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Free range chooks flourishing on Kangaroo Island

Regional

Starting with the intention of buying a few chickens for their own consumption but becoming the only chicken meat farmers on Kangaroo Island, the founders of Primal Harvest have a mission.

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During a mainland visit, Will and Jenny Stanton spontaneously decided to purchase some meat chickens for themselves and daughters Grace, Annabelle and Matilda but returned to their Stokes Bay farm with a flock of 200.

“Will has always wanted to get meat birds because we eat a lot of chicken ourselves and have previously questioned what’s in those we buy,” Jenny Stanton said.

“We love knowing our chickens are raised with the utmost care the way nature intended, and this has a big impact on the quality of their meat.”

Raised on a sheep and cropping farm near Narridy in the Mid North, Jenny is a qualified agronomist while Will is a third-generation Kangaroo Island farmer who grows Kowari oats in collaboration with local farming business Kangaroo Island Oats.

Will Stanton shares his love for regenerative agriculture and vision of growing wholesome food with his wife and three daughters.

Now the pair have turned their passion for healthy living into a growing business supplying the island and mainland with PROOF (Pasture Raised On Open Fields) accredited chickens.

Their farm is on the sunny north coast of Kangaroo Island, meaning the close proximity to the sea moderates temperatures against frost and northerly winds.

Sandy ground provides a paradise for chickens, allowing them to engage in their instinctive behaviour, scratching for bugs and dust bathing.

With no foxes on Kangaroo Island, unrestricted by fences and completely free to roam pastures and native vegetation, their free-range chickens are living the dream, in dome shelters that are moved to fresh pasture each day.

“I just didn’t realise how quickly they grew,” Jenny says.

“We’re doing this for our children, growing food more naturally and keeping them healthy and happy.”

Processing every eight or nine weeks, the Stanton family offer everything from whole chickens to wings, thighs, hearts, livers and even feet, and have added smoked chicken to their Primal Harvest KI range, which they hope to soon take nation-wide.

“Wanting to grow chicken to feed our family has led to Primal Harvest KI,” Jenny says.

“We grow our birds knowing that we are going to eat them and love having total control of what the birds consume.”

Jenny’s passion for the connection of food and health means she is all about primal ingredients so there is no soy, no GMOs, no hormones, no medications or antibiotics fed to the chickens.

“We take the effort to give them apple cider vinegar, diatomaceous earth, seaweed and biochar to support their immunity because we know we are what we eat,” she says.

“Our premium pasture-raised chickens enjoy green grass, sunshine and fresh air.

“We believe chickens raised the best, taste the best.”

This is a Creative Commons story from The Lead South Australia, a news service providing stories about innovation in South Australia. Please feel free to use the story in any form of media. The story sources are linked in with the copy and all contacts are willing to talk further about the story. Copied to Clipboard

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