Cheapest way to raise meat to eat

Barred Babies said:
Just wanted to say hi!! :frow Visited here a few times but I've just joined today!! Just got finished reading through this thread and gathered some great ideas!!

The only thing we raise right now for food is chickens. Mostly eggs but we just processed our first roosters last Sat. Hubby and I have been talking about raising rabbit, quail, turkey etc. and he's supposed to fence in some more of our property for a few head of cattle I want to raise! Still haven't talked him into raising pigs though! (But I'm still working on it;))
:welcome
 
Farmfresh said:
Frugal Que said:
Never had squirrel but I would have no problem trying it. What do they taste like?
Probably a lot like Guinea pig! :lol:
I think Guinea pig must taste more like Rat - and heck rats are probably easier to breed........... :sick

If anyone is interested we DO have lots of mice, you're welcome to them... :gig
 
Blackbird said:
:lau :gig
I love it!
Smart kid!
My rule is if you don't watch it be skinned, cleaned, processed, then you don't get to eat it. I think it is SO important for kids to know where there food comes from!
 
tortoise said:
My rule is if you don't watch it be skinned, cleaned, processed, then you don't get to eat it. I think it is SO important for kids to know where there food comes from!
I'd starve! :tongue
 
tortoise said:
Blackbird said:
:lau :gig
I love it!
Smart kid!
My rule is if you don't watch it be skinned, cleaned, processed, then you don't get to eat it. I think it is SO important for kids to know where there food comes from!
I'd agree with this! Its important to experience true life and death....not the kind a kid sees on TV, it has no real impact and only serves to desensitize to the realities of the dying process. SO easy to pull a trigger from a distance..... but not to stand up close and slice a throat, bleed it out, cut open a gut and clean a carcass.

Enjoying food/meat while professing to be too squeamish to kill and clean the meat is for those who are in denial about their own mortality. A fear of death.

Children should be exposed to it early and often to get a sense of just how precious...and how fleeting... life really is, both for animals and humans.
 
To date, the only thing I've gutted and cleaned has been fish-grew up doing that. I have yet to do it to anything else (though I did castrate a rat in college). I am not sure yet how I will handle this, but it's something that I want to learn. My problem w/rabbits, deer, etc is what I call the fur factor, if that makes any sense. I have 2 cocks that will be going to freezer camp, but I don't have a clue how to do the deed. My hubby knows how, but refuses to do so. But, I'm sure there will be someone in the area that can teach me, and not mind if I toss my lunch.
 
Denim Deb said:
To date, the only thing I've gutted and cleaned has been fish-grew up doing that. I have yet to do it to anything else (though I did castrate a rat in college). I am not sure yet how I will handle this, but it's something that I want to learn. My problem w/rabbits, deer, etc is what I call the fur factor, if that makes any sense. I have 2 cocks that will be going to freezer camp, but I don't have a clue how to do the deed. My hubby knows how, but refuses to do so. But, I'm sure there will be someone in the area that can teach me, and not mind if I toss my lunch.
If my hubby can assist I KNOW anybody can do it!

I tried to show the girls how to clean catfish...they started crying, and he let them go inside. They had no issue catching or eating them, knew they came from the pond etc. etc. but didn't want to help clean. That kind of made me mad :/ He just let them off with no responsibility for their food...maybe I'm just a mean momma, but I don't get that?! It is sad to me that we as a society have become so out of touch with our dinner......
 
Actually Guinea Pigs were originally raised in South America as a food animal.

I know in some countries they DO eat rats, mice and bugs regularly. I regularly eat squirrel, and rabbit. Probably not much different than rat, but I grew up eating squirrels. :P

Deb - I first learned to clean fish as a kid as well. If your hubby is willing, ask him to make those roosters dead and then YOU do all of the plucking and cleaning part. Probably he doesn't want to get roped into doing the whole thing. PLUS the first few times it is easier to learn how to clean a chicken if you don't have to do the dead thing the first few times.
 
I think pigs and quail are good for cheap/easy way to raise meat.
Quail grow out in in 10 weeks or so... If you have an incubator..you can have an endless supply of quail meat.
And pigs grow fast and will eat most anything and they will put a lot of meat in your fridge.
What about buying into a cow "share".. some places have these shares that you can buy into and you all split the meat.
 

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