Meat has been a big focus of this trip so far. The farm is basically a meat farm, everything else (except wine) is produced only to be consumed here (vegetables, oil). I've been working in the animali group, specifically as the shepherd. We have about 30 sheep and 15 new lambs this year. It's nice to work with the animals, and fun to try to figure them out and get to know their personalities. I feel a little bit weird about raising them only to be slaughtered, though. If I have my own farm, I doubt I will keep many meat animals, maybe just one or two a year, and use the rest for milk. Last week we took 8 of the lambs to the slaughterhouse for Easter. I was impressed with the process, and part of the reason the farm uses this one is because they do things humanely and old-fashioned. I was unloading the lambs from the back of the truck, and by the time I was ready to pass down the next one, the first had already been shocked and had it's throat slit. It doesn't take long for it to die after that point, it just has to bleed out a bit. Very quick, clean, and efficient. Then they cut off the front feet, fill them with air and skin them. They hang up the skinned lambs before they eviscerate them. The interns who stayed around for Easter (I was in Rimini at a frisbee tournament) had half a lamb for dinner, and did something fun and delicious with the head, but I'm not sure what.
The pigs seem very different to me. They are our main product, and we have about 120. The breed is Cinta Senese, which is a local breed, identifiable by the white stripe around is front half. Yesterday I worked in the transformation room helping to butcher a few of them to make salumi. I mostly cleaned bones and separated meat from fat. Riccio (the boss) was particularly upset with the quality of the meat returned from the slaughterhouse. There were bruises, cuts and welts showing that the animals were treated pretty poorly before slaughter. He is very concerned about the welfare of the animals, and said something about not using that house anymore. I haven't really enjoyed eating the pork here very much, partially because the flavor is so overwhelming, but also because the pigs are so obviously being grown to slaughter. You can't do much else with a pig. In taking care of them, I can easily understand why some religions don't eat pork. They are basically nasty animals. Unless you bottle feed them, they are very aggressive, dirty, and only live to eat. We had some dead piglets in a bucket between pig pens the other day, and while we were moving one of the moms she ran over to the dead piglets, grabbed one in her teeth, pulled it out of the bucket, ripped it in half, ran away with it, entrails dragging along, and tried to eat it. On the other hand, if you bottle feed them, they turn into sweet, smart, responsive animals, but then you regret eating them more. Tricky...
So basically, this is a very informative exploration in the world of meat, but I'll probably go back to being a vegetarian when I get home, and I'll definitely never eat anything that isn't local, organic and well-raised. Here we do meat the best it can be done, and it is still a moral dilemma for me. The babies are really cute.
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