Last week we went to Open Farm Sunday, sponsored by Cabot Creamery Cooperative, and hosted by a local farm. Awesome Daughter was not interested in staying too long, until...they offered her complimentary corn chowder and sharp cheddar cheese. It was somewhat coincidental, as we were talking about making corn chowder for dinner. VB presents a short tour of the farm. We had fun. And, of course, everyone on the tour behaved like a bunch of schoolkids at a petting zoo!
Below: The old main barn, where we were greeted and fed.
Below 2 photos: Cows are hungry creatures. Some of these animals produce enormous amounts of milk each day, others - not so much. Added up though, they provide us with our daily intake of main dairy products. They are also very friendly creatures, or at least that's what VB thought.
Below: This is a mechanical milking machine. All cows teats are wiped clean with antibacterial wash, milked, then washed clean again, and given a soothing cream so their teats stay nice and soft - something of that nature. And for cows unable to get into the milking center, say too pregnant, they have portable milking machines! Wow, and VB thought she was going to see the real McCoy milking procedure (dude sitting on a wooden bucket, hand milking the cow - VB's kinda behind the times on some of this new technological stuff.)
Below: The milk tank, with magnetic messages about farming and farming in Connecticut.
Below: One of the messages, which VB highly recommends - buy local.
Below: The pregnant cows. Don't they look overly friendly! That's because (VB found out,) Awesome Daughter was carrying dog treats in her pocket and they totally wanted to be with her!
Below: This is a calf barn. These calves are a bit older, and they get transferred here to socialize after being moved from the greenhouse. The two calves below are not dairy cows. They will be on your dinner table one of these days. This farm also sells beef (Angus), and you can order from them (you know like a whole side, a quarter, something like that.) At this size, they also have their horns taken off, so they don't injure each other. Apparently, with horns, when they are hungry and pushing through the throng of other cattle, they poke and injure each other inadvertently. The horn removal prevents that from happening.
Below: Our last stop was at the calf greenhouse. We saw a calf, just born the day before. These are calves that are very young, still nursing, and isolated as they have a habit of mistaking each other for their mothers, sucking, and yes, causing injury. Here (next 3 photos) we have a female calf, who is absolutely smitten with VB's camera strap!
Below: Awesome Daughter pets the female calf.
Below: You can see her again. She's the only one standing, waiting for more visitors
to welcome.
Below: After our Open Farm visit, we stopped at our local farm stand to buy corn for our chowder. The stand was closed, but still open for business. They have a slot in the wooden windows for money. Here pumpkins are on display so you can gauge the size when you buy one. There's a sign with prices on the window. Many farm stands around here are unattended / self serve.
Below 2 photos: Our corn chowder and grilled sandwiches.
This post is basically a response to the mass slaughter of pigs in Egypt.
VB was born in "Porkopolis" ("The nickname Porkopolis was coined around 1835, when Cincinnati was the country's chief hog packing center, and herds of pigs traveled the streets." - Wiki) VB remembers, as young child, watching pigs marching up the ramps for slaughter to become "The Weiner The World Awaited, " at the Kahn's packing company, on Central Avenue. (You may laugh at VB, and may have heard of Cincinnati, but check here to find out what growing up there was really like.)
VB's parents (just like every other Greek in America) owned three restaurants (at different times). The last one was in a predominately black area. It was the 60's, and every so often her parents would cook up some pigs feet. It was soul food, and the regular customers were fromthe neighborhood. Raw hooves would be piled up over the old-fashioned white ceramic freezer. Too bad VB didn't have a camera back then, but the sight of fresh, raw pigs feet piled high, remains embedded in her memories. Not only that, but a New Years Eve tradition with The Boss Man is to down pickled pigs feet, and his mom always had a roll of Goetta in the fridge. Let's face it, regardless of ethnic background, the majority of people in, and from Cincinnati, love pork products. That includes VB. Give her a pair of ham hocks and she will cook up some retro split pea or navy bean soup for you.
