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General Whole Living Info
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Wednesday, 30 September 2009 16:33 |
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More egg terms, cracked
By Monica Eng
Chicago Tribune, via Charlotte Observer, September 30th, 2009
Few food purchases can scramble the brain like buying eggs these days. With choices that include organic, free-range, brown, white, natural, fertile, vegetarian-fed, omega-3, pasteurized and cage-free, a consumer could be forgiven for cracking in confusion.
These labels have implications for the way the hen was treated, fed, housed and even colored as well as how her eggs were processed after they popped out. But sometimes the labels don't mean much at all.
Here's a guide to the wild world of egg labels.
Natural: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service defines "natural" as not containing "any artificial or synthetic ingredients, and it must be minimally processed." By this definition, almost all eggs would be considered natural.
Free range: Indicates that hens have access to the outdoors, but there are no regulations on the duration or quality of access.
Pasteurized: Eggs that have been treated with heat to eliminate salmonella.
Pasture raised: Unregulated term that implies hens are raised outdoors and moved regularly in mobile hen houses. This gives them access to a variety of foods - such as bugs, and grubs - as well as chicken feed.
Fertile: Hens are raised in barns that also house roosters. The term is unregulated but implies hens are uncaged.
Animal Welfare Approved: Hens must be kept cage-free and allowed to perform natural behaviors such as nesting, perching and dust bathing. Outdoor access is required at all times, and forced molting and beak cutting are prohibited. Certifies mostly family farms.
Certified Humane Raised and Handled: Hens are uncaged inside barns or warehouses and may have access to the outdoors. Includes space requirements for hens. Forced molting is prohibited, but beak cutting is permitted.
USDA organic: Hens are kept uncaged in barns or warehouses, are allowed access to the outdoors and are fed an organic, vegetarian diet free of antibiotics and pesticides. Forced molting and beak cutting are permitted.
Sources: USDA, Humane Society of the United States, Food Alliance. |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 September 2009 16:35 |
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Saturday, 26 September 2009 13:44 |
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FARMERS’ MARKET VS. SUPERMARKET: HEAD TO HEAD
By Doug Kearney
If I need a vegetable, I go to the back yard to see what’s in the garden. If that’s a disappointment (for example, if a rabbit beat me to that ripe fist-sized tomato I was eyeing for lunch), my next option is the farmers’ market on South Main in Salisbury. There I find beautiful, fresh, and uneaten vegetables (as well as breads, meats, eggs, plants and crafts) to suit my needs. Only if I can’t find what I need at the farmers’ market do I go to the supermarket for produce.
Why is the local supermarket my third choice for produce?
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Supermarket produce is not as fresh as farmers’ market fare.
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Some items are coated or treated to give the appearance of freshness.
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Supermarket produce typically loses nutritional value as it is transported from California or Peru. (One local supermarket puts a “locally grown” sign on produce that takes less than six hours to arrive by truck. While that’s a step in the right direction, I expect the Salisbury Farmers’ Market averages about twenty minutes.)
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Produce in supermarket bins tends to come from large producers who use heavy pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers to provide “perfect” specimens for the consumer. (Supermarkets do typically carry certified organic produce which are not grown with certain pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers. They are quite expensive and typically shipped across the country.)
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Produce in supermarkets tends to be varieties that ship well, but don’t necessarily taste good. You might imagine that attributes that help a tomato endure shipping abuse and a long shelf life may not be the same attributes that make for tender, tasty flesh.
Why do I prefer the farmers’ market?
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Produce is fresh, sometimes picked only a few hours before I buy it. And for sweet corn every hour makes a difference.
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In general, the produce has fewer pesticides. While none of our local growers is certified organic, several are sensitive to over-reliance on pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers and try to minimize their use. And best of all, if pesticide use is a concern for you, the grower is typically right there to respond to your questions about growing methods.
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Talk about customer service. Local farmers literally stand behind their produce, eager to talk with you about varieties, preparation, and preservation. It’s like going to Best Buy and having Steve Jobs there to help you buy an I-pod. Well, it’s sort of like that.
