People ever give you a hard time about...

[kees]

Someone was very angry with me and asked if I would eat my cats because they were members of the family too.

Suzy

 

[PandoraTaylor]

I have grown up with garden & livestock. I want to know where my oldest daughter (also raised this way) gets the idea....that food is only good for you if it was bought at the store!
She no longer eats anything homegrown, not meat or veggies!.....and wont even eat berries that have not seen the inside of a store!
lol

I am all for natural. so what if the carrot is a little dirty, it tastes sweeter to me, than anything store bought~!

 

[dancingbear]

I seldom get any grief over it here, but in KY almost everybody at least has farming or hunting relatives and friends, if they don't do it themselves. Or they remember grandma and grandpa's farm. People aren't quite as disconnected from where food comes from, in this part of the country.

Sometimes my city friends draw the line at things like raccoon, (Raccoon, the other dark meat!) but are usually very happy to partake of homegrown poultry, or locally hunted venison. We have pigs this year, too, and they're looking forward to some homegrown pork.

I never had a problem with raising or growing food, but it took me until about a year ago to do any of the actual killing myself. My DH did that part, and I helped with all the rest. Usually he plucked and I gutted, with both helping the other as needed. I've done the deed a few times myself, now, and it's not so bad as I thought it would be. I just have to focus on the mechanics of getting it over quickly. I have to detach from the emotional part. I also can't let myself become overly attached (anymore) to the birds I raise.

And the pigs have been future food from day one. I don't pet them. I don't scratch behind their ears. They are not my pets. They have a big, nice area to range around in, including some wooded area, lots of good food and forage. They aren't in a little pen, they have a lot of room. My opinion is that happy pigs taste better. I'm eager to start butchering them, they're now eating us out of house and home.

The fact is that most people can't afford more than a few "pet" chickens, and hardly anybody can afford to keep larger critters, like pigs or cows, as pets. If people didn't raise them for food, they'd become endangered species pretty quick. Most livestock would become extinct if they weren't bred and raised for food. People don't realize that. If they were shelling out a good chunk of money on feed every week, they'd start to figure it out, I bet.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:
All right, Suzy, here's your answer to your complaining, gossiping, sobbing friends. Get them to cover the feed bill on your livestock that they all seem to adore. By the time they're ready to quit it probably will be time to butcher. You might even get some willing, helping hands this time!

 

[FarmerChick]

Quote:
funny thing is in times of extreme---you might eat that cat!

If that cat was the only food and your kids were close to dying of starvation---that cat on a spit might be the ticket.

People do ALOT to survive but we are almost never put into those situations now.

 

[lauralou]

We don't get much grief about it. Of course, we live in a farming community. And almost everybody hunts, even if they don't farm.

My husband was a little surprised when I wanted to butcher our favorite drake who had just been hit by a car. He had the shovel in his hand, to bury the poor guy, when I came up with the skinning knife. (And tears in my eyes.) "Let's see if his breasts are still usable." They were, and he was delicious. I didn't want to waste him, and we spent a moment before dinner reminiscing about what a wonderful pet he was, and how sorry we were that he was gone. We still miss him, but as another poster said, reality is reality.

 

[kathleengp]

I actually was a vegetarian for 6 years. And although we won't be eating our chickens (some of the kids are vegetarians), when I do eat meat I go out of my way to eat something pasture-raised, raised in a healthy environment with no antibiotics or hormones automatically in the feed. In short, birds raised like all of you raise your meat-birds

It's a huge pain in the behind to find meat like that! But the crap that is done to animals in factory farms makes the meat very unhealthy and (imo) contributes to a culture of death and abuse! I really try not to eat it! God gave us dominion over the animals, but what we do in factory farms was NOT part of his plan, I am betting ;-) These ignorant people who think meat comes from a store have no clue that you are actually the humane one here---by buying store meat exclusively, they are supporting the abuse millions of animals :-( So who's really the "meanie"? LOL

We have become so disconnected from our food supply in this country.....my oldest daughter spent last summer in Uganda, where they buy a chicken at the market and tie it to the bike (alive) by the feet to get it home for dinner. She says they would never eat meat that it is in a package in the store because they would not trust where it came from!

 

[Chicksdigit]

I grew up with my Mother and Grandmother going out and catching a rooster or an old hen to pluck and cook for dinner.
and I remember the first time (I was 4) we harvested a bunch of white meat chickens we had raised Grandpa wrung their necks I caught the flopping chickens and drug them down the little hill to where my Dad, Mom and two Aunts were processing them. I grew up hunting and cleaning birds rabbits etc. And when I was a little older twelve or thirteen I raised some rabbits for a few years and harvested the fryers. .........Having said this at 52 I am having a very hard tiome killing my little friends. I found a guy that will process them for me. I do not have a problem eating them. just doing the deed. I am sure I could kill and process someone elses birds with no problem but I have become a little soft hearted and have a problem with it. Strange huh?

I guess if I needed to do it to survive I would probably get through it, but for now I am going to let the other guy do it.

 

[ijon1]

I think getting older softens your heart.

 

[Rebel Rooster]

I garr-ann-tee!!! Every one of these "tisk-tisk" at processing your own birds people... would happily pick up a rock and bash something in the head to have a meal if and when they get hungry enough! It's very easy to be an "Idealist" when you have everything that you need! The day will come when your neighbors will be asking you to process one of those "Yummy" lookin' birds for their table!! A hungry belly can soften hard heads... and strengthen weak stomachs!!