Cedar Meadow Farm

OUR PRODUCTS

At Cedar Meadow Farm, we offer a wide variety of meat products. On this page, you will learn more about what you can buy here at the farm and why these choices are better than anything you could purchase at the supermarket.

WHAT WE OFFER

Throughout the course of the year, we have the following items available for sale: laying hens, stewing hens, broiler chickens, pork, turkey, rabbit, and beef. Click here for a complete price list.

We introduced our CSA in 2008 and it was met with resounding enthusiasm. We have decided to expand the number of shares available in 2009. The six month CSA will run from June through November and includes broiler chickens, rabbit, pork, lamb, grass-fed beef and will culminate in a Heritage Breed Turkey for Thanksgiving. The three month CSA will run from June through August and include three kinds of broiler chicken, rabbit, grass-fed beef and pork. We are accepting applicants on a first-come first-serve basis. Please e-mail us for additional information. (info@cedarmeadowfarm.net)

Many folks have difficulty choosing which of our delicious items they want to take home with them. To help in the decision making process, we have put together four fantastic packages, each featuring different products available on the farm. Please note that these packages are not available year round and pre-ordering is necessary.

Pork Sampler

In response to requests for individual cuts of pork, we introduced the "Pork Sampler" early last year. This has been one of our best selling items. This package includes some of your favorite pork cuts: smoked ham steaks, bacon, pork chops, country style ribs, bacon, sweet sausage, breakfast sausage, and kielbasa. All our meat is smoked without nitrates. You can expect to receive ~18 lbs of meat in this package.

The Griller’s Special – NEW FOR 2009!

Many people don’t have enough room to accommodate a ½ or even a ¼ cow, so we’ve introduced this package into our product lineup. This package features items we love too cook on the grill: a T-Bone Steak, 2 semi-boneless ribeye steaks, two packages each of two varieties of hamburger: ground round and ground chuck, and two packages of our extremely popular all-beef, nitrate free hot dogs. (Please note that our steaks are cut extra thick, approximately 1.25”)

A Taste of the Farm – ONLY AVAILABLE JUNE THROUGH AUGUST 2009

This package has a little bit of nearly everything we have to offer on the farm. You can expect to find two of our popular broiler chickens, ground beef, all-beef nitrate free hot dogs, our delicious kielbasa, a dozen chicken eggs, ½ dozen duck eggs, and a rabbit.

Turducken Feast

Here is another bold new idea from Cedar Meadow Farm. You will receive one each of our pastured turkeys, ducks, and chickens along with complete instructions on how to prepare the meal of a lifetime! To help you craft the best stuffing possible, we will also include some of our delicious Italian sausage. Due to limited resources available here at the farm and our commitment to the health and safety of your food, your poultry will be frozen when you receive it. This item will be available for pick up the week prior to Thanksgiving.

Click here for a complete price list.

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WHAT OUR ANIMALS EAT

All of our animals are fed the highest quality feeds available. We are working towards sourcing as much of our feeds as possible from local sources. We’re not there yet, but we are certainly well on our way!

Though all our poultry (layer hens, broiler chickens, ducks, and turkeys) are pasture raised and have free access to forage in the pasture, it is necessary to supplement their diet with a complete feed ration. Our poultry feed is milled at the Nutrena Feed Mill in Franklin CT and is entirely vegetarian based. There are no animal by-products included in their feed. Please note that chickens, ducks, and turkeys are not vegetarians though! They consume vast quantities of insects and worms and we have even found chickens fighting over a rather unfortunate frog. In the colder weather, their diet is supplemented with whole corn, to help replace energy they use to stay warm.

Our pigs are also pasture raised. We have just begun a new pasture rotation system that will bring them through pastures as well as woodlands. A pig’s native habitat is woodlands, and our pigs especially enjoy the windfall of acorns and beech nuts our trees provide each fall. These nuts, also known as mast, lend an incredible taste to the meat. In fact, in areas of Europe, cured hams from mast-finished pigs can fetch hundreds of dollars per pound. In addition to enjoying nuts in the fall and winter, we also provide our pigs with whole milk (hormone and antibiotic free of course!) from a local dairy.

The sheep enjoy our grass in the spring/summer/fall and hay from Geer Hill Farm here in Ledyard in the winter months. Our ewes are offered a small amount of a complete feed when they are gestating and during lactation. As the young lambs are growing, we offer them handfuls of grain occasionally to try and keep them tame. They’ve also been known to steal a few bits of feed from their moms! Because we do feed small amounts of feed, our lambs can not be sold as “grass fed”.

