So, have y'all ever considered....?

[seismic wonder2]

"They can cut us up for meat...but they can never take away our freedom!!!!"

 

[hooligan]

That's just not funny.

 

[bantymum]

I buy meat and chicken and tuna for Mikey and DH,
I actually made tempura batter and added a can of tuna to it and made fritters, I even had some.
I will eat fish rarely!
I wonder how many people could eat meat and chicken if they had to end the animal's life themselves. I think that buying it on a lovely little plastic plate with a nice label all chopped up detracts from the source, perhaps they should put a few feathers and cowskin in the package too!!!

I loved the song "cows have guns"
Such a wonderful vegie anthem
One line said:
cow dung flung
cows have guns
ill have to remember the rest of it!

 

[back2basics]

I would rather eat meat that I have handled (raised or harvested-hunting for meat) than buy anything in a super market.

We have been eating our own meat now for over 2 years, mostly game meats, on the rare occasion we should eat outside meat, honestly it does not sit well in the tummy. I believe its from the antibiotics and other chemicals in commercial meat. I figured it was just me, until my DH also started to notice. This from a man who I thought was going to die when the closed down the lclosestl BK.

As we are new to our land, I am excited to get my greenhouse up and running, so we can really minimize outside food. Nothing goes better with meat than a big salad

 

[gritsar]

I worked in a chicken house for one day and went off chicken for a good long time. Now I'll eat it, but lucky for me (and my future chickens?) I've never been crazy about chicken in the first place. Told the SO if there be any future culling to do I would leave it to him to do and I hope he enjoys his chicken and dumplings.
As for beef, I lived on this farm around cows for one week and then I had a nice fat juicy hamburger that I ate with relish! Dumb things (cows) lost their cuteness for me the first time they licked my sports car with the shiny new paint job all over! I've always been a red meat and taters type of girl, living around them and dealing with everything they get into just made it easier. It's twisted logic, but it works for me!

 

[MissPrissy]

I just spent the fall raising 27 meat birds. They are better tasting and were more healthy and treated better under my care than the commercial chickens will ever be.

I do not name my meat birds. I do not play with them.

I took extra super good care of them for their 12+ weeks. They had lots to eat, fresh water, fresh bedding, sunshine, fresh air, sunlight and grass and anything else that comes with being raised in the great out doors in their own coop on a small Virginia farm.

I do not take it lightly that I took their lives to sustain my own and my family. I gave them great respect. When the time came to end it they were treated with dignity. The end came swift and clean. No one suffered or went through prolonged agony.

I have done my best to use every portion they supplied for us. I rendered the fat, harvested the edible organs and used all of the bird as possible. Even after preparing meals for our table the bones were cooked down for stock.

I think I have been more than respectful of the live they gave for our family.

 

[Buster]

Quote:
Every time we work cows on the ranch it makes me hungry and we have burgers for dinner!

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Never ever!

 

[back2basics]

Quote:
I am with you on this, I really believe its how you treat the animal and not to waste anything

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

My diet is not centered around meat at all, but that said all the meat currently in my freezer was raised by us or right next door in trade for meat we raised.

This will be the first year we can say that we are totally off the commercial meat train and it feels great. More than enough in stock to get us to the next growing season. All I need to do now is get better about bringing food to work so I never have to buy lunch or dinner. That is where I'm still getting a hold of some meat that was mass farmed. As healthy an alternative as a Wendy's salad is (compared to their burgers) the chicken in it must not be my ideal or the could not sell it for that price.

We can't wait to get the vegy garden going this year. That's the next thing! Of course we can't grow everything here, we will still be buying some stuff but we can get lots of it done anyway.

I'm at the point now where I don't feel right at all about eating anything I did not raise, don't know the history of, did not contribute to it's life, and can't ensure it was treated right, espeically in the end. So for me it's not that I could not eat it if I knew it, or had a part in killing it, it's the opposite. I need to know it was treated right or I'm not hungry enough often.

I totally agree with the statement that it gives grace a new meaning. I am much more grateful for all I have to eat now that I am more involved. I wish I had been raised this way, and I hope many more kids are in the future. I'm a healthier weight too, I really tend to think about things, if I need the calories. Home raised too you can control the fat content by grass and hay feeding and not resorting to grain to be quick.

As for the meat bird verses layers I used to think that all the named layers could not go to the table. Then as I let many live out their lives after laying I found the quality of their life is not that great. They often get egg bound or sickly, and after the next moult following lay they never seem to recover well. I got really sad seeing the lively hens that were top of the roost getting thin and down and pecked on by the younger ones. I can't let them free range like I want to and have them seperated so I started culling many. Slowly I have started to change my thinking and since I keep hearing that it's the best meat for slow cooking (my fav by far) I am considering trying it next year when I turn over the layer flock. I just got 100 ISA brown chicks, most to sell as ready to lay, but the ones I keep will all be identical like the meat birds and may only be kept till the next flock is ready to lay.

Right now I have to be totally practical and keep the farm books in the black as we are tight on budget. Much as I still love them I can't have too many 'pet' ideals for the next few years. Even the horses have found work helping out the trail place up the valley in the high part of their season. They earned enough $$$ to support their feed for all this winter in only 6 weeks. Wish I could do that....