With Ag-Gag Bills on ballots all over the country and massive factory farms doing everything they can to NOT show you their “farms”, Vital Farms believes in transparency in everything we do. We host large quarterly farm tours for our customers and allow them to photograph and take video on any of our farms. We answer every customer question via phone call and email personally, and we are extremely open in the documentation of our farm practices. As we expand and begin working with more small family farmers, we stay in constant contact and visit with those farmers very regularly, to ensure they maintain the highest standards of animal welfare in the country.

Thank you for believing in us, and for supporting the ladies in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.

- The Vital Farms Crew

Photos from our Spring Farm Tour in Austin, TX Saturday May 4

All photos by Haley Price

We had the opportunity to visit with Michael Pollan, the famed food and agriculture journalist and author on Thursday last week. Dorsey Barger, the woman behind HausBar farms, hosted a lovely and intimate gathering at her newly remodeled farm in East Austin, complete with libations from Tipsy Texan, pizza from Bola pizza and apps from Dai Due. (Barrie Cullinan, winner of one of the Bon Appetit top 10 best bakeries in America title in 2011, provided the most buttery, delectable pear jam cookies).

Mr. Pollan was mobbed by rabid fans over the course of the night (as the most famous of the writers to come from the slow food and sustainable agriculture movement of the past 10 years, this type of thing is commonplace for him). However, we were lucky enough to be introduced and speak for a few minutes about Vital Farms and our growing number of small family farms raising pastured laying hens and chickens.

Photo by Ken Light

Here are a few of our favorite quotes from his talk at the Paramount that night:

“There is no one ideal human diet. Cooking itself solves a lot of nutritional problems. Long before science, we had culture. Which is just a funny word for your Mom.” - Michael Pollan

“Chickens that have gotten to eat loads of grass and bugs taste totally different and are a completely different animal.” – MP

“There is deep confusion about food. People ate perfectly well before they knew what Omega-3s were.” – MP

“When we took animals off the farm, we turned an elegant solution into two neat and organized problems.”- MP quoting Wendell Barry. (He’s referring to the fact that pastured rotation takes care of fertilizing plant life, as well as treating the refuse left after being occupied by animals).

“If people are not prepared to cook, then local agriculture doesn’t have a chance.” – MP

“Americans pay less for food than any people ever on earth- less than 9.5% of income. In one way it’s a blessing. But we’ve externalized the costs. You must count the cost of pollution, public health costs, tax breaks for feed costs. Another cost is antibacterial resistance.” – MP

“The food business model is: cheap raw materials complicated by processing. To make the most money, you need to have as many processing steps as possible.” – MP

“It’s not adequate to just vote with your forks.” – MP

One thing that has always been great about Austin is finding the hidden gems where you wouldn’t expect them. Flour is certainly one of them, a quiet artisan bakery located right where one wouldn’t first expect, upstairs from a thrash metal bar on Red River Street, the heart of Austin’s downtown music district.

Hope Williams and Greg Wilson are the founders of the unconventional commercial bakery. The pair recently set up shop in the 110 year-old building and have since been focused on the careful, honest process of producing delicious pastries and breads.

After going to the same private school in Midland, TX years ago and parting ways for many years, they found each other on Facebook and discovered that they had quite a bit in common.

Hope lived in Mexico for several years, and eventually found her way back to Texas, settling in Austin about 4 years ago. She had always wanted to have a bakery and went to ACC in Austin to learn the craft.

“The bread really became a passion. I learned to respect the process.” Hope said.

Greg has worked in IT for the past 15 years, where he said the idea of a bakery became attractive after working for so long in a sort of virtual setting. He admits that starting a bakery has been a learning experience.

“Having something substantive at the end of the process is really appealing for me,” Greg said. “The ovens have only been on 3 weeks, everything is new and a challenge.”

The techniques that Flour uses, such as allowing yeasts to naturally ferment in the open air, are designed to work with the natural characteristics of the ingredients, instead of trying rush the process and force them into submission.

“We’re not a bakery for everyone. We don’t take any shortcuts in our processes and our ingredients are the highest quality. It just takes so much time,” Hope said.

