Being a London boy with my London ways, Iโve had limited experience of country life. The occasional weekend cottage in North Wales and four-in-a-bed caravanning holidays in the middle of nowhere donโt really count. To be sure, on primary school trips to Swanage in Dorset and Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, I endured the obligatory excursion toย jobbing farms to sniff the shitty whiff, pet the ponies and frighten the sheep. I do remember thinking โSunday roast, mint sauce with all the trimmings, yummyโ. The scale of modern-day industrial farming was driven home when I watched conveyor belt cows being drained by an enormous robotic milking machine. No wonder Daisy always looked startled.
Until we set foot on Anatolian soil, Iโd never seen a live chicken in the flesh, so to speak. My chickens came hung, drawn and often quartered. Suddenly, clutches of clucking chickens were everywhere I looked, even in the heart of Bodrum. The harems of hens were invariably corralled by a loud and bad-tempered rooster complete with dandy plumage and a cock of the coop demeanour (a bit like the waiters). I remember thinking that British chickens must be smaller than their Turkish cousins. Perhaps Turkish fowl live longer and grow larger. Perhaps theyโre fed on extra-strength growth hormones. Whatever the reason, Turkish chicken breasts were Amazonian by comparison, the Katie Price of the poultry world.
Seems like you are firing on all cylinders !!
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A bit like Katy ๐
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You’d never seen a live chicken? That’s amazing!! We have chickens wandering into our yard occasionally, and the odd goat, although we are in the middle of town. We are 98% urban, but the little community near us still clings to its dear old roosters and such!!
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Well, maybe I did see one down the farm on school holidays but I honestly don’t remember.
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And you are a better man for having encountered all those ‘Katie Prices’… It’s back to hung, drawn and quartered for you…for now ๐
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I now feel closer to nature ๐
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And are you now missing the Turkish chickens that wander the streets of Bodrum – and the rest of Turkey? Got to say we enjoy eating them just as much as watching them. ๐
Julia
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I won’t miss the cocks crowing at 4 in the morning! ๐
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Welcome back Jack .Seriously? One of the things that struck me is the size of the birds here after being in Turkey ,even the pigeons are nice and plump .Are you sure you are not looking at special breeds ?? Norfolk Grey or something like that ? I am no expert by the way but come from a blitzed out London family during the war so I was born not far from a corn field and a village pub in a shire .
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Just judging by the fat breasts in Turkish supermarkets. Seemed huge to me!
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. . bloody townies – expect the only ‘spuds’ you ever saw were in your socks!
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Excuse me. My mother’s Irish so we were fed exclusively on mince and mash!
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