In this installment I’m going to be fairly detailed about
both the process of dispatching the rabbits and my feelings and thoughts about
the process. If that’s not comfortable to read about, please go no further, but
also go knowing that we were as careful and respectful as good stewards could
be. I can assure you that it will give me a whole new meaning to saying a
prayer of gratitude at dinner time.
So it was a busy weekend on the urban farm that culminated
in butchering our first batch of rabbits. I thankfully had 2 more experienced
helpers, so it was a fairly smooth process. I’ll try to detail the devices my
dad made to hold the rabbit for the killing and the other device to hanging
them while butchering. I know these were just prototypes and we’ll work
together to create something that works more effectively.
Initially I had basic ideas of the processing taking place
in 3 stations: dispatch, butcher, and cutter/bagging for the freezer. It did
work out that way though I also wanted to make sure I was able to try each job.
Having good light is essential and since we were working in my garage for
discretions sake, we made sure to have portable lighting. That and an old shower
curtain behind the stations kept the mess to a minimum were pretty key to
making the job go as well as it did.
A few words about my help for the day. My father was present
to lend his deer hunting and old time farm knowledge. He came with the tools
he made to help with the job since I was not interested in spending the money
to buy them. One was a steel device for holding the head of the rabbit and quickly
separating the neck vertebrae and the other was a holder for the feet while
skinning and cleaning. And a newer friend, Kevin, came with all the experiences
of childhood farm and long- time chef. He also brought his travel chef
knife set and a change of clothes, no doubt due to his past experiences with
butchering, and his lovely family who were very tolerant of the chaos that reins at my house.
I also want to take a minute and let readers know that I was
more than a little nervous about doing this. It’s not that I don’t feel capable
and I had taken reasonable pains not to coddle or otherwise befriend my
soon-to-be food. Having said that, on any given weekend you might have seen me
clipping blackberry canes and willow twigs because I have learned how much the
rabbits care for munching on them. I didn’t do that over a sense of guilt at
their upcoming demise, it was more out of concern and pride that I was giving
them to the best of my ability a life that they were cared for and doing normal
domestic bunny kinds of things. I did spend some anxious times leading up to
this wondering how I would do, would I be sad, would they be hard for me to
actually eat? I occasionally had visions of my family digging into delicious fricassee
while I sat in sorrow with a salad because I got too attached to my charges.
To my immense relief, it was not that complicated. It’s like
any of the things I have done that are perhaps somewhat out of the mainstream: Skydiving,
Flying, oddly enough the Polar Bear Plunge –it’s different than what you
imagine in your mind, and much more straight forward. It wasn’t that I was void
of emotion about it. It was more that I said my mental thank-yous to them and
left it at that. I did not actually end any of their lives, not necessarily
because I didn’t want to, but more because the device we built for vertebrae separation
did not work quite like we thought so it took a little more force than we
planned for. (Next time I will make sure
to do this part of the job as well, just so that I feel like I have taken full
part in this experiment.) But as soon as they were dead I was in there cleaning
them and dressing them and it was different than I thought but I’m not sure I
can explain. Certainly more businesslike with a certain curiosity to learn a skill. We
learned how to work as a team and while the first rabbit took us 45 minutes to
dispatch and butcher, the last one only took us 10 minutes.
Based on their smaller size, I have decided to wait another
2 weeks or so to take care of the younger batch of 7 still in the greenhouse
with the adults. They grew significantly slower despite only being a week
younger, so I redistributed them in the cages so there are only a couple per
cage. I have read that animals will grow slower in a smaller environment, so we’ll
see how that does. I suspect my feed and other expenses to meat/pounds is crap for this batch, but if
I took out the long term expenses like cages and feeders it improves a great
deal. Hopefully my own efficiencies will also improve as I learn what works
best and how to do chores for their care faster.
I feel like I’m still processing what my thoughts are about
all of this. For now I feel positive and encouraged that this was a good thing
to embark on and will continue to add updates about it.
In other news, I have spent all the tears and worry I could
over my peach trees with their fungus and just chopped the buggers down. We will
burn the wood before spring so they can’t spread the fungus blight to other
things in the yard. I’m also fessing up here that I have embarked on some destruction
of public property by attempting to ring a lovely boulevard maple whose roots
have competed hard enough with my Asian pears as to kill one of them and severely
limit the growth of the other. I’m also getting started with seeds in a couple
weeks and I’ll make sure to detail that along with the other preparation for
spring.
I won’t post any of the more graphic pictures of our
butchery this weekend, but I will post my helpers hard at work. It was great to
have their knowledge and was a good example of many hands making for light
work.
