What CAN I eat? Rice... or maybe not

Consumer Reports Arsenic in Rice Investigation

When people make the move to gluten-free eating, the focus tends to be on what can't be eaten as opposed to what can.  Bread products are out.  Crackers are a no-no.  Wheat-based pastas go the way of the dinosaur.  And let's not even talk about desserts!  Thankfully, there are many quality substitute products in the gluten-free world that can take the place of those longed for foods or snacks we're missing.  If you're an avid ingredient reader like me (and if you're eating gluten-free you just about have to be), you probably have noticed that rice in one of it's many forms is often on the list.  Rice, rice flour, brown rice flour, sweet white rice flour, rice syrup, rice bran, etc. etc. etc.  Rice is a healthy alternative, right?  I mean, just think how many cultures in the world use rice as THE main staples of their diets... the majority of the world population can't be wrong!  For us personally, we're a big rice eating family and many of the gluten-free products we enjoy also contain mainly rice plus I bake heavily with rice flours.  We choose to use mostly brown rice and brown rice flour because all the bran is good for you and the bleaching process of white rices is supposedly a little suspect. 

So here I sat feeling smugly superior about our family's healthy diet... until early this month when Consumer Reports investigations released their findings about the levels of high arsenic in various kinds and brands of rice and in rice based products.  Take that smug superior feeling!  Little did we know in our push to eat as healthy a gluten-free diet as possible we might actually be slowly poisoning ourselves with arsenic.  Brilliant! 

So what's a health-conscious, gluten-free eating person to do?  Here are a few of our suggestions and things we're implementing in our family's diet to decrease arsenic exposure.

1.  This may seem obvious but eat rice varieties and brands with lower arsenic levels.  For us, this meant switching from brown rice to white basmati or jasmine rices.  Our first choice is to buy organic rice from California and at the very least, avoid rice from the southern United States.  We also limit the number of servings of rice we eat in a week and we rinse and soak our rice thoroughly before eating.

2.  Avoid highly processed rice based products such as cereals, crackers, and other snack foods.  Something about the processing seems to concentrate the arsenic.  Even though many of these products were below the "safe" level used by Consumer Reports, the accumulative effect of eating many of these products could lead to a higher level of arsenic exposure.  Plus anything processed is probably not that great for you anyway (high sugars, the chance of containing GMO, various evil additives, etc.) ~ better just to avoid or limit.

3.  Switch from rice pasta to another kind of gf pasta.  We've eaten Trader Joe's rice pasta for years because it cooks up nicely, holds a sauce well, tastes good and is one of the cheapest on the market.  Gotta like more bang for your buck especially when you're getting a quality product - except when it's higher in arsenic.  Unfortunately, rice noodles have some of the highest levels in CR's tests so we're choosing to use another kind of gf pasta.  We've switched to Trader Joe's corn noodles which are GMO free (made in Romania!), tasty and inexpensive.  If you do switch to another kind of noodle, do read the ingredients because many of the so-called quinoa or other kinds of pasta still have rice flour as a main ingredient.

4.  Use other sides instead of rice.  Potatoes.  Quinoa.  More veggies.  The possibilities are endless.

5.  If you use a dairy substitute for milk, choose something other than rice milk.  There are lots of other options if you're avoiding dairy including various nut, coconut and soy milks. 

6.  Use alternative gluten-free flours besides rice flours and limit rice based gf baking and bread mixes.   Since going "primal" in my eating style I've been experimenting with a lot more almond and coconut flours in my baking (sometimes to my family's chagrin).  Other options include tapioca flour, quinoa flour, various nut flours, potato flour, bean flours and many other choices ~ I'm looking at it as an opportunity to be adventuresome.  We still use Pamela's Bread Mix and Pamela's Baking Mix which both contain quite a bit of rice flour, but I limit how often we eat these things.

7.  We don't drink apple juice.  I know, what does that have to do with rice?  In case you missed it, here is Consumer Reports investigation on arsenic levels in apple juice.

8.  Just don't eat rice.  Go primal.  Or paleo.  Or just say no to rice.

For more suggestions and an excellent condensed explanation of the CR article see the Environmental Work Group's blog post on Getting Arsenic out of Your (and Your Kids') Diets.

Post-morteum

Wet, wet, wet

After weeks of endless sunshine, the great North-"Wet" lived up to it's name and dumped buckets on us this past weekend.  Which was lovely if you were fighting a fire somewhere in our great state but not so wonderful if you were planning on an outdoor chicken butchering extravaganza.  Thankfully we got a bit of a reprieve on Sunday morning and got the bulk of the work done before the rain re-materialized and the wind kicked up.

The set-up

As I mentioned before, we did not plan ahead well by reserving the chicken butchering paraphernalia in a timely manner from our local extension office.  Thankfully we were able to work with the extension office from the next county over and after a late Saturday evening trip to another farm to pick up the gear, were able to get set up for our Sunday morning exploits.  It was basically all the same stuff except for a nifty cone stand and blood collection basin that made the process go a lot more quickly.  Jon, dear man that he is, manned the cones and defeathering station while the husband and I handled the eviscerating table.  It took just under three hours for three people to butcher 41 chickens*.  Of course it took another hour+ to clean up and tear down.

