Clarkson's Farm - Prime TV

[Mike4]

And sure people were paying £9 for a chicken when the supermarkets sell them for £3, as restaurants weren't open or they weren't nice places to go, and some people take the view that it is a requirement they must spend because otherwise what is the point of working and must 'treat' themselves frequently. Once restaurants are back to normal then the £9 chickens will be left sitting on the shelf.

I remember when I was a brat, my parents regarded chicken as an expensive and rare delicacy. So special in fact that we used to have one at Christmas instead of a turkey. They were big too, a chicken providing our family of four several meals.

I also remember finding those xmas chickens absolutely delicious and wonderful, perhaps because they were free range farmyard and had a wide and had a varied diet of all manner of bugs. As an adult I find the factory farmed chickens from supermarkets are pretty tasteless in comparison. I'd happily pay £9 (or a lot more) for a chicken as good as I recall them being back in the 60s.

[AsleepInYorkshire]

I remember when I was a brat, my parents regarded chicken as an expensive and rare delicacy. So special in fact that we used to have one at Christmas instead of a turkey. They were big too, a chicken providing our family of four several meals.

I also remember finding those Xmas chickens absolutely delicious and wonderful, perhaps because they were free range farmyard and had a wide and had a varied diet of all manner of bugs. As an adult I find the factory farmed chickens from supermarkets are pretty tasteless in comparison. I'd happily pay £9 (or a lot more) for a chicken as good as I recall them being back in the 60s.

I spent most of my teenage years at a friends home. It was a small-holding. We spent long hours ferreting, shooting (air rifles) riding his pony and just being lads. Looking back it was a wonderful time. Laurie Lee was only able to write better than me. His dad bought two bullocks and they grazed in the same field as we rode the pony. We often went bison hunting Eventually the two bullocks were slaughtered for their meat. But they didn't go to the slaughterhouse. Nope. They were slaughtered in the field. We weren't forced to watch. But we managed to see enough to put one off meat for life. We were used to a bit of blood and guts. But this was on a scale that was overwhelming. And the steam coming of the offal was sickening.

At the ripe old age of 15 I worked on the kill line at the local turkey factory. There were rules then on how to treat animals.

I eat meat. I also respect animals.

AiY

[Mike4]

I remember when I was a brat, my parents regarded chicken as an expensive and rare delicacy. So special in fact that we used to have one at Christmas instead of a turkey. They were big too, a chicken providing our family of four several meals.

I also remember finding those Xmas chickens absolutely delicious and wonderful, perhaps because they were free range farmyard and had a wide and had a varied diet of all manner of bugs. As an adult I find the factory farmed chickens from supermarkets are pretty tasteless in comparison. I'd happily pay £9 (or a lot more) for a chicken as good as I recall them being back in the 60s.

I spent most of my teenage years at a friends home. It was a small-holding. We spent long hours ferreting, shooting (air rifles) riding his pony and just being lads. Looking back it was a wonderful time. Laurie Lee was only able to write better than me. His dad bought two bullocks and they grazed in the same field as we rode the pony. We often went bison hunting Eventually the two bullocks were slaughtered for their meat. But they didn't go to the slaughterhouse. Nope. They were slaughtered in the field. We weren't forced to watch. But we managed to see enough to put one off meat for life. We were used to a bit of blood and guts. But this was on a scale that was overwhelming. And the steam coming of the offal was sickening.

At the ripe old age of 15 I worked on the kill line at the local turkey factory. There were rules then on how to treat animals.

I eat meat. I also respect animals.

AiY

Similar here. When I was potless about 1979 I took a job at the local turkey farm pre-xmas plucking turkeys. Massive shock to find we were expected to catch our turkey, hang it upside down, stun it them break it's neck to kill it THEN get on with the plucking. There were traveller women there plucking turkeys in 30 mins, my first one took me all morning. One one them kindly showed me in detail how to do it, trained me up and I did my second in about two hours. ISTR we got 50p per fully plucked bird.

A few years ago I picked up a deer on the A348 hit by a car. It was still warm so I took it to my sister whose bloke was into dealing with roadkill and watched him spend about two hours gutting and butchering it into joints most professionally. Same here, it was overwhelming.

[flyer61]

This thread has bought a wry smile to my face.

Every Saturday morning when I was about 10 my mother would dispatch chickens by axe or hand. She would buy 100 or so day old chicks and then fatten them up in our back yard. She plucked them all by hand. Many a family in our neighbourhood was brought up eating these birds.

It is fair to say I am not squeamish.

This sort of thing was considered completely normal back then. Interestingly it still goes on in inner city Britain amongst certain communities.

You will never hear the RSPCA say boo about it.

[Charlottesquare]

This thread has bought a wry smile to my face.

Every Saturday morning when I was about 10 my mother would dispatch chickens by axe or hand. She would buy 100 or so day old chicks and then fatten them up in our back yard. She plucked them all by hand. Many a family in our neighbourhood was brought up eating these birds.

It is fair to say I am not squeamish.

