On Eating Meat
Some of you who have been reading a while or who know me may already know my philosophy on eating meat.
Check out this post for a refresher: The Thanksgiving Dilemma.
To sum it up, I don’t agree with the way meat is factory farmed in this country so I don’t eat it. The reason I don’t eat happy farm raised meat is because its not in my budget, but if I had the money to spend on expensive meat regularly, I would!
But, yesterday Chris and I went to the Honest Weight Food Co-Op in Albany to check out their meat selection and get some groceries. A good friend of mine had gifted me with a giftcard to the co-op for Christmas so I used this as opportunity to get some chicken!
The chicken I picked is from Misty Knoll Farm in Vermont. I found an article on the co-ops website about the farm talking about their turkeys and chickens,
Nestled on twenty-two acres in the Champlain Valley basin, far from the industrial factory farms that mass produce most of the poultry our nation consumes, is a family farm where turkeys roam and enjoy green grass, fresh Vermont air and sunshine. These turkeys do not suffer the indignities of antibiotics to keep them from dying of diseases brought on by overcrowding, nor are they fed hormones that artificially cause them to swell to larger, more marketable sizes. They eat regionally produced grain grown about an hour away, in Canada, and bugs and green plants. Each flock of birds stays together, lives in an enclosed, untreated pasture, and is moved to fresh fields when needed. They are given protection from the elements by rain shelters in each area. When the time for them to be harvested comes, they are not shipped by truck in cages to a factory but instead go down to the processing building at the farm where they were raised.
Chickens are also raised at the farm. They live in specially designed chicken houses in which they roam free and have access to ample fresh air and water, natural grain feed, and clean bedding. Like the turkeys, the chickens also live without drugs and are harvested and processed on the farm.
Sounds like happy meat to me! At about $17.89 for a package of chicken breast, this chicken is expensive and is not something I can buy on a regular basis. But the fact I know the farm it came from and how the chickens were raised is much more of a comfort to me than sitting down and eating a chicken sandwich at a restaurant that could have come from who knows where.
The co-op also had New York chickens available, but they were whole, and since I’ve never roasted a chicken before, I decided to go with the chicken breasts from Vermont. I do see chicken roasting in my future, though!
But Friday night Chris prepared our meal, chicken stir-fry! We marinaded the chicken in a mix of soy sauce and a mango sauce for about a half an hour and then got to cooking. We also included some volcano rice straight from the co-op’s bulk bin to go with our meal.
The chicken came out great! I’m so glad I have a guy who knows how to cook well! 🙂
The stir fry lasted me two days of leftovers…lunch yesterday and I just finished it off for lunch lunch today. Yum. But of course, no meal is complete with wine! We also picked up a bottle of white wine to have with dinner.
I see meat eating in my future, as long as it comes from a good source like this chicken, and it will only be a rare treat!
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7 Comments
Emily @ Relishments
That’s exactly how we eat meat in our house. With the exception of some pork that I just bought because it’s Brian’s Valentine’s Day present, we very rarely eat meat because we know too much about where it came from. On the special occasions when we do buy it, it’s from a known, local, humane source. Meat tastes better and means more to me when it’s a special treat. Besides, even cheap meat is more expensive than beans!
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Heather
glad you found some local chicken at the co-op!
did the addition of chicken into your diet this week effect your running at all?
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Jen
i ate the chicken friday night, and ran 7 miles on the treadmill on Saturday morning…nothing unusual happened. no stomach problems. I also ate part of a vegan cookie cream pie from xs to os for breakfast that morning, too…hahahaha.
Mardi
That sounds like a lot for a bag of chicken, but since you got a few meals out of it, it’s a lot cheaper than eating out, where you could spend $17 on ONE entree.
I have to cut down on eating out, and not just because of the cost, but because of the salt content. Even places that have low fat or “guiltless” choices still seem to have a lot of salt.
For everyday that I pack a lunch, I’ve decided to add a dollar to my “penny jar” (which doesn’t have just pennies in it). Then I’ll find something interesting to do with my jar of money
Liz (Little Bitty Bakes)
I’m guilty of eating regular old chicken breasts that came from who knows where! I think about eating organic meat from time to time, it’s just so pricey, like you said. Glad you got to enjoy this, though!
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sarah @ sarah learns
being more conscious of where i get my meat is something i struggle with. most of my purchases are driven by price, which i know, especially with meat, almost certainly means unhappy animals. but we’re not at a place where we’re ready to go meatless – i don’t think my husband will ever get to that place…
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irisira
We got a turkey from Misty Knoll for Christmas dinner this year, and it was sublimly delicious. I occasionally get the turkey cutlets from the co-op, as opposed to the chicken, because it’s a little less expensive (I’m not sure why this is, exactly, but it is). In fact, I made a great soup with the turkey cutlets and mushroom broth, potatoes, and some dried beans in the bulk bins. Yum.
Lately, I’ve been buying meat at the farmer’s market, which seems to be a little less than at the co-op ($1-2 per pound, which adds up). I recently got ground beef from Sweet Tree farms and made a chili with it (yum), and I got some stewing lamb this weekend that my husband is going to make in the tagine.
I feel better about eating happy meat, for obvious reasons, but in addition to that it tastes so much better.
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