Posted on 04/26/2015 10:33:43 AM PDT by nickcarraway
SNIP
In the town of McPherson, Kansas, there is a butcher shop called Krehbiels Meats, where, not long ago, an elderly woman bought a chicken that moved her to tears. The chicken had longer legs, a smaller breast and yellower skin than regular chickens, and on the back appeared two words the woman, who was in her 70s, would not have seen in a very long time: “barred rock.”
SNIP
She had every reason not to be excited. During the course of her 48 years of marriage, chicken had only ever brought disappointment. The problem was chicken and dumplings. It was one of her husband’s favorite dishes, but every time she made it his verdict was always the same: “Not as good as my mother’s.”
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
There are flocks of delicious looking wild turkeys running around in the woods-I see and hear them when I hike-but no hunting is allowed here because there is livestock of some sort and/or horses everywhere...
Chickens are raised by the numbers.
Best growth per lb. of feed in the shortest time. That is all they will raise. Growers get paid nothing for quality.
What is this magic chicken? It is a hybrid, a few varieties crossed with a Cornish Hen. There lies the problem. The Cornish hens are not healthy and stupid breed. BUT they gain weight faster than any other chicken, with the least food.
Increasing numbers of people are putting in small flocks of chickens for their own family use. My brother and his wife have a menagerie of chickens. Probably 10 different varieties. Has more eggs than he knows what to do with. Fortunately we farm and have a seed business, lots of screenings. But he still has to buy laying mash.
The Barred Rock was the most common farm flock variety in the early 1900’s. The Dominique variety was the earlier standard. Both birds are gentle, good egg layers and taste good.
I know of no poultry production company that promotes their product on the basis of taste. Only on the basis of cost.
The Dorking chicken has the reputation of being the best tasting chicken. (They are not a good choice in the hot climate in TX) I have heard others say they like Ameraucana is also a great tasting bird. But the Barred Rocks are very good dual purpose birds. (meat & egg)
Actually I think median means the balance point of 50% By that measure half of Americans now make less than 30K. Per household it is just over 50K, which is really not the same as the better sounder and higher figure.
5.56mm
One of my neighbors has a few of the Amercaunas among her small flock, but she has not harvested any birds yet-she has promised to half one with me when she does, for a small price. I do trade/barter with her-usually fresh herbs-for eggs-most of the eggs from her hens are brown ones with a very tasty yolk.
Will do. Frys it is!
I was using household income for both periods, which is a lot easier to find.
It is surprisingly difficult to directly compare prices and incomes from one period to another.
US median income for households was $51,939 in 2014. That means half made more and half less.
What you get in the stores is flash.
Actually the UHT process kills some of the nutrients in the milk and is not as good for you.
If you can get slow pasteurized milk that tastes even better.
Hard to find though because it is more expensive energy wise and takes 30 minutes as opposed to 15 seconds to do.
Read this and you may not want to eat any meat but then again vegetables are tasting different too. I watch “Cook Country” the other day and they were talking about carrots. Carrots in a bag could be 6 months old. Baby carrots are “milled”. The only fresh good tasting carrots are the ones with the green tops as they have to be under 3 weeks old.
This may explain the change in taste for beef.
Reason for mad cow disease and also changes in children.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/beef-industry-zmaz08fmzmcc.aspx
FTA: The U.S. beef supply contains traces of hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals that were never produced by any cow. That hamburger looks fresh, but it may be two weeks old and injected with gases to keep it cherry red. Take a closer look at that “guaranteed tender and juicy” filet of beef. The juiciness may have been “enhanced” with a concoction of water, salt, preservatives and other additives.
(snip)
According to the article, one farmer now feeds his cattle a ration that is 17 percent stale candy and 3 percent stale “party mix.” Another feeds a 100 percent byproduct diet, including French fries, tater tots and potato peels.
Some byproduct feedstuffs are high in protein and are considered a welcome addition to a high-grain diet. This list includes chicken feathers, salvaged pet food, ground-up laying hens (known as “spent hen meal”) and urea, a non-protein source of nitrogen synthesized from ammonia and carbon dioxide that is widely used as fertilizer. Urea can sicken cattle if not mixed carefully with feed.
(snip)
Poultry litter is a polite term for the blanket of manure, shavings, spilled feed, dead birds and feathers that accumulates on the floor of large poultry operations. It can be a hidden source of BSE-infected beef, because the FDA still allows meat and bone meal from cattle to be fed to chickens.
#23 I cook my own chicken soup in a big pot and use Fosters chicken breasts. I add red peppers, green beans and celery and carrots and a little green onion and yellow onion and pepper and parsley. It usually is good but is missing something that Campbell’s has.
I use broth that says no msg on it as I get headaches and get real tired if I do. Campbell’s uses msg in their soups so when I started making my own it did not taste the same. I wonder if I throw in a chicken leg or thigh in the mix the flavor would be better.
#31 A headless chicken? That could be any democrat today....
And most of the Republicans.
By the way the birds the article calls “Barred Rocks” (in Martha’s Vinyard) are not “barred”.
These are Barred Rock Chickens>
Rooster
http://www.cacklehatchery.com/images/barred_rock_std_rooster.jpg
Hen
http://www.cacklehatchery.com/images/plymouth_rock_hen_std.jpg
Store-bought food is truly disgusting. Whether it’s the vegetables, the chicken, the eggs, or the beef, it’s garbage. Suburban/modern Americans have no clue what food should taste like.
Some say they have the taste of quail. I am sceptical.
It’s the same in France, too. Milk in a box is delicious. You can get it fresh and refrigerated, but the stuff in a box is still a damned sight better than what you get in an American supermarket.
That was one of my father's preferred "desserts" although he would often eat it with cane syrup, which was purchased directly from the mill in small paint bucket containers. He called it "white mule". I have tried to research the term and the best guess is it's railroad slang. Since he was a foreman on the RR, I guess it's probably correct.
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago that claimed the reason Americans are getting fatter overall is that over the last few decades, food has been bred/hybridized for characteristics other than nutrition - long shelf life, more tolerant of transportation, prettier, etc.
As a result, it has screwed-up people’s instinctive sense of what they should eat when, and how much.
“where can you get a good old fashioned ‘chicken’”
Tractor Supply or Atwoods sells the chicks and the feed for them.
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