Chickens and Roosters

This afternoon we processed 7 poultry. We have had an explosion of chooks over the last 12 months and have been trying very hard to cull them all before Easter. I can just imagine one of our guests walking into their tent (a lot of the family are camping) and standing on an egg, or  a chicken walking in and scaring the heck out of one of the kids......this is what happens when you have real free range chicken. In the past we've really just done the roosters, but numbers are ridiculous, so hens are going too.

Tonight I decided to just put all the feet and necks into the crock pot and I'm going to have a go at a continuous broth. It won't be continuous for too long, probably only about 3 days - I'll see how it goes. I normally mix it up a bit and use chicken carcasses, feet, trotters, pork bones and beef bones. The idea of a continuous broth, is that after the first 12 hours, you start drawing stock off and using it. Then you top up with more water and throw in any bones or vegetable water that you have. Make sure that you cook it for several hours before using it, if they are bones that have already been chewed on!

Dinner was pork osso bucco, stir fried vegies and mashed potato and pumpkin. Potatoes were the only thing not local, except for all the spices etc in the osso bucco. I threw the bones into the crock pot too.

I went to the markets last weekend and stocked up on LOTS of fruit and veg for the party.
My list:
zuchini
button squash
snake beans
guada beans
carrots
lettuce
capsicum
tomatoes
pumpkin
sweet corn
baby corn
cucumber
chilli
eggplant
red onions (this will be the last of them)
avocado
sweet potato - white and orange
pineapple
banana
passionfruit
pawpaw
mango

If I can't prepare a feast with that, then I'm no sort of cook!!! These are all grown Locally, so I'm very lucky to have such good farmers in the area. In my garden I have lettuce, ceylon spinach, kankong, perenial spinach, silver beet (not much of these two survived summer, but what's left is going well now), kale, eggplant and plenty of herbs.