The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on June 15, 2008, 07:26:13 PM
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x1667
Hmmm.
All the primitive rustic wannabes are here, but only some comments have been brought here, not all.
uppityperson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-14-08 11:51 PM
Original message
I thinned our chicken flock today.
2 roosters found new homes this week and I now have 6 bags of chicken to go into the freezer. It was tough. Even though I bought 6 cornish to butcher, and didn't name them, and hardened myself to not grow attached, and even though they had a good life socializing with the other chickens, running around outside eating bugs and getting wet and dirty, still I am now off meat for the next couple weeks at least until I grow detached enough to partake of what I raised, killed, cleaned, froze.
Long time back I raised rabbits for food until 1 day I couldn't kill any more bunnies, and stopped. Chickens aren't as bad, but back to vegetarian food for a bit for me. I do think that anyone who eats meat should, at some point, do this. Gives you a lot more respect for your food and the whole process.
RIP my fine feathered friends. Thank you for living with me and giving me your lives.
1620rock (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-14-08 11:54 PM
Response to Original message
2. Ugh, how cruel. Why not go veggie?
uppityperson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:00 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. I don't like the screams of carrots as I rip them from mother earth
Because I am an omnivore and being so take responsibility for being omnivore. I don't like pretending meat is plastic wrapped food, but would rather know my food, and have my meat have had a good life, good food, all that, rather than being locked up in cages eating chemical crap. It seems much more respectful, being involved, being able to bless them rather than have them run through machinery.
Simple answer, because I am an omnivore, responsible for my food choices.
hedgehog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:00 AM
Response to Original message
5. The reason I hated eating our chickens is that I missed having them around the yard making noise.
uppityperson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:03 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. I have 16 hens and Arnie the Rooster living in my yard still.
I like eggs, I like having chickens around saying "look look look look look" and eating bugs, slugs, scraps, while giving my garden manure.
Look look look look look look look look look. But we have 1 chicken who says "dah dot dah dah" in a different dialect. It is pretty funny, didn't know chickens had accents but she sure does.
galledgoblin Donating Member (700 posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:44 AM
Response to Reply #5
11. well, that and you're always told me that the meat was never as good as professionally raised.
Uh huh. Cheaper and cleaner, just buying it from the store.
lapfog_1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:04 AM
Response to Original message
7. My dad grew up on a chicken farm old style, not one of these factory barn things.
His job as a kid was to feed, clean up after, and kill the chickens.
When I was growing up we NEVER ate chicken.
Confusious (10 posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:21 AM
Response to Original message
8. I could wack the head off a chiken Np
I just have problems with mammals. I eat beef like once every couple of weeks or maybe some bacon every once in a while. There was this rooster my mom had when I was visiting, damn thing didn't know what Fing time it was. I could have gone out there and wacked its head off NP.
One wonders what the confused primitive means, with that stupid acronym, "np".
Mind_your_head Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:23 AM
Response to Original message
9. You 'love and respect' your "charges"
I'm a suburban-raised girl, so I don't understand the "ways" of a rural family who has to butcher their 'Bessie, the cow' without any problem. But, it's been 'necessary' through the 'ages' (otherwise, we all wouldn't be here). I'm currently 'not in line' with this thought-process, but there is something "there"....that we don't understand/rebel (?) against? I dunno.....
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:43 AM
Response to Original message
10. Thank you for owning it.
I remember watching my sweet granny wringing a chicken's neck on Saturday morning, chopping its head off when it quit flopping, and hanging the body on the clothesline to drain into her vegetable garden. I never saw her clean or pluck them, guess I was off playing with neighbor kids. Since I was a little kid, I barely connected the dead bird with the wonderful chicken dinner the next day.
My next door neighbor lets her laying hens die of old age, usually inedible by the time she finds them.
Somehow, I think a quick death is preferable to growing old and infirm and dying alone in the yard.
However, eating meat should involve owning where it comes from. You can honor the chickens by cooking them well and by using their bones and skin for soup, making sure nothing goes to waste.
It's all part of the circle of life.
TygrBright Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-15-08 01:46 AM
Response to Original message
12. "Respect Your Food" should be the rallying cry of our future.
We evolved as omnivores; we evolved to eat and use the highly efficient calorie package that is meat; we benefit most from a highly varied diet that includes as many minimally-processed food sources as possible.
"Minimally processed," BTW, does not mean "raw," or "unmixed with other ingredients." It means food that has been molecularly altered only by the low-tech processes of exposure to heat, water, and other food ingredients. "Minimally processed" food is NOT comprised of short-chain chunks of food molecules disconnected or constituted using high-tech physical or chemical processes for the purposes of enhancing "shelf life," "mouthfeel," providing cheap bulk, etc.
ALL life lives at the expense of other life. Our task is to respect that.
