GFF Broiler Chickens Available

The broiler chickens go to "the Park" Monday night and early Tuesday morning and we are providing the opportunity to acquire them as a fresh, unfrozen meat chicken Tuesday evening.  Please read the details carefully and feel free to ask if you still have questions. 

Locations and Times:

Tuesday, July 7

Waverly - St Andrew's Church parking lot - 5:00 to 5:20 pm*

Cedar Falls - Jorgensen Plaza West parking lot - 6:00-6:20 pm**

We will only bring as many meat chickens as are ordered.  The rest will be dropped off at "Freezer Camp" to be flash frozen at the Fredrika Locker. 

* This arrival time is our BEST estimate.  We will select one person to be our contact if we find we are running late.  If you are willing to be that volunteer, please let us know.

** This time should be solid, but it may move if we are very late to Waverly.  We could use one volunteer here as well.

To Order:

Respond to this email (gff at genuinefauxfarm dot com) and tell us how many whole chickens you want by 1 PM Tuesday, July 7.  We will reply with a confirmation at our earliest convenience.  If you prefer larger or smaller birds, we suggest you include that preference with your order.

These are processed as whole birds.  We can have Martzahn's cut them up, but we would need to know this before we leave tonight with birds.  If you want to cut up your own chickens, we have instructions here.

To Pay:

You may use your farm credits to pay for your meat chickens, just as you do eggs or veggies.  If you do not have farm credits with us, it is easy to add them.  See details below in this email.  If you opt to pay us on site, we will accept a check or cash.  But, we will NOT be giving out change.  If there is excess, we can put into credits for you with future purchases.

The Cost:

We are continuing to offer these birds at $3.50/pound.  These birds are anticipated to weigh 4-6 pounds, so prices will range from $14 to $21.  You will have an excellent estimate if you assume 5 pound birds ($17.50 each).

How To Pick Up Your Order:

We will bring some chalk and mark out 6 foot spacing to make sure we all maintain appropriate physical distancing for safety.  Bring a cooler or other appropriate container for your purchase.  Set it down where we can get to it (we will have a table) and we'll load it up and we will gladly carry it to your vehicle if you wish.  Of course, if you would prefer the exercise, we'll let you carry it - but we feel it is appropriate to offer our services for lugging things about!

If you are paying on location, we will ask you to place your payment in the cash box.  We will not give change, but we will record the cash amount you say you are giving us (if it is cash).

Thank you for being considerate.  While we certainly do not want Covid-19 ourselves, our worst fear is that we might become a vector for others as we try to get good food to all of you. 

Details About the Broiler Chickens:

The broilers arrived at our farm as chicks, shipped via the US Postal Service.  From that point, we placed them into our broiler room, feeding them a mix from the Canfield Family Farm near Dunkerton.  Once they could regulate their temperatures and the weather allowed, we moved the birds onto pasture.  Once on pasture, they were 'day-ranged,' which means they were allowed outside in a pasture area that was fenced in by solar powered portable electric netting to protect them from ground predators.  These birds were put back into the shelter at night to protect them from weather and night time predators, such as owls.

Once they are ready, we take the birds to Martzahn's Farm in Greene, where they are processed as whole chickens and placed into plastic bags.  You will notice Martzahn's label on these birds (sadly, we did not get our own labels re-ordered in time).

Please take note that your support of our farm actually provides income to multiple Iowa businesses.  Our farm (of course), the Canfield Family Farm (feed), Martzahn's Farm (processing), Fredericka Locker and our solar netting comes from Premiere One, also an Iowa based business.  We would like to thank you in advance for choosing to support local foods and the businesses that surround it.

 

If you would like more details, you may visit a post from last season that outlines how we raise these birds.

 

What Will This Process Look Like to Us?

There will be very little Tammy and I can do to prepare the birds for transport until the sun reaches the horizon.  We can get the transport cages out to the birds and make sure the truck is empty.  Otherwise, the birds will see it pretty much as any other day, just with less food.

We, on the other hand, realize we will have to load birds up into cages and then into the truck starting around 9:20PM.  One we have loaded as many as will safely go into the 12 cages we can fit into the truck (while keeping them cool enough and uncrowded), we will drive to Martzahn's in Greene (about 45 minutes).  Once there, we transfer the sleepy birds to their holding areas and then we drive back to the farm.  Upon arrival we will cage up the remainder of the birds while they sleep, giving them a bit more room than the first batch.  They will be left in their building for shelter until the morning when we load those cages into the truck and take the rest to Greene.

Once we return home, we need to do our chores, clean cages and clean the truck.  We also need to prepare coolers and other carriers for the processed birds.  Somewhere in there, we each have meetings we need to attend or orders to respond to.  Hopefully, we can then leave to pick up the birds around 2pm, drive to Frederika so the birds not ordered for today will be frozen for later sales.  Once that is done, we head on to Waverly and from there, Cedar Falls.  It will be a fun-filled day for us!  Okay.  Maybe not.  But, we will be getting our exercise in.

2020 Pre-Paid Farm Credit Program

We will run the system in $50 increments.  In other words, you can purchase a minimum of $50 of farm credit at a time.  We will cap the maximum amount of credit at $200 and you can refill your farm credits at any point.

Like the CSA program, this gives you the advantage of not having to pull out money at each delivery.  Instead, we will have a ledger with tracking for your current credit balance.  This also provides us with some working capital to start the season.  Also, like the CSA program, we will give participants better pricing and opportunities than those who might prefer to 'pay as they go.'

A major difference this year is that farm credits can be used for ANY farm product the Genuine Faux Farm offers.  If you buy farm credits, you can apply them to purchasing meat chickens, vegetables, eggs or any other thing we offer this year.

Want to sign up by mail?

Genuine Faux Farm

2345 150th Street

Tripoli, IA 50676

make checks to GFF or the Genuine Faux Farm

Want to use Paypal?

You may send cash to gff@genuinefauxfarm.com

We are accepting purchases of credits now and throughout the season.