Thursday, November 5, 2015
Duck-plucking
Before going on our Halloween trip, we had a bunch of things to catch up on around the place, like cleaning out the grey water filter, mulching the orchard, butchering 17 rabbits, transplanting more little trees for our nursery, butchering the young Muscovy ducks, and more.
We had been putting off the whole duck thing, because we've been so busy and were dreading the plucking process. However, we plucked just two of them a couple of weeks ago and found it wasn't nearly as big a deal as we'd thought it would be. So, we set aside a whole day to do the remaining 12, and it all went smoothly.
We had a friend of ours helping, as I had to go into the kitchen to start processing the meat after we'd done 4 or 5, and the extra set of hands made a big difference.
We set up a big vat of hot water (about 165 degrees) over a fire, and added some dish soap and salt (these help cut through the waterproofing oils of duck feathers and make them come out easier). We would then let the duck bleed out and add it to the water for a couple of minutes, dunking it up and down in the water.
The plucking itself was pretty easy, except for a few who had a lot of pin feathers. And neither the gutting part nor the removal of the oil glands were a problem.
In the kitchen, I kept a few whole for roasting, but most of them I parted out into breasts, legs and wings. I also put several pounds of meat through the grinder. We are still experimenting with different forms of cooking this delicious meat, and all have turned out wonderful. The only problem we've encountered so far was a couple of older ones were a little tough, but soaking them in orange or pineapple juice takes care of that. And now that we know it's not too hard, we will be butchering them a little younger.
Tonight's dinner is going to be a variation of Shepherds pie, with duck meat and mashed sweet potatoes. Can't wait!
We had thought we were on top of the duck population, but this past week has seen another 13 ducklings born! Good job we just bought ourselves a plucker, because it seems like the ducks are now in full production, and we've added 3 more ducks and one drake to our breeding stock.
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Duck-plucking
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Robert Frost
First Halloween
There are many countries and cultures that have some kind of Halloween, All Saints' day, Day of the Dead type of celebration, involving ghosts and ghouls, but America is the only one that I know of that has made that into a "candy" holiday. Apparently, "trick or treating" didn't start until the 30s and 40s, but even then, candy was not the accepted treat (more likely was coins, nuts, fruit, toys, cookies, and cake, and the "trick" side of it was also just as important as the "treat"). It wasn't until the 70s that candy became the most accepted treat, and nowadays none of the kids are looking forward to executing pranks more than the rewards they may garner.
However, despite the candy industries' shameless hijacking of an old holiday (this year, it is estimated that Americans spent over $2 billion on candies to hand out), I have to say it was fun. We'd never done it before (with the exception of Abe when he was young), and the kids had a blast. They had no idea that there was so much candy in the whole world, and they found it truly amazing that they could walk up to people's houses and they would fill their pumpkin baskets.
They also really loved dressing up. Vickie (with the help of her sister) had made them each a super cool costume. Nicky was (and is) a little monkey, and Leo was a cowboy riding a dinosaur. Leo even came 3rd in a costume competition, which of course, he was really happy about.
Abe's brother, Augie, set up a trailer with hay bales. Some of his friends with small kids then joined us on a hay ride around town. I think having the other kids made the whole thing extra special for the boys, so thanks, Augie.
We are now back home, recovering from the trip, and the mountains of candies have been put away in the cupboard, to be dished out at a more civilized rate :)
The post First Halloween appeared first on VelaCreations.
First Halloween
