No More Food Shortages| 500 LBS of Meat in 58 Days

Hi, we got their feet up. It's, uh, 2 hours before we butcher, so that's better than nothing. We're hustling to do our chores first. It's cold, so we want to warm up a little bit. We'll start to, uh, start the workshop at 9, so let's get everything done. Want to? Good morning, Arun. Good morning. Got a leak. Oh yeah, bad leak. Let's drain this thing. Our scalders leaking. We're gonna empty out this water that way we can get that connection there and see what's going on. I've taken off this and we're just gonna redo it, maybe this washer's getting worn out, uh, but maybe it got pinched or something and some water was getting through. I repositioned this washer. Hopefully that's gonna do it. Hold out, we're filling it up more. We're filling it up right now. Steam. It would be a bad day if this doesn't work. Actually, we could probably scald over a fire. It'd be a real bad day if this won't work. The plucker. You gonna try it?

Yeah. Working?

Yeah.

Okay, so I didn't see the side one spinning, and then I remembered they don't spin, only the bottom. Okay, what do you— what are you thinking, Ryan?

Water really like, uh, cover this tap, so it's just fine.

It'll be more and more pressure as it gets higher, but it looks like it's holding, right?

Yep.

Okay, where do you think they are?

I don't know. I already touched up there on the other porch.

Okay, we're down here getting some nets. We need some extra nets for moving our things.

He—

and I guess we're looking for some shoes.

I'm wearing boy shoes.

Hey, anything you can find, honey. Where you're going? Is that where your shoes are?

No, look in the basement.

Okay, where do you— hey, where do you think you took them off at?

I don't know.

Some shoes. No boots. I don't know why I always look here because this is where they're supposed to go. They're not there either, the second place they should be. Perhaps that's the third place. Nope. I found them in there before. Nope. Find one of our very nice stainless steel bowls though. Look, our lettuce is germinated. What about our carrots? Maybe our carrots have germinated.

Look at that, there they are.

That's cool. I just realized I still need to feed the pigs. We have 1 hour till the workshop. We still need to milk the cows. If I were a little boy's boots, where would I be? There's no telling. We still got to get ice for the cooling off the chickens. You think he'll wear those shoes?

Why not?

Be a bit big for him. Where's he at?

Upstairs.

What happened?

He's just staying up there.

I guess he's going to stay up there till it gets warmer. I gotta go and then he can come out barefoot. Let's put up these nets. Jonah, you build off up there. I'll go start down here. Okay, the cows come through this exciting because this— because we've gotten rid of our lanes, we just went from this paddock to this paddock, just went right through the woods. They can get in there. The sheep will love it, don't you think? Come on, stud. Come on, come on. Here he comes, here he comes. Don't miss it, dude. All right, there you go. We got our ice, we got the cows milked, people are starting to get here. Let's do this. Catching chicken time. Anybody wants to catch a chicken, let's see who's the real chicken ninja master.

Go!

You like chicken rodeo.

Emma's back. Have you ever caught a chicken? No. All right, today will be your first day. What's your name? Gavin. Okay, Gavin, let's do it. See if anybody want to ride. There you go. Good job, Gavin. And where were y'all last time? What's your name? Eric. You got two?

Yep.

Have you caught a chicken before? Plenty. Okay. Eric, have you butchered a chicken before? Never. Okay. What's your name?

I'm Nate.

Nate, have you ever caught a chicken before?

No, first time.

Really?

Yeah. Well, you did good.

Thank you.

You get a couple people involved, this goes by very quickly.

Hello! I'm wondering, where, where have y'all been? Where are we all the last butchering? Everybody send them in real nice, one on top of the other, or they scratch each other. Whoa, that's a record! Jonah, I bet you like that.

Yeah, these are like, what's going on right now?

Name, where you're from, and why you're excited to do this.

Me first?

You first.

Okay, my name's Emma and, um, I'm from Conover, North Carolina, and not really excited to do this. I mean, I am excited because I'm at someone else's place doing it, but yeah, I've done it before, so it'll go by quickly.