The beef we sell at Cedar Meadow Farm is not grown here. We purchase our beef from Buy Back Farm located just a few miles down the road in North Stonington CT. The owner of the farm, Susan Main, produces an excellent product. All beef is from Hereford/Angus crosses and have been raised under Susan’s watchful eye from the moment of their birth. This combination (Angus bull with Hereford cow) is considered to be one of the finest crosses for small, grass based farmers seeking to produce a high-quality product. Herefords are well renowned for their ability to convert grass to muscle and produce a very lean meat. They are also docile and excellent to work around. Angus are well known for the flavor of their meat. By combining the features of both varieties of cows, you get a product that grows well on grass and produces a lean, flavorful meat. The animals we purchase are approximately 2 years old and have enjoyed grass in the summer months with hay and silage fed to them in the winter months. These animals are NOT fed any grain. As a result, you will find their meat to be much leaner and every cut has excellent flavor.

LIVE ANIMALS

We will again have hen-house ready chicks this year and are planning to offer: white leghorns, Plymouth Barred Rocks, Dominiques, and everyone's favorite, Aracuna/Americauna. In line with our committment to preserve heritage breeds, nearly all of these birds are on the Conservation Priority List of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. We had a fabulous reception to our birds last year and look forward to including our own “home-bred” birds this year.

We are tentatively planning on offering heritage turkey poults again this year. These birds will be approximately 12-15 weeks old and will cost $35 each.

We regret to inform you that we will not be offering any Tamworth Feeder Pigs during the spring of 2009. We hope to have a few available for sale in the summer/fall timeframe.

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If you scroll down, you can find an overview of the types of chickens, turkeys, pork, and rabbit we will be raising this year and get a better understanding of why we chose these breeds.

OUR EGG LAYERS

Our layer flock consists of a wide variety of species, ranging from Dominiques to Rhode Island Reds. Truthfully, many of our birds are pretty to look at but not very effective egg layers. Though we like to maintain a variety of species of birds, we have decided to focus on Dominiques, New Hampshire Reds, and White Leghorns for the bulk of our eggs. However, we are also cultivating a flock of Aracunas and Welsummers to offer a unique color assortment of eggs. Aracunas lay eggs ranging in color from blue to purple and Welsummers lay an incredibly dark brown egg - almost chocolate in color.

Why have we chosen these breeds?

The choice of Dominiques was easy, they are a calm, dual purpose breed with a Rose Comb and lay brown eggs. The rose comb is especially advantageous because they are not prone to frostbite on their comb and wattles. Best of all, they are very attractive with their barred markings. To learn more about this breed, visit the oklahoma state website at http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/poultry/chickens/dominiques/index.htm. You can also visit the Dominique Club of America at http://dominiquechickens.org/

New Hampshire Reds were chosen mostly for sentimental purposes. They are excellent layers and quite attractive to look at. In general, they have a great disposition and we feel our location in New England makes us obligated to keep these gals around. To learn more about this breed, visit the oklahoma state website at http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/poultry/chickens/index.htm

Because both the Dominiques and New Hampshire Reds are dual purpose, they will make an excellent addition to the stew pot when their egg-laying days are over.

White Leghorns are somewhat flighty, are prone to frostbite on their magnificent wattles and combs, and don't offer much in the way of meat when they are no longer suitable for egg laying. Not exactly user-friendly but what they lack in personality and maintence, they make up for in prodigious egg-laying. They lay white eggs nearly year round. Best of all, they are just plain fun too look at! Seeing them dart around the pasture reminds us of little dinosaurs skitting about.

As for the Aracunas and Welsummers, well, we really got them for just plain fun. The Aracunas are currently on the watch list for the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy whereas the Welsummers are not listed by the ALBC.

Last year, we also raised Blue Andalusians. These birds are listed by the ALBC as critical, meaning there are fewer than 500 breeding birds in the United States, with five or fewer primary breeding flocks (50 birds or more), and globally endangered. These beautiful blue fowl originated in Andalusia, a province of Spain, but have long been known in England and the United States. They are magnificent to look at with their graceful, stately carriage and delicately blue-laced plumage; and this marks them as an especially fine breed for exhibition. The ideal feather color is a beautiful slatey blue with a narrow lacing of darker blue.

