home grown vs store bought

larry@stinescorner · Feb 26, 2016

While looking through my files I came across this picture I havent seen for a long time, This is a picture of my neighbors grandma many years ago, She had some roosters that were running around her yard for 7 years. She tried to give them away to other neighbors,,no none would come get them. She saw a lady she knew downtown,she knew the lady had a big family and was struggling,she asked her.The lady said pen them up and I will come get them. Now they were penned up for two weeks,and the lady never came, I happened to stop in one afternoon and grandma had had enough. She said I hate to ask my grandson,he is so busy, I just am going to ask him to shoot the chickens and throw them in the manure pile. I said why dont you butcher them? She said they are very old,and no one wants them. Also,she admitted,that she likes scalding and plucking,but never could chop heads off. I said ,I can do that. She got all excited and said.,I ll go start the fire if you have time!

We did the chickens together,she told me stories of how many she used to do with her late husband.I had a great afternoon with her.

She insisted I take a chicken home with me. It took a long time to cook it,,,but,,,,it was the best tasting chicken I ever ate in my life,The taste was unbelievable,and the broth made the best soup I ever had.

Richard G. · Feb 26, 2016

Larry, I remember my Grandma chopping off chicken heads. She had a family of 10 to feed.
Richard in NW SC

Steamboat · Feb 26, 2016

Yep, remember it well. my father was a Presbyterian minister , always serving in small country churches. Parishioners did not have much cash, but were generous with farm produce. We were often given live chickens, which my mother knew quite well how to serve 'em up on Sunday afternoon in a fine feast!
We also raised rabbits for meat. It was my duty to feed and take care of them. But Dad was the only one who could bare to chop their heads off. Rabbits taste even better than chicken served up right!!

Geo-TH,In · Feb 26, 2016

Every Sunday we would kill a few chickens and have fried chicken for Lunch. Mom would fry them in
electric pans while we were in church, except for one Sunday when some how the dog eat them before
we got home. Dad took us out for lunch, a rare occasion. It's like the Christmas movie where the
dogs eat the Christmas turkey.

lee little · Feb 26, 2016

you are a good man Larry. My mother and I used to do that. She taught me it was quicker and more humane to wring their neck. I argued an ax was better but she had me try both ways and as usual mom was right!

dpendzic · Feb 26, 2016

my grandparents had a detached canning kitchen where I always helped them kill and pluck chickens, can tomatoes, etc.
One think I strongly remember was the kerosene stove--what a stink it gave the kitchen.

Zachary Hoyt · Feb 26, 2016

We've been raising meat rabbits for a couple of years now and they seem to be very cost effective compared to other animals we've raised for meat. I got a neck wringer and a hanger-upper bracket for the rest of the processing and they both work quite well. That's a very nice story about the grandmother and the roosters.
Zach

Case e · Feb 26, 2016

I just ordered 100 broilers yesterday. We have a great poultry place in my area that sells the chicks, feed, and has a processing plant. We usually sell 50 and have chicken for supper once a week. You cant beat home raised. We also will raise a few turkey and hogs, try to produce as much of our own as we can. I know its not any cheaper to do so, but it is by far better quality.

RayP(MI) · Feb 26, 2016

We had a stump in the yard with a couple of nails in it for securing the heads for chopping. We hought about 150 "sexed" chicks every spring. Really they did a pretty good job, but we usually ended up with a few roosters who became "guest of honor" at Sunday dinner, come late fall. Waste not, want not. Mother clearly didn't enjoy cleaning, especially scalding to pluck the feathers. Made such a fuss about it I never enjoyed the feast. Chicken not on my favorite list sixty years later.

Galen Houk · Feb 26, 2016

We had butchering days when I was a kid. Grandma and the aunts would come over and we set up an assembly line. Dad chopped off the heads, I remember chasing down the escapes without their heads and taking all chickens to be scalded. I was also a feather plucker. Grandma and the aunts were paid in chickens.

DoubleR · Feb 26, 2016

I raise my own beef, chickens, and turkeys. I job out the beef but do my own poultry processing. I don't enjoy killing anything but you do what you got do.
I don't know if we save much money but the quality is much better than store brought. I enjoy the fact that when I sit down and eat many of the thing we eat are raised by us. Including vegetables and fruit along with our meat.

Goose · Feb 26, 2016

My mother told a story once about when my grandma told my uncle, Rudy, (about 12 at the time) to go out to the chicken pen and catch a particular rooster for her to fry.

