This post was originally posted on October 22, 2007 to Fresh From The Market – my food, farm, cooking blog. At this point everyone who is even remotedly interested in the “localvore” movement, farmers market, organics, etc has heard of or read this book.
Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” arrived along with my copy of “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” and I just got around to finishing it recently. Michael’s style is significantly different than Barbara’s amusing and poetic prose about her family’s decision to eat locally and seasonally for one year. The premise is that Michael follows four meals from farm to table: A McDonald’s meal eaten in the car, a meal purchased at Whole Foods, an organic meal eaten on the sustainable farm it was raised, and finally a meal hunted and foraged by Michael himself.
Michael has a much more textbook style approach to the subject than I expected for a topic that can be very passionate for many people. I had expected some vilification of the industrial food industry yet out of the gate I was introduced to the farmer that has been growing industrial corn on his family’s land for years and how the changes over the years impact his decisions. As Michael progresses through each type of meal the tone becomes slightly more personal. Perhaps this is intentional or perhaps it’s simply the fact that non-industrial food touches more people.
Over all I enjoyed the book. The textbook style helped me learn many facts about farming, politics, as well as the various moral and economic choices available. The fact that there is not a single right choice was was always under the surface and his uniform approach allows the reader to feel they are making an educated decision rather than being sold on someone else’s opinion. If you are looking for something dramatic then this is not likely to be your book, but if you are looking to educate and enlighten yourself and spend some time considering the choices you make, then you will likely take something away from it.
This post was originally posted on June 25, 2007 to Fresh From The Market – my food, farm, cooking blog. Reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral really started whipping my passion around food and farm in to a frenzy and would make me realize that there are many books on the topic, many of which I would eventually read as well.
So I am really not much of a newsletter reader. They seem mostly be spam and of little interest to me, but one that I find myself reading regularly is from the fine folks at Laptop Lunches. We own a couple laptop lunch systems and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Highly recommended. But that’s actually not the point of this article. In the June Laptop Lunc h Times they added a section for “Green Reads” and gave reviews or recommendations on a couple books. Two caught my interest and with the click of a mouse they were on their way to my doorstep. “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” arrived around Wednesday of last week and between being under the weather and home alone for the weekend I managed to polish it off just last night.
I’m not sure I know how to describe the book, it’s 1/2 poetic prose about farm and garden life and the romanticism of being self sustaining. It’s 1/4 industrial and political commentary and 1/4 essays and recipes. If you aren’t passionate about the topic of eating locally and seasonally it could come across as preachy. I don’t think the approach is likely to change anyone’s mind that is already opposed to the ideas. But if you harbor some passion for knowing where you food comes from, what is it in, how it was treated, the impact on our environment, or what you might be able to do about all of the above, then it’s nothing short of inspirational. There are definitely portions that had me giggling out loud, wether it was Lily’s decision to sell her chickens for meat, but “only the mean ones”, or Barbara revealing the trials and tribulations of turkey sex.
The general “story” is following Barbara and her family through a year where they vowed to only eat food grown locally to them or ideally on their own land. It starts out in the spring and ends the following spring. She talks about their anxieties around what they will eat in winter and how do you feed a dinner party. She talks about what they gave up, and what they found in it’s place. When the winter was coming to an end I didn’t want the book to stop. I wanted to know how things went this spring too.
All through out the book there are references and educational anecdotes. I didn’t know that it’s normal for the lower leaves of my tomato plant to drop off as the fruiting moves up the plant. Mine is doing that right now and I’d thought I’d done something wrong! I also didn’t know that modern turkeys, as well as most of the seedlings or seeds available for purchase, are incapable of reproducing themselves with out intervention. I also didn’t know exactly what a “heirloom” plant or vegetable meant or even how their numbers are dwindling while some have already been lost forever.
If you hadn’t gathered by now I do recommend the book. I completely realize it is not going to be for everyone, but if you give it a chance, skip some of the stronger commentary if it doesn’t suit you, I think you will come out of it with new ideas and some fresh inspiration.
