Killing More Food

As a former vegetarian, I shocked a lot of my urban friends in Miami and Guadalajara with this picture of me with this young buck that I killed the second to last day of the gun season here in Michigan. They couldn't understand how I could transform from being a vegetarian into someone who not only eats meat, but someone who would kill an animal with a shotgun. I want to dedicate this blog post to explain that the change was not as radical as it appears. 

First, I'll talk about assumptions. People love to (need to) label other people. There's nothing wrong with it. It helps us understand the world, but it can also lead us astray if we start assuming our assumptions are facts rather than possibilities. When someone hears that you're a vegetarian, they automatically start making assumptions about you. They think you're a member of PETA, probably a liberal, and an anti-hunter. I'm not any of those things (unless you're talking about a classical liberal, but that's a different blog post, on a different blog, on a different day). What I am is someone who thinks our daily diet choices have physical, mental, and spiritual implications. I was that way when I was a vegetarian, and I'm that way now. 

I became a vegetarian, because I was interested in Eastern Spirituality and Yoga, and I was trying to live a more peaceful life in harmony with the world. I also thought, what's good for the body is good for the mind is good for the soul (I still do). It wasn't all about me though. My primary political objections to eating meat were directed at industrial scale agriculture. I still think it's horrible that animals are turned into just another consumer product, and they live their short miserable lives in cramped spaces, eating too much, and taking drugs to stay healthy. 

My two primary reasons for being vegetarian still fit with my current paleo influenced diet. The problem is that my first reason is actually two reasons (living in peace and harmony) that aren't necessarily compatible. I do want to live in harmony with the world, but the world is not a peaceful place. Are the gazelle and cheetah not living in natural harmony? In order to reach my full potential as a human, I also have to be in touch with the darker, more violent aspects of my nature. I don't think eating meat by itself is enough to take me there. Many people eat meat in complete oblivion to the pain and suffering they cause, but I wanted to feel it, to see, and to take responsibility for it. On the other hand, eating industrially produced meat is not living in harmony. That's a corruption of nature. Those farmers have stolen the spirit of those animals, so what ends up being fed to us is a shadow of an animal. A processed meat-like substance that lacks the nutrition and flavor of an animal that lives a real life.

The buck that I killed lived the life he was born to live. He lived in the woods next to the creek; He stole farmers' corn and soybeans; He did his best to fight and fuck until a predator killed him. It would be a crime against nature if we protected a wild beast like him and turned him into prey without a predator. He couldn't fulfill his role in nature, and neither could I. 

Indian Creek on Dwellable

Killing my Food

It's easy to insulate ourselves from the brutality of the natural world. We pay for bombs that fall on the other side of the earth, we shop in malls that were once habitat of wild animals, and we stuff ourselves with meat that was once a living being that desperately wanted to stay alive. Our actions cause death and destruction. Even vegetarians should know that many animals (deer, rabbits, mice, pheasants, fox...) are killed and their habitat destroyed each year beneath $500,000 combines while wheat, soy, and corn are being harvested. Now, I have no problem with vegetarianism or veganism. I've probably spent a total of 3 years of my life as a vegetarian off and on, and I would consider experimenting with a vegan diet in the future, but I just want to make it clear that life feeds on life, and we all have to make partners with death, if we want to continue sucking in sweet blue air, and keep our futures open to all the possibilities that it entails.

It's so easy, so convenient to forget about these brutal facts of life when we're buying neat packages of meat from overcrowded supermarkets, but I won't let myself forget. That's why I killed a deer this year. I shot a doe dead from 60 yards away, right in front of her 3 fauns. I continue living, but I had to destroy something beautiful in order to do so. It was exhilarating and heart-wrenching. I believe there are a lot of hunters and non-hunters alike who do not appreciate that dichotomy. Non-hunters prefer to let other people do their dirty work for them, and they avoid the feelings of sadness and guilt, because they have chosen to believe a supermarket created illusion rather than the bloody reality. Hunters also suppress or brush off the feelings of sadness that come with killing a deer, and they focus on the adrenaline rush and/or the trophy. They're afraid only sissies let themselves feel that sadness that comes from taking a life. Macho-men kill and boast and leave the crying for the women. Not me, I think it's essential to open ourselves up to the sadness of this cruel world, not ignore it or hide from it. I killed a deer. I'm a killer, and so are you.

Indian Creek on Dwellable

End of Summer Garden

The prime garden season is quickly coming to a close. It's October 12, and we still haven't had a frost yet, but there are only a couple of tomatoes left to pick, and I just picked the rest of the peppers and eggplants. Even the pumpkins and squash are starting to wind down. I still have some things planted for the fall garden; Brussels sprouts, kale, parsnips and lettuce are still going strong, but they just don't have the appeal of a nice ripe tomato. Hopefully within the next couple of days I can muster enough enthusiasm to create a little synopsis of the summer garden, so I have a list of things that went right and things that went wrong. Overall, it was certainly a success. It produced more vegetables than I could eat, and it kept me busy for most of the summer. It definitely gave me an experience to build off of for my next garden.

