tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34860471123709024522024-02-20T00:03:33.333-08:00 :Teresa.and.Marcus: Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-20632530168058841522019-02-01T21:04:00.002-08:002019-02-04T12:43:41.974-08:00Small Farm Organic-Fed Egg-O-nomics<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We sell our extra-large and jumbo eggs for $7.00 per dozen. These are some of the common responses we get when we tell people the price: </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“I thought farm eggs would be much cheaper.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“If I buy 2 dozen can I get a discount?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“My neighbour sells their eggs/I can get eggs at Costco/elsewhere
for $5.00/dozen, why are yours so expensive?”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JKROM6pocLc/XFT5xjjC9HI/AAAAAAAABBk/6_B0JO6WXOQg0qQZant4j1PGG3V7hz3pQCLcBGAs/s1600/20180602_200227.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JKROM6pocLc/XFT5xjjC9HI/AAAAAAAABBk/6_B0JO6WXOQg0qQZant4j1PGG3V7hz3pQCLcBGAs/s640/20180602_200227.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We hear these questions often, and they are good questions from
people who aren’t on the farm to see the ins and outs of egg production on a
small farm. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'm here to answer that question. Are you ready? This will
be long. Grab a cup of coffee or tea (or wine!) and a comfy seat and give me 10
minutes or so of your time. I'll put lots of pictures in to keep you entertained. Yes, these are all pictures of our own chickens and eggs.<br /><i></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you don’t have time right now, bookmark this for later
reading. Here is the tl;dr:<b> </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3DT7UcvOtHw/XFT7aRtHpLI/AAAAAAAABBw/w4NWg6T5bcgX9MJx-M1TjKcSGvcxEs-oQCLcBGAs/s1600/20190112_133901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3DT7UcvOtHw/XFT7aRtHpLI/AAAAAAAABBw/w4NWg6T5bcgX9MJx-M1TjKcSGvcxEs-oQCLcBGAs/s320/20190112_133901.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It costs a lot of money to ethically raise and keep laying hens while feeding them organic food to produce a highly nutritious and pesticide/herbicide-free egg.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Much more than one would think. And hey, the grocery stores sell their extra-large organic eggs for up to $8.99/dozen (and they are making far more profit on that dozen than we are) so in fact you ARE getting a deal. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Details:</span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The bottom line is that egg production with heritage hens is
barely profitable for the small farmer. Profitable egg production is achieved only
by scale (tens of thousands of hens), by breeding hens to be egg laying
machines, and getting rid of them after about 18 months to get in a new set of
egg laying machines. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Commercial layers produce at an average of 90% over their lifespan or 328+ eggs/year. They are </span></span>worn out at 18-24 months of age. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As a small farmer we are severely limited by government regulations
as to the number of hens we can have until we are infringing on quota. We are only
allowed to have 99 laying hens before being required to get a permit, so we can’t
get anywhere close to the numbers of hens needed to make a living wage by producing eggs. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In fact, we would have to sell the eggs for at least twice the amount
we do to make a reasonable wage. Egg production is more about a labour of love –
love for the hens and a desire to provide them with the longest, best life
possible. It’s about pride in producing huge, beautiful, healthy eggs for our
customers and ourselves in a manner that supports regenerative agriculture and
soil building. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This means sourcing, raising, and keeping chickens ethically. Our hens live full lives, cage-free, uncrowded, free ranging or pastured, and have the freedom to express
all their natural behaviours. It means not jumping to cull and replace them as
soon as their egg production drops a little due to age or lighting conditions. This
all comes at a cost to the farmer. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Frt41bYqnM8/XFUJ7KaSpQI/AAAAAAAABDI/T4g9nPFbj-80AzN_PykPlcq01zqDqMyiACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6604%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1600" height="339" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Frt41bYqnM8/XFUJ7KaSpQI/AAAAAAAABDI/T4g9nPFbj-80AzN_PykPlcq01zqDqMyiACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_6604%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Everyone deserves to make a living wage and should not be working for free. But farmers often only make just enough money to survive. We have
huge mortgages and the same bills as everyone else, food, clothing, orthodontics,
and kids. Some costs such as utilities, repairs and insurance cost far more
than for the average house owner. We do it because we love what we do. But we also
deserve to be paid fairly for that work. If we don’t get paid then we can’t
continue doing what we do: providing high quality food while rebuilding the
soil, sequestering carbon and increasing biodiversity i.e. fighting climate
change. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But enough philosophy; let’s get down to some hard numbers. Let’s
suppose we want to have the government mandated maximum of 99 layers.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sourcing the layers:</b></span> </span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We care about how the parent flock that produces the hatching eggs, chicks or pullets we will buy are kept and
housed. Economies of scale dictate that often these parent birds are housed in huge
barns with the minimum amount of space mandated by regulations. They may not ever
see natural light or get to be outside. We feel that it is very important that
the whole lineage of our layers is ethically raised, not just our chicks.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We therefore choose to buy production-bred heritage breeds from
<a href="https://truenorthfarm.ca/" target="_blank">True North Heritage Hatchery</a>, a small breeder in BC. The parent flock is a mix of heritage breeds and runs around on pasture eating bugs,
grass and generally living the ideal chicken life. The chickens have been carefully
selected over years for better production without compromising their health, vigour and quality of life. Along with increased egg production, they are bred for
healthy genetics, their ability to live on pasture and a desire to forage. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, these hens will never reach the level of egg
production of the high production breeds, and we will pay more per chick or per
egg as it costs more money to raise birds this way. We feel good about
supporting small, local producers who have the birds’ best interests front and
center. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">What age layers should we get?</span> </b></span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Once we’ve chosen from where to buy our layers, there are
three options: incubation of fertile eggs, buying day-old chicks, or buying
point-of-lay pullets. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hatching fertile eggs requires an incubator that can
incubate at least 200 eggs (half the chicks hatched are going to be male). An
incubator that size costs between $1600- $3000.00. We will need about 260 eggs
in order to account for eggs that do not hatch and the fact that half of the
chicks will be male. That’s about $450 - $500.00 for eggs and shipping. Once we’ve
invested in this, would we use it enough to justify its expense? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Point-of-lay pullets are more expensive as they are raised
to 16 weeks by the breeder. Advantages are that they are almost ready to lay and we didn't have to feed them from day one. The
main disadvantage is the difficulty in shipping that number of adult birds. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SMbIWDzdGQo/XFT_FPzwI0I/AAAAAAAABCc/qO27k853Jt4O3YB8UQx62tAdftQa19biQCLcBGAs/s1600/20190201_161858.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1278" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SMbIWDzdGQo/XFT_FPzwI0I/AAAAAAAABCc/qO27k853Jt4O3YB8UQx62tAdftQa19biQCLcBGAs/s400/20190201_161858.jpg" width="318" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Currently we can’t afford an incubator of that size and
quality, especially given we aren’t sure if we would use it more than once
every year or so. That lets out hatching eggs. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As for point-of-lay birds, any
method of transport for 99 almost fully grown birds is likely to be</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">logistically difficult and </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">prohibitively expensive. This lets out point-of-lay pullets. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For these reasons we went
with day old chicks. Plus, baby chicks!</span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> </b></span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Choosing a breed:</b></span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We could buy 99 female sex-linked
chicks (the feather colours of the boys and girls are different at hatch so you can immediately tell them apart). However, these chicks are more expensive
and they tend not to lay as well as other breeds. Over the life of the hen they are more expensive than buying non-sexed chicks. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Or we can buy 198 straight run chicks (males and females are the same colour at hatch so you get roughly 50:50 of each sex) of a higher producing variety. The hens of this breed will produce more eggs than the sex linked, but half of the chicks will end up being male so we need to start with twice as many chicks. We wont know which are which until about 6 weeks of age. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After running the numbers, economically it made sense to go with straight run chicks. We chose <a href="https://truenorthfarm.ca/products/production-reds" target="_blank">Production Reds</a> which lay about 280
eggs/year. Remember in comparison the commercial hen lays 328+ eggs/year.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To ensure we end up with 99 hens we need to order more than 198
chicks in case there are
slightly more males than females. We also need to account for typical losses in day old chicks. Losses may be higher in shipped chicks
depending on weather and/or how they are handled by the shipper. So, we should
order about 220 chicks to account for those variables. <b><br /></b>With shipping the cost
will be about <b>$800.00.</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Rearing Costs:</b></span></span> </h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Electricity:</b> The chicks need supplemental heat for the first 3-6 weeks. Electrical costs will vary depending on rate, how much heat they need,
and how long they need extra heat. <b> </b></span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We estimate the average cost will be between<b> $14 - $28.00</b>. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Feed:</b>
Organic feed is between 1.4 -1.7 times as expensive as conventional feed. A bag of organic
feed costs between $26.00 - $33.00 for 20kg.</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the first 6 weeks, each chick will eat about 1.1kg of
feed – 220 kg for 200 chicks or<b> $297.00 – $363.00</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Over the next 14 weeks each chick will eat about 5.2kg of feed – 1040 kg for 200
chicks or<b> $1400.00 – $1700.00.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-68FjAK3lNhE/XFUAGJ4ojlI/AAAAAAAABCo/DjwSsjovSu8cRIPbyKhwDvzk42QlnjleQCLcBGAs/s1600/20190123_141721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="1600" height="201" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-68FjAK3lNhE/XFUAGJ4ojlI/AAAAAAAABCo/DjwSsjovSu8cRIPbyKhwDvzk42QlnjleQCLcBGAs/s640/20190123_141721.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After 20 weeks the males can be processed for the freezer so
we are (hopefully!) left with our 99 pullets. At 20 weeks the pullets are
considered to be point-of-lay (laying or almost laying) and will eat about 0.9-1.0kg
feed/hen/week for the rest of their lives. They might not start laying for
another 4-8 weeks depending on breed and season/light levels. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Feed cost for the rest of their first year (32 weeks) is 2850 kg for 99 hens or<b>
$4277.00 – $5227.00.</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>T<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">otal expenses
for the 1<sup>st</sup> year</span> for 99 hens is an average of $7395.00.</b> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This assumes
there are no losses along the way and that we still have 99 hens. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hopefully the hens will start laying at 20 weeks but at this
point their eggs will be small (not saleable) and will get larger over the next
several weeks. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Revenue: </b></span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In their first year the hens will lay saleable eggs for 29
weeks. Since they lay an egg approximately 77% of the year (280/365), this
means each hen will produce 156 eggs by the end of her first year. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">99 hens will lay 15, 444 eggs or 1287 dozen. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Sale price $7.00/dozen = revenue
of $9000.00. </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Subtract expenses of $7395.00. </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>We have a net profit of $1605.00!</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Yay! </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But wait! We have not included labour in our costs! We probably
average an hour a day on caring for the chicks, hens and the eggs. If we break
that down to an hourly wage, it means we paid ourselves about <b>$4.45/hour</b>. Sad face.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Okay, maybe in year two we will make a bit more money and can
pay ourselves a better wage! Feed will cost the same, about $7722.00 year. The
hens will produce about 280 eggs per year each. Or will they? Egg production
drops as hens get older. They probably will lay at 77% the next 6 months til they are about 18 months but
then after that production will slowly decline. In their second and
third years, this production may drop to 57% or 208 eggs/year, or lower. Ouch. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4ntwLm9kxRQ/XFUKTwPxJaI/AAAAAAAABDU/3LaaOrOdpi4t3BznRsksjpboAskVmLnEACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6265%2B%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4ntwLm9kxRQ/XFUKTwPxJaI/AAAAAAAABDU/3LaaOrOdpi4t3BznRsksjpboAskVmLnEACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_6265%2B%25281%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But lets be hopeful. If it is all sunshine and rainbows and the hens give us maximum production for
the next 12 months (until they are 24 months old) the math looks like this: </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">280
eggs x 99 hens = 27,720 eggs/yr or 2,310 dozen at $7.00/dozen =<b> revenue of $16,170.00. </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Subtracting
the feed costs leaves us <b>profit of $8448.00. </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Yippee! Much more! That’s <b>$23.50/hr</b>.