Rudy chased the rooster around the pen and couldn't catch it. He got mad, went to the house, got a .22 rifle, and shot the rooster.

Sean Feeney · Feb 26, 2016

Rabbit meat is the cheapest to produce, pound for pound, of any meat

jacksun65 · Feb 26, 2016

I love that burgoo pot and stove in the background

howdy1960 · Feb 26, 2016

We all have memories of yesteryear and that day you fulfilled one for that gal.

Gary Mitchell · Feb 26, 2016

I remember seeing my grandpa with 1 in each hand and wringing both their necks at the same time. gm

Dick2 · Feb 26, 2016

We had free range chickens roaming all over our 20 acre farmyard during the summer. Whenever Mom needed chickens to eat, she told us kids to go catch X number. We'd catch them, grab a stick, place it across their neck, put a foot on each end of the stick and pull up on the chicken's feet until it's head came off. We'd let it flop around for awhile and then take them to the house for Mom & Sis to scald and pick.

A big cast iron skillet full of fried chicken tasted real good in those days. Can't abide chicken these days the way they are raised with little taste any more.

jon f mn · Feb 26, 2016

When I was dating my first wife Sunday was the only day I could visit, and coincidentally that was
butchering day at their house. Didn't much care for the butchering, but the walks in the woods after
were plenty fun.

Ultradog MN · Feb 26, 2016

My mom was one who could do that.
We'd get a call after church on Sunday
telling us Aunt Kay and Uncle Ernie would
like to drop by for dinner that afternoon.
Aunt Kay always brought great salads and
relishes and other goodies plus she made
great pies. So they were always welcome.
Mom would go out and kill a chicken,
sometimes a duck and have it on the table a
few hours later.
One year we got about 40 chickens and raised
them. Mom canned most of them that fall.

SARG · Feb 26, 2016

Memories from over fifty years ago... Dad would have a butchering day with all the boiling water and the stumps with nails for chopping heads. Just chop and sling and the beagle named Bluey would chase the headless chickens all around the yard. One of my jobs was to hose off the beagle at the end of the day.

Also "helped" Grandpa with the hogs a time or two.

Today if I couldn't go to the store I'd probably be a vegan.

SuperHank · Feb 26, 2016

I'm 69 years old and seeing that sweet young lady brought me back to north Alabama in 1952. Grandma kept chickens in an adapted grape arbor in
her backyard. She would gather the grandkids and take them to catch one or two chickens. She would wring their heads off and we never ceased to
be amazed at how they ran around. Her cook would have a pot of boiling water going and the birds were in the fry pan in no time. Why she and
granddad preferred to keep their own chickens I'll never know. They could afford store bought but in spite of their relative financial
position,he was a country doctor,they were farmers at heart. I was lucky to be their grandchild.

Donald Lehman · Feb 26, 2016

Neat.

Yup, Pop and the hired man loped off the heads, me and grandpa dunked and plucked em, Mom and grandma dressed and either canned them of froze them.

CenTex Farmall · Feb 26, 2016

We raise our own birds and butcher them for meat. I close them at night but during the day they roam all over the place. As you said, no comparison on taste compared to store bought. The home raised birds don't have that funny aftertaste that the store ones do. Also, I can no longer eat store bought eggs with their pale yokes.

Cory Schmidt · Feb 26, 2016

Some one once brought some chickens over for us to butcher then trade for ones we raised and butchered (they couldn't eat "their" chicken). Not going to tell em we gave their birds back...We should get at that task too one night, the egg count is dropping time to send the old layers to the freezer and put the young ones from spring in the barn.

sammydwm · Feb 27, 2016

We do anywhere up to 100 a year.
As a kid we plucked them the first year and then switched to skinning and that is they way I do it.
Wife said she had a hankering for the skin a couple of years ago so I sent 25 to a processor. Nobody wants to eat them with the skin on. Wife admits it was a mistake....

rockyridgefarm · Feb 27, 2016

I have 8700 laying hens. When they get 1.25 years old, I sell most of them, but butcher a couple dozen for us. Since they're layers, they only weigh about 4 lbs live. I've found that hanging them by their legs on a string and slitting their jugular is the best way to go. They bleed out better and don't break their wings and legs when flopping around.

I then scald, pluck and eviscerate them. My wife won't put her hand into the body cavity of a chicken... My favorite thing to do with them is to can them. I can fit one bone-in chicken into a quart canning jar, minus back and wing tips. I take the backs, skin, and wing tips and put them into a big stock pot to simmer all day. Then I can that, too.

home grown vs store bought

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