Casa London Magazine #1 // November - December 2016 | Page 16

Little Sisters Chicken

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CASA London : What made you want to start Little Sisters Chicken ? As a lifelong farmer , Tony was interested in beginning a new on-farm business , and I was looking for an opportunity to be at home more . We knew there was a demand for locally produced chicken especially in niche markets so we decided to apply for the Artisanal program through The Chicken Farmers of Ontario . Our customers love knowing where there food comes from and we understand that and were happy to become a local producer for them in our area . We decided to focus on a specific type of chicken , feeding our birds a GMO-free feed mix and putting them on pasture daily where they can graze on clover , alfalfa , grasses , bugs , and kale , and have access to lots of sunlight . We also decided to raise our birds without the use of antibiotics . Basically we wanted to raise a type of chicken that currently was hard to find in our area .
�������������������������������������������������We got our first chicks in March , and we processed in May , so this is all still relatively new and we have already changed so much . We feel very privileged to have had success in selling our chicken so far and look forward to more growth and opportunity . It ' s a unique and wonderful thing to actually connect with your customers on a personal level , and to be able to hear great feedback about our chicken is truly the most rewarding part of this . 6 months ago we only had whole roasters or whole roasters cut into pieces for our customers . That was it . Now , we offer whole roasters , flattened boneless roasters , wings , boneless / skinless breasts , bone-in skin on breasts , thighs , boneless / skinless thighs , drums , ground chicken , chicken feet , soup bones , liver & hearts and will soon be offering chicken tender strips . So , as you can tell , we have already grown in ways we really didn ' t foresee just a few short months ago ! We were at the Farmers Markets this summer ( Grand Bend & Bayfield ) and we sell off our farm as well as at the Village Meat Shop in London , Cloverleaf Farms in New Hamburg and are going to be adding some new locations to that list in 2016 .
������������������������������������������������������������ what you could buy in the supermarket ? I suppose what sets us apart from the chicken at the supermarket would be that when you see our label you know exactly where those chickens came from . Little Sisters Chickens were raised on our farm at 2049 Elginfield Road , Parkhill , ON , in our pasture . You know , without a doubt , they are free range chickens , and we did the best job we could as a family to produce a good , humanely raised product for you . From our farm , to your table truly applies in this case .
����� �������� ��� ���� ����� ���� ������ ������� ���� involved with the business then ? Tony is a farmer by trade , he owns and operates Willemse Baling Inc . alongside his parents . He also farms crops and hogs at our farm and he really looks after the day to day operations for our chickens as well . I look after the sales and marketing portion of it and our girls , who are just 6 & 7 , generally help with putting the chicken on & off pasture and enjoy playing with them and naming them ! I ' m sure as time goes on the girls will help out with some more “ chores ”, but for now they are learning the importance of bio-security and animal welfare at our farm . Soon they are going to have another baby sister ( I ' m due in February ), so I ' m pretty happy we decided on the name " Little Sisters Chicken " for our business ! It seems to suit our farm .
���������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������In the next 5 years we ’ d like to see some pretty big growth , and we would love to be quota holders at that time . Hopefully we ’ ll be offering fresh chicken weekly and , ideally , you ’ ll be able to find us in some local supermarkets ! Honestly , right now we are very happy with fulfilling our local market and seeing where this takes us . We are still very new and really just want to continue to build a relationship with our customers and produce the best quality chicken we possibly can .
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