Shire

Regenerative Farm

High nutrient-density pastured chicken & duck Eggs

Pastured, rotationally grazed, beyond-organic-fermented-fed, high nutrition, beta-carotene, vitamins A, D3, E, B12, K2 MK-4, CLA, & omega-3 chicken eggs.

Pastured, rotationally grazed, beyond-organic-fermented-fed, high B12, selenium, choline, K2 MK-4, & omega-3 heritage duck eggs. 

Duck eggs have higher nutrient density, more richness, size, & baking ability.  In our experience, we're as full from one duck egg as we are from two chicken eggs.  Duck eggs are also called "the baker's secret" (though we're revamping all things baking with ancient grains these days).  Recipe for duck egg frittata.

Both are beyond-organic-fermented-fed with feed mix with no soy, no gmos, & including and a huge diversity of over 80 all-organic ingredients.

Pastured on >1200 square feet per bird per year, which is >10 times the Certified Human Pasture Raised standard of 108.  All of the detailed standards below for chicken meat also apply to our chicken & duck eggs.

Rotationally grazed with diverse vegetation for soil biota, avoiding pathogen cycles, with clean pasture and a fresh salad always available.  Their nutrition is your nutrition.

Why high Omega-3?

One of many examples: "With 60% of our brains made of fat,"

"Ingestion of omega-3 fatty acids increases learning, memory, cognitive well-being, and blood flow in the brain."

Recipes

Yummy recipes curated for the foods as they are in season, with advice on healthy cooking, eating, & lifestyle.

Our goal is to help you prepare things in a way that leaves you satiated because your body got all of the nutrition possible.

* Higher nutrition from higher degree of natural live-food foraging

* Pastured, beyond-organic-fermented-fed, rotationally grazed, slow-cook gourmet chicken, with rich, tasty meat

(7-8 lbs, 2-3 whole chickens, optionally dressed no charge)

(One-time pick up at the farm, on a week near end of July &/ October, weather dependent, emailed in advance)

• The "Champagne" of chicken!
• Bred in France for hundreds of years for a highly-pastured diet
• American Bresse are imported from the Bresse region of France, and we give them more pasture than the French Bresse standard.
• Bresse “has the reputation of being the best quality table chicken in the world”, bred for its distinguishing blue legs and feet.
• In 1825, one of the world's first and greatest foodies, the 19th-century epicure and gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, described the bird as "the queen of chickens, and the chicken of kings".
• *pastured on >1200 square feet per chicken per year*, which is >10 times the Certified Human Pasture Raised standard of 108
• pastured on diverse vegetation for vitamins, minerals, soil biota, and your nutrition: higher omega-3s, CLAs, & vitamin E
• pasture maintained with a minimum of 95% live forage cover
• rotationally grazed for avoiding pathogen cycles, with clean pasture and a fresh salad daily
• beyond-organic-fermented-fed with feed mix with no soy, no gmos, & including and a huge diversity of over 80 all-organic ingredients, manuka honey, and raw goat's milk
• indigenous practices of feeding including fallen fruit, raw comfrey, and sprouted grains
• humanely bred & raised for mobility, very low stress, health, & heartiness
• ethically selected, growing both males and females
• able to express natural species behavior, foraging, scratching, digging, & thrivng
• outdoor enrichments of shade, sun, perches, shaded water
• entire life on farm with continuous outdoor living on pasture by 4 weeks of age, and cage free
• 16 week slow growth, for less stress and more marbling of meat
• harvested ethically with low stress hormones, precision dressing for maximum nutrition, & no artificial chemicals
• best cooked low and slow! A low heat and long cooking time is vital to getting the most out of this renowned heritage breed. See our example recipes.  We recommend roasting pastured chicken at 325 degrees for at least an hour and finishing it by raising it to a final peak inner thigh temp of 165 degrees, with a 20 minute rest after roasting - low and slow. :)
  7 Tips for Perfect Roast Chicken (Pastured of Course!)
• whole chicken, giblets on request, allows you to use the entire pastured chicken to maximize your investment in your health. The parts were designed for your health. Here is one path:
  • Oven roast whole including skin & fat (recipe), and eat the easily removed pieces of meat, throwing nothing away.
  • Debone the remaining meat and use in multiple recipes including chicken tacos, chicken & rice, stir fry, etc.
  • Crock pot the bones along with any unused parts (feet, neck, etc.) and vegetable scraps to make highly nutritious bone broth (recipe), and strain. Use broth as a base for other recipes or as a breakfast drink to support gut health.
  • If you don't cook the organ meats (the highest nutrition parts) in separate recipes, dice them and include in the bone broth recipe.
• exceeding the animal welfare standards of even the Polyface, French Label Rouge, and French Bresse methods

* Higher nutrition from higher degree of natural live-food foraging

* Pastured, beyond-organic-fermented-fed, rotationally grazed, slow-cook, amazing-beyond-words duck meat

* A top dietary source of vitamin K2 MK-4 (Dr. Weston Price's "Activator X"); high vitamin B5.

