Continuing my search for local sustainable farmers I came across a farm located in Holden, MA (62 miles from my home) called Lilac Hedge Farm. Their website has a ton of information on their practices and farming philosophies. If you want transparency then this website should have all the information you need.
One of the most interesting aspects of the website is the transparency of killing and processing process. You don’t find that on most websites but on this farm’s website they don’t shy away from it. It’s a good thing to raise animals in a natural way and an even better thing to ensure that they are slaughtered in as humanely a manner as possible. Here is the section from Lilac Hedge Farm’s website on how they process their animals (link here) – not for the faint of heart! I won’t go into the details of animal processing here – but one of the points that caught my attention is that Lilac Hedge Farms processes their beef at Adams Farm in Athol, MA (83 miles from my home). This processing facility is the only facility in New England to have livestock holding pens designed by Temple Grandin who is regarded as the world’s foremost authority in the humane handling of animals. For those that have not heard of Temple Grandin, she is an autism spokesperson (she is on the autism spectrum), a leading expert on livestock cognitive behavior, consultant to the livestock industry, prolific author and Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. I recommend that if you want to learn more about her check out her Wikipedia page. She has worked extensively with slaughterhouses to help design a more ‘humane’ experience during the slaughter process. Below is a quote from the wiki page from Temple Grandin which resonated with me:
“I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life, and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animals respect”
So one Saturday morning in September I took my eldest son to Roslindale Farmers Market (6 miles from my house) to seek out the Lilac Hedge Farms stand. The stand was very busy this Saturday when we were there. The women at the register said they raise all their own animals (beef, chicken, pork, lamb) and she usually worked on the farm. The photo below also shows their pricing. For comparison, their chicken breasts are $11.99/lb compared to $14.50 on Crowd Cow plus you also have to pay shipping(here is a link to my recent article on Crowd Cow).
I bought a pack of chicken drumsticks, thighs and boneless breast (I wanted all the parts to cook a chicken curry – need to bones for the gravy!) plus a pork butt roast (which I will smoke and make pulled pork) and some skirt steak (for fajitas).
Later that day I was preparing the chicken for the chicken curry. I opened the pack of chicken breast(s) and found that the pack was actually one breast. I had written before about how the chicken breasts I had bought from the Marble Creek Farmstead though Crowd Cow were so much smaller than you buy from the supermarket – most likely due to the fact that they were not grown with hormones. However this chicken breasts was much larger but not as large as a supermarket chicken breast. I looked up the websites of both farms and both state that they raise Cornish broilers for chicken meat. I guess MA chickens naturally grow larger than AL chickens?
(BTW the chicken curry was delicious – kids ate all their dinner!)
The Evolution of a Selective Flexitarian 
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