Welcome back to the new, and completely redesigned Chicken.ca. We’ve been hard at work since the summer planning, designing and coding a brand new chicken.ca with a ton of new features. The biggest change, of course, is the look of the site. We wanted a change to something that was brighter, easier to use, and that would showcase our mouth-watering recipe photos a little better. We’ve focused our content on the stuff that you told us you were the most interested in, and expanded it. We’ve also added a section for videos and how-to content, so if you’re stuck in the kitchen, we’ll hopefully have the content to help you out of a jam. If not, you can ask us anything through the “ask a question” section of the site. We’ll answer all the questions we get, and post the most frequently asked ones in that section. We’ll also be using those questions to shape our upcoming content, so please – fire away! Finally, the biggest change is to our recipes. You may remember that the old site could be a little hard to search and browse for recipes. That’s why we’ve developed an all-new database for our recipes that allows us to sort better, and you to use the recipes better. You can now comment on recipes, add them to a personal recipe box, share them on Facebook, and rate them for the world to see. But that’s not all, in coming months, we’ll also be implementing the ability to upload your own photos of our recipes, and to add your own recipes to the database. We’ve just launched today, so we really want to hear what you think. If you’ve got questions, comments, or you’ve found a nasty bug – let us know! So stay a while – play with the site, and have fun! Welcome!

Food is a universal language, as Pepy Nasution of The Art and Science of Food proves on her blog. Originally hailing from Indonesia her posts routinely make our mouths water. We talked to Pepy about why the art and science of food fascinates her so much. The food you feature on your blog is primarily Indonesian. Living in Canada, do you find it hard to adapt traditional recipes to local available products, or can you stay fairly authentic with what is available to you? No, I don’t find it’s hard. I’m trying my best to be authentic as I’m trying to get the exact ingredients. Your blog is called "The Art and Science of Food." Do you feel that cooking is more art or science? Cooking is a combination between both. I can’t see it as one or the other. How did you learn to cook? I learned to cook when I moved out of my parents’ house. I went to university that was a bit far from home - about the distance of Winnipeg to Calgary. I knew it was easy and cheap to get food ready to eat at warungs/hawkers (street food sellers), but I realized the food wasn’t healthy enough, (too much MSG) so I tried my best to cook. My mom had a catering business beside her full time job at that time. So, I used to help her but never tried to learn. Then, when I moved to Canada, I recognized that my tastes hadn’t changed. I still craved Indonesian food sometimes. Besides Indonesian, what is your favourite style or ethnicity of cooking? This is a tough question for a foodie like me. I like Chinese (the real Chinese), Vietnamese, Thai, and Caribbean because they are similar to Indonesian taste. I like Japanese because of the fish and seafood used. I like Korean because of the spiciness from chili. I like Mediterranean food as well. What ingredient could you not live without? Any kind of chili pepper. Every month, we feature a Canadian food blogger in our blogger spotlight series. If you have a favourite Canadian blogger that you’d like to see interviewed, leave us a comment and let us know!

We’re smack dab in the middle of rebuilding our entire website from scratch, and we want to know how we can make our site better for you.  We’ve put together a quick, ten-question survey to find out from you, our loyal readers, what we should provide you in the new chicken.ca. It should only take about five minutes, and your responses will help to guide the development of the site, and provide you with the information you want in the way you want. To take the survey just use this link, and on behalf of everyone at CFC, thank you very much for taking the time.

Since we've started blogging, we've been very lucky to meet a lot of the food bloggers that we read regularly.  Our first event in Toronto helped us put faces to the URLs of some of our favourite bloggers, and introduced us to some new sites as well.  Last night's Ottawa Food Blogger event was no different. Ron Eade of the Ottawa Citizen was on hand to talk about food writing and how blogging impacts how we eat, and ultimately, how food is marketed.  After that, Urban Element's Chef Candice Butler gave a demonstration on how to make chicken pate. Erna Ference, a member of CFC’s Board of Directors and a chicken farmer in Alberta, introduced Ron and had the opportunity throughout the evening to talk to many of the bloggers about blogging and also about chicken farming in Canada. To top it off the wonderful staff at Urban Element also prepared some very tasty bites for everyone to sample including a miniature chicken pot pie with a creamy mashed potato top and a chicken dumpling in a beautiful peanut sauce. Photo Credit: Rachelle Eats Food In our conversations with some of the attendees, we heard that though they had read most of each others' blogs, many of them had never met before.  We were very glad to be able to bring a great group of people so passionate about food together, and hope we can do it again. Thanks to Ron Eade, the Urban Element, and of course, to everyone who attended.  And, if you're looking to beef up your feed reader with some tasty Ottawa blogs, the list is below: whiskblog after the harvest eva's food world ottawa food foodie prints nourish the bacon bible all things edible simply fresh a peek inside the fishbowl sorry, i'm weird urban hippy sticky fingers daily dinner eaten up daingean's Food Blog definitely not martha eva's food world spoonsie slurp and burp the gouda life rachelle eats food

It’s that time of year where we reflect on how grateful we are for the experiences we’ve had over the past year, and look forward to all of the new and exciting things to come. We’re taking a short hiatus over the holiday season, but we’ll be back in the New Year with more delicious recipes, expert guest bloggers, and informative industry tidbits. From all of us here at the Chicken Farmers of Canada, we wish you and your family a happy and safe holiday season. See you in the New Year!

We’ve been building up our database of chicken recipes for the past few years – cranking out tasty ideas to suit all tastes from low fat to classic barbeque. We’ve got no intentions of stopping, but it occurred to us these recipes shouldn’t be all about us – we want to hear from other Canadian culinary masters and to share their unique and delicious chicken creations. Since we’re a bit new to the blogosphere (as are words like “blogosphere”), we wanted to get things going by offering a contest to other Canadian food bloggers to enter their best (original) chicken recipe. Want to participate? Here’s how:

1. Post your favourite chicken recipe on your blog (ideally accompanied with mouth-watering photos)
2. Link back to this post.
3. Tweet the recipe with a link to the blog post with the hashtag #canadianchicken and / or leave a comment below with your link so that we know you’ve entered.

