in other news...

We would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support. It really means more than you know. We realize that this is just a bump in the road and we're trying to focus on the positive.

So, speaking of the positive, here is the article about us in the current issue of Table Magazine. Ironically, we had just had a very bad incident on the new farm the day the photo was taken which made us begin to questions whether we'd made the right decision to move there but we tried to smile as if all was well. Obviously, you can ignore the part about our new location!

You'll notice that the article is way too small to read. I could make it bigger but it wouldn't fit on the page. There were 2 other egg producers featured in the article and the text from the part of the article that's about us is at the bottom.

The super awesome photos are by the super awesome Heather Mull. Enjoy.

ON THE MICRO-FARM by Cynthia Navadeh

Happy hens. More like pets than livestock, 85 hens
come a-running to greet Nate and Kristen Johanson.
Their soft clucks blend into a joyful chorus that is
nothing akin to the strident bwaa-awk! of cartoon soundtracks.

“If it weren’t for the fence, they’d follow us
around the farm,“ Kristen says, cuddling one brown
hen while another flaps up to Nate’s shoulder. “We
are very fond of them.“

It is two years since Nate, a former toy designer,
and Kristen, a massage therapist, launched careers
as organic farmers, after growing disenchanted with
factory farm-based food chains. Today, they raise
small flocks of chickens for meat and eggs.

Hen heaven must be like this: an endless supply
of organic grain, a heated water trough, a roomy
enclosure in which to scratch for bugs. Come warm
weather, the chickens will be moved to fresh pasture
every day or so and roost in portable hen houses
at night. These practices result in healthier, more
flavorful food, the Johansons say.

There’s not much money in this kind of farming,
but Nate and Kristen cite freedom and good eating as
non-monetary compensation. “I’m rich,“ Nate says.

Meat chickens, raised May-October, may be
fast-growing and broad-breasted Cornish Crosses or
the less common Red Rangers, with smaller breasts
and more dark meat than typical supermarket fowl.
Last year, the Johansons sold about 1,500 meat birds,
each ready-to-cook bird weighing 4 to 6 pounds.

Egg production, at its summer peak, will total five
to six dozen a day. The egg layers, raised year-round,
include Red Stars, White Leghorns and Araucanas,
known for friendly dispositions and pale blue eggs.

After two years, those happy hens are slaughtered
and sold as stewing chickens. That’s the way it has to
be on a farm, but Nate and Kristen have soft hearts:
last year, they each chose one favorite hen to keep.