies are increasing! The hens are about double per day where we started 2 weeks ago. And we are about halfway to the expected maximum !

If this holds, we will be able to start filling the rest of the subscriptions soon! Although... the waiting list seems to growing faster than production is increasing. Hmmm...



Eggs, not only a powerouse of nutrition (when raised right), not only a staple in healing diets, not only a regular breakfast centerpiece and a bakers delight... but eggs are perhaps the most requested, most necessary farm fresh food available.

posted from Bloggeroid

Chicken Eggs are OFFICIALLY BACK on the delivery route

FINALLY!

After a 2+ year wait... we can offer uniquely healthy farm fresh chicken eggs on our home delivery route! 

You may recall, over 2 years ago we had a catastrophe... we had worked for 5 years on creating our own genetics.. a flock of chickens combined from multiple heritage breeds. Then, a winter fire burned down one of our coops, and the brooder that housed the entire next flock of chickens. We lost not only the just hatched chicks, but also all of the breeders, they were housed in the coop  connected to the brooder.  In one night, we lost 5 years of selective breeding. The remaining hens were at the end of their lives and didnt lay consistently enough to produce a replacement flock. The remaining egg production dwindled down to nothing over the next few months and we were out of the chicken egg business.

Finally, we have a large enough flock to re-enter the egg business! We have raised half, and purchased half from another farm that was going out of business. The combined flock is perfect, a blend of 2 heritage breeds that meet the needs of both egg layers and meat chickens.

Yes, we are now offering heritage meat chickens also! (not just stewing hens, but young meat birds)

So.. (drum roll please!)  tomorrow , saturday 3/19/2016  marks the first delivery of chicken eggs to the ashland and phoenix / talent areas!

---

PRICING:
We have simplified pricing.  All eggs are offered at $8 per dozen on subscription, and slightly more buying outside of a subscription. (price to be decided when supplies allow)

OPTIONS:
We are now offering all eggs unwashed by default. IF a set of eggs require washing for whatever reason, they will be washed by the dozen and packaged clearly marked as "washed" so you know to keep them refrigerated.

---

If you find the need to wash any eggs yourself, its easy. Wait till time to use them (they store better unwashed). Then wash each egg under warm running water with light rubbing. They should come clean in seconds.  (NEVER use cold water to wash eggs, and NEVER soak in water)

Our approach to eggs is unique... instead of offering one or two advantages.. we just do everything that we can to produce better eggs... are eggs are ALL OF THE ABOVE:

• Non-GMO
• Organically fed
• Soy free
• Pasture Raised without cages
• Antibiotic Free
• Vaccination Free
• Chemical Free
• Heritage Breed
• Collected Fresh and delivered to you Fresh

Thank you for your patience... we truly appreciate your support and hope you enjoy these nutritional powerhouses to add to your diet.

Chickens chickens everywhere!

Exciting news! We are right on the verge of having the sought after little sprouts eggs for sale again! Its been 3 long years of waiting and working... and the day is fast approaching, right around the corner!

Our own replacement flock (to replace the flock we lost in the fire) is now mature and starting to lay. In addition, God has blessed by bringing an opportunity to expand the flock greatly, in fact double! Another local farm who we trust, who was also using heritage breeds and feeding scratch and peck, decided to sell their new flock. Incredibly these birds are the exact same age as ours, and most are the same breed!

This opportunity came up suddenly, but we were able to jump on it and bring all the birds home last night. Today we let them out of the transport trailer to explore their new home, while we readied the laying coop. There were a lot of birds running around our yard! Over 200 in all!

By this evening we managed to get most of them into the proper area, but its by no means finished. The rain slowed things down a bit. One more day and they should be settled and happily laying. We chose to move them all together in the sheep pasture, where few birds have been.

If all goes well... there will be the first eggs available for sale on the next delivery! We will start contacting people that are on the waiting list first. It may take a month to reach full supply, so just a little more patience will be required. Then we will open up new egg subscriptions to those not on the waiting list.

