Plucking and dressing a bird (graphic images)

[OldJimbo]

Thanks, Red! That's the beauty of forums, I learn something new every day. Despite living in a farming area in Wales for years, I'd never seen a cone set-up until seeing my friends' in Prince George while passing through.

I like Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's shows which promote the proper raising and dispatch of animals, but it's hard to properly educate kids on the matter these days, because they are so dislocated from the practicalities. I still remember when dissection was added to the elementary curriculum with no real plan, just find something and do a demo then have the kids have a go, learning about and sketching the major organs as they went. Science through experience. Anyway I thought of the possible free specimens which didn't bear resemblance to someone's pet or were preserved in some nasty chemical and decided on Pacific lampreys since I could net them legally for free then. It actually went extremely well since I had lots of experience in both dissection and teaching it in high school. Next day I had a visit from some of the fathers who actually didn't come to complain about anything - they wanted to know all about where I could have collected lots of big lampreys since they are a delicacy in Europe. While I think I taught those fathers lots about lampreys which were soon gathered and added to menus, I'm not sure about the kids - none of whom participated in the prep despite having cut one up on class.
When I first started teaching in this town so many decades ago, it seemed that all of the kids participated in food gathering and prep, for sure with the boys mostly out with their dads hunting and butchering game or fishing and prepping fish, and the girls working to prep food from scratch. Suddenly all that seemed to end and I'm still unsure why.

 

[British Red]

Its the same here Jim. Time was when a family member died they were laid out in the house and then buried - they weren't hidden away and kids saw Grandma or Grandpa after death. Not now. Indeed its almost as though its not correct to acknowledge death as though its a taboo subject. I don't think we do children any favours with that. I teach country skills to a young lad who is too bright for his age and finds lessons boring (because he finishes set work in half the lesson time). I taught him trapping a while back - just moles. Then he got to see a mole who we had killed. I wanted to show him the spade like front paws etc. He hand never seen a dead animal before (he is 11). He found the sight upsetting. I sent him to was his face then we sat with a coffee and him with a hot chocolate and we talked. I explained that the moles damaged the roots of the vegetables I had planted because they are attracted to the earthworms that prefer our veg beds due to the organic matter in them. I said I like moles but that I love my wife more and that we have to eat. We looked at the mole and its little carnivore teeth and he understood that the mole too kills to live. In the end he took the mole home to show his sister which I was pleased by. He did bury it later which I thought respectful but he was no longer afraid of it just because it was dead. He understood the creature and understood why it had to die. It was a hard day for him but, I hope, a day in which he learned something at a fundamental level. It was a day in which I learned something too about what we are losing as an urbanised society.

 

[OldJimbo]

It was a day in which I learned something too about what we are losing as an urbanised society.

You are absolutely right! Sometimes we have to recollect all the changes in the way we live.

At first I was thinking along the lines of well it's good to post a warning, but I don't recall people fainting in the street because they passed a butchers and glanced in. I guess that now things are mostly like here where things are processed behind the scenes and the only thing you see in the meat section is stuff on plastic trays and wrapped. And I've even collaborated with that deception when a friend had to process some rabbits he was keeping, and we had to make sure they were safely wrapped before the kids came home, so they'd eat the meat... If it had involved rabbits they didn't know, though, the kids would probably have helped.
You make a good point when you say that we hide death both with people and animals and that has helped make the disconnect between animals and food.

I think though, that something else at play here. For some reason kids stopped being taught at home to be capable. I first noticed this taking kids to camp and saw that they really had no idea how to peel and cut up vegetables - and while I can see how meat might have made some squeamish, the same cannot be said for veg. They simply had no experience in doing it. I really saw that when I worked at an alternate school for a few years where we had a foods program so that the kids got fed and learned some real life skills. The only time I'd seen that before was on a farm in Saskatchewan where an elderly relative had worked outside all of his life and so while he could fix and operate any machinery, a kitchen stove was as puzzling to him as a nuclear reactor... I'd always considered him simply a product of a different time... Now of course I'm remembering all the times when I helped my DIL with making cookie dough, cutting up salad veg, or veg for canning, and that it was me helping and not my grand-son.....