Much better! But it’s an average of <b>$13.75/hr</b> over the first 2 years. Oh. Nowhere close to a
living wage. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But what really happens in year two? Egg production can drop
quite significantly after 18 months. Instead of laying at 77% we should realistically expect about 57-65% lay from 18-24 months. Doing the same math, its more likely that in year 2 we make a wage of <b>$16.50/hr. </b>Averaged over the first 2
years we make <b>$10.50/hr.</b> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And we very probably will not have 99 hens anymore as
chickens find many ways to die. We expect at least 10% losses over this time
period. In year 3 the egg production may be even more dismal, and we can expect
more losses in number of layers. It very quickly becomes a break even or even a
losing situation. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Now lets do the math at a sale price of $5.00/dozen. </b></span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Year One: Net loss of $860.00 </b></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Year Two: (sunshine and rainbows version): Profit of $4155.00 = Hourly wage of $4.50</b></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Year Two: (realistic version): Profit of $2776.00 = Hourly wage of $3.84.</b></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Year Three: Net loss of $893.00</b></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lets just stop there as it just gets worse every year thereafter.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In order to keep just breaking even at the $5.00/dozen scenario or making a below living wage at the $7.00/dozen, we need to
repeat the process every 2 years with a new set of hens. Small scale farmers
rarely do this. They love their hens and find it hard to kill them off just because
they aren’t laying as well as they were. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p5REuY3hy8o/XFUKowYgrPI/AAAAAAAABDc/JYfYjT5w3X8ct0xs0jDSJQyjAZaRFOBMgCLcBGAs/s1600/20170830_144237.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p5REuY3hy8o/XFUKowYgrPI/AAAAAAAABDc/JYfYjT5w3X8ct0xs0jDSJQyjAZaRFOBMgCLcBGAs/s640/20170830_144237.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> </b></span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Other Expenses:</b></span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In these calculations we have not considered
the cost for things like fuel for trips to the feed store. Infrastructure. Electric netting
to keep them on pasture is $600.00. Portable chicken housing costs about the
same. Nesting material is approximately $100.00/year. Electricity to run the
nets is minimal but we shouldn’t forget that in our calculations. We also need to
consider repairs and disasters. Things like predation, or a wild bird borne
illness can wipe out an entire flock literally overnight. Some chickens get a
taste for eggs and will actively seek out eggs to eat. Chickens learn by
watching and this bad habit can spread rapidly throughout the flock. These egg-eaters
drastically reduce profit. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For pastured hens, labour also includes moving them along
every 1-2 days so they always have fresh pasture and are contributing to soil
regeneration and not degeneration. Moving 99 hens to new pasture is about as
easy as, well, herding 99 hens. This alone should pay about $100.00/hr!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There are also the hours of mental gymnastics and anxiety trying
to figure out why the hens choose to lay eggs on the ground instead of the beautiful
nest boxes you built them. Building, re-building, tweaking, trying new and
different nesting materials, cleaning them, replacing bedding as often as
needed – up to once a day if it’s wet and muddy. Time spent staring at various
hens and wondering if that one is sick and are we going to get enough eggs to
break even today? The anxiety over money can be exhausting. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Other feed options:</b></span></span> </h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If we fed non-organic feed we would make more money
faster and for longer. But organic is really important to us. Many pesticides and
are fat soluble and will concentrate in fat (i.e. egg yolks). GMO-free feeds
are popular and less expensive than organic, but this doesn’t mean that they
are herbicide or pesticide free. It goes farther up the chain than just personal
health choices as well. By buying organic feed we are supporting farmers that
grow organic grains, a tough way to make a living, just like us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Something better:</b></span></span></span></h3>
<h3>
</h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nP_UkRl82GE/XFUMyyge0sI/AAAAAAAABD0/EavateKKCEIEJR4m5YnyXjknx91YfCWMACLcBGAs/s1600/Squeak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nP_UkRl82GE/XFUMyyge0sI/AAAAAAAABD0/EavateKKCEIEJR4m5YnyXjknx91YfCWMACLcBGAs/s400/Squeak.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The bottom line is that in order to significantly profit from eggs that sell
for $5.00/dozen, you need to go large scale. You need to intensively house chickens bred only for egg
production in large scale production environments. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">These chickens are usually destined
for an 18-month maximum lifespan of an unnatural life. They are often housed in
battery </span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">cages, may not ever see daylight or the outside, often pick on each
other because of stress, and eat non-organic feed. They look horrible as they sacrifice their general health to produce massive amounts of eggs. It seems like they are treated
as machines with little regard to their value as an individual living creature. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Many small farmers generally want something better for their
animals. They want animals that can express their natural behaviours, are free
of stress and anxiety, are healthy and vigorous and produce highly nutritious
and pesticide-free eggs. They want them to have only “one bad day” (the day they
go to slaughter), instead of an entire life of misery. It costs far more to be
able to meet these goals. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is why our eggs cost more than you might
expect when shopping directly from the farm. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Small scale farmers who sell low priced eggs are either
taking a loss and may not even know it (many of us are poor business managers as we do it for the love
of animals, not for the money) or feeding conventional feed or both. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now you may be thinking that we will be making money from other farm
activities so any profit is good. We hope we will. However, there are very few small scale
animal enterprises that will make us even close to $10.00/hr. And an hour's work is an hour's work and deserves a reasonable hourly wage. No matter what, in terms of paying the bills, $10.00/hr sucks. </span></span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Soapbox Shoutout!
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Support
your local farmer. They love their animals. They produce top quality
food. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">They are trying to help
reverse climate change. </span></span></span></span>They struggle to make a reasonable living. Toss in that extra toonie and feel good that the hens that laid your eggs were happy and you are supporting local, regenerative agriculture. Beyond organic!<b> /soapbox</b></span></span> </span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Whew. Did you make it all the way through? Fantastic! I hope that helps you understand and even agree that we need to charge $7.00 a dozen for our eggs. And hey, as we said above, grocery stores sell their organic eggs for 7.99/dozen (or more!) so in fact you ARE saving money by shopping at your local farm. </span></span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DhKXMdgVGWs/XFUPbN882HI/AAAAAAAABEM/1VdTxCCvJlghHQQPTg6QreXf2CzuoASWwCLcBGAs/s1600/20171005_140325.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DhKXMdgVGWs/XFUPbN882HI/AAAAAAAABEM/1VdTxCCvJlghHQQPTg6QreXf2CzuoASWwCLcBGAs/s640/20171005_140325.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you
have more questions or want to see how our hens are kept and fit into our regenerative agriculture and soil building goals, please email us or message
us though Facebook. </span></span></div>
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Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-20191246780912572912017-08-31T16:13:00.003-07:002018-02-02T10:21:42.090-08:00Feeding Mistral Gris chicks - 2.5 weeks old. Two and a half weeks ago we acquired our second group of Mistral Gris broiler chicks from <a href="https://truenorthfarm.ca/" target="_blank">True North Heritage Hatchery</a>.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Technically this is our first batch of chicks as last year we got fertile eggs from True North and incubated them in our IncuView. While that was a lot of fun and we had great hatch rates, we were so impressed with their flavour and ease of processing the MGs that we wanted to raise a much bigger batch this year. We finished with 13 last year and after giving some to family and some farm gate sales to friends, we only had enough for a few months with rationing and restraint. Our 'bator only holds 24 eggs and we wanted more birds than that this time 'round so we decided to get chicks shipped. <br />
<br />
We decided on 50 as a good number. We have the infrastructure for about that many, and family to help out when it comes time for slaughter and processing.<br />
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<br />
We are coming up on a significant time (for us) in the chicks' growth. Last year, right around 3 weeks of age, 2 of the biggest and seemingly healthiest birds died suddenly within a 24 hour period. I did a mini necrospy on them and found nothing obvious wrong. I vaguely remembered some of my poultry class teachings in vet school and with a little research came to the conclusion that they probably died of what is known as Sudden Death Syndrome of Broilers aka Flipover disease aka a couple other very descriptive names which match the syndrome. Here is a link from <a href="http://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/sudden-death-syndrome-of-broiler-chickens/overview-of-sudden-death-syndrome-of-broiler-chickens" target="_blank">Merck</a> but basically the birds grow so fast that their bodies outgrow the ability of the heart to keep up and they die of cardiac arrhythmias.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Our Mistrals ate themselves to death.</span><b> </b></div>
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Although Mistral Gris are bred to grow more slowly so they are at far less risk for sudden death than the typical Franken-chicken broiler you find in your grocery store, we learned the hard way that this can still happen if you let them eat all they want.<br />
<br />
I contacted Emily at True North who was extremely helpful. She helped me change their feeding plan and also sent me a growth chart so I could compare our birds to what they should be. I weighed our chicks and found that they were horrendously overweight, averaging 1.5 times the weight they should be at that age.<br />
<br />
We dropped the percentage of protein they were on (from 18% to 16% and then 15%) and also started restricting the time they had access to food. We took it up at night and gave them access to it for 2 hours, 3 times a day, and then twice a day as they got older. After this we didn't have any more sudden deaths but since this seems to happen about the 3-4 week mark and not generally later, this may have been more coincidence rather than anything we changed at that point. Despite limit feeding they still stayed ahead of the growth curve; I couldn't slow them down enough to get them back on track.<br />
<br />
The birds dressed out large but they did not have quite as nice body composition as I've seen other people get with Mistrals. Ours had less breast meat and were longer legged. I wonder if this was because of their abnormal growth in the first few weeks and then too much protein restriction in later weeks. Despite this, compared to Sassos that we raised the year before, the MGs were so much easier to process and dress, and so delicious and tender on the plate, that we knew we had to try another batch and see if we could correct our mistakes.<br />
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<br />
I spoke with another Emilie (find her at Combs and Hackles on Facebook) who also raised Mistrals and hadn't had any sudden death issues. She did not baby hers at all (took the heat lamp away at a week of age) and although she didn't limit feed them or drop their protein percent drastically, she let the feeder go empty and stay empty for a while before filling it up again. Her birds looked amazing dressed out, much meatier than ours, and were heavier at the same age.<br />
<br />
<b>So... given all this, what have we done so far? </b><br />
<ul>
<li>We moved the chicks into their coop almost immediately rather than having them in our warm basement for their first couple of weeks. No coddling!</li>
<li>We are housing them on the previous batch of chicks' sawdust which is supposed to reduce mortality by providing beneficial bacteria. (Deep litter method)</li>
<li>We wanted to take their heat lamp away after a week but we had to go away and our chicken sitter wasn't comfortable with that. We took it away at 2 weeks instead. This is mid summer so Im not sure they even needed it at all. </li>
<li>I did a bunch of research into what caloric and nutrient requirements are for broilers and we are feeding them a set amount per day broken down into multiple feedings. We are letting them go several hours with the feeders empty before giving them their next portion. </li>
</ul>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dg0vui-efok/WaiFvXxHOLI/AAAAAAAAA6k/lYvt5_x1yNwxF43d9a59QShNAQvD5SrgACLcBGAs/s1600/MG%2Bfeeding%2Bchart.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="904" height="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dg0vui-efok/WaiFvXxHOLI/AAAAAAAAA6k/lYvt5_x1yNwxF43d9a59QShNAQvD5SrgACLcBGAs/s640/MG%2Bfeeding%2Bchart.PNG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feeding plan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<ul>
<li>We're not going to protein restrict them as drastically as last year. </li>
<li>We are encouraging them to go outside and exercise much earlier than the last batch and they have had access to outside sooner than the last group. We wanted them out even sooner but again, since we were away, the sitter wasn't comfortable with that. </li>
<li>We will weigh 10 of them weekly to see where they compare to True North's growth chart and will adjust amounts fed based on how they compare. </li>
<li>We have many feeders to allow all of them opportunity to eat immediately. </li>
<li>If we have the room at the time we may separate the males and females at 6 weeks to reduce competition at the feeders. </li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2w_AL6lWaA8/WaiOYgYypYI/AAAAAAAAA68/VYRQM8Yr5AoI1jVbVBEJ3WIQhzdd7JcAACLcBGAs/s1600/20170831_150559%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1047" data-original-width="1600" height="417" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2w_AL6lWaA8/WaiOYgYypYI/AAAAAAAAA68/VYRQM8Yr5AoI1jVbVBEJ3WIQhzdd7JcAACLcBGAs/s640/20170831_150559%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b>So how are we doing so far?</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>They have been on 20% starter since day 1.</li>
<li>We weighed them at 2 weeks but True North's chart starts at 3 weeks so Im not exactly sure how we are doing. However; they are well under what they should be at 3 weeks so we are happy about that! Their 2 week weight average is 213g. </li>
<li>They are much more active than the last group. They are out in their yard much of the day foraging, zooming and flapping, sparring and dustbathing.</li>
<li>We're ignoring their desperate cries that "we starving to death" and "we need more food", and sticking with the plan.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Stay tuned, we'll continue to let you know how they do on the restricted feeding plan. Crossing fingers we've got more right than wrong this time around!<br />
<br />
Anyone else raising slower growing broilers? Any issues? How do you feed them? <br />
<br />
<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-7296048635689753362017-02-15T10:46:00.001-08:002017-02-15T10:46:48.926-08:00Cider Adventures Part Three - Juicing a Ton of Apples in One DayProblems:<br />
<br />
1. We had 10 totes of apples to juice<br />
2. They needed to be done soon<br />
3. Home juicers weren't the answer<br />
4. We didn't have enough jugs to store the juice<br />
<br />
Solution: Coffee.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Ok so coffee didn't specifically solve the problem but coffee is always good and definitely helped while we searched the internets for solutions. Wine. Wine would have also been good but it was morning. Oh well. Back to the net. And lo, solutions appeared.<br />
<br />
Christine found an apple press for rent on Kijiji (Not on UsedVictoria, what?). It was in high demand but we managed to get it
on a cancellation for the weekend. The cost was $25.00 plus 2 liters of
