March 17, 2010
By W. Blake Gray

"Kelp Poultry Farm" is a rather strange name, but it's one that haute cuisine diners in Tokyo have become accustomed to seeing.
The reason? Kiichi Sato's hand-raised organic chickens, and their eggs, which are so flavorful that top restaurants don't mind paying four times the national average price for them.

In fact, the Koriyama farmer has a 6-month waiting list for new customers. He prefers to sell locally, but he has restaurant clients as far away as Kyushu. But he keeps less than 15,000 chickens maximum -- with fewer than 3000 in winter -- and doesn't really want to expand.

"We don't have many chickens in the winter because we don't want to create compost now," Sato said. "We try not to have waste left over."

The first thing that strikes you on visiting Kelp Poultry Farm in Koriyama is an absence: it doesn't stink of chickens.
Sato says that's because they're healthy, whereas most poultry farms in the world house a large number of unhealthy chickens.

"You can tell the health of the chicken by the smell," he says. "When they're sick, they smell like ammonia."

Chemical compounds are one area where Sato can draw on his father's expertise; his father researches enzyme extracts. Sato himself has visited Australia and Canada to do soil research while in university. But he had never raised chickens before starting the farm in 1995.

Now -- though he also grows pesticide-free carrots, daikon, leeks, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and green peppers -- chickens are his obsession.

"Every night I observe the chickens and try to think, how can I improve?" Sato said. "Can I make the chickens sleep better? Be more comfortable?"

Many organic farmers make a big deal about allowing their chickens to have free range outside. But Sato discovered that after reaching 60 days old -- 2/3 of the lifespan of chickens raised for meat -- his chickens didn't really want to go out, especially during Koriyama's chilly early spring and late fall.

"So I tried to create a comfortable environment inside," he said.

Naturally, with his academic background, he thought about the soil. The floors in his "free-range" chicken houses are made of sand.

"Chickens play with the sand to control their body temperature," he said.

He also mixes sand into their feed, which is mostly a mix of local rice, soybeans, vegetables and kelp -- hence the name.

"I think people should eat locally grown ingredients because it's good for your health," Sato said. "It's also good for the chickens."

In fact, what he feeds his flock is not all that different from what Sato eats himself (though without the sand).

"I eat mostly local vegetables and grains," he says. "Maybe once a month I have chicken. I sauté it with a little salt. Very simple."

He says this even though he tenderly holds one of his chickens, which sits calmly in his arms.

"One time in the past I thought, maybe I should stop slaughtering the chickens," he said. "I always try to be thankful for the lives of the chickens."

Like his restaurant clients, Sato likes fresh eggs. And like traditional Japanese diners, he prefers them raw, mixed with soy sauce and served over rice. Japanese hotels used to serve raw eggs with breakfast as a matter of course, but some are backing away these days out of health concerns.

"I feel secure in eating my own chickens' eggs," Sato said.

The eggs are usually fertile because, unlike many farmers, Sato leaves roosters running free among his flock of hens. Each claims its territory and struts protectively around it; it's amusing to see the occasional squawking threat at the periphery. Also, spend any time in one of Sato's chicken houses and you will learn how brief yet frequent love is, when you're a chicken.

"I like fertile eggs, mainly because I don't want to buy chicks," Sato said.

Sato has 14 employees and a few more watchdogs than that. He takes home abandoned dogs from the town; each has its own personal dog house. It's not really necessary to have so many to protect his flock from the occasional marauding fox, but Sato has a soft heart.

I had the opportunity to try Sato's chicken at Ryotei Tatsuyanagi, an upscale traditional restaurant in Koriyama, and it was tender and full-flavored. I also tried Sato's eggs in unusual form: combined with sake by nearby brewery Niida Honke. Imagine a not-too-sweet, not-too-thick eggnog with great eggy flavor, and you've got it. Perhaps it takes a tender man to make a tender chicken.