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Where my Meat Comes From…

by Anna Stevenson · July 23rd, 2007
Adamah, Animal Care, Eco-Kashrut, Meat

This is from Jeff Yoskowitz, one of the Adamah Fellows (see previous Adamah posts). We are blessed to live in a community that includes Jews, vegetables and animals — and we are learning that the cycles of life and death are sometimes surprising, always awe-inspiring.PLEASE NOTE: This post contains graphic description and images of animal slaughter.

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Today one of Aitan’s goats died (Aitan is a part-staff member of Adamah who also has a pasture down the road). The kid was a female named D’vash, which means honey in Hebrew. Apparently she was eating out of the grain feeder and somehow had her head get caught on fencing and her neck snapped. Aitan and I suspect that one of the other kids playfully pushed her as happens a lot, and her poor positioning trapped her neck and led to her death.

This all happened as I was working maintenance at the Isabella Freedman center today picking up goose crap and moving unsightly objects from the camp premises. When I arrived early to lunch Aitan told me what happened and I offered to assist him however I could. He seemed shaken up and upset as a goat herder, a friend and a businessman. He was in the process of skinning the goat and wanted to keep the meat. After a brief google search on how to cut up a goat and with a few printed documents in hand, Abby (a fellow Adamahnik) and I were in Aitan’s car ready to assist. First we went to a woman from Isabella Freedman’s home to pick up a spare refrigerator that we would keep the carcass in. Then we went to his pasture with Saran wrap to get started.

Side note: Last night a few people, myself included, were speaking with Aitan about slaughtering a goat and preparing it for consumption before the summer’s end to heed Michael Pollan’s suggestion and become fully conscious consumers. D’vash’s untimely death provided just that opportunity for me. Thus, rather than disposing of the goat’s body as is Aitan’s custom, he decided to save the meat and prepare the kid into various cuts.

When I arrived there D’vash was hanging from the rafters by her hind legs. Her liver, intestines, heart and all other entrails were removed by Aitan immediately after the death. So too did Aitan remove D’vash’s head. I was pretty impressed that Aitan did that all by himself. We dove right into our work by taking knives and skinning her. I found myself back in Mrs. Surgeon’s biology class in 12th grade when I skinned a dead cat before dissecting it. I was cutting the same film between the skin and the flesh. We continued as the blood was dripping and eventually removed the hide and hung it on a rack to dry. Thereafter, with a saw, I cut her feet off of her. We mostly worked in silence. We had known this kid. The goats I have been milking were at another pasture, but I had known this goat and had interracted with her affectionately.

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Then we washed the carcass. The moment was certainly surreal. Aitan and I were holding her limbs and Abby sprayed so as not to ruin the meat. We took a break to eat and then returned to ceremonially dispose of the remains. We brought the head, feet and organs up bee bee hill and placed them in the forest for a bobcat or coyote to enjoy.

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7 Responses to “Where my Meat Comes From…”

  1. Becki Says:
    July 23rd, 2007 at 4:32 pm

    Oh this same thing happened at our friend’s cattle ranch. As we arrived we saw just a hind end up in the water tank. I knew it the minute I saw it, and I could see by my friends face. She went from being happy and excited to pale and sullen. And then she darted away from us calling over her shoulder, “keep the kids back”. So I had to explain to my kids, who are older teens what they learned long ago in the Lion King..The Circle of Life.
    Seems that the power went out and knocked out the water pump. Since the water level dropped, the little calf leaned in to get water. It got it’s leg caught up and could not get itself upright. Even sadder the momma cow was bellering for the baby calf. Even after the calf was removed from the water tank, the momma cow just kept bellering.
    My friend felt like it was her fault. She felt like she designed the water tank setup wrong. But really it was not her fault at all…the storms knocked the power out. An act of G-d.
    Isn’t everything?