Sorry for the lack of pictures... we will take some asap to show the new birds and their new home, but I couldn't get any today because of the rain.

posted from Bloggeroid

RePrint - The importance of what your food eats

This is a great article, we have reprinted here in entirety instead of just a link, becasue it is so good.  The link to the original article is :

http://www.cavemandoctor.com/2016/02/08/4938/

Alchemists and Animals – The Importance of What Your Food Eats

Caveman Doctor > Nutrition > Alchemists and Animals – The Importance of What Your Food Eats

cavemandoctor February 8, 2016 0 Comments

Nutrition

alchemist chicken, cage-free eggs, david perlmutter,free range eggs, healthy eggs, omega eggs, pastured chicken, pastured eggs

Alchemists and Animals – The Importance of What Your Food Eats

The Alchemist Chicken

During the Integrative Health Conference in New York City several years back, I participated in a debate regarding the optimal human diet – vegan, paleo, or Mediterranean. During this debate, Dr. David Perlmutter, author of Grain Brain,used the term the alchemist cow. He was referring to cows that are fed a poor diet, given antibiotics, and stuffed in a small space – yet we somehow believe that their milk and meat would still be as healthy as a cow that is raised appropriately. Click here for the entire debate.

Alchemy is the ancient practice of trying to transform metals into gold. Even the mega-genius Isaac Newton thought that he could perform alchemy. However, as he and others found out, it does not work.

We cannot make gold out of nothing. We cannot feed animals garbage and treat them poorly and expect them to magically be healthy.

When contextualizing to humans, the difference in health between a stressed out person, stuffed in a cubicle at work, never exercising, never sleeping well, and never eating versus a stress-free, healthy counterpart, the health differences become obvious.  Yet, why do we ignore this when it comes to animals?

Enter Tina and Cassandra…

Tina and Cassandra

Meet Tina. Tina lives in an empty 300 square foot apartment. Tina’s cubical at his work is so small that her elbows touch each wall and her head is a couple of feet from the ceiling. Tina is part of typical corporate America and her boss screams at her all day long causing her to be stressed. Tina’s constant level of stress causes the habitual release of a hormone called cortisol – often called the stress hormone – which causes her blood sugar to skyrocket many times throughout the day.¹ Tina’s body is frequently releasing many catecholamines (like adrenaline) that are linked to an increased risk of experiencing a heart attack, high blood pressure, and a stroke. The barrage of cortisol puts her at an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, cognitive impairment, and a poorly functioning immune system.²

She sleeps terribly at night because of her stress level and is at an increased risk of cancer.³ To make matters worse, she is fed Boost and Ensure every day at work (link article), both foods that are quite foreign to her body.

All of these issues leave Tina sick quite often. She has to take antibiotics regularly, and sometimes even gets antibiotic-resistant infections. She has even been given hormones to help build some muscle on her paltry frame.

Man, Tina’s life stinks.

Meet Cassandra. Cassandra lives on a 15-acre plot of land. She sleeps well and wakes up with the sun. She actually works at home taking care of the land. She also finds food on the land around her home, which she freely roams. The majority of her day is spent running around this land. There is much vegetation around Cassandra’s home and she gets her daily vitamins and nutrients through her healthy diet and she even finds time to hunt. Sometimes she has to supplement it in the winter, but this is a last resort. The animals around her property provide her with the fat, protein, and nutrients she needs.

Cassandra gets stressed here and there, as we all do. However, overall she leads a very happy life. She exercises everyday by walking around freely. She rarely gets sick and has a strong immune system.

Man, Cassandra’s life is awesome.

Meet Tina and Cassandra

Tina and Cassandra are actually chickens. Tina is stuffed in a cage for her life, as she lives in a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO). She can barely move, eats unnatural foods, and is constantly stressed, secreting hormones like cortisol into her eggs and meat. Much like a stressed human mother, her offspring are unhealthy.

Tina spends all her life stuffed in her “cubicle.” Image courtesy of koko-tewan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Each and every day of Tina’s life is pretty terrible…

Cassandra, on the other hand, lives in a farm where she is raised on pasture. In other words, she runs around picking insects out of the ground and eating grass – her normal diet.

Cassandra spending a typical day running around and foraging. Image courtesy of suwatpo at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Cassandra’s life is pretty awesome. Cassandra health is pretty awesome. The eggs that Cassandra lays are pretty awesome too.

Whether It Is Chickens or People

Few people give thought to Tina and Cassandra when they are buying eggs at the grocery store. Tina’s eggs are obviously much cheaper, as we would expect. It is much cheaper to stuff Tina in a cage and feed her unnatural food than to let her run around eating worms and insects, some grass, and the occasional supplemental feed.

Along these lines, it is also much easier to push Tina and Cassandra to the back of your head, forget about them and Tina’s cruel and unhealthy upbringing, and pay $1.66 for a dozen of Tina’s less healthy eggs from her less healthy body.

Tina and Cassandra’s Eggs

Much like Tina and Cassandra’s health, their eggs are very different from each another. While this seems quite obvious after reading about their daily lifestyle, the differences can be remarkable.

