Biosecurity for Birds

(from USDA)

USDA is concerned about the Avian Flu. They actually released several publications, which you can order online.

Somehow, the publications fail to mention that humans are the direct source of this problem.

Everything I Want to Do is .......... actually fashionable and trendy nowadays.

I like Joel Salatin. I am nothing like him and not as opinionated, but I like him. He reminds me of my own Farmer Boy. It also reminds me that several martial arts weapons came from farmers using their farming equipment to protect themselves.

Recently Tree Hugger published an interview with him. My favorite part is when he tells people to turn off the TV and get to know a local farmer.

Backyard Chickens (Bantams this time)

Living the Country Life had a short and sweet article about growing bantam chickens. Their main idea - if you don't have enough space, grow bantams. I must agree that bantams are cute. However, a bantam takes no less space or time to grow. However, it's up to you to decide.

If You Buy and Eat Chicken Meat (very traumatic)

It's not every day that Tree Hugger and PETA agree on the same thing. Well, it's not every day that anyone agrees on anything with PETA nowadays. However, the chicken industry has bahavied unacceptably for many many years.

Please remember to support your local organic chicken growers or grow your own chickens!

Warning: this is very traumatic - baby chicks are ground alive

Hatchery Horrors: Video Shows No Mercy for Baby Chicks By Christine Lepisto

New Undercover Investigation: Chicks Ground Up Alive from PETA

Chickens at work, Part 2

In one of my previous posts I wrote about my new approach to letting people know that we have a massive chicken farm. I was just testing which way is better for me - letting people get to know me first and then telling them about our chickens OR just telling people that we have hordes of chickens and see what happens. Telling people upfront apparently has worked better!!! The proof is the picture above. Today the organization-wide email went out to invite everyone to the company's annual picnic. The picture of chickens playing soccer was a part of it! It's wonderfully weird, can't describe it.

Buying poultry

Photo: nukeit1

Here is another article on buying poultry from Wisebread - Supermarket Angst Part III: How to Buy Better Poultry. I can't put it better - community agriculture is the way to go. You have to go and see for yourself where your chicken comes from. You need to visit your meat, ask questions. The more you know, the better you eat.

However, growing chickens moved us closer to being vegetarians. Farmer Boy is a meatarian. He likes his steak. But if you look at our consumption of meat since he got chickens - we eat less meat. I still buy turkey and chicken meat from Costco and organic black Angus (once a year) from Trader Joe's. Overall, we eat less meat. Part of it, I signed up for Terry's Berries farm share (about $28-30 a month). We get a lot of veggies and fruits, which forces us to eat it all within the same week. It also simplified my cooking and spending. I am forced to cook and eat what we already get.

Buying eggs

I recently had a long conversation with my professional (non-farming) friends on buying healthy eggs and chicken meat. I haven't bought eggs from a store for about 4-5 years. I feel that our eggs taste, feel, and bake differently. Our chickens run around, eat grass, bugs, organic feed. They are also not regular layer hens, they are really jungle fowl. I have less worries about whether our eggs full of pesticide, which they probably have some, just like anything else.

However, our friends, who live and shop in the city, don't have an opportunity to have their own chickens. They buy things. So when they asked us how to go about buying good eggs, we told them to find a local chicken farm, ask questions, visit those chickens, and judge for themselves. Another thing - read and educate yourself. I was surprised to learn that they think "free-range" is a meaningful label. It is not, free-range doesn't mean chickens actually ran around. It just means a coop door was open for a certain period of time. That's it!

If you are serious about finding good eggs, you are forced to be an educated consumer. Nobody will do it for you. All those labels mean nothing, really. Here is a well-balanced article about buying eggs from Wisebread -

Supermarket Angst Part II: What Eggs Should I Buy?

Gaiam on chickens

It is amazing how nowadays chickens find their way into everything! Even Gaiam published an article about an urban couple and their experience in urban homesteading. I was surprised, I have never thought of Gaiam to be more than a source of overpriced yoga mats and bizarre trinkets. But I am cheap and not hip, so what do I know!

The article, Chickens In Suburbia: One Couple's Foray Into Urban Homesteading, is a good read for anyone who wants an intro into urban homesteading. Everett Sizemore went from knowing nothing about homesteading to owning chickens, bees, growing a garden, and starting the Greater Denver Homesteading Group.

