Urban Chickens

Abu Talib is one of several gardeners in New York City raising chickens. He's featured this month in National Geographic, http://ngm.typepad.com/blog_central/2009/03/urban-chickens.html.

I'll be in New York in May and hope to visit him and several others. Owen Taylor of Just Food loans out the organization's copy of How to Raise Chickens to help people get started. I'm thrilled that my book is touching so many lives.

White House Chickens

President and Mrs. Obama:

Chickens are the perfect complement to your White House Garden. The Society for Preservation of Poultry Antiquities, http://poultrybookstore.com/, can help you establish a small flock of historic breeds that will be hardy and productive. Sasha and Malia will love them. Tadd Lincoln kept a turkey he named Jack in the White House. Bring back this happy practice!

The Society for Preservation of Poultry Antiquities is a 501c(3) organization founded to protect and preserve, for historical, educational and recreational purposes and in the public interest, standard-bred domesticated poultry, waterfowl, turkeys and guineas. We welcome you and your family to enjoyment of traditional breed poultry. Traditional breeds are preferred for small flocks. They have survived and flourished because of their vigorous genetics and hardy constitutions. SPPA champions traditional breeds. Their members are dedicated to preserving these breeds, which have become rare with the domination of industrial practices. Chickens raised by large industrial operations have lost the strength that traditional breeds retain. Traditional breed poultry are the answer to sustainable living for the American family, playing an important role in national food security and local economy.

Dorkings are a good breed to start with, hardy, beautiful, well-behaved, dignified. They are an ancient breed, easily identified in Roman mosaics for their distinctive colored feathers and fifth toe. They have earned a place of honor among chickens over the centuries. They are believed to be the first chickens to make the trip across the Atlantic with the early English settlers and are the breed of choice at such American historic sites as Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. Joseph Marquette of Yellow House Farm in New Hampshire, http://www.yellowhousenh.com/, has excellent White Dorkings that he is happy to donate to get your flock started. Dorkings make good table fowl, with roosters topping out at 9 lbs. Hens lay white or delicately tinted eggs.

They will need a place to live. Dennis Harrison-Noonan of Madison, Wisconsin has built chicken coops for many people and has volunteered to build one for you. His designs are admired nationwide, http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/1/1-1/Dennis_Harison-Noonan.html.
I’m happy to provide copies of my books, How to Raise Chickens and How to Raise Poultry, from the FFA Livestock Series. They are aimed at bright high school kids and adults, but with all the pictures, kids of any age can enjoy them. Kevin Fletcher of Countryside Natural Products, www.countrysidenatural.com, in Fishersville, Virginia, will donate a year’s supply of organic poultry feed. They will also enjoy weeds and clippings from the garden. Their manure provides fertilizer. This is how an integrated operation balances taking nourishment from the soil without depleting it.

You will enjoy these birds so much, you will want to add turkeys, ducks, geese and guineafowl in the future. SPPA can help you with those when the time comes.

Tarazod Films Releases Mad City Chickens On DVD

It's here—the film that's been causing a buzz in the backyard chicken world! Tarazod Films has released Mad City Chickens on DVD. Three years in the making, the 79 minute documentary is a sometimes wacky, sometimes serious look at the people who keep urban chickens in their backyards. I'm delighted to say that I am among the people Tashai and Robert interviewed for the film.

Filmmakers Tashai Lovington and Robert Lughai take you into the backyard like you've never seen it before. From chicken experts and authors to a rescued landfill hen or an inexperienced family that decides to take the poultry plunge—and even a mad scientist and giant hen taking to the streets—it’s a humorous and heartfelt trip through the world of backyard chickendom.
With over 60 minutes of extras, the DVD includes: The Making of Mad City Chickens featurette, Cheryl Long from Mother Earth News, Cherrie’s Backyard Chicken Tips, deleted scenes and interviews, bonus chicken footage, movie trailers and more!

The filmmakers worked for three years before completing the film, shooting on location in Wisconsin, including me, Iowa, Texas, Kansas, Michigan, and California. They met with chicken experts and poultry enthusiasts, and gathered over 40 hours of interviews and chicken footage. They have appeared on Public Television, the CW Network, and on numerous talk radio shows in the US and Canada as well.

Mad City Chickens opened to shining reviews at the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival and continues to please audiences at festivals and public screenings across the US and Canada.

“I never thought I would sit here mesmerized, open-mouthed over a chicken movie,” declared one audience member at the end of the evening. Neither did I. Kristian Knutsen, Isthmus Daily Page.

Buy the DVD ($21.95) from the Tarazod Films online shop at www.tarazod.com/shop
The return of the backyard chicken...the city will never be the same again!

Cubalayas

Cubalayas are a game breed, the national breed of Cuba. They were developed from Southeast Asian birds brought from the Philippines. They are gaining popularity in the U.S. but are surely still bred in Cuba. When diplomatic relations improve between the U.S. and Cuba, we will see how Cubalayas there have progressed.

