Sue, it actually tastes like chicken, doesn't it?

Commercially raised birds tend to be bland and soft, in my experience, plus they are all pumped full of that "flavor enhancing" salt solution.

I was just reading an article on genetic diversity. The Irish potato famine was caused, in part, because of the monoculture that had developed, everyone grew one type of potato. Now in America we are cultivating that kind of monoculture with chicken, something like 90% of our chickens come from 10 suppliers, who have bred their birds for specific traits. Genetic diversity is pretty much out the window, if the coops had windows!

Heritage birds are in danger of becoming extinct in some instances. The current catch phrase is "eat it to save it". If people want the heritge birds, there'll be a market for them. If there's a market for them, the farmers will breed them. If more of them are bred, for whatever purpose, the breed is saved.

So, enjoy your chicken, Sue, and know that by eating it, you helped to save it, because I can guarantee if it was a smaller bird it wasn't one of those Cornish Cross type birds which resemble bowling balls with legs.

Annie

Interesting....the organic free range chickens I get are huge!! They vary in size but I have gotten 6 1/2 pound fryers. They buy all the chicks at the same time... and let them free range and feed some....but the difference in the size of the bird after I think it's 12 weeks, is amazing.
They even smell different while cooking!
Linda C

LindaC, the 6 1/2 pound fryers are usually something called a Cornish Cross. They are the "bowling ball with legs" chickens, although they can be raised organically and free range, which makes them a bit healthier, I suppose. If they are allowed to go much past 10 weeks, though, their legs can break under the weight of the bird.

If a human had that rate of growth, a 2 year old would weigh something like 349 pounds!

Some people argue that just perpetrating such an unhealthy variety is abusive but I know people who have successfully raised them free range by feeding them once a day in a limited amount and then harvesting at 10 weeks and they seem to be relatively happy birds.

They do have a tendency, however, to sit in front of a food container and eat until they have heart attacks, which is why food must be limited. Farmers here call it the "flop and sqawk", they just suddenly squawk and flop over! But, if you limit the food and allow them to move around, they seem to do OK.

Annie

Annie - I love all the little food facts you include in your posts. You are like a walking food encyclopedia!

Teresa

These chickens are about 3.5 pounds I guess, with much less breast meat than grocery-store birds. But for two of us, they're just fine.

It seems that most of the local farms out here (central/northern Jersey) that raise chickens to eat aren't truly free range, due to predators. Instead, chickens are raised in bottomless pens that are moved throughout the day. Still seems better than factory raised chickens, I guess. Local beef seems to be more available than poultry.

Sue

Hmm...I don't know what kind of chickens they are....they are white and can run fast and there is a lot of leg and thigh....but also a lot of breast.
The chickens have gone the way of all things with hobby farmers and have made way for Jersey milk cows and arucauna laying hens! LOL!

Yes, LindaC, heritage chickens. I'm thinking of replacing my Rhode Island Reds with something critically endangered, like Chantecler. I've attached a "chicken chart" which is more than you'll ever want to know about chicken breeds, including their rate of lay, color of skin, color of eggs, whether or not they'll raise chicks well and how long it takes to achieve market weight.

sue, many chickens are "pasture raised" in that manner. It's far better than the commercial barns and cages used by the big places and far safer for the chickens. the big problems aren't really wild animals, it's pet dogs allowed to run and vehicles. Chickens provide us with eggs and taste lovely and I like them, but they aren't too smart and many of them never do manage to successfully "cross the road", LOL.

Teresa, my brother says I'm a walking encyclopedia of useless information. (grin) I owe it all to the fact that I will read anything I can get my hands on, from Grit Magazine and Hobby Farms to the local newspaper, the flier from the extension service and regular updates from the local hatchery! Put it on a page and I'll read it.....

Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: chicken chart

I go to China Town to buy free-range chickens.

You can get all the the free-range chicken you want in Hawaii. They are free real free-range chickens. Wild chickens are everywhere, including in urban streets.

dcarch

Annie, your description of chickens not being too smart makes me grin. (Because no, they're not!)

