Chicken Processing

Well, we processed 7 chickens today.  Nikky was sick and couldn't make it, so I had to help James.  It is a very simple process and with practice we will get cleaner and faster.
I cried during the first bird... I'm sure all of you can imagine how it must feel the first time...

We set up about 50 yards down from the backyard on a little bit of a slope so the blood and water would run downhill.  On the back of the pickup, we placed a sheet of plywood covered with a plastic tablecloth for evisceration and along side the tablecloth was the tabletop chicken plucker.  We filled the crawfish boiler with water and set up pickle buckets for ice baths.
Unfortunately, the chickens weren't very close by, maybe 200 feet away.  One by one, James would pick a chicken and walk the green mile to the processing area.  I held the cone while he slit the jugular.  Each chicken bled for about 3 minutes, then it was on to the water, set at 145 degrees.  Each bird was dunked for 60 seconds to open the follicles before plucking.
The tabletop plucker is motorized.  Rather than dropping the chicken into a barrel, the tabletop plucker requires you to hold the chicken up to the spinning rubber fingers.  Since we had to hold the bird to the plucker, we had to pluck a few feathers by hand on the ends of the wings and the bottom of the legs.  I helped a little with the plucking.
James did all the evisceration.  He used to duck hunt in Louisiana, so he has had plenty of experience cleaning birds.  First he had to cut off the head and legs, cut the oil gland, sliced into the breast to pull out the windpipe, went up the bottom and pulled the guts and organs out.  That is evisceration in a nutshell.
They got washed off and dropped into an ice bath until they cooled off, bagged, then into the freezer.  James cooked the heads and feet for Tonya, the dogs got the organs for dinner.

It's gonna be a lot easier next time.

pigs, chickens, turkeys, oh my!

Yesterday my friend Jenny and I drove South to Newberry and picked up a new addition to our family, Tonya, a bred 400+lb. Tamworth pig.  We bought her from Butter Patch Farm and Dairy.  She is super sweet and due with her fourth litter on Valentine's Day.  She is expected to have 10-12 babies.  I found her this morning, sound asleep with a smile on her face, in her house on a bed full of straw.  She seems happy in her new home.

Both dogs got to take a ride in the car last weekend for their rabies shots, woot-woot!  They don't care where they go, they just love to ride in the car.  They may be dirty farm dogs, but they are always on their best behavior when we take them off the farm.

Tomorrow is D-Day for the chickens.  We have a makeshift processing facility set up outside.  Our friend Nikky is coming over to help James.  I want to be a part, but I'm not sure how much help I will be this first time.  I think I can dunk, pluck, and eviscerate, but I know I can't slit a chickens throat.  Maybe down the road.

Thanksgiving is becoming a tradition on the farm.  My Mom and Sisters party of five come from NC, James' Mom drives up from LA, and his brother and wife fly in from TX.  We all bunk in the house for a few days of eats, drinks, and games.  I can't wait!!  On Wednesday, James will smoke a ham from the freezer and I will make my Grandma's potato salad.  For Thursday, I plan to sage-brine a turkey and stuff it lightly with root vegetables accompanied by roasted acorn squash, garlic romano mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing with fresh chorizo, orange-ginger peas (Stella's favorite veggie), and fresh French bread.  For dessert, I am making a sweet potato cake with marshmallow meringue topped with drippy, gooey pralines---Yumm!  My sister is bringing some homemade quiches, Mom is making Saurkraut Balls!  We will have some great wines (TBD) and beers, maybe even Makers Mark and Eggnog.

Stay tuned, I will let you know how the processing goes...

Trouble on the Farm again

This story is now a week old, but I've been in the weeds.
James went out to feed one morning last week and something tried to get into the chicken house with the Naked Necks (meat chickens).  Seems that it dug under just enough to paw down a hen by the leg and took a huge bite out of her back.
So we brought her up to the house, washed the wound and covered it with Swat.  She could barely walk, and seemed to be in severe shock.  She has been sleeping in the bushes against the house.

Now, over a week later, Florence is doing great!  Yes, she has a name.  She will retire into the brooder house.  She probably won't lay an egg for at least a year, so she will just be another pet.  I plan to introduce her to the chickens and her new home tomorrow.

