I Just Couldn't Do It

Reader Contribution by Sherry Leverich Tucker
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I like to think that I am open-minded
and will at least consider trying something new.  I try not to balk
at the moment of consideration, but carry through to at least the
point of being able to make an observation or an opinion about
whatever it is that I might be trying out, especially if I am leary
or queasy about it.  I am talking specifically about food.  (To see
the daring side of our culinary leanings, read a blog I posted last
summer, Turn the Table on Grasshoppers Eating the Garden.)

A couple of weeks ago we had our steer
butchered.  I had been keeping him in a small pasture and fed him
grain for about three weeks.  Before that, he had been pastured his
whole life.  I had heard that it is good to give grain before
butchering along with the good grass that was growing in the pasture.
That way I would know exactly what had been going through his
digestive system right before butchering.

The morning he was butchered I was
working in the hoophouse and heard a “pop” sound.  I was pretty
sure what the sound was, and it was confirmed when I went out for a
closer look.  The butcher had already driven into the pasture and
downed the steer.  After a bit I went out to visit with the butcher.
I wanted his opinion on the size of the steer, and what he thought of
the carcass.  As we were talking he asked me if I wanted to keep the
liver and the heart. I went to the house and got a large container
for him to put the organs in, rather than them going to the meat
packer because I am not interested in having them packaged for
keeping in the freezer.  He then asked me if I wanted the tongue.  I
quickly said, “No.”  

As I stood there, I watched the butcher
and his helper continue cleaning the carcass and then I glanced over
at the head.  The pioneer spirit within me came forward as I looked
at that beef head.  I understand that it may seem morbid to be
looking at this beef head lying on the ground, that just minutes
earlier was on a live cow.  But, I was completely focused on thinking
about the tongue and trying to figure out if it was a viable source
of meat.  

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