Big Changes Coming!
Well as spring rushes towards us, with her usual Alberta lapses back into winter, things are starting to get moving on the farm. New laying hen chicks have been ordered and are set to arrive on April 2nd. So brace yourselves for a flood of cuteness on our socials and emails shortly! We are also in the process of making a BIG announcement for our business. Keep your eyes open on our socials and in our emails over the next two weeks as we lay out some huge (and great) news.
Meat Birds (Broilers) For 2020
As we announced earlier in the year we are running a meat bird CSA in 2020. You can pre-purchase pasture raised chickens now on our Harvie web store or through your profile. These birds will be raised most of their life on pasture, fed a conventional ration, and allowed to express their full chicken-ness chasing bugs, frogs, and scratching up cow-pies in the sun.
We have selected the variety of bird we want to raise for pastured broilers. We looked at three breeds: the standard industrial CornishX Giant, the Western Ranger, and the Mistral Gris.
The Cornish are exactly what you would get from the grocery store, but due to their race car hybrid breeding they get to market weight in a scant 6-8 weeks (!) meaning they would get very little time on pasture. When outside they really struggle, these birds grow so fast their bones and joints can't keep up. This causes issues walking, let alone walking in tall grass. They do have a heavy full double breast, and a leaner fat content. This is what almost everyone is used to these days for cooking and flavour.
The Western Ranger on the other hand takes 12-14 weeks to reach market weight, and do very good on pasture. Unfortunately they are razor breasted, meaning they have much smaller breasts than what people are used too. They are bigger in the thigh and leg, and tend to have a bit more fat. Flavour wise they are more robust, because they are older. These are quite a different bird to cook and work with, and are much more flavourful.
The Mistral Gris sits between the two. These are genetics that originate in the Rouge Label pastured poultry industry in France. They have been selected and bred specifically to go on pastures early, and reach market weight in a reasonable time frame of 10 weeks. They are heavier in the leg, but still have a nice double breast. Their slower growth rate means more flavour and less health problems than the CornishX, and they are easier to cook with than a Western Ranger. Their biggest downside is they are dark feathered, which means the finished carcass may show dark pins in the skin when plucked.
In the end we chose the Mistral Gris for 2020. We like that they come from the Rouge Label genetics bred for pasture, that they are more feed efficient than other breeds, and can really get out on grass fast and handle it well. This will give our birds a deep rich fat and a wonderful flavour profile.
Updated Pricing
You will notice that prices are starting to update across our Harvie store and our other sales locations over the next few weeks. Your existing shares will not be affected as long as you purchased them prior to March 01, 2020. You will still be billed weekly or biweekly at $6.00 per dozen. Any extra eggs you purchase through your extras will be at the new price of $6.50.
You will notice that new subscribers will be switching to quarterly billing and delivery seasons. This is to help accommodate folks who do a lot of seasonal travel and most importantly to minimize credit card transaction fees. Again, for existing members you will not see any changes until October at which time you will be moved onto the new prices and new billing system.
Locally Yours,
Marcus, Sarah, Samuel, Boaz
