Monday, October 10, 2011

Run Rabbit Run

About the time that I was in the worst of my pregnancy related nausea, vomiting, constipation, and severe fatigue Jim decided to become a vegetarian (actually he's eating seafood, so he's technically a pescetarian but I have a hard time remembering that word). Prior to this change of events, we were both already huge veggie eaters and probably ate a vegetarian meal 2-3 nights a week. And there have definitely been moments, while enjoying a particularly delicious vegetarian meal, that we have commented to one another that we should just take the leap and become vegetarians. It was never really anything more than conversation though. Until one day the bunnies pushed Jim over the edge...

Sometime in early August Jim was working in the garden. It was time to remove our lettuces and the early summer crops that were done for the year, till the soil, & prepare for it for the seed planting of a few fall crops. As he was he working away suddenly the soil let out a squealing yelp at which point Jim comes racing in the house screaming, ranting, and inquiring about my whereabouts. During this period I was a tad occupied with some long overdue bathroom "business" (sorry if this is TMI but Jim thinks it makes the story funnier).

"What's wrong?! Are you Ok?!"
"I tilled over a baby bunny! I need your help"
"What?! A bunny?! Where?! Did you kill it?!"
"I don't know!!! I don't know. In the garden. What are you doing?! I need your help!"

It turned out that Jim did not kill or even injure the cute, little baby bunny. Luckily he was only using a small hand tiller (that we actually scored trash picking) and apparently just grazed the little guy. It also turned out that there was a nest of 3 baby bunnies nestled up in the littlest hole and covered with straw. After much debate it was decided that the bunnies would be moved outside of the garden fence and nestled into a cozy little spot next to the fence, hoping that mommy bunny would find them. My vote was actually for leaving them where we found them but understandably Jim didn't want 3 hungry baby bunnies beginning to feast in our garden in the next few days or weeks.

The bunnies hung around the yard for about a week. Jim attempted to give them water with little success. Until one day he found them curled up together, dead.

Now you might be asking, "How does this equate to Jim declaring his daily diet free of meats and animal flesh?" And I guess the answer comes down to logic really.

Jim knew that the bunnies were too little to survive on their own without the mother. In his head the right thing would have been to put them out of their misery, more specifically drown them in a bucket. But alas, his kind hearted animal loving soul just couldn't do it. Instead the poor babes died a long miserable death by starvation. About a week after their demise, his epiphany struck. He could never have killed those bunnies. Given a gun or weapon of choice he would also be unable to kill a cow, a pig, or a chicken. He just wouldn't be able to go through with it under any set of circumstances. Why then should he expect another to do the killing for him?

Logic I tell you. Pure logic.

At the particular moment that Jim experienced this enlightenment I was surviving on peanut butter crackers and tea, leaving not one ounce of strength to extend any proper amount of attention to it. The house was stocked with plenty of fresh vegetables from our garden & our local CSA share and he was pretty much eating solo every night for almost 2 straight months. I could have cared less what the man was consuming. I had my own set of problems to deal with.

Slowly but surely my first trimester ended, I started eating real food again, regaining energy, and reclaiming my old identity. Which among many things, means lots of new recipes and culinary experimentation. Although I've decided not to exactly follow in Jim's footstep I am fully supporting his new dietary restrictions and only preparing vegetarian meals (with an occasional seafood addition) for the two of us.

You may have even taken note that the recent recipes I've posted are vegetarian friendly. I've also gone through all my existing recipe posts and added a vegetarian tag when applicable. Some posts do contain more than one recipe, but I included the tag even if it only applied to one. I figured that this really should be self explanatory. Actually I'm pretty sure that this doesn't matter at all because of the ten people that actually read this read none of them are vegetarians. And don't ask me how to accurately use these tags to search for things on my blog because I haven't the slightest clue. I'm guessing the search box might be helpful.

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