What are you canning/freezing right now?

[Farmer Kitty]

Add broth to them and I would think okay. I have never done it though.

If you are vacuum sealing you could get away without the liquid and not have to worry about freezer burn.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Here's from an earlier thread:
I do it in between chores and field work. Field work has been slow this last week so this week was easier. Sometimes it's a case of doing things in steps. Example: pick greenbeans in afternoon. Snip them in the evening and canning them in the morning. Drags it out but, it wouldn't get done otherwise. Some of the jams were from frozen berries and then I do it during the off season.


That's how I manage to do so much. I still have all those peppers in the freezer to bag.

 

[Thewife]

Hmm.
Do you pluck the ones you throw in the slowcooker?
Mine are mostly polish and silkie crosses! Just cooking off what little meat there is, makes sense to me!

 

[amysflock]

Hey, the wife...if you have any "nice" roosters you'll otherwise dispatch, I might be in the market for a live-in boyfriend for my hens. Haven't totally committed to Roosterville yet, but my flock could probably use some male influence. I've been watching Craigs List.

(Only thing is, the seven "big girls" in the "big girl coop" have been relentlesly plucking feathers out of each others' backs and undersides, despite my best efforts to stop them (extra protein, space, diversions, etc.), and I'm a bit worried a rooster's spurs would hurt their bare backs.)

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I pluck them using the debraining method. I want a good broth which means I want the skin on them.

amysflock--if you search BYChickens you can find ways to trim the spurs and if you look me up, over there, I have a page with saddle patterns.

 

[Thewife]

Farmer kitty, have you ever done anything with ducks?

Amy,
What breed are your Big girls? For roosters, I have polish, silkie cross and three black austrolorps(?) that should have been hens! Nobody is really mean, if anything, they are really annoying when I am late to feed!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Butchered and baked them.

I dried plucked the one I did. DH used the scald method. My dry plucking went better and as he had used the axe method I wasn't able to debrain her. The one we ate fresh wasn't as good as the one we froze and fixed later. Best eaten hot.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

5 1/2 pints of chicken and 4 pts of chicken broth in the canners right now. There is enough leftover to make chicken soup!

 

[Thewife]

Kitty, your wearing me out!

I had set the goal to do a couple of roosters today! (Yea, I don't know why I bother to plan ahead.)
I'm not to sure about the debraining thing. I did look it up on BYC. A neighbor was supposed to be getting a chicken plucker, I think we will stop by and see her today!


Amy, if you think you are interested in any of my roosters, let me know and I will PM some directions!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

13 pkgs with 2 cups of peppers each done!

thewife--Are you aware that machine plucking can make the bird 2.5 times tougher?