Duck Fat

 My garden this spring is challenging.  The complaints of weather is always presence with farmers and gardeners.  On the national map the weather is off every where and on the total we are not suffering as much as some regions.  After winter, the spring season is the time of fulfilling all the dreams the seed catalogs have created in my head.

I continue to read blogs and books on growing one's own food.  The whole issue of food traveling 1,500 miles from farm to plate is having an impact on everyones' life. The quality of nutrient in that food is less, the taste is not there and the environmental facts can not be denied.  Fireflies were common when I was a child but my grandchildren lost that sight by way of all the pesticide spraying done on behalf of the industrial food producers.  Fireflies, bees and canaries are all creatures telling us about our world.

In the course, of reading I found two astounding facts.  The first was the story behind the decline of eating eggs.  There was a shortage of fresh eggs in the mid 60's.

“When the price of eggs rose to unprecedented levels in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered his surgeon general to decrease demand by warning his fellow Americans of the health hazards of egg consumption,” Roach writes. “The evidence against the lowly egg was at best shaky, and recent studies suggest that the health risks from eggs, if any, were greatly exaggerated. Nevertheless, millions of health-conscious Americans dutifully altered their diets, secure in their belief that eggs must be bad for one’s health. Evidently, because most physicians of the day accepted the marginal idea that eggs are worse than other foods."

Along the same time the drug industry was coming up with drug that would take care of high cholesterol. 

The other practice in the kitchen that changed is even more surprising, the use of animal fat.  If you have ever roasted a duck you will remember the amount of fat that is on the bottom of the pan.  As this cools it is the pure white of snow.  Every knowledgeable French housewife treasures this fat.  My mother also did.  Along with the jar of bacon fat that was keep near the stove top.  Think about the centuries of different cultures around the world that cooked this basic method.

Today, most health experts tells us eating any animal fat, butter or lard is very risky.  Of course, that was after corn oil, soybean oil and the drug industries figured out the change in our eating habits benefited them and the AMA went along with the new guide lines. 

Imported olive oil is a treat for salad dressings but actually on a daily bases we need the nutritional values that nut and animal fats give us.   The website explains it better than I can. 
http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/561-know-your-fats-introduction.html

Another way of eating and supporting the food production of local people is changing the cooking oil and rethinking fresh eggs.   My jar of duck fat is in the refrigerator, it is amazing how little it takes compared to any other fat for cooking and the jar lasts for months.  What was traditional maybe has to be revisited.