Of Chicken and Feet

Many of you may recall that last summer, we took part in a CSA program for organic produce. It turned out really well, and we would have done it again this year if travel plans hadn't interfered.

However, leave it to my resourceful wife to find a great alternative. Doing some of her patented research (maybe not patented, but it should be!), she discovered a local chicken CSA. After talking about it and checking it out, we decided to go for it. After all, who wouldn't like to get two fresh chickens each month to eat?

On Friday, we drove up to find the farm, which is located in a scenic part of our mountain valley. The two young men who were at the farm picked out our chickens and bagged them up for us. However, this is where it gets fun for this particular CSA. Carrie had also said that we wanted the feet and the liver and heart. So they gave us the heart and liver for our two chickens, but then gave us a full bag of chicken feet, as you can see here!

Yes, that is a lot of chicken feet. So what were we planning to do with them, you are probably wondering? Well, let's just say that we weren't really going to eat them. However, some of the people that Carrie works with are Chinese. Chinese people, especially the ladies, believe that chicken feet help give a lady beautiful skin when they eat the feet, so Carrie had told one of the students that she could have them, and we delivered them to her later that night.

However, we were really looking forward to our first chicken. So today, I looked up a few ideas for how to prepare it, seasoned it, and then stuck it in the oven. About an hour and a half later, here's what it looked like. Yummy, eh?  It was the juiciest chicken we have ever eaten!  We both commented that it was almost too juicy for us.

We still have one more chicken from this pick up, and I'm already putting together a few ideas for what to do with it. But needless to say, we're really thinking that this chicken CSA has been a really good idea so far!