While we were there, Hope showed us how she makes the lime curd that Flour uses as a filling for some of their pastries (see below). Though the recipe is simple, the fresh, high quality ingredients and Hope’s careful attention to detail made for a wonderful treat.

Both Hope and Greg expressed their enthusiasm for seeking out high quality, local ingredients whenever possible.

“We’ve always been passionate about food sourcing and slow baking,” Hope said, “Finding Vital Farms was important for us. I grew up on a farm, I gathered eggs, and I can tell they’re good from the orange yolks.”

“If Vital Farms weren’t around, we’d probably be trying to raise our own chickens!” Greg joked.

Flour’s stellar goods are available to order through their website www.flourbakery.net, and will soon be available at Farmer’s Markets around Austin. Also, follow them on Twitter (@FlourAustin) to hear about opportunities to visit the bakery and test some of their newer treats.

Flour’s Incredible Lime Curd

-1/2 cup Sugar

-5 egg yolks

-1 stick butter

-Zest and juice of 4 limes

Combine half of butter, half of sugar, and all limes, bring to a boil.

Blend egg yolks with remaining sugar temper in and return to boil, stir in butter, chill.

Above: Tamago Yoko: cabbage, leek and shrimp hash-cake, with Applewood smoked bacon,

two Vital Farms eggs on top, wasabi aioli, sriracha, bonito and nori.

Though Snack Bar’s been open for a few years, the chef and the menu have changed quite a few times. (Basically, the restaurant you visited a few years ago isn’t the same place today). On a visit there yesterday, Executive Chef Thomas Reeh explained the owners’ original vision and the current attitude about food at Snack Bar today.

Reeh gravitates toward straightforward dishes using the best ingredients; menu items need to make sense seasonally. He said the menu has changed five times in 14 months. “The owners want the food to be globally inspired. Pulling from different cuisines. The quinoa dish is South American-inspired. When it’s hot, you don’t want to feel like you weigh 1,000 pounds, and you don’t want to eat lots of braised foods,” he said.

Though the menu offers quite a few options for those looking for ethically-raised eggs (like Vital Farms) and meats, it also caters to vegan and gluten-free diets. (Reeh eats everything). “If I’m gonna make something that’s vegan or gluten-free, I’m gonna make it something I want to eat too,” he explained.

The restaurant uses quite a few eggs, and now serves brunch until 4pm everyday for the late-rising South Congress crowd. The menu offers brunch dishes like Rice-milk French toast, egg and gravy biscuits, seitan and tofu options as well as natural chicken reubans, Niman Ranch burgers with locally-made Dos Lunas cheese, and noodle bowls with kaffir lime vinaigrette. Flour-less chocolate cake is a gluten-free dessert, though maple vanilla pot de crème and cordial sundaes sound super delicious and special.

The switch to Vital Farms eggs was a natural one. “We used to use Soncrest eggs. They seemed ok. But when I met with Megan, we dissected their operation. I would rather go with an animal that was raised well,” Reeh said. “These yolks are a little more rich than other eggs. They’re just pretty and you never see any pale yellow yolks. We don’t use any other eggs. We use them in baking, scrambled, on top of burgers. If anyone orders an egg here, it’s Vital Farms.”

Above: Chef Thomas Reeh, Snack Bar, Austin, TX

Born in Halletesville, TX (10 miles outside Shiner, TX), Lick Honest Ice Creams Owner, Anthony Sobotik, was always fascinated by food.

He painstakingly perfected 30 flavors of ice cream over a year, experimenting with recipes from old family cookbooks and determined to focus on locally sourced ingredients. Flavors like Grapefruit Ginger, Roasted Beets with Fresh Mint and Homemade Eggnog with Brandy really showcase what local farmers have to offer.

“We use low-temperature pasteurized milk from Texas Daily Harvest and fruits and veggies from local farms,” he explained. “All the bowls and spoons are also bio-compostable.”

When it came to cones, Sobotik didn’t want a store-bought feel. “The edges aren’t perfect. Ours are more light, more delicate,” he said. Though most Lick Ice Creams don’t use eggs (there are also always a few dairy-free, vegan options) there are seasonal flavors (like Egg Nog) that do. Vital Farms eggs add an extra richness, courtesy of our South Austin, pasture-raised hens.

