Note: paid subscribers can click here to access downloadable audio version. Recently, in our chat, we did a deep dive series on the necessity of glycine in our diets. Specifically, I spoke of its importance in our health and ways we can incorporate those glycine rich foods in our everyday meals. A couple of days later I got a picture from a wonderful rancher friend of mine. I like it when he sends me pictures from his abattoir and his fields. It’s the kind of farming and ranching stuff I really geek out on.
When we moved from New Mexico to Maine a few years back we brought thousands of pounds of meat with us that we had raised. For the next year we slowly ate the meat imbibed with our previous home's energy. As the next growing season came to a close and we harvested meat from our new home, we slowly weaned off the meat we had brought as we wittled away at our stores. It was such a beautiful experience. I chose to move but still missed my old home dearly. I got to bring a part of her with me and she helped me grieve and transition in my new surroundings until one day I only had nourishment infused with the qualities of my new farm. I too eat mostly from my own land and I too feel the dissonance eating something from afar fills me with. Especially with meat. It feels exponentially wrong to me to eat an animal I don't know. Its such an intimate thing to take in another's flesh and make it your own. Eating is more intimate than sex in some ways and eating faceless meat feels similar to one a night stand at best or prostitution at its worst. To lovingly prepare a meal with the body of a beloved beast I helped usher into the world, then tended to with such devotion and then helped lead to the afterlife is nothing short of holy. Spending hours, or sometimes days, sorting through its flesh, reading its hidden stories with every knife stroke. Smelling the scent of cherished forage on its fat and then carefully tucking it all away in a subzero bed to wait until the time comes to nourish my little one's bellies. That experienece isnt something you can buy. I have never felt closer to whatever God might be since I started homesteading almost a decade ago. Hoemsteading is the closest thing I have found to religion and truly being apart of the natural cycle of things has nourished apart of my DNA I didn't knoe exhisted, let alone needed love and healing.
"regeneratively farmed" has now been greenwashed and captured by the corporations. Predictable. I think it's better to just not use any labels to describe your farming practices, because if they become popular and sought after, corporations will capture it for profit. Permaculture will be next ... toss in a comfrey plant near the CAFO and the label will read "raised on a Permaculture farm".
This piece really lit a fire in my belly. I’ve been sounding the alarm about the encapsulated liver pills to anyone that would listen. I mean for Pete’s sake each cow/steer has ONE Liver. It’s not normal to eat liver pills every day. It’s normal to butcher your cow and get one liver and then divide it up.
I love heart. Guess what? We get about 3 a year depending on how many cattle are butchered for us.
The visual of the hides and your explanation of subsequent, downstream, odor free powders should make every person stand at attention and stop buying that crap.
On a happier note - LOVE LOVE LOVE the art you included today.
I used to consume the organ pills and powdered collagen daily, but over the last 2 years have moved away from both. It's been a natural process that started when I skipped supplements for a few weeks during a time of moving/upheaval and realizing that I felt no different (and the smell/taste after taking a break was repulsive). I knew the process had to be questionable at best, but seeing it laid out makes my stomach turn. I have a partial cow from a local farm coming next month (including ALL the bones, fat, organs, tongue, etc) and couldn't be more excited. Someday I hope to raise my own meat animals...one day!
I LOVE the old oil paintings that accompany your essays, by the way. The colors are so rich and the people's faces so dynamic and so much is happening in each one. Love it.
YES! What you share resonates so deeply within my soul. I am passionate about inspiring others to dive into a ‘radical’ relationship with their food and farmers and community. Encouraging folks to know where their food comes from, join the protest, participate in this revolution – this human birthright that is being stolen from us. I love the timing of this essay, as I just wrote about the importance of this connection. Thanks Tara, for so often speaking the words in my heart!
We feel very lucky to know a few great beef farmers, one of whom is raising us a cow this year to split with a brother in law. This is my first time truly having access to more of the bits, beyond heart and liver, and I'm excited.
We're in a place of hoping to find a little chunk of a farm to live on that we can contribute to with work while we pinch pennies to hopefully buy ourselves a few acres in the coming years. We want our babies to know food well, which right now, is just getting to know and buying from farmers that let our toddler check out their spaces. It's a tiny step along the way to something bigger, and I'm always happy to clean barns and haul water with tiny people strapped to my body so that they will get the lessons here.
