[Sca-cooks] Handling special diet needs at feasts

[Philippa Alderton]

--- Tara Sersen Boroson <tsersen at nni.com> wrote:
>  > Actually, it was pretty simple. Marian came into
> the kitchen and
>  > mentioned to Adamantius that an entertainer
> wanted to stay for
>  > feast, was vegetarian, and would there be enough
> fo him to eat.
>
> How did Marian come by the information?

You'll hafta ask her. I was just there, beating A's
meat for him ;-)

>  > OK, why this free-range/organic thing? This is an
> honest question. I
>  >  have some comprehension of the "poor little
> critter" and religious
>  >  vegetarianisms, but why this twist on it?
>
> Well, I don't have a problem with the basic idea of
> killing an
> animal for food.  I do have *huge* problems with the
> ethics of the
> factory meat producing industry in this country.

OK, that makes sense- it's why I seldom eat veal.

> It's bad enough my tax
> money supports factory farming.  I don't want my net
> income going into
> it, too.  Nor do I want the quality of their
> products going into my
> body.  The issues I have are environmental, ethical
> (from an animal,
> worker and community standpoint,) economic, health
> (chemical, pathogenic
> and other,) and basic disgust at their governmental,
> social and legal
> manipulations and outright lies.  I could go on for,
> well, a book or two
> ;) but, if you want more detailed info, we can chat
> privately.  The
> family farm model thwarts all or most of the
> problems, and I'm willing
> to support that.  But, true "family farms" are very
> hard to find.  Even
> my local butcher gets his sides of beef from larger
> slaughterhouses.
> Amish farmers may be a bit better, but not much.
> So, the only
> certification I know of that guarantees most of my
> issues are resolved
> is organic.  I'm willing to take simply "free-range"
> if I know I can
> trust the source - there is no legal qualification
> for free-range.

This, at least, makes some sense, but having dealt
with both slaughterhouses for cattle and beef, and
chicken slaughtering factories, frankly I'd worry
about the chickens first. You don't want to know, but
considering my rather liberal habits, I ALWAYS soak
chicken in salted water for at least half an hour-
longer, like overnight, if I have the time.

> Also, I do garden organically myself and try to buy
> organic produce and
> grocery products whenever feasible.  I feel that's
> very important, and
> wish to support organic farmers and ranchers to the
> exclusion of
> non-organic food producers as much as possible.

Ok, again, I can understand. Since I frequently do my
own butchering, I usually know the history of the
animal- for example, the veal calf I slaughtered for
Yasmin for MK Coronation a while back, was a heifer
who was born as one of a pair of twins to a milk cow.
Since the other calf was a bull calf, and since
usually heifers born of that pairing are usually
sterile, the farmer was raising her for beef for his
own household, until I came along.

Question. Have you ever done your own slaughtering and
butchering? If not, why not? Lack of knowledge, or
lack of facilities, or perhaps both?

Phlip

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