Hi all,
Anyone else here really happy that there are peple like Jamie Oliver still around? I am of course refering to the last two specials aired on Ten recently. I think to go ahead and p#$% off soooo many advertising giants around the world (think KFC, Mcs, Ingam etc) is the bravest thing a celebrity can do. Even with the controversy the results of “fowl dinners” speak for themselves- in UK a ten million sale drop off factory farmed chickens in one week! Apparently free range and organic chickens and eggs were selling out country wide. For me personally it is now a lot easier to justify the pricey organic eggs to my girlfriend.
Anyone that has followed Jamies books and TV specials have probably seen his recipes swing to some really old school ideals. His last book ‘Jamie at home’ sits up there with Nourshing Traditions for me. While there is some things I dont agree with (he still uses refined flours in breads, pizza recipes) I think he like all of us is still learning.
Anyways my first post so pls be gentle!
Peace,
Dan.
Jul 24th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Welcome Dan. Love your work. Friends have told me about Jamie’s latest gear. Sounds so great. I almost miss having a TV.
Jul 24th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Cheers,
Oh I forgot my fave Jamie moments from last series was a bit on pastry. When everyone else on TV is STILL preaching low fat Jamie shows the secret to good savoury pastry by using lard, lots of lard. It made me remember my grandmothers pie crusts and how when we found out how it was made we were horrified. Saying things like “oh you can’t cook like that anymore”. What we didn’t realise was our grandparents were in the better shape than anyone their age. It was only when doctors convivced them to eat a modern diet did their health fail, diabetes arthritus etc.
Oh but we knew so much more about food than their generation!
Peace,
Dan.
Jul 24th, 2008 at 2:07 am
I SAW THAT! How disgusting to be shown all of that chicken and then have to sit there and eat a meal! Gross. I try to buy organic free range chickens, grass fed beef and free range eggs, but the chicken is sometimes hard to get. I think now I’ll definitely skip on it if I can’t get free range. The poor things looked diseased. It’s so sad how our greedy consumerism gets in the way of animal rights. Fair enough, we eat them, but ethically we should care about their quality of life before we do if we’re to have a good conscience. I used to be a vegetarian and would debate with people for hours: if they had seen the cow slaughtered, butchered and served up to their hygienic supermarket deli trays, would they still eat it? Most said they try not to think about it, ethically, that is morally corrupt.
Jul 24th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Hi Dan.
Managed to catch the start of Fowl Dinners last night and besides crying hysterically I stand up and applaud Jamie Oliver for his efforts. He is seen by many people as young and hip not as a militant animal rights campaigner (not that there is anything wrong with this, we need the animal rights campaigners but their message is not going to get through to everyone, by taking this current stand, Jamie Oliver will get the message through to so many different types of people that the lives animals lead is important even if it’s only to make them more nutritious for us to eat. Any change for the better is a start). Taking this stand in the face of potentially losing income from sponserhips by food manufacturers is even braver.
I’ve already had some interesting conversations with clients this morning about eggs and chickens sparked by last nights TV. One particular client has refused to switch from battery eggs because he thought that an egg was an egg. This morning he conceded that he would try free range eggs, that perhaps they might be more nutritious.
Many years ago while shopping, I picked up some organic chicken breast fillets in the supermarket, looked at the price then put them back and picked up the non organic ones and put them in my trolley. I always had chickens growing up as a child and we would often take on ex battery hens. As I continued shopping I started to think about the life that the chicken in my trolley had led, just thinking about it made me start crying in the middle of the supermarket. I took the non organic chicken back and swapped them for the organic ones.
Death is a part of the cycle of life. Every living being dies. We can’t choose how and when we die but we can choose how we live and we can choose to support practices that endorse happy fulfilled lives for animals or not.
Well done Dan for choosing organic eggs even in the face of opposition from your girlfriend!!
Jul 24th, 2008 at 2:24 am
You can watch Jamies Fowl Dinners on You Tube (so you don’t need to miss having a TV Joanne!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20W_R-wWFA8
(sorry don’t know how to make the link active so you’ll have to make do with a cut and paste into your browser)
Jul 24th, 2008 at 2:44 am
I watched the fowl show, it was very well presented and very real in expressing the factory farming ways where chicks and chickens are treated like machines, cut off from their fundamental birthrights- earth, sun and nature. They stated that there was enough open land to farm all chickens and eggs in England free range but it isn’t happening because there is a market for cheap/budget price chicken. This is great to be shown on entertainment TV. I’m curious to see what Jamie will do next.
