ANZ's Farms



Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Processing Poultry

My husband and I attended a workshop Saturday sponsored by our local meet-up group Triangle Area Gardeners and Homesteaders to learn poultry processing (a euphemism for "choppin' chicken", as my stepson so aptly called it). Julie, pictured here, donated her time and vast expertise to help the ignorant and squeamish -- of whom I am chief! -- get over themselves and accomplish what generations before us have done as a natural part of life. I am so thankful for this opportunity to see it, practice it with skilled help looking over my shoulder and know I can do it myself should starvation come knocking at my door. I am also thankful my husband went too, because we make a good team and I don't think I can do it alone.

For those of you who find this off-putting ... it's like the frog who gets boiled. If you drop a frog into hot water, he will jump out. But if you place him in a pot of tepid water and heat it slowly, he will boil. When I first got chickens over 3 years ago, if you had asked me about killing and eating them, I would have jumped out of that pot of hot water. But over the years, as I have stopped naming my chickens and developed a more sustainable-living mind set, I have come to the point where it is not only possible, but probable. I just can't tell my family why the chicken slick tastes so much better than usual ...

1 comment:

  1. I bust out laughing over your comment;
    ~"...and know I can do it myself should starvation come knocking..."
    Chicken killing isn't so hard all said and done, but I can't stand the smell after butcher day and find I won't eat the chicken, lol! All I can smell for DAYS is dead chicken feathers!

    ReplyDelete