You are what you eat

Organic eggs: factory farmed, pasture based, or something in-between?

(See also this on rating soy products and this on dairy.)

The Cornucopia Institute performs a valuable service for those of us concerned with agricultural sustainability, humane treatment of food animals, organic food production, and protecting small farms and farmers. The organization investigates the conditions under which foods are produced and rates particular brands according to how well they meet the expectations of consumers who are repelled by factory farming.

Its most recent report deals with eggs, and the conclusions are pretty damned disheartening.

Here's the problem:

All organic egg producers claim to be following the federal organic standards, but with different working definitions and viewpoints of what the standards mean. For most consumers and many producers, organic farming means respecting underlying principles of the organic farming movement, such as building soil fertility, maintaining ecological balance, promoting biodiversity, reducing dependence on off-farm inputs,recycling nutrients, and allowing livestock to display their natural instinctive behaviors. For others, especially industrial-scale producers, “organic” appears to be nothing more than a profitable marketing term that they apply to the agro-industrial production system—simply substituting organic feed in their production model and eliminating harmful synthetic inputs, such as pesticides and antibiotics.

If Big Ag can co-opt something, it will, and this is happening increasingly with organic foods.

The organic standards for livestock, including chickens, include a requirement for outdoor access. But for hundreds of thousands of chickens, "outdoor access" is a sick joke that means only a tiny wooden or concrete porch attached to the massive, crowded henhouse.

There are three routes that an organic egg producer can take.

One is the industrial farming way, which houses thousands upon thousands of chickens in an aviary. They are uncaged, but they are crammed in with no room to move. You need to click on the link above to see a photo of of this to believe how bad it is.

The second route is fixed housing that offers minimal but adequate outdoor access. The third is pasture-based, where the hens are allowed to roam freely and engage in all the instinctual behaviors characteristic of chickens. 

Needless to say, industrial farm corporations are fighting all efforts to require and enforce actual access to vegetated outdoor runs.

I'm really appalled that I have no access at any local supermarket to humanely produced eggs. In spring and summer I can buy locally produced free-range eggs, but at other times of the year this isn't possible. The organic eggs offered at the local Meijer are Eggland's Best, which rates only a single egg out of five on Cornucopia's rating scale, or the Meijer brand, which, as a private label, rates the same. Trader Joe's is no better, not that there's a store handily nearby anyway.  

(See how your egg brand rates here.) 

 Please visit the link and see for yourself how these chickens are housed in industrial farms. It's barbaric.

We need to put pressure on the National Organic Standards Board and the USDA to see to it that chickens producing eggs labeled "organic" are housed under better conditions and have meaningful access to the outdoors. Under the industrial farm model, animals are nothing more than production units and are not seen as living beings to be treated humanely.

We should also buy local free-range eggs when we can. The spouse and I have thought for a long time about raising some chickens (or ducks) of our own. It may yet come to that.

 

Apple crisp

'Tis the season for apples, and what could be better than apple crisp? It's easier than apple pie because you don't have to make a crust, just a sweet, crunchy topping.

Serve this with some decadent vanilla ice cream or some whipped cream.

I use a 7" x 10" baking dish for this and just keep slicing apples until there's just enough room left for the topping--I'm guessing at the number of apples. I have to say I love my apple peeler!

You can expand or reduce this recipe to fit any size baking dish. Leftover topping can be frozen for future use.

Fruit:

6 to 8 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 T. sugar

Topping:

6 T. butter, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I tend to have walnuts on hand)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Toss the apple slices with the cinnmon, sugar, and lemon juice and place them in a baking dish. 

For the topping, work the butter in with the rest of the ingredients so each piece is coated and the texture is a coarse crumb. I have a "granny fork"--a large, sturdy, 6-tined fork--that works well for this, but you can use your fingers or the paddle attachment for a mixer.

Top the apples with the mixture. I put a cookie sheet under the dish to catch any drips. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until apples are meltingly tender.

Almost time for the beef

Yes, it's that time of year: time for the drive to Union City to pick up a side of beef. Or it will be soon. I haven't heard from Melvin yet, but one of these days soon I'll get an e-mail or a call from him indicating that our beef is dry-aging and we need to decide how it should be cut.

This year we were worried that we wouldn't find anyone to share in the half a cow we wanted, but a good friend came through. He even bought a chest freezer. Well, everyone who has the money and the space ought to have a chest freezer anyway, in my opinion. It's good for more than storing a large quantity of meat, after all.

So we had a discussion about cuts of meat and so on. I know for us it was a very confusing matter the first time we had to order beef. We've learned a lot since then, though, and this year I think I'll call the meat processor myself rather than go through Melvin, the beef producer. I have a few questions.