juice per day of rental. Seemed reasonable.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
We called some package and container places on the island but their
juice jug cost seemed too high. I was heading back to Vancouver for the
week so we checked into Vancouver companies. We found some
reasonably priced juice jugs from <a href="http://www.richardspackaging.com/" target="_blank">Richards Packaging</a> which were 1/5th the price of the ones in Victoria, yay!<br />
<br />
On the big day, the family brought over all their juicers and (after coffee) we went to
work washing, sanitizing, chopping, slicing, scratting (love that word), pressing, straining
juice and filling jugs. Below is the press in action. The apple slices were fed into the scratter and the pulp/pomace came out the bottom into a clean and sanitized tote. The pomace was scooped into the press and the juice was slowly squeezed out into another clean and sanitized tote. Wet pomace from the juicers (they didn't do as good of a job as the Omega) was also added to this tote to recover the maximum amount of juice. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VsNamjjaaIY/WIunuc96gII/AAAAAAAAA5U/RVODAS4KUpohV29DeNsz7-qDJdVL-rU6QCEw/s1600/IMG_1491.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VsNamjjaaIY/WIunuc96gII/AAAAAAAAA5U/RVODAS4KUpohV29DeNsz7-qDJdVL-rU6QCEw/s400/IMG_1491.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pressing pomace for juice</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ihsSHH4j0Bs/WIun__wQgdI/AAAAAAAAA5Y/KXVZns7pWVYdgd13iN2o3q5DN-lfXSkiQCLcB/s1600/IMG_1496.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ihsSHH4j0Bs/WIun__wQgdI/AAAAAAAAA5Y/KXVZns7pWVYdgd13iN2o3q5DN-lfXSkiQCLcB/s400/IMG_1496.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scratting</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
Slowly being the operative word. The scratter worked like a dream but pressing the pulp to get the juice was the rate limiting step. It couldn't be
rushed or the pomace just escaped around the pressing plate. Also, the juice yield was far less than what could we got from the juicers. Still it was far faster than juicers alone and we didn't have to worry about burning out the motors. <br />
<br />
Check out this awesome little video that Marcus made showing us all at work. <br />
<br />
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<br />
Even with all of us working together we didn't quite finish in the better
part of a day. I finished the last totes of cider apples over the next
couple of days with the Omega. It got a much higher proportion of juice
out than the apple press or any of the other juicers. Fantastic little
machine.<br />
<br />
We ended up with about 160 liters of apple juice about 40 of which I set aside for cider.<br />
<br />
We froze all the juice so I could take a break and research how to make cider and get the equipment.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
However, we are still wondering about next year. Would an investment in a small
commercial grade juicer be worth it? There were obviously many other people in need of a press who would be willing to rent it (as we did) so it would
potentially pay for itself over time. But good ones are not
insignificant amount of money. Hmmm. Luckily we have a year to think about it.<br />
<br />
For
now, I'm just going to have fun learning about how to make the best
cider ever! If it turns out well it will be one more reason to invest in
our own super-awesome press.<br />
<br />
Next up, cider making! <br />
<br />
<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-38059650993971193612017-01-26T20:09:00.001-08:002018-02-02T10:54:41.951-08:00Cider Adventures Part Two - One Person Juicing a Freakload of Apples at HomeWe stared at the 12 totes full of apples and debated what to do. How to get the juice out of the apples? We considered whether this would be an ongoing problem for us or whether it was a one-time thing. We thought about the other person who had come by the juicing place with her car full of apples at the same time we were there. She also left disappointed and wondering what to do. Was there a market for juicing here? Should we invest in a commercial scale juicer? Time for research!<br />
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I read through some cidermaking websites to see what kind of juicers they recommended. Marcus scrolled through UsedVictoria (Victoria's version of craigslist - Victoria has never gotten into craigslist, don't ask me why) for juicers. We found one convergence: this little beauty. The Omega J8006 Nutrition Center Juicer. What a name!<br />
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I have to admit, I was skeptical. I didn't want to spend money on a juicer that was obviously not going to get us through this volume of apples. However, Marcus rightly argued that it would get us started while we figured out how to deal with the rest. One of the cider making websites mentioned that someone had done up to 3
US gallons (about 11 litres) of juice with this machine. Plus it was a hella deal. These babies run $300.00 - $400.00 new and we got it for $100.00. If you can't find one used, check them out on <a href="http://amzn.to/2jhaQ2l" target="_blank">Amazon.ca</a> or <a href="http://amzn.to/2kv9plN" target="_blank">Amazon.com</a>. (If you buy this juicer after clicking this link there is no additional charge to you but we get a teeny tiny amount of commission. Yay! Thanks for your support!)<br />
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The Omega did a fantastic job. If anyone is wondering about a home juicer, I'd highly recommend this one. Its a workhorse, powerful and well built. Its a low rotation, masticating one so the juice isn't heated from friction (no degradation of vitamins and the juice tastes super fresh) and the amount of juice this baby got from the apples was astounding. Downsides were that it worked best with small cubes of apple (so lots of chopping) and I had to stop and clean out the (extremely!) dry fiber fairly often. This wouldn't have been an issue if I wasn't juicing hundreds of pounds of apples in a hurry :-/ .<br />
<br />
However, after a week of chopping and juicing apples, I had sore wrists, sore feet, and was going to scream from tedium. I'd listened to who knows how many podcasts and playlists but only managed to work my way through 1 of the totes... I was so done. Plus another problem had arisen - I'd filled almost all the empty jugs we had. If the juice harvest continued at the same rate we were going to need about 80 more jugs! As well, the apples were starting to soften so they needed attention soon. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">20 liters of juice for the first batch of cider</td></tr>
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On the upside, I had tons of juice for cider! 22 liters already and there were 2 more totes of cider apples to go.<br />
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So, the family got together and decided we were going to kill the remaining apples in one afternoon. Spoiler alert, we did it! Next post on how. Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-14194703074953969232017-01-25T12:39:00.000-08:002017-01-27T10:22:32.595-08:00The Great Cider AdventureCider making! Yay! This has turned into such a fun little project that I've decided to blog about it. Here's hoping that it will help other cider newbies avoid making the same mistakes that I have already made, and will inevitably still make, as the adventure goes on. Lets go back to late September... apple picking time.<br />
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Marcus' Dad has a great little bit of land on which five old apples trees grow. I'm talking really old, at least 60-70 years old. They are so old no one even knows what kind some of them are. Despite their age, every year they produce a shwackload (highly technical term for a lot) of apples. We eat some of them but the vast majority are usually sent to a local farm for juicing. The jugs of fresh juice are frozen and apple juice is enjoyed throughout the year. It was a great crop again this year and the family banded together and picked the apples in one afternoon.<br />
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Now as delicious (not to mention organic) as this juice is, apple juice of any
kind doesn't really fit into my paleo/primal mindset and to me, it isn't good enough
to be a cheat item. However, apple cider, now you're talking! Not the sickly sweet stuff in a can though; give me something crisp and dry, sparkling and refreshing on a summer day while sitting on the deck in the afternoon sun - I'll use that for a cheat anytime.<br />
<br />
So
when we drove up to the juicing place, truck loaded with bins of apples,
only to find that he wasn't doing any more juicing for the
season, it seemed fate was telling me I had to try making apple cider. <br />
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We
have a wedding coming up and this seemed like the perfect opportunity
for me to learn something new (I love having a project or three on the go), and potentially have something delicious in time
for the wedding.<br />
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We have a few really good cideries in the area. My favourite is <a href="http://seacider.ca/" target="_blank">Sea Cider</a> and their diversity in flavours is inspirational. If I can make anything close to what they make I'll be very excited. I decided to just go with the straightforward cider brewing recipe for this first batch. If that goes well then down the road I'll try experimenting with different flavours and techniques. <br />
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The picture below shows about 2/3 of the apples we picked. These are Golden Delicious apples and were destined for straight juice. I've tasted cider from Golden Delicious and its pretty unimpressive. Tastes like a whole lot of alcoholic nothing. But...we also picked 6 more bins from the trees in the back field and these are the ones that I hoarded for cider juice. Guesses are that they are Winesaps or Cox Pippins. Whatever they are, they have a whole lot more tartness and complex flavour than the Golden Delicious. I'm really hoping that their fuller body will translate into some delicious cider. <br />
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<br />
So now we've got the apples but how to get the juice out of them - all 15 totes full! Next up, how to juice hundreds of apples at home...<br />
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<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-7364464892261132872015-05-22T06:00:00.000-07:002015-05-22T09:43:24.827-07:00Paleo GranolaThis is one of those "if I do say so myself" recipes. It is really freaking delicious.<br />
If you know me then you know this is high praise indeed as I tend to be very critical of my own cooking.<br />
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This has not been an easy recipe to create. It's been the source of much cursing as I've thrown out many batches of burned nuts or had to choke down just plain old boring cereal. Unhappy face.<br />
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I think the win is from the multiple layers of flavour. By using both honey and maple syrup you get this incredibly delicious depth of flavour that using just one or the other doesn't provide. Using butter/ghee and honey means some of the chunks end up with a caramel or toffee taste as they caramelize during baking. O.M.G.<br />
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You'll also notice I've used some salted nuts in the mix. Adding a few salted nuts adds a little hit of flavour to each cereal cluster (kinda
reminiscent of salted caramel - just sayin'). Use unsalted nuts if
you like it better that way. In the recipe I've listed our favourite nut mixture however feel free to change up to whatever tickles your fancy. <br />
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If you are going to make primal or paleo type granolas/breakfast "cereals" I would highly recommend that you get an oven thermometer. If your oven runs hot the nuts can turn from pale to incinerated in what seems like a millisecond; too cool and it never seem to cook and the granola turns out too dry. (I didn't think it was possible for a cereal to be too dry considering that we generally add some kind of milk or milk-like product to it, but believe me it can. I've done it.) <br />
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OK ready? Let's do this. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tools:</b></span><br />
Small bowl<br />
Large bowl<br />
Food processor or chopping knife<br />
Whisk or immersion blender<br />
2 cookie sheets<br />
Parchment paper<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ingredients: </b></span><br />
1/4 cup maple syrup<br />
1/8 cup honey (warmed so it mixes easier)<br />
1/4 cup ghee, melted (or butter for primal folks)<br />
one egg white<br />
1 tsp salt<br />
1 Tbsp cinnamon<br />
1 Tbsp vanilla (have you tasted the Madagascar stuff? Just wow.)<br />
<br />
2 cups almonds<br />
1 cup roasted cashews - salted<br />
1/2 cup pecans<br />
1/4 cup macadamia nuts - salted<br />
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds<br />
1/4 cup sunflower seeds<br />
1/2 cup large flake unsweetened coconut<br />
1/2 cut finely chopped dehydrated fruit bits of your choice<br />
1/8 cup chia seeds<br />
1/8 cup flax seeds briefly pulsed to break the husk <br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Method: </b></span><br />
Preheat oven to 300 F <br />
<br />
Pulse almonds, cashews, pecans and macadamia nuts in your food processor (or chop with your knife) until they are a size you would like to eat. I usually do this in a few batches otherwise you can end up with dust and huge chunks instead of uniform sizes.<br />
<br />
Place chopped nuts in your big bowl and add the rest of the nuts and seeds.<br />
<br />
In the small bowl whisk (or use immersion blender) the egg white til frothy, add liquids and spices and mix well.<br />
<br />
Add the liquids to the nut-seed mixture and combine well. It will seem a bit wet but no worries. <br />
<br />
Press the mixture flat into 2 parchment paper lined cookie sheets.<br />
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Bake 20-30 minutes rotating sheets at 10 minutes, then every 5 minutes thereafter, until at the thinnest parts of your layer - usually the edges - the nuts are golden brown, dry and crispy. The thicker parts will be lighter coloured and may give a little if you press them. That's what you want; it will firm up as it cools and you get chewy bits along with your crispy bits. <br />
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Let cool, break into chunks. Store in an airtight container. <br />
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I recommend putting almost all of the granola in your container then giving it to someone to hide <i>before</i> tasting it. Leave only a few chunks for you to taste. I made a batch yesterday and as there was no one to hide it from me I ended up on a granola-binge high. Roll me out of the kitchen please.<br />
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This stuff is seriously energy dense so go easy on it. <br />
1 cup contains approximately 760kcal; 20g protein, 64g fat, 44g carbs of which 14gs are fiber.<br />
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Enjoy!Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-61227468785788708432015-05-13T14:35:00.001-07:002015-05-13T16:01:47.929-07:00Paleo Cauliflower Rice PulaoI have been very interested in Indian cooking lately, much to the delight of family and friends. I've been experimenting to find the perfect butter chicken, chicken tikka masala and lamb rogan josh recipes. I think I've got the rogan josh to my liking but keep repeating the butter chicken and tikka masala recipes (again to the delight of family who are far less critical of my cooking than I am) trying to achieve that deep, rich, complex flavour.<br />
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In my wanderings through the recipes I created a "paleo" version of my favourite side dish, veggie pulao. The traditional recipe calls for peas, beans and potatoes. I've put quotes around "paleo" as I will often swap out broccoli for either the peas or beans and consider the other as part of my 20. If these barely-legumes bother you then take them out entirely and swap with your favourite other veggie. It's all going to taste good. Potatoes just get chucked out entirely. I suppose you could use bits of
sweet potato but you'd have to pre-cook the cubes and then they might
turn to mush during the stirring.<br />
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When you serve the pulao, leave the whole spices in (but warn your guests about them) as they look and smell amazing. <br />
<br />
Adapted from the <a href="http://www.ecurry.com/blog/rice/vegetable-pulao/" target="_blank">e-Curry blog</a> <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tools:</b></span><br />
Large skillet<br />
food processor or box grater<br />
stirring spoon <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ingredients:</b></span><br />
<b>Oil:</b><br />
4 tablespoon ghee (butter if you are primal) or coconut oil also works well<br />
<br />
<b>Spices:</b><br />
4 cloves, gently crushed<br />
6 green cardamom, gently crushed<br />
1 big black cardamom, gently crushed<br />
1 – 2″ stick cinnamon<br />
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds <br />
1 tablespoon coriander powder<br />
1/4 teaspoon cayenne<br />
3/4 teaspoon paprika<br />
