Hi everybody. Just glad I store my grain in sealed 5-gallon buckets. Eww, I hate bugs.
The bugs are already in the grain. So, don't be surprised if you open one of those buckets and find the evil weevils.
Hi everybody. Just glad I store my grain in sealed 5-gallon buckets. Eww, I hate bugs.
Boy, if you only knew the amount of bug's legs, mouse bodies, and foreign matter (rocks, sticks, etc) that were incorporated into the foods you eat, you'd probably die of starvation.
If you ever want to change the way you think and feel about the food you eat, check out The Jungle, Upton Sinclair. I wonder if there's a brewing industry equivalent?
Growing up on a dairy farm, the bugs do not surprise me.
Grain has mold, fungus, feces, urine, bugs, weed seeds, dead animal carcases (rat, mice, racoon, possum, etc...), maggots from rotting carcases, (grease, oil, fuel from farmers machinery), foreign grain seeds, animal vomit, viruses, rotting grain, crickets, grasshoppers (live), bird sh**, etc... you name it, it's probably in there.
It's some of the dirtiest stuff you can imagine... then it's "cleaned" (more like sifted) by the combine and a fanning mill.
There are certain limits of these things that will be tolerated when the farmer sells their grain at the market or mill.
Of course it's suppose to be stored under sanitary conditions. The "grainery" we had was well over 100 years old and had about 2 feet of rotten grain onto which we placed each years new harvest. Of course each years harvest contributed to that rotten layer on the bottom.
When entering the grainery, one could here rats, mice and racoons scattering and see the signs they left sitting on top of the grain.
The working conditions were really poor, (no one should have to breath dust from these things)...
I remember going to load straw at an old timers farm. He spotted a racoon in the straw mow and grabbed a pitch fork, repeatedly driving the pitch fork through the animal until it was dead. Now a racoon is a fierce creature but that didn't stop this old timer. I had never heard an animal screech and snarl so loud. Of course he threw the dead carcass next to the pile of oats in his "grainery" saying he would get rid of it after loading the straw.... This was called "forkin' 'coon" and even Little House on the Praire has a reference to it when Chuck Ingalls, carrying a pitch fork, says to his wife, "I'm going to fork 'coon!"
So yea, good times on the farm.
I had a history teacher in high school that one day out of the blue served the whole class venison summer sausage, cheese,.and crackers. After everyone started eating he went to the front and started reading select portions from The Jungle.
Some people made a big fuss about it, but I thought it was pretty damn funny
Best post of the bunch. I am a foodie so I like to know where my food originates. Also, forkin' coon is forkin' cool.
broadbill said:I don't get the point of the teacher's demo....
Maybe you need to go read The Jungle (or read it again if necessary).
Take a tour of a packing plant. You'll never eat hotdogs again.
I keep hearing these things. What cold possibly go into a hotdog that is all that bad? Powders, mechanically seperated meat, the odd bug body part...
Its a disturbing mental picture, absolutely, but it doesnt speak to the idea of something "unwholesome" going into the finished product. Im actually glad that no part of the animal seems to be going to waste.
its all about context: A big lug of cow cheeks being ground up into a meat paste to fill a hot dog skin = disturbing
Michelin star restaurant serves a special of braised cow cheeks over a parsnip puree = foodies jizzing in their pants.
I don't get the point of the teacher's demo....
Oh, I've read it a number of times...and I'm still not sure what your history teacher was trying to prove.
Its a book about corporate greed, about deplorable food quality and working conditions as a result of that greed, the kind of lives immigrants lived in the US at the time, and why socialism and government regulation are good (debatable, but that was Sinclair's overall thesis, despite the more well-known effect the book had on changing food safety law in the early 1900s).
If the idea your history teacher was trying to convey is that meat is bad/somehow tainted), he missed the point almost entirely (to the point of negligence, considering a teacher should have rudimentary reading comprehension skills). After all, he gave you guys venison summer sausage, something that was most likely locally harvested and processed-pretty much the antithesis of the canned meat described in The Jungle. A better choice would have been SPAM.
its all about context: A big lug of cow cheeks being ground up into a meat paste to fill a hot dog skin = disturbing
Michelin star restaurant serves a special of braised cow cheeks over a parsnip used, puree = foodies jizzing in their pants.
Tell you what doesn't belong in a hot dog is corn syrup and maltodextrin, both very common texturizing additives. It could be said that the machinery which makes regular old hotdogs would not even work correctly if these ingredients were removed. If you're picky about your sausage, you can get meat. If you want to shop off the shelf, you get "meat product". Even if it says it's beef, it might have turkey. Who knows? Who cares? It's just protein, right?
Had a bald faced hornet kamikazee into my boil kettle Friday. Died instantly. I fished it out and carried on.
Ever participated in any animal "processing"?
...that one seems to separate the "I like to go to expensive restaurants" foodie from the "I like to know where my food comes from" foodie....
Every hippy bone in my body quivers with happiness when I think of eating squirrel. I cant think of too many meats in north america that are more sustainable.
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