Final tally was 41 chickens out of the original 42 birds*, averaging just over 4 pounds dressed weight per bird.  Total amount spent was $303.36 so about $7.40 per bird or about $1.80 per pound. 

Not bad for organic, pastured chickens.


* You may have noticed that the number of birds here is one less than we've been talking about all along.  We miscounted the chicks when we originally got them - have we mentioned that they're fast little buggers and all look alike?

Miscellaneous Chickens

Mob 2, currently 42 chickens strong, reached 8 weeks old today and are on the count down to the freezer (this Sunday).  We've learned some new things during this group's sojourn with us, some interesting, some just new.

(1) Probably the most surprising to us was the fact that October is one of the busiest fowl butchering seasons of the year, making it difficult to reserve the necessary gear from the county extension office if you don't plan ahead (we didn't).  Thankfully, we were able to reserve the de-featherer, scalder and various other paraphernalia from a neighboring county's office and are on schedule for this weekend.  Insert big sigh of relief here, I was not relishing the thought of another several weeks with mob 2 as they've become hefty brutes you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. 

(2) Cornish Rock X love apples.  And pears.  And swiss chard.  And corn cobs.  As we've stated earlier, this group is not picky eaters and in fact, will go for the leftover scraps before their regular chicken food if given the choice.  For many chicken enthusiasts, this is probably not an earth-shattering revelation as most chickens enjoy being fed various leftovers (see this chart for a nice break down of what they can and can't eat); that said, CRX are not known for their grazing habits and anecdotal evidence states they prefer plain ol' chicken feed to just about anything else.  Our CRX are just weird.

(3) They really are trying to escape.  We have several roosters that attempt to make the jump out of the tractor whenever we open the lid for cleaning or feeding.  In fact, this morning when moving the chicken tractor, several managed to escape under the end when it encountered a larger than normal bump and immediately made a bee-line for the downed apples under our trees.  I have a feeling we have a couple of come-to-God crazies in the group predicting the end of the world (little do they know!) that stir up the rest to try and make a break for it whenever they get the chance.

DEAL ALERT: Groupon for GlutenFreely.com

I've mentioned before that I love Groupon and other such deal sites (like, pink puffy sparkly heart love).  Anyway, one of the current deals for the Seattle area is for the GlutenFreely website which offers many gluten-free products plus information about gluten-free living.  There are two choices for this Groupon:  $25 for $50 of credit or $39 for $85 of credit + free shipping.  I've not used the GlutenFreely website before but after a quick perusal will say they offer an insanely large selection of gf food for prices I would classify as moderate to on the high-ish side (for example, Udi's hot dog buns are on sale at GlutenFreely for $5.57 whereas my local Fred Meyer carries them for $4.99 regular price).  This Groupon (especially the $39 choice) would make their prices competitive and therefore worthwhile to snag in my humble opinion. 





*Some links in this post may be affiliate links giving credit to the blogger.  We make no official endorsement for the sites or products offered here; as always; your mileage may vary and use at your own discretion.




 

Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge

I mentioned in an earlier post that the husband and me were considering doing a Whole30, which is essentially eating paleo approved whole foods for 30 days (that's seriously a nutshell explanation, see the website for more info).  I've been a primal eater for about a year, so for me, it was mostly a tightening up of the sloppy eating habits and eliminating sweeteners and dairy for a month.  Since the whole family is gluten-free by necessity, the jump to paleo/primal eating for the husband was mainly cutting out grains.  Which doesn't sound like a huge thing but in actuality was posing a pretty big jump mentally.  Since his metabolism is through the roof high (lucky guy), keeping him satiated on a daily basis is a real challenge. He literally eats four to five meals a day plus snacks, so things like rice, potatoes and bread help fill the gaps of keeping him full.  The idea of exclusively eating straight up meat, veggies and healthy fats was giving him pause (would he starve? could he survive on celery and nut butter?).  In the midst of deciding how to plan our Whole30 and discussing whether it would really work for the husband or not, Mark's Daily Apple announced their yearly Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge.  Phew!  What a relief!  Twenty-one days felt like a much more doable length of time for the husband, and since my eating style falls more into the primal camp, it felt like second nature.  Plus the exercise component of the 21-day challenge appealed to us (especially since we've fallen off the daily exercise wagon over the summer).  About the only tweak I've made to the challenge for myself is eliminating dairy and not using any sweeteners (bye-bye dark chocolate, sniff sniff).  We're also eating our largest meal of the day at lunch time, which is not part of the challenge, just something we're trying on our own.

We're three days in and so far so good.  I'll try to chronicle this current (mis-)adventure as we go along and will keep you updated on whether the husband is making it on celery and nut butter (I kid, he's really eating very well).  If you're interested in the Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge, head over to Mark's Daily Apple for information and to enter all the super cool contests he's running.

Grok on!

Mob 2, Week 5

Mob 2 has reached the five week mark and are, against all odds, still forty-three birds strong (for the moment, see below)*.