This sort of thing was considered completely normal back then. Interestingly it still goes on in inner city Britain amongst certain communities.

You will never hear the RSPCA say boo about it.

My childhood was more spitting out any shot that had been missed, we had a larder at the end of the scullery where nearly everything my dad shot got hung, so varied Sunday meals depended upon what had run or flown over the rough shoot he rented along with a friend, and how good their shooting had been.

Must admit whilst I do eat game I am possibly slightly less keen from observing all the corpses when I was reasonably young (under 10), however no qualms with fish which on odd occasions are stupid enough to let even me catch them.

The rough shooting came to a stop when he fractured his leg, though in later years once he had retired the odd rabbit still met its end in his garden in the Borders , especially if spotted out the window taking a snack on something he had planted.

[flyer61]

In the early 90's I worked in various countries in the Middle East. At certain times of the year it was not uncommon to get in the lift with a goat.

They were slaughtered in the bath.

In Saudi when our students graduated there would be a 'mutton grab' as part of the celebration. It was fascinating to watch the young men at the commencement of the grab and which bits of the animal were wanted. Thankfully I don't care for offal, brains, eyes etc. however I don't mind mountain oysters....

[Mike4]

Just finished Clarksons farm. (Well, there was f-all else on worth watching) Damn good series.

No spoilers but.. . One hundred and forty four quid for the year....? Blimey.

Remember the "harvest" episode? Where Mr Clarkson organised the lorry to take away the grain harvest? When he should actually have arranged 20 lorries?

They never really explained what happened to to 19 lorry loads of 20 tonnes each that were never sold as there were no lorries to take the grain to the wholesalers, but I suspect had they sold that 380 tonnes of grain for the £800 a tonne (IIRC) it was worth, the bottom line would have been a lot healthier.

Or maybe they did sell it and the 'missing lorries' thing was just a stunt for the cameras....

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Just finished Clarksons farm. (Well, there was f-all else on worth watching) Damn good series.

No spoilers but.. . One hundred and forty four quid for the year....? Blimey.

After subsidies

AiY

[DiamondEcho]

I also remember finding those xmas chickens absolutely delicious and wonderful, perhaps because they were free range farmyard and had a wide and had a varied diet of all manner of bugs. As an adult I find the factory farmed chickens from supermarkets are pretty tasteless in comparison. I'd happily pay £9 (or a lot more) for a chicken as good as I recall them being back in the 60s.

Agreed Mike,
When we were living in the Middle-East/other parts of the world where buying turkey is an $$$-expats game we decided instead to buy darn good quality chicken instead. It was a great idea, so much more flavour and not some 10-meal frozen monster to try and roast.

We were able to buy free-range/organic chicken branded as from Brittany in France and they were delicious. We could stuff them as we would a turkey too. Of course I'd have far preferred an English bird, but (didn't exit there)...

Meanwhile back in the UK, I'd highly recommend a good quality chicken for the Xmas table, they can be big, or as $$$ as you like, but they have so much more flavour than most turkeys do. And besides turkey isn't trad for a Brit Xmas anyway, it's an American imposter, as with much of Europe it's goose that's trad for our table.

[flyer61]

Diamond Echo.....don't forget Turkey Bacon!

[DiamondEcho]

Diamond Echo.....don't forget Turkey Bacon!

Haha, which ironically is popular in Turkey (no kidding).

[bungeejumper]

We're not in the habit of binge-watching, but Clarkson & Co have kept us from climbing the walls during these long evenings of sport, sport, sport. I thought I'd outgrown Jeremy during the last five years of TGT, but this was good watchable stuff.

I'll agree the Caleb is a diamond. The chap that keeps Jeremy inline with the regs is very dry but funny in his own way. The drystone dyker is....well I dont know if hes funny or not because I cant understand him. Clarksons reactions to him are priceless though.

Totally agree about Kaleb (I presume the K is there to make him sound/look more like a kind of vegetable?) 22 years old, and all that solid commonsense. Very dry sense of humour, too, although I suppose that will have been scripted in? A perfect foil for Himself, anyway.

The missus and I have a bet on as to whether these yokels are genuine locals, or whether they've been bussed in by central casting for the Rude Mechanicals comic effect. I say they are imported, and the wife says they aren't, and so far I'm losing. I did note that Kaleb and Gerald share a surname (Cooper), which I suppose might suggest that they're the real village deal.

As for Gerald's incomprehensible speech, I think that might have been just a party trick. Back in the days when I was playing the folk clubs, there were often people who could stand up and convolute the language into deepest Zummerzet, or even weirder variants, and who could mouth off at high speed for comic effect. (You can still make a living doing that sort of stuff in the Black Country.)

Great series, though. Will look forward to the next one. But my god, Clarkson at age 59 looks like anybody else might at 82. Life in the fast lane has left its tread-marks all over him.

BJ

[DiamondEcho]

Great series, though. Will look forward to the next one. But my god, Clarkson at age 59 looks like anybody else might at 82. Life in the fast lane has left its tread-marks all over him.

Life as a heavy smoker too, alas...