we visited the chickens at Foxhollow Farm, and then headed over to Rootbound Farm, where we harvested eggs, and brought it all back to my house to cook a delicious chicken dinner.

- I'm Maggie Keith, and I'm the farmer.

- And I'm Lindsey McClave, and I am the foodie.

[ gentle guitar music ] I definitely feel like chicken farming is underappreciated.

And I wanted people to see how chickens are meant to live.

Josh and Jared are partner growers here at Foxhollow Farm.

We have a program where young farmers lease land and run their own operation, run their own business.

So they decided they wanted to raise some chickens on Foxhollow, which is great, because it adds great diversity to the farm in an incredible fertility.

- Farming chickens is completely new to me.

I was really excited to talk to Josh about what it is like to farm chickens and why their chickens taste so, so good.

And they are so, so good.

- Josh, thank you for having me out to meet all your chickens.

- Yeah, no problem, we love it.

- This is a big day for you guys with the chickens.

- It's processing day.

- So tell me a little bit about what today will entail and about your chickens.

And you mentioned when you first started your life with chickens, it was with egg-laying chickens, and now it's meat chickens.

What's the difference?

Do the same breeds do both?

Tell me a little bit about that?

- Totally different breeds.

The laying chickens have a little more personality.

They're a little more active.

Meat chickens are pretty lazy, and there's not a whole lot of personality there, but they sure do taste good.

Right now we're doing Cornish Crosses.

We seem to have the best success as far as health of birds and size of bird we want at the seven-week mark, which is what we process at seven weeks.

Our birds are raised on non-GMO feed.

They're pasture raised.

- You said pasture raised.

And I think that's something that can be confusing to me when I'm shopping for chickens or even eggs.

There is all these different terms.

Pasture-raised, grain-fed, free-range, cage-free.

What's the benefit of a pasture-raised chicken than versus a chicken that's kept in a cage.

- Caged chickens are more or less kept in that high tunnel the whole time or in cages and just fed, usually really high-protein food and gotten as big as possible as quick as possible.

- It sounds like getting to pluck and eat anything and everything in its sights, it's natural way of being?

- And that's part of the diet.

You want them on the clover, you want them on the fresh grasses, the bugs, crickets, the worms they dig up.

It's all natural.

- You have a couple specific processors that you use.

And I understand that's as important as the chick layers that you select.

- It is very important.

It's important that you know you're getting your birds back.

It's important you know how they're treated or how they're handled.

- That's what's happening today.

We're going to help you load up the chickens and hit the road.

- Today will load in the crates and get them on the trailer and haul them up there and have them ready for processing in the morning.

- I've never loaded chickens before, so you're okay if I help you?

- You're in for a treat.

- Maggie, I know you came because you're really excited to see me attempt to catch a chicken.

- Yes, highlight of my day.

- So, I hope we can be of some help to you.

- Oh, all help is loved.

- Here we are, they're all the same breed you said, but they do look a little bit different to me.

- You can really tell the difference between the rooster and the hens, now that they're seven weeks.

The roosters are a little bigger, broader shoulders, a little more crown, it's a little redder than the hens.

The hens is more of a laid down crown, it's more pink than red.

- How can I tell which one is really nice and will let me get close to it and catch it without scaring me.

- Just one that squawks at you the loudest.

- All right, shall we go for it!

{ music } - After Foxhollow, we headed to Rootbound Farm which Ben and Bree Able invited us out.

They've been deer farm friends of mine, being neighbors and also very good farmers.

They know how to farm well and farm organically and farm to scale.

So we headed to their farm to see how they're raising their chickens for eggs.

So you raised chickens for eggs and meat, but I want to learn more about your egg birds.

So can you tell me more about them?

- So we got into raising chickens two years ago as a complement to our main business, which is as vegetable farmers.

But we wanted to take advantage of this diverse Kentucky landscape that we're farming on, and we also wanted an animal that could play a role in the fertility cycle on our crop fields.

So we have a thousand laying hens here at Rootbound Farm, they're certified organic.

We are collecting right now about 700 eggs a day.

And these eggs we sell at farmer's markets to some restaurant customers and through our CSA.

- So how did you pick your breed of chickens?

