Wow.
Firstoff, a H U G E thanks to Tara for taking care of the chickens over the last 12 weeks or so, and for everything she and Jerry taught us yesterday on their farm. (Love it out there, by the way. It's awesome)
So the evening beforehand starts off with bad news - the chicken processing would be canceled due to terrible storms and hail. However, the weather forecasters must have spun their "wheel o' weather" a tad too hard, because it ended up being a dang nice day. We all went ahead and went out there to begin the process.
After getting everything set up, we corralled the chickens to make them easier to pick up. We picked 3 big ones and tied their legs to begin the process. At this point, I must say I wasn't necessarily looking forward to the ensuing mess. It was obviously going to be bloody and messy, and though I have killed animals before for food, it was using a rifle, not a knife. Tara showed us how it was done, and believe it or not, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sure it was bloody, but it was very humane and clean (relatively anyways).
Next we pulled feathers, and once we figured out how to use the "Clucker Plucker" correctly, it worked phenomenally, if I say so myself :-D . After that, it was onto the table to clean out the insides, and then into the ice-water bath. At the end of the day (3 hours) we had done 15 chickens and decided to meet back next Saturday to do the remaining 13 + 3 roosters. I might have a helper as my sister is awfully interested in learning about it. Who knows...
Though I do know one thing - I can't wait to cook some of these up!
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Great! Congrats on the experience! I think that I stewed about it so long that I built it up in my head that it was going to be far worse than what it really was. I wish I had Tara around for our first time.
ReplyDeleteThe chicken plucker... is that the one you built!? That is so cool!
Thanks for the kind words - I always wonder what people think when they see us do this! Leigh, I've learned that the best approach (at least for me) is to not spend any time thinking about it. I literally have to just get right to it, which to some people might seem abrupt, but really it's the easiest way for me.
ReplyDeleteI was quite impressed with the plucker - I hope you intend to bring it back this weekend!