I think this morning’s experience with my boy supports the idea that eggs were most probably a part of the human paleolithic diet, anywhere before 10,000 years ago to even several hundred thousand years ago.  Of course during non ice-age times.

We have been keeping 4 ducks as pets for a few weeks, 1 male and 3 females.  I did not mean for those ducks to be pets, I bought them for slaughter, duck meat.  But my wife and kids think they’re cute.  So a few days ago we discover a duck nest. We have done this before and this is the 2nd time and we decided to record the easy method in pictures.

How to regularly get fresh fertilized eggs from your duck or chicken:

First you discover their nests.  We humans are very smart and very observant where fowl will lay their eggs.

Second, harvest the eggs but leave at least 1 egg behind.  Remember these are pretty dumb animals compared to humans.  They are smart enough to know that if you get all their eggs at once, they will know their eggs were stolen.  But if you always leave one egg, they will keep coming back to the nest to lay more eggs.

Third, eat and eat and eat.

This technique is so easy little children need only be taught once and they know how to do it themselves.

Here is a series of pictures showing my son having a great satisfying, delicious breakfast.

Nutrition you get from raw fertilized eggs?  Literally some of the best raw fats and raw protein and a multitude of vitamins and minerals.

My cousin and I finally pushed through with the plan of following the trail of where our beef comes from.  We looked at the unloading of the cows, the slaughtering of the cows, the cutting of the carcasses, the delivery of the carcasses to market, the cutting up of the meat in the market stalls and hanging them for sale.

I sacrificed 1 whole night of sleep to get this information.  Feel free to donate as I spent my own money investigating this for you. For those who don’t know my blog too well, I live in Manila Philippines.  So this is a report about beef in Manila.

I met my cousin at 12 midnight at the corner of EDSA and Congressional Avenue in front of Munoz market.  We drove to Novaliches, to the pig and cow slaughterhouse near his house.  He knew friends there and had been there before and has seen this done before.  My cousin is a truck driver and has had experience transporting live animals before.

We arrived around 12:15 am in the slaughter house and just walked right in posing as buyers.  We could see what was going on step by step.

1. First the cows are unloaded from trucks.  The truck we observed had some 10 or more brahman type cows,  mostly male.  These ones were pretty tall, taller than men.  All led by the nose.  Pretty well behaved animals.  They were unloaded in a small temporary waiting area.
2. One by one the cows are led to the killing spots.  At least 1 man holds the cow’s nose rope and the horns / head for the cow to stay steady.  Then, a man with a sharp dagger has the task of killing the cow by plunging the dagger on the known spot on the nape of the cow.  He plunges quickly several times until the animal collapses dead on the floor.  There are some 3 more men ready to support just in case the animal struggles.  This happens in 5 minutes.
3. A man then slices the throat of the cow and and collects the blood to waiting containers.
4. The head of the cow is sliced off and carted away.
5. Several men start slicing away at the skin of the cow,  until only the back part is left on.  The men are careful the skin is all in 1 piece.  My guess is it is sold to be made into leather.  The hoofs and lower leg of the cows are sliced off and the cow carcass with the skin still on is hanged hydraulically for easy skin stripping until the skin falls on the ground in 1 piece.
6. Next, the cow belly is opened up and the internal organs are slowly led down to fall on the floor and carted away.  Any fluids on the floor are immediately washed away.
7. The whole cow carcass is cut in half, then one fourth.  Then the cow carcasses are manually loaded into the waiting trucks or tricycles.  The job of the slaughterhouse is done.

The slaughterhouse we visited was very clean.  The smell of the cow was very good.  It all smells like fresh raw beef in there.  Tasty smell for raw animal food eaters like me.

Next my cousin and I took a short nap and at 3:30 am go to a meat seller in Novaliches that gets its meat from the same slaughterhouse.  I bought 1 kilo for a souvenir and my cousin and I taste a raw piece each.  Very good.

