Today was a busy and hectic day on our little homestead...
It's never easy on butchering day, none of us enjoy the job, yet, if our family is going to become self sufficient enough to get through the Canadian winter, raising and processing animals is a skill we need. Obviously we are still in our infancy stage of self sufficiency.
The only animals we keep are chickens, we have egg layers, and meat birds. Other than that we grow as many vegetables as we can on our small homestead that we rent, yet we haven't grown enough yet to get us through a winter. Next year we will be incorporating pigs and that should help stretch out the food for a lot longer. We will also be adding even more garden space. We do it as we can afford it, so each year we grow our homestead more and more.
Our eventual goal is to be on a similar path as White Walking Feather's clan @wwf. They are completely off grid, and removed from the so-called 'government' as well. They are in every way self-governing. Please follow this incredible Steemian to learn more on how to UNGRIP from the so-called 'state' and 'corporations'.
I had our freezer almost completely full of tomatoes, so last night I filled the sink with them to let them defrost overnight. In these photos I'm about halfway through dicing them. We still have a bunch of tomatoes growing in the greenhouses still. I can't believe how many we got this year. We've been feasting on them like crazy and they just keep coming.
I ended up filling this huge roasting pan, and a huge pot with diced tomatoes. I cooked them all day, with onion, garlic, salt and sugar. They are cooling down now and in a little while I will do the portioning. We'll have our own tomato sauce to make pastas and chilis with all winter.
Next, butchering and processing chickens.
I will go through a few of the steps here, and will spare you any traumatizing photos, if you do need step by step directions on how to properly and humanely butcher your own chicken read this invaluable blog: How To Humanely Butcher Your Own Chicken Dinner.
A clean workspace, multiple knives, a cutting board for removing the feet and neck.
Stainless steel cone (that @hendrix22 fabricated, there are other cones you can make or buy that would work fine too). A bucket to catch blood, which I later mix with water and use in our garden beds to add nutrients to the soil. You put the chicken upside down, his head comes through the cone hole, and you quickly slit its throat and allow the blood to drain.
We have a good hot fire going in the burning barrel, as well as a big pot of water boiling on it. The fire is to burn up the entrails so we don't attract animals. The boiling water is to help with the feather removal. Take the chicken from the cone and put the chicken into the scalding water by the feet, leave it for 15-30 seconds. The feathers should come out easily, if not, put the chicken back in for a few more seconds. Once it has been de-feathered it is time to clean the inside of the bird. Once again, if you do need step by step directions on how to clean your own chicken READ: How To Humanely Butcher Your Own Chicken Dinner.
We are so grateful for all the plants and animals that help us survive. We could not live without them. Our dream is to live without so-called 'corporations' and 'governments', to be in total control of our own survival and cut the proverbial umbilical cord to those slave making institutions.
Thank you for witnessing our journey...
I love seeing the day to day real life (as opposed to unnatural, "food comes from a box" life) of this. I saw a YouTuber who explained the cone thing who sold his chicken meat and eggs through a CSA and it was far easier to watch the quick, conscious, and careful guy do it than some horror show factory farm.
I am trying the freezing tomatoes thing for the first time this year, but so far my tomato harvest has been really low. The plants got ENORMOUS, far bigger than previous years, but far fewer blooms and toms. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I have a sneaking suspicion since my balcony garden acted very slow and sluggish and the sage keeps browning on the edges as soon as the leaves are a decent size (it was eaten by bugs once, but recovered). All the weird-acting plants, including the toms, I got from a community garden program, which is cool, right? They started them in their greenhouse.
Their greenhouse in a very polluted, industrial neighborhood.
Coincidence? Maybe. But suspicious nonetheless.
Oh, also! I keep meaning to ask you. You do all this work on land you rent. Is there any hope for a rent-ro-own possibility in future, or would you want to go someplace else if you were buying?
The landowner here doesn't want to sell, so we are biding our time, just feeling grateful to be able to rent a great place like this and one day probably in the next few years be able to be somewhere of our own <3 How about you? Are you wanting to be out of the city and on some land?
For sure. My dream is a tiny house/cob house/earthship in a forest. And a wee electric Smart car in a garage. :)
Aw...sorry to hear you didn't get many tomatoes...and coincidence, I think not...I'm sure you did plenty of troubleshooting along the way. You're doing a wonderful job showing how it's possible to grow your own food in an apartment, each year you will incorporate more and more to all the nooks and crannies :) :) <3 Big Love and Respect @phoenixwren!
Thanks for sharing this. Chicken is one of my favorite foods and I've always wanted to get a few chickens for eggs, but I was never sure if I had the guts to butcher a live chicken. I'm too much of an animal lover haha but then again, a man's gotta eat!
I know a friend who raises her birds, and then takes them to someone else to be processed, so if it is really too much for you, there might be that option?
Yea for sure it's very difficult and sad to kill for food. When you see how they are treated in factory farms, and the other things that happen with Big Ag, it's honestly better this way. I know how these chickens live, they get fresh air, sunshine, and respect here, in the factories they live a life of torture. They get no drugs, clean living quarters and I know what they are eating. Fuck factory farms.
What really helps is to thank the chicken. I do a smudge before I slaughter and offering some tobacco or some other offering would help the spirit surrender willingly. I believe the animals want to serve, we just need to honour them and give them time to prepare. Then they will do so willingly. This is what I am working on this year. I find it helps.
