Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup
Everybody knows that chicken soup is good for the soul, but studies show that it`s also good for the body. When you catch a cold, your body sends out white blood cells to fight it. These cells, called neutrophils, don`t always stay where they`re needed and their migration causes stuffy noses and coughs. Scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have found that something in chicken soup keeps the neutrophils from wandering and lessening their effects on your body. Researchers at Mount Sinai in Miami also found that chicken soup not only helps clear stuffy noses, but it also improves the effectiveness of your cilia, which are your tiny inner nose hairs, in filtering out anything contagious that you might breathe in. Neither study isolated what exactly makes chicken soup so effective. Experts agree that it`s probably something in the combination of chicken and vegetables, so don`t skimp on the fresh produce when making your soup. Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup Equipment Needed Roasting pan with rack Pot or Dutch oven Ingredients Olive oil Unsalted butter, softened 1 chicken, raw White wine, dry Cracked pepper Kosher salt Sage Rosemary Thyme 1 parsnip 2 onions 3 to 6 cloves garlic 4 to 6 stalks celery Strainer 2 carrots Corn Peas Egg noodles, cooked Directions Preheat your oven to 350° F. Coat a roasting pan and rack with olive oil and place your fresh chicken on the rack, breast up. Massage the softened butter into the chicken`s skin. Pour 1 cup or so of dry white wine over the chicken. Add enough water to the roasting pan to fill it to about 1/4 inch. Season the chicken with cracked pepper, kosher salt, rosemary, sage and thyme. Roast the chicken for 60 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 65° F. Boiling a chicken leaches flavor from the meat. Roasting the chicken and then boiling the carcass takes longer but gives you fresh broth without sacrificing the meat`s flavor. Take the chicken out of the oven and off the rack and set it on a plate to cool. Leave the juices in the roasting pan. When the chicken is near room temperature, pick it clean, separating the meat into one bowl and the skin and bones into another. Coat the bottom of a large pot or Dutch oven with olive oil and turn the heat to medium. Add the chicken skin and bones. Cover the bones with at least 6 to 8 cups of water and another cup or so of white wine. Add the drippings from the roasting pan. Skim the fat off the top first, if you prefer. Peel and roughly chop a parsnip and put it in the pot. Peel and quarter 1 onion and separate the sections into the pot. Peel and slice 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, depending on how strong a garlic flavor you prefer. Wash 2 or 3 stalks of celery, but don`t remove the leaves. Cut the stalks into quarters, crosswise. Toss them into the pot. Bring the pot to a boil. Lower it to a simmer and let it cook, uncovered, for at least 1 hour. Strain the broth into another pot and set it back on the stove at a simmer to cook down for another 30 minutes or so. Discard the skin, bones and other solids. Taste the broth and correct the seasoning, remembering that the flavors will get more intense as it cooks down. If the flavors get too intense, add a little water. Rinse the first pot and coat the bottom with olive oil. Peel and chop 1 onion, 2 to 3 cloves of garlic, 2 to 3 stalks of celery and 2 small carrots. Season them with cracked pepper and kosher salt and sauté over medium heat until they soften. Taste the broth. If it`s cooked down enough, add it to the vegetables. If not, turn the vegetables off until the broth is done. Add the broth to the vegetables. Shred or chop the chicken meat and add that. Stir in corn and peas to taste. Petit pois peas are excellent in this soup. Correct the seasoning and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes to let the flavors blend. Serve over hot, wide egg noodles. Keep the noodles separate when storing leftovers or they tend to absorb all of the broth. The fresher the ingredients, the healthier the soup. The chicken soup lovers at The Backyard Chicken Farmer recommend a home water system like those offered at Angel Springs to ensure that you start with the purest water possible.
