About Us

TurkeyTail Farm is a family farm serving Butte County. We are a diversified enterprise dedicated to providing high quality food to a local community. We look to promote appropriate technology, ecological farming, and energy-wise food production. Our goal is to become a model of practical and profitable, ecologically conscious agriculture in the north state.

The Land

We farm 40 acres of oak savanna, brush land, and pasture in Yankee Hill, California. Seated between the immense wilderness of the Plumas National Forest and the great bread-basket of the Sacramento Valley, we manage our land for both the production of food and expansion of wildlife habitat. We utilize non-violent and non-chemical means of controlling predators including having two guardian dogs on duty 24/7.

The Farm

We are a farm producing a diversity of food including gourmet duck eggs, pasture raised poultry and lamb, dried and added value herbal products and cut flowers. Samantha Zangrilli and partner Cheetah Tchudi make up the ranchers, egg and flower farmers. Susan Tchudi Mother to Cheetah is the brain and force behind Everything Herbal

Our farm uses the highest quality feeds and inputs available to us. We use Sea Kelp throughout our program. Kelp provides both plants and livestock with micronutrients not otherwise found in commercial feeds and fertilizers. We give our pasture poultry electrolytes, probiotics and grit. We also move them onto fresh ground every day and humanely harvest them.

The Sheep

Our sheep, pasture raised and supplemented with alfalfa, supplements, and formulated rations. Our animals are allowed to range, giving them access to grasses, forbs, brush and delicious acorns. Our sheep we use for land management and practice for our two border collies. (Quinoa and Zero) We also have two guardian dogs. They live with the flock full time, protecting and watching for predators. (Iorek and Naga)


The Agriculture

We subscribe to the belief that an ecosystem, natural or agricultural, is more stable when there is a diversity of species. We do not grow crops in monoculture, instead we see the farm as a place where synergisms observed in nature can be brought into symphony. At TurkeyTail Farm we see agriculture as a management of relationships; utilization of photosynthesis, degradation and digestion to make efficient uses of all our resources, from the oak woods of the Foothills to the rice fields of the Sacramento Valley.

We employ landscape perspective to manage pests; using natural pest-predator relationships to control garden pests, not synthetic sprays. By providing a diverse ecosystem and habitat for pest-predators, our insect problems are nearly near zero. When pest problems do develop, we do not reach for a chemical or bottled solution, instead, we understand the pest is an indicator of nutrient or ecosystem imbalance (and try to adjust our management accordingly). Our garden program is not focused on yields or pounds produced; instead our goal is nutrient balance and healthy soil microbiology.