(5-6 lbs, 2 whole heritage Cayuga ducks, optionally dressed no charge)

(One-time pick up at the farm, on a week near end of September &/ November, weather dependent, emailed in advance)

• The Cayuga breed is recognized in the Slow Food International Ark of Taste. The Cayuga Duck is listed as “threatened” on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s Conservation Priority List. They are also globally endangered.  We breed them here on-farm.
• The Cayuga Duck is a breed developed from a pair of wild ducks that a miller found on his pond in 1809, in Duchess County, New York. Later, descendants of those birds were brought to Orange County, New York where they multiplied. John S. Clark introduced the birds to Cayuga County, New York in the Finger Lakes region in 1840. There, the ducks quickly gained popularity as table birds and for their ability to lay many eggs. The breed was named ‘Cayuga’ after the native people of the area.
• *pastured on >1200 square feet per duck per year*, which is >10 times the Certified Human Pasture Raised standard of 108
• pastured on diverse vegetation for vitamins, minerals, soil biota, and your nutrition: higher omega-3s, CLAs, & vitamin E
• pasture maintained with a minimum of 95% live forage cover
• rotationally grazed for avoiding pathogen cycles, with clean pasture and a fresh salad daily
• beyond-organic-fermented-fed with feed mix with no soy, no gmos, & including and a huge diversity of over 80 all-organic ingredients
• humanely bred & raised for mobility, very low stress, health, & heartiness
• ethically selected, growing both males and females
• able to express natural species behavior, foraging, digging, & bathing; thriving
• outdoor enrichments of shade, sun, fresh daily bath, dry nesting area
• entire life on farm with continuous outdoor living on pasture by 4 weeks of age
• harvested ethically with low stress hormones, precision dressing for maximum nutrition, & no artificial chemicals
• exceeding the animal welfare standards of even the Polyface and Global Animal Partnership methods

• 100% holistically savanna-pastured, including mother's milk, dense grasses, highly nutritious tree & shrub forage, organic produce, (no dry grain, no barn time)

• 19 separate supplemental free choice mineral combinations, only herbal medicine (no toxic chemicals), no added hormones or antibiotics

• Rotational holistic adaptive grazed for avoiding pathogen cycles, with clean pasture and a fresh salad always available

• Pasture maintained with a minimum of 95% live forage cover

• A top dietary source of CLA and zinc; high omega-3, glutathione, carnosine, minerals, & vitamins B12, B6, & K

• Harvested ethically for low stress hormones, dressing for maximum nutrition, & no artificial chemicals

• Red meat butcher certified Animal Welfare Approved, HACCP, & USDA inspected, and frozen

• Born after pasture is lush with grass, in May

• True lamb, under 1 year old, whole life on our farm

• No chemical wormer, tested healthy with on-farm microscope McMaster tests

• High phytonutrient & antioxidant wild vegetable varieties

• Pure non-treated herbs, including thyme, tarragon, comfrey

• Heirloom fruits

• Fresh cut flowers, in season

• Low glycemic index maple-only sweetened fruit preserves

• High nutrient-density, due to high mineral availability, due to highly active soil biology, due to no-till garden methods

   (such as sheet mulching, more data on this soon!)

• Nutrition lab results are in!  Top tenth of special farms:

  We were accepted among a small group of health-focused farms for nutritional lab testing by the Bionutrient Food Association / Bionutrient Institute, and we submitted 25 samples of our vegetables. The results: half of our foods were in the *top tenth of these special farms* (>=91st percentile) for health-boosting antioxidants or polyphenols. The detailed lab data has allowed us to further improve our methods. We now have the experimental meter! :)

Courtesy of Mother Earth News

From amaranth to zucchini, here's what we're hoping to produce this year;
many have multiple varieties &/ multiple schedules:

amaranth, bean, beet, bok choy, basil, bergamot, bitter melon, broccoli, calendula, cantaloupe, carrot, cauliflower, celery, chicken, comfrey, cow pea, crabapple, cress, dill, eggplant, eggs, fennel, flowers, fruit preserves, garlic bulb, garlic chive, ginger, gooseberry, honeyberry, hyssop, kale, kohlrabi, lamb, leek, lemon balm, lemon grass, lettuce, marjoram, mint, mulberry, mushroom, muskmelon, mustard green, onion, oregano, pac choi, parsley, pea, pear, pear nursery stock, pepper, potato, pumpkin, radish, rhubarb, rosemary, rutabaga, sage, savory, spinach, squash, strawberry, Swiss chard, tarragon, tatsoi, thyme, tomatillo, tomato, toothache plant, turmeric, turnip, walnuts, walnut nursery stock, watermelon, zucchini