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| The best and hardest working parents you can have, Cliff and OPal Olson |
OK this is the true story, not that
the last one was not true but this one is staying on the subject.
When you grow up in the country you
learn to eat what is cooked and you grow, raise or hunt for your food. Now
don't get me wrong we did buy some things at the store like sugar, salt and
some processed foods. Now that I mentioned processed my favorite thing from the
store was POST Toasties. Man! I could eat those every day. I do remember the
day mom stopped making homemade biscuits. She bought some WHACK BISCUITS. Do
you know what those are? They come in a paper can with metal on each end and
you take off some of the paper then WHACK them up against the side of the
cabinet and out pops biscuits which you cook on a flat sheet for 10 minutes and
they taste great. Another thing that changed was SMASHED POTATOES NOT MASHED
POTATOES. Mom use to get potatoes out of the cellar which we raised in our
garden then boil them and then add butter, salt and pepper then she SMASHED
them. Now-adays she buys them in a box and you add water, milk, and whatever
and you have MASHED POTATOES. OK. OK, Chickens.
Once a year we would get up early in
the morning and get a giant galvanized wash tub out or a big steel pot and we
would build a fire under it once it was filled with water. About the time the
water was boiling we started catching chickens. Now that is not a small task as
once you start chasing them they pile up in the corner where you grab one with
your hands. You actually grab as many as you can handle and you hold on by
their legs. There are a couple of things you have to watch out for: One is you
need to get both legs else they will claw you and it hurts. Second you swing
them around to keep them from pecking on your hand or arm. Third is you either
take an ax and cut off their heads or your learn how to disconnect their head
from the rest using your boot or if you are really good you pop their heads
off. Gross! HUH! As soon as you have removed the heads you throw them and watch
as they are still flopping and I guess I will stop with the gross part of the
explanation. If you need to know more I will explain.
The next big step after they stop
flopping is you grab them and run over to the boiling water where typically mom
would dip them and the feathers would just fall off. Then you had to continue
plucking the feathers until they were clean which might take multiple dips in
the water. By the way it is a good idea to have the dogs and cats put up when
you are doing this else it becomes a circus.
The step just before putting them in
a freezer bag is gutting and a final wash. Now it was during this process that
a lot of folks and I disagree. That is I never kept the heart or liver except
for fish bait. Now Gizzards were not too bad but I just did not like the idea
of eating a gizzard even though they were tasty.
I know it is too late now but I
apologize for the PG-13 story today. Personally these scary movies are 100
times more graphic and I don't like to watch them and never let my kids watch
them either.
In summary each year I would guess
we butchered/put up 100 chickens for eat ‘n later. We also had oodles of
chickens for egg laying which we traded at Fred and Vera Mows store which later
became Dale's Feed Seed and Fertilizer store or Ruby Jackson's store. We traded
eggs just like cash for groceries and whatever else they carried that we
needed.
So what do you learn in the Osage?
· chickens are better when they are home grown
· you really appreciate your food more when you work for it
· when you have to grow/raise your own food you take better
care of it
Thanks for listening,
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