Monday, August 3, 2009

The dreaded dinner conversation

Tonight I was quite proud of myself. Almost everything we were eating came straight out of my garden, fresh nugget potatoes, peas and carrots...the only thing we added that wasn't all that local was farmer sausage. (we did have fresh caught local salmon in the freezer, but Pookie hates it!)

As we were eating, we were talking about how great it was that we were eating food that we had grown. Pookie asked where the sausage was grown. I have been able to avoid this conversation for a long time, and despite my attempts at diversion, Pookie wanted to know. Now, Pookie is not a great meat eater to begin with, so I REALLY was NOT looking forward to explaining that we are eating animals that she has seen at a farm.

So, I told her that meat came from different animals. She asked if it just got cut off them. I said, kinda, but they are dead when the meat is cut from them, otherwise it would hurt. I reminded her that she loves eating chicken nuggets, which, you know...comes from chickens. Dead ones? Pookie asks. Yep...and then the silence as Pookie assesses her dinner. I am literally holding my breath thinking that it is all over and I'm going to need to start figuring out how to make beans taste good so that Pookie will have protein in her life when....she scoops up a big chunk of sausage and then asks for seconds and thirds.

Disaster averted. I think. Bear had been watching this whole process/conversation and refused to finish her sausage. I am hoping it is more due to the spicy nature of the sausage rather than the whole meat issue....

1 comment:

Lisa said...

Couldn't have gone with the sausage tree, huh?
Glad it didn't seem to phase her. I remember the chicken talk at our house well. Went over OK here, too. Must be in the meat-eating genes!