Cristo Rey Farm

A beyond organic pasturing livestock and produce farm in SOuthern MD
(Leonardtown, Maryland)
26 Apr Wed 2017

The Secret to Perfectly Peeled Hardboiled Eggs

The Secrets to Perfectly Peeled Hardboiled Eggs

It’s the perfect time of year for deviled eggs and egg salad sandwiches.

Hardboiled eggs are also a nutritious snack or a quality on-the-go breakfast.

Getting a good peeled egg is very satisfying and important for entertaining.

Growing up in Hollywood in a theatrical family didn’t exactly impart the most thorough education in homemaking skills. I actually had to learn how to boil eggs as an adult and only recently learned the secret to getting a boiled egg that will actually peel properly.

I was tired of experiencing THIS:

Ag!!! Don’t you just hate that?!!

We researched, tested and found the secret to peeling eggs!

Click here to get your free guide: "The Secret to Perfectly Peeled Hardboiled Eggs"


We hope you enjoy your perfectly peeled eggs!!!

KC and ED

Cristo Rey Farm

Farm News:

1st Chicken Harvest of the 2017 Season: Saturday, May 6th.

Click here to reserve your fresh chicken!

100 new egg layers arrive this week!

We expect to be rolling in eggs by this summer.

Click here to be the first to know when they are available!


KC
03:54 PM EDT
 
10 Aug Wed 2016

Why We Leave the Necks on Harvested Chicken

Several customers have asked us why we keep the necks on our harvest pastured chicken. 

The simple answer is we keep the necks on our birds so that customers can receive the added benefit of the neck bones when using the carcass to make nutritious and delicious broth or chicken stock.

The old wives tale about chicken soup is true. One of the very best things you can add to your family’s diet is homemade broth:

"Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain." Sally Fallon of Weston Price Foundation

It is so simple to make broth. An easy recipe is posted below.

All our CSA shares include at no extra cost the organs, feet and heads. The feet and heads make bone broth extra rich and the organs are extremely valuable added to ground meats and as liverwurst or fried with onions (how to use the organs will be another blog post!).

The broth can be used in soup, rice, gravy or any other recipe calling for stock.

I warm some up on the stove and serve it in cups like we would coffee or tea. The whole family asks for 2nds!

The value of Cristo Rey Farm chicken goes beyond the taste and texture, animal and environmental benefits. Find out more in our article “Taste and More Than Taste”.

KC and ED

Cristo Rey Farm

Easy Recipe for Bone Broth

1-2 chicken carcasses

1 onion- quartered

4 carrots halved

3 celery stalks- halved

2 cloves garlic

2 bay leaves

Fresh ground pepper ½ tsp

Sea salt 1 tsp

Fresh parsley or dried 1 tsp

Opt. chicken feet (2) and 1 chicken head

Add water enough to cover all ingredients

Place all ingredients in Crock Pot on low and cook for 12-24 hours.

Or

Put ingredients in large pot on stove and bring to boil, then lower temp to lowest stove setting. Cook 12-24 hours.

Remove from heat and cool.

Strain broth and pour into glass containers and store in the refrigerator.

To keep it really simple use whatever ingredients of the above that you have on hand. The most important ingredients are the chicken bones, water, salt and pepper.

For more information on how and why to make broth, check out The Healthy Home Economist.

Video: "Life on the farm 2015":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4g44N5noqA


Find out the latest on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cristo-Rey-Farm/1459476564284359


Cristo Rey Farm on the web:

http://cristoreyfarm.wix.com/organic-garden



KC
06:50 PM EDT
 
05 Sep Sat 2015

"Thank God I'm a Country Boy!"

Fun on the Farm!!!

Check out our new video: 

"Thank God I'm a Country Boy!!!"

KC
10:32 PM EDT
 
23 Jul Thu 2015

Cristo Rey Farm CSA info
Cristo Rey Farms
CSA 2015
Eggs and Chicken




We are pleased to announce our 2015 CSA!!
Participants will receive priority discounted shares of farm fresh chicken, eggs and pork.


What is a CSA?
A CSA is an acronym for "Community Supported Agriculture".  In a CSA, customers pre-invest in their food and regularly receive a share in the harvest of the farm.  The farm accepts a fixed amount of money at the beginning of the season from a set amount of customers. This money is used to finance the new growing season, helps the farm continue to grow and develop and shares some of the risk of farming with the customer.  

