Peering in through the glass butcher's case in Sandy Lerner's Home Farm Store downtown, there are several things from which to choose. I drool over the prime cuts of meat, whole sides of pork ribs and wonderful Cornish Cross chickens for our tables.

Over the crowded counter I was handed a fine-looking whole chicken wrapped in paper with its contents scrawled in black pencil. The woman next in line asked me, "Do you cook it any differently?"

"I don't think so," I honestly replied, but I understood from whence she was coming. It seems to me there appears to be trepidation for people to prepare and cook organic beef, meet and poultry.

Is it gamey tasting? Does it cook faster? Will it be dry?

The word on poultry is out. The horrors of the poultry industry have been well documented and experienced. I have driven through small towns where the official town flower is the loose chicken feather. Seriously, a few years ago I passed through a large town that was home to a processing plant in VA that obviously had its doors blown open as the state highway and the neighboring front yards were covered in white feathers. Purdueville?

General consensus is that we've have been subjected to chicken in probably its lowest form and mass-produced. The food that we put into our bodies is best if it's natural and free of hormones and chemicals. I can use this analogy: If chicken were wine, then the stuff we've been eating from our supermarkets for most of our lives is the equivalent of "wine in a box."

I don't know if they're all locally raise at Ayrshire but Sandy's Cornish Cross chickens are born, raised and taken from the Earth kindly. In addition to being free of hormones and antibiotics, these chickens are considered Certified Humane, a new certification that supports livestock living in its natural environment until the time of slaughter. But I'm guessing a happy chicken is a tasty chicken.

My rule of thumb is the fresher the food, any food - fish, chicken, beef or rutabagas - the better the food. So having the Ayrshire Farm operation right up the road from Middleburg guarantees us a fresh and, from my experience, superior product.

My thinking was this. All poultry has different tastes hence, should not different recipes be suited to celebrate the distinctive flavor of the glorious fowl that we are now privileged enough to have available literally at our corner butchery?

So here's what I did with Sandy chickens.

The first is a family favorite. It's made with four main ingredients and is slow cooked. The second is a very old Vincent Price recipe and was written about so well in the cookbook that I've used it for 25+ years. And for the third, I freely experimented on a spicy dish that could scorch Teflon that I prepared for a sick friend. We all get our kicks somewhere.

[Recipe: Chicken Braised in Virginia Riesling with Shallots & Crimini Mushrooms over Noodles]

[Recipe: Friday Chicken (Classic Stuffed Skin Picnic Chicken)]

[Recipe: Pot Roasted SweetHeat Chicken]