Chicken Hearts or Our Little Omnivore

Okay, I'm not really one for puns but Dan must be rubbing off on me. This post might not be for the faint of heart, nor do I wish to alienate anyone but this was what was happening this week on the farm.

Our good friend farmer Paul came up this week with the last of his old laying flock - eight hens he was going to put into the freezer for stew. Last year we bought a chicken scalder so our apprentice, Alissa, could use it for her pastured-poultry project. We also have access to our neighbor's plucker. This makes the prospect of slaughtering a few chickens a pretty quick project. Dan decided they'd make a morning of it and he could do the 5 or 6 extra roosters in our flock.

But let me back up a bit. After our laying flock was decimated last winter and spring we decided to start fresh. In the summer we ordered 2 batches of layers in the mail from Murray McMurray Hatchery. It is hard to resist the excitement of day old chicks coming in the mail. On the anticipated day of their arrival we wait for the phone call from the post office and rush of, usually first thing in the morning, to pick them up. Beatrice was very attentive to the little chicks and saw that they were settled in and well looked after. She has watched them grow through the summer and fall. Now they are starting to lay eggs and she loves to collect them. Imagine an Easter egg hunt everyday! (Not all of then hens have discovered the nesting boxes yet.) But true to farm life, there is a season .... Beatrice is very familiar with the cycles of life and death on the farm. She's seen chicks and chickens of all ages come and go by predators and the knife. She loves bacon and knows exactly where it comes from. Frequently, she'll be eating a piece of bacon and say, "this is good pig!" Last summer when the day came for Alissa to slaughter her first batch of broilers Bea was intrigued and wanted to see every aspect of the process. It is so interesting to see life through a child's curiosity. Bea is 4 and interested in everything on the farm. She's not squemish or jaded, just open to whatever is happening. In our home we eat meat. We eat the meat that we raise or that our friends raise. Just as we eat all the vegetables, fruit, milk and eggs that come from our farm. She knows where her food comes from. And she has learned that we respect and care for our animals. In fact, we probably wouldn't have the animals at the farm and hence no real meaningful relationships with such animals if we didn't raise them for meat.

So back to this week.... Unfortunately the guys hit some glitches as it took a long time for the

scalder to heat up- the scalder is a big basin of hot water. After the chickens have been killed you dunk them in the hot water for a bit and this loosens the feathers so they can be plucked easilty, by hand or by a plucker. Eventually things got going and the mission was accomplished. No, that night we didn't have chicken. They all went into the freezer. But Dan did bring back some of the hearts and he cooked them up with onions and greens. Beatrice, as game as ever, was ready to help.