Learning where meat comes from, the horror of the Barnes and Noble train table

[GatorFarmer]

The Walmart was too crowded today, so we opted to take the children to Target instead. Strangely, their industrial size boxes of diapers (now 156 count!) are quite the value. A trip to Target generally means a trip to Barnes and Noble too. The boys like the train table, and I like a chance to get my Fortean Times and other magazines that you just don't find in a town without a full service bookstore. (Such as where I live....)

When it was my wife's turn to watch the boys at the train table, apparently a little blonde girl came along and starting bossing around our four year old son Liam. My wife used the word bullying. Apparently he tried to give her a train to play with, but she wanted a certain one and tried to tell him what tracks he could run on etc.

I naturally said "Eh, might as well get used to it, welcome to my life." "What's that supposed to mean?"

Anyway... The middle child Brody didn't enjoy this so picked up a random book and brought it to my wife to look at pictures.

Apparently it was a book about animals. When he saw the picture of a pig he said "Piggies eat people, so we shoot them in the head and eat them."

Where upon my wife told Brody he was right and that that's where bacon, ham, pork chop and other foods he loves comes from. Then she pointed to the cow and asked what came from that.

"Hamburger!" Brody said.

The little girl looked at my wife in horror, as though she'd seen a ghost or something and stammered "Does hamburger really come from cows?"

My wife simply nodded and patted Brody on the head and said "Yes, that's right, those cute little moo cows get made into hamburger."

Apparently valuable life lessons were learned all around. Shrug. I probably shouldn't leave my wife unattended, she doesn't play well with others. Eh, I didn't do it.

Apparently most kids really don't know where meat comes from these days?

 

[nawilson]

I don't know about "most" kids, but my five year old knows. When I go to the woods, he tells me to bring back a deer to eat. I haven't quite gotten around to explaining hunting seasons to him yet.

 

[redlevel]

My daughter must have watched me clean and process 50 deer between her 5th and 15th birthday. It became a tradition for her to sit and talk to me while I was cleaning the deer I, my brother, and my nephew had killed.

When she was about 4-5 years old, I bought a litter of pigs to feed out on some corn I had grown. I would take her with me when I fed them and lift her over the electric fence I had containing them. She quickly made pets of them. I became concerned that she would be upset when we started butchering the hogs. I tried to tactfully bring the subject up one day as we were driving away from the pen. I casually pointed out a 175 lb pig and said, "That red pig looks like he would have some tender ribs." Instead of being horrified, my daughter looked at me and said, "Let's kill him!"

 

[Marshwheeling]

When her kids were little, my sister would often have a young goat, or calf or pig which she would raise for the purpose of turning it into meat. But up until the fatal day, the cute little critter would enjoy pet status, and the kids would invariably grow fond. To make sure that didn't go too far, my sister always took care to name the animal something like "Snack" or "Sausage", so there was no mistake about just why the adorable little bugger was being kept around.

 

[dougb1946]

My wife had a co-worker who quit drinking milk when she found out where it came from. We may have have moved too far from the farm.

 

[sceva]

Some people think meat comes from the meat factory where they mix the correct chemicals, amino acids, vegatable proteins, put them into the correct molds and Voila, Meat. The same people probably have no idea that the produce that magically shows up at teh supermarket was in a dirty farmers field a few days earlier.

 

[Bob R]

Wait a minute!!!!! They have a train table at B&N ?!?!?!?! I have to get back to the kids section and check it out!

bob

 

[LazyKB]

Years ago I was in the garage cleaning a pair of wood ducks. I had finished one and was starting the other when the door opened and the wife shoved our youngest daughter out into the garage with a, "Here you watch her, she is driving me crazy." Next thing I know five year old Kory is walking around the garage with a duck head moving the bill up and down, going, "Quack, quack, quack.",

 

[tomtheturner]

I'm giving away my age here, but when I was little 5-6 yrs old my Mother would drop me off at the butcher's to baby-sit for me while my Mother had other things to do. He would put me up on a very tall stainless steel stool that I couldn't get off of that was right next to the cracklin press. When the cracklins were pressed he would throw some up on the counter right in front of me to gnaw on.

This was close to the killing pen too. He would bring in a steer, and shoot it in the head with a .22. Then would haul it up on a block and tackle, and proceed with the butchering process. I learned very early where meat came from.

Most of the butcher shops like that are long gone today. In my area anyway.

Best Wishes,
Tom

 

[johnsonl]

Let's cling to our God and our guns and stop sending the semis laden with food into the cities for a couple of weeks. Would the elitists in the big cities develope a new respect for where their food comes from? Perhaps they should be required to come and pick their own soybeans and process their tofu by hand.

 

[brucev]

When we were small boys my brothers and I fed the hogs. Each year my father and another gentleman would slaughter the hogs. It was routine. My wife said her family did the same thing. She and her brother and sister named the two hogs Bacon and Sausage! Times have changed. 71% of America no longer lives on a farm but in a suburb or in a city. Meat is not raised in a pen but bought in a store. And some folks now find the thought of "where meat comes from" unpleasant and such discussions indelicate. Maybe Sesame Street needs to have a new character... maybe a butcher.

 

[greif]

What, no pictures of the train table ?

 

[Rule3]

But......... On the other hand if folks actually saw where commercial meat and chicken are raised and processed there probably would be more vegetarians around. It ain't those pretty Styrofoam trays and clear plastic wrap.

 

[truckemup97]

Some people think meat comes from the meat factory where they mix the correct chemicals, amino acids, vegatable proteins, put them into the correct molds and Voila, Meat. The same people probably have no idea that the produce that magically shows up at teh supermarket was in a dirty farmers field a few days earlier.

Have you seen the "pink slime" story?!? They may be right!

I remember the process calving, creating steers (oh, the horror!), feeding them out and butchering them. The butcher came to get the steer, which he killed and "field dressed" in our lot. I always had to go to the house to get the big stainless steel bowl for the heart, liver, etc. and take them back to Grandma in the kitchen.

Beef. It's what's for dinner.

 

[bobcat]

I took my son antelope hunting when he was about 5 or 6. I found a goat someone had shot and left, he was barely alive hung up in a barded wire fence, I then finished him off. I chased down the other vehicles in the area and asked if they had lost a goat, nope, so I went back and tagged him and was starting to gut him. My son had never seen that done before so to make sure I wasn't upsetting him I made it an anatomy lesson, showing him the various organs and explaining what they were. I didn't know how this was going over until he asked me if he could have a cookie, and munched away while I was gutting. I figured he wasn't traumatized by the event. My kids were used to seeing deer, antelope, and game birds being cleaned, the only time I caught any grief was over a cottontail I shot, that didn't go over very well with them!

 

[handejector]

I probably shouldn't leave my wife unattended, she doesn't play well with others.

Huh?
Don't you have 4 kids now????

 

[Mickey D]

What's everone talking about...Pork, chicken and hamburger come from Costco, right?

 

[perrazi]

when i was going to grade school, every year the field trip was to the john morrell plant in our town. they did everything,including making dog food. to this day i won't eat hotdogs. we called them mystery meat.

 

[Alpo]

Some people think meat comes from the meat factory where they mix the correct chemicals, amino acids, vegatable proteins, put them into the correct molds and Voila, Meat. The same people probably have no idea that the produce that magically shows up at teh supermarket was in a dirty farmers field a few days earlier.

You mean like this?

 

[pharmer]

What silly people. Around these parts, everybody knows meat comes from the Publix. Just ask. Joe