Image Thanks to My Fine Feathered Friend, Leslie Binch: Head Hen

I have chicken envy. A young couple that we know moved to the ‘country’, which is to say they abandoned suburbia for a cute cottage in the middle of a couple of fields in Western New Jersey. Anything ‘outdoors’ is alien to the young man, and his sweet wife has gently introduced him to the joy of camping and fishing — he went not so gently into that peaceful night, but he survived.

Getting into the spirit of this new rural lifestyle, he met several people through his local, retail business who had chickens and various livestock for sale. His wife had been a little down, so he decided it would be entertaining to bring home a chicken as a gift. So, with little preparation, he got an adult chicken and had it put in a large cardboard box (he wasn’t going to touch it or anything) and brought it home to his unsuspecting wife. Here’s the hilarious video of Cindy Meets the first Chicken.

Of course since then, they’ve both become chicken experts and have built a substantial chicken house and yard and have a few new feathered friends to add to their growing family, which by the way also now includes their adorable 4-month old son.

So, while I don’t have any chickens yet and am reasonably certain my neighbor would have a stroke if I did, I’m convinced that someday soon, I’ll manage to do the backyard chicken thing.

I was thrilled to receive the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Raising Chickens to start my education. I’ve been corresponding with the author, JD Belanger and he has agreed to come on the radio show tonight and talk about the expanding backyard chicken craze and the basics of what we need to know to get started and have a fun and healthy experience with our chickens.

Like Jen and I JD is a publisher, having started Countryside magazine in 1969. He also founded sheep! magazine, Dairy Goat Guide, and Backyard Poultry — which is now the leading hobby poultry journal.

]]> http://thegreendivas.com/2010/05/06/sustainable-food-running-around-your-back-yard/feed/ 0 http://thegreendivas.com/2009/05/13/sustainable-health-suppers-for-sobriety-dinner-menu-yum/ http://thegreendivas.com/2009/05/13/sustainable-health-suppers-for-sobriety-dinner-menu-yum/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 17:35:39 +0000 Green Diva Meg http://thegreendivas.com/?p=332

Yummy Thai Coconut Fish Soup

Wayne and I have been going to Princeton, NJ one Sunday a month for a couple of months to a unique, healthy dinner club. It was founded by the mama earth of Princeton area herself, Dorothy Mullen - local vegetable garden educator, holistic nutritional advocate and certified addictions counselor. She and co-founder of Suppers for Sobriety, Cindy Foss have launched several ‘Suppers for’ programs to help people find ways to employ ‘nutritional harm reduction’ to address problems relating to blood sugar, ADHD and recovery from alcoholism and addictions.

These dinner/meetings are a wonderful blend of social interaction as the group works together to prepare a meal, informational, sharing about concerns or questions relating to food/nutrition/health, and of course always a fabulous and healthy meal.

We’ve joined in a group of ‘couples’ that are exploring additional ways to support their recovery through ‘nutritional harm reduction’. Wayne and I consider ourselves fairly informed (well, at least I do) about nutritional issues, but there is ALWAYS something new and interesting. However, these dinners are cleverly designed to accomodate people with all levels of nutritional knowledge.

This past meeting we talked about blood sugar and the consequences of consistently allowing it to drop severely. Yikes. But, we also had an extraordinary meal. Following are the recipes that Wayne and I replicated two weeks later and shared with the kids with great results.

Healthy & Colorful Chopped Salad with Dried Fig Dressing

Ingredients
Veggies
2 cups jicama (chopped into 1″ cubes)
1 yellow pepper (chopped)
1 red pepper (chopped)
1/2 head cabbage (chopped finely)
1 bunch kale (stems stripped out and chopped finely)
2 cups sprouts
1/2 red onion (chopped finely)
1 cup walnuts (chopped finely)
1/2 cup chives (chopped)
1/2 cup parsley (chopped)
1/2 cup cilantro (chopped)

Dressing
About 10 dried figs
1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup flaxseed oil
Juice of 1 orange
2 cloves garlic
Stevia (sweeten to taste)
Salt (to taste)

Instructions
The chopped veggies are kind of self explanatory – wash, chop and put in large bowl. The dressing is best done in a food processor. Put the figs in with some of the vinegar and run for 30 seconds or so, then add the other ingredients pouring the oil in slowly towards the end. Mix the dressing in with the veggies and voila! Of course, you can substitute some of the veggies or herbs to accomodate your or your family’s taste.

