Casaubon's Book

While I’m On Vacation…

Posted by Sharon Astyk on February 18, 2011
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Somehow this week has turned into a lovely, but incredibly overscheduled period. Besides the usual sabbath (which I can use this week), and the fact that it has finally melted off enough to clean the buck pen, move the bucks up the hill and move the chicks out of the bathtub (adorable as they are i somewhat prefer poultry not in my house), and the seed starting (going apace), well, there’s more.

Monday is devoted entirely to running a talk and workshop by Rabbi Shalom Kantor (the US’s only Conservative Schochet) on ethical kashruth and slaughter. The talk will outline the religious and moral issues involved in humane meat production, the workshop will demonstrate schechita (ritual slaughter) for anyone who wants to learn. The talk is open to everyone and it isn’t necessary to want to attend the slaughter workshop. The talk is, however, prerequisite for anyone who wants to attend the workshop. All are welcome, the talk is at 10am at Congregation Agudat Achim in Niskayuna NY, directions to Rabbi Debora Gordon’s farm in Brunswick available at the talk. The workshop is at 2pm – please wear old clothes and a headcovering as this is a hands-on project!

This project has been taking up a lot of my time and energy lately, and is something really important to me – our goal is to create a CSA for free-range, humane, kosher meat in the region.

That’ll take up the whole day on Monday, and then Tuesday we’re spending the morning and early afternoon with friends, then racing home to do chores, and going out to our first MAPP class, which is foster/adoptive parent training, dropping the kids at another set of friends’ place first.

Wednesday my sister, Mom and nieces arrive for a family visit, long awaited and much desired, and Thursday things finally begin to settle down, with just my nieces and my kids and two extra neighbor kids for the day….

All of which means not much blogging over the coming week, so you might as well sit back and read someone on my sidebar (but not Path to Freedom – for some reason I can’t remove it from this blog, but it will be gone as soon as the technical glitch gets fixed). In the meantime, I leave you with this, a reminder that the cycle of the seasons is coming round again. Somehow this time of year makes me go all Brit in my musical tastes – not sure why:

Then there’s this, just ’cause it amuses me.

A good week to you all!

Sharon

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Comments

  1. #1 Greenpa
    February 18, 2011

    Somewhere deep in my ancient cassette tapes piles, I’ve got a copy of a live recording of some Irish group, singing in the US. They introduce their version of “Old Maid in the garret” with a string of patter that includes the claim that it was the only Irish folk song to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nobody in the audience was hip enough to laugh. Quite a few of the audience seem to have taken it seriously; it’s only after the line about getting a carrot that they seemed to catch on. Slowly.

    I assume you’re familiar with “Why Paddy’s Not At Work Today”? :-)

  2. #2 Margaret in Wales
    February 19, 2011

    If that’s a vacation just imagine what you could do in a working week!

  3. #3 Don
    February 20, 2011

    For Greenpa:

  4. #4 Don
    February 20, 2011

    Well, the imbedded link didn’t work, so here’s the link:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaoqJ6hr1Dc

  5. #5 Jennie
    February 21, 2011

    Could you go into more detail about how you slaughter your halal meat and how it differs from this?
    http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/02/maybe_we_shouldnt_eat_meat_at.php

    I’m not Jewish, I usually don’t eat halal meat, (some is I’m sure, but it’s not something I search out.) In fact,in spite of a college roommate that was orthodox jewish, most of my understanding of it is closer to pZ’s video.

    Thanks Sharon!

  6. #6 Jennie
    February 21, 2011

    Erk, showing my ignorance already. I think what I was trying to say, is can you explain how your “Kosher” meat is different from the “Halal” meat in the video. I didn’t realize those words were for two different religions, I thought they were interchangeable.

    Thanks!

  7. #7 Greenpa
    February 23, 2011

    Don – many thanks. The vid was an odd experience; I’m used to just using my own imagination to visualize the catastrophes. Not sure which way is better. :-)

  8. #8 Sharon Astyk
    February 24, 2011

    Let’s start with the “kosher is not halal” although they are not totally unrelated. Then start with “this is an industrial slaughterhouse” and what we’re doing is humane slaughter on a farm, with animals who haven’t been traumatized.

    Moreover, a lot of what’s in that video is simply the practices of slaughterhouses. This is why I don’t eat industrial meat, and why I don’t recommend anyone else do – and that’s why I spent Monday covered with chicken feathers – because I’m not going to eat meat not slaughtered humanely.

    Sharon