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It’s local. That impacts quality, taste, nutritional value, even carbon “footprint”. It’s a little easier on the earth if we buy lettuce that was trucked from China Grove rather than California. (It would also help if we walked or biked to the farmers’ market rather than adding another car trip to our food shopping, but that’s not possible for all of us and it’s another story anyway.) But, and this is a little less tangible, “local” also means transacting with a neighbor, developing a relationship with someone you might see at a movie, church, or even the supermarket. In a culture where we are increasingly isolated from each other, buying food in a way that encourages us to talk with each other and get to know each other’s values and passions surely builds healthy communities and individuals.
What about price?
I went to the Salisbury Farmers’ Market last week and priced produce. That same day, I visited a local supermarket and priced equivalent items there (none of them certified organic). Here’s what I found:
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Farmer’s Market
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Supermarket
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Cantaloupe
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$2.00 ea.
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$3.00 ea.
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Sweet corn
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$0.50 ea.
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$0.50 ea.
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Tomatoes
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$2.00/lb.
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$2.50/lb.
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Eggplant
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$1.50/lb.
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$2.00/lb.
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Yellow squash
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$1.50/lb.
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$2.00/lb.
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Bell peppers
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$1.50/lb.
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$1.30/lb.
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Green beans
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$2.00/lb.
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$2.00/lb.
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Free-range eggs
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$3.00/doz.
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$3.19/doz.
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The supermarket offers convenience and variety. But on comparable items the farmers’ market competes well in price, and, in my opinion, quality.
The farmers’ market doesn’t replace the supermarket. I may start out at the Salisbury Farmers’ Market, but I will buy from the supermarket everything from the lemons I can’t do without to the Cheezits I should do without, not to mention various staple items like flours, nuts, cereals, the occasional cucumber in February and, God help me, diet Coke.
The Salisbury Farmers’ Market is open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon through October. It is at the corner of South Main and East Bank. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 January 2010 09:59 |
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Thursday, 13 August 2009 11:42 |
Worms Live in My Laundry Room
Doug Kearney
If I want to test the mettle of guests in my home I take them to the laundry room, say between hor dourves and dinner, and show them the worms eating my garbage. Responses range from “how cool is that!” to “ewwwwww!” My wife believes this practice says more about me than my test subjects.
Four years ago, thanks to a Father’s Day gift, I became a worm farmer of sorts, a vermicomposter. Sitting in the corner of the laundry room is a three-layer plastic barrel on legs that contains a couple pounds of red wiggler earthworms. My daughter, who gardens in Asheville, tells me that her earthworms “would kick your earthworms’ butts.” Beside the fact that earthworms have no butts, she is comparing her fat and indelicate gray nightcrawlers, admittedly great for aerating garden soil, with my sleek, busy red guys. It’s like saying George Foreman would beat Lance Armstrong, but at what? They do different things.
I digress. Back to the composting bin. The bottom layer, essentially a screened tray, holds mostly finished worm castings, which are food scraps and shredded newspaper turned into a rich soil additive after passing through the worm’s gut. The next tray is mostly finished castings, and the top tray is where the worms are most active, eating up to a double handful of food scraps every day. But the high-tech tray system is not essential. A cheap plastic tub with a lid is all that’s needed to get started, along with some shredded newspaper or cardboard, a little garden soil, and a daily handful of kitchen scraps.
The finished worm castings are black with the sweet smell of a damp forest floor. Castings, or worm poop if you prefer, provide a real boost to gardening. They are a great additive to soil mixes for starting seeds, transplants, or side dressings for plants in the garden. The castings provide a mild nitrogen boost and a host of minerals and beneficial microbes to the soil. Hardcore vermicomposters make “worm tea” by putting castings in cheesecloth or even panty hose to make a giant teabag to place in a bucket of water for several days, either stirring vigorously on occasion or using an aquarium pump to aerate the solution. Some gardeners report that worm tea performs magic as a foliar spray. I have not tried this, but I expect I will, if for no other reason than the conversation-starter-factor of having in my laundry room a bubbling five-gallon bucket with worm poop-filled panty hose suspended in a five gallon bucket of water, brewing a batch of “tea.”
Exotic teas aside, worm composting is an easy way to handle kitchen scraps in an environmentally responsible way. Leftovers stay out of the trash and castings provide a great additive to houseplants or the garden. The original deal with my wife was that I could keep the worm bin in the laundry room if it didn’t smell and the worms didn’t escape and end up shriveled and dead on the floor. Four years later the worms are still there, devouring my veggie scraps and providing black gold for the garden. |
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