THE PHEASANT CLASS

摘要

If there's any truth to the notion that the couple that works together stays together, then Gordon Scott and Phyllis Johnson really have a good thing going in their neck of the woods in eastern Ontario. The husband-and-wife entrepreneur team have a simple, if offbeat, mission―to breed, raise, process and package the best eating pheasant money can buy. Operating out of the small community of Flinton―situated about 300 kilometers northeast of Toronto―Johnson and Scott are proprietors of Flintshire Farms Inc., a 27-year-old company that supplies free-range game birds for a worldwide market of gourmets who cherish the game-bird taste of pheasants, partridges, guinea hens and stuffed quail originating at the 30-acre farm. Compared to the massive, modern-day chicken and turkey factory farms, Flintshire's peak-season output of 3,500 birds a day is, well, chicken feed, in relative terms, but that doesn't make their everyday tasks and chores any less challenging. Take the ring-necked pheasant, for example. While its brilliant plumage may make it an ornithologist's delight, the pigment that makes the feathers dark is often left behind on the bird during the plucking process―resulting in unsightly, offputting "ink spots" on the meat.