26 MOTHER EARTH NEWS December 2016/January 2017What began as one family’s quest for afford-
able, healthful food has become a surprisingly
rich experience that Sarah says she can’t help
but share. Now called Plenty Heirloom Farms,
the project has continued to develop organically,
and its mission of “sharing the wealth of food
and reviving the local village” is evident in many
community activities.
The Sailers built a wood-fired oven, and
they sell bread once a month at a local brewery.
Plenty Farms hosts farm-to-table meals in fall to
raise funds and to involve the community. Sarah
has organized classes on seed starting and fer-
mentation, and she plans to add more classes on
composting, animal husbandry, canning, and
bread baking. She partners with a friend who
teaches cooking classes and who shares recipes
with the CSA program.
Kids from two neighborhood schools visit
for field trips each year (see photo on Page 27).
After touring the vegetable garden; smelling
lemon balm; looking at the beehive; tasting flat-
bread baked in the outdoor oven; learning how
compost works; seeing the rabbits and chick-
ens and discussing how these animals provide
meat, eggs, and manure, Sarah hopes they’ll be
inspired and that seeing a farm right there in
the neighborhood will spark a new outlook on
where and how we grow food in our society.Learning Together
Sarah didn’t grow up with homesteading
knowledge, but she’s drawn to the experiences
of her ancestors, who wouldn’t have imagined
that the next generation wouldn’t know how to
save seed or butcher an animal.
She’s learned by reading and researching, but
mostly by reaching out to others, jumping in,
and encountering many trials and errors. (Read
about one of those adventures in “An ‘A-peel-
ing’ Homesteading Skill,” left.) When she tried
growing winter greens unsuccessfully, she found
the sister of a neighbor who had succeeded with
season extension locally. When she ordered rab-
bits without any real plan, she happened to run
into a woman at the feed store who’d been rais-
ing rabbits for years. When she struggled with a
slug problem, she brought in ducks and toads.
Lynn Peterson didn’t have previous knowl-
edge of gardening, either. “I’ve never gardened
before in my life. I was drawn in by Sarah’s con-
tagious excitement to share and my willingness
to accept a good challenge and learn something
new.” And now the Petersons have the garden
and chickens, and they’ve butchered a roosterAn ‘A-peel-ing’ Homesteading Skill
My grandparents and great-grandparents knew the basics of how to store root veg-
etables, of how to make their own bread, and probably, how to peel chicken feet.
But me?
We’ve been raising chickens since our firstborn was tiny. After we decided to try to
grow as much food as possible, we began to see the chickens as more than a hobby.
We wanted them to put to use in every way. Learning how to butcher our own chick-
ens was another way to value these animals. We’d spent a couple of years learning to
butcher, process, and prepare our own chickens and rabbits we’d raised. It felt good
knowing we weren’t wasting anything.
But were we?
We’re believers in homemade bone broth and use our vegetable scraps and leftover
bones regularly. One secret to a nutritious bone broth, I’d read, was chicken feet.
Now, chicken feet are really nasty. They’re the hen’s best tool to scratch, dig, and
fling. No matter how clean you keep your coop, those claws are downright dirty.
How on earth would I be able to clean those feet well enough to get them anywhere
near our food? I finally got up the courage to save some for the pot. The girls used a
brush, and we scrubbed them outside as best we could.
But these feet have scales, and the scales get dirt and junk under them — kinda
like fingernails. (Are you gagging yet?) No matter how much I scrubbed, I couldn’t get
them clean enough.
The chicken feet I’d seen for sale before looked clean. What was I doing wrong?
I picked up the phone and called my homesteader friend Will. He tried not to
chuckle while I told him I was nearly gagging trying to get these feet clean.
Boil them for a few minutes, he said, and the outer layer will peel off like a glove.
We did as he said, and sure enough: The outer scaly skin peeled off — very reptile-
like. Will forgot to mention what came next; the chicken’s toenails popped off, reveal-
ing totally clean, new ones underneath. What?!
So, here I am at my kitchen sink doing this bizarre thing, calling for the girls to
come look. First it was “EW!,” but soon they were saying, “Let me try!” The peeling
and popping off of toenails was strangely fun. And true enough, we had without-a-
doubt clean chicken feet at the end of it.
In case you were wondering, we did add them to our next batch of stock, and it
tasted delicious.
Learning this new skill makes me feel connected to the generations before me.
Since the rise of convenience foods, mass-produced meat, and factory farms, we
have all but lost much of this food knowledge. Little by little, the homesteading skills
past generations took for granted are becoming important to many of us again.
— Sarah Sailer, from http://www.ThriftyGoodLife.com. Visit and search “chicken feet” to
see a video of this scene in action. Search “ThriftyGoodLife” on Instagram for more.
PLENTY HEIRLOOM FARMS (12)p 24-28 Plenty Farms.indd 26 10/11/16 2:00 PM