Tales From the Country Life

It must be five years since I picked up a forlorn-looking hitchhiker on the A44 who sniffed the air in the Volvo and asked whether I was a chicken farmer. We hadn't been living in the country for long, so it was nice to know that I was already fitting in, smell-wise. I wasn't offended at being mistaken for a man with 10,000 or so chickens, even though we only had four. It made me feel, for the first time, like a horny-handed son of the soil.

Last week, however, came the latest reminder that I am anything but. I read some poultry-keeping tips in a newspaper and realised that we've been doing it all wrong. For the past year or so, ever since I was told by someone that corn supplemented with kitchen scraps offers chickens a perfectly balanced diet, we have been scraping our leftovers into a box known to the family as "the chicken bin". Jane or I – or occasionally, rather grudgingly, one of the children – would then tramp up to the orchard with the chicken bin and watch our flock – currently 13-strong – tucking with obvious delight into yesterday's cauliflower cheese, mashed potato or whatever.

As a recycling scheme, this pleased me greatly. Little food was wasted and the chickens were happy. Only gradually did it dawn on us that egg productivity had reached an all-time low. Our flock take the winter off, but by the end of March we would normally expect five or six eggs a day. We were getting less than that a week. Then I read the piece, which said that kitchen scraps should be kept to a bare minimum, that poultry get all the sustenance they need from fresh water and corn, perhaps boosted by layers' pellets. So the chicken bin has been binned, egg production is back on track, and the children get yesterday's cauliflower cheese.

The article also recommended that coops should be mucked out regularly, because chickens have sensitive respiratory systems and prolonged exposure to the whiff of their own poo can kill them. This, I'm embarrassed to admit, rather explains the recent mysterious deaths of a Warren and a White Sussex. Not that we don't muck out, but it seems we need to do it more often. So we decided to start lining the coop with newspaper, making the mucking-out process a more straightforward business. Traditional broadsheets turned out to be singularly useless as a means of lining the coop, being so large and unwieldy. In this regard (and, I like to think, in a good deal of others) the more compact Independent proves its superiority. It is exactly the right size for the roosting platform.

Unfortunately, for those of us whose mugshots appear on these pages, this means that mucking out the chickens can now be a dispiriting affair. It was my turn yesterday, and I found that Jane – not on purpose, she insists – had used one of my sports interviews in precisely the part of the coop where, not to put too fine a point on it, the chickens crap the most. My face was all but obliterated by a gooey browny-yellow mess, and it was not at all comforting to see that Robert Mugabe had suffered a similar indignity.

Anyway, once I'd got over my indignation, I tore up the newspaper and transferred it to the compost intended for the vegetable garden; at least I know that my defaced mugshot will, in a sense, contribute to the well-being of our runner beans this summer. On the other hand, I have been made to feel, by a charming new book, that perhaps I am not being as creative as I might be with animal droppings.

In Nature's Playthings (published by Merlin Unwin Books of Ludlow, priced £16.99) a grandmother called Alison Wilson Smith recalls how she and her childhood friends spent the 1940s deriving endless entertainment from the fields and the hedgerows, without any need for the Nintendo Wii. She explains how to make grass whistles, quill pens and even itching powder out of rose hips. But best of all, she advises that a cowpat that has dried in a perfect circle makes a fantastic frisbee.

I've duly told my kids that if I don't soon see them playing cowpat frisbee in the next-door field, they can start mucking out the chickens.

Source; Independent

Lobster Wars in North America

 Aboard the 46-foot "Rebbie's Mistress," John Drouin of Cutler, Maine, will steam southeast from the harbor in town to tend his lobster traps in the cobalt seas near Machias Seal Island – a 110-square-mile patch of the Gulf of Maine known as the "gray zone."

In spring, the fishing is easy. From July to early November, Mr. Drouin and about 35 lobstermen from Maine will crowd the waters beside a fleet of lobster fishermen from Canada, with tensions high because both sides claim they're fishing their own nation's waters.

