Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Chicken and Egg CSA info



Cristo Rey Farms
CSA 2015
Eggs and Chicken

           



We are pleased to announce our 2015 CSA!!
Participants will receive priority discounted shares of farm fresh chicken, eggs and pork. 


 What is a CSA?
A CSA is an acronym for "Community Supported Agriculture".  In a CSA, customers pre-invest in their food and regularly receive a share in the harvest of the farm.  The farm accepts a fixed amount of money at the beginning of the season from a set amount of customers. This money is used to finance the new growing season, helps the farm continue to grow and develop and shares some of the risk of farming with the customer.  

The customer in turn benefits by  a discount on the highest quality foods, helps ensure that their food source will continue and is able to actually see and even participate in the production of their food.  Using this system makes it easier for farms to “go organic”, because  the high risk of organic farming is  spread out among many financial participants.


With a PCSA (Participatory CSA- coming soon to CRF), customers are invited to join in with actual farming- the farmer gains in labor and the customer and their families in discounts, free food, education in sustainable farming practices and the ultimate agri-tourism adventure!



Cristo Rey Farms
2015 CSA-Spring and Summer
Name: ____________________
Street address: ______________
City: _____________________
State/Zip: _________________
Email: ____________________
Phone: ____________________

Egg Shares (1/2 shares ok)-
24 weeks May –August  SOLD OUT
$90 per share/1 dozen per week
(Ex. 2 doz./week =$180)       ______

Chicken Shares -
May  (Processing 5/30) SOLD OUT

June (processing 7/18)-Sold Out
10 chickens  $164         ______
5 chickens   $82         ______

September -(projected processing  9/26)
10 chickens  $164         ______
5 chickens   $82         ______

Total:                       _______

I understand that as a CSA member I will share in the bounty and harvest of Cristo Rey Farms.  I also agree to share in the risks of farming.
  ______________________
Signature/Date
Pick up for CSA shares is every Wednesday 1:30-7:30pm and Saturdays 9:00am-12:30pm


About our Pork

Cristo Rey Farms
Ed and KC Schnitker
22395 Newtowne Neck Rd., Leonardtown, MD 20650
301-475-8160
-Pork-
About our Pork



Pastured piggys
Our pork is produced free-ranging on pasture using managed rotational grazing which means we move them every few weeks to new areas where they can graze, root, and eat fresh grass, leaves, clover and other forages

They are outside in large paddocks in small groups with fresh air and sunshine.  They are not crowded or stressed or kept on concrete in confinement.

We supplement their foraging with non-gmo grains and minerals, organic produce, acorns and eggs.

We do not use any chemicals, antibiotics or hormones.





One of our “Piggerated” paddocks

Pigs have a plow on their faces aka their snout and do an excellent job rooting and digging.  They till, weed, clear brush and clean up crops.  They also produce valuable manure for fields and gardens and turn it all into delicious pork, bacon, sausage, ham, pork chops and much more!







New grass in winter!

New grass growing in piggerated paddock thanks to the pigs…in winter!

We use solar charged electric fences to define our paddocks.  We can quickly create new paddocks wherever we need the pigs to work and where we have the best forage.  This method is ecologically and environmentally enhancing and is not only sustainable but regenerative as can be seen here!






 
-Prices-
$100 deposit-whole hog
$50 deposit – half or quarter
Whole Pigs:
The price for a whole pig is $3.50/lb based on final hanging weight at the butcher after slaughter. A typical pig hangs at 180 lbs so the pig cost is typically $630 or so. The slaughter is $35 and the butchering (cutting & packaging) is $.70/lb. 
Smoking/Curing (additional time/processing so additional costs):
Sausage (seasoned, ground, and wrapped)……………………………... $0.50/lb
Sausage links (In natural casings-sausage is not vacuum sealed…. $1.00/lb.
Bacon (smoked/sugar cured)............................$15 each
Hams (smoked/sugar cured)............................$15 with processed hog
Country ham.....................................................$4.50/lb (includes slicing)
Other Services:
Vacuum packed................................................$0.20/lb

