Where does your food come from? plus Menu Plan October 18-24

It's very easy to go to the grocery store and pick neatly packaged food and never consider where it came from. Fruits and vegetables are often coated with pesticides. Perservatives are added to all kinds of prepared foods. Beef and chicken are raised in factory farms that are unhealthy for the animals being raised there, the workers caring for the animals, and the communities surrounding them. I have been fortunate enough to have friends who are generous enough to let me keep animals at their place and who are ambitious enough to take on the process of taking those animals from the pen to the plate.
We spent last weekend butchering, plucking and packaging chickens and turkeys. We will spend next weekend doing the same thing. I chose not to post any graphic pictures, but the work is dirty, and there is not an easy way to complete the process.
The payoff for the work is chicken that I know was raised outside of a cage, with no antibiotics or hormones. I was invested in the lives of these animals and equally invested in their death. My children helped and I hope they will appreciate the food on their plates more as a result of this intimate connection. Do you know where your food comes from?

Turkey and chickens roaming the barnyard.

Chicken round-up

Plucking by hand is by far the worst part of the process. We will fabricate a small mechanical

plucker for next weekend

The lighter half of this post contains this week's menu plan.

Monday: Dad's gone so it's kid's choice! Homemade Corndogs and French Fries

Tuesday: Chicken Fettucine Alfredo, Salad

Wednesday: Beer Can Chicken, Foil Packet Potatoes, Vegies

Thursday: Shredded Beef Tacos (with leftover roast from last weekend), Rice and Beans

Friday: Pork Chops with Jalapeno Jelly, Homemade Applesauce, leftover Fettucine and Sauce
Saturday: Beans and Hamhocks, Cornbread

Sunday: Chicken Noodle Soup (with leftover beercan chicken)

My Alfredo recipe is very simple. Saute shallots in butter, and cream. Remove from heat and stir in parmesan. Sometimes I saute cubes of chicken in the butter and build the sauce from their, but I want to save a little sauce for later in the week so I'm grilling the chicken and adding it at the end this time.

For more menus and planning ideas, visit The Organizing Junkie.