poultry

Ras El Hanout
FarmPlate Sep 30, 2010 Poultry 0 comments
from the FarmPlate Kitchen Ras el hanout is a complex Moroccan spice blend that may contain 30 or 40 different ingredients. Zamouri Spices or Kalustyan’s are two excellent mail-order sources for this product. If you don't have time for the ras el hanout to arrive in the mail, it's easy to blend a batch of your own. Keep it on hand to flavor pilafs, lamb, poultry and grilled seafood. You can grind whole spices in your coffee grinder. To clean out the coffee oils and smell, grind a tablespoon or two of uncooked couscous or rice to a powder. Discard the powder and wipe out the grinder with a damp paper towel. Use this formula as a guide but do feel free to add or subtract other spices and...
Hospitals Look to Sustainable Meats
FarmPlate Jul 20, 2010 Poultry 1 comments
Approximately 300 hospitals across the country have pledged to improve the quality of food served in their institutions by incorporating healthy, sustainable foods into their patients' diets, reports the Chicago Tribune. Fearing drug-resistant pathogens, medical professionals have started advocating for the use of antibiotic-free meats in hospitals. Antibiotics that are used to treat people, like penicillin and tetracycline, are also given to healthy animals to speed their growth and to compensate for tightly packed living conditions, which can increase the spread of disease. Because increased exposure to antibiotics can lessen their effectiveness against disease, some hospitals,...
Cartoons on Snacks Appeal to Children
FarmPlate Jun 22, 2010 Poultry 1 comments
A new study published by Pediatrics concluded that children would rather eat snacks that are packaged with images of familiar cartoon characters, like Dora the Explorer and Shrek. The study is noteworthy in a time where childhood obesity has become an epidemic; one in three children is overweight. Advocates for childhood nutrition often criticize food companies for adding to the problem of childhood obesity by marketing fattening snack foods and desserts to appeal to children. The study was done by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. The researchers polled 40 children ages 4 to 8 years old. Two-thirds of the children chose the snack with the cartoon character on the...
Cloudland Farm: Still in the Family a Century Later
FarmPlate Apr 30, 2010 Poultry 0 comments
"Cloudland." The name rings a little '60s psychedelic, but it's generations older than that. The farm was already called Cloudland Farm back when the Emmons family purchased the property in 1908. Today, Cathy and Bill Emmons and their three children work the hilly farm in North Pomfret, Vermont. Once a dairy farm, Cloudland is now home to Black Angus beef cattle, pastured poultry, pigs, horses, a certified tree farm and the Cloudland Farm Country Market. Most visitors to the farm and market arrive by car, driving the four miles up Cloudland Road from River Road in Woodstock. "They come to buy our roasting chickens, local beef and specialty sausages," says Cathy Emmons. "Our beef cattle are...
Cavendish Quail Rock the Casbah
FarmPlate Apr 14, 2010 Poultry 0 comments
Some brothers raise Cain. The Thompson brothers raise birds. Bill and Rick Thompson have been fascinated with raising poultry since boyhood when Bill kept chickens, pigeons and pheasants behind their suburban New Jersey home. Their shared poultry passion developed over the years into Cavendish Game Birds. The Springfield, Vermont, enterprise has been supplying the best restaurant chefs and the savviest home cooks with quail and pheasant since 1988. The Thompsons opened a new processing facility in 2005 that follows an approved HACCP plan. The on-site processing reduces stress on the birds, resulting in a flavorful, tender product. No automation, with the exception of feather removal, is...
Food Modernization Act Has Shortcomings
FarmPlate Apr 13, 2010 Poultry 0 comments
"The food safety system in the U.S. is underfunded, overwhelmed, and in desperate need of new powers to keep us safe as Americans," said Illinois senator Dick Durbin at a Chicago grocery store last weekend, according to ABC News. Durbin is the sponsor for the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) that will be debated by the full U.S. Senate as early as next week. Durbin's assessment of the food system is unfortunately quite accurate. Andrew Kimbrell, the Center for Food Safety's executive director, writes on the Huffington Post, "70 million Americans are sickened, 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from food-borne illness every year." The Food Modernization Bill would expand the...
Woodstock Farmers' Market: Nothing Short of a Blast
FarmPlate Dec 04, 2009 Poultry 1 comments
WFM gained national attention this past summer when it was named "Food Retailer of the Year" by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. The localvore/globalvore Mecca is situated just west of Woodstock Village on busy US Route 4. You can spot it by all the fresh garlands, wreaths and trees lined up at the WFM Garden Center at this time of year. Mark Your Calendars! Hungry holiday shoppers can sample the Italian artisan foods purchased in Italy this fall by WFM staffer Amelia Rappaport at the Italia Next Door event. Taste, discuss and learn about these amazing products--pastas, olive oils, balsamics, condiments, chocolates and cookies--on Saturday and Sunday December 12th and...