chromedome

Yes, definitely among the "gone too soon" contingent.

Another Pratchett fan among us, I see.

Annnnnd, back to pistachios. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/various-pistachios-and-pistachio-containing-products-recalled-due-salmonella-2

There's an Ontario recall on ground beef (E. coli) but it's limited to one retailer in London. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-ground-beef-products-recalled-due-e-coli-o157h7 ETA: Ninja'd by ElsieD after opening this tab.

Baklava this time, just for a change of pace. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/baklava-recalled-due-salmonella

Huh. In my own kitchen I can assure you there's no difference, because I buy the big jar and use it to refill my squeeze bottle.

https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/green-pistachios-recalled-due-salmonella

Pistachios, again/still. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/basha-foods-brand-raw-shelled-pistachio-kernal-recalled-due-salmonella https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-pistachios-recalled-due-salmonella-1

"Big enough to swaddle a baby" spinach.

https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-pistachios-recalled-due-salmonella-1

Seasonally macabre...

An update on one of the BC pistachio recalls. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-raw-pistachios-recalled-due-salmonella

https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-raw-pistachios-recalled-due-salmonella

It's been a busy "killing small things" week, here on our little acreage. Not my favorite part of the exercise, as I've said before, but more or less inevitable when you decide to raise your own meat. We kicked things off by culling 11 male quail who were, as the Brits say, "surplus to requirements." We've also been picking away at our surplus roosters, and have so far culled 9 of the... 14 or so?... that are currently mature and badgering the hens. We have a couple more clutches that hatched out at intervals of a few weeks, so we'll be doing this all through the autumn. The 9 that we've harvested to date totaled 13.9kg/30.6 lbs, with the biggest (a barred rock, from our "barnyard mix" eggs) checking in at 2129g/4.7 lbs, and the smallest (one of the ones I showed in the photos above, with the green-black plumage and blond head feathers) at just 927g, or less than an ounce over 2 lbs. They were the same age, and the little guy had definitely hit sexual maturity, so it was just a question of either breed size/speed of growth or a combination thereof. Most have hit a relative "sweet spot" of 1600-1650g, or 3 1/2(ish) pounds. The big barred rock, dubbed "Spot" by the grandkids, will be the (ahem) "guest of honour" at today's Thanksgiving meal. Yesterday it was the rabbits' turn, and we harvested a batch of 8 which yielded just over 30 pounds, dressed weight. So they're averaging between 3 1/2 and 4 lbs, slightly larger than the chickens. I'm still keeping track of our income, expenses and yields from the critters. The first half of the year is when we do best in terms of actual money coming in to defray our expenses, and then the second half of the year is when we get most of the harvest. Part of what we'll be focusing on between now and year-end is deciding how to value our eggs, meat, etc for "accounting" purposes (in the personal sense, not in the tax sense, because we aren't selling enough to consider this a business). With quail eggs, for example, it's easy enough to work out their equivalent in chicken eggs at a ratio of 3:1 or 4:1. But for the ones we eat in-house, so to speak (as opposed to selling them for incubation or others' consumption), should I count them at the quantity we were habitually buying (a dozen every 5 days or so, barring Christmas baking season), or the actual quantity we're consuming? Because I use a lot more eggs when they're just adding up constantly, and I feel obligated to get through them. So that kind of thing is a tough call. The chickens are easier, of course, because we'll be able to sell hen's eggs more consistently once our flock starts producing properly (we have a number of hens just arriving at laying age, but only 2 or 3 currently laying for us; we currently get 2 eggs most days). Of course the days are getting shorter, and they lay less in winter, so we probably won't be hitting full stride with them until spring. The quail, otoh, are currently giving us 12-14/day and that will triple over the next few weeks as more of the females hit maturity. As for the chickens when considered as meat, there I have something else to consider: do I price their value at the supermarket $$ for whole chicken, or for the value of individual parts when I break them down into breasts, thighs, etc? So those are all things I need to talk through with my GF. In the final analysis, it's not about making or "losing" money at the end of the year. It's having a good enough grasp of our costs to calculate what we're out of pocket, respectively, for the rabbit meat/chicken/quail/eggs/garden produce, and then work backwards from that to how much each category cost us per kg of food produced. If that's at or below supermarket pricing, great! We've come out ahead. If it's above supermarket pricing, it tells us how much of a premium we've paid for the privilege of growing our own and having a measure of control over the process. I think we'll come out okay on most things, though we're for-sure "in the red" on our mushroom-growing kits over the past couple of years, and the garden certainly hasn't carried its weight this year (because reasons). Overall, for the first time, I have some reasonable degree of confidence that we're not in fact losing ground financially on this (compared to just aggressive/frugal grocery shopping).