Vegetarianism, or Not -- "I like it when they stay standing up."

Robert, my twelve-year-old son, after being forced to help in the garden a wee bit on Saturday -- truly, it took him longer to find SOCKS and put them on, than the amount of time he helped -- asked why we were even having a garden. I said, "So we can eat."

"What?! We're not eating anything else but what grows here? No meat?!"

"Well. Not everything. We'll still buy meat and things we don't grow from the Farmer's Market."

"Oh. Whew. I need meat."

I chuckled at the time. But since then, I watched an inspiring (and a little bit heart-breaking) YouTube video.

You see, just last week I had decided (and discussed it with my partner, Ali, and my son, Robert) that I didn't want to eat meat with un-known origins anymore. If I don't buy it from a local farm here in the Eugene/Springfield/Junction City/Lowell/Dexter/Veneta/Elmira area, I don't want to eat it. After all, "free-range" just means that they aren't in a cage. They could still be shuffling shoulder to shoulder in tight quarters. And "organic" meat is just animals that were fed organic feed; it tells me nothing about their living conditions, and whether they were treated humanely, or not.

I was feeling pretty great about my decision, until I watched this:

Now I just feel lame for not being a vegetarian.

(sigh)

On another note: I'm determined to process/can/dry/freeze as much fruit as I possibly can this Summer and Fall. All in my quest for sustainable living ... I've even started knitting my own dish cloths again! So, on Sunday next, Tamara and I are going to go strawberry picking -- if I can find a farm open on Sundays -- and then make jam. Mmmm. Probably just freeze some, too.

Little baby steps.

So, yes. Today, I may not eat octopus, but I'll still consume the beef from a Junction City farm (that I've visited personally) which I purchased at the Farmer's Market on Saturday.

Maybe next year I'll go veggie.