There are more pictures on flickr, but we didn’t try to hide anything. I challenge those of you that are more removed from your food sources to consider looking if only to have the conversation with yourself: Would you be willing to kill what you eat?
It went a bit easier than I think either of us expected. While we don’t view taking a life lightly, it was very grounded. Chickens don’t scream or make any otherwise resonating sounds at death. We didn’t get a clean separation of head from body with the first blow of the hatchet so we’ve noted the need to get the hatchet sharpened in the future. The entire chore probably took 20 minutes and we weren’t really rushing things.
We set up the “bayou” burner with our largest stock pot (another note: a larger pot would be handy) and got it steaming hot. An appropriate bucket for bleeding out the bird was located as was a makeshift chopping block and the hatchet. We put a drop cloth on the ground to make collecting errant feathers a bit easier. The back patio was still covered by a portable car port that we use for Burning Man and one of our plastic tables was still set up from an event we hosted the week prior. The cover from the rain and washable work surface were handy.
The only challenge we ran in to was the fact that a slightly nervous chicken isn’t going to stick his neck out there for you. Add to that, the fact that he is a fully feathered rooster and we quickly imployed a trick we’d seen in some “how to” instructions. We essentially used a rake, or pitch fork, in our case and slide the tines on either side of his neck below the head. This allowed me to stretch his neck slightly so Bengt could ensure he had a visible target.
Two chops and it was done, a little blood on the chopping block but most of it went in to the bucket. Once the bleeding slowed and the final involuntary thrashes had stopped the bird was dunked in to the scalding water for a few minutes. Once removed from the water, the feathers came out in handfuls. A bit easier than I expected. Once mostly cleaned the neck and feet were removed and we moved inside to complete evisceration in a more sanitary environment.
Bengt is a real trooper and handled the nasty work. Once that was done we cooked up the offal for our pets rather than waste any portion of the life we’d just taken. Even Bengt’s generally adventurous palate hasn’t taken him there just yet. We added the cleaned and quartered bird and the scrubbed down feet to a stock pot with water, a chopped onion, a few garlic cloves, salt, and pepper and let it gently boil and simmer for a few hours. After that time we strained out the meat, sorting it from the exhausted onions and bones, and set it aside. The remaining 3 quarts of stock was by far some of the most luxurious we’ve ever made and was set aside to cool so we could remove most of the fat.
We had originally planned to make stew as that is the most common use for tougher birds, but it didn’t seem to really honor the life we took. It seemed more of a way to simply render it edible and move on. So instead I opted to make what Bengt has been calling Rooster Risotto. I’d just call it chicken and mushroom risotto. The unctuousness of the stock certainly lended itself well to risotto (and we still have a couple quarts left). I simply added 5 or 6 rehydrated dried morels (and their rehydrating water) and a quick grate of parmesean cheese to an otherwise basic risotto. I then nestled a portion of the meat on top and added a drizzle of truffled olive oil to finish. The earthiness of the morels and truffle oil really elevated the depth of the meat. The al dente nature of the risotto also helped balance the chewier nature of the meat.
Rooster Risotto
Most people seem to regard aged birds as practically inedible but we found that it brought a depth of flavor that was quite impressive, more like the gaminess of duck really. The texture is far from the boneless, skinless chicken breasts most encounter in the grocery store, but isn’t unpleasent – just different.
Bucket the Buff Orpington Rooster
So the rooster definitely has to go now. I’m a bit relieved because it’s now not my decision, but one of preservation.
