Very British… weather report for chickens
Most excellent and well worth a listen
Author: zerotrashtalk
Fashion Week’s Waste
Plenty of great insights and statistics on the sustainability of fashion. Nice piece to read. Well written.
5 Essentials for a Zero-Waste Shopping Kit
Zero waste shopping, big part of zero kitchen.
In order to run my zero-waste kitchen, I need to plan my shopping trips a bit. Before heading to the farmer’s market or grocery store, I take a look at the running shopping list on my phone and add a few things we might need. List in hand, I gather my zero-waste equipment. The list helps me figure out what I’ll need and while shopping, I stick closely to it.
Simple zero-waste shopping supplies: glass jars and bottles, metal containers, cloth shopping bag, cloth produce and bulk bags
1. Glass jars
How to discourage single-use packaging
I use my glass jars at the bulk bins. Get the weight on these before you fill them up. At some stores, customer service will weigh them for you and mark the tare on them. Other stores set out scales and you weigh the jars yourself. The cashier will deduct the weight of the…
View original post 796 more words
Bacon and Eggs Footprint
Bacon and Egg Breakfast
Bacon and eggs for breakfast has been a fairly regular go-to meal in my home, at least once a week. While I was preparing this I thought this would be a great meal to have a deeper look at and understand what this very common breakfast has for an environmental footprint. In this report I’m going to focus more on the eggs than the bacon or potatoes since I found more information that anticipated. Bacon in-depth to follow in another post.
Recipe:
2 eggs
3 strips of bacon
1 small Yukon potato
1 tsp. fat from bacon
Serves one
Directions:
Wash and scrub potato to remove eyes and any dirt. I like the peel on so I don’t peel organic potatoes. Boil potato until fork can easily penetrate the center.
Fry bacon on low in a frying pan.
As the bacon fat starts to render (melt) add the cooked potato grated, cubed, diced or cut in any shape you prefer to the pan, browning on all sides.
In a separate pan on medium melt butter. When butter has finished frothing spread around frying pan and break eggs into the center. I like my egg yolks runny and flip them once the white is set around yolk. For hard yolks flip eggs over until set.
For crispy bacon, turn occasionally and drain away excess fat as it renders.
I lean the bacon pan half on and off the burner so it is tipped on an angle. Push the bacon and potatoes at the top of the pan and let the fat drain to the lower half of pan away from bacon.
Plate.
Egg quality
There is a definite quality difference in the egg that is very fresh or not.
I poach eggs a lot and a fresh egg does not spread when placed in hot water but holds a symmetrical shape well. Vinegar is added to the water for stale or older eggs. The vinegar stops the whites from spreading as much as they would. I personally don’t like the sharp taste of vinegar or the tough skin that forms in my poached eggs, and it’s unnecessary when using fresh eggs.
The fresher the egg the harder to peel so I let fresh eggs sit for a week or two if I want them for deviled eggs,or buy them ‘fresh’ at the supermarket.
Even the eggs I buy at the farmers market are not as fresh as I think they should be but small flock and backyard eggs have consistently been amazing.
How to tell if an egg is fresh.
To test an egg for freshness before cooking gently an egg in a glass of room temperature water. If it floats to the top it is old and if it sinks to the bottom of the glass it is fresh.
The reason for this is, as the egg ages the egg whites and membranes deteriorate and an air pocket forms. The older the egg the larger the air pocket. Fresh eggs are hard to peel after boiling, because the membrane is firmly attached to the shell and the white fills the shell. Go here for more information.
Go here to learn how to read an egg carton
Environmental Footprint
Water Footprint
1 Egg = 50 gallons of water to feed and raise the chicken x 2 eggs = 100 gallons
Bacon x 3 slices = 119 gallons
Small potato = 3.6 gallons
Minimum Total = approx. 223 gallons of water to grow this breakfast
Carbon Footprint – Travel what I used to calculate
Carbon comparison of protein sources – Chicken or Cheese
Eggs
The eggs were bought locally from Schwartz Farms in Quincy, MI. Quincy is further than I thought, about 78 miles one way. = Approx: 695 kg CO2
I also buy eggs from a friend who bring their eggs to work. These travel about 20 milles each way. Approx.= 36 kg. CO2
Potatos
Potatoes came from Tantre Farms, 28 miles one way. = 250 kg. CO2
Bacon
Bacon from my local butcher comes from Smith’s Meat Packing in Port Huron.
