Shades of Green Farm: happy chickens make yummy eggs

On a recent, lovely Sunday afternoon, Julie, Michael, Tina and I headed out to Bastrop to visit our friends, Sue Beckwith and Jules Assata, owners of Shades of Green Farm. Julie and I have known Sue just this side of forever through high-tech ventures. These days Sue and Jules are in the chicken business, raising both broilers and layers for meat and eggs, along with a few ducks. They live in a tiny house (part of the tiny house trend) and spend countless hours tending to their flock. They’ll be supplying eggs for the LaunchPad Coworking Café.

After our visit, I caught up with Jules, via email, for a little Q&A.

Spike Gillespie: How’d you decide to work with chickens?
Jules Assata: We were looking to raise food in a sustainable fashion, to use the  land in ways that are healthy for the land, for the food being grown and for us. Our land is pretty small, with lots of trees. We wanted to keep most of the trees in place, so we knew we were  limited in the type of plants we could grow with so much shade. Sue works for Coyote Creek Farm and Organic Feed Mill; through her work we became aware of the option to raise chickens. There was locally produced organic feed available for the first time and we believed that our trees would provide a shady, more pleasant environment for chickens. We decided to give it a try.

Spike: You’re doing eggs and broilers, right? Tell me a little about that.
Jules: In November of 2007 we started a practice flock of 25 broiler chicks, or at least we were told they were meat birds. We built a little brooder and a trial pasture pen, figured out watering and feed systems and had a fine time with what ended up being 25 chickens of unknown purpose and 3 rescued pullets that would grow to lay eggs. The chickens were not meaty, yet we were just sure that we had an approach that would work, and gosh, it was fun to watch them grow up and run around and be chickens!

So in February of 2008 we received our first flock of 200 Cornish Cross chicks, which we ensconced in our brand new brooder building, designed to address all the trials we experienced with our first one and which has turned out to work beautifully — score one for the chicks raising chix!

We think our chickens have a great life, as good as we can make it. We found ways to provide a decent humane death as well. After the first flock, we switched to a breed that won’t die in two months from burst hearts, birds that can take their weight on their legs, peck the ground and actually take advantage of the pastures and the life we give them. It feels right the way we raise them and, in truth, the meat tastes amazing!

Spike: Business-wise, is it difficult to be a small producer?
Jules: We would love to keep raising and selling (and eating!) chickens on our farm. However, with the cost of feed, transportation and processing that meets Texas sales requirements, we’re not making enough money; we will have to hike up the price per pound and we have yet to see if folks will buy them.

That brings me to eggs, which seems to offer much more return for investment and may give us enough income to meet my share of the household needs. We’re also exploring growing herbs and diversifying some more, in terms of types of poultry or fowl we raise. We’ve got a practice flock of ducklings known for egg production; we’ll see what happens with them. We’re hoping for a few contracts for eggs, and perhaps meat, so that we can count on the income and not have to sell every single carton or carcass at the farmers’ market (hope that’s not too crass, with the cartons and the carcasses; it’s life and death and work on the farm, where the business of raising the animals has proven to be much more enjoyable than that of selling our ‘wares’).

Spike: How many birds do you currently have?
Jules: 160 broiler chicks almost a month old; 300 layer pullets almost 2  weeks old; 160 broiler chicks almost one week old… and the 16 Khaki Campbell ducklings.

Spike: What’s the plan — when will you start selling?
Jules: We are selling our chickens at the 1832 Bastrop Farmers’ Market on Fridays and Saturdays currently, although we may run out before the next flocks are old enough to process. We’ll start processing again in early November and continue through mid-December. Fresh-frozen chicken is still very good even after six or more months of constant freezing, so we will offer them until our spring  flocks are processed, or we run out, whichever comes first (likely the latter). Our layers will start producing eggs in mid-February and we hope to be lined up with contracts to sell most of them, leaving a few dozen to sell at market and of course, our own to eat. Both Sue and I are lovers of eggs and these are tasty and nutrient dense.

Spike: How are your eggs/chickens different from what I’m buying at the store?
Jules: There’s a good Mother Earth News article about pastured eggs vs. caged, which explains the nutritional difference better than I can, especially at this point in time, when my mind is mush and there’s chicks to feed and let out at dawn.

We start all our birds from babies, brood them ourselves and feed them organic their whole lives so we know what has gone into them, which is feed and pasture grasses and bugs and nothing else. Well, I have used a little Rescue Remedy ointment on sore bottoms now and then, and on a couple small owies along the way. They’re pure and clean, healthy and happy. My daughter told me there was no way I could raise up chickens from babies and then kill and eat them. I don’t know if I’ll ever want to kill and process them myself, but I do know that I am grateful for their lives spent with us, grateful for their sacrifice, and grateful for the incredible meat they give
us… grateful, appreciative and enjoying every last nibble!

Spike: What are some of your big challenges?
Jules: Getting all the work done mostly by myself can be exhausting, so when something goes wrong, like a watering system, the day or even week can be shot and I will be reduced to tears several times. We also wish for a processor closer to home, or better yet, for Texas regulations to acknowledge that every farm doesn’t need a processing facility on it, just as every household doesn’t need a lawn mower. Sure do wish someone was breeding our broilers closer to home as well — we’d like to get as close as possible to the highest standards of humane treatment, as well as healthy, food production. The biggest challenge is selling our produce for enough to sustain us, which requires an educated consumer who understands the value of  food produced in this manner… nutritionally, karmicly, and to sustain our planet into the future.

Spike: Triumphs?
Jules: Still here, still raising happy healthy chickens and still growing in scope and ability. Still having fun and enjoying our farm and our life. Still living and learning and what more can you ask?

Spike: You live in a tiny house — how is that?
Jules: We have our moments of wishing we could stay up… or go to sleep… and the other do her own thing. For the most part, though, our house is small under 300 square feet. We’re tiny by choice and it works for us. I’d do lots of things differently if we did it over again, like have a complete layout plan before building and have the electric and plumbing done before moving in, and use many more recycled materials. But we did the best we could, have learned along the way, and actually like our home.