animal welfare

How free range is your bacon?

20th August 2015 by Regula Leave a Comment

kisses on the free range fields

It came as a bit of a surprise to me that less than 3% of the pork in the UK is actually truly ‘free range’. You think if you choose for the ‘freedom foods’ or ‘red tractor’ label, you’re sorted, but no, that doesn’t mean your bacon is free range at all.
To learn more, I ventured out to sunny Suffolk to meet up with second generation pig farmer Alastair Butler on their family farm Blythburgh Free Range Pork.
As it turnes out, a lot of the pork we think to be free-range, has actually not had a better life than a pig in an intensive farm. We assume when we spot the label ‘outdoor bred’ or ‘outdoor reared’ that it is free-range, only it isn’t.

First we have to understand how pig farming works.
There are two stages or herds, the ‘breeding herd’ – these are the sows and the newly born piglets, and the ‘finishing herd’ where the piglets go after they are weaned which is after about four weeks of age.
In the majority of the higher welfare farms, the high welfare terminology only applies to the first herd, the sows and their babies.

Outdoor bred and outdoor reared is NOT free range pork.
Outdoor bred: this means the breeding herd is kept free range but the after the piglets are weaned, they are moved indoors to the finishing herd where they are intensively reared. The pork from these pigs will not be any different from your average intensive farm.

Outdoor reared: here the breeding herd is free range too, and the finishing herd is kept in a semi outdoor arrangement of tents or huts. The pigs do not have free access to the outside, and are confined to these huts and tents at all times. Alastair refers to this arrangement as ‘intensively reared outdoors.’

Free range: here the breeding herd is free range, and the finishing herd is kept in an even larger free range space. This is the only true higher welfare farming system.

Blythburgh is one of the largest free range farms in the UK, this means that the pigs have an incredibly large amount of land to roam freely. The animals grow slower, which means the fat has been around the muscle for longer and therefore delivers more flavour.
But for Alastair the welfare of the pigs is what’s most important, he steps into the field with his dad and nearly all of the pigs in the field come storming towards him to see what is going on and have a sniff on the farmers leg and shoes. “This is what it’s all about” he says “pigs showing their natural behaviour which is that they are incredibly curious and clever animals”.
I asked him if he is still smitten with the breeding herd after years of seeing piglets being born, and he tells me that he still loves everything about the breeding herd, but the fact that they have to keep the sows on a more confined paddock means he prefers to visit the finishing herd which looks to me like a gang of friends having a nice play in the sand rather than a bunch of farm animals being finished for slaughter.

The natural behaviour of a pig is to root in the soil and eat the mud, they love a good dust bath or wallow in the muddy pools and enjoy a good run. Imagine if you would place an animal like this on a concrete floor, with no light apart from a couple of industrial lights if they are lucky. No fresh air, nothing. Farrowing crates contain the sows, they are so tight that they can not turn, they can not stand, they just have to lie there. Piglets are taken from these animals after birth, while pigs are known for being good mothers, imagine what the animal must be feeling. And that is what is important, we can’t ignore that animals have feelings. Farm animals are no different from pets. It is important to take a stand against intensive farming, and eat less meat, but choose to buy high welfare meat.
Ask your butcher where the meat comes from, investigate by looking up the farms website to see that you are getting your money’s worth in free range meat.

There is no room in this day and age for animal abuse, so find a free range source for your meat.

From farm to plate

The breeding herd

A happy mama and her babies fighting over the best teat

And suddenly another mama started farrowing, she covered her piglets in straw to keep warm

Alastair Butler and his piglets. I got to hold her too, she fell asleep on me.

A curious bunch – the finishing herd.

Didn’t I say they love a good run?

And that they love to eat and root around the mud?

Are you looking at me? Well you’re looking at us human!

Slaughtered and butchered by Gerard King.

The mark, so you know what you get.

The final stage – the table.

Thank you very much for inviting me to your family farm Alastair, and for the beautiful pulled pork lunch your mother made us. Thanks Gerard King from craft butcher Salter and King for a butchery demonstration to round up the day and the process from birth to slaughter. Good meat can’t be taken for granted, it has to be respected.
Recipe for the roast coming soon.

My views are my own.

