Halal - a joke!

I have been doing a lot of research the past few days into the meat industry. Some of this has included trying to source local abbatiors that will allow me to go and slaughter my own animals which I can then sell on to friends and family (at the mo I can only slaughter for my own household's consumption).

Speaking to a few owners of abbatoirs has opened my eyes to the joke that is the halal meat industry. Today I spoke to two places and this is what they said:

1) "Yes, we do halal here. We have a Pakistani gentleman who brings lambs, reads a prayer and then leaves them with us. "

2) "Yes, all we do is halal. The demand is so much that we turned to 100% halal". "So all your slaughtermen are Muslims then?" I asked. "Well no, but the gentleman who brings us the lambs is."

There was obviously more to these conversations but you get the gist. In both cases the owner of the lambs is conning his customers. Neither of their meats is halal in any way whatsoever!! An absolute shambles.

Now dont get me wrong - I am sure there are people out there that do it properly but this goes to show that a lot of it is a big con. In short, you can go to market, buy 100 lambs, drive them to an abbatoir and then sell the carcasses to "halal" butchers saying that is halal. All of that meat is then eaten by unsuspecting Muslims.

This needs to change. Muslims need to demand they know where their meat comes from, who slaughters it and that is has been cared for ethically. Only then can they feel 100% confident that their meat is pure and halal. It is better to pay for meat like this from small, local and principled suppliers than line the pockets of unscrupulous meat traders with only one thing on their minds: money. If you dont want to pay then go vegetarian - it is better for you and the animals.

For anyone interested on what halal is all about, please leave a comment with your email and I will send you over a PDF file I have prepared which is aimed at local people to try and introduce the concept and what it means.

Disaster (well not that bad)

It has been really really windy down here for the past few days. On Friday all my French beans keeled over from the wind. Managed to get them all back up, re-tied the bamboo together and all looked fine. The next morning all down again. Put them all back up again.

Same story the next day.

Then yesterday evening after a very long day driving up and down the county with friends I came back to see them down again; I had enough! What the picture does not show is the two plants I had growing on the right hand side - they were ripped out in a fit of frustration and and anger!! I did regret this after doing it but it made me feel better.

Anyway, I thought sod it for this year. So far I have got 3 Tesco bags full of beans which is plenty. So I am going to pull the lot out later today, pick what is left of the beans and stick some kale in there instead.

At least I have learnt not to use bamboo again. Next time I am going to drive a couple of metal poles into the ground with one across the top. The beans can then crawl along some string instead of bamboo.

This is what it is all about; trial and error.

Corn

My corn is starting to come through - a bit late but should be OK. Hopefully in a week or so these should be ready for picking. Again, they will be half cooked and then frozen to eat over the winter.

Jobs are never-ending at the moment. Got logs to cut for the fire, apples to pick and do something with, beetroots to pickle, carrots to store, chicken's wings to clip (they keep escaping) and about 100 other things to do.

If people wanted to go self-suficient I think it would be a full time job plus more!

Hurry up!

Getting hungry for some chicken meat now...hmmmmm.

But the little buggers are taking their time getting fat. I thought they should be ready by now but looking at the diary they are only 10 weeks old now - meaning they have at least 2 weeks to go. One escpaed the other day, so when I finally managed to catch the thing (it is tricky on your own) I felt its breasts (don't be silly) and they were thin so no point in cooking them yet.

I am trying to find out what else I can feed them to help them put on some weight. McDonalds, ice-cream and Pringles are out.

"The best lamb I have ever had"

Had two mates come down from London - we had a traditional English roast made by yours truly on Sunday. "The best lamb I ever had" - she was probably lying to be polite but it made me feel very very very happy!!

It was also satisfying for someone to see the difference between the mank they sell in shops and something done small scale, natural and personal. I need to do one of those "which one is Diet?" type tests with people when I go back to London, i.e. try a moutful of mank chicken and a mouthful of my chicken. I may try and do that actually next time I go back.

