How does the end of the era of cheap food affect Maine? (appointed, purchase)

[RHB]

Don't worry GatorMamma, if the need ever comes, there are plenty of people who can do the slaughter for you, and the cutting and cleaning for that matter. There are also plenty of people you can trade with to get you needs met and theirs.


Starwalker coops are simuliar to ours, except that I have access to wooden pallets so our sides are pallets. In the couple of years we've used this type of coop, we have not had a problem.

To the OP, I always felt that the food prices were pretty high, and as they go higher, like anything/everything else, we will adjust.

[Maine Writer]

I will believe we should raise, slaughter and butcher our own animals when we have to grow our own trees, cut them down, turn them into pulp and make our own toilet paper. Some things are better left to those who are best prepared for the task. Speaking from experience, it's ugly and inhumane when you screw it up. I can kill the chickens, ducks and turkeys we raise every year but it doesn't mean I'm good enough at it for it to be the right thing to do. We always took pigs and cattle to the butcher. They deserve a better death and use of their meat than we could have given them here.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by RHB

Don't worry GatorMamma, if the need ever comes, there are plenty of people who can do the slaughter for you, and the cutting and cleaning for that matter. There are also plenty of people you can trade with to get you needs met and theirs.


Starwalker coops are simuliar to ours, except that I have access to wooden pallets so our sides are pallets. In the couple of years we've used this type of coop, we have not had a problem.

To the OP, I always felt that the food prices were pretty high, and as they go higher, like anything/everything else, we will adjust.

I like bartering. To me it feels neighborly. What I'm not good at, someone else is and what they may not be good at or don't like to do, I can.

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

I will believe we should raise, slaughter and butcher our own animals when we have to grow our own trees, cut them down, turn them into pulp and make our own toilet paper. Some things are better left to those who are best prepared for the task. Speaking from experience, it's ugly and inhumane when you screw it up. I can kill the chickens, ducks and turkeys we raise every year but it doesn't mean I'm good enough at it for it to be the right thing to do. We always took pigs and cattle to the butcher. They deserve a better death and use of their meat than we could have given them here.

Maybe I shouldn't have edited my earlier post. You hit it exactly. I'm not good at it. I had written about how my dad taught us how to fish and that we would do that when we went camping. The first time, I was excited, and I was thrilled when I caught the fish.

Until it came time for the killing. We had to beat them against the rocks and even though it was a fish, I felt terrible about that. It seemed such a brutal thing to do.

I don't know if there are farms/ranches up there like here but we have a place here, not too far from where I live, where you go and, for example, pick out one of their pigs. They will have the pig inspected and then they go and slaughter, butcher and clean it for you. You pay and take it home. It comes out a lot cheaper than going to the store, (which is what I need to feed the pets) and I'm still very aware this is a living animal but it's something, albeit still a little hard, I can do. It's when I get to know the animals, when they are in my care....like I said, unless I'm starving, I can't see me doing it. I get too attached to the buggers.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

I will believe we should raise, slaughter and butcher our own animals when we have to grow our own trees, cut them down, turn them into pulp and make our own toilet paper. Some things are better left to those who are best prepared for the task. Speaking from experience, it's ugly and inhumane when you screw it up. I can kill the chickens, ducks and turkeys we raise every year but it doesn't mean I'm good enough at it for it to be the right thing to do. We always took pigs and cattle to the butcher. They deserve a better death and use of their meat than we could have given them here.

We could go back to using corn cobs and the Sears catalog! We took our turkeys and chickens to the processor as well. In one door and out the other one in a bag ready for the freezer for $2.00 a piece...$3.00 for a turkey. I'm sure prices are higher now but I doubt it costs much more.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

I would never wish to say to anyone that they 'must' do something.

In my travels, one of the things that I have observed in our culture is an arrogance about where food comes from. From decades in the military I saw this attitude many times, as most of our nation's youth have never seen a farm. Nor fully wrapped their mind around the concept of where their food comes from.

There are a great many people in our culture who do not hesitate to eat a burger; yet are against hunting, fishing, and ranching. Raising livestock, killing and butchering animals is considered offensive. So long as meat comes in red-dyed patties, behind a glass counter in a section of the store that is all painted bright white, then it is okay.

. . . . . .

Just this past Monday I sat in a meeting at the university, even though we were discussing 'sustainability' a good portion of the young people present hold worldviews that somehow fail to connect meat with it's source.

There's a mental condition that arises among people who live too long around too few people, which causes country folk to obsess over strange things. In the Northeast this condition is called "woods q u e e r."

But I believe there's a complementary condition that people get from living too long around too many people, which I call "city q u e e r," and which causes city folk to obsess over strange things.

Things like being too squemish over the real nature of living--including the real nature of food.

And among other strange notions held by people so afflicted, is an over obsession with being politically correct.

Which is why I had to type a perfectly good English word as "q u e e r" instead of as "q****"--which for some q u e e r reason is censored here.

