Mobile poultry processing on Martha's Vineyard

Two weeks ago I was visiting one of my closest friends who lives on Martha’s Vineyard. Unlike the Kennedy’s, Wall Street Executives and Barack Obama, my friend and his lovely family are not millionaires living it up on the island. It turns out that most of the people that live there year-round are middle class families trying to survive in a community that inflates its cost for the summer crowds. The cost of living there is so high that local folks get an “Island Discount Card” that provides a 10% discount at the grocery stores and other daily amenities.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I did not visit Martha’s Vineyard to wine and dine with hollywood celebrities. In fact, beside spending time with my friend, his wife and their one-year old son, I traveled east to see his farm and kill his chickens.

When I learned that my trip would overlap with slaughtering chickens, I was overcome with joy. It’s not that I seek blood upon my hands. Rather, in my pursuit of being a conscious meat eater, I wanted the experience of killing and preparing an animal, one that I take for granted at the grocery store. And so begins the story of processing poultry on Martha’s Vineyard.

According to the Organic Consumers Association, an organization working on social justice and sustainability issues in the food system, factory farming kills 14,000 birds a minute. Over the course of one day, 20,160,000 birds are killed. Now I could definitely turn this into a rant on the evils of industrial agriculture, but I will not. I will try to keep this civil so as to maintain the perspective I seek to share. Whether or not you eat chicken, this number is incredible. We can only begin to imagine how an industry kills more than 20 million birds in a single day.

On the other side, the small scale farmer has little to hide. “Small” is a relative term. So let me clarify the smallness of the operation I attended. Looking at the image above, the total slaughtering operation took up about 900 square feet in total. The equipment needed to kill 40 chickens (aka cornish rock crosses) and 20 pekin ducks fits onto a small trailer that is hauled behind a standard pick-up truck.

Unlike the 18-wheelers hauling hundreds, if not thousands of birds to be processed, the 40 chickens fit into 3 crates:

40 chickens - 3 crates.

Although you cannot see it in this image, the chickens had roamed about in Salatin-esque pens and traveled about 40 feet (roughly) from pen to crate. I mention this to emphasize the levels of stress animals experience in factory farming. Unlike birds that live in small quarters with no sunlight and suffer many other ills, these ladies lived a good life on the open pasture and did not experience the same levels of stress in their brief transportation.

From the crates, the birds are handled one by one. The man weilding the knife removes a bird from the crate. The bird is held horizontal with its neck resting in his hand. There are no cries of fear. The bird is calm and the sharpened knife slides easily across the jugular. Within moments the bird is dead.

With 2 simple slices, a chicken is killed.

I do think there is room for debate as to when the bird is dead. Does the bird feel pain? Is the bird conscious at the moment? Does it know it is dying? Ultimately I cannot provide those answers. The birds do convulse for a few minutes once they are in the cones, but my understanding is that their nerves are sending messages and the body shakes. Again, no crying or shrieking from the dead/dying birds. The birds lay upside down in the cones for several minutes, bleeding.

Bleeding in the cones.

Once the bird is bled it is transferred to a hot, soapy bath that must be kept at 150 degrees. If it’s too hot the birds will cook and it it’s too cold the birds will not remain sanitized. The metal basket rotates the birds for about 45 seconds.

A sanitized death for sure.

From the bath the birds are the places into a giant metal cylinder that has large plastic knobs protruding from its sides. The purpose of this machine is to remove any remaining feathers from the body of the bird. Interestingly, the variety bred by the industry, a breed not so dissimilar from the one seen here, loses its feathers easier than most. (Think genetically modified poultry.)

And then the feathers are gone.

I suppose we could call this a half-way point in the processing. At this point the bird is tossed into a giant tub of ice water and proceeding requires that the temperature of the bird be lowered (to a degree I do not remember.) One birds have cooled down a bit, they are placed on a sanitized metal table and butchered. Though, unlike the chicken at the grocery store, these birds are not cut up into different parts (i.e. leg, wing, breast, etc). These birds will be packaged whole, minus the feet and the head.

In the hands of the butchers, first the feet and head are removed. The feet are placed in a bucket of cold water to be saved (great for stock.) The heads are thrown out. *Note, all blood, offal and other waste created by the process is collected and often absorbed by hay and placed in the compost. Small scale processing enables the farmers to return inedible parts of the bird back into the soil.

Once the head and feet are removed, the organs follow. Beside the feet, the liver, heart and gizzard are placed in a bucket.

