“If You Wish Upon a Bone…?”

I grew up on a small hobby farm where we raised about 100-200 chickens for meat each year. Anyone in our extended family who wanted to “buy” some chickens from us, had to come help on butchering day. Needless to say, I knew all about the parts of chickens.

Each week my mom would roast a whole chicken, then my dad would clean the leftover meat off the bones. A wonderful family memory of mine is the breaking of the chicken’s wishbone. Wishbone lore says: when  broken by two people, the person who gets the bigger part will have their wish granted. Since there were three kids in our family, we regularly fought over who got to break the wishbone. It was a big deal to us.

I wanted to bring back that tradition to my children as well. As I was cleaning the leftover meat off our roasted chicken this week, I wondered how many kids, or even adults, have ever seen a chicken’s wishbone. Purchasing a whole chicken is so rare now days, that we often get asked “How many breasts does your chicken have?” FYI: Chickens do not have four boneless skinless breasts.

This week when the boys were about to break their wishbone, I asked them what they wished for. Erik wished that no one would take his things (we are having sharing issues) and Jonnie wished for a sucker. Jonnie won, but he didn’t get his wish (until Papa sneaks him one at the barn).

I hope this fun tradition will stick. We eat at least one whole chicken each week. That is a lot of wishbones and a lot of wishes!

Emily

Zweber Farms is a 4th generation family operated organic dairy.  We are proud Organic Valley farmer members and sell our milk under that label. We also specialize in sustainably raised beef, pork and chicken and sell it directly to customers in Minnesota.Visit our website to learn more, www.zweberfarms.com. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitterand YouTube.