How to Buy with Environmental Responsibility and Sustainability
Replacing your electrical conduits with solar panels or bicycling to make enough power to toast bread is environmentally romantic, but that level of dedication is beyond the financial and physical means of most people. Most green consumers are people needing to tighten their belts and wanting to do so responsibly. Living both sustainably and affordably is not as difficult as you may think. Just change a few habits to embrace some very simple and absolutely practical principles. Buy ingredients instead of meals. The less packaging you purchase, the less trash you produce. This is not only environmentally sound, but it also makes economic sense. For example, if you buy a frozen chicken dinner, you have one meal with a leftover plastic bag or box. Purchase a fresh, whole chicken and you not only have several meals, but you can make broth with the carcass and skin and compost whatever`s left. Purchasing staples such as flour, pasta, beans, grains and nuts in bulk saves you money and reduces packaging. Keeping the freezer stocked with frozen poultry, meats and seafood and the refrigerator stuffed with fresh fruits and vegetables ensures that on busy nights you can toss together a healthy and hearty meal from what`s on hand instead of sending the person standing closest to the car off to the drive-thru. Make sure that most of what you buy is grown or produced locally. It doesn`t do the environment much good to buy organic if the organic produce is shipped in or flown in from some place far away. When you do want to eat out, eat locally. This doesn`t necessarily mean eating expensively. Many small restaurants purchase from local farmers, which means they are not paying fuel costs to have things trucked in. Patronizing smaller, local businesses is also good for the community because people who are successful where they live are far more likely to give back than chains or franchises owned or licensed by multinational corporations. Read labels to check for sustainability. Look for energy ratings on anything that consumes power. Check for Forest Stewardship Council, or FSC, certification on anything made from wood. This guarantees that the piece was made from sustainable wood. Purchase as many products made from recycled materials as possible. Tailor your purchases to where you live. In areas where there is a scarcity of water but good recycling programs, it makes sense to use recycled paper towels and plates and recyclable plastic utensils and cups rather than washing dishes, utensils, glasses and dish towels. If you live in a place with abundant water but no real recycling, use only washable items. Buy things that last so you can repair them instead of replacing them. Investing in well-tailored clothing for toddlers makes no sense unless you`re expecting several more to come along. But spending a few extra dollars on coats, shoes and other apparel made well from sustainable materials means that you don`t have to keep replacing them. Doing so eases the strain on your budget and helps to keep small, local repair shops in business. Purchase as much of what you need used when you can. This not only offers you a bargain, but it helps someone else by putting a bit of cash in their pocket. Think `people` when you think sustainability, because what use is it to save the planet if everybody`s struggling so hard to survive that they can`t enjoy it? Locally, you can help your fellow human beings by supporting small businesses and being a `locavore`. Globally, look for Fair Trade items to ensure that what you are purchasing was made by people who are working in safe conditions and being paid fairly for their labor. The green consumers at The Backyard Chicken Farmer suggest contacting experts such as those found at Caffe Society to start your day off right with the most delicious Fair Trade coffee available.
Best Kitchen Equipment for Home Meat Processing and Preserving
Most people think of jellies, jams and pickles when they consider preserving at home, but it is not any more complicated to process and preserve your own meats. The main difference is the need for appliances that can handle heavy grinding and tasks like stuffing sausage casings that are far too difficult and time consuming for modern urban homesteaders to manage by hand. The first thing you will need is a safe supply of fresh meats. If you are raising animals for slaughter, take an extensive training course in proper butchering techniques. This is for safety as well as for efficient use of the meats, because improper butchering can lead to contamination. Invest in a good set of meat knives. Which brand is best is largely a matter of personal preference, but any knife you use should have a blade that is securely attached to the handle and which can be sharpened when needed. The smaller the animal, the smaller and thinner the knife should be. A good meat grinder is necessary if you are going to grind your own ground beef and especially if you intend to make homemade sausages. Look for a grinder that has a workhorse of a motor, because that is the most crucial part. If you are new to processing and preserving meats at home, consider investing in a good standing mixer, because they generally have meat-grinding attachments available. Another feature to look for is a reversible feeder to take care of tougher meats like game animals. Many meat grinders come with a funnel for stuffing sausage casings, but these are not efficient enough to stuff casings without letting the meat become too warm. Look for a piston-driven stuffing attachment to power