I love reading your posts, and find them inspiring, as a woman, but especially as a Wife in charge of the kitchen and Mom in charge of tiny lives(and big ones). I often find myself contemplating your words in my tiny moments of brain space. Right now, I'm a week postpartum, nursing a newborn and a 2 year old and have been hard into my deodorized, tasteless collagen, as if I don't trust all of the special soups and stews I put away for myself to nourish me. As if I truly think a factory or industry cares for my body like I do.
Time to pull out thedeer liver and gift myself postpartum pate.
Wondering if you might share your favourite ways to eat pate, as I get stuck incracker and sourdough toast land.
From the beginning man ate what he harvested. It's seems as time goes on our own genius has brought dissonance. Aren't we so smart making nutrients available in a tiny form we swallow. What if part of the harmony of cell nourishment is the communion with food? Not only cooking and chewing but working the land, growing and eating from it. Nourishing soul as well as body..... Thinking on these things as I plant my garden today. I've never been so excited about learning!! The connectedness of it all!!
I needed to read this, to be reminded. I take desiccated liver and powdered collagen daily because I need those nutrients, but while I once had a solid goal or replacement with REAL good sources asap, I have gotten lazy. And I felt the lack of resonance in that so clearly again reading this. We are about to process a cow again, and I am definitely going to do it differently to make sure and take a few steps forward to this goal.
Thank you Tara for reminding us always of the beauty of engaging in the art of every aspect of REAL life as creations of a Loving, Intelligent Creator.
Listened to the podcast yesterday, and it’s definitely making me question my daily kidney pills. I tried eating ground kidney and couldn’t handle the taste, even mixed with beef. Not sure what to do.
Looking forward to doing a deep dive using those resources at the end! I’m curious--where does the organic GoBio gelatin fit into this from your perspective?
My thoughts go to “surely if I’m eating my whole cow along with something like collagen powder (which I don’t do currently) then that would help assimilate all the nutrients from the powder better than if someone were solely taking the powder and not much else by way of beef.” This doesn’t take into account resonance of course.
Thank you for bringing this to the light ❤️. I bought into the organ meat capsule idea during pregnancy. I even bought into the claim that it was all the prenatal I needed. My baby had a sacral dimple which my doctor said indicated a folate deficiency. These organ capsules failed in their claims. I’m beginning to realize more and more the value of buying whole animals. So much more nutrition and way cheaper than any supplements or convenience food
Thank you, Tara. I think a lot about the supplements and the real food and how to invite people back into the kitchen and to explore these unfamiliar cuts - especially for those of us not raising our own animals. I always want to stick to the positive benefits and shy from the problems that you share, but I appreciate your willingness to call it out front and center. Your experience and the fact that you invest so much of your time now sharing continues to be a gift. Each of your references to respect and reverence for Mother Nature in this article had me thinking of WAP "life is all its fullness is Mother Nature obeyed." I like the way you say it, too. Thank you for all you do.
Love this. Is so important to know where our food comes from, here in Bali I have to go to so many different places to get what I want, chickens and duck come from one farm, our vegetables another one, beef another one.. my kids still small 7,5 and 3 and it’s a lot to have to source everything from different places and from far away, totally worth it I know, but sometimes, when I am tired and didn’t organized the food in our house, I wish I could just go to the supermarket and get good quality food🤣 Anyway, there is a local brand that sells organs capsules and collagen capsules, and it’s funny because I asked if they tested their soil.. but of course there is so much more to consider, thank you for this post Tara🙏🏽
Here their answer: “Hi Mariana, great question. In 2022 we are working on becoming Regenerative Organic and Certified Humane. We will have much more data to share once the process starts. For now we source all our cows in the highlands in North Bali away from densely populated areas. We also third party test our products for heavy metals, pathogens and glyphosate” thought might be interesting to share, by te way this was in 2021😅
Tara as always I appreciate your insight, perspective and passion.
Perhaps I’m in the minority on this thread, while I’ve always considered myself health conscious it feels recent for me in terms of my awareness of coming around to both noticing the food system in general and the type of lifestyle you and many here have been cultivating for long periods of time - which currently is not my reality or one that I feel very called to walk fully down. It feels like many generations of conditioning unwinding constantly.
My current season and goal is to be as connected to the earth as I can be based on where I am and to make the best possible choices eating wise for my family that I am able to.
This essay certainly broadens my perspective and I can at times feel overwhelmed on how to keep moving forward from things I’ve done or known for a long time but that have also made a positive impact on my health and vitality.