The chickens are gutted.

The removal of the innards must be quick as there are more birds to follow. At the same time, while removing organs they must be incredibly careful not to tear the gull bladder. The little greenish-black sac in the bird’s intestinal track is filled with neon green bile. If the sac is torn it releases bile everywhere inside the carcass and will ruin the quality of the bird for the consumer.

Once the birds are properly gutted they return to ice water baths. The end of the process is packaging. Sadly, I did not take any pictures because I was helping them with the procedure.

Basically, a table sits with plastic tubes jutting towards the sky. The birds are placed on the tube through the excavated carcass. A bag is placed over it, the bird slips off with the bag, the bag is twisted and sealed at the top with a pinched metal staple. Then the bag is slightly cut open and the bird is soaked in a steaming pot of water (again around 150 degrees.) The hot water sucks out the air in the bag, creating a vacuum seal. A sticker is placed over the small hole and the bird is thrown in the fridge.

The bird that spent its life roaming on open pasture eating bugs, grass and a bit of grain, had its one bad day.

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3. Head Cheese (part I)

Roasted chicken, creamy mashed potatoes, spicy kale and steamed asparagus with grated parmesan

I am passionate about food and the ways in which we make it delicious. I have been a home cook for 4 years. What began as scrambled eggs and toast has evolved into braised short ribs with a morel crust and creamy polenta. My understanding of food has increased exponentially. Once you can identify a vegetable, it’s only a matter of time before you know how to cook it; how long it takes to steam or broil or soften in hot oil. You learn how much salt to add and how to adjust seasonings. You learn what to drink with your meal (if you want to match dinner with wine or beer.) Food becomes more than just an object at the store. Food becomes full of color, texture and flavor. What begins as a necessity turns into a hobby, then into a passion.

Last night I cooked the meal shown above. While preparing the meal I realized just how far I have grown as a home cook. More than anything, I have a good sense of timing. The more you cook, the more you realize how important time management is to the process. For example, I knew the chicken roasted for about an hour. While the chicken cooks, I can boil potatoes, prep the kale and asparagus. Before the chicken rests I have mashed potatoes complete and warming on the stovetop. While the chicken rests, I have kale sauteing in one pan and asparagus steaming in the other.

The chicken rests but I keep cooking.

Years ago, this meal would have seriously stressed me out. I had no sense of timing in the kitchen. I would make one dish and then another. It did not occur to me that I could do 2 things at once. But as I cooked more and my knife skills improved, I could prep 2 or 3 things at once. I found my rhythm in the kitchen.

Kale sauteed in garlic and red chili pepper flakes.

As skills improved, I found myself drawn to simplicity over complexity. It is easy to submit one’s senses to the brilliance of a professional chef. You go out and taste a rich demi-glace, and start wondering how you can make it at home. All of a sudden, you drop the basic gravy you tried to master and move onto a multi-day reduction process. A simple sauce becomes an expensive and time-consuming venture. You hope all the hard work pays off. Too much expectation steeps in the $15 gravy.

Or. A different direction ensues.

After mastering the basic kitchen skills, you wonder, how can I make this head of lettuce or bunch of chard taste really good. Instead of a fancy sauce you learn how to properly steam or broil it. You learn the powers of olive oil, salt and butter.

I have attempted both of these routes, and I am here to praise the latter. I would rather master simplicity than dabble in complexity. Having chosen the simple path, I must also emphasize the importance of top-notch ingredients. Better to buy pastured chicken and fresh vegetables if you can. The flavor is unbeatable.

The dinner I share with you here included the following ingredients:

Chicken, butter, salt and pepper

Potatoes, butter, milk, salt and pepper

Asparagus, olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper

Kale, garlic, red pepper flakes, olive oil, salt and pepper

In total, dinner took about 75 minutes to make. The benefit to roasting the chicken at home is the opportunity to fill that time with making tasty side dishes. As you might expect, the meal was incredible. Hands-down one of my favorite meals to prepare and share with a loved one.

Related posts:

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A great visual that highlights our need for meat.

Personally, I think this speaks for itself.