Yes, let me tell you, it is funner at somebody else's place. Pressure's off. If, if the scalder leaks like it did this morning, or the ice is— it's my problem ultimately, not yours, right? What's your name and where are you from and why are you excited about getting your hands gutty?

Oh, I'm Jennifer, um, from Conover, North Carolina, and just excited to help. Um, we've had plenty of help with butchering our chickens, and I just think it's important to extend that help to others, so Nice.

Uh, Eric from Warner Robins, Georgia, originally from Pennsylvania, but just excited to kind of get my hands dirty. Grew up a farm kid, so, um, just buying a homestead ourselves right now, and I want to do this in a few months.

Congratulations.

Christina from Lowsville, North Carolina, originally Indiana. We're just north of Charlotte, and I just want to learn how to do it myself in case I do want to get meat chickens Plus I brought my son along.

Yes, this is your son?

Yes.

Uh, I'm Gavin. I'm from where my mother said. Um, I'm here to learn about it so I can do it with my mother, and I'm doing it for SAE hours.

My name is Sean Higgins. I'm coming out of Knoxville, Tennessee, and I'm excited to do this because I'm hungry. Uh, not really. I'm excited because we actually just started our own homestead and we plan on getting meat birds in spring. So I want to learn.

All right, nice.

Yeah.

Okay, so here, let's do one first for you guys. We're gonna pull them through and you cut on both sides.

Uh, I just cut one really hard, but okay, don't get it right.

So you want to go harder than too light. You're going right above his jaw. There's— you can even feel it there. Okay, and I'll help you guys. I'll help you on this process. Yeah, that jaw. Yep. Okay, and he's gonna slit. Okay, we are on our way. I got folks going in for the first time. I'm gonna help people kill, pluck, scald, and then eviscerate. What are we, maybe halfway done?

Almost.

It's taken us a while, but that's okay. It's, it's their very first time. Take some pressure off yourself. The very first time, I think it took me all day to do like 3 birds my very first time. But it's only 10:30, we've only been at it half an hour, and I dare say we probably got half the birds done. What do you think, Haroon? How are they doing? How's everybody doing?

Oh, they're pretty good.

I think we might need— you what?

They're pretty fast.

These guys are getting with it. Yeah, we're doing it.

This is bird number 4 for me.

Nice. Yeah, good job, buddy. First impressions?

Um, check back in the way.

You don't have to say a thing. That says it all. What food you growing at home? I'll get your mind off of it. Well, maybe not chickens.

Um, I have a small, small container garden and raised bed garden, but not much else.

Uh, why do you do that?

Um, keep myself busy, really. And I want to try to learn how to grow other things other than just tomatoes and cucumbers and flowers.

Nice. So what's the next new thing?

Um, probably meat birds, but down the road, not anytime soon.

Well, you'll be prepared now to harvest.

Oh yeah, and my husband will love it. Because it'll be outside.

Okay, you've done how many?

This is bird number 7.

Okay, what do you think? Hard?

You know, it's easier than I thought it would be. I walked into it kind of intimidated by the process, but once you get 2 or 3 birds under your belt, it's actually not— like I was saying, like, it's kind of enjoyable. Like, it's an honest day's work. It feels kind of good to do it.

Do you grow food at home?

I'm trying to. We just bought our homestead, and right now we've got 12 layer birds. I'm just finishing up my, uh, Chickshaw Mini Me. Um, and I don't know what we're doing next. We still need to figure that out. I think we're gonna plant some—

a kitchen garden.

Yeah, and then after that, the sky's the limit, I guess. All right, here we go.

Oh, pulling the skin off. Yep, cool. Nice. Here we go, all in one shot, buddy.

Now I'm cutting at an angle this way, correct?

Good. Yes, so it doesn't pierce the bag. Good job.

What are you growing at home? Uh, nothing at the moment because we live in the suburbs, but we're in the process of buying a 12-acre homestead, so I'm gonna start with meat birds and, uh, beef cow or two and plant a garden in in the spring.

How long is that gonna take?

Uh, buying the homestead?

Yeah.

Uh, we closed, uh, November, so about 30 days away.

