There are some things we city girls just don't grow up knowing - or doing

Just in case you haven't yet read Karen's blog since Saturday (Holes in My Jeans), you should take a few minutes and go there. She and Adam actually helped process over 650 chickens this past Saturday!

It's really quite an interesting read, as are all her posts, but just a little warning to my "city" friends before going there ~ there are such words as gutting, scalding, plucking, and beheading, just to list a few. Such words for us city girls can be nightmare-inducing.

Though I am a city girl, I've actually had a little experience myself with chicken processing ~ maybe not actual hands-on, but certainly eyes-on.  My grandfather used to raise chickens, and on most Sunday mornings he'd bring one of his chickens over to our house and actually behead it right there in front of us kids.  That headless chicken would then flop all over the place for what seemed like an eternity while us kids just watched wide-eyed and mouth agape. Mom would then put the chicken in a large galvanized tub and pour hot scalding water over it which apparently made plucking the feathers a lot easier.  She would then gut it and whatever else one does to a freshly-killed chicken before frying it up for Sunday dinner.

I never ate one of those chickens. Couldn't.  My chicken had to come from the grocery store. I guess it was easier for me not knowing the chicken personally.

I enjoy reading Karen's posts.  She make me think, and often times remember (as in the case above). I learn a lot too. Take those two earlier posts that addressed donkey and camel milking. Until I read those,  I never knew one could milk a donkey, let alone a camel, and then actually drink the milk.  Or maybe I just never thought about it...no, thinking back, I really didn't know. There are just some things we city girls just don't grow up knowing. Heck, I really didn't know you could milk a sheep. Now I know that some of the best mozzarella cheese comes from water buffalo milk, and that milk from a horse (donkey too) is similar to woman's milk. Zebra milk is drinkable, but one of the least nutritious sources of mammal milk. Llama milk is lower in fat and salt and higher in phosphorous and calcium than even cow or goat milk, but unfortunately is produced in such small quantities that only baby llamas can benefit. Moose milk is commercially farmed in Russia; and reindeer milk, while drinkable, is very difficult to obtain. (Wow! Like that's a surprise. It can't be easy milking something that flies!)

Anyway, I've only ever tasted cow's milk, and fairly recently, goat's milk.  I owe my experience with goat's milk to Karen.  If you follow her blog at all, you know she has acquired quite a few goats in the last couple of years, and now starts and ends each day with goat milking.  It was because of our friendship that this city girl even ventured out to taste goat's milk in the first place. 

Now she has a donkey...