Muscovy Duck is unlike any "duck" you have ever eaten

David Beemer, of OmniUnum Farm, decided he wanted more control over his food supply. In lieu of purchasing Michigan peat and compost, Beemer decided to raise poultry for their manure, a nutrient-rich and accessible fertilizer. Beemer choose Muscovy ducks as his poultry of choice after being served it at Paul Bocuse’s restaurant in Lyons, France. “I asked for something that I could not get in this country… He brought me Magret - and I ate it. They asked me what I thought it was and I said, “that was probably the best veal I have ever had.” And they said, “This is Muscovy Duck.”

Beemer has partnered with Antoinette Benjamin, of Food for all Seasons Catering, because “she is the only one I have found who knows how to cook them. I am a good example - I overcooked the last one. I just didn’t have time to follow the directions she gave me.”

Endemic in an animal designed to perch in trees not wade in water, Muscovy ducks have about 18% fat as opposed to Pekin duck with 29% fat. This fat difference and the less significant oil gland in the Muscovy alters the flavor of what our taste buds recognize as "duck" and can complicate cooking Muscovy for those not familiar with the meat.

According to Benjamin, trained by renowned French chef Madeleine Kamman, “cooking Magret is a matter of technique. So if you look up cooking duck breast, it is different with the Muscovy. Just because of the fat.”

Recently, I was able to try Muscovy courtesy of ici Urban Bistro in Washington DC. The consensus at the table was that the meat was “absolutely fabulous” and unlike anything anyone had eaten before - a bold, unique flavor arising from a texture that crumbled like veal, unlike poultry’s striation.

I was also able to see firsthand the difficulty of cooking Muscovy. When the breast slices arrived to the table they were medium rare and succulent. By the time we finished eating the meat (20 minutes later?) the slices were cooked through from the residual heat. The flavor was still there but the texture was dry and unappealing.

Beemer's partnership with Antoinette Benjamin is an opportunity for those of us curious to taste more of this unique fowl. As Benjamin says, “Magret is the BEST for the Muschovy - I mean it is JUST AMAZING. I mean as I said, I don’t think that people - most people wouldn’t know, like David, what they are eating. They wouldn’t know it was duck breast.”

Beemer and Benjamin are planning to hold a Muscovy dinner in the Spring. If you are interested, contact David Beemer at OmniUnum Farm or Antoinette Benjamin at Food for all Seasons.

Grandmother's Chocolate Mousse recipe

As always on the lookout for a recipe that will use a lot of eggs, I dug out my grandmother's chocolate mousse recipe. Ten eggs later, it is as decadent as I remember - an easy and delectable treat for you and your guests.

Unlike the plethora of chocolate mousse recipes: from Julia Child to my backyard egg mainstay book, "Eggs" by Michel Roux, this recipe does not call for any sort of dairy or butter. In fact, aside from the eggs, one could consider this vegan.

The recipe is easy and fast. The end result is scrumptious. Imagine eating a luxury dark chocolate bar with a spoon, like it is ice cream.

I procured my baking chocolate from Mindo Chocolates, our bean to bar business in Dexter. The 10 eggs were from our backyard chickens. Water, sugar and vanilla round out the ingredients.

Here is the recipe

1 pound best quality baking chocolate

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup water

10 egg yolks

3 teaspoons vanilla

10 egg whites

Melt together (in a double boiler) the chocolate, sugar and water. Stir. When smooth, cool, stirring occasionally. Add well-beaten yolks and vanilla.

Beat egg whites until able to hold peaks. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture. Put in a deep crock or individual serving dishes. Refrigerate at least 12 hours.

(Serves 6-8)

This is what I learned from doing the recipe.

Instead of using a double boiler to melt the chocolate, water and sugar - I used a metal bowl on top of a pot. That worked just as well and was much more economical than purchasing a double boiler. The chocolate is the consistency of icing when you add the egg yolks; there is no need to add extra water to make it creamy. I also learned that egg whites treble in volume when beaten, ending up on the floor. Next time I will use a larger bowl from the outset.