 

[Dave]

Nice post Red, inspiring to see how you've managed to succesfully move from one way of life to another.

 

[Goatboy]

OldJimbos comments remind me of my black pies. A few folk ask me to make them; basically a very rich dark meat/stew filled pie. Very tasty, but a couple of the folk wouldn't eat them if they realised that there was ox-tail in there. What gives it it's unction deep flavour. But some wouldn't knowingly eat ox-tail as they think.its disgusting. There's also liver & kidneys in there though chopped small and cooked down to just be a thickening/flavour. Too many folk squeamish about even trying certain cuts as they think they'd be horrible, but find them tasty if they unknowingly eat them.
Generally make them for a traditional New Years day treat.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[British Red]

I think though, that something else at play here. For some reason kids stopped being taught at home to be capable.

This is undeniably true here Jim. My family is a weird bunch but there is a clear "schism" in the line. My paternal grandfather was a big, capable man. A steam train driver by trade, he started on the railways at 14 and retired at 65 and never took a sick day in the intervening 51 years. Every day, he went to work in highly polished boots and clean, pressed, overalls. Every day he came home filthy from the coal, my grandma would (hand) wash his overalls whilst he polished his boots. She then ironed them dry with an immaculate crease. He never drove a car so would walk the 8 miles to the depot. He was an immensely practical man keeping chickens, rabbits and even pigs in his tiny terraced house garden to be sure his family were well fed. I recall him telling me that every family should set aside one third of their take home pay for food (and people now think food is expensive - in real terms its cheaper than it has ever been).

Anyway, he made a conscious decision that my father would be a "thinking" man. He was sent not only to school but also university, going on to be a Phd., lecturer and scientist. He would not allow my dad to do practical thing but wanted him to study instead. He didn't want my dad walking 8 miles through rain before starting work. He got his wish and I see that, in his eyes, he was doing right by his family. Now my dad of course had no practical skills to pass on. So I never learned as a lad, and what I know I have had to read, ask friends etc. To me this is a dangerous trend to "look down on" practical hard work. I have had an entire team working for me with doctorates and what a bunch of idiots they were! I understand that academic learning is important, but it is a small part of what is needed to make this world a better place.

Anyway - rambling - just wanted to echo my agreement that we need to value and teach practical skills. In my own small way, that is what our website, blog and posts are about. Yours were certainly one of my inspirations back in the old OMF days.

 

[British Red]

Nice post Red, inspiring to see how you've managed to succesfully move from one way of life to another.

We have a long, long way to go Dave and a lot to learn. But its a journey, not a destination!

 

[Clouston98]

Cracking stuff mate, looks beautifully neat and well done . We're rebuilding our coop after a fox broke in a killed all our birds, I plan to get a few Guinea fowl as well.

Some people think it's quite macabre but I really enjoy butchery, from deer and rabbits to pheasants and fish it's fascinating to learn where your food comes from and to be able to prepare it yourself .

 

[British Red]

Lovely to hear from you Cameron - we've missed you on the forum!

 

[Clouston98]

I've missed everyone too, I've been so busy I don't know whether I'm coming or going and sadly I've not had the time to come on as much as I'd like. Thankfully I've had some respite today so I can do some reading and catch up on all the threads I've missed .

 

[OldJimbo]

Well thanks, Red!

So back in the day we had to come up with a vision statement for our school - a simple sentence saying what we were really hoping to achieve. We were a bit divided over whether to say that we hoping to raise competent or capable people. And certainly that is what I hope for my great grand-kids...
Unfortunately the best bit of writing describing what that actually means is Heinlein:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
— Robert Heinlein, "Time Enough For Love".

Thankfully I never had to teach anyone how to die gallantly, but it's surprising how much of the rest we did actually teach. I was worrying a bit about the conning a ship, but I did go out and get my flat-water canoeing certification so that I could teach canoeing and do proper full ditch survival training.