By now, most people have heard or read about the swine cull here in Egypt. It is an overkill reaction to the Swine Flu aka H1N1 Virus. Let's all remember, "It's the other white meat." Besides, most of the swine that VB has actually met, are human, and according to the dictionary, "an offensive word for a person who behaves in a cruel or disgusting way towards others." This definition would apply to those who made this decision, as well as those who own factory farms. These viruses are born in industrial environments. The small breeder is typically immune, and provides a service to the community. Plus, as we've seen in the past, (mad cow), small farmers are more capable of containing the disease, so it does not spread. Factory farms do not, nor do they produce the expensive specialty meats we crave. They basically produce mass market meat, at a price, which seems cheap at the grocers, but is subsidized through governments, with our tax dollars, but has a direct impact on the environment. Who are the real losers? The small family run farms - worldwide.
For those of you out there who can't get enough of the culling, or hate swine so much, you too can be a swinefighter!
Here's a few articles to chew on: Swine Flu Ancestor Born on U.S. Factory Farms "“Industrial farms are super-incubators for viruses,” said Bob Martin, former executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Animal Farm Production, and a long-time critic of the so-called “contained animal feeding operations.”" A U.S. Hog Giant Transforms Eastern Europe "European hog farming is being transformed by an agricultural powerhouse operating in far-flung outposts."
"Old customs and jobs are dying and the air itself is changing, however, transformed by an American newcomer, Smithfield Foods. Almost unnoticed by the rest of the Continent, the agribusiness giant has moved into Eastern Europe with the force of a factory engine, assembling networks of farms, breeding pigs on the fast track, and slaughtering them for every bit of meat and muscle that can be squeezed into a sausage."
Local Pastured Meats: Good for You, Good for the Planet "...Pigs, unlike the “monovore” cows, are omnivores. Along with some corn and soy, they eat whatever they can scavenge in the pasture. In the summer, they hang out and in the shade and pose for pictures like the ones we saw. When Jen said she lets her pigs dig into the ground (instead of ringing their noses to prevent it), I couldn’t help thinking that her pigs are like the teenagers with the coolest, most laid-back parents in town. If you had seen how happy those piggies were in the photos, you would probably want to be one. Maybe."
New Virus, Old Tale: Animals Share Bugs With Us "All of this is the latest iteration of a phenomenon dating to the dawn of mankind: zoonosis. A zoonotic disease is one that spreads from animals to humans, or vice versa. Bubonic plague came from a bacterium that infects rats and can spread via fleas to humans. HIV is a virus that passed into people from a monkey. Malaria, tuberculosis, rabies, yellow fever and typhoid fever are zoonotic.
And it's a two-way street, as seen recently when a Canadian farmworker infected with the new H1N1 swine flu apparently passed the disease to a herd of pigs. When it comes to influenza, the thoroughfare between Homo sapiens and Sus scrofa -- domesticated pigs -- is something of a superhighway.
From the perspective of an influenza virus, the receptors on the lungs of a human being -- the places where the little spiky knobs on the virus can attach themselves -- look very much like the receptors in a pig. A pig's anatomy is so similar in certain respects to a human being's that pig heart valves are routinely transplanted into human heart patients."
Swine Flu: Don't Blame the Pig "The swine flu outbreak that has sparked widespread fear — so much so that Egypt has ordered the slaughter of the country's 300,000 pigs, even though no cases have been reported there — is easy to pin on the eponymous animal from which it emerged, but the fact is, the current epidemic is little more than an accident of evolution. If pigs are to blame, so too are birds and humans...."
LIVING ON THE EDGE, WAITING FOR A SLAUGHTER"Public hysteria over swine flu has mostly been manifested as discrimination against the zebaleen. Local newspapers have published maps of zebaleen neighborhoods advising citizens to avoid these areas, and by extension their inhabitants. Women from El-Maya El-Haya have reported being refused entry onto public transport, and many city residents refuse to open the door for zebaleen, throwing their rubbish into the streets instead for fear of contracting swine flu."
11,591 PIGS SLAUGHTERED IN EGYPT"Up to press time 11,591 pigs were slaughtered. He emphasized, however, that the total number of pigs in Egypt which was erroneously reported as 300,000 is actually 156,000 only, none of which have tested positive for swine flu."
20 countries ban pork imports on flu fears ""Trading meat, whether processed or raw or frozen meat, should not be restricted because there is virtually no risk of transmission that way," the WHO's Peter Ben Embarek said."