It is a great story of how average people can do it. It’s amazing how much the couple has done. I wish they said how long it took them to go from zero to now. What is the most impressive, owning and growing chicken is hip now. So does it mean I am hip too?

Tour De Coops

(from Growing Gardens)

This year I heard about Tour De Coops, an event in Portland, OR. It is only 3-4 hour drive from us. I really wanted to go. However, it overlapped with a work-related event. And work comes first. If you went, please let me know how it went. I have been reading it's a really successful event, which attracts many people. I am planning to go next year, unless my work interferes again.

Chickens at work

I recently have started a new job. The issue of chickens came up really fast. Farmer Boy doesn't feel comfortable telling people that we grow chickens in the city environment. Mostly, it's because of my work environment - lots and lots of professional folks, who are not into farming. My arguments that many people are into chickens nowadays don't convince him. He begs me not to talk about chickens at work. People do look down on him because he doesn't dress or appear certain way. I disagree. First, I am proud of his achievements in breeding! Second, there is nothing wrong about chickens. If we, professional folks, just talk about self-sufficiency and food security, but don't actually do anything (grow chickens, grow gardens), it's just blah-blah-blah and our words and degrees are worth nothing!

So at my previous job I slowly disclosed to people that I live on a chicken farm. Most people were extremely surprised. They would chuckle every time they ask how our chickens are doing. So I decided to change my approach. When our HR asked me to write my introduction at my new job, I gave them something like - " Undomesticated Wife and her award-winning chicken-breeding husband support the environmental movement by chickens within the urban environment...... " and on and on and on. Just 3 sentences. The technique worked - nobody chuckles, nobody snickered. Several days later I found out that our Director of Operations has 5 chickens, and our Office Manager is planning to get hens. Nobody thought it was weird that I live on a farm, married to a farmer, and believe in farming. I wonder if it's just a different crowd, or maybe nobody even read my intro.

Overall, it's been easier just to tell people right away about our chicken obsession than to ease co-workers into it.

Gangsters, ragamuffins, muffins, munchkins

Our fierce warriors, terror of the chicken yard! Something happened, and their mama abandoned them when they were barely 3-4 weeks. She pecked and fought them, they fled. Timing was good, if it was winter time, they would be in the garage under the heat lamp. They spend several weeks under a massive pear tree, hiding from any possible danger and big chickens. They survived their vulnerable motherless stage.

First, they were cute, with their baby fluff and all. Then they started losing their baby cuteness and went patchy bald. Farmer Boy started calling them gangsters, I called them ragamuffins. Farmer Boy also called them munchkins at one point. "Muffins" stuck with them. They are about 3 months old, and they look big and strong. They come running out to great Farmer Boy and me. They recognize us, they talk to us, they come and sit with us. It is really heart-warming. Some chickens grow up and forget the bond they had with us. Some chickens remain our "doggies", they follow us around, they remember us, and they trust us when we handle their babies. I wonder what it will be like with our muffins.

Thousands of chickens die in a fire at a Stanwood farm

From Komo News:

Thousands of chickens die in a fire at a Stanwood farm.  

"...The three buildings - each about 60 feet wide and 600 feet long - burned to the ground with chickens inside.

Firefighters estimate the damage at $2.2 million...."

I can't even imagine the devastation.  When you are a farmer, it's not just your livelihood, it's your life.  I am sorry to see another farm disappear.  Recent floods and other emergencies have been claiming farms all over the state.   I strongly believe in local farms, their simple and direct connection to every aspect of our lives.  

Recently, when Farmer Boy wanted me to stop our organic share from Terry's Berries, I said no.  Buying organic fresh produce from a local farm is not just a whim or trend for me.  I am putting my money where my mouth is.  Buying local and local organic products (produce, eggs, meat, etc) is my political stand.  I do not know whether this farm was organic, but it is local.  The less we have local farms, the less we are connected to the reality. 

Chickens are stars of Sunset, April 2009

(Elizabeth Jardina with her chicken Ruby, Sunset Magazine April 2009, Photo: E. Spencer Toy)

Sunset Magazine published a short article about growing laying chickens - How to Raise Chickens.  It is short, sweet, and good for beginners.  I would warn though - you don't have to buy a coop, you can build one very easy and fast. There are many resources of building a chicken coop online.  Also, the article doesn't mention that they need a roost inside the coup, not just "... a secure hen-house with a roof to sleep in...". 

Chickens and gardening - massive misrepresentation!

