The Gastrocast

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A new month is coming, but there is still time this month–could everyone please vote for the show at Podcast Alley? The Gastrocast is in danger of sliding off the map. I hate the whole idea of asking you to do something like this, but I’d like to keep the show in the public’s eye and something as simple as casting a vote seems to help. I just did a search on what used to be relevant terms which attracted new listeners to the show, and The Gastrocast and the Podchef are no longer in the top 40 search hits.

Likewise, if you have anything to say about the show–be nice, now. . .–would some of you mind writing a review on iTunes? BigEd has valiantly and graciously led the way. Thanks Ed!

Imagine, one year old and the teathing troubles aren’t over yet. With your help the terrible twos can be avoided. You guys are better than any audience I could have ever imagined! Thanks!

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This week’s show is up! And not without it’s trials. I’m on the ferry on my way to the IACP Conference now. I’m uploading this at my favorite Mainland Coffee Shop because the DSL is still down at my house on the island.

Flickr Photos

I can’t actually link to anything else at the moment because I’m in a hurry to make a dinner date and I still have 2 hours of driving ahead of me. However, when I get home or have time and connection during the conference I will adjust these notes properly. Hope you enjoy the show.

Technorati Tags: podchef, gastrocast, culinary podcast, cooking, food

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This article, which uses the word I coined–Gastrocast–some how misses the fact that A) I coined the term which everyone is so freely bandying about these days and B) I have a fairly respectible podcast which goes by that name–all about food. . . .. Hmmm?????  WTF?? What really pisses me off though, I suppose apart from the fact that it is written by a local, whom I’ve met many times and contacted recently (who is also hosting a podcasting forum at the IACP Conference I will be attending next week. . . .), is the term "Cream of the Crop" By whose standards? How many people were involved in the decision and selection process. I could care less that I am not in the same category with them, but to create a  classification of a genre without being all encompassing is a bit crass. I think I suggested something like forming a network of food podcasts and blogs a month or so ago on the show–but this ain’t what I had in mind. I was beginning to feel pretty shite about my efforts–like the mainstream might think I’m a bit of a joke or something. But thanks to Hoamer, this turned around my mood.

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This week’s Gastrocast finds us Roasting our own coffee, making a Javanese Coffee Rubbed Grilled Chicken, talking about Genetically Engineered Foods and Celebrating our Birthday.

• The Future of Food Movie
• About GM Foods
• BT Maize (GM Corn)
• Bacillus Thurengis
• Butterflies die from GM pollen
• Kitchen Garden Company Irish Culinary Tour
• Flickr Photos

Recipe

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Thanks to Gottacook who wrote some interesting views on Gastrocast #50. However, Livejournal wouldn’t let me respond in the comments so I include them here:

Thanks for listening to the last episode of the Gastrocast. Something I didn’t mention on that show, because I was saving it for the show where I actually cook one of the chickens I raise, is that the intensive rearing situations of factory farming lead to a pretty grim life for these birds. Sure, my experiment has shown me what I should have known all along–the standard American meat breed of chicken is grossly mutated for rapid weight gain and short lifespan–but the difference between how I rear these chickens and the large-scale poultry farm is that my birds have plenty of floorspace to walk around on. They also, now that the weather is warmer, have the option to go outside. They have plenty of natural sunlight and fresh air. None of these things exist in a standard poultry farm. The houses are artificially lit, ventilated by fan and so stagnant that it’s hard to breath in. The mortality rate of these chickens is over 30%–largely due to their voracious weight gain–but also to a range of illnesses. The constant need for medicine for these birds is something else I have been able to avoid. The birds in a factory farm are also either caged so tightly they cannot move, let alone stretch as they grow and spread their wings, or there are so many chickens free on the floor that they crush each other. These meat chickens are so stupid and clumsy they will also swarm and pile on each other in what is known as a "smother" where many will die–this is an accepted fact of the meat industry. Because they are so tightly packed they must have their beaks clipped by melting the end of their beak with a hot wire to prevent them from pecking one another. This tightly cramped, sickly situation is also a possible cause of Avian Flu.

As for my chickens, I don’t think they prefer to remain sedentary. They behave like the other chickens–preening, standing off to choose pecking order, etc. However, they physically cannot remain standing for very long because of their bulk. So they sit on the floor to eat or rest. In a cage this leads to a rash known as "hock burn" cause by abraision and the ammonia from sitting it their own excrement. I use wood shavings and plenty of them on the brooder house floor.

As for cruelty, I think where our food is concearned we want to be eating the products of a healthy, and stress free life. Not just to make us feel better, but because it affects the quality of the meat. Another thing which effects this is the method of slaughter and post-kill preparation–more of this on the Gastrocast where I butcher the chickens. . . .

