American Pastured Poultry Producers Association · 2017-05-02 · 2 American Pastured Poultry...

American Pastured Poultry Producers Association Issue #46

Issue 47 Summer 2007

American Pastured Poultry Producers Association

Inside this Issue

From the President

2

Director Information

2

Flax Screenings 3

Farmers’ Market Tips

5

Contact A Member Update

19

Poultry Man Mo-bile Processing

20

Membership by state

23

Upcoming Events

24

Recipes 25

Dig Deep Litter 26

Classified Ads 30

Rhode Island Memorial

31

L iz Pezkham has 275 red sex-link hens and no roosters. “I don’t want the

boys,” the co-owner of Wishing Stone Farm near Little Compton, Rhode Island admits. She also doesn’t like having to deal with selling eggs in the winter, when her commu-nity-sponsored agriculture groups and farm-ers’ markets have closed and she has few

nearby outlets. Her solution is to buy started pullets in April, which begin to lay in June, just in time for her customers. In November, when the CSAs and markets have closed for the year, she sells the hens locally for about $5 each to people looking for a few hens of their own. Thus, her cost per dozen eggs is mostly in feed and cartons.

Liz and Skip Paul started Wishing Stone back in 1986. These days, their organic farm produces vegetables, eggs, and value-added specialty cheese and bakery products for CSAs in Barrington, Little Compton and Providence, two farmers’ markets in Provi-dence, and vegetables for Whole Foods in Providence. They keep six greenhouses busy

with plant starts and early-season vegetables, and rent local land that is controlled by local land trusts who want to keep open green space in the area. In all, they have over 32 acres in vegetables and pasture.

Wishing Stone has three innovations in

(Continued on page 4)

A Visit to Wishing Stone Farm by Karen Black

Liz explains the features of her hens’ caboose-styled eggmobile, built by Skip Paul. The range feeder to Liz’s right holds about 300 pounds of feed.

2 American Pastured Poultry Producers Association Issue #46

From the President

I trust everyone is having a success-ful production season and that ge-

netics, heat, wind, rain and predators have not been issues. Or, is that a pipe dream?

We should all be seeing increased de-mand for our products. The groundswell is almost overwhelming in our area. It seems that not a week goes by that we do not get a new restaurant inquiry and three or four new customers coming to the farm market. A number of books are the rave at the moment espousing local food (sometimes in preference to organic), seasonality, and health issues related to our food. We recently had a customer visit who had read a book, mostly about meat, who told us she did not want to spend more; rather, she wanted better food in smaller quantities.

There is a national conference in Baltimore each July of people who design restaurants. Their theme this year revolves around sus-tainability and local sourcing. I will be presenting, with a friend who is a consulting chef, a seminar pointing out the issues related to sus-tainability as well as buying locally.

Among other things, we plan to discuss refrigeration needs of meat. Meats do not stay fresh long at the 38+ degrees found in most restaurant walk-ins (frequent door openings cause many to rise well into the high 40’s). One of our recommendations to conference atten-dees will be to plan for two refrigeration units in new designs; one for produce and another for meats. The latter should be able to hold


APPPA CONTACT INFO Executive Director and Editor: Karen Black Phone: 541-453-4557 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.apppa.org Address: 36475 Norton Creek Road Blodgett, OR 97326 The APPPA Grit! newsletter is pub-lished four times a year and sent to members of APPPA. To join, visit our website or write to the address above. Information provided in this newsletter is believed to be accurate, but readers assume all responsibility for actions based on this information. Classified ads for members are $5 per issue up to 25 words; 25-50 words $10. Nonmembers add $5. For more information on advertising in GRIT!, please contact us.

David Smith, President Board member 2005-2007 Springfield Farm 16701 Yeoho Rd Sparks, MD 21152 (410) 472-0738 [email protected]

Brian Moyer, Vice-President Board member 2003-2008 Green Haven Farm 96 Noll Ln Fleetwood, PA 19522

(610) 944-9349 [email protected]

Jenny Drake, Secretary Board member 2003-2008 Peaceful Pastures 69 Cowan Valley Ln Hickman, TN 38567

(615) 683-4291 [email protected]

Charles and Laura Ritch, Treasurer Board member 2002-2007 Goose Pond Farm 298 Goose Pond Rd Hartselle, AL 35640 [email protected] (256) 751-0987

Denise Beno Anderson Board member 2006-2009 2silos 4186 CR 24, Mt. Gilead, OH 43338 (419) 947-1009 [email protected]

Don Brubaker Board member 2007-2009 The Fertrell Company POB 456, Bainbridge, PA 17502 (717) 426-3594 [email protected]

Scott Jondle Board member 2007 Abundant Life Farm 16055 Gilliam Rd, Dallas, OR 97338 (503) 623-6378 [email protected]

Jean Nick Board member 2007-2009 Happy Farm 1911 Gallows Hill Rd, Kintersville, PA (610)346-6382 [email protected]

APPPA Board of Directors - Contact Information


Flax Screenings as Nest Bedding By Tom Neuberger

28-30 degrees to ensure that the meats we small farmers are only able to deliver once a week will stay fresh all week.

One of the lessons we have learned over the past few years is to freeze half the delivery and mark the product accordingly. This way, the unfrozen ones will hold for the first few days and then the frozen have begun to thaw and will hold the remainder of the week. When we farmers are talk-ing to restaurant customers we need to be sure to cover refrigeration and address this issue.

Best wishes for a contin-ued successful season and growing markets.

O ver the years we have experimented

with many materials to place in the nests of our egg laying flocks. We have tried straw, both whole and chopped, ground corn cobs, sawdust, prairie hay and corn husks, to mention but a few. None worked as well as a product I recently tried – flax screenings.

For several years we have been getting flax screenings from our friend, John, who raises and markets flax lo-cally for human consump-tion. We started feeding the screenings to our hens sev-eral years ago, when we learned that flax in their diet increased the omega-3 fatty acids in their eggs. I noticed

that the hens did not eat a lot of the flax. A pail would last 200 hens a couple weeks. In fact, the screen-ings contain some weed seeds, and those were eaten right away!

A couple months ago, I was discouraged. Every day there would be several bro-ken eggs in our nests. I wrestled with what I could do. As I poured a pail of flax screenings in the trough, I noted how soft and pliable they were. I decided to try it in several nests.

The results were fantas-tic! There was not one bro-ken egg in a week. Plus, the eggs were significantly cleaner. Encouraged by the results, I cleaned out all the nests and poured in flax screenings. A month went by before I had a broken egg. But probably the best news was that we had fewer dirty eggs to wash. The number of dirty eggs fell to half.

Oat, barley, or wheat hulls would perhaps work too, but the birds would probably be jumping into the nest just to eat. As I said, chickens do not seem to care for flax, and they don’t disturb the screenings in the nests. The largest drawback is that the small, slippery flax seeds stick to the eggs. We had to caulk the nests to keep them in. In addition, sometimes flax seeds stick to the moist egg as it is laid; however, they can easily be brushed off.

Flax screenings are cheap. I buy it by the truck-

load from my friend. Unlike the chickens, our sheep and cattle love it. They are wait-ing by the feed bunkers morning and evening when we feed them.

Not a lot of flax is raised, and that only in the northern states. A few farmers raise it for human consumption as it is high in omega-3. One could not afford to feed pure flax to animals, but the screenings, which appear to be 75% light flax seed and 25% weed seeds and chaff, are a viable feed and chicken nest bedding. I have no scientific evidence as to the quality of flax screen-ings as a feed, but I know that we have some nice-looking animals. I hypothe-size that if flax benefits hu-mans, it surely can’t hurt birds and animals.

Economically, we are experiencing a significant savings in eggs and time. I am estimating that we save 3 broken eggs a day from our flock of 200 hens, which comes to 91 dozen a year. In addition, I estimate we save 10 minutes a day (11 hours a year) with fewer dirty eggs to wash – to say nothing of the time and ma-terial involved in cleaning a nest containing a broken egg.

We put 2-3 pounds of flax screenings in each nest, depending on size. If you have no source of flax screenings in your area, let me know. My friend John has plenty, and they don’t cost much, though shipping will probably cost more than the sacked screenings.

From the President


Wishing Stone Farm

We have processing equipment for 1 bird at a time or 1000 birds per hour Pickers & Scalders: Ashley, Dux, Featherman, Pickwick, Poultryman Vacuum Packing Machines: Sipromac, Promarks Refrigerated Transport Containers: Bonar, Saeplast Accessories: knives, aprons, bags

Call Jim McLaughlin for a catalog or more information: 242 Dan Main Rd.

Norwich, NY 13815 1.607.334.2833 1.800.249.1585

[email protected] www.cornerstone-farm.com

vegetable growing I not seen before. One was a vacuum seeder. It was a

plate with tiny holes spaced to the size of the plant cells. When the vacuum was turned on, seeds spread across the plate were held down at each hole. The excess were poured off, then the plate was set over the seeding tray. The vac-uum was turned off, and the seeds dropped onto the growth medium.

Another was the use of plastic to-mato staking clips, available from Hy-dro Gardens of Colorado Springs. These clips let one stake up tomatoes one-handed to a vertical string. They are about 1” in diameter, so the plant stem is not in danger of being girdled. A quick method of organizing unruly stems!

The third is the use of five-gallon buckets as hanging pots to grow cherry tomatoes, with drip irrigation to keep the plants well watered. The tomatoes grow down to easy picking level, with-out having to stake plants.

