Changing it up a little y’all…my husband’s making me do it. He’s really good at pushing dragging me by the dug-in heels out of my introverted comfort zone.
So! Tomorrow morning! (Saturday, Sep. 10th) We’ll be going LIVE on Instagram for our waterfowl harvest. I don’t yet have access to the video feature here on Substack, so yes, I’ll be feeding the beast over there @habitofhusbandry.
I don’t love processing waterfowl. Even with a scalder and plucker, de-feathering requires more hand plucking than I prefer to even think about right now. There are methods which employ paraffin and are more efficient than our poultry-centric process, but for the few waterfowl we harvest each year, we just gidder done & call it good.
You’ve heard the reference to “multiplying like rabbits”? I’m telling you, the same could be said for ducks. It’s always around this time of year…when we can hear them move about the yard in a thundering herd through the nights, griping at one another, haranguing each other back and forth, leaving massive manure piles in lovely places like the front porch…when we think, “Where did all of these ducks come from!?”
It’s the same story year after year: adorable processions of ducklings in the Spring, overpopulation of obnoxious drakes in the Summer. And this year, two farmyard terrors (aka bachelor Toulouse ganders) are included in that number. Ergo, harvest time it is.
We don’t purchase meat for our household. With the very rare exception of taking the family out on special occasions for sushi, all of the meat we consume is raised right here on the farmstead or harvested from the wild in some manner. We are responsible for their lives. We are responsible for their ends. We are responsible for doing them justice on the table before those we feed.
And we are thankful.
This is an open comment thread, so if you’re interested in the process, have questions, suggestions, etc. - please leave comments below! I’ll pop back here and post pictures & updates, but if you want the live play-by-play, Lord willing, the five of us will be on IG @habitofhusbandry starting tomorrow AM.
We had a wonderful day yesterday! It was a relatively small harvest for us, just 8 ducks and 2 geese - but we have a lot of fun on those kicked back days. You can see the highlights here! 👉🏼 https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTYzMDc5MjU2ODAwNjgy?story_media_id=2924232279187436745&igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=
😘❤️
I love it mom