This morning I butchered one of the Cornish Cross Meat Chickens. I noticed it first thing when I went to feed my chickens–over 80 of them. This one chicken wasn’t moving. Not too odd for one of these fat porkers, but they usually get up and run out of the way when they see food or you get too close. When I went to pick up this chicken I noticed it’s right leg was hyper-extended and it was leaning to one side. I picked it up and it seemed normal enough. I set it back on its legs and it toppled over. I made it comfortable and went about my work. I came back a short while later and it hadn’t moved. I decided rather than have it suffer, and rather than loose its potential as meat I would butcher it. It was a bit on the small side–around 3 pounds dressed–but it was better than freezing it for Crab bait. I humanely butchered the chicken and it ended it’s life quickly without suffering further. We will eat it after it has aged a few days–something which can’t be done with commercial poultry due to bacteria counts and how it is processed.
I also did some calculations–I have had the chickens for 43 days so far. That’s one day longer than they would have lived in a commercial farm situation. I would like the rest of the meat chickens to live another 20 days at least–more time outside, more flavor. The cockerals from among the laying chickens I have, which are also a type of meat chicken, will probably go 5-6 months before I take them into the kitchen.  The one thing I did notice about this little pullet I butchered this morning–the meat is darker, the skin is more golden than any supermarket bought chicken I have seen in the last 5 years.

Thanks again for listening to The Gastrocast, stay tuned for more interesting "debate" and keep on cooking.

Neal, aka Podchef.

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Spring has sprung and about bloody time. There is frost on the dock this morning but daytime temps are mild enough. The crocuses have all but died back, but the daffs are going mad–the anemonies are holding their own. But enough of all of that muck. I promised before to list the menu from St. Pat’s Day so here it is–thanks Big Ed for reminding me.

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‘Tis the day when I like to eat and cook the best of Irish Cuisine. However, it has been marred by spotty DSL service. I’m up right now, which means that I hope I have fixed yesterday’s upload of Show #50 which was interupted and then I didn’t have DSL to verify it was okay. If you had trouble getting the show, I appologise and I think it is fixed now. Hopefully the phone company technician is going to show up here later today. I’ve been having problems all week which is why the show has been delayed. One minute I have connection and the next its down. The phone line being down in the sheep field doesn’t seem to help matters either. Such is Island Life.

So, today I’m going to head into the kitchen and whip up some non-corned beef St. Paddy’s fare. When I decide on the menu, I’ll post it here. We’re keeping a low profile this year and not having company over because tomorrow is an early day.  So have a great time today. Eat some great food and enjoy yourselves. If you have something great or do something wild–let me know so I can live vicariously this year at least.

All the best,

Neal

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DSL is working, here is this week’s show. An Irish inspired Homage to the beginning of Spring/End of Winter–Pan Roasted Salmon on a bed of Bacon, Leeks, Mushrooms and Celeriac Mash. I also speak about a chicken epiphany I had along the Road to River Cottage.

Flickr Photos

Derry Brownfield Show–Tuesday’s Show

Music is Old Hag You’ve Killed Me by Culann’s Hounds

Recipe
Serves 4

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I’m in the middle of a DSL nightmare right now. The phone lines, which have been down for 4 weeks have finally secumbed to the elements and sheep and DSL is random and spotty. Just when I think I have it licked and have a window of opportunity to upload things come crashing down. I’m trying to get Tuesday’s show out. Sometime today I hope. It was supposed to be for St. Patrick’s Day and it might actually come out on the 17th instead of the 15th.  I hope the repair dudes come to the island today, though. The sound of my modem reaching out to a dead connection is driving me crazy. . . .

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Substitute chickens for rats and Avian Flu for Bubonic Plague and Read This. The statistics are scary–30% of people died in the Middle Ages, like it’s predicted to happen now. Yet people built up immunity to the plague. The plague came in "waves". Given the fact that the rat/flea theory isn’t holding much credence these days, could people have been stricken by something like the Bird Flu? Poultry was everywhere, and widely traded in the Middle Ages. It’s not beyond the pale. 

And just as in the fact that Rats really couldn’t have spread the plague far and wide by migrating–just isn’t possible to cover the areas as quickly as the disease spread–so too is it less likely that Migrating Birds will spread the Avian Flu far and wide. It takes Human intervention to spread disease far and wide. Transportation of the carrier. By their very nature, backyard poultry flocks and wild birds migrating are isolated. So while they may cause pockets of infection, here and there, it will take more than that to "fill in the blanks".

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Is it my imagination, or are the authorities, those in the know, scientists, and fearmongers hoping that a Pandemic stikes hard? Would it make them feel better (providing they survive their own predicitons)?  Would they be justified? Could they stand back and say, "See, we told you there would be deaths, panic, and that it would be bad. . .you should have listened. . .you should have paniced sooner."?

This struck me as I was at a County Agricultural Resource meeting this past Saturday. I was trying to make a point about Animal Id and Avian Flu threatening our local farms through the enterprise of Large Corporation Agribusiness pointing fingers at the little guy for the problems of their own creation, when up speaks one of the county’s Elected Officials. The Commissioner–actually one of the more level headed ones–skipped over my comments to say that he knew how many people in the county were going to die, that we would–for certain–be cut off from the world (we’re an island community, I said–we’re already cut off from the world. . .), and that the Pandemic (me panic’d) will strike the county hard. He stated these things, and more, as hard fact. Like it was a foregone conclusion. Like there was nothing we could do to prevent this from happening. Like all we had to do was sit back and wait for the predicitons to come true.