Related posts:

1. Bring Me the Meat! (weekly menu 13)
2. “The Portland Meat Collective” (or) The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 4)
3. Interview with Mark Bittman

Roasted chicken with lemon, garlic and Moroccan spice blend

On Sunday we visited the wondrous flavors of Morocco. Our fourth installment of the ‘cuisines of the world potluck’ was successful. Anytime the attendees take the time to research and prepare a dish they’ve never done before or ever heard of, I call it a success. I think it’s hard for home cooks to venture beyond the routine. When you love food, you will take the time to taste and explore new cuisines, but when it comes to cooking them, a fear arises. Maybe ‘fear’ is a strong word. I mean to suggest that most folks who cook are reluctant to try a new cuisine because they could mess it up. Everyone who cooks eventually tries something new. And I know for a fact, that everyone who cooks messes up a meal. Everybody. And so, if these fellow cooks are willing to try something different I think instant credit is offered.

Of course, if the food sucks than maybe the cook will lose interest in attempting the dish again. Lucky for us this past Sunday, no one failed and everyone benefited from each other’s leap of faith.

To celebrate the evening, I prepared a roasted chicken with Moroccan spices. The highlight of the dish (for me) was making a spice blend called ras el hanout. More complex than garam masala or other “exotic” flavors on my palate, this concoction included over a dozen spices. To prepare this spice blend, you mix the following spices:

• cardamom
• fennel
• anise
• allspice berries
• cloves
• peppercorns
• cinnamon
• sesame seeds
• coriander
• cumin
• red pepper flakes
• mace
• ginger
• nutmeg

Once blended, this amazing spice mixture can be added to lamb, chicken, beef and tofu. For the dish I made that night, the blend was rubbed inside and outside the bird. The cavity was stuffed with some garlic cloves and a whole lemon. The result was met-in-your mouth delicious. And it so happen that the bird was just the right size to feed all of us at the table. My wife also made some white rice as a side to carry any extra juice or flavor to our salivating mouths.

One of the guests brought another side dish with eggplant, red onion and other spices (unknown to me.) I’m sorry the picture didn’t turn out too well, for this was a delicious counter-part to the chicken and the picture serves no justice.

What's in it? Who cares! It's delicious.

To go with the eggplant, chicken and rice, another guest brought some homemade hummus (no picture.) Mixing together the eggplant, rice and hummus proved to be a meal of its own. I ate at least two portions of the combination and ultimately, ate myself a bit sick. But sick in a good way of course.

For dessert we had two options. One of the guests made some safrou apricot. These cookies were filled with almonds, walnuts, apricots, dates and some cinnamon too. I would say the flavor was akin to biscotti with the noticeable cinnamon flavor to the after bite.

Apricots, dates, walnuts, oh my!

To contrast the cookies and their airy, fluffy texture, I made a coconut cake. (Again no picture. Sorry.) Thought this proved to be no cake. If anything the dessert was supposed to resemble fudge, so thick and chewy. Maybe it was the lack of a candy thermometer and I didn’t cook it to the desired 238 degrees. The result was more of a lemon-coconut pudding with a strong sugary bite to it.

Because of the high sugar content and the gooey, dropping texture, I served the “cake” on a spoon, so that everyone could slurp at their own pace. Funny enough, it was excellent with the white rice as the rice gave the oozing cake some texture to chew. All of a sudden, my coconut cake became a lemon-coconut rice pudding. Though considering its taste, I can’t say it was bad or anything.

Overall, it was a great evening. I have yet to feel the need to ask hosts to request certain courses. As luck would have it, we’ve always had a sweet to match the savory. Now with the holiday season approaching, we can await the next potluck in the new year. Oh, I’m always so excited for the next cuisine of the world dinner!

Related posts:

1. Cuisines of the World potluck – Vietnam
2. Asian Madness (weekly menu 9)
3. Cuisines of the World Potluck – Portugal

That said, I have enjoyed eating more vegetarian meals. Every so often I read another study on meat consumption and climate change. Sadly I don’t have a link to this particularly reading, but I remember a study that found eating meat 3 times a week was sustainable (given the meat was raised Joel Salatin-style.) And so I want to eat meat by this number. As a meat eater I think its very reasonable to consume animals 3 times a week – it provides a good balance for the weekly menus. Though for some reason unbeknownst to me, we have eaten meat less than 3 times a week lately, more like once or twice.

Things are gonna’ change around here! Well, actually, at least this coming week they will. It so happens that we are leaving Portland to visit my family in VA for a week. Not knowing what we’ll consumer there, I want to enjoy some of that luscious lamb we purchased from Afton Field farm. I suppose, whether or not we eat meat in VA, I want to enjoy some of the good stuff we have now.

