Sunday Roast!

You may wonder what's so wonderful about a Sunday Roast? Well in Britain this is a traditional event...Sunday roast dinner complete with just about every root vegetable you can think of, four different deserts and excellent company...aka the Fairfield English department and their families.

Again, what's so wonderful about Sunday roast? Well, considering its the first real red meat I've eaten since my arrival - right about now I'm suffering from some serious iron deficiency... it's also organic beef raised by the family whose table it graced. Mel and her husband Ian, as mentioned in an earlier post, raise Hereford Angus beef cattle. This business has been in Ian's family for generations. He and his brother currently raise and breed these cattle on 350 acres of pasture land which overlooks the mountains, and some of the most beautiful farmland around. Every direction one looks is a picture postcard.

The cattle that I was lucky enough to walk amongst today are more than cows, they are beautiful, large and utterly magnificent and fiercely protective of their young. As is the case with just about every new experience I embark on, I pepper my host with a myriad of questions, and this walk around the farm was not any different. While dinner was exceptionally delicious - Mel is a great cook -after we had gorged ourselves on pudding and tarts, Ian guided me and some of the other guests around the fields to have a look at the barns, the Bull - named Eddie, some newborn calves and their moms, the field of male cattle who will soon head off to the butcher and the field of heifers, some of whom are soon to give birth; an event I hope to be lucky enough to see while I'm here.

First, Ian and Nigel (Jane's husband) evenly split a bag of cattle feed, some oats and molasses mix, to haul to the pasture for the male cattle. The cows are organic beef, feeding only off the natural grass pasture land, but shortly before slaughter the males are fed this organic feed mix to fatten them up just a bit more...I am told the females don't need any added help as they carry their weight well. Just one similarity I learned exists between cows and humans on this journey around the farm.

The first stop on the way was the holding pen for the breeding bull named Eddie. On this day Eddie had a female visitor to keep him happy until he is released into the field with the heifers. Eddie will have his way with the females until he is then removed from them again. Each female will seek out Eddie while he is in the field with them until she knows she is pregnant, an inborn instinct apparently, and then she will stay away from him. It takes up to three weeks for this process to happen. Any stock that is fathered by Eddie is sent off to slaughter when they reach full size in order to prevent any inbreeding. Male cows are castrated when they are born so as to prevent their knowledge of any kind of breeding desire.

On the way we met Tess, a working sheep dog on the farm, and a cat kept on the premises for mousing in the barns.

The next field held three momma cows and three baby calves; one of whom had just been born this past week, about three weeks ahead of schedule. According to Ian he is quite small, to me he seemed pretty big! It was interesting to see the reaction of the moms to people in their field. They kept themselves between the visitors and their young. Cows can be very gentle, although not approaching people outright, but they have been known to get extremely protective of their young and some accidents happen with walkers who take their dogs up public footpaths with their dogs if there are calves in the field. Apparently farmers are expected to post that a "bull" is in the field also, if their field is used as a "public footpath."

We walked through another field and came upon the pasture with all the male cows. Brown and white cows, & black and white cows. They are huge animals. Walking amongst them was an incredible feeling. Sure, I've seen cows before, at the Big E mostly, but always from behind a fence or a barn wall. I have never been in and amongst them. Walking behind them as they began running through the field, following the feed bags being carried by the men, was and amazing feeling. The ground does shake beneath your feet.

Watching them eat their oats, within a foot or so of their feed troughs, and seeing the oats and molasses mixture sticking to their noses and mouths, while their gigantic tongues would reach out and lick it off was a funny sight. Cows do make eye contact...they stare through you. They examine you. They seem to be thoughtful creatures....probably wondering why I spoke to them in such a strange accent.

As we began walking back towards the farm and towards the females, the males just followed closely behind. I would stop, turn and look at them, and they would stop walking...but always looking at me. When I would walk, they would walk. I walked backwards and they followed.

The same experience was had in the field of females. They are curious and approach apprehensively, never getting too close. They watch you. They stare at you. They follow you. It is incredible. I turned around to find that everyone was already out of the pasture, and there I was still among the herd. I will say I began to walk a bit faster, but the cows walked faster too...and I could feel there feet thudding upon the earth as I walked ahead of them. As the males did, they followed all the way to the gate and stared longingly as if they wanted to get out.

It is bizarre to think that these beautiful creatures, so alive and docile in the pasture today, will eventually hang in a butcher shop, appear on your plate with your next steak dinner, and be frozen in a freezer; but it is a frank fact of the farming life. These animals are not family pets, or prize winning stock, they are raised to serve a purpose, to feed you and I. It is evident in Ian's voice and tone that this is a way of life he truly loves and enjoys and is fiercely proud of. I admire it.