Free Range and Free Range, Kids Meals and Crazy

As I was out this morning letting our chicks out into the field I looked across at our dog Ruby guarding them and thought how this is what the true definition of "free Range" should be!

Our chickens are out from dusk till dawn roaming in the grass field, only put in at night for safety from predators. So much room so that you can hardly see that there are over 40 in this picture alone!

Ruby guarding the flock

Maeve with Blue

I sat with my favourite one named Blue, my dad and then Maeve when she woke up to come out for awhile. It was so peaceful and calming, it was in that moment so very glad and proud of our decision to raise our own.

As we were talking I decided to write a post on the topic of what "Free Range" meant in the farming industry and this is what I found.

Free Range

The term “free range” has not been legally defined in either Canada or the U.S. but generally, it refers to poultry that has been permitted to graze or forage outdoors. Since there is no hard and fast definition of this term, speaking to your butcher or grocer about what exactly is meant by free range, especially when buying chicken in the winter or early spring as chickens cannot be raised outdoors in most Canadian winters is the only way to know for sure.

Free Run

Free run is different than free range in that chickens do not necessarily need to be raised outside but they are required to be able to move around freely within the barn. Though there is no legal definition of this, all chickens raised for meat in Canada are considered free run.

Chickens not kept in cages are often housed in shelters where the floor doubles as a giant litter box. As a result, hens have direct contact with bacteria and microorganisms that grow in the litter, which can greatly increase health risks, said the study, available on BioMed Central's journal Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica.

Grain Fed

This term is typically just used for marketing purposes. Chicken labeled as “grain fed” is stating the obvious, though some brands boast special types of grain, such as vegetarian grain.

  

Free range Chickens

Basically the laws/regulations surrounding Free Range/Free Run are non existant. Meaning, chickens can be raised on a poop (POOP!) covered field of dirt in cramped quarters and boastully advertise "Free Range!"

Not only does a grass fed truly free range chickens and eggs taste better! They live the life most of us dream of.
The nutritional value is uncomparable to any other as well, the average free range egg results showed:

• 1⁄3 less cholesterol
• 1⁄4 less saturated fat
• 2⁄3 more vitamin A
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
• 21 times more omega-3 fatty acid

Keep in mind that these eggs were from hens that are considered legitimately free range. They spend all or most of their lives outdoors, roosting in trees if they choose, eating bugs, grass, running and "attempting" to fly;)

A picture of what eggs look like in comparison

Kids Meals:

We had dinner the other night and thought I'd write a post on what our munchkins eat on a regular day.

Our kids tend to like veggies not cooked, which is a better way to eat them anyway so we just let them!

We always give them a reasonable portion so it doesnt look so overwhelming to them

-Spinach Salad
-Red boiled Potato
-Raw Carrotts and Broccolli
-Steamed Brussel Sprout and Kale from the garden
-Chicken -the kids get the dark meat because of the nutritional content and they like the moist texture much better.
Chicken provides:
*Protein, magnesium, phosphorus, niacin, choline,calcium, iron and potassium
*Chicken dark meat has more B vitamins, iron, and zinc than their lighter counterparts and 3X the amount of vitamin A!
*Dark meat is an excellent source of the antioxidant seleniumWe have a few mealtime rules;

1: You must try everything on your plate if you dont like it you can spit it in the garbage, this goes for every meal so if they tried red pepper yesterday, they try it again today! It has shown to work at expanding their palate as taste budds change so rapidly in children. The average adult has about 10,000 taste buds, and they die with age so it is only known that children have many more then the average adult.


2: No complaining! About what you DON'T want on your plate. I was getting sick of hearing "I don't want that and that and that" so this has become our rule, eat what you do want and we will talk about the rest at the end of the meal. By the end of the meal almost all the foods gone and no more negative complaining at meal time! Worked like a charm!

POOP!

I don't have a poop comment this time but a cute little thing my 6 year old said about being "crazy"...

My 67 year old father is a man of his time. By this I mean crazy. He thinks it's ok for a 4 year old to walk to school on his own 5 miles and own a BB Gun and pocket knife in order to make him a man type of crazy.

So we are always telling the kids "Puppa's crazy" in a funny cute (secretly serious) way so they understand that sometimes he makes somewhat unsafe decisions and to always use your own better judgement when hanging out with him.

One day my mother told him Puppa was crazy and he said "yeah, but crazy is fun!" A matter of fact like. Puppa was very proud of his Theo and chuckled to himself.