Our chicken for the year has been harvested. Good thing as we ran out of last years on
Rosh Hoshanah, a beautiful and tasty bird she was. I am so happy that we will be able to have roast chicken again soon.
These girls joined us in August and we give thanks to them to nourish us for the rest of the year.
Meat eating is a very serious thing for us. This is the sixth year that we have raised and butchered chickens. We do it for a couple reasons. 1: you can't get a tastier bird anywhere. These birds are bred in Pennsylvania by an Amish man, Ben found them for his research. If you are lucky to live near Iowa City, you could have a chance to buy them from our friend Eric of Salt Fork Farms as he raises the same breed. 2: We still feel that we need to put some of the slaughtering into our own hands. As a meat eater, you are taking the life of an animal. For us not
acknowledging this fact becomes part of unethical meat consumption. So each year we take the lives of some animals, thanking them for their gift to us and feel that this still allows us to
indulge in eating other animals that have all been raised ethically, locally and organically. This day symbolizes such a huge portion of our diet. While we eat vegetarian meals on most days, animal protein is a staple for us.
If I can't do it myself, I shouldn't ignore the process and ask someone else to do it for me. I think that meat eating the right way can be a healthy part of
everyones diet, healthy for the world and sustainable for local farms. It is hard to make a living on vegetable farming alone. Not that raising animals makes the job easy! But for a farm to be self sustaining animals fit in to the system. Their manures can't be topped, they can do a lot of good for composting and turning over spent vegetable and weeds, and really you can't top the taste for the family working so hard or the fuel their meat can provide for farming families.
Plus they are amazing creatures. The way animals are treated in conventional farming traditions in this country is appalling. It is all about the buck. I am happy that as a family we don't contribute to that system, that we support what farming and animal husbandry originated as, a relationship between man and animal, a respect,
gratefulness and awareness. Be it vegetable or meat though, this amount of thought should go into all of it. Food is our life, without it we could do nothing else. Cherish it, be thankful and know where it comes from.
These girls joined us in August and we give thanks to them to nourish us for the rest of the year.
Meat eating is a very serious thing for us. This is the sixth year that we have raised and butchered chickens. We do it for a couple reasons. 1: you can't get a tastier bird anywhere. These birds are bred in Pennsylvania by an Amish man, Ben found them for his research. If you are lucky to live near Iowa City, you could have a chance to buy them from our friend Eric of Salt Fork Farms as he raises the same breed. 2: We still feel that we need to put some of the slaughtering into our own hands. As a meat eater, you are taking the life of an animal. For us not acknowledging this fact becomes part of unethical meat consumption. So each year we take the lives of some animals, thanking them for their gift to us and feel that this still allows us to indulge in eating other animals that have all been raised ethically, locally and organically. This day symbolizes such a huge portion of our diet. While we eat vegetarian meals on most days, animal protein is a staple for us.
If I can't do it myself, I shouldn't ignore the process and ask someone else to do it for me. I think that meat eating the right way can be a healthy part of everyones diet, healthy for the world and sustainable for local farms. It is hard to make a living on vegetable farming alone. Not that raising animals makes the job easy! But for a farm to be self sustaining animals fit in to the system. Their manures can't be topped, they can do a lot of good for composting and turning over spent vegetable and weeds, and really you can't top the taste for the family working so hard or the fuel their meat can provide for farming families.
Plus they are amazing creatures. The way animals are treated in conventional farming traditions in this country is appalling. It is all about the buck. I am happy that as a family we don't contribute to that system, that we support what farming and animal husbandry originated as, a relationship between man and animal, a respect, gratefulness and awareness. Be it vegetable or meat though, this amount of thought should go into all of it. Food is our life, without it we could do nothing else. Cherish it, be thankful and know where it comes from.
1 comment:
That is quite the tool you have there. Is the bird alive when being de-feathered? Well enjoy the food, hope Ben made room in the freezer!
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