Eggs, Is There A Difference? You Bet Your Sweet Ass There Is!

Haven't been here lately.  Not that I don't have plenty to say, I just don't have the time.  I have been spending a lot of time tending to my chickens.  Now that I have 30, there is a little more to do (a lot more poop).  They obviously drink more water and eat more grain.  Plus my chickens are pretty spoiled.  I make sure they have lots to do so they don't get bored and start attacking each other.  I really like taking care of the chickens and all that it entails.  I don't even mind shoveling the shit!  I can see however, why mass production and factory farms came about.  The more chickens you have, the more time consuming and expensive they become.  If I was raising my chickens just for income from the eggs I would be broke by now.  $2.00 a dozen does not even begin to pay for the feed and supplies I need to properly take care of them.  If I wanted to make money, I would make my operation more efficient; leave out a lot of the amenities that my chickens enjoy and charge more for my eggs.  If I do that, I decrease the quality and value of the egg.  Factory farms are around for the simple fact of supply and demand.  A low income family is not going to pay $2.00 a dozen for eggs from me.  They will buy them at the grocery store for $.85 a dozen on sale.  This is one time however that you get what you pay for.    You can buy "organic" "cage free" "free range" eggs in the grocery store and pay over $3.00 a dozen.  Most of the times in that case you are not getting what you paid for.  All of those terms are very ambiguous.  There are definitions of all of those by the USDA.  The producers can get around those definitions by interpreting there own version.  For instance, "free range" requires the chickens to have access to the outdoors.  My chickens definitely do.  They run all over my yard.  Mass producers can get away with calling their eggs free range if they have an open door that in theory the chickens can get outside.  That door may be on one end of a chicken house that houses 1000 chickens.  Yeah, the door is there and they have access to it, but the chickens at the other end of the chicken house are never going to make there way to the door to get out.  Even if they do get out, there isn't room for them to do anything and there is no vegetation for them to forage in.  It's kind of like interpreting the Bible.  People will skew the facts to how it will best serve them (that is whole other story I won't get into).  Product labeling is really a joke.  It's all about marketing and making money.  The only way to decipher the labeling is to read the ingredients list and know what you are looking for.  In the case of eggs you have no real way of knowing if the labeling is correct short of visiting the facility that produced them.

Am I promoting my eggs?  Not really, I can only serve a dozen or so people because my farm is very small.  What I am promoting is education regarding the food we buy.  Everyone (including me) runs to the grocery to get a few things with little regard to how it was made or produced.  We are letting these big corporations take over our lives and control our basic needs of nourishment.  We don't concern ourselves with how the cow was raised and processed for the hamburger we are buying.  We just know we need hamburger to make our chili.  I don't propose becoming fanatic and boycotting everything.  I just think people should be making more conscious choices about the food they eat.  If you have a choice to buy your food from local farmers do that instead of getting it from Walmart.  Changes don't have to be big to make a difference.  I probably won't become a vegetarian anytime soon.  I love meat too much.  I have however started to buy from a local farm that has grass fed beef.  It makes me feel better when I can say I made my own decision about what is good for me to eat, not what big factory says is good for me.

Not The Worst Thing You Could Eat

I am not a bad Grandma! I would never do anything dangerous or unhealthy to or around my grandchildren (If you don't count the time Bryan and I let Julian be the first to try out the go cart and he ran into the wire fence.) Actually since Bryan was there it was technically his call and therefore his fault (I'm just saying).

This brings me to recent events involving dog food and Jaxon. First of all I did not offer Jax the dog food. I'm not even sure why he thought to try it in the first place. I think he may have been watching Ellie eat and figured maybe he would try it too. I saw him take a piece and chew it. I figured that would be the end of it. Not so, next thing I knew he had a handful and was eating it like popcorn. I asked him if it was good and he enthusiastically says: "YEAH!"

Now, I understand that most people would take the dog food away from him and tell him not to eat it. We have already established that I am not like most people, so I was weighing my options. It's not like he's eating glass. The dog food is healthier than most food kids generally eat. Plus it was Science Diet small bite dog food so he wouldn't be likely to choke on the pieces. Then I had to think about what if he goes to some one's house and sees the dog food bowl and says: "Oooh that looks like Science Diet mind if I have some?" That could be embarrassing for Amanda and Brad (but incredibly funny). Then there is the possibility that he tells everyone that Nanu lets him eat dog food. It could ruin my reputation. Wait...who am I kidding, reputation be damned, that would be hilarious. There was only one real downside to his eating the dog food. He would have to contend with Ellie.

