Most years, deposits are nonrefundable. This year, due to volatile supply chains, I am doing it a little bit differently. Deposits will be non-refundable at the stated price, but price is subject to change. What this means, is that if you commit to a turkey at $7/lb, and I am able to keep that price, you are committed to that animal at that price. If I need to raise the price, to $7.50/lb, I will let you know one month before your pickup date and you will have a week to get your deposit amount back if you no longer would like your animal at that price.
Supply chains are just too volatile right now to lock myself into a price at the beginning of the season. A couple years ago I learned a valuable lesson about my pre-order system. I made my 2021 prices based on 2020 costs, and then pandemic related supply chain issues brought the cost of feed up 35% from 2020 to 2021. With the pre-order system, I was locked into those prices. Going forward, I am hoping to avoid that same scenario, so the farm can bring in the profits needed to continue growing the business.
Poultry will be sold whole. Pork will be sold as half or quarter pigs. In future years, I may have the ability to sell cuts, but for now I do not have the proper infrastructure to create and store cuts for sale.
Cash
Check (made out to Five Forks Farm)
Please send to Five Forks Farm at PO Box 1532, Boulder, UT 84716
You can absolutely visit your animals. Seeing the animals will be by appointment only, to respect the landowners who are sharing their space for this operation.
The animals are raised on organic, chemical free pastureland. I do not give them hormones, vaccinations, appetite stimulants, etc. They do not receive regular antibiotics, and I use holistic healthcare methods, but in the case of a suffering animal, I might employ the use of minimal doses of antibiotics to save a life. At a certain point a suffering animal is an animal welfare issue.
These animals spend their life outside, eating grass, pecking/scratching, grazing/rooting. Their feed is not organic. This is a tricky one for me. I would love to use organic feed, and if I could find a mill nearby with a great option I would be happy to pay the extra price for that feed, and I hope you would be too. Switching to IFA organic is not enough of an improvement for me. Our remote location means there are very limited options within a days drive. Looking forward, I would love to find a small mill that makes a great organic feed that we could all feel good about. I am open to suggestions on this if anyone has them!
Chicks and poults come from whichever hatchery has the right combination of breeds, shipping availability, and ethics. Right now that is Myers Poultry in Pennsylvania. I have looked into hatcheries that are closer (Idaho, Oregon) but have not found availability among the breeds I am comfortable raising. I will continue to check back in future seasons.
Piglets this year came from a man named Scott up in Nibley, UT, and a farm called Hale Land and Livestock up in Idaho.
There are conversations in the works about breeding animals here in town, which would greatly benefit Boulder farmers, animals, and consumers, but there's a lot that needs to happen between now and then.
I am raising the breeds that I think are best suited to sustainable pastured pork and poultry production. As this project evolves, the breeds may shift.
I am really excited about the Kosher King chickens, especially, and hope to continue raising them. They are great meat producers but maintain a more natural disposition and growth rate than more industrially manipulated chickens.
I am certainly considering heritage breed turkeys as an option. For right now, I'd like to raise one breed only, and Broad Breasted Bronze checks almost all of the boxes for me. Scaling up may create more potential for diversity, so we may see both options in future years.
I have been actively seeking out Berkshire pigs within driving distance for the past few years and am so glad to have finally found some. Berkshire pork is truly unmatched in flavor and I'm so excited to be raising them for us!
The chickens and turkeys are processed on farm (by myself and a group of volunteers).
The pigs legally need to be processed at a state inspected facility. The closest one to us is Beehive Pack in Salina.
We can have that conversation! There are a few factors that make some properties better suited to this project than others, but I am open to possibilities.
Email me at elena.fiveforks@gmail.com and we can set up a time to discuss.
Five Forks Farm vs. Conventional
-Natural growth rate vs. routine hormones
-Plant based remedies (immuno-stimulant) vs. antibiotics (immuno-depressant)
-Full beak VS. debeaked to prevent confinement cannibalism
-Fresh, varied forage vs. no green material or bugs
-Act like chickens, scratch and peck vs. no opportunity to scratch and peck at the earth
-Plenty of exerise vs. almost no exercise
-Small groups (80) vs. huge groups (10,000+)
-Rest at night vs. 24/7 artificial light
-Low in saturated fat vs. high in saturated fat
-No chlorine baths before packaging vs. up to 40 chlorine baths before packaging
-No processing injections vs. routine processing injections (tenderizers, dyes)
-Supports local farmers vs. money in the pocket of big ag business, very little to the farmer
-Robust flavor vs. flat flavor
Five Forks Farm vs. conventional
-Natural growth rate vs. routine hormones
-Plant based remedies (immuno-stimulant) vs. antibiotics (immuno-depressant)
-Fresh, varied forage + variety of food scraps vs. unvaried diet - corn heavy
-Plenty of exercise vs. almost no exercise
-Act like pigs, root around vs. no opportunity to root in the earth
-Rest at night vs. 24/7 artificial light
-No processing injections vs. water/salt/chemicals injected into meat to replace flavor
-Supports local farmers vs. money in the pocket of big ag business, very little to the farmer
-Heritage breeds vs. industrially manipulated breeds
-Robust flavor vs. flat flavor