Thanks Mr Badger

Sunday morning - noticed the cows had taken an interest in the spot where I had buried the lambs' bits. Mr Badger has dug it all up and taken it home! Had to find all the bits strewn across the field and bury them again.

I think next time I will bury the heads and then leave the rest at the edge of the badger's set for them to munch. Will save me the hassle of burying it and they at least get a good meal.

Harvesting

Lots of my veg are ready for harvesting now - beans, carrots, courgettes, beetroot. You don't realise how much of the stuff you actually end up with when sowing your seeds. At first I was giving it out to neighbours, but there is so much veg people can eat or want. So I decided to get off my arse and get ready for winter.

Friday night I spent a few hours picking the courgettes and French beans. I then washed them, cut them up, steamed them for a few minutes and the packed them up in bags for the freezer. I now have a plentiful supply of both for the winter when I want them. The courgette and beans in this pic are about 15% of what I will have by the end of summer.

This week I will do the same with the carrotts and the beetroot will be pickled.

It's nice to kind of get into a natural cycle with nature - i.e. summer you are busy doing loads of things and then winter it all slows down and you have a bit of a break. Come winter time we should have loads of stuff in the freezer which will save us lots of pennies and also give access to things out of season.

I really need to get everything out of the ground now so I can start planting a few winter crops too such as kale, winter cabbage, etc but because I was playing catch up this summer lots of my veg is late. I also want another veg patch but I am waiting for the hens to get that allocated area as grass free as possible to make rotivating it a bit easier.

I read something in The Independent last week about a farm that was bought by a collective. They all chipped in the capital to buy the land, seeds, tools, etc. They all then help with the manual labour and share their crop when ready. This is a great way forward. If I had a few people dedicated enough here I would probably try and do something similar but as with most things they may think it is a great idea at first then once it all gets a bit hard they jump ship and you are left with 1/2 acre of land to tend to on your jack. But for those who are serious the concept if fantastic.....

Thrift

I remember one of the concepts Mr River Cottage always used to bang on about was "thrift" - i.e. not wasting anything. This is something I am trying to implement as much as possible at mine, but these things take time; eventually all our rainwater will be used for watering the garden, all housewaste for the compost heap and anything else that does something to be used elsewhere outside.

For the lambs I slaughtered last week, I tried to use everything possible. The only parts I threw away were the head and offal. The trotters went to somene who boils them up to make soup. I kept all the bones and made a healthy stock from it. Basically you get all the bones, chuck them in boiling water and boil for about 4 hours. Afterwards you strain out all the bits and put in the fridge for a night. The day day you get this very appealing jelly type stuff - nice huh?

This is then bagged into lots of little bags and frozen; you then add it to whatever you are cooking and it adds loads of flavour and loads of iron, protein and good stuff.

Lambs to the Slaughter

I slaughtered my first ever lamb yesterday. Before I continue please don't worry - it is perfectly legal to "home slaughter" as long as the meat is eaten solely by the people of the household, which it will be.

I won't hide the fact I was very nervous about the whole experience. You tell yourself it wont be any problem but once you have that knife in your hand and the lamb's eye looking at you it is a totally different ball game.

We first had to catch the lamb which was a bit like cat 'n' mouse stuff ending up with a rugby tackle. We then held it down and stroked it until it calmed down and was a bit more relaxed. According to our tradition we can only eat meat that has been slaughtered in accordance with the Prophetic way that goes back to the Prophet Abraham, i.e. a swift clean cut across the throat that severs the windpipe and all major arteries. I know a lot of people think this is "barbaric" (as one person down here put it) but if you think this is barbaric go to an abbatoir. OK they may stun the animal, but the stun is hit or miss. Some get fully stunned, others not and some not at all. By the time the slaughterman sticks them some regain consciousness to find themselves upside down and then stuck in the throat which must be bloody painful. I truly believe that the whole stunning thing is a joke - it is presented as for the benefit of the animal but I think it is for the benefit of the abbatoir who can get through more livestock in one day.

