See that deliciousness spinning down below? That my little chicken skeptics was the finest chicken I have eaten in a very, very long time. It might involve a little work or travel to get it, but it was worth every delicious bite.
My Dad moved to Newburyport a few weeks ago and I told him I was looking for grass fed beef so if he passed any in his travels I asked him to let me know. Bright and early on a sunday morning he sent an email with just this picture enclosed.
He lives near the Newburyport farmer's market which runs on Sunday morning and he had seen this vendor there. A little google detective work later I found out the farm was located out near my favorite driving route out through Pepperell and Bolton. It was a gorgeous sunny day so I threw some ice in the cooler and Panther and I hit the road.
The farm is right off 119 on Old Ayer Road and is really easy to find.
I pulled up and these ladies cruised right on over. Yup, about as free range as can be. You know the seagulls in Finding Nemo? I kept hearing these chickens saying "car. car. car. BUG!, car, car".
And there were these lovely bovines hanging out under a nice shady tree.
There is a small store on the grounds with a few chest freezers inside and some products from the nearby Herb Lyceum sprinkled around. One freezer was empty but the other had these lovely chickens inside.
I chatted with the woman for a bit and found out there wasn't much in the store because they had picked up most everything that morning to hit the farmer's markets. They go to three on Sunday alone and there is a link on the website that shows their farmer's market schedule. I'm probably going to contact them next time to see if I can have what I want to order remain at the farmstand so I can pick it up.
This past Sunday after a gorgeous morning spent at British Car Day at the Larz Anderson museum I decided it was time to break out the grill and the spit. I raided the herb beds, made a compound butter, tucked it under the skin, threw the rest inside with some lemon chunks and strapped it on the spit.
I could spend some time here trying to find some nice florid prose to describe the taste, but really, in the end what I would be trying to say is that it tasted like chicken. Real chicken. Not flaccid grocery store, factory raised, corn fed chicken, but real chicken, almost quail or pheasant like. It had *gasp* TASTE! We had some for dinner that night and then I made the rest into some killer chicken salad for lunches this week.
So if you are looking for a nice ride on a weekend and some delicious meats, look for them at the farmer's market or take a nice ride down 119 like I do and hit all the amazing places. I'm sure I'll be there this weekend.
John Crown Farm- Groton, MA
Omg, I was just thinking of how awesome it would be to own a rotisserie, but then again we do live in an apartment..
I agree about the flavor of free-range chicken. The sad thing is so many people are growing up with grocery-store grade poultry, and never experience what real chicken tastes like. And you're right, it's very quail- or pheasant-like.
Cheers!
Posted by: Riyaad | July 05, 2011 at 08:08 PM
It seems very srange to read about 'grass fed beef' because here all of our cattle graze outdoors on fresh grass with clover and buttercup side-orders. And they're not given growth-hormones and pumped full of antibiotics.
But the best beef I ever ate was in Brittany where cows are treated like royalty and it shows in the quality of the meat.
If we had to eat factory-farmed meat I, for one, would become a vegetarian
Posted by: Mouse | July 19, 2011 at 08:38 AM