The cool weather on the farm last week was a good reminder that even though it’s early in the summer, its abundance will not continue forever. This made processing over 1400 pounds of pasture-raised chickens and a beef a very pleasant experience. The mild temperatures also helped our edible mushrooms thrive and made weeding and all the routine work around the farm feel less like a sauna.
Raising and butchering chickens is not our favorite activity on the farm, but it’s the best way to get a healthy, flavorful, clean, and nutrient dense chicken for our family. We do really enjoy being able to help other people acquire these as well. Aiden starts the chicks in our barn making sure the area stays warm, clean, and that the birds have fresh water and feed. When the chicks are young, he checks on them several times a day. After a few weeks they get moved into our chicken shelters on our pasture. He then feeds and moves them on pasture twice a day. He is so responsible with his chores that I can’t remember a time he ever forgot to move or take care of them.
On Thursday of last week my mom came to our farm to help our younger children with their summer school while the rest of us butchered chickens. We butchered 115 large chickens in record timing. Over the winter I made a list of everything I wanted to do to gain efficiency on our farm, and the chicken butchering was the most important. I had asked my husband and son Aiden if we could get a better and more efficient set up for cleaning the birds. They are both amazing at solving problems and got right to work designing my system. With the help of Asher, they all put it together Wednesday evening. Just in time for butchering the next day. This improved our efficiency greatly not having to share water. I have one more system ordered that will arrive before our next butchering day, and I believe this process will be complete.
We were surprised by the large size of the chickens and not expecting the smallest chicken to be a little more than 5 pounds. The biggest was almost 10. Our family loves the bigger birds, and they are also a better deal for our customers. You get more meat for your money since there is less bone weight. We ate chicken and rice for dinner and chicken hearts and French fries from our garden for supper. In the past there was no way we could have eaten chicken the same day we processed it, but I guess we are all getting a little less picky.
The chickens did better than any of our chickens in the past on our homemade, beyond organic, soy and corn free chicken feed. They were so healthy and robust. We were so thankful for our neighbors, the Fraziers, and their willingness to grow organic peas and barley just for us.
Conventional, certified organic, and many “pasture raised” chickens that you find in the store are raised in a large building where they never see the sun, never breathe fresh air, and aren’t allowed to scratch and eat green plants and bugs. They are constantly breathing in their own and other chickens’ fecal particulate, and it’s impossible for the birds to remain clean. They must be given antibiotics to survive these unnatural living conditions. I have heard that certified organic chickens can’t receive antibiotics, but they still receive unnatural treatments, and pasture raised birds aren’t what you think they are.
Truly pastured chickens have more vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and B vitamins. When you make stock with our pastured birds, you should notice that the fat is yellow not pale white like factory birds. Healthy fats, more vitamins, and a cleaner bird have been shown to decrease the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases as well as decrease the risk of food-borne human pathogens (some of these becoming resistant to antibiotics). Since many don’t want to do the work of raising broilers, (and I can’t blame them) we do the hard work of raising and processing so you don’t have to. You get the peace of mind that comes from feeding your family a healthy, flavorful, and nutrient-dense bird—without ever plucking a feather.
The week ended with Cory and Caleb butchering a beef. I cooked the tail, along with a chunk of meat on the stove to use as stock for beef stew the next day, pickled the heart for heart casserole, cleaned some of the intestines for summer sausage, and cut up the liver for supper. My husband and some of the kids love liver, and I’m still trying to like it. Annika really wanted to try tanning a hide again, so she built this stand that is pictured below with scrap materials from our saw mill and tanned our cow’s hide naturally. Annika and I prayed together that morning for perseverance, knowing how much work goes into it. She said the prayer made all the difference, and she finished it that evening. Aiden built a turkey shelter with scrap material, and we finally got our turkeys out on pasture just before the heat got really intense here in Nebraska.
Reflecting on this past week, I am so thankful for the abundance that God continues to provide in our family and from our farm. I’m also grateful that Cory and I grew up surrounded by parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles who demonstrated a strong work ethic. May we, by God’s grace, pass that legacy on to future generations.
