Strictly not vegetarian

I have read a few blogs recently where the writers are clearly passionate vegetarians and the words meat and poison feature frequently together in the same sentence. I am no vegetarian, the thought of no bacon does it every time. The closest I have got to it would be my six months in Tanzania and our visits to the meat market........ almost too fresh for me but I was always grateful to Cathy, who could carry the warm, still pulsing, meat back to our kitchen and cook up a storm, which was a welcome alternative to the veggie mush varieties we mostly ate.

A few months ago Mike had discovered a butcher he liked the look of near my brothers house in Lenzie. A most wonderful T-bone steak had been purchased but it is hardly local to us. This last week, and who knows why, I had got to remembering stories a friend of mine had been telling about camping trips with a bunch of his mates, entitled "hairy man weekends". They fished, camped, drank a few beers and generally hung out, free of....... well, the rest of the world I guess. Sounded like a great idea, not least for the fact that that one of them was a butcher so the BBQ was of the highest quality. Well, middle age and caravans appear to have struck and there have been no more stories of the hairy men but off we set yesterday to find the aforementioned butchers in Limekilns.

Oh my goodness!! I suggested Mike just went in and had a look because two kids in a small butchers? I am not sure why but two minutes later we were all in that little shop. Mike was taken in the back to have a look at his T-bone steak, still in situ and ready in two weeks. The two men in the store, passionate about their trade, taught us and entertained us for twenty minutes, all of us. They listened to the kids, answered all our questions and more. They sell local sourced, fresh produce. Their steak pies are famous and their sausages are the real deal. You know that cos they are all different shapes and sizes. Venison, guniea fowl, lamb chops to name but a few things on display. We talked about folks we knew in common, where their different meats come from, why when your fry their bacon you do not end up boiling it in the frying pan as it is not shot full of water. We left the store feeling like we had made a couple of friends, our T-bone steak ordered for two weeks time and a handful of venison and sweet chilli sausages given to us as a gift.

I think perhaps there is some truth in meat and poison featuring in the same sentences. Maybe poison is too strong a word but what exactly are we buying in our cheap and cheerful meat from many of our supermarkets. Pumped full of water and who knows what else? We plan from now on to be regular visitors to this butcher in Limekilns. We have decided to spend more on better quality. It will mean that we eat less meat for sure, but that will not be a bad thing and our farm shop will be open in a couple of weeks!! And with two guys who are keen to help point us in the right direction of what to buy and how to cook it we are in safe hands.

And the sausages ............... they were so good!