Small sacle Farmily farm – Pradaria Farm

Guard Geese

October 13, 2013 Pradaria Farm1 Comment

A couple of seasons ago we lost a large portion of our turkeys and chickens to skunks (check out the post “It Ain’t Easy” for a better idea of what went down). It took some time and a lot of research to figure out what we needed to do to remedy this problem.

Chickens need and like to roost, and as it turns out it’s also their first defense. This was an easy fix–we just changed the way we house them.

Then we got a couple of geese because our research lead us to believe that their aggressive temperament would deter predators.

At first I wasn’t convinced that geese could perform this job and thought of them as just another mouth to feed. But we haven’t lost a turkey or a chicken since we added them.

I have often seen them cock their head to the side and stare up in to the sky. When I follow their line of sight, inevitably there is a hawk floating in the blue, and once in a while an airplane. Needless to say they will always have a place at Pradaria.

Grassland Turkey

September 27, 2013 Pradaria Farm2 Comments

Allowing turkeys to run and frolic in the grassland setting that encompasses our farm just really feels right. It’s often hard to imagine that turkeys could be raised in any other way; they are so well adapted to this lifestyle.

Spending up to four months on pasture their conditions range from ninety-degree summer days to the cold rain of a Rogue Valley fall. Even though we provide them with shelter they will often be found in the direct sun on a hot day looking for a tasty morsel or scouting out worms in the rain.

Blackberries and blackberry leaves, legumes, grasses and grass seeds, and the wayward cricket are just a few of the things I have seen turkeys eat. This does also include corn and grains because they need carbs like the rest of us. But when given a choice these birds love to forage.

Testimonial

August 11, 2013 Pradaria FarmLeave a comment

I have numerous food allergies and intolerances and have had problems with chicken (even organic). But Pradaria Farm chicken not only tastes wonderful it tastes clean and I never have a reaction to eating it. I eat it almost every day, in soups or roasted. And Pradaria Farm turkey is the absolute best turkey I’ve ever eaten…tender, flavorful…amazing!

Evelyn Ward

Shape of the Egg

June 2, 2013 Pradaria Farm1 Comment

Uniformity is an industrial ideal, not something that is regularly found on a farm, and perfection is often the way in which food is presented in grocery stores. But nature has other ideas. If they’re grown organically, there are sometimes spots on apples, eggs that are crinkled, and holes chewed in lettuce.

These are some of the eggs that didn’t make it into the egg cartons that we sell, for no other reason than that they aren’t the size and shape that we, as consumers, associate with eggs. But they are in keeping with nature’s infinite diversity and (trust me) they are still just as tasty. I had no idea that eggs came in different shapes and sizes until I started raising chickens on a larger-than-backyard scale, and a lot of the eggs that grace my table look like this.