As I mentioned in my last post here, our family has been lopsided with Adelaide away all week.  Our family has shrunk even further with three boys going on a sleepover to a friends place “on top of the hill”.

Tess was excited about the peace and quiet but not so pleased that her mustering off siders had left her with cattle to move.

We are in full swing production of the meat chicken kind. This project has solved the “eating chicken but we are beef producers” dilemma in our household particularly as I’m not a lover of chicken meat at the best of times. I was won over with the self sufficiency line. It has been a project (along with the milker, laying hens, pig, vegies and orchard) in providence.  The jury (for me anyhow) is still out on this one as they are not the most resilient animals and cost of production is quite high. However our junior farmers were able to replicate my childhood memories of the butchering of the chicken…feathers and all.

 Tonight we enjoyed our second homegrown chicken as Barbecued Chicken and Thai salad with Yoghurt Dressing. 

With only four at the dining table, the washing up was considerably less and that makes it all taste even better!

Tonight all the chickens return to the nest.

There are 3 comments on this article:

• On 12/01/2013 sharon said:

  well it certainly looks yummy…one thing I have no desire to do is grow meat chooks.

  I have to say its most disconcerting when the kids go on sleepovers, that apart from the blessed quiet, is that come feed time, I have to do the animals myself. And open gates. And fetch stuff!

• On 13/01/2013 Fiona said:

  Certainly, the only place for a meat chicken at the moment is either in the freezer or the oven … this hot weather they don’t like! I may try a few more during Winter. Dinner looks beautiful, as does Tess.

• On 13/01/2013 Amy said:

  Killing meat chickens is for the birds! I hate butchering chickens. We thought we’d be really tough and do our own a few months ago – it was hideous! I took a trailer load of 100 birds into Melbourne to have the professionals do it – man that was worth every penny of the $3.50 they charged us per bird!! 🙂
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