Thai Fish Soup

Ingredients
Olive Oil to coat bottom of pot
3 onions (chopped)
3 red peppers (chopped)
2″ piece of fresh ginger root (grated or minced finely)
1 1/2 lbs. salmon, (cut into 1″ cubes)
1 lb. cod (cut into 1″ cubes)
2 cans coconut milk
6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 tsp. red pepper flakes OR 3 hot chili pepper (chopped)
1 lb. firm tofu (cubed)
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp. sea salt (or to taste)
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
1/4 cup (Thai) basil (chopped)
10 oz. spinach chopped)

Instructions
Coat the bottom of a large soup pot with olive oil and add chopped onions and saute till soft. Add red and hot peppers and ginger and cook till soft and onions are transparent. Add fish, coconut milk and broth and cook till fish is cooked through. Add tofu, lime juice and salt to taste. At the very end of cooking add spinach and basil and cook till just wilted, then add the chopped cilantro.

eat. blog. be merry!
GD Meg

Is there anyone NOT sucked into the whirlwind of earth day hype?
Is there anyone that isn’t thinking of how they can get their green on?
Is anyone else feeling overwhelmed by it all?

Us Green Divas area all about easy does it! If we make earth day more of a lifestyle and simply start by making one green improvement from wherever we are on the big green super highway, sustainable living habits seem to sprout like hearty organic weeds and multiply. Before you know it, you’re talking local sustainable agriculture at your favorite new potluck dinner club!

I started with food. Yum.

The low-stress way of doing this, is to know you don’t have to do it ALL. Just pick one that resonates with you and start there. It should be fun and bring you some joy. This is NOT about adding stressful activities to your lifestyle, but adding some thoughtful and hopefully more meaningful activities to the things you already do anyway.

·         Learn about your local farmers – find them, meet them or at least read up on what they are growing and producing and what methods they employ.

• Join a CSA – Consider buying a share in a local Community Supported Agriculture, which helps a local farmer or farmers and you get delicious very fresh, local veggies regularly throughout the growing season! Here is a website to learn more about CSAs and search for a CSA near you!
  
• Go to your local farmers markets – there are so many new local farmers markets springing up everywhere. The season is just about to begin. Find a farmer’s market near you!

·         Question your local supermarkets – talk to the manager or produce manager about the source of their produce, how much of it is locally produced, organic, etc. If you ask them nicely to use more local growers (and get some friends to pester them as well), they might just do it!

·         Get educated about regional, seasonal foods – It is difficult to go totally seasonal, but there is evidence that it is better for our health to eat regionally and seasonally. Just becoming more aware is a start. One New Jersey natural foods caterer, Burden Free Foods is working on a delicious 100-mile menu that will highlight and use food within a 100-mile radius!

·         Become a conscious carnivore – look for meat that is humanely, naturally, regionally (if possible) and consciously produced. It will likely be more expensive – eat less meat, add more whole grains and veggies (won’t hurt you). Read my post ‘6 Reasons to be a Conscious Carnivore‘

·         Grow something – even if you don’t have a yard or even a balcony or deck to pot some veggies, you can grow herbs on a window sill. It’s fun, it’s miraculous, and is a great reminder of the connection of where food comes from and how good it is fresh. Or as an alternative, you can volunteer for a public garden group and help green your community.

·         Start a dinner club – this has all kinds of possibilities and potential implications. You can do it in connection to an organization or just a social group of friends – either way, it is fun and has a way of growing (organically of course) into something interesting and nourishing both physically and mentally. This idea was inspired by my favorite foodie organization, Sustainable Table, who made buttons for Farm Aid 2007 that said, ‘Bring back the potluck!’.

·         Patronize restaurants that use locally grown, organic foods – this makes a statement. There are more and more chefs coming around to the concepts of sustainable, local agriculture. Three local, sustainable food chef activists that are worth learning more about (and eating in their delicious establishments!) — Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, Michel Nischan of the Dressing Room and Judy Wicks of the White Dog Cafe. 

·         Love the food you prepare – find a way to de-stress, slow down and enjoy the food preparation process. CAUTION: this may produce heightened awareness about the quality of the food you use and create a desire for higher-quality food sources!

·         Eat at least one meal per week with your family – whatever type of family you have, whether it is traditional or a group of friends. Create a sense of family around a well-loved and thoughtfully prepared meal (you don’t have to do it all yourself, remember POT-LUCK works).

eat. blog. be merry!

GD Meg