Cassadra’s pastured eggs contain:

1. Double the amount of vitamin E than Tina’s eggs
2. Double the amount of healthy omega-3 fatty acids
3. 38% more vitamin A

Tina’s eggs, on the other hand, contain significantly more inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids.⁴

Much like Tina’s life, Tina’s eggs stink in comparison to Cassandra’s.

Tina’s eggs also contain a much higher ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. In other words, Cassandra’s eggs have much more anti-inflammatory omega-3s, while Tina’s have significantly more omega-6’s. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is closer to 4:1 or 1:1, which is what our ancestors consumed for thousands of years.⁵ A high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3s is associated with an increased risk of diseases like prostate cancer⁶ and significantly higher amounts of autoimmune disease, inflammation, and circulating inflammatory factors.^5,7

Cassandra’s eggs also look better with their deep golden-hued yolks. They taste better too. They are a great addition to healthy bone broth (LINK BONE BROTH) and a healthy part of the diet.

Much like Cassandra’s life, her eggs are healthy and fulfilling.

Tina’s Effect On Us

While it is obvious that the meat and eggs of our chickens strongly depend on the environment where they are raised, the resultant effect on our body is no different. And if the information above is not enough to get you to consider what you eat, then perhaps this information will change your mind.

Eating eggs from pastured chickens and those with high omega-3 fatty acid feeds result in:

1. 22.4% more vitamin E within blood values
2. 55% more carotenoids in the blood
3. Decreased serum C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation.⁸

CAFO eggs, on the other hand, increase oxidized LDL cholesterol (cholesterol bound with free radicals) which is a major risk of heart disease and cancer. One researcher has gone as far as stating that omega-3 eggs “provide protection against oxidative stress, inflammation, and acute effects of high glycemic load” with “a unique capacity to transform and concentrate protective nutrients.”⁹ In other words, healthy eggs are nutrient-dense foods that help fight inflammation and provide significant health benefit.

The (Non) Cost Differential

A common excuse to buy less healthy and less ethical eggs is the difference in cost. Right now eggs cost $1.66 per dozen in New York, while eggs from pastured hens cost anywhere from $4.99-6.99. The price is clearly higher and this is certainly a sensitive issue for those families with a limited budget. Eggs are still an incredibly healthy food, and I would not eliminate them based on the information above.

Yet, for those of us that eat 1-2 dozen per week the difference in price comes out to about $256 per year, or half the price of an iPhone, two months of cable television, or two expensive dinners. Many of us can certainly find this money from entertainment spending or other less essential costs throughout the week. Pastured eggs are also larger, more flavorful, and more nutrient-dense, so including nutrition-per-dollar likely leaves that $256 as significantly less.

For those of us with farmer’s markets around, pastured eggs are even cheaper. This may take a little more time and effort, but we can use the time saved from cancelling our cable (along with all the extra cash…). This also follows “voting with our wallets.” If we continue to buy ethical pastured eggs instead of the less healthy confined eggs, prices may begin to accommodate the consumer.

The Alchemist Animal

It is time to think about Tina and Cassandra when shopping at the grocery store or local farmer’s market for chicken or any animal products. The push for ethical and more natural foods may be more expensive, but it may be hard to put a price on the health benefits for us and ethical benefits for the animals.

As Tina knows, there are no alchemist chickens.

References:

1. Smyth J, Ockenfels MC, Porter L, Kirschbaum C, Hellhammer DH, Stone AA. Stressors and Mood Measured on a Momentary Basis are Associated With Salivary Cortisol Secretion. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 1998;23(4):353-370. doi:10.1016/S0306-4530(98)00008-0.
2. Lundberg U. Stress hormones in health and illness: the roles of work and gender. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2005;30(10):1017-1021. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.03.014.
3. Blask DE. Melatonin, sleep disturbance and cancer risk. Sleep Med Rev. 2009;13(4):257-264. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1087079208000786?showall=true.
4. Karsten HD, Patterson PH, Stout R, Crews G. Vitamins A, E and fatty acid composition of the eggs of caged hens and pastured hens. Renew Agric Food Syst. 2010;25(01):45. doi:10.1017/S1742170509990214.
5. A.P S. The importance of the ratio of omega-6/omega-3 essential fatty acids. Biomed & Pharmacother. 2002;56(8):365-379. doi:10.1016/s0753-3322(02)00253-6.
6. Williams CD, Whitley BM, Hoyo C, et al. A high ratio of dietary n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is associated with increased risk of prostate cancer. Nutr Res. 2011;31(1):1-8. doi:10.1016/j.nutres.2011.01.002.
7. Simopoulos AP. Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Inflammation and Autoimmune Diseases. J Am Coll Nutr. 2002;21(6):495-505. http://www.jacn.org/content/21/6/495.abstract.
8. Burns-Whitmore B, Sapwarobol S, Haddad E, Sabate J, Rajaram S. N-3 Fatty Acid Enriched Egg Decreases C-Reactive Protein in Healthy Adults. FASEB J. 2007;21(6):A740 – b – . http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/21/6/A740-b. Accessed February 6, 2016.
9. Shapira N. Not all eggs are created equal: the effect on health depends on the composition. Can J Cardiol. 2011;27(2):264.e5; 264.e7-e8. doi:10.1016/j.cjca.2010.11.010.