Wonderful explanation without the unsightly graphics. Thank you so much. I really do hope that you get your dream. You so deserve it. Living off grid would be fantastic. 🐓🐓
Thank you for the kind wishes for our family, hugs Mother2Chicks <3 <3 <3 :) :) :) Dawn King says Hi too :) She lays the cutest little green eggs!!
Wow! Awesome post :) I appreciate you not giving us the nitty gritty of killing chickens unexpectedly, and instead including it in a separate post! I've always lived in a city, but over the last year I've become incredibly interested in getting back to my roots and homesteading. It's such a great choice for your own health, and the benefit of the planet! I couldn't agree more that it's important for me in the US to shift away from corporate consumption, and the sway of Gov enforced lifestyles. Thanks for all of the awesome tomato pictures, and the information on humane chicken consumption! I live vicariously through the homesteaders on Steemit, as plan my escape from city life :)
I know your dreams can come true, we were city folk for our whole lives, we grew up and spent most of our 20's in the suburbs. One day some questions were posed to us that we couldn't answer and it changed our lives..."Do you know how to get your own water? Do you know how to get your own food? Shelter?" .... Scary to think we were so far disconnected from the most basic ways to survive....
That's so awesome... I really hated butchering on the farm when I was a kid... especially chickens... I always got stuck on plucking duty... which I hated... the funnel idea is awesome... we just whacked their head off with a hatchet and let them run about until they bled out.. wait till next year when you get to butcher a hog... disgusting... but bacon is so good 🥓
Wow, thanks for name dropping there my dear sister. Lol. Today must be the day for slaughtering as we were working on turkeys and a goat yesterday and chickens today. Been busy getting ready for winter. I think tomorrow is salsa day. We send our entrails, feathers, etc to the back of the land we steward to feed the wild animals. We work on building a relationship with them. The deal is that we will share as long as they leave the animals alone. For the most part it works. Derrick Jensen wrote a good book called 'A Language Older than Words' where he talks about how the animals want to serve us, but we need to start listening so that we can communicate with them. I really liked the read and we work hard to listen to all the animals around us. Keep up the great work. I'm sure you will really enjoy the bounty that you have and this experience will serve you well in the future! Peace to you all. Thanks for sharing our work!
Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom and your journey with me. I will take your advice to heart.
Enjoy the salsa day, sounds delicious!!
Great post, thank you. I have (10) acres in southern Indiana, and was on my way to becoming self-sufficient, until life dealt me an unforeseen hand. I've had to rent my place, but I plan on getting something similar, hopefully soon.
You have a new follower, and I'm headed to checkout @wwf now. (Oh, upvoted too, thanks again)
I hope you get all that you wish for @rip-youtube!
Thank you very much. All the best for your family.
As always, thanks for sharing. You're just starting, but you're at a stage many of us only dream about!
And I love your mission statement! Wish unplugging was a lot easier and instantaneous. There are so many "tentacles" to hack off first.
Yes, one tentacle at a time to freedom, you can do it @overkillcoin!!
Nice post, and it's great that you're heading in that direction!!! We currently do quite a bit of gardening and would like to someday have some chickens.
Ooh that's awesome, I would love to poke around your garden one day!
Keep on dreaming and steeming and your dream will come true! Good explanation without the gory photos. Thank you!
Hhaa, right on, @hendrix22 and I will most certainly keep on Steemin and Dreamin <3 <3 xoxo This place does make dreams come true :) :) :)
Thanks for sharing your process. That is a lot of meat you have stored up. Well done.
Thank you for reading David <3
I can send you up the f**king turtles from my walk today if you like.
Perhaps the little bastards will go well in soup.
Thank you for bringing us into your home and your excursion into self sufficiency.
Turtle problems? I have to see this!
You will have to look in the walkwithme post I put up last night.
Ah yes, the memories of butchering chickens...the smell of the hot wet feathers, removing the entrails...
I didn't have a cone like that, actually, I was unaware of that method before now. I just used a sharp axe and a chopping block to remove the head. It's messier that way, but effective.
I have a pail right beside the block. I hold onto the legs and wings and hold the bird over the pail. Much less mess and the bird does not get bruised when let go and allowed to jump around during its death throws. We don't have a cone, so this is how we do it. <3
wow very interesting @lyndsaybowes, lots of supplies for winter. tomatoes of various colors make me look at the photos above
Yes, we had a lot of different varieties of tomatoes this year, they sure are beautiful, thank you for stopping by @heriadi :)
Wonderful explanation without the unsightly graphics
Looks a bit like my weekend! :) My freezer is full, but somehow I need to fit a few more birds and rabbits, not to mention a deer in there... Our tomatoes were ok this year, definitely not a bumper crop. We had some late blight damage. I dehydrated about half of the tomatoes this year. Oh and my favourite to make at this time of year IS pico de gallo! All ingredients from the garden excluding lime and salt! I could eat it as a sole ratio indefinitely!
WOW!! Good on you @mfalconer!!!
What a great post Lyndsay.
You're really making a go of being self sufficient. Brilliant to see babe 😉
Thanks so much for the thumb's up TP! Loves ya!!!!
explanation without the gory photos. Keep on dreaming and steeming and your dream will come true god may help you
Wonderful post with good looking sweet foods😆😆
Good friendss
Thank you very much.
Oh my god , i am very interested your work.
Chicken is my favorite foods ...