Mary Pitman was ahead of her time. Her own physical reaction to foods that contain additives or preservatives made her a passionate early advocate for eating organic and avoiding genetically modified food and unnecessary chemicals. She urged the same for her family. And for her family’s business, a poultry farm her father-in-law, Don Pitman, founded in 1954 in California’s Central Valley.
“My mother would constantly ask us, "do you have GMOs in your grain?” says her son David Pitman, who leads the company today. Mary constantly pressured her husband and sons to make a change, he remembers. “I’d say, it’s not that easy, mom.”
It certainly wasn’t easy. But in the early 2000s, David, his brother Ben, and his father, Rick, decided their third-generation Pitman Farms needed to an overhaul in order to survive.
That transformation gave rise to Mary’s Chicken. These organic, air-chilled birds have been available at Town & Country Markets for years—no surprise given the companies’ shared commitment to sustainable food that also supports the community. In October, these two family-run businesses will partner to bring guests the new private label T&C EveryDay Chicken. Mary’s also happens to be the freshest chicken available to shoppers in the Puget Sound region.
A New Direction for the Family Business
As the market for raising and selling poultry kept shrinking, the Pitman family made a bold move to save their business: Pitman Farms would raise chickens, not just turkeys. They would open their own poultry processing facility in the town of Sanger. And they would do everything in their power to raise happy, healthy chickens, then prepare them for market in the most humane way possible.
“By being family owned, we can make those investments that don’t make the best financial sense,” says David. “But long-term, it’s what our customers want us to do.”
What to name these flavorful, free-range, air-chilled birds? Mary’s Chicken honors the woman who never stopped urging her family down a healthier path.
No Fresher Chicken Out There
“You don’t even know what chicken could taste like until you have one,” says Heather Bolewicki, Town & Country Markets’ Meat and Seafood Specialist. The company’s California location also means the freshest possible chicken for her customers; if Bolewicki places an order with Mary’s Chicken on a Tuesday, that meat can be in the store’s coolers by Thursday. “You couldn’t get it any faster unless you grew them in your backyard.”
T&C guests will find trays of breasts, thighs, wings, and quarters, as well as whole birds all prepared expressly for Town & Country Markets at Mary’s Chicken headquarters, a facility that blends a surprising amount of specialized technology with employees’ human touch.
Happy, Healthy Birds with Room to Roam
The care with these chickens begins with eggs, which incubate at precise temperatures inside a custom-built hatchery. Rotating racks mimic the movements that happen beneath a hen. Hatchlings move to specially built houses on the company’s ranches, with an above-average amount of space, including shaded, grassy outdoor areas.
The company makes its own feed, using organic grain purchased directly from Midwestern farmers. In 2013, Mary’s Chicken became the first poultry company certified by the USDA as non-GMO. David Pitman’s brother, Ben, worked extensively with the regulatory agency to make this possible. It wasn’t easy, but Mary Pitman’s wish had come true.
Sure, there are cheaper ways to raise chicken. But support from partners like Town & Country Markets means Mary’s can “do the right thing on the farm here for the birds, and at the plant for the birds,” says David Pitman. “That also creates a much better environment for our team members to do their job.”
The Chicken Company that Partnered with PETA
The family’s processing plant is one of just two in the country using a technique that puts birds to sleep using increasing levels of CO2. The Pitmans worked with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Temple Grandin, the notable animal science professor and livestock wellness advocate, to design a system that met with their approval.
Mary’s Chickens are air chilled, which means they spend several hours in a refrigerated room, cooling from the outside in. The quicker, more common method involves submerging birds in water which, for antimicrobial reasons, can contain 10 times as much chlorine as the average American swimming pool. “It really dilutes the flavor of the bird,” says David Pitman. “If you eat air-chilled chicken, you can really taste the difference.”
When Town & Country Markets partners with a grower to produce a private label product, “We’re curating the best possible products and putting our label behind it as a seal of trust,” says Dwight Richmond, director of T&C’s Center Store and the head of the company’s private label program. It’s an endorsement of both the food and the people behind it.
Mary Pitman passed away in 2023. But her husband and sons continue their work on her namesake chicken. “I want this to continue on for many generations,” says David Pitman. “For our family, for our families that work with us. So we need to be a good steward of our environment and our birds.”