Because Canada and the United States have never settled ownership of Machias Seal Island, a 19-acre rise of rock and pine, and the maritime boundary south of the Bay of Fundy, the gray zone has become for the past six summers the scene of tangled gear, allegations of vandalism, and mutual concerns that such intense lobstering and differing management regulations will eventually overwhelm the crustaceous population.

As the seventh summer approaches, neither the US nor Canada shows signs of resolving the dispute at the federal level, leaving local groups of fishermen and regulators to sort things out.

"What if we can't agree?" asks Laurence Cook of the Grand Manan Fishermen's Association (GMFA) on Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick. "I don't think we're going to see a day when [US fishermen] say: 'Let's share things equally.' "

For decades, the fleets of eastern Maine and Canada's Grand Manan Island fished the gray zone quietly, as Canadian regulations closed the area to Canadian fishermen from July to mid-November. The major American seasons in the area are in early summer and fall, though it is open to them year round. Tensions arose in 2002, when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) enacted a summer lobster season in the gray zone.

The Canadians initiated a summer season to resist increased American fishing in the gray zone and illegal fishing by US boats in the sovereign Canadian waters east of the disputed area, say Mr. Cook and DFO manager Gus van Helvoort. Says Mr. van Helvoort, "If there is an economic asset in the area – and it is the same lobster population in the region, be it US or Canadian waters – then the resource should be accessible to both US and Canadian fishermen."

The seas to the west of the gray zone are sovereign US waters. But Drouin says that due to territorial traditions of fishing and regulations that limit Maine fishermen to setting only portions of their traps in an adjacent (US) area, the US lobstermen who work the gray zone have nowhere else to fish.

Thus, every summer, about 35 boats from Washington County, Maine, and an average of 18 from Grand Manan set as many as 34,000 traps. Gear is set so close that snarls of US and Canadian trawls are a daily occurrence. Last year, one US fishermen reportedly lost his thumb while working to untangle a trawl snarled with Canadian gear.

There have been instances of gear theft and slashing of trawl lines. Annual gear losses to vandalism average $30,000 across the Grand Manan fleet, estimates Melanie Sonnenberg of the GMFA. Both sides admit that the activity occurs.

"They cut my gear, I cut theirs," Cook says. But such allegations are almost impossible to prove in court, says George Lapointe, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Compounding the problem are worries that the lobster fishery will collapse, which would be devastating to Washington County, Maine's poorest coastal county, and Grand Manan, an island of about 2,500. US and Canadian fishermen criticize the other country's fishery rules.

"Because of the Canadian management practices, they've had a total groundfish collapse off Newfoundland," says Drouin. "I want to leave them to manage my lobster resource?"

Canadian regulations provide no maximum size limit, while Maine fishermen cannot land any lobster with a carapace measuring five inches or more, a requirement that Drouin says protects the breeding population and future lobster generations.

The Canadians point out that, unlike the Americans, they require vessel location and dockside monitoring systems that compile each vessel's daily catch. In addition, Cook says, "we're allowed 375 traps [per license], and they are allowed 800. Put the management plans head to head, there's no comparison."

As of 2005, most of the Gulf of Maine's lobster population was stable, according to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The commission is conducting another stock assessment, using 2007 data. Drouin claims that his landings for 2007 were down about 39 percent from the previous year

The gray zone exists because vague wording in various treaties dating back to the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War, led to US-Canadian disagreement over the boundaries in the Gulf of Maine and the division of Georges Bank, scholars say.

A 1984 settlement by the International Court of Justice settled most of the boundary disputes, but both nations agreed to leave Machias Seal Island out of the arbitration.

One theory is that the Canadian government precipitated the lobster dispute to get the boundary issue resolved.

"Based on subsequent events, it seems that the American counterparts ... could not be drawn into discussions about the boundary itself," says Joan Marshall, a lecturer at McGill University in Montreal who is publishing a book on social changes on Grand Manan.

Source: CSMonitor

Caviar - Food of the Gods

From the egg sac of one of the ugliest fish in the seas, caviar has been the food of the rich for centuries. The sturgeon, known in prehistoric times, can live as long as 100 years and weigh more than 1,000 kilograms. Over fishing has all but ensured the near extinction of the sterlet and the beluga from the Caspian Sea, and they are now in danger of being hunted into the history books.