As for serving 6 to 8, I cannot imagine wanting to have more than ½ cup of this rich chocolate immersion after a full meal. I divided mine into 10 teacups and six espresso cups (making 16 servings) and refrigerated for 36 hours. I removed the cups from the refrigerator two hours before serving to bring out the flavors.

For those at your table who want something lighter and less intense, I would recommend offering at bowl of whipped cream and perhaps some berry jams. Everyone likes making his or her own dessert, and the chocolate mousse is sturdy enough to be the bass note of whatever dessert compilation is orchestrated.

Here is the article on annarbor.com

Storing harvest bounty: canning vs. dehydrating

Last winter I received Mary Bell’s Food Drying with an Attitude: A Fun and Fabulous Guide to Creating Snacks, Meals, and Crafts - and I put it aside because I did not have a dehydrator. Like last year, I started this season with drying tomatoes in my oven, but the tomatoes take two full days to dry in the oven at 200 degrees. So I bit the bullet and bought an electric dehydrator - one built for the task.

I purchased the dehydrator week ago, reread all of Bell's engaging and intriguing book, and I have not turned the machine off since. I pack slivers of color, once hefty tomatoes and gleaming eggplants, into airtight jars and debate the pros and cons of dehydrating vegetables vs. canning vegetables. Here are my thoughts so far - I look forward to hearing yours.

Dehydrating pros

- Food is considered raw when dehydrated below 105 degrees (because it maintains enzymes and nutrients that are leached by higher temperatures).

- The labor involved is minimal. I cut the vegetables at night and pack them into jars in the morning.

- The equivalent ingredients take up less room when dehydrated than when canned.

Dehydrating cons

- Dried fruit and vegetables do not last as long as canned items.

Canning pros

- The recipe is finished when you open the jar, as opposed to drying the basic ingredients, and then making a recipe in the winter. (This could also be considered a con.)

Canning cons

- The labor involved is focused, hot, and continuous. From cooking the sauce, to the hot water bath, to preparing the jars - unlike dehydrating, it does not happen while you sleep.

This last point for me is the crux of the matter. A food preservation technique that is self-contained, creating results while I sleep, is incredible. To me, that is a winning food preservation technique.

Here is the article on annarbor.com

Berry jam: a novice's first attempt

As our household creeps toward food self-sufficiency, you would think our decision to keep backyard chickens would incite more concern than canning fruits and vegetables. However, botulism is a big word and scenes from Louisa May Alcott books where women in full-length wool dresses sweat over a hot stove in the middle of August stirring the gelling fruit are writ large in my psyche.

Last fall we canned tomato sauce for the second year in a row, and we did applesauce as well. I have learned the trick of the popping metal top and the stove was not that hot. So this weekend, inspired by the gorgeous fruit at Makielski's Berry Farm (site of my most recent Farm to Fork visit), I made blackberry jam - and I used their raspberry honey for the sweetener. I learned several important lessons.

#1 - I need a bigger stovetop or I need to make smaller batches.

It was a precariously balanced stovetop with two water sterilizations going for the glass jars, the large black canning pot, and the pot for the cooking of the fruit.

#2 - When the recipe says “Measured Ingredients: 4 cups mashed fruit” - read it twice.

I had measured out fruit, then mashed it, then put in the lemon juice, and then read that it is “mashed.”

#3 - Don’t wear a white shirt while making blackberry jam.

Indeed.

#4 - The whole house is infused with sweet warm berry goodness - absolutely divine.

I followed the recipe included in the Pomona's Universal Pectin, which I purchased from Downtown Home and Garden. Based on my experience with applesauce last fall - I thought I did not need pectin. But I was kindly corrected by Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home and Garden, who shared that apple and quince are the only two fruits that have high enough pectin to gel - otherwise one must augment. According to Wikipedia, guavas, plums, gooseberries, and oranges can be added to the high pectin list.

I am happy there are more weeks of blackberry, cherry, blueberry, and raspberry picking because I would like to experiment further. I am curious to hear from those of you who have done this before - aside from not wearing a white shirt, are there more things I should watch for as I dabble?

