Gobble, gobble, gobbled...

The day before Thanksgiving it was -5 (had been for days) and we resigned ourselves to the fact we were going to have to clean birds in the house again. It is so much messier so I was dreading it. Then our one local real-deal farmer Tim Meyers (if you ever get a chance check out Meyer's Farm) saved the day. He said to just kill them and bring them over. SWEET!

WARNING!!! If you are a reality check away from becoming a vegetarian you might want to skip the video clip.

(Also...if it ever turns out that my husband is a serial killer and I give any sort of interview where I am that shocked wife who says "I had no idea"...there are videos on this sight that may be used to prove otherwise. He is a good sport and only messes with farming because of me... but he really seems to like my Papaw's cleaver.)

Tim has one of the only basements in Bethel and had one set up for butchering turkeys and his older layers. He let us bring our turkeys over there and we got to clean them inside. Ron Reardon showed up and even helped. He looked more like a slasher in his butcher outfit than my hubby does! Ron grew up on a farm and really knows how to eviscerate a bird too. We were very thankful for the skilled help.

The trick with plucking is dipping the birds in water that is about 160 degrees for a minute or two and then the feathers just fall right off. Gutting is the nasty part. We have apparently always done it backwards. Ron showed us that we should start with cleaning out up around the neck. You get all the food out of the gullet and loosen the windpipe so it is easier to pull out when you get into the body cavity. He also showed us how to clean out the gizzard and peel off the tough (kind of icky) layer of skin on the inside. We had to cut the gland off the rear and he also showed us the stinky internal gland we should never puncture. It was a pretty good lesson. It is also not every day that you get to hang out in a basement (in a town with no basements) with a giant blood covered guy in a slasher outfit. Good times!

One curiosity we discovered on our white turkey was that he had a beard. It was coarse and on the neck. Definitely a Tom. 

After we were done we came home and I got the birds in brine. One old school and the other is still in one with more Asian flavors. The big white bird marinated over night then I pulled him, injected some butter and seasoning and then stuffed him to the brim in body and neck cavities. I make my own stuffing and while the germ-o-phobs don't like stuffing I am a fanatic. It seasons the meat from the inside out. And stuffing is sooooo much more delicious than dressing. I just flat leaf parsley, turkey stock, celery, a green apple, carrots, onions, rosemary and sage. Mix it in with good chunky bread crumbs and I am off and running.

I bake in a convection oven at 300 degrees. I also dip paper towel in butter and put it over the bird and make sure I cover the stuffing. I then tent with foil making sure to cover the ends of the legs and wings. I leave the towel and foil on until the internal temp hits about 125 or so then I pull it off so the skin browns. I use a digital thermometer and I cook to about 145-150...I know USDA says to cook to 160-175 but then you get your classic DRY cardboard turkey. Mine are so moist I will even eat the white meat. We were eating it within 24 hours of it running around the yard so I just take my chances.

I also did a smoked turkey (this was a store bird) that I brined for 3 days and then injected with cuban mojo sauce. I stuffed its body cavity with red onion and an orange. I smoked until I got a temp of 160 with the probe on my smoker. I used maple, apple and cherry wood. Also delicious.

Pleading for a reprieve...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LLgMwovBkc&feature=youtu.be

Above is the link to the youtube video posted below. It was taken the day we butchered the geese.

Ducks were in fact granted a reprieve.... For Now. I am sure my hubby will put his slasher outfit back on in a heartbeat and Callie is never far from her ninja-executioner gear. The cleaver is one my Papaw gave me and is a family heirloom.

Too funny.

On a practical note... we have never wintered over water fowl. If anyone has ever kept them over the winter in a truly cold climate I would really love to hear some tricks and tips. If I can I will keep them for eggs (the two Khaki Campbells are supposed to be excellent egg ducks) and assuming I have at least one male I can make more ducks next summer for eating.

I have them in the coop with the chickens now, but my coop is not heated so I am worried that their webbed feet will get damaged this winter and I will have to put them down anyway. My chickens pretty much just eat snow in winter and I have seen the ducks eating it so we are ok on hydration (water freezes in about 3 minutes...snow stays fluffy and delicious). I still may butcher them if they don't look like they are doing well.

It is cold and it is TIME!

Uh Oh... cold weather means the end of greens and time to start butchering. Geese and Ducks are first on the chopping block. Turkeys get a couple more weeks.