Then balanced with the demands of raising and feeding a family in the current location and environment my family and I live in. Does this make sense? I’m neither condemning or condoning, I would say I’m falling more under contemplating
When we moved from New Mexico to Maine a few years back we brought thousands of pounds of meat with us that we had raised. For the next year we slowly ate the meat imbibed with our previous home's energy. As the next growing season came to a close and we harvested meat from our new home, we slowly weaned off the meat we had brought as we wittled away at our stores. It was such a beautiful experience. I chose to move but still missed my old home dearly. I got to bring a part of her with me and she helped me grieve and transition in my new surroundings until one day I only had nourishment infused with the qualities of my new farm. I too eat mostly from my own land and I too feel the dissonance eating something from afar fills me with. Especially with meat. It feels exponentially wrong to me to eat an animal I don't know. Its such an intimate thing to take in another's flesh and make it your own. Eating is more intimate than sex in some ways and eating faceless meat feels similar to one a night stand at best or prostitution at its worst. To lovingly prepare a meal with the body of a beloved beast I helped usher into the world, then tended to with such devotion and then helped lead to the afterlife is nothing short of holy. Spending hours, or sometimes days, sorting through its flesh, reading its hidden stories with every knife stroke. Smelling the scent of cherished forage on its fat and then carefully tucking it all away in a subzero bed to wait until the time comes to nourish my little one's bellies. That experienece isnt something you can buy. I have never felt closer to whatever God might be since I started homesteading almost a decade ago. Hoemsteading is the closest thing I have found to religion and truly being apart of the natural cycle of things has nourished apart of my DNA I didn't knoe exhisted, let alone needed love and healing.
"regeneratively farmed" has now been greenwashed and captured by the corporations. Predictable. I think it's better to just not use any labels to describe your farming practices, because if they become popular and sought after, corporations will capture it for profit. Permaculture will be next ... toss in a comfrey plant near the CAFO and the label will read "raised on a Permaculture farm".
This piece really lit a fire in my belly. I’ve been sounding the alarm about the encapsulated liver pills to anyone that would listen. I mean for Pete’s sake each cow/steer has ONE Liver. It’s not normal to eat liver pills every day. It’s normal to butcher your cow and get one liver and then divide it up.
I love heart. Guess what? We get about 3 a year depending on how many cattle are butchered for us.
The visual of the hides and your explanation of subsequent, downstream, odor free powders should make every person stand at attention and stop buying that crap.
On a happier note - LOVE LOVE LOVE the art you included today.
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!
I used to consume the organ pills and powdered collagen daily, but over the last 2 years have moved away from both. It's been a natural process that started when I skipped supplements for a few weeks during a time of moving/upheaval and realizing that I felt no different (and the smell/taste after taking a break was repulsive). I knew the process had to be questionable at best, but seeing it laid out makes my stomach turn. I have a partial cow from a local farm coming next month (including ALL the bones, fat, organs, tongue, etc) and couldn't be more excited. Someday I hope to raise my own meat animals...one day!
I LOVE the old oil paintings that accompany your essays, by the way. The colors are so rich and the people's faces so dynamic and so much is happening in each one. Love it.
YES! What you share resonates so deeply within my soul. I am passionate about inspiring others to dive into a ‘radical’ relationship with their food and farmers and community. Encouraging folks to know where their food comes from, join the protest, participate in this revolution – this human birthright that is being stolen from us. I love the timing of this essay, as I just wrote about the importance of this connection. Thanks Tara, for so often speaking the words in my heart!
This is brilliant, per usual, and much appreciated! Thank you 🧡
We feel very lucky to know a few great beef farmers, one of whom is raising us a cow this year to split with a brother in law. This is my first time truly having access to more of the bits, beyond heart and liver, and I'm excited.
We're in a place of hoping to find a little chunk of a farm to live on that we can contribute to with work while we pinch pennies to hopefully buy ourselves a few acres in the coming years. We want our babies to know food well, which right now, is just getting to know and buying from farmers that let our toddler check out their spaces. It's a tiny step along the way to something bigger, and I'm always happy to clean barns and haul water with tiny people strapped to my body so that they will get the lessons here.
I love reading your posts, and find them inspiring, as a woman, but especially as a Wife in charge of the kitchen and Mom in charge of tiny lives(and big ones). I often find myself contemplating your words in my tiny moments of brain space. Right now, I'm a week postpartum, nursing a newborn and a 2 year old and have been hard into my deodorized, tasteless collagen, as if I don't trust all of the special soups and stews I put away for myself to nourish me. As if I truly think a factory or industry cares for my body like I do.
