Thread Drift

[Nanci]

So I'm outside, grilling pork chops, sitting in my chair with my feet up in the other chair, savoring a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, reading Lance Armstrong's War, when two Mockingbirds fly by like a pair of fighter jets, one foot away from my feet! So cool...

Boy, those baby eagles are getting big!

[KnottedYet]

Mmmmmmm, pork chops.....

Small Knot won't eat red meat and doesn't want it in the house, either. He's kind of converted me. But pork chops.... or steak.... or pot roast....

sigh.

[Nanci]

I wish I didn't like to eat tasty animals, and if I had to kill my own, I'm sure I would not be able to, because, I don't know, I think the whole practice is kind of inhumane, but, I still like meat. That kind of bothers me. But if you're _going to_ eat meat, then red meat is pretty important in terms of iron. Chicken is low fat. Fish have whatever that fatty acid is that you need. Omega 3. I wonder if humans were _meant_ to eat meat, like it's essential, and those who choose not to are not having optimal nutrition, or if we can live just as well without it. I sure love a nice steak though.

But if you ever read "Fast Food Nation," I guarantee you won't eat hamburger for at least six months...

[KnottedYet]

Small Knot figured that one out already: turkey burgers!

I've butchered chickens in my time, and have no problem eating birds or fish or invertebrate critters. Haven't butchered a mammal, and don't know if I could. SKnot says if you couldn't butcher it, you shouldn't eat it. Why make someone else commit the sin you wouldn't?

but.... I liiiiiike pork chops and steak and pot roast!

[Lise]

but.... I liiiiiike pork chops and steak and pot roast!

Especially pot roast. I have a theory that comfort food is often the poor people's food of whatever clan you come from. For me, mac and cheese, meat loaf (meat gound up with bread crumbs) and pot roast (tough cut of meat, cooked for a long time). How lucky am I to come from a place where meat can be part of the "poor people's food", right? While I enjoy steak, I can only eat a little bit of it, usually. Pork chops were a big treat for us, but usually so overcooked that I associate them with dry and tasteless. My mom made great hamburgers on the grill. If it were up to me to slaughter my own meat, it would not happen. Unless I was starving, in which case, it's every species for itself!

Knotted--how old is small knot? I seem to remember 12, 13ish? Somebody I know said that children are natural vegetarians. Neither my nephew (6) nor niece (2 1/2) will eat meat. My niece, otherwise an omnivore, will search out any meat on her plate, remove it, and give it to whatever adult is closest, saying, "I don' wan' it!" L.

[KnottedYet]

Yeah, 13. He started the no-red-meat thing last summer. He's stuck to it, and I go along with it.

He's never been real crazy about red meat.

[uk elephant]

...I wonder if humans were _meant_ to eat meat, like it's essential, and those who choose not to are not having optimal nutrition, or if we can live just as well without it. ...

We have incisors (sharp, pointy teeth for ripping up meat) and we have a miniscule appendix (which is where other vegetarian species ferment the foliage to extract nutrients). In other words, we are designed to be omnivorous including meat in our diet. You can survive without meat, but we are designed to eat it.

And it tastes good! Especially grilled pork. Mmmm.....if only I had a garden and a bbq....And I don't think I will have a problem killing my own meat if I had to. Sure the lambs look cute in the field, but they also taste nice cooked...But if I can get meat from happy animals who have been well cared for and have had a good life before ending up on my plate, I will of course prefer it. Happy animals taste much better anyway.

[crazycanuck]

Fast Food nation-a must read for everyone...The gent's second book wasn't as good though...I refuse to go to any fast food outlet...(betty burgers-a local chain- is ok though...)

Off to make a menu for the week....

Ah & i am writing down eveything i eat & am subscribing to Calorie king...

c

[Nanci]

I used to have chickens. Well, I started out with one, and let her have three babies. Her name was Jewel. She was a banty chicken I got from the pig farmer across the street when my daughter was over there playing around the pig barn and noticed that Jewel's babies were falling into the pens and being eaten! So we begged to have Jewel. She had a ton of personality. I loved that hen so much...But anyway, she settled into our barn, and began laying eggs. Her eggs were small and brown and perfect. I saved up enough to make scrambled eggs- you need about two or three banty eggs to equal one standard chicken egg. I kind of felt like a murderer at first, eating the potential chicks, but I got over it. Free-range chicken eggs are so much better than store-bought eggs. The birds eat insects and greens and stuff, so the egg yolks are so orange they don't even look real when you are used to pale yellow store-bought eggs. Then, the yolks are round! Not flattened out because they aren't fresh. So anyway, if I had to kill my own food, I could eat eggs and possibly fish...

[Nanci]

http://tinyurl.com/r8vr9

Who cares about hurricanes when you can have three fatal alligator attacks in one week???

[Lise]

http://tinyurl.com/r8vr9

Who cares about hurricanes when you can have three fatal alligator attacks in one week???

I didn't even open that tiny url. Nooooo thank you.

I read that post first, then the one about Jewel. I was afraid it was going to end with "and then Jewel got eaten by an alligator". So what happened to Jewel? Do you have any other banty chix? Am I correct in reading that the baby banty chicks were being eaten by pigs? Oh, I like my meat wrapped in plastic, yes I do. I could eat the eggs of a chicken I cared for. I figure, I feed her, she feeds me. I mean, they're not going to support groups to help them mourn the loss of their unborn babies or anything...as we learned from our collective eagle experience. I would not eat eagle eggs, though. drifting....drifting...

[maillotpois]

OMG - "Small Knot"!! That's great!

[Nanci]

Jewel got eaten by a fox the day before she and I were to move to Florida...I do not remember why she wan't safely locked up at night as was our rule.

Yes, the chicks were eaten by pigs. Pigs are kind of violent and scary. There is this big barn, with small pens, each with a momma pig and babies. When one momma pig lies down to nurse, the rest all immediately follow suit. This is because if they didn't all nurse at one time, the babies, who are small enough to travel from one pen to the next, will go from pen to pen getting more and more meals, with the big ones always winning and the small ones starving.

Two of Jewel's (adult) chicks were eaten by a raccoon. I killed the raccoon, which I trapped with a fragment of one of the dead daughters.

Jewel had another baby, a beautiful rooster named Speckledy Bird. He was a beloved pet for almost a year, but went back to live on the pig farm as a full grown adult because he was chasing people.

We had lots of other banties which Kelly showed in 4H, which were given away before we moved. By that time I had a secure Poultry Palace for them to live in, and the rules were they all had to be in by dark.

Banties love to sit on nests. I thought I was collecting all the eggs, but then I found a huge nest which they had been communally laying in. I decided, since we had no rooster, to let them sit on it. Great, a few weeks later, one of the hens is running around proud as can be with a chick. I named him Jesus. (Not meaning any disrespect!) Hens can apparently store sperm for a couple months... Jesus was eventually eaten by the same fox that got Jewel, at a very young age. (Maybe I was distracted in my henhouse security vigilance by the massive divorce/move/child custody thing that was going on at the time.)

[Lise]

(Maybe I was distracted in my henhouse security vigilance by the massive divorce/move/child custody thing that was going on at the time.)

Yeah, that'll put you off chicken duty.

Thank you for another great Nanci story. Sorry so many chickens had to die. I guess I knew that pigs were kind of ... awful. Babe notwithstanding. L.

[Nanci]

I guess pigs are omnivores just like us. Or chickens, for that matter. You should see them (hens) go after pinkie mice if you accidentally uncover a nest in a hay pile.