The three CSAs are organized quite differently. The Little Compton CSA members visit the farm on Thursdays to pick up their shares. (Summer visi-tors to Little Compton have the option of a 10-week share, while local resi-dents can buy a 20-week share.) Bar-rington’s CSA is picked up in the nearby Massachusetts town between June and October. Providence’s is a prepaid card, which customers can use to buy as much or as little each week

as they like. Liz says that it is popular with her more-urban customers in the Rhode Island capital.

Since customers visit the farm regu-larly, the pickup area is designed to be open, bright and inviting. One wall is painted with chalkboard paint; the top half is used to list this week’s crops, while the lower part is left for custom-ers’ children to decorate. It’s very popular.

One of Liz’s most valuable assis-tants is her Wheaten terrier, Baxster. He lets her know when people arrive, and he herds the hens back to their en-

closure if they get out by heading off escapees and keeping them in one place until Liz can carry them back..

It was a pleasure to visit another farm in the full flush of summer. Thank you, Skip and Liz, for having us over!

If you know of a member who is doing interesting things with poultry, I would like to write a profile of him or her. Please email me at [email protected].

Baxster on the watch for errant hens


Farmers’ Market Tips By Robert Plamondon

I ’ve been selling at the Cor-vallis Saturday Farmers’

Market since 1996, and I’ve learned a number of techniques you might find useful.

How We Started We started out by selling eggs.

Oregon State University was sell-ing off its old Leghorn hens into an indifferent market, and dropped the price per hen to 25 cents. I went crazy and bought 28 hens, and suddenly I was in the free-range egg business.

Oregon has reasonably sane laws under which you can sell

Our space at the Corvallis Saturday Farmers’ Market. The cooler in the van holds eggs, while the one on the ground holds broilers. Note the table with a hole in the middle for umbrella, umbrella (with signs held on with clothespins), toy chicken, rugged laptop, van with storage capacity, general simplicity of the setup, and the cheerful atmosphere.

your own eggs directly to the consumer without a license, so there was no problem at all. We got in touch with the Farmers’ Market manager, paid our mem-bership, and we were in busi-ness.

We started out charging $2.00 a dozen, which was considered pretty high back then, but our eggs were the genuine article – free range on a grass pasture – and people came back for more once they’d tried them.

The following year, Karen de-cided that broilers were a good idea. Since we didn’t have a fa-

cility that could be licensed, we couldn’t sell our broilers at the market, but we could promote our broilers, hand out sign-up sheets, accept deposits, and all that. So we did. Oregon is sane about broilers, too – if you do the “We sell it live and butcher it as a free service” gimmick, no one cares, provided that the customer really, truly ordered the chickens while they were still alive. They’ll come down on you like a ton of bricks if you sell already-butchered meat to passers-by without a license. So we sold them at the Farmer’s Mar-ket and customers picked out their broilers on the farm.

Eventually, we got a processing facility and an Oregon Poultry and Rabbit Slaughter license, which allowed us to bring our broilers at the Farmers’ Market and sell them to anybody. This caused an imme-diate increase in sales and broad-ened our customer base. People who will not commit to buy a dozen broilers over the course of the season will happily buy one on impulse.

Before we got our broiler li-cense, the dollar value of our broilers was about the same as the dollar value of the eggs we sold at the Farmers’ Market. When we started bringing both to the mar-ket, the broilers shot into first place, outselling eggs two to one.

I like selling both products, be-cause it gives a wider customer base, and also people who like our eggs are eager to buy a broiler or a pig from us.

Starting with eggs is good be-cause:



moving traffic past your booth. ♦ Don’t let the sun get in your

eyes. Pick a spot that faces west (for a morning market) or north.

♦ Being within range of a free public wireless access point is good if you (or your kids) are into that sort of thing. We’re across the street from one.

♦ Be in pleasant surroundings: green, quiet, preferably with trees and benches.

♦ Don’t be the first thing people see. Customers come charging into the market and may not see the first three vendors they pass. Catch ‘em after they’ve slowed down a bit, but before they’re too broke or heavily burdened to buy from you. We’re near the turn-around point, where they’ve done half the market and turn around to look at the other half. That seems to work fine.

♦ Be close to the bathrooms, but not too close.

Farmers’ Market Vehicles I think it’s very important to

have your vehicle in your space with you, so you never have to unload completely. None of us are getting any younger. I also like the way we can load up in just a few minutes at the end of the market, when the vendors

who park outside are still creating a traffic jam. We load up and walk away to lunch. When we get back, the traffic jam is long gone.

When we started at the farmers’ market, we looked around for a suitable market vehicle. A couple of vendors were using Ford Tau-rus station wagons with good re-sults, so we bought one used. It lasted ten full market seasons and is still limping along, but it wasn’t really big enough once we got into full production. Its limit was four 120-quart coolers, and we some-times need more.

We recently bought a 1993 VW Euro Van MV, which, like all Euro Vans, is bigger on the inside than the outside. It isn’t any longer than the Taurus, but with the middle seats removed it can hold five giant coolers if we stack them one high (three on the floor, one on the back seat, and one in the very back), and eight if we stack them two high. We could probably get twelve coolers in there if we really worked at it. We are very pleased with this vehicle. The rear seat folds into a bed and there’s a swing-up table, too, and it gets 20 MPG.

Probably the most common

♦ Eggs require less licensing. ♦ Eggs require less processing

equipment. ♦ Eggs have a longer shelf life and

can be brought to several markets before the sell-by date; broilers have a shelf life of five days.

♦ Eggs are a year-round product, where pastured broilers are sea-sonal in most climates. (This means that a different outlet must be found for eggs during the off-season.)

♦ If you sell other things at the market, eggs are a good anchor product; people will come buy every week for eggs, and will look over your other, more sea-sonal produce while they’re at it. Broilers are pretty good at this, too, but fewer people buy a broiler every week.

Picking the Right Spot We have a lot of seniority at the

market and can pick just about any spot we like. So which spot to pick?

Things to look for in a market spot: ♦ Be next to the biggest, busiest,

cheerfulest vegetable vendor. This guarantees a lot of slow-

(Continued from page 5)

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market vehicles in our area are the Ford F150 pickup and the Dodge Caravan. I’ve noticed that the Caravan can hold a lot of stuff, but only by removing the seating for all but two people. With the middle seats gone, our Eurovan still seats five, which means that we don’t have to move seats in and out.

We have a pickup, but we live in Oregon and attend a market that extends into the rainy season in both spring and fall, so we prefer a covered vehicle.

Our vehicles are never new, are generally dusty, and eventually look battered, as farm vehicles do. We should wash the dust off more, but otherwise we fit right

in. I don’t think that shiny new vehicles help at a farmers’ mar-ket.

Vehicle Tips ♦ The vehicle should hold more

stuff than you can imagine bringing to the market. Ideally, it will also hold one more per-son than you plan on bringing.

♦ You can save yourself a lot of effort if your vehicle can re-main in your market space with you.

♦ Don’t guess – look up or meas-ure the length of the vehicle to see if it will fit. You could end up with a vehicle that’s too long for its intended purpose. We discovered that our new vehicle couldn’t be any longer than our Taurus wagon and still fit in our

space. Most vans were far too long for this.

♦ Check the load-carrying ability of your vehicle. I’ve lost wheels from overloading pickup trucks. Never again.

♦ Clean the junk out of the vehicle before each market. (I have trou-ble with this one.)

Canopies and Umbrellas I don’t like canopies. They’re

heavy and hard to set up. Some people, like Karen, for instance, have the knack, and canopies don’t give them any trouble. Not me.

I like umbrellas. I like the way they look and they don’t fight back. So Karen has her canopy for the Wednesday market and I have my umbrella for Saturday.

You need one or the other. It’s too fatiguing standing out in the sun and rain. Vehicles with a lift-back tailgate may provide some shelter to retreat into (both our Taurus wagon and our VW van have this feature), but it’s not enough. Anyway, you should be providing shelter for your custom-ers, too.

Both canopies and umbrellas need to be weighted down and also tied down if possible, or the wind will blow them around. I’ve seen canopies blow like tumble-weeds at a windy market – I’m surprised no one has been injured. I use a heavy cast-iron base for the umbrella and tie it down in to places. One rope goes to the broiler cooler, which is very heavy because of all that ice. The other goes to the vehicle.

Canopies provide a convenient place to attach signs. Do yourself a favor and clip the sharp corners of the signs so they don’t poke


The interior of our VW Eurovan, showing the three coolers of eggs in re-serve. Three more coolers are out front. All fit with room to spare.


♦ Canopies are heavy. Be careful not to strain your back.

Displaying Your Wares We used to sell everything from closed coolers,

which meant that the customers couldn’t see our ac-tual products. Our broiler sales took a big jump when we put a cooler full of broilers out front, with the lid open, and signs taped to the inside of the lid promoting our broilers, chicken livers, and chicken hearts (we don’t do gizzards). Seeing the broilers (and all that ice) really got people’s attention.

Make sure the broilers are practically buried in ice at all times. Keep them arranged neatly, spreading out the broilers more and more as the cooler be-comes emptier. This rearranging will chill your hands, so you might want to bring the waterproof gloves of your choice.

Some customers want you to pick out a nice broiler for them. Others want to rummage around and pick one out themself. I’m fine with both meth-ods, though I have to rearrange the cooler after the rummagers have been at it.

Signage Customers can be unobservant. This is our twelfth

year at the same market, and we’re always in the same spot. Every week, people “discover” us. They’ve been walking past us for years without no-ticing our existence.

Even when they notice us, they have no idea what anything is. You have to label everything.

