Homesteaders

[KentuckyMom]

My gorgeous bumper-crop of tomatoes have gotten noshed on too!! Even the green ones! Not happy right now...

It must be an epidemic. The deer have gotten some of mine too. Of course it is always the biggest, healthiest tomatoes. And always one big bit out of each one. The chickens were happy the other night. Me? Not so much.
These deer WILL eventually be in my freezer!

 

[Raech]

Grrrrr!

We had a wonderful harvest of tomatoes, kale etc. coming in...........the deer have eaten the tomatoes & rabbits chewed through the netting and attacked the kale! If I wasn't so much of a chicken I would shoot them - but the fawns are so cute! So - going to build an 8 foot wire compound around the veggie beds ready for next year. That should keep the little buggers out!
Thankfully they don't seem to like squash, cucumbers, onions or carrots.......

Careful with the 8 foot fence, Grandpa caught a fawn the other day in the fence. He wasn't up yet but the dog was barking and growling at the door, we had 2 guys running down the driveway toward the yard, saying something about the crab apple tree(Grandpa didn't have his ears in yet). Turns out a doe had crossed the street in front of the house and her fawn had followed and tried to jump in the garden instead of going across the other fence, like her mom did, that divides the pastures and was hanging there by her legs. They got her out but she was a little tender for awhile, Grandpa saw them down in the creek a couple hours later eating with the horses. Our fence is a little loose, I think that is why she got hung up, and we lost most of the ties that we attached to the fence when it was put up a couple years ago because the doe has babies every year and raises them in the field behind the house and munches at the stock yard across the hill on the other side of us. She actually taught the baby how to crawl under the gate to get into the garden since we put the tall fence up.

 

[Raech]

I made it through my first ever animal process!!!! Naughty Chicken is now in my fridge ready to be cooked, and I only had to sit down once towards the very end. Super proud of myself this morning, never did dissection in school and never went hunting and saw that get done so not bad for my first time. Friend came home early because of an injury to his brother, minor leg problem, so I fed the chickens gave him an update on everything, and he went and he fixed the egg eater as I was in the coop. He wasn't mad that 2 chickens died, lost an older chick yesterday for some odd ball reason, and I didn't know to take the band off of her leg before I buried her. Oops. But he was happy with the way everything was and said now he knows who to call to watch the house so they can enjoy themselves more often.

And I got some hands on experience with chickens for a week, so I think it was a win win all the way around. Now to get Naughty Chicken started before Hubby comes home and figures out who we are eating for dinner.

 

[trsturself]

If you just processed the chicken today, it won't be ready to eat for another day or two. They need to rest before cooking.

 

[TheBanditQueen]

If you just processed the chicken today, it won't be ready to eat for another day or two. They need to rest before cooking.

I am curious, why do they need to rest before cooking? How do you do yours?

We've cooked some of ours, taken straight from slaughter to kitchen, and they were great. Tender and delicious. I'm not contradicting you...I'm just wondering if there's something I'm missing, that's all.

 

[Avlana]

I am curious, why do they need to rest before cooking? How do you do yours?

We've cooked some of ours, taken straight from slaughter to kitchen, and they were great. Tender and delicious. I'm not contradicting you...I'm just wondering if there's something I'm missing, that's all.

If you don't cook them right away, rigor mortis kicks in and the muscles contract. It makes the meat tough. I usually let them rest in the fridge for two days and let the rigor pass. Then the muscles begin to relax again. But if you cook them up right away before the stiffness sets in, it's fine

 

[trsturself]

If you don't cook them right away, rigor mortis kicks in and the muscles contract. It makes the meat tough. I usually let them rest in the fridge for two days and let the rigor pass. Then the muscles begin to relax again. But if you cook them up right away before the stiffness sets in, it's fine

Exactly.
We had rigor setting in before we even finished eviscerating the 6 we did. Of course it was our first time so we were moving pretty slow at the start. If you just have one or two and go straight to cooking, no problem.
Just wanted to make people aware that if it's their first time, they probably won't be able to cook it the same day as they kill it. We'll be processing an extra roo as soon as we get a spare moment to do the deed. Trying to decide if I want to throw him right into the crock pot or brine him for a couple days first.

 

[Raech]

Well, little one and I did our massive potato harvest today...1 small red, 1 red the size of a bantam egg, 1 red the size of a quail egg and 1 yellow potato the size of a bantam egg.

Glad I spent $10 for that massive harvest, it was our first time trying potatoes so we got the "kit" pot that came with 4 kinds of potatoes. Hoping next year I can plant more potatoes at Grandpa's since they normally do great over there. I waited for the tops to die before I dug, like it said to do, maybe I did it too early?

 

[trsturself]

Well, little one and I did our massive potato harvest today...1 small red, 1 red the size of a bantam egg, 1 red the size of a quail egg and 1 yellow potato the size of a bantam egg.

Glad I spent $10 for that massive harvest, it was our first time trying potatoes so we got the "kit" pot that came with 4 kinds of potatoes. Hoping next year I can plant more potatoes at Grandpa's since they normally do great over there. I waited for the tops to die before I dug, like it said to do, maybe I did it too early?

If the tops were brown then that's all they were going to grow. Did you bury them as they grew? I didn't have much luck with potatoes last year, got a lot but not very big. I didn't bury them as they grew because I didn't have enough soil then. This year they went in the ground way too late for me to even hope I'll get something.

Good luck!

 

[boskelli1571]

Well, little one and I did our massive potato harvest today...1 small red, 1 red the size of a bantam egg, 1 red the size of a quail egg and 1 yellow potato the size of a bantam egg.

Glad I spent $10 for that massive harvest, it was our first time trying potatoes so we got the "kit" pot that came with 4 kinds of potatoes. Hoping next year I can plant more potatoes at Grandpa's since they normally do great over there. I waited for the tops to die before I dug, like it said to do, maybe I did it too early?

We had a decent harvest, but I left them in the ground a bit too long - the slugs and bugs really enjoyed them!