Roasted, with citrus stuffing










Roasted whole with garlic scapes, sage and
lemon under the skin















Pan seared, then braised with mole sauce






Pieces battered in flour and spices and fried in
peanut oil

Wow. What a week. We slaughtered 160 chickens for our first chicken distribution. We're new to the mechanics of slaughtering, and our equipment is low-tech, so we had two long days of chicken slaughtering and processing. It was a success, though, and we've been getting smashing reviews of the chickens.

Our process:
Take a chicken.
Cut its throat with a sharp knife.
Scald the chicken is a pot of hot water. This loosens the feathers.
Take off the feathers on the feather picker.
Cut off the feet, take out the guts, give it a rinse, and . . .
Cool the chicken in ice water.

Special thanks to everyone that helped out, including Basha, Craig, Tracy, Cara, Sean and Luke (the latter two are not pictured).


Remains of the day . . .

This is a brief version of the Awesome Farm story.

A while ago . . .

The grass is green and quite plentiful now. The sheep are now on the go. We are moving them every couple of days to a fresh area where they can eat loads of chlorophyll laden yumminess.
It is amazing to see the difference between where the sheep just were and the new area where they will begin to graze. Monday we moved the fence and the sheep instantly began mawing the green grass that was under where the fence had been. They enjoy hanging out under their shady hut during the warmest parts of the day and spending mornings, evenings, and even night time grazing.



Our newest ram lamb! He and his twin sister were born on Thursday, April 17th. He is white and she is black; their momma is brown.










Sneak Preview of the next post: A Tribute to Seamus McGinty, our guard donkey!

On Monday, April 14th, Lena gave birth to twin ram lambs. It is the first live birth to take place at Awesome Farm. Owen and I have been on lamb watch since Thursday. That means every three hours, we check on the sheep to see if they are showing signs of labor. We have been sleeping in the pasture so that we can check them in the middle of the night. With only three sheep, lamb watch had been pretty uneventful. But on Monday, everything changed. I checked on the sheep in the morning and noticed Lena acting a bit unlike herself, sort of sluggish and quiet. When I saw her at noon she was in the shelter and her eyes were partially closed. I told someone that she was either about to have babies or very sick. I went to lunch, did some work on the brooder and went back to check on her at 3 pm. When I arrived there were two beautiful black lambs. I immediately called Owen, the Hearty Roots crew, and Tracy who has been helping us with lamb duties. It was truly a remarkable and amazing thing to see; two newborn lambs being lovingly licked and coddled by their mother. When Owen arrived, we watched them a bit longer to ensure they got colostrum and milk and then we cut their umbilical cords and gave them a sip of vitamins. They are robust and beautiful and playful and sleepy and so much fun. Lena is an amazing mother and even chose to stay in the paddock with them while the other sheep grazed on some of our growing grass.

Lamb watch continues as we wait for Chocolate and Antelope to lamb. It seems hard to believe that it will ever cease being amazing!

KayCee

Labels: We are one day old

Many farmers who are raising their animals out on pasture consider themselves grass farmers. I now consider myself a grass farmer and I can't tell you how exciting it is. I have never paid so much attention to each green blade or clover leaf as I do now. As I walk through our pasture and the pasture adjacent to our pasture, my eyes are drawn to each sprig of green. That blade or leaf will soon be food for the animals we are growing. Our sheep especially will relish every blade, effectively mowing it down and fertilizing it all at once. I look covetously at green pastures and lawns from my car or my bike and I imagine our sheep eating that grass. Our pasture has been neglected for many years so it is not nearly as green as other fields and pastures and lawns. But therein lies the excitement and the challenge. We will improve and change that pasture over the years with our hopefully careful management and our beloved ruminants. Grass farming has made me look at the ground so much more carefully and with a completely different perspective.

In other news: The sheep should be lambing any day now. Owen and I graduated from lambing class at Dancing Lamb Farm and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the lambs. On Thursday we will begin camping out in the fields so that we can check on the sheep every three hours or so. Hopefully they will not need any assistance during lambing, but we want to be there just in case.

We moved one of our chicken coops out to the pasture. The coop houses egg layers. The chickens haven't exactly adapted to their new open space and freedom; most of them either stay inside or hide under the house. We hope they will begin exploring their area soon as there are lots of chicken treats to be had out there.

KayCee