Tuesday November 8, 2011

Turkey UPDATE! 

We have turkey hens available at this time for order.  They range from 8 to 10 lbs.   All of our tom size turkeys have already been reserved for the holiday.

We are no longer taking mail in Turkey orders for the season.  If you wish to order a turkey for Thanksgiving please call first to make sure we can get you on our list.  

We are trying to return all turkey emails and phone calls the same day or within 24 hours.    Thanks!                                                

2011 Fall Turkey Season

           At Yellow House Farm, we work diligently to support the great breeds of our agricultural tradition.  Narragansett turkeys are the bedrock of New England heritage turkey.  For generations they graced our region's farms and our festive Thanksgiving tables.

                 The rise of factory farming almost caused their extinction, but, thanks to a few dedicated breeders, they were saved.  It is our pleasure to make them available once more for your New England Thanksgiving feast.

                  Yellow House Farm Narragansett turkeys are hatched on site.  Nature gives about 50% males and 50% females.  Males dress out at approximately 15-16lbs., females at 8-9lbs.  When ordering your turkey, please be sure to specify whether you prefer a male or a female. 

                  To order your 2011 Thanksgiving Narragansett turkey, kindly cut and paste the form below.  Your deposit is subtracted from the final total of your purchase.  Pick-up options and dates will become available as the orders come in.   Checks can be made payable to Yellow House Farm

                 Please note that we raise a limited number turkeys.  Reservations are filled on a first come, first served basis.

                 Thank you for supporting our rare heritage breeds!   

Yellow House Farm

463 Washington St.

Barrington, NH  03825

(603) 335-6131   www.yellowhousefarmnh.com

UPDATE  Nov 5th  Call first for confirmation before mailing order form

2011  Preorder Form

 Name: __________________________________________________

 Address: ________________________________________________

 Phone: __________________________________________________

 e-mail: ________________________________________

Turkey: $6.99 lb. 

Amount of total deposit: ____________________________

Checks can be made payable to Yellow House Farm

A Barrington farm tour day is not scheduled for 2011.

Check with individual farms for their own open house and tour events.

ORDER YOUR SPRING 2011 HATCHLINGS NOW!

2011 offerings

Ordering information (scroll down)

2011 Offerings 

We are currently accepting orders for Saxony ducklings, Narragansett turkeys, and started black Muscovies.  Our Ancona and White Dorking chicks should be availabe for the 2012 season.

White Dorking The White Dorking needs no better resume than their more than 2000 years of service on the homestead.  This is an ancient breed dating back to the Roman Empire.  Indeed, it is generally accepted that these were the first chickens brought by English settlers to the New World.  

Dorkings are a dual purpose fowl for meat and egg production. They are exquisite table fare, which has been their crowning glory for hundreds of years.  In 2009 the Ayreshire Farm-ALBC taste-test of various heritage and industrial fowl reaffirmed their position of superiority once again.  The White Dorking is the premier roasting fowl offered by Yellow House Farm. 

Hens will brood, having some of the best mothering skills in the chicken world.  When a hen is broody, however, she does not lay.  Dorkings like to spend the summer months mothering, and egg-production may consequently fall off, resuming in the fall after her molt.  With proper management, however, laying can often be maintained.   

Dorkings tend to be quite gentle and low key. They are exceptional foragers, although more vulnerable to predators than Anconas due to their white feathering and superior size.  White Dorkings are extremely rare. UNAVAILABLE IN 2011

Black Muscovy Ducks

Muscovies are a supreme meat duck.  They are very well muscled, lean, and flavorful.  Muscovies are ideal for the homestead.  They are excellent foragers, excellent and prolific mothers (often raising multiple clutches), free from disease, and full of personality,

Our stock comes from two prize-winning strains and is rather beautiful--in that way that only a muscovy can be beautiful. 

Long-lived and productive, muscovies will be a great addition to your farm or homestead.

Narragansett Turkeys

Narragansetts are the original New England turkey.  They are strikingly beautiful and quite docile.  Narragansetts, unlike industrial turkeys, are capable of natural reproduction, and Narragansett hens make excellent mothers.

Heritage turkey meat is most flavorful--aromatic and multi-dimensional.  It is certainly a step up from the ever blander industrial ersatz.

