Thanksgiving Heritage turkeys - Day 2

What a day!

Day one of this year's turkey harvest was all about preparation... clean the equipment, set up the work area, contain the turkeys, contact all the customers, etc. Well... it all worked great except for one thing. I neglected to actually TEST the equipment, and sure enough... there were issues.

Today started perfect, with a light covering of snow on the ground, and snow falling as the sun awoke us. It was a beautiful scene.  At the crack of dawn I went out to fill and start the scalder. It takes a few hours to get it up to temperature so I like to start early.

The scalder is the device that loosens the feathers so that they can be easily removed. It is really just a metal box about 3 feet cube, with a propane burner and a thermostat. To be effective the water temp must be held between 140 and 145 degrees.  You dunk the turkey in the water for about a minute, agitating slowly, and all the feathers are loose.

Our well water starts out at about 50 degrees this time of year. Lighting the burner on the scalder at 7am would allow us to start about 10am.  I lite the pilot, waited for it to warm up, and turned on the burner.  Back in side to warm up and get ready. When I returned an hour later to hook up the water lines (subject of another blog post) I didnt hear a sound from the burner. Sure enough it had gone out! I relit and waited for a while to make sure it was running, then finished the water hookup and headed back inside.

Another hour went by and I had to run out to see how many gallons our brining buckets held. Again I noticed no sound from the burner. Out again. It was now 9am and the water was only 100.  Not good! Upon inspection I noticed the pilot was a lazy yellow flame! It wasn't even really touching the thermocouple. As soon as a light breeze blew, it cooled down enough to turn off the burner. This wasnt good!

I towed with the pilot adjustment, but no benefit. There was obviously a bad fuel/air mix on the pilot.  With no other choice, I drained out the water completely and turned the scalder over. There was no fuel air adjustment, as the air portion was hard set by the nozzle. That pointed to a gas delivery problem.  Removing hte pipe, I could blow air through the nozzle so it wasnt blocked completely. I removed the pilot unit completely and checked inside the housing. Nothing visible, except it seemed odd to be white inside. Curious i pushed a small screwdriver inside the nozzle. Ah Ha! the white i had seen was NOT the nozzle.. but a very thick cob web! The entire nozzle was full of a thick cobweb.  Humpf. Putting everything back together proved this to be the problem, a spider. Now the pilot was a blue rushing flame.

Problem was, now it was about 10am.  I refilled the tank with cold water and started it up again. Everything worked fine, but now it would be another 2 to 3 hours to reach temp.

The first bird or two was a bit difficult to defeather because we started when the temp was only 130. On thee big birds time can not make up for low temp. Lots of hand plucking resulted. But by 2 or so we were up to temp and running nicely through the process.

the birds themselves look beautiful!  The toms turned out a bit larger than anticipated. The fat was a pleasant surprise. I had some concern that our feeding method this year would result in less fat, but no! In fact for their age these birds had more fat then expected. And the fat had a perfect texture and color. These birds are going to be some of the tastiest ever!

Fortunately the weather was beautiful today! Sunshine, cool breeze, no rain or snow. Beautiful day to spend outside.  Brenda and I managed to process enough turkeys to fulfill the immediate orders. As of this writing the birds are soaking in the brine in a modified freezer. They will sit there for about 2 days, then get washed, wrapped, and delivered.

We might end up processing one more time before thanksgiving. There is still a waiting list. To decide if we have enough I need to examine the toms left to see if we can spare any. It is going to be a tough choice!