Butchering is not my favorite part of poultry raising. This is not because I really care about death (I raise them to eat them). It is more a matter of it is messy and tedious.

We had never raised or butchered water birds before. It is kind of cold so we beheaded the geese and let them bleed out upside down on the fence. Then we brought them inside for plucking and cleaning (not the best idea but it is 20 degrees outside). We did them one at a time. Each took about an hour start to finish and it is so tedious we wound up only doing the two voracious geese today. We will probably do turkeys next week and then we shall see about the ducks (I moved them to the chicken coop...kids lost one in the move and are still outside looking for it. It is one of my Khaki Campbells, which are the egg layers! If I only winter over two it would be those two. My stinkers better find her!)

My hubby put what he calls the "bird hook" in the middle of a door frame and we hung the bird upside down by its feet over a tote for plucking. I first dunked it in a stock pot of hot water to help loosen the feathers.

After plucking we used a torch to singe off the last of that downy under fluff and a few stray feathers (set off our smoke alarms...which is exciting because I bashed a couple off the ceiling in a rage while making toast and I was not sure we had any working ones left.)

After torching we gutted the birds and then put them into a cold salt bath. I saved the livers, hearts and gizzards. I'll try pate later.

Homebodies

GRRR!!!! I decided to huff it out to the pond with the ducks and geese so they could swim. If you have never walked across squishy tundra with thigh deep grass and shrubs...it is HARD work. I carried them out two at a time and each time three of them found each other the little stinks ran all the way back to the yard.

So much for worrying about not being able to get them to come home.

One group even came up the ditch between us and the neighbor's, looped around the front of the house, walked over the dirt pile and rendezvoused with the other birds in the back yard.

So now I am tired and just have to worry about keeping dogs out of the yard. Jinx must have a little of some kind of herding dog in her gangsta-mutt mix. She was the only one having a good time with all of this.

FREEDOM...for 30 minutes

The Ducks and Geese are HUGE and they poop a lot. I am still going back and forth about sending them out to the pond behind our house. It is a bit of a hike and I am afraid I will never be able to get them to come back. The pen they are in is getting increasingly smelly and muddy though so I need to make a decision one way or the other.

I let them get a taste of yard life tonight and it was not as crazy as I thought it would be. Our dog was fascinated and the geese did not care for her curiosity one bit. Too funny. I am in love with the hissing, wing waving geese. They are the BEST and the ducks just follow them around like they are the group bodyguards.

All the birds were so happy to be out and about and ate grass until they were bloated. I was really impressed that I managed to herd them back into their pen too. Not nearly the crazy scene I expected. Unfortunately this was probably because the kids and hubby were washing my truck (my truck has a sticker that reads "Do Not Wash: Conducting Scientific Dirt Experiment)...my truck was even nasty by my standards so it took them a while. I think the lack of screaming girls helped me calmly shoo them back to the pen.

I am debating between trying to teach them to come back to the pen with treats for a couple days or just turning them loose on the pond with the notion I will figure out how to get them back at the end of the summer...smart or lazy....hmmm.

Strut your stuff...turkey style

We got home after an eight day trip and before we even got into the house the girls were squealing about how big the turkeys had gotten. They nearly doubled their size in just over a week. Not the freak of nature growth we saw in the water fowl, but impressive all the same.

Turkeys are dumber, yet more personable than chickens. I think it is because they are hungrier since they are growing so fast. Whatever the reason they run to you the second they see you... sort of like obnoxious dogs. It is kind of hard to get them to leave you alone.

We have two that survived that early run of chick loss and they are frenimies. I catch them pecking at each other and picking their heads raw. But they are also always together and never out of each others sight. I am loving the mini-loud and proud displays the white one keeps doing. I can't wait to see him at it when he weighs 25+ pounds. The antics are just going to make him taste better...mmmm turkey!

Tropical Chickens??

We are in beautiful Kauai for the next week or so. I saw comments as I was planning from people complaining about chickens on the island. I figured it would not bother us in the least.

I had no idea!!! They are EVERYWHERE!!!

It is like our yard took over an island. They are more prevalent than squirrels in Florida. It is a hoot.

We definitely picked the right island and as we are stuck in slow traffic we shout out "chickens" every time we see one...it is sort of like a chant.

My hubby does now question the source of all chicken we eat in restaurants. I assure him that roadside chicken would surely be tougher than what we are eating. He is still dubious.

Love it!