WTF???? It’s like these people want something bad to happen. That their lives and jobs will be justified. But aren’t they missing the point abit. I may have lost the plot, as I often do, but as far as I know the H5N1 is not transferring Human to Human yet. There is the POSSABILITY of a threat, but NO threat at the moment. More people die of Regular Influenza each year than have caught the chicken flu so far. Do we hear about those poor souls? The tell us not to panic about something that isn’t even happening with panic in their voice. Is it panic that something COULD happen, or ISN"T happening already?

And so this morning I was interested to find this Domesday Shopping List and Disaster Scenario in my in-box.  It’s not that this is bad advise. It’s advise we should take for ANY disaster–hurricane, flood, torando, earthquake, living on an island. Do we all heed such admonissions? No. So they keep making them. Could we survive two weeks without leaving our homes? I do, regularly.  This "disaster" is set to begin in the next few months–Go out an plant a garden, stock up on granola, find someone who knows how to milk a cow, dry some fruit, put up some vegetables. Support the local economy now, in case something does happen. Do not, however, justify the panic by purchasing large quanitites of Corporate Food Stocks. It is sad that the economy needs a boost in this country. It is a crime that it is being piggy-backed onto the threat of a Pandemic.

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We all knew it was coming. I mean it must be true because I heard it on The Derry Brownfield Show.  Thanks to Hugh for passing this on to me to confirm the fact that Large Scale Poultry Operations are to blame for the Avian Flu. They have the method of infection–transporting domestic factory farmed chicken all over the world. They have the incubator–over cramped, disease filled, stagnant rearing houses. They have the audacity to point the blame at wild fowl, smallholders and anyone else but themselves! It is a conspiracy of the highest order.

But this goes beyond spreading the Bird Flu over the globe through the innocent player–migratory birds. Now that it has been released that the Avian Flu transfers not only to humans, but also to other species–what is next? They’ve been feeding chicken manure laden litter to our nation’s cattle for years. Is this going to be the next BSE? And what happens when the chickens all start being culled over here? Commercially raised chicken is already sick, will the corporations sell us a product that is even worse?

You can help solve this problem. Stop eating commercially reared chicken and buy local, organic or free-range chickens. Find out where the chicken you eat comes from and get to know someone who raises them. Go in with a neighbor and raise some poultry of your own. It doesn’t take much and in three months you will be rewarded with some great tasting meat.

Large Corporation Agribusiness and the USDA wants us to believe that the Commercial Poultry market is safe. They want us to turn against the small producers who risk the nation’s health by free-ranging their poultry. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. It’s one more thing our government is allowing to happen–to take the right to produce food and control one’s possessions away.

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In this week’s Show we make a Sicilian style Blood Orange Cake, I go on a bit of a rant about the High Price of Cheap Food, and I forbid you to buy Asparagus out of season.

Photos

Music:
Intro & Outro: Couleur sang by X-Ray Pop
Inbetweens: The Dudes in the Car by Vincent Van Go Go

Farmer’s in LA being evicted

Irish Culinary Tour

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There have been several unexplicable bird deaths on the island this year. A few of them were my own chickens which dropped dead from who knows what. I have a feeling with my chickens it is old age or being egg bound but you never know, we are on the edge of the world out here. So it was with interest that I learned my daughter discovered a dead Great Blue Heron on the farm this past weekend. She found it shortly after it had died, so we decided it could be a good test specimin and promplty froze it, taking precautions lest it be something nasty.

It turns out I have a cousin involved in studying bird migration and Avian Influenza and he’s stationed in Alaska at the moment. I phoned him wondering what to do with my heron, and if he could explain cross species deaths in multiple birds. We hashed out a few scenarios, including West Nile but there are no mosquitoes at the moment, it being so cold. Without saying anything definitive we left it that the bird should be tested to determine if it had died of something interesting.

Great, now I had to track down someone to take this frozen bird off my hands and get it too them, all the while thinking I well could be the one to end up with a first case of BirdFlu on my land and here come the men in hazmat suits to disinfect the farm and carry off all my lovely chickens. . . . Nevertheless, in the name of science I began making phone calls to try to get someone interested in my dead heron. I called some of the obvious choices, but to no avail–only recorded messages. I phoned West Nile Virus Hotlines to no end. I phoned the local wildlife refuge and explained the situation. They didn’t seem to care or be concearned one way or the other but gave me some more numbers to call. All offices were either closed or had recordings leading to dead ends. Finally I phoned a marine biologist on the island who put me in contact with a veterinarian who tests marine wildlife for unknown causes of death. Hurray! I guess. I really didn’t even want to be dealing with this thing. However, it will be weeks before the bird is tested and perhaps months before the results come back.

What gets me is that in this day of high alert over Avian Flu it was so hard to get a dead bird tested, which probably did not die of anything other than old age–but who knows? I find all of this interesting in light of these two articles.

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