the ground meat into the casing fast enough to ensure that it retains a safely chilled temperature.A hamburger press is a good idea if you`re making a large quantity of burgers, because it produces burgers that are all the same size and weight. This is important because when you make burgers by hand, they can be of such different weights and thickness that they won`t cook at the same rate. That means a few overcooked burgers in every batch along with a few that may be dangerously under-cooked. If you are roasting and smoking your own meats, making cold cuts is an excellent and versatile way to use them. A meat slicer with a rotating blade and adjustable feed system allows you to slice meats, cheeses and vegetables to uniform thickness. This is not only important in processing meats, as it can help with canning vegetables, making pickle slices and (best of all) home made potato, sweet potato, turnip and beet chips. Once your meat has been processed, one of the safest and most convenient ways to preserve it is with a vacuum sealer. Place single servings of meat, sausage or poultry into small plastic bags and use the vacuum sealer to suction out all of the air. This protects the meat while allowing you to see what it is. Label the plastic bags with the date to ensure that all of your meats are enjoyed while they are still fresh. If you intend to process and preserve the majority of the meat your family will consume, it might be wise to check out an array of both personal and commercial-grade equipment. The urban homesteading enthusiasts at The Backyard Chicken Farmer recommend consulting with the friendly experts at CS Catering Equipment to get an idea of where to start in stocking your kitchen to home process meats safely, efficiently and deliciously
Urban Farming: A Growing Industry
With the concern about food safety, farmers markets popularity is increasing as people look for organic fruits and vegetables. From college campuses to city blocks, farmer’s markets are a staple of our culture. Large Cities Going Green In rural New York, farmers travel to Brooklyn farmers markets to sell their crops. With the demand for safer food, urban farming provides consumers with food from a trusted source while decreasing the amount of food affected by genetic enhancements. This growth of farmers markets leads to increases in urban farming. In addition to supplying healthy organic food, in some areas, urban farming utilizes unused city resources, like abandoned buildings and lots; spaces are converted to urban farms, like the greenhouse on an abandoned dock in New York City. In addition to reclaiming abandoned property, many urban farms are located on city rooftops. This helps keep buildings cooler and saves energy by lowering the cost of air conditioning. Many Benefits Environmental waste from transporting food by trucks leaves a carbon footprint on our environment. By offering food locally to farmers markets and grocery stores, urban framing saves money and lessens environmental waste. The demand for urban farming provides jobs and education, with many farming programs opening in major cities. Children and adults learn about the benefits of growing local while working on a farm; giving them the knowledge of what it takes to start their own urban farm. Even with the benefits of urban farming, there are concerns as well. Cities often contain more pollution than their outskirts which raises concerns the pollution will contaminate the city soil and its crops. While the crops help make the air cleaner, some cities are too polluted for harvesting healthy crops. The New Trend is Not So New Urban farming is becoming noticeably trendy in the United States; however it’s not a new concept. Beginning in Ancient Egypt, urban farming is centuries old. Using available resources, Egyptians used excess waste as the plot for seeds. Following the Egyptian’s lead, Grange Farm in Brooklyn, New York makes use of resources found in unusual areas. Grange Farm utilizes over two acres of rooftops, in Brooklyn and Queens, New York. Since opening in 2010, they’ve sold more than 40,000 vegetables to their. Their goal is to bring delicious vegetables to their community while building New York into a more sustainable place to live with positive effects to the environment. Grange Farm sells locally to restaurants as well as operating farm stands at farmers markets throughout the boroughs. They also sell privately to CSA members but do not sell beyond the boroughs of New York City. Their business however transcends the island of Manhattan as they consult on urban farm set ups throughout the United States. Grange also offers a non-profit program called City Growers. With learning on the farm and in the classroom, this program educates students about urban farming, health, and sustainability. The program’s goal is making future generations more environmentally conscious while learning ways to make a greener New York. Other Urban Farming Operations Zenger Farm, in Portland, Oregon, was established in 1913. Established in 1913, Zenger Farm in Portland, Oregon is a family tradition, passed from Ulrich Zenger to his son, Ulrich Zenger Jr. The farm has remained independently owned since it began. While continuing to produce crops since Zenger Jr.’s death, the farm is also a non-profit for educational out reach. Along with keeping crops sold independently, they educate children on sustainable living. The basis of the educational program at Zenger comes from the idea that healthy food comes from healthy soil even in the city. This educational program teaches about food, farming, and wetland