Someone asked me earlier today about how I came to foodieism, and I ticked off some highlights on the weird, twisty road between declaring myself a vegetarian at age thirteen and deciding recently that I’d like to learn more about butchery. If you could see the path I took from above, as if on a Google map, it’d look like one made by a shuffling, senile schizophrenic.

So, butchery. Others have written about this before, but, like most revelations, you have to think these things through yourself before you really come to those sometimes startling, sometimes eye-opening conclusions. One conclusion is this: eating humanely raised and slaughtered animals is one way to support the industry that does this sort of work, that treats animals with respect, giving them a good life before they make their appearance on your plate. And if this industry is one you’re surrounded by — here in farmland where the growing season, for vegetables, sometimes seems as swift as the blink of an eye — engaging it, supporting it, is a way to keep people working where you live and keep dollars in your community, and not in Frank Perdue’s already stuffed back pocket.

Maybe Marlow & Daughters got that big pig from up here in the Berkshires, maybe not. But their ethos is right on. I find myself more and more open and curious about this part of the food spectrum. Are there any other recovering vegetarians out there? (Or even just plain old omnivores?) What do you think about your transitions? Did the local economy and sustainable agriculture have anything to do with your decision?