This snowstorm was a major one! 14 inches is more that I ever remember seeing as a child, growing up in Greensboro. I’m glad that Uhtred got to see another year of snow before Christmas (that’s the right way to ring in the holiday season!).
He spent part of one day sledding and exploring deep snow, and the next day we threw snowballs and watched the cows. Overall, it was a great few days of rest and relaxation!
When it comes to homesteading, the balance between quality food and cost efficiency is the biggest consideration. Factory farming is a huge industry, and it’s super easy for them to turn a profit since they’re raising low-quality products (in inhumane ways) with very low costs. As small farmers, the balance is more complicated, but also so important. At KW Homestead, from the beginning we made the decision that raising quality meat in humane and life-affirming ways was our top priority. Cost-efficiency is not the first thing we think about when we wake up each morning… Our animals’ quality of life is. This sentiment is reflected in the breeds we raise—all slow-growing, hardy, and/or heritage breeds.
In fact, two of the breeds we raise here on our farm are included in the Slow Food USA Ark of Taste: the Bourbon Red turkey and the Cayuga duck. The other breeds we’ve selected have been chosen because of their superior flavor and the health and hardiness of the breed. We’re proud to be your farmily’s farmers, and grateful that you love good food as much as we do! THANK YOU!
We raise heritage turkeys rather than the standard broad-breasted variety, for many reasons. Heritage turkeys are survival fit and can reproduce naturally (unlike the broad-breasted varieties, which much be inseminated). Their normal size and body shape, much like that of a wild turkey, makes them excellent foragers and runners, allowing us to raise them on pasture and in our woods! Their meat is darker and much richer than a conventional turkey, and their flavor is amazing! The Bourbon Red variety was developed from the Buff, a historic variety of turkey known in the Mid-Atlantic States. It resulted from stocks taken to Kentucky and selected for improved meat production and a darker red color.
The Red Ranger is a fast-growing breed that does an excellent job foraging and ranging around. We raise our birds for almost twice as long as most poultry farmers do, because of their hardiness and their developing rich flavor. Their well-balanced and gradual weigh gain makes them healthy enough to live well into adulthood as regular chickens! Most chicken you buy in the store (or even farmer’s markets, for that matter) is a breed called Cornish Cross. These chickens are not a similar picture of health. Cornish Crosses are a super fast-growing breed that can gain more weight than its legs can support. When this happens, they can break their own legs or simply end up too heavy to stand, living out the rest of their lives sitting in one spot. Red Rangers are a hardier breed that does well when raised on pasture, developing a rich, intense flavor unlike any chicken you’ve had before.
The duck breed that we raise on pasture is the Pekin, a large-bodied duck that is likely the breed you’ve eaten when you ordered duck in a restaurant. The Pekin duck yields scrumptious and fatty meat, and also lives life as an average duck if they join our layer flock. Maybe of the ducks from our layer flock are female Pekins who are 2 or 3 years old. Despite their size, they sure do keep us with the little, gracile egg breeds when running to the pond, and they contribute large and delicious eggs to your weekly dozen.
Although we don’t sell beef yet at our market locations, we have a small herd of Dexter cattle on our farm. The Dexter is a smaller-bodied breed that is easier on the land than a larger cow. They are considered a dual purpose breed, which means that they are great for both meat and milk production. Their meat has an excellent, rich flavor, and they are an overall hardy breed. Dexters tends to have less health issues, like the calving issues that sometimes trouble the meat breeds, since they are breed to be so large. Our herd is 5-strong, and ever growing. We have 2 cows, 1 bull, 1 heifer, and 1 bull calf, with more on the way next year.
This is a short video of some of our layer ducks, searching for snacks and doing what ducks generally do… Explore and eat!
Our first batch of Pekin ducklings has arrived for 2018, and they sure are cute! There isn’t much that’s cuter than a baby duck!
All baby chicks, ducklings, and poults need heat lamps, a dry, wind-free place to sleep, the proper amount of space, bedding of some sort, food, and water. It’s up to you how you create your brooder. Our brooders are located outdoors, and the ducklings have an open-air strip in the front of theirs, so that when they undoubtedly get their world wet and messy, the hardware cloth allows for spills to slip through. We learned the hard way that ducklings are far messier than chicks or poults, and our new brooder design helps them stay dry and clean!