The word caviar is said to have entered the English language from the Turkish (k)havyar, suggesting a long relationship between Turkish cuisine and the famous roe. Although not seen on the tables to break the fast during Ramadan theses days, it was an important dish to commence the evening meal during the late Ottoman period. Visits to both the Mısır Çarşı (Spice Bazaar) in Eminönü and the Balık Pazarı (Fish Market) in Beyoğlu stand as evidence to the popularity of caviar. İstanbul is one of the cheapest places in the world to buy caviar and other fish roes.

Caviar was once sold from the Havyar Han in Galata. Customers, generally from the non-Muslim and elite Ottoman community, would come and taste the caviar then negotiate their purchase. At the time records suggest three different quality caviars coming from Russia and the Caspian Sea region. Özge Samancı, a food historian, tells us that along with "black caviar," a "red caviar" is also noted. This red caviar, today's taramasalata, came from the eggs of a variety of mullet and was prepared with a mixture of lemon juice and olive oil and eaten with wholegrain bread and butter.

Türabi Efendi in "A Manual of Turkish Cookery," published in English in 1864, mentions a fish egg tarator (sauce) prepared as above and served with a topping of crushed pistachios or almonds. He goes on to say that "In Turkey it is served at breakfast and at luncheon, as also in the middle of the dinner, to sharpen the appetite." Fish roe was also recorded in recipes from the cuisine of Sufis of the 18th century. Ali Eşref Dedi, the sheikh of the Edirne Mevlevi Dergah, documented recipes of the Mevlevi cuisine in his book "Food Treatise," originally written in the 1700s and more recently republished in 1992. Caviar salad, as interpreted by Nevin Halıcı, contains fish roe, grated onions and olive oil.

Caviar is the carefully processed, salted roe of particular types of fish, the sturgeon being the most celebrated. There are four types of caviar seen in the markets in İstanbul. Beluga, which matures at 12-18 years, has grey to black-colored eggs that are about 2.5-3.0 millimeters in size. Osetra matures at 10-12 years with smaller eggs that can be black, golden or greenish. Sevruga, the most commercially successful caviar, matures at a younger age of around seven years and has the smallest eggs at 1.2-2.5 millimeters. Lastly the imperial, which was originally from the sterlet sturgeon, these days comes from the albino or white osetra sturgeon. Other sturgeons that are either cultivated or caught wild for their egg sac although not seen in Turkey include the kaluga or Chinese sturgeon, the hackleback sturgeon or the paddlefish, a close cousin.

Over 100 years ago the Hudson, Delaware and Kennebee rivers in the United States were all large producers of caviar. Most of it was exported and in the late 1900s America was providing more caviar for German palates than the Russian catches of the Caspian and Black seas. Harvesting such massive quantities decimated the wild stocks and before long America no longer commercially fished the sturgeon. Across the Atlantic and several centuries earlier sturgeon were found in many European waters and as far west as England, but by the end of the 19th century over fishing and pollution all but extinguished the wild fish.

Despite the dwindling reserves, caviar remained a popular delight for the elite and sturgeon continued to be caught, clubbed over the head so its eggs could be harvested. Prior to the break-up of the Soviet Union stricter controls on harvesting did in some way contribute to managing the stocks in both the Caspian and Black seas. Since perestroika and glasnost, the sturgeon has faced the same incredible ride the former USSR has taken. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listed the sturgeon in 1998. In 2004, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service declared the beluga sturgeon endangered. It put the pressure on Caspian Sea nations to improve its conservation measures for protecting the sturgeon. In September 2005 when a review of the situation revealed little change it banned beluga caviar imports that were at that point 60 percent of the world's total. One month later imports from the Black Sea were also banned.

In June of 2007 at the triennial CITES conference no further steps were taken to curb the trade of wild beluga caviar. It will be left up to importing nations and how thoroughly they scrutinize the stocks they are purchasing. The biggest question should be to ask exporting nations about the sustainability of the caviar they produce, but when the market is still so lucrative there seems to be adequate scope for less than honorable negotiations.

