The Family Turkey Dinner
Snow. We have had light snow for the past three days. There are about four inches on the ground, one foot and all will be well. If only it was so simple. Dial-A-Weather. It's December. All eyes turn to presents and food. With food, all eyes turn to turkey.
Why turkey? Does anyone know why turkey and Christmas are so closely associated? So close that it is a tradition and for many, the main tradition, the family turkey Christmas dinner. I have heard that turkey is the meat of choice during this season because that was when turkeys reached the age where they could become dinner. Anyone know?
When you read this we will already have had our extended family dinner. This year we were in Ottawa between December 5 and 12 , so the family gathered for the festivities. Turkey was the main act. I was, at least, able to get a free range, grain fed turkey. Not my first choice, which would have been a vegetarian alternative. Nor was it the organic bird I was seeking. Still, it was an improvement. A small step, perhaps, but a step none the less from the inhumane conditions, commercially and factory produced turkeys are kept in to brief glimpses of freedom that often is free range. It is wrong to assume that free range automatically means the birds walk or run wild. They may only get a trip through the exercise yard.
Is it better to have felt the fresh air and lost than never to have felt the fresh air at all? Good question and worthy of much considered discussion around the family holiday table.
I love to eat and to cook. Both are fun and give myself and others joy. This is one reason that I find it difficult to make my meals from creatures which have suffered. The concern for the suffering of other beings raises some great questions. What is suffering? Do animals, other than humans, suffer and so on. Animals feel pain. So how do I reconcile this with the joy I get from food? Maybe for some, but, for me, pain and suffering do not equal joy.
I will explore this in more detail over the next few weeks. How food gets from the field to the table is an important consideration. How the beings we eat are treated is part of that discovery.
Turkey:
http://www.polarica.com/public_html/reta...
"Free Range?"
http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/mayo/11/0...
Factory farming:
Vegetarian Alternatives:
http://www.suite101.com/article/edit.cfm...
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