RE: wow....chicken, soil and farming

[Guest guest]

Suze-

>there are 2

>*billion* micro-organisms in a teaspoonful of soil...i have no idea how

>accurate that number is, but i imagine the number is really high. i just

>found that fascinating!

Well, Custom Probiotics has 25+B per pill, which I imagine is about half a

teaspoon full, and that's pure bacteria, nothing else. Lots of probiotic

supplements have MUCH less per pill (or nothing at all) and soil has lots

in it besides bacteria, so it sounds about right, anyway. <g>

-

[Guest guest]

Thanks for this bit of hope that really great food is out there. I don't

have a real good source for chicken here--at least I haven't found it yet,

just wondering who these farmers are and if they ship.

--

-----Original Message-----

From: Suze Fisher [mailto:s.fisher22@...]

Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 4:18 AM

Subject: wow....chicken, soil and farming

(apologies to beyondpricers for the duplicate posts!)

i just ate the BEST chicken i've ever tasted. my taste buds are still in

shock...i got it from the same farm where i get my pastured eggs. when i

was

eating it, i was reminded of a passage from " Digestive Wellness " by

Lipski. She writes:

" The life force in foods gives us vitality and life. If you photograph

foods

with Kirlian photography, living foods have large energy fields, while

processed foods have little or none. I recently had an opportunity to

watch

Hunt's videotape on using Kirlian photography to show the effects

of

various activities on the human aura: First a man was videotaped sitting

and

eating denatured junk food. Both the food's aura and his aura were nil --

about 2 inches. Then the same man was videotaped eating fresh fruits,

fresh

vegetables, and natural foods. His aura and the food's aura were bright,

extended out about 2 feet in every direction, and were intertwined.

Although

I have always believed that natural foods have more vital energy, to see

this documented was a thrill. " (p.27)

I don't know much about Kirlian photography, nor how valid it is, but this

passage popped into my mind when i ate the chicken because i felt the

chicken had a 'je ne sais que' (spelled wrong, i know) quality to it -

'vitality' would describe it well. it was slaughtered two days ago, so i

guess it just doesn't get better than pastured_fresh_local chicken...i

feel

so fortunate. if nothing else, eating more traditional foods has rekindled

my love for food - food has just never tasted better than this - only the

food i ate in europe some 20 years ago rivals some of the local foods i'm

now eating in terms of flavorfulness.

anyway, the farmers i got the chicken from, belong to the local WAPF

chapter

and they hosted a WAPF picnic last night. these are the same chickens that

produce the orange yolks i'm always talking about. my friend and i watched

them scratch about in their fields before dinner. watching some of them

scratch and peck at the dirt made me also realize that these guys are

probably eating a heck of a lot of soil based micro-organisms, which i

imagine enhances their health and vitality as much as the fresh air, grass

and bugs.

for the second time, i watched the first half of the documentary " World

Banquet " which was about how current global trade policies grossly favor

large agri-businesses and factory farms and is literally putting small

family farmers out of business all over the globe. basically the

subsidized

large corporate agribusinesse products (most or all from n. america, i

think) are undercutting the prices of local produce in many developing

countries so that the local small (unsubsidized) farmers simply cannot

compete, and often give up (and in some cases commit suicide).

unfortunately

for all of us, it is these small farms that are taking good care of the

soil

and producing more nutritious foods than the large corporate 'farms' that

are engaging in monocultural production and its inherent soil depletion

and

chemical fertilizer and pesticide use. interestingly, according to the

documentary, among the many other advantages of small family farms is that

they actually are far more efficient than factory farms/agri-business

because they produce a much higher yield of food per acre and do it

*sustainably.* it was some ridiculously high number as compared to

corporate

farms, but i don't remember the exact figure given.

back to microbes...the narrator, an organic farmer from ND (i think) was

talking about how soil is a live organism, and said that there are 2

*billion* micro-organisms in a teaspoonful of soil...i have no idea how

accurate that number is, but i imagine the number is really high. i just

found that fascinating!

Suze Fisher

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg/

mailto:s.fisher22@...

[Guest guest]

>>>>>Thanks for this bit of hope that really great food is out there. I

don't

have a real good source for chicken here--at least I haven't found it yet,

just wondering who these farmers are and if they ship.

