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Misty Schutt

What to Expect When Raising Meat Birds and the Lessons I Learned From Mine

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It is exciting to see backyard chickens so in vogue across the country. This is the time of year when many chicken-rearing households assess their flock and plot and plan for springtime chicks. In true gateway fashion raising hens has lead some of us to contemplate raising livestock for an additional food source. Meat birds seem like the next logical step. Knowing that an animal has been treated humanely and was raised without hormones and antibiotics is certainly appealing, but what does raising them really entail? This past spring The Husband and I decided to find out.

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In March we bought our first half dozen Cornish Rock chicks. With two years experience keeping laying hens under our belt we approached this new endeavor confidently. We did our homework. We had lengthy discussions with our chicken Sensei at October Rose Farm. We strove to tilt karmic forces in our favor by building a mobile chicken pen out of an old Ikea bed frame. We researched tried-and-true chicken pasturing methods from experts on YouTube. We felt as ready as we’d ever be.

But a worry kept gnawing at the back of my mind. What about the end game? The dispatchment. Did I have it in me to see this thing through and do what ultimately needed to be done? Turns out I was right to suspect there was more to meat bird rearing than meets the eye: it has some undeniable, long term implications that a pursuer of this endeavor is wise to consider. Here is how it went down for us and, of course, my opinion about the whole matter.

Meat Birds Are Not like Egg Layers
Just after we got our Cornish chicks I had to be out of town for a few days and left bird-rearing tasks to The Husband. When I returned and peeked inside the chick corral expecting to see the usual fuzzy peeps dozing under the heat lamp I nearly had a heart attack: the chicks had doubled in size in three days and crowded the food dish like Walking Dead poultry zombies on the hunt for chick chow. The rapid growth of the Cornish breed was unsettling to folks like us who are used to the gentler growth curve of the egg layer. Egg layers progress slowly through their life stages until about the six month mark when eggs appear like magic in the box, and happiness and joy abounds; in contrast, meat birds reach butcher weight in six weeks (that’s weeks with a ‘w’). For over a hundred years this variety of bird has been selectively bred for one purpose: to put on weight as rapidly as possible. They are endlessly hungry, as evidenced by our entire adult Cornish flock regularly napping in the shade on summer afternoons with their heads propped in the food dish.

henyard

Let’s talk poop. Anyone who has ever mucked out a chicken coop is all too familiar with the stink chickens are capable of producing, but egg layer droppings are dainty and fragrant compared to the vast quantities of evacuant Cornish Rocks generate. These birds are poop machines. Our schedule for transporting them from the chick coral in the garage to the outdoor pen took an accelerated track due to them reeking up the joint. Once on pasture the situation was managed by moving them daily to fresh, absorbent grass, but it became clear that this daily move was not optional.  Cornish make a mess of the place fast. On the upside, our garden plot this spring will be smack dab in the middle of the spot the birds fertilized last summer. We anticipate one heck of a harvest.

Once on pasture the birds were easy to keep. We dragged their pen over fresh grass daily, fed them in the morning and evening, and kept an abundance of fresh water available. I observed no pecking order issues and no stress over their confinement – they didn’t pace the fence like my layers do when they’re caged. Heck, the Cornish birds

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Naptime!

didn’t even seem to realize they were in a pen. They didn’t scratch or pursue bugs like our layers, and the one time I tossed a tomato into their food dish thinking they’d wolf it down like candy they ran away in terror and refused to come out of the corner until I had removed the offending produce. For goodness sake. They only showed interested in feeding, drinking, pooping, and napping. In terms of maintenance and care, the Cornish mix birds were, well, boring. My free range layers on the other hand seemed to know a chicken when they saw one and napped beside the meat bird pen every afternoon as if showing solidarity with their former flat mates. It made me a bit sad.

The Process
We’ve come to the part where I talk about dispatching the birds. Please skip ahead to My Two Cents if this does not suit your sensibilities.

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Scalding the feathers off.

 Our backyard setup included a homemade killing cone made out of hardware cloth attached to a deck post with a bucket of sawdust at its base, a large pot of 130 degree water on a grill, a plucking table, a [razor sharp] utility knife, a large container of ice for giblets, and a camping cooler packed with ice and water.

