IT'S SO GOOD TO BE BACK!

Hi Fellow Foodies!  It's been very frustrating waiting for computer repairs during the best time of year for the Markets and for cooking!  But at last, my Dell is back and better than ever.  Over the coming days, I hope to catch up and share photos of the Farm and the Farmers Markets we've visited, as well as new recipes, AND discussions about that all important activity of Preserving (canning, freezing, refrigerating) the bounty of this season.

So, yes, there's so much to talk about, but I thought the current news about salmonella loaded eggs was a good place to start!  Frankly, I just have to start there. Some of us don't think that this place in Iowa is a solitary situation.  In fact, we actually believe that this is what the agri-business really is!  What we do believe is happening is that there are more and more whistle blowers out there - thank goodness - who are willing to report what they have seen in these places.  I am hoping that this is just the tip of the iceberg in exposing the awful  and unsanitary conditions that exist in the production of what Americans are told is "food".

I have had many people tell me that they can't read Michael Pollan's books and they absolutely can't watch "Food, Inc" - so sad, all those tortured animals, etc., etc.  Yeah, yeah, I get it - they're sensitive.  BUT they will allow those situations to go on!  They will continue to purchase factory farmed, drug loaded, blister wrapped meats and chicken; they will continue to purchase eggs from caged hens - by the way, what did you THINK that meant?; and, they will continue to eat food with a carbon foodprint of about a million miles!  Asparagus on the East Coast in February?  Sure!

A second reaction that always floors me - those folks who call themselves "picky" eaters  (I take offense, I am a picky eater - they are "limited" eaters) and who seem to be afraid of everything: new flavors, fresh food, and of course, all "Street Food" (that's a discussion for another time) - and yet, these same folks will eat lunches and dinners that they buy in boxes which supposedly contain meat and that can be kept on a cabinet shelf or in your desk drawer.  Huh?  These are the folks who use margarine ("it's healthier"), while dining at your home, find the free range, drug free beef "chewy", and who avoid those heirloom tomatoes because they have "blemishes".  Wow, all I can ever think is, friend, you are afraid of all the wrong things! 

And now, their beloved stupermarket eggs - even the ones with the little red letters stamped on them - are tainted.  And their response?  "Don't eat eggs".  NO, that's not the answer - the answer is, don't eat eggs from caged hens incarcerated in factory farms!

In the Tri- State area - and in Philadelphia in particular - we are so lucky to have numerous Farmers Markets, set up on days throughout the week and throughout the city, where fresh eggs, raw milk, yogurt and butter, local, seasonal produce and humanely raised, drug free protein is available to all of us.  Stupermarket shopping is easier, I have been told - just how far does this particular form of laziness extend?  You eat the stuff you buy there!  Isn't that worth a bit of your time? If it's not, what is?

I also have to voice my sadness at what the lives of the chickens in these awful places must be like.  Chickens are entertaining, funny and engaging creatures. Not to mention what they provide for we humans. When you have had the pleasure of sitting and watching them walk around and peck the ground and come up and sit on your shoulder and basically just be a pleasure to be around, your heart breaks - again - for the awful way we treat living creatures for our own use.

So, what are you going to do with this recent knowledge about egg farming?  Do you feel it's worth changing some of your shopping habits?  If you have already grown up and are buying fresh and local products and supporting our farms, how are you trying to educate those who haven't progressed?

Let's hear from you!