And so, without further ado, next week’s menu (starting tomorrow):

• Lamb chops with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy
• Cuisines of the World potluck – Morocco
• Butternut squash soup with ginger and roasted cauliflower
• Lamb (shepherd’s) pie with sauteed kale

Okay. Let me explain why there appears to be so few meals this week. Unlike our normal lives, this week we actually have lots of plans! (yay for socializing) Three of our nights we’ll be eating out and on Sunday we will host the next Cuisines of the World potluck. I am really excited about it because I picked the country, and we are going to Morocco! I’m thinking spices galore, slowly stewed meats and lentils, maybe some mint tea and savory pastries. Although I have no idea what others are bringing, I can share my intentions with you. Again, using one of our Afton farm meats, I will brine and roast a chicken rubbed in Moroccan spices. As you might expect, I will post pictures and comments on the evening later next week. It shall be a glorious feast!

Overall I think it will be an awesome week. Ending with a Hanukah party and a week-long vacation with my folks. I’m sure everyone has lots of exciting plans for the holiday season. Lucky for us, we are getting an early start this year.

But don’t you worry, Good Man Eats will continue to write, write, write.

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3. Kale, how I love thee (weekly menu 5)

Know your food. Know your farmers. Know your greater food community.

So…it’s a must: know your chicken. Meet the behemoth Cornish Rock Cross Jumbo Broiler.

He’s probably the bird you are eating…you just might not know it yet.

I generally use the shorthand CRX to refer to the Cornish Rock Cross. It is far and away industrial agriculture’s standard breed for rearing meaty, uber-efficient broilers and chicken parts. I won’t try to avoid the truth about this breed of chicken I raise: with the exception of the modern dairy cow it is likely the most intensely bred animal on the planet.

The CRX has been bred to optimize weight gain and develop very full breast meat. Negative outcomes of the intensive breeding include their being comparably poor foragers, prone to leg and heart failure, and occasionally aggressive at feeding time and during stressful situations. Joel Salatin, the godfather of what’s generally referred to as pastured poultry puts it this way:

I call these race car chickens. When everything is adjusted just right, they are awesome. But it doesn’t take much to throw things out of adjustment and throw the car into a pit stop. When these birds are doing well, their performance is unparalleled.

In his pasture poultry manual Salatin goes on to stress that the CRX’s fragile structure can be mitigated by proper nutritional management and good management. After growing some 800 of these birds in the last few years, I have yet to lose any birds to the illness and structural deformities Salatin alludes to in his book, Pastured Poultry Profits. I believe that’s thanks to their being raised on pasture as opposed to in an airplane hangar sized ‘shed.’

It cannot be overstated: CRXs are truly astounding to watch grow. Chicks can be had for about a dollar. Twenty pounds of grain (and plenty of fresh grass) fed over the course of nine weeks will give you a four-pound chicken when ‘dressed.’ It may be hard for the uninitiated to appreciate how bizarrely miraculous that sort of growth is.

Though these birds are an important and mildly freakish cog in the industrial agricultural machine, I raise mine to higher standards than most do. I raise what I and other pastured poultry producers (PPPs) unabashedly call REAL chicken…which is not to say perfect.

I will let the reader pursue an education in the horrors of industrial broiler production elsewhere. Farms here on the Vineyard brood their CRX chicks indoors for three weeks and then raise them on fresh grass with a daily ration of broiler grower feed and supplemental vegetable matter. No antibiotics. No clipping of beaks. The birds are ‘grown out’ longer: 65 days versus the industry standard of 45 days. Sunshine. Fresh air. The occasional storm. The CRXs here lead a life that, while not totally free-range is better than what 99.9% of broilers experience…they taste great…but I am tempted to do better.

This next remark will really irritate any patriotic American chicken farmers that stumble across this post:

The French are better at raising chicken than we are.

In France, more than 65% of the poultry sold in stores are raised according to strict standards established by the La Label Rouge group of poultry farmers. Their birds are not the comparably sluggish top-heavy CRX variety but rather a chicken well-bred for foraging in the forested runs that farmers are required to maintain. Non-GMO grain. No meds. They are grown out for a minimum of 81 days. The extra time is needed to get the birds up to the proper weight for slaughter.