- We tried to talk to other farmers and also do a little bit of research.

And so we have six or seven different breeds out here.

We chose them based on their hardiness, more than anything, over their production.

- And what do you notice the biggest differences with your eggs versus like an egg you would get the grocery store?

- I think they have obviously a different look.

The yolks, especially during the green grass season are a lot deeper yellow, almost an orange compared to the grocery store eggs.

And the yolk is also higher up, and that has a lot to do with its firmness and its freshness.

Then I think that they're visually more appealing, but that they're also more flavorful, and ultimately that's how we're trying to appeal to people, not just on the ecological benefits, but also it's a better product to feed your family.

- Yes, the flavor definitely speaks for itself.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- So I'm imagining chicken chores happen in the morning.

- Our main egg collection is at the end of the day, at about 4:30 is when we do our main egg collection.

- Nice, So it sounds like Lindsey and I are here for perfect timing for egg ollecting.

- Yes, the nest boxes should be full, if the chickens did their jobs today.

- Great!

- I'm glad you guys are here to check out our coop.

We're going to step in, I'll show you what are called, community nest boxes.

So we have the type of nest box where four or five chickens can lay eggs next to each other as opposed to one little coop per chicken.

I'll show you how we collect them, how we feed and water the chicks and everything.

- Okay, thank you!

- So when they're ready to lay an egg, they go in here?

They hop in here, they know, okay, it's time.

- It's time, I'm feeling it coming, let me go.

They like being in the dark.

They're drawn to the color red.

So that's how the flaps are red.

So in the afternoon, we'll come down the line here.

We'll line these, the top of these boxes with these egg collection trays.

We'll check if a little hens is in there.

We'll block her off with box.

- It comes down.

- Oh my gosh, it's a lot.

It's like magic.

Like pot of gold, oh my gosh.

- So these are called rollaway nest boxes because they're slanted down.

And so in the hens lays the egg, it rolls out from under her.

It helps to reduce their desire to get broody and sit on their eggs.

So not poopy, less broody, win-win.

So at our cleanup time, we'll just load these trays up.

- So fun.

- Isn't it beautiful too?

I mean it's so cool.

- Ben, thank you so much for having us out.

That was so much fun.

The ladies are hysterical and so prolific.

Do you mind if we take a few eggs back to the kitchen?

- Please do.

I hope you all enjoy them, and we enjoyed having you out today.

It's always nice to show our friends and neighbors our eggs.

- Thank you Ghost for showing us your chickens.

- Good boy Ghost, good boy.

Keeping them safe.

- Well, Maggie let's head back and cook some chicken and eggs.

- Sounds great.

Because it's been a long day, we don't usually think of cooking in a whole bird, right, or I don't.

I think of a whole bird often as like slow Sunday supper.

But when you spatchcock at chicken, it cuts down the cooking time, gives you the most wonderful crispy brown skin.

And it's just one of the easiest things you could possibly do.

And you don't waste a single part of the bird.

Before we got started, I preheated the oven to 400 and when I preheated the oven, I went ahead and stuck my favorite cast iron in there.

So that's going to be piping hot and ready to go.

We're just going to give this the best, most beautiful butter bath we possibly can.

And we're going to take the backbone out.

So it sits as flat as possible.

The idea is let's get this skin in contact with hot cast iron it's going to hang out in the oven for a little bit.

And I think we're all going to be really impressed.

So you brought this from Josh, How much did you say this?

- This is about four and a half pounds.

So this is a good heavy bird.

I would say that would feed a family of six even.

- So we've taken it out of the packaging, pat it really dry.

Don't rinse your bird, don't do anything like that.

Just pat it dry, want it to be as dry as possible, and keep it out of the fridge for little while to take that chill off.

- Yes.

- Just helps the browning process go even better.

So we are going to turn this little guy over, and here's our backbone.

So you can see from the neck of the chicken, you can really feel it, just straight down to the bottom.

straight down to the bottom.

- Oh yeah.

- There's the backbone.

So what you're going to want is just your sharpest kitchen scissors, kitchen shears, you can use a really good knife.

I find with this, the scissors really make it that much easier.

I'm going to lift it up and starting right from the bottom.

I'm going to start to cut.

