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Appreciation for one's food

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Robert Reynolds

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Appreciation for one's food

by Robert Reynolds » Mon Sep 24, 2012 10:16 pm

I wasn't sure how to title this, but I had a bit of soul-searching over one's food source this weekend. Back at the end of April, Gail and I received a box of newly hatched chicks in the mail, and we've spent the past 5 months or so in keeping the chicks secured from predators, well fed and watered, supplied with treats and fresh air, space to graze on real grass, even the run of the front yard and the hosta beds. So yesterday the bill came due for 14 young cockerals - harvest day.

I can't say we enjoyed it, nor should we have. But this was the end goal, the very purpose of getting the chicks in the first place (the males, anyway). Of course, we picked 3 to keep, to take their places as Roosters of the Flock, but the rest were destined to become food for our table.

Mentally, though, it took a bit of adjustment. I have killed deer before, and relished the venison that graced my table as a result. But we raised these chickens from little fluffy balls of peeping down to crowing cocks, only to end up upside down in the cone, knife point in their brains, life's blood draining away. We harvested 14 birds yesterday, resulting in some 28 meals for the two of us. Food that we know the life history of, what they ate, how they roosted, how they crowed and how they mounted the pullets. It was not a pleasant day in one sense - I personally killed each bird, and took no joy in that - but it was nonetheless a fulfilling day in that we both took an active role in supplying at least some of our own food. Add in the eggs, and this flock of chooks has been truly appreciated.
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Jo Ann Henderson

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Re: Appreciation for one's food

by Jo Ann Henderson » Mon Sep 24, 2012 11:53 pm

Congratulations, Robert. :cry:
"...To undersalt deliberately in the name of dietary chic is to omit from the music of cookery the indispensable bass line over which all tastes and smells form their harmonies." -- Robert Farrar Capon
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Jeff Grossman

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Re: Appreciation for one's food

by Jeff Grossman » Tue Sep 25, 2012 12:48 am

Well done, Robert.
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Robert J.

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Re: Appreciation for one's food

by Robert J. » Tue Sep 25, 2012 8:50 am

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Well done, my friend.

rwj
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Jenise

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Re: Appreciation for one's food

by Jenise » Tue Sep 25, 2012 10:00 am

Ouch! But thanks for sharing. You're a better man than I, who freely eats what I could not kill.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
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Mark Lipton

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Re: Appreciation for one's food

by Mark Lipton » Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:26 am

Well put, RR. There is a lot of speculation that the Hindu worship of cattle started as an appreciation for all that they provided: milk, meat, leather, skins for warmth, etc. In most all hunter/gatherer societies there is appreciation for the animals that are the source of their food.

Mark Lipton

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