The last farm location not working out was really the best thing that could have happened to us...
...as we are currently living in the Rio Grande Valley, not even half a mile from the Rio Grande on the FIRST EVER certified organic poultry farm in the USA, Pollo Real. Pollo Real has been doing Pastured Poultry since 1996 (20 YEARS) and has set a standard for pastured poultry operations across the country. Looking back, we are wondering why we didn't come here first when we have such a historic farm and incredibly knowledgeable farmer, Tom, an hour away from Albuquerque?! This is the older, experienced farmer we were meant to learn from...he knows everything about poultry.
We met Tom a few months ago and things really moved fast, things had to move fast - he'd been looking for a couple to come help out on the farm and we were farm-less, job-less, and not ready to give up on our dream. We met right after we closed things down at the last farm location, salvaged what we could but had to get out of there ...
We found some friends to rent out our house in the city and downsized all of our possessions...a really freeing feeling to live a more minimalist life (more on that later)!
By the end of May we were moved into an adorable little house Tom has on his 33 acre farm.
From Day 1 it was go, Go, GO! That very evening we had 60 turkeys hatching in the incubator and had to quickly adapt to Tom's specific system & rhythm of poultry farming.
The
second week, we irrigated the whole farm which was quite the learning
experience...such an ancient practice to flood the land, opening &
closing the dams and ditch turn-outs with the correct timing based on
how strong the current is. I was totally mesmerized by the whole
process. It took a FULL 24 hours, this meant from cleaning the ditch (I
chose a machete!) of all the over grown kochia weeds along the edges to
make a walkway, to waking up in the middle of the night to crank the
dam closed before we flooded out the breeder turkeys...even then we
closed the ditch too soon (out of fear of flooding the turkeys) and
didn't get the whole field as planned. Its a game of timing and that
takes several tries to know how fast the water flows across the fields.
Its incredible how much we've learned these past 2 months! We've had so many 'ah HA' moments where we realized what we were doing wrong at the other farm. Tom has seen it ALL, 20 seasons means at least 100,00 birds grazed across this property, he's been though all kinds of weather and any disaster that would have probably stopped anyone else from continuing on. But he's still at it, and I got to say for a 66 year old man he is incredibly agile & strong - this must be the healthy poultry he's eating!
Here we make do with what
we have and we take apart old things to make new ones: reduce, reuse,
recycle is the mantra. We use the 100 year old adobe structure
belonging to this property for the incubation room. We've hatched out
400 heritage turkeys now thanks to his trusted incubators &
hatchers. The heritage turkeys are a really special thing to be able to
produce and learn about. 90% of all turkeys on the market (in grocery
stores) are the 'broad breasted white' breed, the genetics that went
into engineering that breed are owned by only 2 big poultry
corporations. Heritage turkey means, these turkeys were wild turkeys
that have more recently been domesticated. They only breed/lay eggs for
a few months of the year so they can not be over-worked to produce, as
the industry uses/abuses them. These heritage breeds also grow into all
the beautiful colors & patterns that make wild turkeys so visually
striking. And as the pastured poultry model requires the turkeys get a
new patch of green grass everyday so the taste is like no other turkey
I've ever tasted.
The whole month of June I spent writing our grant proposal for the USDA Value-Added Producer Grant. For having never written a government grant proposal in my life, its hard to know whether I correctly formulated the proposal or if I totally missed the mark. Our proposal is to use grant funds to add value to our poultry, meaning making sausages, bone broth, and grilling chicken and turkey parts. This grant would help us pay for the costs involved in bringing these new products to market. This is a nationally competitive grant for farmers, there must've been many submissions across the country, so I will have my fingers crossed until we find out the results in September.
We've accomplished a lot & got to know each other pretty well so far, and its only the beginning. Tom's extensive knowledge and experience mixed with Cameron's butcher skills and strong work endurance and my organization have gotten us of to a great start. We can't wait to see what the future brings, all we know is this feels right and as long as it does we'll be here poultry farming in this magical place.
forever grateful*
jennifer
...as we are currently living in the Rio Grande Valley, not even half a mile from the Rio Grande on the FIRST EVER certified organic poultry farm in the USA, Pollo Real. Pollo Real has been doing Pastured Poultry since 1996 (20 YEARS) and has set a standard for pastured poultry operations across the country. Looking back, we are wondering why we didn't come here first when we have such a historic farm and incredibly knowledgeable farmer, Tom, an hour away from Albuquerque?! This is the older, experienced farmer we were meant to learn from...he knows everything about poultry.
We met Tom a few months ago and things really moved fast, things had to move fast - he'd been looking for a couple to come help out on the farm and we were farm-less, job-less, and not ready to give up on our dream. We met right after we closed things down at the last farm location, salvaged what we could but had to get out of there ...
We found some friends to rent out our house in the city and downsized all of our possessions...a really freeing feeling to live a more minimalist life (more on that later)!
By the end of May we were moved into an adorable little house Tom has on his 33 acre farm.
From Day 1 it was go, Go, GO! That very evening we had 60 turkeys hatching in the incubator and had to quickly adapt to Tom's specific system & rhythm of poultry farming.
 |
| it felt like a mile of ditch to clear! |
Its incredible how much we've learned these past 2 months! We've had so many 'ah HA' moments where we realized what we were doing wrong at the other farm. Tom has seen it ALL, 20 seasons means at least 100,00 birds grazed across this property, he's been though all kinds of weather and any disaster that would have probably stopped anyone else from continuing on. But he's still at it, and I got to say for a 66 year old man he is incredibly agile & strong - this must be the healthy poultry he's eating!
 |
| everybody snuggle! |
 |
| nomadic turkeys on pasture in their moveable 'yurts' |
The whole month of June I spent writing our grant proposal for the USDA Value-Added Producer Grant. For having never written a government grant proposal in my life, its hard to know whether I correctly formulated the proposal or if I totally missed the mark. Our proposal is to use grant funds to add value to our poultry, meaning making sausages, bone broth, and grilling chicken and turkey parts. This grant would help us pay for the costs involved in bringing these new products to market. This is a nationally competitive grant for farmers, there must've been many submissions across the country, so I will have my fingers crossed until we find out the results in September.
 |
We've accomplished a lot & got to know each other pretty well so far, and its only the beginning. Tom's extensive knowledge and experience mixed with Cameron's butcher skills and strong work endurance and my organization have gotten us of to a great start. We can't wait to see what the future brings, all we know is this feels right and as long as it does we'll be here poultry farming in this magical place.
forever grateful*
jennifer
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