They are a slower growing chicken, a bit more slender in the breast but fuller in the leg. Ready for roasting or braising which cannot really be said of most chicken bought in stores stateside. I cannot claim to have eaten any Label Rouge chicken during my brief time in France. But I can say that the heritage breed cockerels (Light Brahmas and Buff Orpingtons) that I have raised are similar in foraging behavior and stature to their French Label Rouge cousins. Those chickens were truly remarkable to prepare and consume…like no other chicken I had ever eaten. Problem is they took me close to 23 weeks and a ton of grain to get up to 3 pounds. I estimate them to have been 30 dollar chickens!! I still have a few in the freezer come to think of it.

Now, while French consumers do pay a premium for their high-quality poultry it is not nearly as pricey as what I have just described. Like the CRX in the States, the Label Rouge birds have been developed for efficiency. The French just showed a bit of restraint and let the birds keep some of their natural instincts and foraging ability.

• Bad news: As far as I know, the French genetics are not available in the US of A just yet.
• Good news: Some enterprising, knowledgeable poultry breeders have developed similar chickens.

My plan is to establish a large ‘yard’ in the farm’s underutilized wooded portion. I hope that next spring I will be able to share my experiences getting started with this different variety and method of raising chickens. I’ve got high hopes for them…as long as the red-tail hawks don’t pick them off one by one.

In closing I’d like to leave you with a challenge:

Find some ‘real’ chicken. Buy it. Cook it. Eat it.

Find chickens that have been raised on grass. Chickens that haven’t been pumped with antibiotics to speed growth and stave off the illness that can sweep through animals kept at high population densities.

It may take a bit of asking around if you don’t live in a farming community, but I am willing to bet it is there to be had for anyone that cares enough to seek it out. Chances are you will meet a farmer or a store owner that really cares about the product. Sure, you may pay a little more. But many feel strongly that we should pay more for our food…particularly our meat. I certainly feel that way…but I am a wee bit biased aren’t I?

This question of price and value…it has given me an idea for another entry on Poultry Pages. In the next post I will delve into the main reasons that I have taken up this hobby and become a poultry evangelist.

Related posts:

1. Turkey Dealing in the Parking Lot
2. Killing Chickens vs. Processing Chickens (part I)
3. Poultry Pages: Introductions

My name is Doug.

I am a poultry farmer.

I am a freshly-minted, small-scale, unlikely poultry farmer who was lucky enough to have settled in one of the most beautiful spots on the eastern seaboard, Martha’s Vineyard’s Tisbury Great Pond.

My wife Emily’s family has farmed and maintained their hundred-acre property for three generations, its main products being baled hay, lamb, eggs and beef. To their grass-based grazing system I have added a fleet of three 12 X 12 foot A-frame “chicken tractors.” In these humble huts I have raised approximately 800 Cornish Rock Cross chickens in the last three years. They have all been slaughtered on farm and sold (until recently) to end-users that, in a CSA-inspired model, paid a deposit for their birds. I have tried my hand at raising Pekin duck and heritage breed cockerels as well.

As you can well guess, this meager poultry operation I have started hardly pays the bills. My day jobs include assisting at a local middle school where I hope to teach once I finish a Master’s program this coming spring. I teach guitar privately. In the summer I have worked at camps…catered. A mixed bag of employment you might call it. I have a five month old son, Milo, a beagle named Winston and two dairy goats named Sophia and Chokey. The goats’ milk is a key ingredient in the hand-made, cold process soaps that my wife makes and sells at retail stores and farmers’ markets.

With these introductions out of the way I can now tell you why I have asked Jared to carve out a little space on his blog for me now and again…

During my extremely short career in agriculture I have experienced a lot of the hardships and successes that come with small scale farming in America today. For example, I have been served a Cease and Desist order from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for selling chickens off the farm…which as far as I can see is completely within my rights. A whole shipment of 160 chicks arrived D.O.A. at the farm. I have had a chicken tractor hurled across the barnyard during a late summer storm. Dedicated customers have been supportive during my ‘troubles’ with the state, while other members of our small Island community have apparently ‘informed’ on me…or so I am told. When I moved to the Island I was a suburbanite that had literally never known the origin of his food. Now, I am a person that regularly slaughters animals of all sorts and spends the better part of his daydreaming hours hatching feathered, egg-laying schemes.

I have enjoyed modest financial success with my poultry business but also discovered that the farming gods are fickle and will swiftly cost you time, money and the better part of your sanity. I thought that there may be just a few people that might like to hear about my humble efforts in pasture raising chickens.