They often won’t notice the signs, either, but they have a gradual cumulative effect that makes them

anyone in the eye. Umbrellas and canopies both look

ratty after a couple of years, if they last that long. You can get replace-ment parts for canopies if you break something.

Some models are better than oth-ers. If you ask around, the other ven-dors will tell you how their shelters have held up over the years.

Canopy and Umbrella Tips ♦ If you’re not familiar with setting up your canopy,

read the instructions and ask nearby vendors with similar units for advice. You can break them if you do it wrong.

♦ Use weights to secure your canopy or umbrella, and if possible tie it off to something heavy, like a tree or a car.

♦ Provide shade and shelter for your customers as well as yourself and your products.



Two of our signs, one proclaiming that our free-range eggs are the best-tasting eggs ever, and one proclaiming “Recycle Egg Cartons Here.” The message on signs should be very simple.


Ink won’t stick to a laminated price list, so I use a strip of “Magic” transparent tape, which is textured so it will hold ink or pencil. I use this mostly to cross out items when they’re sold out. At the end of the market, I can peel the tape off and throw it away, and I’ve got an unmarked price list again.

Photographs are a wonderful way of giving cus-tomers a feel for your farm. Pastured poultry is very photogenic, especially if the photos include happy chickens, green grass, blue sky, white fluffy clouds, and little kids in overalls. No matter what kind of husbandry or certification question people ask, call their attention to the photo.

Digital photos can be printed out on ink-jet printers and laminated just like signs. Regular photos should be enlarged to 5x7 or 8x10 and laminated.

Signage Tips ♦ Put your farm’s name on every sign. ♦ Keep the message as short as possible ♦ Use color and pictures (clip art is good) ♦ Laminated signs don’t run in the rain and will last a

long time ♦ All messages should be cheerful and upbeat. Don’t


essential. For example, we used to give away most of our chicken livers and chicken hearts. Last year, I made a sign that said, “Try Our Chicken Livers and Chicken Hearts.” Imperceptibly, we gained custom-ers, and now we run out of chicken livers before we run out of anything else.

All my signs are made on ordinary sheets of paper on an ink-jet printer, then laminated. Any ink-jet printer will do. I use a laminator because ink-jet out-put runs if it gets the slightest bit damp, and paper gets grubby at the market. If you laminate a sign, you can wipe it clean and use it again indefinitely. Desktop laminators have become very inexpensive. I use a Brother LX-900, which I’m happy with, but this model has been discontinued. There are many others.

Larger signs and banners are a good idea, but I stick with what’s easy for me to do at home.

With signs, you want them to be simple, unclut-tered, with just a few words and maybe an illustra-tion. Using a little color is good, too.

I also laminate our price list, which gives a few sentences of text for customers who like to study something before they ask a question.

You can write on magic tape but not laminator film. At the end of the market, peel off the tape, and you’re ready to use the price sheet again.


just say, “Sold Out.” Say “Sorry, Sold Out – See You Next Week!”

♦ Never, ever say anything bad about someone else on a sign.

♦ Handwritten signs are perfectly okay, especially if neat and color-ful

♦ Impromptu signs work great. A sign that says, “We Need Quar-ters” will have you swimming in quarters in no time.

♦ Photos of happy chickens are very important.

Coolers Some states allow you to bring

warm eggs to the market, but cus-tomers don’t like this. No one will let you bring warm broilers. So your future has coolers in it.

Our original coolers that we’d bought for camping didn’t work out. They weren’t small, but they were exactly the wrong dimen-sions; a 54-quart cooler could only hold 8 dozen eggs. When shop-ping for coolers, take a stack of egg cartons with you and verify that it can be filled up completely with cartons.

Broilers aren’t so picky about dimensions. A cooler will hold about half as many broilers as it does dozens of eggs, give or take.


We have some 120-quart Igloo coolers that hold 40 dozen eggs each (8 across and 5 high). These are our workhorse coolers. We also have 50-qt. Coleman coolers that hold 16 dozen eggs and are very nice, and a couple of Rubbermaid coolers. The Ig-loo coolers don’t have the qual-ity of the other two, but they all last for years and are very well insulated.

Cooler Tips ♦ Coolers go on sale from time to

time, so you can save money by planning ahead.

♦ Replacement parts (hinges, straps, latches, drains) are avail-able for Igloo and Coleman coolers. We couldn’t find Rub-bermaid parts.

♦ Store coolers indoors to prevent sun and frost damage, and to keep them cleaner.

♦ Stick signs on your coolers, or at least label them with fat-tipped markers so customers can guess what’s inside.

♦ The bigger the better, if you don’t have to carry them.

Ice for Broilers Broilers should be packed on

ice. Lots of ice. Use twice as much as you think you need. Customers and the local health inspector will freak out if you don’t use plenty of ice.

We sell broilers only at the farmers’ market now, but we used to sell off the farm. We’d heard of using 50° F well water to chill broilers, but when we did that, the broilers were still warm at the end of the day. I hate it when custom-ers shudder after touching a still-warm carcass, don’t you? Ice is your friend.

You’ll want ice for processing as well as at the market. On Brower’s website, (http://www.browerequip.com), they es-timate that you should use 1.5 to 1.75 pounds of ice per bird during chilling, and about 0.75 pounds of ice per bird in a cooler, or 2.25-2.5 pounds of ice per bird overall. But we use far more ice than this, probably because we chill the birds three times: after picking, after evisceration, and after bag-ging.

Invest in an ice machine when you can. While ice machines are expensive to buy and require fre-quent repairs (note: we have a 20-year-old machine, so our repair frequency may vary from yours), they are very convenient most of the time, and they make ice very cheaply – a dollar’s worth of elec-tricity (at 8 cents per kilowatt-hour) will make 180 pounds of ice. Don’t get a machine that makes blocks of ice. You want the greater surface area of ice cubes,


Manufacturer Size, qts Style Eggs, dz. Broilers, 4# Customer Service Website

Coleman 48 PolyLite 6, poor fit 8 800-835-3278 www.coleman.com

Coleman 50 Wide body

16 9

Coleman 100 poly 28 15

Rubbermaid 102 Marine 32 18 888-895-2110 www.rubbermaid.com

Igloo 120 poly 40 18 www.igloo-store.com

Some Cooler Egg and Broiler Capacities


fine dinner today. ♦ Find a cheap, convenient, plen-

tiful source of ice. Motel-style ice machines (which are also used in many restaurants and stores) are fine for this task.

♦ Bring more ice to the market in hot weather.

Keeping Eggs Cool A full cooler of eggs will stay

cold for a long time without ice or refrigeration, but a partly empty one doesn’t do so well. On the other hand, using ice in a cooler tends to make the egg car-tons wet. A surprising amount of water condenses on the outside of your ice container (or Blue Ice or whatever you use), and this always seems to get on the cartons. Wet cartons lack sales appeal.

I recently had a brainstorm on this subject: Salt water freezes at a lower temperature than pure

flaked ice, or shaved ice to quickly chill the water, and to pack the finished birds in. Until you get an ice machine, discover the low-cost leader in ice and buy from them. Ask around – this might not be a supermarket.

Any broilers we don’t sell at the market get frozen when we get home, and we sell them later. The carcasses are about 24 hours old at this point, and have been on ice continuously.

Broiler Ice Tips ♦ Ice is not optional – it’s an essen-

tial part of product quality and safety.

♦ If you use ice lavishly, your cus-tomers will trust you more.

♦ It’s best to have extra ice to give to customers if they ask.

♦ The sooner the broilers cool off, the sooner they’ll tenderize. If you use plenty of ice, you can be certain that the broilers you butchered yesterday will make a

water – a saturated salt solution freezes at 0° F (that’s where 0° F comes from). By filling plastic soda bottles with salt water ice, the temperature in the bottles won’t rise above 0° F until the ice has all melted. This means that condensation on the outside of the bottles was frost and ice, not wa-ter! By putting a pitcher of salt-water ice in my egg coolers, the sides of the pitcher wouldn’t drip on the egg cartons. Works like a charm!

In a 120-qt cooler with 40 dozen eggs, I wait until I’ve sold a whole column of eggs, and put in a 2-qt pitcher of salt-water ice. By the end of the market, this pitcher is still mostly frozen, and its sur-roundings are completely dry.

Usually I have a cooler of eggs that I’m working from, and as it empties I fill it from the other coolers I have with me. As soon as each cooler has room for an ice pitcher, I add one. That keeps eve-rything cool.

Egg Ice Tips ♦ Customers want cold eggs. Some

customers worry about eggs as if they were ice cream.

♦ Keep the ice from getting the cartons wet.

♦ Use full coolers when you can, and leave the ice out until you get to the market. Otherwise you end up with a mess.

♦ I have had bad luck with Blue Ice – the containers leak too easily. Plastic soda bottles are at least as good and much cheaper. Squeeze them a little before sealing so there’s room for expansion.

♦ Salt water ice is colder than regu-lar ice. A saturated salt solution (with as much or more salt than will dissolve in the water) will


There are broilers under the ice there, somewhere. We use lots of ice. Note the use of signs. (The rope on the left handle is tied to the umbrella to keep it from blowing away.)


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The Dollar Hen (1909)

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Genetics of the Fowl (1949)

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Feeding Poultry (1955)

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freeze at 0° F. With less salt, you get higher freezing points.

♦ If your freezer doesn’t make rock-hard salt-water ice, it’s not cold enough.