freshly ground black pepper, about 6 turns<br />
salt to taste<br />
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<b>Veggies:</b><br />
1 head cauliflower, riced in your food processor on the box grater, about 4 cups<br />
2 carrots, chopped into tiny cubes<br />
and two or more of the following: <br />
1/2 cup chopped green beans <br />
1/2 cup peas, shelled or frozen <br />
1 cup tiny broccoli florets <br />
1/2 cup cubed broccoli stems<br />
<br />
<b>Garnishes (optional):</b><br />
fresh cilantro<br />
lightly toasted almonds or cashews<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Method: </b></span><br />
Cooking happens fairly quickly so before you start, gather all ingredients and have them ready by your pan. <br />
In a small bowl combine cinnamon, cardamom (green and black) and cloves<br />
Have cumin ready in another small bowl<br />
Have ground spices ready in a final small bowl<br />
In a large bowl combine cauliflower, carrots and your chosen veggies <br />
<br />
Heat ghee/butter/coconut oil in large skillet over medium high heat<br />
When the ghee starts to shimmer add cinnamon, cardamoms and cloves to the pan and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.<br />
Add cumin and simmer 1 minute until fragrant.<br />
Add ground spices while stirring - do not let them burn or you will need to start over - stir for 30 seconds.<br />
<br />
Add the vegetables and turn heat to high. Stir to coat with spices and ghee. Allow veggies to cook, stirring frequently so cauliflower browns but does not burn; about 5 minutes.<br />
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Take it off the heat while the cauliflower rice is still firm as it will continue cooking for a few minutes more on its own. You want the "rice" to be tender but firm and not soggy (although it will still taste delicious if you overdo it).<br />
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Plate and add garnish as you wish.<br />
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Prepare for adoration. <br />
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Let me know if you try this with some sort of tuber and how they held up during cooking. <br />
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<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-15082167733549037522015-04-27T10:09:00.000-07:002018-02-02T10:57:16.387-08:00Mum's chicken foot soup stock - 2 waysMy Mum makes some simple recipes with very few ingredients that have amazing depth and rich
flavour complexity. She swears it's her home-made chicken
foot stock that makes everything taste so good.<br />
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OK, I know I'm supposed to be primal and I really do believe that we should be eating the whole animal, but there is something about chicken feet that makes me squirmy. Its also a bit bizarre for me that those skinny little legs and toes, which look like they have nothing to them, make such an amazing base for soup. Luckily my Mum isn't squeamish about them so she keeps me supplied with as much stock as I want. (Yay, Mum!)<br />
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Mum has a pressure cooker (a badass old skool cooker; that thing scared me as a kid and scares me now) so she often uses that to make stock. She also has been playing with her new slow cooker so I asked her to try making the stock with it as I don't know many people who own a pressure cooker these days. <br />
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Turns out it worked just as well in a slow cooker just (obviously) took longer than cooking them in the pressure cooker.<br />
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Ready for this incredibly complex recipe?<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ingredients:</b></span><br />
2 lbs (1kg) Chicken feet - most come de-skinned*. Look for pink feet. <br />
water<br />
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Seriously. That's it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Method (also highly technical):</b></span><br />
Rinse chicken feet<br />
Place feet in slow cooker or pressure cooker<br />
Add water to just cover<br />
If using slow cooker, cover and cook on High for 4 hours<br />
If using pressure cooker, cook at low pressure for about 1 hour. <br />
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Let cool to room temperature, remove chicken feet**. Put broth in refrigerator. As it cools it will solidify into an amazing mass of gelatin. Portion out as you like; freeze what you don't use right away.<b> </b>Makes about 4 cups.<br />
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Mum doesn't use any spices in her cooking water so you can use it for any type of soup. However, you certainly could add the typical poultry type veggies, spices and herbs to the cooking water to make it taste like traditional chicken stock.<br />
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*If the feet still have their skin on (they look yellow instead of pink) de-skinning them is easy. Check out this <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><a href="http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_stock_from_chicken_feet/" target="_blank">Simply Recipes post</a> for details (one of my fave cooking blogs even tho' not primal).<br />
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**I'd be composting the feet at this point but Mum says soak them in soy sauce (gluten-free), tamari (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=san-j%20tamari%20gluten%20free%20soy%20sauce&linkCode=ur2&rh=n%3A16310101%2Ck%3Asan-j%20tamari%20gluten%20free%20soy%20sauce&sprefix=san-j%20tama%2Cgarden%2C261&tag=tnmblog-20&url=search-alias%3Dgrocery&linkId=3YJOVRVVX7QJVAQV" rel="nofollow">San-J has gluten free, organic, non GMO</a>) or coconut aminos and eat them like dim sum. Shudder.<br />
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Thats it! Next up, some recipes of Mum's that use the chicken foot stock.<br />
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What are your favourite chicken stock recipes? Would you change to making stock from chicken feet? Already do? Let us know! <br />
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<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-13075421068297543832014-07-18T23:04:00.001-07:002014-09-03T21:09:46.550-07:00Blue's got some magic in his elbows....Tonight, for the first time in 2 years, I reduced Blue's dose of Deramaxx. <br />
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For those of you not familiar with Deramaxx, it is one of several brands of dog pain relievers in the NSAID family of drugs (Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs). We liken it to doggie aspirin or ibuprofen - but don't give your dog those (or any human pain reliever) without your veterinarian's okay as they can be very toxic for dogs!<br />
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Blue has been on a moderate daily dose of Deramaxx ever since he had to give up agility several years ago. Despite the significant pain reduction that came with stem cell therapy, Blue still required the same dose of Deramaxx to keep him as pain-free as possible. <br />
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Blue has had two rounds of stem cells. If you want to know more about stem cell therapy you can <a href="http://www.teresaandmarcus.com/2013/10/stem-cell-therapy-blues-experience.html">read about it here</a>. Blue's second round of stem cell therapy lasted about 7 months before he became quite limpy again. Since stem cells were no longer an option, <a href="http://pointseastwest.com/about-dr-david-lane/">Dr. Dave Lane</a> suggested injecting his elbows with a combination of a steroid (triamcinolone) and hyaluronic acid (a component of the normal joint fluid) to see if that would help to relieve his pain.<br />
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Blue and Dr. Lane have a long history together. I first consulted with Dr. Lane in early 2010 when Blue refused to do the weave poles during agility class. Our agility instructor suggested that a chiropractic adjustment might benefit him.<br />
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I have to admit I was skeptical. I am a fan of chiropracty for myself as it relieved headaches I got from long study sessions and little exercise when I was in vet school. But for dogs? How can you really tell if it worked? I decided that if I was going to try chiropracty on Blue, I wanted a veterinarian to do it because at least they would be intimately familiar with dog anatomy. I did a little digging and was happy to find out that Dr. Lane (who I knew previously as a good veterinarian) did pet chiropracty. Not only that but he also did canine sports medicine. I hadn't known there was such an area of practice!<br />
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Dr. Lane examined Blue and suggested some acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments for him. Again, I was skeptical. I felt that acupuncture had worked for me but I also know that I am probably not immune to the placebo effect. Once again, how would we know if it worked?<br />
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Dr. Lane examined Blue in the back area of the emergency clinic. Blue was doing his usual anxious happy dog thing where he just cannot sit still. He was in constant motion, rubbing all over Dr. Lane and I, weaving around us, panting heavily and wagging his tail like crazy. Dr. Lane popped an acupuncture needle into the top of Blue's head and within about 5 minutes Blue had calmed dramatically. By 10 minutes he had settled onto the floor, flat on his side, with a relaxed sigh. I could not believe what I was seeing. It was like he had been heavily sedated. Ok then. That settled the acupuncture question.<br />
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And Dr. Lane's treatments also settled the chiropracty questions. Blue hit the weave poles without a problem the next class. Dr. Lane continued to keep Blue in top musculoskeletal shape throughout his agility career by seeing him on an as-needed basis.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NmKPvPV80JQ/U8oFKvxr5sI/AAAAAAAAAjA/tl-fdsGlsuA/s1600/IMG_3209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NmKPvPV80JQ/U8oFKvxr5sI/AAAAAAAAAjA/tl-fdsGlsuA/s1600/IMG_3209.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a>Agility has ended but we continue to see Dr. Lane to correct the muscle spasms and skeletal imbalances that Blue gets from compensating for his progressively arthritic elbows. The combination of acupuncture, laser (the non-scammy kind) and chiropractic adjustments help Blue move with less pain. <br />
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And now he's put some magic into Blue's elbows. <br />
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Just over a week ago, Dr. Lane injected Blue's elbows with the steroid-hyaluronic acid combination. I gave Blue some light sedation for the procedure but the actual injection seemed pretty painless. About about 48 hours I noticed that Blue was happier than usual.<br />
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On his first big walk on Monday, 4 days after the injections, Blue was farther ahead of me on the walk. He still was moderately lame by the end of the walk but after getting home he slept less than usual throughout the day. <br />
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On Wednesday he was barely limping at the end of the walk and was more active throughout the rest of the day.<br />
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On Thursday Blue rose to his feet from lying down like a normal dog. The movement was so different in that it was done with so much ease that I suddenly realised that that Blue's "new normal" is to fling himself to his feet, probably to avoid putting weight on his elbows. The absolute lack of effort in getting up was amazing.<br />
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Today, Friday, he was raring to go (normally 3 long walks in a week are more than enough for him) and during our walk he offered me not one, but two play-bows! That in itself was amazing - I don't think he has ever done that before - but even more amazing was that his anxiety and reactivity were dramatically reduced. There was another dog playing quite close to us and Blue displayed very little anxiety and none of the usual reactivity that this proximity would generally provoke. Tonight he is happy and not lame so I reduced his Deramaxx dose. I never thought that would happen. <br />
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Like I said, magic.<br />
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Visit Dr. Lane's web page at <a href="http://pointseastwest.com/">Points East West</a> to see if maybe he can put a little magic into your dog's life.<br />
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<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-90232906430388751642014-05-18T23:57:00.002-07:002014-05-27T22:06:25.552-07:00Primal "Granola" BarsThe hardest things to duplicate are the ready-made snacks that used to go in my stepson's lunches. Like many kids, he loooves granola bars. Sure, store bought granola bars are convenient but are filled with sugar and other evil things. And - which really makes me shudder - they have a 6 month expiry date on them. How can "food" have a 6 month expiry date?<br />
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Its not easy to replicate the chewy, sticky granola bar in paleo or primal fashion. And I didn't manage it despite many attempts. These "granola" bars are a bit crumbly at room temperature and hold together best when cold. Initially they are a bit time consuming to make but once you get the flow of it they come together quite quickly. AND they are delicious. Stepkid gives them 2 thumbs up (phew!).<br />
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People have been bugging me to put the recipe on the blog for ages so finally, here it is.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Gather Tools:</b></span><br />
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3 bowls: 1 small, one medium and 1 large<br />
food processor or a chopping knife and muscle<br />
9 x 11 inch baking pan<br />
parchment paper<br />
things to stir with - whisk, wooden spoon, clean hands<br />
something to compress the bars with - bent spatula; Marcus favours a potato masher we have<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Gather Ingredients:</b></span><br />
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1 Tbsp ground flax seed<br />
1.5 Tbsp water<br />
1/3 cup coconut oil or butter<br />
1/4 cup almond butter<br />
1/4 cup honey<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
3 slightly heaping Tbsp coconut flour<br />
3/4 tsp baking soda<br />
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1 cup almonds<br />
1/2 cup pecans<br />
1/2 cup walnuts<br />
1/3 cup raw or toasted pumpkin seeds<br />
1/3 cup raw or toasted sunflower seeds<br />
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1.5 cups medium shredded unsweetened coconut flakes <br />
handful of large coconut flakes<br />
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1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or finely chopped dark chocolate<br />
coarse salt to taste<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Method: </span></b><br />
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees<br />
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Line the baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper big enough to come up the sides of the pan.<br />
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In the large bowl mix the ground flax seed with the water and allow to sit for 10 minutes.<br />
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In the small bowl mix together the oil/butter, almond butter, honey and vanilla. I usually microwave these to make them them easier to mix and later combine with the dry ingredients. After 10 minutes, add contents of the small bowl to the large bowl and mix well.<br />
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Add coconut flour and baking soda to the large bowl and mix well. Set aside. <br />
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Toast the pumpkin and sunflower seeds by adding them to a dry skillet on medium heat. Stir frequently and remove from heat when they start to turn golden. Allow to cool.<br />
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Add the nuts and seeds to your food processor and chop until they are in various sizes that you think will be a nice texture in your bars. I generally do this in 2 batches so I that have some of the nuts and seeds ground up very finely (like flour) and some that are still chunky. Pour chopped nuts and seeds into the medium bowl. If you don't have a food processor, then chop these up with a knife. Yes, I did this a few times, I know its a long process. In fact this is what made me bite the bullet to buy a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004JMZGKO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004JMZGKO&linkCode=as2&tag=tnmblog-20&linkId=L6CIYPTCLYQPL3NI" rel="nofollow">food processor</a>. If you click the link this is the updated version of my food processor. Love the red. <br />
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Add the coconut flakes of both sizes to the nut-seed mixture and mix well.<br />
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Add the the seed-nut-coconut mixture to the wet ingredients in the large bowl and stir. Make sure the dry ingredients are thoroughly combined with the wet. I usually get in there with my hands and squish the mixture through my fingers to make sure its all well distributed. Pretty fun for kids of all ages.<br />
