Posts labeled “responsible agriculture”

Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving Scramble

It's that time again! Over the past few weeks, our turkeys have been wandering all over the place. Flying over the fence and visiting on the deck was a recent treat. This is a heritage breed called "Blue Slate", and we had a batch of four. They are a beautiful grayish-blue color, and unlike Butterball, they take a good 7-8 months to get full-grown. Because our first spring batch died (turkeys really are kindof stupid BTW) we decided to take out 2 turkeys for the family dinner this year.

Like this turkey, we have been enjoying the beautiful colors, warm days, and brisk evenings. Why look at the weather report when tradition tells you that you usually need a jacket at Thanksgiving, but hats and gloves are for Christmas?

The Friday before Thanksgiving was unusually warm. We decided Tuesday would be a good day to do the deed.

Enter Saturday: Winter storm warnings, high winds, and drifting snow. Whaaaa?

Small break from the storm Monday, with a resurgence Tuesday afternoon! The Mister comes home from work early and we head out into the snow, hoping to beat the storm.

Here we are trying to heat up water so the turkeys are easier to pluck. The Mister is pacing and looking at his watch, and I'm hauling the hottest tap water I can manage from the house.

Anyone who remembers the absolute trauma I experienced last year will understand why, without even asking for help, or hinting to the moment, the Mister took the turkeys and stretched them over the sawhorse and whacked off their necks when my back was turned.

We dunked them in the hot water (not boiling) then placed them on our plastic wrapped table. We started to pull out the feathers as fast as we could. After about 30 minutes, the wind was picking up and blowing snow in our faces. YowZah!

Here comes the storm!

It was about this time my hands were losing their open/close functions, so I decided to finish the plucking indoors. Here I am on the deck looking like a homeless person in my sexy work pants.

After plucking all the remaining pieces, The Mister of the House lightly torches the skin with a portable propane thingie-bobber to burn the hair off. Weird right?

So we did it! We had 2 turkeys ready for the big dance. We made a salty brine solution and let them soak for a couple of days. We decided to cook one with a spicy rub in a dutch oven, and the other in a turkey fryer.

Here's our buddies Janis and Greg. Janis is a volleyball queen and Greg is a sucker for home projects. He also is a dutch oven guru. Here's his spicy turkey rub recipe that you can use for a small/medium turkey or a big roast chicken. The meat will fall off the bone...it's delicious!

So mix all of those spices together, and then prepare to massage that turkey like a Thai Princess.

Pull the skin away from the meat and rub between the layers. Rub inside the cavity. Rub the skin. Love and rub and love that turkey!

Why in the world didn't I take a picture when it was done? Because the places were set, the food was on, and there was a turkey to carve. Definitely NOT a traditional turkey, but delicious nonetheless.

We decided to cook the "big turkey" in the turkey fryer. The Mister of the House actually stepped on the scale and weighed our turkey so we would know for sure.

Drumroll?

7 pounds!

Ugh. I couldn't believe it! I still want to react against factory farming, genetically overhauled turkeys that can't move and live in cages...so it was still worth it to me. But goodness...7 pounds?

Fried turkey? Totally pass! Go traditional or go for the rub all the way.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Signed,
Waiting for Easter Dinner to enjoy a full-grown blue slate turkey

Labels: recipe, responsible agriculture, Thanksgiving

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Writhing With Joy

I am currently in my harvest paralysis. In the corner of the kitchen lies a basket of corn, picked 5 days ago, still waiting to be shucked, boiled, cooled, cut, bagged, and frozen. I'm signing it off as a starchy mess to be sent to the chickens.

However! Celebrations are in order partly because I actually got most of my corn into my freezer, and it was still tender, delicious, and sweet.

I'm not sure if my absolute joy and honestly is coming through in this photo. Seriously, about 75% of my two outside rows of corn presented gooey chewing worms having breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the garden. By the end, I had a cereal bowl half-filled with worms forked out of the corn, which were then thrown to the chickens (seriously, are you thinking you need chickens yet? They are awesome).

Last year? I probably would have been a little grossed out by this, and maybe disheartened that the corn was diseased or something.

This year? It was proof of good food insurance. It was a little annoying, but evidence I had grown organic food...as opposed to science.