Two feeders

We are finding that forty-three chickens present unique challenges that thirty-three birds did not.  For one thing, they didn't all fit around our extra-large 30-pound poultry feeder which resulted in a MMA, winner-take-all attitude at feeding time.  It was getting seriously violent and as much as we want strong (read lots of dark meat) birds, feeding times were becoming the kind of activity from which you'd hide your children's eyes.  So we bought another feeder and for the moment, dinner in The Fortress has become a much more civilized affair.

Another issue we've encountered with the larger mob is they produce a heck of a lot more poo.  In addition, this flock has continued in their intelligent ways and graze like crazy on whatever patch of ground their chicken tractor rests upon.  As a result of the increase in au naturale fertilizer and quick denuding of the ground, we've taken to moving The Fortress twice a day.  This is probably excessive, but at least it means the chickens get more fresh "pasture" and aren't sitting in their own excrement.  Plus I'm hoping for a really green lawn come spring so we're spreading the love around, so to speak.

Chicken in a box (again!)

*Speaking of our miraculous 0% mortality rate, we're pretty sure we have one chicken who is at death's door.  We're not sure what the problem is but about two days ago she started acting off and was being "hen-pecked" by the rest of the flock.  As a result of her not feeling well, therefore not getting out of the way, she was run over by the chicken tractor on one of the twice daily moves and to add injury to insult, now has a bum leg.  She's still eating (and pooing) but honestly, she's not well.  I keep reminding myself that this is the way of chicken raising and seriously, we're waaaaay ahead of the curve right now, but it's still sad (especially since we've put 5 weeks worth of feed into her).  So we again have a chicken living in a box, just not on my kitchen counter this time.

Because he's so darn cute and really believes we pay far too much attention to the chickens

A Couple of Ways to Save When Eating Gluten-Free

I got an interesting email in my in-box today and after looking it over, felt it was worthy of sharing. 

I subscribe to BeFreeForMe, a gluten-free and food allergy conscious website that shares coupons and deals with the food allergy community.  They also maintain a blog which discusses gluten-free foods and tips, post articles and maintain a recipe database; in addition, they don't clog your inbox with lots of email so when I get something from them, I know it's worth a look.  Anyway, today's email was about a gluten-free "groupon" style website called Gluten-Free Saver.  Being a big Groupon and Amazon Local fan, I admit I was all over this, and after an initial review of the site, I decided to sign up.  Many of the deals have potential, so if you're interested head on over and check them out. 



* We get no compensation or benefit from recommending these sites or the products they offer. As always, sign up and use at your own risk.

If a picture is worth a thousand words... (chicken edition)

So if a picture is really worth a thousand words, than all these pictures today will save me from coming up with anything to say (witty or otherwise).  With the start of school, life has throttled into full gear with both boys starting their virtual academy studies, the husband going back to work, and me wrangling everyone and the ensuing chaos.

The short feathery report on Mob 2 consists of 43 chickens (still!) eating about 50 pounds of food a week and now big enough to be moved outside.  The change of abode from garage nursery to outdoor chicken tractor (aka The Fortress) will happen today because (1) it's warm enough, (2) the chickens have their adult feathers and (3) and probably most importantly, they're stinking up and making a mess of the garage. 

So without further ado, the chickens.

Chickens in the nursery, sans brooder

Their newest hobby, standing on the waterer plotting their escape

Why yes, I AM king of the pen

Chicken Update

Almost 2 week old chick

Ack, I thought we were supposed to be in the lazy, hazy days of summer, sliding slowly into autumn.  Not so at our house!  We're in a mad frenetic dash leading up to the start of school, and with the husband beginning a new job, it's been more like an out of control free-fall into September.  Thus the absence of blog posts and chicken updates... Really, I do have some amazing topics in the offing just waiting to be crafted into brilliant and witty discussions about the benefits of being gluten-free.  In addition, the husband and I are contemplating eating Whole30, so there's whole 'nother topic of potentially scintillating posts.  We'll see.  I have a feeling this crazy schedule we're currently on may not ease up until well after Christmas.

Anyway, back to my favorite subject, chickens.

The chickens turned two weeks old this past Tuesday and miraculously, we have not lost a single one.  NOT ONE!  43 chicks arrived and 43 chicks happily remain.  Seriously, from our previous experience with Mob 1 and from what we've read about how delicate this breed is, not losing a single chick might truly qualify as a small miracle.  Conventional knowledge among backyard chicken enthusiasts claim the average loss for Cornish Rock cross to be 15%; with Mob 1 we had 5 out of the original 38 die so 13% loss, most in the first 2 weeks.  Seriously, 0% loss is unheard of and has us scratching our heads a bit about what we are doing right.  I'm guessing it's the really healthy chick stock from Jenk's Hatchery, good feed from Patriot Farm, and plain old dumb luck.

At two weeks in, we've entered the gawky adolescent stage where the chicks go around half dressed in their adult feathers and the males bump chests and attempt to crow.  Plus they've developed the voracious eating habits of a teenager and are attempting to eat us out of house and home.  First week they consumed about 22 pounds of feed; the second week we're up to about 42 pounds with a noticeable increase in the last 2 days.  I'm occasionally letting the food trays run out so they get used to not always having food in front of their faces since once they go "out to pasture" they won't have feed available 24/7.  We're also cutting down on feed availability at night.

