Day 87 – A Free Range Egg is a Good Egg!

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87/365 (March 28, 2010) – BC Free Range Eggs

These eggs come from birds that are not housed in cages, and when the weather permits, they are allowed to venture outdoors. They lay their eggs in nesting boxes and have free access to both feed and unlimited water. BC Free Range Birds will be outdoors most days, as our climate allows the birds many more suitable days than the other provinces. Access is only denied in severe weather. (From the Golden Valley website and supported by the Canadian Egg Marketers Board).

Nutritious and delicious any day of the year!

We watched Jamie’s Food Revolution on TV on Friday night…and were suitably horrified. If you haven’t seen it, program it and don’t miss the next episode, and if you can find the first episode…seriously, watch it! It will make you turn inside out. I do think Canadians don’t eat this badly under most circumstances, and I’m pretty sure that most Canadian kids know how to use silverware by the time they go to school. However, the almighty dollar seems to be the underlying factor, junk food is cheaper than healthy food. But apparently this isn’t universal in North America. I couldn’t believe when Jamie came up with a menu and the cafeteria staff head (Alice) said that it wasn’t finger food. So when he said put out the cutlery she was angry and said she didn’t know if they had any!?! She asked him in the most obnoxious manner “Do you mean to tell me that your elementary school kids use knifes and forks?” And when he said yes, she snarled back “Do you have documentation on that!?” UNBELIEVABLE! He looked devastated. He gave a family groceries and recipes for a week, and when he came back and saw how much food was left, he asked the little girl what recipe she liked best, she said “pizza”.  It was pretty obvious that wasn’t on the week’s menus he provided. You can lead a horse to water…..

However, the almighty dollar seems to be the underlying factor, junk food is cheaper than healthy food.

And to add to the horror, after that was over, we watch the documentary Food Inc. Again, I don’t think it is this bad in Canada, but I’m not sure I ever want to eat another chicken – unless it’s free range! I already don’t eat beef except on rare occasions, and that comes from the butcher when we do. Pork, we eat it, but not a ton. Our chicken comes from the market and comes from a poultry producer in the Fraser Valley, I’m reasonably certain it is quality. And I am totally comfortable eating fish, farmed or wild caught, since I’m very familiar with that industry and its practices here in BC.

But wow, I can’t say how horrified I was with what I saw in that show. Again, do yourself a favour if you live in North America, rent Food Inc.

You might really start to think a whole lot more about what you buy and why.

I try to make cottage cheese muffins once a week as a good snack, and when Kirk reminds me I make homemade yogurt. Super easy. Nothing in it but skim milk and bacterial culture. Nothing I can’t pronounce! I go on and off making bread, we really don’t eat much of it, probably a bit more in the winter because it goes so well with soup. And soup, can’t remember the last time I bought a can of soup, or a package of dried soup mix. All from scratch, generally make it on Sundays to clean out any leftover veggies.  The processed foods in our life have really been squeezed out over the years.  Jams and jellies are home made, so is my BBQ sauce, and usually chicken stock too. When we grocery shop, we tend to try and stick to the outer aisles and skip the inner ones. Real food seems to be on the fringes and when you go deep, that’s where the processed garbage is.

We started buying free range eggs a few years ago, but I still bought the ‘normal’ eggs for baking because they were cheaper. I stopped that last year and just buy the free range now. I don’t care that they are $4 a dozen. They just taste better. There are other things we don’t need to spend money on, things we can do without, good quality, fresh food is the highest priority and not where we will scrimp.

But that’s still wrong. Healthy eating simply should NOT cost more!

I’m no health nut, but I do believe in the basic principle of garbage in, garbage out. I can’t help but wonder what all those preservatives are doing to the human species…

Some interesting links: 100 Mile Diet, Canada’s Food Guide, Healthy Eating, How to Eat Better

And a couple of very interesting books: Fat Land, Fast Food Nation