Earlier this year we watched the documentary "The Future of Food". It was fascinating! I learned about the basic operations of genetic modification of food as well as the green revolution and the use of pesticides and herbicides. Then I learned that there has been developed corn that is actually registered as an insecticide. Every kernel has been genetically modified so that any grub, worm, or bug that eats it will die!

The result? Beautiful unblemished corn that looks healthy and ready for dinner. Which makes humans delight to eat it, because it's so pretty and because we are not worms. Also, science tastes delicious as opposed to food. Mr. Twinkie even told me so.

So this year? I delighted in my worms. I killed them quick with help from my chickens. We cut around the mess they made on the cob. But in the end, I knew my corn was food...not science.

Please watch this clip from the film. It's really long, but the part about corn is between minutes 5:00 and 6:00.

Enjoy!

p.s. sometimes I eat science. I try not to, but it happens. Cinnamon bears people!

Labels: garden, responsible agriculture

Monday, September 13, 2010

Weekend in Scotland

Over the weekend, we took a ferry from Ireland to Scotland and headed to the capital of Edinburgh. Just about the entire weekend we practiced our pronunciation: which is to say {Eh-din-burr-eh} (try to roll those r's just a bit) instead of Edinberrr-g. I have to admit, Edinburgh could be my favorite stop so far. There really is only one word to describe the town, towering with high rise stone buildings, lining the royal mile leading up to the castle, with parliament buildings, churches, and banks so grand each building could easily be a highlight if placed in a regular town. Okay so the one word to describe it before I began my run-on sentence is this: majestic.

When we first came to town square, we were immediately seized upon by a parade of sorts. Armies of Scots in kilts were walking through the streets, playing bagpipes, and hitting drums.

It wasn't until later that we found out that this was a "Protestant March". It seemed the natural extension of our black cab tour and the U.K.'s Protestant vs. Catholic history. Later in the day we learned that the pope is coming to Edinburgh next week, so perhaps fervor was brewing for the visit? Who knows.

If you see in the picture above of the high rise stone buildings, you get a sense of the presence of "The Royal Mile". It's a cobblestone street with buildings that old and that tall lining both sides of the street. It was on The Royal Mile that I tracked down my salad of the day.

A few things I'm starting to figure out about food over here.
A) Big Salads are rarely a menu item. Usually it's a side with something else.
B) Apparently my U.S. palette is sodium heavy, because I keep ordering all this delicious food but end up cranking the salt shakers all over it.

So I was excited to eat this salad because it had sweet potatoes, but the greens were bitter and the potatoes bland. My yellow split pea soup however, was divine.

We toured the castle, imagined life as royalty, and later in the day did a tour called "The Real Mary King's Close". That was a fascinating look into the everyday lives of people living here centuries ago, particularly the poor. With such huge buildings, the basement levels were generally fallout shelters, just one big dark enclosed room. They explained that usually 2-3 families shared this space, slept on floors, and the only light was from a wick burning the cheapest oil available: fish oil (gag me now). And in the corner was a bucket where everyone went to the bathroom and which could only be thrown into the alleyway twice a day, draining down the roads and into the lake below.

We also took a bagillion flights of stairs up the Sir Walter Scott Monument. Here we are about one-fourth of the way up.

Next we stayed in Glasgow, but didn't really hit the city scene at all. We strolled through a HUGE park with a museum showcasing the private collection of John Burroughs. Lots of Degas, Rodain, and this sculpture, which I disturbingly related to the most:

This park was huge rolling countryside hills. Apparently, Scottish cattle had nearly been lost in farming practices until a recent resurgence to bring back heritage breeds. Very cool. Check out this particular herd at the park. They are owned by the city council, and they have enough pasture to remain clean and eat a healthy grass-fed diet. So cool! My little farmer husband got up close to pet one.

Other things in this park was a community garden, horse riding stalls, the miles and miles of soft green grass and forest. It seemed to me what every park should try to be. So lovely.

At the park we hit some old house where the former "servants kitchen" was turned into a restaurant. It was there I had my salad for September 12th. Perfect with a little quiche on the side.

And a kiss to end the post.