Narragansett turkeys, like all heritgae breed turkeys, are excellent foragers, and will scrounge much of their own food if allowed to roam.

Ordering Information 

1) Eggs are set to order. All stock is sold straight run, an approximately 50/50 mix of pullets and cockerels. When space is limited, 12 is a good place to begin.  However, However, most homesteads will find that a minimum of 25 chicks is needed.  50 chicks is a common hatching goal when sufficient hatchlings are desired to provide both layers and meat-birds for the freezer.  In 2010, only Anconas are offered in lots of 50.   

2) Pricing:

Dorkings: 12/$72.00, 25/$125.00, 50/$225.00 UNAVAILABLE IN 2011

Narragansetts: 6/$48.00, 12/$84.00, 25/$150.00

Muscovies are sold as started ducklings between 6 and 8 weeks of age.   They are $15.00 each and will be available by mid-summer. 

3) Chicks are hatched on a weekly basis.  Pick-up days are Saturday between 9am and 12am.  Orders are filled on a first come, first served basis.  Upon receipt of your order, you shall receive a post card announcing the expected hatch date.

4) To order, send check or money order to: Yellow House Farm, 463 Washington Street, Barrington, NH, 03825.  Be sure to include any appropriate contact information, the number of chicks desired, and desired pick up date if there is a preferred time. 

5) Orders are not considered booked until full payment is received.  An e-mail or phone call of inquiry does not constitute an order. 

6) Orders are non-refundable.

7) Please order early if you are hoping for a certain date.

8) Stock is picked up at the farm on the assigned pick-up date (see above).  Orders that are not picked up on the assigned date will accrue a $5.00 babysitting fee per day.  Any stock not picked up within one week of hatch will be forfeit.   

9) Unfortunately, we shan't be shipping stock for the 2011 season.

10) We specialize in rare heritage breeds that are excellent for homesteading.  In our breeding programs, we breed to the Standard, emphasizing production qualities first and more superficial show qualities second. 

          Yellow House Farm

          New Photos Coming Soon!

"Red Coop on Winter's Morning"

Thank you for choosing Yellow House Farm! 

At Yellow House Farm we use only traditional farm breeds some of which have graced tables for hundreds, and even thousands, of years.  On account of modern industrial “farming” practices, which neglect these heritage breeds entirely, many of our most ancient breeds are now on the brink of extinction.  With local ventures, like Yellow House Farm, whose small-scale, traditional farming practices give these breeds the much needed attention they deserve, and customers like you, who are strongly committed to flavor-rich food steeped in heritage, we will be able to preserve these breeds for countless generations to come.  Thank you for being part of that process!

Because we rely on old-fashioned breeds, we are constrained to a natural rhythm of harvest.  The following schedule will give you a ballpark idea of what to expect throughout the year. 

In general, the culling of stewing fowl, i.e. unproductive layers, begins in the summer and runs into the fall. 

Our Italian and French fryer chickens are available from late-July through Spetember. 

Our Cayuga duck roasters will become available at some point in mid to late September or early October.

Muscovy roasters, on account of their long breeding season, tend to be available as early as late August and early September through a steady harvest in the autumn.

Dorking roasters, some of the most ancient and highest quality chicken available for your kitchen, are available throughout the fall.  We will also have a limited number of Houdan roasters.

Narragansett turkey, raised at our parents' farm over the ridge on Beauty Hill Road, will be available for Thansgiving.  We raise a limited number of turkeys.  They are reserved with a $15.00 deposit on a first come first served basis.

American Buff geese are available for a traditional Christmas feast.  Remember--turkey is for Thanksgiving!  Real Christmas is about goose.  Like the turkeys, though, they are raised in limited number and can be reserved with a $10.00 deposit.

In 2011 our meat will be available at the Seacoast Eat Local Winter markets and through direct sale at the farm.   To purchase directly, phone or email so we can arrange a time to meet.

              Yellow House Farm poultry is sold whole and frozen, which gives our customers the benefit of using the entire bird.  Commonly, one bird can provide two, or even three, meals.  Every bird’s final destination is the stockpot for the creation of delicious homemade broth.  You might find that this traditional use of poultry leads to the adventurous diversification of your cookery.  Discover anew the flavors of the past.

Thank you again for your interest in Yellow House Farm and our rare breeds of heritage poultry.  Click here for "Commonly Asked Questions About Yellow House Farm Meat".  Please feel free to contact us with any other questions.