Ice for Frozen Broilers Salt-water ice also keeps frozen broilers as

hard as a rock all day long. Use plenty of salt-water ice; 20-oz. soda bottles or two-liter bot-tles are convenient sizes. The more the merrier.

Broiler Packaging We use polyethylene 2-mil gusseted bags

from Uline (www.uline.com) and close them with a twist tie. We make labels with a laser printer, using ordinary Avery address labels, and write the date, weight, and price with a ballpoint pen.

Some farmers use much fancier packaging, but the main thing is to get the date, weight, price, and the farm’s name on the labels.

When we sell the broilers, we put them in a “T-shirt bag” (the industry name for plastic grocery bags). A lot of our customers are into recycling and bring their own cloth shopping bags or woven baskets, but our packaging isn’t guaranteed waterproof and there’s no reason to



assume that the outside of our bags are sterile. Our customers don’t like raw meat juice staining their bags and baskets or getting all over their lettuce. We recom-mend that they carry the broilers outside their other containers to avoid this.

By the way, put the grocery bags out in the open and cheer-fully give them away to anyone who wants them, even if they don’t buy anything. If you’re the sort of person who becomes upset at investing three cents on good-will, you should have someone else running the booth for you.

Both of our cooling techniques; a soda bottle mostly full of salt-water ice, and a plastic 2-quart pitcher of salt-water ice. These keep the cooler at 45° F or below. The pitcher works better if it is raised up on a couple of empty egg cartons so it’s as high as the top row of eggs.


Egg Packaging You have two basic choices:

new cartons or used cartons. Actu-ally, some states don’t allow peo-ple to reuse cartons. If you live in one of these, I recommend that you move to Oregon. That’ll teach ‘em.

New cartons cost us about a quarter these days. Like every-thing else, they used to be cheaper, but Pactiv shut their Northern California plant, and now we’re paying for shipping from Mexico. So every time we reuse a carton, that saves us 25 cents right there.

Consumers are funny. They won’t touch a shopworn carton if they’re buying in a store, but they’re delighted to accept some battered old wreck if you’re sell-ing it face-to-face at a farmers’ market. So we ended up with a mixed strategy: store sales get new cartons; farmers’ market

sales, used cartons – and not just our used cartons. We’ll use any-body’s cartons, with our stickers over the top.

When selling at the market, always open the carton and show the customer the eggs before handing them over. Sometimes you’ll see a cracked egg or some

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other problem. This gives you a chance to fix it now. Then put a rubber band around the carton to make sure it stays closed. People’s market baskets often get jumbled. In addition, showing them the eggs and putting on the rubber band is a bit of street theater that demostrates that you are paying attention, and that you care. These things matter.

Used cartons often don’t want to stay closed, so you really need to use rubber bands on used car-tons. But you should use them on new cartons, too.

Many of my customers take a lot of pleasure in returning cartons to us for reuse. They’re really into recycling in a way I’m not. When I recycle stuff, it’s a chore. When they do it, it’s fun. I wish I got the same kick out of it that they do!

If you put up a sign saying, “Recycle Your Egg Cartons Here,” you’ll get an ever-increasing supply of free cartons.

Cartons should have the name of your farm, contact information, the sell-by date (30 days after


Top: Laser printer labels turn other people’s egg cartons into ours. Bottom: A new carton from Pactiv, marked with our two rubber stamps.


packing is traditional), and the grade, if you’re selling graded eggs. On our new cartons, we do this with two different rub-ber stamps, one for the farm and one for the grade. On used cartons, we do this with two laser-printer address labels with similar information. We don’t try to efface all the infor-mation that was there; we just


Farmers’ Market Tips put our stickers on top of it. (Your state may have different requirements for used cartons.) When adding the sell-by date, we put a line through the previ-ous one.

Sometimes we use a carton ten times. I especially like to reuse other people’s Styrofoam car-tons, which are hard to recycle but hold up very well under re-peated use. We were recently given one that had been reused

by one diligent customer seven times from 1990 to 1994!

When buying new cartons, avoid the totally blank ones. The ones with a bit of color printing, even if it’s generic, are much more appealing.

Egg Carton Tips ♦ Cartons are expensive. Shipping

can be as expensive as the car-tons.

♦ Styrofoam cartons are better and cheaper than paper cartons, but customers don’t like them. Don’t use them unless you can recycle them, and maybe not even then.

♦ Recycled cartons are fine for face-to-face selling, but will kill your store sales. Your state may even require new cartons.

♦ Don’t sell eggs loose (with cus-tomers picking eggs out of flats). It’s too easy to damage and drop eggs, and it takes a long time for them to fill a carton, causing a long line during busy periods.

♦ Discard used cartons that are damaged or dirty.

♦ Use rubber bands on cartons to keep them closed.

♦ Some customers save rubber bands for you if you let them know you want them.

Electricity and Computers

We bring a computer to the market because we find it easier to keep track of advance orders via QuickBooks than through card files and the like. Besides, we like computers.

We use a Panasonic ToughBook that we bought on eBay. This model is quite old and is thus in-expensive to buy used, but it will run Windows XP, has a daylight-readable screen, and can survive being rained on or dropped.

Other vendors bring electronic All these empty cartons were given to us during the market.


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scales, printing calculators, and other devices to the market.

I find that the most convenient way of provid-ing power for these gadgets is to use one of the fancier jump-starter devices – one with a built-in inverter and AC outlets. I use a Xantrex Power-Pack 600 HD and am very happy with it. It also has a light and a radio, but I’ve never used these. Its internal battery will power my laptop for what seems like forever. It can be recharged from a wall outlet after you get home, or from the ciga-rette lighter outlet in your car. I use the latter op-tion, and never bring the unit into the house.

You can also just use the car’s battery directly to power an inverter or a 12V power supply for your devices, but I don’t like doing this. I’m al-ways a little worried that it’ll make the car hard to start.

Electronics Tips ♦ Electronic devices for the market need to be rug-

ged. They will get knocked around and rained on. ♦ Most laptops have screens that can’t be read in

full daylight; make sure yours does.

With a laptop and wireless access, you can also send email messages to your customers or home!

♦ If you bring electronics to amuse the kids, make sure you have enough headphones. Your customers don’t want to hear their video games or DVDs.

Presentation One of the biggest reasons our customers come to the farmers’ market is because they like the vendors, and they like the interaction when buying from us. It’s a good idea to keep in mind that you’re “on stage” at the market. Don’t hide from your customers, whether by staying deep in your booth or by sitting down. You are proud of your product and you can show it by the way you act.

Presentation Tips ♦ Avoid sitting down. You want your eyes on a level

with your customers. ♦ Make eye contact. No sunglasses if at all possible! ♦ Have some interesting facts handy. Local poultry

trivia, something you saw the flock doing, historical facts – all of these are great little things to interest or amuse your customers.

♦ Move out from the booth from time to time. If things are slow, take a look at other vendors’ booths for ideas to make yours more attractive.



♦ Having props for your booth. We have a stuffed toy chicken that is our mascot. Little kids love a chance to “pet the chicken.”

Costume We’re in the Far West, so farm-

ers tend to dress like ranchers. If cowboy boots and Stetsons are your thing, then no problem, but it rates to dress like a farmer. You can go for the “overalls and straw hat” look, which Karen and I fa-vor, or the hippie look, or the Amish look, or whatever – but look in your wardrobe and pick something that makes you look like a farmer. It helps.

Costume Tips ♦ Don’t wear stuff that makes you

uncomfortable. I like overalls and straw hats. If you don’t, don’t wear them.

♦ If you look too fancy, you’ll look fake. Actual work clothes (clean and in good repair) are best.


♦ I personally don’t think that aprons with your farm name on them are the right look unless your goal is to look like a grocer or a baker.

♦ No matter what, wear shoes that will allow you to spend the whole day standing up.

Political Correctness When I started, I felt I was supposed to toe the

alternative agriculture line and not drink diet colas openly, because alternative farmers drank … I dunno, something else, something more home-made, like carrot juice, or maybe moonshine.

I quickly decided that this was ridiculous. I didn’t like feeling like a hypocrite, and I wasn’t going to stop drinking diet colas, either. I decided to stop worrying and just be myself. People go to the mar-ket for a dose of genuineness. I decided to give it to them. My life has been a lot simpler since I made this decision.

Political Correctness Tips ♦ Don’t do or say things that strikes you as being false

or not “you.” ♦ You’re a farmer. No one will be surprised if you’re

eccentric. So even if you ignore the expectations of others, you’ll be living up to them by being a char-acter. You can’t lose.

Email: [email protected] Phone: 800-553-1791

CALL FOR APPPA PRICING

A typical scene at the Corvallis Wednesday market, showing Karen in farmer costume.


Educating Customers I was a little reluctant to use the

phrase, “Educating your custom-ers,” since, when some people use it, they mean, “Lecturing your customers,” which is bad. What I mean is, “Show your customers how to get better results.” Give them practical nuts-and-bolts stuff that they can use today if they feel like it.

For example, I make a point of recommending that they toss a cooler into their car before going to the market. That way, their pro-duce will be in better shape when they get home, and they don’t have to rush right home the instant they’ve made their purchases. It’s a quality of life thing. You can decide to have lunch or take in a matinee or go pick berries or something, without guilt. All you have to do is buy a bag of ice, and you’re set for the rest of the day.

I think this is important because the Saturday farmer’s market is (or ought to be) part of a series of enjoyable activities on your day off, not just a focused burst of shopping. Anything that gives the

customer more latitude for doing interesting things makes the market part of a better package, and they’ll do it more.

