Why I Ate the Squirrels Eating Food from My Garden

Por que como esquilos?

Ironicamente, eles vinham comer

as proteínas vegetais

que eu plantava no meu jardim:

girassóis e amendoins.

Na permacultura, existe o ditado:

faça do problema a solução.

Como os esquilos eram o problema,

a solução foi jantá-los!

Quero explicar direitinho.

Como tudo aconteceu?

Como passei a comer os esquilos

que estavam comendo meu jardim?

Recentemente, iniciei a missão

de cultivar 100% do meu alimento

por um ano, sem comprar em mercados

lojas ou restaurantes, sem embalagens

sem processados, sem produtos

transportados, literalmente tudo

que eu ia comer em um ano

ou brotava no meu jardim ou eu colhia

na natureza. Comecei o jardim

e os esquilos começaram a vir.

Tive de produzir minha farinha, minhas calorias,

meu açúcar, proteínas, legumes, frutas.

Literalmente tudo, até meu óleo.

E eu planejava cultivar também

algumas proteínas vegetais.

Colhi com êxito feijões

e ervilhas, mas tive esse problema

com girassol e amendoim.

O problema foi que os esquilos

vinham comê-los. Ironicamente,

comiam minha proteína vegetal.

Na permacultura, a questão é:

como transformar

o problema numa solução?

Se os esquilos eram um problema,

como eu solucionei o problema?

Foi aí que decidi comer esquilos.

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.