Chicken (cut-up) from James Family Farm (12 miles + 137 miles), originally uploaded by Wally Hartshorn.
In addition to fresh eggs, you can also get chicken from the James Family Farm. You need to reserve it in advance, however.
Three times a year, they send a batch of chickens off to Arthur, Illinois, where they are processed by Central Illinois Poultry Processing. They then have 2 days when you can drop by to pick up your chicken(s). I reserved 2 birds, cut-up, for pickup on May 23-24. (The remaining pickup dates for 2008 are July 25-26 and September 26-27.)
Unfortunately, since the birds have to be processed at a USDA-approved facility, that means Arthur, Illinois, which adds 137 miles (round-trip) to the distance that the chicken travels. That's a bit more than the 100-mile radius that I would like to stick to, but I don't think there's any option, at least not if I don't want to give up chicken!
I've never cooked chicken before. (Did I mention already that I'd never been much of a cook in the past?) A quick check of the Internet turned up numerous ways to cook chicken -- grilled, baked, fried, poached, roasted, braised, sautéed, etc. I'm just going to have to pick one and give it a try!
Comments