Established in 2015 in the great state of North Carolina with the goal of building a small, productive, self supporting family farm and to share this info and how-to with others interested in building their own farm business. Check out our gallery, it has photo collections of various projects and farm pictures. We’re still small scale, but growing quickly. We’re currently providing the people of the foothills the world’s most delicious pasture raised eggs and produce!
We’ve done a wide variety of produce over the years including heirloom tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, turnip, radish, kale, cucumbers and okra.
Turnip has proven to be a winner here at Isidore Farm. A cool fall crop that’s easy to manage and grows well in our soil. You can find our turnip in local restaurants!
Note: As of May 2021, we’re no longer selling our eggs. It’s been a good run but we’ve decided to focus future efforts on produce and the greenhouse. Thanks for supporting our eggs!
Many small farmers, including myself, wish for our customers to know where their food comes from. Many of our customers may never visit our farms, so in a spirit of full disclosure, I’d like for all my egg customers to not only know where their eggs come from, but how our chickens are raised and how their eggs are processed. I’ve compiled a list of topics I think all my customers should know. Thanks for eating Isidore Farm eggs.
Our chickens are never kept in a cage. They’re on rotating pasture fed free choice with plenty of fresh water and a custom six way scratch. We consider ourselves stewards entrusted to the care of our chickens. This means clean, healthy, happy and respected chickens.
We are not certified Organic nor do we use Non-GMO feed. We have used both types of feed in the past and found that local market willing to pay the higher price point isn’t large enough to support our egg business. If in the future this were to change, we would switch back to Organic or non-GMO feeds. We regularly evaluate different types of feed to find the highest quality for the best price.
Our birds are regularly rotated across several pastures. We do this using mobile chicken coops (retrofitted horse trailer and camper) and a mobile food trailer. Our fence is electrified and is moved with the chickens.
We currently do not grade or size our eggs. We visually inspect when packaging for shape and cleanliness. Oddly shaped or stained eggs we keep for our own kitchen. These eggs are just as delicious.
There is debate around the world to wash or not wash eggs. The goal of both practices is to minimize salmonella. We wash and refrigerate our eggs which is common practice in the US. We use a natural enzyme based egg wash instead of commercial chemical detergents. Our eggs are refrigerated once washed.
If you have roosters, which we do, eggs may be fertilized. A fertilized egg may have a small blood spot. This is perfectly fine and safe to eat, we eat them all the time. Many producers do not have roosters, to eliminate the chance of fertilization. We however find that the roosters play an important role protecting from hawks and policing the hens at dusk.
We do not use hormones in any form. We do not use antibiotics in feed or water. We haven’t so far, but if a sick bird would need antibiotics, we would separate the sick bird and treat with antibiotics under the supervision of a veterinarian. The bird would be reintroduced when healthy and once the antibiotics are fully out of the bird. Any eggs laid while on antibiotics would be disposed.
Follow us on the gram and feel free to send us a nice note!