A few people are aware that we raise chickens for meat and that the piglets that may come will also become bacon and ham.
The reactions are varied, but mostly whoever we might be chatting with will undoubtedly say "Oh, I couldn't do that!" Well, we usually aren't asking anyone to participate in our crazy ways unless they show a little bit of interest. Also, we try to steer the conversation away from the chopping the head off of a chicken and try to explain the humane way of doing the deed. Still no one wants to hear that there is a better(?) way.
You know, I have to say that I probably would be that person too. However, when you grow up with chickens and ducks inevitably one or more of those birds will end up in the soup pot. Which they did and my mom was tricksey about it and didn't say so ahead of time.
OH MY GOODNESS....
Well, the old chickens have to go sometime right? I imagine that his one had outlived it's productive tendencies and was just taking up space. Back then I never thought about it. It was just something that my mom did. At that time I don't think that I had much to do with the process. I think I may have been present for one of the slaughters...but I don't remember.
So fast forward a lot of years and here I am growing my own food. We (Tom and I) are growing a lot of our food. Not all though and I will be the first to say that we could do better, but we are growing more than we ever used to.
We are more that halfway to the next Freedom Ranger harvest date. On June 8th we'll be harvesting our 24 Meaties. Over the next several weeks I'll be testing the waters and looking to see who we might recruit to help with the big day. I already have a couple of people who are interested, but more hands is always a good thing.
There is no delicate way to ask someone to join in the experience. When we do just ask out right it's fairly easy to tell which camp someone is in. If we hear "Ummm...no...I couldn't do that." or just a adamant head shaking. Okay, that's probably a no. Then there are those who say "Yeah, that would be interesting I'll come watch." I also know who NOT to ask - I do want to keep certain friendships intact.
You get the idea.
So I do have a couple of neighbors who I hope will be able to come help. One is a woman who helped us last year and she was all over the evisceration of the chickens. The other is a neighbor down the street from us who is very curious about raising chickens for meat and would like to come and learn. If he has done what I suggested, maybe he'll have a couple of his own birds to harvest also.
I'm very excited that we have gotten to eight weeks with 24 chicks. I am optimistic that we will get through the next five weeks with 24.
Farm Life - it's not so bad...in fact it's awesome!
No comments:
Post a Comment