Visit Lick Ice Creams at 2032 South Lamar in Austin, TX to try their incredibly crisp, flavorful cones and super fresh, unique ice creams.

Garden Veggie Frittata

(We love this for breakfast with a side of fruit, or lunch/dinner with a small salad. Enjoy!)

Serves 6

To prepare: Gather your veggies & eggs and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Hundreds of pounds of cabbage

As of May 2011, 46 million, or 1 in 7 Americans are currently on food stamps. These astounding numbers go to show that food security is a real problem for a growing number of Americans.

Yesterday we took a tour of the Capital Area Food Bank, accompanied by John Turner, Senior Director of Marketing and Branding, Justin Spencer, Food Resource Manager, and Lisa Goddard, Online Marketing Director.

We learned that the food bank warehouse holds 25.3 millions lbs of food at any time, 365 days a year! Their refrigerated trucks can hold up to 40,000 lbs of food at a time. The food bank serves 48,000 people a week, (28,000 of those served are children). The food bank purchases 15 percent of their food stores, while 85 percent is donated.

Turner, Spencer and Goddard stressed that food safety is number one; many members in the community they serve do not have health benefits. Many are children or elderly, and are thus more vulnerable to food-bourne illness.

The organization has donation agreements with HEB, Target and Wal-Mart, as well as local farms (like Vital Farms) and the Sustainable Food Center’s Farmer’s Markets. Turner said organizations like HEB and Wal-Mart were paying to have food nearing its sell-by date shipped to landfills. Last year, the food bank rescued over 4.3 million pounds of food from organizations like these. Turner said there is a big difference between a sell-by date and a use-by date; many foods are often still tasty and edible after the sell-by date.

Corn

The food bank also has four nutritionists on staff, who teach workshops to children and adults about how to make healthy food choices (even with limited means) and to modify typical recipes in a healthy way. There is also a small teaching garden to the south of the building.

“Hunger is a symptom of many other things that we cannot control,” Turner said. Unemployment, the economy, poverty and lack of education all play a part in contributing to food insecurity.

When asked about boxes full of sodas and junk food mixed in with potatoes, onions, whole-grain cereal and vegetables, the

staff explained that in order to receive food from some large organizations, like Coca-Cola, who also bottle juice and water, they must also accept some of their sodas. They do understand that, “It’s not just about the volume of food, it’s also about what you put in your body,” Turner said.

Food inventory at the food bank is ranked on a level of 1, 2 or 3, with one being the highest level of nutrition, and donations to pantries or individuals are meant to contain 80% of food ranked at a level 1 and 2 and 20% of level 3 food products are allowed.

The food bank is open 6 days a week. Last year, they welcomed 16,000+ volunteers, which meant they didn’t have to hire the equivalent of 44 full-time staff members. They always welcome new volunteers, corporate groups, families and children as young as eight are welcome to come and help to make a difference.

Capital Area Food Bank and the Blanton Museum of Art are hosting a film screening of the Award-Winning Documentary Dive! on Thursday September 15 from 6-8pm. Tickets are free!

Laura Sawicki, Pastry Chef at La Condesa, was kind enough to let us into her kitchen to show us the basics of one of Summer’s most classic and refreshing desserts: homemade ice cream made with Vital Farms eggs!

La Condesa’s Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream (Yield: About 1 QT)

Ingredients: 1 ¼ c. Milk, 1 ¾ c. Cream, ¾ c. Sugar, 1 Vanilla Bean (Pop the bean and scrape out the pulp), 1 Pinch Salt, 7 Vital Farms egg yolks, (Finish with a splash of bourbon if you like).

You will also need: A stainless steel bowl. A whisk. A wooden spoon or rubber spatula. A strainer. A cooking or candy thermometer. A large bowl or bin to make an ice bath. An ice cream machine.

1. Scald milk and cream with half the sugar. 2. Whisk egg yolks in a stainless steel bowl. When dairy starts to bubble, add remaining sugar to yolks and whisk! 3. Temper (add) a portion of the dairy into the yolks, whisking. Be careful not to scramble the egg yolks. 4. Return all ingredients to a saucepan on the stove, stirring with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Cook on low to 160 degrees. Strain. 5. Cool in an ice bath. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Add a splash of vanilla extract and bourbon, if using. 6. Store in a refrigerator overnight. 7. Spin according to your ice cream machine’s instructions.

