Homegrown Food

 A snapshot of my counter at the end of last Summer. Cheeses freshly waxed in the back, vegetables fresh from the garden, and our farm raised Chevon that is surprisingly delicious.  Getting ready for slow cooking a goat stew.

 

 

 

 

New Experiences

This morning as I was cutting my son Jason's hair, we talked about the young rooster.  He had begun to breed the other hens, they also had Rodney our main rooster outside waiting for them wherever they went, 2 roosters is too many. Rodney was simply trying to protect his girls, and would get into squables with the younger one.  So we decided  today was the day.  I've always been brought the bird, cleaned and defeathered by my 16 year old son.  Well I decided to do it today, not the death part, but the scalding and plucking.  My son thought it was time I learned, and he took a few pic's along the way. 

If you only knew how this 6 month old rooster lived his happy life.  He got to be raised by Henrietta, the best chicken mom, he snuggled under her with his brother, and learned the ways of a chicken, he got to eat outside, and be fed as much as he wanted everyday, good scraps, plenty of water and fresh air.  He got to go grubbing, and eat grass, take dust baths everyday, and learned about chasing ladies, and courting.  It was a short beautiful life, and ended kindly.  We farmers live an honest life, we know where our food comes from, and  look them in the eye, and love their spirit, and the life they bring to our farm. 

We set up a table with a propane stove and large pot to boil the water for scalding.  Since there was snow on the ground.  I decided it would be most comfortable to just pluck right on the snow.  I dipped for about 30 seconds, and the feathers came out real easily, it did take time to get them all thoroughly out.  Then we cleaned out the innards, and I cleaned the chicken under cold water for a good while to get it real clean and chilled. We decided to slow boil and make soup, so the meat would be good and tender, so far I've added onions, carrots, celery and garlic. 

On a brighter note, I also baked up one of my Cinderella pumkins, picked from the garden in October, and made a pumpkin pie, this one has 6 eggs in it, and is sweetened with our own applegarth bees honey.  I love having food from our land, knowing that all the energy and love we put into the garden and animals, multiplies back to us with nutrition and health.   This is the good life to me.

Home Grown Meat

I have a confession to make, I have never actually killed a chicken or  a rabbit or any animal for food.  I seriously don't know how I ever will, but know I probably will at some point... learn...maybe.  Even our brave and fearless captain Jarin also has no desire to do the deed (even growing up the son of a butcher).  So my son  who is 15 decided it was up to him if it was ever to get done, and so he does it.  He brings it to me skinned, and I cook it.   He tans the hides, and makes beautiful rabbit furs.  I have never asked him to do this, he has studied my Back to Basics book, read how, and just does it.  I had a serious talk with him about giving honor to the animal, being conscious in your heart, and thanking them for giving us life and sustenance.  I believe there should be a certain reverence for these animals that we have loved and nurtured.  It should always be done quickly, humanely, and never where another live animal can see it.

We have only just started doing our own home grown meat in the last few months.  Of the rabbits he has done 4 of them, bucks just at maturity, and a couple of   1 1/2 year old does.  He did them 2 at a time on different occasions, and never told me he was going to do it until after the fact.  He knew I would have a really hard time with it, as these were raised from birth at our farm.  The feed store that bought several litters over the summer, did not want  to take anymore because of the time of year and going into winter.  When you only have 4 rabbit cages, this naturally keeps your numbers in check.

In the early Fall he processed our first young rooster from our first batch of chicks that one of our sitting hens hatched out in the spring.  My mom couldn't believe we would eat our animals, she had seen them as young chicks, and knew how much they all meant to me.  I couldn't believe I was eating our animals either, but that's what you do when you truly want to be self sufficient if you want to eat  meat, something has to die, this is hard thing to do.

I think the first few animals you ever kill are the hardest, even though I didn't actually do it.  I cooked and ate them... I had never tasted rabbit before in my whole life, and boy let me tell you was it ever good!  I was sold, and now understood why the French and much of Europe adore cooked rabbit.  Jason got to choose how he wanted it cooked since he did the deed.  I  baked 2 at a time, and made rabbit pot pie, in my extra large double pie plate.  Vegetables, rabbit and a top crust taste unimaginably good!  So he wanted it done the same way the next time, we all did, everyone except our 13 year old daughter Tessa, she never could bring herself to eat any of it, and claimed she'd be a vegetarian for the night.  Fortunately she did get over it in time for the rooster, and baked chicken, and soup, this was something she was used to eating.  I am trying to teach my children where their food comes from, this is important to me.