Ask the Chef

by Chef Boy Ari

Q: Dear Chef Boy Ari,

I very much appreciated your recent article on soy. I was especially interested in reading about how the isoflavanoids in soy can act like estrogen. I’ve known for a long time that soy gives me hot flashes, but it wasn’t until I read about the link between soy and estrogen that I realized these hot flashes might be the result of hormonal reactions triggered by soy. Then, just the other day I ate a spoonful of peanut butter and I got a hot flash. I thought “what the…” and I looked on the peanut butter label and sure enough, there was soy oil in it. Soy is in everything these days. Why is there soy in cocktail sauce? And it’s not only in the food, but it’s in the box the food comes in, the glue on the box, and the ink on the box. We’re surrounded by soy, and we don’t understand all of the medical consequences.

In Asia, soy is processed differently, and maybe that’s why they seem to get away with eating so much. But here, it’s the soy industry that’s driving the use of soy, and they’ll put it in anything they can.

- Steering Clear of Soy

A: Dear Steering Clear,

For a more in-depth discussion of how soy and corn, America’s two biggest (legal) cash crops, have infiltrated

most of the nation’s food supply, check out Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

I think it’s particularly amazing how successful some soy-boosters have been at injecting soy into the so-called “health foods” market. While there certainly are some healthy ways that soy can be processed and eaten, much of the soy that’s dumped into our food system isn’t. If anyone else out there has some soy stories or concerns, lets hear them!

– CBA

Q: Hi, was just reading the May 10 issue of the Telegraph and the fellow’s question concerning puny rhubarb plants. I too had the same problem until I mentioned it to my father one day. He advised me to bury any old rusty iron such as hammer heads, axe blades, old chain, etc around the roots. I did and it worked, I now too have large elephant-ear size leaves supported by big thick stalks! Rhubarb pie anyone?!!

-Jim

A: Thanks Jim. I think you’re onto something. Maybe we should start sending out spam emails selling advice on how to enlarge other items!

– CBA

Q: Dear Chef Boy Ari,

I am seriously considering entering the poultry enterprise. In hand is my 1954 copy of The

ABC’s of Poultry Raising and the landlady gave no objection. I’ve got a good pile of pine shavings from my winter woodworking, lots of scrap wood and fencing, and a few plans for a coop drawn up. It is too late to do chicks since my coop is still under construction, so I am planning on getting some ready-to-lay birds this summer. My goal is to produce some yummy eggs and meat, to generate manure, and give me some bargaining room with friends who make honey or wine. We can all buy eggs dirt cheap, so after absorbing the costs of the coop, feed, litter and bird replacement, I don’t expect to achieve financial gain except to save on my egg budget by raising a few birds.

I think I can build a pretty warm and dry structure with what I have around the house, and I can get pretty cheap pine shavings to use as litter once mine are used up.

What I am trying to sort out is a strategy for feeding a small laying flock…

– Pursuer of Poultry

A: Dear Pursuer,

I’m sorry I had to cut you off like that, but your letter was longer than the entire space I have allotted for both questions and answers! Nonetheless, I think I get the gist of your question. First of all, it’s not too late to order some new chicks. I just ordered some from http: //www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/. They arrive, as two-day old chicks, so you’ll have two months to figure out how to build your coop. In the meantime, plant some pasture mix in the area you want to keep them. And I wouldn’t use pine shavings for bedding. Instead, use something that would do well on the garden after it’s served its purpose as bedding. I like to use straw for bedding, and then I use the manure-impregnated straw as mulch. If you mulch your garden with pine shavings it will screw up the soil’s pH.

– CBA