A big part of homesteading seems to be raising meat 🍖

Most commercial farm animals produce a lot of meat. And unless you produce a lot of vegatables for market, you’re not really a farmer or even a homesteader it seems. At least the message I get from the books I’m reading and culture I’m engaged in. A gardener yes, but you can’t live on vegatables alone as they say, as you need to get complete proteins to survive. All true.

It’s just amazing how much meat is on a single cow, a hog, or even something smaller like a sheep or goat. You really have to have a lot of storage space and ideally share it (for sale or otherwise) with many people to fully utilize so much meat.

I don’t have a real hard objection against meat; the claims of the animal rights activists fall hollow on me. Animals aren’t humans, and indeed I think we even give human life a bit too much sancity, when its’ not that difficult to have yoet another baby. Animal butcher takes skill, but it’s something one can learn with the right tools and a bit of practice.

The thing I don’t eat much meat. Meat is loaded with saturated fats, most of the less health Omega-3 variety that causes inflammation and ultimately early death. It gives a ;lot of flavor to food and is rich in complete proteins, but the idea of eating it daily gives me pause. Do I really want to have steak 5-nights a week, even if it’s my own steer I butchered?

I’ve read and listened a number of books on gardening. Gardening seems like something the elderly or the Amish would do, or some really hokey homesteader or pot-smoking hippie who is into eating organic wouldd do.