Pin It Crippen Creek Chronicles: May 2009

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Picking Up Chicks In Skamokawa




It's easy to pick up chicks in Skamokawa and the best place to do that is at the post office. Here's how it works. First, you find a hatchery that has the kind of chicks you want and place your order. About 2 days after they ship them, the post office calls you and tells you to come in a pick up your baby chicks.

We ordered 50 red broilers from J.M. Hatchery in New Holland,PA. These red broilers are derived from heritage breeding stock and meet the highest standards of the French Label Rouge free-range program. Their natural behaviors and instincts have been preserved resulting in a slower growing, more flavorful, and arguably more nutritious chicken. The typical chicken that you buy in the grocery store is a Cornish cross that has been bred for quick growth often resulting in chickens that can't support their own weight and often have heart attacks.

Red broilers are the perfect chicken to use in recipes like Chicken Ossobuco, Chicken Cacciatore, Coq au Vin or any recipe requiring a slow braise method.

Our red broilers will be available for harvest around the first week of August. Just call (360)795-0585 or email us at theinn@crippencreek.com to order. Of course you won't be picking up chicks because by then they will be hens or roosters.

Have you ever experienced one of these heritage breeds? Have you noticed how agribusiness has conditioned our palate to a bland mushy bird under the guise of being tender?