DO WE HAVE ANY LOCAL CHICKEN GROWERS?

[tmsjas]

I AM LOOKING FOR L.A. AREA PEOPLE RAISING HORMONE FREE CHICKENS--ANYONE
KNOW ANYONE OUT THERE? THANKS!

[Will Owen]

New vendor as of last week at the South Pas FM (Thursdays 4-8, though everyone is set up by 3:30). They have chicken, duck, pork and lamb, roughly Niman Ranch-level prices, all humanely raised and organically fed. The animals that is, not the prices...

[happycat]

Will, that's Healthy Family Farms. I was so excited to see them at South Pas--that market is finally becoming something (and I like J&J for their grass-fed beef).

There's a Chinese chicken farmer at the Alhambra market Sunday mornings--free-range (though not pastured; they're raised in a very arid part of CA) and including the black silkies. Don't know about the silkies, but the regular chicken makes some of the best soup I've ever had. Birds are very lean, not huge-breasted, rather chewy in texture (best moist-cooked) but so flavorful. Sold w/ head and feet attached. Expensive. Their eggs are good too.

[condiment]

Very fond of the chicken grower in Alhambra.

[tooth]

Jidori brand chickens are all natural and humanely slaughtered. I love their chicken, it has great flavor. check them out at jidori.com. I also know that mitsuwa carries their chicken on occasion. Not sure if whole foods or bristol farms does.

[Das Ubergeek]

Lily's Eggs sells hormone-free, cage-free, organic chickens at any farmers' market they visit (Studio City, Hollywood, Santa Monica Cloverfield, Irvine, Torrance, South Pasadena, etc.). Be aware, though, that unlike the mutants at the market, these are not 99% breast and 1% everything else, so cook accordingly.

I personally like the organic black silky chickens at Hawaii Supermarket but they are considered medicinal and are quite expensive.

[condiment]

Lily's is good, Kendor is good, Vikon (cheapest at 99 Ranch) is good.

Every chicken sold in California is by law hormone-free, btw. If you don't mind the battery-raised aspect - and you probably should - even the generic chicken in the meat case at Von's is a pretty good product compared to the dreadful products of Perdue and such.

[Das Ubergeek]

Unfortunately the only pages I can find are in Chinese (and Google Translate is not a good system for on-demand translation from Chinese to English)... but black (silkie) chickens, known as 烏骨雞 (wu1 gu3 ji1, Mandarin for "black bone chicken") in Chinese, are traditionally considered a very yang ("heating", in this case restorative) food, and the traditional preparation is in soup with wolfberries and yams.

[houndofmusic]

Lilly's and also Healthy Family Farms (stupid name, I know) at the farmers market (SM or Hollywood). I prefer the ones from Healthy Family, although they tend to be larger than what Lily's has.

[J.L.]

Purveyors vs. growers. Isn't there a difference?

[monku]

I always thought of a purveyor being a company like Sysco that distributes or supplies food.

[monku]

How about Azusa?

Vikon Chicken
http://www.vikonfarm.com/free_range_c...

I first saw it advertised at Yum Cha Cafe and I notice on their website its sold at Bristol Farms.

[wilafur]

they typically stock vikon chicken at 168 market in sgv as well.

[JTea]

there's a seller at the encino farmers mkt [sun mornings, on victory west of the 405], who sells chickens and eggs. i forget the name, perhaps someone can supply contact info.

[SIMIHOUND]

I searched for some old posts on this board using key words poultry and butcher and came up with these.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/313549
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/589523

[JPomer]

Sunday Hollywood farmer's market has a couple of different chicken sellers

[AngiePangie]

KenDor Farms is their name. I believe they're all natural chickens. Their ranch is near Lake Balboa. Good chickens and eggs, too. They're also at the Sherman Oaks Farmer's Market (in the mall parking lot) on Tuesday nights.