ate one last night

Well, we ate one of out White Chantecler cockerels last night. Peggy processed them for us and it was a very nice job. Any others I have will go there for sure. She kept warning me that they would be tough and not have the breast meat of the mutants, I kept telling her not to worry about it.
They all dressed just over 4lbs at about 22 weeks. The partridge boy was a lot younger and he was little, about 3lbs or just under, I can`t remember his weight now.
On a whole I think the partridge boys from last year had better breasts than the whites and they were treated very similarly. They maybe mature a bit faster, but don`t get as big in the end.
I slow cooked him with some chicken stock, onion, garlic and carrots in the bottom of the cast iron pot. He was beautiful and full of flavour and not one bit tough. Hubby was really impressed! So we had a whole dinner completely raised by us. Carrots, mashed potatos, chicken and beets all home grown and raise with care. I think that makes things taste way better. It was hubby that noticed it was all ours!

wow, so nice a homegrown dinner, in every way. That is just the best of the best, can't get any better. Peggy (not Penny) is a wonderful gal, and she does a nice job of processing birds. I haven't tried a rooster yet that I had processed recently, but think tomorrow I am going to get out the slow cooker and get him started. I have broth left over from a homegrown turkey that I saved broth from, so will use that to use for the liquid. Turkey and rooster broth, yummmmeee!! Gotta love it when we can eat our own food, yay!! Have a wonderful and great day, CynthiaM.

Thanks, I fixed my post so it is the right name. I am shocking at remembering names! Very sorry to Peggy for that!

coopslave wrote:Thanks, I fixed my post so it is the right name. I am shocking at remembering names! Very sorry to Peggy for that!

No problem

Ha Ha, I just tried to get that bug off my computer.....
I am making a huge batch of soup right now, started with broth from a home grown chicken, and then all the veggies from the garden, except for the celery. Just knowing how good it's going to be means so much, especially with the price of everything going up and not knowing what chemicals etc are in all that boughten stuff.
The house smells soooo good.

I'm doing the same thing with lamb bones at the moment. Have a big pot of soupstock simmering.
I trade Sue Haley (who owns the lamb processing facility in kelowna) turkey for lamb. It works out to be a nice change for both of us. Most of the veggies I'll be adding later come from my own garden or from friends. There is just no comparison on taste from store bought anything that all seems to have half the flavour.

It is so rewarding to have a meal that is completely from our hard work

So happy to see another person enjoying their heritage roosters from the other end of a fork and knife! I have nothing but good things to say about home grown food, it must have been so delicious to have everything grown with your own TLC!

I agree, I am glad you enjoyed it CS and yes, doesn't it feel good to start the harvesting and tucking in for winter stuff. The chanties aren't bad little birds at all for meat. Yum.

We made salsa on the weekend, the only bought item was the cumin and vinegar. The toms, peppers, onion, hot peppers, garlic and coriander were all ours. We also dried a whole ovens worth of about 50 sliced up onions on the weekend...the house still smells like sickly onion Body Odor, and all the clean laundry I washed then! At least it didn't irritate the nasal passages like all the smoked chilli and cherry bomb eppers we dried last Wednesday

I am going to cheat and make a whole load of frozen pizza bases and bread doughs with our own garlic and herbs in so we have make quick homemade pizzas from our own sauces too (sauces all reduced and frozen in individual tubs) with our own peppers and herbs and garlic. And we have chamomile and black currant leaf for teas. Looking forward to mead, strawberry wine and rhubarb wine this winter too. I can't wait! It all tastes so much better than bought food!

Ah...Yep, home grown food is where it's at. Brought in the Buttercup squash and Styrian hulless seeded pumpkins tonight(22 & 15 respectively ), the watermelon are all but gone, but there's garlic and onions in the basement, tomatoes still ripening inside, anise and caraway seed, and potatoes still waiting to be dug. And then there are the twenty (give or take) Chanteclers to butcher in a few weeks and hunting season around the corner, pluss eggs coming out my ears! Now if I had me a woman to cook it all up, I'd be eating from now straight till Christmas. Unfortunately a full time job and cooking gourmet meals don't go together very well.





What? I know YOU can do it. But I'm only a man!

All this is making me want to take out one of my cockerals from the freezer today too, but I have dinner plans with a friend who raises lamb and I'm very excited about that!

Ha ha Samwise through reading all this I've been thinking, "with a full time job and my farm, I need a man to help me garden". Everyone has their cross to bear. I love to cook! lol

congratulations. More of us need to follow your example.