Wednesday, September 7, 2005

How could you eat something soooo cute....

Invariably this is what the "moderns" say when they are visiting the farm and see the new baby chicks, calves or goats. I have heard too many tales of families selling off steers, chickens etc. because their kids couldn't handle the thought of eating them. We have not had this problem on our farm. Our first rule...all edible animals must have food names. We made this rule to avoid the "how can we eat him" scenario. I must say that I don't think it was necessary. Although we have had steers named T-bone, Meatloaf, Ham (short for hamburger), Taco, Burrito, Potter (pot roast) and yes even, Hershey (see the Ksmilkmaid's recent post!), I must say now that I don't think it was necessary.

In our experence when you have repaired the fence for the 49th time because they trampled through it (see my post "One of those days")...when you have had to get on horseback and round up 8 rowdy bull calves from down the valley and drive them home (the great cattle drive of '02)....when you wake up to strange noises in the middle of the night and find the calves in the yard enjoying the flowers....when you have to get up and round them up in your nightgown, coat and muck boots at 3:00am IN THE SNOW...and (the final straw) when one of them challenges you from the other side of the fence and you just know he will kill you if he gets the chance...our family actually does the happy "They are going to the butcher" dance....not once have any of my 4 boys ever expressed regret at the
thought of putting a cow into the freezer.

Nor has anybody ever hesitated to eat a meal. I have actually heard my boys make such odd comments as "so...do you think Hershey tasted better or T-Bone?" Hopefully the visitors thought they were talking about chocolate bars and steaks!

5 comments:

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  2. My kids have never had a problem with it either, and we don't give the calves food names. This year's was named "Beauty" and the girls would say, "Beauty burgers for supper? Yum!"

    As my 7-year-old daughter so eloquently put it, "So we feed them and then they feed us!"

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  3. Hi sugarcreek farm, Sounds like your 7 year old is very mature! I love the Beauty Burgers comment....

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  4. Somehow I missed this post very funny!!! My sentiments exactly. Our first steer was t-bone. Milkman decided to sell him fearing we couldn't handle it. We finally broke him into the idea that we could do it with Hershey. My seven year old asked me last night, "Why are you putting Hershey in the oven Mom? Don't you think he is too big?" He loves to tease about it. We have also named our new one Sir Loin. Brutes aren't we? :)

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  5. I know many people who would call us brutes! We have actually had a Sir Loin also...our kids must think alot alike!
    My Mom even has a problem...she doesn't mind the cows or chickens - she actually helps us on butchering day for the chickens....but mention a goat....I get the Oooohhhhhm, how could you .....song. :)

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