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Page 2
If your birds are destined for the table, please don’t get too attached—you’ll regret it and find yourself running a shelter for them, instead of the original game plan. Remember; you will never get self- sufficient feeling sorry for the animals that you raise. Not only that—organic feed isn’t cheap; the turkey will begin to look very tasty when you’re low on food supplies for your house!
A friend of mine once had a turkey—biggest turkey I’ve seen in my life! It took both of us to lift it. He decided he’d like to slaughter it for Thanksgiving dinner at my house that year. He wrung the turkeys’ neck, made a slit in its throat and hung it up on a nearby tree to let the blood drain. Meanwhile his girlfriend put a big kettle of water on to boil in the kitchen. After a while, we cut the turkey loose and made the careful incisions necessary to gain access to the “offal.” We were both shocked when globs and globs of fat were extracted from the cavity. The fat around the heart was astounding! If we hadn’t killed that turkey—it would’ve died of a heart attack. Talk about obese! I asked my friend what he’d been feeding Tom, as he called him. He told me he’d fed him on scraps of meat, fat, beans, rice, potato peelings—you name it—Tom was fed on it; no wonder the bird was more like an ostrich! Even though my friend thought he was doing, Tom, a favor—he was really contributing to his bad health. We were careful not to break the bile duct, as it would’ve ruined the meat—it’s green and very easily ruptured—so beware! After the cavity was clear of all its contents, we fetched the kettle of boiling water from the kitchen. We dipped part of the turkey and plucked, dipped a different part, and plucked, dipped and plucked until we were sick of feathers. Finally the turkey was dressed out and oven-ready. We roasted it to perfection, and although it produced a lot of fat, we skimmed off the globules and made a very rich, tasty brown gravy. The skin was crisp and tasted delicious, due to the salt we'd generously sprinkled on it, prior to roasting. The meat was moist and the best I’d ever had the privilege to sample. Thanksgiving Day, that year was a lot of work—but worth it. More on raising animals for your table next week!
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