Feeding frenzy

On a proud mama note, I have to say this group of chicks is smart.  Seriously, we're raising chicken einsteins here.  Cornish Rock cross are famously (or maybe notoriously) known for being dumb... really, really, REALLY dumb.  Because of the intensive breeding for high feed to meat conversion, quick maturity, and larger breasts (I know, that sounds bad, doesn't it?), the breed has lost most of its smarts.  For example, Cornish Rock cross will supposedly not forage on pasture.  You hear stories of bugs that other breeds would snap up in an instant walking across the feet of the CRX, and instead of taking advantage of the mobile snack, the CRX will RUN away in fright (though in the case of a large hairy spider, who can blame them?).  Now after our experience with Mob 1 who happily ate up our lawn, I would take issue with the notion that they can't learn to graze.  In addition, we've seen this new flock enthusiastically fight over a spider that strayed into the nursery and an inchworm we threw in for kicks.  Plus they industriously scratch and dig for food that falls into the liter.  My guess is if they are given the chance to exercise their dormant yet still present natural instincts, they can and will learn to act like normal chickens instead of just mindless eating machines.

Depending on weather, overnight temperatures and feather development, we're hoping to put our little flock out of pasture around week 3.  We'll keep you updated (hopefully).

Uh-oh, we did it again!

Or subtitle, Chicken raising take 2.

43 chicks in the garage nursery

Since the first round of chickens went so well, we've decided to try it again with the goal of having a year's worth of chicken in the freezer.  I have to say, we've been most impressed with the quality and taste of the meat from our first venture.  It was a bit of a stunning realization to look down at my dinner plate earlier this week and know that every item, except a bit of cheese in my salad, was something we had grown ourselves (chicken, swiss chard and green salad).  It made us feel all self-sufficient (and a little smug).

Boxes of chicks

Are you my mother?

So our current batch of Cornish Rock cross chicks arrived on Wednesday from Jenks Hatchery in Oregon.  We ordered 40 chicks (43 were sent), and we'll be splitting the bounty, butchering and cost with some good friends of ours.  This group of chicks display a much different personality than the original mob, being more spunky and curious.  They are currently working on digging a tunnel through the deep liter in what we're guessing is an effort to get out to the world beyond.  They also think our dog is their mother.

So here we go again.  I'm not sure how much I'll blog the process this time because we're roughly doing the same thing, but who knows?  Baby chicks are pretty darn cute so they might get more then their share of air time.

Free Gluten Free emagizine subscription!

I wanted  to pass along this excellent gluten freebie!  Easy Eats e-magazine is dedicated to fresh, interesting, and affordable gluten-free eating and recipes and is currently offering three subscription levels including the free bronze level.  More information on this offer can be found on the Easy Eats blog or to sign up right now go to the Easy Eats subscription page.  This is an e-magazine so there is no hard copy sent to your home every 2 months; you can view it on your computer or tablet.  I hooked it up through the iPad Newstand app (after subscribing, search Easy Eats on the app store; you will need to sign into your account on the Easy Eats webpage first) and have to say the pictures are vibrant and the information helpful. 

If you sign up, we'd love to hear your impressions.

Oldest's Story

In our family's war on gluten, the members are represented by two distinct but equally important sides, the mother who makes the food and the boys who eat it.  Here are their stories.

We dropped oldest off at a week long sleep-away camp this past weekend - hard to believe our squishy little baby is already over half-grown and has no issue with going off for fun and games away from home for a whole week.  I'm not adjusting nearly so well.  We're really thankful the camp we send him to works really hard with us to be sure he's provided with wholesome gf food while he's there.  He was sort of their test case last year, and now this year there are at least 4 other campers with food allergies or sensitivities.  Plus, in a bit of irony, the camp chef was diagnosed with gluten intolerance so now she's a pro at fixing gf fare.  Woohoo!

Unfortunately for oldest, we didn't catch his gluten sensitivity until after we figured out youngest had an issue.  (I know, bad bad parents!)  As a baby and young child, he had relatively few issues that would raise red flags and being relatively uneducated about food allergies at this point, we didn't clue in to a possible food link.  Probably the biggest problem we dealt with was constipation, sometimes boarding on severe.  The year we lived in Slovakia saw this as a fairly major issue, probably because his diet, while high in fiber, was based on a lot of bread and wheat products as was part of the culture.  He would literally go up to a week, sometimes longer, between bowel movements and only after using large doses of fiber.  He also had sleep issues, often waking multiple times in the night.  We treated the symptoms but never found a root cause.

After we discovered youngest's severe gluten allergy and the whole family went gluten-free, oldest's issues cleared up almost immediately.  It was a big head-slap, light bulb moment for us.  Over time and a little experimentation we've found oldest can tolerate small amounts of gluten once in a great while - so for example if he stays at his grandparent's house or goes out of eat, he can choose to have a sandwich with gluten-full bread or one of his grandma's famous chocolate chip cookies.  His sensitivity seems to be more cumulative so if he eats gluten on a daily basis over a period of time he will experience stomach virus type symptoms such as throwing up or diarrhea (no fun).  As a result, he prefers to not eat gluten and save those little indulgences for special occasions.



