Is meat seasonal? This is the question I had in mind when I set out to Fickle Creek Farm last Sunday.

Have you ever considered the seasonality of meat? I never did before I began this project. The one exception is lamb. I have memories from my childhood of going to the grocery store in Key West with my dad looking for lamb in early spring. I’m not sure if lamb was unavailable at the grocery store the rest of the year, it’s certainly possible that this was before the era of year-round availability for most foods. In any case, it is the only meat for which I have the vaguest concept of seasonality.

So, when I think of seasonal foods I tend to think only of produce and not of livestock. It makes a sort of sense. Very few people are still involved with livestock, meat “processing,” and packaging. Not only does that mean that you and I aren’t actively involved in harvesting our own meats, but it means that we probably don’t know anyone who is. One of my co-workers, raised in Kansas, had parents who worked in meat processing plants while he was growing up. Hearing about his parents’ experiences is the closest I have ever come to this industry. Even the people who try to be more involved in their food production stick to fruits and veggies and stay away from meat. If a person chooses to start gardening in a community plot, a rooftop garden, or even a large section of land in their own yard, chances are they will be growing zucchini and tomatoes, not chickens and cows.

So I began my day at Fickle Creek hopelessly naive about seasonality in regards to meat. Fortunately the folks who run Fickle Creek Farm, Ben and Noah, are tremendously helpful are were happy to show me around the farm. Not only were these guys informative, but they were also very patient. I got lost on the farm but on route to the farmhouse no less than three times and each time I called they helpfully turned me around without making me feel like any more of an ass than I already did.

Noah took me on a tour of the protein portions of the farm starting with eggs. Those of you who have read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma know what an eggmobile is. Those of you who have not A) Go read it right now. B) An eggmobile is a chicken roost on wheels.

The roost is divided into nests where the chickens can settle in and lay eggs or simply keep warm at night. (The chickens aren’t forced into the eggmobile at night, but most of them tend to roost there for the warmth and safety.) The floor of the eggmobile is chicken wire, left as open as possible so that the droppings can fall through and fertilize the ground below. Three times a day Ben and Noah go out to the egg mobiles and collect eggs that the chickens have laid. Remember my “The Best Eggs and Where to Find Them” post? Well, you can’t get much fresher than eggs gathered earlier that same day, and freshness is a big part of being the best.

 

 

As for seasonality in chicken and eggs there are several options. Laying hens are most productive March-November and a slowdown in laying occurs in the colder months. This means that eggs are a spring-fall phenomenon unless you wish to pay higher prices during the winter when eggs are more scarce. The laying hens don’t get eaten until the end of their laying productivity. Once they stop/slow down in their laying they are processed and sold as stewing hens, which means exactly what you think it means. These tough old birds should be simmered for hours before being consumed or else you will find them to be stringy, hard to chew and rubbery. If you are going to buy a stewing hen buy it at a time when you can set aside several hours to really make a stew of it. At Fickle Creek Farm stewing hens are usually available in March and October; perfect months for making a slow-cooking stew that will keep the house warm. Young chickens begin to become available in mid April and continue to be available until it gets cold enough that laying slows down. For a higher price you could still get young chickens in the dead of winter, but their true availability is in the spring, summer and fall. If you want meat in winter then may I suggest: Pork.

Pigs are hardy, intelligent animals and so are allowed to live in a large outdoor enclosure that was recently cleared of timber. The pigs can cope with cold weather and are smart enough to find shelter in the bracket and bushes that line the enclosure here they live and so they stay out day and night happily rooting and eating their feed. Unlike cows and sheep, pigs don’t have to graze on fresh grass to stay fat and healthy and so their meat is available at times of the year when other meats are not. Because of this Noah recommended eating pork and pork products in the colder wintertime months.

As you may have noticed in my recent recipes I have been using lots of fresh milk and cheese as well as eggs. This is because calves and lambs come mostly in the spring and with them comes the milk that creates all of those wonderful un-aged cheeses and cream filled desserts that I am so in love with right now.

 

Dairy farmers have the most milk available during the six months following spring pasture flush and spring calving. Dairy can be found year-round, but the prices rise from October to January because of lack of supply.

As for the meat from the animals, the cows and sheep are grass fed. This means that the seasonality of the meat is linked to the seasonality of the grass. Noah told us that “if anything it would be a fall processing time [for pastured animals] that would be ideal. That way the animals could graze as much as they could during the season when good forage is available.”

I hope that this incredibly brief recap of my visit is helpful for you. I know that visiting Fickle Creek Farm helped me answer quite a few of my questions, but it’s also made me feel very ignorant. I may now know some general rules for meat production, but in order to really understand what seasonality in meat means I’m going to have to learn far more about the life cycles of farm animals. When are lambs born exactly, and how old are they when they are processed? How many years of productive laying does a hen have? If we are stealing milk away from cows and goats then what are the calves and kids drinking? I definitely have a ways to go in my education. In the future I hope to visit more farms and hopefully some hatcheries and maybe a local dairy to learn more about the process of meats and meat products. We’ll see what I can figure out.