Why did I eat the squirrels?
Well, ironically the squirrels were
eating the plant-based forms of protein
that I was planting in my garden, the
sunflowers and the peanuts.
And in permaculture, there is a saying and
that is make your problem your solution.
So, the squirrels were my problem, so I made
them my solution, my dinner.
Alright, so I want to unpack this a little
bit. How did this scenario happen?
How did I end up eating the squirrels that
were eating the food in my garden?
Well, recently, I embarked on a year-long
mission to grow and forage 100% of my food
for a year. So a year without grocery
stores or restaurants, nothing packaged
or processed, nothing shipped long
distances. Literally everything that I
would eat for the entire year I either
had to grow in my gardens or forage in
the wild. So that puts me in the garden
and that puts the squirrels in the garden.
I had to produce my flour, my calories, my
sugars, my protein, my vegetables and
fruits. Literally everything, even the
oil. And I was working on growing some
plant-based forms of protein as well.
I was really successful with my beans
and peas. But I ran into a big problem
with my sunflowers and my peanuts.
And that problem was that the squirrels
were eating them. Ironically they were
eating my plant-based form of protein.
So in permaculture, the way of looking
at the system is, how can you turn the
problem into the solution?
The squirrels were a problem. How could
I actually turn them into a solution?
So that is when I decided that I would eat the
squirrels. A lot of people in this scenario
would just kill the 'pests' who are a
problem in their garden. But I am not
someone who just wastes resources or who
looks at life as a pest in itself.
Yes, these squirrels were posing a problem
for me but I still had great respect for
the squirrels for the creatures that they
are. So I wasn't going to just kill them
in order for my garden to be able to
produce peanuts and sunflowers.
For me, this was actually about finding
a valuable resource that there was and
using that resource wisely. Now squirrels
are actually a sustainable source of meat.
There was a huge abundance of squirrels
in the environment that I was in which
was the city of Orlando, Florida. And so by
harvesting these squirrels it wasn't that
I was taking from a resource that was not
renewable and there wasn't already an abundance
of it there. If that was the case It is not
something that I would have done.
So this is a form of organic gardening.
Some people would choose to use
pesticides to kill things. So this was a
sustainable local source of food right in
my garden and the reality is that even
before they were eating my peanuts and
sunflowers I was already thinking about
catching these squirrels and eating them.
So it is not that I was forced to do this
or that I had to, but it really motivated
me to finally do it. So really the reason
I was eating the squirrels is because
they are a local source of protein. A
local quality source of food. But at the
same time I was able to deal with a problem
that I had in my garden and actually turn
it into a solution, into a positive thing.
Alright so, here is the situation, I am
in no doubt, under the crossfire for this.
A lot of people will look at this, whether
they are vegans and they are against
eating animals altogether, or people who
just like squirrels. They think they are
really really cuddly and cute and think that I
shouldn't eat this while they are eating
cows and pigs and chickens, for example.
I am in the direct crossfire here because
I am sharing that I am trapping and eating
the squirrels. But the reality is that I have
put myself out there but the truth is
that every single one of you watching this,
while animals are dying on your behalf,
whether you are vegan or you eat meat,
the death is happening. I will do another
video where I go into that a little bit
further but if you are eating vegan and
the food is coming from farms, animals are
dying. Whether it is mice and rats, or
birds or just the place being created
where animals are being kept out,
where an environment is being created
that doesn't want animals to be there.
The truth is what I am saying is that death
is happening for every single one of our
meals whether they have animals on the
plate or not. I am happy to be under the
crossfire but I know that I will get a
lot of comments for it and this is about
going into the truth of the food.
And that was a big purpose of my year of
growing and foraging all my food to
really go into the depths and go into
the food and look into those grey areas.
And the more that I've looked into the
grey areas the more I realise that no
labels, whether it is vegan or gluten-free
or organic. No label is actually one
that is cruelty-free and that is not
causing destruction to people, to the
planet and to other species.
I ate the squirrels. It is obvious to see it.
But we are all killing the squirrels
or something like it in one way or another
through our modernised lives.
What I didn't eat, such as the fur and
the skin went right back to the land and
actually fertilized my garden. So it was
a closed-loop system. In fact, even the
bait that I used to trap them was sweet
potatoes from my garden using a metal trap.
So zero waste whatsoever and a completely
closed-loop system. So we are talking about
sustainability here. Squirrels are also
rodents. They reproduce a lot. So it is a
sustainable source of food. Now a big thing
that people would ask or say is,
'Would it be sustainable if everybody did
it?' or not a question, just saying if
everybody did this, would all the squirrels
be dead? Yes. So sustainability
is about critical thinking and problem
solving. If everybody in Orlando is eating
the squirrels then I wouldn't have been
in that scenario in the first place.
And if my neighborhood all wanted to
eat squirrels I would think about this
situation differently. True sustainability
is not about any direct set of rules. It is
really about looking at individual
circumstances and deciding what the
sustainable thing to do in that scenario is.
So that requires critical thinking, it
requires problem solving, it requires
not thinking in a black and white way.
It really requires localized thinking and
understanding our resources.
Alright if you have got this far you
might be wondering what does squirrel
taste like? And recently I did a video
for BuzzFeed that has been viewed over
three million times and the answer I
give is just squirrel tastes like squirrel.
And that is actually how I feel.
But I am going to go into it a little
bit more for you. It basically tastes not
that different from rabbit or any wild bird
or wild small game or chicken. You know
to me, most meats don't taste that different
from each other. But it would basically
taste like a combination of that.
How did I cook it?
Generally, I would just put it into stews.
A vegetable stew with potatoes and cabbage
and different greens and carrots and
things like that. And just make a stew
that added a lot of flavor and a lot of consistency
to that stew. Squirrels aren't very large
but they can really go a long way in
adding to a meal.
I want to close by saying that this
really isn't about the squirrel at all.
This is about a bigger picture. Honestly,
I wouldn't do a video that is really just
about why I ate the squirrels if there
wasn't a much bigger thing behind it.
I went into that, but really the take home
lesson is that the world is not a black
and white place. When you actually unlift
the veil behind the food you are buying
at the supermarket you realize it is far
more complex and far more intricate than
that. When you look deeper at life you
realize that all of our actions are far more
complex and deep than we think or would
like to think. Labels are a false sense of
security. When you really look there are
pros and there are cons to everything.
So that is where I want to go. I want to
go into the grey areas that really create
critical thinking and that is the purpose
of talking about the squirrels and
why I chose to eat them.
And I hope that you got that. I hope that
you see that intricacies of life.
Now if that is where you want to go in
life, if you want to go further down the
path of sustainability and living a just
and equal life then this is definitely the
channel for you. So make sure that you
subscribe, like and comment and share
this video to help get it out there.
I love you all very much and I will see
you again real soon.
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