"We've actually seen an increase just in this last week. We had 58 new egg share members from Monday through Friday," says Josh Palmer, director of the community supported agriculture program at the farm.
The business model at Grant Family Farms is different than most. Instead of selling all of the eggs and organic fruits and vegetables to grocery stores, they sell them directly to individuals. The eggs and produce are delivered weekly to customers along the Front Range.
The egg recall has been traced to two large egg producers in Iowa. Investigators are looking into the living conditions and feed given to egg producing chickens at the facilities. So far nearly 1,500 people have become ill from the salmonella outbreak.
One significant difference between the facilities in Iowa that are under investigation and Grant Family Farms is the conditions the chickens live in. The birds here are not caged and confined. They graze on pasture land on the farm and are fed organic vegetable scraps and feed.
Palmer says they have no interest in growing to the size of the operations under investigation in Iowa.
"It is kind of a controlled balance thing. We don't want to sacrifice the type of system we run here, having a pasture and the chickens being about to run around all day and breath in fresh air and supplement their diet with bugs and worms. That's what's really important to us," he said.
For more information about Grant Family Farms, visit their website, www.grantfarms.com.
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