Eating Locallly....Yesterday was a beautiful day, the temperatures cooled off just enough that we made the decision to "harvest" some of our meat chickens we have been raising.Since we are new to the rural life, my good friend Jenny was a great help. Jenny has raised and slaughtered alot of her own meat, her sons hunt as well...so she knew what she was doing!I am happy to report that the Talley-chicken chopper worked very well, it's only flaw was that it wasn't quite heavy enough....but E.T. did a great job ending the bird's lives quickly and painlessly.Alot of people in my family (namely, my Mama) think is it crazy, like off-your-rocker-crazy to raise your own meat....but after the big Mad Cow scare, and then the E-coli spinach deal last fall, Eldon and I have made it a goal to know where our food comes from.....what a learning process!We have read several books about food, and in the lastest one by Jane Goodall (the ape lady) I was moved to tears when she shared a story about a homeless man from Inner-City Chigaco who sobbed when he learned he had been hungry and even starving most of his life and "Food comes out of the ground!?!?" In the same book, only 2 out of 20 8-10 year old school kids knew that potatoes grew IN the ground, and only 4 of them could identify a kiwi......Food is such a big deal, and Eldon and I have made a goal that we would like to grow as much of our own food as we can...sadly, because of my picc line and MRSA infection we haven't grown a garden ( lucky for me a master-gardener lives right down the road...hint...hint...Mr. SRJ ) but my neighbors have been sharing their bounty of fresh squash and peppers, and my friend Jenny has been giving us milk from her Jersey cow, and last night she gave me some broccoli! Nothing, nothing tastes better than fresh food!So, friends, give me some of your feelings on food, eating locally, growing gardens etc.....I will spare you senstive readers the photos of the chicken heads and feet that were littering the garage floor.....so gross!! But, really, my hope is that my girls will realize where all of the McNuggets come from!I love input and comments...Kate
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