I started to write this post as an add-on to the post I shared yesterday, but realized the subject is deserving of a little more time and consideration. I wanted to share an important event happening outside the city, hosted by Pastoral Plate. Pastoral Plate is a meat-buying collective based here in San Francisco, offering grass fed and pastured raised beef, lamb, pork and chicken. We have been Pastoral Plate members for the last two years, and order meat with them usually about once a month. I’ve mentioned Pastoral Plate many times here on the blog, but they have recently announced a new event that I am so incredibly eager to be a part of. On November 10th, Pastoral Plate members will be heading to Sebastopol together to harvest and slaughter our own chickens at Amber and Son chicken farm. You read that right, we’re getting ready to participate in a true farm-to-table experience, and I think this opportunity is incredibly important and valuable to all meat eaters. I can’t say I am excited to kill a chicken, but I can say that I think I need to know and experience this process. So many of us are so very, very disconnected from our food systems, and here in the Bay Area we are extremely fortunate to have easy access to locally grown produce, meat and dairy.
I care about the food I put into my body, but I also care about where it comes from, how it is grown, and how it arrives at our table. As a meat eater, I don’t want to be afraid to look at the food I eat, and I think truly understanding the whole food chain is an important journey, even though it isn’t easy. Tickets to this event are available online here. The day includes lunch as well as a butchery lesson (one of many lessons to be learned on the farm)! Intern and I have committed to participating in this event, and I plan to document the experience, and write about it here on the blog.
One thing I’ve learned this year from having chickens is that they all definitely have personalities. The sweetest one would be the hardest to kill
. My sweet one is never mean to the others, and is most attentive to the things I do. i.e. comes up to visit me nicely, looks at me alertly, and is smartly never in my footpath when I walk with them. She seems to have a higher consciousness than the others. Not that I would get satisfaction from slaughtering the not-so-nice or smart ones, but loving attachment is a true thing and puts a lump in the stomach. That said, I’ve really been loving chicken as meat lately, and really value those who do the slaughtering, especially if it’s with feeling and intent. I’m excited to see how this goes! I’ve never slaughtered anything before. I was too much of a vegetarian the last time I had an opportunity.
Hi Kate and Intern. I wanted to tell you my story. I killed a few roosters this spring, for the first time in my life. I don’t want to fetishize the experience, but it really was important for me. It has made eating meat more complicated – I feel better about it, as if I’m somehow legit now, but I also feel worse about it, especially when I eat meat that is not 100% ethically sound, and because those birds were warm, sweet, lively beings. For a variety of reasons, unfortunately, I ended up killing my first rooster at night, by myself, with pretty much only Farmer Google to advise me. For several hours before the slaughter, I mentally prepared by imagining that I was Ryan Gosling’s character in Drive, and also by spending the afternoon at my taxpayer-funded state job googling “chicken slaughter kill cone” which I hope will not be uncovered in a political scandal someday. After work, I had a couple/five swigs of whiskey, hung the rooster upside down in an improvised kill cone, and slit its throat. My hands shook a lot and I cried, and afterwards my bloody sweatshirt made me feel a little badass, which doesn’t make me proud, but there you go. The next day we had Chicken Marbella in the slow cooker. (It was so good.) I killed a couple more over the next month and it didn’t really get easier. That’s my killing story. Soon you will have one, too, and I look forward to reading about it. I hope it goes very well. I miss you!
Best comment ever Kanna! I feel like I have a lot to work towards in the coming weeks to prepare myself. Thanks for sharing the story, now please also share the recipe.
Here’s the recipe. I put it in the slow cooker for like 10 hours and it turned out great. http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-marbella-silver-palate-cookbook-395629