Food

"Mommy, how does the elk get the elk meat out?  Does he poop the meat out?" asks Julian, as he shovels chunks of elk tenderloin into his mouth.

"No, he doesn't poop it out.  You have to kill the elk and then eat it to get the meat out."

"Oh.  That's hard for me."

I think he meant that it is hard for him to digest . . . the sadness of having to kill this beautiful elk so that we can eat its wonderful meat.

Right now, our freezer is socked full of elk.  A friend raised this elk and I bought it.  After buying the elk, I contacted a "Kill Guy" so that he would kill, bleed out and skin the elk before delivering it to the butcher.  After it was all said and done, the farm raised elk cost about $3/pound.  A screaming deal, if you ask me.  The "Kill Guy" was an experience in itself . . . having come from "doing" two cows just before arriving with his truck, wench and mobile meat locker.  He was blood splattered.   Which was surprising, but shouldn't have been, had I thought about it a little bit.  He also brought his wife and ten year old nephew to help.  I left before the 'action' began.  I'm a wimp.

I've read "Eating Animals," by Jonothan Safran Foyer.  http://www.eatinganimals.com/site/book/

If you have read this book, you too would go to great lengths to eat meat raised humanely and killed humanely.  Right now, elk and veggies are pretty much our steady diet.  We are heading towards eating our older chickens, but I haven't mustered the energy, time or stomach to do it.  Someday in the future, I  imagine we will raise and eat our own animals, but we haven't come to that bridge quite yet (thank goodness.)

So our chickens life another day to 'poop out' eggs for us to eat, until we get tired of elk meat.