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Gilding the lily….
….for some reason, people keep coming up with new ways of preparing bacon. Why that is necessary, I don’t know. Guess it’s because they don’t have access to Thistle Hill bacon. So for you folks…. http://www.aol.com/article/2016/01/08/oven-baked-candied-whiskey-bacon/21294253/?ncid=facebookfanpageusaolc00000007 Thanks to Church Matthews for the link.
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Rescue mission….
….grandson Church and a friend from college, Rachel Dyl, have suddenly found themselves spending their vacation nursing a newborn calf. The calf was a twin….his smaller sister is doing fine. But big brother never got up to nurse and mother has abandoned him. We have him up and standing…and even taking a few steps…but he still hasn’t decided whether this whole “living thing” is worth the effort. We won’t give up until he does.
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Thistle Hill Alumni Club….
….nothing like starting off the new year with a brand new calf and that’s what Bill and Cindy Keitner did at their farm in Summit Point, West Virginia. Mom is a very pretty bred cow we sold the Keitners earlier this year. We prefer starting out newcomers to the cattle business with experienced cows. That makes the first calving trouble-free and happy. The sire was one of our English bulls. The nosy bystander is another bred cow of ours’….and from one of our very best lines. She is due any day.
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A year end report….
….not from us, but from our English colleague and Cornwall correspondent, Juliet Cleave. Juliet and husband Chris are partners in our Traditional Devon™ project and in recent years their hard work has vaulted their Kew herd to the very top of Devon farms…anywhere. This year-end video doesn’t begin to do Kew Devons justice….but will give you an idea. Turn up the sound!
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Gluten sensitivity….maybe not….
….here’s a nutritionist that makes the point that gluten has been around for thousands of years. While all the gluten sensitivity now? (To be honest, I suspected it was one of those yuppie diseases). But here’s an explanation that makes sense to me: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/real-reason-for-toxic-wheat-its-not-gluten/ Thanks to Dawn Gerrish for the link.
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The Christmas Tree bill….
….perhaps the greatest wrongs committed in Washington are discovered too-late in what is known as the Christmas Tree bill. That’s when all the pet projects of all the corrupt lawmakers are loaded onto a “must-pass” bill to keep the government running. It comes up for a vote—all the bad stuff hidden among the required stuff—at the last minute before the politicians head home for the holidays. This year, the Christmas Tree bill was that Omnibus spending bill rammed through by Speaker Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi. Let’s say you’re a lawmaker and you have a bank in your district that wants to confiscate the savings of widows and orphans. Well, you put…
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If you read only one thing today….
….it’s this on the jockeying for new nutrition guidelines. And if time is limited read the last paragraph. Or if it’s really limited, here’s the last paragraph: There’s no shortage of lessons here, well beyond this food fight. Even when everyone’s intentions are good, politics can get in the way of science. Scientists are not immune to fads and groupthink just because they claim to speak for science. Special interests work the refs, but the refs often have an agenda as well. Winners of policy fights hate to lose — or admit they’re wrong. And people who shout about a settled consensus are often only shouting to drown out those…
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Chloe is trying hard….
I mean really trying….but she just can’t get the Christmas Spirit! Photo by Church Matthews
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So what is Chipotle doing about it?
This is the most complete article we’ve seen on what the fast-food chain is doing about the food-poisoning outbreak. Complete except that it doesn’t say anything about how this all happened after Chipotle abandoned grass fed beef and substituted the industrial product used by everyone else. It’s also interesting that the company brags about using Niman Ranch pork but it’s only a fraction of the total pork used. Just enough for the ads?? http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-chipotle-food-safety-crisis/
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Mission accomplished….
…if you detect a note of smugness, it is because “Boss Hog” has bred our three sows and is now looking forward to the “blessed event” in March. He’s a Gloucester Old Spot…and an ideal cross for our Tamworth. There’s a good reason the British call Tamworth “the bacon breed” and GOS increases the yield without any sacrifice in flavor. We may be convinced to sell a few small roaster pigs for your grill spit but the real test will come late next year when our first major crop of piglets is ready for harvest. Photo by Church Matthews.