When our children were growing up they learned early that the new baby calf might well be a steak one day and the cute little weaner pig some sizzling bacon in the frying pan. I still think it’s a good practice to participate in the slaughtering of the food we eat. Life gives itself over to life. It’s humbling to sharpen the blades that take the life of an animal you will eat. I think I take it more seriously not less when I have to do it myself rather than reach into the cooler in the meat department at Otter Coop. So this is part invitation. If you would like to participate, just let me know or find someone in your community who will invite you over.
I picked up 40 day-old chicks yesterday morning; one for each day of Lent all the way up to Easter. Actually the reason I picked them up is more practical. If all goes well they will fill the freezer in a couple of months as fat, dressed out chickens, more like small turkeys. But for right now they are little balls of fluff. It’s quite a holy thing to hold a handful of the nervous little puffs and feel their rapidly beating hearts. I like to think I rescued them from a far less pleasant and very short existence on a broiler farm where they would be lost in a sea of birds on their way to becoming McNuggets. They were all still alive this morning and seemingly happy to see me, peeping around the feed and water troughs.
When our children were growing up they learned early that the new baby calf might well be a steak one day and the cute little weaner pig some sizzling bacon in the frying pan. I still think it’s a good practice to participate in the slaughtering of the food we eat. Life gives itself over to life. It’s humbling to sharpen the blades that take the life of an animal you will eat. I think I take it more seriously not less when I have to do it myself rather than reach into the cooler in the meat department at Otter Coop. So this is part invitation. If you would like to participate, just let me know or find someone in your community who will invite you over.
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August 2022
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