This seems sort of obvious, but a lot of people allow them-selves to become slaves to their purchases. On the other hand, as vendors, we constantly deal with the cooler/ice issue. It has be-come second nature. I don’t rush home at the end of the market. Why bother? I’ve got ice keep-ing everything just as cold as it would be at home. But a lot of customers haven’t been through this exercise. To them, it’s some-thing new.

I also recommend that they look into buying a freezer, so they can enjoy the things avail-able at the Market all year. Eve-ryone who lives in the country seems to have at least one. Deep freezes are something we take for granted. But most people have lived in town all their lives, and many have never lived in a house with a deep freeze. They’ve never thought about it.

Many customers have weak

cooking skills, just as I do. They don’t know many recipes or don’t know (for example) that you can defrost a broiler in a sink full of cold water in a way that won’t cook it the way the microwave tends to, but doesn’t take days like defrosting it in the refrigerator. So it’s hard to come up with chicken-preparation techniques that won’t be new to somebody.

Similarly, most customers have little or no experience with stew-ing hens, roasters, roosters, etc. They’ll be more successful with a little advice. The more experi-enced cooks will enjoy sharing their favorite techniques with you. Sometimes they press recipes on us. You can’t lose.

I also encourage customers to do their own taste testing. Flavor is something that everyone can judge for themselves. In my opin-ion, the good stuff always tastes better than the crummy stuff. You don’t need to send stuff out to the lab or read articles in the health-food press to find out what’s good. If you try a bunch of differ-


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ent broilers or eggs, the ones that taste best will be the ones that have been raised, proc-essed, and stored best. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, yet few people do side-by-side tests, even though they’re so easy. I encourage them to try it, both on our stuff and in general. It’s not as if pastured products are likely to lose in a taste test!

Of course, education flows both ways. I’m learning stuff from customers all the time. Once you get to know your customers, you learn areas where they’re more expert than you, and it’s often worthwhile to ask their advice.


Education Tips ♦ Focus on things that the cus-

tomer will find useful. ♦ Telling your customer why

you are great isn’t educa-tion, it’s salesmanship. Salesmanship is fine, just don’t confuse yourself about what you’re doing.

♦ Try to stop talking before their eyes glaze over. (I have a lot of trouble with this one.)

♦ If customers sometimes come back and proudly tell you that your idea worked, you’ll feel great, and you’ll know you’re doing it right.

♦ Listen to your customers; your own education is im-portant, too.

Conclusion Everyone does things dif-

ferently, including me. If you

Farmers’ Market Tips come back in a few years, my techniques and advice will have changed. (For example, this is my twelfth year at the market and I just thought of the salt-water ice trick last month.) So try the ideas that sound good to you and shelve the rest for now. And write in to Grit if you have ideas you’d like to share.

See you at the market! Robert Plamondon keeps several hundred free-range hens using small colony houses based on The Dollar Hen, by Milo Hastings and Poultry Breeding and Management, by James Dryden. His Norton Creek Press prints and reprints books useful to poultrykeepers.


ALABAMA Jay Shepherd Shepherd Family Farms Brierfield

205-665-1144 [email protected] CALIFORNIA Nigel Walker Eatwell Farm Dixon

530-852-0784 [email protected] HAWAII Shane & Christie Fox Fox Forest Farm Papaaloa

808-938-5103 [email protected] ILLINOIS Paul St. John Montgomery

[email protected] David Guthrie Oakdale 618-329-5597

[email protected] MICHIGAN Terry Hill Pleasant Hill Farm Ceresco 269-979-8101

[email protected] Doug & Lee Kirkpatrick Briar Hill Farm Herron

989-727-2225 www.briarhill.info John Adams Galien [email protected] MISSISSIPPI Edie Varnado Camp Topisaw Summit

601-684-8743 [email protected] MONTANA Leslie Kline Good Egg Farm Ronan 406-644-3022

[email protected]

Contact a Member Update OREGON Robin Cunningham Upper Valley Farms Parkdale

541-490-0507 [email protected] SOUTH CAROLINA David and Pattie White Oaklyn Plantation Free

Range Chicken Darlington 843-395-0793 www.freerangechicken.com

VIRGINIA Mark Reynolds Reynolds Grassfed Natural Schuyler

434-831-2688 [email protected] WASHINGTON Karlen Gunderson Twisp [email protected] WISCONSIN Nicholas Miller Miller Farms Oconomowoc

262-349-1861 [email protected] Randy & Lynn Anderson Anderson Farm Arkansaw

715-285-5226 [email protected] Mickey and Cindy Kronberg Kronberg's Pasture

Raised Poultry Larsen 920-836-2795 If you would like to be added to the Producer list, contact me at [email protected].

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I n many areas of the country finding a slaughterhouse or processor who will work

with 50 or 100 birds at a time is a challenge. Taking the live birds to the processor requires transport crates, stresses them and is a messy business, especially if you don’t have a truck. Bringing the dressed birds home requires cool-ers or other refrigerated space. Transporting the birds to the proc-essor takes a healthy chunk of time (either waiting for the birds to be done or making two trips) out of an already busy farming day.

If you are planning to sell dressed birds, finding a processor with the requisite certifications can be even more difficult. You may also be concerned that birds you have grown and handled a specific way may not be treated well by the processor’s crew, and you have little control over the care the final product is prepared

SCALDER 42 gallon rotary, gas fired with auto control temp timer. 60,000 BTU, all stainless steel.

POULTRY MAN LLC Eli M. Reiff 570-966-0769

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hand dunk birds.

Please call for prices on all equipment.

Mobile Processing Unit for Small Producers By Jean Nick

— if you’re selling them, attrac-tive presentation is a concern.

After weighing all the pros and cons, many pastured poultry producers decide to process their own birds on the farm — and we rapidly came to that conclusion after our part-time processor blew us off three weeks in a row leaving us with a pasture full of broilers that dressed out at 8 and 9 pounds when he finally got to them — not what most of our customers were bargaining for. In Pennsylvania we can retail a modest number of birds we raise and process ourselves on farm, so on-farm processing is a viable business proposition for us.

There is nothing particularly difficult about killing and clean-ing a chicken. Getting someone to let you learn with them is great, but you can also find good instructions in books or online. If you are doing a few birds for your own table once in a while

you can get by with a large pot of water for scalding and plucking by hand, but if you are filling your freezer or planning to sell some birds, look into equipment to make the job go faster.

Our first season we cobbled to-gether a couple of killing cones, a simple hold-the-bird-by-the-ankles-and-dip scalder, a set of spinning rubber fingers against which one holds the bird against at different angles to remove the feathers, and a reclaimed section of stainless countertop for less than $1,000.

After months of practice the two of us could do about 25 broil-ers in 3 hours. (Dunking 25-pound turkeys and manhandling them against the plucker was a real workout; doing 24 of them for Thanksgiving was not something we wanted to repeat.)

All in all, it was a workable sys-tem, but after a year of doing that once a week, and a growing cus-


tomer list demanding more birds, we were ready for something a bit easier to use.

A number of manufacturers make good equipment suitable for processing 25 to 100 birds an hour, but even the most basic line is a substantial investment for a farm that is going to use it just a few hours a week.

If you do not have someone in your area who is interested in get-ting into the processing business it may make sense to find some like-minded folks and put together a set you can all use. And, rather than place it at one fixed location, why not mount it permanently on a street-legal trailer so that each of you can take it to your birds?

We had seen a mobile process-ing unit like this in New York State at a Pastured Poultry confer-ence, and had been thinking about

it ever since. We were talking to our AP-

PPA friend Eli Reiff who has had a custom processing shop for many years (unfortunately for us, he is just too far from us to make taking our birds to him practical) and who has designed his own line of professional processing equipment he mar-kets under the name Poultry Man.

We drove out to check out Eli’s system last winter (wow!) and were talking to him about our idea of putting our process-ing line on a trailer. He was very interested and said he’d been thinking about doing something like that too. A few weeks later he called us and said he was put-ting one together for renting out. Would we be interested in keep-ing it our place and handling bookings and such for customers

in our area? That decision took about...errr...10 seconds!

A few weeks later we brought home the new Poultry Man mobile processing unit (MPU). It is de-signed to handle about 50 pounds of poultry at a time (it easily han-dles six 3- to 6-pound broilers at a time), and is indeed a thing of beauty with its gleaming stainless equipment.

The 6 by -12 foot, road legal trailer has a rubber, non-slip floor which cleans up fast and two 30 pound propane tanks mounted on the hitch. Arranged around the edges are a Poultry Man 42 gallon rotary scalder with automatic tem-perature control and timer, a Poul-try Man 27” drum picker with overhead shower, a two-person stainless eviscerating table with offal hole, and a stainless pre-chilling tank. A portable 6-cone


The Poultry Man Mobile Processing Unit in action. From left: killing station, two 30-pound propane bot-tles, rotary scalder, tub picker with spray nozzle, eviscerating table, one stainless chill tank, and one food-grade plastic chill tank with lid. Jean and Tom are eviscerating chickens.


lazy-Susan style stainless kill cabinet with blood collection tray and drain rides in the cen-ter of the trailer and lifts off for use. There is no roof or sides, so we put up our 10 X 10 pop-up market canopy over it (up on 4 cement blocks to raise it the needed extra foot) for shade or rain protection. We run two 110V extension cords for elec-tricity to run the scalder motor and the picker motor and two hoses (one cold, one hot) for running water. A propane burner heats the water in the scalder.

One person runs the killing station on the ground putting six birds head down in the cones and carefully cutting just the jugular on one side of each’s neck. Once they have bled out that person transfers the birds to the wire tray in the scalder.

