Our processing day on the farm started as usual today with an early morning start, filled with routine chores and breakfast. Everyone works together to ensure everything gets done as early as possible on butchering day. The animals must be taken care of as usual, the garden watered and plants inspected for bugs, and the house cleaned and organized. The cows must be milked and moved, the sheep and cows get herded to fresh grass, layers get moved every other day and fed and watered, cream is taken off the gallons of milk and excess milk is given to the pigs along with their organically grown feed and pasture, cats and dogs are given scraps of meat, eggs, or cream produced on the farm, and the horse thinks she needs to eat as well.

The ducks and one little chicken friend are released from their shelter to chase after Japanese beetles, flies, and potato bugs along with their natural feed and water. The new broilers in the barn are checked and taken care of. Bathrooms get scrubbed, the process of washing clothes and hanging them out to dry gets started, little ones are dressed and ready for the day, and the house gets picked up. A hearty farm breakfast is made from scratch to ensure everyone stays satisfied and energized until Kailey’s lunch. We have tried some easier breakfasts like homemade sourdough cereal, but everyone likes eggs, toast, and smoothie the best. It’s worth the extra work!

Once the boys finish their chores, they load up the broilers from the pasture and put them in our horse trailer and bring them close to the butchering area. Much of the equipment is set up the day before and everything gets cleaned and sanitized before we are ready to get started. Once we finish up our breakfast and daily Bible reading, we are ready to get started. At 9:15 am hands are scrubbed and everyone is ready to start. Caleb is in charge of getting the birds to the point of having their feathers removed, and he brings the chickens to Aiden who removes the heads and feet and checks for feathers, Cory and I gut the chickens, and then hand them over to Alena for a final inspection and one last cleaning before going into the coolers filled with ice. Since we are selling these birds, we are very particular about keeping everything very clean, and we pay our kids for the extra help.

Today Kailey volunteered to finish up the breakfast dishes, make homemade pizza with our sour dough pizza crust, sauce with our tomatoes and organic seasonings, hamburger from our pastured beef, and homemade cheese produced with golden milk from our grass-fed only, jersey milk cows. She did a great job of sanitizing everything and getting everything organized and ready to bring the chilled chickens inside for bagging. The chickens get another cleaning in our stainless-steel sink, and get one more inspection before bagging them up. They are then dunked into a pot of hot water where they are sealed, weighed, labeled, and froze. Once the process is done everything is cleaned up and put away.

While we all agree that processing birds is not our favorite thing to do, we make it fun with a lot of joy and laughter. The little ones have a great time as well. They love to hang out with us as we do our work, and they are so content and happy to be outside. Abby and Lillian the two youngest enjoyed playing in their wagon for a long time, and then pretended to be getting their horses ready. Annika and Asher enjoyed a bike ride and played a lot of games when they weren’t visiting with us. The work is never done on the farm (although we do try to stop and do plenty of fun things), and Cory was off to harvest some rye with a few little ones along for the ride. A little more cleaning was accomplished in the house, and after a nice little break of sitting down to write this post, I’m off to preserve more peaches, and get supper started. I’m so thankful to be able to grow food for our family and provide good quality products to our customers. The Lord has really given us a heart to help people acquire nutrient dense, clean food. Thomas Jefferson was so wise when he said, “Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.

Do you love growing food? If not do you buy locally from regenerative, organic, or biodynamic farmers? We love to hear from you!