It is true, there is a first time for everything. This weekend, after a friend threw up her white flag after one too many run ins with her ducks and her garden, we processed our first birds. Neither Aaron or I have ever done this....and well it was a hack job to say the least...but an excellent learning experience. Early Saturday morning I went over to our friends, was introduced to all of her chickens by name, and then the two of us caught 3 ducks and...well...did away with them. She was kind enough to do that part for me, while I watched very closely in preparation for having to do this myself someday. Afterwards they were placed on ice and driven back to our place where aaron and I watched a youtube video and did a little reading before jumping in. It really wasn't bad at all... but our technique was not so great and we didn't have quite enough wax to get the job done right (thanks kris and sarah for what we had - when it worked...it worked!). Result: 3 ducks missing some skin and still hanging onto those pin feathers in a couple places...hmph. Any ways...since they were old birds they are destined for sausage making and possibly some fat rendering or something...my job is done...it is aaron who is mostly interested in finessing something yummy from these birds. And while there is not proof in pictures Aaron was more than happy to have me "try" each step first...and his hands just were "too big" to fit into the bird to pull out the innards....how convenient huh?!
Isabelle was kept in the loop through out the whole process and about half way through she came up from playing with her chickens to see what it was all about. In true farm girl fashion she was pretty good with it...the only part she didn't like was when we took off their feet (heads had been removed at this point) and so she decided to hang out in her tent when we did that part. It is hard to know where the line is with these sort of things, but we talked a whole lot about where our food comes from and this is part of the food system (obviously i didn't say exactly that to her). And even though she is young she understands the life cycle and that food (plants & animals) nourish our body. And we do believe that is what is best for our family- to understand where your food comes from.
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