Now takes a little finagling, you are cutting for your bone.

So it's just a little working wiggle, just wiggling along, and you'll see though.

And we're not going to waste this bone.

If you happen to get a chicken that comes with the giblets on the inside or sometimes the neck is included, throw it in your freezer.

It is amazing for stock, bone broth.

- I feel this is the most beautiful proportioned bird.

The breasts are perfect with thighs, the wings.

- It is a gorgeous bird, it has fat in the right places.

It has a beautiful skin distribution.

So here's our backbone.

So I'm just going to let that hang out over here.

I'm going to save that.

Now here is our bird.

So we're going to turn it over I want it to be as flat as possible so as much of this skin which gets nice and crispy gets on the pan.

So this is where we're going to get our muscle into it.

You just turn it over, and we're just going to push down.

- So we're trying to hear like a crack or something when you're breaking it.

- So there you go.

So now you can see how flat that bird is going to be.

I'm going to go ahead and tuck the wings under, just kind of helps keep things compact.

And I do this, I tuck the wings under when I roast a whole bird too, not like this, but now we can see, this is going to go skin side down, and it's going to really help brown both, not just the breast, but also the legs.

Further browning requires as much butter as possible.

So if you want to grab that butter for me, please, and take the top off.

We are going to not only butter the outside of the bird, we're going to butter under the skin.

I love doing this, if I'm roasting a whole bird or doing the spatchcock.

You actually just pull the skin away from the meat.

So you just kind of work your fingers in and you can see there's like a pocket.

- Yeah, a little butter pocket.

- And you just want some room temperature butter, we're going really straight forward.

But this is where you can make things fun.

You can mix garlic in your butter, herbs, all sorts.

So I'm going to just stick that in there, off the knife and then you just massage it around.

So we're going to have butter directly on the breast as wella s over top.

I'm going to now do butter all over the outside.

Again, the name of the game is browning here.

So for that, I'm just going to take my fingers, and we're just going to give it a butter bath.

This is the only time we're going to add salt.

So we do want to salt liberally.

We're going for crispy, really delicious skin.

When I salt, I like to season from up high.

It allows the distribution of each little granule of salt to better cover the surface area you see.

So we really get that.

- I always thought this was for show.

- It is, it doesn't make a fun show, but it actually has a purpose, is if you're close and you're using a lot, it's going to be salty in one area.

So this makes sure every little nook gets it perfect.

And we want to see that salty crust.

I mean, so this feels like a lot, but it's good.

And then we'll do same thing with the pepper.

Okay, some black pepper.

Yeah, lovely.

Oh my gosh, look how beautiful.

Now if you want to grab the oven mitts.

Give it cast iron.

give cast iron out here.

- We have a well seasoned cast iron, of course.

- Oh yeah.

And you don't have to use a cast iron for this, I mean, if you don't have, if grandma hasn't given you your cast iron yet, that is okay.

But it definitely makes all the difference.

There's nothing in the cast iron just really well seasoned.

We can feel the heat coming off of it.

And I'm going to go ahead, and I'm going to put this guy skin side down in there.

And you can hear it, is just what we want, and I'm going to arrange it carefully to make sure that is down there.

A few other things you can do if doing this on the grill some people put another heavy pot on top.

We're just going to go with this because we're keeping it simple for our weeknight dinner.

We do want to go ahead and add salt and pepper to this side.

If you want to do that for me.

I can do that, from above.

From above, there you go.

so this doesn't take that long.

We're going to put this in the oven for about 40 minutes, then we're going to take it out.

We're going to flip it, and we'll let it finish getting extra crispy and brown for about another 10 minutes in the oven.

Give or take based on the weight of the chicken.

And then it just rests for 10 minutes and you're ready.

Top to bottom, you're looking at an hour to cook a whole chicken.

And you'll see later there's really almost no carving, which is really nice too.

So makes it very easy.

So back in the oven and see you in a little while.

- Perfect, fantastic.

So we're going to move the bird onto this cutting board.

And I do see, we have so many gorgeous chicken drippings.

I think that maybe that is where our asparagus needs to go.

So we're going to let this guy rest about 10 minutes, just enough time to cook our asparagus in the oven.