Labels: FreshGreens, kiss, responsible agriculture, travels

Monday, August 30, 2010

My How They've Grown

Remember this view from Bok Bok Cottage recently?

This was one of the three "hens" our neighbor gave to us, of which all turned out to be roosters. So this rooster was pretty young, not yet fully grown and born in April. Since we decided to raise all of our meat this year, we raised up some "broilers" and processed them this month. Much to the pleasure of can't-bend-over-for-chicken-feed-without-getting-blindsided hens, we got rid of 2 roosters with our batch of meat birds. So check out this next photo, it is a picture of two chicken thighs. One belongs to the rooster, and the other to a younger (by about a month) genetically hyperdriven meat bird.

proceed with caution vegetarians...

Fascinating right?

I don't mean to disrespect the life of these birds by the way.

Speaking of genetically hyperdrives, my little guy turned 5 this month.

Lucky for me, Grandma Cozy had the kids for a sleepover (in the camper wahoo!) and Vanilla Wafer was able to wake up with a special breakfast and wishes for a good time as a 5 year old. Here's Grandma with princess cousins Olivia and Ruby.

It was just one year ago I was pulling out all the stops for his 4th birthday party.

Adorable right?

...Here's another recent view from Bok Bok Cottage. Our little baby goats when they were a few days old.

Cheesy I know, but sometimes it's nice to hold something like a baby that you didn't have to bleed, sweat, and cry for.

But even these little goats grew up faster than I wanted. Here they are just a couple weeks back.

That picture was for the online classifieds. Boo!

I was relieved when a young family bought them to help their kids learn how to raise goats for 4-H (no immediate butchering...yay!). But my mother heart was breaking when the mama goat Matilda was desperately bleating for her little babies for a couple of days.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm really cut out to be a farmgirl.

over and out...

Labels: chickens, goats, responsible agriculture, Vanilla Wafer

Monday, July 26, 2010

For the Love of Men and Land

In 2008, we left our little Victorian house with neighbors 20 feet away on two sides. We opted for a change of scenery and a steadier, more rooted, pace to life. We felt so blessed to find a home in a nice neighborhood that already had a finished basement apartment. Mortgage eater built in--awesome!

My baby was 7 months old, and I was just picking myself up from some annoying and dangerous hormonal fluctuations. I prayed that the environs would lift my heart and bring me back to myself.

What started as 4 baby chicks and an experiment at gathering eggs has blossomed, if not exploded. A handful of hens soon became 15. A year later some goats were added to the mix. The next season a couple of pigs as well as some raised vegetable beds.

The Mister of the House has made it all happen! I am forever at the crossroads of decision and what-iffing. Because our baby goats are over the land limit, they are not a permanent fixture. My heart smiled after the birth of the baby goats, when The Mister exclaimed: I feel like I should keep growing my herd!

Indeed our heart and our dreams are growing bigger than our single acre.

For our family, and our childhood love of nature that was lost with careers and bill-paying, we have grown so much by just having a little piece of our own dirt. It has seemed like a dream come true in so many ways.

And then I remembered something from long ago. Something I had yearned for to the depths of my soul, and had somehow forgotten. How is that possible?

Enter Mrs. Olsen into Florida jungles. It's 1997. I'm single right? Still in the middle of my schooling. No money. Wearing a dress for a year and a half straight while inviting sweaty southerners to come check out the message.

It was there as a missionary, where I was only known as "Sister Anderson", that I discovered the power of prayer. The focus of my new prayers? Maybe I sensed my student life would never catch up to real estate growth? Or perhaps it was me knocking on door after door of cramped, shut-up, rot inside with a television trailer parks that I desperately wanted to have my own chance someday with my own piece of dirt, and with a river if at all possible. So my prayer was this: Dear Heavenly Father, Please help me have some land someday. I will try to be a good steward. I love you. Amen.

Every day we'd hit the streets, preach the message, pray for the people, for our prophet, and for the spirit...and then I would add my petition. Oh and if it's not too much to ask, some land would be nice someday.

The vision was clear even as a newlywed I think. But we were still students, still scraping by and fixing up. I knew I had some time to wait. Then came babies, job changes, more school, and making ends meet, and the cloud of busy living pulled me from my once-clear-vision.

