Why I Only Eat North Star Pastures Chicken: A Personal Health Journey

When I tell customers that I only eat North Star Pastures chicken, it's not marketing—it's personal. There's a deeply meaningful reason behind my choice.

My Unexpected Health Crisis

Eighteen months ago, my life took an unexpected turn. The psoriasis I'd managed for years—previously just some flaky skin and dry scalp—rapidly deteriorated into something far more debilitating. My joints began to swell—first my fingers, then my ankles. Simple tasks became painful challenges.

When I visited my doctor, the prognosis wasn't what I hoped to hear: medications to manage my symptoms for the rest of my life. The potential side effects were alarming: nausea, vomiting, mouth ulcers, and an increased risk of serious infections, including tuberculosis. I left the doctor's office thinking, "There has to be another way."

As weeks passed, my condition worsened. As a musician who writes songs and plays piano and guitar—one of my many vocations alongside raising clean chickens—I could barely play, making me wonder if I would even be able to perform. Eventually, the pain became so severe that I dreaded getting out of bed each morning. The simple act of walking had become an ordeal.

A Radical Decision

It was during this low point that I heard a podcast discussing how some people had addressed chronic illnesses through diet and lifestyle changes. I already had a pretty good diet, and I was initially skeptical, but I found myself pondering a question raised in the discussion: Are more and more people just getting unlucky and developing chronic illnesses? Is managing symptoms with medication for a lifetime really the best we can hope for?

With little left to lose, I made a radical decision. I committed to drastically changing my lifestyle—eliminating alcohol and adopting a meat-only diet for 90 days. My menu became incredibly simple: grass-finished beef, pasture-raised eggs, grass-fed butter, plenty of bone broth, and of course, North Star Pastures pasture-raised chicken.

The Transformation

Within 24 hours, I felt a change. After three days, I could walk normally.

I vividly remember getting out of bed one morning, bracing myself for the familiar pain. But when I put weight on my feet, there was no pain at all.

I maintained this strict diet for the full 90 days before carefully reintroducing foods one at a time. When symptoms appeared, I would eliminate that food until the symptoms subsided. Through this process, I discovered I could eat most organic fruits and vegetables without issues. This approach effectively eliminated processed foods from my diet, which works out well for my overall health—though it does make traveling and social gatherings a bit challenging!

Making a Change That Changed Everything

This personal health journey transformed not just my well-being, but my entire perspective on food. I began to see the connection between what I was eating and how I was feeling with crystal clarity.

The dramatic improvement in my condition from eating clean, pasture-raised meat—particularly our North Star Pastures chicken—wasn't just noticeable, it was life-changing. Going from barely being able to walk to pain-free movement in days convinced me that there was something fundamentally important about the quality of the food I was consuming.

This is why I can say with absolute conviction that North Star Pastures chicken is the only chicken I will eat. It's not marketing—it's medicine for me. The chicken raised on our farm, with access to fresh air, sunshine, and natural forage, has become an essential part of maintaining my health.

When I share our chicken with customers, I'm not just selling a product. I'm offering something that I personally rely on every day—something that helped me reclaim my health when conventional approaches failed me.

I'm passionate about our farming practices not just because they're better for the environment or more humane for the animals (though they certainly are), but because they produce food that I believe can genuinely support health and healing. I've experienced it firsthand.

Sharing North Star Pastures chicken is more than providing food—it's about sharing something that restored my life. That's a mission I'm honored to pursue, one chicken at a time.