CornishX vs Red Ranger

Well I've been a bad blogger. We finished processing the last of the meat birds a little while ago. Maybe two weeks or so. I even had The Boy take pictures, but his idea of what was interesting and mine were different. Who wants to see the inside of a trash bag full of chicken guts? lol.

Scott and Connie plucking

Connie and Pat plucking

I manned the dispatch station. I caught the chicken and did the killing, and bleeding out. Then I took it to the boiling water pot and did the swishing. Pat, Connie, and Scott did all the plucking while I went after another bird. Then over to Larry for the gutting. Andrea was in charge of cleaning off, cooling, and bagging. We did 15 chickens in not too much time. I parted out 8 of them and froze 7 of them whole.

I've made a few dishes out of the cornish and the rangers now. The cornish (creepy meats) had much larger breasts and smaller legs and wings. The rangers were more proportionate as a whole bird. The leg quarters on the rangers were a lot bigger and leaner looking. They were great for the barbeque or roasted in the oven. I did both birds in the crockpot and then broiled in the oven to crisp up the skin. They tasted just like the rotisserie chickens you get at the grocery store. The rangers were more forgiving of being over cooked. They didn't get as mushy. Over all I'm very pleased with the birds we raised. They don't taste more intensely chicken, but do make the store bought birds taste a bit watered down. I know my birds were raised humanely, were dispatched humanely, and I know what they ate. No antibiotics, no soy, no growth hormones. I know they free ranged and were happy birds. I'l definitely raise meat birds again in the spring. I'll order a set of cornish x's for the breast meat and the tenders. They were more plump and just overall bigger, and the rangers more for whole birds. The cornish were better before it got too hot outside too. I don't want to stress them. 

New friends on the farm, Squashini

Norman is officially a grass calf. I had to go around and lower about half the insulators on the fence so the little weasel couldn't get under them. We did a lot of maintenance on the fence too over the last week. Trees, shrubs, brush, some downed branches, a few places where the wind had blown the braided wire into the old barbed wire fence. Each little spot was a power drain and made the fence hit not as hard. It's rocking 8k on the little light up meter now. When we first put Norman out it didn't zap hard enough to keep him from going under it. It sure does now though. The horses had been zapped enough when it was still really hot to not want to go anywhere near it when they had plenty of tall green grass to nosh on.

The two steers from last year finally got moved out to the front pasture. It was a total anticlimatical, non-event. I really expected to take down the fence over at Andrea's and have them run out, tails in the air and act like wild yabangies. They didn't. Andrea's steer did a little bolt, but I had Norman on a leash in front of him a ways, and he just followed us into the pasture. The other calf hung back, just outside the gate, and after walking Norman back, he followed with just a little pressure of someone walking behind him.

Andrea's weimer, Loki had to go check them out, and the silly cows let him chew on their little bud horns.

Norman does not like them. He doesn't know he's a calf. He thinks he's a pet that lives next to the house. He did a little bit of hollering the first couple nights. He runs when they come near him. I've had both Ben and Apache out with them. The lighter steer tried humping Ben. Silly cows. They hump anything.

After all the squash and zucchini I pulled out of the garden last year and didn't eat, I told myself I wasn't going to plant any this year. Scott talked me into one little pot of zucchini with four little sprouts in it. No yellow squash though. Yeah right. I was kicking the stuff open last year after the plants died to frost, so the chickens could eat the insides. Scott tilled everything up so nice and pretty for me this spring. I have a corner in the back where the corn is that is now over run with yellow squash and "squashini". It is the shape of a zucchini, but a very pale green. It has to be stuff that got cross pollinated with the yellow or the crooked neck squash from last year. It's tasty though.

The second batch of meat birds are well past big enough to process. It's just finding the time to do it. I'm working 6 and 7 days a week right now with summer shave down season, and helping the 4H kids get their dogs ready to the fair. I did three roos the Sunday while everyone else left for Pocatello to get the rest of Connie's stuff. Scott and I should both be off Teusday next week. I think we're going to have a marathon chicken butchering day. Andrea, Connie, and Liam can all help. 

Creepy Meats in Mah Freezer (warning, graphic pic alert)

Sunday was the big day to finish off the rest of the Creepy Meats. We did four of them earlier in the week. We just skinned them and parted them out. The other ten got the whole works. We set up the killing station, the camp stove with the big pot for scalding, the butcher island for plucking and gutting.

I went out and picked up the birds one at a time. We actually had some volunteers wander into the garage here and there so I didn't have to go looking for them. Flipped the birds upside down to relax it, slip it into the milk jug tucking in wings and feet. Then I reached up and pulled the head out the bottom. We didn't wack off the heads, just a quick slice where the head and neck me under the ear. They did flap and jerk as the blood drained into a bin full of shavings, but most of it was contained in the jug.

After a quick dunk in boiling water at the camp stove, Scott and Pat made really quick work if pulling the feathers. The was we did it was bringing the water to a boil, then backing off the heat to a simmer, somewhere around 157 degrees. Too hot, and in the water too long and the skin starts to cook. Too cold and the feathers won't pull out. 

After they were featherless, Larry made all their insides be on the outsides, the legs and neck came off, and into a cooler full of ice water to cool down. We rested them in the fridge over night, then I parted out some and froze others whole. We barbecued Tuesday evening and had wings, legs, and thighs. 

                               

My thoughts on how the meat turned out was it wasn't exactly tough. It was hard to explain. It was like the difference in Al detente  noodles that are just barely done, and the mushy soft mess that Macaroni and Cheese gets to be. Store birds spend their whole life laying about as they grow. The get up, go to the feeder, walk over to the water, and then laze about again. My birds ran, jumped over things, they free ranged and actually used their muscles some. I didn't let them gorge and eat as much as they wanted.  I believe it made a healthier bird. 

Today I'm going to try a whole bird in the crock pot.