Life, Truth, and Cackleberries: Like chickens with our heads cut off...

Wow! What a crazy past couple of months we have had! We have definitely been slacking on blogging, and for that we sincerely appologize. The only thing we can say is that being extremely busy, working 12-15 hour days and not having internet where we live are not a very good combination when you want to blog on a regular basis. We have been in full swing this summer with chicken processing, animal movements, farmer's markets, events and just keeping animals alive and healthy every day. So far we have had around 11 butcher days, and have processed between 150-350 birds each day. That's a lot of chickens! And we still have another 1200 or so chickens to process and several hundred turkeys. We both actually enjoy processing days because we get to be with everyone and even though we're having to kill chickens all day, there is

Rachel cutting off feet, heads and tails

The finished product!

something satisfying about looking back at the end of the day at all the hard work you've done to not only process these birds but to fully raise them from start to finish and have a healthy, delicious product that your family can enjoy. Both us of have been able to experience each part of the processing.

First, the chickens are killed at the "kill station". We kill them in a very humane way where they are hung upside down and we quickly slit their jugular, causing them to loose consciousness within 3 seconds. This is truly the best way to kill them because their heart continues to pump, allowing all of the blood to drain out of the meat, but they are technically dead so they don't feel much. The next step is to quickly scald the birds in a propane scalder for about a minute, heating the skin of the birds so that the feathers will come off easily. When that minute is over, the birds are thrown into the "picker", which spins them around like a washing machine that has little rubber nodes in it to pluck all of the feathers off. The birds are then handed to the next person, who cuts off the head, tail, and feet (we save the feet to sell). After cutting off the extremities, the birds are then passed on to the person doing the "evisceration" (aka gutting). All of the insides are taken out and set aside to throw in the compost pile. We do save the hearts and livers, a lot of people buy them for their dogs (and some people like to eat them mmm!). The last step in the processing line is "quality control". This person de-lungs the chicken, tucks their legs, and hand plucks any feathers that did not come off in the picker. They are also checking for any imperfections and making sure that the bird looks good all around. Finally, the chickens are thrown into chill tanks (ice baths) to be later packaged, labeled, and put into the freezer. And THAT, is how you process a chicken :). We usually start around 8 or 9AM and finish processing by lunch time. We eat lunch while the birds are cooling off in the chill tanks and then package them after lunch. Needless to say, we usually don't get much else done around the farm on processing days, but we try to prepare the few days before by setting up paddocks and making sure all the animals have enough water for a few days. Speaking of chickens, 4 weeks ago we received a batch of 26 "Freedom Ranger" chicks that we are experimenting with! These are our personal chicks that we bought and are going to be raising ourselves. The majority of farms that raise broiler chickens (meat chickens) use a breed called the "Cornish Cross". These are the birds that were

Picking up our Freedom Rangers from the
Post Office

created (synthetically) for industrial chicken houses. They are large, double-breasted birds that grow to butcher weight in 8 weeks. They are the standard meat chicken that you would buy almost anywhere you buy chicken. The positive to this breed: they are cheap to buy as chicks, they grow in 8 weeks, and they are easy to market because they are the bird that the majority of consumers are used to and know how to prepare and eat. The negatives: since they grow so quickly, they often times have broken or deformed legs, they are so bred down that they have lost almost all of their chicken instincts, making them lazy so they aren't as avid of hunters for bugs and grasshoppers, and they are pretty much just plain dumb haha. A lot of sustainable, organic farmers are still using these birds and a lot of them will admit that they are not very sustainable birds, but they use them because it is what the market demands. Even Polyface uses them and Joel Salatin is one who admits that it is his least sustainable enterprise of their farm. All that being said, we wanted to look for an alternative to the "Cornish Cross" for our future farm. We heard about this breed called "Freedom Rangers" and thought we would try them out. The positives to the "Freedom Rangers": although they are not a heritage breed, they are not synthetically bred. They are 4 different breeds of chickens bred together, and they are a dual purpose bird, meaning you can use them as meat chickens or raise them as egg layers. According to what we have read, the flavor of these birds is out of this world! They say it has the flavor of a stewing hen and the tenderness of a young broiler. The perfect mixture! They also still have their chicken instincts and are

Freedom Ranger chick

Our 6x6ft movable chicken pen. Made almost completely
from scraps. Only spent money on hardware!

avid hunters. If you let them free range, they will get the majority of their feed from bugs and grass, cutting your feed costs way down as opposed to the lazy "Cornish Cross" breed that costs a LOT in feed. The negatives: they grow in 9-11 weeks, which is really not much longer than the 8 weeks of the "Cornish Cross". They also are a little harder to market since consumers are not used to the smaller breasted birds. But we truly feel that if our experiment with this batch of 26 "Freedom Rangers" goes well and we see that we can save on feed costs and get a better, tastier, healthier product, that we can really put a lot of time and thought into educating people and marketing these birds and really find a niche in the chicken market. They have now been out on pasture for 1 week in a 6x6 pen that we built and we move every day and they are doing excellent! In about another week or so we are going to be letting them go out of the pen to free range and then put them up at night to keep the predators away. We are so excited to see how they do free ranging! If all goes well and they are as active as we have heard, they can get up to 70% of their feed from bugs and forage. We'll keep you updated!