So when we moved to our little acre a couple years back, I was so caught up in getting rental income, recovering from my hormones, and wishing I knew how to garden that I had forgotten my years long petition to the Lord. It wasn't until just this year that I remembered that girl in the dress, winding through trailer parks and thinking how dirt could keep her grounded in the grown-up world. I wondered how I had forgotten that I had prayed for this! And with my remembering, came some thanking.

I forgot but you remembered. You knew I needed this, and brought opportunities to make it happen! You remembered even when I forgot! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

So with all this reminiscing of mission life, and remembering of former prayers, I was delighted with this recent quote from the LDS General Conference. Elder Dieter F. Uchdorf stated:

Every one of us is called to wait in our own way. We wait for
answers to prayers. We wait for things which at the time may
appear so right and so good to us that we can't possibly imagine
why Heavenly Father would delay the answer....We must learn that
in the Lord's plan, our understanding comes at the price of
patience....Often the deep valley of our present will be understood
only by looking back on them from the mountains of our future experience

That quote seemed so perfect for me at this time, especially with my burst of remembrance that brought me to my knees. But with that remembrance came a recollection of another sister missionary, indeed my very own mission companion who served with me for 4 months in Brunswick, Georgia.

Like me, Elizabeth wore a dress and became a sister in the sweaty south. Back home was Mitch, who sent packages on a weekly basis, and who cheerfully and faithfully waited until Elizabeth came home. Anyone who knew Elizabeth, knew Mitch. I served with Elizabeth while she was diagnosed with lupus. I knew that diagnosis would forever change her life, and wondered if the cheesy and cheerful mission packages would diminish.

They didn't.

Elizabeth and Mitch got married after she got home. They lived in the desert where the warmth kept her in better health. He took care of her and loved her.

And just last week he suffered a surprise attack of the heart with a clogged artery. He was gone hours after finishing a hike with his kids. He leaves behind Elizabeth 38 weeks pregnant with child number four!

I think of me and my old mission companion, one praying for a dream so long she forgets to notice its fulfillment, and the other biding her time as a nun just long enough until she can blaze into a dreamy love story with a great man.

The quote I found so perfect for my waiting for the land, takes on a new meaning when I think of the new life, the unanswered questions, for my dear friend who will have a lifetime of waiting to know the purpose of this detour.

Signed,

Lay awake at night counting the little things I'm grateful for and chalking this one up to one of The Mysteries of God

Labels: garden, religious musings, responsible agriculture

Sunday, April 25, 2010

(Revisited) Review of Field to Families vs. Bountiful Baskets

A couple of months ago I posted a hasty review of two food co-ops operating in my region of the west. That comparison dealt mostly with ease of ordering (one totally dominates over the other) and value (both seemed a pretty good deal on paper, although I had only tried one of them). Since that time, I have ordered multiple baskets from both entities in question and am here to give a more thorough review.

Entity one?
Field to Families.

Entity Two?
Bountiful Baskets.

Rating system: 1 - 5 stars (5 being the best)
Here we go:

SERVICE AREA
Field to Families: 2 stars
Bountiful Baskets: 5 stars

The chances of you getting a Bountiful Basket are much higher simply because they service 6 states: Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Arizona. Utah alone has over 100 pick-up locations throughout the state!

Field to Families is operating (as of April 2010) in six cities in Utah, none of which are south of Layton. Those cities are: Logan, Ogden, Roy, Clinton, Layton, and Heber City (okay, technically Heber City is south of Layton but it's in the high Uintas and not along the populated Wasatch Front).

FRESH FOOD VARIETY
Field to Families: 3.5 stars
Bountiful Baskets: 5 stars

Field to Families has a smaller network of growers, and it's clear that they don't reach down into the southern regions of Central America (like Bountiful Baskets). Tropical fruits don't exist in the Field to Families Basket, and they make that clear on their web-site.

Who knew that pineapple grows in Mexico? Bountiful Baskets did. Their policy is 50/50 fruits and veggies, and I have been surprised at the variety. Bananas are a general staple in about every basket (also grown in Mexico), and have been supplemented with other fruits like oranges, strawberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, and...pineapple!