EDITED

While moving my blog the comments on my last few posts got lost, I’m so sorry if you are looking for your comment and it isn’t there. I’m really sad about losing our conversations!

‘Osso Bucco’ and why we should eat Rosé veal

24th June 2012 by Regula 18 Comments

We should all eat veal

If we don’t, a lot of bull calves in the intensive dairy industry will be shot at birth.

Veal is a byproduct of the dairy industry, so if you eat a lot of cheese and dairy… eat veal. Even to the vegetarians out there who do eat dairy, please eat veal.

Bull
calves are of no use to the dairy industry if there is no demand for
veal and therefore the little animals need to go. Numbers reached 260
000 male dairy calves in 2007.To feed our milk and cheese habit, dairy cows are kept constantly pregnant but while female cows can grow up to become dairy cows like their mothers, there is no room for their brothers. Male dairy calves are not always suitable for producing beef therefore (Rose) veal can offer a good alternative.

TV farmer Jimmy Doherty, is trying to persuade people to try veal.
“Dairy calves are being shot at 24 to 48 hours old and if we drink milk
we all have to share in this instead of leaving the burden of it to the
farmers. Eating rose veal is utilising those calves and solving a
problem,” said Jimmy Doherty, who is raising veal calves on his own farm.

When
you buy veal, try and find ‘rosé veal‘ this high-welfare veal comes
from calves that are not fed the restricted diet mainly consisting of
‘milk replacer’ that is needed to produce the ‘white veal’ meat, it keeps the meat light colored.

Rose veal is high in protein and has a pink color, hence the name ‘rose veal’.

The calves are raised alongside their mothers in open fields, and have access to their mother’s milk. After a few weeks they will get a diet of cerial and grass. This is why Rose veal has more flavour than the ‘white veal’.

The UK is the best country if you want to buy veal, the RSPCA’s Freedom Food programme label is very strict. Sadly the veal being produced in the rest of Europe is not of the high welfare standard like the British and Irish.

I have been wanting to buy veal for months, I can’t get it at the butcher or at the farm where I buy my beef and pork. So I don’t eat it. I refuse to buy white veal.

Last saturday I found a butcher who is selling free range ‘rose veal’ in Brussels. Happy days. I came out of the shop holding my veal shanks as if it were a bunch of flowers.

If you are a vegetarian/vegan and you are still reading, thank you.

I hope you see my point.

Especially if you are a vegetarian and still consume dairy.

this little one couldn’t get enough of mommies milk…

If there is one type of meat we should be eating, it’s veal. Meat is more costly to produce in terms of energy and resources then vegetables. In times where we have to mind our ecological footprint and eat less meat, veal is the most responsible choice.

To help the Rosé veal and dairy beef farming industry I wanted to feature a few farms or shops that sell Rosé veal. Thank you for your tweets and emails with details, answering my question on Twitter.

Update:

Rosewood farm raises their dairy bulls for beef, they deliver England, Wales and Scotland
Calf at foot dairy produces raw milk and grass fed ruby veal from her gorgeous Jersey cows

*I’m not claiming the calves shown in my picture are rosé veal calves, I took this pictures before I thought about doing this post but I think it shows well that we should not reduce animals to waste.

Where to buy Rosé veal:

London

Allens of Mayfair (Heaves farm veal)

Barbecoa Butchery (Heaves farm veal)

O Shea’s of Knightsbridge (selling Irish rosé veal)

Union Market (Heaves farm veal)
Provenance butcher (Midshires Rose Veal)
bashford and co – Croyden

Cumbria

Heaves farm veal (selling their own veal, watch the video on the website)

Steadmans Butchers (Heaves farm veal)

Cotswolds

Pancake farm

Scotland

Overton farm shop (Clyde valley veal)

Drumachloy Farm (selling their own veal)

West Midlands

Midshires Farm shop (selling their own veal)

Alternative meats (Heaves farm veal)

Devon

Devon Rose

Suffolk
Calf at foot dairy

Somerset

Blade farm

Kent

Cuckoos Pit Farm. Susans Hill Woodchurch TN26 3TF

Sussex

Cowdray farm shop Cowdray Park, Easebourne, West Sussex

Farmers choice

Yorkshire

J Brindon Addy (Heaves farm veal)
Rosewood Farm

Wales

Marcross Farm

Online UK

Alternative meats (Heaves farm veal)

Farmers choice

USA

Chapel hill farm Virginia (selling their own veal)

Belgium

O Shea’s Brussels (selling Irish Rosé veal)

Please do contact me if you like to be included in this list.