           1.  About Yellow House Farm School

           2.  How do I register for a class?

           3. Homesteading Heritage Poultry

About Yellow House Farm School

        In 2009 we launched Yellow House Farm School, and it has been a resounding success.  As we look forward to the 2010 season, we are excited to offer once again these seminars in traditional poultry husbandry. 

       We have come to realize that some things serve us better when we do them ourselves.  They are more creative and fulfilling.  We feel more connected and centered.  Food is easily among this rank of noble pursuits.  Indeed, little is as satisfying as a wonderful meal that comes primarily from your own backyard.  Further, it may be that there is also nothing quite so balanced and healthy as homegrown food.  By eating those things that sustain themselves from the piece of Earth where we live and make our life, we foster a vital connection between our physical selves and the outer world we inhabit.  There is no pill or quick fix that can rival this primal connection.  The end products are health and joy.

       Nonetheless, there is the great difficulty that many of us have strayed far from the roots which would have taught us the necessary skills to live in a more Earth-centered way.  The farms that were once the centrifugal force of hundreds, even thousands, of years of human life have become so rare that they are just shy of being the stuff of legend.  The end result is that we often no longer know how to be close to Mother Earth, how to live on our soil and derive life from it.  Ultimately, the only remedy for this kind of cultural forgetfulness is re-education.  We must relearn what we have forgotten.

       To that end and for the success of our emerging culture of doers for positive change, Yellow House Farm offers these poultry husbandry seminars to help friends and neighbors rediscover the basic skills of the homestead.  In so doing, those desirous of returning to a more Earth-rooted and bio-secure life will be well equipped for the adventure that is homesteading.  Together we shall learn that a little good old-fashioned dirt rarely does any harm, and the stuff of bucolic landscapes full of rich textures and flavors can actually be your own backyard.   

How do I register for a class?

TO REGISTER: Send pertinent contact information, including, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, as well as a check made out to Yellow House Farm, to Yellow House Farm, 541 route 202, Barrington, NH 03825.

REFUNDS AND CANCELLATION:  Registrations may be canelled up to one week before the scheduled seminar for a 100% refund.  Thereafter, no refund will be possible.

RETURNED CHECKS:  Any returned registration checks will be assessed a $20.00 courtesy fee.

Homesteading Heritage Poultry

           The Yellow House Farm seminar Homesteading Heritage Poultry is designed to give you a complete introduction to the various aspects of stewarding poultry for the homestead.  The class is divided into four sections, each designed to provide a thorough base in the targeted subject matter.  The term "poultry" refers to chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and guinea fowl.  Homesteading Heritage Poultry focuses specifically on the needs of heritage chickens, although much of what is discussed is pertinent to the farming of other sorts of fowl.  It is not geared to matters concerning the production of factory layers and broilers.  Our goal is to present the best of traditional methodologies in the light of modern poultry science to build an understanding of the kinds of practices that lead to envigorating and environmentally friendly farming, based in respectful stewardship.  A full description of the seminar is given below.

           Classes are held at Yellow House Farm.  Seminars are one-day intensives held on Saturdays from 9:00am-4:00pm.  The Homesteading Heritage Poultry seminar is scheduled to run bi-weekly for a total of seven times beginning on Saturday, March 6th until Saturday, May, 15th.  The cost of the Homesteading Heritage Poultry seminar is $45.00/individual and $75.00/couple.  Please pre-register for the series following our general guidelines for course registration.  Reimbursement for cancellation s available up until one week before the booked seminar.  Thereafter no reimbursement is possible.

Dates for Homesteading Heritage Poultry:   (The 2011 classes may occur later this summer.)

An overview for Homesteading Heritage Poultry is as follows:

I. Introduction to Heritage Poultry

II. Starting Stock Right

III. Laying and Breeding Flock Management

IV. Health, Predation, and Local Marketing

Introduction to Heritage Poultry

We will discuss the origins of domestic poultry and the history of poultry farming.  We will explore the differences between heritage poultry and factory poultry product.  We will consider the many products and uses heritage poultry provide to the homestead.  We will discuss the value of meaningful stewardship and how to best procure quality stock.