Sure enough, I'm in the other room and I hear Ellie growl and Jax say: "ouch!" What followed was a conversation that I never thought I would be having.... "What happened?" "Ellie bit me!" "Were you eating her food?" "yeah". "dogs don't like it when you bother them while they are eating." "I was eating it and she just bit me". "It's her bowl, I'll get you a bowl of your own." "Yah!" I made up the last sentence I didn't really get him his own bowl. I just let him eat out of the dog food container. No, I didn't do that either but I wanted to. Actually maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I'm not saying.

As far as I can tell he suffered no ill effects from eating the dog food; however, when I called the other day I could hear him howling in the background. Amanda said he was pretending he was a coyote. I swear I never fed him a live animal so I am not responsible for the coyote tendencies.

Just to put every one's mind at ease I copied the dog food ingredients directly from the Science Diet website. Compare that to the ingredients on the fruit snacks label and see which one is worse.


Chicken
Brown Rice
Whole Grain Wheat
Cracked Pearled Barley
Soybean Meal
Chicken Meal
Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid)
Dried Egg Product
Natural Flavor
Whole Grain Oats

Remaining Ingredients
Apples, Cranberries, Soybean Oil, Peas, Carrots, Dried Beet Pulp, Iodized Salt, Flaxseed, Broccoli, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Calcium Carbonate, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract

Obsessd With Food

Drove to Naples today; still no Cremora. I bought some CoffeeMate. I figured out what I'm gonna do when we come back down to Florida in March. We are flying back, so I don't think I can take the Cremora on the plane. I'm gonna buy two or three bottles of creamer, take it out of the bottles and put it into Food Saver plastic bags and then ship it to Florida. I can fit it into a smaller package if I take it out of the bottles so it won't cost so much to mail. You can do anything if you set your mind to it. I have such lofty goals.

We spent 2 hours looking for the new Whole Foods grocery store in Naples. You know how most people go to the beach or sight see? Well, we visited Whole Foods. If you've never been to one, you have to go. They are great! I think I may start lobbying for one in Ft. Wayne. Right now the closest is Carmel which is 80 miles from my house. If you only eat potatoes and cheese like Amanda, you may not care for it that much. But even their potatoes and cheese are incredible. The best baked potato I have ever had in my life came from a Whole Foods in Colorado Springs.

I gotta get home, all I can think about is food. I need some other distractions.

Day Number Two

Second full day at the nursing home and Mom says; "I hate it!" That sucks, but if I remember correctly she said the same thing about Kingston. I realize there will be an adjustment period so I am not getting to bent out of shape over it. She can't really pinpoint anything specific as to what she hates. She says everyone treats her nice. I think she would tell me if they weren't. I am making myself known. Asking names and hanging notes. See I know how this works. I've never worked in a nursing home, but I've worked at Hospice home and in the hospital. When you have three shifts plus weekend shifts at some point you need to make an appearance during all of them. Stuff gets missed, some people don't care, and some get so busy they forget what you ask them. Case in point, she's already missing two pair of pants and a shirt and I am the one doing her laundry. Obviously someone didn't check her chart and ended up putting her clothes in the house laundry. I told anyone that I saw about the issue. I figure out of six or so people one of them is bound to follow through and find them. I'm not out to make enemies. On the contrary, I want to make friends. I want them to be happy to see me when I visit but understand that I expect a certain level of care for my Mama and I will be watching. The thing that bothers me the most is the age of all of the aides. Most of the ones I have seen so far are between 18 and 22ish. Most girls that age don't have a clue about the life experiences of a geriatric patient or how to treat them with dignity. They are all nice enough, but are they willing to get in and do the dirty work that is needed to properly care for someone that cannot do it themselves? I guess time will tell.
I took her lunch today and we sat outside. I brought her McDonalds. One thing that hasn't diminished is her appetite. She ate every last bit of a fish sandwich, fries and a strawberry shake. I thought she was going to suck the wax off of the paper cup. She did everything she could to get every last drop. She can't do much of anything so eating is a good pastitme. Hershey's bar with almonds is her favorite. I wish I could eat Hershey bars and strawberry shakes and be happy about it.

