POLYFACE FARM INFLUENCE AT HERITAGE FARM
At Heritage Farm, Ridgway, Pa., Pete
Burns, second-generation family farmer,
is aiming to grow the sustainable-poultry
part of the business. To that end, from
2004 to 2005, Burns apprenticed
himself to Joel Salatin, renowned guru
of sustainable farming and owner of
550-acre Polyface Farm in Virginia’s
Shenandoah Valley. He returned
determined to increase the livestock
end of what was originally a
produce business.
“We provide chickens, eggs
and produce for the Big Burrito
Restaurant Group and a few other
restaurants in the Pittsburgh area—
and we’re looking to work with Jamie
Moore’s group at Parkhurst Dining
Services,” Burns explains.
are not totally free-range, Burns explains.
“These Cornish Cross broilers are
specifically bred to put on a lot of weight
fast, so to get them to eat as much fresh
grass as possible, we have floorless
pens. Every morning, we move them one
pen length to fresh grass.”
The birds are hormone- and antibiotic-free, and provided with a natural
grain mix feed in addition to grass,
grasshoppers and whatever other
bugs they unearth.
For Big Burrito Restaurant Group,
Heritage Farm currently provides
about 80 chickens per week for four
of its venues, with prominent mention
of Heritage Farm on the restaurants’
menus and website, Burns says.
Ohio. Turkey, ordered once or twice a week,
comes from the Bowman & Landes turkey
farm in nearby Springfield.
“For chicken, we’re buying fryers, breast,
thighs, legs, bones (for stock) and
tenders,” Armstead says. “We also buy
whole turkeys, breasts, ground turkey
for burgers and turkey pastrami, as well
as whole smoked turkey breasts or legs,
and also turkey bones. Although we have
standing orders, we still call them a couple
of times a week, and they deliver right to
the walk-in refrigerator.”
He sells whole birds at about 7 weeks, or
about 3½- 4 lbs., the smaller size desired
by restaurants versus 8-week-old birds
for retail. His pasture-raised chickens
“We see interest in farm-to-fork
definitely growing. It will be a matter
of getting the supply to the point of
meeting demand.”
serve breakfast, lunch and snack daily to
a combined population of children, seniors
and employees in this intergenerational
facility. She’s come to expect that Dines will
personally deliver product, and put it directly
into the refrigerator every Wednesday
so that she can serve it on Thursday—a
schedule that rarely varies. Morris also buys
Dines Farms chicken sausage and eggs, and
turkey breasts for Thanksgiving.
cost items on the menu. “I have a monthly
budget of about $10,000 to spend on food.
Jay sells us boneless chicken for $5.95 per
pound, so when I make a menu, I anticipate
those expensive days and schedule a
low-cost pasta day or vegetable-soup-and-
sandwich day that the seniors love.”
Among the approximately 1,100 Otterbein
University students that Armstead and his
staff serve daily, chicken tenders (breaded
in-house), as well as herb-marinated chicken
breast, available at the grill station, are the
top chicken sellers, while turkey tetrazzini
and turkey meatloaf—with honey mustard
glaze or chipotle ketchup topping—share the
No.1 turkey popularity spot.
“Our mission is to operate a farm-friendly,
sustainable kitchen, and early on, when Chef
Marla [Mendillo] and I went out ‘foraging’ for
new farms in Rockland County, we found
Jay at a farmers market,” Morris says. “We
sampled his products, and loved them.”
Dines Farms chicken recently served as the
centerpiece for the annual board dinner, Morris
notes. It was featured as chicken scarpariello,
with cherry peppers, zucchini, onion and garlic.
Armstead acknowledges that this farm-to-fork poultry is a little more expensive, but says
you can definitely taste the difference. “When
students say, ‘ Wow. This is good,’ we educate
them as to why,” he says. “Plus, we label all
our farm-to-fork items, indicating where each
is from within 150 miles of our location. So
the sign might read, ‘Turkey Burgers from
Bowman & Landes Farm, Springfield.’ They
really appreciate the information.”
MENU MANAGEMENT
Because Morris aims to keep within budget,
she judiciously alternates low and high food
Adhering to Palo Alto-based Bon Appétit
Management Co. food standards that call
for antibiotic- and hormone-free purchases
sourced as locally as possible, Will Armstead,
chef/general manager at Otterbein
University, Westerville, Ohio, orders chicken
three times a week from Gerber Poultry, Inc.,
an Amish family farm operation in Kidron,
New York-based award-winning journalist
Karen Weisberg has covered the
issues and luminaries of the food-and-
beverage world—both commercial and
noncommercial—for more than 25 years.
