From day olds to main course.
Be it roast spuds or roast chicken Cindy and I have always been very comfortable with the idea of producing our own feed. Periodically over the past thirty years we raised meat birds from day olds to main course. We are not ‘foodie martyrs’, we are however pragmatists. The taste quality of home raised birds is ‘special’ and we bang the drum for home reared birds whenever we can. But rearing birds has cost and time penalties so when time or dosh are in short supply we go see the folks at TESCO’s. Hypocrites, maybe, but that’s the truth.
However I have to admit that the recent television programs by Hugh Fearnley Whittenstall and Jamie Oliver has touched a nerve with me. I am not comfortable buying birds (or any meat) where the costs are so tight that the welfare of the animal and possible the hygiene regimen may have been compromised. I have always sort meat packs that indicated the contents were raised in UK, I include Erie (mum came from Cork) because I genuinely believe that our farmers are good, if not the best in the world at what they do. I like the little picture of the farmer on the pack with sleeves rolled up and his cap on ‘cock eyed’. I know its soppy, but I trust him.
I’ve brought a lot of birds at ‘two for a fiver’ and when circumstance dictates I may have to again, but what I will say is that thanks to those programmes, I wont be buying them with a clear conscience!
Soap box is now stored away .
Because we still have ten birds in the freezer from the last batch we did, this time we are doing a top up batch of six birds and possibly another batch of twelve later in the year ready for Christmas.
The ROSS COBB chicks arrived 14 March 08
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