We had a very productive day yesterday. We left @ 4 am to head down to Arthur, IL for chicken processing and came home @ 5 pm with 103 packaged chickens in the freezer, 3 gallons of real (raw) milk and a re-finished antique pie safe that was made by my great-grandfather in AR.
About half of the chickens were pre-sold, so we will have them for sale from the farm until they’re gone. You can either call (815)467-5259 or e-mail pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com with any questions or to arrange a pick-up time.
They are available 3 ways – whole heritage breed, whole double breasted & cut-up dbl breasted and are all $4.00 per lb. The heritage breed chickens are better used for soup and make a very rich stock. The double breasted are a more meaty chicken with lots of breast meat. These chickens were all raised outdoors and fed organic feed (no GMO grains). Because we only raise 100 at a time, we are able to do some extra things with our chickens. We move their portable structure at least once per day so they are on fresh grass, we fermented their feed for better digestion and also gave them organic apple cider vinegar and chamomile tea in their water.
I’m not selling the milk, but thought the picture was interesting for those who have never seen real milk. I skimmed the cream from the jar on the left and will make creme fresh with it. The jar on the right has not had the cream skimmed, but if you look closely you can see the line dividing the cream from the milk at about the same level as the milk in the jar on the left. I will make mozzarella cheese and yogurt with the milk.
The pie safe still needs the handles and glass for the doors, so I’ll post a picture of that when it’s finished.
Hi Cheryl, I have seen the non-homogenized milk at Whole Foods. They call it “Cream Line”. I wish I had the bottles that make it easier to skim the cream. I have a difficult time with getting too much milk mixed with the cream & can’t make butter with it.
Saw your post on my facebook page. Hope to be able to pick up a couple of your chickens. We bought one last year and really enjoyed it. And the photo of the milk was interesting. When I was a kid, we used to go to the ‘milk station’ (that’s what my mother called it – it was a store that sold milk) we were able to buy un homogenized milk. There was a cup shaped lip on the bottle that would capture the cream and we could either shake the bottle to blend the milk, or pour the ‘skim’ milk over the cup at the top of the bottle the collected the cream.
I know it is difficult to buy un pasteurized milk, but I wish we could still buy un homogenized.Thanks for the photo.
Cheryl from Plainfield