A whole pig cut up and packaged is about three to four cubic-feet depending on packing in the boxes.
Half Pigs:
The price for a half pig is $4.00/lb based on final hanging weight at the butcher after slaughter. A typical pig hangs at 90 lbs so the pig cost is typically $360 or so. The slaughter is $20 and the butchering (cutting & vacuum packaging) is $.70/lb.  (smoking/curing prices are above).
A half pig packaged (@50-70lbs of meat) is about two cubic-feet depending on packing in the boxes.  A half pig will fit tightly into a large picnic cooler.
Note on Yield:
A 250 lb pig yields a hanging weight of about 180 lbs. Price per pound is based on hanging weight- that is after slaughter and cleaning, head, skin, feet and tail on. This is how animals are sold – by the hot hanging weight after slaughter. Cutting to standard commercial cuts yields about 67% of hanging weight or about 120 lbs of actual cuts. A typical pig ready for processing weighs between 250-280lbs. 

**We recommend finding a friend(s) to share a single whole pig order with – there is a big savings between whole and half pig pricing per pound.
Butcher:
Sudlersville Meat Locker

**Note:  These are last years prices.  It gives an idea of cost.  We are using a USDA butcher this year and will also offer individual cuts.  We will post new prices asap including individual cuts prices.
CSA prices coming soon!

Monday, July 20, 2015

5 2's Pancake Recipe


This pancake recipe makes the most delicious pancakes!  We use milled wheat and soak it overnight, but you can also use basic flour or a paleo flour mix of your own (rice flour, coconut flour and tapioca flour works nicely- check out Wellness Mama or Healthy Home Economist for examples).

It is so simple to remember- 5 2's:

2 cups flour
(add 1 tsp salt and 2tblsp +2tsp baking powder)
2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons oil (coconut, olive etc.) or butter
2 tablsp sugar (organic cane, maple, honey etc)

Mix dry ingredients and then add your wet ingredients.  Cook on a griddle at 350 or on the stove.
For best flavor use butter and maple syrup when serving.  Add blueberries and
strawberries for a beautiful presentation!

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Taste and Much More Than Taste!!

"All my kids wanted to eat for dinner was your chicken!"  
"I had two chickens in my fridge, one store bought and one from your farm.  I had to make them both because we had guests.  We could actually taste the difference!  Yours was far superior!"  
These are the kinds of comments I hear about the chicken we produce on our farm, Cristo Rey Farm.
For myself, I would say that it tastes like the chicken I remember from my childhood, that it has an actual taste- chicken that tastes like...chicken.  Nowadays buying a supermarket chicken is like buying a texture and whatever you put on it is what it tastes like.  Our chicken tastes clean and fresh and well, chickeny and it is moist and succulent and down right (if I do say so myself) delicious.


What is the reason for this difference in taste?  
Our chicken is pastured which means that the chickens get to be chickens and do what chickens do best: scratch the ground and eat bugs and grass and whatever goodies they can find.
We move our chickens every day (and sometimes even twice a day) to fresh grass so they can eat as much fresh green material and bugs as possible.   They are in the fresh air in protected shelters in small groups, getting plenty of sunshine, not in an over-crowded barn breathing musty fecal air and subjected to continuous stress. As we move them, they fertilize our pastures with their nitrogen rich manure; nothing is wasted and there is no toxic run-off to pollute our bay.  We supplement their foraging with non-gmo feed, a ration of grains, kelp, minerals, vitamins and probiotics and finally process them humanely in an outdoor fresh air kitchen.