Oldest's  symptoms:

• Seemed mild in nature, almost "sleeper" symptoms
• Severe constipation
• Multiple night-wakings

The dark side of eating gluten-free

In the past couple of days I've read a couple of thought-provoking blog entries on what we might consider "the dark side" of gluten-free eating.  Since gf eating has become the new eating fad of the moment, many people just assume because something is labeled gluten-free it must be good for you.  Unfortunately, just because that sugar cereal or candy bar or bag of chips says gluten-free doesn't make it any more healthy for you, regardless of what the maker of said product wants you to think.  In addition, many purveyors of food in their rush to jump on the gluten-free bandwagon have taken shortcuts or are not as educated as you, the consumer, are about their ingredients.  It's worth asking, who should you ultimately trust before putting that supposed morsel of gluten-free food in your mouth?

Elana at Elana's Pantry explores the idea of whether gluten-free labeled food is really healthy.  Nicole at Gluten-Free on a Shoestring looks at the marketing strategies of companies in relation to gluten-free food.  I think these blogs are worth a read and so offer them up for your (pun intended) consumption.

Gluten Free Is Not Healthy  (Elana's Pantry)

9 Lies Companies Tell You About Gluten-Free Food  (Gluten-Free on a Shoestring)

Chickens, the recap

We're so pleased with how the great chicken raising experiment turned out.  Overall, a very enjoyable experience and since the butchering wasn't too bad we'll be doing it again, maybe as early as the end of this summer. 

Here's our list of things to remember and thoughts for next time:

• We loved Jenks Hatchery and would definitely order from them again.  Their service was outstanding, the chicks arrived in amazing shape and the mortality rate of our mob was very low.  At butchering time we found our birds to be robust with very thick and healthy feathers.  They breed a good product.
• We were satisfied with the Cornish Rock Cross and would choose this bird again.  We got a straight run and while the hens were on average a little smaller, it was not enough to be noticeable.  Jenks also offers monthly hatches of the visually stunning Red Ranger and the Heritage White breeds which would be interesting to try since they are both good foragers and have good feed conversion.  After another flock of Cornish Rock X, my vote would be for the Heritage White.
• The deep liter method for chicks worked really well.  Also loved using a hover brooder as it kept our electrical usage down and provided a very warm and protected environment for the chicks.  It might be worth considering going without warming bulbs if we do another flock at the end of summer, depending on temperature.
• Need to purchase at least one chick feeder and chick waterer bases.
• Remember to use the leftover electrolyte mix with the next flock of chicks, especially if the weather is warm.
• It's been reported that Cornish Rock X do not make good foragers; we did not find this to be the case probably because we trained them to look for food on the ground by scattering feed while they were in nursery (do this again).
• Since we have 30+ birds in the freezer, see if someone would like to go in with us on a chicken order in August.
• The chicken feed we got from Patriot Farm was outstanding.  Next time, we need to actually buy enough.  Our chickens definitely preferred it to the big name pressed crumble-style feed from the local feed store.  Plan at least 10-15 pounds of feed per bird.
• In terms of feeding, next time we'll feed on demand for the first week or so and then go a 12 hours on, 12 hours off feeding cycle.  We fed this first mob way too much to begin with and went through more food then we needed to in the beginning.  It didn't translate into more meat, though it did produce more (expensive) fertilizer. 
• When we set up the chicken tractor next time, it might be good to pull it between the vibrant green tracks from the past flock in an effort to make our lawn less "stripe-y" looking.
• As butchering nears, plan the tractor route to end closer to the proposed butchering site.  Rearrange the butchering stations so they are closer together.  Be sure to have a first aid station available.
• More ice at butchering.  Start setting aside ice early.

Gardening, the lazy way

I'll admit it, I'm a lazy gardener.  I pretty much stick the seeds in the ground once the temperature warms up and then besides an occasionally watering, pretty much ignore them until they're bearing fruit.  This year especially it was tough for me to get over the May doldrums and actually put some effort into getting the whole process going.  You see, here in the Pacific "North-wet" the past few years we've experienced this lovely new weather phenomenon meteorologists affectionately coined as June-uary.  Simply smashing weather for gardening or any outdoor activity, let me tell you.  And being as we tend toward wetter cooler summers anyway, unseasonably low temps and extra rain in June does not help the backyard gardener get too enthusiastic.  Last year, summer never really showed up so pretty much no tomatoes, few cucumbers and even a sour zucchini crop.  So couple the cool weather with my tendency towards inherently lazy gardening plus the hyper-focus on being a chicken farmer, it took me a bit to actually get going this year.

Tomatoes under their quasi-green house

This year we're sticking to the basics:  peas, carrots, swiss chard, leaf lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, cauliflower, pumpkins, zucchini, garlic and tomatoes.  We also have a couple of rhubarb plants and two strawberries gardens.  Fingers crossed, so far so good with everything up and growing heartily except zucchini (zucchini!  who in the NW fails at growing zucchini??!?!).  I didn't plant until the end of May, following the wisdom of my father who swears there is no point in putting anything in the ground until Memorial Day.  The ironic thing is he was sowing his garden by the beginning of May and had most of it in before Mother's Day.  Go figure.  Usually I'm the one putting in cold weather crops as early as March, but he's the one who jumped the gun this year (and quite successfully too as my parents munch happily away on peas already).  Even with the late start we've been eating a large crop of juicy strawberries - they didn't mind the extra rain and seemed to have gotten just enough sun to ripen to plump perfection.  I also expect we'll harvest spinach and baby lettuce this week and potentially have peas by the end of next. 

