At Primal PAstures, looking out to the Santa Ana Mountains in the west.
Hi all! It’s Andrew, Kelly’s husband, here to tell you about our recent visit to Primal Pastures and offer you the chance to win a box of their primal meats.
We choose the Temecula area in California as a place to move to for the reasons like it’s affordability, it’s position between LA and San Diego, etc. What we didn’t expect was just how much of health-foodie place it is. We’ve got Organic Roots (and other health food grocery stores); Snackin Free, a gluten-free/Paleo cafe, Eat Market Place, a local food cafe, so many local/organic/gluten-free/Paleo restaurants like Burger Lounge, Bush Fire Grill, Earth Bistro, and Leoness Cellars.
Rounding out our local organic foodie area is PRIMAL PASTURES, a family farm raising free-range, grassfed, humanely-treated animals in over very own town, Murrieta. They sell their meats locally and ship nationwide. Farm tours (and other events) are hosted regularly, and we visited last month.
We arrived to a crowd of about 30+ visitors. Some people came as far as suburbs of San Diego, others Los Angeles (we only had to drive for about 10 minutes). The kids were amused by the kittens playing in hay bales as we waited for the tour to begin. That sunny day Farmer Paul lead us from chickens, to pigs, to a herd of sheep (with a couple cows too). They were all lounging or grazing in spacious grassy green fields. The tour ended in their little orchard where we munched on apples and peaches, followed by samples of their fantastic sausage. It was good to see such well cared for animals in such a natural setting.
We enjoyed meeting all the animals, but it was the chickens’ story that was the most interesting:
The Farm Dogs and Wile E. Coyote
After the hay barn kittens the next animals we met were Jane the guard dog and her puppies. The Primal Pastures folks learned the hard way that a farm with free range animals needs night watchmen of the canine kind. Their story sounds like the plot to an old Warner Brothers cartoon:
A few years ago when the McDaniels family got their very first flock of chickens some coyotes squeezed through the fence and gobbled up dozens of birds. McDaniels quickly installed an electric fence. That discouraged the predators for a while, but then the hungry coyotes realized they could simply jump over the fence for their free chicken buffet.
Duke, a Great Pyrenees / Anatolian Shepherd mix, was their first guard dog. Duke successfully scared off the persistent coyotes… until they returned with a female. While Duke was distracted chatting-up the lady coyote, her pack mates hopped the other end of the fence and ate up more chickens. Finally, Jane the Great Pyrenees was brought in to help patrol the farm. She chases both the coyotes boys and coyote girls.
The chickens are protected further with large mobile pens, but that hasn’t ended the dog’s work. Bobcats are able to rip open the chicken pens, and coyotes still cast hungry eyes on the farm’s other animals.
The Primal Pastures chickens (a heritage breed) eat right what’s under their feet: grass, seeds, bugs, etc. (with occasional supplemental organic grain). They’re kept in large open-bottom pens that allow them to to walk around and peck to their hearts’ content. When the patch of grass below them is exhausted the pens are wheeled back, exposing fresh food. Why have pens at all? With hungry hawks, bobcats and coyotes prowling about, it just isn’t safe for them to be out in the open.
Primal Pastures raises Dorper sheep, which are a meat breed.
The Primal Pastures pigs are Kunekune, a breed from New Zealand.
Ashley, Ginger, and Andrew in the orchard.
Farmer Paul showing off their eggs.
The giveaway
The folks at Primal Pastures are offering their Ranch-hand Stash, a box containing a variety of meats: 1lb Ground Beef, 1lb Spicy Lamb Merguez, 1.3lb Chicken Wings, 10oz Petrale Sole, 1lb Top Sirloin, 1.75lb London Broil, and a 12oz Flat Iron Steak. This is a retail value of $110. For a chance to win, enter the widget below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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