Freedom Ranger chick at 2 1/2 weeks old

Enough on chickens though! Many things have happened on the farm since our last post. For one, our good friends Josh and Lena who were managers here left about 1 1/2 months ago. It was really hard to see them go but they are doing so well. They will be starting up their own farm very shortly here and we are very happy for them! The Lord is really blessing them and we couldn't be more excited!

Cheryl, Dave and the kids' tent in the shop. Way
too cold outside but the kids insisted on sleeping
in a tent :)

We have had some family visitors here at the farm. Rachel's sister Cheryl and her husband and kids have visited a few times and the kids (and Cheryl and Dave) love it! They love it so much I think they want to be farmers now too ;) As a matter of fact, on one of our last visits to them we brought them 3 layer chickens for their backyard which should be laying eggs for them very soon here! Matt's parents also visited and got to do Sunday chores with us. They both really enjoyed themselves and of course can't wait until we have our own place :) We have been able to visit them a few times also which has been nice. It's so good to see family! We miss our whole family so incredibly much and are SO looking forward to the holidays when we won't have jobs and will be able to be with everyone! Yes...that's still a while from now but hey! time flies when you're having fun haha. Rachel's brother Justin and his wife Kayla are going to be visiting in October (yay!) and we are hoping to take a trip soon to Georgia to see Rachel's brother Kevin, his wife Amanda, their daughter Lily and they're new baby boy Liam that we haven't met yet so that will be super exciting too! We love our family :)

Uncle Matt and Griffin chillin'

The Palma's. Natural egg collectors!

Matt's first kill. Nice shirt haha

Matt has been learning a lot about predator hunting. So far he has killed 2 opossums and 3 raccoons! The ducks and chickens have been getting killed so we have both been out several nights hunting predators. Rachel is the spot-lighter and Matt is the master killer with his 22 long rifle with a scope. The other night we went out to the duck paddock in the pitch black and discovered about 5 foxes and 3 raccoons feasting or about to feast on some ducks. The foxes were a little too fast and unfortunately we didn't get any, but now we know what we're up against so we can be ready! We are going to invest in a very bright spotlight which will stun the foxes so we can get right up to them. From what we've heard, they are a very hard predator to kill unless you have a spotlight. So a spotlight we will get!

Replacing the radiator...first time ever.

Neither of us have ever done a ton of work on vehicles, but we have been learning a lot about them with having so many farm vehicles around. So far we have changed a radiator in one of the trucks and replaced an axle on one of the 4-wheelers. It's amazing what you can learn by just doing something and figuring it out as you go. We are truly learning how to fix things and jimmy-rig stuff with limited resources. It can be quite interesting trying to fix a leaky hose with duck tape, a broken axle with a bobby pin, a broken fence charger with electrical tape, a hole in the feed bin with a couple of rocks or some leaves. Being a farmer requires you to be very resourceful indeed! Though stressful at times, in the end you feel pretty good about yourself :)

Replacing the axle...first time ever again haha.

Another thing we wanted to share with you all is an update on our farming vision. As you may know, our dream is to be sustainable, perennial-based farmers. Well, over the past several months we have been learning about a style of sustainable agriculture called Permaculture. Basically, Permaculture is based on designing your land in such a way that it becomes more and more efficient and self-sustainable as time goes on. You do this by building ponds, dams, and swales to capture as much water as possible to keep on your land, and by planting perennial woody crops like fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, etc. Perennial trees and bushes provide more and more each year, with less and less inputs. Imagine walking onto a piece of land and seeing a huge oak tree with a chestnut tree growing below it, followed by an apple or cherry tree, and then a raspberry or blackberry vine below that and a hazelnut shrub underneath with grass growing below which can be grazed by your livestock, with a few rotting branches on the ground with edible and/or medicinal mushrooms growing on them. And it doesn't stop there! With this "pyramid" of food producing perennials,
you can have sun loving plants on the south side of the "pyramid" and shade loving on on the north side. By designing your crops like this, you are able to have 12+ different crops in one area as opposed to just growing corn or wheat or soybeans. So awesome! And by using genetic selection and replanting the plants that perform the best with no inputs, in a matter of years you can have a whole farm with plants and trees that are adapted to your area and can produce tons of food without ever having to use chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. It just makes sense! Perennials also build soil instead of deplete soil like annual crops. With perennials, you never have to till the soil and you don't have to replant seeds every year because the plants come back year after year. The only inputs that they require is harvesting. We would like to eventually (hopefully sooner than later) own our own land so that we can begin implementing these principles and healing the land. Our vision is to have a permaculture farm that is in a constant state
of restoration and healing, that provides wholesome, healing foods and a place for our family and friends to find rest and be rejuvenated. At the same time, we want to have a successful business that provides an income for our family while we are taking care of God's creation in the best way we know how. We will have ponds, dams, food forests, animals being raised in the environment that they were created to thrive in, and did we mention lots and lots of food? :) Permaculture in a farming aspect provides a venue to have all of these things and we are so excited to be able to start implementing what we've been learning very, very soon!

Thanks for reading and again, we are so sorry for the delay in posting another blog! Hopefully as summer comes to a close and we start getting ready for fall, we will have more time for ourselves to blog and learn and visit with friends and family. We love you all dearly hope you have enjoyed this month's post! Happy farming :)