I celebrate American Thanksgiving. And like Christmas, I celebrate the holiday
secularly and in my own way.
I do not believe for an instant that hundreds of years ago a
group of religious zealots sat down with “savages” and enjoyed a meal of peace
and brotherhood. A cursory internet
search backs me up on this.
What I do believe
in is taking a day and making a thoughtfully, lovingly crafted meal and sitting
down to eat it with those I love most (geography permitting, of course) and
being conscious of all the gifts in my life.
I enjoy cooking, so making the big meal is no hardship for me. It’s a fun challenge. One day I would like to master timing and
have everything finish cooking at once, but I digress.
Something else I believe in is eating consciously. My husband and I are in the process of switching
over to all real food. If it can only be
made through science in a laboratory or it is being preserved with jaw-breaking
chemicals, it isn’t going to be found in our pantry. We are in the early stages of this life
change so there are still things around that qualify as franken-food, but it is
diminishing. (Why do they have to taste
so damn good!?) The reason I bring this
up is the turkey. Every year my employer
hands out free turkeys to all employees.
This is a very nice gesture, but it’s a Sysco* turkey and right on the
label it says something to the effect of “contains an 8% solution of sodium and
other chemicals to enhance flavor and juiciness.” Ewwww.
So next year I will save up and plan to spend a ridiculous amount of money
on a farm raised bird. A Heritage breed,
most likely.
Another reason to switch over to a farm raised bird is to
stop supporting the monstrosity that is factory farming. It is a horrifying and sickening thing. That is a post (or twenty) for another time,
but my goal is to stop buying any meat that comes from places like that. Ideally, someday I will be able to look out
my window and SEE my future food walking around happy in the sunshine, but that
day is far away. Until then I can only
do what I can do. This year I eat an injected
Sysco turkey because that is what I have.
Next year if all goes well I will have a humanely raised turkey on my
table and a smile on my face about it.
*I have
nothing whatsoever against Sysco. They
are a great company and provide food to a lot of people. I have issue with where their meat comes
from, but that’s a battle I can’t fight.
