Fall Chickens

The first day of the last batch of chickens is now in the books. The last person to pick up chickens is here and that will end the last of today's customers. We got off to a rough and slow start. We changed the way the customers pickup chickens and had them staggered throughout the day. That wouldn't have been so bad, but the scalder had to be supplied with additional hot water which I stole from the bag shrinking water. This meant that finished chickens couldn't be bagged and labeled until they had enough water heated to the correct temperature to replace what I had taken. Next time we'll have to have another propane heater to heat supplemental water for the scalder. We had additional help from friends who process chickens themselves for their customers and another who wanted to learn how to process chickens. It's hard work and takes a lot of time and commitment to grow and process chickens, especially pasture raised chickens. But when it's all done you know you have sold and kept great chicken to enjoy when the weather is cold outside and the warmth of a chicken in the oven brings a deep warmth of comfort to home. Or my favorite, barbecued chicken on the grill. We have 2 more days of processing. One tomorrow for customers, and the remaining ones for ourselves some time next week.