Hello Friends,
I hope that your week is off to a marvelous start. Today is National Egg Day, so I thought that I'd explain a bit about our flock and eggs. There are two things to know about when purchasing store bought eggs. The first is that most chickens are caged or are housed in large confinement areas with nary a blade a grass in sight. The other is that the reason that eggs in the supermarket are refrigerated is because they are washed with a chemical to prevent salmonella and other bacteria.
The interesting thing though, is that Nature has already solved for that issue. You see, when chickens lay an egg there is a protective outer coating called the bloom. The bloom protects the porous egg from absorbing any bacteria, which protects a chick when forming over the three weeks it takes to hatch. Therefore, if you have clean eggs to start with (i.e. it's not muddy March), you can store your eggs in an attractive egg tray on the counter. In Europe, their supermarkets sell unrefrigerated eggs. Industrial farms here in the United States have unclean and crowded conditions, hence the cleaning with chemicals and refrigerated eggs.
If our eggs are dirty for whatever reason, we do hand wash each one (but not with chemicals), so please pay attention when you purchase them, because we will place a "WASHED PLEASE REFRIGERATE" label on the bottom of the carton. If there is no label, then rest assured if you like you can store them either in the refrigerator to prolong their shelf life, or on the counter if you eat them within a few weeks.
Another thing to consider is that our flock is pasture raised. That means that our chickens, ducks and geese are out in the forest everyday foraging and exhibiting their natural tendencies, and are therefore happy chickens, ducks and geese. We believe that our inclination to allow them to do what they like translates to healthier and tastier eggs. Just ask some of our devoted egg subscription customers. You really can taste the difference, and you can't beat how fresh they are.
In 2015 when I was having an autoimmune issue that caused my eyes to swell, I started to research how food was raised and I found out the the majority of livestock feed is comprised of conventional GMO soy, which is farmed using Glyphosate (i.e. Roundup). Once I found out this fact, I decided to get chickens and allow them to free range daily and feed them soy free, organic feed from a family owned feed mill 90 minutes from the farm that mills their feed fresh for us each time. The rest they say is history. I tell people that chickens are the gateway drug to farming! So, here we are four years later. Rather than show you photos of our beautiful rainbow colored eggs, I thought that I should share some photos of our happy flock-
Our sheep barn is coming along quickly, and we are excited that in about six weeks we will be welcoming our new Katahdin sheep to the farm. In true regenerative fashion we've decided to use Black Locust logs that we salvaged from the tree stand behind our farm store for the posts on the barn. Black locust logs have historically been used for ship masts of tall ships due to their strength and straightness. Hopefully the roof installation will be completed prior to the rain later in the week. Next comes our solar field installation. The entire farm is solar powered, and we even got permission from JCP&L to connect it to the grid, but the sheep barn is in a more remote area of the farm, so we needed to install a smaller system for that. The solar cells themselves will be installed on an elevated "table" that will also serve as shelter for the sheep. I love when things have multi-purposes!
I'm excited to share that if you've missed any of our Newsletters since our new website has been up and running you can find them in our new Archive on the website under the Our Story tab at the top of the Home Page. If there are topics of interest that you'd like us to cover in future newsletters (about any Permaculture, Regenerative Farming, livestock or other topic), please feel free to drop me a line at michele@maranatha.farm.
We have been offering the "Herb of the week" since we began selling egg subscriptions. Any time you purchase a dozen or more eggs you will get a free herb bunch with your order. We are now including a recipe that highlights the herb of the week. In order to build upon this benefit, very soon we will will also have a link so that you can view the recipe before you place your order, and will provide links to other items in the recipe that are available from the farm. Each recipe will be archived, just as the Newsletters are for future reference.
Lastly, for those of you who have purchased our CSA subscription, your first pickup is NEXT Wednesday, June 12th. This means that we will also have surplus vegetables, herbs, flower bouquets and eggs to bring to our farm store on Wednesdays during normal store hours of operation (2:30-5:30). If Wednesdays are not good for you, please reach out and we can make other arrangements, or we can also deliver for a small extra charge of $10 within 15 miles of the farm for orders over $35.
I'll leave you with a few more shots from this past weekend around the farm: snap peas, currants, our new raspberry trellis, and grape gumball bee balm, which is an edible flower that the hummingbirds, butterflies and bees love. So much more to come, and we are grateful to share it all with you.
Have a wonderful week ahead friends. God bless you and your families.
Sincerely,
Michele & the Maranatha Farm Team
P.S. Our famous strawberries are back on the store. :)