  2. natalie Says:
    July 24th, 2007 at 10:50 am

    I’m impressed that you could participate in such a surreal experience - especially with a goat you had known personally and affectionately. Does becoming a conscious consumer mean that you will then eat the meat? And how do you reconcile that with kashrut if that is an issue for you?

  3. Jeff Says:
    July 24th, 2007 at 12:26 pm

    Becoming a conscious consumer means, from my perspective, that I should eat the meat. I have yet to reconcile this with my kashrut. Just a few days ago I thought that after Tisha B’Av I would be ready and willing to eat D’vash’s meat, but today, on Tisha B’Av, I no longer feel the same way. I’m having serious doubts. Today has been a very introspective experience for me and I’ve been questioning what I truly value. I believe I value conscious consumption through a kosher framework. Things may change in the next few days, but that’s where I’m at now.

    A friend of mine here, Naf, approached me about spending a week in Israel studying with shochet (kosher animal slaughterer) so we can learn how to be a part of the meat eating process in the most kosher of ways. Planning that experience with him really relieved me. We’re hoping to do this in Israel in late December or January, and if anyone will be there and is interested, email me at Jeffrey.Yoskowitz@gmail.com.

  4. Rabbi Shmuel Says:
    July 24th, 2007 at 4:41 pm

    good thoughts Jeff - I’m glad that you allowed Tisha B’av to elevate your thinking.

    Having worked in shechita (nasty work by any stretch of the imagination) I’m curious as to where you & Naf are going for your 1 week quickie course. Could the Adamah curriculum be compressed down into an intensive week crash cram course? or is the time spent together building bonds and reflecting critically as much a part of the process as the hardcore knowlege of intercropping and growing? so why would shechita be any different? some things just don’t lend themselves to cliff notes or “Shechita for dummies” type treatments - good luck and why not consider giving the goat meat to a non-Jew would would appreciate the chesed (kindness) that you would be showing both him and D’vash

    as a grower I was particularly struck by something I believe Michael Pollan wrote ‘ he said you should never eat an animal unless you were prepared to look it in the eye!! truly food for thought

  5. Jeff Yoskowitz Says:
    July 24th, 2007 at 5:48 pm

    Thanks Shmuel for your insight. As for the Shechting in Israel, we weren’t planning on synthesizing Shochet training into a one week “cram course.” Naf and I, two meat eating Jews who care about where our food comes from and how it gets on our plates, are interested in understanding the art of kosher animal slaughter. How else can one do that?

    We don’t know. We don’t want to become slaughterers ourselves, nor do we plan on becoming experts. We just want to understand the processes from which we American Jews are so far removed. We will both be in Israel this coming winter and are currently looking for a Shochet who would be willing to spend a week with us to show us the process and allow us to participate however we can. We would also like to look an animal in the eye in a Jewish context. Shmuel, Perhaps you know a Shochet in Israel who could show two conscious consuming Jews where our kosher meat comes from?

  6. Rabbi Shmuel Says:
    July 25th, 2007 at 6:25 am

    I don’t know any shochtim in Israel per se - I worked in Denmark at the “slagtheif” and personally, I was very uncomfortable with the shoichet’s levity during the shechita - he was kidding around a bit much for my taste. Parenthetically, the shechita itself didn’t bother me but I was extremely upset (nightmares) at the slaughtering of horses (it was in the municipal slaughterhouse where kosher & non-kosher are processed) I had nightmares over the horses which taught me that much has to do with cultural and societal acclimation and (de) sensitization. Ironically, the best shechita I witnessed was in Postville (aah the dreaded “R” word) where the shochtim approached the job with an almost apologetic reverence for the “netilas neshama” - the letting of life - there was a solemnity appropriate for the task at hand.
    I know that you are sincere and I wish you luck but I suspect that you’ll find that the wagons are drawing in tighter as not every kosher meat processor is able to quickly discern where a legitimate interest ends and a hidden (or not so hidden) agenda (or camera) begins.

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