Starting Stock Right

This is designed to provide the homesteading poulterer with all the information necessary to be prepared for the arrival of chicks, ducklings, goslings, poults, and keets.  We will discuss what is needful to insure a healthy start and successful rearing.  Matters of concern will include: set-up and equipment, floor space, feed, and heat requirements.  We will discuss raising various types of poultry together, as well as those concerns that may arise during the first weeks and months of life.  We will also discuss criteria for selection and modes of culling.  Although this session will not deal with the minutiae of slaughtering, we shall discuss what a homestead slaughtering schedule will look like and how to best prepare stock for slaughter.

Laying and Breeding Flock Management

We shall consider the many aspects of procuring powerful production, as well as breeding methodologies that will insure that production through subsequent generations.  We will consider, housing, feed, lighting, and floor space.  We will discuss various production models and their advantages from confinement to total free-range.  We will talk about improving laying strains and traditonal modes of developing strong laying flocks.  Rolling mating as well as line breeding will be thoroughly explored.  We will discuss breeder selection, with particular emphasis on breeding for farming utility.  We will learn about the differences between artificial incubation and natural incubation and discuss the pro's and con's of both systems.  

Health, Predation, and Local Marketing

The final focus area in the Homesteading Heritage Poultry seminar will deal with the various glitches that can occur in any backyard flock, as well as modes of offering your homesteading products to your local community.  We will discuss ways of developing a healthy flock and how to keep your flock healthy, as well as how to best respond to health concerns should they arise.  We will learn about local predators, and how best to insure the safety of your flocks.  Lastly, we will discuss marketing your products to the community, how to understand market regulations, and how best to insure food safety.   

    New Pictures Coming Soon!

       Duck meat is delicious and nutritious.  On account of their all around active natures, duck meat is all dark.  It is, perhaps, most commonly roasted, but duck meat is outstandingly versatile.  It is wonderful grilled with a sage marinade or braised with tomatoes, red wine and a bouquet garni.  Duck meat is also lovely made into lean sausage and used in all sorts of delicacies, from meatballs to stuffed grape leaves. 

       Duck meat is often thought to be extra fatty, but this is not necessarily the case.  The commercial duck industry is dominated almost exclusively by the Pekin.  It grows fast and fattens quickly.  Indeed, it is the fattiest duck, and its monopoly of the meat market has hurt the reputation of duck in general.  Duck meat, when not raised for fattness and quick gains, can be quite lean and remarkably flavorful. 

       At Yellow House Farm, we raised old-fashioned farm breeds that live in a free-range environment.  They are fit, muscled, and lean birds, hearty and tasty.  We offer both fryers and traditional roasters.  The difference between our birds and the commercially raised ducklings found at the supermarket is considerable.

       Another little known secret about ducks is that they are remarably prolific layers.  Indeed, the best laying duck lays more than the best laying chicken.  Moreover, duck eggs are larger, richer in protein and omega 3's, and are simply delicious, a gourmet addition to anyone's cookery.

New World South

The Muscovy: Our Curious Clown

       The Muscovy is a particular fowl, indeed; of this there can be no doubt.  Its large-sized, head-bobbing, caruncular appearence definitely makes for a curious first impression.  For some they are ugly, for some beautiful.  Still, for some, they look like a turkey.  Nevertheless, regardless of one's opinion as to their physical beauty, the muscovy is one personality-rich duck!  Moreover, they are excellent producers of flavorful meat in an easy-as-pie, hands-off manner, which makes them sine qua non for any serious homestead.

       The Muscovy is indigenous to Central and South America.  It was domesticated long ago by the Incas and first found its way to Europe via the explorations of the Spanish Conquistadores.  Ever since, it has been a staple of our cookery.  By nature it is a tree duck, which means it roosts in trees and nests in abandoned woodpecker hollows.  In its domestic form, it still loves to roost, lounging on fences and roof tops and flying about the yard.  Although the hens are strong flyers, the males are often to ponderous to sustain flight for long.  However, when the males are strong flyers, they are stunning, striking a massive appearence of power and agility.

       Hens are outstanding natural mothers, bringing off large broods of independent and adorable little ducklings multiple times a year.  A small flock of muscovies could supply an average-sized family with nutritious meat year-round.  Aside from being flavorful, they are also leaner and meatier than mallard-derivitive duck breeds.  We have found that the breast meat is particulary well used as the base for delicious sausage meat.