Butter Burger

We have a new resturant in town called Culver's. I'm pretty sure it's a chain. There is a sign out front that advertises "Butter Burgers." I'm not exactly sure what a Butter Burger is, but I can pretty well guess that it is a hamburger cooked in butter or maybe a hamburger with butter mixed in. Whatever the case, can you say: "myocardial infarction?" Wasn't Ft. Wayne voted the fattest city in America one year? This might put us back on top again. I'm sure they are scrumptious, but are they necessary? Maybe this chain is actually terrorist based and they are trying to kill us with high cholesterol. I hate to bad mouth a business I've never been to, so go ahead an go to the restuarant, just stay away from the Butter Burger. My arteries are clogging just thinking about it.

Tofuey

Joe was so excited yesterday when I told him we were having tofu and bean sprouts for dinner he could hardly contain himself. I recently purchased a bean sprouter and have already harvested my first crop. Yummy! I made Asian inspired rice noodles and tofu and sprinkled fresh bean sprouts on top. Joe loved it, he has his with a side order of pork. Actually it was pretty good. Today, Joe made a trip to Michigan to see the triplets so he didn't get to have any leftovers. Too bad for him! I had Jax here with me and he saw me eating the bean sprouts, so I gave him some. He chewed them for a little bit, then took them out of his mouth. "What is that Nanu?" "It's bean sprouts." "YUCK!" That's coming from a kid that drinks bath water. There's no accounting for taste.

Winding Down

The Chokoloskee adventures have come to an end for this year. I took my last kayak trip yesterday and Joe took his boat out today. Now comes the cleaning and packing. Not my favorite part, but at least I get to look forward to seeing my little munchkins soon. I can't wait! I get to see Julian, Nicholas and Jax too....Ha ha, you thought the munchkins were the kids didn't you. I was talking about the chickens! Not really, I meant the kids......or did I?

Joe's fishing trip yesterday yielded great rewards. Because of his incredible fishing skills, we had sea trout for dinner. I'm usually not a fan of the trout, but it was really good. It must be my superb cooking skills. Joe may argue about my cooking skills of late. In the last week or so I have served him: undercooked chicken, way tooooo salty eggplant, and a practically raw potato. Oops! In case you were wondering, eating the fish falls into the category of: having to eat meat so you don't hurt someone else's feelings. Besides, I have to cool it on the beans until I get some beano. I could power a generator for the entire Island of Chokoloskee with my gas.

Drop It Before There is Blood Shed!

Driving in a car for extended periods of time makes me irritable. Especially when Joe tries to eat my food. Under the best circumstances I am protective of my food. I don't like to share. One of my first dates with Joe, we went to dinner with his kids. The food came, and everyone starting eating off of each others plate. Not in a terrible ravenous way or anything. It was polite, but forks were still reaching everywhere. I thought: "What do I do????" I wanted to say: "Back away from my plate!" Rebelling at that moment in time could have been detrimental so in hindsight I am glad I kept my trap shut. It all worked out and actually I have become more accustomed to the Ottinger eating method when dining out. Joe and I actually share many meals out. However, when I pick out specific food for me I become possessive of it. I buy light potato chips sometimes. Joe will eat regular chips so I don't have to share my diet chips. Unless of course there are no other chips around. He tried to take some chips in the car and I slapped him. I bitch slapped him hard! Ok, maybe not that hard, but it wasn't a pussy slap. Before everyone gets in a tizzy, I slapped his hand not his face. Then there was the banana. Bananas have a small window of perfect ripeness. Not hard, not too soft and no visible bruises. I picked out one such banana from the hotel breakfast bar. Joe picked out a banana too. His was much less pristine. Our bananas lay side by side on the console between the car seats. Joe aimlessly reaches for a banana and grabs my perfect specimen. "Seriously Joe, did we not just have the banana conversation???" My hand quickly reached for his hand. It wasn't quite a slap this time, it was more of a grab that said: "make one more move with my banana and you will regret it." He quickly releases the banana and the incident ends peacefully. I told Joe; "sometimes I'm like a firecracker waiting to go off"!
Joe said; "I'm trading you in for a couple of cherry bombs. They only blow smoke."