(Sunset Magazine, April 2009, Photo: Jim Henkens)

Sunset Magazine, April 2009, had an article on growing veggies in your own yard - Digging into Veggies.  The first part of the article is about Willi Galloway from Seattle.  She gives tips on how to grow a garden.  I am not an expert on gardening, so I have no comments there.  

The part that really bothered me was a picture, which is not online, where Willi is feeding chickens in her garden.  It's really a shame that the magazine failed to mention the most important tip - keep the chickens out of your garden!  People, who do both, separate chickens and gardens.  Chickens destroy gardens and lawns - they eat everything, they scratch the ground, they will eat your veggies and tomatoes.  

I am sure Willi does keep them separate, otherwise there would be no garden to brag about.  Another explanation - those chickens are just models! 

Chicken-friendly dog

We are dog-sitting Baba (our friend's dog).  He is half lab and half pit bull.  But nobody told him that he is a pit, and he is not smart enough to figure it out on his own. He is a sweetest-sweetest dog; all he wants is to be petted and be played with.  He is very gentle.  He doesn't bark at all, he doesn't pay attention to other dogs, he doesn't bite, he doesn't even chase chickens.  Actually, he is terrified of chickens. In the picture he is whimpering, because the rooster is too close to him, even though there is a fence between them.  He is looking at Farmer Boy, begging for protection.  

When I get stressed out, I go to the yard and play with Baba.  He just wants attention.  He is not the brightest dog, but he has so much love for us.  If only I could clone him and keep him forever.  Did I say that he is good with chickens?  A chicken-friendly Baba.

Washington Feather Fanciers' 29th Annual Spring Show

(our show bird)

Washington Feather Fanciers' 29th Annual Spring Show

will be held on May 30th, Saturday, in Chehalis, WA. 

I am excited to finally see this event.  In 2007 it was scheduled for November/December, and then we had a major flooding of Chehalis area.  So the show was canceled.  

We plan to attend and just watch.  Farmer Boy thought of entering his birds.  However, showing a bird is time-consuming and stressful for the owner and, most importantly, for the show birds.  I really wanted us to enter, since our birds are rare.  Bird breeders get excited when they see our chickens.  But it would cut into Farmer Boy's work time. 

I will write about the show later.  If you are interested in attending, for details see http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/grd/1174733662.html. 

Cow Racing and Tipping

I know a lady, whose last name before marriage was Farmer.  She married a farmer boy, lives on a cow ranch, and she is not really a farming person.  We constantly make fun of her maiden name.  

Her husband grows (farms, breeds, cares for) Black Angus.  They have about 50 heads, not counting babies.  We missed the branding week, but still wanted to come out and spend some time with them.  It is a vacation for us, away from work and civilization.  In the evening the entertainment was simple - Wii and Guitar Hero.  None of us was sophisticated enough to play anything on Guitar Hero.  However, Wii was fun.  I only played Cooking Mama before.  So it was a great chance to try many, many, many games.  After hours of going through them, I ended up liking cow racing.  I hit ever fence pole and tree in sight.  I asked our friends if they ever did cow-tipping.  What followed just confirmed what a city person I am.  

Cow tipping is a myth!!! You can't tip a cow, since they weigh about a ton or more. They had a case when a pregnant cow ended up on her back in a hollow dent in the ground, it wasn't even a hole.  It required a big tractor to untip her.  So we couldn't go and tip cows at night, so we raced our cows on Wii.  Farmer Boy got a Wiinjury from curling. 

Apple Blossom Festival

Farmer Boy calls me "Apple Monster".  I can probably exist on apples alone, plus, I come from the Land of Apples and live in the State of Apples.  For many other reasons we decided to go to Apple Blossom Festival this year.  It is still going on till May 3rd.  Farmer Boy has seen it, it was my first.  We drove to Wanatchee on Saturday and arrived just before the parade.  The parades of my childhood involved military marching and saluting.  This one was fun and wild, with kids running around and marching bands (from excellent to hysterical).  I really enjoyed it.  All around Wanatchee orchards were in bloom.  It was good to see some of them in operation after the last year's fires, which destroyed a lot.  

We came home to our own backyard fruit blossom festival.  My pear, apple, cherry, and plum trees are in bloom.  I hope to get lots of fruits this year.  