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Dump the granola bar mixture into the parchment paper lined pan, distribute evenly, then firmly press flat with hands and then some flat utensil. You want this mixture to be as compacted as evenly and firmly as possible.<br />
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Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 15 minutes.<br />
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As soon as the pan comes out of the oven, you are going to have to compact the bars again as they puff up as they come out the oven. Press hard. You know you are pressing hard enough when the bars get shiny from squishing the oils to the surface.<br />
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Immediately after compressing, sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the surface of the bars and let sit for a few minutes. This allows the chocolate time to warm and melt. With a table knife, spread the chocolate evenly over the surface of the bars. Sprinkle with coarse salt if you wish.<br />
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Let cool to room temperature then place in the refrigerator for a few hours. When cold, cut into 20 squares or bars with a sharp knife. Although the pieces look small, these bars are highly caloric dense. One is enough for a snack. Keep the bars in the fridge or in the freezer until ready to eat. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Notes: </b></span><br />
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Brownie points for organic ingredients, soaked and dried nuts, grass fed butter and fair trade chocolate. <br />
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Has anyone been able to duplicate the bendy, chewy, non-crumby granola bars in paleo or primal fashion? Let me know in the comments. <br />
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<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-14271049702565577052013-10-23T13:42:00.000-07:002014-02-26T20:45:14.608-08:00Stem Cell Therapy - Blue's ExperienceOur dog, Blue, has severe osteoarthritis in his elbows and his hips. Luckily, at this point, his pain is minimal. This is in no small part due to early surgical intervention during his puppyhood and the skills of his surgeon, <a href="http://canadawestvets.com/meet-our-team/departments/surgery/dr-alan-kuzma/">Dr. Alan Kuzma</a>. However, now that Blue is an older dog, I truly believe that stem cell therapy has made a significant and positive difference in his quality of life.<br />
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Blue is a lab-mastiff cross and unfortunately, he got the worst genetics traits of both breeds. He has elbow dysplasia (<a href="http://www.michvet.com/library/surgery_elbow_uap.asp">ununited anconeal processes</a>) and <a href="http://www.michvet.com/Client%20Education%20Handouts/Surgery%20handouts/hip%20dysplasia.pdf">hip dysplasia</a>. Surgery to try to fix his elbows worked on his right side, but not on his left, and he eventually had to have another surgery to remove the bone fragment. As a consequence, that elbow is very arthritic as can be seen on Xrays. His right elbow is also arthritic but is not nearly as bad as the left. He had <a href="http://dcvets.org/surgical/tpo.pdf">triple pelvic osteotomies</a> (TPO) to correct his hip dysplasia and his hips look amazingly good.<br />
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Blue was pain free until about 2 years ago when he developed pain in his hind end. It started with yelping and favouring his right hind leg while going up the dog walk during agility, and progressed rapidly to limping on his right hind after long walks. At the same time, he started limping for the first time on his left elbow, presumably because he was carrying more weight on that side. Blue is a very patient and stoic dog and on examining him, neither I, <a href="http://pointseastwest.com/about-dr-david-lane/">Dr. Lane</a>, or Dr. Kuzma could find the source of the hind end pain. <br />
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We decided to try stem cell therapy because it seemed reasonable to assume the pain might be in his hips. I did a lot of researching about the success of stem cell therapy but at that time there wasn't a lot out there. There were more anecdotal reports that most dogs responded well. Dr. Kuzma warned me that the most severely arthritic joints often don't respond as well, which made sense, but he was hopeful that Blue's other joints would benefit.<br />
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Overall, after weighing the pros and cons, including the financial investment, we decided to go ahead with stem cell therapy. <br />
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Dr. Kuzma harvested fat from Blue's abdomen and it was sent immediately to <a href="http://www.vet-stem.com/">Vet-Stem</a> for culturing of the stem cells. Blue was a little sore from the collection as it involves making a small incision in his abdomen to collect the fat. He was back at <a href="http://canadawestvets.com/">Canada West</a> 2 days later for injections of stem cells into each elbow, both hips, and one more given intravenously. Rehab at home included cold packing his joints, putting them through an easy range of motion, and resting until his abdominal incision had healed.<br />
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Unfortunately, we soon discovered that the pain in his hind end was not originating from his hips. His pain rapidly and significantly worsened and after many tests, including CT scan, myelogram, nerve conduction test and exploratory surgery in his spine, we still didn't have an answer. Thankfully, over time, things got better on their own, but the stress of dealing with his pain and not knowing what was causing it eclipsed any noticing of what was happening in his front end. <br />
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It is only in retrospect that I became aware of how stem cell therapy had helped his elbows.<br />
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Fast forward to today. Blue started limping a lot more on his left elbow a couple of months ago. It made me suddenly realize that pain in this joint had not progressed <i><b>at all</b></i> in two years. All this time while I had been having tunnel vision about his hind end, his elbow had been quietly stable in its level of discomfort - until now.<br />
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So it was pretty easy to decide to do a second round of stem cell injections. From the beginning, Dr. Kuzma had told us that a second treatment a year or so later usually had some small beneficial effect but was usually not as dramatic as the first treatment. On the other hand, this time it would be much easier on Blue as there were extra stem cells stored at Vet-Stem. All we had to do was request they thaw and ship them to us. Dr. Kuzma injected both elbows and gave him another dose intravenously. We decided not to repeat his hips as it would mean Vet Stem would need to culture more cells ($) and also because his hips were seeming so pain-free. <br />
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Blue's response this time around is pretty incredible. Without other pain to distract me from noticing his elbow, I can see how much happier he is even just a week later. He is much farther ahead of me on walks, not just at the beginning but the whole time. He is brighter and more playful and asking for more exercise. His degree of limping late in the walk is dramatically reduced. He bounds up the stairs instead of plodding. I had a hard time believing this could be stem cells working so quickly so I asked Dr. Kuzma if it were possible. He said its what owners often tell him. Just amazing. <br />
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I think that if Blue hadn't had stem cells, considering the degree and rate of progression of pain in that elbow, at this point we might be considering euthanasia. Instead we are looking forward to another few years of minimal arthritic pain and good quality of life. We hope so; he is such a good dog that he deserves the best from us. <br />
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If you have been considering stem cell therapy, I'd encourage you to try it. We are so glad we did. <br />
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<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-28688032415717499802013-09-18T07:00:00.000-07:002014-01-26T17:01:14.012-08:00Paleo Protein Chocolate Bliss BallsYeah, yeah, everyone and their dog has their own version of these bits of heaven. I do too.<br />
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I tried a few recipes and came up with one that we really like. Mine varies slightly from the standard in that I don't add any coconut oil. I find they stick together just fine with the ingredients I use.<br />
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<br />
The upsides for cutting the coconut oil are that they are less oily at room temperature and they are lower calorie (very important when you can't resist popping just one more into your mouth). If they are too oily and you dust them with cocoa or cacao powder, the powder quickly soaks up the oil, turns to mush, and pretty much disappears. <br />
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The downside is it can take a little more work to make them stick together. Well, suck it up princess, those CrossFit hands should have no problem squeezing them into dense little balls.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Make 'em! </b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>What you will need: </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tools:</b></span><br />
Food processor<br />
Plate to roll the balls in goodies <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ingredients:</b></span><br />
10 medjool dates, pitted<br />
1 cup almonds<br />
1/2 cup walnuts<br />
1/2 cup pecans<br />
2 scoops of chocolate protein powder<br />
1/4 cup almond butter<br />
2 Tbsp cocoa powder <br />
1/2 tsp sea salt<br />
1 tsp cinnamon<br />
1 tsp vanilla<br />
<br />
Ingredients to roll balls in; whatever takes your fancy: cocoa or cacoa powder, cacao nibs, shredded, unsweetened coconut flakes. We like white chia seeds for the crunch and the contrast in colour. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Method: </b></span><br />
Optional: Soak dates in warm water for about 5 minutes, then drain. I find that the balls are much easier to form if you do this. <br />
<br />
Throw everything (except what you are going to decorate them with) in the food processor. Process until nuts have disappeared and the mixture looks like a fine crumb. It will start to stick together at this point and you will need to scrape down the sides several times as the mixture no longer falls down to the blades.<br />
<br />
Place about 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the palm of your hand. Squish it together firmly so it holds together then roll into a ball. Place on a plate. Repeat until the mixture is all used up. Once all the mixture is in balls, roll each ball in the coating of your choice. Makes about 25 balls. Store in the fridge and preferably out of sight so they are out of mind. Otherwise - gone. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Notes:</b></span><br />
Brownie points if you use organic and soaked/dried nuts.<br />
Use whatever combination of nuts you like the best. <br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Nutritional analysis:</span></b> (because I needed to know how much per ball)<br />
Calories: 100; carbs: 9.5g; protein: 4.2g, fat: 6.2g<br />
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What do you think? Got a favourite recipe? Anything you would add to make these even better? <br />
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<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-3858736455456337772013-09-11T14:53:00.000-07:002015-04-15T11:37:41.942-07:00Easiest Mayonnaise Yet! Stick Blender Paleo MayoThose of you who know me know I've still been on a quest to find an easy, infallible mayonnaise recipe. Well, achievement unlocked. <br />
<br />
I've tried the blender method (this is how my Mum taught me to do it as a kid), the beater method (which I outlined <a href="http://www.teresaandmarcus.com/2011/08/perfect-primal-mayonnaise.html">here</a>), and the food processor method (FAIL!). All of these are either too time consuming or too likely to refuse to become mayonnaise.<br />
<br />
The other issue I've had is in finding the perfect combination of oils so that the mayo is healthy but also tasty. Damn Hellmamn's for their toxic, delicious tasting stuff!<br />
<br />
Olive oil, even the light tasting stuff, was still too olive oil-y tasting. Even in smaller amounts. And let's face it, if I'm going to get all "wish-upon-a-star-y" about mayo, I want it to be creamy white coloured, not green. That also lets out avocado oil.<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span> <span style="color: #cc0000;">*****UPDATE UPDATE</span> - I found some avocado oil that wasn't green (!) so I've updated the recipe to reflect that.<span style="color: #cc0000;">***** </span> Pure coconut oil had a weird texture and was way too solid in the fridge. Pure macadamia nut oil? Sure if you've won the lottery. Butter was just too buttery. <br />
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So, as you have probably figured out because I'm posting this, I researched and researched (and researched some more cuz that's what I do) and tinkered around until I perfected the easiest, fastest, most foolproof and most importantly, yummiest mayo recipe yet. Drum roll please...<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">I present to you, Stick Blender Mayonnaise!</span></b></div>
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<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Ingredients: </span></b><br />
*all ingredients should be at room temperature <br />
1 egg yolk<br />
1 tsp water<br />
1 Tbsp lemon juice<br />
2 tsp white vinegar<br />
1 tsp Dijon mustard<br />
1/4 tsp salt <br />
dash cayenne pepper<br />
dash white pepper<br />
<br />
3/4 cup avodado oil<br />
1/4 cup macadamia nut oil<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Weapons of emulsification:</span></b><br />
Stick blender<br />
Small jar that is just bigger in diameter than the stick blender head (I use a jar that once held 500 mls/2 cups of almond butter) <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Method:</b> </span><br />
*All ingredients should be at room temperature.<br />
Add first 8 ingredients to jar (everything except the oils).<br />
Pour oils gently on top. Allow previously added ingredients to settle back to the bottom (if disturbed) and the oils to rise to the top.<br />
Gently insert the stick blender into the jar all the way to the bottom. Stick blender is OFF while doing this. <br />
Allow ingredients to settle once again if they have been stirred up. <br />
Holding blender on the bottom of the jar, turn it on. You should see mayonnaise happening around the blender head almost immediately.<br />
Keeping the blender head at the bottom of the jar, let it rip for about 10 seconds, then slowly pull the blender head up the jar to incorporate the rest of the oils. <br />
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That's it!<br />
<br />
If it made mayonnaise (of course it did, it's foolproof) I find the mayo at this point is pretty forgiving. If there is any oil on top or spices on the bottom that didn't get incorporated, take a spoon and mix them in. Then take the stick blender to it one more time for a few seconds to get it all nice and blendy. <br />
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Throw a date on the jar, put it in the fridge and enjoy! Makes just over 1 cup. (I know the mayo looks yellow in this picture but that's just the lighting. It really does look like the first picture in the blog. I'll get a better picture soon.)<br />
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If you don't yet have a stick blender in your culinary arsenal then you should definitely get one. Even if it were only useful for making mayo the minimal investment would be so worth it. But you will find yourself grabbing it for so many things. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=stick%20blender&linkCode=ur2&sprefix=stick%20blender%2Caps%2C293&tag=tnmblog-20&url=search-alias%3Dgarden" rel="nofollow">Check them out on Amazon. Oooh, shiny!</a><br />
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<b>NOTES:</b> Ive made this mayo now maybe about 50 times and it has refused to emulsify on me twice. I rescued one batch easily by just starting over with the egg/lemon juice/water parts and then adding the non-emulsified mayo back in as the oil portion.<br />
<br />
The other batch stubbornly refused to become mayo even after 3 yolks. I eventually admitted defeat and bunged it in the fridge overnight. The next day I tried again and this time I won the battle of wills. Mayo was mine! Four egg yolk mayo but oh well, delicious!<br />
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More details <a href="http://www.teresaandmarcus.com/2012/10/fixing-broken-mayonnaise.html">here on how to rescue broken mayonnaise</a>. Substitute stick blender for beater.<br />
<br />
We make this may with double the amount of lemon juice because that's how my family likes it.