Garden - I'm spoiled, the husband built some rocking raised beds

The Deed Is Done

I know I've been talking a lot about chickens here lately, and I promise, I'll get on to other subjects soon.  There are several rough drafts in the offing on such fascinating subjects as gluten-free bread choices, gf restaurant options and gardening.  But at the present moment we're frankly consumed by chickens.

Jon, manning the cone

This past Tuesday was butchering day and beyond a slight mishap with a knife and the occasional threatening clouds, it went off without a hitch (at least from the human's perspective, the mob may have had a different interpretation).  Thanks to our county's conservation district office, we were able to rent for a very small fee a propane heated scalder, killing cones and the amazing Featherman de-featherer.  Our good friend Jon of Insurgent Chicken blog fame walked us novices through the process and lent valuable and capable hands throughout the day.  For one of the best pictorial examples of a butchering day, check out his Butcher Day blog post.

The scalder and Featherman de-featherer

I won't go into great detail about the in's and out's of dispatching a chicken, partly out of sensitivity to some of my vegan friends and partly out of ignorance as I avoided that portion of the day's events.  But suffice it to say, using a cone is much more humane and gentle way of doing the deed than the stories you may have heard from your grandparents.


Speaking of grandma's stories, the chore of plucking chickens has come a long way, baby!  The chicken still needs to be scalded to loosen the feathers but using a propane scalding tank that maintains a relatively even temperature makes the process soooo much easier.  In addition, I have nothing but awe for the Featherman machine - seriously, this gadget is incredible, taking a fully feathered fowl to rubber chicken status in about 30 seconds.  Our birds seemed to be more "feathery" than the average Cornish Rock so it took a bit longer (like, oh, 40 whole seconds) for the machine to render them naked.  As much as I appreciate the old school method for doing things, there is no way on God's green earth I would subject myself to manual removal of chicken feathers, so being able to rent this baby was a lifesaver. 

The final step is removal of the innards and icing down the birds before freezing.   Being the little biologist that I am, I spent most of my day doing this (yes, I was one of those students who enjoyed dissecting frogs).  We saved livers, hearts, and gizzards.  Birds went into the freezer the next day after sitting on ice overnight.

Chicken after de-feathering

Scalding

De-feathering

The husband at the evisceration station

Because it's a family affair

Altogether we had 33 birds weighing a total of 132.6 pounds for an average weight of just a smidge over 4 pounds.  The largest bird was a hefty 5.6 pounds.  We'll do a recap post in a week or so with our thoughts on what we'd do differently next time.

The end of the story

The night before... dum, de dum, dum, dum!

So tomorrow's the big day.  We've picked up the scalder, de-featherer, and killing cones from our county conservation district, arranged for the offspring to be elsewhere (though they had the option of staying and watching/participating) and sharpened our knives.  I feel like I should cue the ominous music at this point.  Chickens are a bit perturbed they have not been fed this evening and issue stern lectures to us whenever we venture into the neighborhood of the chicken tractor ~ obviously the humans around this joint are slacking.  Poor things, little do they realize they've enjoyed their last meal and now our destined to become a meal.

Here are a last few pics of the mob this side of the freezer.  Stay tuned for a future post on our butchering experience.

Enjoying the sun

The almost-pet in his private palace

Tick, tock

Clock is a ticking, we're down to the less than 2 weeks before E-Day (execution day).  Cornish Rock Cross are known for their exceptionally fast growth, to the point where they get too heavy to walk or fly.  Ours are definitely getting on the more chunky size.  The mob has been spending more time sitting in the past week, but overall they are still quite mobile and occasionally active, even running a few races the length of the pen and even attempting to fly over their cousins in a race to the feeder. 

Our little former invalid still spends the night in the garage, but the husband has rigged an outdoor coop next to but separate from the rest of the mob in which she now spends her days.  This protects her from her more aggressive cousins but allows for a little socializing and some outside time.  In terms of size, she's catching up with the smaller hens in the mob, probably now only about a few days behind.  And speaking of "she" and "hens," I'm not altogether convinced that she isn't a he.  "She" seems to be developing more pronounced comb and wattles; this might explain why the roosters would go after "her" when we tried to re-introduce her to the flock.  That said, I'm not sure she'll outlive her more feminine nicknames of "baby girl" and "princess" (really, we haven't named her/him/it, these are just NICKNAMES so they don't count). 

Homemade Gluten-free Bread from the Crockpot

Bread, oh glorious bread!  It's a staple of life, one of those things we take for granted yet can't seem to live without.  I mean, where would peanut butter and jelly be without bread?  When you start the gluten-free life, conventional bread is the first thing that goes, often with much mourning (at least it was that way in our house). 

