Now I can tell you about the chickens

If you've been following my blog, you know that I got "into" chickens in Seattle. Three, cute, little chickens that eventually gave us white, brown, and green eggs and opened our eyes to all sorts of things! Don't get me wrong, I was happy to leave them behind, for reasons you can read about. But I didn't leave behind my commitment to free range, organic chicken and beef. I have the one, and our Wyoming friends offered to provide the other.

You guessed it! This was a hands on project.



So, first you have to slaughter. I thought it sobering to see Jason hold each one, as if giving it a blessing before it's death. And he kept reminding us all how quickly they die and how good it is to partake in the process of the food on our table.



Then you dip into scalding water and pluck their feathers. This process, while gross, was much faster than I imagined.



After gutting, they sit in a cold water bath before the freezer. I think close to 40 chickens were "harvested" this day!







Needless to say, raising broiler hens, and the end result, is a whole different "thing" than my 3 little girls in their make-shift dog-house home in our little backyard in Seattle!