It Doesn't Get Any Fresher...

Last night, Papaw took down two of our Barred Rock roosters. We wound up with six out of the clutch of chicks we got back at the beginning of last summer. We had already put two of them in the freezer a while back. So, we are down to two roosters now. We are pretty sure this should be about all we need for eleven hens. I guess we shall see.

We had been waiting to see which ones were more dominate and which ones we may wish to keep. We may regret this but we took out two of our feistiest roosters. They were being too aggressive we felt. They were pulling feathers from our hens and just had a general bad disposition. Papaw just wasn't going to put up with their abuse towards him either. He had been attacked a few times in going into the hen house and to feed. He said he understood their need to protect but they were just overzealous. He too wanted to see how one of those fellows would taste as a chicken noodle soup with dumplings. So, that is what we had for dinner last night.

After Papaw got off from work, he started the water boiling out there in the barn and got busy. He always takes care of our birds and I do not have to witness any of the the carnage. He gave me a call and told me to bring my soup pot and come to the barn. I walked in the door toting my big kettle. He put up hand and stopped me from coming too far into the barn. He didn't want me to see any of the mess. I held out my pot, turned my head and he placed this bird in my pot. It was kind of funny. I stewed up that big old boy and made this.

It truly was amazing and delicious. I have always heard folks say, nothing beats a fresh bird and they are right. I didn't have any frozen peas but I had soybean peas so, I used those instead. I had quiet a lot of it left over and I think I am going to freeze it in smaller package for using to make pot pies.