Meat Lover/Meat Basher

OK, who grew up loving meat? It was the center of the meal, usually most of the meal and as my mother often chided, what you needed to eat before dessert because "it was the most expensive part." Planning a meal around a nice cut of something bloody is an American tradition, isn't it? Well, really its a post-industrialized post-farm to table generation way to be decadent and prove to ourselves that we are well off. Eating meat sometimes reminds me of a grandmother that hides her beautiful hardwood floors with carpeting because in her day bare floors meant you were poor. Meat means decadence, well-to-do. When you plan a dinner party, don't we usually pick something very meaty to feature as the main course? Its because we easily and cheaply can as a society. It doesn't always mean that it is the right thing for our bodies, our neighbors and our world.

A few years back we made the transformation as a family into "flexitarians." That is, we eat meat but little of it. Its not that I object to killing animals, as long as they lived decent lives (and therefor taste better, too) I will eat them happily. I have even have the opportunity to know the animals before they meet their demise. My boys got to name my parent's two hogs this year, one was "Lunch" and ironically, he often is, and one was "Lockoo," who was a runt and ended up dying before we could eat him. We started eating less meat because, like it was 100 years ago, good meat is expensive and hard to come by if you can't bring it up yourself. Chicken breasts at an organic market, where they sell chicken that comes from our local community and the chickens did not grow up underground in each others' fecal matter, is almost $11 a pound. That's ridiculous, but the price I'll pay for chicken that is incredibly delicious when we have occasion to afford it.

Once upon a time, I envied people who owner big white freezers in their basements where they kept extra frozen meat for dinner that they could defrost beforehand. I had no idea how they could do that. Were they rich? And then it occurred to me when I placed our first purchase for meat by the animal. Last spring we bought a lamb, cute and fuzzy it may have been it was delicious and less expensive as a whole. I called Bird Creek Ranch in Cascade, MT where Cindy Kitteredge and her husband raise Icelandic Sheep and Highland Cattle and ordered a lamb. They delivered it, personally, to my door for no extra charge and for around $120 I had enough lamb to last me a full year. Meat in bulk is the answer. My parents, bless them, gave us half a hog as a Christmas present this year and also hunt, so we acquired much of their processed venison. And while Eating an excess of meat at a meal is a bad idea, when you can and do add it in, it tastes so much better when it died happy.

Family Tip of the Day: Serve less meat at a meal. It costs less at the market and frees up room for one more fruit or veggie on the plate to round out hungry little bellies.