Lammy-Pie (Grass Fed)

This weekend Bernie and I became more "at one" with our earth. Through one of his workmates, he found us a local Woodland "farmer" who raises sheep, and who was willing to part with one for a mere $100. Buying an animal to eat opened up all kinds of excitement and questions for us. Some of the questions were just about logistics.... who's going to kill it? Where are we going to store the meat? How are we going to butcher it? Do we know how to butcher it? Some of the questions were a bit more weighty. Do we really want to get that intimate with our food sources? Are we willing to kill an innocent animal, transport it, then butcher it? And we love lambies.... they're so cute! But we also love lamb chops and gigot d'agneau spiked with garlic and served with gooey green mint jelly. So we decided that we were up for it. The farmer from "Keene's Acre" here in Woodland was nice enough to shoot it in the head before we got there, and just 20 minutes before-hand, no less! Bernard was prepared to slice the animal's throat ("egorger"), but I'm not sure our neighbors would have appreciated the noise. I'm not sure I could have stomached it either. We loaded the corpse into the back of our Highlander on a plastic tarp, and its eyes were all glazed over with a green sheen over them....looking kind of like a cataract. Bernie said that was how they all looked. He had blood coming from its nose and mouth, and his body was still really warm. When we got it home we hung it from a contraption Bernie set up. He hung it from its ankle, where he made a slit between two bones there. Ingenious. Then he did something else that impressed me. He made another small incision under his knee-cap, and inserted the nozzle of his air compresser, and turned it on reverse mode to pump air in between the muscle and skin so as to slowly detatch the tissues. Amazing.... and it worked beautifully. As he began to cut the skin off, it was clear how much easier it was. Gutting the animal was VERY interesting. I didn't touch any of it, but I sure could smell it. Pee-yew! I just held my nose though, and watched as each of the organs came out. All of this animal's organs looked so healthy, and just like the pictures I'd seen in books. The liver was dark red-brown, the intestines all squiggly and greyish, the heart was red, and the lungs were so perfectly shaped, right down to the aveoli. What a miracle a body is. The larynx looked like a decompressed tube that I see coming from my clothes' dryer vent. I remember discecting a rat in college, and being amazed at that too. I know that discecting isn't the most pleasurable activity for many (including me), but it has given me the opportunity to observe nature's miracles up close. I know, it may sound corny, but I do have a lot of respect and love for this sheep who gave his life for us, to nourish us. Seeing a life given up for me (and my husband) makes me want to not waste, to respect, and to appreciate where my food comes from. Bernie must have been feeling the same thing, because since the sheep's death on Friday, he's eaten the head (yes), the heart, liver and sometihng else I forget now. I would have liked to have saved the wool for some project (maybe a sweater for each of my rats :)), I was a little overwhelmed at the time. I did touch it, though, and could feel the lanolin between the fibers. No wonder someone way back when decided to use this "material" as a (human) skin moisturizer.

So, there's that story.

grass fed lamb

food around world

michael pollan

vespa license

organic gardening

compost

strawberries & cream

lentil soup