We kept the chickens in the coop on Saturday, due in part to Bucket’s bad attitude. I didn’t want him attacking guests or worse small children. With them sequestered he really had his way with the girls. The optimal hen to rooster ratio is no less than 8 hens to 1 rooster; in the 10-12 range is even better. When chickens mate the rooster jumps on the hen’s back. The hen is generally not thrilled about this situation so he uses his claws to hang on (and also his weight, pressing her to the ground). The effect of this on a hen getting too much “affection” is that it starts to pull out her feathers and can actually start to do damage. We’ve seen patterns for “chicken saddles” made out of old blue jeans for breeding scenarios. The girls are showing signs of the wear though, since we are down to five hens at this point. It definitely was escalated by keeping them in a small space for a full day. Two of them have bald patches on their back, thankfully no broken skin, but unfortunately it’s also chicken nature to peck at wounds on “weaker” chickens until it kills them. Darwinism at work folks. Bengt noticed the hens pecking at the one with the worst bald patch when he closed the coop tonight. Since we had already debated Bucket’s fate and were leaning toward his dismissal it was an easy decision. It looks like we’ll be having chicken stew this weekend.
For now we’ve moved Bucket to the brooder box in the garage since it’s more than large enough for him. We’ve also turned out the coop light to discourage the hens from picking at each other while they recover. Hopefully their laying doesn’t drop off too much. Even with new chicks coming in April they won’t be of a good size to tolerate Bucket’s attention for quite awhile and I fear we’d end up with some serious injuries well before then.
I will certainly document our first slaughter experience. It really will be a defining moment in our lifestyle decision for me and I’m not willing to take bets on which way I’ll go just yet.
Romaine Lettuce
I’ve been meaning to write this up for some time. I actually had written something up for a gardening mailing list I’m on, but then couldn’t find it again and so I kept procrastinating starting all over again. So last year I started almost everything from seed. I also *completely* over purchased seed, in my excitement for a real garden.
Last year’s order from Seed Savers Exchange (all certified organic except the Fish Pepper). Those in italics with comments are the ones I actually attempted. Those in bold I’ll try again this year along with the new seeds:
- Pepper, Chervena Chushka
- Pepper, Thai Hot – Started okay but didn’t get enough light
- Pepper, Rooster Spur
- Pepper, Healthy – Started okay but didn’t get enough light
- Pepper, Fish – Started okay but didn’t get enough light, I’m just partial to them – don’t know why.
- Pepper, Jimmy Nardello’s – Started okay but didn’t get enough light
- Cucumber, Snow’s Fancy – Indoor starts only did moderately well (many rotted due to moisture), indoor starts that survived started producing sooner, but direct sowed plants were healthier. Not a high yield.
- Cucumber, Bushy
- Pea, British Wonder – Indoor starts did okay, but direct sow did much better so why waste the energy to start indoors? Produced well, needed more trellis.
- Melon, Early Silverline
- Melon, Noir des Carmes
- Melon, Minnesota Midget – Small plants that eventually died off, not suited to this area
- Watermelon, Chris Cross
- Watermelon, Moon & Stars Yellow
- Tomato, Austin’s Red Pear
- Tomato, Current Sweet Pea – Did great despite the poor summer! Lots of fruits and held over in the greenhouse (making up for the poor summer) until November!
- Tomato, Nyagous – Poor summer and not enough light took its toll. Will move to a sunnier location and try again.
- Tomato, Hungarian Heart
- Tomato, Crnkovic Yugoslavian – Poor summer and not enough light. Produced later than the Nyagous. Probably won’t try again until I have better luck with tomatoes.
- Radish, Helios – Okay, grew well but actual radishes were small and very, very hot. Had a tough exterior texture.
- Radish, Philadelphia White Box – Grew well and more balanced flavor than the Helios. Larger size and no weird texture.
- Bean, Boston Favorite
- Bean, Good Mother Stallard – Grew, well… like a bean, but drying beans on the vine proved hard with the moist fall/winter coming in.
- Bean, Fin de Bagnol
- Bean, Ideal Market – Did great! Would definitely plant again and even more. Probably one of the most productive plants in the garden.
- Soybean, Fiskeby
- Spinach, Monnopa
- Lettuce, Green Oakleaf
- Lettuce, Grandpa Admire’s
- Lettuce, Gold Rush
- Lettuce, Tango
- Lettuce, Baby Oakleaf
- Herb, Genovese Basil – Did well, held in through the fall in the green house with the tomatoes.