Another person standing in the center of the trailer starts the scalder cycle. The tray turn slowly like a giant rotisserie, gently plunging the birds back and down through the water, forward and up and out, then


back in, repeating until the timer stops the tray. The op-erator then puts the birds into the picker and flips that on for a few seconds. Voila: naked birds.

The birds are put onto the eviscerating table for the gut-ting crew, who can, in turn, drop the finished birds into the chill tank.

THE MPU IN ACTION 1. The expanded-metal tray in

the rotary scalder ensures the birds are uniformly scalded.

2. Birds tumbling in the picker rub their feathers off against the rubber fingers on spinning base and sides.

3. Ready for evisceration!

1

2

3


Alabama 12 Alaska 1 Arizona 5 Arkansas 9 California 25 Colorado 8 Connecticut 4 Florida 10 Georgia 7

Idaho 6 Illinois 26 Indiana 20 Iowa 11 Kansas 9 Kentucky 13 Louisiana 7 Maine 7 Maryland 13 Massachusetts 11 Michigan 11 Minnesota 13

Missouri 18 Montana 3 Nebraska 3 Nevada 2 New Jersey 4 New Mexico 1 New York 45 North Carolina 13 North Dakota 2 Ohio 26 Oklahoma 5 Oregon 15 Pennsylvania 54 Rhode Island 1 South Carolina 3 South Dakota 4 Tennessee 7 Texas 32

Vermont 5 Virginia 18 Washington 15 West Virginia 6 Wisconsin 38 Puerto Rico 1 Bermuda 1 Canada 5

APPPA Membership

Mississippi 4

Hawaii 1

Setup and cleanup take approxi-mately one hour each.

For us, a MPU is the perfect solution. We don’t have to transport our birds more than a few hundred yards, we can finish the birds as pretty as we like them, put the finished product directly into our delivery coolers, and we can do it when it suits our schedule.

The Poultry Man MPU is available to rent by the day for producers in eastern PA and western New Jersey. The tow-ing vehicle needs a 2” ball and an outlet for a flat 4-prong wiring harness for the signal lights. Renters provide their own crew; training can be arranged.

If you aren’t within a few hours drive of eastern Pennsylvania there might be a MPU in your area you can hook up with, or perhaps you can get together with other producers in your area and build one to share.

For more information about renting the Poultry Man MPU contact Tom Colbaugh at [email protected] or 610-306-2796.

POULTRYMAN MPU For more information about purchasing Poultry Man equipment you can contact Eli M. Reiff directly at Poultry Man, RR #2, Box 484, Mifflinburg, PA 17844 570-966-0769, or check out the equip-ment online at: http://www.cornerstone-farm.com/poultryman.htm. Jim McLaughlin at Cornerstone Farm Ven-tures is a distributor of Eli’s equipment who can accept credit cards (Poultry Man itself does not accept credit card orders).

Tom Colbaugh and Jean Nick raise

pastured poultry on Happy Farm in Kint-nersville, PA. They have laying hens, broilers, muscovy and laying ducks, tur-keys, and Guineas. Happy Farm supplies half a dozen restaurant accounts, sells product from the farm, and attends two Farmers’ Markets in season. Tom and Jean recently hosted a PASA Field Day to demonstrate the use of the Poultry Man MPU. Jean is also a board member of APPPA.


Upcoming Events July-November July 26 — Fleetwood, PA

PASA Field Day at Green Haven Farm http://www.pasafarming.org/programs/2007-pastured-poultry.html

APPPA Vice-President Brian Moyer rehabilitated his 27-acre farm by using pastured poultry and other graz-ing species to improve the land. Tour his farm and dis-cuss marketing, budgets, and building pastures. $15 for PASA members, $25 non-members.

July 31 — Macon, GA

Business Planning for Small Producers 404-633-4534; [email protected] http://www.georgiaorganic.org/events/event.php?id=326 Marion Simon and Edwin Chavous present this course to show small diversified farmers techniques of business planning — from keeping track of where the money goes to assessing their farms’ strengths and weaknesses.

August 10-12 — Amherst, MA

33rd Annual NOFA Summer Conference 978-355-32853 http://www.nofamass.org/conferences/s2007/index.php

Major summer organic conference for the NE US. Workshops on plants, animals, living on the land and philosophy.

September 8 — Corvallis, OR

Small Scale Pastured Poultry Workshop 541-766-3556; [email protected] http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/PasturedPoultryBenton07.pdf

Workshop runs from 9-2:30 at Guerber Hall, Benton County Fairgrounds and is followed by an optional tour of Norton Creek Farm. $25 for class materials and lunch.

Coming this fall

November 1-3 — Columbia, MO

Small Farm Trade Show and Conference 800-633-2535 http://www.smallfarmtoday.com/tradeshow/default.asp

This is a big show, with over 4000 attendees last year. APPPA member Matt Johns will be presenting, with Kelly Klober, “Poultry 101 for the Small Farm.” There will also be a poultry exhibition. A stock dog clinic will be held October 31, before the show.

November 1-4 — Albequerque, NM

Healing the Land; Holistic Management International 2007 Conference (505) 842-5252 http://www.holisticmanagement.org/new_site_05/Info/IR7_calendar.html

Joel Salatin, Allan Savory, Thom Hartmann and Temple Grandin will be speakers at this conference.

November 2-4 — Pittsburg, NC

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy 30th Annual Conference (919) 542-5704, [email protected] http://www.albc-usa.org/tradbreeds-conf.html

Programs include workshops on husbandry, management and breed selection.


Breakfast Burritos Jean Nick, Happy Farm In a small bowl, beat 2 pastured eggs per person until they are well mixed, and set aside. Chop 1/2 cup of assorted veggies into bite-sized pieces (summer squash, red peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach -- any vegies will do) for each person. Pre-cooked ham, bacon or sausage are tasty, too. Saute the veggies in a little olive oil in a well-seasoned cast iron frying pan until just softening, and turn the fire down to medium-low. Push veggies to one side, add a bit more oil if needed, and pour in the eggs. Pull the veggies back over the egg mix-ture and stir and turn the eggs gently until they are almost as set as you like them, and remove the pan from the fire (they will keep cooking for a wee bit). Toast a whole-grain tortilla (10 inch size if you can find them) over an open flame to soften it up on the in-side and crisp it up on the outside. (Turn a burner on high and put the tortilla right on the burner, using tongs to turn and flip the tortilla to a new section every few seconds until the tortilla is hot and flexible). Put the heated tortilla on a plate and pile the egg and veggie mixture in a windrow along the centerline of the tortilla from one edge to about 2/3rds of the way across.

Sprinkle with shredded cheese and seasonings if desired (two good flavor combos are cheddar cheese plus salsa, and goat cheese crumbles seasoned with Italian herbs). Fold the last third of the tortilla back at a right angle over some of the filling (this will create a pocket to keep things from dripping out the bottom of your

burrito).

Then fold one parallel side over the filling, snug it around the filling and roll it over the rest of the unfolded tortilla.

This is a great on-the-go breakfast!

Cool Chicken Salad KS Mitchells 2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast 1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed 1 ½ cups diced tomato 1 cup whole kernel corn ½ cup diced red onions ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro Combine in a large bowl and mix well Dressing: 2 tablespoons lime juice 1 tablespoon olive oil ½ teaspoon ground cumin ½ teaspoon sugar ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon black pepper In a small bowl, whisk together dress-ing ingredients. Pour over bean mix-ture and stir until dressing is evenly distributed. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Makes 6 servings

Devilled Eggs Karen Black, Norton Creek Farm 12 hard-cooked eggs 1 tablespoon mustard 1 tablespoon mayonnaise 1 tablespoon pickle relish Paprika to garnish The best way I’ve found to hard-cook eggs is to pierce the big end with a pin, cover with cool water, bring to a boil, then remove from heat and let sit 15 minutes. Drain the water and refill with cool water until eggs are cool to the touch. Slice eggs lengthwise and separate the yolks into a mixing bowl. Add mus-tard, mayo and relish, mixing well until light and fluffy. Spoon mixture into egg whites and garnish with pa-prika. This is one potluck dish that always goes home empty.

Chicken Fat Makes Great Fries Beth Spaugh, Rehoboth Homestead If you buy free range chicken that has been fed natural feeds without addi-tives, you may want to collect the fat from the cavity and skins, and render it into chicken fat. It adds wonderful flavor to fried eggs, potatoes, and chicken. It can even be used for pastry. To render the chicken fat, gently heat it until the solid fat liquefies. Pour the clear fat off, and chill. If there are solid particles in it, pour the fat into a pan with about an inch of water in the bot-tom. The solids will fall to the bottom, and after the pan is chilled, the fat can be lifted off the top. This procedure provides softer fat than otherwise be-cause some water remains. Chicken fat needs to be refrigerated or frozen for storage. Yogurt containers are a good size for storage and use.

Thanks to everyone on the APPPAplus list who contributed recipes. If you have a favorite to share, email it to [email protected].

Recipes


The Poultry Archaeologist Digs Into Deep Litter by Robert Plamondon

Built-up litter is what the term im-plies. At the beginning fresh litter mate-rial is added from time to time as needed, but none is removed until it becomes 8 to 12 inches deep. Once the litter is built-up, after the first year some of the material will need to be removed occasionally to keep it within bounds.