This Black Breasted Red flock belongs to Anthony Rose of Turlock, California.

Although exhibitors were responsible for their development, Cubalayas never lost their utility qualities. They are good layers and their fine white meat is prized as a gourmet meat. At 6 lbs. for a rooster and 4 lbs. for a hen, they are medium size birds.

They are very active birds. Plan on giving them space outside confinement. They are good foragers and the roosters are good protectors of the flock.



Black and White are the only other colors beyond Black Breasted Red that are recognized for exhibition, but many other colors are raised. As for other game birds, breeders take interest and pride in the type and conformation over color. Varied colors are prized, such as this Blue Golden rooster owned by Jim Zook of Orchard Poultry Farm in Pennsylvania, http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/orchardpoultryfarm/index.html.

Opposition to NAIS grows

NAIS has been treated by most reporters and news organizations as a niche issue, not of interest to its general audience. It's as if because this affects farmers, the consumers who eat what farmers grow don't have to be concerned. That's changing.

The New York Times published an OpEd opposing NAIS March 10, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/opinion/11hayes.html?_r=1&th&emc=th. Shannon Hayes, the author of “The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook” and the forthcoming “Radical Homemakers,” wrote it from the small farmer's perspective.

"The burden for a program that would safeguard agribusiness interests would be disproportionately shouldered by small farmers, rural families and consumers of locally produced food. Worse yet, that burden would force many rural Americans to lose our way of life," she concludes.

Huffington Post published its own piece last week on March 16, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-rose-levy/having-a-cow-and-eating-i_b_175211.html. Written by Alison Rose Levy, the column attacks NAIS for its ineffectiveness in improving food safety. That's not the issue that USDA has proposed as justification for NAIS, but it has inevitably become confabulated with the issue of animal disease, the stated focus. She confuses the FDA with the USDA in the column, but that confusion reflects how the alphabet soup of federal agencies confuses us all. Her reasoning is correct and getting attention in the general media for NAIS is important.

A related issue is Collin Peterson, D-Minn, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, http://agriculture.house.gov/index.shtml. The Sacramento Bee says he must go, after having damaged a valuable public lands bill by adding an unrelated amendment to allow concealed loaded weapons in national parks to accommodate the National Rifle Association, http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/1695853.html?mi_rss=Opinion.

The NRA isn't the only organization pulling Peterson's strings. He's been a mouthpiece for industrial agriculture throughout his tenure chairing the ag committee. It's time for him to go.

Roast Goose

I served Roast Goose to two other couples, my husband and myself this past week. It was a huge success.

The other couples had never cooked or even eaten goose before. I made the food the focus of the evening. When they arrived, the roasted goose was already on a platter on the table, resting. My husband carved it while we discussed it. The first question was, How is goose different from chicken or turkey?

Goose is a waterfowl rather than a land bird. That’s why ducks and geese have more fat than land birds, it keeps them warm. The 9 ½ lb. bird I roasted on this occasion produced about three cups of clear, golden oil. Goose fat is a welcome side-product of roasting a goose. It makes excellent cooking fat. I understand it can also be used for baking, but I haven’t tried that yet.

I have, however, used it to fry and roast potatoes and other vegetables. It makes a good basting fat for chicken. It is the softest fat in its category, liquid at 44 C/ 111 F. Duck fat is liquid at 51 C/ 124 F.

Goose is difficult to carve gracefully. The carcass is bony and disjointing the wings and drumsticks requires a sharp knife and good technique. The breast meat slices off nicely. We fed six and had plenty of leftovers. The 9 ½ lb. bird could easily have fed eight. We are enjoying the leftovers. I made a Goose Tetrazzini from the meat. I used the giblets and carcass to make soup.

I roasted this goose without much fanfare. It defrosted overnight in the cool garage on top of the freezer. I prepared it for roasting by rinsing it in cool water and pricking the skin with a knife, to allow the fat to run off into the roasting pan. I removed it with a turkey baster during roasting.

I stuffed the goose with a bread stuffing, mixed with celery, onions, mushrooms and parsley, seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg, moistened with the goose broth made from the giblets.

Although the price seems high at $4.99 a lb., the amount of meat and fat a goose produces makes it a good choice for a family meal or small dinner party.

Pointy end or Round end?

The question came up: Which end of an egg comes out first, the pointy end or the round end? I admit I’d not considered it before, and asked for answers. Thus far, some say Pointy and some say Round. These two videos posted on YouTube help, but I didn’t find them definitive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAiTOuSyJsQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq9Xc2lX_4I&feature=related

The first seems to have the round end coming out first, but the second seems to be the pointy end.

Perhaps it’s not always one way or the other. I don’t know enough about the formation of the egg to be certain that it is always the same way.

Some breeds lay eggs that are rounder than others, such as the Cubalaya.