Canter Hill
Farm
WHY WE GROW
We grow because we care what we eat. We care even more what our children eat. And we think you care, too. We founded Canter Hill Farm in 2008 with the goal of growing our own food so that we knew exactly what was (and what wasn't) in it. We didn't set out to start a business - we had two full-time careers of our own. But then we started talking to people who read the books that we did and cared as much as we did - and we decided to try to grow for them, too. That's how it all began....
WHERE WE ARE
2138 Valley Hill Road
Malvern, PA 19355
We are open on Fridays from 12 - 4.
Email: canterhillfarm@yahoo.com
Phone: 610.827.1594
(For a quick response, email is best!)
HOW TO BUY
SCHEDULE
Bryn Mawr:
Every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm.
Location: Parking lot of the Bryn Mawr Train Station (Lancaster Avenue & Bryn Mawr Avenue)
Chestnut Hill:
Every Saturday from 9am to noon.
Location: in front of the Mermaid Inn.
Kennett Square:
Get on our "Kennett Dropoff List" by sending us an email
Media:
Email to get on the "Media dropoff" email list. I'll alert you when I'm coming to Media and we can meet up for a pickup.
Farm:
Farm hours are
Friday from 12 - 4 pm (or request an appt.)
Two great sales to entice you:
BRYN MAWR: Save $2 / lb on your favorite CHICKEN & TURKEY ROPE SAUSAGE FLAVORS:
Chicken Garlic & Wine
Chicken Spinach & Feta
Mild Italian Turkey
(Regularly $12 / lb, on sale for $10 / lb)
CHESTNUT HILL: Save $2 / lb on CHUCK ROASTS
Regularly $11 / lb, on sale for $9 / lb
As always, enjoy BOTH sales if you pre-order or come to the Farm
TURKEY ORDERS are OPEN:
You can NOW order your turkey!
Canter Hill exclusively raises Heritage turkeys. We raise Bourbon Reds, Spanish Blacks and Narragansetts. Our poults start under heat lights for the first 4 - 7 weeks (depending on weather), enjoying soy-free, certified organic feed. Then they head to movable pens (just like our chickens) on pasture and moved daily (or twice daily). These pens provide outdoor living, protection from predators, shade and direct access to grass.
Our turkeys will be butchered on two days: the Friday before Thanksgiving and the Monday before Thanksgiving. A freshly butchered turkey can be enjoyed for 10 days after butchering if kept nice and cold.
Heritage turkeys will be $10.95 / lb, and we request a $75 deposit that goes towards the final price of your bird.
Sizes vary (with a few birds at 12 and 13 lbs and a few over 26 lbs), but most nestle in the 16 - 20 lb range. We cannot predict nor provide a certain turkey size, but instead we ensure a RANGE. Why can't we ensure a size? Because weather makes a huge difference in how fast they grow, and we don't control that. Make sure you're comfortable with any size WITHIN the range you're selecting.
Placing a Deposit:
You can place your deposit for $75 via venmo, check or live at the market. We're happy to email you an invoice to pay the deposit online, but we have to add a processing fee due to the increased fees from our processor ($3 processing fee).
Our Mission:
We founded the farm on a simple premise:
Before chemicals, labs and factory farms got involved, God had created a perfect, workable system. We will learn about it, respect it, and we will naturally and successfully be able to be "beyond-organic" in our food supply.
New to farming, we had no pre-conceived ideas about raising animals or vegetables, and sought out farmers across the globe to learn what we did and didn't want to do. We quickly saw that most food systems raising just one type of offering needed external inputs - fertilizers, corn and sadly - sometimes chemicals and antibiotics. That's why we raise a variety of animals. Each has been chosen to serve a function for the others.
Over the last 10 years, we have grown and in addition to our home-base farm in Malvern, we lease 180 acres of grazing land from old family friends in Lancaster County. During the summer, we rotate half of our sheep flock through this land, and most of our steers call this land home. All of the land we graze is 100% free of any chemicals or sprays and we re-plant every other year to manage soil compression, erosion and to preserve a diversity of forage.
Canter Hill's beef and lamb is 100% grass (or hay) feed, and supplemented only with salt licks. We de-worm our sheep flock once annually, after lambing season (at the same time as sheering - typically the first week of June) and do not introduce any other chemicals or antibiotics. We have not experienced the same need to de-worm our steers. We have been migrating our sheep flock from Dorset to Katahdin, and therefore most of our sheep are now 50% or more Katahdin (a hair sheep), because we believe the meat tastes nicer! Our beef is both Black and Lowline Angus. We are shifting towards Lowline Angus which is more tolerant of 100% grass feeding and generally very hardy.
Canter Hill's poultry and pork is either pasture (for poultry) or forage fed (our pigs dig in the forest, and our turkeys also tend to roam!). They are supplemented with organic, soy-free feed. How much feed vs. forage do they consume? It depends on the weather. If it's raining or cold, more feed than forage. On warm days that aren't drenching, almost entirely forage. This is why we raise from March - November.
We STRONGLY encourage you to open your minds to frozen meat. If you're committed to pasture raising, recognize that you can't have fresh meat in the dead of winter, and purchase a great freezer!
We are committed to pasture-raised, antibiotic-free and chemical-free poultry, lamb and produce.