sign up
to receive our email newsletter
Pastured Meats from Riverdog Farm
Over a twenty-year span, Tim Mueller and Trini Campbell of Riverdog Farm have built a reputation for growing excellent quality produce on their diverse 300-acre farm in the Capay Valley. Lesser known are their newer ventures to incorporate meat animals into their certified organic farming system, raising pastured hogs starting in 2006 and within the last year chickens.
In the Fall of 2009, Riverdog, already an accomplished producer of layer hens began raising two types of meat chickens — Cornish hens which are larger sized with white, juicy breasts and Red Broilers, also called Poulet Rouge, a leaner bird known for its darker fat and great flavor. The birds are rotated around a permanent alfalfa pasture, housed in mesh enclosed “hut” constructed on the farm with a metal frame and partially covered by a roof. Each hut comfortably holds twenty chickens and can be moved by hand around the foraging pasture. Trini says the birds love “access to really leafy forage,” enthusiastically pecking at fresh plants when moved in the morning.
The chicks are held in mobile coops and moved every morning for fresh food throughout the day. The chickens are raised until they are about 10 weeks and weigh 3 ½ to 6 pounds. Although the animals are certified organic, both the chicken and the pork are processed in non-organic facilities, therefore, the meat products are not certified organic.
Riverdog chicken and pork are among the cleanest and healthiest sources of protein available. The chickens have plenty of space and access to eat their natural diet and live free of stress. This makes a world of difference in their health and taste. Eating clean and healthy protein is an important way to prevent disease and increase daily energy.
Another essential reason Riverdog’s pastured chicken and pork are an excellent source of protein in your diet is because they are free of antibiotics. Over half of the antibiotics fed to mass-produced farm animals including chickens are identical to the ones administered to humans. As has become widely known, overuse of such antibiotics can lead to strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics, diminishing the effectiveness of an important tool for treating human infections.
The Farm Shop is pleased to make Riverdogs meat products available to our FarmShares members. Click here to see what’s currently in stock. The meats are delivered frozen. The chickens are available as a “whole bird” — before cooking remove the head and feet to make a wonderfully flavorful and gelatinous soup stock.
Learn more about Riverdog’s pastured meats on their Hog Blog and Coop Scoop.
Related posts: