News from the Coop: A Letter from Farmer Elizabeth

Did you know that TC Farm eggs come from a single farm less than an hour south of the Twin Cities?

Ian & Elizabeth raise hens on their small family farm in Dundas, MN. Our group’s commitment to paying a fair price for humane & locally raised food provides a steady, year-round market for the amazing eggs they raise.

Learn more about TC Farm eggs and how we're mitigating bird flu risks below. Support Ian & Elizabeth by ordering & subscribing to eggs!

People are asking once again how we, as chicken farmers, are doing with the bird flu. We are doing fine, for now.

If our birds got the flu, you would know because our whole flock would be culled and we would not be able to have birds on the property for a year. We are a very small, family-run chicken farm, so this could end our farming career. This isn’t just an issue of draconian regulations either. Our poultry vet says that the flu is so bad that it would ruin our operation even without those rules.

In the spring of 2022, our vet advised us to keep our chickens indoors until the state had been free from a case of the bird flu for two weeks. As the years have passed, there is rarely a two-week period without a case of bird flu in the state. We let our chickens out like usual, accepting the risk.

We are taking some precautions. For example, our vet says that the greatest danger of infection now comes from cattle because they “shed” the virus at a high rate, often without looking ill. We don’t allow anyone with cattle to get near our chickens, which rules out a couple of people who have been a great help to us in the past. Buying chickens has also become a great challenge, but we believe we will have all the birds we need for the coming year.

Being a farmer has always meant being vulnerable for the sake of an ideal. We are vulnerable to storms, to predators, to an unexpected problem with a water system that keeps my husband working on a repair all night before teaching high school English all day. We are vulnerable to farming accidents, which have sent us each to the hospital. Now we are also vulnerable to losing everything through bird flu.

This vulnerability can just get in line behind the others because the ideal we are pursuing seems even more important. We have put everything we have into helping to build an alternative to industrial farming. We have built the kind of farm that was more typical in my mother’s generation, where our birds eat feed grown without chemicals and go outside in the field. Their eggs are usually picked by teenagers. This is a system that basically has worked for a long time.

Our operation is unusual. The USDA says that 80 percent of laying flocks have more than 30,000 hens. Those kinds of living conditions make all birds more vulnerable to a pandemic, those hens don’t have much of a life, and those barns aren’t a place for kids.

In the face of new and old vulnerabilities, we are taking a stand for something that is worthwhile. When you buy our eggs, you are standing with us, making our farm possible. Thank you.

Farmer Elizabeth

Over the past 10 years our egg prices have only increased at an average rate of 2% per year, compared to the national average of 6%. That's over 3 x times our rate!

While we are facing difficult challenges like a cost increase for organic grain and higher costs for replacement hens due to the bird flu, we've been able to keep our pricing steady amidst the roller coaster pricing you might have noticed at the store!

Subscribing to eggs is a HUGE help to Ian and Elizabeth in planning how many hens to raise.

If you don't have one already, consider setting up a flexible egg subscription so you can get local eggs delivered on a schedule that suits you! Skip or cancel anytime.

1. They're Local

All of our eggs come from Ian & Elizabeth's family farm in Dundas, MN, just outside Northfield.

After being laid our eggs travel north on 35W to our Blaine warehouse space before getting packed and sent out for deliveries.

Many of our members have paid a visit to Ian & Elizabeth's farm during our past farm tours!

Ian & Elizabeth's dogs inspect a shipment before it heads up to the cities

2. Raised on Actual Pasture

Most eggs (even those labeled as "humane" or "pasture raised ") come from hens raised in crowded factory barns with little to no access to the outdoors.

Our hens enjoy being pasture throughout the year (even during the winter!) and our birds keep their full beaks in tact so they can fully take advantage of the ground they're on.

3. They're Better for the Environment

We raise our hens using regenerative grazing methods that benefit the environment by:

Building topsoil
Preventing pollution & water runoff
Protecting native plants & species
Sequestering carbon & preventing climate change

4. They're Healthier For You

Pasture raised eggs have a number of added health benefits, including:

Twice as high in omega-3 fatty acids
3 times more vitamin E
Up to 7 times more beta carotene

5. Quality Eggs You Can Trust

We never use growth drugs or therapeutic antiobiotics on our hens and our eggs are free from commonly-used synthetic colorants that make egg yolks appear darker.

News from the Coop: A Letter from Farmer Elizabeth

News from the Coop-
A Letter from Farmer Elizabeth

How Our Egg Prices Compare

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