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Pennypack Pickings
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April 3, 2010
Volume 8, Issue 4
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What's Growing On
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Mark May 2nd
on your calendars for
What's Growing On 2010!
This informal program is full of information for members. Come and meet new and returning farm friends, and breathe in the fresh air of Pennypack! There will be several time slots available to accommodate all. This is an important and required event for new members, and is recommended for returning members. An email containing the details will be sent out soon.
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The Dirt on Education
 Raising
Chickens Outside Philadelphia
Saturday, April 24th at 11am
Ron Denzel of COOP (Chicken Owners Outside
Philadelphia) will show you how to raise chickens in your own backyard.
Register here!
Foraging
Farm Tour with "Wildman" Steve Brill
Saturday, May 22nd from 1pm-3pm
Join us for a 2-hour walk around the farm where
wild foods grow side-by-side with food crops.
Register here!
Little
Sprouts Returns!
Bring your curious pre-schooler down to the farm!
Register now for the May and June sessions.
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NEW! Goat Cheese CSA
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Yellow Springs Farm is happy to be partnering with Pennypack Farm to offer our artisanal goat cheeses. Whether you are just learning about cheese or you are already a dedicated cheese enthusiast, we invite you to join as a CSA member. Click here for details! |
North Star Orchard Fruit Shares
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North Star Orchard will again be offering a fruit share for pick up at Pennypack Farm this summer. Click here for details! |
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Poultry with a Pedigree:
Babied chickens & their eggs are flying off the shelves
By BETH D'ADDONO
Philadelphia Daily News
For the Daily News
WHICH CAME first, the local, pasture-raised, free-roaming chicken, or the brown, heritage-breed organic egg?
Most of us eat chicken and eggs regularly. The question is, what are we getting for our money? Where have those chicken and eggs been, and what are your options if you want to branch out from the mass-produced varieties that dominate most supermarket offerings?
Whether you're a newly minted locavore, or a longtime proponent of the buy-fresh, buy-local movement, the notion of supporting smaller farms and producers is gaining popularity, driven by everything from creative chefs to the Food Network's nonstop foodie programming. For goodness' sake, even Walmart is on the buy-local bandwagon, proof positive that the movement has gone mainstream.
So what does that mean when it comes to chicken and eggs? Simply put, eggs hatched and chickens raised in a humane, natural farm environment - as opposed to a huge commercial factory farm - taste better, pack a bigger nutrition wallop and aren't toxic to the environment.
Yes, buying sustainably raised poultry and eggs costs more - on average, $2 to $3 more per pound for chicken, and about the same per dozen eggs - but, as illustrated in the recent documentary "Food, Inc.," cheap food can be a misnomer. That 69-cent-a-pound fryer or 99-cent carton of eggs may bring with it a slew of hidden costs that are damaging our health, the farming industry and the environment.
Cheap food can mean that a farmer somewhere is getting a raw deal, animals have been subjected to poor and inhumane husbandry, and consumers are eating food that may be bad for their health.
On a nutrition level alone, research supports this, showing that meat, eggs and dairy products from pastured and grass-fed animals have higher omega-3 fatty acids, more favorable omega-3 to omega-6 ratios, and lower cholesterol than product from factory farms.
Giants like Tyson and Perdue may beg to differ. But what is indisputable is taste. Just ask a chef.
Your grandma's chicken
"Pasture-fed is a whole different animal than what you have in mass production," said Steven Waxman, chef-owner of Trax Cafe at the Ambler train station. "It's about what the animals are fed - the fact that they aren't pumped full of antibiotics. They can eat insects like they're supposed to. They aren't stressed by being crammed together in little cages. They taste like chicken.
"You can't make that taste in a pen. It has to come from the earth, by eating food soaked in sunshine."
Waxman buys his chicken from a few farms, including Pennypack Farms in Horsham. "They're a little leaner. The meat is firmer. The dark meat is a little darker. It's the chicken your grandmother remembers."
Farm-raised chickens and eggs are showing up on menus all around town, at restaurants including Supper, where Mitch Prensky buys chickens from Story Hill Farms and Griggstown Farms and eggs from Lake Meadow Farms.
"They're eggier," said the chef, and ideal for dishes where eggs are the stars of the show.
Patrick Feury, chef/co-owner of Nectar in Berwyn, buys six dozen eggs a week from a farmer in Coatesville who raises Araucana chicken, a heritage breed that produces blue eggs with a vivid orange yolk, a sign of immune system-boosting beta-carotene.
Jennifer Carroll, chef de cuisine at 10 Arts by Eric Ripert in Center City, uses D'Artagnan chickens raised at Eberly Farms near Lancaster.
"I try to give my clients the un-Perdue breed of chicken," said the Philly native, who remembers visiting Pennypack Farms on family outings when she was growing up in Somerton.
"I want chickens that grow naturally, eat an organic diet [and] aren't injected with any antibiotics. Commercial chickens are bred for parts. They grow big breasts by eight weeks. What they don't have is a full, intense chicken flavor."
Carroll sees the rediscovery of eggs as a big trend in the culinary world. And it's true, a sunnyside orb adorns everything from salads to pizzas and burgers at many area bistros.
"Eggs have always been versatile. But farm-raised eggs stand up so much firmer and have a fresher, more flavorful taste," said Carroll.
Click here for full article on
Philly.com
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Bulging Mutant Trout Created: More Muscle, More Meat
James Owen
for National Geographic News
Published March 29, 2010
Scientists have created hundreds of mutant fish with "six-pack abs" and bulging "shoulders" by beefing them up with new genes.
While the fish aren't going to win any beauty contests, the genetically engineered rainbow trout could hold some appeal at market, because they each provide 15 to 20 percent more flesh than standard tout, researchers say.
(See pictures of the world's largest trout in the wild.)
Developed with fish farming in mind, the genetically modified trout is the result of ten years of experimentation by a team led by Terry Bradley of the University of Rhode Island's Department of Fisheries, Animal, and Veterinary Sciences.
Click here for full article.
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