Hey Dan you didn’t tell us about you?
Jul 24th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Hi Dan! Yes, I saw Jamie Oliver last night too. We had our own chicken in a soup today. I was glad we were able to enjoy it guilt free! I agree, it was a good program and will obviously reach a lot of people, however, I thought he could have said something about hormones and antibiotics (or did I miss that?). I thought the show last week on those people eating junk food was pretty good too, but he could have talked about the evils of sugar and trans fats. But you’re not going to get it perfect! I was thinking how good it would be for Sally Fallon and Mary Enig to do a series like that.
Jul 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I saw the last two episodes of Jamie Oliver, and I think he’s absolutely awesome. Its about time an ethical approach to meat/chickens was taken by a mainstream persona without endorsing vegetarianism. The world is waking up!
By the way do you watch Ramsay’s show? He’s raising two berkshire piggies in his backyard at the moment and then slaughtering them at the end of the series for his ultimate meal.
Jul 25th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Sorry guys I am still fluffing about with word press, I’m really bad with computers. So here for now is a brief rundown of Dan aka bowden.
At 20 I was 120kg borderline alcoholic smoker with skyrocketing blood pressure and a adiction to bad foods. I was becoming interested in strength training but more interested in drinking myself into the ground! At 22 my part time gym training and physical job started to chisel down my ample frame to 100kg. I was quite strong but still smoking and eating poorly (now what the doc told me was good food!) By 23 I was still losing weight and now obsessed with losing more. I discovered low carb dieting and this was probably the healthist period of my life. Steak or eggs with veg for B, L, and dinner. I was strong and muscular but wanted more. Calorie counting came next then Fit for life then another then another until is I was under 70kg. My ribs were visable, pale and sunken eyed, every cut or scratch took months to heal and I was become weaker than a child- basically I was dying. But heres the best bit. My family forced me to see a doctor. He did a full physical and blood tests. My BMI was perfect!(Gotta love a medical tool that only works for tall asian women) My Tris, HDL, LDLs all perfect and for the first time my BP was low. The doc told me I was in great shape and I should continue by cutting the skin off chicken and drinking skim milk! My mother was horrified and I felt like I knew more than anybody now. Felt like I was right along.
Its funny but I can’t remember the turning point, it was probably a multitude of events. I do know that the work of the WAPF was a major contribution in my recovery. I was instantly drawn to the question “what is good food?” Is it heat processed milk powder from sick cows fed grain? White meat from chickens that have never seen the sun and are the size of bloody turkeys? No and No. Good food for me is what generations of our ancestors dicovered by living and dying. Not in a test tube or in a lab. Good food is real butter and raw honey spread of naturally levained whole grain bread. It is a soup made with whole cuts of meat, fresh veg and a stock made lovingly over a whole day. It is respecting where and who the food comes from. But for me above all “good food” is about enjoying it slowly with the people you love.
Thanks again to everyone on this wonderful site.
And sorry I guess it wasn’t so brief.
peace
Dan.
Jul 25th, 2008 at 7:00 am
I watched that show and I applaud him. Yes I am a meat eater, throughout. I don’t agree with veganism, but that is me. However, I do care how those animals are treated and killed before they come to my plate. Quickly and painlessly.
How he killed and bled the chicken, while graphic, at least the chicken did not suffer.
I also liked the end, when he took those remaining chickens to his property and how they are free to roam and lay eggs.
Jul 25th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I love Jamie’s work. I haven’t seen the chicken doco, but watched the series on British school dinners and his series on gardening and cooking from the garden. Both are very inspirational. It’s so good to see someone with celebrity power doing such good things for the world, and that influence can be used well.
I really like what Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall does too.
Jul 27th, 2008 at 3:53 am
Haha Dan, I guess we were all ‘health obsessed’ at some point, all eventually finding our way here through sheer instinct. The thing is, you can do all of the ‘right’ things nutritionally and still become sick. Mainstream nutrition has got it so wrong! When sick, humans seem to (eventually) gravitate towards nourishing whole foods, like they ate when they were a kid, or the way their grandparents ate. When you have a flu, nothing heals quite like the failsafe chicken soup. Welcome!
Jul 30th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Hughe Fearnley-Whittinsall rocks. I wonder if he has read nourishing traditions? His recipes and approach to life is very much what that book is about. He is totally living the dream I think . Wish he was on free to air and not just on foxtel.