Will The Real Free Range Chicken - Please Stand Up!
I recently took a car trip to the lovely state of Georgia to see my nephew graduate from basic training, One thing about a road trip is that you get a chance to see the great outdoors, a chance to see road kill of different animals other than those you would normally see in your state, and a chance to see the wonder of it all, instead of a crowded airport long security check lines and claustrophobic plane space. Me….I 'd rather Drive!!
As I was driving through Louisiana at about 1:00 am in the morning, heading east on highway 10, to my surprise, I saw deer leaning over the guard rail, it actually looked like they were standing on their rear hind legs. Their eyes a glow, looking over the guard rail it was so crazy! This scene went on for a couple of miles. I wonder, if part of their genetic makeup is to take the challenge to cross a busy highway at night and were they actually looking for opportunities to make that death jump, into traffic!!
Continuing my drive through Georgia, and I also saw an abundance of very large black crows. They were huge, hence the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds”, I can see a group of the very large birds together running someone down, and doing harm! As I passed the birds it became very clear to me that they do not fear a cars or people. For that matter, they also do not fear 18 wheeler trucks. Their focus is on the fresh road kill, just hit earlier that day or the night before.
From the beginning in my career, working in many restaurants and resorts while training to be a Chef, I often heard the term “Free Range". The meaning of the term "free Range"descibes the manner in which poultry is raised free of cages, running free! Having heard that term very frequently, I learned quickly that food and beverage salesmen, used this term as a selling tool only to discover the product being produced in very large concrete rectangle enclosed huts. Which means the Chickens or Turkeys really did not experience free range!!
So here I am, traveling thru this state, and viewing all of the wonderful green manicured pastures that provide the dairy cows, bulls and horses all the nutrition they need.
Continuing on my journey, I look down the highway and see flecks of movement off in the pasture ahead. Initially I did not understand what I was look at. It was weird, as if something was covering the grass. As I drove closer , I notice that the these flecks, were moving, as the car came down the crest of the hill we were on, there must have been hundreds of these flecks, red, brown, they looked like leafs blowing around from fall. I slowed down, not fearing that I could cause a rear end accident. And pulled over to the side of the road, I stepped out of the car. There before my eyes, it seem like there were hundreds of chickens, in miles upon miles, of pasture. I stood there, in shock an in glory of nature and feeling a since of that all is right with the world. Here before my eyes was the true term “Free Range Chicken!!”