Control of Coccidiosis It has long been recognized that

chicks exposed to small dosages of coc-cidia at an early age developed a resis-tance which gave protection against heavier dosages to which they are often exposed from 4 to 12 weeks of age. Built-up litter has thus proved the most practical and effective means by which this resistance can be established.

A second reason why built-up litter could have been expected to limit coc-cidiosis is the fact that nearly all, if not all, living organisms including bacteria, protozoa, etc., have their parasites. Old built-up litter would seem to offer a favorable medium and conditions for the functioning of the parasites and enemies of coccidia and perhaps other diseases, too.

The third reason is that a 10 percent solution of ammonia spray is found effective for killing coccidia. Being un-able to withstand such spray, they may

M any poultry techniques that were once well-understood became

shrouded in mystery when the poultry business shifted to factory farming. One of these is the “deep litter” technique. People still use this, or think they do, but the descriptions floating around these days are more folklore than fact.

Deep litter is weird stuff. It’s different from a big heap of shaving or a compost pile with chickens living on the top of it. It’s worth looking at in some detail. Got your spading fork ready?

I’ve found some good info from the first people to research and promote deep litter, Kennard and Chamberlin at the Ohio Experiment Station. The following is an article of theirs from the Golden Age of deep litter, published in 1949.

Built-Up Floor Litter Sanitation and Nutrition

Sanitation in brooder houses has been largely restricted to the everlasting use of the scoop shovel, fork, broom, and spray pump. What’s new is the discovery of how to let nature’s sanitary processes do a bet-ter job using built-up litter.

What happens to the compost heap is familiar to all. Regardless of how obnox-ious its contents, nature’s sanitary proc-esses soon convert it into harmless resid-ual material which is comparatively sani-tary. Likewise, many of the same chemical and biological activities take place in built-up litter to make it more sanitary than fresh litter with fresh droppings.

When built-up litter is erroneously referred to as filthy or dirty material, it is because of either prejudice or lack of un-derstanding. Because fresh litter smeared with unabsorbed fresh droppings is ob-noxious, it is natural to think of it becom-ing more and more so the older it be-comes. But old built-up litter is drier, more absorbent, and less obnoxious than fresh litter after a few days’ use.

Call It Built-Up Litter Built-up litter is sometimes called deep

or dry litter These terms are misleading. Deep or dry litter may be far different and without the beneficial properties of built-up litter.

likewise be unable to withstand the con-stant ammoniacal atmosphere in built-up litter.

Either of the probably reasons cited offer a plausible explanation for the sur-prising results secured during the past three years by the Ohio Station and simi-lar unrecorded results experienced by poultrymen everywhere.

The first experimental evidence with reference to the user of built-up litter as a sanitary procedure was secured by the Ohio Station in 1946 when it was first used in the brooder house. During the three years previous when the floor litter was removed and renewed at frequent intervals, the average mortality of 10 broods, or a total of 18,000 chicks, was 19 percent. During the succeeding three years with the use of built-up litter, the average mortality of 11 broods, or a total of 10,000 chicks, was 7 percent. Seldom did a brood escape an attack of coccidiosis before the use of built-up litter. Afterward there was no noticeable trouble from coc-cidiosis in 11 consecutive broods started and raised on the same old built-up floor litter. Old built-up litter is floor litter which has been used by two or more pre-vious broods of chicks. Nutritional Benefit Of Built-Up Litter

As soon as the sanitary effects of old


which included about 3,000 chicks, follow:

There was little difference in the rate of mortality of the chicks that received the complete ration regardless of the floor litter procedures used in the three experiments. There was, however, a better rate of growth of the chicks that received the complete ration on the old built-up litter.

It was the incomplete, all-plant diet where a critical dietary deficiency existed that the rule of old built-up litter for growth and livability was made unmis-takable. The rate of growth and mortal-ity (largely due to coccidiosis) corre-sponded directly with the age of the floor litter.

Thus, the sanitary and nutritional phases of old built-up floor litter, where na-ture’s chemical, biologi-cal, and sanitary proc-esses can take place under favorable condi-tions, continue to yield surprising results as continued experimental evidence becomes avail-able. Moreover, the practical results re-ported by poultry rais-ers from all parts of the country are in keeping with the experimental evidence.

Built-Up Floor Litter to Date

Until recently, the common practice was to remove and renew the floor litter in brooder and layer houses every week or two. Now, by means of built-up litter practices

built-up litter became evident, two experi-ments were set up to explore the nutri-tional possibilities in the growth of chick-ens on old built-up litter. The basal all-plant diet used in the first two experiment was simple and extremely deficient for the growth of chickens.

Experiment 1 was started July 27, 1947, with the growth of Leghorn-R. I. Red cross-mated pullets after the first 10 weeks to the end of 25 weeks. Previous to the beginning of the experiment, pullets received a complete ration (which in-cluded 10 percent meat scrap and 5 per-cent dried whey) on the old built-up litter. The pullets were equally allotted on the basis of their weight into two groups each of 150 pullets at the beginning of the ex-periment. On group was changed to the incomplete ration, while the other group was continued on the complete ration. At the end of the experiment after 15 weeks the average weight of the birds was 3.97 vs. 3.95 pounds, respectively. Mortality was 8 vs. 9 percent, respectively. Despite the severity of the incomplete ration, that group of pullets did as well as those that received the complete ration. Obviously, the old built-up litter adequately supple-mented the incomplete ration.

Experiment 2 was started August 12, 1947, with eight groups each of 200 Leg-horn-R. I. Red cross-mated day-old chicks, At the end of 16 weeks the average weight of the chickens that received the incom-plete ration was 3.42 pounds vs. 3.81 pounds of the chickens that received the complete ration. The percentage mortality was 6 and 5 percent, respectively. It was remarkable that the day-old chicks could live and grow as they did on the severely incomplete ration they received. As in the first experiment, it was the old built-up litter that made this possible.

Experiments 3, 4, and 5 were con-ducted on Leghorn-R. I. Red cross-mated, day-old chicks which received the com-plete and incomplete rations on old built-up litter, new built-up litter (started fresh with each brood), and fresh litter removed and renewed each 2 weeks. The incom-plete ration was practically the same as used in the first two experiments except for the inclusion of 5 percent dehydrated alfalfa meal (17 percent protein) in these experiments. The averaged results at the end of 12 weeks of the the experiments,

and the use of hydrated lime, the floor litter may be used in the brooder house for 8 to 16 weeks or longer without re-moval. [Note: later, the authors recom-mended never removing the old litter.] In the laying house it need be removed only once a year, or it may be used for longer periods. The usual procedure for built-up floor litter is to start with about 4 inches of fine litter material with additions of 1 to 2 inches later as needed without re-moval of the old. A depth of 6 to 12 inches is maintained by partial removals from time to time.

Frequent removal and renewal of the floor litter from brooder houses was to avoid dampness and thus supposed to aid in the prevention of coccidiosis. The pri-


Ration Floor Litter Weight Per Bird

Percent Mor-tality

Complete Old built-up 2.45 lbs. 5 Fresh 2.30 lbs. 7

Incomplete Old built-up 2.34 lbs. 7 New built-up 1.88 lbs. 18 Fresh 1.64 lbs. 23

Figure 1: Built-up Litter Compensates for Incomplete Diet


mary purpose for frequent removal and renewal of the floor litter from laying houses was also to prevent dampness. Later, this object was accomplished better by insulation of the houses and by means of built-up litter which protected the floor against the cold and the dampness that followed from conden-sation.

After built-up floor litter in laying houses became an ac-cepted practice, came the use of hydrated lime with its addi-tional advantages. Consequently, the use of built-up floor litter and its treatment with hydrated lime has now become the stan-dard practice of many poultrymen throughout the country.

Advantages First of all, there is the saving of labor and litter material and

the better insulation of the floor during cold weather, which aids in keeping the litter drier and in better condition. The condition of the litter is further improved by the use of hy-drated lime which makes the litter more friable, more absor-bent, and less inclined to paste or cake over the surface.

Recently, it has been extensively observed by the Ohio Agri-cultural Experiment Station at Wooster that the use of built-up floor litter in brooder houses may serve as a means for the pre-vention or control of coccidiosis, when other conditions are favorable. Seven successive broods, each of around 2,000 chicks, have escaped noticeable trouble from coccidiosis as evidenced by the low rate of mortality (2.9 percent) after the first 4 weeks. Before the use of built-up litter, a majority of the broods failed to escape an attack. In some instances the same floor litter was used for six successive broods of chicks.

Chicks or layers on built-up floor litter were found to be less subject to cannibalism.

Last of all has been the Station’s discovery of the nutritional aspects of built-up floor litter by two experiments with the growth of chickens indoors and four experiments with the production of eggs of good hatchability when the breeders were confined in-doors. The rations in each instance were composed chiefly of plant feedstuffs without animal byproducts.

[Note: this article was written just before the discovery of vita-min B12, which is produced in deep litter through bacterial fer-mentation.] Kinds of Lime to Use

With the rapidly increasing use of lime in connection with built-up floor litter in brooder and laying houses, many poultry-men face the question of which kind of lime to use.

Hydrated lime in 50-pound bags is mostly used and the differ-ent grades may be purchased from building supply or feed, seed, and fertilizer dealers under trade names such as Agricultural hy-drated lime, Mason’s hydrated lime, General Purpose hydrated Finishing hydrated lime. Any one of these products may be used, so the choice may be determined by the cost. Judging Litter Condition

The condition of the floor is usually judged by its appearance. If it appears dry and in absorbent condition, not pasted or caked over the surface, it is considered in good condition. If the floor litter appears damp or wet and is pasted or caked over the surface, it is considered in poor or bad condition.