"The other countries listed by the WHO as having imposed pork and meat restrictions are Thailand, Jordan, the Philippines, Ukraine, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Montenegro, Surinam, the United Arab Emirates and Belarus.
In Lebanon, the trade measure involves "destruction of any cargo en route from (flu) affected countries" and also orders the closure of all domestic pig farms, prohibits the slaughter of pigs, and calls for "blood testing of all pigs".
Egypt has ordered the slaughter of all its 300,000 to 400,000 pigs as a precaution against H1N1, a move the United Nations said was "a real mistake."" Egypt persecutes Christian pig farmers in the name of swine flu "Muslim majority country seeks reasons to kill off ’unreligious’ animals"
"This event comes a week after the Egyptian government ordered the slaughter of all the country’s 300,000 pigs even though no cases of swine flu have been reported in the country. Egyptian animal rights activist Amina Abaza deplored the slaughter of pigs and said "the decision to cull them was probably taken only because they belong to the Christians."
In defense of the farmers, the World Health Organization has said the move to slaughter every pig in the country was unnecessary because the virus is however being spread through humans.
Changed alibi
However, the rationale for killing all the pigs in the country has now taken a different cause. The Egyptian health authorities now say that the authorized killing of pigs is in a bid to campaign against unsanitary pig farming conditions, particularly in the Cairo slums where the garbage collectors live.
But the garbage collectors who engage in pig farming are all Christians, who make up the minority of the society, and with no other source of livelihood available to them, or assured them, observers have questioned the intent of the health authorities in Egypt, raising charges or religious persecution."
France-"Authorities estimate it will take up to six months to kill all the pigs in the country, according to AgencePresse, and have announced plans to buy new machinery from abroad for the specific purpose of increasing the slaughter capacity to 3,000 animals a day. Al Masry Al Youm reports that as of Monday, only 888 pigs had been killed and that Health Minister Hatem El Gebaly has announced the government has set aside 30 million Egyptian pounds to compensate farmers.
The move has received criticism from some unexpected quarters in Egypt, with the editor of the pro-government daily Rose El Yousef mocking it on the editorial page.
“Killing [the pigs] is not a solution, otherwise, we should kill the people, because the virus spreads through them,” he wrote. “The terrified members of Parliament should have concentrated on asking the government first about the preventive measures and ways of confronting the problem.”"
As Israel Ignores Swine Flu Reality, Global Risk "After two potential cases of swine flu were discovered in Israel, and two Israelis who had just returned from Mexico with flu-like symptoms were quarantined, the Deputy Health Minister, Yakov Litzman, took the next logical step: he renamed the virus. "We will call it Mexican flu. We won't call it swine flu," Litzman declared. He chose to identify the virus with its alleged country of origin instead of pigs because pigs are not religiously permissible to eat, reports the Associated Press."
"Litzman's renaming of the new flu virus would just seem out of place and random if it had been in any other country, but in Israel--where pigs are raised on Arab lands and pork shops are firebombed out of certain neighborhoods--pork is highly politicized. Even the word for "pork" in Hebrew, chazir, is so reviled that it goes by many euphemisms: "white meat," "other meat," and "white steak.""
Turkey's Pork Shortage (And It's Not 'Cause of the Food Crisis Either) ""There are only 2,000 Greeks left in Istanbul," he grumbled. "None of us dares speak out." Curiously, all the other slaughter houses that once dealt with pork have been closed too. Lazari's reluctant to say what he suspects is happening.
"There are only 2,000 Greeks left in Istanbul," he grumbled. "None of us dares speak out.""
R.I.P. to all the poor innocents being blamed for H1N1 and slaughtered as a result. For all those little piggies, VB hopes you can all be "The Weiner The World Awaited, " and, if not perhaps you'd love to be an Oscar Meyer Weiner.
(Below): The homage to the Flying Pig in VB's hometown "Porkopolis", along the riverfront, Cincinnati, Ohio. Yes, we Cincinnatians worship swine.
