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Everett Farm launches seasonal egg sharing program |
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By Jennifer Pittman
This article first appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
SOQUEL -(April 14, 2008) - Just before dawn one morning in mid-October, Laura Everett received a call from the Soquel post office: "Your chicks are here."
Nearly 300 day-old peeping chicks had arrived in three cardboard boxes from a Fresno hatchery. There was a din of peeping. The young stars of the Everett Family Farm's Egg Sharing program -- Rhode Island Reds, Black Sex-Links and black-and-white speckled Barred Rocks -- have grown up now and live in a 14,000-square-foot open Soquel pasture with a mobile chicken coop.
This is the second year that the Everett Family Farm has set up an egg-sharing program that invites subscribing customers to pay a set price for a season of freshly laid eggs from the only local gaggle of hens to get full rein of an open pasture at a certified organic farm. This year, the Everetts have raised a larger flock than last year to meet demand.
Organic is a growing trend, but buying goods locally is also gaining public interest, Everett said.
"People like the idea that they're out and don't have their beaks clipped. But it's not just being organic; it's about being sustainable and local," she said.
Although there are other local organic farms selling eggs from so-called free-range hens, the definition of "free-range" is in dispute these days. Some farmers note the irony that despite the moniker, many free-range chickens never go outside. A new designation gaining traction is "pasture-raised."
"Free-range just means they're not in cages," said Kirsten Roehler, who works at the Everett farm. "Here, we don't enclose them in anything."
That can mean a lot of chasing, however. Roehler points to a large fishing net she occasionally uses to scoop up the hens that escape outside the portable electric fencing. There are rebels that manage to lay eggs in the family garden.
"Wednesday morning is round-up day," Roehler said. "I really work up a sweat."
A couple of tarp shelters and flowering fruit trees protect the hens from sun, rain and circling predatory eagles. There has been one eagle casualty to date. The hens will cluck noisily and rush to shelter when a hawk circles above, but they're probably too big at this point to get picked up, Everett said.
In one end of a large mobile chicken coop are shelves of nests for eggs.
The rest of the coop is filled with rows of 2-inch rails set about a foot apart ascending like bleachers over the open ground. As sun sets each day, the chickens pack it in, heading up onto the rails which they clutch onto like an orderly packed audience. Not all the hens sleep inside. A few fly into the nearby blossoming trees and one special-needs hen whose talons don't work properly has her own little one-hen coop closer to the ground. There is no rooster.
"We had one last year but he just got so hen-pecked we felt sorry for him," Everett said. "We don't need him for the eggs."
Each season the eggs start off fairly small and grow bigger. The laying rhythm responds to the hours of light each day, so peak production is in mid-summer. Once the hens are in full production, they are expected to lay about 1,700 eggs per week.
The eggs are sold at the family farm stand on Old San Jose Road and local farmers markets. The customers who sign on for the egg service can depend on getting their personally reserved carton [or two] each week.
Longtime customers are used to the informal farm stand's honor system.
Today the stand is only stocked with some dried persimmons, last year's berry jam and the first eggs of the season, but once the summer is under way, the stand will be stocked daily with fresh goods. Because there is usually no attendant on duty, customers are asked to put their payments for their purchases in a wooden box with a slot on top and take change from a nearby bowl when needed. This is the first year the farm has initiated a security system -- a padlock on the wooden box.
Prices have yet to be set but, last year, the eggs sold for $5 a dozen at the start of the season and $6.25 at the end of the season when feed prices went up -- except for egg-sharing patrons who paid the same all summer long.
Organic, pasture-raised hens lay healthier eggs, according to recent magazine articles claiming that the eggs are lower in saturated fat and cholesterol and higher in vitamins and minerals and omega-3 fatty acids.
"Once they have a farm-fresh eggs, it's really different and people can't go back," Roehler said.
In addition to eggs, Everett farms produces certified organic berries, fruits, vegetables, berry jam and goat milk products. Goods are sold at the roadside farm stand, which is open almost every day, at the Santa Cruz Westside Farmers Market and Live Oak Farmers Market and at many local restaurants.
Everett Family Farm
Where: 2111 Old San Jose Road, Soquel.
More information: Call 566-0472 or e-mail the farm directly at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Copyright ©2008 MediaNews Group
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