--

-------->i doubt it - their chicken and eggs are becoming very popular

around here so they're barely able to keep up with the demand. they added 75

chickens to their flock a few months ago to help keep up with their

customers' needs. it's a very small farm in southern maine. where are you?

do you have any natural foods stores nearby? that's often a good place to

scout out local farms. i used to buy a piece of meat then call the farm

(they usually have a label with a phone #). then i asked what all they had

and how it was raised/grown. i have one other source of superb chicken, but

that one's a few hours north. this one is 15 minutes away!

also, if you have any farmers' markets in your area - they are great sources

of finding good local foods. i'm currently having a love affair with

potatoes! i haven't loved potatoes since i was a 16-yr-old exchange student

in germany. (damn good potatoes over there!) but, now i have this local

organic farmer who is producing incredibly tastey potatoes. i prefer the

'cranberry reds' because, not only do they taste heavenly, but they are the

most beautiful deep shade of cranberry that i've seen. they are more

cranberry color than cranberries! LOL. they are cranberry color inside too

i always choose the most deeply pigmented veggies - they invariably taste

better than dull ones. and this year, there are 4 organic farms at my local

farmers' market, all of whom have got incredibly tastey produce this summer.

i've been gorging on spinach, lettuce, fresh garlic, onions, cilantro,

tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, blueberries and swiss chard.

it's really heavenly!

if you'd like an online source of tastey meat - i was really impressed with

North Star Bison. i bought the cheapest cut - chuck roast and it was

fantastic. i know some other folks on this list eat their stuff fairly

regularly.

or maybe you'll just have to make a trip to maine this summer - we *are*

'vacationland' after all!

Suze Fisher

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg/

mailto:s.fisher22@...

[Guest guest]

---Suze do you suppose you could get the age and breed of that

chicken? Also the recipe and diet? Two years ago I had difficulty

getting a pastured broiler " fat " fast enough that it could be fried

and tender as well. Therefore I haven't tried frying since. Dennis

In @y..., " Suze Fisher " <s.fisher22@v...> wrote:

> (apologies to beyondpricers for the duplicate posts!)

>

> i just ate the BEST chicken i've ever tasted. my taste buds are

still in

> shock...i got it from the same farm where i get my pastured eggs.

[Guest guest]

>>>>---Suze do you suppose you could get the age and breed of that

chicken? Also the recipe and diet? Two years ago I had difficulty

getting a pastured broiler " fat " fast enough that it could be fried

and tender as well. Therefore I haven't tried frying since. Dennis

--------->Dennis, i think it was a 'Delaware.' they have two breeds -

delawares and barred plymouth rocks, i believe. i think the delawares fatten

quickly. BUT, they also feed them a commercial grain mix - don't know all

the ingredients but believe there is soy. i don't think any commercial

grower feeds 'pasture' alone - they all tell me it's impossible to do on a

commercial level.

anyhow, these chickens *are* on pasture all day long. they do get rotatated

into paddocks that the cattle and sheep have been in previously, so they

probably get some yummy bugs from the manure (as they scratch it back into

the soil) but not much, because they don't rotate that often. but there's a

lot of grass in their pastures, which is probably what makes their yolks so

darn orange!

i sprinkled some cumin and ginger on the roaster, then put on a few pats of

butter. put it in the oven at 450 for about 20 mins (to crisp the skin and

seal in the juices), then turned the oven down to about 400 for another

25-30 mins. (it was a 4 lber). and that was it - done!

Suze Fisher

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg/

mailto:s.fisher22@...

[Guest guest]

where are you?

--Yakima WA

do you have any natural foods stores nearby?

--Yes, but they're into the soy thing more and vegetarian, no meat

--I haven't tried Ellensburg (30 miles away) for meat, they have a couple

natural food stores, so that' a good idea.

also, if you have any farmers' markets in your area - they are great

sources

of finding good local foods.

--That's where I found the emu farmer---I'm going to get some of that meat

next week, forgot to ask though if it's grass fed, free range etc.

if you'd like an online source of tastey meat - i was really impressed

with

North Star Bison.

--Funny you should say that, I have dhipment from them that should arrive

today

or maybe you'll just have to make a trip to maine this summer - we *are*

'vacationland' after all!

--Used to live there--Bangor, my sister lives in Portland, where are you?

--

[Guest guest]

>>>>>>>or maybe you'll just have to make a trip to maine this summer - we

*are*

'vacationland' after all!

--Used to live there--Bangor, my sister lives in Portland, where are you?

--

--------->oh wow! i'm in brunswick. i used to commute to portland for my

work. the chicken farm is in North Yarmouth - a hop, skip and a jump from

portland. your sister has easy access to it. it's Avalon Farm and you can

get their products directly from the farm, or from the Weds. Farmers' Market

in Falmouth.

Suze Fisher

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg/

mailto:s.fisher22@...