Why buy organic eggs?!

In the wake of the nationwide recall of eggs for contamination with salmonella, many consumers may be wondering what types of eggs are healthiest and safest to buy?

More than 90 percent of U.S. eggs come from caged hens. These birds have a space smaller than the size of a sheet of paper to move around, and live in filthy conditions. Aside from animal welfare concerns, that's bad for our health, too, Pennsylvania State University shows, because researchers recently found eggs raised on pasture are much more nutritious than eggs from their caged counterparts.

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Penn State's study, published recently in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems found that pastured hens—ones kept outside on different pastures where they can exhibit natural behavior and forage for bugs and grasses—boasted higher vitamin and omega-3 fatty acid levels when compared to their commercially fed, battery-cage-kept counterparts. Eggs from pastured hens contained twice as much vitamin E and 2.5 times more total omega-3 fatty acids as the eggs from caged birds contained.

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What it means
There are dozens of claims that manufacturers can make on egg cartons. Some of them are meaningful, but others are just ways to trick consumers into thinking they're buying eggs from happy chickens. (Remember, 90 percent of chicken eggs produced in this country come from the worst type of production system—battery cages.)

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..In an ideal situation, you would purchase your eggs from a local farmer in your area who raises chickens on pasture with plenty of space per bird, and uses moveable, open-air chicken houses, sometimes called chicken tractors, to protect the birds from predators. (You can look for this type of farmer on LocalHarvest.org.) Of course, you could also raise backyard chickens, if you have what it takes.

Eliminating cruel chicken cages is a matter of human health as well as animal welfare. The farther you take chickens away from their natural behaviors, the worse the quality of their eggs or meat.

"When you put four or five chickens in tiny cages, they can't engage in normal chicken behavior—pecking in the dirt, dusting. If they're in a cage, they can't do any of these things," explains chicken expert Gail Damerow, author of the classic Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens (Storey, 2010). (She hasn't purchased a store-bought egg since 1982.) "The pressure of the wire cages against their feet causes infections, their feathers rub off on the side of the cages. Basically, they're just totally frustrated. They've got nothing to do. They can't run around and eat flies and take dust baths. They just sit and lay eggs—what kind of life is that?" One result of all that stress and cruelty is that confined birds' eggs contain less nutrition than eggs from hens with room to roam.

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What the labels on the egg carton really mean:
• "Cage-Free" "Cage-free is certainly not like Old McDonald's farm," explains Paul Shapiro, spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States. But it's a lot better than battery cages, where most eggs are produced. "Cage-free" means that animals are not kept in cages, but generally they are kept inside in an enclosed building. While this is less than ideal, at least this setup gives animals a chance to spread their wings and lay eggs in nest boxes, which is closer to their natural behavior. Cage-free does not imply antibiotics were not used on hens.
• "Free-Range" or "Free-Roaming" Usually these types of operations allow chickens outside of cages in barns or warehouses, but they aren't required to provide the animals any specific amount of time outside—or even exposure to sunlight indoors. There's no third-party inspection required for free-range claims, and the chickens can be debeaked or forced into molting through starvation, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

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..• "Organic" A USDA-certified organic label means the eggs came from hens that were not enclosed in battery cages, and that must be offered access to the outdoors. However, this doesn't guarantee that the animals ever go outside. Organic eggs come from hens that were fed certified-organic feed, free of antibiotics, pesticides, and other animal products. Forced molting and debeaking are permitted in certified-organic production. Annual inspections are required.
• "Natural" This means that the finished product hasn't undergone certain unnatural processes; in this case, that product is the egg. However, just because eggs are labeled natural doesn't mean a hen wasn't pumped up with antibiotics or other unnatural substances. And it certainly doesn't mean the chickens were raised in clean, humane conditions. For all intents and purposes, natural means nothing.
• "Pastured" Pastured chickens should be housed on grassland in portable shelters that are periodically moved to give the chickens fresh pasture, but there's no third-party inspection required to ensure that's what's really happening. Your best bet is to buy eggs from pastured hens at a local farm that raises the hens organically, ensuring they're not exposed to pesticides, animal by-products, or antibiotics.
• "Omega-3-Enriched" This means hens were fed feed with an increased amount of omega-3-rich flaxseeds. However, pasture-raised hens are already higher in beneficial omega-3s, and they get to be outside. Technically, caged hens could also be fed flax feed, so don't equate this label with better living standards.
• "Certified Humane" This means birds are not kept in cages, but they can be kept indoors. They at least have the space to perform natural behaviors. The program of Human Farm Animal Care sets limits on the number of birds that can be contained in the same area, and outside inspectors perform audits. The program does not, however, require that the animals eat organic feed.
• "United Egg Producers Certified" Shapiro says this, along with "natural," is one of the most misleading claims made on an egg carton. While forced molting is prohibited under this certification, debeaking is allowed, along with other cruel and inhumane practices, such as the use of battery cages.

Huge meat recall!

Another reason to support your local farmers!

