Preservation

According to the resident expert, I probably ruptured a cyst in the muscle on the backside of my leg and needed a couple days off to let it heal. So I focused my efforts on inside projects, starting with the preservation of a couple bushels of apples we picked off our apple tree at the farm. We don't spray them so they get a good bit of insect damage which doesn't make for an appealing eating apple but with our hand crank corer and peeler, it cuts them into spirals where it is fairly easy to cut the bug eaten bits out of them. I loaded up our freezer with premade apple pie filling so later all we have to do is make a crust, dump in the filling and bake. With the rest, I have been dehydrating them which doesn't take a lot of effort but does take a long time. It takes about a full day and a half per batch of apples to dehydrate them down so when one batch is done, I load it up immediately and keep it running. I have probably done about three gallons zip lock backs of dried apples but until recently only had the one seen above. We just kept eating them as fast as I was getting them dehydrated. This morning I finally had to start a second bag when I unloaded the next to last batch of apples.

We buy all our chickens from a local grower who free ranges them and tries to keep them as organic as possible. We place our order in the winter and usually pick them up during the summer but this summer, the weekend for slaughter occurred while we were on vacation and so they kindly bumped us to their fall schedule. On the arranged day, we just have to show up with our cleaned out cooler and they pull already slaughtered chickens cooling down in a tub of ice water out and weigh them as they dump them in our cooler. We drive home and break down a good share of them so that they are ready to cook in various dishes and leave just a few to roast whole. When we break them down, we end up with parts that aren't very appealing to use like backs and necks so I toss all that into a pot with some leftover veggies we had on hand and cooked them down into a broth which I then canned. My mother-in-law proceeded to pick all the very tiny bits of remaining chicken from the bones and she will use that to make some Filipino dishes. Nothing went to waste.


 

Comments

  1. You are so diligent and industrious. I am a sloth and a slob by comparison.

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    1. You are older than I. Give me a few years and I will join you!

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  2. "Nothing went to waste." Boy is that an understatement! All that work into your apples is one thing Ed, but I had no idea people went to all the trouble you do for chickens for the winter! Are you saving that much, doing it this way? Very impressive and Anvilcloud made me laugh here, I feel just the same :^)

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    1. It is cheaper to buy chicken in the grocery store but there is no comparison on the taste. The chickens we buy local are so much tastier that it is hard to eat store bought chicken anymore. The water content is also much much lower so it is easier to cook with too.

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  3. Ed, well done. I have not thought about dehydrated apples in a long time, but I have the dehydrator (and like apples).

    Your comments on the free range chicken are interesting. I suppose I do not have something for a comparison, but might try to find out.

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    1. I don't know how to really describe it other than the flavor is just way more intense and is has less water content, I assume from soaking in large vats in industrial factories for long periods after slaughter.

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  4. You put your knee-healing time to good use! I'm impressed with your productivity!

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    1. I'm too old to work like I used too but too young to just sit and do nothing all day, even with a bum knee.

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  5. That's some industrious food preparation! Bravo!

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    1. Better than just letting them all go to waste which was the alternative. Also saves on the calories come snack time!

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  6. I would love to try a fresh chicken to see if I can spot the difference. It's amazing how you find a use for everything. I'm not very good at that. (no experience)

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    1. I have lots of room for improvement compared to the likes of Leigh but I do try as much as I can.

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  7. Clean and wholesome country living! One day I might want to try that. No. I take that back. I am too much of a city gal, unfortunately.

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    1. It helps to live near a farm with a large garden.

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  8. You are using every bit of the chicken but its squawk!

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    1. This is the first year I've made chicken stock from all the various parts we don't use so it is a step towards just the squawk!

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  9. Is there no end to your talents Ed? Making chicken broth, dehydrating fruit, constructing new outbuildings, growing upos... I bet you can also play a banjo and smash three home-runs in a row. You're Super-Ed!

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    1. Alas, I have always wanted to learn to play a guitar or similar but never have. My music education lays with playing drums back in grade school. I can guarantee that I have never hit a homerun outside of some sort of video game.

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  10. And you found canning lids! The apples look great!

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  11. This is so very awesome. I love that you can have canned chicken broth. We had an apple tree that had a lot of apples but we didn’t spray the fruit either so there were bugs. My daughter, with Art’s help finally cut the tree down because the fruit then caused such a mess. It never occurred to us to core and dehydrate them. What a fabulous idea!

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