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Let me tell you a story.
A while back the BF was getting some work done on the house. Because of our hours, the crew would work for a few hours every night, once we had gotten home from work. I always went and picked us all up dinner and we would sit around and talk.
One night, not even sure what we were talking about, one of the guys mentioned he had a chicken. I immediately lit up and really got engaged in the conversation because I have always wanted a chicken. I have read about and talked to many people who have chickens of their own, all have mentioned how varying in personality their chickens are and how much they enjoy taking care of them because they are such a pleasure to own as pets. This man had similar accounts and opened up about his enjoyment of having the honor of taking care of them.
He is originally from Mexico and many years back was able to bring his Grandma to the United States. All she talked about when she first arrived was how much she missed having her chickens. He has a large yard, which is zoned for farm animals. As he tells it, he went out and bought these two chicks and was told that he had gotten a “couple of nice hens”. Of course, then they grew up. And, well, you can see why he was surprised.
Every night I would ask about the chickens. Every night I watched his face light up as he told me a story about the events of the day. There was never a doubt that he really loved these chickens.
They are five years old now. His grandma has since passed. He says it is his obligation to finish what was started for these chickens… that they were brought to his home for her, and she would want to make sure they are taken care of. And, I truly, from the deepest part of my heart, believe that they are; they have a large space to roam around in, tons of grass to pick at for good bugs and critters, warmth and protection at night, care and love from a man who can’t imagine anything of harm being done to them.
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I know this may upset some of you. I am prepared for that. Because of this man, in some ways, my view has been shifted about eating eggs.
I do not want to, nor will I, support an industry that condones terrible conditions for the life of an animal for profit. I do not have much trust for an industry that can lobby for labeling laws, which is, in essence, a lie to the consumer. I would never be the kind of person that would purchase a carton of eggs from a grocery chain, no matter how much of a guarantee came from the supplier of the chickens happiness.
But, when this man came to me this week and asked me to make something special for him, and proceeded to hand me five perfect eggs… I obliged. The truth is I didn’t feel it was wrong. Not from this chicken. Not from this man.
I can’t imagine what the fallout might be from this posting. I took a while to decide to share this story. From the beginning of my veganism, it was well thought out, rational and logical decision based on many factors. Simply because of this confession, I am not saying this is a pathway to accepting the consumption of meat. I am not even saying that I am accepting the consumption of eggs. I am saying that I find it acceptable to consume these eggs.
My blog has always been a site where someone can pick a recipe and make it the way I made it, the vegan version, or by using products that come from an animal . I have every intention that this will remain the case.
The exception is this recipe.
- ½ lb cranberries
- 3/8 cup sugar
- 5 T room temperature butter
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 (room temperature) egg yolks and 2 whole eggs
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1½ tsp coconut vinegar
- Combine the cranberries and the 3/8 cup sugar into a saucepan over low heat. Stir until berries pop and release juices. Press through a fine mesh strainer, reserving liquid and discarding pulp.
- In a stainless steel bowl, cream butter. Add ¼ cup sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add in the egg yolks and combine well. Add in the whole eggs, one at a time, allowing to fully combine after each addition. Add the remaining ingredients, stirring to combine.
- Start boiling water in a small saucepan. When it comes to a simmer, place the stainless steel bowl on top of it. Stirring constantly, heat the curd slowly, bringing the mixture to 166 degrees over 10 minutes. The mixture will get quite thick.
- The curd can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week or in the freezer for about a month
A very lovely post and beautiful curd. I think you did them justice, those eggs from the happy chickens.
Extremism in any form is an example of ignorance. What you did is intelligent. The ultimate goal of true vegans is bring balance back to the interaction between mankind and the world around us. Vegans are a product of the beautiful system that created everything else… Nature. Living with respect to Nature is the most noble of lives.
Lovely post, Shelley. I don’t like to think of veganism or vegetarianism in absolute terms, I just wish more people showed as much respect for their food sources as you have here. Happy holidays.
I want to tell you the story of Paul.
Paul was a sheep..a lamb nursed with the bottle because his mother didn´t take to him.
He was kept and loved like a dog, until he got too old.
After a year, Paul the lamb got too old, big and ..sheeply, bumping things and people with his head.
Paul had to go, his family thought they could eat him, but than they couldn´t.
There he was, happy until his day of death, killed on the farm, not in a far away slaughterhouse, sliced into pieces by the man who gave him the bottle as a lamb.
And than, ironically, they couldn´t eat Paul, turned into mutton.
They wanted to throw away the body, cut up, in the bin.
So I took what was left of Paul and did what his family couldn´t.
Except I didn´t feed myself with it, I made stew out of Paul for my dog.
