Vegan chef Chrissy Tracey sits down with producer Tagan Engel to talk about the basics of foraging and how to incorporate wild plants and mushrooms into delicious meals. They discuss recipes for "lobster" rolls, Chrissy's riff on strawberry Pop Tarts, bagel sandwiches with carrot lox, and herby drinks from Chrissy's debut book, Forage & Feast.
Plus, backyard chicken keeping expert Kathy Shea Mormino describes realities of caring for the only pet that gives us food, backyard chickens. Interested in keeping chickens? Listen to this episode first.
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— Seasoned - Backyard Chickens
Kathy Shea Mormino, aka "The Chicken Chick," corrals her chickens for a photo. If you've never kept chickens as pets, or you're new to the practice, you might romanticize backyard chicken-keeping. Kathy encourages hobbyist farmers to prioritize the health of their chickens; "diet and nutrition is the most important factor in raising backyard chickens," Kathy says. "And it is the least understood and least appreciated by backyard chickeniers."
Ayannah Brown / Connecticut Public
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— Seasoned - Backyard Chickens
Backyard chickens "need a nutritionally complete chicken feed appropriate for their age and stage of development, and nothing more," backyard chicken expert Kathy Shea Mormino says. And, "they need clean water in clean containers, all day, every day."
Ayannah Brown / Connecticut Public
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— Seasoned - Backyard Chickens
The chickens in Kathy Shea Mormino's back yard live in three spare, but beautiful coops. And they "play" in a similarly spare chicken run. It includes a sand floor for easy dust-bathing and a few old wooden chairs for them to jump up on. "It's not about smoke and mirrors," Kathy says. "It's just putting best practices in place that work for you to keep your chickens in a healthy environment and safe. Just keep it simple. Chickens. . .don't need toys to play on. They don't need stuff." A playful sign hangs on one of the chicken coops.
Ayannah Brown / Connecticut Public
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— Seasoned - Backyard Chickens
Rolling around in the dirt, or dust bathing, is a group, social activity and can be cooling to chickens if they get warm. You'll see chickens scratching and digging down into dirt or pine shavings as deep as they can to get to cooler Earth. Because of misinformation stemming from both chicken-keeping product marketers and some backyard chicken-keeping influencers online, backyard chicken keepers have been led to believe that dust bathing is a way for the chickens to shake off parasites, like lice and mites, but this is wrong. Dust bathing is instinctual for chickens and requires no products or augmentative materials to do. In fact, adding anything, including materials in products marketed as "natural" can be harmful to dust-bathing chickens.
Ayannah Brown / Connecticut Public
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— Seasoned - Backyard Chickens
One of Kathy Shea Mormino’s chickens; this breed is known as a Crèvecoeur chicken. The bird relaxes in the yard on a warm spring day.
Ayannah Brown / Connecticut Public
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— Seasoned - Backyard Chickens
A sign posted in Kathy Shea Mormino’s backyard. In addition to keeping chickens, Kathy is also a beekeeper.
Ayannah Brown / Connecticut Public
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— Seasoned - Backyard Chickens
One of Kathy Shea Mormino’s chickens; this particular breed is known as the Barbu d'Uccle or Belgian d'Uccle.
Ayannah Brown / Connecticut Public
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— Seasoned - Backyard Chickens
A look at Kathy Shea Mormino’s backyard chicken-scape; it includes three spare coops, a chicken run and even a wooden gazabo for the birds to gather around and jump on. The chickens roam the backyard freely during the day, and have plenty of access to water, shaded areas, and grass, dirt and mulch for dust bathing. They also have refuge and protection from predators at the elements at night.
Ayannah Brown / Connecticut Public
Featured Recipes:
Lobster Mushroom Rolls
Strawberry Knotweed Toaster Tarts
Wild Mint Mojitos
This show was produced by Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Meg Dalton, Tagan Engel, Stephanie Stender, Katrice Claudio, and Meg Fitzgerald, with help from Sabrina Herrera, Francesca Fontanez, Martha Castillo and Janae Spinato on Social.
Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and email: seasoned@ctpublic.org.
Seasoned is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.