conservation and how these things make for a healthy, thriving, city environment. Zenger Farm offers farm field trips where students can visit and learn about the farm and the importance in keeping a green community and a one-week summer camp where students actually work on the farm. Weekend workshops are also provided—in workshops adults are taught farm skills by working on the farm and learning about buying healthy organic food on a budget. Zenger takes pride in their community outreach and sharing the importance of their urban farm in improving the Portland community. B&T Farm, based in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hacienda Heights, began in the backyard of Brett Wyatt. After raids at the Buddhist monastery he was studying at, he began working at a farm in Thailand. It was there he met his wife Tanya and decided to continue their passion for growing in the United States where they specialize in oyster mushrooms and sell to customers at farmers markets on the weekends. Oyster mushrooms require a rigorous process of boiling the seeds to ensure no other mold grows around the mushrooms. The Wyatts also grow crops native to Thailand as well as crops more prominent in the United States, such as spinach and broccoli. Detroit’s Hantz Farm boasts the largest Urban Farm in the United States. With Detroit’s economic downturn from the failing auto industry, thousands of houses stand empty. Once the properties were vacated, the land reverted back to the city. No revenue could be collected and these lots set vacant so many were sold. Hantz Corporation began buying the land from the government to build into urban farms and community gardens. In doing this, Hantz is creating jobs, offering healthy food choices, and revitalizing the land while helping the city of Detroit. In addition to their urban farms, Hantz is planting trees to help the environment and beautify the city. By helping the community through growth, Hantz is bringing the communities together while helping each other and getting involved in restoring the city. Urban farms help improve a city’s environment, economy, land, and community. Many major cities have community farms where anyone can start a plot and plant what they want to grow. If you’re interested in getting involved, check with your city. No matter how dense the population, there may be a plot
Bring on the Eggs
Warm Weather – Flowers – and Eggs I love this time of year; it’s not spring yet and winter lets us know, he’s still around. Yet, anticipating a green landscape freckled with colorful flowers, gives me something to look forward to in a few short weeks. The excitement of things to come makes me smile as the days slowly warm with lingering sunlight. It’s also the time of year we start planning. Right now, we’re planting seeds for our container gardens and planning out where everything will go. It’s also the time of year my hens start producing more eggs. While we gather eggs year around, except for in extremely hot or cold weather, spring and fall are our biggest egg production seasons. With my excitement for spring comes the duty of a responsible backyard chicken farmer. As well as the well-being of our flock, knowing about the eggs they produce is just as important. The Laying House – The Coop and Nest Because of the direct relationship to the condition of your eggs, I must mention flock management. While feeding your birds a balanced ration is important, coop and nest management is also important. • Chickens like to hide their eggs and pick some of the strangest places to nest. Because of this, I recommend keeping your flock in a fenced area. By letting your hens nest wherever they choose, there’s a higher risk of broken eggs and knowing how old the eggs are is difficult. • Clean, clean, clean, and more clean. Keeping the nest area clean and dry makes for better eggs. Muddy runs and damp, dirty nesting material results in dirty and stained eggs. I recommend cleaning the laying area once a week however, a minimum of two weeks is okay, making sure you remove all wet litter and the run has good drainage. • For a small flock of 15 hens or less, you need a minimum of four nesting boxes while larger flocks need 1 nesting box for every 4 to 5 hens. Make sure the nests have a deep clean layer of litter which helps control egg breakage and absorbs waste. Egg Collection Chickens are early layers with most of the eggs laid by 10:00 am. If possible, collect the eggs as soon as possible after laid. Sometimes you can’t collect until later in the day and that’s okay, however collecting early lessens the chance of breakage and the eggs becoming too dirty. I advise collecting eggs twice daily. Hens can develop egg eating habits. By collecting eggs often, the chance of breakage is less and you lessen the risk of the hens learning to eat an egg. Collect your eggs in an easy-to-clean container; plastic egg flats or wire baskets work great, and make sure you don’t stack your eggs too high. Never stack more than 5 layers deep. The higher you stack your eggs, the more likely breakage will occur. Egg Cleaning and Handling This is a hotly debated subject: should I wash my eggs? I never wash my eggs until right before I use them. Washing your eggs will cause them to go bad quicker. Brush them off before storing them, only if you have to. My best advice; store them the way you find them. Just before laying her eggs, the hen’s body adds a protective coating to the shell, known as bloom. Leaving this protective film on the eggs helps keep out bacteria and traps moisture inside the egg, resulting in a full, rich egg with a bright orange