Finally, I have my favourite veal recipe for you. It’s a classic: Osso Bucco, braised veal shanks. The meat is wonderfully soft and full of flavour.

Serve this dish with mashed potatoes, pappardelle or another wide pasta. Also delicious with a slice of humble home baked bread!

What do you need

2 veal shanks

1 carrot

2 stalks of celery

1 medium onion

1 clove of garlic

30 ml of dry white wine

2 bay leaf

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

a tin of skinned tomatoes

30 ml of beef or vegetable stock

salt and pepper to season

flour to dust

olive oil

knob of butter

*optional: some bread for the marrow…

Method

– preheat your oven to 180° C

– get your butcher cord out and bind the shanks so they stay in one piece

– season the veal shanks with salt and pepper anddust them with flour.

– chop you vegetables finely.

– heat 1 teaspoon of butter and 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a heavy based or cast iron casserole.

– add the vegetables and glaze them

– put them to one side and add the veal shanks

– brown them slightly on each side

– add the white wine and let it simmer for a while

– add the stock and finally the tomatoes

– let it simmer for a while and finally lay some of the tomatoes on top of the veal and press down so they stay there.

– add the herbs

– press some baking paper down in the casserole until it almost touches the food

– Put the casserole into the oven and let it simmer for 2 hours or until the meat is nice and tender

– When the meat is cooked, transfer it from the casserole to a serving dish and cover with tin foil.

– Transfer the juices into a saucepan and boil for about 10 minutes or until reduced

– add the veal to the juices again and start covering it with the sauce until completely glazed.

Enjoy!

Leftovers?

Why not pull the meat into strings and add to a nice tomato sauce for a pasta dish!

You might also like:

Mussels for Food Revolution day

Smoked chicken and a little compassion

Please leave a comment, I love reading them!

Mussels with Belgian fries for Food Revolution day

17th May 2012 by Regula 27 Comments

Today we take a stand, for real food, for life and for family.
…

Food revolution is an organisation from Jamie Oliver.

As Jamie says in his article for the Huffington Post, “Food Revolution Day is an opportunity for everyone around the world to
do something. The Food Revolution and Food Revolution Day is about
empowering people through education or, frankly, just inspiring people
to be more street-wise about food, where it comes from and how it
affects their bodies. If you know how to cook you can save yourself
money, feel better and live longer, and the chances are, your kids will
follow suit. After all, we all kind of become our parents in the end.”

People tend to see Jamie as that cheeky guy from Essex, the naked chef. What a lot of folks don’t realize is the fact that he actually uses his ‘celebrity chef’ status to do good, to make a change. In 2005 he declared war to the unhealthy British school dinners, in 2010 he took the fight to Amerika. He has built kitchens all over Britain with his Ministry of Food, to learn people how to cook so they can teach others to do so as well. He is passionate about food and people’s relationship with food.

Today on 19 May, Food Revolution Day will happen in kitchens, homes and communities around the world.

In my case Food Revolution Day will start on my blog and the blogs of a few other lovely Ladies from all over the globe.
We are friends who have one big thing in common; our love for food – real food. So we found it very important to get involved. As we live in various places around the world and we couldn’t sadly be together for this day, we
are having a ‘virtual Potluck‘ dinner, this is where every guest brings a dish
she or he made to the table. We are
all preparing local sustainable food, in the hope to inspire others to
cook on this day. The dishes will be easy to cook and no processed food is allowed.We can’t be together today ladies, but we are closer together than some people will ever be. Have a wonderful Food Revolution Day!

Take a look at our delicious menu
…………………………………………………………………….

Nibbles by Karin from ‘Yum&More’ in Germany originally from the USA

Panzanella by Giulia from ‘Jul’s kitchen’ in Italy

Salad with local greens by Valeria from ‘My life love food’ in England originally from Italy

Mussels with real Belgian fries by Regula from ‘Foodwise’ in Belgium

Crespelle Verdi di Pesce by Emiko from ‘Emiko Davies’ in Australia

Vanilla honey rhubarb galette by Zita from ‘Zizi’s adventures’ in Hungary
Rhubarb Panna Cota by Sarka from ‘Cook your dream’, England-originally from Czech Republic

……………………………………………………………………………

I am preparing Moules et frites, Mussels with real Belgian fries.

