A Step-by-Step Guide to Designing Custom Sommerlad Heritage Chicken Mixed Cartons

If you’ve been ordering customised cartons over the years, you will know that we only get to do this two or three times a year. For those new to customising a chicken carton, here’s how it rolls.

You can choose as many cartons as you would like, and we can deliver them once the pallet arrives, for you to store in your own freezer, or the folks at the Cold Stores will hold them in the blast chiller for the very best quality,  for just two dollars a week per carton, and deliver them when you are ready.

How to do it:

1. Download the Sommerlad wholesale list here. This will contain items available to you that do not appear on the website. Choose your range of cuts and speciality items. You may order as much or as little as desired, as long as the carton is full. Make sure your order contains enough product to fill the box – I suggest calculating at 13kg a good guide. Don’t panic if that sounds complex – I’ll help you if needed 🙂 
2. When you are ready to order, visit the customised carton tab on the website here, and use the password sent to you via the newsletter. If you can’t find it, contact me here and I will generate one for you.  
3. Put any special requests in the ‘notes’ section of the order form. Don’t worry if you miss a bit, I will be in contact with you before the order is submitted to the farmers to make sure your carton is packed exactly how you want it to be.
4. Finalise the order and make your deposit. This secures your order with the producer, and gives the farmers an order number to identify the link between you, your carton, and the content. 
5. I will contact you within 24 hours of receipt of deposit to finalise your carton content. (Or, you can send your carton content list here, make sure you include your order number [begins with a W]. I will confirm or help you tweak to get the best bang for your buck.
6. Sit back and wait. I’ll let you know when the pallet is full on the farm, and within a week the cartons will be available for you.

What you can include:

Make your choices from any of the following.  

• Marylands: large and tasty, 1 per person is plenty. You can request them packed in singles, pairs or 4s. 
• Drumsticks: packed in 500 g or 1 kilogram bags.
• Wings: packed in 1 kg bags
• Breasts: packed in pairs or fours, skin on or skin off.
• Mince, in 500g bags
• Offal: livers, hearts and giblets: packed in 250g or 500g bags.
• Chicken feet: packed in 1 kg bags
• Chicken necks packed in 1 kg bags
• Chicken frames: packed in pairs and each pair weighs approximately 1 kg. (Please note I currently have some misdated chicken broth boxes which contain feet, necks, and frames; or just necks and frames on sale here, so this might be a more economic option for you at the moment. However, if you would like to have a small amount packed in a mixed carton along with your breasts and wings etc, knock yourself out).
• Whole chickens, 1 or more, any size. You can ask for chooks to be halved or quartered on the frame.

What you can add:

• Sommerlad chicken pies (family size or single)
• Smoked chickens: Smoked
  • On bone Whole or half birds, marylands, wings, drumsticks
  • Off bone: Tarragon & Lemon; or Chilli rolled breast and boneless portions
• Chicken Chorizo
• Chicken broth jars

What it will cost:

Your carton total cost will be calculated by final weight per product at the per-product wholesale cost per unit (get a full list of all cuts and costs here), saving 30% off the RRP.

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Kim and Brian process just 350 chickens a fortnight and these chickens are for all audiences from Brisbane all the way through to Adelaide and regions in between. To fill our orders, Kim and Brian will start snap freezing product on each processing day slowly filling orders until they’re at capacity.

Once the pallet is full it will be ready to leave the farm. The orders will not arrive at our Cold stores until the pallet is filled, and we are expecting the pallet will reach its limit around about the end of July possibly towards the end of August, depending on how many orders are received in the coming weeks.

Things to remember:

1. Your carton(s) must be filled. This helps it remain stable on the pallet and not collapse in the truck’s freezer. Unstable cartons put everyone’s orders at risk, as a topple could lead to smashed cartons which are deemed undeliverable.
2. As cuts run low they may be removed from the options. Each chicken has two wings, two drumsticks, two Marylands (which means no drumsticks!), two breasts etc.  However, the size of each cut is quite different, even though the carton volume will usually hold 10-13kgs approx regardless of content. To put that into context, they will run out of wings much faster than breasts or marylands due to size variations. For this reason, we suggest you add one or 2 ‘flexi’ items that you are happy to take additional portions of, should your first elected choices run low. (example: “please add  extra Marylands or drumsticks if  an item is low”).
3. Any combination of chicken and chicken products can be done using this special ordering system. Once the orders are at capacity, this opportunity will close until the next run, around 4-5 months time. 
4. Orders are packed on farm, progressively, so make sure you include your ‘flexi’ item(s). Including your ‘flexi’ item will help the farmer ensure your carton is full, and if they are running short on one of your options, they will fall back on your flexi items to top up your carton. 

Any questions at all – please contact me here.