OUR BROILERS

In the past, we have relied exclusively on cornish rock crosses. These are almost the exact same animal most commercial producers use. Although this is contrary to our strong feelings about heritage breeding, they do provide a uniform product with an excellent feed to growth ratio. They grow quickly with a very large breast and quite a bit of white meat. These little critters could grow ready for market in 6 to 8 weeks, we don't allow them to grow that quickly - our conscience just won't let us do that (Never mind all of the leg problems that ensue). Besides, the slower they grow, the more flavor they will have.

We still carry a few Cornish Rock Crosses, but we are moving the majority of our production over to a new variety of broiler - the Freedom Ranger. These guys are imported from Canada and have the same genetics as the animals used in France's Label Rouge program. They will take nearly 3 months to get to market size. Though not a heritage breed, they are closely related to the heritage breeds and more importantly, we are taking one very large step away from the factory farms. Please take a moment to visit thier website at www.freedomrangers.net.

This year, we will also offer a heritage breed variety of broiler chicken: the Plymouth Barred Rock. It has taken us a long time to source quality breeding stock that will provide us with birds that exhibit the genotype and phenotype that our ancestors worked so hard to perfect. We are excited to add this offering to our product line up.

OUR TURKEYS

Did you know that commercial strains of turkeys are unable to reproduce without artificial insemination? Sure, they may be big breasted, uniform in size,grow quickly, and have excellent feed conversion - but as far as we are concerned, they are almost unnatural. Not just any turkey can be considered a heritage breed. After our first year of heritage breed turkey production, we have decided to focus our flock on three variaties: the Wishard Bronze, Bourbon Reds, and the Narragansett. In addition, we still have our pet Slate Gray Tom "Fluffy".

Slate Gray

Our first experience with the Slate Gray variety was with a classroom project. Mrs. Jeffrey's first grade class at Ledyard Center School. We were allowed to come into the classroom and hatch turkeys. We weren't very successful as we had some trouble with the incubator but did end up hatching three of twelve chicks. The favorite of these three ended up being Fluffy - a slate gray. Fluffy has proven to be even tempered and beautiful. She's even made trips back to several classrooms at Thanksgiving time as part of an educational program! Slate Grays tend to be a bit on the smaller size and slow to mature but their temperament makes them a well-liked addition to the farm. In addition to being wonderful animals, they are also listed as critical by the American Livestock Breed Conservancy. What does this mean? It means there are fewer than 500 breeding birds in the United States, with five or fewer primary breeding flocks (50 birds or more), and globally endangered.

Bourbon Red

Bourbon Reds are one of the most popular breeds used in pastured poultry endeavours such as our own. Fortunately, the Bourbon Red is in much better condition then the Slate Gray. It is on the Watch List, meaning there are fewer than 5,000 breeding birds in the United States, with ten or fewer primary breeding flocks, and globally endangered.

Naragansett

(this content blatently plagerized from the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy - http://albc-usa.org/cpl/narragansett.html)

The Narragansett turkey is named for Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, where the variety was developed. It descends from a cross between native Eastern Wild turkeys and the domestic turkeys (probably Norfolk Blacks) brought to America by English and European colonists beginning in the 1600’s. Improved and standardized for production qualities, the Narragansett became the foundation of the turkey industry in New England. Though it was valued across the country, it was especially important in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The American Poultry Association recognized the Narragansett in 1874.

TAMWORTH PIGS

Our pigs have provided us with hours of entertainment. Their natural curiosity and intelligence is a delight to observe. They are wonderful little creatures and serve many purposes beyond the dinner table or barbeque pit. Last year, the pigs helped us cultivate (and fertilize) two new gardens.

The specific origins of the Tamworth are somewhat sketchy, but without a doubt, they are a product of the British Isles. There are some who believed they originated in Ireland and were brought over to Tamworth England (in Staffordshire) where they were bred quite extensively. Though best known as a "Bacon Hog", the Tamworth is an excellent source of lean pork.

You can find a great summary of the Tamworth pig on the following website: http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/swine/tamworth/

OUR RABBITS

We have just started our fledgling rabbitry. We have chosen to raise Giant Chinchillas - currently listed on the ALBC "watch" list. They are beautiful and have quiet, gentle temperaments. Though we do breed our rabbits for the dinner table, any one of these rabbits would make the perfect pet.

OUR SHEEP

We are pleased to have three ewes on the farm, two of which are beautiful scottish black face sheep. We will have grass-fed lamb ready for that special meal in Fall 2008.