Podchef's Gastrocast Podcast

Welcome to the Podchef's Gastrocast!
The podcast about cooking, food, and the politics of what we eat.

Blogroll Me!


Gastrocast Cookbook

Gastrocast #65

Dog Treats on this week's Show. I'm busy preparing for a market and as I've injured my shoulder, everything is a bit woozy and I've been grousing more than usual.

Flickr Photos

Music by Tryad--Our Lives Change

Don't try these--they are stupid and dangerous, but just if you are curious about omelettes which take more effort than they should. . . . Not to mention they are cooked in a poly-bag not meant for cooking--what leaches out of them? I'm not even sure about the Sous Vide bags which restaurants are so keen to use.

by: ChefNeal at 06/30/06 12:42 | link | comments (2)|
cooking, podchef, gastrocast, daughters, cooking show podcast, culinary podcast, grass fed revolution, dog treats, dog bones, cooking with kids

Podchef Gets New Pans--video

A little amusement for your pleasure:

by: ChefNeal at 06/27/06 13:05 | link | comments (3)|
video, pots & pans

Contaminated Cattle Feed--or, make mine Grass Fed

This is so wrong. It's like some reoccuring nightmare which you can't wake up from. Why are some people so stupid? Why can't people get it through their heads that this is wrong, evil, and debauched? Is greed for profit what makes things like this happen?

Contaminated feed ingredients have been shipped to 9 states. Big deal you say? What's the panic? Not only did the feed and suppliments contain ground up cattle remains, but it was destined for dairy cattle. Who knows what gets passes on through milk. . . .? This feed contamination is in violation of a 1997 ban on including cattle remains in animal feed to help prevent BSE, or Mad Cow.

This is one more example that arrogance and stupidity go hand in hand. "It would never happen to us. . .so let's keep doing it. . . .until we're caught. . . ."

Consumers need to demand that the USDA start testing every slaughtered beef animal--cow, steer or bull--for BSE. They need to stop testing only "downer" cattle and impliment a proactive stance against industry's abuse of our trust. And they need to do it now, and not blind or distract us with a smoke and mirrors plan like the National Animals Identification System.

On the flip side American Consumers need to wake up and fuel the Grass Fed Revolution! We need to stop eating meats fattened on Corn and grain--which they can't metabolize and so need all kinds of antibioltics and suppliments. We need to get off the cheap food bus which drives the industry to cut corners and litterally feed the animals we eat shit. And we need to demand easier access to locally produced meats which can be monitored more carefully.

If beef it truely what's for dinner, than it had better be safe, healthy, diease free and sustainable. And in that picture there is no place for feed lots, manure lagoons, grain mills, antibiotics, insecticides, worming dredes, and BSE.

Somewhere along the way the American Industrial Complex decided it had too much of  waste product and it had to get rid of it at a profit--hence we have fertilizers no one really needs. Then came excess corn to soak up the fertilizers so they polluted the earth only slightly less. Then, what to do with so much corn? Feed it to animals--that'll get rid of it. Now we have a host of problems, including more fertilizer waste--90 pounds per animal per day--and an abundance of diseases and contamination issues..

Grass fed meats have none of these problems. No grains necessary. No fertilizers necessary--the animals provide all that's needed. Leaner, healthier meat, more fitting an America much in need of dietary reform. And smaller herds rasied locally, kept away from disease causing feed lots, and massive slaughterhouses breeding superbugs .

Is this a fiction, or a myth? I think not. It can happen. Vote with your wallet. Speak out against infractions like this contaminated feed issue. Help stop the NAIS--which favors a meat industry out of control at the peril of small, grass-fed, healthy herds. And become a part of the Grass Fed Revolution--all pigs, chickens, cattle, sheep and goats welcome--it's healthier for us and for the planet.

by: ChefNeal at 06/23/06 14:29 | link | comments (2)|
animals, food contamination, usdassholes, mad cow, beef, food safety, local, e coli, bse, idiocy, nais, national animal indentification, animal id, animal husbandry, farmers revolt, meat, grass fed revolution, eatwild

Gastrocast #64

A bit of a different show this week, must be because it's summer!  The tunes are cranked in Kitchen Studio, the doors and windows are wide opened and the path between the kitchen and garden is getting well worn. All day long the Roosters lustily share my enthusiasm.

Join me for a revelation, a rant and a gratin.


Flicker Photos

Music for the show by Geoff Smith--No More Summertime Blues and Not on the Radio

by: ChefNeal at 06/23/06 00:02 | link | comments (2)|
podchef, gastrocast, summer, vegetables, seasonal, cooking show podcast, culinary podcast

Ravenous S'more Recipe

Kudos to Marc over at the Ravenous Blog for posting the S'Mores Recipe from Gastrocast #62. I always have the best intentions of posting these when I put up the show, but can't always find the time. Mea Culpa. Glad to know some listeners have my back!

 I really like the way he incorporated links to the photos in the recipe text--don't know why I missed something so simple and elegant before. Way cool! I think he may have invented a new sort of Internet, Interactive cooking platform. And it only took a year after I pushed the envelope of the Flickr/Podcast connection. . . .

by: ChefNeal at 06/21/06 20:55 | link | comments (2)|
recipes, gastrocast, ravenous blog

Not so Merry-Go-'Round

I have long felt that trade in our "new world order" global economy is broken. Oh, sure, that's not the Government's view--to them all is hunky and dory.  Much is riding on global trade, even if it is ridiculous and useless, but I think it is more about lining pockets than benifiting nations.

