BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[dfr1973]

Canning is a good option for folks that worry about an electrical outage (or a disruption in gas supply, lol) , [snip] Having canned meat on hand is so nice when you don't want to take a lot of time to prepare a meal, but still want a good, homemade meal. And if you have time to butcher before you make dinner, dinner fresh on-the-hoof works too.

One downside to canning here in the deep South is the heat factor. An outdoor kitchen ... with screening! ... is on the honey-do list. The floor is now built, so that's a start. Come winter, those capons will be converted into canned chicken and stock, which will double as partial home heating plan. Right now though, the little window unit AC has enough work with just the ambient heat and humidity. Works for our situation, and as Ron-hellbender said, do what works best for you.

 

[bnjrob]

One downside to canning here in the deep South is the heat factor. An outdoor kitchen ... with screening! ... is on the honey-do list. The floor is now built, so that's a start. Come winter, those capons will be converted into canned chicken and stock, which will double as partial home heating plan. Right now though, the little window unit AC has enough work with just the ambient heat and humidity. Works for our situation, and as Ron-hellbender said, do what works best for you.

I hear that. I despise canning except in the middle of winter. I turn my oven hood on high to help suck out some of the heat, but then on the downside, it keeps both the water bather and the pressure canner from getting done as fast. It's no winning either way during the summer to try and can. We just butchered some roosters and I threw the bones into the freezer - gonna wait until it's cooler before roasting them and making stock out of them. I'm looking for an antique cast iron burner to do outside canning, but if I can't find what I want soon, there is a decent little cast iron gas burner at a local store that I am going to get and that way I can at least take the canners outside and I'll just fill the jars in the house.

 

[Our Roost]

A nice tasty and more flavorful rooster makes perfect sense to me! There is definitely a lot of good meat there to devour if done right. Yep, I would hate to lose power and our freezers contents. Always have some good eats in there! Ya know, I think we are going to start jarring our chicken stock this year and stocking up for winter. I always do pickles, so why not chicken? I am planning on a smoker this year also!

 

[dfr1973]

A nice tasty and more flavorful rooster makes perfect sense to me! There is definitely a lot of good meat there to devour if done right. Yep, I would hate to lose power and our freezers contents. Always have some good eats in there! Ya know, I think we are going to start jarring our chicken stock this year and stocking up for winter. I always do pickles, so why not chicken? I am planning on a smoker this year also!

Not even the worst feathers-and-attitude cockerel can be tough after pressure canning, even at 25 weeks old. Trust me on that one

The caponizing makes it more peaceful while growing them out ... until the slips show themselves and the attitudes start all over. One of the slips will get smoked next week - I just need to get my bucket-plucker thingy back from a friend who borrowed it. She said she'll have it for me tomorrow. The in-laws bought us a small smoker as our anniversary present this year, and hubby has been having a lot of fun with it. He has got into the groove on smoking salmon on cedar planks! That is planned for dinner tonight. We eat GOOD out here - we figure we deserve it after years of bad Army food.

 

[JRNash]

Must have been Army. We used to go to air force when we could. They eat GOOD

 

[bnjrob]

A nice tasty and more flavorful rooster makes perfect sense to me! There is definitely a lot of good meat there to devour if done right. Yep, I would hate to lose power and our freezers contents. Always have some good eats in there! Ya know, I think we are going to start jarring our chicken stock this year and stocking up for winter. I always do pickles, so why not chicken? I am planning on a smoker this year also!

Raw packing chicken is nice and easy and less work than trying to do a hot pack like some folks do. I do mine as 1 lb boneless chicken per jar, since that's a good measurement for most recipes. I also measure out in 1 lb packages when I vac seal and freeze.

 

[bnjrob]

Must have been Army. We used to go to air force when we could. They eat GOOD

LOL - that's the truth. My hubby (Navy) got assigned to an AF base one time - the dormitory he lived in and the cafeteria (the AF uses such nice words for their living conditions), was much better than anything he'd had before.

 

[collie1470]

Bahahaha, when I was stationed down in Pensacola for a school of mine, we got put up in the Gateway Inns and Suites (compared to a rack on a ship, that was heaven). There were some Airforce guys there getting paid a "substandard living allowance".....for staying in a HOTEL that was on base! And not even a cruddy hotel. Sometimes I think the Airforce might have been a bit nicer than the Navy, but, then again, I've never been big on being too spoiled lol.

 

[collie1470]

Plus, you can beat the view of a clear night sky out to sea

 

[Beer can]

We lost our power for three days once. Large chest freezer. Nothing thawed out, just starting to on the outside of the packages the third day. Trick is to keep freezer full and any extra space fill with two or three liter soda bottles and gallon milk jugs full of water. They come in handy to keep the fridge or a cooler cold in a power outage also. And when they thaw you've got clean drinking water. I'd dare to say we could be out of power for a week before our freezer got above refrigerator temp. We do have a small backup generator now just in case. Three days without power was like camping in the comfort of your own home.