Sunshine, grass, dirt and freedom: these are the things that Gorden Giesbrecht, owner of Taste of Freedom Eggs, prioritizes when it comes to raising organic, pasture-raised chickens. But the recent bird flu outbreak has many egg farmers scrambling to keep their businesses afloat. 

“When you raise animals how they’re meant to be raised, you can tell that there’s a difference,” Giesbrecht said. 

Taste of Freedom has been in business for three years and is family owned and operated on their 20-acre property in Princeton. Gorden and his wife Cherry have three sons – Nicholas, Morgan and Tommy – who help run the farm. 

The recent spread of bird flu has concerned farmers nationwide and caused some farmers to eradicate their entire flocks. The avian influenza has affected around 166 million poultry birds so far. 

At least one case of bird flu was identified in Butte County in January in a commercial upland game bird farm. The California Department of Food and Agriculture required that the sales of the birds be stopped and the population of infected birds be depopulated. 

When asked about their plan to respond to the virus, Giesbrecht said that they aren’t planning on changing anything about the way the business is currently run. He noted that while the current recommendation is to keep cage-free poultry indoors, he disagrees with the approach. 

“To me, I’d rather have them healthy, you know. And there’s a bit of a risk to have them outside, but to me – to have the chicken healthy – is more important than that,” Giesbrecht said.

Giesbrecht said they pride themselves in prioritizing the well-being of their chickens; something that he believes sets Taste of Freedom Eggs apart from the rest are their moveable coops. 

With moveable coops, chickens have a regular refresh of grass and bugs, keeping the birds healthy and the grass better fertilized. 

Just one chicken contracting the virus would force Giesbrecht to depopulate all 1,400 chickens they’ve raised. But keeping their chickens in the fresh air is what he said makes the business so unique. 

“If I get hit, you’re going to know it because I won’t be here tomorrow,” Giesbrecht said. “And it’ll probably be a year before you see me again, but I hope that you’ll see me again.” 

Egg prices hit a record high in January with the average price for a dozen eggs at $4.95. Grocery stores like Trader Joe’s and Costco have set restrictions on how many eggs customers are allowed to buy per day due to supply strain. 

With many commercial egg farms taking big hits, Giesbrecht said that business has been better for Taste of Freedom. 

“Those big commercial corporate farms make it really hard for the little guy,” he said.

He explained that the cheap prices and high volumes of commercially-sold eggs has made it hard for him to get his eggs on the shelves of bigger grocery stores, but with many big farms forced to slow down or stop their egg production, more space has been created for his eggs to be sold. 

Taste of Freedom sells the majority of their eggs at the Chico Certified Farmers Market and small local markets such as New Earth and Bapa’s. 

When they first started Taste of Freedom, Gorden, Cherry and Nicholas would split up between the Vacaville, Redding and Chico farmer’s markets each Saturday to sell their eggs. They now only commute to Chico to sell.

“It was always Chico where we sold the most, and it was a year-round market, which was important to us,” Giesbrecht said. 

The Chico community’s response and support of Taste of Freedom has kept them in business, Giesbrecht said. 

Lexi Lynn can be reached at orionmanagingeditor@gmail.com.