99 miles away from the meat packers, unclear how far the pork came from,and where it was slaughtered. = 882 kg CO2
I can’t find a bacon source exactly but there are references to local pork and union membership.
Minimum Total = 1827 kg CO2
This is not an accurate measurement the carbon footprint for this meal starts at .5 metric tons of CO2e one way (measurement will vary with make a model of vehicle, gas mileage, vehicle efficiency and many other variables.
Animals – a new element to measure
Animals, meat, dairy, poultry and fish all add many more elements of scrutiny to the analysis of recipes beyond their environmental footprint. What are my comfort levels for their raising, lifespan and slaughter? Animal products in recipes involve more than measuring carbon, water and environmental footprints. There is a humane element that I consider as well.
More and more our meat food systems are being hidden from the public. For those of us that are interested in knowing the food system in detail governmental policies, legal restrictions, health codes aside from industry choices make it difficult to truly make choices as individuals.
All these areas are concerns of mine. I don’t expect anyone else to make the same choices as myself. I am a carnivore, actually an omnivore. I love dairy, cheese, eggs, fish along with fruits, vegetable and nuts but I believe there has to be a better way to treat our land, soil and animals than we are today.
Other reading.
What a farmer had to say, go here.
Eggs: I buy from two sources.
The first is locally grown eggs from farmers at the farmers market. I can ask the farmers what they feed the eggs, and how they house them.I believe the farmers and they answer frankly. Most of the chickens are fed corn, and yes much of the corn is GMO. One farmer I talked to at the market said he can’t get organic. I’m not sure he tried because others can. On some farms chickens can roam some can’t, so I choose who I want to support. Generally the bigger the farm the less I’ll buy from them.
This is a great link to learn how to read egg cartons and understand the life of large factory farm laying hens.
My second source of eggs is from friends or coworkers who either raise or have backyard chickens and have more eggs than they can use. These chickens are able to wander gardens and grass at will. They eat plants, insects, grubs, vegetable scraps, some supplemental chicken feed made from wheat or corn, sometimes organic. I visit these friends and can see how the chickens are treated. It is very peaceful to be in a garden in the summer with chickens around you just being chickens. Some backyard chickens are raised in ignorance and suffer but it is not my experience so far.
New Insights:
As I look into eggs, and what is required to grow and sell them, I found a few new pieces of information I was unaware of and one that seriously made me consider if I will eat eggs again.
1. Cleaning egg shells.
The shells of eggs have different compliance codes for cleaning the shells depending on where they are sold. Code for eggs sold at farmers markets are different than those sold in grocery stores. Newly laid shells may have ground soil, nest dirt, feathers and feces. Eggs at the grocery store are required to be cleaned in a weak bleach bath. Bleach has a very high water and environmental footprint as well as toxicity and I’m sure I don’t want my eggs run through a bleach bath as required by Michigan regulations. There seems to me better non-toxic, environmentally friendly ways to clean egg shells if necessary. How do they clean the egg shells? This link says it all, clean chicken pens have clean eggs that do not need further cleaning. Industrial eggs are cleaned. Eggs sold at farmers markets in Michigan do not have to be cleaned.
2. Source of egg laying hens – the Hatchery.
A hatchery is the first step in the egg industry. The hatchery is a breeder facility that lays and fertilizes the eggs. It usually take about 21 days to incubate and hatch a chick. These chicks are usually a single breed of optimal layers according to industry standards.
The most disturbing thing that was new to me was the awareness that laying hens are all females. Of course this is not news, females lay the eggs. Eggs for consumption are usually sold unfertilized so there is little need for males hatched to egg hatcheries.
Simple genetics makes it clear that it is a 50/50% chance that a fetus maybe born male or female. Millions of egg laying hens are hatched and sold every year to egg farmers including the backyard chickens. What happens to the millions of males males hatched every year? Historically the cockerels (male chickens) were raised for meat.
Backyard chickens are often from clean happy hens carefully managed by neighbors,friends and family. They are usually bought from breeders and hatcheries. Ann Arbor does not allow roosters among backyard chickens and I understand their reasoning. Roosters are noisy and can be aggressive to other roosters, which may disturb the neighbors. My experience with roosters in a sleepy Mexican town is that they don’t just crow at dawn, they crow throughout the night constantly or when ever they feel like it.