I'm going to move him back here.

- Okay, and we can get snapping on this asparagus.

- I don't know how you store your asparagus.

- This is the best way.

- This is my favorite.

So when I got home, I had a bunch from you that we collected from the beautiful mature beds at Foxhollow.

I just cut the very end off just like I would a flower and put it in a cup of water in the fridge.

It really does keep them fresh for so long.

I like that I can pluck out what I need as I want to cook them.

then from there, how do you further trim asparagus?

- I usually use my hands and snap.

- Show me how you snap.

- You want to just find where it naturally snaps.

- I think instead of dirtying a whole nother pan, we just snap off the asparagus that we're going to cook, toss it in there.

There's plenty of salt and pepper already from the chicken that would've come down on that.

So let's just put it right in there and let it roast about 10 minutes in our 400 degree oven, and we've got sort of a one-pot meal which we love.

- Yeah!

So I was just so impressed by Rootbound's egg setup.

I think, first off, it's beautiful.

You see those hens out clucking about having too much with Ghost looking after them, keeping them safe and sound.

You also have chickens in your backyard, right?

- Oh yeah, they're a blast.

My favorite chicken Tina is going to join us later today.

- She made a trip into the city just for us.

- She did, she's in your backyard She keeps hearing these city noises, like what is that?

- Well, I'm just flattered that she came to join us for dinner.

So when you see again, like the chickens that Josh and Jared raise for me, when you see something being just taken care of and nourished in its most natural form, when I have that type of ingredient, I want to keep it as pure as possible.

So you can really just appreciate every element of what this person and these animals have given us.

And so with their eggs, I can think of really no other more, straightforward classic way to prepare an egg than a poach.

You're literally just lightly cooking the egg in water.

And I feel like it sounds fancy, and it can feel intimidating.

It really isn't, and now do you poach eggs, Maggie?

- I do actually.

I love a good poached egg.

- A lot of people will add a little vinegar.

Do you add vinegar to your poach?

- I do, but I don't know why.

- I think there's thought to help the white sort of keep to together a little bit more, you get all those wisps it will come out in the water, they don't hurt anything.

I didn't find them huge difference when I do it.

Usually it's one less thing to grab out of the pantry.

But by all means, it is the classic preparations.

I do like to use the stirring or vortex method.

What I'm going to do, we have a pot of water here and I'm going to do a couple eggs at a time.

We want to just have the water at a light simmer.

And I'm going to crack my eggs in this bowl.

Then with our simmering water, I'm just going to stir around and around and around and create like a little vortex.

I'm going to pour the egg into that spinning little spiral of water.

I'm keep kind of just coaxing it around with the end of my spoon, cooking in the water for two, three minutes.

I like a soft poach, just as long as the whites are set, yolk is runny, and then we're going to take it right out, we're going to have it over our chicken roasted asparagus.

So what's the first thing you notice about that.

- That yolk is huge, first of all.

- It's huge.

It is so big and that's fantastic.

And look how beautiful it is.

- It's perfect.

-So we can go ahead and crack one more, We'll do two at a time since it is just the two of us.

- Oh my goodness, this is wild.

In the same bowl?

- We'll put them in one at a time.

Like slide them, I see.

- Oh my man, look at that color!

- And look again, massive yolk, I love it.

Absolutely gorgeous.

Don't be intimidated.

This is for us to eat.

They're beautiful, they're delicious.

We will cook them lightly in water, enjoy them as they are.

- Great, let's do it.

- Another way I love to most celebrate the egg in its purist form is by making a hollandaise sauce.

- I love hollandaise sauce!

- I know, it's incredibly simple in terms of the ingredients, It feels a little omplicated and basically it's just about whisking, whisking, whisking, whisking, and getting the timing right, and you're going to help with that.

- Love it.

- Hollandaise is essentially egg yolks and melted butter, that's it, done.

We're going to add a splash of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and some of these absolutely gorgeous herbs that you brought from the farm to just jazz it up a little bit.

But at the heart of everything butter, a yolk, done.

So can't get much better than that.

It is most classically paired with poached eggs as well as roasted asparagus.

So first we want to separate our yolks from our whites.

