What does free range mean?

Today I saw a horrible sight.

Today I saw one of those transport trucks loaded with live hens. They were visibly shivering, cold, wet and suffering. If you haven't seen one, google 'truck transport chickens' and you'll see what I mean.

This broke my heart and made me think about the whole chicken industry, and more importantly what I buy.

Is "Free Range" what we think it is? 


The chicken and egg industry have done a great job through marketing in making us beleive that this is how all hens live:

When people decide to buy and eat ethically, the words free and range are pretty important. Slap these two words on an egg carton or on the meat packaging, and people feel as though they are making a good buying decision. But are we?

Sustainable Table makes a really good point: 

"In Australia and NZ there are no binding laws that define what free range actually means. As a result, accreditation bodies, of which Australia has six, apply their own definition of free range when accrediting farmers with that all important marker of ethical farming. Factors such as access to an outdoor area, stocking density, beak trimming and pasture cover, for instance, are all up for interpretation."


There are some horrible images available of  high density 'free range' houses, beak trimming and what happens to the male chicks, but I'd rather focus on the positive, yeah?


What can we do? 

• Look for these logos when buying eggs:

• Beware of clever marketing campaigns and packaging imagery. The picture on the egg carton could be the first ray of sunshine or blade of green grass the hen or egg has ever come close to.
• Check out the Sustainable Table Free Range Egg and Chicken Guide.
• Get your own chookies. They make domestic pets, and 3 or 4 can provide your family plenty of eggs.

Thanks to www.freerangefarmers.com.au for these images.

Now, guess what I'm up to this weekend? Yep, preparing our back yard for some chookies. True FREE RANGE, guilt-free eggs, here we come!

Home made crunchy breakfast granola with chia seeds and goji berries

Home made crunchy granola

This is really easy, delicious and healthy!

2 cups of wholegrain rolled oats
1 cups of mixed nuts and seeds (I used walnuts, cashews, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds)
3 tablespoons of honey
3 tablespoons of golden or maple syrup
2/3 cup dried fruit, chopped (I use apricots, pears, apples, peaches and goji berries.You could you figs, saltana's or dates)
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon flaxmeal



Mix oats, seeds, nuts and flaxmeal in a bowl (not chia seeds). Microwave honey and syrup for about 20 seconds until runny. Pour over the oat mixture and stir to combine until the oat mixture is coated. Tip the mixture into a lined baking tray and bake for 180 degrees for about 10-20 minutes (mine took 10 minutes, but my oven is a piece of sh*t!). Leave to cool. Once cool sprinkle with fruit and chia seeds. Store in an airtight container.

I serve with berries and soy milk, or yogurt. Yum!

I have been trying to cut refined and processed foods out of my diet. I think. I mean I am tying to eat whole foods. Foods that are still in their natural form. Sugar and refined flour is something that I'm trying to kick. When I say sugar I don't mean natural sugar from fruit and honey, I mean refined sugar.

Breakfast is the hardest meal of the day to this for. Everything has so much sugar, and if it doesn't have sugar it has processed wheat! Cereal is especially high in sugar.

So, enter home made crunchy granola. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while but for some reason though it would be hard. But, it's really easy

It does have golden syrup in it, but at least I know how much and what's going into it.