If you’re in the Omaha metro area, you may already be familiar with Plum Creek Farms. If you’re not sure, it’s quite possible you’ve enjoyed their wonderful chicken at one of our many awesome local restaurants. It’s commonly referred to as “PCF chicken” on menus. There’s a reason so many restaurants choose PCF chicken – it’s because it tastes so good!
We’ve been buying Plum Creek Farms chicken and eggs for our personal use for many years. We can vouch for their tastiness! Doing so fulfills one of our nourishment practices we promote at Go Live Abundance – which is to buy from local farmers and producers. Another nourishment practice we promote is the importance of mindfulness and being connected to our food. These days, that’s something we must be intentional about because it’s so easy to become disconnected from the food we eat.
Many of us mindlessly wait in drive-thru lines.
We seek the fastest and most convenient means to a meal on our table.
Many people throw away leftovers or uneaten food with little concern about the waste.
It’s time to restore that connection to our food sources. Which is why we wanted to learn a little more about what goes into producing such amazing tasting chicken.
The man behind the operations at Plum Creek Farms is named Logan. He and his wife Olivia and their three girls live on the farm where the chickens are raised along with some other friends like adorable goats and a couple pups, too. We learned from Logan that Plum Creek Farms was originally started by his wife’s father, Dean, as an egg-selling business. One of their restaurant clients asked if they could begin raising broiler chickens as well. Dean decided to give it a go and you know what they say – the rest is history! Dean has since sold the business to Olivia and Logan and they lead all operations now. They still sell eggs – and let us tell you, they’re the most flavorful, delicious eggs! They also sell pasture-raised pork from a nearby farm, along with products from other local producers, including beef, bison, dairy and more.
We asked Logan why their chicken is so much better than other brands you can buy in the store.
While humble about this claim made by so many people who’ve tried their chicken, Logan speculates that it’s because they do so little to the chicken when processing it. Bigger chicken companies use as fast a cooling process as possible so they can crank out more chicken product overall. Plum Creek Farms allows the chickens to cool more slowly. They also don’t use any of the additives those bigger companies use when packaging their chicken. Essentially, it’s not what Plum Creek Farms does to the chickens that makes them so good, it’s what they don’t do. And these small differences yield a huge difference in the final product – better flavor and more tender chicken that’s also healthier for you.
They also focus on regenerative practices like selling the chicken manure to nearby farmers who use it to add nutrients back to the soil. Monocropping is depleting our soil, so this helps to replenish and fertilize the soil, thereby improving our environment.
Logan and his team of 8 people butcher and process around 1,000 chickens every Monday. And, three of those 8 people are over 65 years old – that’s some impressive work all around!
In today’s pace of life, much of our connection to our food is lost.
We eat our meals while doing other tasks at the same time – like reading email, scrolling social media or watching TV. We choose our groceries with little thought about where they came from. It’s so easy to walk into the grocery store and buy an item with no knowledge or concept of what went on behind the scenes to make it available to you.
Seeing where our chicken comes from gave us a new appreciation for the animals that nourish us. Witnessing the full cycle of baby chick to consumer food product has us paying a different kind of respect for the life of each animal who provided us with the meat on our plate.
We are so grateful that the chickens at Plum Creek Farms are treated with love and respect.
We’re grateful for the lives of these chickens and that they’re raised for our nourishment.
We’re grateful for the vast array of essential amino acids and nutrients that their meat contains to help our human bodies thrive.
This was an eye-opening experience for us that makes us even more appreciative of the animals that exist on this Earth to feed our human population. It gives new meaning to our meals and we hope it does for you, too!
If you’re near the Omaha area, be sure to give Plum Creek Farms chicken and other products a try. Your body and tastebuds will thank you! Learn more about them here.
