The Chicken Drop

I've told you guys before how much Southern Savers has changed my life.  Jenny Martin is a genius and a kind soul to share all this valuable information with the rest of us free of charge.  A few months ago, one of her posts on her site caught my eye.  It was about chicken.  Lots and lots of chicken.


She shared that every so often, she buys meat in bulk from a company called Zaycon.  They have "events" in cities around the country at various times.  You sign up with them and when an event is coming to your town, they'll let you know.  I signed up right after reading Jenny's post, but the event was already over.  So, I've been patiently waiting.  Waiting.  Waiting.  And alas, the great Columbia chicken event notification hit my inbox!

So, here's the deal.  You buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts in 40 lb. increments.  The 40 lb. box that my mom and I split was $71.00, which breaks down to about $1.79/lb.  Find that in your local grocery store.  Go ahead, try it.  You might get lucky at Aldi from time to time, but a regular grocery, don't hold your breath.  We placed the order online and received a notice of the date, time and location of the pickup.  Now, here's where it gets interesting...

The big day arrived and we were instructed to go to a Baptist church in West Columbia for "the drop."  The instructions were quite clear.  We had a 30 minute window for the pickup.  Stay in your car; do not exit your car.  Proceed through the line, receive your chicken and move along.  I'm not kidding you, that's what it said!  So, we threw a cooler in Dottie's van (we like to call it the Honda "Doddyssey") and set out for the big W.C.  We actually had to use the gps to find this church.  We got there and drove slowly by the sanctuary scoping things out.  Then, I spotted it.  A small, lime green and black sign "Zaycon event" with an arrow.  I looked and there it was.  A refrigerated truck in an empty parking lot.  Orange cones delineated the "zone."  

As we inched forward in line, mom asked me if I should get out and put the cooler in the back so the man could load the chicken.  Hell no!  This was like the soup nazi, as far as I knew.  I wasn't even thinking about exiting the vehicle.  I'd read the rules.  I'm a rules player.  So, we arrived.  Gave our name.  He checked us off the list, went into the truck and returned with a waxed box loaded with chicken.  

Turns out, he wasn't like the soup nazi at all!  He opened up the hatch, grabbed our cooler, took the bag of chicken out of the box and loaded it into our cooler.  He asked us how we heard about them, thanked us and sent us on our way.  That was it.  Still, it felt kind of cloak and dagger, so we sped away with a feeling of mystery and intrigue with our major chicken score!

When we got to mom's to divide it all up, we discovered that these are WHOLE chicken breasts and they are monsters.  Big as hell. I wouldn't want to meet one of these chickens in a dark alley, if you know what I mean.  

So, we whipped out the freezer bags, stuffed them and parted ways for the day each armed with enough lean protein to last quite some time.  Those of you who read me often know that I sleep well when I know I have provisions safely tucked into my freezer.  I've been sleeping like a baby.

If I'm not mistaken, the next "event" is bacon.  Hello???  Bacon, people!  And then after that I think it's hamburger meat.  The quality of the chicken we received is top-notch, so I expect their other products to be comparable.  Check it out.  And if you don't have room for 40 lbs. of chicken, split it with a friend.  It's a heck of a deal, and in this marvelous economy we're all experiencing, the savings is most welcome.