Our two dogs, Bolt and Coona, make a really great mouse hunting team. Bolt, the quicker of the two, has lightning fast reflexes and can snatch a mouse straight out of the air. Coona, who is the hound, usually flushes mice out to Bolt by rushing in between feed bins and spooking them out in his direction. It’s fantastic to watch their cooperation!
While Coona is the second-in-command mouse hunter, she is the leader when it comes to duck and chicken herding. We recently noticed that her legacy as a hound/shepherd mix, makes her an excellent and very focused duck and chicken caretaker. Because our birds are pasture raised and free ranging, they are often ending up in places where they shouldn’t be! One of these places is the backyard. The backyard fencing is cattle paneling, which means that birds can easily slip in and out of the yard. Until recently, Jason or I would herd the ducks out of the yard ourselves before letting the dogs outside, but ultimately some would sneak right back in. It took us only a few days of watching Coona interact with these daring ducks to realize how gentle she could be when herding them back through the fence towards the woods. Bolt, on the other hand, has always needed a bit more coaxing in order to be gentle with the birds. He just gets so excited!
Coona impresses us every day with how much she loves her job. She will quietly and contentedly lay near the back fence waiting for a chick to pop through and then slowly, and with complete focus, usher the chick back through to his side of the fence. Bolt is often watching this… He usually keeps a check on himself so that he doesn’t chase the birds too intensely or grab one with his mouth. It’s amazing to watch Coona be so delicate with ducks and chickens. She interacts with them very lovingly, with great tenderness, and with great concern for the rules. We would love to be able to say that we taught her to be such a great herding dog, but it’s just not true. It’s in her blood!
Considering the great working team that Bolt and Coona are, it’s no wonder that they have a fantastic time outside together securing the homestead and caring for the animals!
What a lovely sight… Seeing our birds out on pasture and enjoying life. It doesn’t get any better than that!
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The first batch of these cute duck babes arrived here this week! They spent the first few days inside (since the outside temperatures dropped to 20 with lots of wind) and they’ve been growing steadily!
The Pekin breed is the breed we raise for meat, and we decided on a few Runner ducks as well, a hilarious breed that stands super tall and looks like they might just fall over at all times! There’s not much cuter than a baby duck!
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This video is a brief look at the beginning of our ducks’ nighttime routine here on the homestead. After we call “duck, duck, duck!” they come running back to their nighttime space to wait for their evening meal. We just added fresh bedding (consisting of leaves) before this video was filmed, and since ducks are hunters at heart, you can see them searching through the bedding in case any bugs are hiding.
Check out the video below!
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Everyone knows that poultry labeled as free range is better than poultry that isn’t, right?
Sadly, you might have to think again!
According to the USDA website, which controls and manages food safety and food labeling, all that is required of producers who raise meat labeled as “free range” or “free roaming” is that they must “demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside.”
So what does this really mean? It means that producers can raise their birds with less than 1 square foot of space each, they can raise them on a concrete floor, under fluorescent lighting, living on layers of their own poop, as long as they have “access to the outside.” Access to the outside can mean a small door that leads to a parking lot, a fenced in concrete slab, or a lovely pasture. You can see the problem here…
Free range or organic doesn’t actually say anything about how humanely the birds are raised, or whether or not they actually ever go outside and enjoy the sunshine, grass, and bugs.
This is a “porch” in a commercial poultry operation that counts as “access to the outside.” Image from cornucopia.com.
Your best bet as a consumer is to buy locally, and get to know your farmer so you can really be sure of how your meat and eggs are raised!
So what does the life of a truly free range duck look like here at KW Homestead? Check out the video below to see how they live…
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It’s the middle of winter here, and even though it’s not very cold right now, we’re still dreaming of spring!
This video is a brief look at the enthusiasm our free range & pasture raised ducks show when they think it’s dinner time. When Jason says “duck, duck, duck,” they know good things are coming their way!
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