Chickens face off in a side-by-side taste test.

Local meat, especially if you don’t buy it in bulk, is notorious for being expensive.

And, I think, that reputation is deserved.

Most Western Washington farmers don’t have access to the giant economies of scale enjoyed by large commercial meat producers.

They simply have to charge more to break even or, maybe, gather a small profit or — oh, no — a living wage.

Sustainability — and by that I mean not cutting ecological and ethical corners as factory farms often do — is rarely cheap in the traditional sense.

Still, you’d think buying chickens from a hobby-farmer friend at cost would be some sort of bargain. But I paid a surprising $14.40 per chicken from Laura McCrae.

And she was doing me a favor.

Pastured Sensations, a Snohomish County farm now offering meat from pasture-raised chickens, turkeys and pork, charges $4 to $4.50 per pound for chickens, depending on how many you buy. McCrae’s chickens, which she sells only to friends, typically weigh 4 to 6 pounds, so you can do the math. (I was getting a deal.)

Her price included the cost of organic feed for 13½ weeks, the price of the chicks (including shipping), grit to help the birds with digestion, heat lamp bulbs, shavings for bedding and plastic bags for packing on butchering day.

None of McCrae’s overhead costs are figured into that price. They’re hard to quantify — electricity, well water, feeders and waterers, heat lamp fixtures, fencing and shed improvements, a chicken plucker and labor. (Also, full disclosure, I only worked for half of the butchering day.)

Though about 12 of us helped McCrae and her husband, Mike, slaughter their 100 hobby chickens, she was the one feeding and watering them constantly as they grew from peeping chicks into meaty birds.

“Essentially we don’t make any money,” said McCrae said. “Arguably we lose money, but figure we’d be doing it anyway and the free labor to help butcher is worth not figuring out it out.” (By the way, both the McCraes work full-time jobs.)

When I talk about preparing and enjoying expensive, sustainable, local meat, most people immediately ask me how it tastes. Is it worth it?

I think they expect me to say it is amazing, far surpassing anything I’ve ever had from a grocery store.

But, I’m sorry to say, that’s just not true.

I think local, pasture-raised meat is better, for sure.

Local chicken tastes more like chicken. Local bacon, especially the stuff from Skagit River Ranch, tastes more like bacon (and cooks up beautifully). And local grass-fed beef, well, it tastes beefier and it’s reportedly better for you.

But if you’re asking if I could taste the fullness of the price difference in the meat, the answer is definitely no.

To double check my opinion on this, I roasted a Foster Farms bird, which costs less than $4 on sale, right next to one of my $14 organic birds from McCrae.

I wish I could say the difference was staggering, but both birds were delicious. (I love roasted chicken with just a rub of olive oil, salt and pepper.)

My bird from Foster Farms — currently running a massive “Say No to Plumping” campaign, definitely worth checking out — was not as flavorful.

When compared to my bird from McCrae’s Smokey Point farm, it was comparatively watery. It was vanilla, versus butter pecan, if that makes any sense.

My McCrae bird was firmer to the fork, not tough at all, just a bit denser and the flavor was more complex.

Though one of my fellow tasters said the McCrae chicken was juicier, I actually found the Foster Farms bird to be juicier, but it seemed to be waterier, too, like I said.

But does watery juice really mean something is juicier? These are subtle differences, not $10 deal breakers.

I admit, however, my test wasn’t perfectly scientific. Even though the Foster Farms bird was bigger by almost a pound, I roasted the birds the same length of time, which may have taken more juices from the McCrae bird.

Also, they were likely different, though similar breeds. Large chicken farms typically raise Cornish Cross birds, which mature in seven to eight weeks and grow huge breasts. McCrae’s Slow Cornish birds take longer, 12 to 13 weeks. Heritage birds, which take even longer to mature, reportedly have a more pronounced taste difference, but I haven’t had the pleasure of eating those yet.

Anyway, for me, taste doesn’t matter as much as the feel-good factor.

I eat local meat to match my increasingly strong SOLE principals — Sustainable, Organic, Local and Ethical.

Whatever flavor revelations come to me along the way are just gravy — sustainable gravy.

After reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and seeing “Food, Inc.,” I am finally taking a personal stand and trying to get as much local meat as I can.

I want to feel good about what I eat. I want, like so many people do these days, to know exactly where my food comes from and who grows it.

What do you think?

Post a comment below or write me here.

I’ll leave you with a few photos.

Can you tell which chicken came from the local farm and which one came from the grocery store?