Did you know mussels are an eco-friendly, sustainable seafood choice?
Like oysters and clams, mussels actually clean the water they’re grown in.
They have no impact on the water because they don’t require treatment against disease.
Mussels are also high in protein, zinc, vitamin C, Iron and omega-3 so they are a healthy food choice.It has been said for hundreds of years that mussels are in season in each month that has an ‘R’ in it, but this is an old tale that originated from a time when there was no cooled transport. The fishermen couldn’t get the mussels live and well to their destination.
Now the season runs from July until april for the ‘Zeeuwse’ mussels, so I was very lucky to get the last of the catch.
I live just a 15 minute drive from Zeeland, where the ‘Zeeuwse’ mussel happily lives and thrives in the protected waters from the River Schelde.We are going to bake the Belgian fries in the traditional way using ‘Beef tallow’ for frying. The real ‘Frit kot’ (chip shops) in Belgium still uses this Beef tallow -rendered beef fat- and swear by it because it is actually healthier than the vegetable oil that is been used in a lot of places these days.
Beef tallow is highly resistant
to rancidity and much more resistant to high temperatures than the
vegetable oil. To be safe to eat you can only use the vegetable oil once
but due to its higher price a lot of places use it twice or more,
leaving the customer often with stomach and intestinal pains. Also in flavour, the vegetable oil can’t compete with the beef tallow and as for sustainability… beef tallow also wins because its a by-product!
So if you want to start eating from nose to tail, beef tallow is the way to go. Just ask your local butcher and I’m sure he’ll be happy to oblige.

Zeeland

What do you need (serves 1 as a main and 6 as a starter)

• 1 kg live mussels

• 1 leek

• 2 stalks of cellery

• 1 small carrot

• 1 medium sized onion

• 25 cl water (or white wine)
• Seasalt and pepperFor the Real Belgian Fries
• 1 kg potatoes, you need a good starchy potato like Bintjes and Berkeley Bowl
• ‘beef tallow’ for frying, very important to get the real ‘frites’ (ask your butcherfor it)

• SeasaltMethod

The mussels
Select mussels that are tightly closed or that close when you tap them.
Discard the ones with cracked shells.
Use you nose, they should smell clean and salty, like the sea.
Rinse them under running water and don’t be too gentle because you want all the sand to come out.
Remove the beards, clean the shells if you need to.
Cut your vegetables in small dices and put aside.

The ‘frites’You have 3 kinds of frites:
the ‘allumettes‘ (0,5cm), the ‘mignonettes‘ (0,7cm) and the ‘pont-neuf‘ (1,5-2cm).
The ‘mignonettes’ is the one you want for this dish and also the most common.We have to bake the fries twice to get the result we want.
If you are using a Frying pan, add the beef tallow to the fryer and set your thermometer to 150°. It’s very important to use the right temperature!Peel you potatoes and rinse them.
Cut you potatoes into +/- 0,7 cm discs, don’t be too fussy about the size but do try to keep them all around the same size so they bake evenly.
Then cut the discs into fries.
Dry the fries with a tea towel.If you fat has reached the right temperature, add the fries and fry slightly golden in small batches. (see image below)
Dry them with kitchen paper and leave them on a tray to cool.
You can leave them until the rest of your food is ready and fry them a second time just before serving.

Now back to the mussels
Add the diced vegetables to a large pot to hold all the mussels, sweat the vegetables and add the water. Leave it to boil a few minutes.

Now back to the fries
Get the temperature of the fat to 190°.
Fry the fries in small batches until a beautiful golden color.

Before you put the last batch of fries in in the fat, add the mussels to the boiling water, add the lid and shake.
Leave for 5 minutes and shake.
The mussels should have opened now.
Put the lid back on. Turn of the fire.

Fry the last batch of fries.

Get some mayonnaise and add 1 teaspoon of mustard and 1 teaspoon of cooking water from the mussels. This is you mussel sauce, traditionally you should also add a bit of vinegar to the sauce.

