Scratching the
Surface of – The Chicken (Gallus gallus
domesticus)
Chicks, domestic
fowl, chickens, Hen and chickens, roosters, pullets, chooks, yardbird, capon,
boiling fowl, poultry……
What a wonderful bird the domestic chicken is, as animal,
pet, food source, of historical significance and personality of delight! We have
a love–hate relationship with the bird.
It’s a fashion accessory for the new kitchen-gardening-allotment
scenario, the self-help and self-sufficiency culture. The animal is fun to watch, strutting about
the garden or roaming over a green field, good to breed and show, good for all
to cook, eat and relish.
We all just love enjoying it on high days and holidays and
on every other day, too, whenever we can!
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| My quick chunky chicken soup! |
The plucked bird is easy to prepare, cook and enjoy, in such
a variety of different menus, ways of preparation, whole or portioned, it’s
quite probable one could eat a whole rota of various methods for some period,
without any repetition whatsoever!
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| Busy day lunch - home-made Coleslaw on toasted Spelt Muffin |
This fowl has been with us for a very long time and we know
it well. We've kept a clutch of chickens in our back gardens, enjoyed or
endured their clucking natures about the back door, shoo-ing them outside when
they've had the temerity to wander indoors, in search of more food.
Their wandering freely about the garden has been an ongoing
problem for gardeners, agonised by the strutting hens, plucking and nibbling on
prized plants and flowers, by their messy droppings, stray feathers and general
ensuing untidiness. However, as we
discovered, our wandering chickens also decimated the burgeoning slug population
when they gobbled up their eggs. So
their mess and detritus was eventually forgiven!
My grandparents kept chickens in a large shed from where
they had access to an area beyond this, where they scratched about during the
day, in a country home where they were subject to a night-time-prowling fox, if
left outside. Chickens will naturally
“put themselves to bed” at the twilight hour, leaving their carer to shut them
in, safely, against the night!
My own father kept both free range hens and battery hens, as
a hobby and for extra income, as countless others have done, before and
since. The dear SO kept three, much
loved, chickens running about the garden and we certainly enjoyed their fresh
eggs, delighting in the warmth of a new laid egg, marking each one with its
date, before storing them in a small wicker basket. We even sold a few to friends and neighbours.
Keeping chickens is now all the rage, a fashionable thing to
do, going well with the self-help and self-sufficiency culture we all
enjoy. An economic necessity in today’s
straightened times. The keeping of chickens,
as pets, in the garden, giving each one an individual name, feeding them by
hand, when they have become pests and demanding your attention, has featured in
many family situations. We have even
used their discarded tail feathers for decorating play-clothes and headdresses
or, using them in artistic displays, or as writing quills!
Where should we be without this bird, this historic fowl?
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| Our three hens out on a spree! |
The chicken is a great bird for all seasons and reasons, for
rearing and farming, for their meat and eggs for feeding and enjoyment and, for
dear Little Henny Penny’s wanderings about the garden, gobbling up those horrid
slug’s eggs –I do so hate slugs, I can’t even bear to leave salt out in the
garden to kill them!!!
The great debate between free range and intensive farming
methods will continue and is something I am not qualified to comment on here
but I have seen, at first hand, the difficulties and problems of both systems.
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| the hen house! |
Rearing chickens is one thing, eating their meat and eggs
quite another. Chicken meat used to be
regarded as a luxury item for the Christmas table. Then it became the “must-have” item for the
family delight and budget. This last
Christmas, saw us eating the most expensive chicken my daughter had ever
cooked, she told me, as the golden cooked bird was placed before us, a glorious
free range bird bought from our local butcher.
It was truly delicious but, goodness knows, when they got thru’
eating all of that meat!!!
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| Chicken breast smothered in Sharwood's Butter Sauce, grilled, with a scattering of almond flakes |
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| My gluten-free Pancake stack with a chicken, mushroom and almond flake filling |
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| Chicken breast, Sharwood's Butter Sauce and flaked almonds |
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| Buttery Chicken and mushroom filling....! |
My potato salad was great, too!
Daisy
PS My thanks to Wikipedia for the information contained on their Chicken Pages, for which I am most grateful.
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