So there we are, between the lines, doing sometimes things that others can not.
Do I cook with eggs and dead animals? I do…
Is a vegan site a place for a recipe with animal products?
No, I don´t think so. Not even with the best intentions, not with the best cared for, most loved animals that we can imagine.
Vegans go to a vegan site to have a safe heaven, far away from the overpowering use of animals all over the internet and the non electronical reality.
I know you have the best intentions, but …humans are humans.
And they will find a reasoning for their doings.
Those chickens might be happy, maybe they don´t mind having their non hatched offspring eaten, we can not ask them that.
But when you share the reasoning for the use of the non hatched offspring in a recipe, because the chickens are kept as pets and are happy..
..than other people will use your reasoning and bend and twist and even break it..it is ok to use animals as long as they are happy.
And happy is free to be interpreted by them…so people buy egg laying hens and keep them happy, the males ground up alive by the hatchery..but the surviving ones are happy if they have´t been mutilated.
So how much space do they need to be happy…they are surely also happy with less space, what if they want to hatch their eggs, is it allowed or not, what with the offspring..
Do people reason that it is ok to kill and eat the old hens when there are no longer daily eggs, because the hens are happy and are killed fast and once dead they won´t mind being eaten.
Or people reason that organic kept hens on a small farm are happy enough, and people turn a blind eye that the hens are killed off after a year or two and the male chicks ground up…because if they don´t see it, it doesn´t happen.
People will see that a vegan says that there is a way to use animals as long as the animals are happy. So they can use them.
For billions of people and their needs for a daily egg, the daily milk and meat, that is not possible to keep so many happy animals, but they will conjour up such a happy image and project it on farms and farm animals with green pasture and frolicking animals that have a happy life and swift death..if that is true..they believe it.
People will twist your story and use it as a reasoning why it is ok to use animals.
And they won´t do it in the pet-way your friend does.
What about road kill, because the animals lived freely and died naturally, will you cook roadkill and share a recipe here on the page?
If your friends chicken die and he asks you to cook a soup from their bodies, would you do it, because they died naturally and were beloved pets?
Would you share a recipe for pet-chicken soup on your vegan page?
How about a dog hot pot made from naturally died pet-dog?
Because the animal was loved and lived out her or his life, it is ok to use it, is it..where do you draw the line, or where would you like to do it? Where does it turn too uncomfortable?
You have ventured in the territory of “It is ok to use animals when they have been beloved pets”
The question is, how far will it go?
How about omelett made from parrot or turtle eggs?
They lay eggs too, often enough unfertilized and we do not need to breed even more pet animals most people can not keep accordingly to their needs, so just eat the undeveloped offspring, or not?
And if you dislike the thought of using snake, turtle or parrot eggs, why?
Both the chicken and the snakes/turtles are beloved pets, the content of their eggs is the same..so it should be ok to make turtle egg cranberry curd.
And if not, than ask yourself, why not.
Maybe you just needed to write out your reasoning for using and maybe even eating those eggs, to construct a justification to ease your mind, to fulfill the request of your friend.
Because without your written out justification of happy hens, you couldn´t have used those eggs and you also feel the need to justify it to others, and hope that others tell you it is ok to use happy animals, so you feel better?
Yes, it is ok to use road kill, naturally died pets or eggs from your pet snake, turtle, parrot or chicken, it even would be ok to eat a naturally died human, except that most societys have a problem with that..against all logic.
But I don´t think that human meat recipes or turtle egg curd has a place on a vegan page, no matter how beloved said human or turtle is because people will twist it to fulfill their desire to use animals in a much less humane way.
But because it is your page, you are free to do what you want, even put up a road kill chilli recipe or, whatever happy animal and his or her usefullness in a recipe strikes you next.
Also you are free to use any reasoning and justification you want..and it is ok to do so.
It is ok to eat roadkill or eat your pets when they have died because of old age or some illness that won´t infect you when you eat their bodies.
It is ok to do that when you crave meat, better than to go and buy some organic animal parts, because you know that those pets have been really happy and well loved, not that pseudo love that meat eaters use to justify their animal consumption of not even mature animals.
Unfortunately society doesn´t see the logic of using pets or human bodies this way, it would only be intelligent and the way of nature like Ali wrote.
Nature uses every ressource and once dead,pets and humans are only ressources.
I also think it is ok when you sometimes cheat because you eat out for example..and except in vegan restaurants you can never be 100% sure your food is 100% vegan, or buying non organic cotton or using medication with animal based ingredients.
Sometimes you have to bend the rules a bit as long as you don´t break the rules, when the other options are not doable.
this is such a sweet sweet SWEET story, thank you so much for sharing. it made me think of this story.