New Chicken breed chosen!

We are back in the chicken business!

As you may recall from a year ago, we lost our chicken flocks due to a tragic fire in winter of 2014. We attempted to rebuild the flock from the few remaining hens, but there just wasnt enough to get us to production size with them. So, after waiting for a year to get to breeding time.. we have chosen and ordered our new flock!

We have decided on Buff Orpington breed.  They are a heritage breed that works well for both meat and eggs. Here is a description of them:

One time years ago at our Hamilton County Fair the poultry judge was asked to describe the correct plumage color for this variety. Taking out his gold watch he said, "That's the color for Buff Orpingtons." And pure gold they are, symbolic of great value and high quality. Introduced from England in the late 1800's, they became one of the most popular farm fowls in this country. These are large, stately birds of quiet disposition. Easy to dress for the table they are white skinned, plump, and juicy, a beautiful eating bird.Their heavy, full plumage make them excellent winter layers, shelling out brown eggs right through cold weather. They also make excellent setters and mothers. These "Golden Beauties" have been one of our most popular varieties for years and years with their glistening plumage and pinkish white skin. Baby chicks are a soft light buff color. 

It will take a while to get back into production, about 7 months from now. But these birds will provide us with a nice supply of eggs and meat and broths.

Stay tuned!

Highlight of the day!

There is nothing quite like making time to break away from the normal hussle and bussel of every day work of being a Grandma and enjoy the great outdoors. You can tell from her face that Grammy loves to do the chores. The day got away from us with many unexpected tasks to accomplish. There was an announcement made at lunch letting the family know that we needed to work together to tend to the animals. Grammy spoke up first, "Want me to help??!". Of course, thankful for her delighted spirit to help, we are most thankful to be present to see her wonderful smile and witness first hand her love for caring not only for her family, but for these wonderful animals the Lord has given us!

Egg production is steadily increasing

Another good bit of news....  We finally have the hens set so that they are again producing consistently.  Some day i will write about all the changes we had to make to get things right again (mostly due to the extreme weather this fall).

We are collecting 90 to 120 eggs per day,  and on target to reach 200 in a couple weeks.  Plus we still have 2 more flocks to set up.  They will produce maybe another 80 eggs per day.  Finally we can fill orders!

The next step is retiring some of the older hens.  We are working on a high tech way of determining which are laying and which are not.  More on that later....

Incubators are full!

The incubators are full!  The next winter laying flock is fully started.  There is a total of  378 eggs incubating.

This weekend we will check them to see which are not fertile (usually 10% arent)  and replace those with fresh eggs.

What a beautiful sight!

The new laying flock is started!

Today we put the eggs into the incubators for the next winter flock.  We decided to hatch 2 flocks a year,  one in early winter and one early summer.  That should be best chance for a sturdy winter laying flock and a consistent summer laying flock.

So far there are about 140 eggs in.  Another 140 to come.  Our target is 300 eggs hatched at once to end up with about 100 laying hens in a flock.

Chickens chickens everywhere

With eggs is such high demand these days,  and our recent struggles with production (largely weather caused),  we have a long list of people waiting for good pastured soy free organic eggs.  So we decided to speed up the process of expanding.  In addition to hatching a new winter flock,  we purchased about a hundred full grown chickens to lay.

It was a looking day,  but finally they are resting in their new home.  A couple weeks if extended lighting and we should have plenty of fresh eggs to meet demand.

We might add another hundred this week if all goes well.

Welcome silver Appleyard ducks

Duck eggs are very popular,  especially with those allergic to chicken eggs.  Duck eggs are  also preferred by those using egg yolk as a healing food. Over the last year the sales of duck eggs has increased to about 40%of our total egg sales.  While that is all good news, the US a recurring problem,  the duck egg production is unsteady.

