Latest River Cottage series

[JennieAtkinson]

WAAAH - missed the programme. Set the video and went to watch it last night and I have got a programme about skydiving! Anyone know if it will be repeated? Interesting reading all your comments about the programme.

Kids and Veg - I am a great veg eater rather than fruit and got my children eating veg from the age of a few months (wizzed up veg broth). They were the only children I knew who quite preferred a raw carrot before they would reach for the sweets! They are now in the their late 20s and both have great teeth and not one filling. I notice they still like their veg in the form of smoothies now though and they are both into You are What you Eat. So hopefully something worked somewhere along the line.

[Alison]

I know what you mean about free range eggs, have never bought battery ones after seeing a programme about them as teenagers but was under the misguided impression that barn fresh was loads better for quite a number of years. Now although we don't have our own hens the eggs we now eat come from a local organic farm and I like the fact that when you go up there the chooks are wandering around under your feet and rooting all over the place. They do cost a bit more but we don't use that many and we're fortunate enough that we can afford it - must be a lot harder for large families on low income.

[Lesley Jay]

When buying eggs it is better to buy organic free range rather than free range. The free range eggs can still come from birds that live in cramped conditions but have access to outdoors. With organic free range eggs there is a limit to the number of birds that can be kept. They are expensive £2.70 for a dozen but the birds live in better conditions.

[Waffler]

I've been buying free range eggs for years now. You do baulk a little at the price when you compare them, but luckily money isn't really an issue for us (at that level - I'm not saying we're loaded!) and I do think the more of us that buy free-range, the less need there will be for battery eggs.

Jennie,
It's funny you should say that about your kids and carrots, my OH said after watching the programme "Our kids will think carrot sticks are a treat!" LOL

[dexterdoglancashire]

I couldnt agree more LJ - unfortunate thing is £, we all have a budget to stick to, some have a bigger budget than others. I'm happy that I'm doing all I am able to, to ease the suffering of those poor birds. DDL

[Lesley Jay]

The problem is that there are no rules laid down for free range eggs and the birds can have as bad a life as battery hens. If you buy organic free range eggs then all the rules and red tape come into play. There is a limit on the number of birds allowed to live in a set area so they live a far better life. If you can afford to please buy organic free range chicken or eggs.

[dexterdoglancashire]

I'll check the £ next time I go and buy some LJ. DDL

[Bex]

I'm probably more guilty than most for not thinking about where things actually come from and what suffering had to be endured to put that meat on the supermarket shelf. I'm on a really tight budget (single mom, two kids) but since having the lottie and joining this site I do actually now think when I look at the organic meat in the supermarket (swearing under my breath at the price). At the moment I'm only in a position to look at organic produce as I really can't afford it. Hopefully though, when the lottie is producing that will cut my food bill and I can then do more than look at organic, this works in my head or am I living in the clouds.

[Earthbabe]

We have found it has made a difference to our food bill but still struggle to buy organic meat for more than one or two meals a month, but as things improve and when we have both plots in production next year plus some fruit (GW) we can start to adjust. Before mortgage and child we used to have a weekly box and eat lots of organic stuff, now there are some things we manage to always buy organic (butter, eggs, bread) and we try and buy fairtrade stuff too. It can be very hard to be ethical. I've tried explaining to Mr E about eating less meat (or just eating less) but I'm not winning at the mo. If you can get to a farmers' market you could try a once a month treat it is generally much better value and much more choice. You can still buy things like brisket too.

[JennieAtkinson]

I try and get organic meat wherever possible and reduce the portions to compensate for the cost. But it is very difficult, especially as we dont have access to farm shops. We have a number of organic salmon farms here but it is still difficult trying to buy their product in the local shops.

I realise that the more veg I grow, the more we are becoming vegetarian. They are the recipes that I turn to first these days when picking up a recipe book. Don't think my OH has twigged yet! We have been pecuniary vegetarians at odd times in our married life (when we bought our second house and when the boys were younger), but I hadn't realised until a few weeks ago how veggie we had become. Thats good isn't it ?????

[annie trip]

Think most people on thois site are quite aware of what we eat and no we cant all afford organic and shouldnt beat ourselves up about that however i also think we probably are better at making things spread like hugh was sugesting, you roast a chicken (1meal), you have chicken curry(2nd meal) you make a soup(3meals) and then stock from the rest....

[Nicos]

after advising the Vine of this programme.....promptly managed to forget it was on!!!...and no repeats as far as I can see!!!! oh well...such is life!!!

[CarolineSonning]

Killing the chicken

OH and I watched this last night and enjoyed it.
I was especially looking forward to the killing of the chicken part (as I am trying to decide if I would be able to do this myself) and I was shocked to see that Hugh got someone in to do it for him, any one know why?

[burnie]

I was under the impresion that all home do it yourself slaughtering was banned by law,in the case of mammals it even has to be done in a licensed abbatoirs.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Actually B, that reminds me of the River Cottage series where he had to take his pigs to slaughter rather than do it at the Cottage itself, something to do with EU rules and regs, maybe its something to do with that? I kept my eyes shut so I didnt actually see it! DDL