Time to pull out thedeer liver and gift myself postpartum pate.
Wondering if you might share your favourite ways to eat pate, as I get stuck incracker and sourdough toast land.
From the beginning man ate what he harvested. It's seems as time goes on our own genius has brought dissonance. Aren't we so smart making nutrients available in a tiny form we swallow. What if part of the harmony of cell nourishment is the communion with food? Not only cooking and chewing but working the land, growing and eating from it. Nourishing soul as well as body..... Thinking on these things as I plant my garden today. I've never been so excited about learning!! The connectedness of it all!!
I needed to read this, to be reminded. I take desiccated liver and powdered collagen daily because I need those nutrients, but while I once had a solid goal or replacement with REAL good sources asap, I have gotten lazy. And I felt the lack of resonance in that so clearly again reading this. We are about to process a cow again, and I am definitely going to do it differently to make sure and take a few steps forward to this goal.
Thank you Tara for reminding us always of the beauty of engaging in the art of every aspect of REAL life as creations of a Loving, Intelligent Creator.
Mind blown. Thank you 🙏🏻
Listened to the podcast yesterday, and it’s definitely making me question my daily kidney pills. I tried eating ground kidney and couldn’t handle the taste, even mixed with beef. Not sure what to do.
Looking forward to doing a deep dive using those resources at the end! I’m curious--where does the organic GoBio gelatin fit into this from your perspective?
My thoughts go to “surely if I’m eating my whole cow along with something like collagen powder (which I don’t do currently) then that would help assimilate all the nutrients from the powder better than if someone were solely taking the powder and not much else by way of beef.” This doesn’t take into account resonance of course.
Thank you for bringing this to the light ❤️. I bought into the organ meat capsule idea during pregnancy. I even bought into the claim that it was all the prenatal I needed. My baby had a sacral dimple which my doctor said indicated a folate deficiency. These organ capsules failed in their claims. I’m beginning to realize more and more the value of buying whole animals. So much more nutrition and way cheaper than any supplements or convenience food
Thank you, Tara. I think a lot about the supplements and the real food and how to invite people back into the kitchen and to explore these unfamiliar cuts - especially for those of us not raising our own animals. I always want to stick to the positive benefits and shy from the problems that you share, but I appreciate your willingness to call it out front and center. Your experience and the fact that you invest so much of your time now sharing continues to be a gift. Each of your references to respect and reverence for Mother Nature in this article had me thinking of WAP "life is all its fullness is Mother Nature obeyed." I like the way you say it, too. Thank you for all you do.
Love this. Is so important to know where our food comes from, here in Bali I have to go to so many different places to get what I want, chickens and duck come from one farm, our vegetables another one, beef another one.. my kids still small 7,5 and 3 and it’s a lot to have to source everything from different places and from far away, totally worth it I know, but sometimes, when I am tired and didn’t organized the food in our house, I wish I could just go to the supermarket and get good quality food🤣 Anyway, there is a local brand that sells organs capsules and collagen capsules, and it’s funny because I asked if they tested their soil.. but of course there is so much more to consider, thank you for this post Tara🙏🏽
Here their answer: “Hi Mariana, great question. In 2022 we are working on becoming Regenerative Organic and Certified Humane. We will have much more data to share once the process starts. For now we source all our cows in the highlands in North Bali away from densely populated areas. We also third party test our products for heavy metals, pathogens and glyphosate” thought might be interesting to share, by te way this was in 2021😅
Tara as always I appreciate your insight, perspective and passion.
Perhaps I’m in the minority on this thread, while I’ve always considered myself health conscious it feels recent for me in terms of my awareness of coming around to both noticing the food system in general and the type of lifestyle you and many here have been cultivating for long periods of time - which currently is not my reality or one that I feel very called to walk fully down. It feels like many generations of conditioning unwinding constantly.
My current season and goal is to be as connected to the earth as I can be based on where I am and to make the best possible choices eating wise for my family that I am able to.
This essay certainly broadens my perspective and I can at times feel overwhelmed on how to keep moving forward from things I’ve done or known for a long time but that have also made a positive impact on my health and vitality.
Then balanced with the demands of raising and feeding a family in the current location and environment my family and I live in. Does this make sense? I’m neither condemning or condoning, I would say I’m falling more under contemplating