It was just over one year ago that my husband and I killed and butchered Red the pig. That single event informed my eating more than any other ever has. A Vegetarian Slaughters a Pig At the time of the slaughter, I was a vegetarian, as I had been for a decade. I didn’t eat meat for many reasons. Chief among them was that I didn’t know how to assess the quality of the animal’s [...]

A friend recently asked, knowing that Alex and I slaughtered a pig this spring, “Should my preschooler see an animal being slaughtered?” My answer is yes, with four important caveats. Witnessing an animal slaughter is not only culturally normal in the very recent past but can teach children valuable lessons. But first the caveats. 1) A child must want to watch the animal being killed and butchered. It is not appropriate for a person of [...]

I am a mad woman cooking and cleaning for tonight’s POM Party.  The people at POM Wonderful sent me two cases of fresh pomegranates and some juice with which to host a dinner.  I am featuring this non-local seasonal ingredient with a host of Ohio seasonal ingredients.  As two diners are cow’s milk sensitive, this is a cow dairy free menu. The menu is: sciurus rillette with Osage Lane Creamery danish hansen goat cheese and [...]

Today we celebrate the birth of the possum-catching, sausage-making, sign-hanging, eldest member of the homestead, Alex. On Saturday evening we invited family to our house for a feast for Alex and my sister Megan, whose birthday is July 16.  They always have the best birthday dinners because there are so many wonderful vegetables in season at the end of July! I welcomed guests with Algonquin cocktails and bruschetta made with homegrown Julia Child tomatoes and [...]

We are home from an exhausting, challenging, beautiful Canada canoe trip.  I am processing nearly one thousand photographs and a multitude of emotions while settling into our everyday routine.  The garden greeted us with ripening fruits and vegetables, many of which are featured in this week’s dinners. Monday – Braised goat ribs from Stratford Ecological Center, mashed sweet and homegrown cranberry red potatos, homegrown Parisian picking cucumber and Clint Eastwood tomato salad. Tuesday – Pan [...]

If you home cure meat, this might be a familiar site: Five pounds of saucisson sec and a fifteen pound serrano-style salted air-dryed ham hanging in our basement.   Both are made from the meat of Red, the hog we slaughtered in April.  The saucisson sec will hang for three to four weeks and be taken on our long back country canoe trip in July.  The ham will dry until the fall at the earliest. Curing [...]

Last week I shared our method for slaughtering a pig by hand.  Previously we shared why we wanted to slaughter. Today’s final post is reflective of the whole experience. Work to Be Done Rachel: Once Red was dead, we all worked quickly to process her body.  There was no spoken communication, but there was a shared feeling that part of honoring her life was to finish the work.  There was a sense that to raise [...]