Forgot to get the photos for today, so instead I'm just going to do a quick post, after all, this particular post doesn't really need any new photos. Last night I did the last butchering of rabbits that's going to take place here on the homestead. It was a killing that needed to happen, but I still am glad that it's the last one unless I'm going to be teaching people.
Herbie was the last rabbit on the homestead because he wasn't a rabbit we could let move on to another home. We'd tried to give him almost 6 months to recover from the back leg problems he was having, but he never did recover. It seems he may have injured his spine while playing and jumping around in the hutch, and just never was able to move properly after. It's a thing I've been putting off hoping he'd magically get better and we'd be able to pass him on, but it just wasn't happening.
Physically, skill wise, it was one of the easier killings I've done. Both of us were calm, and the physical process went perfectly. On an emotional level, it just confirmed that we made the right choice not to do rabbits anymore even if we were going to be able to stay in the homestead. The question now is, how do I continue to eat ethical meat, and stay healthy? Mostly, by eating less meat, and only buying from ethical sources.
But to be honest while we're in the process of selling the house and under financial duress, we're probably going to have to compromise and just eat what we can afford, while eating as little meat as we practically can.
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I'm glad you were able to do this last one well. Don't ever feel bad for not liking (or really dis-liking) the killing part. It takes a lot to get used to it, and most people never do (and that's OK with me).
ReplyDeleteI'm in the middle of a maternal and child nutrition class and one of the parts of the class is a week of eating on a SNAP budget. As part of the assignment they gave us this cookbook Good and Cheap https://8b862ca0073972f0472b704e2c0c21d0480f50d3.googledrive.com/host/0Bxd6wdCBD_2tdUdtM0d4WTJmclU/good-and-cheap.pdf
which is about eating healthfully (and well) on a small budget. The cookbook recommends buying "nice" eggs (cage free etc) because they are better.
Anyway, that was very rambling, but it might have some suggestions on new meat-free recipes.
That's great, thank you for the link. We're always thrilled to get more good options for eating on a limited budget. I think we may have that cook book from a class we went to, but we've been shifting things around and packing so it's hard to know for sure.
Delete"How to eat on a SNAP budget" Find ways to get food beyond your SNAP budget mostly! I know that for us the food bank has been a huge benefit.