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hose of you who eat free range eggs know how much better they are than eggs from a factory farm. There is really no comparison. I read wonderful story about an encounter between the organic farmer, Joe Salatan, and a customer looking for eggs. The customer drove up and asked Joe how much his eggs were. “$5.00 a dozen,” he replied.
The customer was taken aback. “$5.00? I can get a dozen eggs from the grocery store for a dollar on sale. Why should I pay $5.00 for yours? Joe replied calmly, “Because I sell a better quality product. Seeing how you drive a BMW I suspect you know a thing or two about quality.” Here is a link if you want to know more: http://www.healthambition.com/caged-versus-free-range-eggs-nutritionally/ There is a lot of misinformation out there. Sadly, a peer reviewed study got published in the Journal of Poultry Science which shows the effects of free ranging your chickens is negligible. And they are actually correct! Allow me to explain. The researchers took 500 hens, hatched at the same time and treated them identically- same food, same lighting, same care. The only difference was half the population had access to some amount of space outdoors. Our friends at Wikipedia even cite this study saying, “the most rigorous scientific study of late found absolutely no significant nutritional advantage to free range eggs.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-range_eggs Here’s the catch: For purposes of labeling eggs as "free range," the hen who laid those eggs doesn't actually have to free range. She can live her entire life without ever seeing the sun, catching a bug or even set foot on soil. All the farmer has to do is provide access to space outdoors. How much space? Can it be a cement slab? How long do they need to have this access per day? The USDA does not have precise rules about what constitutes free range. Under this rather nebulous definition it's easy to see why there was no difference in quality. A hen does not lay superior quality eggs simply by having the opportunity to go outside for a couple hours a day. The term “free range” implies a lot more than simply access to a space outside. A more relevant comparison would be examine all the differences between a factory farm chicken and a typical free range chicken. To get a truly accurate picture, we would need to take half of our population of hens, cut off their beaks, stuff them in shoe box sized cages, and feed them spent grains from a brewery. And while we’re at it, let’s have some problems with the ventilation system from time to time. Let’s make sure the air is filled with that nasty chicken dust. The other hens get good food, fresh water, and plenty of room to roam, not just some undefined space outside the coop. No journal would consider publishing our study because we changed too many variables. Besides, it’s obvious that a hen under stress and fed garbage (literally) will produce a lower quality egg. But the commercial egg industry can still correctly claim science is on their side with regard to the free range issue. Phew! All this research has made me hungry. Time for some real FREE RANGE EGGS.
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This is a two part blog. It’s easy to find a recipe for Ranch dressing on line. It’s even easier if you buy our Ranch dressing seasoning. Then the recipe becomes:
1 cup mayonnaise 1cup buttermilk 2 tsp Ranch dressing seasoning (or to taste) Easy enough. If you use sour cream instead of buttermilk, you have chip dip. OK… so it’s easy to see why this is a two part blog. The first part is rather short, isn’t it? Let’s talk about the “why” make your own Ranch Dressing. First of all, it is cheaper than buying the real stuff. There is nothing easier than buying a bottle of salad dressing from the store, so in a sense you are trading economy for convenience. On the other hand, it is not difficult to make Ranch dressing from scratch. My preferred method is to take a pint jar, fill it about half way with buttermilk, add the seasoning mix, and shake to blend well. Then I add the mayonnaise and shake or stir until it is completely mixed. Now let’s talk about the savings. Calculating the cost difference between commercial Ranch dressing and home made is not simple because there are many different brands and sizes of Ranch dressing. Do I go with the cheapest? The original? Store brand? The same is true for mayonnaise. I could use a small squeeze bottle for my per ounce price or a quart? In fact, I could make the results come out any way I want with the right choices. I went to my local Food Lion here in Dinwiddie, VA, and compared large containers of name brand products. Then I normalized the prices to our recipe scale of 16 oz for easy comparison. Here they are: Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, 36 oz bottle; $6.99; 16 oz= $3.10 Hellman's Mayonnaise, 30 oz bottle; $3.39; 16 oz= $1.81 Pet Buttermilk, 64 oz carton (1/2 gallon), $3.60; 16 oz= $0.90 The cost of 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 cup buttermilk is (1.81 + 0.90)/2 or $1.36. Adding in the spice blend brings the cost of your homemade Ranch dressing to about half of store bought. Now, here is where things get interesting. Price is always a factor in the retail world, but we look at other things as well. Is it healthy? Is it fresh and natural? How are the ingredients sourced? If a food item is filled with ingredients you cannot pronounce, you won’t find it on our shelves. If something containing eggs and buttermilk is shelf stable for months, it’s a red flag for us. You see, in order to make truly authentic Hidden Valley dressing you also need to add phosphoric acid, xanthan gum, modified food starch, monosodium glutamate (MSG), artificial flavors, disodium phosphate, sorbic acid, and disodium inosinate. Here is a link to the full ingredient list and a commentary for each. http://blog.fooducate.com/2009/05/07/inside-the-label-ranch-dressing/ Hellmans mayonnaise only has one slightly unpronounceable ingredient, calcium disodium EDTA. This is a chelating agent, a stabilizer which is innocuous. If you look up chelation therapy, you will find EDTA is used. Buttermilk is simply buttermilk. So making your own dressing is cheaper and better for you. Can we go further? Yes! We can take this process a step further and make our own mayonnaise. {gasp! We can?} Mayonnaise is nothing more than egg yolks, vegetable oil, and vinegar with spices to taste. Now this opens up a whole lot more options. Do we really want to use soybean oil? Or corn oil? Let’s use olive oil instead, maybe a bit of fish oil or flax seed oil mixed in. While we are at it, let’s use free range eggs instead of the factory farm variety. Here is an easy recipe for mayonnaise. The basic recipe is 4 egg yolks, 2 cups oil oil, and 1 tbsp wine vinegar. The dry mustard, salt, and pepper are optional. Of course, you can always sneak in some really healthful spices like turmeric. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mayonnaise_90223 |
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Alisa, Sandy, Tracy, Amber Archives
February 2019
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Dinwiddie, Virginia, 23841 Call us: 804-892-7588 Email us: Willowsbendfarm@gmail.com |