Where Does Your Food Come From?

Like a lot of folks who live around me, I hunt.

I pretty much enjoy every aspect of hunting. As you know, I am a very outdoorsy guy. So any excuse to get outside is good for me. I like the time alone with my thoughts, the camaraderie I share with other hunters, being a part of solid game management and conservation, trips to Bass Pro Shops and spending all that money on hunting gear, you name it. One of my favorite parts is even to just sit outside, under a tree in the early fall, and take a nice nap in the afternoon. When is the last time you did that?

I mean, don't get me wrong, there is nothing like the thrill of the hunt and the adrenalin rush that occurs when everything comes together to make a hunt successful. I get the dreaded "buck fever" worse than most people. There have been times when I have not been able to consider taking a shot because I was shaking so bad and my blood ran cold like it is icewater due to my adrenal glands dumping the truck into my system.

However, sometimes I get lucky and everything comes together and I harvest an animal. After the shot is taken and I collect my deer, there is usually a time where I like to just admire the creature. The whitetail deer in Virginia are really some magnificent animals. It never ceases to amaze me how so many animals of such size can simply live among us. Unfortunately, after this short pause, reality sets in and I realize it's time to get to work.

I have butchered and processed every animal I have ever harvested. My feeling is that if I am willing to end the life of this animal, I had better be willing to clean it, process it, and eat it. There have been times where I have let deer walk by, just because I simply didn't feel like I wanted to do all the work that begins the moment that trigger is pulled. Now, there are some places that will process your animal for you. These folks do great work and it is done at a reasonable price. You get professional results and I don't fault anyone for going that route. But for me, I decided to learn to do the work myself, to become proficient at producing good cuts of meat, and learn to enjoy and appreciate ALL the aspects of hunting.

Since the current hunting season has started, I have brought two deer home. Daleen and I just finished processing the first one today and we'll start on the second one tomorrow. By the end of the season, we hope to have a freezer full and will have given a substantial part of the meat away to others.

I heard a message today by my friends Brian and Beth on being conscious of the things you buy and the effect your purchases have on those who produce those goods. Basically, it was a very good, and very convincing appeal to try to shop for items that are classified as "Fair-Trade". This means the people who produce these items are receiving a fair, living-wage, for the products they make, and that your money is not going to support some third-world sweat-shop. I think we can all get behind that idea and perhaps make a more concerted effort to think about what we are spending money on. Places such as Trader Joe's (food) and Ten Thousand Villages (not food) are a couple of local places in the Richmond area that carry such items. Ten Thousand Villages only carries Fair-Trade items and I think with Trader Joe's, you have to look at the label. My friend Beth found in her research that the products these places carry are really not much more expensive that what you would find at a regular grocery or department store.

Anyhow, this concept of being conscious of what we are buying has made me think about all the groceries and food in my house. Beth mentioned today that the most common Fair-Trade items are coffee, sugar, tea, and chocolate. But what about the rest of the food in your pantry? Where does your food come from?

I know the venison Daleen and I just finishing processing is good ole' Virginia whitetail that has been reared on only grass and acorns. We have also bought a cow from a friend from our church to supply our beef. In the end, it came out substantially cheaper than buying it from a supermarket, it was cut the exact way we wanted (someone else processed it), and we know it was only fed grass..... not steroids..... not antibiotics..... not hormones..... not the leftover parts of other animals..... just regular green grass. We later bought a lamb from his neighbor that was equally as good. Then, we have our vegetable garden from the spring through early fall which usually produces more than we can eat and we usually give a lot of that away. We know where those veggies come from because we grow them ourselves. Another thing we like is to visit farmer's markets to buy produce. Usually you can get a better deal, know what you're getting, and often meet the people who grew the stuff!

Now don't get me wrong. I love mass produced hot dogs, Pringles, Ramen Noodles, and a vast array of extruded food products. I think Chef Boyardee should have his own show on the Food Network. And I am not saying people shouldn't shop at Wal-Mart. Quite frankly, I love Wal-Mart. They sell things people can afford, employ hordes of people, and right or wrong, they know how capitalism and the free-market system works.

(Now climbing onto my soap-box with my pointy-finger...) The point I'm trying to make is, we should all make a little effort to try and understand where the stuff we buy or consume comes from. The answer should be easy, most of it comes from China! But if something costs so little that you can't figure out how it could be made so cheaply, ask yourself if you are supporting something with your money that you shouldn't. When it comes to your food, why not try to buy something that was grown or made where you live? For myself, I know that buying Virginia meat and produce means I am supporting local farmers and their families. I know I'm getting it fresh and can find out how it was produced. But when it comes down to really the best food in my house, I have found the most satisfying way to go is to either grow it or hunt it myself...... or just to run over to Allen's and get chinese take-out.