Chicken-Wrangling 201: From Coop to Crockpot

As interest in understanding the food chain grows, more people are choosing to raise chickens for both eggs and meat. This class involves a hands-on, humane approach to processing chickens, along with ideas for how to utilize the entire bird. You'll love learning from long-time "chicken wrangler" and experienced teacher Meg West, who leads this class at her backyard ranch in Santa Ynez.

What You Will Learn

• Humane slaughtering methods
• Defeathering and butchering
• Preparing meat for the freezer or refrigerator
• Best ways to tenderize homegrown meat
• How to use the whole bird

What You Take Home

• Meg's "Coop to Table" guide for processing backyard birds
• A small container of fresh, homemade stock
• Farm fresh eggs

Recommended for Folkies ages 18 and up. Have younger folks you want to bring? Kindly email us before you register to talk make arrangements.

Head Folkie for the Day

Meg West has over 30 years of experience raising chickens. "While some people may scoff at the thought, chickens do indeed have individual personalities," she says. "From the exciting moment they pop out of the eggs in the incubator to the day you have them sitting on your desk at work, they will delight and enlighten you."

With degrees in biology and education from UC Santa Barbara, Meg is a self described "goldfish trainer, chicken tamer, and kid wrangler" who teaches science at Dunn Middle School in Los Olivos. She keeps 30-50 chickens on her property in Santa Ynez— including 10 distinct pure bred varieties and her own concoction of hybrids. This doesn’t include the Sebastopol goose, the miniature call duck, the three coturnix (an Old World breed of quail), or the turkeys ... She knows what she's doing and she knows how to teach it. What else could you ask for?

"Our society needs to come back to its roots by raising (at least a part of) our own food," Meg says. "I used to be appalled at the thought of eating my own birds: How could I kill something that I fed and sheltered everyday? But after years of raising happy animals in the backyard I came to realize that I should instead be appalled by purchasing chicken from the store."