And now links to some tasty pork articles and recipes:
Bacon Today: "Daily Updates On The World Of Sweet, Sweet Bacon" We’re All Meatheads Now chefs of the Mario outside of Paris, is without a doubt a "There has been a lardy avalanche of pig prose of late—celebrations of all the edible glories of pig: its snout, ears, and tail; its blood, belly, and liver; and I suppose, if you have to be boring, its plain old meat (I wrote about the phenomenon in Slate). New York magazine food critic Adam Platt has recently dubbed carniphilicBatali/David Chang/Paul Bertolli variety “meatheads,” and emphasized that it is pig they worship above all other animals. Add one more to that list: Stéphane Reynaud, chef-owner of Villa 9 Troismeathead of the highest order.
Pigs' feet: the new superfood "The latest anti-ageing food? Pigs' trotters. That's right, you heard it here first. In New York, the most talked-about new opening of the past couple of months has been a Japanese restaurant called Hakata Tonton, where 33 out of the 39 dishes contain pigs' feet."
Since the pig culling in Egypt incited this post, let's visit Cairo. Earlier this year, Anthony Bourdain's Season 5 of No Reservations aired (in the States), with a segment on Egypt.
It's available on iTunes, but also on YouTube. Here is the first part of his Egypt segment, where he not only discusses food, but (on several occasions) traffic, which is great. (Um, no pigs are slaughtered or eaten during this Egypt centric episode.)
No Reservations - Egypt Part 1 of 5
If you watched the Anthony Bourdain visit Part 1 to Egypt, then you know why this photo is here. (Below): A pigeon coop in The City of the Dead.
(Below): Shade tobacco pushing up the tents, in Enfield, Connecticut.
VB arrived back to the USA two weeks ago. The area where she lives is full of tobacco fields. Harvesting season lasts throughout mid- July and August, since growers plant sequentially throughout the spring and summer. It looks like harvesting has started among some of the early plantings. Here's a few pics and a bit of information on the area where VB lives in Connecticut. Other than the seasonal putrid smell of cow manure, it is a veritable garden here, with an assortment of farm stands selling a multitude of fruits, vegetables, and plants.
How, you might ask, did VB get so interested in tobacco farming? One day, she received a call regarding a cigar order for The Boss Man. When she told the very southern sounding man on the other line about tobacco farms in her small town, he said, "that's where the finest wrapper tobacco is grown." She says, "Huh!" (Like a true dumbass. VB was new to the town, and had never lived in Connecticut before.) He goes on, "No other tobacco in the world, matches up to the wrapper tobacco from Connecticut." So VB's interest was piqued, and that was all she needed.
VB hopes to post more on this farming community during her stay. For now, inhale the smoke filled information and accompanying photos. And, if you're like The Boss Man, you might want to light up a stogie, and sip on a stiff drink too.
From New York Times: "Around July 1 the harvesting begins. Approximately three leaves per plant are harvested every week until the plants' 18 or 20 leaves -- dark green, silky and slightly sticky -- are stripped off the stalks by the end of August.
Workers are trained to deftly snap off the leaves at the very base of the stem with thumb and forefinger. The leaves are so easily bruised that too much finger pressure is enough to reduce a leaf to interior binder material rather than the top-grade wrapper. Even the tiny pink flowers that bloom atop a plant can damage a leaf simply by falling on it and resting there until it causes a fatal blemish."
(Below): Harvesting tobaccoin Suffield, Connecticut (Click to enlarge for a better view.)
(Below): Shade Tobacco growing in Enfield, Connecticut. From Connecticut Valley Tobacconist, " ...Between 1900 and 1910 there was a new development in the tobacco industry here. Experiments in Windsor, CT had proven that it was possible to grow Cuban tobacco in Connecticut by reproducing the tropical climate of Cuba and Sumatra artificially. This was done by enclosing the tobacco field in a "tent" of very loosely woven cloth. The resulting tobacco had a thinner leaf which had previously been imported into the US by local cigar manufacturers. Several of these "shade grown" plantations were successful enough to survive until the early 1970's when the market for this once important crop declined dramatically. The resurgence of shade tobacco growing in this area is solely attributable to the efforts of the Enfield Shade Tobacco Co. Enfield Shade Tobacco grows solely for ALTADIS USA...the manufacturer of brands such as Montecristo Don Diego. Enfield Shade plans on increasing it's current acreage of 300 acres in 2002."