The farmers at the farmers market grow chickens in much greater numbers and many of them buy their hens as chicks from hatcheries. Some hatch their own eggs in breeder barns. Still the fact remains that only females lay eggs, where do the male chicks go?
Sadly most of the millions of male chicks hatched every year don’t see the second day of life. On their first day they are sexed and separated from the females and either tossed into large garbage bags to be smothered, gassed or thrown into a grinder live and used for pet food. These are approved methods by the American Veterinarian Association.
This information threw me into a funk for weeks. Every egg I broke for recipes upset me knowing that there was a male chick that died for every chicken raised to lay eggs. There are a few small breeders that do not kill the males and raise them for meat but they are very small and rare.
Link to a chicken farmer discussing his view on the topic.
One Purdue chicken farmer speaks out:
The big egg industry states that males from laying hens do not grow as big and as fast as meat bred chickens, so are too expensive and time consuming to raise profitably. The American Veterinarian Association believes the grinders are humane and approved for the disposal of male chicks.
Possible Solution
1. GMO companies are working on a solution. fluorescent genetic markers from jellyfish are added to the DNA of laying hens. Eggs with male DNA that turn the male egg fluorescent, identifying it under black lights, after it is laid. This would save the industry time and money because they don’t have to take the 21 days it takes to incubate and hatch the chicks. The industry would also save money not having to pay specially trained sexers, as well as removing the bad press of euthanasia of the chicks. I’m not comfortable with fluorescent fish DNA in my eggs or my laying hens. Especially since GMO products are not labelled in the USA. Does that mean all eggs, laid to these laying chickens, for consumption (male or female) also carry the genetic marker but only visibly fluorescent in male DNA egg?
My Solution
Either purchase eggs from a backyard chicken homeowner or from a small chicken farm that breeds and raises dual breed chickens. Dual breed chickens are able to produce both meat and eggs. Eggs are fewer than a genetically bred egg chicken and the meat takes longer to grow and will not have the excessive sized breasts bred into meat chickens. How ethical are your eggs? Article
Conclusion:
I thought I was doing the right things in my choices of meat products and food sources but I can do better.
What I am doing right? Why is this important to me?
I like having the following questions to ask farmers directly. The purpose of the questions is to understand the sources of my diet and not make the farmers uncomfortable.
1. Buying from small farms. I want to know the farmer directly.
2. Talking to the farmer asking them:
a. What are the chickens fed, GMO, nonGMO or organic, insects, vegetables?
b. Are the chicks debeaked? In cramped cages and barns where the chickens don’t have enough room to flap wings or turn around they will harm each other, so they are debeaked. Beaks are stunted with heat in first few days of hatching.
c. Are the chicks purchased sexed from hatcheries or breeders or raised on the farm?
d. Were the chicks immunized? In a healthy environment with plenty of room and fresh air immunization is not always necessary.
e. How do they clean the egg shells? This link says it all, clean chicken pens have clean eggs that do not need further cleaning. Industrial eggs are cleaned.
f. Are the chickens dual or single purpose breeds? Dual breed is raised for both meat and eggs. They take longer to raise but no male culling is necessary.
g. Were the chickens shipped to be slaughtered or farm slaughtered? I understand that a chicken farm with less than 3,000 chickens can slaughter their own chickens for market in Michigan. every state has their own regulations.
h. Are they pasture raised? Pasture raised allows the chickens to live and behave a chickens during their short life.
i. Can I visit the farm? Transparency is the key to improving conditions for animal welfare. I sympathize with farmers who do not want people intruding on their lifestyles, especially city people, and farmers doing the hard work have a right to farm the way they choose. I also have the right to decide if my hard earned dollars is buying the food that I put on my table comes from a safe and humane environment of my preference.
Some of the answers I get from farmers is not what I was expecting. The chicken farmer I thought had the most ethical practise was not aware of what the hatcheries he purchased from did with the males and when I told him he said it was one of those ‘harsh realities’ of farming and shrugged it off.
I am no longer going to purchase:
1. Any chicken products that come from single purpose chickens (meat vs. egg layers) and preferably only from pasture raised dual breed, heritage chickens, where the males are allowed to live past the first week until slaughter.
2. Chicks purchased from hatcheries instead of from heritage breeders.
BUT THE BIGGEST DECIDING FACTORS ARE:
1. Are the birds debeaked? If chickens are debeaked they are not given enough room to live as a chicken during their short lifespan. I believe true free range chicken has no need for debeaking, only chickens that are crowded and bored and strangers can be a danger to each other.
