Customers scramble for organic eggs

Rob Rogers

Marin Independent Journal - California

11/17/2008

WHEN Liz Cunninghame took over operation of her family's Tomales cattle ranch in 1997, she remembered something her grandfather had said many years before.

"He had a herd of 30 Jersey (cows), but he loved chickens," said Cunninghame, who operates Clark Summit Farm with her husband, Dan Bagley. "He'd say you could make a fine living off chickens."

Cunninghame's organic flock of about 800 birds is proving her grandfather right. The chickens - a combination of Rhode Island reds, black-and-white barred rocks and Wyandottes, and the green-egged Ameraucanas - produce about 400 to 500 eggs each day, which she sells to markets like San Francisco's Rainbow Grocery for $7.50 a dozen.

At a time when other California chicken farmers have taken heat for confining their birds to tiny cages, Cunninghame's chickens wander freely within a pen, which she moves about once a week across the hills of her 160-acre farm. Two good-natured Labrador retrievers and an electrified fence protect her flock from the unwanted attention of bobcats, coyotes and even eagles.

"It's a different predator every year," Cunninghame said. "Everybody likes chicken."

Despite their productivity, Cunninghame has decided not to live by chickens alone. She maintains herds of about 50 head of cattle and 60 pigs, as well as small flocks of turkeys, guinea fowl and geese. She's particularly taken with the geese, who raise a racket whenever predators approach and devour the weeds on her property. That makes them even more cost-effective than her chickens, whose organic poultry feed costs three times as much as traditional feed.

While Cunninghame loves her work on the farm, she admits there are a few drawbacks. Her chickens and other animals keep her so busy that she rarely has time to leave - and when she does, she almost never goes out to eat.

"It's hard for me to go to restaurants," said Cunninghame, who's developed a taste for farm-fresh food. "I definitely don't eat their eggs."

marinij.com