3.12.16





Duck Kill Goose



What kind of person kills a duck, drains its blood, plucks its feathers and eats it?

Read on below.





We've been practicing urban farming for several years. The time has come for us to kill our ducks and get them in the freezer. Wait, what is this, little house on the prairie? Heck no, they didn't have freezers back then. But, I have never killed an animal before, and I have to admit I’m pretty nervous. I enlist the help of a friend who is a fellow urban farm and has raised lots of animals for meat. I agreed to give him one of the two ducks for his assistance. I’m not really big on eating meat in the first place, but I’m definitely not a vegetarian. However, I may be one before the day’s over.


I tell myself I’m gaining a survival skill, just in case it ever comes to needing to do this to feed my family. Maybe I’ve been reading too much Cormac McCarthy. I don’t know. But I also feel some guild for having eaten meat my whole life and rarely thinking twice about where the meat has come from. Surely this is better than consuming something raised for slaughter at a huge meat factory. Still, I feel unsure. Veggies don’t require drawn out internal debates on ethics and survival.


But, in the end we do it, trying to make it as quick and painless as possible for them. It was fairly gruesome draining them of their blood as they suspend upside down over a bucket. But we were far from done with our work. We got some boiling water for them and dunk them before plucking the feathers and finishing up before we freeze them.


-Two months later-


We tried out two different recipes over the last month—BBQ duck and Duck a la King. The barbeque was actually really good. The sauce covered up the strong flavor of the duck that I’m not used to. The second recipe was good, but tasted way too strong for me. But we didn’t want it to go to waste, so we ate it up.


Looking back, I think I’ve thought more about the food we eat and have tried to consciously eat less meat. When we get ducks and chickens in the future we’ll just keep them until they age and die naturally. No need to kill them. Chicken and duck eggs are plenty for us. Instead, I think we’ll bump up our production in the veggie garden. Cheers.