2. If I can’t visit the farm at any time I don’t feel the farmer can be trusted. I understand bio-security concerns but there are ways to visit a farm without hurting the animals.
3.Any farm or slaughterhouse that fines the public for trespassing without providing open house hours, and has no visibility, is in my mind, hiding something. I’m sure the slaughterhouse is not a happy place but without accountability and transparency I believe the animals are not treated with the same consideration as they would be with an open transparent system.
Bio-security link: go here.
Print this chicken farmer .pdf spreadsheet questionnaire. EggSupplierFarmer_Checklist
Source of the food:
Bacon:
I typically buy my bacon at the local butchers Sparrow Meats in Kerrytown.LINK I asked Bob where the Michigan bacon is sourced from and he said Port Huron. This is the same bacon he has sold since he was 14 in a family shop.He trusts this company because they have been producing the same quality product for over 40 years. Bob’s bacon from my local butcher comes from Smith’s Meat Packing in Port Huron.
I can’t find their bacon source exactly but there are references to local pork and union membership. there is no reference to heritage breeds although they are trying to be sustainable. Their definition of sustainability is unclear from my web research. I may have to rethink this purchase and stick to my other sources.
A second source of bacon is from a local farmer who raises heritage pork locally.LINK http://blackoakpork.com/ Bob likes to work with farmers who have a history and is cautious purchasing from new farmers. For me transparency is the deciding factor. Farms with no farm tours and no public accountability raise concerns about how the animals are treated.
I especially support farmers and slaughterhouses that don’t hide from the public. Black Oak was able to answer all my questions right down to how pigs go to slaughter, where and how they are treated there. I trust these farmers.
A third source I would love to be apart of is the meat CSA at Old Pine Farms but I have not gotten together the funds or storage space to purchase a bulk order, plus they have a heavy emphasis on beef. I don’t eat much beef and would like more assortment in my CSA. They to me are the best in humane animal care and slaughter that I can find. http://oldpinefarm.com/
Potato: Plenty of potatoes (organic and conventional) are grown in Michigan and finding a variety at the farmers market over winter is easy.
Minimum Totals
Carbon Footprint = .5 CO2e (travel of food only considered, not energy to cook or water used from tap to clean)
Water Footprint = 223 gallons (not considering fats used to fry)
Humane treatment of meat products = could do better
Insights – What I learned
Pork
I have visited designer public education farms that raise pork and still witnessed foaming at the mouth, chewing behavior and cannibalism. Pigs are curious, intelligent and social animals. Good farmers keep birth breeds together because they have already established a peaking order and animals will hurt each other to reestablish an order, but on large farms pigs are still under stimulated, crowded and bored and living in unnatural conditions. I need to visit Old Pine Farms to see how they raise their pork. Traveling the world I saw pigs roaming farmland and woods freely that seemed perfectly happy.
About chickens LINK:
Other Links:
From egg to plate article.
History of the chicken industry in America article.
Moroccan Pumpkin and Lentil Stew
Part of the fall CSA box had many different winter squashes and it’s time to make something from one of them. In researching the environmental footprint of this recipe I learned a lot about lentils.This was a recipe that was tasty and fun to research it’s origins.
Moroccan Pumpkin and Lentil Stew
Recipe from Vegetarian Times
Serves 8
- 2 Tbs. olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced (about 1 ½ cups)
- 1 jalapeño chile, seeded and sliced
- 1 cup green lentils, rinsed
- 1 Tbs. paprika
- ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp. cumin
- 1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes, or 4 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 2-lb. pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cubed
- ½ cup tomato purée
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro, for garnish
1. Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and jalapeño, and sauté 10 minutes, or until onion is translucent and golden. Add tomatoes, lentils and spices, and cook 2 to 3 minutes more. Stir in pumpkin cubes, tomato purée and 2 1/2 cups water. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Reduce heat to medium low, and cook 40 minutes, or until pumpkin and lentils are tender, stirring occasionally and adding more water if needed. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with cilantro, and serve hot.
How did I do environmentally?
Quick summary: This was a relatively low impact recipe. Spices and oil were imported but all vegetables were locally grown and traveled well under a 100 miles radius. To reduce my environmental impact even more I would need to substitute the lentils for locally organic beans. I could switch from olive oil to locally grown and pressed sunflower oil. Very appealing.
