Q: Tell me about your gardens and farm?

A: We’re a small, naturally grown market garden. We raise heirloom produce, free-range and pastured chickens, and many types of medicinal and culinary herbs. We maintain a commitment to pesticide, herbicide and chemical fertilizer free growing practices and consider it something of a mission to maintain a diversity of heirloom, open-pollinated and GMO-free seed.

Our farm consists of the homestead where we live, my family’s adjacent farm, and leased land about 150 yards down the road. We grow a wide variety of vegetables and fruit for the market, as well as broiler chickens for meat and free-range hens for eggs.

Q:  How did you become a farmer?

A: We moved to this property four growing seasons ago. At that point, I had nearly a decade’s experience in organic gardening – mostly ornamentals, but also home vegetable gardening, and I had also worked in the horticulture field, both landscaping and nursery work. It just seemed natural that with all this land at my disposal—more than I had ever had before—I would start growing something. That first year, I started a bio-intensive vegetable plot with about 1000 square feet of beds. It wasn’t very long before I was drowning in vegetables, so I set up a little table with an umbrella by the side of the road, started selling the surplus and Quite Contrary Gardens was born.

Since then, we’ve expanded a little bit every season, bringing more land under cultivation, adding chickens, selling at the farmers’ market and soon we’ll be adding goats and ducks.

Q: Is there any historical farming connection to the land on which it is situated?

A: My parents purchased this land back in the nineties. It was a working chicken farm at the time, and they transitioned it to a horse farm and now I am leading it into diversified food production. So, no, there is no generational connection to this particular plot of land. However, as our family has had English ancestors settled in this town for at least 230 years and our native ancestors were here many thousands of years before that, we do have an incredibly intense connection to this area and a profound sense of place. Although my parents did not own this land, or any land at all, when I was born, we’re now settled only five miles from where my great-great grandfather farmed 100 acres in the early 20th century. That awareness of my ancestral connection to this area makes me extremely grateful to be able to carry on their agricultural traditions.

Q: Why do you think farming is so important?

A: There is the obvious reason that “everybody needs to eat.” But, farming is important for many more reasons. Farming and agriculture can be a large part of the solution to some of the most urgent problems our society faces. Agriculture, especially pasture-raised meats and dairy, can be a huge mitigating factor in climate change because a healthy pasture is an enormous carbon sink. Ecological agriculture and permaculture can reverse soil loss, water table pollution, and the growing dead zones that are afflicting nearly every major body of water in the US. Agriculture and farming could be—and should be!—on the front-lines of America’s food and health crisis; obesity, under-nutrition, diabetes, cancer, chronic disease, depression and so much more can be relieved

Q:  I see you sell seeds? What made you decide to sell seeds?

A: Selling seeds on Local Harvest was a bit of an experiment this past season and the response has been great. It’s definitely an area where we’ll be expanding in the future! I have always been a bit obsessed with seeds themselves. I am amazed that such a tiny, seemingly uninteresting little thing can transform into a beautiful flower, an eighty-foot tree, or a table full of food.

I began saving my own seeds years ago and trading them with other gardeners in my area, and later with people across the country who I met through online gardening forums like gardenweb.com and davesgarden.com. Expanding our business to incorporate seeds feels like a great, smart step right now and it always gives me a thrill to know that the seeds from a plant I collected here in Delaware may grow in a garden all the way across the continent next season. Also, I have been working over the past two years as a bit of an amateur plant breeder, so hopefully I will someday be able to introduce my own varieties onto the market!

Q:  Among other things, you have chickens on your farm. Tell me about your farming practices with the chickens?

A: We raise chickens for two purposes on the farm. The first is for eggs. We keep a flock of heritage breed hens (mostly Barred Rock, though I am adding some Ameraucana in for the blue/green eggs) that are allowed to free range most of the time. I think hens that are allowed to express their natural instincts and preferences will produce the healthiest eggs for human consumption because they are living the way nature designed them and eating the things their bodies developed to eat. Much of our property is wooded swampland, and since chickens are descended from a southeast Asian jungle fowl, I find they spend much of the day under the trees scratching up worms and grubs. Between the woods and the pasture, my summer feed bills for the hens are practically zero.

We also raise broilers. These we order every spring from the breeder and raise outside in portable pens for a little over three months before slaughtering them for meat. I don’t like to give them full free range access because they are still very small and vulnerable to predators for much of that time, but keeping them fenced in on pasture allows them to express their natural behaviors, like scratching and dust bathing, while also giving them the ability to forage on grass and bugs.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on the French Label Rouge program and have been experimenting with different feeds and finishes for my broilers to try to create an artisan quality meat bird.

Q: What is a typical day on like tending to the chickens?

A: In the winter, it’s pretty easy. First thing in the morning, I let them out of the coop and into the run, feed them and make sure they have water. A little later in the day, I’ll make a judgment call as to whether or not to let them out to free range. Because predator pressure is greater in the winter, I try to balance the benefits of free range with the risks and if I’ve seen predators in the area—like foxes, raccoons or hawks—I’ll keep them inside their run. If the weather dips below freezing, I have to make sure to go out several times a day to break the ice out of the waterer.

In the spring and summer things are a bit busier. If we have chicks in the brooder, they have to be monitored closely to make sure the heat is right and they always have clean water (they are infamous for finding a way to poop in just about any waterer) and plenty of food. If they are too cold or run out of food or water, they can panic and pile on top of each other, suffocating the chicks on the bottom. Older chicks will need to be let out onto pasture in portable pens that are moved to a new spot daily.

Once the sun starts to set, the chickens are locked up for the night to protect them from predators.

Q: I love funny stories: What was one of the funniest things that happened on your farm involving your chickens?

