Suddenly Vegetarian... Yikes!

[cassie]

Two comments. Just think a minute about what happens to those cute little chickies in the wild. Not all of them survive. Some of them feed other critters. At my place it is the same. We eat some so we can afford to keep the others.

You can't apply the ethics and behavior that are necessary to function as a member of a human society to your husbandry of animals. It is like communism. You know, from each according to his ability and to each according to his need. Sounds great. Just doesn't work.

 

[Amyable]

Quote:
That's very true. In one of my fave books, The Joy of Keeping Chickens, the author states that if she is going to eat meat, she feels she needs to be responsible for the life and death of that animal. That could mean raising them yourself or buying from a conscientious farmer. There is no guilt or shame in giving a critter destined for the plate a good, albeit short, life and a quick, humane death.

 

[Ema]

I made roasted chicken legs yesterday with corn and other vegies and as I served dinner I had to lie to my 2 yr old and tell him it was ham

...he cries if you say we are eating chicken but with my daughter who is 6 The vegetarian topic has come up a couple times already since my chicks arrived three weeks ago. My daughter has mentioned on several occassions she really would prefer if she didn't have to eat meat. I am prepared to allow her to make her own choices but I sat down with her to explain about meat and animals bred specially for meat versus pets or animals raised for a purpose like egg laying or milk etc.. in the end she decided eating meat was not so bad, she loves chicken and turkey and pork, however she is still iffy on beef. She did however made us promise that we would not eat our own chickens I think she was just afraid we would have these super cute chicks and then in a few months time they would be on her plate. I am more practical then my husband who subsequently decided to tell her he was naming 7 of them...mon, tues. wed... well you get it...and in turn she got upset and told him he was not allowed near the chickens!!!

 

[Boyd]

what is used in TVP? I use that as a meat substitute for my long term food storage

ETA - Looked it up, definitely a soy product so a no no for you.

 

[toletiquesbysam]

My DD has been a vegetarian for about 5yrs, she is still a teenager. To me, it's not a huge issue, if a recipe has meat in it, we either leave it out or divide the recipe to make a portion for her and the rest with meat in it for us. I also try more recipes that are meat free/vegan now that we have her being one vs what I would have if she was not.

 

[Sweetfolly]

I'm 19 and have been vegetarian for 6 years. I don't eat meat or fish. I get all my protein from my own duck's eggs, dairy, and beans. We made a vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake for my birthday last year - it uses tofu instead of cream cheese, which sounds gross, but it was amazing - the best cheesecake I've ever had.

Being allergic to beans and soy sucks though - that would make it very difficult. Nutritional Yeast is a good source of supplemental protein, lots of grains are high in protein (such as barley, Brown rice, Buckwheat, Millet, etc.), and what about Seitan (wheat gluten) - it's like tofu, but comes from wheat, rather than soy.

I could never kill anything to eat it. In my opinion, if you can't stomach the entire process of killing, cleaning, and cooking it, then you have absolutely no business eating it.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:

too many folks out there have no idea where their food comes from. I do eat meat, but rarely

 

[Wifezilla]

In my opinion, if you can't stomach the entire process of killing, cleaning, and cooking it, then you have absolutely no business eating it.

I agree. Of course I grew up in a hunter-friendly community and have actually killed and cleaned my own game.

 

[dancingbear]

I won't go quite that far, I've encountered people who can't bring themselves to "do the deed", but support those that do. Usually in the form of buying from a local farm, sometimes raising the birds themselves, and paying a processor to kill and clean, or maybe one person in a couple does the slaughter and the other does most of the plucking and cleaning.

But I agree it's better to be involved in the entire process from-egg-to-plate, so that you truly understand where the meat on your plate comes from.

 

[obxWaMi]

We have yet to send any of our chickens to freezer camp, but we decided before getting the new chicks that it WILL happen. We have 24 chicks right now. We are keeping all the pullet, but only 2 of the cockrels. The rest of the cockrels will be dinner one day. Since we aren't sure which chicks are pullet and which are cockrel we have agreed that none of the chickens can have names until after freezer camp. Our hens will be pets and will live out their lives as such. When ever we decide to get more chicks this will be the adopted attitude again.

I'm sure it will be hard to eat the first time we put one of own birds on our plates, but it was strange to eat eggs that didn't come from the supermarket the first time and we got past it. I'll let you know how we do in another month or so.



I forgot to add, We won't be butchering our own birds. We have a friend who will do it and his fee is half the birds that he processes. DH says he is going to help him. Seems fair to us.