Grinding Chicken – September 6, 2019 @goldenoakfarm

in homesteading •  5 years ago 

New Herb garden crop September 2019.jpg
The New Herb garden now

Friday was a wicked busy day. My helper friend and I cleaned the cold room and set it up for painting. I will be spending most mornings for a good long while painting and staining in there. I can control temperature in there, so it will be warm enough on these 40F mornings to paint.

Then my husband and I dashed off to an appointment (I DON’T have a corneal abrasion…) and a huge lunch and back in time for my husband to go for the first load of cabinets. And off to the storage unit to rearrange it and get them into it.

Grinding chicken2 crop September 2019.jpg

All day long the excavator guys are grading and cleaning up around the house and every time I return to it, more and more has been done. When we return from cabinets, we set up to grind chicken. This is the next to last job of Freezer Camp. The last is making bone stock, probably start that on Sunday.

Pam grinding chicken3 crop September 2019.jpg

We got 13½ pounds of ground chicken. There will be more when we process the old layers (those slackers, sending up 5-6-7 eggs/day for 14 hens…) in October.

The stats for Freezer camp:

From Freezer Camp Day:

166.89# of carcasses
6.83# heads for eagles
7.85# feet for bone stock
22.37# organs to a raw fed cat
Total: 203.94# from 66 birds

After processing:

We divided the meat in to 2020 and 2021 because there was so much.
For 2020 we had 149.55#.
For 2021 we got 49.92#.
And feet/heads/catfood was 37.05#
Total Processed: 199.47#
Waste: 8.85#

The 48# of stripped carcasses will mostly go to bone stock before being discarded. That’s not included in my stats yet, how much bone stock I’ll make. I’ve also not figured out cost per pound yet.

No tag sales on Saturday, as my husband is itching to get started on the house. Once he’s got the milk run done, he’ll work the rest of the morning on the house, then clean up and we go to the Franklin County Fair for our 45th year.

Sunday: painting and chicken stock

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  ·  5 years ago (edited)

I am very impressed! Absolutely no waste! I feel bad every-time I put something in the garbage. Though I live in an apartment, I try to repurpose as much as I can. We do not have recycling here in my neighborhood as I guess it is not cost effective for the trash collectors that service this area.

Thank you for sharing your harvesting of the chickens. It was very interesting and the pictures showing the process are really outstanding. I also liked the picture of your herb garden. I am jealous.

I might mention that I was directed to your post by @pennsif's Sustainability Curation Digest. Glad I followed his link! He does a wonderful job of finding posts that are gems, like your post.

Have a wonderful and fruitful upcoming week! Blessings and groovy vibes to you and yours!

We do try to use every bit of whatever we raise here on the farm. I am glad you enjoyed the post! I am a very visual person, so tend to use lots of photos of what I am talking about.

I love how you are accounting for yield and costs. What grinder do you use? And do you cut in any fat (for the human consumption)?

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It's a #32 grinder, not sure what brand. My husband fitted a motor to it and built the stand for it that's completely washable.

We don't remove a lot of fat when he strips the carcasses, for the broilers. The old layers often are VERY fatty and he will take off the excess.

Congratulations, your post has been selected to be included in my weekly Sustainability Curation Digest for the Minnow Support Project.

Thanks!