Shopping Locally

Supermarkets have enormous influence over the animal welfare standards used to produce the meat, milk and eggs they sell. The vast majority of fresh animal produce in major supermarkets is sold under company own labels, where they have direct control over how the animals are reared and slaughtered (CIWF, 2002). It should be noted that as a result of supermarket buying power, which drives down prices paid to suppliers, farmers are expected to work to impossibly small margins. In many cases they have no option but to intensify production in order to try and cover their costs. In addition, many of the big supermarkets have forced farmers into direct supply contracts via favoured slaughterhouses. The decline in the number of slaughterhouses and livestock markets means that animals must often travel long distances by truck to be slaughtered. This capture and control of the whole food supply chain by the supermarkets is a major contributor to poor animal welfare. Church Farm poultry is slaughtered at the farm and we use two small, local abattoirs for our beef, pork and lamb. Being local reduces the distance live animals have to travel thereby minimising stress, reducing food miles and contributing to the rural economy (after all every little helps)…. Source: http://www.tescopoly.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=385&Itemid=192

Church Farm Christmas Poultry

Thanks to all those who have placed their Christmas orders. The turkeys and geese are thriving, our geese have the run of 6 acres and the turkeys a 3 acre pen in the woods. What difference does this make you ask? Why do you call it Real Food / Real Meat?

The main differences between ours and mass produced free range birds are:

• Our birds are truly free range and able to live naturally
• We use traditional breeds - the Norfolk Black Turkey, Aylesbury Ducks and Embden Geese, these are slower to grow and mature
• The birds eat a tremendous amount of grass and roughage. Not only does this make them healthier, but the science shows that if you eat animals who have access to greenery, the fats contains more of the “good fats” rather than the bad fats. A happy coincidence!
• They are kept in small flocks of 100 geese and 300 turkeys. There are flocks of 30,000 so called free range birds existing on a couple of acres, that are then sold as such in supermarkets. So there is “free range” and free range
• All our birds are dry plucked, hung and prepared by hand. Look back at last week’s newsletter to see how much better this is than the more usual wet-plucking method.
• Ranging and getting to maturity enables to the birds to build proper muscles and muscle is meat. Real meat has a totally different texture. Most poultry never move more than a few yards

As well as turkeys and geese, we also have Aylesbury duck in the Farm Store - again these are kept in a small flock and grown to maturity. Did you know that there is one farm in Lincolnshire that produces 7.5 million ducks. That’s 75% of the duck eaten in the UK. These ducks live to about 6 weeks and are “grown” in barns. Thanks for supporting us by eating Real Food!

  

To download the Church Farm Christmas Fayre

 Brochure 2011  - click here

Autumnal Hazelnut Orchard

Everything you need for a Real Christmas in Hertfordshire

Our new Christmas Fayre 2011 brochure is now available to download.
Includes lots of information about all our Christmas produce, Christmas Gifts and Christmas Events.

http://www.churchfarmardeley.co.uk/images/churchfarm/downloads/pdfs/christmasfayrebrochure2011%20to%20print.pdf