There have been many times when the production had barely met needs,  and now we faced one delivery where we were unable to meet all subscriptions.  We do apologize for the need to substitute chicken eggs for last week,  and appreciate everyone's willingness to temporarily adjust. We realize now that a change is in order to allow a more consistent duck egg supply.

The problem.?  Simply put,  stress!  Kaki Campbell ducks are great producers,  making close to 350 eggs per year per duck,  but only in a low stress environment.  Our farm,  by nature,  is not low stress.  We use rotational grazing if several species to improve health overall,  which requires lots of moving and change.  This in itself causes stress for the khakis.

Research has shown that this is a universal problem for khakis. Farms that rely on this breed go to great lengths to prevent change for the ducks.  Even so far as not only collecting eggs same time every day but the same person wearing the same clothes every time!  These ducks require rigid routine.

At present at are plagued with  large crows that are stealing the duck eggs,  which in turn stresses the duck and lowers production.  Also working with the fruit trees and berries causes them further stress. Production is currently very low.

So we have chosen to add a new breadth the farm,  silver Appleyard!  These are beautiful large size ducks that are useful both for eggs and meat.  They do not suffer from stress like khakis,  Appleyards are write calm and forgiving,  great forgers,  and very beautiful!  With his breed we expect a steady supply of eggs  and also the addition of duck meat to our offered products!

We will be hatching the Appleyards ourself from fertile eggs beginning next week.  If all goes well they silk be laying by March and we will be able to sell duck meat for Christmas!

We are very excited to bring this breed to the farm!

Introducing --- Easy Peel Eggs!

If your like most people.. peeling hard boiled eggs is a real challenge.  Its a tedious meticulous process  where, in the end, you loose half the eggs  due to tearing of the whites or stuck shells.  Yet, hard boiled eggs are SO useful! Quick snacks,  deviled eggs, salad toppings, on and on... so many uses.  So we struggle through with this procedure or that procedure.. adding this or that to the water, cooking a certain way...  There is even a gadget on the market  that allows you to crack the egg before cooking into a plastic container and cook it in there like a hard boiled egg.

We have seen, and tried it all! in our effort to make pickled eggs at home in decent quantity without spending all day peeling ... we tried everything. Finally... we found it. A cooking process by which.. the hard boiled egg literally falls out of the shell!

We now offer pre-cooked hard boiled eggs in our online store for your convenience! Cooked once a week, on order, the day before delivery, these eggs are easy enough to peel to use any time. they keep for about a week in a cold fridge, ready for your use in a pinch!

Watch this video of yours truly peeling one of these eggs... first the chicken egg:

Duck Eggs, they are notoriously hard to peel! The whites are thinner, and the membrane tighter, so peeling a hard boiled duck egg is nearly impossible.  Virtually every one ends up with scars, holes, tears, etc.  But not with our newly discovered cooking method! Watch this video to see how easy a hard boiled duck egg can peel!

THE TECHNIQUE 

 to peeling an Easy Peel Hard Boiled Egg:

Step 1: crack the egg lightly all around, try for an even fracturing of the eggshell on all sides. dont hit it hard enough to brake the membrane, just to crack the shell.

Step 2:  Gently push with your fingers on all 4 sides as in the video to work the membrane loose and further fracture the shell

Step 3: When the membrane feels loose, simply slip it off. Sometimes it helps to open one or both ends first.

Do NOT try to peel the egg the traditional way, a little at a time.  Try to remove the membrane instead.  That makes it literally fall off these eggs due to cooking method.

Turkey eggs and poults available now

We are pleased to announce that Little Sprouts Farm is now reselling our own third and fourth generation Narragansett turkey as poults or eggs for hatching.  We have often been asked to provide these, and finally have enough production where it makes sense.

The eggs are fertilized and fresh, and should present a 70 to 90 percent hatch rate.

The poults are within a week old (we will schedule the timing if none are available).

Our birds were originally purchased from a reputable hatchery 4 years ago, and we have raised one generation per year without repurchasing. the benefit to this is that our birds are genetically predisposed to be hardy in the southern oregon weather conditions. Each generation has shown  deeper hardiness than the one before.  these birds have been raised through generations of open pasture, foraging  supplemented with soy free and certified non-gmo feed.

Narragansett are the largest of the heritage breeds, and we think the tastiest. They are great natural foragers and have a very calm disposition. You can expect them to take 6 to 9 months to reach market weight, and then provide a very flavorful and healthy heritage meat with equal balance of light and dark meat.

