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...