To dispatch the birds The Husband positioned the chicken in the kill cone and, with the utility knife, severed the jugular vein and carotid artery in a swift motion. He held the head to the side to allow the bird bleed out into the sawdust bucket (decapitating the bird entirely could cause the nervous system to seize and impede this bleeding-out process, resulting in tough meat). Once the blood drained he removed the head and carefully submerged the bird, neck first, into the pot of hot water just until the feathers dislodged easily from the carcass, about a minute. He then handed the bird off to me at the table where I dried my eyes on my tee shirt sleeve and got to plucking. In my opinion plucking chicken feathers is a miserable job. But it is preferable to the one The Husband took on so I kept my trap shut and pulled my weight. After the feathers were plucked we dressed the bird by removing the preening gland, organs and entrails. We retained the giblets, heads, and feet in a container of ice for stock. We rinsed each bird inside and out under a garden hose and put it in the cooler for an hour. Afterwards we pat dried the bird with a clean towel and vacuum sealed it for freezer storage.

plucking

My favorite kind of plucking: when someone else is doing it.

Immediately following the slaughter I rinsed the giblets, heads and feet under running water and put them in a large stockpot with raw vegetables, fresh herbs, and water. I brought the pot to a boil then reduced to low for about 12 hours. From these parts we garnered 10 quarts of chicken stock that we pressure canned the following morning.

My Two Cents: Why We Do It.
We embarked on this endeavor because we wanted to reclaim the responsibility of feeding ourselves to the greatest extent possible. In the process we discovered that there is solemnity in the act of taking livestock for food, and it has made us far more conscientious consumers. Because we are so invested in this food source we are loathed to waste any part of the animal; nothing goes unused. Would we do it again? Absolutely. In fact, a few weeks after processing our first batch we started a second, and plan to repeat the cycle this spring. The quality and flavor of the meat is superior by far to the mass produced meat from the grocery store.

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How Do They Sell It So Cheap?
The big grocery store in my area regularly sell frozen chicken for .99 cents per pound, sometimes sixty-nine cents when a sale is running. As a raiser of meat birds this dumbfounds me. It costs roughly $1.50 per pound to raise and harvest our pasture-raised birds, and we do not have to pay employees to process the meat or buy fuel to transport it to market the way confinement factories do. Theenvironmental, dietary, and pharmaceutical conditions under which dollar-per-pound chicken is possible should be cause for alarm, not celebration. Raising our own birds has informed my conscience, turned us off to mass-produced chicken, and given us renewed respect for our local farms who do things right.

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We Need To Do More Than Complain.
Most modern omnivores are so far removed from the reality and nature of their food that any knowledge of the production or slaughter, even the most humane, is upsetting. But the shrink wrapped poultry in the grocery store and Fast Food 10-piece Nugget Meals did not spring forth like flora independent of requisite death; somebody had to do the difficult work. Every time we spend a dollar on our food, be it on food processed on intensive animal farms, or on local organic farms, or to raise and grown on our own land, a vote is cast for how we want our future food system to look.

meatbirds

It behooves us therefore to understand what we’re buying into, and to pony up and learn how to do as much of it ourselves within our local community as we possibly can.Cornish Birds Don’t Act Like Chickens.
There is no breed of chicken on the planet that matures as fast and produces the amount of quality meat as the Cornish cross, but a factor that I continue to struggle with is the fact that modern humans have created, with Frankensteinian hubris, a breed for our consumption that grows so quickly it can be a danger to itself and is incapable of propagating on its own. Cornish crosses just don’t act like chickens; it is as if we’ve bred the chickenness out of the chicken. I’m still trying to decide whether the good life we provide for our birds compensates for contributing to the perpetuation of this Cornish cross breed in the first place.
restinginthefood

The bird at center has elected to nap inside the food dish on top of the chicken crumble.

We will raise meat birds again, no question, but the jury is still out on which breed we’ll choose this time around.

What about you? Have you raised meat birds? What breed did you choose?

Apple Tart with Honey-Cayenne Roasted Squash Seeds

I seriously love this apple dessert recipe because I get to nom honey-cayenne roasted squash seeds while waiting for the tart to bake. The combo of sweet honey and tart apple blends with the heat of cayenne gloriously, especially right out of the oven with a scoop of high quality vanilla ice cream melting on top.
The tart crust is foolproof. I experiment a lot in the kitchen and with that activity comes So. Many. Failures. But this crust has never let me down. A note about the squash seeds: they’re dangerous. Best make a double batch.

Foolproof Tart Crust

Ingredients

Tart Crust

  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tablespoons cold water
  • 1 cup cold butter (cubed)
  • 1 pinch salt

Directions

Tart Crust
Step 1
In a mixer with the paddle attachment, combine flour, sugar, butter, and salt.
Step 2
Add in cold water a few drops at a time. Add just enough to form a dense dough.