If you wish to raise your own turkeys for Thanksgiving or Christmas  or just for year round fun ... we encourage you to try our birds.  We can provide advice on housing, raising, and processing also.

You can find details in our online store: http://www.farmigo.com/store/littlesproutsfarm

Information about the breed: http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/narragansett.html

How many eggs do you eat per day?

When we say in conversation with farm visitors that we eat a lot of eggs, everyone interprets "a lot" differently. What is a lot to the salch family? Well, truth be told... we consume from 2 to 4 dozen eggs per day, every day.  That's 14 to 28 dozen per week. And no, we do not bake (wheat free). Thats for 2 adults and 4 children ages 10 to 2.

Some examples for an average day:

• Soft fried or scrambled eggs for breakfast, often double yolks (an extra yolk for every egg)
• Raw egg yolk in broth at every meal
• Raw egg yolk in salad dressings
• Raw egg yolk in raw milk for eggnog
• raw egg yolk in smoothies
• Sometimes eggs for dinner

It quickly adds up! The health benefits are enormous. The egg yolk from properly raised, bred, and fed chickens and ducks is just about a perfect food, a powerhouse of nutrition. There is more benefit in a raw egg yolk than most other foods. Do some googling and you will be amazed at what all is in natures little nutrition packages inside that shell.

As you can see we definitely concentrate on yolks, and raw . That is where nutrition is. Egg whites are fine, but mostly just good protein. Raw yolks are full of most everything our bodies need to grow, heal, and maintain. Once cooked stiff, yolks loose a lot of their magical power.

This is one reason we prefer small eggs. The yolk on eggs does not change much with exterior size, just the amount of white. Since we toss the whites about half the time, it just makes more sense to use small eggs. Same nutrition, less waste. (Actually on a far there is NO waste.. everything gets eaten by someone!)
So... there you have it. We eat close to a dozen eggs per day per adult, every day. And.... we have never been healthier!

Disclaimer.... do NOT consume eggs from the store in these quantities... it can be deadly. Because of how store eggs are produced, they are a health negative potentially producing allergies, and all sorts of health problems including cancer and heart disease. ONLY consume eggs that are soy free, truly pastured, heritage breed chickens.

Two days of Duck Eggs lost

It seems we have lost at least a couple days of duck eggs to the new pasture management process.  There are so many small details in this sort of thing, and so many chances for things to go wrong!

This time, we had an unexpected rain. This produced mud overnight that didnt do well with 150 ducks in a small area. their little webbed feet are just perfect for flattening land... and that they did! No more holes! the down side is they laid eggs all over in the mud and water. These eggs, of course, cant be sold.

I think we will be ok yet for delivering orders. The production went up dramatically with the light in the duck pen in march, then back down when we moved them to pasture, but was recovering when this happened. I wont know for sure till friday rolls around and we do a count, but lets hope there are enough to go around!

The birds are now moved to the other pasture, the one with taller grass to keep these little ladies up out of the mud in the next rain.  Hopefully this is a one time thing.

Incubators warmed and running!

Two incubators up and running. The left is about 3/4 full of turkey eggs, the right hold the starts of our next chicken flock.  That's about 70 turkeys and 140 chickens.  There will be a few more rounds of each, before the season is done and another incubator in on the way to add to the mix.

As you can see we use the brisnea incubators. These have done well for us with precise temp control, ventilation, humidity control and turning. We decided to go with multiple small ones instead of less larger ones, for redundancy. Things always break and we didn't want time "put all of our eggs in one incubator". We need about two more but these guys aren't cheap so we just add one every year. By summer we will hatch close to a thousand birds.

Eggs are back in town!

Yes! Finally all of our egg production is returning and the new flock is laying. This means plenty of eggs to go around! In fact... it looks like we will have enough eggs to hatch our third flock by spring AND bring back those yummy pickled eggs!

Stay tuned!

First turkey eggs in the incubator

Its finally time! The first 45 eggs or so are in the incubator, launching the 2013 turkey season. We are a big late this year, but still within time to offer delicious traditional turkeys for thanksgiving.

The exciting part is this... after thanksgiving it doesn't end this year! We are set up to continue producing and selling turkeys every 2 to 3 months ... year round! Yes.... fresh heritage soy free pastured turkey. All year! We are. Very excited!

Very soon we will start taking deposits for turkeys for thanksgiving. Last year we sold out in early november so reserve yours early!