inspired by the thought of eating; where work makes hunger,
and hunger justifies work; where quality is never
so much a principle as a pleasure."
.wendell berry
Schlangen Family Farm. Freeport, Minnesota. Since 1986.
2011 Schlangen Family Farm. All Rights Reserved.
THE SCHLANGEN
FAMILY FARM
originated in 1986 when Alvin and Alice Schlangen decided to look for a country home to raise my sister and me. They found a five-acre parcel with a farmhouse and operational henhouse of 15,000 hens near New Munich, Minnesota. Alvin and Alice Schlangen continued to work full-time, off-farm in order to support the farm until 1990 when they got serious about the business and were able to construct and equip a costly agribusiness egg-layer facility for 80,000 hens.
After only ten years of operation in a system unsuited for Minnesota winters, the equipment had become scrap. Over the course of those ten years, new insights into the nature of farming with its biodynamic relationship to health (of body, mind, spirit and nature) resulted in the recycling (if I recall correctly, over many freezing finger, winter days) of some 50 tons of steel from cages and feeders. The beginning of the task of remodeled half of the length of the henhouse to accommodate healthy organic hens and their subsequently healthy eggs soon followed.
The process towards sustainable farming continues, but already the farm has seen dramatic changes. Sunlight is crucial to the health of the birds as pathogens happily dwell in wet and shaded environments. At the Schlangen Family Farm, hens now have full access to green pastures and direct sunlight from spring to fall. In winter they bask in sun shining through recycled glass windows facing the southern skies while scratching away in unlimited recycled paper bedding.
FARMER'S MARKET
Look for us at the Midtown Farmers' Market (Minneapolis), May through October, as we represent the sustainable family farms of the region.
ABOUT OUR EGGS & HENS:
The feed ration with added flax meal, wheat and peas promotes higher levels of Omega-3 and Vitamin E. The hens will live a longer, healthier life as they remain full feathered and deliver the jumbo eggs that our market consumers love!
Winter-market customers love our stewing hens as they make the tastiest and healthiest chicken soup imaginable! We also raise grass-fed broiler (raised for meat) chickens during the summer (available in the fall).