Honey-Cayenne Roasted Squash Seeds

Ingredients

Seed Prep

  • 1 wedge Pumpkin or squash
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 tablespoon salt

Baking Prep

  • 1 teaspoon cayenne powder
  • 1 shot olive oil (a nice glug)
  • 1 shot honey (a nice glug of Linck Apiaries, Inc)

Directions

Step 1
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Step 2
Dump the seeds into a sauce pan with 2 cups of water and a tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil.
Step 3
Reduce heat and low boil for 10 minutes.
Step 4
Pour seeds into a medium mixing bowl. Add cayenne, honey, oil, and salt. Combine thoroughly with a spoon.

Apple Tart

Ingredients

Tart Filling

  • 2 Large apples
  • 1/2 + cup brown sugar (1/2 cup for apple slices + a bit more for the topping)
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour (all purpose)
  • 1 pinch salt

Tart Topping

  • 4 knobs butter (a little pad to finish the top before baking)

Note

If you baked the honey-cayanne pumpkin seeds in advance of putting this tart filling together, reset the oven temperature to 425 degrees. The tart will bake at that temperate for 25 minutes. Enjoy the pumpkin seeds while the tarts bake, but try and leave a few for the topping.

Directions

Step 1
Peel, core, and thin slice apples.
Step 2
Repeat with remaining dough and apple slices. Recipe makes 4 tarts.
Step 3
Allow to rest for 10 minutes before topping with squash seeds (and a scoop of high quality vanilla ice cream if desired). Serve warm.

Savory Turkey Tart

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This savory tart will have the family vying for the last crumb and demanding to know when you’re preparing it again. Turkey acquires new flair when smothered in cheesy kale and feta filling and topped with a layer of twice-baked caramelized baby carrots. The pastry shell is a tried and true recipe that pairs just as beautifully with savory fillings as it does with sweet.

Continue Reading

Chicken Treat Recipe

Homemade Chicken Treats Homemade Treats for Chickens

Oh words, how they matter. Example: when you type “homemade chicken treats” into a search engine you’ll get an altogether different result than when you type “Homemade treats for chickens.”  In one case the chicken is the treat and in the other it is the recipient of one. An important distinction, particularly from the fowl’s perspective. Or is that foul? This recipe speaks to the latter: a winter treat for your backyard hens involving categorically non-chicken ingredients.

Acorn Squash Soup

Ever sat at a Thanksgiving Day table and daydreamed about the potential for glorious leftover recipes? Yeah, me neither. So on a completely unrelated note, here is a beautifully simple leftover recipe that upcycles a classic squash dish.

Thyme Infused Dinner Rolls (with homemade cultured butter)

 
These herbed pull-apart dinner rolls, with their rustic crust and fluffy sweet interior, possess exactly the right density and flavor for sopping up pan drippings and gravies at Thanksgiving. The dough comes together like a velvet symphony when ingredients are allowed to reach room temperature and the mixing bowls warmed before combining. The secret to the light and fluffy interior is to add only as much flour as necessary and not a pinch more.

Ugly Fruit

RoundTart
I watched two incongruent, yet weirdly related, videos this month that have incessantly occupied my thoughts. The first was a Netflix special featuring a well-known stand-up comedian who performed a sketch about God being annoyed with humans for digging up fossil fuel to mass-produce food rather than eating the stuff He’d left for them all over the ground. Human’s excuse for this behavior? The food on the ground doesn’t come fast enough, and it arrives cold.

Pickles

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Frig Pickles

Nerd confession: one of my favorite guilty pleasures is to curl up with a jar of ice-cold pickles, a pair of chopsticks, and binge-watch Doctor Who episodes with The Husband. Crunchy dill and Tardis. Mmmmmm.

washingCukes

Watermelon Cucumbers

We’re refrigerator-pickling fools this year.  There’s a constant squirreling away into briny jars every manner of leftover onion, garlic, zucchini and cukes. Poor chickens are getting huffy over the MIA veg scraps to which they’ve grown accustomed. I feel a lawsuit brewing.