Our way is different. You spend time with the animal to calm it, you say a prayer and you cut it so quickly that is immediately faints as all oxygen and blood stops going to the brain. They have a painless and peaceful death. Also, scientifically this is the cleanest way of slaughtering an animal as it bleeds it the quickest possible way. One other reason, and if you don't believe in the soul/spirit then this will mean nothing to you, for cutting them this way is that the soul is immeditaley released

The whole process was a bit daunting. I didn't feel guilty but you just want to make sure the animal feels no pain at all. I did not enjoy the actual cutting - I think anyone that does needs their heads examined and should not be let near an animal again. I was totally conscious of the fact that this animal was giving its life in order for us to eat - it had to be treated with the upmost respect and it was. A wsit cut and everything was severed and the animal fainted and then died.

My friend also cut 3 lambs and the bodies were then bundled into a van and driven to my house to be gutted and skinned. This is where the hard work began. Without being too graphic there was a lot of mess, a lot of blood and a lot of smell. I have a slaughterman as a neighbour so he skinned and gutted them for me. It did not look like something I would like to do, but according to my ethos I do want to be able to do it in the future. As a skill I think it's important to have.

So here was the end result. Four lambs hung-up and ready for butchering (which will be this evening!). Last night, after spending 1 hour trying to smash a whole into the driest earth possible to bury the entrails, heads, etc, I sat down to a nice meal which included some liver! Very very nice!!

On the whole I can see why people would not be bothered to go through all this. It was a lot of hard work - not only was there the mess, there was the time spent cleaning up afterwards, burying the remains, cleaning myself up, etc. I was shattered at the end of the night.

One final thing - the skins. I you want to have them as rugs, etc you need to pour salt on them as soon as possible after being taken off. They were left overnight then this afternoon I took them up to Fenland tannery in Bridgewater. A very very nice man by the name of Andy took some time out of his own accord to show me how the whole process works. For £15 they basically turn your mangled bloody mess of a sheep skin into a lovely rug. When I get them back in 5 weeks I will show you the end product which will be floor rugs I think.

So, all in all it was an enligtening experience and one I think people should do or at least witness so they understand where their meat comes from. People are so far removed from the reality of the meat industry they dont look beyond the nicely packaged chops or leg of lamb in Tescos. Doing this has made me all the more keen to continue to only eat meat I know has had a good ending.

Not much fun

As I want to be able to have sheep, both for myself and to sell, and to have them as organic as possible I can't use any sort of spray on my field. I spent 3 hours the other evening walking the field and chopping down thistles.

Twas rather boring and my back killed. Which reminded my to put up a post about how much hard work everything is. If you have land be prepared for a lot of hard work or spending a lot of money to get people to do it for you.

And I have only got rid of 80% of them...so another evening next week has gone.

On other fronts the new hens are all settled in nicely; they spend a lot more time now outside taking dust baths. One of them is still laying everyday like clockwork at around 5pm, always in the same place. The neighbours though have complained a bit about them and want them moved.... hmmm. Don't think so, unless they want to put up the electric fence themselves.

My runner beans were savaged by strong winds yesterday. Luckily I was out there at the time and caught them before they collapsed. Tip: if growing runner beans in an exposed area dont row them in a line - rather form a shape like a tipee. That's what I am doing next year as they are less likely to get battered by the winds.

My other veg are getting there. Lots of spring onions, lettuce on the way, carrots getting picked, fresh tomatoes every day. Check out my marrow - never even realised a marrow was an overgrown courgette! Anyway, I used to hate the things but I sliced it up, added some garlic, butter and pepper, under the grill for 10 minutes. My gosh! Fantastique as the French say.

P.S. I was having a bad hair day.

Dhikr-tory???

I guess anyone that has visited this might be wondering what I have exactly escaped to. No, Dhikr-tory is not the name of a Somerset village.

Dhikr is an Arabic word meaning "remembrance" but is used when talking about the remembrance of God. All Muslims aim, in theory anyway, to reach a constant state of remembrance of God, i.e. He is in our hearts all the time. Why? Well this little story explains.....