       When next you buy a muscovy roaster from Yellow House Farm, try preparing it in a slow roaster, marinated in red wine, blackberries, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks...not so shabby.

The Ancient Dorking

       The Dorking is a foundational chicken breed of old Europe.  By "foundational breed" we intend those honorable, old-fashioned breeds that have played a role in Western civilization for centuries or even millennia.  For the most part, their origins are obscured by the passing of one age into another.  However, they have stood the test of time, and from the villages of ancient Britain, Gaul, and Rome, they continue on here at Yellow House Farm to serve yet another generation of homesteaders.

       Unlike the more modern "composite breeds", such as the Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, Wyandotte and Orpington, which are all the fruit of crossbreeding various foundational breeds, the foundational breeds represent a unique genetic resource that cannot be reproduced.  If they are lost, they are lost forever.   Sadly, with the advent of modern factory "farming" practices, these breeds have fallen into the shadows.  Both the ALBC (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy) and the SPPA (Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities) list those breeds that are in need of serious conservation efforts.  Here at Yellow House Farm we work diligently to answer this call to support our ever dwindling bio-diversity.  With your support, we shall attain our goal of a new Renaissance for these ancient treasures, bringing this valuable breed back from the brink of extinction and reintroducing them as productive farm fowl in our agricultural landscape.

       The Dorking is among the most noble and ancient of poultry breeds.  It's origins date back to time immemorial.  Our earliest record of them is found among the writings of Columella, a Roman agricultural historian of the first century A.D.  They are believed to have been brought to England with the invasions of Julius Caesar.  It is from this importation that they receive their name as Dorking.  In the region of Surrey, England, the town of Dorking boasts proudly of the Dorking on their coat of arms.

       The Dorking remained a prominent breed throughout our history.  Ulisse Aldrovandi, an agricultural historian of the Italian Renaissance, refers to the White Dorking as being an ancient fowl, indeed.  In more recent times, Queen Victoria prefered the Dorking about all other chicken for her plate. 

       Moreover, the Dorking has a long history in North America, coming over with early settlers.  Many an American homestead benefitted from the superior qualities of the Dorking.  New England has long been graced by the Dorking fowl.  In 1853, the Rev. Edmund Saul Dixon, in his work A Treatise on the History and Management of Ornamental and Domestic Poultry, wrote of several accounts of the Dorking in New England:

       "A correspondant, writing from Boston says, 'You ask me what kind of Fowls I prefer?  I wish to be understood that, when I speak of Fowls, I recommend or condemn from my own experience--not from the representation of others.  I prefer the white Dorking before any other breed known in this part of the country.  They have all the good qualities in full, which other breeds possess only in part; they are hardy, handsome, prolific, easily raised, and, when they are brought upon the table, 'they are food for Emperors and Kings (Dixon 184).'" 

        It is, indeed, on account of quality that the Dorking has endured for over two milennia.  Few other breeds can rival the Dorking when quality and flavor are the measuring stick.  The breast meat of the Dorking is very white, fine grained, and juicy; the flavor is excellent.  The dark meat is richly flavored:

"The [Dorking] approach the ideal for general purposes [...] American breeders prize the Dorkings highly for the quality of flesh, and also for the small proportion of bone.  They are especially noted for a broad, deep breast, and the breast meat is distinctly fine in quality (Watson, George C. Farm Poultry.  1914)." 

     As layers, they are good, although there are breeds that lay better.  Dorkings are considered dual-purpose breeds, which means that they are esteemed for the production of both meat and eggs, but this title is ambiguous at best.  Very few breeds, if any, could be said to be the ideal for both meat and eggs.  Most dual-purpose birds excel in one area and are passable in the other.  Dorkings are an excellent meat bird with acceptable laying abilities.

     As broody hens, they are tough to beat and make excellent natural mothers.  Because of their size and reliability, Dorkings can be used successfully to hatch out the eggs of other fowl such as turkeys, ducks, and even geese.

     Moreover, they are good foragers.  They roam carefully over their terrain looking for various treats.  Indeed, they are no slouches, but remain busy the day long in search of their fare.

             At Yellow House Farm the Dorking is our breed of choice.  We are proud to be a part of the long heritage of this fine fowl and look forward to seeing its population increase in New England as we rediscover the superior flavor and quality of heritage poultry.