Floor litter treated with hydrated lime appears drier than floor litter under similar conditions without lime. Despite the appear-ance, however, there may be little difference in the actual moisture content. The principal effect of the use of lime was upon the physi-cal condition of the litter. Lime makes the litter more friable and more absorbent. This gives it the appearance of being drier and in better condition.

Stir Lime Into Litter It has been observed that hydrated lime may have a slight caus-

tic effect upon the feet of chicks under certain conditions. Conse-quently, the hydrated lime needs to be carefully distributed over the floor litter and stirred well into the litter at once.

Hydrated lime can be used with any of the common litter mate-rials such as chopped straw, ground corncobs, cut or shredded corn stover, wood shavings, peat moss, or cane litter. The principal requirement is that the litter be stirred at frequent intervals and additions of hydrated lime and fresh litter be made as indicated by the condition of the litter, all of which will depend on the age, number of the birds and weather conditions.

How to Use Lime The procedure followed by the Ohio Station at Wooster was to

scatter the hydrated lime over the floor at the rate of 10 to 15 pounds per 100 square feet of floor space. In the laying house, the amount may be at the rate of 1 pound per layer. This was done at intervals of 2 to 4 weeks or longer, depending on the compaction and surface condition of the litter. Sometimes a light covering of fresh litter was scattered over the lime and both were stirred into the old litter.

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Care should be taken to thoroughly mix the fresh lime into the litter; otherwise, the unmixed lime on the surface of the litter may have a mild caustic effect on the chicks’ feet. During the intervals between additions of lime and fresh litter, a redistribution of the floor litter to the other less used parts of the floor should be made when the litter becomes packed or caked on certain floor areas, principally around the watering and feeding equipment. Sometimes it is well to remove the litter which is in the worst condition.

Under certain conditions, it may be necessary to thor-oughly stir and redistribute the litter over the brooder house floor every 2 or 3 days, depending on the number and size of the chickens and the weather conditions. After the first 8 weeks, daily stirring is often advisable when weather or other conditions are unfavorable. Lime is seldom used or needed until after the first 4 or 5 weeks.

Insulation of the laying house is also an important aid in the solution of the problem of dampness in the floor litter in addition to the use of built-up floor litter and its treatment with lime.

Long-Time Use The same built-up floor litter has been successfully used in

brooder houses at the Station’s poultry plant for six succeed-ing broods of chicks. Likewise, most of the layers are on built-up floor litter that started nearly 3 years ago. Thus far, no disadvantages have been experienced from the long-time use of the litter, either in brooder or laying houses. The older built-up litter is, of course, more effective for the prevention or control of dampness because of its greater depth. It ap-pears the only need for removal is to keep it within conven-ient bounds.

My Own Experiences Well, all this stuff from the Forties is sort of interesting,

but does it work with pastured poultry? Pretty well. We have three small brooder houses (too small, really),

all of which have concrete floors. One brooder house is set up to accommodate 12 inches or so of litter; the others can’t manage more than about 4 inches because deeper litter would rot out the walls.

The house with the deeper litter gives the least trouble, since it seems to be able to handle more moisture and ab-sorb more manure. The other houses are less good.

We have used built-up litter for many years, and never remove all the litter. We rarely remove much litter at all. When a new batch of chicks is coming in, we’ll remove the caked litter altogether, rather than throwing it into a corner, but that’s about it. Then we put a thin layer of fresh litter on top of the old litter (thicker right under the brooder), and we’re ready for a new batch of chicks.

If the surface of the litter cakes over (as it always does with broilers), we skim off the caked layer with a shovel or garden fork and toss it into a corner, creating an impromptu compost heap. In a few days, it will have composted to the point where it’s much drier and less caked, and becomes just like all the other litter.

If the house floods, the litter doesn’t seem to care. It will

act the same as before once it dries out. Heaping it up in the middle of the house speeds this process up. I have had reasonably good re-sults from just putting a thick layer of shavings on top of the horrible mess and finishing a brooding cycle that way, and stirring everything together later.

The lime trick also works very well. Wear a mask. In our brooder houses, the deep litter isn’t reliable as a preventa-

tive for coccidiosis. It probably helps a great deal, but our houses are small and they get very crowded if we don’t move the broilers out promptly at 14 days. We have so little maneuvering room in the house that we can’t do a good job of decaking the floor. If we did this every day, maybe we’d be coccidiosis-proof. I don’t know.

If you want to use this technique, arranging your brooder area to give you plenty of elbow room will help. It’s important to decake the floor every day, which takes less than a minute if you’re set up right. Ideally you’ll use hanging feeders and waterers that can be raised out of the way, and being able to get the brooder out of the way easily is important, too. Decake and toss the caked litter into the corner, along with any wet litter, and level things out with dry litter from here and there, and you’re done. If you’re set up better than we are, it hardly takes any time at all.

As for the nutritional benefit, it’s real but I wouldn’t rely on it. Using balanced rations always costs less in the long run. Consider it to be a fringe benefit.

The ammonia issue isn’t confined to deep litter. While coccidia don’t like ammonia, neither do chicks. Your brooder house should allow quite a bit of airflow. Not at floor level (unless it’s very hot), but higher up.


Classified Ads

For sale in Carson City, MI Featherman picker in very good working order, $550 OBO. Kenton Martin, 998-235-3103

For Sale in Indiana Featherman Pro Picker, 2 years old, has proccessed 350 birds, $795. Will ship or pick-up. Call 317-374-1768 For Sale in Southern Iowa Like-new condition Featherman picker and Ashley scalder. Used less than 10 times. We’re out of the chicken biz! Gary Bennett, 641-897-5282

For Sale in Blodgett, OR Aprons, yellow PVC with mesh backing, 46” x 34”, $7 including shipping, or 5 for $30. Stock up for 2007! GQF Sportsman model 1270 incubator, $300, 1202 hatcher, $250. $500 together. Shipping extra. Karen Black 541-453-5841, [email protected]

For Sale in Turner, Oregon Three roll-out style nest boxes, several 12-inch bell wa-terers, box style hovers. 503-769-5000; [email protected].

For Sale in Canistota, S. Dakota Five propane poultry brooders, feeders, waterers, crates and processing equipment. Tom Neuberger, 605-296-3314 Got something you don’t need? Sell your poultry-related equip-ment here! Need something you haven’t got? Insert a “wanted” ad. Send ad to [email protected].

Call for Articles Hate to see blank space? So do I. Send in your pictures, recipes, articles, and interest-ing facts about pastured poultry to keep this newsletter full. Thanks!


Home of the Rhode Island Red

I n the small Rhode Island village of Adamsville, there is a stone with a memorial marker to Rhode Island’s state bird – the Rhode Island Red. The text reads

THE RHODE ISLAND RED TO COMMEMORATE THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE RHODE ISLAND RED BREED-ING FOWL WHICH WAS ORIGINATED

NEAR THIS LOCATION. RED FOWLS WERE BRED EXTEN-

SIVELY BY THE FARMERS OF THIS DISTRICT AND LATER NAMED 'RHODE

ISLAND REDS' AND BROUGHT INTO NATIONAL PROMINENCE BY THE

POULTRY FANCIERS. THIS TABLET IS PLACED BY THE

RHODE ISLAND RED CLUB OF AMER-ICA WITH CONTRIBUTIONS OF RHODE ISLAND RED BREEDERS THROUGHOUT

THE WORLD ON LAND DONATED BY

DEBORAH T. MANCHESTER. 1925

The ironic part of the monument, at least to my mind, is that the image is that of a rooster. After all, it was the hen was the money-maker!


APPPA STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The American Pastured Poultry Producers Association

(APPPA) is a nonprofit educational and networking organization dedicated to encouraging the production, processing, and marketing of poultry raised on pasture.

APPPA exists to facilitate the free flow of creative ideas. Member producers are encouraged to consider all poultry species and all pasturing models, assuming personal responsibility for adapting ideas and models presented through APPPA.

APPPA passionately embraces humane, people-friendly, environmentally-enhancing, pasture-based production models. While we respect the freedom of others to engage in industrial confinement factory farming, we believe our approach is superior.

APPPA assists both producers and consumers to transact business with as little government intervention as possible. APPPA does not discriminate in membership or programs based on the business size of producer or consumer. Realizing that production models must be profitable to be successful, APPPA's interests include processing, packaging, cooking, marketing, and any other topics related to pastured poultry enterprises.

APPPA's world vision is to see pastured poultry adopted as the model for environmentally, emotionally, and economically sensible poultry production. This vision includes decentralized food systems, farmstead-sized processing, and as much interaction as possible between producer and consumer.

EVENTS & HAPPENINGS DETAILS ON PAGE 24.

APPPA GRIT! 36475 Norton Creek Road Blodgett, OR 97326

Check your mailing label for your final issue. If it is #47, please renew today!

Next Issue of Grit— October Deadline September 1

July 26 — Fleetwood, PA: PASA Field Day at Green Haven Farm http://www.pasafarming.org/programs/2007-pastured-poultry-processing.html

July 31 — Macon, GA: Business Planning for Small Producers

404-633-4534; [email protected] http://www.georgiaorganic.org/events/event.php?id=326

August 10-12 — Amherst, MA: 33rd Annual NOFA Summer Conference

978-355-32853 http://www.nofamass.org/conferences/s2007/index.php

September 8 — Corvallis, OR: Pastured Poultry Workshop

541-766-3556; [email protected] http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/PasturedPoultryBenton07.pdf

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