- Herb, Cilantro – Died during starting
- Herb, Grandma Einck’s Dill – Died during starting
- Herb, Chives – Died during starting
- Herb, Sweet Marjoram
- Carrot, Danver’s Half Long – Didn’t get much. Seemed very slow to mature and never amount to a useful size. Suspect this is soil/light and not the seed itself.
- Corn, Golden Bantam Improved – Transplants mostly rotted, direct sow did well but I planted them too late. Didn’t get anything out of it.
- Corn, Stowell’s Evergreen
- Corn, Tom Thumb Popcorn
- Leek, Giant Musselburgh – Died during starting
- Onion, Australian Brown – Did well but didn’t realize that onions need to overwinter so were harvested as green onions.
- Onion, Borettana Yellow – Did well but didn’t realize that onions need to overwinter so were harvested as green onions.
- Squash, Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck – Small plants that eventually died off
- Squash, Summer Crookneck
- Squash, Fordhook Acorn
- Beet, Burpee’s Golden – Overwhelmed by weeds and died out
- Ground Cherry, Aunt Molly’s – Did okay but probably needed more sun. Didn’t produce much.
If that looks like a lot, (it rang in at ~$150) that’s because it WAS! I was completely out of control. I only ended up planting a fraction of it and a lot of them were not suited to our region at all. We ended up being gifted lettuce starts and I don’t recall if I tried starting any of ours from seed. The starts did wonderfully though so I’ll probably try to start some myself again.
Ordered new for this year from Territorial Seed Co. a PacNW based company (I don’t think any are certified organic this year and several are hybrids – generally not my style but I want to take out some of the variables until I get better):
- Squash, Cavili – summer squash that is early maturing.
- Lettuce, Miners – Actually grows wild here so should do very well.
- Cabbage, Parel – Didn’t grow cabbage because I didn’t see much value in it. Now that we eat seasonally the fact that it stores for extended times is a big bonus.
- Bean, Soleil – A French style bean in yellow. It looks pretty when canned with green beans.
- Peas, Super Sugar Snap – We wanted to do more peas this year so I needed more seed.
- Kale, Winterbor – I didn’t think I liked kale until we kept running in to it as a winter veg. Have since realized if it’s cooked right I really enjoy it and it keeps well through the winter and in the fridge.
I still plan on planting potatoes, but there’s a local farm that provides most of the garden shops around here with seed potatoes and I now know I don’t need that many, so I’ll just pick them up locally.
Our backyard plot is something like 15 by 30? I was so afraid of crowding that I planted most everything really spaced out and therefore wasted a lot of space. So this year I’ll work on planting things closer together and thinning when necessary. We also realized that our front yard gets a lot more light. Bengt wants to build raised beds out there, but I don’t know if that’ll happen this year. We want them to look nice so they can be used as flower or garden beds and not detract from the appearance of the property, which means they’ll be a little costly and we have to think it through a bit. It just may not happen early enough this year and it’s not our highest priority project. Either way I’ll definitely be moving some of my zillions of large pots out front for tomatoes and things. We just have to keep the chickens out of them.
This year we also have the greenhouse. I may try to grow some tomatoes and peppers in the green house specifically, but it does get quite hot in there during the summer so I’ll have work on that a bit.
Next weekend I plan to start a flat of seeds for the herbs and things to get started. I’ll update you on how that goes.
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Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” arrived along with my copy of “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” and I just got around to finishing it recently. Michael’s style is significantly different than Barbara’s amusing and poetic prose about her family’s decision to eat locally and seasonally for one year. The premise is that Michael follows four meals from farm to table: A McDonald’s meal eaten in the car, a meal purchased at Whole Foods, an organic meal eaten on the sustainable farm it was raised, and finally a meal hunted and foraged by Michael himself.
