Processing Day…

Yesterday we processed 20 of the 42 Cornish x chickens. We ended up moving them over to my dad’s house about a month ago as he had more room to finish them in. After 8 weeks of growing, our smallest bird yesterday was about 4 lbs and the largest was 8 1/2 lbs! My dad kept asking Sawyer if he accidentally grabbed one of the laying hens! Most of the birds where between 6 1/2 to 7 lbs…not too bad!

One big chicken!

My dad and Sawyer started early yesterday morning getting all prepped up and getting the fire started to boil the water which was used for scalding the chickens.

The scalder- a metal garbage can set up on two block with a fire going underneath...

We (the little boys, girls and myself) did not show up until later in the afternoon to do the wrapping but we didn’t miss all the fun! Sawyer had the fun job of knocking heads off and helped in gutting them and dad scalded and plucked…

Here's dad after the beheading, gutting and scalding-getting ready to be plucked...

The plucker doing a fine job removing the feathers...

Dad said his rubber pants were a bit hot to wear all day yesterday!

Sawyer with the gizzards and hearts a real delicacy...

I’d say yum, but I really don’t think it’s all that yummy… at all. However Sawyer disagrees with me and enjoys the little tidbits! 8{

Tori pulling another one out of the cooler...

A *new* rubber garbage can was used as a cooler. We ended up using milk jugs that had been filled with water and frozen to put in the *cooler* to keep everything cold.

Tori did the finish work and picked out any remaining feathers...

Boomer, my dads' dog, guarded the final product!

Chicken 2009, nice white packages...

The little boys helped run the final packages down the stairs to the freezer. Today the process begins again on the remaining chickens. It’s so nice to have a freezer full of home grown chickens to feed us through the coming year!

Last night I also participated in a home canning class at the community college. Last Thursday was the first class in which we learned how to water bath canning and we processed some nectarines. Last night we learned how to use a pressure canner and processed some tomatoes. The classes were so much fun and I feel more confident in using my pressure canner and can hardly wait to get started on processing more fruits and veggies!