yolk. Many farmers never refrigerate their eggs because the bloom is so protective. Once you wash the egg or wipe it down too much, you destroy the bloom and the egg needs refrigeration. If you’ve ever been to Europe, you will notice, fresh eggs are never refrigerated because the farmers leave the bloom on them. A fresh egg with bloom intact will keep all high quality nutrients, when kept at room temperature, for up to three months. When you crack open a fresh egg, you’ll see a bright orange yolk and the albumen, or the jelly substance surrounding the yolk, is slightly cloudy. Quick Science Lessen The cloudiness of the egg white, or albumen, of a backyard egg looks cloudy. This means the fresh egg has carbon dioxide present. With a factory farmed egg, the albumen is clear. This means the egg was washed which allowed the carbon dioxide to escape through the porous shell or the egg is old. The more gas that escapes, the more transparent and runny the white will be. Commercial egg producers wash their eggs as well as running them through a chemical wash. These chemicals seep into the pores since the eggs are no longer protected by the bloom. The chemical washes cause a reaction in the egg. The yolk shrinks and turns pale, while the albumen becomes clear. Farm eggs may have a clear albumen as well but this usually means the clearer the albumen, the less fresh your egg is. Chilling or Not Chilling Whenever I tell people I don’t chill my eggs, they look at me like I’m crazy. Then I hear the usual questions…“ They’ll go bad, won’t they?” or “Won’t you get salmonella poisoning?” My answer: “If they’re backyard eggs…no.” The United States is one of the few countries requiring mass producers wash their eggs and keep them refrigerated. Once the protective coating is gone, the egg becomes susceptible to bacteria. All store-bought eggs need refrigeration or the risk of salmonella is high. Because of this, it’s important to understand the difference between a factory farmed egg and a backyard chicken farmer egg. Eggs shells are nothing more than permeable membranes with thousands of pores covering the surface. When the hen lays an egg, her body covers it with the protective bloom coating. This mucous secretion quickly dries after laying, to seal the shell’s pores. This makes it impervious to bacteria while reducing moisture loss. Moisture loss will speed up
Building a Chicken Coop – The Ultimate Guide
Building a Chicken Coop When deciding to be a backyard chicken farmer, an important consideration is the chicken coop or henhouse. Not only do you need a large, well secured pen, you need secure housing as well. Your henhouse should protect your flock from the weather and predators. You can find ready-made chicken coops at area farm and hardware stores. Or, you can buy your Chicken Villa online. You will find them in various sizes and styles with prices ranging from $500 to over $5,000. Personally, I prefer building a chicken coop over the cost of ready-made coops. You can build for a fraction of the price and usually, it only takes 2-3 days to finish. As long as you use cedar for the floor, pine wood, new or used will work. Building your own henhouse has several benefits: It costs less than prebuilt. You can take several ideas from various henhouses and give it your own, unique style. A house you build will have everything you need without having to add extras to a ready-made coop. You’re not confined to predetermined sizes and can build according to the size and shape of your property. You have peace of mind, knowing you have a securely built henhouse. Involving the whole family is a fun learning experience. The most important tool, if building your own, is a good set of plans. I never recommend “anything” unless I’ve tried it myself, and “Building A Chicken Coop” by Bill Keene, is a good instructional book. A former poultry farmer, Bill Keene not only tells you how to build your coop, he also shares his knowledge of raising chickens in this information packed eBook offered in PDF format. I have a portable coop made from Bill’s plans, and I call it my organic fertilizer spreader. We made this coop from used lumber from an old barn. Besides building the coop, you will learn where to place it, add proper ventilation and what materials to use. Included with your book: Complete building plans for 3 different coop sizes; a large, double story house, holding up to 10 chickens, midsize, housing for up to 4 chickens, and a small portable coop. 4 bonus guides: 1. The Cheapest Materials To Build Your Coop Out Of 2. The Best Materials For The Ground 3. How to Build Nesting Boxes For Free Out of Common Material 4. Where to Best Position Your Chicken Coop A 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee Immediate access to all materials The 4 bonus guides alone, are worth the cost of the book and contain a wealth of hard to find information. Even with no woodworking experience, you can complete one of these easy to follow coop plans. All 3 coop styles have detailed 3D pictures of each step, clear and precise instructions and complete material list, showing the lumber sizes in both feet and inches measurements and meters. I suggest only using this book for building your chicken coop, not for the other information it contains. We raise all our livestock as organically as possible, without antibiotics, steroids etc. Our concern is having a good supply of meat and eggs coming from animals free of chemicals. This book suggests using medications and does not support raising chickens without these harmful drugs; which is contradictory to raising organic and healthy food.
