Steers… and Capons

Joe, my father-in-law, runs a cattle ranch. When he was younger he ran a dairy, yup, a small family farm and I remember bringing a bucket of milk to a twin baby calf that was abandoned by his mama (they usually have one, and if there are two, they generally neglect one).

Both sons have left the ranch to pursue other ambitions, but they are aware of what goes on, giving a shot to de-worm a calf or castrating a bull. I am not a party to it except ordering it at the butcher’s counter or in a plastic package at the supermarket. So, yes, I am a party to it because I prepare it, cook it and eat it.

We currently live in a very wealthy, eco-friendly place. They build an eight bedroom house but think because they used bamboo and cork, it’s “green.” The ultimate hypocrisy (and my favorite Christmas gift in decades) occurred at our local Whole Foods market when I asked for a capon. The butchers didn’t know what one was. I posted this on the blog and got over 60 hits on capons! The head butcher wouldn’t come out to talk to me but just said he couldn’t order one for me because it wouldn’t meet Whole Foods standards. I just thought it was because he couldn’t find one that was organically raised.

After the response to this original post, I emailed the local store/regional manager and in their responses they sent me the entire chain, which is hilarious, especially as most of their meat is steer, that is castrated bull. But they object to capons for humanitarian reasons. First they said, if you can order what the customer wants, do it or if you can’t, don’t bother. Then they must have found out I’ve had 50 hits on capon this week so they told the local store to get in touch with me asap.

They did and said they don’t carry capon because of humanitarian reasons. But they sell chicken, and steer. Ironically yours, Dee