Itty Bitty Chicken Committee, Part 2

We lost our first batch of baby chicks this year.  Farmer Boy didn't want to bread at all after that.  However, the spring came, and we ended up with a box of early babies in our living room.  I can't tell you how many hours we wasted watching those babies sleep, eat, and play.  After ALL eggs hatched, the first 4 babies went back to mama. There are 6 of them.  They are about 2-3 weeks now.  I went to the coop to document their growth.  The mama didn't like it.  The harder I tried to take a picture, the more she shielded her babies and moved around.  Those who ever tried to take a picture of a constantly moving bird know that patience and a good camera are essential.  I didn't have either.  So here is a fuzzy picture of the angry mama and one curious chick sticking out of her butt. 

Chicken, chicken, chicken on Cute Overload

I like Cute Overload, even though they mostly post dogs and cats.  Occasionally, there is a chicken. And we can't miss any chickens! Here is the link to the original post. 

Chicken or Egg?

For me it was baby chicks.  Farmer Boy talked for years about chickens, with great passion, I should add.  He remembers his childhood in Thailand, where he had an old rooster as a pet.  The rooster was eventually eaten by nuns at the orphanage.  It was wartime after all.

In 2003 or 2004 Farmer Boy got pretty chicks from his friend’s mother.  She kept them in a tiny box in her tiny apartment.  They did look happy after they moved to a big yard.  However, they didn’t live through their first year.  Two feral dogs got into our yard at night.  Farmer Boy went to investigate the noise and ended up face-to-face with two massive dogs, that already tasted blood.  It all ended up with two dead dogs, us shaken, and police all over our neighborhood.  The chickens were also dead.

 

The period without chickens didn’t last long.  On April 1^st, my karate buddy asked if we could free him from 2 noisy hens.  Those were two Plymouth Rocks, which started a massive chicken invasion of my back yard.  After them Farmer Boy brought home many chickens of regular breeds.  However, the normal chickens stopped showing up the moment Farmer Boy discovered chickens of his childhood – Asils (Asil or Aseel). 

 

Right now we have only one Rod Island Red and one Cornish Cross hens.  The rest are Asils of different ages. 

 

Backyard Chickens

Here is a great overview of backyard chicken movement.  For several years, people laughed and thought Farmer Boy and I are eccentric, to put it nicely.  The article is a proof that we are actually a part of a mass movement, which makes us normal and boring. 

New York City chickens

Photo from No Impact Man

One of the blogs I enjoy is No Impact Man. His life is a little bit radical for me, but it's still interesting to read about it.  I like how he sees environmental movement beyond living simply and responsibly. And he posted about chickens. Backyard chickens is a growing movement.  If you live in New York City, check out his post on chickens. 

The Cascade Spring Poultry Show 2009

The Cascade Spring Show Committee invites you to join us in the Livestock Pavilion at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds on March 21, 2009 for a fun-filled day. We will have an APA/ABA sanctioned show along with a raffle, Adult/chick silent bird auction, for-sale cages, and many youth activities.  For more information, please check 

http://knightsofnotion.googlepages.com/home

Why I Blog/Chicken Scratch

I resisted to blog for a long time.  I am probably the last person to blog among my peers.  Farmer Boy and I were also the last people to get a DVD player, about 3 years ago.  I spent about the same amount of time weighing all pluses and minuses. 

-

·      It is labor-intensive and time-consuming for me.  I am constantly fighting my tendency for perfectionism.  I would write a post, check and recheck it, try to pick a great picture, etc., etc., etc.  After several days I still don’t have a post on the blog. 

·      My topic is silly.  There are so many life-changing blogs!  I don’t think blogging about chickens is life changing, well, except in my case.  Our family members are blogging about their mother’s cancer journey.  I check and read their blog every day.  It is much more important. 

·      Loss of privacy – this is the topic Farmer Boy and I discussed for a long time.  It is easy to find who people really are, where they are, etc. 

+

·      Chickens have taught me a lot about life and cycles of life.  It is surprising how many misconceptions people have about nature, farming, and chickens.  It doesn’t take a rooster to produce eggs.  Only if you want to have baby chicks.  Fortunately, there are more and more urbanites, who raise chickens in their backyards, so we don’t have to turn every social event into a fun presentation about chickens.   

·      Chickens make me and, especially, Farmer Boy happy.  If anyone out there needs Chicken Therapy, let me know.  This is how it works – you come dressed for farm work, feed the chickens, and spend an hour in the chicken yard watching them.  We will even feed you and supply you with tea or coffee.  It is much cheaper than regular therapy, and you don’t have to disclose any of your childhood traumas to us, only to chickens, if you want.

