This Week's Favourite Things! October 6th - October 12th, 2014

1.  Food Sovereignty In Nova Scotia.  I'm so happy some concerned people got together and started this facebook page to stand up to the self-regulating factory farm boards that are being supported by our Minister of Agriculture.  At first what is passed off as a food safety issue, shutting down small butchers, is more than that if you dig into the health implications of industrial slaughterhouses versus small town butchers who have been doing their trade for decades.

2.  A couple really great posts I've read on the food topic, such as this one from Knotty Acres Farms: Are you Outraged Yet, you should be.  It seems like people may be slow to realize that this poultry issue could expand to impact all sorts of natural products, if left unchecked.  This post and others by Cliff Seruntine are informative as well.

3. On a lighter note,work by this ceramic sculptor from England, Christine Cummings.  Her sculpted animals are amazing and super inspiring. 

3. Food from Charcuterie Ratinaud in Halifax.  We used to get the duck rillette from the Seaport Market but two years ago the owner opened up a little shop with all sorts of great stuff.  Their quiche is awesome.  The duck rillette wasn't ready when I stopped in so I picked up some rabbit rillette.  Ironically it tastes really good on raw, vegan, gluten free crackers made by Gali Makogon of Gali's Healthy Kitchen.  They make sweets and raw chocolate as well, and sell their stuff at the Seaport Market on Saturdays.

4.  The NS Turkey Board.  Yes.  With all the media about turkeys, animal welfare and these big regulatory boards I'm grateful that I've been inspired to walk on by the seasonal $1/pound factory farmed turkeys at the super markets.  I don't think I could ever pull off being a vegan 100% of the time, but I do think that since the advent of factory farming people have started eating way more meat than is really necessary.  So from now on I'm going to tone down the animal product consumption from supermarkets and save my budget for small producers that sell from their markets and farms.  So thanks, NS Turkey Board, for indirectly marketing small farms and markets through your attempts to gobble up 100% of your market share.  Here is a post I wrote about the turkey board.