Posted by: Maddy
Mom and Dad made a last minute decision last Monday to process the turkeys on the 16th because they were starting to get pretty aggressive with each other. So on Friday morning we found ourselves out side processing!
Friday got up into the 50's! So we had warm weather for processing!
The plan was to start around 5 am, and have all the killing done before the sun came up. That way the turkeys are more calm. The only one who actually woke up on time for that was Dad and Ashley. The rest of us slept in a little later. So around 8, we were all ready to get started. We only had 12 turkeys to do, so we thought this won't be so bad that we started late. But we kept checking the temperature on the scalder and it would just not get up to the right temperature that it needed to. We actually ended up waiting another 2 hours to see if it would rise, but it didn't. Later we found the it was the thermometer that wasn't working! When we finally did get started, it went pretty slow. We didn't have a cone large enough to kill a turkey in, so we cut a hole in a 5 gallon bucket and used that. Once my mom got the hang of that it worked pretty good! We still are rookies at this. It took us 4 hours to do 9 turkeys!
Ashley was pretty quick at cutting the feet, heads, and the necks off. So that part didn't take real long and neither did the evisceration part (which after doing 700 chickens last year, I have gotten pretty quick at that part)! And it wasn't like we have 75 to do, so I wasn't backed up like I was when we did our chickens.
They were heritage breeds, so they were smaller. The largest turkey we had was 12 pounds. So they weren't much larger than our chickens. That was kinda a bummer, but the heritage breeds have more flavor, so they did taste really good! Mom fried one of them. Delicious!
We ended up only processing 9 turkeys. We had 2 silver colored turkeys and we were told by someone that people pay top dollar for that kind of breed. So Mom and Dad wanted to see if that was true. We haven't done anything with them yet. Today we just found out that they are both males so we needed to separate them. And also there was a pretty small female turkey that Ashley really didn't want to kill so we ended up saving her out too. I'm not sure what we are going to do with her yet either.
Its always easier helping someone else process than doing it at your place with just 4 people to help. The little ones were all grossed out and Anna took all the pictures so it was only Dad, Mom, Ashley and I actually doing it. Over all the day went pretty good. All we felt like doing on Saturday was hanging out.
Mom and Dad made a last minute decision last Monday to process the turkeys on the 16th because they were starting to get pretty aggressive with each other. So on Friday morning we found ourselves out side processing!
Friday got up into the 50's! So we had warm weather for processing!
The plan was to start around 5 am, and have all the killing done before the sun came up. That way the turkeys are more calm. The only one who actually woke up on time for that was Dad and Ashley. The rest of us slept in a little later. So around 8, we were all ready to get started. We only had 12 turkeys to do, so we thought this won't be so bad that we started late. But we kept checking the temperature on the scalder and it would just not get up to the right temperature that it needed to. We actually ended up waiting another 2 hours to see if it would rise, but it didn't. Later we found the it was the thermometer that wasn't working! When we finally did get started, it went pretty slow. We didn't have a cone large enough to kill a turkey in, so we cut a hole in a 5 gallon bucket and used that. Once my mom got the hang of that it worked pretty good! We still are rookies at this. It took us 4 hours to do 9 turkeys!
Ashley was pretty quick at cutting the feet, heads, and the necks off. So that part didn't take real long and neither did the evisceration part (which after doing 700 chickens last year, I have gotten pretty quick at that part)! And it wasn't like we have 75 to do, so I wasn't backed up like I was when we did our chickens.
They were heritage breeds, so they were smaller. The largest turkey we had was 12 pounds. So they weren't much larger than our chickens. That was kinda a bummer, but the heritage breeds have more flavor, so they did taste really good! Mom fried one of them. Delicious!
We ended up only processing 9 turkeys. We had 2 silver colored turkeys and we were told by someone that people pay top dollar for that kind of breed. So Mom and Dad wanted to see if that was true. We haven't done anything with them yet. Today we just found out that they are both males so we needed to separate them. And also there was a pretty small female turkey that Ashley really didn't want to kill so we ended up saving her out too. I'm not sure what we are going to do with her yet either.
Its always easier helping someone else process than doing it at your place with just 4 people to help. The little ones were all grossed out and Anna took all the pictures so it was only Dad, Mom, Ashley and I actually doing it. Over all the day went pretty good. All we felt like doing on Saturday was hanging out.
Beautiful morning sky!
Our set up in our front yard. We thought the open air would be better instead of the poll barn.
We had a fire going in the fire pit to make it warmer. But we had been burning since early in the morning so we were pretty much done with it when we started processing.
This was our killing bucket with another one on the bottom to catch all the blood.
Ashley and I cleaning off the tables before we started.
Anna's selfie with ice. She wanted to make sure that she was in the pictures as well so she took a picture of herself about to pour ice in the chill tanks!
Ashley and I sharpening knifes!
Doing the first turkey. I got the "honor" of holding it in the bucket! And yes, I wore a trash bag this time to avoid getting wet.
Then it was Anna's turn!
Mom, removing the necks
Dad turned dunking turkeys into a back exercise as well!
Removing pin feathers....
The raw product......
And the cooked product! Yummy!
Then, on Saturday, Dad and I went down to Arkansas to get some piglets!
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