Conservationists are urging consumers to buy caviar from sustainable stocks and this includes farmed sturgeon and paddlefish. The United States, France, Germany, Italy and Uruguay are leading the way in cultivating sturgeon for meat and roe. They are keen to introduce technology that will produce a taste identical to traditional wild caviar. Bulgaria, Canada, China, Israel and Abu Dhabi are also in on the act. These producers together hope to double the farmed, salted sturgeon roe from 64 tons in 2005 to more than 120 tons by 2010. And whilst the market was not ready for it a number of years ago, it seems that both the improvements in farming and the lobbying from the friends of the sturgeon have seen farmed caviar taken up by both gourmands and economists.

To produce caviar, the egg sac of a sturgeon is removed whole and laid out on a wire sieve. The sacs are rinsed and the eggs graded then salted. The highest quality eggs will be salted the least with a maximum of 5:100 grams added. Salt acts as a preservative but is also essential to give the individual berries, which are naturally lacking in texture, character.

When buying caviar in İstanbul, or in fact anywhere, it is worth knowing that the word "caviar" alone means the eggs come specifically from the sturgeon fish. The eggs of other fishes can still be called caviar, but the fish must also be named. Eggs from salmon should be asked for as "salmon caviar," from mullet, "mullet caviar."

So whether it be farmed or wild, hopefully your next mouthful of caviar will be sustainably caught.

Source: TodaysZaman

Beff Slaughter Costs Deerly

Someone has to pay for the largest beef recall in U.S. history. The federal government wants a California slaughterhouse to do so and has billed it $67 million for expenses related to the recall of 143 million pounds of beef in February.

After a video showed plant employees mistreating sick or weakened cows at the Westland/Hallmark Co. facility in Chino, Calif., the USDA ordered the recall. "Downer" cows had been slaughtered in violation of USDA policy.

The government billed the business for more than 50 million pounds of beef purchased for the National School Lunch Program. Further bills for the cost of destroying the beef and providing new supplies to affected schools may cost another $50 million. It is probable that the plant will not be able to pay. Taxpayers will pick up the tab.

Source: WatertownDailyTimes

Blackdown Hills food and drink festival 24th May - 1st June 2008

For a taste of cider making, farm open days and cookery sessions look no further than the first Blackdown Hills food and drink festival.

The event will take place from May 24 until June 1 with the launch to be held in Hemyock and the grand finale at the Beech Hayes Farm.

As well as the food and drink demonstrations visitors will be given the chance to see how food is produces close up and sample a range of local delicacies.

For more information or to take part contact Kate Harris on 01458-241401.

Source: SomersetCountyGazette

Whisky Slump Brews on back of Budget

The husband of Labour leader Wendy Alexander has predicted sales of Scottish whisky could slump as a result of changes introduced in the Budget.

Professor Brian Ashcroft claimed that measures announced by Chancellor Alistair Darling would translate into a 10% price rise for spirits, compared to a 5% increase for beer and 4% for wine.

And he suggested that could see a drop of about 9% in sales of whisky and other spirits.

Massive Cristal Champagne Order at Aintree

One Aintree punter raised more than a glass to the winning horse after pre-ordering £13,000 worth of Cristal Champagne.

The mystery London-based businessman asked staff at Water Street's Newz Bar to stockpile 45 bottles of Louis Roederer's premier bubbly after a night there last Saturday.

Newz managers say that night he spent £1,800 drinking the bar dry of Dom Perignon champagne.

He and friends plans to drink 15 of the £295 Cristal bottles each night of the race meeting.

Newz say the order is unprecedented, and believe it to be the largest sale of Cristal ever seen in the city. They have had to buy extra in from their regular suppliers Willoughby's as well as wholesalers Costco.

Paul Flanagan, Newz bar's owner, said: "We never stock that much, so we have had to go out and order extra in.

"We're trying to source it from anywhere because it's so difficult to get in.

"He paid up front for it. At the end of the day we're a Liverpool business – there's no messing about."

Mr Flanagan said he expects a record turnout on Friday night, with 5,000 revellers through Newz's doors.

Every seat in the 600-capacity bar has been reserved ahead of Ladies' Day on Friday.