We’ll link to all those entered and feature the best recipe each week right here on Chicken Feeds. At the end of the contest period, we’ll get cooking. After we’ve sampled the top entries, we’ll decide the best recipe and the winner will receive the grand prize of a Cuisinart® Griddler, panini press/portable grill (valued at $149.99 CND) To spread the love even further, we’ll provide a second one for you to give away to your readers! Our judging criteria are simple – we’re looking at presentation, creativity and of course, tastiness! The contest closes at 5:00pm EST on January 4, 2010. January 31, 2010. We can’t wait to see what you all come up with, so let’s get cooking! (Oh, and don't forget to read the rules and regulations before you enter.) [Edit: the contest has been extended to the end of January, so there's still time to submit your best chicken recipe!]

In this second part of our three part series of posts, we tell you what happens after chicks arrive to the farm from the hatchery and what exactly is in chicken feed. Chickens in Canada are raised in clean, well-ventilated, climate-controlled barns, where they can roam freely. The chicken barn is heated before the chicks are placed, in order to ensure they have warm, comfortable surroundings once they arrive from the hatchery. Feed systems and water lines are checked daily to ensure that birds always have unrestricted access to food and water. Heating, ventilation, humidity and other environmental levels are verified constantly, to ensure that the birds are comfortable and stress-free. The main ingredient of all chicken feed (88%) is grains and grain by-products, protein-producing seeds, and meal made from them such as canola or soybean meal. So, essentially, all chickens are "grain-fed." In much smaller quantities (around 10%), various other protein sources such as meat and bone meal/vegetable fats, are added to improve the nutritional content, taste and texture of the feed. In much, much smaller quantities (1.5%), mineral and vitamin supplements are commonly added to prevent any nutrient deficiencies. Chickens are not given any hormones or steroids. Hormones and steroid use in Canada has been illegal since the 1960s. Moreover, chicken is tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to ensure that there are absolutely no medication residues that could cause any risk to human health. In the final installment of this three part series, we talk about animal safety and how the chickens get from the farm to the consumer.

Ever wonder how a chicken gets from the farm to you? In this three part series, we give you the whole story of a chicken from hatching to when it’s delivered to you, the consumer. Let’s start right at the beginning in the hatcheries. About once or twice a week, hatcheries take fertilized eggs from breeder farms, which are then placed into incubators. The incubation period lasts about 21 days before the eggs begin to hatch. Next, the chicks are separated by sex. Traditionally, farmers will place birds of the same sex in the same barn, as males and females grow at different rates. Before leaving the hatchery, the birds are vaccinated to prevent illness, and then chicks are placed into heated trucks and delivered to farmers within 6-12 hours of hatching. The chicks are primarily raised in family farms. Unlike many other places in the world, over 90% of Canada’s farms are family-owned. Raising chickens requires a high degree of commitment and knowledge. During the seven or eight weeks that it takes to raise a flock, the farmer gives constant care and attention to their health and feeding. In the next post of the series, we’ll tell you all about how the chickens are raised and talk a little about what is in the chickens’ feed.

While a big part of what we've wanted to do with this blog since we first launched earlier this year is to provide tips, tricks, and information about chicken to our readers, another crucial objective was to increase our interaction with Canadians who share a passion for food. That's why we've arranged a Toronto meetup for food bloggers and anyone who shares a passion for cooking, hosted by our good friend Theresa Albert, who you may know from her cookbooks, her Food Network Canada show, or as the host of our new video podcast series. The event is taking place at Edward Levesque's Kitchen on Queen Street in Toronto, and will feature a short discussion about the love of cooking, and how to pass that love and those skills onto the next generation.  If you want to attend, visit http://foodbloggermeetup.eventbrite.com or simply sign up below:

The evening starts at 6:00pm, and hor d'ouevres will be provided. Tickets are free but space is limited, so if you want to attend, just sign up on our eventbrite page. Hope to see you there!

A chicken's life begins at a breeding farm, where each chicken lays on average 150 eggs per year. The eggs are collected each day and placed in a refrigerated room and then transported to the hatchery about once or twice a week. Here they are placed in incubators that observe strict health standards. Three short weeks later, the chicks are born. Each chick is thoroughly examined before they are transported to one of 2,800 chicken farmers across Canada, usually the same day they are born. Canadian chickens are not de-beaked. Once they reach the farms, the chicks are placed carefully throughout the climate-controlled barns on a litter of clean straw or fresh, dry wood shavings. Chicks are born precocial or able to walk, and are free to wander the barn at will. They are also free to drink and feed whenever they want. Each barn contains on average 32,000 chickens. Typically, a chicken farmer will raise five to seven flocks per year. It takes about five to eight weeks for a chick to mature and it will consume almost double its weight to reach a desired size. Once the chickens are mature, a catching crew comes in to load them into special trucks to transport them to the processing plants. Each chicken is inspected by a meat inspector under the supervision of a veterinarian to make sure it is healthy and safe to eat. The chicken is then prepared and cut into parts or left whole and sent to the grocery store. Other chicken that will be used in prepared and frozen foods is sent on for further processing. The whole chickens you find in the grocery store are either broilers, roasters or Cornish hens. The only difference is the size. The most popular are broilers, which weigh about 2 kg. Roasters are over 2 kg and take longer to cook. Chicken is so popular among Canadians that on average 600 million birds are raised per year. This is enough birds to circle the earth seven times.