A Farmer Speaks

{This mama is working on getting her groove back. Being an introvert, I've gotten used to being by myself quite a bit, and so I'm just getting back into the old routine. It's good though, because I already feel closer to my girl than I have in a long time, just being at home with her, or the grocery store or with friends. It's that feeling you have at bedtime when you've been with someone all day and no matter how many struggles there were, you've made it through and it's time to snuggle. Our latest hurdle is that she broke out in that telltale fifth disease cheek rash yesterday, so we spent an hour at the doctor for a three minute appointment to get an all clear note (it's not contagious once you have the rash). I can see this is not the best thing to come down with in the summer because everyone can see it. She asked me what to say this morning if kids asked her about it. Poor kid. Well, on with the show.}



I'm not sure what made me pick up The Compassionate Carnivore by Catherine Friend. Well, that's not really true, I've been completely obsessed with food lately, and I've been reading vegetarian cookbooks like there's no tomorrow. This book has a unique point of view and that is because it's by a writer who also farms sheep. Not only that, but she farms sheep in southern Minnesota, and mentions farmers in the book whose products I buy both at the grocery store and at the farmer's market. Friend doesn't seem to take herself too seriously - this book definitely has a different tone from others I've read. She's learned about the various methods of farming, believes that compassionate, sustainable farming is best and that we owe it to ourselves and the earth and the animals to make wise choices about what we eat. We may not be able to do the right thing, or what we view as the perfect thing all the time - but do the best you can and set reachable goals. She seems to have an interesting view of vegetarianism - in that if everyone became vegetarian or vegan, there would really be no point in maintaining certain animal species - and that by becoming a compassionate carnivore and voting with your dollars, you really may be able to make a difference in farming practices.

Some of what Friend writes about, I already knew, but it's her take on things that kept this book interesting for me. It not often that you can read about what farmers think about raising their animals, how close they let themselves get, and what it's like to drive them to the slaughterhouse. I appreciated learning more about small, local slaughterhouse operations.

As for me, I'm still working on eating less meat. The last two nights I cooked from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone - well, I used her recipes as a template anyway. So we're doing it, and some nights it's better than others. It helps when dinner is followed by leftover birthday cake. But tonight, the girl has requested tacos, 'regular tacos!' so tacos she will get.