Category Archives: Food

More profit and higher yields through organic farming in India

Increase your income and your yields with traditional farming methods? That’s what’s happening in India.

Nishika Patel blogged 11 May 2011 in The Guardian, Organic farming – India’s future perfect?

India’s struggling farmers are starting to profit from a budding interest in organic living. Not only are the incomes of organic farmers soaring – by 30% to 200%, according to organic experts – but their yields are rising as the pesticide-poisoned land is repaired through natural farming methods.
How did this happen?
Organic farming only took off in the country about seven years ago. Farmers are turning back to traditional farming methods for a number of reasons.

First, there’s a 10% to 20% premium

Continue reading →

Factory Chickens

We were just driving and these were in front of us:


Where are we going?

I recognized them from Food, Inc. They get them out of the chicken houses at night. It was maybe around 8 o’clock in the morning. (7:51 according to the timestamp.) According to Food, Inc., they’re put in the cages as little babies, and they put the sides down. These chickens have probably never seen daylight before: Continue reading →

Preserving beautyberry

Here are some freshly canned jars of beautyberry:

So first you pick and cook the beautyberries, then you strain them and cook them again, and finally, you can them in jars, as you can see Gretchen doing in the video linked through the little picture to the right.

Here is one batch of beautyberry jelly jars:

Pictures and preserving of beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, by Gretchen Quarte rman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 Oct 2010

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Straining beautyberry

So far we’ve picked and cook the beautyberries. Now we want to pour it through a strainer to get out any remaining stems or skins. That’s why it’s going to be jelly, not jam. This strainer is an old pillow case.

First get it nice and bubbling.

Then strain it as in the first picture above. Then cook it some more and add sugar.

To be continued….

Straining and cooking of Callicarpa americana by Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 16 Oct 2010.

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Picking and cooking beautyberry

Those small violet berries in the woods: it’s beautyberry, and you can eat it. (No, not pokeberry; those are larger, and the stems are purple.) Beautyberry grows in clumps that you can pick like you’re milking the bush.

First, find some ripe ones:

Pick them and wash them:

And boil them:

To be continued….

Pictures of Callicarpa americana, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 Oct 2010, as well as picking, cooking, by Gretchen Quarterman.

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