raising food
Where are we today?
Today rather than judge ourselves by some illusory benchmark of historical rural American self ‘sufficiency’ we might do better for each of us to make the effort to be more self-reliant. By self-reliant I mean making the goal to do…
Self–reliance versus Self-sufficiency: An ongoing series of meditations
None of us are self-sufficient. We all need somebody! Despite the often nostalgic retro-interpretations (our national idealization of Little House on the Prairie comes to mind!) Americans weren’t self-sufficient in the Colonial past, the Revolutionary Era nor the long 19th…
Organic Hen Feed? Sorry, Not Interested.
I’ve just heard on NPR this morning that the current price for organic soy beans (mostly imported from China) has risen to $800 a ton – roughly twice what it was last year. This has put commercial organic chicken raisers…
Our Fabulous Homemade Chicken Plucker
Next weekend is hen culling day; we have some older spent hens and some hens who don’t lay enough to justify dealing with their aggressive barnyard attitude. So on Sunday the flock will go from 29 to 15. This time…
Butchering chickens at home using a steel cone
Today Kip and I butchered the first ten of this season’s 120 chickens. At 4 weeks and 4 days these Harvest Whites from S & G Hatchery in Alabama have been fast gainers – the dressed birds weigh on average…
In which 251 beef, pork, turkey meatballs are bagged for the freezer
Early this month I spent part of a day grinding a large piece of beef, a loin of pork, with added ground turkey for a BIG batch of meatballs! We love them for adding to pasta sauce and for sub…