We liked to raise our birds to 3-3 1/2 lbs. That seemed ideal to me, and Sue, I agree with you completely that home-grown yardbird tastes totally different than the grocery store! It took me a long time to buy chicken again in a local market, and I still don't buy very much.

The last organic chicken I bought was at the Farmers Market. I only bought one, and will never do it again (there). They wanted $20 for one chicken, and after roasting it, I can't say it was all that good either. There are many days I sorely miss having a hen house! We didn't let our birds free range either, but built a large pen around the coop so they could get outside. It didn't seem like a good idea to let them free-range, especially when the coyotes were howling.

Interesting thread. A couple of Thanksgivings ago I bought a "heritage" turkey, organically raised, fairly local (within about 40 miles). My family still has not forgiven me for it. No one liked our Thanksgiving turkey that year. The meat, while tender and juicy, had a gamey taste to it, and the white meat wasn't very white, more a sort of light tan. The following year I served an organically raised, but not "heritage", turkey. It was a big hit. It had the telltale huge breast of modern turkeys, and the white meat was very white, and tasted mild. I told myself that at least it was organically fed and and lived free-range, but it was a modern-style bird.

I wonder if our modern tastes have moved too far to enjoy the poultry of our grandparents. My family has already warned me that if I again serve a heritage turkey (Thanksgiving is just around the corner, gulp!), they would just up and decamp to a restaurant somewhere, regardless of the hours I toiled over the meal.

Annie - that is funny. I love to read also and the last several years it has been gardening as I was getting my Master Gardener Certification from the U of MN. And I am always getting several cooking magazines a year. And I love Cook's Illustrated for all the facts and the science approach to cooking.

Once when I was a flight attendant I was sitting on the jumpseat reading on a long international flight. I was devoring the first issue of Cooks Magazine, forerunner to CI. One of my co-workers sat down and said, "how many more useless facts can you cram in your head?" LOL

Oh MY. Well, Teresa, they were only useless facts to her I guess! I'll bet she doesn't cook either.

I ran into her a year ago this month - in a grocery store. I asked if she remembered me from Braniff International. We talked a bit and she told me about the upcoming reunion. Then she asked - do you know how to pick out a good lemon or avocado? She was making guacamole. LOL She also remembered I was a bookworm on those long flights.

I assume you're talking about pastured poultry since "free range" actually has no meaning when you're talking meat birds (broilers). The term is just a marketing ploy. For the USDA to approve the term, the grower simply has to show a door for the birds to use on the plans of the hen house, regardless of whether the door is ever open, regardless of whether the birds ever use it, and regardless of the quality of the yard.

Cornish cross meat birds put on weight so fast that by the time they're 4 weeks old, they can hardly walk, much less roam through green pastures. With pastured poultry, they are on grass in low cages that are moved daily by the farmer, so they are always on fresh green grass with access to insects. They are also fed grain, but whether it's organic or not is up to the farmer. And the quality of the meat is due to their being on pasture, not the organicness of the ration. Traditionally produced organic birds are raised in the same conditions as any other type of bird, except the feed is organic and certain medications are not permitted. They also are a little less crowded to help prevent disease.

I know this because I produced pastured poultry for 8 years in the late 90s and early 2000s. The info about the "free range" came from an article in Consumer Reports during that period.

BTW, free range has a real meaning when it comes to layers. Those birds will roam some distance.

lacey, my friend Scott does indeed raise "free range" Cornish Cross birds to about 10 weeks. He's only had two broken legs and says they seem much more able to get around if they are allowed to actually roam around. He also says they are easier to deal with than other chickens because they are unable to fly, or even run.

You are right that they don't "range" very much. They are too big, too heavy in the breast, they waddle more than walk but they do scratch happily in the dirt with his Rhode Island Red layers (which he bought from me, LOL).

Here it's nearly all pastured poultry, no free range. As I mentioned, there are predators, including neighborhood dogs, and vehicles and chickens are not smart enough to stay out of roads and away from predators. At the very least they are all locked up in coops at night, or most of them are. Scott has one very active hen that flies into a tree at night and he mostly can't get her down, so sometimes she just stays outdoors by herself

Annie