Yesterday I stumbled upon this BBC article on how Brittain reached a point in April where it was "ecologically bankrupt"--in otherwords, Brittain consumes more than it produces. The article is well worth a read, but the most interesting statistics in the piece relect what I was writing about above:

• In 2004, the UK exported 1,500 tonnes of fresh potatoes to Germany, and imported 1,500 tonnes of the same product from the same country
• Imported 465 tonnes of gingerbread, but exported 460 tonnes of the same produce
• Sent 10,200 tonnes of milk and cream to France, yet imported 9,900 tonnes of the dairy goods from France

This roundy-round of goods is extremely wasteful. Benefits no one--especially in terms of wasted fuel for transportation, security checks, packaging and the inevitable waste it all produces. The first two points are very clear and very silly. I guess for the third point you have to be a "foodie" (God I hate that term, can't we come up with something better which isn't as snobby as Gourmand?).  Surely the milk and cream sent to France is the best Britain has to offer--the products Britian is known for: double-cream, clotted cream, rich and delicious, high butter-fat content goodness, the likes of which is hard to find in the modern world. That is the hope on that front, anyway. And surely the products France is shipping back are the dangerous, hopefully illegal, raw-milk cheeses from goats, sheep and cows. If not that, then some damn-fine Brie's and Port Salut. That dairy exchange is okay--but Spuds for Spuds, or Gingerbread People for same??

I am sure there are countless other, similar instances of waste around the globe--take the USA, please! We import 40% of our Beef. We export a tremendous amount as well. Why? Better for the Farmers--says the USDA.  Or is this, perhaps, because Americans are too cheap to pay a fair amount for their own food? We'd much rather build a consumer nation based on imported electronics than eat the best the land has to offer.

I mention the beef thing, not only because it bothers me tremendously, or that the USDA is using beef exports as a justification for its Fascist NAIS plan, but because we ship out high quality meats but import low-grade beef from countries whose regulations are not as strict as ours. This is surely a recipe for disaster.

Not only does importation of inferior meats mean as waste of fuel and resources, but also the possibility of disease entering the system. Not to mention chemical and drug-laden products--But we already know the  USDA doesn't really care that much about that, or for the people who will eat it, or for letting consumers know where the meat is coming from.

As the global agendy is pushed, the one Godless Nation formed, the Amero pushed and trade expanded and as our foods are increasingly imported while the USDA plumps up export income figures, while our farmers are being cheated, stop and take a deep breath. Pause and think about what we can do to prevent this from happening before it all flushes down the whole. Exhale and go and do it--Raise you fist in the air, sing a line from "We're Not going to Take it", head to the Farmer's Market, local Co-Op, neighborhood roadside stand, local farm. Start buying local. Get others to join in the fun. Spread the love by harassing your Congressman or local government to be supportive of local commerce and products. Show people how important all this is before it gets lost. And live well, knowing you've been part of the difference.

by: ChefNeal at 06/20/06 14:14 | link | comments |
usdassholes, beef, trade, nais, national animal indentification, ecological debt, import, export, amero

Gastrocast #63

This week the show is late, again, and it's been crazy. Hear me rant about the destruction of the South Central Urban Farm in LA and make Welsh Rarebit to calm myself down.

Daryl Hannah Arrested
South Central Farmers
Bokashi Buckets

Flickr Photos

by: ChefNeal at 06/16/06 23:25 | link | comments |
cooking, podchef, catering, gastrocast, bokashi, cooking show podcast, culinary podcast, south central farmers

WIll over-inflated Ag estimates burst?

The USDA loves to quote just how important American Agriculture is to the world and to US. They tout 27% of farm income comes from trade, some $64.5 Billion dollars in 2006. But it's all just lies. Or perhaps not exactly lies, but a huge stretching of an already  thin truth.

This article from the Journal Star makes the point that these figures are an over-inflation of the facts. These figures are based on export value, not what is actually earned by the farmer on the farm. There is a great podcast interview about this very point at AgPolicySoup--the podcasting arm of FarmPolicy.com

What does this mean and why should be care? While it is nothing new to say our Government is lying to us--it just goes to show the extent of the rot. Examples of hyperbole like this invalidate every statistic the government flings at us. Obviously Agricultural Foreign trade isn't as important as we've been led to believe--at least not on the export side. On the import end of things, we're way off the scale: too much, too cheap, too bad.

Our economy is in the toilet. The policy makers are too busy trying to be like the Tidy-Bowl man, floating around in the pan clouding the waters all the while pretending to clean things up. Their efforts seem like they're working--isn't toilet water colored blue?--they look good, while the spotlight is on them, but sooner or later it all gets flushed away.

The real question is if we produce so much more than we use in this country then why don't we use more? Why are we importing so much? Why are other countries willing to pay more for our goods than we are? How did things get so unbalanced?  Unless these things are addressed and if trade negotiations continue to be based on inflated statistics, American Farming will continue to collapse. And while food prices may remain low,  the quality and safety of our food supply  will drop as the distance it travels increases.

Don't feed the greed of the export cycle. Support your local farmers!  Keep your money in the only bank that matters--your local community. You get the best, seasonal products at a price, which may be more initially, but promotes sustainability. The Farmer can earn a living without the overhead and regulations needed to play the export game. The community, the county and the state--wherever you are--gain the resources to improve without relying on, or waiting for Govenment dollars. And while you're out there FLOSS-ing--Fresh, Local, Organic, Seasonal, Sustainable--convince a neighbor, business or restaurant to do so as well. And I mean do convince them--not just for themselves or the community but for the Nation.

by: ChefNeal at 06/13/06 14:53 | link | comments |
usdassholes, agriculture export estimates