The farm
Pasture raised chicken, direct off the farm
Raised in batches through the warm months. Ask us about this season's dates and where the list stands.
We raise broiler chickens outdoors on pasture in Cass County, Iowa, and sell them straight off the farm to families who want to know exactly where their food came from and who raised it.
The plan for our first season is small on purpose. Roughly ten birds to a family, three times across the summer. That works out to somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty families over the year, which is about what two people and a young farm can do properly.
We would rather serve thirty families well than four times that many badly. If you want to be one of them, getting on the list is the whole process, and the list is what tells us how many birds to raise.
What you get
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Whole birds, raised outside
Broilers raised on pasture rather than inside a barn. They are out on grass, in the weather, doing what chickens do, which is most of the difference you can taste and all of the difference that matters to the ground they are on.
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A batch, not a single bird
Most families take around ten at a time. That is enough to fill a good part of a deep freeze and enough to change how you shop for a couple of months. Smaller and larger numbers are worth asking about.
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Three chances across the summer
We raise in batches rather than all at once, so there are a few points in the season where birds are ready. If one round does not line up with your freezer space or your schedule, another one will.
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Pickup here at the farm
You come out, you meet us, you load your cooler. Nothing sits in a distribution chain in between. Families on the list get directions and a pickup window ahead of time.
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A person to ask
You will know our names and be able to ask us anything about how the birds were raised. If the answer is that we are still figuring something out, that is what we will tell you.
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First word on everything else
The chicken list is the same list we use to tell people about anything else the farm has ready. Getting on it for birds means you also hear about whatever comes next.
How it works
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1
Tell us you are interested
Send us your name, your email, and roughly how many birds you think you would want. That is it. No deposit, no commitment yet, and nothing is charged at this stage.
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2
We tell you the dates
Once we know how many families are in and how the season is shaping up, we come back to you with batch timing and what pickup looks like. You will hear from us before anything is decided for you.
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3
You confirm your number
Closer to the date you tell us how many you actually want. This is where an estimate turns into a real order, and where we lock in how many birds are yours.
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4
You pick up and fill the freezer
Come out to the farm during the pickup window with a cooler and freezer space cleared. Ten birds takes up less room than people expect, and it lasts longer than people expect.
Why we raise them this way
Southwest Iowa is corn and bean country, and most of the meat that leaves this state never touches grass. We are not interested in arguing with that at scale. We are interested in what happens on our own few acres.
Birds out on pasture work the ground while they are on it. Managed reasonably, that is a system that builds topsoil instead of stripping it, which matters here more than most places, because this is some of the best ground in the world and it has been treated as an input rather than an asset for a long time.
The other half of it is what ends up on your table. Clean, local food that you can trust does not have a bunch of junk in it, from someone whose name you know. That trust is not something a label can do for you. It comes from being able to drive out and look at the field.
There is a bigger version of this argument that Alex is happy to make at length, and it is on our story page. The short version is that having a handle on your own food is worth something that does not show up on a receipt.
Questions people ask
How many chickens should I get?
Around ten is the number most families land on for a batch. It fills a meaningful chunk of a deep freeze and gets a household of three or four through a couple of months without much thought. If you have never done this before, start there and adjust next round.
What does pasture raised mean here?
It means the birds are raised outdoors on grass rather than inside a barn. We are a first season farm and we would rather describe exactly what we do than hide behind a label, so ask us anything specific and you will get a specific answer.
What do they cost?
We have not set pricing for this first season yet, and we are not going to guess at a number in public before we know our real costs. People on the list hear the price first, before anyone else, with no obligation to buy.
When are birds ready?
They are raised in batches through the warm months, with a few points across the summer where birds are ready to go. Exact dates depend on the season and on how the birds come along, so we confirm them with the list rather than publishing a calendar we might miss.
Do I need a deep freeze?
It helps a great deal. A batch of ten whole birds is more than most refrigerator freezers want to hold. A chest freezer is one of the better investments a household can make if buying food this way appeals to you at all.
Do you sell eggs?
Not right now. These are broilers, which are meat birds, and that is where our first season is focused. If that changes, the list will be the first to know.
Elsewhere on the farm
Get on the chicken list
Tell us roughly how many birds you would want. That is what decides how many we raise, so an early answer genuinely helps us plan the season.
Join the list