So…what now? The quiet Island winter approaches. In the name of optimism…and in an effort to keep my spirits up as the days grow shorter I won’t dwell on this summer’s setbacks and will instead look forward to next spring and the poultry rearing season I intend to pursue. In order to do so, I will need to introduce you to the backbone of my (and most) meat-variety chicken farms: the Cornish Rock Cross Jumbo Broiler.

Related posts:

1. CRX: The Bird That Built a Nation
2. Killing Chickens vs. Processing Chickens (part I)
3. Turkey Dealing in the Parking Lot

Frank Eckstein owns and operates Crippled Crow Farm, which also happens to be his home and backyard. I heard about Frank via a Twitter message last week from Edible Portland. The “tweet” claimed that Frank had some free range turkeys left and was eager to sell them before the holiday. It would be important for me to note that I had hoped on purchasing a bird from Afton Field Farm, but they had sold out before I could make an order. At the same time, I like the idea of supporting more than one animal farmer; and my encounter with Frank fueled an interest to work with him again.

It turns out that Frank is really operating like a small-scale farm. Compared to Tyler and Alicia Jones of Afton Field Farm, whose land exceeds 100 acres, Frank is literally raising birds in his backyard – all 1/2 an acre! According to the stories Frank shared with me today (outside and inside the Levi clothing store), he raises a couple hundred chickens and several dozen turkeys on his land (read: his backyard.) Frank is open about the fact that his “operation” is more hobby than profit-seeking organic agriculture. In fact, he used to sell the harvest of his fairly large garden, but due to the extensive time committment and other labor constraints, he grows produce for the birds! I love that he plants huge batches of cucumbers just for the turkeys – sounds like the birds really get a healthy diet.

As far as ‘free range’ is concerned, Frank told me that the birds have total access to the surrounding land. This includes the neighbors yard and grass across the street. Aside from the enclosed shelter he built for nighttime sleeping, the birds have complete roaming capabilities. There are no fences, no gates, no constraints to their lifestyle. Between this and what the birds get to eat, I think I genuinely discovered the kingdom of royal poultry living.

Aside from the free and unadulterated lifestyle of the turkey I bought, Frank also sells the meat at incredibly reasonable prices. Because his “operation” is so small in scale and this is really just a hobby and passion for him, he is willing to sell his birds at affordable prices. For example, the free-range, organic and hormone-free 20lb turkey I bought today, cost me $50 – $2.50 a pound! Honestly, that is unheard of at New Seasons, the farmers market or just about anywhere selling birds with a comparable lifestyle. The best part is that Frank knows it. He’s not there to make a profit. I keep repeating this because it is truly an anomaly in the market for this kind of meat.

If you live in the Portland metro area I highly recommend contacting Frank and purchasing some of his birds. Chickens sell for a flat rate of $14 and range in weight from 4-5 pounds. His eggs cost $3 a dozen; and his regular turkeys cost $2.50 a pound. What’s even more exciting is the fact that he also raises a heritage breed of turkeys called bourbon red. To be expected, the heritage breed is more costly to raise since it takes longer to gain weight. Unlike the broad breasted white turkey (aka 99.99% of the turkeys purchased in America for next week’s turkey holiday) who gets big and fat quickly, the bourbon red reaches a weight of 8-10 pounds by the end of November. In turn, the per pound cost is higher and so few people want to pay more for less (except me of course!)

Next week I will have a post devoted to the menu I’ve put together for the holiday. Today, I want to thank Frank and his incredible generosity and kindness in raising these beautiful birds. It is truly awesome to be able to afford a turkey raised sustainably and support a local farmer. How fortunate we are.

Related posts:

1. Turkey Day
2. Lessons Learned
3. Thanksgiving Menu

Although not aesthetically pleasing, freezing is a simple process for the preserving novice.