It would not be practical to eliminate all meat from everybody's diet. But meat should return to being an expensive luxury that we feel fortunate to consume in moderate amounts a couple of times a week rather than entitled to consume in massive quantities on a daily basis. And if we eliminate the cruel and unhealthy (for the animals AND the eaters) methods of meat production from our food chain, that will come to pass.
A quick and efficient slaughter after a healthy life is far kinder than turning our backs on factory meat production and leaving the problem for others to solve.
I buy meat from farmers who are pleased when I (and other customers and CSA members) come to visit and see their farming practices in action. Yes, it means paying a LOT. We don't eat meat often, but we use every scrap when we do. And appreciate it. Sausage from local artisans made with local ingredients... Fresh label rouge chicken... Grass-fed beef... local lamb... Guilt-free and delicious!
Respect your food. I like that.
newfie11 (315 posts) Sun Jun-15-08 03:56 PM
Response to Original message
16. It always took me about 3 months to get over the smell of plucking chicken feathers and everything else involved before eating them. Hogs were easier even though we had to scrape the hair off instead of feathers. Of course I didn't have to actually kill either creature. Thats what a husband is for.
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I have butchered or dressed out animals from game birds and squirrels to deer and cows we were culling.
Not meaning to sound cold but never once put an ounce of emotion to it.
That is the natural way life works.
Funny though the primitives have no qualms about ending the life of unborn babies and actually yearn for it sometimes.
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uppityperson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-14-08 11:51 PM
Original message
I thinned our chicken flock today.
2 roosters found new homes this week and I now have 6 bags of chicken to go into the freezer. It was tough. Even though I bought 6 cornish to butcher, and didn't name them, and hardened myself to not grow attached, and even though they had a good life socializing with the other chickens, running around outside eating bugs and getting wet and dirty, still I am now off meat for the next couple weeks at least until I grow detached enough to partake of what I raised, killed, cleaned, froze.
Long time back I raised rabbits for food until 1 day I couldn't kill any more bunnies, and stopped. Chickens aren't as bad, but back to vegetarian food for a bit for me. I do think that anyone who eats meat should, at some point, do this. Gives you a lot more respect for your food and the whole process.
RIP my fine feathered friends. Thank you for living with me and giving me your lives.
uppityperson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:00 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. I don't like the screams of carrots as I rip them from mother earth
Because I am an omnivore and being so take responsibility for being omnivore. I don't like pretending meat is plastic wrapped food, but would rather know my food, and have my meat have had a good life, good food, all that, rather than being locked up in cages eating chemical crap. It seems much more respectful, being involved, being able to bless them rather than have them run through machinery.
Simple answer, because I am an omnivore, responsible for my food choices.
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:43 AM
Response to Original message
10. Thank you for owning it.
I remember watching my sweet granny wringing a chicken's neck on Saturday morning, chopping its head off when it quit flopping, and hanging the body on the clothesline to drain into her vegetable garden. I never saw her clean or pluck them, guess I was off playing with neighbor kids. Since I was a little kid, I barely connected the dead bird with the wonderful chicken dinner the next day.
My next door neighbor lets her laying hens die of old age, usually inedible by the time she finds them.
Somehow, I think a quick death is preferable to growing old and infirm and dying alone in the yard.
However, eating meat should involve owning where it comes from. You can honor the chickens by cooking them well and by using their bones and skin for soup, making sure nothing goes to waste.
It's all part of the circle of life.
I once took a can of Spam with me for a week in the Bahamas.
The long walks on a moonlit beach. Tasting he nightlife of Nassau. Sometimes just comfortable silences on the veranda of our villa. We made a connection far beyond just our chance meeting in a grocery store aisle.
When we got home and it felt me pop the little metal key off its bottom, it knew it was all over. But I like to think in that moment we shared something real, and not just a distaste for prepared yellow mustard. Something much more visceral. Something you can feel, way down in the pit of your stomach.
I, too, have known and respected food.
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The abbreiviation 'np' is short for 'No Problem'.
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Confusious (10 posts) Sun Jun-15-08 12:21 AM
Response to Original message
8. I could wack the head off a chiken Np
I just have problems with mammals. I eat beef like once every couple of weeks or maybe some bacon every once in a while. There was this rooster my mom had when I was visiting, damn thing didn't know what Fing time it was. I could have gone out there and wacked its head off NP.
I don't think Confusious knows too much about chickens, maybe not the snotty one either. It's actually cruel to let Cornish live too long because they're such a heavy breed their legs can't support them after a while. As for killing, you never want to "wack" off the head. Snap their neck (this actually takes more effort than one would think...I don't like doing it because I have to put them on the ground, put a broom handle over their neck, stand on each side of the handle and pull up on their legs), hang them upside down and slit their throat or shoot them. We use the last method just because it's easy and efficient. I don't like the killing part myself but those Cornish are dirty, messy and stupider than your average DUmmie. When it's time for them to die (in 6 to 8 weeks) I just don't give a rip.
Cindie