Thursday, November 3, 2011

Pluckin' down on the farm


During lunch on Tuesday, one of the farmers asked me if I wanted to go help pluck chickens on Wednesday. I am pretty sure he was asking as a joke, but after thinking about it I thought that it would be a good experience to have. A few times I question if I wanted to because I love chicken and I was scared that it may make me not want to eat chicken anymore. Anyway, Wednesday morning I headed down to the farm around 8am to get started. No worries, I documented it all for you to enjoy!
This is where our friend begins his journey. They put the chickens in this "cone shaped thingy" (yes, that is the technical name) to cut the head off. Having them upside down helps with the blood flow and the "cone shaped thingy" keeps them inside because they twitch like crazy. A few times they twitched so much they flew out and were literally a chicken running around with it's head cutoff. When this happened I absolutely lost it with laughter. The Jamaicans enjoyed watching me, watching the headless chicken run around.

After the head is cut off, we dipped them into a pot of boiling water. This cleans off the blood and allows the feathers to come out easier. Here I am with my first of six chickens!

You can tell I was a little hesitant at first....

In no time though I was plucking that chicken like it was my job!

My first victim after all the feathers were out!

What an experience that was! I will never again take going to the store to buy a nice clean piece of meat for granted!

3 comments:

  1. Hail to the Raider team, the mighty Raider team, all hail...here's props to you, Lauren, for doing something in Jamaica that I've never done!

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  2. 'You go girl...as you have said..."oh the places you will go..enjoy the last of your time..share all your love and light!mom

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  3. And weren't you the one screaming when we were trying to shoot the quail in our backyard? Oh how far you have come in such a short time! I am soooo rpoud of you.

    You have some of your Grandma Bloom's blood in you for sure. Remember that native American blood runs strong and these things feel somehow familiar. :-)

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