Creekside Natural Farm, Minooka, IL – Blog

I have some fresh chickens available today and this weekend only. If you would like to try an air chilled chicken that has never been frozen, let me know when you would like to come by. I’ll be home today and tomorrow until about 4 and all day on Sunday.

Our spring batch or air chilled chicken will be ready for pick-up tomorrow.

Our chickens are raised outside on pasture and fed certified organic feed. They average around 5 pounds and are $4.00 per pound.

If you pre-ordered, you can contact us with a time you would like to pick-up. We will be available all day tomorrow until about 4 pm. If that doesn’t work, we will also be home most of the day on Saturday.

FYI – This will be our only batch of chickens until the end of August and more than half are spoken for.

We are 4 weeks away from our first Farm Day of the season and Bill is busy working on making some seating for those who are coming to hear our main speaker – Dr. John Ikerd. We are so looking forward to hearing what he has to say and sharing his knowledge on sustainability in agriculture.

In addition to our main speaker – Dr. John Ikerd  (http://www.johnikerd.com) – we will also be joined by Ed Bell from Belfry Bees. He will bring a display hive and information on how we can protect bees. He will also have some honey! You can find more info. on him and his bees @ BelfryBees.com

We will also have a presentation on composting. Renee is a Master Gardener and has offered to share her knowledge.

We have MANY requests from customers wishing to tour our farm and see our chickens, Suri Alpacas, sheep and gardens. We don’t usually have time to stop our work during the busy growing season so now is your chance to see all of the above, ask any questions you may have AND learn from those who have been so kind as to offer their time.

In order to cover travel expenses for John who will be traveling from his home in Iowa to join us, we will be asking for a $5.00 donation from each adult who attends our Farm Day.  John has offered to stay with us overnight rather than in a hotel in order to reduce his expenses and leave more for the charity. ALL donations above John’s expenses will be donated to the tornado relief fund through the Rockford branch of the Salvation Army.

This morning we have beautiful leaf lettuce, radishes, asparagus, eggs from our AWA hens, organic tomato and pansy plants and a few bags of Cowsmo compost.

One brave hen out for the first time and one sister on the ramp!

Happy Mothers Day from us and our favorite alpaca mom Parabella!

In addition to our main speaker – Dr. John Ikerd  (http://www.johnikerd.com) – we will also be joined by Ed Bell from Belfry Bees. He will bring a display hive and information on how we can protect bees. He will also have some honey! You can find more info. on him and his bees @ BelfryBees.com

In order to cover travel expenses for John who will be traveling from his home in Iowa to join us, we will be asking for a $5.00 donation from each adult who attends our Farm Day. John has offered to stay with us overnight rather than in a hotel in order to reduce his expenses and leave more for the charity. ALL donations above John’s expenses will be donated to the tornado relief fund through the Rockford branch of the Salvation Army.

This morning I picked up our first batch of broiler chickens for the season. They will spend their firs t 2 week’s  under heat lamps in the protection of the border. After that, they will move to their portable shelter outside where they will be moved to  fresh grass daily. They eat certified organic feed in addition to what they find in the pasture.

We are planning to try a new processor this year. They are closer and we’re also very excited that they Air Chill rather than water chill. Because they are just starting to process chickens, they are not offering cut up chickens. We are thinking that the Air Chilled trumps the cut up!

We have a small batch that we plan to take in on May 7th. If you would like to try one or 2 ,let us know.

Pre–orders – we are accepting orders for this batch. It will be ready the beginning of June. If you want more than a couple, you can email your order along with a $5.00 deposit for each chicken ordered. Our price will be the same again this year, $4.00 per pound.

Email pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com

The stand is open for the season and stocked with our Animal Welfare Approved and organic eggs.

We sell our eggs in cartons of 12 for $5.00 or 18 for $7.50

Creekside Natural Farm Egg facts:

Our eggs are not graded for size – that means you will get a variety of egg sizes in your carton.

Our eggs are only washed if they are dirty. On muddy days, we tend to wash more because the hens get muddy feet. When we do need to wash them we use warm water and let them air dry – no bleach!

Our hens have free access to the outside from sun-up to sun-down. They are currently in a smaller area until their pasture starts to turn green.

Our hens eat a blend or organic layer feed (from Yorktown Organics) mixed with oats and Floriani Red Flint corn that we grow. They also eat whatever they can find outside, and during the growing season they get lots of our veggie scraps. We also sprout some organic wheat seed for them in the winter.

Because we only sell our eggs from the farm, we can re-use clean egg cartons. We have a tray on the shelf to the right of the cooler where you can leave them.

Our stand works on the honor system and is self-service so you will need to bring cash. There is a slot in the island as you walk into the stand for you to drop your payment in.

Creekside Natural Farm has again been approved to use the Animal Welfare Approved label on our eggs. 

AWA is the Gold Standard of humane farm animal care.

you can find more information on the Animal Welfare Approved program at www.AnimalWelfarApproved.org

In addition to being AWA certified, our hens are fed an organic diet with regular “treats” of oat grass and sprouted oats that we raise in our greenhouse. In summer and fall, they get veggies from the garden including tomatoes, beet greens and pumpkins. We raise about half of their feed here and the remainder comes from an organic feed mill in Tampico, IL.

Our eggs are available at our farm for $5.00 per dz.

Call 815-467-5259 or e-mail pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com to arrange pick-up