Fresh Killed Beer Chicken

Finally prepared and ate my first chicken that I killed myself. My first farm to table meal. I felt as if I were channeling Michael Pollen.
Considering it was my first time cooking a whole chicken, I figured I'd include something in the recipe that I know well, BEER!  Since I don't have the proper set up for a slow cooking grill I decided to use the oven. It was surprisingly tougher for me to prepare the chicken once it was bagged than when it had just been killed and I was gutting it, I'm still not exactly sure why.  After some cajun rub, some love from salt and pepper and drinking half of a PBR, I plopped that spicy bird right on top of the can and got it comfortable in the oven, ready to cook for two hours.

It made it about an hour and a half before the can couldn't support the bird and I had to keep it on it's side for the last half hour of cooking, but boy was that chicken tender!

So while that chicken got cooking I decided to make a little starter with some vegetables I had bartered for during the farmer's market on Thursday. So I had corn, collard greens and some bacon from the farm to work with. Never having made collard greens before I decided to add a lot of bacon flavor [grease] to them. Needless to say, the bacon saved the flavor of it all but my collard green cooking could use some improvement. 

The more successful of the veggies was my version of 'cholo corn'. I've eaten similar recipes out at local restaurants and it was surprisingly easy and delicious! I stove top grilled some corn and seasoned it with cayenne pepper, chili powder and paprika and then used the same spices mixed with some mayo. After the corn was a little charred, I drizzled it with mayo. It was banging! I will make this all the time... for BBQs, taco parties, it's delicious! Just look at it! Oh man, drool worthy.

This was a completely random meal considering all of the dishes but for a Sunday night with a ton of local food, who can complain? Everyone ate happy for sure.

The Harvest

I meant to get this story going the minute I got back from our trip to beautiful Columbia County, NY but I was having trouble putting this experience into words. What better time to write it than right before a meat delivery from the farm is on its way to Boston?

The Chicken Harvest.

My friend's Lori and Jason started Diamond Hills Farms months back and now have a fully functioning animal farm. After months of moving their cows around to regulate the grass, seeing calfs born, feeding stinky cheese to their stinky pigs and raising their baby chicks into full grown chickens the beginning of July marked their first chicken harvest. So about six of us traveled out to the farm to help with the process in exchange for beers and a one day course in slaughtering chickens. We were assisted by Jason, who had been through the process before and their roommate Adam who is a full time butcher. I was surprised when I was talking about the process to friends that people got squeamish and generally uncomfortable, but I believe that if you are going to be a carnivore then it is really important to know where your meat is coming from and how the process is executed. After being a vegetarian for 7 years, and eating meat for the last 3, this was a really valuable experience to have, getting down and dirty with some chickens. So first you have to catch them. Some of us proved better at this task than others, this was not one of my strengths. To keep them still before you cut their throats Jason set up a row of cones to line them up in to keep the process moving along. It got pretty messy...but controlled messy..

It's true what they say about chickens, they move around quite a bit after you've killed them, it was a little freaky at first but eventually you realize it's just part of it. So after the bloody part you have to get all of the feathers off. This is where the plucker comes in. Its a huge plastic tub with rubber spokes on the inside that you spin around until most of the feathers comes off.

Once they are out of the plucker they went right to the table to be gutted and ready to soak. This is where I spent most of my time. Dealing with a plucked chicken is a lot like handling one you buy at the grocery store except it is still warm. Learning the anatomy of the chicken made me appreciate the art of butchering especially when you think about bigger beasts like pigs and cows.

First you cut off the head and legs and then you make an opening near the bottom so you can get everything out, good and bad. We saved the chicken livers and gizzards and got rid of the rest [lungs, intestines, gallbladder, etc] It's a careful process because there are a few things inside of those chickens that if punctured would totally ruin the chicken for further use. The part of the chickens that really interested me the most were the gizzards. Since they don't have stomach acids to digest their food, chickens store up rocks and grass in their gizzards to break down the food they eat. The gizzards were metallic looking and hard on the outside, when you cut into it, like you were shucking an oyster, you'd open it up and find full pieces of green grass and rocks that were aiding in that process, not digested at all. Once that was scraped out, they were put aside to be sold.

So while that side process was going on, the gutted chickens were soaking in a cold bath, waiting to be bagged. They were hung up to dry and then each one was suctioned air tight into their individual bags, ready to be sold.

So I guess I can't blame you if this made you a little uncomfortable to read and to look at, but I hope that it is an insight into a process that you are more or less a part of every day, assuming you are a meat eater. Being a part of a local food market and knowing where your food comes from is becoming more of an accessible thing. So whether you are buying from local markets or actually helping out on farms then keep it up, and if not- what are you waiting for?


Jason will be in the Boston area this weekend, August 11 making a drop of chickens and pasteurized pork products. To get your hands on some of this fine meat email DiamondHillsFarm@gmail.com

The Sunday Green

Green kitchens are happy kitchens but not entirely easy kitchens. For years I felt intimidated yet mystified by the idea of urban gardening. I imagined my windows full of hanging plants, flower boxes covering the entire porch overflowing with veggies and herbs, permaculture running rampant! Unfortunately it takes a lot of practice and close care to get this kind of thing up and running and although I'm not quite there yet, the dream urban garden is beginning to gets its roots. I started growing some basil seeds which have sprouted into some tiny leaves but I was also given a fuller grown basil plant by my nephew, hand painted pot and all. So after caring for it for a month or so, last night I decided it was pesto time. After a day spent at the flea market, drinking afternoon beers and looking for an easy, low cook dinner, basil seemed like a fun adventure. I've heard tales of avocado basil and spinach basil and various nuts to play with the texture but I figured for my first time at it, I'd stick to the basics. I had no idea I would get 4 cups off fresh leafy goodness off my first pick. As long as there is a food processor, pesto is a breeze. Walnuts, pine nuts, a little salt and pepper, olive oil, some Parmesan cheese and you're there! So now that it's made and I've confirmed that I could easily eat this by the spoonful, it's time to put it to use! And what's easier than french bread pizzas? Add some sundried tomatoes, green olives, ricotta and mozzarella with a pesto base and saute up some spinach and throw that on top after the pizza's out of the oven. Dee-licious! More plants and herbs to come.. filling my kitchen, my porch and the pages of Create & Cohabitate.