There was once a teacher who lived on a farm. He had 6 students to whom he each entrusted one chicken which they had to feed and care for. When the day for slaughter came he went to each student and told them "go where no-one can see you and slaughter your chicken, then bring it back and we shall have a feast". All went off in the own directions and a few hours later 5 of them returned ready to add their birds to the pot. After waiting another 2 hours the teacher went off to look for the remaining student and found him deep in the woods. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Oh master," replied the boy, "I have been everywhere to slaughter this chicken but realised that where-ever I go I will be seen." "What do you mean?" enquired the teacher. "Master, there is no-where upon this earth that one can not be seen as Allah (God) sees everything."

This student actually went on to become a great Saint.

The point is, if you want to do something (whether it is naughty or not) do you do it when people can see you? No. The same principle applies to a Muslim's life in that if you constantly remember Allah, you constantly know that he is watching. As a result you grow to cut out bad habits and behaving in a manner that is unbecoming.

That is the essence of dhikr.

So what's this got to do with me? Well, living in London you can fall into this trap of getting caught up with "dunya" (worldly things). I was getting like that. Even though it goes against my nature and principles I sometimes caught myself thinking wouldn't a BMW be nice, or I wish we could have a bigger house, etc. To me those things are not important. So, part of the reason for moving out to the country was to become more in a state of dhikr, i.e. to try and increase my closeness to Allah and do things that would help me appreciate the things we are blessed with a bit more. Already through working with the land, feeding animals, growing my own veg I have got a bit of this.

Thus, Escape to Dhikr-tory!

Responsibility

I think one of the quickest lessons I am learning is responsibility. Even though I have a wife, kid and mortgage you dont feel as tied down with responsiblity as you do with a few vegetables and some poultry. A simple example, I need to go to London this weekend to watch the greatest football team in the world (I wish) and I have to rely on a neighbour to feed and water everything. And then you get into the whole issue of "will they do it properly". Last time I did that I came back to dehydrated chicks and was not happy. Then what do you do if the neighbour goes away?

Even part of your daily routine is to some degree ruled by the smallholding, up at dawn to let the hens out, water the veg every day, check on the chicks a few times, make sure the electric fence is working, bla, bla, bla the list goes on.

We have booked a holiday for later in the year and I also wanted sheep by the end of the year and now I am in the dilema of what to do with them while we are away!

So for any wanna-be small holders, head my warning - be prepared to be tied to the land.

Veg

Naturally as part of this whole "going back to nature" thing I wanted to grow my own veg. The more you read about the crap they spray on crops the more it worries you. Organic really is the only safe option. We started to go organic when in London but the cost was really high plus the major difference between supermarket stuff and organic is that the latter goes bad so much quicker.

So, a kind neighbour lent me a rotivator (that's the thing that turns up the ground) and I attacked a piece of garden. About 4 hours later I was still raking and picking out bits of grass. If anyone thinks all this growing your own stuff is fun, think again. It is hard, back-breaking work. The next day I spent another 4 hours or so raking it over, levelling it and getting it ready for seed. Half of me thought, "I really can not be bothered to do this; Tescos is the best!"
But there is something deeply spiritual (for want of a better word) about the whole process. Its like removing something bad in order to grow something good, i.e. getting rid of your bad traits to sow some future good actions. While doing the work it was satiating at an internal level. I actually remember thinking at the time that there should be some law whereby everyone has to to grow at least one thing, whether some basil in the kitchen or a cucumber in the garden. You get much more appreciation for food and how mother nature works.

At the moment society is no detached from food - meaning its something they eat. Food is more than that. I really do believe the addage "you are what you eat is true", literally. Everything has an energy and is made up of ingredients - those gets transferred into your body. Although it is not scientifically proven, and is more of a personal idea, I really think that kids nowadays act so badly because the meat they eat is so full of hormones, drugs and God knows what else. Man wasn't built to eat so much meat, and when you do it should be real meat not some poor animal that has been bred in a 2x2 metal cage and fed crap from morning to night. Their misery must translate someohow into the meat too, having a knock-on effect to those that eat it (maybe?). At a certain time in my life I was asked to eat meat once a week. Over the coming months I really did notice a change in myself: less anger, more patience, a feeling of being light (weight wise not the stuff the sun makes) and on the whole a lot happier.

