I have been vegetarian for 15 years now. I honestly don’t even remember the last time I ate meat… on purpose. I did live in South Korea for over a year and was informed (often after the fact) that I had in fact consumed meat.  Vegetarianism isn’t really a thing there. If I remember correctly there isn’t even a Korean word  for vegetarian.

 

 

I first became vegetarian for moral and ethical reasons. Upon learning about the meat industry and how it really worked, I reached a point where I wanted no part of it. At the time we were living in Victoria, BC and that fact alone made the change a bit easier. Vegetarianism was quite common there and I had lots of people and products (meat replacement type stuff) to support my transition. Even with that support network I still had trouble. I grew up in a German family where our nightly meals almost always consisted of meat. Yup, we were a meat, potato, veg family and when you take the meat out of the equation it doesn’t leave you with much to eat.  Coupled with the fact that I was still very young (just graduated university) and was new to cooking, I had quite a steep learning curve to overcome.

 

I still remember the phone call to my oma… the one where I told her I had decided to become a vegetarian. Fifteen years ago and the strongest memory is the silence. I swear it was at least 20 seconds and when you actually count out 20 seconds that’s really long!  After the long pause all she said was, “you’re going to die”.  Well over a decade later and I’m still kicking oma!

 

When my son was born my husband and I decided to raise him a vegetarian as well.  That wasn’t that long ago. So what has changed?

 

 

Sometime over the last two years I discovered that there were people out there doing something called homesteading. It intrigued me. I researched, I pinned and I read. I was falling in love with this concept more and more with each passing day. Learning about things like self sustainability, GMOs (and why I want to avoid them), true organic farming practices, not being reliant on grocery stores for food… all of this just lite a fire in me I never knew existed.  When we finally made the decision to find a small bit of land to try and make a go at growing/raising our own food, my heart just soared.

 

I have never been a vegan. Laying hens have always been in the picture for my little homestead. But recently I’ve begun to think about whether we should/can be eating meat. I have no memory of a single moment that prompted this line of thinking, but there were a few catalysts. Two major ones really:

 

A book called Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
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And a woman named Shaye over at the Elliot Homestead

 

That book and Shaye have begun to change the way I think about food. I love the idea that food should be simple, clean, nourishing and sustainable. As I read more and watched more of her videos I began to think about how sustainable my vegetarian diet was… and how healthy it was (I admittedly still eat some soy… bowing head in shame).  And I’ve begun to wonder about things like bone broth and grass fed butter and other non-vegetarian things that might be really really good for me and for my family.

 

I look at my son and I just want to make the best choices for him.

 

I still have some soul searching to do but IF I decide to eat meat again and IF I decide to give it to my son it will only ever be local, sustainable, non GMO, organic and ethical. The animals need to be treated with care, love and respect. They need to fed food that nourishes them and that is apart of their natural diet. Luckily we have some pretty amazing options in Beaverton which I am thankful for.

 

In good health,

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