EATING ANIMALS.
We helped slaughter a lamb last Thursday.That is the only photo I will share of the event, as not to be too graphic. And I don't necessarily want to make any sort of argument for eating meat. We have shared our views on the food we eat before (here and here), but I thought I would talk a little bit more about I why Jesse and I find ourselves occasionally eating animals.When I came first came to Bugtussle Farm two years ago as an intern, I was a vegan. I came straight from Chicago and a diet of no milk, no cheese, no meat, to a farm that was abundant with all three of those things. My very first meal with the family consisted of ground lamb and eggs and raw milk butter. And it was delicious. As I ate, I could almost feel my body telling me YOU NEED THIS - it was clear that something had been missing from my diet, and this was it.And Jesse and I have continued to eat this way - a diet that is full of fresh vegetables, pastured eggs and raw milk, fermented foods and drinks, and sometimes - meat. This is, for us, sustainable. All of these foods are things that already exist around us, things that we are actively growing or creating in order to better the land. And animals are part of that. They are a necessary part of the cycle. The farmers sacrifice their time, money, and energy to give their animals a bountiful and healthy life, while the animals are adding life and fertility to the soil. And as a sacrifice to the farmers in turn, the animals give their life to nourish those who took care of them. This is the way to be self-sufficient, we believe, and completely sustainable.So that means, that sometimes, you have to kill an animal. For me, I still (and hopefully will always) get quite sad in these moments. I always cry as I feel the life leaving an animal, and I think this is OK. Life is sacred and should be respected and honored, and I hope I never forget that, even as I become more skilled and practiced over the years. I know that may seem like a contradiction, to value life and also take it...but that is just the way it is. As Eric and Jesse were recently discussing, death is part of the cycle of life for everyone, whether you eat meat of not.I know this is a highly debatable topic. And I am not saying that no one should be a vegetarian. Or a vegan. I know many healthy people who do not eat meat and get all of the nutrition they need. I also know that our diet is not easy to come by or even affordable in, say, downtown Chicago. We are blessed to be in the business of food and agriculture. But I really do think the healthiest I have ever been is now, eating diversely - and that includes the occasional lamb.- Hannah.
VEGETABLE PLATE.
Hannah and I have a somewhat unspoken rule of only eating meat we either, 1) raised ourselves, or 2) trust/know the farmer who did. This does not bode well for us in 99% of the restaurants that exist in the middle of the country where the menu is three pages of meaty fare and one vegetable option: The vegetable plate––a convenient selection of the sides they already offer, most of which are cooked with meat, or come from a can. There are a lot of terrible things involved with a vast majority of the meat available––that's no secret––especially the type of meat that ends up in the restaurants we're talking about. And these restaurants make no bones about the glut of chicken, fish pork and beef offered, nor do the patrons really care, even if they are well-aware of the issues involved with conventional meat-operations. I haven't always been particularly discriminating about my own meat consumption, so naturally I never noticed the lack of vegetarian options. They didn't concern me. The farm changed all that. Having raised an animal, killed it and ate it, my relationship with food has changed dramatically. I simply don't much want to eat animals not treated like animals, not treated humanely. Even though the vegetables aren't great either, as the adage goes, we'd rather eat inhumanely treated vegetables than inhumanely treated animals. So often, when we have to eat out, the vegetable plate is our only alternative. I am not unaware that menus are a product of demand, either. In fact, that is what's most notable about the vegetable plate, that it exists so ubiquitously because vegetables are flat-out not as popular as meat. Or more precisely, they are not popular at all. This may seem obvious, but there are simply not not enough people concerned with meatless meals to necessitate an actual vegetarian dish in these restaurants, so the restaurants themselves chose not to bother spending time and money creating one. You either eat a salad ("hold the bacon please") ask them to leave the steak off your pasta, or you get a plate with four or five sides piled on with no real order or care. The vegetable plate is a microcosm of the apathy our "Where's the Beef" nation still holds towards the vegetarian: join us, or learn to survive in our world. And that's fine, I'm not complaining, I just wish that instead of "Vegetable Plate" the menu would be more honest and read, "The dietary concerns of vegetarians are not recognized by this establishment," and I could just guiltlessly order a plate of french fries like I want to do anyway.- Jesse.