Deeper dive:
Ingredients
Much of the produce was grown locally and bought from the Ann Arbor Farmers Market and CSA. This includes the onion, jalapeño, cayenne peppers, kabocha pumpkin, tomatoes canned from CSA box earlier in season. All of these products only traveled 26 miles one way from Tantre Farm, and were all organic. Cilantro also came from the Farmers market.
Olive oil is from Greece, purchased from sparrow Meats in Kerrytown. I like getting my olive oil from Sparrow. We are able to refill our oil bottles from their bulk barrel, reducing recycling of oil containers.
I’m not sure about the Paprika, it could be from Hungary or Spain. There is California grown paprika, but Hungarian is the most flavorful from information I could find, with Spanish a close second.
Lentils get there own paragraph because they were the most fun to learn about and there is so much great information online. I assumed the lentils in my cupboard came from another continent but not so. To my surprise most of our lentils are grown in Saskatchewan, Canada. I used French lentils in this stew because they are my favorite these days. I think they hold up better, don’t disintegrate, and are visually appealing. Brown lentils are not very attractive as a dish, yummy but homely. While India eats the most lentils in the world, they eat most of their supply and import the extra primarily from Canada. Lentils are grown in a few states in the USA, primarily Montana and North Dakota. After looking around there are farms that sell lentils direct in Michigan but organic are harder to find. Purchases are in the 5 or 35 pound sizes. More information on lentils.
A fun website to visit is a tour around the world with Canadian Chef Michael Smith, AKA Lentil Hunter. This is fun, colorful and looks delicious as Chef Smith tours markets and restaurants for local dishes. The biggest disappointment is that he does not tour his own country and we see nothing of Canadian lentil farms or restaurants.
Waste
There was no waste other than vegetable bits in the compost.
Water Footprint
Why consider water in my calculations?
Huffington post puts it in perspective:
Extensive drought has Californians thinking twice about running the tap while brushing their teeth or taking that 20-minute shower. But what some people don’t realize is that a huge portion of our water footprint is “hidden,” meaning it’s used for the things we eat or wear, and for the energy we use. Globally, agricultural production accounts for 92 percent of our water footprint. In the United States, meat consumption alone accounts for a whopping 30 percent of our water footprint. Read full article.
I have seen a lot of imported produce coming from South America and Mexico and it’s important to understand that much of the water in these areas is not managed well and often has poor infrastructure. This reports helps to understand the challenges there: LINK
On Mexico: LINK
According to Pulse Canada, pulses (lentils, peas and beans) require negligible irrigation if any at all. Soybeans use more. Go here for more information LINK
Watch this video on Canadian Pulses sustainability
Conclusion
This was a satisfactory recipe made up of mostly local produce, low water, some imported spices that I can feel good about making over and over.
Join me at Zero Kitchen
Join me on my adventure to try to create a zero impact kitchen. Zero Kitchen is about doing as little harm as possible outside the kitchen while creating fresh healthy and nutritious food for family and friends. I don’t expect to get to zero, but I am curious to see how low I can go. I am working under the assumption that because I:
- buy as local and organic as possible,
- use slow food principles,
- am highly aware of food issues,
- recycle and compost as much as possible,
- am good at reducing packaging and waste,
- try to cook as much as possible and not purchase pre-made meals.
that I have a small environmental footprint, smaller than my neighbor at least. This blog’s purpose is to examine the bigger picture and truly understand my part in global issues. I hope I’m right – and I promise not to fudge any numbers or issues – because I really want to know what it takes to do this.
While recipes start our journey on this blog, we will be examining the impact of our creations on food sources, waste stream impact, environmental and carbon footprint. I’m going to eventually try to understand the impact I am making through each recipe on the environment including the energy I use to buy, make, and store the food.
This blog started in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A state second to California in farm diversity. The variety of agricultural available here in Michigan is an important factor in this blog that promotes local farm purchasing vs. imports. I believe there is nothing wrong with importing products not grown locally such as certain nuts, tropical fruit and oils, but I question the wisdom of purchases of apples and many products from other countries/states when they are grown right here.
This blog is ruthlessly researched and backed up as much as possible by supporting links but is still that of my own personal opinions and observations. This is my journey and you are welcome to join me. I look forward to reading about your adventures as well.
We are all in this together.
