The Roast Beast!

This is a picture of our first oven roasted, home grown, pasture raised, hand processed, Cornish chicken!

We brined it, rubbed it with herbs, filled it with secret ingredients and then we let it sit for about 15 minutes after it came out of the oven.

We fixed some tomatoes, (a few of the last ones from the garden) cooked some summer squash from the freezer and I made good corn bread. And then we ate.

Russell and I each had a leg and I cut of a nice piece of meat and said "Here goes" and he popped a piece in his mouth too. We looked at each other and both said at the same time, "Oh thank God, this chicken is delicious!"

Just a minute or two later Tyler, Russell's best friend since 1st grade came. What timing! We set a place for him and he cut into the breast. Once, twice, three times and then I said to please save me some breast meat! Oh my, but it was good!

It may sound odd to be so excited about eating chicken but we were so worried that it would be, well, kind of bad.

We need to order more chicks now!

Chicken to Eat!

After waiting what seemed like forever, we now have chicken in the freezer!

The night before last, Russ and I went to the farm and with him on/in one of the mobile coops and with me at the top hatch, we grabbed 32 birds. We were trying to just get the roosters but they are a slippery bunch! He ended up with three crates with 2 crates of roosters and the other of hens. We took them to a neighbor, Restoration Farm, that had the high schools processing equipment all set up.

Yesterday morning Russ went back to Restoration Farm and he along with a class of about 20 students from the high school processed them. He said that they did great! After they finished he came with the birds, all in ice water in tubs in the back of his truck, to the store. We weighed each one and put them in bags and then into the freezer at the store. We bought home two, I will put them in brine and tonight we will eat chicken!

He has already sold some of them. What a good feeling to get something back for your labors!

I think the plan is now to process the remaining roosters and keep the hens for layers. He does want to rebuild the coops. After using them for 3 months, he realises that he needs to make a few changes.

Back to the layers that are at the house, they are moulting so egg production is way down. Plus the day light is now shorter. We have egg customers at the store and I feel terrible that we have no eggs to sell! This week I put a light on a timer and hung it in the coop. I hope this helps. Maybe I should hang an axe in there too!

An update on the local election - Russell didn't make it. However he plans to run again in two years. He feels that it is very important to stay involved in the local state of affairs! I am proud of him.