So I will go ahead and get that started, but I'm going to start with three, and we've got a stick and a half of butter in our little pot over there that we're going to melt.

Now we want to melt the butter until it's just melted.

We want it to be like warm and hot, but not super bubbly and brown or anything like that.

The whole name of the game here is gently cooking this.

If we cook it too hard, the eggs will scramble.

And if we don't whisk and incorporate the butter in a steady stream enough, it will separate.

So if you want to add just the spritz of lemon juice for me.

- I can spritz that.

- We're talking just like a tablespoon, just a good spritz.

After we taste it at the end, we can add more, perfect.

And then I have a little bit of water here too.

These are awfully large egg yolks, which is amazing, but this will just help thin it out, just a hair.

So we're going to go ahead and add just a nice pinch of salt.

At the end, we'll mix in some pepper and our herbs, but for now, we're going to get these going.

We want to cook our eggs very gently as mentioned.

And so to do that, we are going to create a double boiler.

So a double boiler is essentially just steamed water.

This bowl will then sit on top of the pot.

We don't want the water to touch the bottom of the bowl, but instead we want that steam to hit the bowl, to create the heat, to slowly and gently cook the sauce that we're making, but not aggressively with the boiling going up.

So I'm just going to watch this, once it gets to a nice little simmer, keep the heat on really low.

You'll see the steam coming up the side of the bowl, and I'm going to get a workout in.

So I will be on whisk duty when we move over to the stove, if you will be on butter streaming duty.

- I can handle that.

- We want to put it in nice and slowly as I whisk, that'll help emulsify the egg yolks with the butter and then should create our luscious creamy hollandaise.

- Delicious.

- So you can see that beautiful consistency I was looking for.

It's really nice and just silky smooth.

One of the keys is you want to coat the back of a spoon.

You run your finger through, it's still nice and thick.

I do think it would do even better with some of these gorgeous herbs you brought from the garden.

So tell me what you've brought.

- We have some chives, which I absolutely love whenever I'm doing any sort of sauce, and then this dill is super fresh and tender.

So we can grab some of that, and I think that might be good.

Or do you want to mix some sage in or oregano?

- I think we start with these more tender herbs.

Love it, love it.

- So I just fold this guy up, and give it a little chop.

These herbs are always in season.

I'm always constantly harvesting some different dills and parsley and oregano and thyme.

The chives are best in the spring, but you can figure out how to get a menu in there throughout the season.

- Well, and I just love how beautiful they are, and these flowers are just stunning.

Are they edible the ends the flowers?

- Yes, actually one of my favorite things is to take these chive blossoms and pluck off the flowers.

And then they're going to go great on top of our dish.

- Oh, that's just going to add that final little splash.

- Pizzaz.

- Fantastic, and let's sprinkle that in.

Oh, gorgeous.

I'm going to go ahead and add just to pinch more salt from when we tasted it, and we'll do just a little bit of pepper.

- That really changed the color.

I know, it's so beautiful.

But look how yellow and just like luscious this looks.

That is because we have the most fresh farm eggs and I just can't wait to pour this over our poached eggs in asparagus.

- Sounds delicious.

- Let's bring it in, it's about time to eat.

- Yes!

- So I definitely brought two of my favorite dinner companions, Burgundy and Tina.

- Hi Tina, thank you for joining us.

My goodness, aren't you fabulous.

Let's dig in, I am so excited to enjoy our special dinner.

- So Tina is an egg bird, so don't worry.

She won't be offended that we're eating chicken.

- Well, cheers.

- Cheers.

- Cheers to you, Tina.

Cheers to chicken and eggs, and let's have a sip.

And here you are.

- Wonderful.

- What are you going to go for first?

- I think I'll go for this egg.

What are you going for?

- I'm going to jump right into the chicken.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

- This looks perfectly poached, oh, wow.

- Both: Cheers!

- Creamy yolk, perfectly gooey.

- Hollandaise sauce is probably just right.

Crispy skin, the right amount of salt, plenty of flavor, super juicy inside.

I think we did well.

- Yes, we definitely did, and these asparagus, top notch.

- Great.

Well, Tina, should we go outside?

Want to go find a nice place to picnic on this beautiful day!

Well, great, let's go.

- Okay, sounds good!