But a whole roast hog is only for special occasions, our plumber recently commissioned one for his sixtieth birthday party. And very tasty it was too!
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I’m very comfortable eating many herbivorous animals and some omnivores too. Rabbit used to be a cheap meat when I was a child, but is now very difficult to find in British supermarkets, probably not least because almost no-one would know what to do with it now.
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Grand Frais makes it so easy by providing pre-prepared veggies of all sorts. No further chopping/peeling/cutting required. Only small problem us that they only last one or maximum two days before becoming wibbly. 
It’s difficult to find rabbit in our local, rural butchers and when we have found it, it’s far too expensive for what it is.
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I first saw a hog roast in France. We were holidaying near Saumur, and had visited the Gallo-Roman ruins a few km outside the town with the children. There was an event taking place, and they had 6 or 8 whole pig carcasses spitted and cooking over an open fire.
Used to love buying wild rabbit in the UK, but in france it’s off our menu because the local lapin are reared in tiny hutches like battery chickens. A surprising number of French people complain that wild rabbit tastes too stong, which I find a bit pathetic.
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I’ve had rabbit ‘a la RTA’ here in the UK, and it was a very tough, rank tasting meat. Sadly, keeping them like veal calves may be a reaction to stronger tasting wild rabbit, to make it more commercially viable as a meat source.
The tastiest rabbit I ever had was in Nimes. It was obviously farmed, so I’m afraid it’s no longer an option for me (never was for Mrs P).
I’ve been a vegetarian for 40 years and many days realise our diet that day has been vegan. I would miss eggs from our 4 chooks, and cheese, but nothing else.
I try not to buy anything that is leather, and only buy wool, silk etc if its second hand. But to become vegan would mean stopping wearing or using things that I’ve had for ages and have plenty of life in them yet.
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I think that practice is thankfully long gone. Veal is plentiful around here in the Aveyron and the Cantal, but the calves are in rich grassy pastures. The meat is rose not white.
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My vegetarian friend has always told his children that wasting meat is terrible. I agree with him.
So I don’t see why you can’t be vegan and keep - out of respect for the animals which were killed - your animal products.
Doubly so if the alternative to wool is plastics in the world!
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That’s because the calves are taken from their mothers earlier than from milk fed veal.
Bull calves from dairy herds are now being raised for rose veal and not shot at 3 days.
Our butcher’s veal price tags bear the legend, << Sous la mère >> .
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There’s a lot of talk, back and forth, about veal.
About 4 years ago, I was part of a team which visited all sorts of farms etc… where animals, birds… were raised. Fascinating tours with full explanations of what’s what.
I am happy with the farming we saw, but am aware that (back then) not everyone was as advanced in animal welfare…
I still buy from local suppliers, knowing that my “lunch” has had a reasonably happy life…
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I think you’re right, farmed rabbit is unpleasant.
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All this is making me hungry!
There are wonderful recipes in Indian, Japanese and some Chinese cuisines that I could happily live on. However, what I do need is a cook.
So few of the exotic veggie recipes fit into my ‘15 minute maximum’ prep time. And if I resort to my preferred ‘assembly only’, we will turn from pescatarians into rabbits.
I love animals, so we don’t actually eat meat but our dogs do, albeit in dry kibble form, and that at this stage of their lives is non-negotiable.
With you all the way there, apart from the pescatarian bit (rarely eat fish) and especially the ‘However, what I do need is a cook’ bit. 
But I am going to try some of the ideas here, especially trying to adapt my slow cook bourgignon method, without the meat. I have an idea that it will simply mean drastically cutting down on the time involved.
At the moment all my veg is steamed, not boiled, so that is not an option if I want to be left with several days worth of really tasty, spicy, herby, gravy.
Time to experiment I think. 
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You know more about slow cookers than I do, but strikes me that it is similar to our casserole approach - just a bit slower! We pile veg in, making sure a mix of hard and soft veg and a can of white beans (which help give thickness to it). Then make some liquid using stock/wine/ with some tomato paste, a splash of soy sauce and some smoked paprika. That combination gives quite a deep meaty taste.
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Yes, sounds like it, can you say roughly how long that cooks for? I leave my Crockpot for 8 hours, but I suspect that is because of the meat in it, when I used to do chicken legs the same way it was about 6 hours.
Yep I agree, so I’m not going to waste my chickens eggs (we don’t have a cockerel so they are unfertilised), and my only temptation will be cheese.
My views on chickens changed completely as a result of adopting dozens of ex-battery hens over the years. They would always arrive directly from the farms completely bald, and very scared. They plainly had never even seen things like sunbeams, which they would step gingerly round, not being sure what these strange things were.They’d clearly not seen or felt rain, or presumably ever searched for a worm. After about 2 months they had their feathers back, happily scratched around for worms etc. To my surprise, they also each had distinctive personalities, and far from ‘bird brain’ jibes, they struck me as skilful and cunning. I’ve not eaten chicken ever since…(and this predates becoming vegetarian!).
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