Finally it's looking like Fall

We never run out of things to do on the farm.  James' Mom was in town from Louisiana last week which gave me a chance to get outside without worrying about the girls.
The Naked Neck Chickens are getting bigger as we get close to processing time.  They should be ready by late September.  I pulled four hens and one rooster and set them up in the brooder house.  Next time I won't have to order chicks, we can produce them ourselves.  We can also get great eggs from these hens when we don't need baby chicks.  Since the fox got most of our hens from the Big House, we only get two little eggs each day.  It felt a little strange the day that I separated the five for the brooder house, "Which ones will I choose to not be eaten..."
We have also planted an orchard, a small one.  Up on the hill in front of the house we now have two dwarf sweet cherry, one dwarf black cherry, one regular sized tart cherry, one pear tree, one pomegranate tree, one fig tree, one thornless blackberry.  We have blueberry bushes in the front yard near the house.  Next year I will add to the orchard.  I found an old lady named Hazel who grows all types of fruit trees, herbs, peppers, evergreens.  Our two grapevines in the "vineyard" are doing well, we should get a ton of grapes next year!
The Big House (chickens, ducks) is looking pretty bad these days.  We need to get it fixed up before the Winter months arrive.  We also need to extend the pigs area while the weather is cool but before Winter. 
I was also able to get down there and mend some of the fencing in the pig pen while Sandy was here.  Thanks Sandy!!  The piglets should be ready to pick up in October.  We plan to get get females from Tapsalteerie Farm.  That's where we bought our last two pigs.  In addition, we plan to find a Boar to breed the females.
Speaking of the pigs,  I have been busy curing bacon and grinding sausage.  I've been playing around with all different flavors.  Bacon has been, brown sugar maple, black peppercorn mustard seed, and white pepper cumin!  Yumm!  As for the sausage, I have made chorizo, stuffed pepper mixture, French garlic, and garlic sage.  Remember all the garlic I grew last Winter?  It's all going to good use in the sausage recipes.
James tilled up the garden and we have started the Fall planting.  Cauliflower has sprouted, cabbage seeds are in, when it cools a bit more, I will plant spinach and beets.  I have 50 pots started with garlic chives, and 25 pots with Lemon Balm.  I hope to get these sprouted and in the ground before it gets too cold.

I think that's about it for now.  Well, besides being a busy Mother of two and starting back to work two weeks ago.  Come to think of it, I'm a little tired. :)  I will get some nice pics this week to post for you all.  Time to watch the Saint stomp on the Packers so I've got to head downstairs.

We Got 'Em

Last night James got the fox.  He shot him down near the pig pen.  Maybe this will teach the others to stay away from our chickens!

!!ACHTUNG!!! Yellow Jackets!!!

I was bush hogging the lower field yesterday and Beaudreaux's old paddock.  As I backed up into the first corner of the paddock I ran over a big stick.  I felt a stinging sensasion on my forearm and thought I got hit with a piece of the stick.  Then I saw and felt a yellow jacket between my eye and my sunglasses.  There was a swarm of bees all around me, I had run over the nest with a front tire of the tractor.  I shifted into 3rd gear to try to get out as fast as possible.  I left the gate open because I just needed to get out of there, knowing the main gate to the property was open and the llamas could wander out, but that was a chance I had to take as I am allergic to bees.  There I was driving laps around the property trying to get all the bees off of me.  Finally, I didn't see anymore near me, turned off the tractor and ran like hell back to the house.  Sandy, my mom-in-law, went out and shut the gate for me while I iced down the stings.
I had stings on my arms, neck, legs, back, hands, and boobs (which are already swollen with milk).  The one on the pad of my thumb was the worst.  Over the course of the next thirty minutes while I iced, showered, and changed clothes, I watched my left hand double in size.  I knew I needed to get to Urgent Care, so off I went.  By the time I got there, the swelling went from the fingertips to midway up my forearm, pain level was at a 9.  I got a shot and some meds and they sent me on my way.  I began feeling better around 5:30 this morning.
When I was a kid, I got stung once when we were visiting a family friend right over the border in Ohio.  I climbed up into the hay loft the watch Polly, the horse, below in her stall.  I was probably four years old.  I never got stung again until we moved here.  This is my third episode.  Common with bee allergies, with each attack, the body reacts worse and worse.
Curse those yellow jackets!!!

Hot as Smoked Peppers out There

I haven't been as worried about the big animals in this heat, they've seen it before.  We just make sure they always have water.  I have been worried about the little chickies.  They are only three weeks old, and at this age they can handle extreme heat and cold, but it's REALLY hot as you all know no matter where you live right now.  So I turned on Stella's Little Tikes beach ball sprinkler, I think they loved it!!

Below is a picture of some gorgeous smoked peppers.  A local organic grower down the street, Terry, grows all kinds of peppers, microgreens, potatoes, asparagus, eggplant, etc.  He sells to many of the local restaurants in downtown Greenville.  He smokes the peppers and makes his own salad dressings also, yumm!!

He gave us four different kinds of smoked peppers so we can use them in our sausage preparation!  Thanks Terry!!