Mushrooms washed and sliced for cooking

There is a rumor that you should not wash mushrooms because they soak up to much water. Infact, most mushrooms do not absorb liquid. The exception is morel mushrooms because they capture water in their crevaces. I like to wash all of my mushrooms and use a mushroom brush to get the dirt off. Mushrooms are grown in organic waste such as horse manure so I really don’t want any of that on my mushrooms. When washing morel mushrooms I rinse them under cold water and use a salad spinner to get the liquid back off and it seems to work very well.

When I got home I got ready to prepare the birds as I always do but this time I was pretty amazed at what I saw. The chicken smelled strange and slightly bleachy. I assume that meant that the chickens were disinfected with chemicals (and maybe left out too long when they were processed – bleach just does not take that smell away.) I usually remove the skin to see how much fat is on the chicken; these chickens were really fatty.

The other thing that astonished me was the amount of blood in the breast and thigh meat and bruising in the leg area. Upon further inspection I saw that the chicken’s leg had been badly broken and had hemorrhaged, meaning that the chicken had been alive after the injury. Proper slaughtering should leave no blood in the meat, or broken bones for that matter.

As an experiment I went ahead and cooked the chicken anyway. When it was done I wasn’t particularly surprised to see my cat back away from the chicken that I put down for him and leave it completely untouched.

I was absolutely discusted with the choice that I made to go with the cheaper chicken. Times are tough, but I saving a few dollars had become a bad choice in this instance, without knowing it I’d made a choice to support animal factory production and cruelty to animals. Of course I did not know this when I purchased the chickens but it was pretty evident once I took off the wrapper. I took those chickens back to Sams Club and got my money back. I hope I’ll never be fooled by the lure of that kind of deal again. You get what you pay for.

We visited a Organic Farm a couple of weeks ago where they treat the livestock and poultry humanely. The animals roam free and  act more like happy pets than animals raised for food. We took a picture of the chicks that were raised from eggs and were scheduled to be released outside in 2 weeks after they were big enough. Notice how clean and well cared for the chicks are.

Baby Chicks at The Organic Farm

The free range cows were also very happy at the organic farm. They came up to me in a curious manner as if to check me out as I took pictures of them in the field. I quickly found that they each have their own personalities and curiosities.

Free Range Cows at an Organic Farm

If you have the chance to visit an organic farm I highly recommend the experience, and it’s a much better place to buy chicken, too!

According to the USDA, since 1960 more than 1.5 million acres of farmland is converted to nonagricultural use every year.

Read more in our article: Eat Local Does Not Mean Big Box Retailers

The best bag to place your vegetables and fruit in is a fine mesh bag that can be reused over and over then laundered when dirty. Mesh bags have a lifetime of a couple of years as opposed to the plastic bags which clutter our landfills. Local health food stores, Co-ops and farmers markets may have mesh bags for produce in your area. If you are having a hard time finding fine mesh bags you can try making them or there are a couple of places online that sell them. Fine mesh bags for produce are expensive but when you add up the savings to the environment think of all of the plastic you’ll keep out of the landfill.

The only trick to using mesh bags is to remember to put them back in your car and use them whenever you go shopping.

• Alway let water run for at least a minute in the morning  before you drink it or use it for cooking. Water will absorb ingredients from the pipes when water sits in the pipes for a few hours.
• Always use cold water from the tap to drink or to cook with. Hot water comes from the hot water heater and can include sediment, rust and other materials that gather at the bottom of the tank. You can periodically bleed the bottom of the boiler tank to make it safer for washing dishes.
• Put an open container of cold water into the refrigerator so the chlorine can evaporate before you drink it.