Harvest Day

No Running Away on Harvest Day

A lovely day for a harvest. Let's meet the turkeys:

Some helpers had to be penned in:

Once a turkey is caught, it is gently turned upside down and carried, as the rush to the head has a calming effect on the bird. The bird is made immobile to prevent unnecessary injury to it:

The farmer uses a very sharp knife with the dexterity of a surgeon, making a small cut on the neck that kills the bird instantly and as painlessly as possible. (We have pictures and will be happy to make them available upon request.)

This particular farmer, Martin Schaffer of Four Seasons Farm, escaped Czechoslovakia just before the Iron Curtain fell.  A wise and kind man, he believes that if an animal dies for your meal, you must make sure none goes to waste to better honor it. As each bird was killed, the blood from the neck was collected in a saucepan (we have pictures of this, too. Aria was a very busy photographer.) Martin eventually made a delicious blood sausage and shared with everyone.

The partially drained carcass was then quickly scalded:

 

Waiting volunteers plucked some of the largest feathers, then put the bird into a plucking barrel:

The barrel rotated the bird around and the rubber fingers took off the majority of the feathers.

The denuded turkey was then brought to a room of first-time volunteers who pulled off the remaining pin feathers:

Did you know that when birds blink, their eyelids come up from the bottom? That was a bit of trivia one of the volunteers shared. She was an old hand, having helped Martin harvest and process chickens earlier in the year:

Once completely naked, the birds went into ice water for a period of time:

The children came in to warm up and snack before running out to play with puppies, piglets, and other four-legged friendly creatures. While they explored the delights of hay bale leaping, the adults learned about permaculture – a holistic approach to farming, gardening, livestock rearing, in which every facet helps some other part just like in nature.

And warmed up.

When our friend, mentor and guru decreed the birds had cooled enough, he brought one in and gave us a biology lesson. The head was cut off as high on the neck as was possible and placed in a specific bucket (the head bucket, naturally enough.) The skin on the neck was cut off, and the neck itself was partially cut at its very base after carefully working around and pulling out the turkey's craw. A good pull would twist the neck off but technique was important. The bird was then flipped and again, our friend showed his surgeon-like technique with a knife, slicing around the anus so as not to pierce the gall bladder, and opening up the back of the turkey. A large hand went in, right up against the rib cage, grasped everything inside and rocked back and forth until all came out with it through the opening. Then a careful cutting of gizzards, heart, and liver for the edibles bowl, while intestines, gall bladder and remainder went into the offal bucket.

The official photographers took photos assiduously, even eagerly snapping away at the head bucket and the offal bucket. Again, these photos are available upon request.

Once dissected, the birds went into clean ice-water filled buckets. We bagged our birds, with respective edible spare parts, and drove home after a long day in the snow-swirled mountain air.

The end result: flavorful, moist turkey and a great deal of gratitude and respect for it.