Radish Greens Pesto
When your CSA throws you a bunch of radishes week after week what are you going to do with all those greens? I have made green smoothies, vegetarian lasagna, manicotti and ravioli stuffed with radish greens but I’d like to try something different. A quick search on the web and it looks like radish greens pesto it is! I’m going to measure the carbon footprint of this recipe so I can understand how my cooking choices fit in the big picture.
Radish Greens Pesto (Makes about 2 cups)
1 bunch of radish greens washed and chopped.
1/2 cup almonds (soaked over night to promote sprouting and drained)
3-4 garlic cloves depending on size and preference
1/2 cup to 1 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese, I like cheese
1 cup Olive oil
Lemon juice – 1-2 fresh lemons depending on taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Finely chop the garlic and almonds in the blender or food processor until they are a thick paste. Add the lemon juice, radish greens, and grated cheese and blend as smooth as possible. Pour the oil in a slow stream with the machine running. Some greens are juicier than others and will influence the amount of oil you add. I want a smooth paste that will coat pasta or spread on pizza and enough oil to prevent oxidation while stored in the refrigerator. If I have more than I can use up in a few days I freeze the pesto in an ice-cube tray and then vaccum seal in canning jar to enjoy on a cold frosty winters day.
Ok, how did we do?
Waste:
There was no waste. The cheese was wrapped in paper from a local deli and the garlic skins and lemon peels were composted. Almonds were bought in bulk in my glass jars. Olive oil is in a refillable bottle and comes out of a bulk barrel at the market.
Distance travelled:
The almonds and lemons are from California. My cheese and oil was an Italian import and I specifically bought Celtic sea salt for its high micro-mineral content and purity guarantees (some sea salt is mined from polluted and irradiated areas).
The mileage for international and California items did not include travel to the processing plants, packers, storage, shippers, and where-ever else they sent it before arriving here. The local produce came on the same truck even though it is represented twice. I have volunteered on this farm and know it is picked, stored, and packaged the day before market on premises.
Minimum miles travelled to reach Ann Arbor, MI:
Radish Greens = 26
Almonds = 2,320
Garlic = 26
Romano Cheese = 4,600
Olive Oil = 4,600
Lemon Juice = 2,300
Salt = 3,440
Pepper = 8,464
Total = 25,776 miles travelled = 5.4 metric tons of carbon
Minimum Carbon emitted = 25,776 miles/6mpg x 2.77KG (Carbon per US Gallon of Diesel) per gallon = 11,900 KG Carbon/2200 metric ton = 5.4 metric tons of carbon.
If I never make this meal again 5.4 metric tons was still emmitted for this one meal trucking in ingredients used. Probably hundreds of us can use the ingredients trucked up for the exact meal but if I can keep my suppliers down to a hundred mile mark then I will have saved: 5.27 metric tons for the same truckload.
Local suppliers @100 miles max = 301 KG Carbon emitted
11,900 KG – 301 KG (local) = 11,599 KG carbon saved
What I can do to shop more locally?
Cheese: Michigan has a wealth of cheese makers. I’m going to look into a local source for parmesan or maybe add local goat cheese for a change of pace. I can actually pick that up every week at the farmers market.
Nuts: I like the almonds and looking for a local alternative means chestnuts, which might work. I could get my mileage down if I went with nuts grown closer to Michigan like Georgia.
Lemons: Citrus is not grown in Michigan but I could substitute with another acid such as Michigan vinegar.
Olive oil: Olives aren’t grown in Michigan but we do have a producer of sunflower oil. They grow and press the oil. Grand Travers Culinary Oils
Salt: I’m sticking to Celtic Salt. Salt has not been mined in Michigan for table use for a very long time. Morton does mine in Ohio still and Detroit mines salt but for road and commercial uses.
Pepper: I believe that I’ll probably buy imported pepper but I may also try to dry papaya seeds and try those out. Papaya is still imported but I get fruit and pepper – one shipment. An experiment for another day.
Conclusion:
Disappointing and needs reflection. Overall there is big improvement that needs to be done. This is far too dependent on exports and very carbon intensive. More than I desire in my kitchen for this type of food. Links:
What is CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture, what is it? A farmer decides to organize a CSA and offers their produce for purchase to the public. Individuals, buyers groups and families agree to pay a set amount for a set time period before the farmer plants. When the harvest is ready the farmer puts together boxes of produce over the agreed period for the CSA member to pick-up. Our CSA lasts 20 weeks starting from May or June. Read more here.
Zero Kitchen 
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