I will probably make myself obnoxious in dispensing advice to my friend on the cooking of grass-fed beef. A slow cooker is a big help in making roasts tender and juicy--and don't even get me started on the heavenly gravy ... Our friend is a little leery of the idea of roasts, but that's only because he doesn't realize there are delicious leftovers to be used in beef barley soup, beef stew, beef pot pie, roast beef hash, and the like. Inviting friends for dinner is also a good idea. The aroma of a slow cooking pot roast is one of the most tantalizing, teasing one all afternoon and revving up one's appetite. Steaks I marinate, regardless of the cut. Even porterhouse can benefit from the flavors of a good marinade. Since we started buying grass-fed beef we've gotten used to eating our steaks a bit rarer than we used to eat them. Less cooking means more tender steaks, and we don't worry about food poisoning since the cattle are raised in healthy conditions.

I am urging our friend to take the tail if we are lucky enough to get it (could be the buyer of the other half of the cow calls dibs on it). Yes, the tail is quite large, but it makes a quantity of beef broth that can be divided into useable portions which are then frozen.

It's all about getting a little different mindset, I guess, one in which large quantities aren't intimidating but rather reassuring. The chest freezer our friend bought will serve him well in dealing with broth and gravy, leftovers, and bones with meat scraps clinging to them, not just the frozen raw beef he's buying. It's a little different way of approaching things when you're used to picking up a couple of meals' worth of meat at the market, but it doesn't take long to get used to it. A little planning, a little forethought, a willingness to inventory the freezer occasionally, and you're all set.

We're looking forward to the trip, to seeing Melvin, to eating at the local restaurant crammed with the regulars. And to another year of eating beef that's humanely raised and is actually good for us.

Pinto bean and veggie stew

We still have lots of peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini to use, so I made this stew last night. The recipe is based on the "Zuni stew" in Deborah Madison's The Greens Cookbook. If you use canned pinto beans, it's a fairly quick dish to prepare, although there's some chopping required. You can vary the amounts of the veggies according to what you have on hand and what you need to get rid of.

I rarely use the shredded Monterey jack cheese called for in the original recipe, although I do like to scatter grated Parmesan over the stew in my bowl. While I love cilantro, I read recently that liking or disliking it is actually genetic: some people find the taste soapy and awful, instead of citrusy and fresh, so the cilantro is up to you. For those of us who love it, though, it gives the stew that something extra.

2 T. oil
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (or more to taste)
I or 2 jalapenos, seeded and minced (or use poblano for a milder heat)
1 lb. zucchini, summer squash, or a mix, cut in chunks
2 cups corn kernels
1/2 lb. green beans, cut in one-inch lengths
1 lb. tomatoes (fresh, frozen, or canned), chopped
3 1/2 cups cooked or canned pinto beans
1 tsp. ground cumin, or to taste
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp dried oregano
2 T. chili powder, or to taste; or use ground ancho chili
salt to taste
grated Monterey jack cheese (opt.)
chopped cilantro to taste (1/4 cup as a beginning point, I'd say)

Drain the beans over a bowl to save the liquid. Saute the onions in the oil for a few minutes; add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, and oregano and stir to mix. Add a little bean broth or water so the chili doesn't burn. Cook for a few minutes while the onion softens, then add the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Stir in the squash, corn, beans, and jalapeno along with the pinto beans and enough liquid (bean broth plus water as needed, or all water) to make a very moist stew. Cook slowly until the veggies are done, about 20 minutes or so. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir in the cheese, if you're using it, along with the chopped cilantro.

Do McDonald's hamburgers decompose?

According to one artist, the answer is no.

Sally Davies has kept a Happy Meal in her home for 6 months, with no noticeable change other than "it's hard as a rock." You can compare the photos yourself at the link.

McDonald's accuses Ms. Davies of fabricating the whole thing. Well, I don't know ... have you seen this video of the Bionic Burger? And the museum of ancient McD "food"?

 

Pan-roasted corn

We're still able to buy fresh corn, but the quality isn't necessarily peak. Nonetheless, fresh corn is lovely to have on hand. I put together this dish one night to go with enchiladas. It's easy and very tasty. Use a roasted poblano if you want a little more heat (info on roasting peppers here) . And use amounts of each ingredient to your liking; I used approximately the following amounts.

2 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cob
1 roasted Anaheim or poblano pepper, diced
1 or 2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 to 1 tsp. ground cumin, or to taste
salt to taste

Melt the butter in a skillet (more is better!). Add corn kernels and diced pepper; saute until the corn is cooked. Add seasonings to taste.

Simple but good!