Since the purchase of a stand-up freezer, the opportunity for mass food preservation reigns. For the last several months I have slowly stocked up on random items. This week I compiled a list of all the current packages, including content and quantity. Between the big freezer and the one atop our refrigerator we have the following foods:

• 1/3 of a gallon bag filled with dried figs (foraged this summer and fall)
• 6 quart bags filled half-way with partially cooked chanterelles and their juices, (foraged this fall)
• 2 gallon bags of blueberries (purchased in August)
• 3 gallon bags of blackberries (foraged this summer)
• 6 quart bags of roasted red bell peppers (read this for the story)
• 6 quart bags of sliced peaches (bought in August)
• 2 gallon bags of ratatouille (here’s the recipe)
• 1 gallon of fresh corn soup (rather ironic to have froze this) (here’s the recipe)
• 5 quart bags of corn kernels (purchased in August)
• 4 chicken carcasses

This list does not include this month’s meat order from Afton Field Farm. On Thursday I will pick up the following:

• 1/2 a lamb, half of which is being shared with a friend; the total weight for our household will be about 20 pounds.
• 2 whole chickens
• 1 pound of chicken feet
• 3 dozen eggs
• 1 pound of ground beef

It’s important for me to explain why I ordered so much meat. The farm does not raise enough lamb to sell individual cuts. Since lamb is my favorite animal to eat, I wanted to have some for the rest of the winter. Like produce, animals are seasonal. Unless the farm raises large numbers of different animals and has the freezer space for all the cuts, certain species are available during certain times of the year. For example, lamb is mostly slaughtered in the spring and fall. Chickens are slaughtered in the early summer through late fall. I think cows are slaughtered year round as they are able to gain weight through the winter time. As you might expect, I think it’s important to consider the seasonality of meat, since animals do not naturally graze year round (at least in this part of America.)

Aside from the limitation of getting lamb, I am also sharing the order with a friend. Buying 40 pounds of lamb is a bit extreme, even for us. The other portions of the order are part of our monthly needs. In other words, the lamb is a long-term investment and the chicken, eggs and beef are short-term.

With all of this frozen meat, produce and cooked meals, this morning I had a revelation. In my mind, food preservation, be it canning, freezing, drying, curing, etc, is a means eating different foods when they are no longer in season. Therefore, it makes sense to eat all of these things during winter and early spring; and then the cycle begins again. Adding up the total quantity of frozen foods (excluding meat) there is a total of 32 bags. If, starting the first week of December, we ate one bag a week, we would have enough items to last 4 months! Clearly we could not sustain ourselves from December to March, but we can include some wonderful flavors in the mix. This calculation is even off a bit because I know we will be out of town at various times. I suppose I’d rather over estimate than under.

After making this calculations, I am excited to add a new element to our meal planning. Starting in December I can add a new variable to the process. Once this begins I will try to post once a week on the use of these different frozen foods.

For a geek like me this rather exciting!

Related posts:

1. Filling up the freezer
2. Grocery-free Living
3. Food Fantasies

From a political and economic perspective, the local food movement is also about sustainability and local food economies. As an economy of scale, the food movement could be regional or within a neighborhood in a city. The vegetable grower at the farmer’s market is an excellent example. You go to the market and you meet the person or family that planted the seed, that watered the plant and harvested the crop for sale at the market. There are no “middle men,” processing facilities or delivery trucks from the other side of the country. There is the consumer and the producer, standing eye to eye and creating a very real monetary exchange.

To move beyond the farmer’s market, the local food movement also invigorates people to learn foraging methods. In this way, instead of an economy we return to the ‘old ways’ of food procurement: hunting and gathering. At this point in time I do not think one is better than the other – foraging and farmer’s markets. Both are opportunities to reestablish a sense of self in a place, again both urban or rural.

For this week’s menu I want to participate in both means of local food production. Tomorrow we will return to the woods to hunt mushrooms; and Sunday we will return to the market to buy produce. To assist me with this strictly local meal plan, I went to the library and found the perfect book: The Pacific Northwest by Jean Galton and published by Williams-Sonoma. Of the seven meals I planned, 4 are from this cookbook and the other 3 I put together. Next week’s menu is the following (asterisks are next to recipes from the book):

• lamb chops with parsnip puree and roasted broccoli
• poached chicken with delicata squash and chanterelle mushrooms
• red lentil soup with walla walla marmalade *
• chicken, blue cheese and arugula salad *
• polenta with mushrooms and hazelnuts *
• macaroni and cheese with onions and kale with buttered bread crumbs *
• potato and fennel gratin with roasted broccoli *

I have to admit, I am really really excited about these meals. The recipes are fairly easy and the ingredient list is not that bad – everything can be purchased at the farmer’s market. This ‘project’ got me thinking about regional meals, and if any of my readers live in other parts of the country, maybe you could share some meals you have made that reflect your sense of place.

Related posts:

1. The Urban Farming Revolution
2. Does eating seasonally equal eating “American?” (weekly menu 6)
3. The 100-Mile Diet vs. World Hunger (part 3)