From Cigar Aficionado: "Made in the Shade, For A century, Connecticut farmers have grown some of the world's finest cigar wrapper tobacco."
"...The leaves of Connecticut shade hanging above him are considered by many to be the finest cigar tobacco in the world. Connecticut shade is wrapped around Macanudo, Davidoff, Montecristo, Ashton and Fonseca cigars, among many others.
The uninitiated are amazed that cigar tobacco grows so far north of the Caribbean, but native Americans grew tobacco in Connecticut before the arrival of Europeans, and historians say locals have grown cigar tobacco there since the 1600s. Tobacco is one of the fastest-growing plants in the world. Seedlings a few inches tall are placed in the soil in May, and by Independence Day the plants will have soared to nine feet. By the end of August, when the final priming is harvested, a Connecticut-shade tobacco plant might stand 12 feet tall."
From The New York Times: A Premium Crop From the Shade WHAT do the jungles of Sumatra have in common with the Connecticut countryside? Not much -- unless you're talking about growing tobacco for cigars. It all began in the late 1800s when Connecticut tobacco farmers faced stiff competition from Southeast Asian imports. Researchers and farmers came up with an ingenious idea: Why not grow tobacco here under cotton netting to approximate Sumatran conditions, meaning perpetual cloud cover and high heat and humidity. Thus was born Connecticut shade tobacco, with its cured leaf with its kid glove smooth texture and distinctive taste is used worldwide to wrap expensive, hand-made premium cigars.
Connecticut shade is a hot player in the new cigar boom that is sweeping America....
Tobacco quality comparable to ours may be found in other places like Cuba or Sumatra where our seed originally came from,'' says Angel Daniel Nunez, a senior vice president of General Cigar. ''But you cannot duplicate our taste anywhere else.''
He points out that the wrapper is only about 5 percent of the weight of a cigar, ''But it accounts for most of the taste. A Connecticut wrapper cigar smokes cooler, longer, more evenly and with a delicate taste....''
Connecticut shade, according to Ms. Martin, is now cultivated, for example, in Ecuador and marketed as ''Connecticut seed'' leaf. ''But one puff and a smoker knows it is not the real thing,'' she says.
Don't just take Connecticut's word for it. Gordon Mott, managing editor of Cigar Aficionado magazine, says: ''Connecticut shade is considered, simply, the finest wrapper tobacco in the world with its high degree of suppleness, consistent golden brown color and flavor that's not overpowering.''
(Below): Broadleaf tobacco hanging out to dry (so-to-speak).
More from the Cigar Oficianado article: "The first Connecticut tobacco was grown in the open sunlight, which makes a leaf thick and dark, with veins like ropes. That variety is called Connecticut broadleaf, a brawny tobacco known for its heavy flavor and less than elegant appearance. Today, broadleaf is used on brands such as Henry Clay, on many maduro varieties of premium cigars and on a host of cigars made by machine, which include Muniemakers, Backwoods, Marsh Wheelings and Toppers....
Wrapper is the most expensive type of tobacco, and no wrapper costs more to grow than Connecticut shade. "It's the most expensive, most labor intensive, most risky type of tobacco to plant," says Folz. The highest-grade shade tobacco from Honduras retails for around $20 to $25 a pound, while top-quality Connecticut wrappers sell for $45 to $50 a pound."
(Below): Connecticut broadleaf tobacco.
(Below): The flower of Connecticut broadleaf tobacco.
A Connecticut Leaf in Cuba: "Cuba is Growing Hundreds of Acres of Connecticut Seed Tobacco for Shade Wrappers"
"Others who have tried the Cuban-grown Connecticut shade are less impressed. "It isn't bad. It isn't good," says one tobacco specialist familiar with the Cuban project and the global market for tobacco. "It doesn't taste like Cuban leaf and it doesn't taste like Connecticut. If you want to do Connecticut, why do it outside [the state]? There is so much land out there still to be planted in Connecticut, but everybody around the world is copying Connecticut. You can find it in Ecuador or wherever, even in Indonesia."
