I started with "Small Scale Meat Farming" in the "Dig for ----sustainability" and was gently doing the story in installments. But all was very quiet.
To be honest here in France regards food the difference with the UK is enormous. I never realized the different cultrue concepts until i lived here.
What i recall with the local comunity, regards food, when i was growing up in rural Lincolnshire in the 60's and 70s is still practiced here.
Our Framer across the road with his 60 cow dairy herd, (sells his milk for the local Camembert cheese) does not shoot his male cows at birth, he brings up until 4 - 5 month old then he takes them to the slaughter house for Veal.
"Do i want one", since we get our milk every Saturday morning from his dairy, "hmm yes, thanks", then a couple of days later, "just taken 1 for me and 1 for you in to the abattoir and we can collect in 4 days time".
So theres me in my Mrs English plated car following his farm car, a beat up light blue Fiat punto, to a vast factory complex, i follow his lead and back up to the loading bays between huge artic lorry's. I Follow my man in to a very small office where are paper work is ready, but no office staff, and the stapler and scissors are chained, yes chained to the desk, (have to say brought back memories of my youth, another story).
Off course this being France every one uses cheques, and me i have a wadge of cash to pay the abattoir fees, 130E, but they have no change so i have to get change from the workers excellently laid out canteen/restaurant, bottom line is here no customer service. Workers yes, customers are wrong and a pain but we are all in it together. France is still very much a Republic.
A chap appears covered with chain mail with 4 bits, quarters, of cow, its only 140kg in total but takes up the whole boot. Grudgingly they provide a bit of plastic to cover the meat. (we get the ear tag and offal, but not the spinal cord or the skull or brain). Get home to one of my buildings and start the long process of jointing up the whole carcass. I have done organic deer before, although the smell put me off Venison for a very long time. But our good friend Andrew, a professional Chef arrived and helped sort it all out. I am concerned about his methods,
kept slapping the rump meat and saying "oh that's a lovely bit of tender meat" and "haven't done this since i was in training". Flippin poor old freezer took nearly 48 hours to get everything frozen.
We now have enough for a year. The meat is very very tender and melts in the mouth and has very good flavours, we know what and where the animal was raised and that it had a good life even though it was short but at least it had a life.
A week later One of our male lambs appears ready jointed, approx 23Kg and its squeezed in the freezer. And now i have about 50 kg's of our carrots to get in the freezer. Poor freezer, yes i know what your thinking i have a UPS inverter and 24v battery on stand by, as mains electric is not that reliable in the winter months.
2 weeks time its the apple harvest, all our boys are in the apple fair parade and floats in the local towns, its a big thing here the connection with the "fruits of the earth".
And i will collect about 3 tons from our orchard and use the scratter, and the apple press, (biggesh job with oak slats get about 100 litres of crunched up apples in) then we make about 20 litres of apple juice and sterilize it and then about 200 litres of cider. (last year apples were poor so no cider, this year looking good, trouble is i/we will have to drink a bit, the cellar still has 50 bottles from the the previous year vintage). In an English bub offered some English organic cider, it was bad, it had apple juice added later to give an apple flavour.
There you go, plenty of real produce but does any one want to know???