All these things make our birds very different from what is available at the supermarket.  
The difference is in everything- not just the delicious taste:
How they live, what they eat, how we process them and what our customers are supporting.  Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (and whose farm we model) has a list in his book about pastured poultry that explains the differences between pastured and conventional chicken (including the store-bought organic brands).   Feel free to ask for details about any element on the list in the comments section and we will be glad to explain more fully:

Cristo Rey Farm Chickens                  Conventional Chickens



Unvaccinated                                        Vaccinated (immuno-suppressant)

Full beaks (no cannibalism)                  Debeaked (cannibalism problem)


Probiotics (immuno-stimulant)             Antibiotics (immuno-suppressant)



Composting litter in brooder                 Sterilized litter (sanitized through     
(sanitized through decomposition)                toxic fumigants and sprays)



Carbon/Nitrogen ratio 30:1                     Carbon/Nitrogen ration 12:1



Practically no ammonia vapor (smell)    Hyper-ammonia toxicity



Brooder skylights                                    No skylights



Rest at night (lights off)                          Artificial lighting 24 hours/day



No medications                                       Routine medications



No synthetic vitamins                             Routine synthetic vitamins



No hormones                                          Routine hormones



No appetite stimulants                           Routine appetite stimulants (arsenic)



Natural trace minerals (kelp)             Manufactured and acidulated 

                                                                trace minerals


Raised in small groups (300 or fewer)      *Huge groups (10K or more)



Low stress (group divisions)                     *High stress



Clean air                                            *Air hazy with fecal particulate 
                                                          (damages respiratory tract and pulls
                                                           vitamins out of the body 
                                                           which overloads the liver)

Fresh air and sunshine                       *Limited air and practically 

                                                                  no sunshine


Plenty of exercise                                    *Limited exercise



Fresh daily salad bar                                *No green material or bugs



Short transport to processing                  *Long transport to processing 

(stress reducing)                                           (high stress)


Killed by slitting throat (see Leviticus)  *Killed by electric shock
                                                               (inhibits bleeding after throat is slit)



Carefully hand eviscerated               Mechanically eviscerated (prone to 
                                                           breaking intestines and spilling feces                      
                                                           over carcass)

Processing uses only 2.5 gal/bird   Processing uses 5 gallons of water/bird


Guts and feathers composted                  Guts cooked and rendered then 
 and used for fertilizer                                     fed back to chickens

Effluent used for irrigation                     *Effluent treated as sewage

Customer inspected                                *Government inspected

No injections during processing               Routine injections 
                                                               (anything from tenderizers to dyes)

Low percentage rejected livers or carcasses     High percentage liver 
                                                                           rejects or carcasses 

Dead birds fed to                                     Dead birds incinerated or buried    buzzards or composted                        (possible water table contamination)

Sick birds put in hospital                               Sick birds destroyed
pen for second chance (most get well)

Manure falls directly on growing forage    Manure fed to cattle or spread inappropriately                
                                                                           
Fresh air and sunshine                                  *Toxic germicides 
  sanitize processing area                                         to sanitize processing facility

Cooking loss 9% of carcass weight            Cooking loss 20% of carcass weight

Long keepers (freeze more than a year)  Short keepers (freeze only 6 months or less)

No drug-resistant diseases                       Drug-resistant diseases (R-factor Salmonella)

Low saturated fat                                     High saturated fat

No chlorine baths                                  Up to 40 chlorine baths (to kill contaminates)

No irradiation                                      FDA-approved irradiation (label not required)

Environmentally responsible              Environmentally irresponsible (hidden costs)

Promotes family farming                     Promotes feudal/serf agriculture

 Decentralized food system                  Centralized food system


Promotes entrepreneurial spirit            Promotes low wage/time-clock employment

Rural revitalization                                  Urban expansion

Consumer/producer relationship              Consumer/producer alienation

Rich delicious taste                                   Poor flat taste

Edible                                                        Inedible


* Also applies to nearly all “certified organic”



Moving one of our earlier model chicken tractors to fresh pasture:




Thank you for supporting your local farms and families.  It feels good to get back to what is truly American- growing family and community businesses not corporations, to be a part of really enhancing the environment and to go beyond simple sustainability to regenerativity.  We need to do more than just sustain in America, we need to grow and flourish and expand in a way that makes us, our communities and our environment healthy and well!!


Ed and KC Schnitker
Cristo Rey Farm
Leonardtown, MD