From enfield-ct.com, Chapter 4 - Agriculture in Enfield: the tobacco story (page 74 - page 82)
VB wrote this a little less than a month ago and had not gotten around to posting it. Today, everything has a dusting of snow, and is frozen from the ice storm last weekend. This is a fall view of the area.
Vagabondblogger usually talks about her neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt. Today she has decided to focus on her neighborhood in Connecticut. Vagabondblogger lives in a small town along the Connecticut River. She has seen foxes, a snapping turtle, eagles, wild turkeys, rabbits, frogs, other suspect varmints; she has heard about coyotes attacking cats and dogs; owls trying to kidnap cats; bears, moose, deer traipsing around; and that bobcats, are moving in to the neighborhood. Vagabondblogger doesn't really care for many of these creatures. In one way or another they're either just plain annoying or terrorists. Plus she has to put up with the smell of equine urine, and manure used by the local farmers, who specialize in growing the world's finest cigar wrapping tobacco. Don't believe Vagabondblogger? Then check this out: The Secret Life of Shade Tobacco.
Shade tobacco is used as the outermost layer of high-end cigar brands like Davidoff, Macanudo and Arturo Fuente. It is the state’s No. 1 agricultural export in dollars, bringing in more than $30 million a year, according to the federal Department of Agriculture.
The tobacco farmers really create traffic problems during harvesting season. One contraption after another clogs the roads hauling tobacco, and workers around. Of course, most farmers also support themselves with the usual farm stand vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Brown men suddenly appear from May staying through until the end of harvest. Vagabondblogger knows not where these men come from, nor where they're headed when they leave. Actually, she's not sure she even saw them to begin with. She sees NOTHING, she knows NOTHING!
One of the local farms and rows of dried out corn stalks.
Here's a tour of Vagabondblogger's neighborhood:
This neighbor has canoes parked outside his barn, and offers Christmas Trees you cut yourself, which is how we have been doing it since we moved here. He lives across the road from the guy who walks around in his boxers, has been caught by the police peeping in on VB's neighbor, and has been seen (by Vagabondblogger herself) listening intently to his mailbox. There's one of those in every neighborhood, right?
Then just a few houses down, lives "The Cat Lady." We call her Tweety, because she sounds like Tweety Bird, and she has a "Cat Crossing" sign in front of her house. She's nice, talkative, has an assortment of feral cats, and dead autos behind her house. We do believe, she has a smokehouse, as we can smell something smoking in the wee hours of the morn'. She claims that her family has lived here since before the Civil War, so it's quite possible the next landmark is a relative of hers.
Farther down the road are two grave markers from 1761, overlooking the Connecticut River. The larger adult died of smallpox at the age of 81 years. The other is an infant.
Now we get to the scene of the crime, or the crime that never was, or the uncrime crime. This was what people here refer to as a "package store". It's just another name for a liquor store. It was run by an elderly Polish lady, who had been caught selling alcohol (mostly beer) to under-aged teens (rumor has it, it was usually skunked.) She fell, broke a rib, and died of internal bleeding. Her much younger boyfriend, who had a restraining order on him to not set foot near her, had just been released from jail, and was with her when she died. Panicking he decided to construct a fake crime scene, and called the police to say he "found her like that." The newspaper was full of innuendos, speculation, and assumptions, that he did the dastardly deed. The local coroner figured out she had not been beaten, but that her injury was accidental. Her boyfriend, who apparently couldn't keep his hands off the old gal, confessed to constructing the murder scene, and is now going back to jail, for violating his probation.
Around the corner and up the road is the local farm stand, now closed for business, although they do seem to have an abundance of pumpkins this year.
As usual, all over the area, people park their dead cars in the woods. This old van seems to be oxidizing pretty well.
Finally, the old Grange Meeting House, which has been converted into a theatre. This winter they are performing A Tuna Christmas! Maybe they'll add some more dates due to the usual high demand.
Expat currently living in Egypt. I'm not really a vagabond, but I would like to be. I do own an '87 VW Vanagon Camper (Weekender) and a 1965 VW Beetle Convertible.
I'm more of a rider on the corporate vagabond trail.
Views expressed here are mine and mine alone. If anyone feels insulted by this, or any other posts, don't worry I am a equal opportunity lampooner.