If you're suffering from bread withdrawals, may we suggest you look into Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's book fantastic recipe book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day?  Most of the book covers wheat breads of various kinds and incarnations, but there is a very well done section on gluten-free breads using the five minute a day strategy for bread baking.  We've tried several of their gluten-free recipes and have been pleased with all of them, plus, as a bonus, this way for making bread is so freaking easy (score!).  Their blog, Bread in 5, is also a good resource for gluten-free recipes and suggestions for using the five minute a day bread method.  In a recent post Zoe shared how to make gluten-free bread in a the crockpot which looks like a quick and easy way to have some really delicious bread without a lot of fuss or time investment.

The chickens in pictures

A pictorial presentation of the mob at the end of week 5/beginning of week 6.  We're over half way, only 3 weeks left until the freezer.  We're not sure on the current average weight but they all seem robustly healthy and are gaining weight at a steady pace.  Thus far all seem active and mobile.

The almost-pet - she's spending more time in the garage (because she's LOUD) and occasional time with the rest of the mob.  She's about 1/2 the size of the smaller chickens in the flock.

Feeding time -it's a frenzy with chickens jumping over and crawling under others to get to the grub.

Though cornish rock cross aren't known for their grazing, the mob seems to have figured it out.

The lawn after the mob has been on it for 24 hours.  We're hoping the addition of chicken "fertilizer" and some grass seed will help this section overcome the moss and dandelions.

So, what CAN I eat???

Oh, gentle reader, rejoice, eating gluten-free is not a hopeless endeavor!  So many more foods are gluten-free than gluten-full that your choices are legion.  In addition, more and more gluten-free substitutions exist now than in previous years so your desire to eat a bag of salty pretzels or have an amazing birthday cake will not be in vain.

Probably the best advice we can give those embarking on the gluten-free adventure is to start with whole foods.  Veggies, fruits, meats, seafood, and many grains are naturally gluten-free.   Many dairy products are also gluten-free (though watch for fillers and thickeners).  By filling the majority of you diet from these basic choices you'll find that eating gluten-free is easier ~ as well as healthier ~ then you previously realized.

Once you've identified the huge number of options available to you from a whole foods diet, next consider those things which you cannot live without.  Is it breads and rolls?  A favorite morning cereal?  Crackers?  Birthday cake?  Once you've found those things, see if you can find a gluten-free substitute.  A good place to start looking is the grocery section of Amazon.com by simply searching the item you're searching for and adding the tag "gluten-free." Another good place to start is in the natural foods section of your local grocer; for those of you in the NW, Fred Meyer has a well put together gluten-free section and has also labelled many other gluten-free products throughout their stores.  Natural food stores and specialty markets may also care gluten-free products - it's worth a look or a call to see what might be available to you.

In the coming weeks, we'll be sharing some of our favorite gluten-free choices and other options for common gluten-full products starting with the obvious first choice, bread.   We'll also make suggestions on where to find these products.  Keep an eye out for more installments in our "What CAN I eat" series.

Youngest's Story

In our family's war on gluten, the members are represented by two distinct but equally important sides, the mother who makes the food and the boys who eat it.  Here are their stories.

Thought last into the family, youngest with his more obvious signs of distress was the first to alert us to our gluten issues. After a glorious six-months of chowing from the mom buffet, we started introducing a few solid foods to youngest's diet. Being as he was satisfied with his exclusively breast-fed gig, he resisted. Plus he's an independent soul and having a spoon with gooey mush of undetermined origin shoved in his face was not his idea of a satisfying meal. Around 8ish months solid foods finally took off but he ONLY wanted finger-foods he could feed to himself, thankyouverymuch. Cheerios and small toast pieces, being among the first finger-foods oldest had mastered, started regularly showing up on youngest's highchair tray. And almost immediately our sweet, happy, willful little guy changed into a cranky, unhappy baby that was difficult to console. In addition, his formerly excellent sleep patterns became erratic which meant our baby was becoming crazily sleep deprived as were mama and daddy ~ not a happy combination. We chalked it up to teething or a growth spurt or just a stage, but when the eczema skin rash appeared and quickly started spreading, it finally dawned on us that we might be dealing with a food allergy.

Our amazing naturopathic pediatrician agreed the first place to look would be foods; she suggested investigating dairy, gluten and possibly eggs as a starting place.  Since we don't do a lot of dairy in our family, youngest had yet to be exposed to any (whew!) which made the task of figuring out what the culprit was that much easier.  We decided to start with wheat/gluten and did a three-week elimination diet, a period of time long enough for his body to completely cleanse itself of the gluten and the side-effects to disappear.  Within a few days of being gluten-free his rash dramatically improved and he was sleeping better.  At the end of three weeks we re-introduced gluten by allowing him a single slice of bread and that night he woke up EVERY hour fussing and the next day an eczema rash reappeared on his leg.  Obviously gluten was the problem. 

As a result, we made the tough choice to go gluten-free as a family.  We considered making youngest separate gluten-free meals using gluten-free substitutes while the rest of us continued eating our gluten-full meals, but the thought of creating multiple dishes at every meal and successfully avoiding cross-contamination was daunting (and exhausting) to contemplate.  By going gluten-free as a family we could insure his continued health and make my job as head chef less complicated.  It ended up being the best (accidental) health decision we ever made as it led to the discovery that the husband and oldest also had gluten issues.