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by GatorMama

Maybe I shouldn't have edited my earlier post. You hit it exactly. I'm not good at it. I had written about how my dad taught us how to fish and that we would do that when we went camping. The first time, I was excited, and I was thrilled when I caught the fish.

Until it came time for the killing. We had to beat them against the rocks and even though it was a fish, I felt terrible about that. It seemed such a brutal thing to do.

I've fished my entire life. Kill them? No thanks. I'd kill it before I'd make it suffocate but I don't like doing it. I can and have but I didn't get married to drive the boat or kill and clean my own fish. He kills and cleans, I cook. It's a hands-on thing. I can shoot an animal. Whacking a fish on the head to kill it is different. Dead is dead no matter how it gets to that point but some ways are easier on me than others. But then, cutting off the head of a mean rooster isn't hard. That's because when I do it, I'm p*ssed off.

I don't know if there are farms/ranches up there like here but we have a place here, not too far from where I live, where you go and, for example, pick out one of their pigs. They will have the pig inspected and then they go and slaughter, butcher and clean it for you. You pay and take it home. It comes out a lot cheaper than going to the store, (which is what I need to feed the pets) and I'm still very aware this is a living animal but it's something, albeit still a little hard, I can do. It's when I get to know the animals, when they are in my care....like I said, unless I'm starving, I can't see me doing it. I get too attached to the buggers.

I used to raise pigs for customers. They paid for the piglet in the spring and I raised it. I was going to say that sending the pigs to their death was hard but so were the cows (except one), and processing day for the poultry isn't easy either. As Michael Pollan said, they had a good life and one bad day.

[quote=Maineah;17724226]We could go back to using corn cobs and the Sears catalog! [quote]
Does Sears still have a catalog? You might SOL on that one.

We took our turkeys and chickens to the processor as well. In one door and out the other one in a bag ready for the freezer for $2.00 a piece...$3.00 for a turkey. I'm sure prices are higher now but I doubt it costs much more.

The last place I called was $5 for chickens and $7 for turkeys. We can pay someone $125 to do the chickens or we can do it in three hours. DH won't part with the money so we do it. The offal goes to the wildlife so nothing is wasted. The last place I took chickens was fast and they use a very humane stunning knife, but they didn't do a great job on the carcass or packaging. If I'm paying for the job I don't want to be scraping lungs out of carcasses when I get home.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

they had a good life and one bad day.

A great many people don't even get that much.


.

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by GatorMama

I like bartering. To me it feels neighborly. What I'm not good at, someone else is and what they may not be good at or don't like to do, I can.



Maybe I shouldn't have edited my earlier post. You hit it exactly. I'm not good at it. I had written about how my dad taught us how to fish and that we would do that when we went camping. The first time, I was excited, and I was thrilled when I caught the fish.

Until it came time for the killing. We had to beat them against the rocks and even though it was a fish, I felt terrible about that. It seemed such a brutal thing to do.

I don't know if there are farms/ranches up there like here but we have a place here, not too far from where I live, where you go and, for example, pick out one of their pigs. They will have the pig inspected and then they go and slaughter, butcher and clean it for you. You pay and take it home. It comes out a lot cheaper than going to the store, (which is what I need to feed the pets) and I'm still very aware this is a living animal but it's something, albeit still a little hard, I can do. It's when I get to know the animals, when they are in my care....like I said, unless I'm starving, I can't see me doing it. I get too attached to the buggers.

That's what a Bluefish Bat is for. I keep one behind the seat.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

That's what a Bluefish Bat is for. I keep one behind the seat.

I used to be squemish about such things, but after a while when I'd get back to the dock, I'd fillet them alive.

Many a filleted flounder and blackfish I threw off the docs with it's gills still moving.

Bluefish usually died in the fish box by the time I got them back to the dock.

But cetainly because of their teeth I'd club them before cleaning them if they were still alive.

Reminds me, fresh bunker was always the best bait--we'd snag them, put them on the bait board, cut their heads off while they were still alive and flapping (very bloody), and then cut chunks off the body to put on the hook. Bluefish loved it.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

I used to be squemish about such things, but after a while when I'd get back to the dock, I'd fillet them alive.

Many a filleted flounder and blackfish I threw off the docs with it's gills still moving.

Bluefish usually died in the fish box by the time I got them back to the dock.

But cetainly because of their teeth I'd club them before cleaning them if they were still alive.

Reminds me, fresh bunker was always the best bait--we'd snag them, put them on the bait board, cut their heads off while they were still alive and flapping (very bloody), and then cut chunks off the body to put on the hook. Bluefish loved it.

I've had bluefish bite through a steel leader. I gaff them AND whack them when I land them. Then I usually cut off the hook at the steel leader with pliers and retreive it later. I tried shooting them but it was such a pain to fix the bullet holes in the boat every week.