Anyway, enough rambling, I now have tomatoes (my God! I didn't know they tasted so sweet), marrows, sweetcorn, radish, lettuce, beetroot, spring onions, french beans and runner beans. Not bad.....

Hopefully next summer there will be a lot more to come as I am still planning out how to use the land. I want to get as much of our veg from the land as possible.

My First Egg

Well I didnt lay it but one of my 6 hens did.....

Having built up the confidence to look after the 8 chicks I now decided it was time for eggs. So off we trecked for an hour to a breeder's farm, picked up the smelly hens, stuck them in a cardboard box and an hour back to introduce them to their luxurious palace.

After 3 days then finally decided it was safe to venture out of the poultry house and after 7 days one of them lay the first egg. Still have not had another one out of them but we have at least started. Again, it was a sense of achievement; a boy-like excitement that something you were working on a watching finally happened.

Had it for breakfast on Sunday morning and boy was it tasty - I dont know if it was pyschological (forgive me if that is mispelt) but it did taste different.

Anyway we are now off on the egg production!!

Chickens

One of my first projects was to address the whole meat issue. Having never held a chicken in my life I took the plunge and bought 8 day old chicks. After many a sad evening studying a "how to raise chickens" book I felt confident enough to enter into the world of a poultry keeper.
I set up a square area in my shed with a light, a feeder and some water and away we went. At first they were all very fluffly and sweet; actually looked forward to feeding them and watch them chirp away. Slowly an emotional bond began to develop and secretly, despite telling my wife the opposite, I did actually question if I could slit their throats, pluck them, gut them and pop them in the oven.
Well now they are 6 weeks old (see pic) - a lot uglier, a lot louder, a lot quicker and shit a whole lot more. They drive me a bit insane as I hate mess and they are the messiest little things you could ever wish for; all emotional bonds and guilt have been lost!! I am now really looking forward to number one (who has been earmarked as he/she is the largest of the lot) which should be in 2 weeks time. Hopefully I will post photos of me attempting to pluck and gut.
There is a sense of achievement in that I know they have been treated well, fed well, warm and all the rest of it. I will feel happier that I am eating a decent bird rather than some poor thing that has spent its whole life in a small cage with nothing to do but eat.
They are now big enough to go outside so I have bought them a new house for the last few weeks of their lives.
Once that is done another 10 will put in the shed......

Introductions

What is this blog all about? Well, I am doing what many people would like to do and that is move to the country, go green, go organic and get back to the simple life. My family have now been here in Somerset for about 2 months now. We moved from South London with a little boy and another (dont know the sex yet) on the way. Why did we move? London was getting too much for us. Bad vibes, generally materialist attitude to life and we never did much except watch tv! This move has been about making a change and doing all the things we said we would love to do one day.
Why the blog? It does 2 things. 1) Allow me to capture my thoughts and create a diary to look back on in the future and 2) give people an insight into such a move. What are the pitfalls, highs, lows, etc?
What are my aims? Ultimatley this is about a lifestyle change. We wanted to live a greener life (everything from energy conservation to recycling more efficiently). On top of that we also wanted to address the food we were eating. We are Muslims which means we only eat meat that has been ritually slaughtered; most of the meat sold in the shops and butchers is rubbish. Since moving here and seeing and speaking to people about the meat industry you hear real horror stories about the conditions animals and brought up in and what they are fed. So, my aim is to now breed, feed and slaughter all our meat by myself. Good, happy, clean, organic and fresh meat. As to vegetables - I am aiming to reduce our dependence on Tescos by about 50%. There simply is not enough time in the day to go full out. Living in the country also gives you access to lots of other people that grow their own which means you can pretty much buy everything locally rather than using the superstores.

Wish me luck!