The customer in turn benefits by  a discount on the highest quality foods, helps ensure that their food source will continue and is able to actually see and even participate in the production of their food.  Using this system makes it easier for farms to “go organic”, because  the high risk of organic farming is  spread out among many financial participants.


With a PCSA (Participatory CSA- coming soon to CRF), customers are invited to join in with actual farming- the farmer gains in labor and the customer and their families in discounts, free food, education in sustainable farming practices and the ultimate agri-tourism adventure!



Cristo Rey Farms
2015 CSA-Spring and Summer
Name: ____________________
Street address: ______________
City: _____________________
State/Zip: _________________
Email: ____________________
Phone: ____________________

Egg Shares (1/2 shares ok)-
24 weeks May –August  SOLD OUT
$90 per share/1 dozen per week
(Ex. 2 doz./week =$180)       ______

Chicken Shares -
May  (Processing 5/30) SOLD OUT

June (processing 7/18)-Sold Out
10 chickens  $164         ______
5 chickens   $82         ______

September -(projected processing  9/26)
10 chickens  $164         ______
5 chickens   $82         ______

Total:_______

I understand that as a CSA member I will share in the bounty and harvest of Cristo Rey Farms.  I also agree to share in the risks of farming.
  ______________________
Signature/Date
Pick up for CSA shares is every Wednesday 1:30-7:30pm and Saturdays 9:00am-12:30pm


About our Pork

Cristo Rey Farms
Ed and KC Schnitker
22395 Newtowne Neck Rd., Leonardtown, MD 20650
301-475-8160
-Pork-
About our Pork


Pastured piggys
Our pork is produced free-ranging on pasture using managed rotational grazing which means we move them every few weeks to new areas where they can graze, root, and eat freshgrass, leaves, clover and other forages. 

They are outside in large paddocks in small groups with fresh air and sunshine.  They are not crowded or stressed or kept on concrete in confinement.

We supplement their foraging with non-gmo grains and minerals, organic produce, acorns and eggs.

We do not use any chemicals, antibiotics or hormones.




One of our “Piggerated” paddocks

Pigs have a plow on their faces aka their snout and do an excellent job rooting and digging.  They till, weed, clear brush and clean up crops.  They also produce valuable manure for fields and gardens and turn it all into delicious pork, bacon, sausage, ham, pork chops and much more!

New grass in winter!

New grass growing in piggerated paddock thanks to the pigs…in winter!

We use solar charged electric fences to define our paddocks.  We can quickly create new paddocks wherever we need the pigs to work and where we have the best forage.  This method is ecologically and environmentally enhancing and is not only sustainable but regenerative as can be seen here!





KC
03:53 PM EDT

"Taste and Much More Than Taste!"

"All my kids wanted to eat for dinner was your chicken!"  
"I had two chickens in my fridge, one store bought and one from your farm.  I had to make them both because we had guests.  We could actually taste the difference!  Yours was far superior!"  
These are the kinds of comments I hear about the chicken we produce on our farm, Cristo Rey Farm.
For myself, I would say that it tastes like the chicken I remember from my childhood, that it has an actual taste- chicken that tastes like...chicken.  Nowadays buying a supermarket chicken is like buying a texture and whatever you put on it is what it tastes like.  Our chicken tastes clean and fresh and well, chickeny and it is moist and succulent and down right (if I do say so myself) delicious.


What is the reason for this difference in taste?  
Our chicken is pastured which means that the chickens get to be chickens and do what chickens do best: scratch the ground and eat bugs and grass and whatever goodies they can find.
We move our chickens every day (and sometimes even twice a day) to fresh grass so they can eat as much fresh green material and bugs as possible.   They are in the fresh air in protected shelters in small groups, getting plenty of sunshine, not in an over-crowded barn breathing musty fecal air and subjected to continuous stress. As we move them, they fertilize our pastures with their nitrogen rich manure; nothing is wasted and there is no toxic run-off to pollute our bay.  We supplement their foraging with non-gmo feed, a ration of grains, kelp, minerals, vitamins and probiotics and finally process them humanely in an outdoor fresh air kitchen.

