Saturday I had the pleasure of taking my young family to a working farm for an educational tour. This was an incredible experience due to the fact that this wasn't just any farm. You see, if you you know my family, one of our primary goals in life is to try our best to live clean, eat well and stay healthy. It is as much about our own longevity as it is social responsibility given the growing cost of healthcare expenses living in the United States. My wife immigrated legally from Poland in Eastern Europe where she grew up eating real food. We always joke about it but you cannot deny how noticeably different the body types are in the U.S.A. vs Poland. Obesity is real and it is a problem in the U.S. Beyond the body types there are still various health issues and thus everyone should be careful what they put into their body. Even though they have a higher quality of food in Poland, my wife's family developed a history of diabetes. Here in the U.S. my family developed a history of cancer. Neither one of us have ever felt strongly about traditional medicine. My wife was treated with antibiotics so many times as a child that she has a compromised immune system. We both look at nutrition as the answer and we are very particular about what we like to put into our's and our children's bodies.
We are fortunate to live in the small coastal city of Naples, Florida. Naples has an amazing culture for living a healthy lifestyle which is an entire topic of discussion on it's own. Dr. David H. Perlmutter frequents our close friend's restaurant on the corner near our house. I highly recommend learning more about him if you do not know who he is.
It was through this culture, community and friends in the restaurant business how I learned about the Circle C Farm. I started out by visiting their website to learn more about their products. To my delight I learned they actually offer eco-tours of the farm and slaughterhouse. So, off we went on a one hour drive with the kids in tow to learn even more first hand.
Now I know there is that debate some people have about being vegan and or the humane treatment of animals. Some will argue that the teeth of a human being are designed to be an omnivore. Also that cows are the source of global warming. Blah blah, I don't want to get into that debate because it doesn't change my opinion one way or another. I know my body. I listen to it and it tells me when I eat good clean red meat, in moderation, I feel healthy. So here is a snapshot of what I learned at the farm...
Nicole starts the tour off introducing herself and her family giving us their background and how they came to acquire the farm. She also spoke about her inspiration for doing so with her own mother's debilitating health issues. I didn't take notes like I should have but I do remember that Nicole has a degree from Virginia Tech along with many other accolades. She is very passionate about what she does and you can tell has little concern for becoming wealthy unless that is a by-product of making an impact on the overall good of society. We then conducted a little participant introduction where we all spoke about why we were there. Needless to say, each and every one of us had a similar reason for being there. General health issues with ourselves or someone we really love. I did ask what the history of the property was before they acquired it. Nicole said it was an old citrus orchard which had not been working for over 30 years. My concern was soil quality and contaminants.
The first stop on the tour was at the mobile free range chicken coops. Nicole informed us about the pasture rotation which I found very informative. The entire farm gets rotated at a particularly high rate. I tried to research it further but they use a system named "Serengeti Pasture Rotation". Just Google it if you would like to know the details. Farmers have figured out the rates at which different animals graze and the varieties of grass each prefer. Certain animals can actually graze together because they eat different grass. This makes the process more efficient as more animals can survive on less land. They have also figured out the different amounts of nutrients each animal puts back into the ground. Hence the mobile coops are moved frequently so that the chickens can help fertilize the grass for the other animals to graze. In traditional farming, pastures become depleted of nutrients when only one type of animal is allowed to graze. As you can see in the photo the chickens are free to roam wherever they see fit. And it is survival of the fittest as we saw first hand. Birds that do not make it must be removed within 24 hours from the grounds. In this approach Nicole said the mortality rate they are experiencing is around 3%. She said the lowest rate the large traditional chicken farms with "hot houses" can achieve has been 5% on average. The birds are much happier and healthier at Circle C. On a side note to this after seeing the coops, I asked Nicole about their water for the entire farm. She said they had it tested regularly. They have three 80 feet wells. Two are powered by solar pumps and one by electric as a redundancy.
After our tour of the coops, we walked up to the main farmhouse where they have the hatchery for new chicks. I use hatchery for lack of a better term. They bring the chicks in from a source but for the first few weeks of their lives their body temperature must be maintained. Notice how the holding pens are up off from the ground where the chicks droppings go through to the ground. This keeps them healthier as they are not allowed to walk in their own waste. The floor of the building is washed daily to remove the waste. Once the chicks are able to regulate their own body temperature properly, they are allowed out on the free range in the pastures.
