One got out
I arrived at the Masse’s Hilltop Farm to finish up my photos for Livin’ Magazine and found the crew out chasing some runaways. This happens every once and a while, and since the customers bring the birds in to butcher, rather then buy butchered birds, every one needs to be accounted for.
The Masses process poultry, and if Marcel looks familiar, it is because he is also the Goat Man I have written about. This family operation provides an important service in the rural and farming community. Here, folks bring their birds; chickens, turkeys and ducks for butcher.
The day I returned to the farm, Pete was bringing 450 birds to be processed. Marcel started at 6:30am prepping and was in process by 7:00. He travels 100 birds per hour, then a bit more for cleanup, going 5 1/2 hours for the distance.
The masses work as a team, Jason is in the slaughter room, and gathers up the birds, placing them in a row, head down in cones mounted against the wall. Heads down so they don’t see what is coming and his knife is swift. Right down the row, heads off and the birds stay securely confided as they bleed out. Every thing drains to a central hole in floor, making cleanup efficient.
Then the birds are placed into scalding water to loosen the feathers. Into the plucking machine, which is a spinning cylinder with rubber finger like suction cups that pull the wet feathers off the carcass. Next through a hole in the wall where Marcel hangs them and guts them.
Seconds after being cleaned out, the birds are chilled down in a tub of water, where ice cold spring water is pumped in from the family’s artisan well. Then the birds are double wrapped in freezer plastic. There is an ice chest just outside the butchering room, and the bird are packed in ice for travel home to the freezer. 
No additives or preservatives. Birds in a bag, that’s all. You get what you put into them. Feed them organically and you get an organic chicken.
Vermont is a bit wack-a -doo on this. Anybody can raise a bunch of birds in their back yard, butcher them, wrap them up and sell them at a farmer’s market. However, Marcel is a state licensed and inspected processing opperation. You can not sell birds at farmer’s market that you have processed here, nor can Marcel raise the birds, butcher them and sell them. How utterly stupid is that.
Another blog for another day.
If you are in the area and would like to contract Marcle to process your birds for you, here is the information:
Marcel and Paula Masse, 387 Eden Mountain Rd. Craftsbury Vt. 05826. I don’t want them to be harrased by Peta type people, so if you want their number becuase you want to hire them, email me with that request.