(Tip from Laura: Ice cream requires lots of straining, especially if you have an infusion competing with the base. You want your base to be as smooth as possible. Laura recommends getting creative with infusions: nuts, herbs, liquors, whatever strikes your fancy.)

La Condesa changes their standard menu every few months, but specials change everyday or every few days. Sawicki says it can be difficult to plan pastry specials for a large restaurant when the seasons in Central Texas are so short. “If this were a 25 seat restaurant, a totally locally sourced menu would be no problem, but we have 150 seats,” Sawicki said.

Sweet potatoes and pecans are available year-round but berries, herbs and certain fruits can be harder to come by. However, the restaurant supports many local vegetable farmers, orchards and local meat producers; the fruit pie is always made from locally sourced ingredients, and the cheesecake is made with local Pure Luck Farms goat cheese. Sawicki says she really likes how golden, yummy and rich the Vital Farms egg yolks are. “You can tell the chickens ate well,” she said.

The restaurant also has a very strict composting system in place, as well as a water filtration system and pressurized water taps on all faucets. Sawicki says she doesn’t produce any waste besides egg flats and milk cartons. (She uses about 6 gallons of Organic Daily Harvest Milk a day). “On an emotional level we are practicing what we preach and encouraging other restaurants to do the same. I haven’t worked in a restaurant that wasn’t environmentally conscious in 6 years,” she said. “I am totally floored that there is still a lack of education.”

Sawicki and her team of cooks work extremely hard to produce food of the highest quality at one of Austin’s best restaurants. (She arrives every morning at 6am and will leave at 6pm on a good day, though usually closer to 8 or 9pm). Sawicki, Executive Chef Rene Ortiz and their fellow cooks’ dedication has paid off; since opening in 2009, the restaurant was nominated for the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in the US in 2010, arguably one of the most respected awards in the culinary world.

A year later, the main room still crackles with color, massive art sculptures and modern light fixtures (take a look at the American Institute of Architects’ nominated décor here) and the chefs all seem relaxed and happy to be at work.

“What’s a better way to build community than through food?” Sawicki said.

This week we wanted to bring you a photo story + recipe to expand on the typical egg repertoire (fried, scrambled, on a sandwich, in an omelet, etc.). This recipe comes from our friend in South Austin, Jam Sanitchat, Owner of Thai Fresh, an incredible gem of a restaurant that serves a wide variety of healthy Thai cuisine using many local ingredients.

“Pad Thai is a famous dish in the U.S. and around the world except Thailand. There is nothing wrong with it. I love it and Thai people love it. It’s just not one of the dishes you see everywhere like you would in the US. It’s almost considered a specialty, you have to hunt for it and you have to know where to go to get it. Here is my theory why it is so popular everywhere. Thai cooking is a cooking of balance. There are five flavors present in Thai cuisine: spicy, sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Pad Thai is a great example of Thai food that has all the five flavors. So, whatever flavor you like, Pad Thai is likely to satisfy your palate.” – Jam Sanitchat

Ingredients

2 handfuls of dried thin rice stick (about half a pack of 16 oz dry medium size rice stick noodles)
2 tablespoon palm sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoon tamarind water (see notes below)
2 tablespoons fish sauce (substitute with soy sauce and soy bean paste for the same amount for vegetarian)
2 small bunch Chinese chives/leeks (you can substitute green onions but it won’t taste the same but it will give a little color to your Pad Thai)
2 teaspoon oil
1 red shallot, minced
2 Vital Farms eggs!
4 oz extra firm tofu, cut into small cubes and deep fry (We drained and sliced the tofu, then covered it in a kitchen towel and set some canned food on top. This helps remove some water to help in the frying process).
4 shrimp, peeled and deveined (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of salted radish, chopped (this is salted daikon, the white raddish. You can skip it if you can’t find it. It usually comes in a plastic bag whole or in a tub already minced)
pinch of roasted Thai chili flakes (see notes below) or substitute red pepper flakes. It won’t be as spicy but will work fine.
2 handfuls of bean sprouts
2 tablespoons of crushed roasted peanuts
lime wedges

Soak noodles in tap water for about an hour until soft. To check the noodles if they are ready, bend a noodle and if it breaks without any force, it’s ready. If not, you have to soak a little longer. Mix palm sugar, white sugar, tamarind water and fish sauce and simmer until dissolved. Chopped Chinese chives into small lengths about 2 inches.