When the fries are ready, sprinkle them with seasalt and serve with the mussels!

Delicious with a pint of real ale or a nice glass of dry white wine!

*Waste none: the leftover vegetables and cooking water of the mussels makes a delicous tomato soup, just add a tin of skinned tomatoes and a tin of tomato puree and bring to the boil. Puree the soup and bring to the boil again.

Enjoy!

Ah Belgian pride in a cone

Want to know how can you contribute to Food Revolution? Fabulous!

First of all: start cooking! Home cooked meals are the best!

Find out about you local food by asking your butcher, fish monger and vegetable man what’s local and in season.

Try and find out if you can buy meat and or vegetables straight from a farm so you reduce your carbon footprint but also by creating awareness about where your food comes from. I will probably mean ordering your meat, veggies and dairy in advance sometimes but this will reduce the trips you usually make to the superstore.
More time to cook!
By buying straight from the producer you reduce the amount of food that is thrown in the garbage and you also have a hand in the fact that less animals will be killed in vain.
I strongly feel that no animal should be slaughtered if it’s not going to be eaten nose to tail.
Not just for animal welfare but also for environmental reasons.
The carbon footprint of livestock is huge and if we keep up the current way of life, we will one day need to go vegetarian because the earth is just not producing enough food to feed the whole planet.
Eat less meat, but good quality meat from local farms instead of intensively reared meat.
Happy animals produce better and healthier meat!

Would you like to donate to Food Revolution Day? DONATE

The complete picture, mussels, fries and beer

Please feel free to leave a comment, I love reading them!

Smoked chicken and a little compassion

16th October 2011 by Regula 6 Comments

I am having a strange feeling of happiness…
It’s sunday evening, I’m ready to go to sleep and I m looking back on my weekend.
This weekend was all about a chicken, not any chicken, a chicken that was reared with care and had lived a worthy life.
From the moment the ‘Poelier’ handed over this *chicken to me I felt like I had the task of giving this animal the send off it deserved.
It might sound strange but I truly felt that it was my duty to continue to care for this animal.
Someone had taken good care of this -very large- chicken, it had been roaming free in the Vogesen in France for at least 120 days. Knowing that the chickens we usually come by have only lived 40 days and sometimes less, this was a big bird.
After I picked up the chicken, my whole weekend started to evolve around it. First I had to clean it, quite a task as it was the first time I had to clean a bird from scratch.
I stood there for a minute, until I came to my senses. If I am going to eat this animal I might as well look it straight in the eye.
If you buy these chickens you get everything, the whole bird. This is so you can see first hand how this animal has lived.
What might be disgusting to some, really made me feel humble.
I wasn’t going to let anything go to waste out of respect and gratitude for the life this beautiful animal has given.
This is a feeling we have often forgotten in Western civilization, raising and caring for an animal and then when it comes to the point where it’s going to be eaten, use every part so not one single bit of this animal will go to waste.

So this is what I made of my beautiful bird.
On saturday I smoked the whole bird for 6 hours and had it for dinner, on sunday we had the leftovers and froze what was left of the leftovers to make chicken pie next weekend and sunday evening I made stock from the bones, smoked chicken stock! So this chicken will be enjoyed for months to come.

For the smoked chicken

1 free range/Organic chicken, mine was a 4,5 kg Bresse* Chicken
(Just try and find the best quality animal and ask your butcher for advice)
1 onion
a hand of fresh parsley
a hand of fresh sage
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
apple juice
1 apple

For the smoker
Wood chips, wood from fruit trees works best. I used wood from old Whisky barrels which gave an extra flavour.
Coals
Extra wood, I used wood from old grape vines. As coals do have some glue and/or additives in them most of the time, I think it’s best to use wood when the chicken is already in the smoker.

I served the chicken ‘old school’ with apple compote, carrots and hand cut chips which I baked in the oven.

Method

Clean your chicken if your butcher hasn’t done so yet.
Start by firing your smoker or closed up BBQ
Stuff the chicken with 1 onion, fresh parsley, sage and thyme.
Bind the chicken with some kitchen rope so the stuffing doesn’t fall out.
Rub the meat with apple juice.