Okay. How did you guys get the courage to do that? You're going from suburbia to— it's gonna be different. How did you get the courage?

Well, I'm originally a farm kid. I grew up on a dairy farm, so the farming aspect, the animal aspect, is not new to me. I've always wanted to get back to it. Yeah, and, um, kind of always thought it was going to be traditional agriculture until about a year ago, until I came across you and, uh, Joel Salatin's stuff. And so the last year has been just educating myself on regenerative ag and the new way of growing animals, because I grew up with the traditional from— yeah, growing up on a dairy farm.

So yeah, well then, does your— does your family think you're nuts?

Um, they don't really know a whole lot about what we're doing yet because it's so new. Um, it's just a matter of, uh, they know we're buying a small farmette or farmstead, but that's about it.

Are they excited about that?

I think so, yeah.

Or they think you're nuts. A lot of these old-timer farmers are like, a lot of hard work. Yeah, a lot of money. They don't know it doesn't have to be that way.

Yeah, if I told my dad or uncle, uh, the details, they'd probably think I was nuts.

Tell them about the dollar bills. Keep it, keep it with the dollar bills. Yeah, no, this could be very profitable. You can have a very right livelihood doing this.

You're doing good, Nate.

Yeah, I mean Towards the end, you took off the little feathers, but it's looking good. You didn't pierce the skin. You feel like you got the hang of it?

Yeah.

Harder, easier than you thought?

What, uh, I thought it was gonna be a lot harder at first, but this is actually really not that bad. Yeah, um, I mean, this is only my third bird, but I'm feeling pretty comfortable so far. So I'm gonna go eviscerate this thing now.

What you growing at home?

Uh, just veggies at the moment. Uh, we're living in a 280-square-foot trailer, so we don't have a lot of room. Uh, it's my wife, myself, and my two dogs. So we got some veggies in the windowsill, um, and that's about all we got room for right now.

I knew this, I knew this, and I didn't think you knew that, but actually I didn't think he was going to say anything because I knew he was on the road. Good for you, man. No excuses, just plant, even if it's in a windowsill.

There's never a perfect opportunity, there's never a perfect time. You just got to do it.

There's never the perfect land.

There's never— yeah, you know, we, we thought we were going to do this about 2 years ago, and it took us a long time to prepare and get ready for it. And then COVID hit, and it's like people thought we were crazy for still doing it. You know, we, uh, yeah, decided to move out of the, out of the city and start our own farm. There's just never a perfect time.

Yes, you're in an RV traveling the country looking for a farm.

Correct.

COVID or no COVID.

COVID or no COVID. Nothing's going to stop us from doing what we want to do.

That's what actually got us going. I think it was back in March And there was a day where we walked into the grocery store and all the shelves were empty. I don't know if you guys remember that, but everything was gone just suddenly. And so I think that's when it kind of clicked for my wife and I that this isn't as— this is a lot more tenuous than you might think it is, the food system.

Yes.

So that's when we started getting a lot more serious about buying things. And we were here in Asheville at the time.

Good point. When you went to the grocery store the other day, what happened?

Oh, I was in Whole Foods, so this one lady asked this, uh, guy who worked there, she asking about some spice because spice aisle was like kind of empty.

Yeah.

So he said, I suggest you get from the fresh side because we are backed up like order till January 2021.

Yeah, this is spices.

Yeah, all the spices was like empty.

So demand's going up, manufacturing's slowing down. It's been a problem. He had a very good point, and we've seen in our business of creating content surrounding homesteading and selling our member area, just like the interest just going through the roof. And the message has really shifted from just doing this for health, just being connected to your food trying to save some money, that's one thing, and those things are wonderful. But what it became this year is like, this is necessary. Like, I must do this. This is food security. That's what it became this year. The importance of this just entered everybody's mind because there is something so comforting about These were just out in my field this morning, and there they are. Now they're going to my freezer, and I don't have to worry about going to the grocery store and it not being there. That's important. And if there's anything good going to come out of what's happened to us this year with the quarantines and that, it's gonna— it's good that more and more people are now moving to the country, growing their own food. This is a good thing overall for their heart and soul, for their security, for the regeneration of the land. If they do it like this, like what we're doing, this is a good thing now and in the long run. So you were telling me— yes, you, you're not, you're not new to this, or you are? Sort of new to this. It's not your first time butchering?

