Friday, September 4, 2009

Birds to Market


Actually, to the processors in Hector, MN. I'd heard of the Hector chicken processor, but I hadn't had 50 birds (their minimum) and a date reserved with them, until this year's batch of birds.
So on Tuesday, we loaded 50 nice, 8-week-old cornish-rock-cross roosters into the bed of the trusty Ford Ranger farm truck (with topper).
It was a chilly morning: the birds crouched together for warmth and moral support as they took the 43 mile drive down Hwy. 212. They steamed up the windows--
and I'll spare you the events that took place at the business we arrived at.
Today I picked up 50 frozen, packaged chickens and ran them 43 miles back home again, to grace our supper table all winter long (as well as that of a few friends and relatives).
I arrived in Norwood Young America a little late for my 2pm haircut, but the funniest thing happened: after chatting in the salon chair with the stylist about why I was late -- she said she'd love to have 2 chickens as pay for the haircut!

5 comments:

Becky Utecht said...

That's the way to do the meatbirds Gail! Last year we brought ours up to Brainerd for processing (all in one day) and it was worth every penny we paid. Of course we could have done it ourselves, but having it done professionally was so much nicer and spending the day in Brainerd was funt.

Becky Utecht said...

Oops where did that extra "t" come from?? I meant to type "fun". Either way, the vacuumed packed birds are nicely picked and good eating too.

Sabrina Wille Erickson said...

I would raise meat birds in a heartbeat if I could find a place to process them. You are very fortunate to have one fairly near by!

Clancy will do the odd chicken when we have layers. And his mom is such a dear, she actually volunteers to come up and do a few at a time as long as Clancy does the killing. But my cousins, sister and I all had to be chicken pluckers when we were young and the whole family got together to butcher 200+ birds for everyone's freezer. Sort of made a vow that if I wasn't starving, I'd never do that again.

But nothing compares to homegrown chicken. Enjoy those healthy meals! :)

Kara said...

There is an Amish man a few miles from us that processes our birds, worth every penny! The best chicken I have ever tasted!

Juliann said...

Yummy!