This is the recipe I followed (well, except for the fact that I put in enough lemon for 12 cups and only ended up with 9 cups of mashed fruit). It did gel and it tastes like blackberries.

- Wash and rinse jars; let stand in hot water. Bring lids and rings to boil; turn down heat; let stand in hot water. - Measure mashed berries into pan with lemon or lime juice (4 cups of mashed berries for every ¼ cup of lemon or lime juice). - Add proper amount of calcium water (an addition that Pomona’s includes that helps to activate their pectin, 2 teaspoons). - Measure 1/3 cup honey and mix in 2 teaspoons of pectin. - Bring fruit to a boil. Add pectin-honey; stir vigorously 1-2 minutes while cooking to dissolve pectin. Return to boil and remove from heat. - Fill jars to ¼ inch of top. Boil 10 minutes. Check seals - lids should be sucked down. Lasts about 3 weeks once opened.

Here is the link to the article.

Backyard Chickens: the deep litter method

In one of my first chicken posts I mentioned the book I “borrowed” from my grandparents, Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: A complete guide to gardening without DDT or other poisons or chemicals edited by J.I. Rodale (published in 1969). There is a section on poultry. I took their litter advice for our girls: “A practice that makes healthier and more productive chickens in deep litter, sometimes called built up litter. Simply let the little accumulate instead of cleaning out the poultry house every couple of weeks. Biological activity in the litter, just as in the compost heat, produces huge amounts of rich food.”

Wait. Not cleaning out the litter from the coop on a weekly basis, me being lazy, is good for the girls? This seemed to good to be true! The section continues.

“Litter-reared chickens need no expensive animal proteins or mineral supplements, and if pastured or given ample feed in addition will need to vitamin A or D supplements. Antibiotics are also produced - litter-raised poultry is remarkably free from disease.”

Wow. What a huge gift. It is healthier for the girls to live around microorganisms in their litter. And yet, summertime is for cleaning.

The Augean stables it was not, but there was about 10 inches of accumulated litter to be transferred onto the compost pile. Last August, we put pine chips 2 inches deep. Over the course of the year we added handfuls of pine chips and cedar chips. The cedar chips smell nice; yet we found cedar stains the outside of the egg, so it is better to avoid cedar where the girls are laying.

I don’t know if they care one way or another, but I love the fresh yellow and the smell of the new sawdust - should last about another week.

Here is the link to the article!

Fresh Michigan asparagus with homemade mayonnaise

This appetizer combines two of my favorite things - farm fresh food and eggs from our girls! Asparagus dipped in homemade mayonnaise made from the eggs of our backyard chickens - I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the beginning of harvest bounty beginning to descend upon us. Asparagus is wonderful for all sorts of reasons: it tastes amazing, when it leafs out the fronds are soft and silky like baby hair, and when you prepare it there is snapping involved. I did not realize until I was in college that not everyone snaps asparagus. I was taught to bend the cut stalk until it snaps - the area where it snaps will be the demarcation of where it is still chewable and where it will become stringy and difficult to eat.

I was able to find glowing asparagus at Seedling's booth at the Westside Farmers Market. Seedling is located in South Haven, MI and they focus mainly on fruit. However, I had heard Locavorious was procuring asparagus from Seedling for their CSA and I was curious to try.

So I sat outside and snapped my way through a large handful - the leftover stalks to be divided equally between our chickens and to feed our vermiculture container inside the house (those worms are always hungry).

After snapping, I steamed the asparagus for 4 minutes and quickly ran them under cold water to stop them from continuing to cook.

Then I pulled out from the refrigerator our second attempt at making mayonnaise.

It seemed silly for us to be purchasing mayonnaise (one of my most favorite indulgences) when we have an abundant and never-ending supply of eggs. I was able to corner a family member to give me his recipe over Easter. His recipe is simple and elegant in its simplicity.

