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THE PETALUMA'S ROCKY STORY

Rocky the Range Chicken was created in 1986 when several of the California super-star chefs, searching for the equal of the flavorful free range chicken they had used while cooking and training in Europe, came to Bart and Pat Ehman and Allen Shainsky of Petaluma Poultry with the challenge of producing such a chicken in the United States.

Allen, a member of a long time Sonoma County poultry family, went to the Loire Valley in France to research the European methods. His partner and practicing nutritionist, Dick Krengel, drawing on his knowledge of how chickens were fed 30 years ago, recreated an all natural feed using only the vegetable proteins of corn and soy and containing none of the animal by-products and fats so common today. Dick's formula was essential to recapturing the old-fashioned chicken flavor, as chickens derive both their flavor and their fat composition from their diet. Consulting veterinarian Dr. Henry Brandt adapted and improved the European growing program to allow Rocky to roam and forage outside, successfully balancing leanness of the bird with tenderness and flavor.

After approximately a year experimentation, with the chefs testing each lot of birds for taste and quality, Rocky was ready and pronounced superior in flavor to the French free range chicken. Two years later, in 1988, Rocky junior was created to provide a smaller sized version of antibiotic-free, flavorful chicken. Rocky Junior is several weeks younger and about 2 Ibs,
smaller, but enjoys the same feed and living environment except that he may roam only !

But for both Rocky and lunior, the secret remains the same:vegetarian feed with no antibiotics, no animal by-products and no additives, as well as humane, stressreducing, out-door growing methods. We invite you to try Rocky and rediscover true old-fashioned flavor.