If you aren't sure about the level of tang, start with the posted 1 tablespoon instead. You can always add more later on. <br />
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Also, you can make this will 100% avocado oil, still tastes delish! <br />
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Got a favourite mayo recipe? First try? Let me know how it goes!Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-47703133525453316992012-10-16T18:25:00.002-07:002012-10-16T23:17:39.404-07:00Fixing Broken MayonnaiseWell the moon and the stars must not have been aligned just right today because the homemade mayo broke. It wasn't just thin, but a downright egg-and-oil-separated, curdled-looking mess of goo. See picture below. Yuck. But still tasted fantastic :)<br />
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<a href="http://www.teresaandmarcus.com/2011/08/perfect-primal-mayonnaise.html">Original post and recipe here.</a> <br />
<br />
I've been really lucky so far this year as all the batches have turned out great. I guess I was due for a bad one. I think my problem today was that the mixer speed was too high. I have always done my mayo at medium high speed but I see that others recommend medium to low. Perhaps I've just gotten lucky this past year by beating at the top end of the speed the eggs find tolerable. I did crank it up a notch today and apparently that was not a wise decision. <br />
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Because this can happen to anyone, I wanted to share what I did to reclaim it. Now you don't have to reclaim it, you could use it for something else, like cooking some delicious eggs swimming in the buttery tasting sauce. Or as some fabulous hair conditioner.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
But I wanted it back as I was going to use it as a base for Christine's Freaking Amazing Chipotle Cilantro Dip. Yes, that is the dip's full name. At least in this household.<br />
<br />
I knew it wasn't coming back from the dead after the first 1/2 cup of EVOO went in, so I didn't bother trying to add more oil. (I'm a doctor Jim!, not a... wait a minute...). I first added 2 teaspoons boiling water to the mess while beating on low-medium speed for several minutes. Apparently it's supposed to cook the mixture a little to thicken it up. Nope.<br />
<br />
I then scraped the whole mess into a different bowl and washed all the mixing equipment. I cracked another egg and put the yolk in the mixing bowl (this one wasn't room temperature as I hadn't been expecting this) and beat it on low to medium speed with 1 teaspoon water and 1/2 teaspoon vinegar until creamy. I then added the broken mayo back as the oil, teaspoon by teaspoon, drop by drop, making sure to incorporate well before adding more. <br />
<br />
It emulsified well, so after I got all the broken stuff in, I continued with the original plan and beat in the avocado and coconut oils. In the end, the mayo seemed a little thin. This didn't worry me much because, as a dip, it should be a little thinner anyway to allow scooping. However, after refrigerating, it set up nicely as the coconut oil solidified and would have been perfectly fine as straight mayo as well.<br />
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Christine's Dip was made and all was happiness in the house. <br />
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Anyone have any other tips for rescuing broken mayonnaise? If so, please share! <br />
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<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-43184417861884934802012-01-03T15:18:00.000-08:002012-10-06T09:24:43.050-07:00Primal Pumpkin PieWow, what a holiday season. Our days were packed with love, family and too much food!! I'm not sure how I managed not to gain any weight over this season, but perhaps I can credit eating as primally as possible in between all the delicious sugary treats.<br />
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It was also amazing how awful I felt after eating things with sugar/gluten/unhealthy fats in them. I never "seemed" to have a problem with these prior to going primal, but now, almost like clockwork, about half an hour after indulging, I had a terrible headache and felt nauseated. Sadly, that feeling would last for a few hours. What was even sadder is that feeling bad wouldn't stop me from repeating the cycle the next day. The addictive power of sugar is not to be taken lightly. <br />
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We "primaled up" any and all mains and sides we could. The turkey was obviously already primal and I used arrowroot powder instead of flour for the gravy. Not as pretty but just as delicious. One day we made and decorated primal gingerbread men (recipe to come).<br />
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And then there was dessert. My mother traditionally made pumpkin pie for Christmas dessert so this year I wanted to make a primal version if possible. I based my recipe on the one on <a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-paleo-pie-crust/#axzz1iRAiyH9B">Mark's Daily Apple</a> with a few modifications (as usual). It turned out better than I expected and the rest of the family thought it was delicious and didn't know the difference. <br />
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If you have tried or are looking at the recipe on MDA, here are my differences: For the crust, I mixed almond meal and walnuts together as I find straight walnuts to be a little bitter. Plus I just love almond meal crusts. I added some maple syrup to the crust for added sweetness. I added a bit of stevia to the filling to also give it a little extra sweetness for the all the kids (big and small!) in the family. You can eliminate both these things if you want. I had forgotten to bring the arrowroot powder with me and found the filling was firm enough without it. <br />
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Ingredients for the crust:<br />
1.5 cups walnuts (preferably soaked and dried)<br />
1.5 cups almonds or 1.25 cups almond meal (preferably from soaked and dried almonds)<br />
2 Tablespoons melted butter<br />
2 Tablespoons maple syrup<br />
<br />
Method:<br />
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grind walnuts and almonds (if not already in meal form) in a food processor or blender until finely ground. Add butter and maple syrup and mix well until thoroughly blended. <br />
Use your fingers to press into the bottom 9 inch pie or tart pan and up the sides. Make the crust thicker on the side and thinner on the bottom. Press up all the way to the top of the pan as the recipe makes a lot of filling. <br />
Bake crust in middle rack of oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside as you make the filling. <br />
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Ingredients for filling:<br />
2 cups canned pumpkin with no added ingredients<br />
1 cup canned coconut milk<br />
1 teaspoon vanilla extract<br />
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon<br />
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg<br />
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger<br />
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves<br />
1/8 teaspoon powdered stevia<br />
pinch of sea salt<br />
3 Tablespoons maple syrup<br />
3 eggs, whisked<br />
<br />
<br />
Method: <br />
In large bowl, mix all ingredients together. <br />
Pour batter into crust and bake in 350 degree oven for 50 minutes. Cool thoroughly before cutting into it. Serve with whipped cream or a dollop of greek yogurt. <br />
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Yum!<br />
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Now, back on the primal diet, detox from sugar and back to the gym for a new deadlift PR!Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-34367212427157744442011-10-12T09:47:00.000-07:002011-10-12T09:47:00.762-07:00Sugarless Blackberry Jelly - the UpdateA while back I posted about trying to find the perfect sugarless jelly recipe. I had come across <a href="http://www.pomonapectin.com/">Pomona Pectin</a>, a product that says it will set jams and jellies without the need for sugar. I promised to report back once I'd tried it out, so here it is. I apologize as it's been a while, but I wanted to test a couple of batches and get a number of opinions. Luckily most people won't say no to a request to eat some jelly.<br />
<br />
<b>The Verdict:</b> <br />
The Pomona Pectin worked just like they said it would. It was easy, pretty unfiddly and there were no failed settings (like Ive had with pectin-sugar combinations).<br />
The texture was pretty good. I thought it was maybe a wee bit gelatin-like, but people told me I was being too picky and thought it was the same as jellies set with sugar.<br />
Taste? Freaking delicious. It was fresh, intense and tart, just like blackberries straight from the bush. It was tart even to my sugar deprived taste buds (since being off sugar, things taste a lot sweeter to me than to people on the typical Western Diet) but the tasters said that once they got it on their usual whatever-they-normally-put-jelly-on vehicle, that the tartness didn't matter. <br />
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So, as promised, here's how to make sugarless blackberry jelly.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R64-trQ-zq0/To0HGiZKf6I/AAAAAAAAASg/FzAbBeoC0gA/s1600/P1040563.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R64-trQ-zq0/To0HGiZKf6I/AAAAAAAAASg/FzAbBeoC0gA/s320/P1040563.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><b>Make the juice: </b> <br />
Pick blackberries, 75% perfectly ripe, 25% slightly under ripe.<br />
I found that the juice from the perfectly ripe blackberries was a little boring and the jelly didn't have the full blackberry flavour I was looking for. You may beg to differ. <br />
<br />
Gently wash and pick over the berries then put them in a large pot. Pour in just enough water that the berries don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Place them on the stove at medium high until they come to a boil, then turn the heat down and allow them to simmer for about 20 minutes or until the berries are falling apart. I usually use a potato masher to help break up the berries.<br />
<br />
Once the berries are mushy, pour the contents of the pot into a cheesecloth bag and hang over a large bowl to collect the blackberry juice. Let drip for several hours. You can freeze the juice for later jelly making if you wish or proceed to making jelly now. <br />
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<b>Make the jelly:</b><br />
Remember you can scale this recipe to any amount of juice you have as the Pomona Pectin is not finicky about amounts. Make up calcium water as described in the Pomona Pectin instructions. Clean and sterilize your jars, lids and rings. <br />
<br />
To a large pot add:<br />
<ul><li>7.5cups blackberry juice</li>
<li>1/4 cup lemon juice</li>
</ul>bring to a boil then turn heat down and allow to fast simmer for about 5 minutes. This is to further concentrate the blackberry flavour and add some sterilization. <br />
<br />
Add 7 teaspoons Pomona Pectin to 3/4 cup boiling water and blend well. I used an immersion blender for about 1 minute but the instructions say to use a blender on High. It made a very thick gel which made me a bit concerned but it turned out just fine.<br />
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Add 7 teaspoons calcium water to the juice and bring back to the boil. Add the pectin-water mixture and stir well. Return to the boil, then remove from heat and spoon off froth and bubbles. Ladle into clean, sterilized jars. Process in a hot water bath for 5-10 minutes. This made 6 one-cup jars.<br />
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Because this jelly has no sugar, it is more prone to bacterial and fungal growth. Ensure the jars have sealed; place any that haven't in the fridge and eat right away. They also advise you should eat low sugar jellies and jams within 3 months of jarring.<br />
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Now the only question is what to eat it with? For us primals, heap it on some sharp Manchego cheese, use it as a filling for paleo thumbprint cookies, or make some paleo bread to spread it over.<br />
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Enjoy!Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-48238500560363810062011-10-05T12:33:00.000-07:002018-02-02T11:24:44.937-08:00Fall makes me S.A.D. Two things that help, a lot.Its Vancouver, its October, so its raining again today. I know Im not alone in feeling the effects of shorter days, darker days. We're not quite there yet but I absolutely hate waking up in the deep dark. My alarm jerks me up out of deep sleep and I feel like a little kid again, cranky and unbelieving that it can be almost 7 am and yet so horribly like the middle of the night. It sets me up for a bad day.<br />
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I'm very sensitive to the quality of light, and the grey days and thin sunshine of fall and winter do little to help elevate my mood. I sometimes have to struggle not to just curl up on the couch with a blanket, something warm in a mug and watch Coronation Street all day. Don't get me wrong, I think that's a lovely thing to do once in a while, but when I feel like that most days, its easy to sink into something near depression. I don't want to just get though winter, longing for solstice, I want to feel better than that.<br />
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To make things worse, I don't want to go to bed at night. I feel like Ive been cheated out of my day, so I tend to be up late playing on the computer, or catching up on a show. Not a good thing for promoting sleep. There is a complex interaction between full spectrum light, receptors on your retina and regulation of sleep hormones in your brain. New information is being discovered all the time, but for now, one of the things we do know is that blue light suppresses melatonin secretion so that we stay alert. That's great when we need to stay awake but my (our) tendency to sit in front of blue light emitting gadgets in the evening can disrupt our sleep hormone cycles. Blue light is emitted by TV screens, computer monitors, smart phone screens and even blue numbers on your digital clock. <br />
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So... Im disrupting my sleep hormones, not getting enough sleep, and feeling horrible from waking up in the dark. I do the things you are supposed to do, go to the gym, be social, eat well, take my Vitamin D, but still feel pretty down through much of the winter. But, happily, I found a couple of things last year that helped a lot to get me to sleep and to make me wake up happy.<br />
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The first was to install a free program on my computers called <a href="http://stereopsis.com/flux/">F.lux</a>. You tell the program where in the world you live and what kind of room lighting you have (halogen or fluorescent). At sunset, f.lux automatically cuts down on the amount of blue light your monitor emits and matches your ambient light. At sunrise, it makes the screen daylight-bright again. So now I can play on the computer and not worry that it's going to make it hard to go to sleep. <br />
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<span id="goog_1811055372"></span><span id="goog_1811055373"></span><span id="goog_740208278"></span><span id="goog_740208279"></span>The second and now most deeply appreciated thing I did was to buy a Philips wake-up light. Also known as a dawn simulator, its a lamp that sits on my bedside table and gradually emits brighter and brighter light over a period of 15-30 minutes (you choose). The increasing light level brings me to a lighter and lighter phase of sleep and I wake up, usually before its even at its brightest, feeling awake and happy. <br />
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They aren't cheap but, for me, totally worth it. I got the Philips because a friend had had one for a few years and recommended it, and because it got the highest ratings, but there are lots of wake-up lights out there. I got mine from <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/s?ie=UTF8&x=0&ref_=nb_sb_noss&y=0&field-keywords=philips%20wake%20up%20light%20plus&url=search-alias%3Daps&_encoding=UTF8&tag=wwwteresaandm-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=15121&creative=390961" rel="nofollow">Amazon.ca</a> (Canadian, eh) but they are also available on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003Y6B4XE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tnmblog-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B003Y6B4XE" rel="nofollow">Amazon.com</a>. (Clicking the Amazon link will take you directly to the Philips Wake-Up Light Plus - my model - on each site). <br />
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I know I sound like a paid advertisement for this thing, but the first night I used it I couldn't believe what I was feeling the next morning. I woke up with the feeling that it was a sunny summer day out there. A year later, I still get fooled into that happy state. <br />
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If you have that "it's too dark to get up" feeling, do yourself a favour and get one of these; you will never regret it. To wake up happy is a beautiful thing.Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-29221104405717285012011-09-13T21:51:00.000-07:002018-02-02T11:06:06.628-08:00Trying to live just a wee bit betterHey, it's Marcus here. About time I gave Teresa a little break from her prolific postings.<br />
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Just got in from a great run. It is early evening, early September. A light wind is blowing, the sky turning a pale crimson orange in the west, the North Shore Mountains are tinted with a warm orange tone from the setting sun. While I navigated the quiet tree-lined East Vancouver streets the smells of a few BBQs caught my attention. Was that steak? Think so. Burgers a block later. My stomach then reminded me that I was indeed ready for a meal. A beautiful end to an enjoyable summer's day. The last several days have been fantastic. Lots of sun and warmth after a summer that was looking like it was going to give this year a pass. Certainly better late than never. However, I can't help but feel a tinge of melancholy as I have thoughts of the approaching fall and winter just around the corner...>>sigh<<<br />
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Yes, my run was great. A few days ago was my first run in... jeeesh... half a year? A little bit pathetic. I don't really know what comes over me that puts me through these extended exercise hiatuses (hiatii?). This is a pattern for me that has been around for as long as I can recall. I have a runner's build (long-legged, slim-ish) and in the recent past have not really had that much difficulty getting up to a 10K run after just a few times out. However, as I get a bit older (working on my 45th year now...whoa!) I notice that the effort to get to that level is just a bit more than I remember. My weight is exactly the same as it was 20 years ago but I often feel much heavier as I clomp along the road/path/track, and breathe just a little harder. Is it possible that I am not immortal after all? Doh, bummer! I think it is time for me to really start focusing much more on my health than I ever have before. I have had the luxury of having a body type that really hasn't been too picky about what I put in it and in what quantities. However, I'm sure that those days are numbered. And besides, something internal to me is just chirping up a little louder than I ever recall hearing it, saying, "Dude, you're getting older and your free pass is coming to an end. Time to work a little bit if you want to keep enjoying your life for the long haul". I am starting to listen.<br />
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Teresa's focus on the primal diet has been quite enlightening for me. Mark Sisson has written an<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982207700/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tnmblog-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0982207700"> excellent book</a> on it and writes about it daily on <a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/">his blog</a>. I don't fully comprehend the dietary science behind it yet, but there is apparently some value to a food regime that consists mainly of grass-fed pasture raised meats, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils. While it does limit one's choices for a meal, Teresa is able to produce delicious dishes without too much head scratching. Better living requires better eating, and that is something I think I need to spend more effort on.<br />