·      Blogging is essential for a good career.  I am a fan of Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk.  She wrote a lot about it and has a good/short guide to blogging.  I am still not sure how I can apply myself in the chicken world – Chicken Management???

·      Blogging is a good way of record-keeping - Farmer Boy knows and remembers everything, he doesn’t write it down though.  However, not many people know about Asil breeding.  Sometimes Farmer Boy forgets, and I need to check and double-check. 

·      Blogging enriches you beyond anything you can imagine.  I remember having anxiety attacks over privacy issues.  I didn’t really know whom to ask, so I asked someone very authentic and approachable – David Seah.  I am a HUGE fan of his blog.  He is not afraid to be vulnerable.  That’s why his blog is so amazing to me.  He emailed me back.  The header of his blog is "David Seah - Design, Productivity, Inspiration, and Empowerment".  And that's exactly how he is!  His responses were detailed, honest, inspiring, and simple.  I didn’t expect him, a very busy blogger, to respond at all.  His emails convinced me that only good comes from opening up and allowing new connections in your life.  Thank you, David!

I still don’t have a clear and direct answer why I started to blog about the chickens.  I know it will help me somehow some day in the future.  We constantly talk chicken stories, why not blog them. 

Best Food Writing 2005 and Chickens

It is about love, adventure, science, fiction, food, family, friends, random people, tradition and rebellion, obsessions and snobbery, and, most importantly, chickens!  This is the first book in the series I picked up.  I have been reading cookbooks for years, like many of us.  I have never read about cooking as life and art.  I have never seen food as a subject of affection, hate, and other strong emotions.  This is a book you take on a long trip.  The book has everything I ever wanted from a book – references to places, cafes, restaurants, books, cookbooks, historical/biological/chemical facts, cost of food, people, recipes, and solid cooking and non-cooking advice. 

Let me give you examples:

1.     Apples come from Kazakhstan.  Not many people know it.  Gina Mallet (As Asian As Apple Crumble) does. 

2.     The book talks about places I have been to and am nearby right now.  It makes me want to go places.

3.     Most importantly, it talks about chickens – killing a chicken (Killing Dinner), making an omelette baveuse (The Count and I), fried chicken in Georgia and Tennessee,  (A Sonnet in Two Birds), Nashville’s hot chicken (Some Like it Extra Hot), roast chicken at Zuni Café in San Francisco (Quintessential Californian), and chicken feet dim sum, which I love (Appendix: A Taste of Blogworld).

It’s too bad it’s only 317 pages long.  

Itty Bitty Chicken Committee Went to College

Yesterday was not a good day.  I woke up at 4:30 am because of a death cry.  Even if you never heard before a cry of a chicken being eaten alive, you will know it the moment you hear it.  The cry was short and abrupt.  I wasn’t fully awake when it happened.  A weird second of silence followed it.  And then all the dogs in the neighborhood went crazy barking.  This is not the first time we lost a chicken or several chickens to local wild life – raccoons, possums, fishers, and even unsupervised dogs.  However, I thought it was just a hen.

If I knew the whole day will get from a dead hen to a dead day, I would have stayed in bed emailing and watching TV.  It rained like crazy.  Farmer Boy had to work outside, got wet, and now sounds like he is having an active case of TB.  I went to fix a tiny chip on the car window and had to pay a substantial amount for it.  I got two letters of job rejections.  I had a hair appointment, which for some weird reason lasted almost 3 hours.  My stylist was precise and thorough, and I know he just wanted to make sure that my grey takes the color, but… but...  I came out with great hair color, but also with the scalp that looks like a 3-year-old took a black Sharpie to it. 

I know it will wash out, so the scalp color is not the reason why I want to pull my hair out.  It wasn’t just a dumb hen, that didn’t want to go into a coup at night and became an easy target for a predator.  The dead chicken turned out to be the mama hen and her 8 babies (aka Itty Bitty Chicken Committee), which lived in a very secure coop and never left it unsupervised.  Farmer Boy raged the whole day at every little thing.  I couldn’t figure out why he was going nuclear till he finally told me the details.  I am known to cry uncontrollably when babies die, so he wanted to spare me.  Farmer Boy is inconsolable.  This was his first and only batch of babies this year.  He picked his best rooster and best hen.  He managed to care for the mama and eggs through the worst snowstorm.  He lost only one baby of the batch during the first week.  We spent some hours trying to guess their genders and dreaming of which one would be in the Fair this year.  His breading and chick care has improved immensely within only 2-3 years.  He doesn’t lose babies due to lack of knowledge.  We used to joke about hens, that were killed by raccoons – “She went to college”.  The babies were too young to go to college.  All the possibilities for developing the blood line, all the awards and ribbons they could have won, and all of it is gone.

