Disturbing.

That's all.  Just disturbing.  *I am going to jump on my hippie high horse for a minute*  I like to know where my meat comes from.  I don't buy everything organic.  We can not afford that.  But I like to know where my meat comes from and know that it's not being injected with all kinds of growth hormones.  Then there's the little fact of how long, exactly, has it been sitting on the shelf.  Well...I only had one of my chickens left in the freezer and didn't think it was going to be enough for 7 adults and 3 toddlers.  Turns out, it was, with leftovers.  But I thought it would be "fun" to do a side by side comparison.  I made chicken in a bag for Mother's Day (we celebrated a week early since we are going to be gone) and had my farm fresh chicken in one pan and a store bought chicken in another.  I was piecing my chickens and could not get over the color difference in them.  I was thoroughly grossed out.  Nasty.  So disturbing.

Fresh is on the left.  Store bought is on the right.  Breast meat next to breast meat.

As for taste, there was definitely a difference.  I served the fresh chicken in a bag and we are eating the store bought right now.  I had some fresh left over and compared them tonight.  Mind you they were cooked perfectly and not dry in the least.  The texture was very different.  Fresh was very meat like and actually had texture.  Store bought was almost mushy like and didn't have a whole lot of real texture.  There was an "old" taste to the store bought one and the fresh one tasted..fresh.  It's hard to explain and Eric tells me (all the time) that I have an over-sensitive palate for food but it is what it is.  I think the color of the chicken says it all.  We get pork and chickens from Coach Stop Farm on 72nd in Zeeland.  They are very reasonably priced (the same or cheaper) than store and it is all naturally raised.  They also have eggs and lamb.

*I shall get off my hippie high horse now.*