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On the exercise front, I am close to joining the local <a href="http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossFit">Crossfit </a>gym, a strength and physical conditioning workout regime. Teresa has been a practitioner for the last 3 years and it has changed her life. She is stronger and has more energy than she ever had before. Personally, I see it as an opportunity to maintain consistency in my exercise frequency, hopefully helping me put to an end the "6-month workout break" trend of the past 20 years. These cross-fitters seem to develop a strong bond with each other that helps to inspire and encourage. I am hopeful that such a camaraderie-in-the-trenches environment will keep me on the fitness track.<br />
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I feel very fortunate about my health. But like all things in this world, you can't dodge entropy.<br />
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I'm going to do my best to slow it down by caring for myself more so than I ever have before. Here hoping I can stick to it! Kind of foolish not to...<br />
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Cheers,<br />
Marcus<br />
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P.S. I came across this video yesterday. Has nothing to do with anything in this blog post, but I like it. Hopefully you will, too.<br />
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/18486821">Love Tap</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2291015">Mike Goode</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</center>
Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-64154606573234051972011-09-06T15:19:00.000-07:002011-09-06T23:39:15.303-07:00My Dog, My HeroAs soon as I knew Blue was going to be a big dog, I knew he was going to be a blood donor.<br />
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Blue is an excellent donor. I'm so proud of him, as it is another incredible feat for him to be a reactive dog, yet so willing to donate blood. You can read about Blue's troubled childhood and his reactivity <a href="http://www.teresaandmarcus.com/2011/08/agility-with-reactive-dog.html">here</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Dogs sometimes need blood transfusions just like people. They get diseases which destroy their red blood cells, or they can have clotting problems, or they can lose a lot of blood from trauma like getting hit by a car. Because of this, veterinarians often need blood transfusions in a hurry and a blood bank is the best way to make sure there is always blood available when it's needed. Luckily for Vancouver area dogs, Vancouver has its own doggy blood bank, <a href="http://www.animaler.com/blood-services/blood-donor-program">Vancouver Animal Blood Services</a> or VABS.<br />
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Dogs have blood types, just like people, and they also have a Universal Donor blood type, just like people. When we tested Blue, I was very excited to learn that he has the universal blood type, as that meant he could donate to any other dog. He is such a big dog, I knew that he would have lots of blood to give and that he could save a lot of lives.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nicole and Dr. Klassen examine Blue</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Dogs need to be at least a year old before they can donate so I had a lot of time to teach Blue about the things he would need to do. We made games out of pretending that he was donating, like asking him to give a paw and to lie down and stretch his neck out. Each time he played the game of donation, he got the best treats (canned food and steak are his favourites!) and lots and lots of praise from myself and all his friends at VABS.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nicole takes Blue's blood pressure</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When he was a baby, we started with doing a few things for just a few minutes at a time. As he got older and more confident, we gradually added more of the things he would need to do and for longer times. Because of the heavenly treats and praise, Blue very quickly decided this was a very fun and exciting thing to do, and he looked forward to the game of donation. By the time he was old enough for a real donation, he was a pro at the whole thing. He even started training us as to how he thought it should be done!<br />
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Blue donates approximately every 3 months. When its time, Dr. Klassen calls to set up a donation appointment around his agility schedule. They are very accommodating at VABS! After taking a history from me to ensure he has been healthy, he is given a little sedation to relax him. Its just enough to make him a little less bouncy and makes him very happy.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2w3Oma-7D0A/TmBp_qdn0HI/AAAAAAAAAQs/3qvWaHzhhw4/s1600/IMG_0920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img class="dropshadow" border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2w3Oma-7D0A/TmBp_qdn0HI/AAAAAAAAAQs/3qvWaHzhhw4/s400/IMG_0920.JPG" width="400" /></a>After the sedation has had a chance to work, Blue comes into the donation room, jumps up onto the table and lies down on his side - all by himself. In this relaxed position, he gets a full physical examination from Dr. Klassen. A small blood sample is taken from his leg to make sure his red blood cell count is normal. Most dogs would have this done before getting on the table but Blue wants to get on the table as fast as possible, so we let him. This is one of the ways he has trained us and is probably because when he was a puppy, the most delicious treats came when he was on the table. We put a bandana over his eyes to shut out the bright lights and this relaxes him even further.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FjjFbudmJaE/TmByNEzjejI/AAAAAAAAARQ/jxvK-ib9koo/s1600/IMG_1008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img class="dropshadow" border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FjjFbudmJaE/TmByNEzjejI/AAAAAAAAARQ/jxvK-ib9koo/s320/IMG_1008.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>Once he passes the examination and the blood sample is read as normal, the veterinary technician shaves a little bit of hair over his jugular vein (which is where the needle will go). She thoroughly cleans his skin, tests the equipment one last time, and then puts the needle into his jugular vein. It's a big needle, the same size as used in human donations. Sometimes Blue flinches a little as the needle goes into the skin but often he doesn't seem to feel it at all.<br />
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When the needle is in his vein, the blood starts flowing into the collection bags. The donation team uses a vacuum pump which pulls the blood into the collection bags faster than it would flow out by gravity. Blue is a big dog so his blood flows quickly and he reaches his donation amount of 450 mls in just a few minutes.<br />
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The VABS team take the needle out and hold a sterile pressure bandage over his jugular for about 10 minutes. Once they are sure that the bleeding has stopped, the pressure bandage is removed. They gently wash off the cleaning soap, in case it might irritate his skin, and put a bit of ointment on the shaved area, again, just in case his skin might be mildly irritated.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AvtgVFSePOU/TmBtTb8TyQI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/dYsGPUvhMM8/s1600/IMG_1142.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img class="dropshadow" border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AvtgVFSePOU/TmBtTb8TyQI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/dYsGPUvhMM8/s320/IMG_1142.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>After that, Blue sits up and is given the motherload of all treats, a whole can of food. He inhales this in about 30 seconds flat and then looks around hopefully for more. We help him off the table and then he strolls to his bed and relaxes until its time to go home. Its all over and done with in under an hour.<br />
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You would think that donating a whole unit of blood would slow him down for a few days, but often I don't notice one iota of difference. It may be because he is such a big dog (have I said that before?), or perhaps its because he knows how to pace himself. His sister, The Insane Dog, is smaller and she doesn't know the meaning of pacing. She also donates, and the next day it's almost comical when she starts off zooming around like she always does, and then an expression of something like confusion comes over her as she realizes she is a wee bit more tired than usual.<br />
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At the time that I write this, Blue has just donated for the 12th time. That's 48 bags of blood and plasma that have gone to other dogs in need. He will be able to donate for a couple more years but the blood bank is always in need of more donors like Blue and The Insane Dog.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Hero!</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>If you have a lovely, calm, young, medium to large sized dog, your dog may also be able to be a blood donor. Contact your family veterinarian to ask about blood donation programs in your area. If you are from the Vancouver area you can visit the Vancouver Animal Blood Services website at <a href="http://www.animaler.com/blood-donor-program">http://www.animaler.com/blood-donor-program</a> to see if your dog fits the requirements to be a donor.<br />
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Maybe your dog will be a blood donor hero too.Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-59708546353020144222011-08-29T17:53:00.000-07:002013-12-21T11:48:35.166-08:00Primal spaghetti squash "salad" with feta and cranberriesThis recipe is an unabashed attempt to duplicate a spaghetti squash side that I had at a little café the other day.<br />
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I was starving, which usually doesn't bode well for a primal forager in my 'hood. The best I can usually do is sashimi, which is great, but expensive. Happily, I came across this dish and jumped at it as it seemed amazingly primal. It looked gorgeous and tasted even more delicious than looked.<br />
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I'm pretty happy with my version of it. I'd be happy to take it to or serve it at a dinner party. Its lime-vinegar dressing makes it refreshing on a hot summer night.<br />
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This made a lot of salad, but it was so good, Marcus and I ate it in 2 meals. Feel free to scale as you wish.<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>2 medium sized spaghetti squash</li>
<li>1/4 cup cold pressed olive oil </li>
<li>1/8 cup apple cider vinegar</li>
<li>150 grams goat feta cheese, crumbled</li>
<li>1/3 cup unsweetened, dried cranberries</li>
<li>1/2 red onion, finely diced</li>
<li>1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds</li>
<li>juice of 1/2 - 1 lime</li>
<li>sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste</li>
</ul>
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Wash the squashes, pierce in several spots with a knife, and cook both in the microwave on High for 10-15 minutes. Turn once or twice while cooking as they tend to get soft at the spot they sit on. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the squash and the power of your microwave. For 2 squashes, I'd recommend checking at 10 minutes; in about 7 minutes for one. The squash should be soft when you press it. It can be overcooked and then you will have mush instead of strings so err on the side of caution. It will continue to cook a little more once you take it out of the microwave. If its still undercooked you can microwave it again once out of its shell.<br />
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Once you are happy that it is cooked, let the squash cool a little, then cut in half and scoop out and discard the seeds. With a fork, and gently scrape out the strands. Allow to cool to room temperature.<br />
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Put squash in a large, non reactive (glass) bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss gently until thoroughly mixed. Taste and adjust ingredients and seasonings to your own preference.<br />
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We had it with whole barbequed salmon but I think it would also be great with some seasoned, grilled chicken breast.<br />
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Got a favourite spaghetti squash recipe? Please share!Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-78989457409570540842011-08-21T19:39:00.000-07:002014-03-25T15:45:10.553-07:00WWGD - What Would Grok Do?The blackberries are just starting to ripen. My walk with the dogs now includes bringing a bucket and, as Marcus observed, gear fit for the zombie apocalypse. The fire ants are horrible this year so I've had to resort to close fitting pants over boots with the cuffs taped to the boots to prevent stings. The berries are gorgeous however, so I'm not going to let the ants or the brambles stand in my way.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ouT-kgSojq0/TlHApnxYEPI/AAAAAAAAAO0/5x1OKt-DXC0/s1600/IMG_0907.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ouT-kgSojq0/TlHApnxYEPI/AAAAAAAAAO0/5x1OKt-DXC0/s320/IMG_0907.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>Blackberry season makes me feel like gathering and preserving like no other time of year. I find myself quite introspective on the walks back to the car, thinking about what it was like for our early ancestors and wondering about this sort of soundless, unconscious urge to gather and store food. <br />
<br />
Perhaps because of me noticing this urge in myself, I think about what moves us as humans. Not as modern societal human, but what moves us instinctively. Or maybe it's the reverse. Maybe because I increasingly think about how humans "should" eat and move, like how we did when we were hunting and gathering to live, then I'm more aware of these urges within myself. It makes me think about how we really are creatures of our ancestral environment even though we feel so far removed from it now.<br />
<br />
For example, I find it fascinating that fructose (the sugar found in fruits and berries) interferes in several ways with leptin (a satiety hormone) and also with insulin. This means that eating fructose means we don't feel as full as fast, so we eat more and gain body fat. Berries and fruits in the wild often ripen in late summer and early fall. As they ripen, the sugar (fructose) content rises and makes them more delicious to eat. It makes sense that we developed this response to fructose as it would trigger us to put on fat in preparation for colder temperatures and reduced food supplies. Developing a response to available fructose would have been a great design for ancestral humans, especially those in temperate climates.<br />
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The problem is that modern fruits and berries are bred to be much sweeter than they were in the wild, and they are available all year 'round. If the theory holds true, then by eating large amounts of fruit, we are basically continually telling our bodies that winter is coming and we need to get fat. Just another contributor to the prevalence of obesity we see these days.<br />
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There are many more examples like this, and as I mull on them during my walks, my thinking always comes back to: "What would Grok do?" What would our ancestors have had available, how would they have gotten it, how much would have been available and what would the nutritional content have been? For me, I find this is a great guide as to how I should eat, exercise and even sleep (although sleeping like Grok really isn't possible with a real world work schedule, at least not yet).<br />
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Maybe fructose is one of many subtle signals, along with shortening day length, changing quality of light and warmth of the sun, which triggers me to gather and put aside food for the coming winter. Whatever it is, I know that friends and family are happy with my little urges, as they benefit with jars of jelly and jam, perhaps tarter than they are used to, but delicious none the less.<br />
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Anyone else get the urge to preserve this time of year? Any other paleo or primals notice this effect? Please share!<br />
<br />
If you want to know more about primal living, or ancestral philosophy of eating and living (some people also call it the caveman diet), Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple wrote a great book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982207700/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tnmblog-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0982207700">The Primal Blueprint</a>. Pick it up for a compelling overview of how to combine evolutionary biology with modern living. Then perhaps, like me, you will give it a try and be prone to fits of philosophical musings. Oh, and also feel better than you ever have before.Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-87845121607293729292011-08-15T08:31:00.000-07:002015-04-15T11:35:28.956-07:00Perfect Primal Mayonnaise***UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE***<br />
After much trial and error, I think Ive perfected the stick blender method. Stick (immersion) blender mayonnaise is super easy, fast, and almost infallible. If you own a stick blender, <a href="http://www.teresaandmarcus.com/2013/09/easiest-mayonnaise-yet-stick-blender.html">here's my recipe</a>. If you don't own a stick blender and you love mayonnaise, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=stick%20blender&linkCode=ur2&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Astick%20blender&sprefix=stick%20b%2Caps&tag=tnmblog-20&url=search-alias%3Daps" rel="nofollow">get one</a>! For those that want to "stick" with the beater method, read on. <br />
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I love me some mayonnaise, but Marcus REALLY loves him some mayonnaise.<br />
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However, I shudder every time I think about what is in the Hellman's I still love. Even worse is the Hellman's made with canola oil and marketed as heart healthy. There are so many things wrong with that declaration that I don't know even where to start. How can any oil that is subjected to high heat, degumming, deorderizing, and bleaching be good for you? Whatever heart healthy Omega-3s there were in the beginning have long since been oxidized out of existence. What's left is proinflammatory trans-fat. Healthy? Ha! Besides, there is more and more evidence that shows the whole heart disease-saturated fat link is non existent.<br />
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Okay, rant over.<br />
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<br />
But, we still love mayo. Which has sent me on the quest to make a perfect mayonnaise. Mayo is made from egg yolks (or even the whole egg), vinegar and/or lemon juice, and a lot of oil. Which oil to choose has been an interesting adventure. We want to choose an oil that is healthy, but also has the right taste and the right texture.<br />
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I tried with cold pressed extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), but the olive oil taste was overwhelming. Olive oil also makes it an interesting greenish colour which is neither here nor there except that it looks weird. Primal Kid refused to believe it was mayonnaise. <br />
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I next tried with coconut oil à la <a href="http://www.marksdailyapple.com/coconut-shrimp-and-chive-mayonnaise/">Mark's Daily Apple</a>, but it solidified even at room temperature. It was pretty bland as well. I also tried with grapeseed oil, but it was boring too. Besides, its fatty acid profile isn't that spectacular either. I gave up on it for a while, but recently tried again and I think I've hit on a pretty darn good combo, if I do say so myself.<br />
