At Little Portion Hermitage in Berryville, the Brothers and Sisters of Charity have a Rule and Constitution they live by — to be agrarian in nature and to pursue a contemplative life. But the members of the monastery also want it to be self-sustaining.
Five years ago these two aims led the monastery into a growing field — natural foods, specifically pasture-raised chicken.
Clay Colbert, a member of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, developed the idea, according to Richard Ims, another member of the monastery who helps raise, market and deliver the chickens.
“(Colbert) had done it on a small scale before,” Ims said.
 Pasture-raised chicken sold in northwest Arkansas Little Portion Monastery Farm chicken is sold at the following businesses: |
Currently the hermitage, founded by John Michael Talbot, has about 30 members, including celibate brothers and sisters, singles and families with children. To protect a way of life centered on prayer, the members needed a commercial industry in addition to income from Talbot’s music ministry, which has fallen off in recent years because of changes in the recording industry, Ims said.
The hermitage sits on 400 acres, but it’s not great farmland because it’s in a valley and full of “Ozark mountain clay and rock,” he said.
The members grow vegetables for their own use and have sold some, but “it did not provide the financial assistance we were looking for,” he said.
The hermitage began raising chickens for its own use, then gradually expanded into commercial sales. It now produces 660 chickens every two weeks year-round.
These birds meet a certain niche in poultry production — they are “pasture-raised birds treated humanely as creatures of God,” Ims said, unlike chickens raised using conventional indoor cages.
The members brood the chicks themselves, then the chickens go to the pasture at four weeks. At eight weeks they are taken to a U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected processing plant in Rogers.
“They live a fairly short life,” Ims said, “but they weigh 4 or 5 pounds by 8 weeks, especially the way we feed and treat them.”
The hoop houses used at Little Portion are modeled on those used by Joel Salatin, who is considered the father of pasture-raised chickens, but the members have made some modifications. There are wheels on the front and bars on the back to make the enclosures easier for two people to move about the pasture, Ims said.
The chickens eat grass and bugs in addition to a supplement of whole-grain feed ground and mixed at the farm. So when customers eat the chicken, they know what they’re eating, he said.
There is also a symbiotic relationship between the birds and the land.
“The chickens eat the grass and leave a nice litter deposit” that feeds the grass, he said. Members compost litter from the chicken houses and use it in their vegetable garden, and they don’t use pesticides or herbicides.
It is more labor-intensive than conventional methods, but “to get the quality product we’re after, it takes a lot of work.
“We feel this is good, hard, physical farm work that God is calling us to,” he said.
“We live in an area that is agrarian, our larger community. But most importantly, it (this work) is very conducive to a contemplative life.”
The postulants at the hermitage start out “close to earth,” either in the garden or with the chickens. This type of work usually allows the new members to stay silent throughout the morning.
“It’s not necessarily brain surgery,” Ims said. “You can be mindful about what you’re doing and why we’re doing it. You use your hands and work with the earth and God’s creatures to come into a contemplative life.”
Working with animals is also part of the hermitage’s Franciscan foundation.
“We are cognizant of the animals giving their lives for our benefit. Customers feel the good spirit here. When they see our label, they trust that. It’s a great responsibility, and we take that seriously,” he said.
The Little Portion Monastery Farm Web site, www.monasteryfarm.com, has photographs and an explanation of its methods.
The farm labels its chicken “all-natural pasture-raised” to distinguish it from “free-range,” which only requires chickens to have access to the outside.
“Those can still be confinement birds, kept in small cages and force-fed,” Ims said.
At this point the chicken produced is not “organic” because that designation would require the chickens be fed organic grain, which is at least twice as expensive.
“Our objective initially was to keep it (the price) within reach of people in the area,” he said.
Currently the farm’s chickens are sold at markets and restaurants in northwest Arkansas, and the response has been positive.
Ronnie Jones, grocery manager at Ozark Natural Foods in Fayetteville, said the store has carried the chicken for about six months.
“We are constantly running out because it’s so popular,” Jones said. “Our customers say it’s the best-tasting chicken they’ve ever had.”
The store management decided to carry the chicken because they wanted a local product raised using environmentally sustainable practices and without steroids, antibiotics or hormones.
While the price is more than conventionally raised chickens, Jones said it is “very decent” compared to other free-range brands. At his store the whole chickens sell for $2.79 per pound and boneless breasts sell for $7.59 per pound.
Chef and co-owner Jerrmy Gawthrop has served the farm’s chicken at the Greenhouse Grille in Fayetteville since April. The restaurant strives to be environmentally conscious, from composting to recycling grease into biodiesel, and Gawthrop was glad to find this “blessed bird.”
“It’s a blessing to work with someone who’s putting their heart and soul into the product,” Gawthrop said.
He added the customers are very excited to find out the chicken is raised locally, and any chicken dish served at the restaurant, from a chicken sandwich to blackened chicken piccata, uses Little Portion chicken.
Ims said the farm is “very open” to spreading to other areas of the state and nearby states. He does all the deliveries now, but he would be willing to ship commercial orders.
Individuals can order chickens through the Web site and pick them up at the farm, but shipping individual orders would be cost-prohibitive.
This year is the first of a five-year plan to sell other products from the farm. In addition to fresh chicken, the farm is in the process of adding chicken sausage and chicken boudin blanc, a type of sausage prepared with cream and flavored with mushroom and herbs or apple and cranberry.
“Our hope is at the end of five years, we will have the income to support the community at its present size,” he said. “The business is a means to an end, a way to protect the community environment.”