Good Chicken Book

I have been reading our collection of chicken books, which I should admit right away we did not buy.  Most of our friends and relatives think it’s a great idea to give us a chicken book.  Majority of those books are pretty bad, especially “101 Chicken Recipes”, which was a joke, but still, a bad book.  However, once in a while we get a good book – Living with Chickens!  

It is simply written.  It gives you a break down of cost, sizes, numbers, square feet, and many other concrete numbers and details.  I like numbers, I understand numbers.  When somebody says that I will need $X for feed to raise X number of chickens to X pounds, I get it.  The book talks about different options of growing your chickens – buying baby chicks, hatching chicks from eggs, and getting chicken from other people/sources.  I like how simple, detailed, and organized the book is.  

It talks about birth and death of birds.  The author doesn’t shy away from unglamorous moments of chicken lives – butchering.  The book also mentions how things are done on a small farm vs. big outfits.  It also doesn’t claim to have answers to all your questions.  

The best feature – chicken pictures.  If you ever tried to take a picture of a chicken, you will understand.  Chickens are worse than children, they also move faster than you ever imagine.  I am an adult, but I like books with pictures!  

I would highly recommend people, especially beginners, to read this book.  If you are into farming romanticism and funny anecdotes, then this book is not for you.  If you are serious about chickens, check it out. 

Farm vs. Metropolitan Market

Farmer Boy and I have a constant conversation about our farm share.  He believes he can grow everything we get from the farm cheaper.  I believe him, he probably can.  However, at this point I do not think it’s cost-efficient to grow it in our garden, which was destroyed by our chickens (they do eat everything).  Another theme was to cancel the share and buy it from a store, while our garden is under development.  So I decided to shop and compare.  Our weekly share costs about $34.  All items are organic and locally grown.  I am not including the time it takes to drive to the farm and back, and the cost of gas.  It is approximately the same if I drove to a grocery store and back (plus gas).  I couldn’t find everything we get from the share at Trader Joe’s, which is the closest grocery store to me.  I was also curious about one of the most expensive stores in our area – Metropolitan Market. 

 

My visit to Met Market was short.  I was impressed by the variety of items.  Now I know where to find really weird and exotic things.  However, the prices are overwhelming.  People were shopping there, so I guess it works for them.  I wrote down all the prices for my weekly share, but I forgot to look up 0.5 lbs of salad mix.  Not all the items at Met Market were marked as organic and/or locally grown.  I understand that it is not a fair comparison.

 

4 pears (apprx. 7 oz each – 1.75 lbs) X $1.99 = $3.48

12 apples (apprx. 8 oz each – 6 lbs) X $2.49 = $14.94

2 lbs of potatoes X $1.99 = $3.98

1.3 lbs of carrots X $1.79 = $2.33

0.8 lbs rutabaga X $1.79 = $1.43

1.4 lbs beets X $1.79 = $2.5

0.9 lbs parsnip X $2.99 = $2.7

0.4 lbs sunchoke X $7.99 = $3.2

4 onions (apprx. 7 oz each – 1.75 lbs) X $1.49 = $2.61

1 bunch of chards X $2.99 = $2.99

3 lbs wheat berries X $1.99 = $5.97

2 lbs of frozen blueberries X $4.66 = $9.32

Total = $55.45 + 0.5 lbs of salad mix.  I would say $58 easily.

 

So, Terry’s Berries - $34 vs. Metropolitan Market - $58.  I feel the share from the farm wins.  However, Farmer Boy thinks we get things from the farm, which we don’t eat and it goes to waste.  We both might be right.  Money-wise the farm is better.  Plus, it really makes me cook more greens and less meat.  However, if I shop at Met, I would probably eat less.  We don’t know how to resolve the veggie issue. 

Food Budget for 2009

Putting a budget together didn’t take that much time.  The total came to $32,160.00.  I allocated $3,000 for food, which doesn’t include going out or take-outs.  I tried to make sure my budget is under the Washington State Food Program indicators. 

