Chick chick chick

Tuesday, 7 October 2014 on the television show "egg day "I saw a news report about the new law in California.

Basically what this law says is that chickens that are going to sell eggs in the state of California, must have the following measurements in their living space:

§ room to stand up completely erect

§ room to spread their wings completely out

§ room enough to turn around in comfortably without hitting the sides of the confined area

Attorney general's for five states (Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, Georgia, Tennessee) brought a lawsuit saying that the law was unconstitutional sense if EFax the agricultural practices in other states.

The federal judge in California said that the lawsuit "lacked legs" in California ... that the attorneys Gen.'s for the five other states failed to show that the law does any harm to the people and not corporations ... 

this law goes into effect 15 January 2015

well it looks like this is going to apply just to eggs – it does make one wonder about other products brought into the state of California.

what about meat products, beef, chicken, pork, wow, etc.

what about milk?

what about milk products: cheese, butter, cream, cottage cheese?

what about products made from things we get from other animals – leather and wool?

California is the most regulated state, when it comes to products sold with in their boundaries, then any other state in the Union!

Trivia Time!

This was an interesting trivia question from "In The Kitchen With David" today on QVC (yup I watch/buy from there ... even if it is cheap-crap from china ... it's cheap)

WHICH COUNTRY IMPORTS MOST OF THE WORLDS SQUASH?

a) Australia 

b) United States 

c) Brazil

d) Costa Rica

TRIVIA #2

SQUASH WAS A FAVORITE CROP AMONG THE EARLY COLONIALISTS?

(He means pilgrims, for clarification)

a) True

b)False

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ANSWERS:

#1

b) United States

According to the AMRC (agricultural marketing resource center) 95% of squash we import in US comes from MEXICO.

Last year ALONE - US imported $317 MILLION worth of squash!

I wonder how much of that wound up in your store-bought pumpkin pie???

You do know, of course, that there is NO pumpkin ... I mean ACTUAL pumpkin .... in your store-bought pie ... Right?

My brother used to work for Mrs. smiths pies .... NO PUMPKIN ... They use all squash.

There is a variety of Hubbard squash they use which has the word "pumpkin" in its name -- so they beat the whole "Truth In Advertisement" law .... But nope .... No pumpkin ... None at all.

Save the US Pumpkin crop ...

Make your own pie.

It's really quite easy !

Here's a SUPER easy recipe from PickYourOwn.com  PUMPKIN PIE 

http://www.pickyourown.org/pdfs/pumpkinpieshoppinglist.pdf

NOT my recipe! but I've used it ... It's very easy, very good ... BUT don't make a ton of it and put it in your fridge for a couple of days ... It will BUBBLE up & out of your container ... I learned my lesson.

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#2

b) False

While the Native Americans DID show the Pilgrims how to plant/harvest squash, they didn't really start to appreciate it until the long hard winters set in! Because then they didn't really have a choice, I suppose it was the only thing left.

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Harvest Time?

Not here our farm… Because nothing was able to get into the field this year… Because winter extended all the way into the end of May!

Then June was very rainy… In the fields did not dry out until about mid July!

We had plans in the greenhouse this year, but we took a two week vacation and they all died ... because the person that we had put in charge of doing the chickens didn't realize they were also supposed to do the greenhouse when they came over ... No water = no plants ... Imagine that!

Oh well…

It was a year of rest… Just kidding…

We got new baby chicks this year - Amercanas - and they begin laying last month.  We have greens in blue eggs now, as well as one chicken that is laying a pink egg!

I will feature how you can tell what color eggs your chicken will lay on a different post.

Now wow we are not having a harvest (except for eggs that is) there are several states which do have harvests ... Farmers are pulling in their corn, soybeans, cotton, wheat, and of course… Potentate toes!

(oh my God I totally hate that AutoCorrect corrected that it is supposed say potatoes)

<u> POTATO-YEILDS </u> 

<u> acreage </u>  <u>% harvested </u> <u> State </u> <u> ranking </u> 

317,000. 39%  ID. #1 producer

165,000 80%. WA. #2

_67,000  67% WI #3

Main USED to be the highest producer with over 200,000 acres planted around WW2, but now they have about 54,000 acres planted in potatoes.

I guess the kids (in about 6 schools) get a THREE WEEK harvest break! (I wanna go to one of those schools!)

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We learned this weekend, that the farmer that lives next door to my in-laws cabin resort, is going to semi retired next year.

I'm wondering what the semi retired means to a farmer… He's a dairy farm… Does that mean he's only going to milk this cow is every other day?

Probably not… That would be way too stressful… LOL

Well I know his wife had a slight stroke… And so she was no longer supposed to be working in the business.  So perhaps "semi retirement" means that <u>  she's </u> not going to be working -- because if there's one thing I know about farmers… THEY DO NOT STOP!!