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Happy Earth Day!
Happy Earth Day!
Today is the 38th annual celebration of the planet we call home, and a day to step back and think about things we can do to preserve and restore our natural resources…
So that’s the official line on Earth Day, but I want to know: what do YOU think about Earth Day?
Is it a time to reflect on accomplishments?
A time to call for more action?
Or something in-between?
Send a post, let us know, then go outside and do something good for the planet.
Home > Blogs > Living Green > Archives > 2008 > July > 02 > Entry
Satisfaction
I am proud of myself; Monday night, I turned one chicken into about two weeks’ worth of meals.
The organic-raised chicken I bought a week ago from Gravel Knolls Farm was sitting in my freezer, patiently waiting for me to figure out the best way to use it. Sure, it would have been easy enough to throw the thing in the oven, bake it up and toss the bones and leftovers after a dinner or two, but that just didn’t feel right.
I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about food, because I think it’s a critical key to sustainable, environmentally responsible living. Sustainability, in its essence, means making the resources we have go as far as they can.
That applies to food, too.
Consider this excerpt from a report by the USDA:
Americans at the beginning of the 21st century are consuming more food and several hundred more calories per person per day than did their counterparts in the late 1950s (when per capita calorie consumption was at the lowest level in the last century), or even in the 1970s. The aggregate food supply in 2000 provided 3,800 calories per person per day, 500 calories above the 1970 level and 800 calories above the record low in 1957 and 1958. Of that 3,800 calories, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) estimates that roughly 1,100 calories were lost to spoilage, plate waste, and cooking and other losses, putting dietary intake of calories in 2000 at just under 2,700 calories per person per day.”
The comment about waste really struck me. That’s a lot of trash that could’ve been one more lunch, one more quick dinner out of a Tupperware container.
The chicken I met this spring met a dignified end in my kitchen. It became a fantastic casserole, mixed in with vegetables grown within pecking distance of its coop. It became an impromptu chicken salad that will knock your socks off (see the recipe below). The less savory bits went into the stock pot for chicken soup, no frozen, that will hopefully save my bacon down the road when I need a quick dinner.
If I were a chicken, it’s the way I’d want to go out.
Here’s the chicken salad I concocted Monday. i finished it off for lunch today, and it was good to the last bite:
Cooked chicken, cooled and shredded
2-3 celery stalks, diced to taste
1 kohlrabi, diced
Mayonnaise
Ground mustard
Paprika
Combine chicken and diced vegetables with mayonnaise to desired consistency. Add mustard and paprika to taste (probably just a pinch of each). Scoop onto toast or a salad of fresh greens, and dig in.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: DIY food
Comments
By Mike
July 2, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this
The issue of food waste is something which I find most difficult to deal with personally. The way so much of the produce is portioned in groceries, it is hard to use all of it before it starts to go bad. We have a really hard time being efficient in that regard. It is something we struggle with all the time. We have come a long way, though, in many regards. We are on a regular buying schedule from a local organic farmer. His chickens are free range and they are wonderful. We waste nothing of these. We simmer the cut-up chicken in a pot with celery, carrots, onion, garlic, a green pepper, couple of bay leaves and crushed peppercorns. We chop the carcass up into three or four pieces and simmer it with the other parts. When the chicken pieces are done we remove the meat from the bones to cool. We chop the bones in half, throw them back into the pot and continue to simmer it for 2-3 more hours. Strain and defat it and you have the most wonderful stock imaginable. We freeze it in smaller containers and it is at the ready for almost anything. I could never go back to canned broth. This homemade stuff is heavenly.