Yeah, not first time.

But you've only been growing food for how long?

Um, I would say probably for just about a year now, really.

And how'd you guys get started?

We actually came across your channel several years ago, and that started our journey to decide to buy land.

That's crazy.

And, um, so we sold our house in the city and purchased 18 acres of raw land. There used to be a nursery, a tree nursery.

Yeah.

And, um, we've basically started to pioneer a farm.

Wow.

So is it going good or bad?

Challenges, yes. There have been many challenges, but many— I know that.

Yes, it's all, it's all good.

I mean, we have a creek that runs through our property you know, similar to what you guys have, and we've had it overrun our area several times. So that was one big challenge. But we've actually raised 2 batches of Cornish Cross chickens. The last one we did, we bought about 100, we got 104, and then we ended up with 78 at the end because we have a lot of hawks in our area.

Yeah. Was it harder or easier than you thought that I make it look?

Actually, I expected the challenge level I did. I think some family members didn't.

They were wondering where the music was, right?

Um, but in all honesty, it's, it's nice to really get your hands in there and know what you're doing. And this is, you know what you put into that food.

Yeah.

And you know what you're getting out of it.

What would you say to somebody who's where you were 2 years ago, watching the show, thinking about this? Getting excited, getting excited, but they're scared. What would you say to them to motivate them, to let them know they can farm?

If they have never tried anything in their own area where they're at, just, just start to do something. Grow some food, or if you're able to have chickens, start with some laying hens. I think that's what they call like the entry-level, yeah, animal. So we started that way in the city, and you know, that's what we carried into moving into our new property.

Emma, you got anything to add to your mom's statements? Tell us the truth, Emma.

Lots of struggles.

Lots of struggles.

Lots and lots.

It's never—

but you're still— but you're still here. You're like still my friend. Never wrote me off. Oh, she's like, who said I was your friend? You haven't wrote me off. You're still here. So what keeps you pushing through those struggles?

I really love being outside. I mean, I can't— like, I'd rather spend the day outside than be inside all day.

So would you think—

I can't stand being inside.

So would you think it's fair to say a bad day farming is, is better than a good day inside?

Yeah, it's fair to say that.

All right, we've had lunch. We eviscerated, we've got them cool. We're gonna start— we're bagging now. Let's make sure this is staying hot. Still at 80, 85. Still hot. This is the some crew, man. You guys are gonna be on it. Who's gonna be the first to butcher their own chickens after this?

I wish. Hey, I wish.

Eric, you're it. Yep. You're gonna buy— you're gonna buy a run this fall. I'm hoping to. You're still gonna get in because you're down in Georgia, it doesn't get too cold there. All right, go for it, buddy. We're dunking that in.

2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi.

That's good. Yep. So we've got them drying on my drying rack. We have put them in bags. Oh, Jonah! Zip ties, and then put— poke a hole in it and the air just comes out. Something about it, having 180 degrees, pulling it, boom. It's like a super easy vacuum seal. We had a good time butchering today. What a good group of people. What an inspirational group of people. This is this you-can-farm mentality, this just-plant mentality. These guys are no different than you, and actually I'm no different than you. We all start at zero. We all started knowing nothing. The theme here, I recall Joel Salatin's thing, one of his books, his most popular-selling book, You Can Farm. You can farm, guys. I've got his motivational speech. I want to give it to you, no charge. It's in celebration of his new book that's coming out. I'm just giving away his You Can Farm speech. Down in the description. You can get that at polyfacedesigns.com. I've got all kinds of bonuses there for you just, just for joining our email list. So check that out. And being on our email list, you'll have the first opportunity to actually get Joel Salatin's newest book with all the bonuses I'm throwing in. So check that out, polyfacedesigns.com, or I'll leave the link in the description for those of you who have a description. All right, see you tomorrow.