I was the youngest child of a widowed mother after WW2, so grew up as an urban farmer in my early years. That allotment kept my mother and us five kids together. For sure my mother also had a full time job, too. While I cannot ever remember my mother pushing us, the work ethic was strongly ingrained. When I arrived back home to tell my mother that I actually now had a special honours degree, she said that was nice and so I should finish mowing the lawn so she could cook something. She'd just put so long and so much effort into overcoming insurmountable odds that that was just the way it was. It wasn't until recently when watching documentaries about the 50's and early 60's when I realized just what those odds were.

I was an awful parent - just working all the time. Unsurprisingly my stepson grew up just like me. From the love of fly-fishing to the impossibly long hours - well it's scary.

And then one of my grand daughters decided to move in. I'd had them out for summer fun, but when I took one back, Lyssa was waiting with bags packed to actually move in. Later after I retired the nightmares about that began and I'd wake up thinking "How could this work?". Then I'd fully wake up and remember that it not only worked, but it worked brilliantly.

So anyway Lyssa finally settled with a guy who was just like her, and his mother suggested that she volunteer as teacher's aide at a school. I'd been trying to push her into that for years! Next thing we knew Lyssa had made it through school and was hired.

There's something missing in the list above of course, once you've comforted the dying then you might want to stick around for the laying out and well cleaning up their stuff. When I started using my cruise funds for Lyssa I decided to use my funds for cleaning up my stuff. I've acknowledged my failings with my stepson but his step-daughters had not completed grade 12 except for Lyssa who lived with me. Even I am amazed at how well things went. the girls got grade twelve then high marks in college and jobs.
A funny thing happened during all of this. I learned about parenting despite age, and the girls saw what a proper father figure was. Yeah well good luck with that: I still work long hours - but I do put them before everything now. The best bit for me right now is that my girls found fathers who love their girl children and their parents are just raving about finally getting a girl grand-child.

I was in Alberta for a lot longer this year than I expected. Yep I got the "You should stay here for Xmas!" from my DIL. I got a great winter coat from the thrift store for a few dollars so what did I care after washing it. I was there for the very serious business of babysitting. And I was a very good babysitter, just like Albert Faille. My kid was figuring that I was sticking around in order to show him how to butcher an elk. Yeah well.

I know I take forever to get to the point. But I do get there eventually. Let's finish tomorrow.

 

[British Red]

I know I take forever to get to the point. But I do get there eventually. Let's finish tomorrow.

Youkeep talking, I'll keep reading

Never been out after elk - that must be a lot of meat

 

[humdrum_hostage]

Great article Red!

I have been looking recently how to become more self sufficient/sustainable as me, my partner and our 3 year old have moved from the city into the sticks. Mymdad moved to the countryside about 25 years ago and then my mum ended up doing the same about 12 years ago and every time I visited either one of them I felt its where I belong. So we made the decision to move, leave my job (full time employment for all my working life, 18 years) and we left all our friends and my partners family behind. We have been here just over 6 months and after all the times I have moved, I finally feel like I am home!
There is plenty of rabbit, wood pigeon and pheasant around here and would like to be able to catch and prepare myself (with the right permission). I also have a crayfish trap and licence but need to wait for spring before I can put that to the test.
I have never done anything like this before and am really interested in trying and not being so diluted from the reality of where meat comes from so I have been watching youtube videos and there is a lady up the road who is very self sufficient who I am sure will show me when she has a bird to prepare next.

I didn't know what a chicken cone was so I googled it and I think that is a prime example of how far away from reality we are as you get a mix of commercially prepared KFC style fast foods and chickens being slaughtered.

Sorry to bamble, once again great read.

 

[British Red]

Delighted you found it useful. We are nobody's expert but if we can offer any advice on your journey, please feel free to ask

 

[mrcharly]

What an excellent post.

It has been many years since I've done this; I remember Dad shooting over 20 ducks (reducing population on a dam that was getting foul) and having to put them in a 44gallon drum with hot water. A massive mess of feathers resulted.

 

[dewi]

Blimey, its very refreshing to see the process explained and photographed in detail... I was surprised that the bird seemed so much smaller after being plucked.

Thank you for sharing BR