JP’s mayonnaise recipe: Two egg yolks, two cups of oil, juice of one full lemon, 2 tablespoons water, some white pepper, and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper to taste.

Blend together the two egg yolks and the lemon juice in a mason jar (I later learned this is important to prevent splatter). Still blending, slowly add the oil - the mixture should quickly solidify and lighten in color - if this does not happen, add another egg yolk. Continue to add the oil until it is all incorporated. Then add two tablespoons of water to stop the mixture from separating, or “oiling out.”

Add pepper, and voila!

When we returned home we tried another recipe for mayonnaise that we found in our fancy book of egg recipes, Eggs, by Michel Roux. His recipe calls for Dijon mustard and white wine vinegar OR lemon juice, we went with the white wine vinegar.

Roux’s mayonnaise recipe: 2 egg yolks, 1 tbsp Dijon mustard, salt and freshly ground pepper, 1 cup peanut oil, 2 tbsp white wine vinegar/lemon juice.

Place into a bowl on a towel the egg yolks, mustard, salt, and pepper. Whisk. Slowly add a trickle of oil while you whisk. Once the mixture begins to thicken add the oil in a steady stream, whisking the whole time. Once the oil is incorporated, continue to whisk briskly for 30 seconds and then add the vinegar/lemon juice.

First of all, I used our manual blender and the mixture refused to thicken when I started adding the oil. Our hand-held electric blender worked much better and the mixture began to thicken - but the splattering was considerable (note the Mason jar in JP's recipe).

Taste wise, when I think of my ideal mayonnaise flavor, I prefer JP's recipe. The addition of mustard in the Roux's recipe adds an element of non-mayo that alters the essence of the mayonnaise flavor.

But the mustard-esque mayonnaise is a beautiful dunk for freshly cooked asparagus - it gives it a certain bite that offsets the grassy flavor of the green stalks.

Here is the article on annarbor.com.

Chicken litter feeds cows feeds chickens feeds cows

The debate for the FDA about feeding chicken litter to cows appears to stem from their concern over Mad Cow disease, which strikes me as the tail wagging the dog. So before I talk about the dog, I will address the tail. Chicken litter, i.e. everything from the floor of a chicken house, sawdust, feathers, manure, spilled feed, etc., is being fed to cows in feedlots. The FDA temporarily banned the practice in 2003 because there was concern that the chicken feed (industrial chicken feed includes “recycled cattle proteins” and “ruminant meat and bone meal” - a.k.a. beef, in its ingredients) was spilling onto the litter and being fed back to the cows. As a chicken owner, I can verify that assumption - chickens are not neat eaters.

In February of 2003, a study done by the North American Rendering Industry, showed, “it will require feeding 10 pounds of poultry litter / cow / day for 6,442 days, or 17.65 years, to achieve a single ID50 dose!” The ID50 is the median infective dose for Mad Cow disease. Cows bred and fattened for industry live less than 2 years. The 17-year time frame is very compelling, and I can see why the FDA removed the chicken litter ban in their later rulings.

I had never heard of the National Renderers Association before reading their study, so I did some research.

Formed in 1933 as the professional association of the rendering industry, they process the leftover parts of the animals humans raise for meat and render the raw materials into usable products. As their Web site states: “Meat and bone meal, meat meal, poultry meal, hydrolyzed feather meal, blood meal, fish meal and animal fats are the primary products resulting from the rendering process. The most important and valuable use for these animal by-products is as feed ingredients for livestock, poultry, aquaculture, and companion animals.”

Nearly 59 billion pounds of animal byproducts are recycled and reused by the rendering association annually. One third to ½ of an animal we have bred for meat is not used and the renderers turn that into “feed ingredients” as well as “valuable ingredients for various soaps, paints and varnishes, cosmetics, explosives, toothpaste, pharmaceuticals, leather, textiles and lubricants.” Renderers are an integral part of the meat industry.

An association of renderers, who recycle leftover animal parts into animal food, paid for a study to show there is no harmful affect on cows eating cows (small amounts of cows). And honestly, who else has the time, inclination, or finances to run that study other than the people directly affected?