All these things make our birds very different from what is available at the supermarket.  
The difference is in everything- not just the delicious taste:
How they live, what they eat, how we process them and what our customers are supporting.  Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (and whose farm we model) has a list in his book about pastured poultry that explains the differences between pastured and conventional chicken (including the store-bought organic brands).   Feel free to ask for details about any element on the list in the comments section and we will be glad to explain more fully:

Cristo Rey Farm Chickens Conventional Chickens



Unvaccinated                                        Vaccinated (immuno-suppressant)

Full beaks (no cannibalism)                  Debeaked (cannibalism problem)


Probiotics (immuno-stimulant)             Antibiotics (immuno-suppressant)



Composting litter in brooder                 Sterilized litter (sanitized through     
(sanitized through decomposition)                toxic fumigants and sprays)



Carbon/Nitrogen ratio 30:1                     Carbon/Nitrogen ration 12:1



Practically no ammonia vapor (smell)    Hyper-ammonia toxicity



Brooder skylights                                    No skylights



Rest at night (lights off)                          Artificial lighting 24 hours/day



No medications                                       Routine medications



No synthetic vitamins                             Routine synthetic vitamins



No hormones                                          Routine hormones



No appetite stimulants                           Routine appetite stimulants (arsenic)



Natural trace minerals (kelp)             Manufactured and acidulated 

                                                                trace minerals


Raised in small groups (300 or fewer)      *Huge groups (10K or more)



Low stress (group divisions)                     *High stress



Clean air                                            *Air hazy with fecal particulate 
                                                          (damages respiratory tract and pulls
                                                           vitamins out of the body 
                                                           which overloads the liver)

Fresh air and sunshine                       *Limited air and practically 

                                                                  no sunshine


Plenty of exercise                                    *Limited exercise



Fresh daily salad bar                                *No green material or bugs



Short transport to processing                  *Long transport to processing 

(stress reducing)                                           (high stress)


Killed by slitting throat (see Leviticus)  *Killed by electric shock
                                                               (inhibits bleeding after throat is slit)



Carefully hand eviscerated               Mechanically eviscerated (prone to 
                                                           breaking intestines and spilling feces                      
                                                           over carcass)

Processing uses only 2.5 gal/bird   Processing uses 5 gallons of water/bird


Guts and feathers composted                  Guts cooked and rendered then 
and used for fertilizer                                     fed back to chickens

Effluent used for irrigation                     *Effluent treated as sewage

Customer inspected                                *Government inspected

No injections during processing               Routine injections 
                                                               (anything from tenderizers to dyes)

Low percentage rejected livers or carcasses     High percentage liver 
                                                                           rejects or carcasses 

Dead birds fed to                                     Dead birds incinerated or buried    buzzards or composted                        (possible water table contamination)

Sick birds put in hospital                               Sick birds destroyed
pen for second chance (most get well)

Manure falls directly on growing forage    Manure fed to cattle or spread inappropriately                
Fresh air and sunshine                                  *Toxic germicides 
  sanitize processing area                                         to sanitize processing facility

Cooking loss 9% of carcass weight            Cooking loss 20% of carcass weight

Long keepers (freeze more than a year)  Short keepers (freeze only 6 months or less)

No drug-resistant diseases                       Drug-resistant diseases (R-factor Salmonella)

Low saturated fat                                     High saturated fat

No chlorine baths                                  Up to 40 chlorine baths (to kill contaminates)

No irradiation                                      FDA-approved irradiation (label not required)

Environmentally responsible              Environmentally irresponsible (hidden costs)

Promotes family farming                     Promotes feudal/serf agriculture

Decentralized food system                  Centralized food system


Promotes entrepreneurial spirit            Promotes low wage/time-clock employment

Rural revitalization                                  Urban expansion

Consumer/producer relationship              Consumer/producer alienation

Rich delicious taste                                   Poor flat taste

Edible                                                        Inedible


* Also applies to nearly all “certified organic”



Moving one of our earlier model chicken tractors to fresh pasture:




Thank you for supporting your local farms and families.  It feels good to get back to what is truly American- growing family and community businesses not corporations, to be a part of really enhancing the environment and to go beyond simple sustainability to regenerativity.  We need to do more than just sustain in America, we need to grow and flourish and expand in a way that makes us, our communities and our environment healthy and well!!


Ed and KC Schnitker
Cristo Rey Farm
Leonardtown, MD



KC
03:52 PM EDT
 
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