Meat & Eggs
Greener Pastures
When we say humanely raised, we mean it. Our animals spend their entire lives as nature intended. For our cows and sheep, that means roaming open pasture as they graze on its grasses, legumes and forbs—the kind of food ruminant animals like them, which have four stomachs, were designed to digest. For our heritage breed hogs, it means rooting in woodland and wallowing in open air. And for our meat chickens and laying hens, it means being free to peck and scratch at the earth. This approach is not only humane animal husbandry, but also regenerative land management. As the cows and sheep graze, root systems expand underground, improving water retention, reducing flooding and sequestering carbon. The chicken droppings fertilize the soil, benefiting the growth of the pasture and eventually our organic vegetables, because we also rotate fields between intensive regenerative grazing and organic growing over 3-5 year periods to build healthy, resilient soil the natural way.
100% Grass-Fed Beef
All of our steers are 100% grass-fed Red Devon, South Poll, or Angus, the first being our main focus. Red Devon cattle are an ancient English breed that first arrived in the U.S. in 1623. They’re calm and docile “easy keepers,” meaning they gain weight well grazing on just grass and hay. No grain is necessary in their diet, not even in the winter. With thicker hides, they can also comfortably handle our region’s cold, dry winters and hot, humid summers. In 2019, we added Reuben, an 8-year-old purebred bull registered with Red Devon USA, to our herd. He’s a very gentle 2,000-pound giant with an important role to play as we develop our breeding program. Given the breed’s preference for pasture, it produces a high-quality cut of grass-fed beef that is lean and flavorful, and exhibits excellent marbling compared to other breeds on a grass-fed diet. Forage like clover lends a sweetness to the meat that mellows out any possible gaminess, and cooking it lower and slower will concentrate the beefy flavor and help keep the meat from drying out.
100% Grass-Fed Lamb
The majority of the ewes in our flock are Katahdin hair sheep with coats of varying colors and patterns, but no wool that needs shearing. A thick winter layer protects them from cold temperatures until spring, when they naturally shed it to reveal a sleek summer coat that makes heat and humidity more tolerable. They’re an incredibly calm breed, as well as genetically more resistant to parasites. We’re also expanding our number of American Black Welsh Mountain sheep, a heritage breed known for its hardiness and self-reliance. Excellent foragers and mothers, they’re a natural choice for regenerative grazing. Both produce lean, sweet and tender meat. Because our flock is 100% grass-fed and never eats any grain, the meat has a more pronounced lamb flavor. They also exercise more and live longer than their grain-fed cousins, which gives the meat a deeper red coloring. It has a delicate taste similar to pasture-raised lamb from New Zealand or Australia.
Pasture-Raised Heritage Pork
Purchased as 8-week-old feeder pigs from a local breeder, our hogs are mostly Large Black, Old Spot and Chinese Meishan, all heritage breeds renowned for their ability to forage and browse for their own food. We raise our hogs outdoors, rotating them through paddocks of grass and trees where they can romp around in the sunshine and express their natural behavior. They always have access to shade and a wallow. The bulk of their diet consists of locally grown, freshly ground non-GMO grain we pick up every 1-2 weeks from Bethel Feed & Supply to maintain freshness. Between meals they snack freely on grass, acorns, hackberries, clover, roots and hundreds of pounds of vegetable and fruit scraps from our fields. In the fall, they’re finished on Turner Farm pumpkins and local apples. Their happy lives lead to healthier meat: bacon fat from pastured pigs comes replete with fat-soluble vitamin D, and pigs raised on pasture have 300% more vitamin E and 74% more selenium in their milk than pigs raised in confinement.
Pasture-Raised Chicken
We raise Cornish Rock Cross chickens from Mt. Healthy Hatcheries. This cross of purebred Cornish and White Rock hens naturally grow fast and have large breast, thigh and leg proportions. The majority of their diet at Turner Farm is locally grown, freshly ground non-GMO grain from Bethel Feed & Supply. Our chickens do not receive any hormones or feed additives, and still finish out at a healthy 7-7.5 pounds live weight. After spending their first few fragile weeks under heat lamps, we move them outside to chicken “tractors,” named such because the way the chickens instinctually scratch at the ground mimics the way a tractor loosens soil. These portable coops protect the chickens from predators, and we move them twice a day every day to give the chickens access to fresh snacks like grass, clover and bugs. As they move around, their nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich manure fertilizes the pasture, which benefits not only our land, but also our grass-fed animals. They are ready to process 57 days after hatching, at which time we personally deliver them to King And Sons Poultry.
Pasture-Raised Eggs
Our flock of Australorps and Golden Comets wander the outdoors freely under the watchful eye of our Great Pyrenees guard dog, Snowball. The Australorps have iridescent black feathers, while the Golden Comets have reddish brown and white plumage. Both have calm, friendly personalities and lay beautiful brown eggs, which we collect twice daily from our egg mobile—a chicken house on wheels that’s regularly rotated to fresh pasture. Outside, the hens are able to snack on clover, grasses and bugs between meals of locally grown, freshly ground non-GMO grain from Bethel Feed & Supply, plus their droppings fertilize the pasture for our other animals. With deep orange yolks and a rich eggy flavor, pastured eggs are believed to taste better. They’re also proven to be better for you, with 2x as much vitamin E and 2.5x more omega-3 fatty acids than the eggs of caged hens.
Where to Buy
Turner Farm pasture-raised meat and eggs are sold exclusively at our Farm Market. We are not currently offering grass-fed beef or lamb by the whole or half animal, but both are still available for purchase by the cut.
