How to overcome the disconnect from eating personally processed animals?
I’m really into homesteading, hunting, fishing... basically the whole “produce your own food” lifestyle. It’s something I find rewarding and meaningful, and on a logical level I have zero ethical issue with harvesting and processing my own animals.
But I’ve run into something I didn’t expect.
When I actually go to eat meat that I hunted or butchered, I get this subtle feeling of disgust or uneasiness. Not overwhelming, but it's just enough that I don’t feel the same desire to keep eating, even if the food tastes great.
I think it comes from being so close to the whole process, as in the blood, guts, smells, everything. My brain seems to stay in that “processing mode,” and it’s like my body hasn’t fully switched back to “this is food now.”
What’s interesting is I don’t feel this at all with store-bought meat.
So I’m curious:
- Is this a common thing for people who start harvesting their own food?
- Does it go away with time and exposure?
- Are there ways to mentally “separate” the processing stage from the eating stage?
For example, today I was eating a cottontail rabbit I harvested this winter. It tasted great, but I didn’t really want to keep eating it unless I pushed myself.
Would appreciate any thoughts or experiences, especially from people further along in this lifestyle.