Meat Free May

And vegetarians know to eat fennel, ginger or peppermint, no problem as we are used to eating a bigger variety of foods than meat eaters.

Drinking ginger tea at the moment, not because I've eaten any beans, but because I like it.

Nightowl I think I got bitten by bugs less when I stopped eating meat. Apart from those tiny little Scottish blighters!

What a fuss over merely suggesting that for 31 days we stop eating dead animals! If you don't want to do it then fine!

Nightowl, you clearly haven't met my veggie younger son...

anno! Just think how bad it might smell if he weren't a veggie!

TMI !!

Nearly a bullseye with the Bull's Blood, merlotgran. Actually it was Brouilly following Ricard as an aperitif, confit (not terrine) de canard, tarte tatin and finally calvados.

Anybody would think I was in France.....

We Always have at least two meat free meals each week through choice not because I have been 'told' to. I do wonder if 'Friends of the Earth' would be too happy if the situation arose whereby: no meat eaters; no cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, etc.; farms vastly reduced in size as only milking cows; wool bearing sheep; egg laying hens required.

More greenfield sights would become available for the house building we are continually told is required. Ultimately 'Great' Britain will become a nation of homes, factories and plastic tunnels for all-year round tomatoes; strawberries; veg.

Where will we take the grandchildren to see our farm animals - zoos as endangered species?

Wouldn't we need the green spaces to grow all the extra vegetables Deb

Most crops are grown in open air, not poly tunnels.

Strawberries are grown outside...at least round here they are.

If everyone live on lots of fresh fruit and vegetables in winter, there would have to be more polytunnels unless they just eat cabbages and stored root vegetables, or import it all from sunnier climes, adding up the airmiles. They would need more cereals too, so there would be more enormous fields of grain.

I could do it without a problem but cannot see the point.

I can never understand why vegetarians try and send up their diet as being freaky and abnormal as if any one not sharing it spent every meal eating nothing but huge chunks of meat. Most people eating a normal varied diet will have meals that are entirely vegetable or based on cheese or eggs, or beans and lentils. Many people, when they eat meat are unlikely to eat it more than once a day and not in huge quantities.

I know I am just being perverse, because I have been reducing the amount of meat I eat in recent years, for a number of ecological reasons but when I see campaigns like this by those claiming the dietary moral high ground my immediate inclination is to eat more meat.

With you there flickety . A lot of poly tunnels in Hereford Aka which I find sad to see when on holiday. I agree though, nothing to beat a Somerset Strawberry with a dob of Devonshire... obviously .

We used to be surrounded by cattle farms, sheep farms, etc but following the various scares and crises they have become noticeably less and business parks have been built in their place .

yesterday I took my littlest GS to the local garden centre where they had a selection of almost lifesize animals all of which he could name. Will he, as he grows older, believe all animals are made of plastic? He may even wonder if they could be the size of the animals in his toy farm. The centre had mix and matched the various sizes and in one display there was a pig the same height as a sheep; most disconcerting!

Off now to plan a visit to real cows, sheep, chickens for next week before it is too late.

I thought pigs and sheep were roughly the same height, fully grown...

Me too, flick. It's the superior airs that get one's goat, so to speak. Meat is good food (packed with easily digested nutrients) and it's not a sin to eat it. This is why our close cousins, chimpanzees, like it when they can get it too, and it's why people in developing countries eat more of it as their living standards rise.

Was it a monster piglet?

As Mr n remarked , give fish a bloody chance , they have been overfished !

When I go on my farm search next week will take a tape measure Ana. (pretty please with a cherry on top let it be raining next Thursday)

Off now to prepare my Apricot and feta cous cous. Honest!

I eat more vegetables and fish than meat, but have to have ; steak, bacon, sausages, roast beef, and chicken [not all on the same day.]

I don't eat meat but do eat fish. Just a personal preference and I certainly don't feel superior to the carnivores in my family; nor do I feel inferior to my neither fish nor meat-eating son who calls me a hypocrite!

Don't mistake 'passionate about' for 'superior'.

We really eat less and less meat, and less but better quality, now. Meat is used mostly to flavour, with vegetable added, about 1/3 meat and 2/3 veg. Yesterday I made chicken curry with 2 small chicken breasts- and added a whole large fennel, onions, garlic, 2 peppers, a small tin of corn, and some lentils and some frozen peas for added colour. So a small amount of poultry gave us 3 good meals. Same with bolognese or any kind of stew. Better for our health, and better for the environment too.

Moral high ground though??? No.