Backyard Chickens – The 6 Best Breeds For Beginners
Choosing a Chicken Breed Chicken breeds break down into three categories: meat chickens, egg layers and dual-purpose. Trying to decide which category of chicken you need and what breed out of the hundreds of different breeds is a daunting task. I hope I can help by narrowing the choices down to what I consider the top six chicken breeds for beginners. For a beginner backyard chicken farmer, there are certain characteristics to look for when choosing a chicken breed. My top six breeds have at least two of these characteristics: • Choose a friendly and easy to tame chicken breed • Pick a breed that is easy to care for • Look for a common breed. Avoid the fancy and rare breeds until you become more experienced. These should be breeds you can find at most local feed and farm stores or in hatchery catalogs • For laying hens, choose a breed known for high egg production • For meat chickens, you need a breed that will gain weight quickly Orpington This is my number-one choice for a beginner chicken breed. Orpingtons have a great personality and lay a good amount of large brown eggs. Orpinton chicks like human contact and try to get your attention by jumping on you when you feed them. As adults, they still crave your attention and like to sit on your lap. This makes Orpingtons a great family chicken the kids will love. We owned an Orpington who would climb in our laps and go to sleep. Orpingtons are a large breed with a standard weight of eight pounds. They are a hardy chicken and tolerate cold weather very well. Rhode Island Red Rhode Island Reds are the best breed for producing brown eggs, and their laying productivity is far above average. They adapt well to confinement or as a free-range chicken. They are easy to care for and hardy, making them ideal for beginners. Rhode Island Reds are an active breed and fairly calm and docile. However, males are aggressive and not suited around small pets and children. If you want rich, brown eggs, then choose the Rhode Island Red hens. Leghorn Leghorns are another superior laying chicken with a lay rate of more than 300 eggs yearly. These chickens are hardy and heat tolerant, but their combs and beaks are subject to frostbite so petroleum jelly is needed during the winter months. You can use Leghorns for meat chickens, however, their lower weight of only 4.5 pounds makes them better for laying extra large, white eggs. If you are looking for a dual-purpose chicken, I recommend the Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock With an average weight of 7.5 pounds and above-average egg production, the Plymouth Rock makes a great, dual-purpose chicken. Hens typically lay 200 brown eggs each year and males weigh up to 10 pounds. They are a robust and, cold hardy bird. The Plymouth Rock is friendly, docile and easy to handle, making it a good addition to your flock. They are well adaptable to confinement or free-range. Cornish The Cornish chicken has a quick growth rate and is large, making it popular with people raising chickens for meat. A male Cornish can reach 11 pounds while a hen may weigh as much as 8 pounds. The Cornish breed has white plumage, which doesn’t leave pigment in the skin unlike dark feathered chickens do. They are cold hardy and less active than other breeds, making them easily contained. Because of their slowness and inability to defend themselves, I don’t recommend these birds for a mixed flock: keep them separated from the other chickens. Silkies The Silkie Bantam chicken is an ornamental breed. If you want chickens for pets, then the Silkie is a good choice. They are a tame breed and small and great mothers should you decide to hatch fertile eggs. They also make good foster mothers for new chicks you add to the flock. Silkies boast some unique features. With a face resembling a Shiatsu dog, these small chickens have black skin and bones and five toes instead of the standard four. They do well in close confinement but should be separated from the rest of your flock. Take special care during cold weather as their crest feathers may freeze.