Last Batch of Salsa

One of my highest priorities this summer was to preserve as much salsa as I possibly could. Salsa is by far my favorite condiment. I love the zestiness, and it's healthy, because it's pretty much nothing but vegetables. When the tomatoes first became ripe, I would make fresh salsa pretty much everyday. I love it. It tastes like summer itself, but I want to eat salsa all year, so I was going to have to do some canning. It was a lot of work, but anybody can do it. Almost everything going into my salsa came from the garden, with the exception of the vinegar and the salt. Unfortunately, I also had to buy some of the onions. I had a nice little onion crop, but we ate them all before the end of the summer, and salsa calls for a lot of onions. One other minor annoyance is that I planted so much cilantro, but most of it went to seed before I started making the salsa. I was able to salvage some of it, and I had quite a bit of parsley and spicy basil, so I added those to make sure the salsa had some herbal freshness.

I had a salsa recipe, but I only followed it loosely. I generally made it in batches with a base of about 20 pounds of tomatoes, so my recipe was something like this:

• 20 lbs. tomatoes
• 6 onions
• 4 bell peppers (various colors if possible)
• 20 jalapenos (or any chili pepper)
• 1/4 c. kosher salt
• 1 c. vinegar
• 1 c. mixed herbs (cilantro, parsley, and basil)

 I started by coring the tomatoes and putting them in the food processor. I put them in a 12 qt. pot (sometimes I need more than 1 pot) over medium heat, and I repeated the process for the rest of the vegetables. I then added the salt, vinegar, and herbs. After all the ingredients were added I would bring them to a boil, and let it boil for a couple of hours until it got nice and thick. When it got close to being done. I brought the 21 qt. canning pot to a boil. I then added the salsa to some clean qt. jars; added the lids; and submerged them in the canning pot for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, I got them out, and let them cool while the seal formed. I ended up making over 20 qts. Now they're up on the top shelf with the other preserves. Dwindling faster than I would like them to.

Fresh Pressed Cider

It's not even fall, and I've already had an opportunity to put my new hand-built cider press to work. My dad knows a manager of an orchard, and he let us go and pick a few bushels worth of McIntosh drops. Ideally, cider comes from a mix of apples, but it's fine to do it with whatever is available. I didn't have a bushel basket, so I don't know exactly how many we got. I do know that a five gallon pale filled with apples yielded about one gallon of cider. From the apples we picked, I got about six gallons. I'm turning five of the gallons into a sparkling hard cider, and we just drank the other gallon. It was a lot of work to get six gallons of cider with the cider press. The bulk of the work consists of chopping the apples before they go into the press. I was using a food processor, but it still took three or four hours to get everything pressed into cider. Next year I'll buy a grinder which will greatly expedite the process.

The fresh cider was crisp and tasty. My mom made some cinnamon and sugar doughnuts that went with it excellently. I'm interested to see how my hard cider turns out. With the exception of pressing the apples, it's supposed to be quite a bit easier than brewing beer, but it does take longer. Some people like to make it during the fall, and not drink it until the following year, but a couple of months should be enough. Mine has been in the basement fermenting for about a week now. I took a small risk by not adding campden tablets. They are supposed to kill the natural yeasts, which can possibly add off flavors to the cider. Not all people add them, but most do. I like the idea of going as natural as possible. I did add some champagne yeast, but I'll let the natural yeasts live. If I don't give it a try, I'll never know. I do have some tablets, so I might use them during the next batch. I'll let the yeasts do there job for another week, and then I'll transfer it to a five gallon carboy, where it will set until it clears. After it clears, I'll bottle it in a manner similar to the beer bottling process; Where I dissolve some sugar in boiling water, add it to the cider, and put it in bottles, while the yeasts turn the sugar into CO2.

Cider Press

I just completed my cider press. This was probably the most ambitious of my summer projects. I have very little wood working experience. I think I got a C in shop class in eighth grade. I bought a plan from ebay. The plan included all the hardware for $75. I had to buy the lumber separately, which was another $65. I have to admit that when I first got the plans; I was so overwhelmed that I almost sent everything back. It wasn't so much that I didn't think I could do it, but I just didn't have the equipment I needed. I give credit to my mom for talking me out of it. I thought about renting a table saw, but I looked on Craigslist, and I found one for $50. I figured that was better than renting one, since that would probably cost about the same. I also needed a drill press and a jig saw, and I ended up borrowing those from friends.  After that, I pretty much just followed the instructions. Everything is not as straight and tight as it could be if it were done by a master wood worker, but I'm pretty sure it will serve me well. For now, I will need to put the apples through a food processor before I press them to maximize efficiency. Maybe next year I'll get an apple grinder, so I can skip that step. I'm looking forward to making some nice raw, unpasteurized cider, and some sparkling hard cider.

Blueberries from the Argyle Swamp

Dad and I drove out to the Argyle Swamp. We entered it from Mills RD. just west of Banner RD. We didn't have to walk too far back to find some great picking. Probably less than a half a mile back is where we encountered our first blueberry bush. It was the first of many loaded bushes. We picked for a little over two hours, and we got 13 pounds of wild blueberries. I'd like to go at least one more time in the next week and get another load.