That is not to say that Field to Families has no fruit. Their baskets include "8 food units", of which strawberries have been somewhat constant in my pick-ups (also oranges and lemons).

CARBON FOOTPRINT
Field to Families: 4 stars
Bountiful Baskets: 2.5 stars

Anyone living in Utah should seriously consider Field to Families since they are practically in your backyard. Their growers are located in Northern Utah, with a partner farmer located in Southern California. Their network is smaller, but definitely more local!

With pineapples, melons, and bananas adorning Bountiful Baskets, it's clear that their produce made a longer drive to get to my kitchen, much like your local grocery store.

LOW COST
Field to Families: 5 stars
Bountiful Baskets: 4 stars

Both entities charge $15.00 for a conventional produce baskets. Bountiful Baskets also offers Organic Baskets for $25.00. Expect an extra $1.50 handling fee (for each order) from Bountiful Baskets as well as a one-time fee of $3.00 for first-time orders.

CONVENIENCE
Field to Families: 5 stars
Bountiful Baskets: 1 star

With a husband in advertising and as a former small business owner, I was (and am) absolutely floored at the crap web-site run by Bountiful Baskets. That being said, there is hub-bub about a newer updated web-page soon to be (but not yet) revealed. They are popular enough to get away with it, but my marketing sense calls it bad business. Whatever. We love farmers so we'll deal with it. Here's what you can expect when creating an account with each respective organization.

Field to Families: Sign up with email, address, and credit card. Choose whether to pick up every Saturday or some Saturdays (over 10 options are available) and then have a 2-hour window to pick-up your produce on whatever Saturday(s) you signed up for. You are charged once a month.

Bountiful Baskets: Create account with email, address, and credit card. No monthly service options are available. You must order within the allotted 36 hour window for that week's basket. Try to log-in prior to your allotted ordering window since the site will slow considerably when thousands of food lovers crash the site. If you live in Northern Utah, then you can start ordering Mondays at 1 p.m. and have until Tuesday at 9 p.m. to make your "contribution" towards the coming Saturday's pick-up. Don't wait until Tuesday however, because all the baskets will be sold by dinner-time on the first day.

VALUE
Field to Families: 4 stars
Bountiful Baskets: 5 stars

Even with the extra handling fees, it's clear you are still getting a great deal when you see the abundance of the Bountiful Basket. Take a look for yourself! Here is my first order from Bountiful Baskets. I think I can safely say that I received "12 units of produce"!

In comparison, here is a Field to Families pick-up with their delicious (and still worth it!) "8 units of produce".

Field to Families gives a HUGE VALUE BOOST when you sign up for "Package 3: One pick-up order on all Saturdays of the month ($60.00)". So for the months that have 5 Saturdays in the month, the fifth Saturday is FREE.

In case you're wondering, that month that starts this week (May) has 5 Saturdays! Other bonus months you can look forward to are: July and October (in 2010).

ECO-POINTS
Field to Families: 3.5 points
Bountiful Baskets: 5 points

I'm talking organics here. On their web-site, Field to Families indicates that "We aim to acquire produce from farmers who grow organically (concerning fertilizers and pesticides). Typically, we do not claim the produce is 'certified organic', though sometimes it is".

Okay, so no guarantees on the organics, but doing their best. As I mentioned previously, Bountiful Baskets offers a certified organic basket for $25.00. I even ordered one of those so have a looksie for yourself:

It's looking like "11 units of produce" to me. What do you think?

And here's a re-post of my first Field to Families order way back in March:

with another Field to Families order with the lovely sun mosaic by The Mister of the House:

PRODUCE QUALITY
Field to Families: 4 stars
Bountiful Baskets: 4.5 stars

My strawberries were a bit sweeter from Field to Families, yet all were delicious. The Field to Families carrots seemed to be flimsy within a few days, but still worthy of eating when you cooked them down with some salt and pepper.

Just a couple weeks ago Bountiful Baskets sold flats of strawberries that ended up being soft and better fit for the compost pile. However, they were very cognizant and worked to give people credit that had ordered them (very cool!).