"They'll be leaving before the second to last race is over," he said.

"It used to be just the Friday but because of the demand for the extra stands there's a good Thursday and Saturday. We're expecting a record week."

Elsewhere in the city's bars, a group of Champagne-quaffing stockbrokers will descend on Kingdom nightclub, where they have paid £1,000 for two booths on both Friday and Saturday nights.

They will make their way through 10, £350-bottles of Dom Perignon rosé champagne while at the Harrington Street venue. And starlet Coleen McLoughlin has booked a post-Ladies' Day table for 20 at the St Thomas hotel for her and friends.

At Aldo's Place, on Victoria Street, Ireland's biggest bookmaker Paddy Power are staging a three-day takeover.

They have promised to buy a drink for everyone in the bar on Saturday night if an Irish horse wins the John Smith's Grand National.

It is a re-run of a stunt the company pulled last year at a cost of £11,000.

Co-owner Gary Williams said: "I thought it would be a one-off, but he wants to do it again.

"Last year, all the floors were absolutely chocker. We had the winning jockey in here, too."

Source: LiverpoolDailyPost

Marco Pierre White Heads to the US

Having launched his small-screen career last September on ITV's Hell's Kitchen and used that exposure to leverage product-hawking opportunities (stock cubes), Marco Pierre White seems to have realised the really big bucks lie across the Atlantic. One-time protégé Gordon Ramsay already fronts the lucrative Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares franchises there, and White is set to star in The Chopping Block, which will see eight couples battle to run two Manhattan restaurants.

As one of our chefs goes over there, so one of America's exports is on its way back here. During its 1980s heyday, in a relatively limited London scene, The Chicago Rib Shack was an undeniable hit. Now, just shy of a decade after it closed, it is to return to Knightsbridge this May, just around the corner from the original Shack. It remains to be seen whether the concept has aged well, but it would be difficult to do worse than the previous tenants of the site, the woefully misguided Brazilian, Mocoto.

Source: TheIndependent

Thailand - The New Halal Food Hub?

Thailand will host the third Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED) in the next two years as part of efforts to turn the Kingdom into a regional hub for halal food.

Ministers and senior officials from 50 countries and regional organisations from Asia and the Middle East ended two days of dialogue in Egypt's resort beach of Sharm El Sheikh yesterday with a joint declaration to cooperate in political security, economics and social-culture matters.

AMED has already established a sub-working group on halal food to set standards for products and production.

Halal food is produced and certificated in accordance with Islamic principles for Muslims. Thailand aims to be a regional hub for halal food production and is bidding to create jobs for economic development in the restive South where the vast majority of the population is Muslim.

The Thai government and private sector plan to develop a halal industrial estate in Pattani.

Thailand also proposed the two regions would explore possibilities to use food crops to produce alternative energy.

"Food is now linked with energy security and sustainable development, a nexus we should explore further," said Foreign Ministry deputy permanent secretary Chariyavat Santaputra, who led the Thai delegation.

AMED, in its joint declaration, stressed the importance of undertaking concrete actions in various areas including logistics, infrastructure, small and medium enterprises, development, energy and food security.

The AMED participants also affirmed the importance of energy in their relations and will enhance cooperation as world oil prices keep rocketing.

Petroleum companies from Asia are looking to invest in oil and gas in the Middle East to secure their energy resources. Asia has a number of projects in the energy sector such as the US$10-billion (Bt310 billion) Rabigh Petrochemical Plant - a joint venture between Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical. Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) has investments in oil and gas in Egypt, Oman, Bahrain, Iran and Algeria, Chariyavat said.

Source: NationMultimedia

Gordon Ramsey Gets Good French Reviews

After one full week of service Gordon Ramsay au Trianon has already received some excellent review coverage in several of the French national publications. La Bonne Vie gave an overall score of 15 out of 20 commenting on the good menu ideas. The critic especially enjoyed the stuffed calamari, 'a delightfully simple dish'.
 
Respected national newspaper Le Monde also gave the restaurant a very positive review. Critic Jean-Claude Ribaut praises the food commenting that the dishes look good and are clearly constructed, and that there is a good combination between 'sea and land'.