A: It’s always hilarious just to sit and watch the chickens interact with each other—I can just look at them for hours, especially when they are little. Little cockerels, especially, are amusing because they are always trying to tussle with something. They’re either play-fighting with each other, which is a riot to watch because they are so cute and tiny, but take themselves so seriously, or they are play-fighting with something else, most notably an antique Rain King garden sprinkler they like to jump on and attack.

But probably the funniest thing that happens is when I hear an urgent knock at the front door and rush to open it—only to find that my caller is a hungry hen pecking on the door looking for treats! A few of the hens are social enough that they’ll try to come in the house with us, too.

Q: What do you wish people knew about chickens?

A: I wish more people understood just how lively and interesting chickens are. They each have their own personality. They have feelings, wants and needs. They are intensely curious animals and very sociable. I admit that growing up, I always thought chickens were dirty, stupid animals because the only exposure I ever had to them were the production broilers packed with tens of thousands of others in the local chicken houses and sitting in their own filth. I had to learn from raising them myself just how awesome they really are!

I think it is often easier to ignore the atrocious conditions we, as a society, raise 99% of our chickens in because they are thought of as somehow “less” than pigs or cattle because they are not mammals. But the fact is, they are unique individuals. They feel pain and fear, as well as happiness and joy. They can form very strong bonds with each other; often a pair of hens will become “best friends” and do everything together and of something happens to one, the other will noticeably sulk. We need to have more respect for chickens. We need to treat them better.

Q: What do you think is the biggest misconception about naturally raised chickens?

A: I think the biggest misconception is that naturally-raised chicken is tough and dry. When raised well and slaughtered at the right age, it’s actually extremely moist and flavorful, with a great, firm but not tough flesh.

I think there is also a misconception that chickens are herbivores. I often see labels on supermarket chicken claiming they were fed “all-vegetarian feed.” Chickens naturally eat a wide variety of things- from seeds and grasses to bugs and grubs to the occasional frog or mouse.

Q: I’ve noticed that the meat on hormone/naturally/grain fed meat is much richer and firmer. What do you think are the differences between mass-produced chickens and free-range or naturally raised?

A: There are several factors that influence taste and texture of free-range and pastured chickens. The first is breed. Most production broilers in the US are Cornish X, a very fast-growing, heavy breasted bird. We choose to raise heritage breeds instead. These have a different body conformation: proportional white to dark meat, breast meat on a long keel rather than unnaturally plumped up. The heritage breeds also take longer to mature and flavor develops with age. Supermarket chicken is slaughtered at seven weeks of age. We don’t slaughter until 14 weeks or so.

Diet is also a big factor in taste. Commercial broilers are fed a basic diet of corn/soy throughout their lives. A chicken on pasture will be fed some grain (chickens are naturally gramnivorous) but grasses and other plants, seeds, insects, worms and grubs will make up a large portion of their diet. The result is a meat with much more depth of flavor, and also much more variability. The chicken you get from one farm may have a totally different taste than chicken you get somewhere else. It all depends on the mix of flora and fauna in that one particular place.

Exercise is the final factor in the taste and texture of chickens raised on pasture. Instead of being locked in a barn or being too unnaturally fat to walk more than a few steps, heritage breed chickens on pasture are very active. Because of that, they have more dark meat than a supermarket chicken and it is normally of a deeper color. Because meat is muscle, and the muscles of free-range chickens are constantly in use, it also has a firmer bite, which I find to be a very pleasant change from the watery-tasting, mushy meat on commercial chicken.

Q: What do you think the future of chicken farming is?

A: I see two futures for chicken farming, and I don’t know which one will prevail. Recent history has seen a great amount of consolidation in the industry. Fewer farmers are growing a greater number of birds under increasingly industrial conditions. The newest broiler houses hold up to 40,000 chickens, each with only .75 square feet of floor space. If this model of production continues, the future of chicken farming is stuffing ever-increasing numbers of birds into ever-decreasing space, isolating them from sunlight and fresh air and feeding them a steady diet of drugs just to keep them alive for their seven week grow out period.

The other future for chicken farming is decentralization. It is many smaller farmers raising birds in a socially and ecologically sound manner, in the sunshine and on a natural diet, and with enough room to move. It is healthy birds, healthy farms and healthy communities. But it is going to take a lot of community support to get chicken farming back there. Currently, the industrial model has the upper hand and continues to expand while small, independent chicken farmers suffer from a lack of infrastructure, like rural slaughterhouses and shipping to larger markets. The only way the second vision is going to become a reality is if the consumer demands it and supports it with their buying power.

Q: Do you have a chicken recipe you’d like to share with us?

A: One of my favorites is an African Chicken Stew. You can adapt it to just about anything you have fresh on hand throughout the season.

African Chicken Stew

INGREDIENTS

1 Broiler chicken, quartered

1 TBSP Olive oil

1 onion

2 potatoes (you can also add any other root vegetable you have)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 small bunch kale (or any other leafy green)

1.5 cups cooked garbanzo beans

2 TSP ground cumin seed

1 TSP ground coriander seed

1 TSP red pepper flakes (or hot sauce)

.75 cups unsweetened, unsalted peanut butter

1 cup water

salt & black pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Brown chicken quarters in olive oil over med-high heat & remove from pan.
2. Reduce heat to med-low & add onion & potato. Sautee until onion begins to soften-3 to 4 minutes. Add garlic & seasonings
3. Return chicken to the pan, add kale and enough water to braise and raise heat. Cover and let cook 15-10 minutes, stirring occasionally
4. Add garbanzo beans & peanut butter, stir in well. Cover and cook another 10-15 minutes until potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through. Serve over rice

Visit Joya’s Blog online at: Quite Contrary Garden and Homestead
Find her on twitter: @kubileya
View her Local Harvest Listing: View Listing