Why We Price the Way We Do
Every now and then someone asks us, “Why is your chicken (pork, beef, etc.) more expensive than what I can get at the grocery store?”
It’s an honest question, and one we welcome. Because when you understand what goes into raising food the way we do, the price starts to make a lot more sense.
We’re a small, family-run farm. Every animal on our farm is managed from start to finish by our own hands; not employees, not contractors, not machines. From the moment a chick hatches or a calf hits the ground, we take responsibility for its health, well-being, and the stewardship of the land it grazes. Our methods are grounded in holistic management, meaning we care for the animal, the soil, and the environment as one interconnected system; the way God designed it.
We don’t cut corners. We don’t raise animals in confinement or feedlots. We don’t buy cheap feed or outsource the hard parts. What we do is slow, intentional, and full of care; and that comes with both cost and value.
Let’s Take Chicken, for Example
Our chicks arrive from a trusted hatchery at just one day old; small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, fragile, and completely dependent. From the moment they arrive, their care is constant.
The first week of their lives is critical. We monitor their temperature, adjust heat lamps, mix electrolytes into their water, and check them around the clock. A few degrees too hot or too cold, and the consequences can be devastating.
After a few weeks, they graduate to pasture. Each morning and evening, we move their mobile coop to fresh grass, giving them access to bugs, sunshine, and clean air. Their diet includes organic grainsourced from a trusted local feed mill, along with the nutrients they find naturally on pasture.
We haul fresh water by hand in buckets; every single day, rain or shine. We protect them from predators, watch for signs of illness, and adjust for weather extremes. Every animal is seen and known.
Once they reach the proper weight, we carefully load them into crates and haul them by truck to a USDA-inspected processor. After processing, we bring them back home, package them for our customers, and store them in our freezers; managing yet another layer of cost and risk in storage, power, and transportation.
At every stage, we face challenges that large commercial systems rarely have to think about; shipping loss, predator loss, illness, heat exhaustion, transportation expenses, butcher fees, feed and grain costs, and even the risk of freezer failure. Every bird represents not just a product, but a personal investment of time, resources, and care.
The Commercial Comparison
Most industrial chicken operations function under integrated management systems; meaning everything from the hatchery to the feed mill to the processor is owned or controlled by one corporation. Workers are assigned a single task, day after day, without ever seeing the full process or the end result. The people raising the birds are not the ones feeding their families with them.
There’s efficiency, yes, but at the cost of connection. Feed is purchased in massive bulk, animals are raised indoors by the tens of thousands, and loss is simply expected. When no one person is responsible for each individual life, that sense of care and pride disappears.
We believe differently. We believe how food is raised matters just as much as what food is raised. We believe in accountability, not to a corporation, but to our Creator and our community.
The Economics of Integrity
We’ll be the first to say it; small farms like ours aren’t built for shortcuts or quick profits. For years, we’ve invested deeply in better genetics, improved soil health, and the infrastructure needed to raise livestock the right way. Every price we set today reflects our true input costs, from quality feed and pasture management to humane processing and on-farm storage, plus a modest margin that allows our family to keep the farm viable for the next generation.
We don’t price for luxury. We price for longevity; so that the same land our great-grandparents farmed can continue to feed our children and yours.
There’s no corporate cushion here, no distant investors, just a family committed to stewarding what we’ve been given. When you buy from us, you’re helping ensure that this way of farming; personal, ethical, and grounded in faith; doesn’t become a thing of the past.
The Value of Honest Food
When you buy a whole chicken from us, you’re not just paying for the meat, you’re supporting a way of life. You’re helping keep small family farms alive, sustaining local economies, and protecting the land that feeds us.
You’re paying for transparency. For clean pastures, clean water, and ethical practices. You’re investing in nutrient-dense, pasture-raised food that was handled with integrity from start to finish; food that truly nourishes.
And most of all, you’re investing in trust. Trust that your food was raised with respect, care, and faithfulness.
We may never be able to compete with grocery store prices, but that’s because we’re not competing with their system. We’re building something different; something honest, sustainable, and rooted in legacy.
This is food raised with intention. Food that honors the animal, the land, and the family gathered around the table.
And to us — that’s worth every penny.