a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Much Ado About?

    Subway has responded to a petition started by Food Babe’s Vani Hari to remove azodicarbonamide, a dough conditioner, from Subway breads. Subway isn’t the only company to use this additive. You’ll find it in McDonalds bread, Wonder Bread, in the bread products of many many other companies, yoga mats, shoe rubber and synthetic leather. The additive is banned in Europe and other places. Europe even bans using it in plastics which come into contact with food. The FDA considers use of azodicarbonamide as safe to use in human food. Does the FDA consider people living in the USA to be more resilient to substances considered toxic in other countries?

    But maybe this notion of eating anything the FDA considers as safe isn’t the way to think of eating food. Instead of asking, “Is this safe?”, we should be asking, “Is this good? Will it make us better? Will it be something that nourishes us?” Food isn’t something we eat to improve the profit margins of corporations. Food is something we eat to give us joy, energy, and nourish us. Food is a gift we give ourselves. It should all be good, fantastic, delicious, not merely safe.

    I’m baffled by all the ingredients companies put in their bread products. Below is a list of the ingredients you’ll find in Subway’s Nine-Grain Bread, a MacDonalds Big-Mac Bun, and the bread I often bake at home. Wouldn’t it be much easier to make bread out of as few ingredients as possible? And why is there any need to use preservatives in the bread of fast food companies? In the case of Subway bread, it’s eaten within minutes, hours at the most of baking. Why add Calcium Propionate and/or Sodium Propionate at all?

    Subway 9-Grain Wheat Bread

    • Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid)
    • water
    • yeast
    • whole wheat flour
    • sugar
    • wheat gluten
    • oat fiber
    • soybean oil
    • wheat bran
    • salt
    • wheat
    • rye
    • yellow corn
    • oats
    • triticale
    • brown rice
    • barley
    • flaxseed
    • millet
    • sorghum
    • yeast nutrients (calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate)
    • vitamin D2
    • dough conditioners
        DATEM
      • sodium stearoyl lactylate
      • potassium iodate
      • ascorbic acid
      • azodicarbonamide
    • caramel color
    • refinery syrup
    • honey
    • yeast extract
    • natural flavor
    • enzymes
    		 MacDonalds Big Mac Bun

    • Enriched Flour (Bleached Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)
    • Water
    • High Fructose Corn Syrup and/or Sugar
    • Yeast
    • Soybean Oil and/or Canola Oil
    • Salt
    • Wheat Gluten
    • Calcium Sulfate
    • Calcium Carbonate
    • Ammonium Sulfate
    • Ammonium Chloride
    • Dough Conditioners (May Contain One or More of):
      • Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
      • DATEM
      • Ascorbic Acid
      • Azodicarbonamide
      • Mono and Diglycerides
      • Ethoxylated Monoglycerides
      • Monocalcium Phosphate
      • Enzymes
      • Guar Gum
      • Calcium Peroxide
    • Sorbic Acid
    • Calcium Propionate and/or Sodium Propionate (Preservatives)
    • Soy Lecithin
    • Sesame Seed
    		 My Bread

    • whole wheat flour
    • water
    • salt
    • yeast

  • Staying Warm

    [wpvideo rA8Rcrdn]

    Staying Warm
    Staying Warm

    These chicks are seven weeks and still have a ways to go before they are independent. Many broiler chicks have already been butchered by the time they are this old, and most only have another week or two before they are off to market. These heritage breed mix chicks are many months away from the dinner table.
    Staying Warm
    Staying Warm

  • Edison Bird Festival

    [wpvideo or95gIL8]
    It’s early February – time for Edison’s Annual Bird Festival in the one and only village of Edison, Washington.

    Edison Bird Festival
    Edison Bird Festival

    Where else in the world is there a festival which rollerbladers dressed as chickens racing down the main drag? It’s a short two and a half block long race and what a blast.
    Edison Bird Festival
    Edison Bird Festival

    After the race, it’s time for the “Be the Chicken!” Chicken Parade. Many people bring their chickens and walk them, carry them, pull them in carts through town.
    Edison Bird Festival
    Edison Bird Festival

    It was cold, clear day, perfect weather for a winter festival. If you missed it this year, make plans now to be in Edison next February.
    Edison Bird Festival
    Edison Bird Festival

  • Guard Dogs

    Guard dog
    Guard Dog

    If you are planning on having chickens roam free, it makes a big difference if you have guard dogs. Good ones will detect coyotes venturing too close, chase off raccoons, hunt down opossums, and keep the hawks and eagles away.

    Our two guard dogs are fearless. Working as a team, they chase coyotes far off into the woods. The chickens get along with the dogs so well that some of the chickens lay eggs in their dog houses. The dogs love that.

    The dogs also sometimes break up roosters which get into a fight.

  • Good Food

    Luscious Eggs
    Luscious Eggs

    Good food makes all the difference in the world. And when it comes to eggs, it’s impossible to produce good eggs by the millions. To produce an egg as round and bright as the sun, a hen needs good food, plenty of exercise, lots of time outdoors in the sun, fresh earthworms, bugs, field mice, grass, seeds, berries, in other words, a rich and varied diet. She needs to be able to gossip with other hens, cavort with roosters, run through the woods and pasture and have a great time.

    It’s not possible to do this on an industrial scale. Once you start crowding hens together, the quality of their eggs drops precipitously. But the industrial food producers don’t care about the quality of the eggs they sell. They won’t tell you the date they gathered the eggs they are selling. They won’t let you see the insides of their farms. Imagine that, a farmer who won’t let you see how they produce the food they expect you to eat. In fact, many of these industrial farmers want to make it a crime to show the public how they operate! They want to label as terrorists those who show people how their food is produced! How radical an idea is that? See Ag-gag laws. They only care about their profit margins. So hardly anyone ever gets to savor the texture and flavor of these full bodied eggs. It’s your food. You are the one putting it in your mouth. You have every right to know precisely how your food was made.

    When you cook with these luscious eggs, the difference is startling. They fluff up easily. They make billowy soufflés which never fail. Fried eggs which taste rich and creamy without any salt.

    But we live in a system which is consumed with making things as cheaply as possible, not with making things as good as possible. As a result, most people have no idea how spectacular a thing as simple as a chicken egg can be. And in an economy when everything is treated as a commodity, the individual differences between eggs is not allowed to be recognized. As far as the industrial food producer is concerned, one egg is the same as every other egg, and the eggs which cost the least are the best. But you and I know that this is as far from the truth as possible.

    You won’t find eggs like this in the supermarket. You need to go find a local farmer who is as fanatical about the care and happiness of his chickens as you are. That’s where you’ll find perfect eggs.

    perfect eggs
    Perfect Eggs