Must watch video

This is a must watch video. I grew up in Marin County and am so proud that people are returning to farm practices that our grandparents knew best. Marin farmers are on the forefront of the locally produced food movement. I also had no idea that there was such nutrient dense food growing in MARIN!

Heritage breeds, pastured meats and eggs, oysters, and award winning cheese! Oh my. Strauss is an amazing dairy as well. Did you know that the cream top milk at Trader Joe's is from Strauss, as well as their European style yogurt? Swoon!

The Complete Patient Blog...

...wants you to rally around imperfect martyrs.
You can read my response in the comments section above. It is not my intent to bash any farm or farmer.

Sharon Palmer Speaks

If you're anything like me, after watching this you have more questions than answers. Please write your questions in the comments here or on YouTube. Thanks.

And then, as Sharon says, please do keep shopping locally and at your farmer's markets, or Chipotle, if you wish! Be a part of the solution.

Who has got the best eggs ever?

I like my eggs and eat them too.

A friend posted the recent Los Angeles magazine article today on my FB page about...you guessed it...farm fresh EGGS! When the article came out, I was thrilled for the exposure for John and Nadine DeBruin.  But then my cohort at the Sunday MarVista Market and I were left scratching our heads a bit. SECOND???

John pastures eggs a la Joel Salatin method and currently has about 150 egg layers that follow the cows on pasture. Gama eggs has 2,000 birds on 1 acre of land. They are free range. John does not feed his egg layers soy feed. I am not sure what Gama feeds their birds.

I took my first good look at the actual picture of the eggs from the LA Magazine article today and got even more befuddled. The egg labeled #1 looks more like Dey Dey's eggs than #2, which is labeled with DeyDey's sister company that raises cattle. This is all so wierd.

So anyway, I posted my pictures of Dey Dey's eggs vs. Trader Joe's organic free range eggs for your perusal on my facebook page. Enjoy.

This past week Gama was not at Sunday Mar Vista, and with us having so few eggs to sell and the only other vendor selling out, people were scrambling for their eggs (yes, pun intended!). Ah, people after my own heart.

Gama will be back at the market next week... so have no fear. You can buy your farm fresh free range eggs.

I have an egg and photography addiction, and puttin' them together is making me giddy. Goodnight.

Why So Quiet?

I know, I haven't written much information lately of what I am continuing to learn about farms and farming and one farm in particular, HFF. Trust me when I say a lot is going on behind the scenes. Trust that the truth will be revealed in the end. For the moment, I don't want to spoil any of the information gathered or processes that are in motion.

For now, please keep shopping local, sustainable and at the Farmer's Markets. There are a hundreds of farmers and a few ranchers in LA that are doing it right. Please support them so they can keep feeding us.

Word on the street is Rawesome will be up and running if it already isn't. I don't know for sure, because I was never a member. But is seems to me good food will remain supplied in LA.

Go to the GOOD FOOD FESTIVAL starting TODAY! Hooray! It's about time people are waking up to good food and demand is outpacing supply. YES! Here is the directory of events if you are curious.

Best,
Kristen

Where's my Pastured Eggs?

John DeBruin of DeyDey's Best Beef Ever

UPDATE: September 21, 2011:
Dey Dey's Best Beef Ever was featured in LA Magazine this month because they did a "farm fresh egg test" and John's eggs came in 2nd. They used his commercial company name: California Lowline Cattle Company for some reason. You all know they are first in my book. To see the results, see this months article at L.A. Magazine or listen to this Good Food show on KCRW. For me personally, this is such validation that I am not the only one obsessed with finding the best farm fresh eggs. John is now selling out of eggs before we can even set up the booth at MarVista Farmer's Market. He is in 15 markets, people, so you can go to another one...maybe Saturday Sherman Oaks? Spread the Egg Lovin', aight?



*******************************************************************************
 
Okay, folks, as if it wasn't hard enough to come by truly pastured eggs in LA...you all need to stop hoarding the eggs.

I worked at the farmer's market stall today to help give Rancher John a day at home on the ranch. The man works his patooty off and he still can't make enough LOCAL and TRULY-PASTURED eggs for us. What gives?

I got six measly eggs. I am not happy. You all bought my dang eggs!

Wah Wah Wah!

Seriously, though, I had the best time meeting the people who are seeking. Seeking better health, losing weight, gaining nutrition, gaining bone mass, gaining brain function and who are trying the best they can with their time, money and talent to feed themselves and their families well. And MANY of you are seeking better eggs. :)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for caring about good food. Thank you for supporting the ranchers that do it right. Thank you for asking questions, and learning along with all of us what constitutes a real ranch and a real rancher. 

It seems to me that there is a shift after this past raid of Rawesome. Some people want to put what is broken back together again. Some want the f-ers to go to jail. Most want the government to let me decide what to put in my mouth, thank you very much.

