Last year I decided not to eat meat in the month before Easter and it was much easier than I had imagined. I watched the series River Cottage Veg and it inspired me to be more adventurous with my cooking. In the back of my mind I was also thinking about a future plan of mine to live mainly from the products we can grow in our garden plus some other products that I can buy from local farmers. Growing and harvesting vegetables is such a calming, natural thing for me to do but I cannot imagine taking care of and then killing an animal and preparing it for being cooked.  In Austria it´s a tradition to take a basket full of smoked and roasted meats and sausages to church on Easter Saturday to be blessed and then eat these meats with white bread and horse radish with family and friends. We were invited to such a traditional feast last easter Saturday and when I saw the plates piled high with smoked ham I knew instantly that my meat-eating days were over and I haven´t eaten meat or fish since then.