Grow your own Pork.

Could you?

Could you raise a piglet, feed it, clean it, play with it, name it, take care of it, take it to the abbatoir, then to the butcher, then to the freezer and finally to your dinner plate.???

I think I could.

We have been discussing this a lot recently, a friend of ours who has a small holding and raises sheep, cows and chickens, cannot eat his own animals.

I would love to raise my own livestock, to feed it well, give it a good quality of life before sending it away to be killed. Yes, I could not kill it myself. I would have to have it done professionally and butchered professionally as well.

Meat is not chunks of flesh, from a supermarket. Its a cow, a sheep, a pig, a deer. A leg of lamb is a lambs leg. a shoulder of pork is a pigs shoulder. a chicken is a chicken! Where I can I buy free range chicken and outdoor reared pork. If I cant get/afford outdoor pork It has to be red tractor pork. I love meat. I love farming. I like to see the old fashioned butcher's where they have the whole carcasses hung up. That is the reality of what you are eating. People need to get in touch with what they are eating. 

It comes from my childhood, I grew up on a farm. It would break my heart as a child when the steer's went off to the abbatoir. However, It was short lived grief and I would happily tuck into my beef on a sunday. We were used to it. I would often see braces of pheasants hanging in porches and sheds. Rabbits being skinned. bags of feather's. men with guns and spaniels ready for the off. Rabbit and pheasant were free food. People would hunt for pheasants and rabbits and there was often  more than they needed so they were handed out and gifted. Often to be exchanged for a pint of beer.

However,  LSP and the children do not share my kill it, Cook it, Eat it philosophy. Where do you all stand?

Could you raise your own meat? Do you?