Carla Burke

Herbed salts would go nicely in them.

That's a much easier method than the previous ones, too, I think!

Burra Maluca wrote:It mentioned that in the video, which surprised me greatly as here in Portugal the cooked ones are significantly more expensive. Though when I hunted around on the interwebs about it I heard it suggested that the reason they are the same price in the US is that they cook the ones that aren't sold to stop them going to waste. Not sure if that's true but it would explain a lot.

Jay Angler wrote:the list doesn't include heart and liver, which make a great pate when cooked and whizzed with an egg, onion, red wine vinegar and some extra spices.

Oh I absolutely use the liver to make pate! For the freebie scraps I get, they usually come via my son who gets me a bag when he buys his meat for the week. But if ever he's in the shop and doesn't need to buy anything, he has instructions to buy me a kilo of chicken liver to make pate with as the scraps are supposed to only be for customers. If I'm really lucky the liver will be from a 'new' batch that the butcher hasn't picked all the hearts out of, because chicken hearts go for twice the price of liver here so when they have some free time they pick them out to sell separately. If I get a good batch with both hearts and liver, I pick them out myself as we both love the texture and flavour of them.  My other half is quite partial to a bit of chicken liver to make dirty rice too.

When we use our own birds, we usually pay a local Mennonite family to process them for us. At $5@, it's worth it to us, because our labor, time, & spoons are worth more to us, than the $5. That said, we do get the innards we want, the necks, and feet, if we tell them we want them, then if we want them cut, we do that ourselves, which allows us to pick & choose which ones we want to use in which way. Definitely boosts the value!

That said, after our trip to Costco, yesterday, cut up was almost half again the cost of the whole bird, in the same brand (we eat more chicken than we process, as our birds are primarily for eggs). We bought both. We often just don't have the time/spoons to process them, so we buy both - and get more meals out of the whole one, making them even more cost effective.

For us, it comes down to spoons, and whether we have company coming, how many people, and how we want to cook for them.  If we have a couple days notice, but will be pressed for time, when they come, we will thaw a whole bird & roast it - 2 or 3 more people fed, only a few minutes of actual work to be done. More than 4? Soup or chicken&dumplins it is - whole chicken, not much more work than the roast, fed an army. Only 1 or 2 people coming? A little more time available? Fried, baked, bbq, or something-a-little-fancier-chicken, probably a pack of pieces.

We almost exclusively purchase beef & pork by the whole muscle, too - and when we buy a 'side of', we order it cut to the whole muscle. The savings there are even higher than for chicken, plus we can have it the way we want it. John cures & smokes all of our own bacon, grinds and blends our own sausages (a few types of breakfast sausage, plus a couple styles each of Italian & brats), and grinds & blends our hamburger, jerky-style meat sticks, cures our own corned beef & cures & smokes our pastrami. He also cuts all our steaks, chops, roasts, etc. Since he's willing and able to do the labor, we often save 75% or more on all these items, over the market prices. $3.50/lb, for ribeye steaks & filet mignon? YES PLEASE!

Wow, y'all!! Great work!! You're all awesome!!

Fun thread, Christopher! Great way to prove out that having the 'perfect' equipment just doesn't always matter, in getting started. In fact, I think improvising & building one's own equipment usually gives a better understanding of how things work, which in turn can lead to better skill.

I could give a fair list of herbs that could help, but there's a difference between tension and hypertension, and how they're best dealt with. So, first thing I would ask is are we talking about one or both? If only one, which? Is it long term, or a recent development? One thing I can feel pretty safe in recommending to almost anyone is tulsi/ holy basil. It is an incredibly effective adaptogen that addresses both types of tension, with no nasty side effects.

I would also support the nettle recommendation - it's also an amazing herb, with one caveat: too much of it will act as a laxative, and the amount needed to get to 'laxative effect' varies from person to person.

I've had my husband on both hawthorn and passion flower for years, for both his heart and blood pressure.

Lavender, chamomile, catnip, ashwaganda, rose, and others can be a wonderful help with stress, but might only touch hypertension lightly, or only help alleviate symptoms, without addressing the root of the problem - that often depends on the person's individual constitution, diet, genetics, environment, habits, temperament... There are many more factors, and for something like hypertension, I would strongly advise finding (locally) a good naturopath that can help you dig into all the aforementioned factors (& I'm sure more), to help you find the best protocol for your unique situation.

Great video!! I subscribed to her channel, after watching it, and perusing her other videos. Just wow!

Matt McSpadden wrote:Which would you rather invest in?

MoooOOOOOOO!!!

I've decided I need to plant at least another 6 peach trees(only have one, right now), as well as at least a dozen more of other fruit trees. Maybe THEN the wildlife will let me have a few more. If I could just have enough for a couple batches of jam, and say half a dozen pies & cobbler, I'd be a very happy camper.

greg mosser wrote:so glad they made it semi-okay! you’re getting to taste them quite ripe - they were still green when they left here.

Whoah! Yeh, I forgot to take photos of the insides. Some parts were fairly dark yellow.