Thursday 24 May 2012

Funny isn't it? No not really

Ok! so maybe it's just me, and if that is then case then so be it.

I was recently in Waitrose where I overheard a fellow shopper going on about how her family only eat the white breast off of the chicken and eating meat off the bone is simply disgusting!!  Hello, breast meat is attached to the breast bone, or am I mistaken? Evidently it's okay to "just throw" the rest of the chicken away?

Anyhoooo a few days later, same store, same fellow shopper (yes small village) prattling on at the top of her voice about sustainable farming and being green and oh yes! Free range chickens... So tell me, we farm chickens, right? free range or not, it's a fact.

My problem comes where said person is prattling on about free range and sustainability yet feels it's okay to throw at least 3/4 of a chicken away. My head hurts to imagine the bullsh*t ( or is that chicken sh*t?) traffic running through her thoughts. How on earth can a person who preaches free range and sustainable possibly with the same breath, albeit a week or so earlier, say that her family only eat the white breast meat?? That's so contradictory, it's so wasteful and actually made my stomach churn a little.

I am sure that even a chicken (if they had intelligence, of which I'm not 100% convinced) would rather that if they were going to be bred to be eaten that  they would much rather have all of their meat be eaten instead of having 3/4  just be thrown away. It's an insult to their lives, however they were reared.

Yes I'm from Africa, no I'm not black, and to preempt the next question: No I'm not racist. The point I want to make is that when we were growing up, there was never any excess. Not money, not food not anything, except for maybe family, friends and laughter. But hey that's the way we rolled.

I refer back to the chicken and how we would use it.
Firstly it would be picked absolutely clean off the bone. Yes off the bone... imagine.
Next the carcass would get boiled for stock.
I recall at one point a very kind domestic sitting on the stoep (porch) actually cleaning the marrow out of the bone and eating that too. Could you imagine the look on my fellow shoppers' face, if she'd ever had to clap eyes on that scenario?

We grew up with a "waste not want not" ethos, and believe you me, it has stood me in good stead. I have on many occasion made meals out of almost nothing. I was taught to survive with very little and be happy with what I have. This however does not mean I have no ambition and don't strive to do better for myself or my family. I do however know that when the chips are down I can stand tall in my corner. With everybody feeling the pinch maybe it would be prudent to look back at how we used to live. Nothing went to waste, nothing was thrown away into landfill.
The rule of thumb was if it looked okay and smelt okay and had no green stuff growing on it (expect for cheese where it was simply cut away) it was fine for human consumption. This was before those ever so useful "use by" or "use before" dates. I wont even go on about clothing hand- me- downs, suffice to say I had 3 older brothers and a sister older than them, it has left it's scars...*titters, hangs head*

So take what you will from this, if anything at all. I was just so annoyed at the hypocrite and her waste, I had to share my view.


veronicastewar4@blogspot.com

1 comment:

  1. The world is full of people like that. Clearly they have never been faced with hard times...imagine how much harder it would be for them, if they were. At least, in hard times..the likes of us, would cope so much better x

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