With the tropical offerings from Bountiful Baskets, I have found many of them need to be shelved a few days before they are ready to eat. I had hoped that my directly from grower scenario would mean the produce was picked during its ripened state, but with such a quick trip to my table it's clear that they need a few more days to get to their prime. The reasons this is okay is because you have SO MUCH FOOD that needs to be spaced through the week, that when you get to it later in the week it's divine. Also a bonus is that you know it's not sitting in a warehouse, picked totally green, and ripened with crap like ethelene gas.

FOOD GROUP FIESTA (this mostly means which entity has other offerings to meet all your delicious desires in the other food groups)
FIELD TO FAMILIES: 3 stars
BOUNTIFUL BASKETS: 5 stars

So it's a fruit and veggie party right? And that's what we like. However, Bountiful Baskets rocks the house when it comes to offering other sundries. While it differs every week, they offer things like:
5 loaves of bread for $10.00 (white or wheat)
2 lbs of tropical granola for $10.00 (we got it...it was to die for and more like a treat)
6 packages of tortillas, 2 of which were the size of little brother's head on So I Married an Axe Murderer. $10.00
Cranberry bars, produce flats, and herb packs. I recently ordered the Mexican Herb Pack (for $7.50) and got tomatillos, limes, jalapenos, tomatoes, onion, avocadoes, cilantro and green onion. Yum!

With my New Year's Resolution to eat a salad every day this year, I have absolutely loved both Field to Families AND Bountiful Baskets. My salads have been dark and delicious.

So hang on just a sec, let me add up my stars and average them out. Was this an exhaustive review or what? Hang on.

(whistling)

Okay drum roll please. The overall rating given the plethora of categories covered is this:

FIELD TO FAMILIES: 3.77 stars
BOUNTIFUL BASKETS: 4.05 stars

Close race huh? And that concludes my twelve page essay.

Happy Eating Everyone!

Labels: FreshGreens, good health, responsible agriculture

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Porch with a View

The eternal laws of porch loving requires me to sustain a resin goose as the keeper of my gate. It gives me common ground with the grannies. Here's Gwendolyn's view recently:

Wouldn't you know that I finally got rid of my winter wreath upon donning Gwendolyn in her Easter threads. I jinxed the valley into getting a six inch dump of snow on Easter Weekend. Sorry everybody!

There is our recent baby step into better health. Fresh delivery of milk from a local dairy whose cows are hormone-free! Since we only drink about 2 gallons a week, we could afford this luxury.

The milk costs about double what it does in the store. That means you'll find Mrs. Olsen gently placing quarter-filled cups back in the fridge. It also means my daughter, who is on the verge of teendom in 4 short years, won't get any hormone help in the moody, crabby, or mustache department.

Labels: Gwendolyn the Goose, offspring, porches, responsible agriculture

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Sheep Go To Heaven

Late last year we made a farm addition that has yet to be announced on this blog. You see, after reading about cows and how they trash the land, we wondered what animal we could raise that would be cleaner on the land, and also require a little less maintenance. After asking around, The Mister of the House made the executive decision to get some goats. Their breed is called : Boer Goats. What that basically means is that they are.....ummmmm, they're meat goats.

Apparently if you can keep the pheramone-saturated and extremely smelly male billy goats out of the picture, goat meat tastes much like beef and is extremely lean. Did we try a goat steak before signing up for this project?

No.

Is Mrs. Olsen on the verge of vegetarianism?

Sometimes.

Because we were getting two friendly and curious female goats, we made a place ready for them in the yard.

We were warned they would trim up our tree branches. "They eat EVERYthing" warned one friend. We had plenty of limbs that needed trimmed, so we fenced off a portion of the backyard and let them have a go.

We did not expect them to go crazy over the only pine tree that was fenced off in the back. May she rest in peace.

It wasn't long until an old rock n' roll song kept thumping through my head. I actually am not sure what this song is about, but the chorus has stuck with me over the years:

Since we refused to have a male billy stinking up our meat, we found a farmer in the valley who offered to let Betty & Matilda (our female goats) a month long tryst with his billy goat.

And now here we are in spring-time April. And wouldn't you know those goats are having babies next month!

...and wouldn't you know that Mrs. Olsen may have talked The Mister of the House into experimenting with some goat milk instead of being 100% meat-heads. We'll see how it goes!

Labels: enviro tips, goats, Keeping it Real, responsible agriculture