Heat a wok or big pot (Dutch Oven is my favorite, or a big saute pan will do) over medium heat until very hot, add oil and wait until the oil is hot and fry shallots until fragrant and colored. Crack in eggs and scramble. Mix in tofu (and shrimp if using), chili flakes and radish. Stir fry until the tofu is thoroughly heated up and then add noodles. Stir-fry for a while until the noodle is softer and change color. Add the prepared sauce and a pinch of chili flakes. Stir for a few moments. Finally, add most of the bean sprouts and Chinese chives and cook for another 30 seconds. The noodles should be a little sweet, sour and salty.

When served, top the noodles with crushed peanut, fresh Chinese chives, bean sprouts, a wedge or two of lime and chili flakes(if want it a little hotter).

The spring edition of Edible Austin has a terrific feature on our Austin farm!  Thanks to Marla the editor and David the author for such a great write-up.  We’ve never heard such a unique take on our mobile-chicken-units: http://www.edibleaustin.com/content/editorial/editorial/552?task=view

Home to hens, not droids.

“Each pen consists of…a mobile chicken unit (MCU) that looks like a galvanized, very South Austin version of the Jawa Sandcrawler droid factory where Luke Skywalker purchased C-3PO and, reluctantly, R2-D2. The MCU is the coop where the hens nest.

“”The object is to allow the birds to live as natural an existence as possible,’ [Robert] Kraft continues. ‘There are downsides to that: they have to sleep outside in the cold, but it’s not anything they can’t adapt to. They sleep in big groups and their body heat keeps them warm. The electric fences keep ninety-five percent of the predators away.’”

Robert is our manager at Vital Farm and a real thought leader in the art of pasture-raising hens. From time to time, he’ll be providing farm updates and answering frequent questions we get concerning pasture-raising. With the rough cold season we’ve been having, many people wonder how the birds handle cold weather.  Here’s Robert’s take:

This winter has been incredibly rainy and cold for this part of Texas. While this bodes well for the condition of the pasture in the coming spring, it can be a little trying when you work outdoors. You just come to accept being muddy, cold and wet all the time as a normal state of affairs, and console yourself with memories of the 107 degree temperatures of last summer’s drought.

Hens dressed for winter

A lot of people ask me if the cold weather is bad for the hens, since they live mostly outside. They actually do quite well in the cold, as long as they have a way to stay dry and sheltered. They are, after all, birds, and the forests and meadows all around the farm are full of thousands of birds who seem to survive each winter, even when temperatures dip into the teens, as they did last month. Birds are provided with excellent insulation in the form of feathers, which we actually use to make winter clothing and sleeping bags.

Each of our flocks has a mobile coop in which they spend their nights, and where they can shelter in inclement weather. These trailers provide the essential protection from precipitation and wind that they need to get through the winter.  On colder nights, they huddle together for warmth. When I make my rounds of the flocks at night, if I stand in the doorway of their trailer, I can feel the heat radiating from the sleeping hens.

Mobile chicken units give shelter and trap heat

Chickens get into trouble when they are exposed to a bad combination of elements, such as wind and cold, or cold and wet, or wind, cold and wet. In these conditions they are unable to retain their body heat, and can die from simple hypothermia. It is very important to make sure that the flocks have plenty of places to go to get out of the wind and rain. As with everything else in pasture-raising, if you give the birds the resources that they need, they will figure out how to use them.

Generally speaking if the temperatures do not dip into the twenties and teens regularly, and the winters aren’t too harsh where you are, you shouldn’t have too much trouble keeping your flocks on pasture in the colder months. As long as they are properly provided for, a cold, sunny day on pasture will always beat a warm day in a cage.