Checking how realistic my budget is took a little bit more.  People in my zip code make on average $41,305.  You can see a profile of your neighborhood here, just enter your zip code.  EatingWell website is reporting that average income now is even less, $37,388, and people spend $3,666 on food annually.  It is very possible I will go over the budget by $2,000 due to price increases.  However, my spending from 2001-2008 on food did not go over $3,200 per year.  What I really need to watch is eating out and take out expenses.

I am sure there are many more ways to double-check your budget vs. reality.  I have been known to study new Federal Poverty Income Guidelines as they come out.  But budgets don’t have to be so severe. 

UK: Battery Eggs to be Outlawed by 2012

image from daylife.com

I like TreeHugger due to its global view of the world. The latest news come from the UK, where battery eggs will be outlawed by 2012.  Farmer Boy and I spent most of our time looking at the chicken picture.  There is no excuse for the poor state of these birds. I am an egg snob.  I won't believe anyone that these birds are healthy, and their eggs are healthy too.  I would encourage anyone to know where your food comes from. 

Going back to Mama

The baby chicks went back to Mama last night.  Chickens are funny.  If they wake up and see another chicken or baby in their coop, they accept them without a fight.  Out of 12 eggs, we had 8 babies.  This is the first batch of the year.  They are strong and full of energy.  Farmer Boy already has a favorite one!

 

Mochi Pounding on Bainbridge Island on January 18th

Bainbridge Island used to be a major farming community.  Now it’s a mix of everything from farms to condominiums.  I am more familiar with the Japanese history of the island.  To celebrate the New Year the Bainbridge Island Japanese-American Community is inviting everyone to the 5^th Annual Mochi Tsuki Festival on January 18^th, 11 am to 3 pm.  This is a fun and free local event.  For more information, see http://islandwood.org/events/mochi-tsuki-festival. 

January 8 – Happy New Mochi!

Mochi is a must for a New Year’s celebration!  In our household, it’s chocolate mochi!  It is not really mochi, it’s more brownies with some mochi consistency.  I used the recipe from “Hawaii’s Best Mochi Recipes” by Jean Watanabe Hee.  My new range didn’t die, I love it!!!

I got our share from Terry’s Berries.  I didn’t understand the saying “It tastes like food”, till we started eating organic food.  We got apples, pears, beets, carrots, cabbage, choice of bunch of kale, collards, potatoes, garlic, onions, winter squashes, turnips, and a bag of salad.  I would encourage everyone to support your local farms.  They don’t even need to be organic.  I don’t think we will ever get to biodiversity if we reject your plain everyday diversity.  Puyallup valley houses many different farms, which are disappearing.  The recent flooding wiped out the Yoshi Koi Farm.  I hope they come back. 

What I made from it – no pork winter minestrone, no meat Caesar salad, butternut bisque, baked winter squash (served as dessert with ice-cream), apple butter, and cranberry apple butter (added cranberries and 1 cup brown sugar).  I also made waffles from a box (we had milk that went sour, so I needed to do something with it) and fudge, and baked cornbread (that sour milk is still sour).

What I really need to do is sit down and think of basic dishes I should be able to make from scratch for the whole year.  I noticed this week I kept running out to pick up two or three things at a time.  I wasted time and gas, not good.  

January 5 - Money, Money, Money

We need a budget.  Can a family of 2 with your average income live locally and sustainably?  If you read 100 Mile Diet: Local Eating for Global Change, it says:

Was it expensive?

Again, only in the beginning.  Most of us pay a big premium for out-of-season foods like cherries in winter or prepared foods like spaghetti sauce, usually with a long list of ingredients we might prefer not to have in our bodies.  Eating locally, we bought fresh ingredients in season and direct from the farmer - and we were often buying bulk.  We preserved enough food for the winter that we rarely had to buy groceries.  Our bet?  Most people eating a typical diet could save money by eating locally.

 

However, there is no total dollar amount mentioned.  So how much does a 100 Mile Diet cost annually?  I went to our local library today and came across a flyer “Facts About Basic Food”.  It’s a Washington State program that helps low-income family with their food needs, www.foodhelp.wa.gov.  The flyer states that to qualify a household of 2 needs to make up to $2,334 a month.  The program will give them $323 a month in food assistance.  These are just good numbers to start my budget planning.  ($2,334 + $323) x 12 months = $31,884.  Can a person live sustainably and organically on $32,000 (for everything, not just food) a year?

I posted a question to James and Alisa on their site.  I hope they answer.