Local Food Challenge – Chicken Through The Winter!

Entrepreneurship is all about identifying “problems” and offering creative solutions to meet customer needs. We work hard to encourage this type of thinking by everyone at Doorganics. 

Back in 2013, we started offering pasture raised, local meat to our customers. Traditionally, as consumers, we simply go to the big grocery store and buy chicken from a well-stocked case. We buy it, eat it, and visit the store again when we need more. Easy! You’re probably starting to understand how gross that factory farmed chicken is though, right? 


So let’s talk about local, pasture raised, non-gmo fed, “clean chicken” from a small farmer. The key word is pasture raised. Our local farmers aren’t able to raise their birds on pasture from late November through March due to WINTER. Therefore, in the winter there isn’t any good chicken available, except for what the small farmer can freeze and sell at market on the weekends. How often do you stroll the market in the winter?!

The problem we faced was that we had no chicken to offer customers from December through March. It was simply not available because the last harvest is before the snow flies in December and the product sells quickly.


We weren’t able to solve the problem immediately because Doorganics was still a very small biz with limited space, customers, and resources. Fast forward to now and we have the physical space, along with a large enough customer base to make a big investment for our small business. Two years ago we spent $7,500 on a large walk-in freezer and then worked in conjunction with Cherry Capital Foods to encourage Double LL Farm in McBain Mi to increase their flock. Now in December each year we absolutely filled the freezer with local pasture raised chicken. 
This was also a large financial investment in inventory.

We finally solved a big problem for customers who care about eating good pasture-raised meat all year round. The last two winters the chicken lasted through March and this year we made all the way to April 17th!  All the while we’ve helped a small Michigan farm grow their business which strengthens the local food system. 


Thanks to YOU, our loyal customers for choosing Doorganics. You’re making an impact!