Assuming we have successfully rendered (hehe) the argument against chicken litter causing Mad Cow Disease null and void, let us return to the main point - feeding chicken litter to cows.

According to the North Carolina Extension service, the litter should be processed before being fed to cattle. There are several ways to process the litter, but the goal is to stack it to create conditions for bacteria to raise the temperature of the stack to 140 -160 degrees to kill pathogens present in raw litter (the main pathogen of concern being E. Coli).

The University of Missouri Extension has a chart discussing the nutrient basis of chicken litter. On average the litter contains 25 percent protein, which is a fairly cheap source of food for the beef farmer. The ability to recycle the huge amounts of waste from chicken factories into feed for beef in feedlots appears to be a win-win for all involved. Cheap feed for cows translates into cheap hamburgers.

Which brings us to consumer choice, and a theme I have touched on again and again - voting with your wallet. Do you want to eat cows that have ruminated litter from the floor of an industrial chicken facility, or do you want to eat animals that have masticated grass and felt the warm sun?

It is nice to have choices.

Here is the article on annarbor.com.

A CSA embodies the relationship between an entrepreneur and an investor

At a recent dinner of my parents' friends, no one at the table knew what a CSA was, and I, still addressing the “adults” as “Mr & Mrs," attempted to enlighten them. “CSAs are shorthand for Community Supported Agriculture. You purchase a share at the beginning of the season and then receive bushels of whatever is in season every week or so. It is a partnership between the farmer and the eater.”

Mrs X responded loudly, “That is the most un-American thing I have ever heard of, what happened to the idea of self-sufficiency? That reeks to me of socialism!” (It helps to imagine a glass of Sauvingon Blanc being waved around when you hear this.)

My default action when that particular emotional hot button word (aka grenade) is lobbed into the conversation is to hide under the table, or at the very least flee to the ladies room. However, an attack on healthy, local food is too important for me to ignore. Let me see if I can break down Mrs. X’s point of view (after all, she knew me as a babe).

100 strangers and I pay $400 to a farmer. The farmer purchases seeds (capital), pays for gasoline for the tractor, buys a new pair of mud boots for the season (operating expenses), hires some people to help plant the seedlings (labor) and feeds herself while caring for the green shoots growing in the fields under the rain and sun.

My initial monetary investment is transformed into lettuce, beets, chard, kale, bok choy, pole beans, squash, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, raspberries, strawberries and eggplant (to name a few).

If I were to purchase a CSA share in early March, I'd expect to start receiving food in May, and that abundance would continue till October (timing depends on the farmer). The dividend percentage on my initial investment burns through the capital every year, and thus I will need to reinvest in shares the following year (I have eaten all of the profits).

If the potatoes are hurt by the blight and the squash catches a fungal wilt, my food dividend will be commensurately smaller, as will the shares of the other 100 investors. When the farmer has a productive season, my larder will be filled to bursting as I share in the food profits.

The Farmers Marketer blog lists information about CSAs from Two Creeks Organics (I wrote about my visit to them in January), Tantre Farm, Pregitzer Farm, Portage River, Old Pine Farm Meat CSA, Needle Lane Farms, Frog Holler, Community Farm of A2, Sunseed Farm, Carpenter’s Greenhouse, and Capella Farm. I would add to this good list the Zilke Vegetable Farm, Our Family Farm and Down on the Farm - a CSA offered by the farmers in the Amish Homer Community (contact Down on the Farm, 29910 R Drive S, Homer, MI 49245, or call 517-542-2025 at 8 a.m. and ask for Amos). This list in no way is complete, but it will give you a good place to start. I recommend asking your favorite farmer at the market whether they offer one.

Personally, the best thing I have found about CSAs are the relationship between the consumer and the farmers: heck, let us say it - friendships.

Socialism? I don’t think so. For me a CSA embodies the relationship between an entrepreneur and an investor - and the dividends are paid in food - a very American and unique relationship. Oh say can you CSA?

Here is the link to the annarbor.com article!