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Anyone who has ever made mayonnaise knows that it can be finicky to make. It takes patience and cannot be rushed. If the stars aren't aligned properly it might not set. (*Update: apparently adding water to the yolks helps the emulsification process so I've added that to my recipe. I haven't had the mayo break since).<br />
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I use an electric mixer with the small bowl, but it could be made into a crossfit WOD by whisking by hand (I've never managed it) or you can use a blender.<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
<ul>
<li>2 pastured egg yolks</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon salt</li>
<li>3 teaspoons lemon juice</li>
<li>2 teaspoons water</li>
<li>2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (optional) </li>
<li>pinch of cayenne</li>
<li>1/2 cup cold pressed light or delicate tasting olive oil (If you can't find light olive oil which is cold pressed, use EVOO. Your may0 will be greener and taste more strongly of olive oil) </li>
<li>1/4 cup avocado oil</li>
<li>1/4 cup liquid (not warm) coconut oil </li>
</ul>
<br />
All ingredients and equipment must be at room temperature.<br />
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Place egg yolks, salt, lemon juice, water, mustard and cayenne in the mixing bowl and beat until yolks are lighter coloured and creamy. If using a mixer, beat on low to medium speed, if a blender, use medium.<br />
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Add 1/4 cup of oil to yolk mixture, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, in drops. It doesn't matter which kind of oil you add first - I usually mix all mine together in a small cup. This step is the most important; if the oil is added too fast it won't emulsify. If using a mixer, occasionally run a spatula around the edge of the bowl to make sure the oil is incorporated evenly. <br />
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Once the first 1/4 cup of oil is in and the mixture is thickening, you can relax a little and add the remaining oil a teaspoon at a time in a thin stream. <br />
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This combination made a light coloured, velvety, perfectly textured, thick mayonnaise that passed Primal Kid inspection (EVOO makes it just slightly green; light olive oil makes it quite yellow). The coconut oil lightened the colour and the avocado oil added a depth and richness that was missing with just coconut oil.<br />
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If you like your mayo a little tangier you can add more lemon juice
either at the beginning or the end. This is also the time to add spices
or herbs for a gourmet flavour.<br />
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Mexican night? Try lime juice instead of lemon and add chopped cilantro and chipotles at the end.<br />
Sweet potato fries? Add roasted or crushed fresh garlic.<br />
The possibilites are endless.<br />
<br />
[Insert here Standard Legal Liability yadda-yadda about uncooked eggs,
salmonella etc.]<br />
Eat at your own risk. Refrigerate immediately and eat
within 4 days. <br />
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Got a favourite flavour? A great recipe? Please share!<br />
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<br />Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-58134463024499789512011-08-09T14:20:00.000-07:002014-03-25T14:22:21.040-07:00Agility with a reactive dogOur dog, Blue, is a reactive dog. For those of you who already know what that means, I sympathize. For those that don't, it means your dog has a fear of something and reacts to it (usually) in what people perceive as an aggressive manner. Blue loves people but he reacts to other dogs getting in his space. Blue is a mastiff-lab cross, a rather large dog, so being reactive is not a Good Thing.<br />
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Blue had a hard childhood. Dumped in a park by his mother's owner just as he was born, he grew up without his momma to teach him confidence. Even as a baby, eyes not yet open, he already had food sensitivities and would cry in pain if his formula changed.<br />
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I socialized him like crazy, knowing that growing up without a mother was potentially going to have detrimental effects on him. I'd had a reactive adult dog before and was determined that because I got Blue as a puppy, I was not going to let that happen. I did everything I was supposed to. Puppy classes, consistent, positive, Ian Dunbar and Stanley Coren training, lots of people and dog play at the park, exposure to many different situations.<br />
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Unfortunately, at 5 months of age, play with other dogs became painful. Xrays showed that he had elbow and hip dysplasia. The next 4 months of his life were filled with multiple surgeries and recoveries to try to repair his painful joints. During this time he missed a vital socialization period. Despite missing this time to get to know other dogs, after he had healed from all the surgery all seemed to be well until he reached the age of social maturity, at about 18 months of age.<br />
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At social maturity brain chemistry changes. It was as if something had flipped in his brain and he started charging other dogs. He had learned as a puppy that other dogs caused pain when they tried to play with him. He now headed off their attempts to play with barking and growling. As this worked so well to make the other dog go away, the reactive behaviour quickly became ingrained and he would react faster and with each subsequent time. In his head, it made perfect sense. Although he had never bitten another dog, I was worried that it might happen.<br />
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It wasn't looking good for Blue. I saw him consigned to a life where he couldn't get enough exercise because he couldn't be off leash at the park or beach when other dogs were there, not being able to enjoy him as I was constantly on the watch for a situation where he might get into an encounter with another dog, him wearing a muzzle most of his life so no fetching sticks or balls, or even euthanasia.<br />
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Blue had taken puppy classes at <a href="http://www.dogsmart.ca/">DogSmart</a> and I knew that they helped with behaviour problems. We met with <a href="http://www.dogsmart.ca/alicefisher.html">Alice</a>, DogSmart's director and CPDT-KA certified trainer who specializes in problem dog behaviour. Although in our initial consult it took Blue a full hour to settle down to chew a bone, Alice saw hope for Blue. She recommended we also consult with a veterinary behaviourist, as well as enrolling him in reactivate dog classes. She fitted him with a basket muzzle and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=gentle%20leader&linkCode=ur2&sprefix=gentle%20l%2Caps%2C213&tag=tnmblog-20&url=search-alias%3Dpets" rel="nofollow">Gentle Leader collar</a> so he could pant and laugh but be safe around other dogs, suggested getting a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=dap%20collar%20for%20dogs&linkCode=ur2&rh=n%3A2619533011%2Ck%3Adap%20collar%20for%20dogs&sprefix=DAP%20collar%2Cpets%2C227&tag=tnmblog-20&url=search-alias%3Dpets" rel="nofollow">D.A.P. collar and diffuser</a>, and set about retraining me with some tough love. Alice thought he would be a candidate for medication to lower his stimulation level and the veterinary behaviourist agreed.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3mNcjF-wza4/TkGY-MgrIqI/AAAAAAAAAKk/_mhiCHoBNqk/s1600/IMG_1832.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3mNcjF-wza4/TkGY-MgrIqI/AAAAAAAAAKk/_mhiCHoBNqk/s400/IMG_1832.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a>Over the next 8 months, with lots of hard work, Blue became a much better dog. The medication allowed him to be able to pay attention and he learned to look to me for cues as to what he should do, rather than making (bad) decisions on his own. The muzzle meant that I could relax around other dogs, allowing calm and positive retraining of behaviours. The D.A.P. calmed him one step further. We took lots of classes with Alice and Blue learned he had a different choice than acting defensively. More and more he chose to turn away and avoid encounters.<br />
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One of the many classes I took him to was a tricks and games class. In the final class, the instructor put out a tunnel and some jumps to play with. Just once through the tunnel and it was like Blue suddenly realized what he was born to do, and that was agility. I'd never seen him so excited and happy. We enrolled him in agility classes with instructor <a href="http://www.dogsmart.ca/nicoleleblanc.html">Nicole</a> and he has never looked back. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue focussed on the agility course</td></tr>
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Blue's reactivity has decreased dramatically. I gradually was able to wean him off the D.A.P. collar and basket muzzle as he became more and more focussed. He avoid dogs if at all possible and he never initiates an encounter. If
another dog ignores his body language that says that he wants to be
left alone and insists on being in his space, he will bark defensively
and try to get away. Dogs being dogs, he has been attacked by a few dogs. In the few tussles that have inevitably resulted, he has never bitten another dog. <br />
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He has gotten better and better at agility the longer he works. He amazes me with how smart he is. He tolerates other dogs amazingly well. Just over 3 years later, this reactive and unlikely agility dog is a Masters Agility Champion. The only thing that will stop him in the future will be arthritis in his joints, as in spirit, he would love to do agility forever.<br />
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He loves to go to class and trials.<br />
I love that he wins me many colourful ribbons.<br />
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And we just love him.<br />
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Thank you, Alice for saving his life, and thank you, Nicole, for shaping a champion.<br />
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Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-80366647230357463722011-08-02T22:42:00.000-07:002013-09-13T20:43:48.259-07:00How green is my reel mower? Let me count the ways...I mowed the lawn today.<br />
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Marcus and I went away for the long weekend and the lawn was looking a little raggedy before we left. I'd been looking at it ruefully, knowing that it was going to be a beast when I got back, but not willing to put off the weekend for one single minute more.<br />
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It had been a glorious weekend and the corn had literally grown a foot while we were gone. So had the lawn, or so it seemed. Eyeing the out of control, sun drunk, extra long grass blades balefully, I pulled out the reel mower and prepared to do battle.<br />
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I love my reel mower.<br />
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After a full season of use, the blades are still razor sharp. The grass never stood a chance. It was a little more effort to push it through the extra long grass, but since I haven't been to the gym in a week, I figured it was the least I deserved. I was actually wondering how to make it into a crossfit workout. Make it a metcon by cutting the lawn via 21-15-9 lawnmower thrusters, lawnmower burpees, and lawnmower deadlifts? Maybe a grinder by cutting all the neighbours' lawns as well? But I digress.<br />
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My neighbour came out to comment (again) on how nice and quiet the mower was and to apologize that his (electric) was going to noise up the neighbourhood. As I was chatting with him and daydreaming about crossfits WODs, the Insane Dog jumped into my path and flung her ball right into the reel in a mad attempt to get me to throw it. No harm done, the ball stopped the reel immediately, and her attempt to cut her nose off while retrieving her ball was foiled. Reels are super safe to have around kids and dogs.<br />
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I thought about raking the extra long trimmings but decided instead to just go over them a couple more times. Who knew that a reel mower could actually be a mulching mower? I've found that by doing this, we use less water and I can help the dog pee-killed spots fill in a little.<br />
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Our mowers have all been (almost) free so we've never had one that quite suits the lawn. The first was a battery assisted <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VED4K6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tnmblog-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B002VED4K6" rel="nofollow">Gardena </a>that I got for a steal at a yard sale. It was fantastic but too big for our little space. It was heavy, but the assist made it almost pull itself along. It was older and so eventually the battery died. We elected not to replace the battery and got a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007ZK5V2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=besroblawmowr-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=B0007ZK5V2" rel="nofollow">Great States 18 inch</a> model on points. Again, I love it for all the "reel" reasons, but its still too big for our yard. I wish we'd done all the research we've now done now on reel mowers, before we got a new one. If we'd only known then what we know now.... we would have got a much smaller model, maybe a 14 incher.<br />
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Do yourself a favour and get a reel mower, but get the one that's right for your lawn size, topography and grass type. Read what we wish we'd known before we bought, and you will be even happier with yours than we are with ours.<br />
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Here's the lowdown: <a href="http://www.bestreellawnmowerreviews.com/how-to-choose-the-reel-lawn-mower-that-is-right-for-you">Choose the Right Reel Mower for You</a>.<br />
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So what are the ways?<br />
<ol>
<li>Super quiet</li>
<li>Super safe</li>
<li>A good little workout</li>
<li>Mulches</li>
<li>No emissions/environmentally friendly</li>
<li>Inexpensive</li>
<li>Low maintenance</li>
</ol>
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What's not to love?Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486047112370902452.post-47900237884342003142011-07-27T21:20:00.000-07:002011-07-28T14:06:12.312-07:00Carnitas, Que Rico!I have a friend who moved out of country to pursue higher education. I miss her for many reasons, not least because she is as much of a Mexican food purist and lover as I am. Recently, she said that she had a dream that she was eating my carnitas, and who can resist being able to make someone's dreams come true?<br />
So.. we had Mexican potluck for her going away party. I made carnitas, and I promised myself I'd share the recipe with you. Its deliciously Paleo/Primal as well!<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ps05SXSPNfA/TjDhyDSe04I/AAAAAAAAAFE/d1XTXJpF4jY/s1600/carnitas2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ps05SXSPNfA/TjDhyDSe04I/AAAAAAAAAFE/d1XTXJpF4jY/s400/carnitas2.jpg" width="386" /></a>Carnitas is a heavenly Mexican dish which has as many variations as there are regions in Mexico. Meaning "little meats", the pork is cooked with low heat for a long time and then fried in its own fat so it is crispy and caramelized on the outside, and falling apart, melt-in-your-mouth-tender on the inside.<br />
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First of all, carnitas need time to prepare. Make sure you have a good 4 to 5 hours if you are making a large batch. They don't need a lot of attention until the last hour or so, but I like to put them on and then do things around the house and garden while they simmer.<br />
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Here's what you will need to feed 2 people with leftovers, or 4 people with nothing but crumbs left over. I always make more than I think I'll need because they are just so good, there are hardly ever leftovers. Feel free to scale upwards as needed. For the party, I started with just under 5kg of meat which happily fed 8 people with enough leftovers for Marcus to have second dinner and for lunches for us both.<br />
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1.4 kg (3lbs) pork shoulder aka pork butt<br />
1 cup citrus juice - I use fresh squeezed orange but you can also use pomegranate, lemon or apple juice<br />
2 teaspoons cumin seeds<br />
2 teaspoons salt<br />
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper<br />
1 teaspoon cayenne<br />
2 tablespoons garlic powder<br />
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Cut the pork into one by one by three inches strips. Do not trim any of that delicious fat. Add to a large, heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven; something that you are going to be ok taking a metal spatula to. Add the spices and rub into meat well. Add the orange juice and then enough water to just cover the pork.<br />
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Bring to a boil over high heat and then turn the heat right down to almost the lowest setting. You want it barely simmering. Allow to simmer gently, uncovered, for 2 hours (3 if making a double or triple batch). Do something around the house while the pork is simmering, but whatever you do, do not touch the pork during this time. Moving it around will cause the meat to fall apart and you will have pulled pork. While this is also delicious, its not what carnitas are about.<br />
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After 2 or 3 hours, turn the heat up to medium high, let all that water boil off and the fat to fully render. This will take between another 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour. When the liquid is gone, the pork strips will start frying in the rendered fat. Now comes the tricky part. You want to let the pork fry enough that all the outside gets caramelized but not burned, while handling it as little as possible so it doesn't fall apart too much.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CKRn27R2to/TjDi_kAUlpI/AAAAAAAAAFI/6uP7kSVyi1M/s1600/carnitas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CKRn27R2to/TjDi_kAUlpI/AAAAAAAAAFI/6uP7kSVyi1M/s320/carnitas.jpg" width="320" /></a>I've tried 2 different methods to get that crispy outside without making pulled pork or overly blackened bits. If you have a big enough pot, you will be fine to just let the pieces fry on the bottom. You can take half the pork out (keep warm in the oven) and crisp it up in two batches. Turn the pieces with a metal spatula a couple of times, scraping the blackened bits up off the bottom as you turn. At this point, some of the meat is going to shred, but the different sized pieces add texture and flavour.<br />
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If you have a small pot, you may find that like me, in trying to crisp it, you move the pork around so much that the meat falls apart. I wasn't happy with how much it was shredding, so I pulled the pork out after one or 2 turns, piled it up loosely on a foil wrapped baking sheet, and shoved it under the broiler for a few minutes. It worked like a dream. Piling it up (rather than spreading it into a single layer) created different levels of caramelization and crispiness.<br />
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In Mexico, carnitas can be served as a dish by themselves or with tortillas or tacos. To keep them Paleo/Primal, use lettuce leaves in place of tortillas. Serve topped with home made salsa verde or roja, cilantro, finely chopped onions, avocado or guacamole, squeezes of lime, and be prepared to be adored by your friends.<br />
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Buen provecho!Teresa and Marcushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02305402118963039676noreply@blogger.com3