Zemco Industries in Buffalo, New York, has recalled approximately 380,000 pounds of deli meat that may be contaminated with bacteria that can cause a potentially fatal disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday. The products were distributed to Wal-Marts nationwide, according to the USDA's website. The meats may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, which was discovered in a retail sample collected by inspectors in Georgia. The USDA has received no reports of illnesses associated with the meats.
"Consumption of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially fatal disease," according to the USDA. "Healthy people rarely contract listeriosis. However, listeriosis can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea.
"Listeriosis can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths, as well as serious and sometimes fatal infections in those with weakened immune systems, such as infants, the elderly and persons with HIV infection or undergoing chemotherapy," the USDA said.
Wal-Mart did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday from CNN.
The products subject to recall are:

-- 25.5-pound cases of "Marketside Grab and Go Sandwiches BLACK FOREST HAM With Natural Juices Coated with Caramel Color" with the number 17800 1300.
-- 28.49-pound cases of "Marketside Grab and Go Sandwiches HOT HAM, HARD SALAMI, PEPPERONI, SANDWICH PEPPERS" with the number 17803 1300.
-- 32.67-pound cases of "Marketside Grab and Go Sandwiches VIRGINIA BRAND HAM With Natural Juices, MADE IN NEW YORK, FULLY COOKED BACON, SANDWICH PICKLES, SANDWICH PEPPERS" with the number 17804 1300.
-- 25.5-pound cases of "Marketside Grab and Go Sandwiches ANGUS ROAST BEEF Coated with Caramel Color" with the number 17805 1300.
The meats were produced on dates ranging from June 18 to July 2, 2010. The "Use By" dates range from August 20 to September 10, 2010.

Egg recall!

32 million dozens of eggs have been recalled due to salmonella poisoning. Another good reason to support your local farmers and buy your eggs from them!

Canning 101!

Another very heathy, cheap way to make food is canning. This was my very first attempt at canning so I went over to my mother in law's who has been canning for years. It was a lot of fun actually and the food turned out edible so I was very happy. Here is how my first attempt went:
First we headed out to a local farm to pick some tomatoes. This is a great way for your kids to get involved as well.

Then we headed on over to MeMaw's house to cook up some yummy food!
Another great spot for the kids to help out is with cleaning the veggies (I think its the only thing I can get them to clean).

After cleaning the tomatoes, we cooked them in some hot water.

After cooking the tomatoes, peeling them, and slicing them we then added in all the other ingredients to make some yummy salsa (which my husband eats like crazy).

After getting it to a boil it was time to add in the spices.

We then cooked the salsa for awhile until it got to the right consistency we wanted.

The last thing to do was add the salsa to the canning jars and put them into boiling water to make the seal.

When we finished this is what we had!

I spent just a little over $20 and ended up with 11 1/2 jars of salsa and 6 pints of tomato juice! Just that amount of salsa alone is worth well over $20! I was very happy with my first canning experience and even enjoyed it. I'm very excited on canning many more fruits and veggies over the next few weeks! And the best part of canning is that once you have all the supplies and can grow a decent garden, you can store a lot of food for a very small amount (which has become our goal for next year). Hope you are able to give it a try and can enjoy as much as I have!

Saving money on fresh fruit and veggies!

Right now is the best time to be stocking up on all your fresh fruits and veggies while the price is right, but what do you do with them after you buy them since you obviously won't eat it all in one week. Well I spent about about $22 yesterday and came home with several grocery bags of fresh produce. After I got home I spent a couple of hours getting a lot of my veggies and fruit ready to freeze. Here is a website that will help you freeze most of your veggies: http://www.gardenguides.com/416-freezing-vegetables.html. It is so easy to do and it even tells you how long it will keep! I'm also going to start learning canning from my wonderful mother in law who has been doing it for years. With our garden in its prime, we are starting to take in more food than we can eat so I'm giving it to lots of family and friends but I really need to be getting it ready for the winter months. Why do I freeze and do canning? Right now food is cheap so why not stock up plus in the winter they buy the fresh fruit and veggies from across the world before it is ripe then use chemicals and gasses to ripen them......yuck! I want to keep everything as natural as I can for my family and this is the best way for us along with being very cost efficient! So I can't wait to adventure into canning and make lots more yummy food we can enjoy all winter long! Stay tuned for more!

Fruit salsa!

While in Branson this past week, I took a cooking class at Silver Dollar City about healthy snacks. One of the recipes was fruit salsa........hum, wasn't sure how I would like it. It turns out it is really good! And very easy to make!
Mix together the following ingredients
-one drained can of pineapples
-strawberries, kiwi, papaya, and mango sliced up
-diced up red onion
-about 5-6 dashes of soy sauce
-cut up cilantro
Mix everything together and serve. It was so good I've already made it twice! She suggested making it as a side to go with hawaiian chicken and rice and drizzle some of the juices over the rice.
You can also dice up the fruit into small pieces and eat it with chips.
Great summer time snack!

Saving money!

I just got done reading a great book called Saving Money Anyway You Can......Becoming a Frugal Family. This book was such a great read and although most of the things in there I already do, it did bring some new insight into a few things. For instance, to help save the environment along with saving lots of money is to always buy used. Go to garage sales, consignment shops, and best of all use freecycle. Most of this I already put into play and almost all of my kids clothes I buy used outside of the nice things that their grandparents will buy them. But this can go further than clothing, which is what I have never done. For instance we are really wanting to get new furniture someday......new leather furniture.......big ouch on our budget. I never really considered buying it used which is probably where it will eventually have to come from. Now all my kids furniture is used outside of our baby set which my parents bought us. Adriana's bedroom set came from my cousin's daughter. Andrew's bed is a Thomas the Train toddler bed which my mom bought him for his birthday off of Craigslist and his dresser is my sister's old baby dresser from her kids room. I think the hardest part of buying used would have to be a mattress. I'm not sure I can use someone else's used mattress.
It also had a lot of other good ideas on saving money but these had to do with being green and recycling all your old items and using recycled items. It is an older book so some things are really outdated but otherwise a good, easy read.