Then we move on to a big market, Farmers’ market in Cubao, Quezon City.  At 4 am, the trucks from some other slaughter houses have just unloaded the cow carcasses and the the butchers are very busy cutting away and classifying them according to the meat part you are going to buy.  The meat parts are hanged and arranged by 4:30 am.  You can arrive earlier and buy what you like even before that.  But mind you, the butchers are very busy at this time.

So the responsibility of clean handling also rests on the butchers in the market.  Know your butcher.  See if he handles meat properly, practices good hygiene.  Everything is open so you can see.  I bought my own sirloin souvenir at Farmers Market that day.  We also did some sea food marketing.  At 5am I was home.

I lost 1 good night of sleep, but the first hand information I gained knowing my family’s beef is cleanly handled was worth it.  The beef was never heated up, the beef was never frozen, the animals were humanely handled, sanitation was a natural common sense approach.  Now I know when the butcher at Farmers Market says his meat is FRESH and just died a few hours ago, it is true.

My 7 year old boy was listening to the bible stories we’ve been reading to him and I brought up the topic that the reasons those shepherds took care of the sheep was to get their wool for clothing and to slaughter the sheep for eating. So naturally my boy asked me to buy some lamb so he could taste lamb.

After my meeting this afternoon, on the way home we passed by Shopwise supermarket.  I headed for the frozen meats section and got myself a leg of lamb that weight some 1/3 of a kilogram.  The label said it came from Australia.  I wonder how long it had been frozen.  No matter.  I’m tasting it tonight.

When I got home, the lamb was just ready for eating, already defrosted.  What was interesting and puzzling is why the leg of lamb smelled of MILK?  Duh… is that a marketing technique?  Or does raw lamb really smell like milk?

I got my trusty scissors and started snipping away.  The meat tasted somewhat bland.  There was that faint hint of lamb smell, but not so much, maybe because it had been frozen for some time.  It wasn’t too bad either.  Not good enough for me to want another one really.  Maybe fresh lamb tastes better?  Or maybe I can look for another source?  Another brand?

The raw bone marrow tasted good though.

Lambs are not usually found in my country.  Tonight was an adventure in eating imported raw meat.

I did not let my children taste this raw lamb yet.  Let daddy experiment first.

Last night I had a big breast of organic raw chicken all to myself… until my kids saw what I was eating… all three of them dumped the rice, cooked fish, and broccoli they were eating and took over and ate my raw chicken breast. Part of the time they dipped it in wild honey and part of the time just plain.  “Yummy!” they said.  “Better than chicken soup!”

My wife, with the “I cannot eat raw land animal” mantra said “no, no, no” to the kids, but it fell on deaf ears.  Once the kids tasted the raw chicken, they were hooked.

So I got my raw fertilized eggs, but again 2 kids took over my fertilized eggs, I was only able to eat 2.

So I got out my celery sticks. By this time, the kids were full so at least I had my raw celery.

Then I finished off with coconut juice and some coconut meat.

What last night showed was that raw animal food trumps cooked animal food.  And I did not advertise nor entice the kids to eat the raw chicken.  They saw it, tasted it, and decided they liked raw meat better than what they were currently eating.

This lunch time was a stomach satisfying happy meal for the whole family.  Only my first boy went to school so I had 2 kids with me.  Then my wife arrived home early and everyone dug into the raw lunch I prepared.

This was a first for me to try out the raw fish dalagang bukid, and at P 160 per kilo it had better be good.  And I think the fish tasted fairly good.  Not fantastic though.  But my 2nd boy liked it over the squid.

My little girl liked the fat raw squid and this one is bigger than our usual with the body about 7 to 8 inches long.  Pretty easy to cut with a knife.  Fattier than the smaller squid.  I actually liked this size of squid better and 1 big squid was enough for all.

The usual sea weed with the little green sacs has always been popular but this time I had organic coconut vinegar and some crushed garlic in the bowl.  Wow, the kids loved it.  Making a sandwich of the sea weed and the garlic was a blast for them.  That actually comprised the bulk of what they ate and they were stuffed with it.

Sadly my 1st boy lost out on this one as he had to be in school and ate a crummy cooked lunch with rice.  Oh well, better luck for him next time.