One of the largest concerns with holistic free range farming is pests and predators. Nicole spent a fair amount of time covering this topic. The animals on the farm all need to work together instinctively and in balance to insure each others safety. In the next image you can see my daughter trying to catch one of the farmhouse cats. These cats are crucial to the eco-system as they remove the small rodents who can carry and spread disease. I didn't get a good quality image of the multiple dogs working the farm. They are the true work-horses of the security detail. Nicole explained how the working dogs are of a defensive breed and must have the instincts to protect all of the farm animals. We didn't get to see her up close but there is a single sheep dog who protects the flock. She actually stays with them 24-7 and attempts to keep a defensive posture at all times in the center of the flock. The other dogs have all learned to work their own section of the perimeter fence line. Here in Southwest Florida the primary predators are coyotes, bobcats, and birds of prey. Nicole told a story of how the coyotes work together to lure out one dog so that another coyote can sneak in behind to grab a chicken or lamb. The dogs actually learned the coyotes tactics quickly and stopped them on the next attempt. She also explained how the sheep dog learned these tactics and now remains in the center of the flock at all times. This dog will alert the other dogs to the presence of a predator and let them handle the intruder(s). The final element of the security detail, who guessed it, the donkeys. These two guys are like the heavy artillery and do not take any resistance lightly. In the image below you can see how these guys are watching my daughter intently. She wondered just a little too close to their fence line. Being that this is a free range farm, the owners purposely attempt to have as little human interaction with the animals as possible. The eco-tours are very limited so these guys haven't seen too many little ones like her. With her energy and curiosity level, I don't blame them for standing guard. Also in this image you can see some of the tangled metal which is damage from hurricane Irma. The farm had winds up to 140 mph and was nearly wiped out.
Nicole educated us on their cattle. She went over the details of their bloodlines, how they are bred and how they are kept healthy. Both the cattle and the sheep are only able to thrive here this far south primarily because of their bloodlines. Other breeds would not survive as well due to the extreme heat in the South Florida summer. I couldn't get a good picture of the sheep because they kept free-roaming the pasture.
We finished the day at the slaughterhouse. Circle C is the only farm in the entire state of Florida to have an on farm USDA Federally inspected and secondary inspected slaughterhouse and butcher shop which is open to the public. Yes, you can take your own animals to them and they will process them for you. Nicole explained how they treat the animals with care and respect before they process them. Outside animals that are brought in must remain in isolated pens so not to mix with the onsite livestock. The animals are required to move into the holding pens the day before slaughter so they are allowed time to de-stress to that new environment. In the following image, look how clean the slaughter-house is. Not that I have been inside any of them before, but I do remember watching documentaries about how disgusting they can be. Nicole explained how the entire facility is washed primarily with a holistic approach using a vinegar and water solution. The only odor in the building was the sweet smell of sausages they had been cooking for us to sample after the tour.
In my final image from the farm you can see the inside of the dry-aging cooler. I had never seen one in person like this before. It kinda made me feel like putting on the sweats and gloves and running through the streets of Philadelphia. Jokes aside, this room had the most amazing smell. Believe it or not it was actually mouth-watering. The cooler is de-humidified for the dry aging to take place. Nicole explained to us that when you age beef, it doesn't simply rot or go bad. Yes a bacteria will slowly grow but for the majority of it remains edible. By aging beef, it simply changes the flavor profile. Fresh beef is not better or of higher quality than aged beef. It just tastes different.
To sum it up, it is my belief that the world needs more farms like this one. People who care and are passionate about what they do. People who look to make the world a better place and are willing to actually do something about it. I believe that we could do more good for peoples' health and the environment if we started to replicate these types of farming practices. One more thing to note; Nicole said that if she goes for any certification it will be to certify her whole farm. As many people know, the term "organic" in the U.S.A. only means that there are fewer non-natural substances on your food. Everything Circle C does to process food makes it the cleanest source possible. It is best for people to do their own research and not trust in a certification they haven't researched themselves.
Finally, we had to stop by their farm store on the way home. We sampled the beef and chicken sausages. Kielbasa if your Polish! You can definitely taste the difference in an all natural product versus store packaged. Most importantly we did not feel bloated or uncomfortable after consumption. That same good feeling you get when you travel to other parts of the world where you can eat real food!
I hope you enjoyed reading my post. Please excuse any typos or misspellings. For a brief time in my life I was a technical writer writing installation manuals for the tech company I worked for. Very Dry Stuff. If you would like to learn more about this farm or their practices, they have more information on their website. If you would like to sample their products, they can ship. Don't ask to join us for dinner at our house, our daughter would drive you just as crazy as she did the donkeys.