Tag Archive for 'chicken'

Zero One: Yard Bird Stew

melissa published on February 7, 2011 in art, celebrity, food, superforest journal, technology and zeitgeist. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

Kauai is known for its abundance of wild chickens, especially roosters, which love to crow very vigorously at all hours of the day and night. Our friend Mason arrived and brought with him a shiny, new rooster trap, which was quickly loaded. In no time at all, we had two fine roosters, and so we decided to make Yard Bird Stew.

Before.

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After.

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If you’d like to see the During, please click here. (NSFW if you work for PETA.)

In case you’re wondering…

Yes, it was delicious.
And yes, it tasted just like chicken.

Love and aloha,

Jackson and Melissa

Zero One: An On Going Interview Part 01

melissa published on December 20, 2010 in art, build, celebrity, food, superforest journal, technology, transportation and zeitgeist. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

Hello SuperForest!

I posted an Ask Me Anything about Zero One and was super inspired by Zoe’s questions. I decided to start an on going interview where you can ask me anything at all, and I’ll answer in the form of a new post. As long as you keep asking questions, I’ll keep posting answers. Maybe there will be just this one. Or maybe there will be 101. Who knows! Here we go…

SuperForester Zoe says:

Oooh, questions about Zero One, yay!

I know you guys have chickens on the land and that you sometimes eat meat that you buy from the local market – do you ever eat your own chickens and/or do you have any other animals there and what do you use them for?

I’m also really curious about what the living quarters and facilities are like – I know one person mentioned in a post about having a shower outside – are all of your washing facilities outdoors? What is the water situation like?

I am very excited to learn more about what life is like at Zero One – it sounds pretty awesome from everything I’ve read so far!

Thanks :)

Hi Zoe! Thank you so much for your questions.
Chickens: We began with four Buff Orpingtons (the yellow chickens) in August. We have lost and gained chickens since then and are now at three white Ideal chickens and three wild chickens who we caught and mostly domesticated. One of the wilds is definitely a rooster, and there is potential that there is another. At this point, they are not old enough to be laying eggs. It usually takes about six months. Since we’ve lost all the original Buffs, and the original wild that we caught is a boy, we’ll now have to wait until around March until we get any eggs. These chickens are too small to eat, but we will consider eating them when they’re no longer laying. We’ve also been toying with the idea of getting a BB gun and eating some of the wild roosters that wake us up at 3am. The only other animal we have is the volunteer cat who showed up and decided we were his humans. We are considering getting a goat in the near-ish future for milk, entertainment and lawn mowing.

01 - Chicken Village 3

Living Quarters: There are two houses on the land in addition to a tipi and the Airstream trailer. The main house has  one bedroom, a living room, bathroom and kitchen downstairs with a loft area upstairs. The guest house is a combination of the garage/workspace and a two story apartment space. Downstairs, it has a bathroom, a small kitchen sink, and a living room area. The upstairs is the bedroom.
Mea, Augustin, and their 11 week old baby, Naia, live in the guest house. Jackson and I move around between the various sleeping spaces depending on whether or not we have guests. We are currently sleeping in the main bedroom until Jesse’s sister arrives in a week. Then we will move either to the window nest in the loft area or to the Airstream trailer we are currently renovating into our more “permanent” sleeping/work space.
The main house is a communal space. We share the living room and kitchen with Augustin, Mea, Naia and all guests that happen to be here.
Both houses have bathrooms with the standard equipment: sink, shower and toilet. Jackson primarily uses the composting toilet for poo times and shares his pee times with the plants. I alternate between the composting toilet and the regular toilet. Depends on my moon times. And I primarily pee on the plants. Augustin and Mea pee on the plants and alternate between the composting toilet and house toilet.
We call the composting toilet The Tree Machine. It’s a hole in the ground that is roughly 5 feet deep and 2 feet across, covered by a little wooden platform and a bamboo and palm frond hut. We do our thang and then throw a couple of scoops of dirt on top. When the hole is filled, we plant a tree on top of it and dig a new hole. It’s really quite simple, and the trees love it!
We also have a tipi, which currently has three beds and the Airstream, which has one double bed.
Water Situation: Each house has an outdoor shower, which are the primary showers. And we also have a beverly hillbilly hot tub; an old cast iron, claw foot tub that is filled by a hose connected to the on-demand hot water. We are currently in discussion with Jesse and various people on island about putting in a water catchment system. And we are currently on county water that has a restructuring filter system for showering, washing machine, dishes (hand washed), and reverse osmosis filtered drinking water. We also regularly collect drinking water from a natural spring further north on the island.

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Electricity Situation: We are also still on county electricity and are putting together estimates and budgets for a PV (solar panel) system to get the house completely off grid. Because the land and the project is constantly evolving, it’s taking time to figure out exactly what we need. We have met with three solar installers and are finding that we still don’t know exactly what we want. So we’re waiting. Until what? Don’t know. Until it feels right.
I am so grateful for your interest in this project. If you’d like a question answered, please post them in the comments section of this post, and I’ll respond asap.
So much love + aloha!

The SuperForest Show! Episode Minus 9! Let’s Make Chicken Soup!

jackson published on November 10, 2009 in food and technology. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

picture-32
Goooooood Morning SuperForest!

Today on the SuperForest Show, we’re making a big honkin’ batch of chicken soup to chase the headnasties and coldsmuzzlers out of our systems.
This is perhaps the easiest and most delicious chicken soup you will ever make.

