New Source of Duck and Chicken Eggs

Have you ever had fresh duck eggs? They are divine. I recently got a few from Farmer Dana, Head Bottle Washer and Hen Herder at Moose Manor Farm in Pomfret, MD. She sells naturally raised chicken eggs, duck eggs, free range meat chickens, free range meat ducks, and birds for you to raise. Try her out! She updates her web site daily with the quantity of eggs she has in stock. Tomorrow she is harvesting chickens to sell for meat. If you want one, go reserve one today as there is a limited number of birds available.

What's available in this harvest at Moose Manor Farm:

Dana will be doing all the processing and packaging on Saturday, July 17th  pick up of fresh, unfrozen birds is on Sunday from 9am -7pm or Monday from 5pm - 7pm.  At 7pm Monday all uncollected birds will be placed in the freezer and folks can contact me to arrange a convenient pick up time.

Whole Cornish Roasters (15 birds):
$3 per pound. Hens average 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 lb. and cockerels average 4 to 6 lb. These birds are young, tender, and very meaty. Excellent for roasting, grilling, or frying. Raised Free & Humanely without grow-lights, antibiotics or pesticides.

Whole Muscovy Duck (6 birds):
$3 per pound. Hens average 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 lb. and drakes average 6 to 8 lb. High in meat-to-bone ratio, with less weight loss after cooking than Pekin ducks. Low in fat with a wonderful veal-like texture and flavor. Excellent when roasted whole; breasts are great to sauté or grill. Raised Free & Humanely without grow-lights, antibiotics or pesticides.

Whole Welsh Harlequin Duck (3 birds):
Drakes average 3 to 5 lb.  These high quality lean roasters are  rich-tasting and a good source of nutrients like iron, zinc and selenium. Excellent when roasted whole and well sized making for a beautiful table bird.

Dana is planning a second harvest in the November timeframe so if someone isn't able to get a bird this time there will be posting another reservation event this fall.

Free Range Local Pork Available

Wow, I just visited Lance Estevez's farm in Port Tobacco for the first time. He grows animals and vegetables in a humane, sustainable way. He is currently raising pigs (female), chickens, and turkeys. The fenced enclosures for each type of animal move to new ground frequently. They are fed conventional grain with absolutely no added hormones, antibiotics, or anything else. Baby pigs are fed a mineral-rich pig feed until they are able to sustain themselves on grain and foraging. The love rooting around in the fallow corn fields and woods. The egg laying hens have one rooster to keep them happy and a regular visiting rooster from a neighboring farm. Next year, he will be trying out some different chicken breeds. Next year he will be starting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program for vegetables and possibly eggs if he gets around 10 people interested.

So if you are interested in local, antibiotic and hormone free, humanely grown pork, there are about 5-6 pigs available. If you want to split a pig, just let me know. The price is $3/lb of cut and wrapped pork. A half pig contains typically 60-80 lbs of meat. This is a complete price with no extra charges. Lance humanely kills the pigs and there are two options for getting the meat prepared depending on whether you want sausage seasoned and other such details. Interested? Contact me and I'll pass on his email address to you (and please tell him I gave you his name!).

Egg Weights and prices

Ever wondered why free range, organic eggs can be as much as $4 a dozen? Organic chicken feed is more expensive than conventional feed, but not a huge difference. And you want the free range chickens to eat plenty of bugs so the eggs are chock full of nutrients for you and bright yellow yolks as well. I find that the main price difference has to do with size.

All eggs sold in the state of Maryland must be sold by the following weight classes as specified by USDA standards (The minimum weight of each class increases by 3 oz more than the one smaller than it):

EGG WEIGHTS
SIZE OZ/DOZ
Small 18
Medium 21
Large 24
Extra Large 27
Jumbo 30

I recently purchased jumbo size eggs for baking from farmer #1. They were $4 a dozen. So that is $0.33 per egg or $0.13 per ounce of egg.

In the spring, from farmer #2, I purchased small eggs at $2 a dozen. That is $0.17 per egg and $0.11 per ounce of egg.

So the jumbo and small eggs are about the same price per ounce of egg which is what I care about when baking. When we are eating just eggs or omlettes, I use fewer jumbos than smalls and so they actually last us longer. Funny how things work out with math :-)