In Which We Process Chickens

Caution: This post contains pictures of guts and chicken innards. You have my permission to stop reading now.

Last Saturday, Emma and I awoke in the middle of the night and went over to the Stouffers to help process (also known at butcher) chickens that Daniel had raised. It was quite the experience.

Processing chickens was on my "NEVER EVER DO or you will surely shrivel up and die" list. Wearing a denim jumper to pick in the garden and wearing tennis shoes with a denim skirt were also on that list. Guess what? I haven't shriveled up and died!

Yet.

Anyway, I ended up really enjoying the whole experience and thought you might like to see pictures, so that you know I'm not making this up. Camille has some great pictures here.

I won't go into detail about how its done, but know that it really isn't as gross as it sounds.

And that there weren't as many chicken jokes as I expected.

Everyone was so cheerful and totally silly! Made for a delightful 4 hour chore before the rest of the world was awake.

A breakfast break was taken around 7:30.

Most of us were still trying to wake up.

This is my, "I can't believe I've been touching chickens all morning" face.

Mrs. Stouffer made us some delicious french toast- with fresh eggs!

Chris's job was the bloodiest.

Then Chris would hand them to Tricia Ann who would scald them then hand them to Camille who would run them through the plucker then hand them to Daniel and Caleb who would de-gut them then they would hand them to me who would do detail work then hand them to Emma who would rinse them well and put them in the cooler, where Caroline would pick them up and package them. There. I just explained the whole process in one sentence. :)

Eventually we got behind in de-gutting, so I volunteered/was recruited into de-gutting as well. It involved chopping off the feet and head (I couldn't bring myself to do that part though), then cutting it open and sticking your hand in the warm space between the ribs and using your fingernails to scrape the organs from the cartilage and stuff. Caleb taught me how. The first time I stuck my hand in the chicken, I couldn't watch. So, yes, I de-gutted the chicken with my eyes closed. :P By my 6th or 7th chicken though, I wasn't as grossed out.

This picture looks really gross. No, unfortunately, we didn't have chicken smoothies with breakfast. Caroline made us fruit smoothies when we were finished. :)

Two heads and multiple feet are better than one.

So.... it was gross. But it was made enjoyable by sweet fellowship and willing attitudes of friends. I can't wait for the next chicken processing day!

Just kidding.