Eating Jade

This is Jade, we had Jade for dinner last night and it was strange......

I did not mean to participate so fully in the circle of life, but circumstances obligated me to.  We meant to get 3 hens but ended up with two beautiful roosters.  Unfortunately for us and the neighbors, they thought it was best for the world to awaken at 5:30 am, and 6, and 7 (and they failed to lay eggs).

My idealistic ethos of the moment is to eat fresh and locally.  Its easy to do with our garden, our hens, the farmers market and local butchers.  Killing our own meat, however, brought about a reality that I was a little less prepared for.  I remember watching my dad butcher chickens, rabbits and goats when I was young, but that did not prepare me for taking the life of an animal.  Suddenly I was responsible for not only the life and well being of another living creature, but the time and manner of his death.

This put a whole new perspective on how I viewed something as simple as a roasted chicken.  This was a creature that begged for table scraps and broke into my garden. Suddenly, I felt the need to make his life worth living.  We killed him quickly and humanely, used his feathers for decoration, his organs for our dogs, his meat for dinner and his bones for broth.  He had a good life and a good death.

How much more should we appreciate the animals that do not have a good life.  It seems unconscionable to me now to leave meat to be thrown away at a restaurant or worse, let it rot in the fridge without even using any of it.  Most farmed animals live a miserable life, we should at least let that life and death not be in vain.

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