When I came home Grandma was with my eldest showing her how to sew on her new sewing machine. They'd picked a pattern for a toy dinosaur and were busy putting it together. It was lovely to listen and watch them working together.
I'm sure that I've had a similar childhood to many that read this blog. I spent a lot of time with my parents growing up, doing practical things that had a purpose. And it's nice that mine take such interest in what we do here as well. While they were sewing my younger daughter wanted to do something.
A few days previous I had dispatched five meat chickens, destined for the freezer. I generally let them rest for two or three days once plucked and gutted. my daughter knew this and wanted to help with the next step.
She's too young to use my extremely sharp butchers knifes so instead I set her to work on the vacuum packer. I'll be honest and say that I didn't think she would manage it as it's quite hard to open and close. But she took it in her stride.
While I set about breaking the chickens into meal sized portions, she was sealing the ends to create bags, then coming over to take a breast or some legs to vacuum seal. I think she only had one failed bag - far better than I usually do! She loved seeing how many meals we had created and watching where I made the cuts to joint up the chickens.
The birds have been huge this year as I've had to wait to get better before butchering too many. One breast weighed in at 930g (just over 2lb), so from five chickens we got 15 good sized meals and tomorrow I'll make stock with the carcasses.
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| The boy provides a great weight for my bench as I run the chicken plucker! |
I'm hopeful they'll have some great memories of this when they grow up and see food production as integral to the way they lived and have a better understanding for it.
Whats your earliest memory of being involved with food production?
Sadly mum didn't like us cooking as being so poor she was afraid we would spoil the food and she couldn't afford to replace it. I do remember collecting eggs from our chickens and making mint sauce from mint in the garden. My own kids were totally hands on growing, harvesting and cooking. Lovely to see yours so involved.
ReplyDeleteThey love getting involved, I sometimes have very little choice!
DeleteThinning carrots! (and other veg) We were always hands on in the veg garden and later on in the kitchen preserving, jams jellies etc. We didn't keep livestock mostly because of space.
ReplyDeleteviv in nz
Thinning carrots is great if you get to get what you thin!
DeleteMy lot used to avoid the kitchen when I was gutting chickens and moan about the smell! especially when they were teenagers.
ReplyDeleteHow lovely to see your girls getting involved - catch them young must be the answer.
They never seem to smell that bad, I make sure they go a good few hours without food before I slaughter them though so normally there's not much food inside them. I hope they stay keen and don't rebel too hard when they hit teenage years.
DeleteAs a young child my mum would pluck and gut birds, I was allowed to pluck them, never very good. She also skinned rabbits, a meat I don't like. Living in rural Somerset we all knew where our food came from.
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest and confess to not beign much good at plucking birds myself. My wife always says that when I bring them in they've still got enough feathers to fly away!
DeleteI grew up on a 400 acre farm, so a lot of hands on! My Grandpa didn't let us help with the chickens and pigs too much as they were part of the livelihood of the family, but every now and then Grandma would take us out to see the process. The smell of a smokehouse is still one of my favorite smells!I guess my first "dispatch" was actually a wild rabbit my dad killed. Had to clean it and watch it being cooked. We had tons of space outside to do all the gutting and well water to clean with so never a mess in the house. After that, Grandpa would have me help him with our "meal chickens", and always helped in the many gardens, orchards and patches. I've plucked many chickens since then and a wild turkey once my husband got with a bow and arrow. Lived in town, so a lot of smells and feathers in the house. LOL Good on you for showing them where their food comes from. Feel better soon!
ReplyDeleteWe never did much with the animals on the farm, dad has never been that way so used to take them to the abattoir. Before I left home I bred some chickens with mum and made her show me how to dress them out when it came time to eat them. She grew up on a turkey farm and hated doing it so told me she'd only show me once! I remember a good lamb nearly at slaughter weight breaking it's neck in front of us once, now I'd be in there like a shot and bleed it out, but at the time it just wasn't something I'd do or have the confidence to perform.
DeleteI'd would love to have a smoke house here, be great to build a small one and smoke some of these chickens!
Haha! that sounds great. Did you grow it outside during the year and then bring it in to force it over winter? Why can't you eat it now? Too much or too bitter?
ReplyDeleteLove that your children get to do practical things. Taught mine to sew, cook, garden and about finances, all done in a fun way. Now they are in their 20s they are quite capable of running a house. Youngest is even learning about farming in her spare time, personally I think it's driving the tractor that's the attraction. Hope your injuries continue to heal.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the good news regarding your jaw. Hopefully you can avoid surgery. Love to see the young with older family members. Its the way it should be. Quite frankly, I think its a two way street. We can teach them and they can teach us. We should never stop learning, growing and stretching not matter the age.
ReplyDelete