For the past two months I have refrained from purchasing any meat, knowing that we would be butchering our Freedom Ranger chickens "soon". Well, the soon turned into later, as cold/wet weather pushed the moment back several times, and then sunny weather prompted PH to work on the house after a long delay. We were eating venison every day, and while I am grateful for the meat, it gets tiring eating the same type of meat every day. I was yearning for chicken, but refused to pay $15-$20 a chicken to the local farmer, when I had 23 in my barn.
Well, yesterday we got up early, got the fire going to keep the water heated.
I had set up stations the day before, with all the necessary equipment. Our friends who had butchered for the first time recently arrived to help, and we were off. It was actually fun! Not gross at all (though I wasn't the one dispatching the chickens), and I am ready to do it again!
We butchered 18, leaving five (one rooster and 4 hens) for hopefully, and prayerfully breeding additional meat chickens.
 | |
| Dispatching Station |
 | |
 | ||
| Plucking Station |
I made fried chicken last night for dinner, and baked a chicken for today's Lord's Day Monthly Church Fellowship Lunch. I rubbed the chicken with olive oil and garlic, then rosemary. Stuffed the cavity with apples and onions. It smelled so good cooking last night, I can't wait to eat it!
 |
| Cooking and Eating Station |
I'll post pictures later, off to get ready for worship services ;-)
Amy, YAY, Congrats on the chickens and having help with the butchering. There is nothing better than a change of meat every now and then. Enjoy :-)
ReplyDeleteSandy, Oklahomatransient.blogspot.com
Thank you for the graphic photos warning! That is very kind of you. :-) I do not neat animals for food, and not long ago I came upon a blog of an entire family of parents and children who were in every state of the process of killing and working apart some of their animals! Ick I would have loved a warning there. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, you are welcome ;-) While we are committed carnivores, and do butcher our pigs, chickens and goats, I have family who, while they eat meat, prefer to remain ignorant of where that meat comes from. We love our animals, and they are taken care of, and loved on (especially by PS#2) until the day we butcher. It's not something I ENJOY, but knowing where our food comes from, what it eats, how clean it is, and how it lived it's life is important to us. Thanks for visiting! ;-)
Delete