One of my goals since we moved to Salt Spring was to start eating MORE locally.  We grow a wide range of fruits and vegetables in our garden, and can get even more at the farms and farm stands just down the street, and we,  of course, have enough eggs to feed a family (or three) from our laying hens.

But we haven’t done meat.

Yet.

Understanding and coming to terms with WHAT meat is has been a challenge for me.  I love a juicy burger, but if I actually had to MAKE that burger happen, to grow it, kill it and chop it up, that burger wouldn’t be so great.

So, for “however many years” I have been ignoring it.  Saying that “THIS” burger isn’t really a cow. THESE chicken thighs didn’t come from a REAL chicken.  Bacon grows on a bacon tree, not on the side of a pig.

But the closer I get to my meat, the less I am able to believe this myth.

Recently we were given the opportunity to purchase a portion of beef from a neighbour.  Local and free range, freshly butchered beef.

We got the forms, met the farmer, and as I sat there with the sheet of paper in front of me, asking me how many pounds of “roasts” I wanted, I had to face the reality of what was going to happen.

I drove by this cow every day on my way to town or the lake.  There were 3 siblings, all grazing in a meadow.  They would lie in the shade on hot summer days, and munch close to the fence sometimes so I could see their faces.

I never stopped, because I knew early on what their purpose was.

It took a long time to grow these cows.  And a lot of space, care and nurturing.  The farmers brought in additional feed so the cows could grow big enough.

Big enough for butchering.

In the end, when it came time to make the choice, I couldn’t.  It didn’t make sense to me. We don’t eat that much beef, and after standing witness to the time, space and supplies it took to “create” this beef, it didn’t seem right.

It takes a cow 18-24 months to be ready for slaughter.   That is a really long time to grow a steak.

Too long, in my opinion. With too many resources, and too much waste.

Cows have one, maybe two offspring, and their gestation is 270 days (apx). Again, a lot of time to create, birth, nurture and grow and steak.

In comparison, it takes 21 days for an egg to hatch, and apx 18 weeks for a heavy weight chicken to be ready for slaughter.  Chickens will attempt to hatch their eggs, 1-2 dozen at a time, a few times a year.

In being faced with the realities of each burger, it just didn’t seem to make sense anymore.  Could I eat a steak, knowing how much energy was put into making it?  Could I eat a steak that I witnessed growing?

No. I couldn’t.

I can’t.

In the end we declined our beef portion.  We don’t have storage for that much meat, we don’t eat that much meat, and we I can’t come to terms with the global cost of that much meat.

But chicken on the other hand. . . that I might be able to get behind.