Making the Most of Your Harvest: Chicken

Saturday as I was packaging chicken for the freezer, I came upon the necks, butts, and wishbones.  I did not want to freeze them.  I knew we would not eat them, but I didn't want them to go to waste.  Whats a girl to do?  I made chicken stock.  The recipe is super easy.

Assorted Chicken Pieces
3 Stocks Celery
2 Small Onions
5 Baby Carrots
5 Cloves of Garlic
Fresh Basil
Fresh Sage
Fresh Thyme
Water

I started by tying up my herbs in cheese cloth, so I would have a easier time making sure my broth was clear.  I then added everything to my crock pot and letting its simmer for over 24 hours, on low.


9:00 Saturday Morning



9:00 Saturday Night



1:40 Sunday Afternoon



Straining out the junk

This is what would have been in my broth.

After I let it simmer on low for 24 hours I strain the broth.  All of my cheese cloth was dirty so I used a clean washcloth.  I will bag this up and freeze it.  If you wish to can this head over to The Welcoming House.  Heather is amazing, and a canning genius.  She just finished doing a canning spotlight on meat.  I on the other hand have never used my pressure canner. 

Chicken Butchering

Warning!

This post is about butchering chickens.  If you do not agree with eating animals or the killing of animals do not read.  If you can not stand to see a animal killed do not read.  I will delete any posts calling me and those that were here murderers.  I believe in the freedom of speech, but you have been warned.  Back to our regular scheduled post.

 

 

 

 

Chicken Butchering ♫

I feel a deep need to get back to the "old ways".  That includes having a garden and raising chickens.  It is an amazing way to beef up your food storage I just saved $30 off of my food bill by butchering these chickens, plus I dont' have to buy feed for them.  I like to hatch out my chickens here at home, its just more fun.  It is also a great for teaching my son about work, life, and loving animals.  On the other hand I don't need more then 4 rooster right now.  What to do with the rest, I know there are some that will say "Give them away so they can be pets.....".  I don't believe that chickens are pets, they are livestock.  I do have my favorites, but I believe that they were put on Earth to be eaten.  So today we butchered 21 chickens between 3 families.  Now that is not enough for even one family for a year, but it is a start. 

 

 

The first rule of butchering for beginners is to find an expert, someone who has butchered thousands of chickens.  That's where I began.  Next is to set up a time and day to do the butchering.  On your butcher day find all of your big pots and have them filled to the top with water and boiling. 

 

 

Then select the chicken that will be feeding your family, and kill it.  We chopped off their heads. 

 Next you scald them in the boiling water

 

 

Then you pluck, pluck, and pluck.  It seems like you will never get to the end of plucking the feathers.  I promise you will.







Beautiful, looks like they are from the store don't they?

Now they get a bath where the rest of the pin feathers are pulled out and all of the dirt comes off.

 Then it is time to start gutting.  This is where the picts stop and you will need to find an expert.  There is so much that you can do different while gutting a chicken.



Juli and Sheryl try their hand at gutting a chicken while Sharon gives instructions. 

Now its my turn except we are cutting them into fryers.

This guys is about   to loose his wing.



 Not really a tutorial I know, but it was an amazing experience for everyone that was here.  I feel more connected to my food chain, and happy to have some home grown chicken headed to my freezer tomorrow.  Happy Homesteading!  ♫



Free Apricots!

Today Mom and I picked Apricots for an hour, and I liked it!  I felt at home in the trees picking fruit, like I had been doing it my whole life.  The best part is the apricots were free, the key to getting free fruit is networking in your community.  It is one of those instances of its not what you know, but who you know.  The best part was seeing the hubby climb the latter and stand of the roof to pick apricots.  There is nothing better then working on a project together to strengthen your bond.  OK back to apricots.  After we got home I had no clue what to do with these little balls.  Dad will eat them, but not 40+ pounds of them.  I had to call a friend and admit I'm a bad homesteader.  I will share what I learned: You don't need to peel apricots!  I was wondering how was I going to peel them all.  Glad I won't have to.  To dry them I simply washed them and cut them in half.  I will be making them into jam, and will share the recipe I find later this week.  I'm counting this as part of our food storage, looks like I have at least another day worth of food. 

Food Storage

This morning while in the garden I picked lunch.  A handful of lettuce, some spinach, and the first peas.  I happened to turn my thought to canning and how much food I would be putting away for the winter.  The question is: How much is enough?  I happen to live on top of a mesa the only ways up and down are roads that could be closed in the winter.  How would I feed my family and my animals if I couldn't go to the store.  I went to Emergency Essentials and found a food storage calculator.  Here are the pros and cons of the calculator.
Pros:

1. I can add items in the pantry that I get from the store or can my self.  Such as applesauce.
2. As I was adding items I already had I could add items I needed.  My next order is stored on the website and I can order at any time. 
3. On the right hand side of the page was a wonderful tool.  I could find products biased on nutritional needs.  Need more fiber no sweat the tool will help you find products with fiber.
4. After I had all of my food on hand in the calculator I found out how many days of food I had on hand.  I currently have 30 days of food.  It even shows what nutritional value your food on hand has. 

Cons:

1. There is no place for to add animals.  My food storage is biased on 3 people not 3 people, 1 dog, and 40 chickens.  I know I don't have enough food for the animals.  I also know that I could feed the animals off of stored food such as wheat, dried fruits, and so much of what they sell.
2. I can't add animals for food storage.  In the summer my girls lay plenty of eggs.  The eggs and any extra roosters are part of my food storage and could be eaten.  There is just no place to put that in the calculator.
3. I was trying to figure out food storage for a few winter months, but if I was trying to figure out enough food storage for a year I would like to add my garden.  I have blueberries, blackberries, and cherry bushes.  No place to add that to a years supply, not to mention the garden which produces so much in late summer.

Over all I did like the food storage calculator from Emergency Essentials.  I was excited to know as of right now we can survive 30 days should I not be able to go to the store.  I hope that all of you will consider having some type of food storage.  Here is a direct link to the calculator. 


<a href="http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/2009/10/food-storage-analyzer-gift-card.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Gift Card Giveaway" src="http://beprepared.com/images/art/giftcardbanner40.png"/></a></center>