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Pasture-Raised, Milk-Fed |
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FAQ |
Hurry Burry Farm and Fiber |
Wool and Fiber
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1. How did you come up with the name Hurry Burry Farm? A. Hurry Burry is a song on Scottish Fiddle player Bonnie Rideout's "Gi’me Elbow Room: Songs from a Scottish Childhood" It's a terriffic album that we and our kids have loved for years. It has a permanent place in the CD changer. Oh, such a hurry-burry, We had a chance to meet her at the McHenry Celtic Festival where she has performed the last several years. 2. Milk-fed? What does that mean and where does the milk come from? A. Quite simply it means our livestock - pigs, chickens, turkeys, etc. get copious helpings of milk in addition to their water and regular feed. We have found that they all head right for it as soon as we bring it out. The pigs in particular love their milk. When they get their feed and water in the morning, they will ignore everything else to get to the milk first. Better not be slow getting out of the way after pouring the milk into their dish or you could end up on your bottom. The milk comes from our 2 dairy goats, Selena and Rochelle. We keep some for own personal use in cheese, milk, icecream and yogurt. The rest goes to the chickens, turkeys and pigs. The meat goats, of course, get it directly from the source. We may get another diary goat or two in the future as we are thinking about making goat-milk soaps and lotions.
A. Easy answer. No. We would like to and have looked extensively into this. Unfortunately, Maryland is one of a handful of states that does not allow it's citizens the opportunity to decide for themselves if they should consume raw milk. Raw milk sale in Maryland is highly illegal. Just this past year, Maryland banned the use of goat and cow shares that would allow citizens to buy a share of a goat or cow in order to consume raw milk as a co-owner of the animal. So, until we build an inspected dairy that will allow us to sell pasturized goats milk, milk sales direct to the consumer are out of the question.
A. We take great pride in the way we raise our animals and the conditions in which they live. All our livestock spend their lives free-ranging on grass in the open air. As you can see by the pictures on our website, there are no confinement houses, no giant barns where they are kept inside 24-7, no concrete-floored corrals. The pigs, turkeys, hens, broilers, goats - all on grass, all day long. They are able to move about freely, sleep when they want, eat when they want, peck, root, browse, graze and whatever other activity strikes their fancy. We treat them with the respect and kindness they deserve. When the inevitable day arrives, we make sure their end is as trauma-free as possible. As long as the animals are on the farm, we do everything possible to make sure they are happy and stress-free. It's good for them and good for all of us. 5. How do you define "free-range?" Well, the USDA defines free-range poultry as any chicken "with access to the outdoors." No specifics on how large the outdoor space is, what condition it is in or what it is comprised of. Nor is there any requirement that the bird actually make it ourside during its lifetime. Just that it has access to the outdoors. Free-Range Production with Organic and/or Antibiotic-Free Systems [5] - Birds are raised in heated and air-cooled growing houses with access to the outdoors and fed an organic diet That grocery store "free-range" chicken very likely grew up inside a concrete floored, climate controled growing house with hundreds of other chickens and may never have gotten outside to stand on the 10x10 concrete pad that passes for their free-range opportunity to see the sun and sky. Heck, I could raise 10 chickens in a 10x10 box with a 2x2 area outside and call them free-range under the USDA guidelines. If I didn't allow them access to the 2x2 concrete pad, I'd just label the "cage-free" and laugh all the way to the bank. That just doesn't sit well for us. Free-range should mean they are permitted to roam freely outside. Lots of sun, lots of grass, lots of fresh air and space. That's what makes for healthy and happy poultry. If you come by the farm, watch out as you come down the driveway. There will most likely be several of our laying hens roaming about up there. You will see them in the barn, the goat pastures, under the deck (occasionally on the deck), up on the hill, back in the woods and generally anwhere they want to go. Most go into the coop at night, several roost in the orchard trees unless its snowing or below freezing. Sure it makes egg collection a little more difficult, but we have identified where they like to go to lay their eggs and provided nest boxes where they want them. Most are in the coop. A few prefer the nest boxes in the main barn and several like to be in whatever pasture the goats are occupying (they have mobile nest boxes to follow the goats). Two insist on laying under the stairs to the deck. Takes a little longer to collect the eggs, but its worth it. Broilers are raised the same way. They don't roam about nearly as much as the hens and tend to stay more localized around their shelters and food, but they spend nearly all of their time outdoors on grass (for their first week, they are in the greenhouse under heat lights until they are big enough to survive outside). Their feed and water is outside. They have open shelters to go in at night and to get out of the rain. They get to roam around at will, soak up the sunlight and fresh air and eat all the grass and bugs they can find. If you want to see our definition of free-range, have a look at the pictures on our free-range page. You can even come by the farm to check it out yourself. Just go slow down the drive so you don't hit a free-range chicken. 6. Are you USDA Certified Organic? We do not use any growth hormones.
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