We'll share their stories in the weeks to come.


Youngest's symptoms:

• eczema skin rash, rapidly spreading
• change in temperament from happy & content to cranky & sometimes inconsolable
• Multiple night wakings, often hourly (*yawn!*)
• Occasional stomach upset

The Chicken on My Counter

So we've talked here about our 33 chickens, but in reality when it comes down to dispatching of the mob, we're likely only going to be putting 32 into our freezer.  As I mentioned a few weeks ago, one of our little darlings had an injured leg which meant she wasn't getting around the nursery area well and wasn't getting her fair share of the vittles.  Compared to the rest of the mob, this chick was easily only a third of the size which led to her often being trampled in the race to the feeding trough or getting sat on when one of her larger cousins didn't see her.  Last week we thought she was getting better ~ at least she was more mobile and seemed to be holding her own against her larger compatriots.  But about the time we thought that, she took a turn for the worse, necessitating the making of a hard decision:  let nature take it's course or try to nurse the little peeper back to health.  Being the soft-hearted chicken farmers that we are, she ended up in a box on our kitchen counter.  On the plus side, after several days of convalescing, she's getting better and is starting to be more mobile.  On the negative (or maybe positive, depending on how you look at it), she's becoming more like a pet than a future dinner. 

She's the chattiest of all the chickens, peeping madly if she hears or sees anyone in the room.  At this moment she's sitting in the corner of the box closest to me, peeking over the edge and LOUDLY peeping in an effort to get my attention (or maybe just critiquing my work).  Being as general wisdom states not to name your food, I've held out thus far against the offspring's campaign to bestow a handle on her, but I'm guessing this is a futile effort and she'll still be spared from her execution date, name or not.  Being as we don't have any laying hens, maybe she'll get a new home with the neighbor's flock and will contribute to the neighborhood egg supply.  Only time will tell.

Outdoor living, chicken style

With the bit of nice weather we've been (surprisingly) blessed with this beginning of the Memorial Day weekend, the husband finished up the chicken tractor ~ or as he has dubbed it, THE CHICKEN FORTRESS (said with all capitol letters and a certain amount of reverence).  It IS a fortress and as about as heavy as one too.  Thankfully he figured out how to hitch it up to the lawn tractor and with the use of an old skate board propped under the front and the installed wheels at the back, could drag it around the lawn without too much exertion. 

The Fortress is half enclosed with old roofing materials and half covered with hardware cloth.  We elected to use hardware cloth instead of chicken fencing because of the potential predators (raccoons, coyotes, neighbor's cats) in the area;  hardware cloth is more durable and harder to defeat.  The feeder hangs just past middle and under a hinged hatch door made of roofing.  Two old plastic gutters were transformed into waterers installed along either side.

The mob was ignominiously moved from the garage nursery out into The Fortress this afternoon and seems to be settling in nicely.  Honestly, I don't think they really care where they are as long as their food supply is readily available.  It's a good thing we got this done, too, as we had 2 escapees out of the nursery area today, and a third that almost solved the mystery of flying over the fence.

Here are few pics of The Fortress for your enjoyment.

Hanging feeder

The dog puzzling over the new addition to his domain

Drinking at the gutter waterer

Mambo Sprouts gluten-free coupons

Mambo Sprouts, in honor of their Gluten-Free May promotion, has several excellent gluten-free product coupons available for printing, including San-J sauces, Udi's buns, Rudi's breads and flats, and Van's Natural Foods.  They also have been featuring several helpful articles about gluten-free lifestyle on their blog.

Go here to select and print coupons.

Chickens, beginning of week 4

Official stats thus far:
34 chickens, started with 38 (I miscounted the streaky little beggars last week)
3 weeks old
approximate average current weight 1.5 lb though a few are approaching 2 lb
100 lb of food consumed (we'll need to buy more, the little pigs)
money spent: $56 for chicks & shipping, $65 for feed, $20 for feeder, $50 for hardware cloth, $15 for wood shavings + $6 for electrolyte + $6 for warming bulbs = $218

The husband almost finished the chicken tractor this weekend, adding wheels to the back and covering half with old roofing material from the grandparent's defunct porch.  The goal was for light-weight and movable, but since we used mostly reclaimed and recycled materials, light it is not (but cheap it is).  Thankfully, the tractor is movable if you really put your back into hauling it around the yard, and since we will only be moving it 12 feet at a time we've pronounced it good enough.  In addition, this thing is sturdy and (knock on wood) predator proof.  The last step will be to cover the second half with hardware cloth and add rain-gutter waterers which will be done in the next few days.  We were hoping to put the mob outside this week but thanks to our variable North-"wet" weather, it might be more like this weekend or later before the littler cluckers begin their outdoor life.  I think they will be glad to have more palatial digs as the garage nursery area is getting a little squishy (and stinky).

With their increased size and adult feathers we've raised the hover brooder on risers and unplugged one of the warming lamps.  We've also added a bigger feeder since they need more space to gather around the trough and placed all the waterers on risers in an effort to decrease the mess in the drinking water.