Other Goings On
Other than my grandfather's death and funeral, I also had a busy week, attending Poultry 101 and finishing another book.
Poultry 101 was a two and a half day class held at Auburn University. It covered most aspects of the poultry business, from production to further processing to packaging. The professors teaching the class said that it is basically a brief overview of a semester long poultry science class. The first day, we went to Auburn's mini poultry plant and saw chickens being slaughers, defeathered, having their guts removed, etc. Then we got to cut them up, removing wings, breasts, thighs, and drumsticks. This is actually a useful skill, as many recipes call for a whole chicken cut up, and whole chickens are much cheaper than chicken parts. Unfortunately, I wasn't so good at it, but practice makes perfect. Later in the day, we got to taste test the birds we had helped prepare, to prove that chicken should be deboned at least 6 hours after slaughter, or else the meat will be tough. I missed the second day, to go to the funeral, and they covered marinating and breading, and made some hotdogs and sausages. It wasn't so bad that I missed that day, as we don't sell much ready to eat product. The third day covered chilling, packaging, and food safety (including salmonella and listeria). Then we ate the hotdogs and sausages made the day before, which were actually pretty good. Overall, I got a much better idea of what goes into preparing the chicken leg quarters that we ship to Russia as well as the boneless, skinless chicken breast that ends up on my plate.
While I was learning about poultry and thinking about my grandfather, I was also finishing up The Time Traveller's Wife. Quite simply, this is one of the best books I've ever read, if not the best. Almost a week after finishing it, the novel continues to haunt me. It feels like I am grieving because Henry and Claire DeTamble are no longer part of my life. Of course, finishing the novel on the night I went to the funeral, while I was missing Blair and Nora probably had an effect on my perception, so I'd be interested to reread it in a few years and see what I think. Even still, the novel's power to me, is that I really cared about what happened to the protagonists, and I think that's good writing, not just my emotional state. This was a novel that Blair suggested to me, and again she's shown that she has good taste. Next up for me: Amalee by Dar Willams, another one of Blair's recent favorites.