And then there are the thousands of the rest of us, who just want to be able to feed ourselves and our family well with local food. Is that too much to ask?

No. It is not. Ask more. Put pressure on the farm fraudsters to go into another scam. Put pressure on the guys that do it well to do it better. Put pressure on the guys who do it the best to produce as much as they can and still be true to their SOIL.

My daughter and niece in the grass at DeyDey's Farm Tour.
May 2011 

The lowlines out on pasture at DeyDey's. You might want to try their beef, too. ;)

Put pressure on the government to let you eat the food that is the cleanest, healthiest, and purest.

Please do not whisper about HFF and Rawesome anymore. The information is out there if you really want to know. The information is out there if you really CARE to know.

ASK OUT LOUD.

Ask the other farmers and ranchers. Ask the farmer's market managers what they are planning on doing? Ask your foodie friends. Ask. Please. Just ask. And ask your questions below. I will answer them to the best of my knowledge.

The Smoking Egg?

The smoking gun...Where there's smoke there's fire...THE SMOKING EGG??? You tell me:

Credit: Abbey Cat Chat Blog, May 2010, comparing Healthy Family Farms 'grass-fed' egg with store bought cage free, grain fed egg)

My opinion: This photo is very telling. This is photographic evidence of HFF egg quality before Aajanus' website came out and the first Rawesome raid went down. This was taken before Rawesome customers knew that at least one point they were sold outsourced eggs repackaged as HFF eggs. The yolk of the store bought egg, on the left, was darker orange in color, which in Weston A. Price Foundation circles is the gold standard of egg yolk nutrient density or content. The HFF egg, on right, was bright yellow. Although, it's yolk sac and white were more intact and clear which leads me to believe it was a fresher egg than the store bought version. In reality, it could have been a farm fresh egg (from which farm remains to be seen) but the hen was not getting the adequate nutrition required for a hen to produce an egg with a deep orange yolk.  

‎"Pale yolks indicate that hens are not getting sufficient green feed. Probably clover, vetch, rape, grass and other green feeds will all produce yellow yolks." 

--Profitable Poultry Production by M. G. Kains, 1910
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/ppp/ppp7.html
Which leads me to another question: let's just say this was a Healthy Family Farms produced egg. How can they call it "grass-fed"? Is this not misleading to their consumers who probably relate "grass-fed" with truly pastured a la the Joel Salatin method? So many questions...this egg issue is frustrating indeed for a confused consumer. If you want to learn more, read all about it from Mother Jones. And hopefully soon I will come up with a consumer guide on what to ask for and look for when determining the quality of eggs you purchase from your farmer or farmers market.

Nothing compares to the deep, dare I say almost radioactive looking orange yolk of a truly pastured egg like Organic Pastures or Dey Dey's here in Southern Cali. Yes, I am passionate about TRULY grass-fed, free-range, pastured eggs!!!


While I'm at it, here are photos from Healthy Family Farms Facebook page 
VS.
the truly pastured egg operations of Organic Pastures and Dey Dey's Best Beef Ever who follow the pastured poultry practices of Joel Salatin. More on this...one day...I hope...


Egg Comparison Poster courtesy of the Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter - Santa Barbara:

For more pictures and discussion on battery vs. organic vs. pastured egg comparisons, see this photo from Nourishing Our Children:

or this photo from Organic Pastures on Facebook. 

I rest my obsession with the HFF egg issue...for now.
I was honestly going to go to three different outlets and buy truly Pastured vs. store bought vs. HFF eggs and photograph them. But this past Sunday after obsessing about eggs all week, it didn't seem all that appealing. I went to one, bought my favorite eggs from Dey Dey's, and am now eating it fried with the Trader Joe's Free Range egg we had left over from last week. Guess which one is bright orange? Guess which one this nursing mama prefers for brekkie? This fabulous photo will be posted soon.

I figure people who care about the quality of their food and farmer's markets will fall into one of these three categories or shades between: 
1) Those who are HFF supporters and deny that Sharon could have done any fraudulent behavior.
2) Those who say, "What does it matter?" She is a small farmer, we've got bigger fish to fry.
3) Those who accept that HFF has participated in de-frauding their customers and are interested in preserving farmer-market-consumer integrity.

I still want to talk with the people from Hohberg, and also follow up with Laura Avery, the market manager from Wednesday Santa Monica who is checking into this story. I would even like to visit Healthy Family Farms, if they would have me. I haven't heard back yet...do you think I should drop by one of these days? For now my little ones want their mommy back and my husband wants his wife back from the land of obsession with eggs and food politics. If you want to really be political, you have to cook the foods you advocate, which has been a little lacking around here.

To be continued...for those who wait!!!


Best, 
Kristen

edited to add content about egg yolk debate: 11/20/11