Friday night we butchered Rusty. It was very difficult for me. I cried and shook while holding the axe in my hand. I never really knew just how hard it would be, and it left me with a lot of emotional conflict.
Ultimately, this experience was necessary for me, for us as a family, perhaps even for our neighborhood. I don't have any regrets, but I do have a lot of respect. Raising meat birds is a goal I've had in mind for a while now, and Rusty gave me the chance to see if I could really follow through. I don't know the answer to that question just yet, but at least I have a very clear picture of what slaughtering looks and feels like now.
Here are a few of the highlights from our Rusty weekend celebration:
- Plucking feathers is long, tiring work.
- When the books all say to deprive your meat chickens of food for 12 to 24 hours, they really mean 30 hours. Ew.
- A sharp knife would have been a godsend compared to that axe.
- Chickens don't bleed near as much as I thought.
- Rusty had some iridescent bluish green feathers. The base of them, in his skin, had this funny bluish dye.
- Entrails brought out the science geek in both of us.
- Dogs drool over gizzards, hearts, and livers.
- Heritage breeds have awesome legs. Really. Wow, Rusty. His little manly breasts weren't shabby either.
- The flavor of Rusty's meat tasted like.... well... grass from the backyard. It was sweet and tender, and it took the herbed butter well. The barbecue wasn't bad either.
- We haven't been woken by a ruck-a-roo in three days.
I know exactly how you feel. It's hard for me to kill ANY of our animals. But, our animals taste better than any from the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel. We all have those birds that we`re close too yet we know they have to be culled. Truly our home-grown meat is FAR better than anything found in a grocery store isn`t it??
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