Winter Week One Tastes Like Chicken

Hi there!

Welcome to our 10th Winter Season! Yes, it's hard to believe that a decade ago I figured it would be OK to stand outside and delivery groceries all winter. While some days are tough, we all find our own tricks to staying warm and making the time pass. On the bright side, the natural refrigeration reduces the growl of the refrigeration truck and gives extra display space outside.

This is what we have you signed up for:

Package:

Location:

Check out the list of winter stop locations here .

Above is a photo from this spring as we moved our first broilers - meat chickens - out onto pasture. It feels like just yesterday that I built 30 new drag pens for the season. Those structures are 100 sq ft and feature 120 inches of feeder trough and 15 drinkers for the birds. The birds are on the bare ground and have access to the grass, seeds, and bugs of the pasture.

Each day we move the pens forward (below left). The move gives the birds access to fresh grass and leaves behind an even blanket of chicken manure, a valuable resource to organic farmers as a source of nitrogen and phosphorous for the pasture. The cage protects them from the critters of the night - coyotes, raccoons, possums, and skunks.

At 9 weeks of age, we gather early in the morning - around 4 AM while it is cool and the birds are sleeping - to catch them to send to the slaughterhouse. (below right)

This past Wednesday, we caught the last 750 birds for the season. It was just in time as the strong winds of Thursday's change in weather picked up a few of the pens and moved them 30 feet!

We feel that the management of chickens on pasture produces the best tasting and healthiest chicken. For this reason, we can't raise chickens in the winter. Instead, we stock up our freezer throughout the season to hold us over until next spring.

Sincerely,

-Trevor

Practice for Thanksgiving with a Whole Chicken

Preparing your whole chicken isn't much different than preparing a Thanksgiving turkey.

Here are some basics for practicing on your chicken:

Brine: A basic brine is calculated by the dry weight of salt and aromatics as a percentage of the weight of the meat.

At Ohio City Provisions, our basic brines are based on 3% salt, 2% sugar (can be omitted), and 0.5% spices and aromatics.

So if a 5# chicken is 80 ounces you will need is 2.4 ounces of salt (3% of 80), 1.6 ounces of sugar and 0.4 ounces of spice. Sometimes it is easier to convert everything to metric, so with 454 grams per lb, you can start doing the math there. Most digital kitchen scales easily switch to grams.

How to Brine: Take your dry ingredients - salt, sugar, spices - and dissolve them in simmering water. Cool the brine to below 40 degrees.

How much water to use? Good question. First find your brining vessel - maybe a glass bowl, maybe a dutch oven, maybe even a 5 gallon bucket (perfect for turkeys). Second, take your meat and place it in the vessel. Pour 1 quart of water at a time over the meat until it is completely submerged and count how many quarts were used. This water can then be dumped out.

Say you needed 8 quarts of water. Now, bring 8 quarts of fresh water to a simmer and dissolve the dry ingredients.

Chill the brine to below 40 degrees then pour it over your meat. Place brining vessel in the refrigerator.

How long to brine? Our rule of thumb is 1/2 inch per day. That means that the brine penetrates 1/2 inch into the meat per day, from each side. So for a chicken, 1 day is sufficient. For a turkey, 2 days is better.

Will my chicken be salty? No, if your brine is balanced, it will not be salty and you can not overbrine. Instead your chicken will be moist and well seasoned.

How to Roast: Remove your chicken from the brine 1 day before cooking. Place on a plate, uncovered, in the refrigerator to allow the skin to dry out.

Pull your chicken from the fridge an hour or two before roasting. You want it to be closer to room temperature than refrigerator temperature when you roast.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Brush the skin of your chicken with oil or melted butter. Season with salt and pepper. Do not stuff the cavity with anything other than aromatics such as herbs, onion, garlic, etc. You want air flow.

Place chicken in the oven, uncovered, on a roasting rack or a bed of carrots and onions (if you don't have a roasting rack). Cook for approximately 30 minutes or until skin is golden and crispy. Reduce heat to 350 and roast until a thermometer reads 158 degrees in the thigh.

Remove from the oven and allow the chicken to rest for 15 minutes before carving. The internal temperature will continue to rise as it rests.

If you have any questions check out our guide to cooking a whole chicken here.

A Good Old Fashioned Quilting

This past weekend Allyson had the experience of a lifetime.

For our wedding, the Amish ladies in the kitchen all pitched in to make us a queen sized quilt.

On Saturday, the "quilting party" commenced. Over a dozen ladies gathered to piece together the quilt and share some laughs over a home-cooked lunch.

Allyson and Chef Ashley (from the farm kitchen) joined in to give the ladies a good laugh. Neither of them had ever quilted before! With needle and thimble in hand, they learned the technique. While they may not be fast yet, at least no blood was drawn!

Besides the amazing gift, the experience is just as valuable. How many people can say they participated in an Amish quilting bee? How many millennials can even say they can sew? It was an amazing opportunity to learn traditional skills - skills that parallel our traditional agricultural practices.