lamb

The Accidental Locavore Tries Whole Foods’ 5-Step Program for Chicken

by Anne Maxfield on August 15, 2011

Accidental Locavore 5-Step Program

This morning the Accidental Locavore bought some chicken at Whole Foods. Yeah, so? While looking over the case for thighs to make the Indian chicken with yogurt, I noticed a 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating System for the happiness of the animals.  This being competitive New York, once I found the chicken thighs, it was time to make sure my chickens lived in relative paradise before they ended being dinner. No such luck. The most blissful chickens weren’t so idyllic, only a 2 on the scale of 1-5. Luckily, the Indian chicken is spicy, so their less-than-privileged upbringing will be lost (for sure now) under a shower of chiles, cilantro and ginger.

Being curious, the Locavore approached a woman unloading more meat into the case. “What have you got that’s got a 5 rating?” “Nothing, we’ve just got ones and fours.” “OK, so what’s a four?” “The organic ground beef.” My cynical brain automatically thinks that’s a weird item to have the most bucolic rating in the store. Once you’ve ground it, who knows what it started out as…and if the organic ground beef is a 4, then shouldn’t the organic steaks that it supposedly comes from also be a 4? A quick scan reveals no other rated beef in the pre-packaged case–nothing.

It’s sort of the reverse of another rating system that makes me crazy. Often you’re asked by a car dealership (VW especially) or a hotel to rate the service, however they tell you if you don’t give it the highest rating, everyone gets fired (or some other dire threat). Well, if there’s no room to improve a service, and trust me, no one is perfect, what’s the point of a rating?

So, Whole Foods, what’s the purpose of the 5-step program if, being a competitive New Yorker, the Locavore can’t feed her friends and family 5+ meat and chicken that spent their entire lives living in nirvana on the (same) farm? Now, I’ve got company coming for dinner and it’s going to stress me all day…do I tell them that we’re only having #2 (“enriched environment” meaning they only got one thing to play with…darn it!) chicken thighs???? What will they think?

Provided you were able to get the whole range of upbringing, do you think there are people out there who could taste the full spectrum of chicken thighs and be able to tell you which ones were the lowly 1′s, (or God forbid, unrated) and which were the more formerly blissful 5′s? Kind of like those wine tasters who can tell you what part of which forest the oak barrel came from…

The rating system is “available” at all Whole Foods stores in the US and now, Canada, for beef, pork and chicken, which begs another question…what about lamb? While everyone else is striving for a life of leisure with lots of toys (and what is a pig’s favorite toy?), who forgot the sheep?

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Accidental Locavore Recipe for Green Harissa

by Anne Maxfield on July 22, 2011

Accidental Locavore Green HarissaThe Accidental Locavore loves harissa, a spicy North African condiment, usually red, so when I saw this recipe in bon appétit for a green version, I had to try it. I used it to make merguez, but if you’re not into making sausage, use it for lamb or chicken. It would probably work really well on zucchini too. Makes ½ cup and adapted from bon appétit:

  • 1 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped ( I probably used 1 ½ cups because I love cilantro)
  • 1 cup spinach, roughly chopped
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 jalapeno or serrano chile, seeded
  • ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • Kosher salt to taste

Combine all ingredients except salt in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Add salt to taste and check seasonings for taste. If it’s too spicy, add more spinach, cilantro and a little more olive oil. Serve and enjoy.

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Accidental Locavore Farmbasket Week 12: Eggplant and Watermelon

by Anne Maxfield on September 13, 2010

Accidental Locavore Farmbasket Eggplant and Watermelon

People who know me know that I hate September. It’s the end of the summer, and all the good things that happen in the summer. Imagine how I felt when I went to pick up my basket this week, and saw beautiful arrangement of pumpkins in front of the barn…
Luckily there were enough great reminders of summer in my box that I was able to put the pumpkins out of my mind (kind of, sort of). This week there was a cute baby watermelon, just the right size for us, a few huge bright red tomatoes, corn, a cabbage, mini zucchini, summer squash, the tinest potatoes, along with some lovely red potatoes, leeks, broccoli, radishes and two shiny eggplants.
Now that I have leeks and potatoes, I’m going to make some sort of vichyssoise, but it might be hot, and I’m thinking of adding some bacon to it, maybe some corn, and thyme.
I could be very trendy with the watermelon, grill it, and pair it with feta, but why when it’s so good on it’s own? I’ve already gotten some ground lamb from the farm down the road, and made some yogurt, so the cabbage is getting stuffed once again. To continue on the lamb front, I have some lamb and curry sausage from our local butcher, which I’m going to pair with a recipe from Fine Cooking for zucchini and chick peas. Now I just need a night or two at home to start cooking. Must be September, right?

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Accidental Locavore: Farmbasket Week 11 Ratatouille Here We Come!

by Anne Maxfield on September 6, 2010

Accidental_Locavore_Ratatouille_to_be

Finally a farmbasket. Lots of good stuff this week, tomatoes, both large and cherry (really sweet!), mesclun, corn, jalapenos, green and red peppers, pimentos, yellow and green zucchini, a big yellow melon (muskmelon?), eggplant, and leeks. The pepper, eggplant, zucchini, and tomato combo calls for a batch of ratatouille, and since it’s going to be cooler, I don’t mind standing over the stove. Since I’m going to be grilling a leg of lamb, it’s a perfect side dish.

The leeks are a pleasant surprise, not meaning to be ungrateful, a handful of potatoes would have made vichyssoise a snap. Ah, I’d have to go buy cream, so it’s no biggie. Creaming the leeks to go with the lamb is also an option, I’ll let you know which way it goes.

The other thing I keep hoping will show up in my basket are those weird little green peppers that are supposed to be like playing Russian Roulette with food. One out of ten of them are supposed to be really hot. You saute them in olive oil until they’re blackened, sprinkle them with sea salt, and enjoy. Addictive.

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