My First Local Chicken

     This last Thursday a fresh frozen chicken was dropped off with my weekly egg delivery. I am a part of a "herd share" at Fresh Start Farms out in Alfalfa. This is a polyculture farm raising pigs, steers, chickens and heirloom turkeys with the help of 12 at-risk foster kids. Kathy, the farms owner, is a stanch advocate of locally produced, family farmed food and will fill your ear with why current policies and regulation are squeezing out small farms. Some call her Crazy Kathy, but after I visited the farm and tasted her food I consider it the good kind of crazy. I would put a link to her website but she doesn't have one. Her number is 541.317.5925.

     This chicken was HUGE - almost mini turkey sized - and absolutely yummy. I roasted it with a bacon, honey and lavender glaze (honey and bacon from Windy Acres and lavender from Sisters Botanicals) vegetables from Fields and Wintergreen Farm tossed in rosemary I picked while in California, created gravy with cream and butter from Windy Acres (another herd share I'll get to later) and had a friend bring an apple tart made with apples from Hood River and Yakima and bread she made in her outdoor backyard oven. We had a salad with greens from Groundworks Organics with chopped hazelnuts from Mom's Nuts and slices of Hood River pears. We drank Oregon Wine - lots of it - and although most at this dinner party didn't care one way or another if everything they were eating was local, it made me feel good and even a bit proud of myself.  This was the most "local" meal I've ever served. Now the challenge is to keep it up....