Soak the wood chips in some hot water

Prepare a jug with water, add a glass of apple juice, some apple slices and thyme.
When your fire is ready, add the watercontainer to the smoker which you then fill with the water you just prepared.
Just before you put the chicken on the heat, add the soaked wood chips by placing them on top of the coals.

The heat inside the smoker has to be at least 80% to cook chicken.
Now the fire is ready to start cooking the meat.
Close the lid and don’t open it again for at least 4-5 hours.
This will prevent any dropping of temperature in the smoker.

After an hour check on the coals and add some new ones or a piece of wood if necessary.
I found it was necessary to do so, to keep up the temperature in the smoker. (I used the old grape vines at this stage)
After 3 hours we added some wood chips again.
You can check on it after 4-5 hours, but with a 4 kg chicken like ours it took almost 6 hours to be perfect.
Remember the juices have to run clear before it is safe to eat chicken.

*Bresse chickens are protected by Appellation d’origine contrôlée since 1957 – the first livestock to be granted such protection. The rules about raising these chickens are very strict, for example, stocks are limited by the size of the farm – with a minimum allocation of 10 square meters for each bird.

Today is world food day, I signed up for Blog Action day #bad11 and that’s why I felt I needed to write the next bit:
I haven’t had chicken in my country for years and when I did I felt guilty but frankly more sick then guilty.
The cruelty these animals are raised in is just beyond your imagination.
They live -survive- on a tiny spot in a large closed barn until they drop dead or stop laying eggs.
I hate intensive farming, we do not have the right to let an animal suffer to put food on our table.
The most important thing I feel is “think before you eat”. You don’t have to become a vegetarian or a vegan if you don’t want to, just think before you buy your meat.
Try and find an alternative to the meat you usually buy in supermarkets, search for a farm where you can go, so you can see first hand where and how the animals live.

I used to be a vegetarian for 6 years because I didn’t want to eat an animal that had a miserable life. I found a farm where I can go and see the animals every month, when it’s meat day.
I do not get veal as the children on that farm don’t want to slaughter their calves, so I don’t eat veal. (and one of my favourite dishes is Osso Buco -veal shank- so I would love some veal)

I don’t want to get all ‘activist’ on you, it’s just something I feel very strongly about.
You make your own choices in life. I choose to only eat meat from humanely raised animals.
I firmly believe that happy animals just produce better meat and I know a few chef’s and farmers who will back me up on that.

Buying my meat from a farm changed the way I live.
For example, I missed last months meat day (as you have to order your meat a week in advance so the butcher on the farm knows what to prepare) so now I have no pork or beef for two weeks, and I’m fine with it. We only do have meat once or twice a week anyway.
It does take some planning, but to be honest I like it that way.
Does it cost more, no it doesn’t.
Not on a local farm, you are a huge help to them if your buy directly from them. The price supermarkets pay the farms for their meat is criminal, the animals cost more to raise then what they get back from the meat. (not saying it is this way in every country) No wonder some farmers resort to cheaper feeds and more animals in one barn.

The system is just wrong.
I’m not saying it’s the same in every country, it is not.
For example France has ‘label Rouge’ for poultry and eggs which is very strict, the UK has more and more farms with rare breed animals who are allowed to live longer than other livestock.

But if you want the system to change, you have to change your own.
Once you go directly to the producer, you never go back!
The end.

A few good websites to take a look at:
www.action.ciwf.org.uk
www.fishfight.net
www.fao.org/getinvolved/worldfoodday/en/

If you know of a great producer, feel free to post the details in the comments section below.(doesn’t matter where it is, we want to know)
Help others to find meat from animals that are raised with kindness and compassion.
(I will group this information and turn it into a page for all to use.)
Many, many thanks for sharing!

Here are a few to start with:
The Ginger pig
www.thegingerpig.co.uk
Shop’s all over London, farms based in Yorkshire

Foxbury farm
www.foxburyfarm.co.uk
Family run farmshop in the Cotwolds

Salts farmshop near Rye
Folkestone Road East Guldeford, Kent
‪01797 226 540‬

Daylesford farm
www.daylesfordorganic.com
Farm and farmshop based in the Cotswolds, shop’s in London

Sandfields Farm
www.sandfieldsfarm.com
Family run farm in Oxforshire

De zeshoek
Family run farm in East-Flanders, Belgium
www.hoevevleesdezeshoek.be

animal welfare

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