I’ve discovered my deep-rooted childhood hate of zucchini can be attributed to the fact that they never came fresh or picked at the peak of ripeness (ours were often over-grown, spongy things ruining an otherwise perfectly good summer salad) but now, oh, I love me some young zucchini spears marinated in tangy cider vinegar and spices.
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Boothby’s Heirloom Blonde Cucumbers

On a lark I picked up a quart of watermelon cucumbers at the farmer’s market a few weeks ago. Adorable, mild little buggers but what to do with them? A three-week soak in apple cider vinegar and peppercorns has drawn them out of shy. And if you want to get all fussy about it these look pretty sliced up in a salad or tucked into a bento box.
But my favorite pickle by far comes from our little Boothby’s Blonde Summer Cucumber. These heirloom cucumbers originate in Maine and are the sweetest and loveliest I’ve eaten. They are a squat little yellow veg that puzzled us at first because we couldn’t tell when they were ‘done’ on the vine. As a pickle they are the finest.
And we grew them in our backyard garden which makes them taste even better and The Doctor all the more thrilling.

Madison County Open Farm Day

bannerYesterday The Husband and I traveled an hour south-east to take part in Madison County Agriculture’s 6th Annual Open Farm Day. The schedule of events showed thirty-six farms participating – 36! – offering free samples, educational interactions, door prizes, and fresh food. We trekked out across some of the most beautiful territory in New York determined to experience as much as we could take in.
Fruit of the Fungi

 On their farm in Lebanon, Fruit of the Fungi owners Kristi and KC Mangine chatted with visitors, answered questions about the mushroom-growing process, and took us on a walk-and-talk through the woods to see their inoculated logs curing in stacks. We bought fresh-picked shiitakes and a bottle of mushroom power that purports to “add a swift and intense wild mushroom flavor to your dish” which curiously possesses the distinct aroma of dark chocolate. Let the possibility-pondering commence…

 

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Fruit of the Fungi Shiitake

 

Fruit of the Fungi Open House, July 27, 2013

Fruit of the Fungi Open House, July 27, 2013

Follow Fruit of the Fungi on Facebook.

 

Pewter Spoon Café & Eatery

Jasmin honey tea

Jasmin honey tea

Road Trip Food is an ordeal for us on account of our aversion to places that serve prefabricated-food-like-products — which is most of them — but hunger drove us into Cazenovia. Turns out the village is home to a dumbfounding number of eateries. Eventually The Husband spotted a noteworthy sign: Pewter Spoon Café. A place, maybe, to grab a sandwich for the road. 

Once inside our plan to eat on the fly was forgotten. We were hooked by the jazz on the stereo, the list of nicely thought-out lunch specials written on butcher paper, and the engaging young woman behind the counter. The place was nearly at capacity but we found a fortuitous table by the window overlooking the main drag. We people-watched and sipped iced jasmine and honey tea while we waited. Our order was a pair of paninis, mine a pear, arugula, caramelized onion and brie affair, The Husband’s stuffed with caprese salad. 

Pewter Spoon Cafe & Eatery

Pewter Spoon Cafe & Eatery

A single bite. That was all it took to transform the place from an unknown dot on the map into a destination. Our food was fresh, inventive, delicious. I began assembling a mental list of friends I’d bring with me the next time I visited. When one accidentally stumbles upon the rare gem of an eating establishment the only appropriate thing to do is sing its praises: the Pewter Spoon Café & Eatery is charming and delicious. A MUST if you find yourself in the vicinity.  The Husband and I, quite possibly two of the fussiest fresh-food snobs in all the kingdom, left full and happy.

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Follow Pewter Spoon on Facebook.

 

Meadowood Farms

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sheep
We’ve greatly missed Meadowood Farms at our Skaneateles Farmer’s Market. We haven’t found a replacement for the wonderful meats we used to get from them but also can’t argue with the inconvenience of distance. It was a treat to tour the farm and get our hands on delicious lamb sausage again.

Plus also there were baby lambs.

 

Thorp Apiary

 
honeysamples
It probably will surprise no one that my favorite part of the day was the fresh food samples. The best and most surprising sample came from Thorp Apiary in the form of their basswood honey which contains a rich, lemon flavor. Upon returning home we drizzled copious amounts of Thorp Apiary Basswood Honey over The Husbands fluffy, golden biscuits.  Enough said.

 

Lucky Moon Farm

 
We spent more than our fair allotment of time at Lucky MoonFarm. I mean we freaking lingered. I fell in love and would have moved in had it not been for The Husband’s gentle reminder that we have lives requiring our attentions. Plus a child.
 

The family-owned farm produces vegetables, maple syrup, eggs, garlic and hay, and they employ a philosophy of land stewardship using sustainable farming practices … Oh never mind, I’ll just show you:

Moonbarrel

MoonchickenyardMoondog

 

 

 

Moongarlic

 

Moonchickenwindow

Moondoor

Moonshack