Last month Brambleberry B&B was featured in the Wisconsin Bed and Breakfast Association's electronic monthly newsletter called Ezine. The topic was B&Bs that serve slow and organic foods -- and people were paying attention -- in particular, an overzealous employee at the health department in Madison.
This woman was ALARMED to see that we serve our own farm fresh eggs to guests. (So do most other farm B&Bs, which is what guests want and expect from us.) She used a microscope to further examine our web site and contacted our local restaurant and B&B inspector to interrogate her. She was forced to call us and ask all the same questions she asked at our routine inspection a few months ago. The Madison inspector pointed out that it is ILLEGAL to serve anything other than USDA inspected eggs to guests. How ridiculous is that!!! Ironically, I can legally sell up to $5,000 worth of those same farm fresh eggs without a permit. Some guests suggested I sell them each an egg and they could have me cook it for them. The inspector also became concerned when she saw we were serving our own high-quality, natural, homegrown pork (which is slaughtered in a state-inspected plant), she perused our dinner menu and saw there was turkey on it! And chicken! (Yes, those are acquired from the grocery store, and are placed in an ice-filled cooler for the trip home.)
We simply don't have the volume of business (or the money) doing our weekend dinners to warrant hiring an expensive restaurant supply company to deliver the small amounts of food needed for a weekend dinner party.
"I see you have sheep." Yes, we do. But I don't serve lamb to our guests. I don't care for sheep meat myself, so I think it's not possible for me to prepare it to someone elses's liking either. And I love my sheep. They are all pets, but I do sell their male offspring (which I don't name) for other people to eat if they so choose. If I did have my own lambs slaughtered, it would be in a state-inspected plant. In the future we will do the same with our beef.
Fortunately, they're not concerned with our fruit and vegetables -- yet.
In short, they're mostly concerned that our eggs are the only thing on our menu that aren't "inspected and approved" by someone from the USDA wearing a white lab coat. But what meaning do those words have anyway? Absolutely none!
My local inspector said she may be calling us the following week to say the inspector in Madison won't allow us to use our own eggs. That was weeks ago, and we still haven't heard anything in light of the recent contaminated egg fiasco/recall going on involving -- you guessed it -- "USDA inspected and approved eggs."
My farm-fresh eggs are not inspected by USDA inspectors. Guess what? Neither are MOST of the eggs that carry that very label. Only occasionally does an inspector visit a plant. According to an Aug. 19 report on the CBS Evening News "Most eggs growers routinely inspect themselves."!!!
According to Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute (a farm policy research group) 95 percent of all laying hens in the U.S. are owned by only 13 corporations. Of them, 192 companies have more than 75,000 birds in one facility! That's potentially a serious problem for everyone who eats USDA so-called inspected eggs. Chickens defecate from the same vent eggs roll out of. Sick birds and lots of chicken poop piling up lead to salmonella poisoning. When several thousand birds are kept in contained, cramped quarters as they are in the commercial egg-laying and chicken-slaughtering industries, animals are going to get sick and spread germs. And chicken poop is going to pile up fast. Some USDA commercial growers are not all that concerned about sanitation either.
We've got about 30 to 35 chickens here. Only about 20 of them lay eggs anymore. The rest are too old, and they are Chris's mother's pets. We do wash, sterilize and store our eggs per USDA standards. (I suppose I could don the white lab coat I still have from my days spent as a skin care specialist and a hair stylist when I do it.) Our eggs are safer and cleaner than what you can buy in the store -- no question about it. They are never undercooked either.
It's too bad an anal retentive inspector in Madison wants to stop us from doing what we do well -- giving our guests a pleasurable experience while enjoying pesticide free, preservative free, organic, safe, wholesome, healthy, REAL food grown here on site. It's one of the things guests most love about our B&B.
So let's get cracking people. Speak up! Don't let these jerks tell you what you can't eat.
This woman was ALARMED to see that we serve our own farm fresh eggs to guests. (So do most other farm B&Bs, which is what guests want and expect from us.) She used a microscope to further examine our web site and contacted our local restaurant and B&B inspector to interrogate her. She was forced to call us and ask all the same questions she asked at our routine inspection a few months ago. The Madison inspector pointed out that it is ILLEGAL to serve anything other than USDA inspected eggs to guests. How ridiculous is that!!! Ironically, I can legally sell up to $5,000 worth of those same farm fresh eggs without a permit. Some guests suggested I sell them each an egg and they could have me cook it for them. The inspector also became concerned when she saw we were serving our own high-quality, natural, homegrown pork (which is slaughtered in a state-inspected plant), she perused our dinner menu and saw there was turkey on it! And chicken! (Yes, those are acquired from the grocery store, and are placed in an ice-filled cooler for the trip home.)
We simply don't have the volume of business (or the money) doing our weekend dinners to warrant hiring an expensive restaurant supply company to deliver the small amounts of food needed for a weekend dinner party.
"I see you have sheep." Yes, we do. But I don't serve lamb to our guests. I don't care for sheep meat myself, so I think it's not possible for me to prepare it to someone elses's liking either. And I love my sheep. They are all pets, but I do sell their male offspring (which I don't name) for other people to eat if they so choose. If I did have my own lambs slaughtered, it would be in a state-inspected plant. In the future we will do the same with our beef.
Fortunately, they're not concerned with our fruit and vegetables -- yet.
In short, they're mostly concerned that our eggs are the only thing on our menu that aren't "inspected and approved" by someone from the USDA wearing a white lab coat. But what meaning do those words have anyway? Absolutely none!
My local inspector said she may be calling us the following week to say the inspector in Madison won't allow us to use our own eggs. That was weeks ago, and we still haven't heard anything in light of the recent contaminated egg fiasco/recall going on involving -- you guessed it -- "USDA inspected and approved eggs."
My farm-fresh eggs are not inspected by USDA inspectors. Guess what? Neither are MOST of the eggs that carry that very label. Only occasionally does an inspector visit a plant. According to an Aug. 19 report on the CBS Evening News "Most eggs growers routinely inspect themselves."!!!
According to Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute (a farm policy research group) 95 percent of all laying hens in the U.S. are owned by only 13 corporations. Of them, 192 companies have more than 75,000 birds in one facility! That's potentially a serious problem for everyone who eats USDA so-called inspected eggs. Chickens defecate from the same vent eggs roll out of. Sick birds and lots of chicken poop piling up lead to salmonella poisoning. When several thousand birds are kept in contained, cramped quarters as they are in the commercial egg-laying and chicken-slaughtering industries, animals are going to get sick and spread germs. And chicken poop is going to pile up fast. Some USDA commercial growers are not all that concerned about sanitation either.
We've got about 30 to 35 chickens here. Only about 20 of them lay eggs anymore. The rest are too old, and they are Chris's mother's pets. We do wash, sterilize and store our eggs per USDA standards. (I suppose I could don the white lab coat I still have from my days spent as a skin care specialist and a hair stylist when I do it.) Our eggs are safer and cleaner than what you can buy in the store -- no question about it. They are never undercooked either.
It's too bad an anal retentive inspector in Madison wants to stop us from doing what we do well -- giving our guests a pleasurable experience while enjoying pesticide free, preservative free, organic, safe, wholesome, healthy, REAL food grown here on site. It's one of the things guests most love about our B&B.
So let's get cracking people. Speak up! Don't let these jerks tell you what you can't eat.
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