Food miles is a term which refers to the distance food is transported from the time of its production until it reaches the consumer. Food miles are one factor used when assessing the environmental impact of food, including the impact on global warming.
The concept of food miles originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. It was conceived by Professor Tim Lang, at the Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment (SAFE) Alliance and first appeared in print in a report “The Food Miles Report: The dangers of long-distance food transport”, researched and written by Angela Paxton.
Well how fabulous, yesterday we had three eggs from our three chickens! This is so egg-citing – sorry but I’m overwhelmed with puns on “ex-” to “eggs-” words.
Once each of them is laying an egg a day we will quickly fill up our egg skelter that my sister-in-law Ann Marie gave us for Christmas!
Egg Skelter from Omlet - know which eggs to eat next
Well I care about food miles for one, but it’s increasingly clear that businesses are doing their bit too, finding ways to sell food with practically zero food miles:
The UK supermarket chain Budgens has a roof top farm in London which grows fruit, vegetables and herbs that it sells in the supermarket below. I make that zero miles.
When I last wrote about Food From the Sky”s rooftop supermarket garden, they had just picked up an award for their zero food miles produce. It seems the project is still going strong, and I”ve just come across a great video.
Since our first hen (Mustard) started laying on January 8th, she’s laid an egg for us every morning. Other chicken keepers we’d spoken to had said that once they start to lay they don’t always lay every day or that we may get “wind” eggs. But good old Mustard has given us one every day, including this morning. I went out this afternoon to give them their afternoon treat (mixed corn today) and checked the nesting box and there was a second egg! We think it was probably Raucous Ruby (nicknamed “raucous” because she is the noisiest of our three chickens). It was a lighter brown colour than Mustard’s and almost speckled – quite pretty.
Well this was a very exciting day in our household. I’ve been checking the nesting box everyday – just in case, but without much hope. The eldest of our 3 hens has a comb that is much deeper bit and much bigger than the other so I’ve been thinking she might be mature enough to lay. But it’s only the first week in January (the 8th, to be precise), and while the days are noticeably longer I didn’t think it would make a difference. But, “hey presto” when I opened the lid of the nesting box this afternoon there was a lovely brown egg!. Now we are going to have to draw straws to see who has it for breakfast.
If you live in the Bryan are of Texas, and you are thinking about raising your own chickens in your backyard, you may be interested in this article from "The Eagle":
Tour to teach how to raise chickens. Tweet. Eagle Staff Report. A group of chicken owners is hosting its second annual tour of backyard coops around Bryan-College Station on Sunday. The free event, from 2 to 5 p.m., offers a …
O dear, today, Annie and Pat came to pick up our oops their chickens. We were very sad to see them go. Mind you, it has given us a real idea of what chickens will do to a lawn. Here is an “after” photo of the area where the chicken house has been:
The slightly less bald area to the right is where the chicken house was, and the very bald part to the left is where the run was. So if you are proud of your lawn don’t let the chickens onto it. On the other hand if you are looking to clear a bit of weedy land that chickens might be the thing for you.
Thurs 1 Sept
In our household, there are 3 adults. Our visitor chickens have laid an egg each almost every day. That makes an egg for each of us everyday. And they are the best eggs!
Now however much we like our lovely fresh eggs, there are only so many eggs you can eat in a week. What has been lovely today, is that we’ve been able to share our eggs, On this occastion with my Mum and Dad who live in walking distance. We can give them as a gift knowing that they have come from very happy hens and far fresher than the ones my Mum will normally buy from the super market. And we are doing our bit to reduce food miles.
When Annie and Pat dropped off the chickens a week ago , they left a bag of porridge oats for the chickens. Annie said they liked it in the evening. It seemed a bit odd, but this whole week has been about learning about looking after chickens so I had an open mind.
Well the first question was how much and what consistency.
Sloppy Porridge or Lumpy Porridge Oats for Chickens?
I read around a bit and the consensus was that lumpy porridge oats was best for chickens. And everyone was agreed that you should make it with water not milk and definitely not add sugar or salt.
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The concept of food miles originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. It was conceived by Professor Tim Lang, at the Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment (SAFE) Alliance and first appeared in print in a report “The Food Miles Report: The dangers of long-distance food transport”, researched and written by Angela Paxton.