One thing that I edited out of the video is me skimming the chicken fat from the top of the soup. Save this fat! You can use it to roast potatoes/onions/garlic, and the results will speak for themselves. Deliciousness unbound!

Thank you to my father, SuperForester Graham, for shooting this video and helping me sing the theme song, and to SuperForester Alex, who gave me his Grandma’s recipe.

If it is cold outside or inside, make some soup!

Love to All,

Jackson

P.S. Wanna nom nom the nicenice?

Alex’s Grandma’s Chicken Soup:
6 lb. chicken
3 lbs. onions
1.5 lbs. carrots
1.5 lbs. celery
2 heads garlic
1 cup wild rice
salt & pepper
2-3 bay leaves

NOM!

Oprah on Proposition 2

niki published on October 21, 2008 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
“The average American consumes 254 eggs every year–that adds up to about 76 billion eggs produced in this country every year.” 

Good Morning,
There is a law that is being voted on in California next month called Proposition 2. This law would require that all the cages for egg laying hens, pregnant pigs and veal calves be increased, allowing the animals to have more room to lie down, turn around, stand up and spread their limbs out without touching the sides of the cage or another animal. 
It’s hard to believe, but there is a lot of opposition to this law, especially by farmers who worry what this will do to their business, if it goes into effect. 
Oprah has an incredible amount of reach and this is an important issue impacting the sustainability of our food and our farming techniques. I was really excited when I heard she had a show on this topic. 
If this is of interest to you, read this Oprah article. It is always important to be reminded of where our food is coming from and it is a very clear and thorough article. 
If you don’t have the time, here are some of the highlights:
“Those who support Proposition 2 say these animals have the right to more space during their lives. Opponents of Proposition 2, including farmers and industry representatives, say the new law would drive up costs, put farmers out of business and end the egg industry in California, and deny consumers the right to choose less-expensive food”
“…I do think that we can, with some modest choices—and Proposition 2 is one example of that—have a great impact on the quality of life on farms all over the country and help preserve the family farm while we’re at it.”
“This is just about basic decency,” he says. “It’s about, if animals are going to be raised for food—and that’s certainly the case in this country—then the least we can do for them is allow them to move. I mean, what’s more basic than allowing animals with legs and wings to move around?”
“Ryan Armstrong, a third-generation egg farmer from California, is strongly opposed to Proposition 2. He says that if Proposition 2 passes, it will make eggs produced in California too expensive for most consumers, creating the possibility that eggs will be imported from places without these animal housing laws.”
“Julie Buckner represents Californians for Safe Food, a group that opposes Proposition 2. “Certainly the egg industry in California will be wiped out,” she says. “And in all likelihood, eggs will come from outside the U.S.—Mexico, even overseas as far as China.”
“Jude says he would never keep his sows in gestation crates. He prefers to see them root around in a grassy field. “Something about it just makes me feel good. The positive energy from the animals translates to me,” he says. “I think it translates into the food as well. Food is about energy.”
“By 2012, Wayne says gestation crates will be banned throughout the European union. “This is not pie in the sky. We’re the nation that put a man on the moon nearly 40 years ago,” he says. “Can’t we allow animals to move? That’s the basic question.”
“Amy says their natural approach—without antibiotics or growth hormones—actually costs less than alternative methods. “While no farming is cheap by any means … we don’t have the buildings it takes to house that many calves,” she says. “So we don’t have to upkeep those buildings or build any of those structures on our farm.”
What I found amazing was to see the large corporations that have signed on in support of these more humane ways of raising animals.
“Small family farms aren’t the only ones jumping on the cage-free, free-range bandwagon. Lisa says many corporations are adopting a similar philosophy. In 2000, Chipotle Mexican Grill, a fast-food chain, began using cage-free pork in their burritos and tacos. This year, all 8 million pounds of pork they’ll use will come from cage-free pigs.
In 2005, Whole Foods Market began exclusively selling eggs from cage-free hens. Then, Ben & Jerry’s followed suit and became the first major food manufacturer to commit to using only cage-free eggs in their ice cream. Burger King, the world’s second largest burger chain, has also announced that 5 percent of its eggs and 10 percent of its pork now comes from animals not confined to crates or cages.”
Oprah finished with this:
“California voters, Proposition 2 will be on your ballot next month,” she says. “The rest of us can vote at the grocery store with the food we buy for our tables.”
Nice Job, Oprah!
Niki 

Power to the Chicken!

julius published on September 9, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .
cc photo by flickr user fuzzy gerdes

This morning the (rather hilarious) news reached me that the Netherlands are going to use chicken poop as a source of energy. Hilarious in a good way of course.

So what’s going to happen in the little country I live in? Well, our minister of agriculture announced that they’re going to built a biomass power plant which can extract energy from chicken manure. The plant is going to cost a fierce 150 million Euro, but in return it gives power to 90,000 households. This by using 440,000 tons of chicken manure annually.

That’s a medium sized city running on chicken poo!

But it gets just a little bit better. Normally farmers use the chicken manure to fertilize the land. So they can grow crops on it. When this happens carbon dioxide and methane are released into the environment which contributes to the enhanced greenhouse effect. Now there’s less chicken poo to do this with so farmers will look into cleaner alternatives.

Jay, this was one good day for green energy in the Netherlands.

-jdh