Life on a farm - WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT.

[Marie Hass]

I live in a very rural area where butchering animals is a fact of life if you want to eat. On this day, we processed 33 chickens and 2 turkeys.

During lulls in the activity, I tried to document the process because it is a part of my life.

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Please feel free to c&c .

Marie

[Shadowman]

Poultry is one of the least attractive raw cuts, just show me the finished product. Nice documentation of the process.

[Manfred M]

I remember being accompanied by a goat and some chickens when we visited the very remote Omo Valley in Ethiopia 18 months ago. A similar thing happened about 10 years ago, when we headed up the Amazon River to a small village about 3-1/2 hours by fast boat, upstream of Iquitos, Peru.

They did not accompany us back from these places, and both chicken and mutton (in many places in the world, mutton = goat, not lamb) were on the menu. I can't say for sure what happened to the chicken, but I was able to document what happened to the goat.

Quite right, this is where our food comes from and thanks for the nice photo essay.

Found the shot of our Ethiopian goat in the first stages of becoming dinner. Interesting, with no refrigeration, the goat meat was rubbed with copious amounts of lemon juice to preserve it.

[Marie Hass]

Thanks Manfred,

This year I participated in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and this is the farm that all of my goodies come from. They have supplied me, thus far over the season, with field greens, shiitake muchrooms, speckled romaine, regular romaine, eggs, maple syrup, radishes, okra, tomatoes, red potatoes, regular potatoes, new potatoes, swiss chard, rhubarb, squash, sausage and the chicken that I helped butcher. All of these items are organically grown and the livestock is non-GMO. Well worth it in my book and these are things I do not usually grow.

Over the years, we have grown steer, rabbits and other livestock. I would much rather eat something that I know where it came from and what it ate, as opposed to being blind to what they sell in the big chain grocery stores as "food".

Thank you for seeing this and appreciating it.

Marie

[Chri5]

Great series. I wouldn't expect to many comments but that's not a bad reflection on your work its just most people will probably be to squeamish to make it to the end of the series.

[Marie Hass]

Chris, thank you!

I knew I had a lot of views, but not much comments. Thanks for the support. I am so grateful to know intimately where my food comes from.

Farming is hard work and you must be available 24/7. Farmers are both male and female and either one runs the tractor when necessary.

Marie

[Rita]

A nice documentary Marie. Nothing better than fresh chicken, way better than store bought.
By the way, the turkey in #6 looks like he is trying to hide from his future

[Marie Hass]

hi, Rita!

#6 is actually a guinea fowl. They are known to be good watch birds and will let you know when someone who does not belong is skulking about. The guineas were the only birds smart enough to be wary on butchering day.

Thank you for looking and commenting.

Marie

[jcuknz]

I think the body language you caught in #4 captured very well the woman's feelings at the job she was doing ... at least what I suspect were her feelings.

[george013]

I like documentary photography. It gives me more info on the subject.
What I'm wondering about is that I see 2 different ways of butchering. Photo's 2 and 9. Why is that?

George

[Marie Hass]

Hi, George!

thank you for asking. #9 is a turkey. As large as they are, they do not fit in the killing cones that we use for the chickens.

Another farmer brought over the 2 turkeys to be butchered because we had all of the equipment up and ready. He had them in a cage in the back of his truck. They were quite large and have nasty spurs on their legs to rake you if you try to mess with them, so they got a noose over their neck, were pulled through the cage door opening and beheaded. That is the best we could do.

Marie

[Marie Hass]

Good morning, John!

Thank you for commenting!

Yes, and you are right. Lauren was expressing a bit of "ugh" regarding cleaning the chickens out. Eviscerating anything is unpleasant and it stinks - a disgusting job, but it has to be done. On this day, I was glad I was at the last station, packaging for the cooler!

Marie

[IzzieK]

I'd participate in the pickling instead, Marie...blood ain't my thing. I appreciate all the work one do in the farm so the fresh finished products just came to me in a plate when I was young. And we do not have real butchers around here where we live unlike in Australia (I missed Oz). Now unfortunately, my younger life in the farm is non-existent and with no butchers around, I am one sad one who has to rely on supermarket stuffs part of the year...not everyone is as lucky to have the freshest fresh...

[Marie Hass]

Good morning, dear Izzie!

Did you know that they have machines that de-feather the birds? In under a minute, the bird is nekkid.

Marie

[IzzieK]

Good morning, dear Izzie!

Did you know that they have machines that de-feather the birds? In under a minute, the bird is nekkid.

Marie

You have machines for that now? I remember my elders and my mom just pour hot water on the birds and pull the feathers out. That is interesting...how time flies...and with the cutting the neck initially, they used legs to contain the bird, pat the neck before cutting it a little bit so the blood can be collected in a little basin. I like that they put the blood in with the soup...even with animals, cattles and pigs. Love pork and chicken...I remember being asked to stay away from the initial kills because they do not want me to stain my dress and when I did got blood all over from the spills, I will end up on the ground and pretend to get hurt so someone can carry me inside the house and bathe me crazy while I yelled and screamed...you know the drama queen antics thingie we kids invented to get their attention...

[JohnRostron]

A fascinating documentary. The nearest I got to this was Christmas 1971 in Zagora, Morocco. We wanted a chicken and we had to catch it first, then bagain for it before heading into the desert to camp. Christmas day we had to kill it, pluck it and prepare it for lunch! It was fortunate that some of us were. zoologists!

John

[Marie Hass]

These two shots are for Izzie.

These are pictures of the chicken plucker. It looks like a 1/2 of a 50 gallon plastic drum. The bottom of the drum has a motor attached so that just the bottom rotates. The whole contraption is on a wheeled cart so that at the end of day, it can be turned over and hosed out.

1. You can see a carcass in the plucker and see how the bottom rotates.

2. You can see the plucker and its frame. Easy cleanout.

Marie

[Marie Hass]

Dear Manfred,

Glad to see that you turned up the picture of the goat slaughter. Shows I am not the only person who documents death.

They are doing it the same way the chickens were done - the throats are slit.

I hope all who have viewed this documentary understand that there is a reverence about life - and death. It is not something to take lightly. I am grateful for what is grown, and thankful for what is eaten.

Marie

[IzzieK]

Thank you Marie...I have not seen one before in my life...!! very interesting.

These two shots are for Izzie.

These are pictures of the chicken plucker. It looks like a 1/2 of a 50 gallon plastic drum. The bottom of the drum has a motor attached so that just the bottom rotates. The whole contraption is on a wheeled cart so that at the end of day, it can be turned over and hosed out.

1. You can see a carcass in the plucker and see how the bottom rotates.

2. You can see the plucker and its frame. Easy cleanout.

Marie

[Acorn]

"Life on a farm" it may be, but I don't think it's worthy of inclusion on this website. Sorry, but it's not as though the pictures have any creative photographic merit. Facebook recently has featured pictures of so-called proud (sick) people astride a male lion and a giraffe that they have shot with high velocity rifles in the name of so-called sport.