Meat that passes the cat test
After five and a half
months living like normal Americans, Mark and I are itching for real
food. Yes, the stuff at the farmer's market is better than the stuff at
the grocery store. No, neither holds a candle to the produce and meat
we're used to harvesting from our own farm.
A hankering for real
chicken broth is what tempted us to take two of the dozen roosters our
neighbor is trying to get rid of. We cut up and ground the meat then
cooked the rest of the carcass down into broth...at which point our
cats went nuts. These spoiled darlings won't get off the couch for
factory-farmed poultry, but they just about drove me crazy sneaking
onto the counter trying to get into that stew pot to gnaw at free-range
chicken bones.
Of course, processing
old roosters isn't easy. We'll see how nourished we feel by the meat
and broth, then will decide whether to accept the other ten birds.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Here here! A friend and I just recently started 24 new little meat chickens for the freezer. So far, we have $94.00 invested in them. As the next 10 weeks go on, we'll add on even more. I'm building a new 'tractor' for them to live in when they're feathered out enough to be outdoors on their own. That lumber bill is twice the cost of the birds, though I'll have the tractor longer.
Our local grocery just had a 'special' on Maryland cuts - thigh/drumsticks - for .49 per pound. I bought a 10 lb. package for $4.99. So why raise my own chickens at huge cost when I can buy meat so cheap? Exactly! They are soooo good. I know how/with what they were raised. I know how they (instantly and painlessly as posssible) bit the dust. And I know how cleanly and quickly their meat was processed and into the freezer. No question to me! Raising my own is so much better for me in so many ways. It isn't just a matter of eating. It is a matter of eating as well as I possibly can, and with an ethic that feeds my sole, too.
Good for you - and the kitties....