"madison" news and stories

On Monday night, 75 people piled into a Kansas City, Mo., church to catch a free screening of "Mad City Chickens," a documentary from Tarazod Films that chronicles the resurgence of the urban chicken.

Unfortunately, like many U.S. cities, Kansas City makes it nearly impossible to have even just a few hens in the backyard. Chickens are only considered legal residents if their coop is 100 feet from the nearest home or business; they're certainly not allowed to roam. But the more people focus on eating locally, the more chickens pop up in backyards all over the United States (and Kansas City for that matter), legal or not.

Up until a few years ago, Madison, Wis., ("Mad City") banned urban chickens, forcing more than a few rogue backyard farmers -- known then as "the Chicken Underground" -- to get the law changed ... if they wanted to keep their chickens, that is. Now Madison is a veritable backyard chicken oasis, and serves as the backdrop for "Mad City Chickens."

Read about Big Tiny the rooster and Consuela the hen after the jump.

Ah, the ways we can display patriotism! Waving a flag, singing "The Star Spangled Banner," and, of course constructing a sculpture of Wisconsin celebrities, such as Bucky Badger, Musky (the state fish), a dairy cow, and more out of 5,000 pounds of Wisconsin cheddar cheese.

Sarah Kaufmann has been creating large and small sculptures out of cheese since 1981. This July 4th, Sarah is hand-sculpting cheddar cheese to design a scene (with a 15-foot circumference) of popular Wisconsin icons in a "Spirit of '76"-style parade. In the past, people have crowded around Sarah as she produced her cheese masterpieces. For the next couple of days, people can once again gather to see the cheese turn into three dimensional characters. Today through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the public is invited to the Madison, WI Sam's Club to taste the cheese and purchase their own piece of the 5,000-pound cheddar.

I thought Sarah was starting a patriotic trend. Apparently, carving cheeses has been done before as a way of expressing American patriotism. In 1802, Elder John Leland presented Thomas Jefferson with a four-foot wide 15-inch thick sculpted cheese to express his political support.

And just so you know, handcrafted cheese larger than 75 pounds is considered a mammoth cheese. View Sarah's mammoth cheeses in the gallery below. What do you think? Does this cheese look good enough to eat, or is it just a waste of food?

Many Manhattanites are looking forward to the new Trader Joe's in their neighborhood, but not everyone in the city is familiar with the options that the specialty grocer offers. In fact, residents of Madison, Wisconsin may not be sure what is in store for them when their Trader Joe's opens, either. To be sure, we cover a lot of it here at Slashfood, but there is a lot to learn about the way the grocer operates. The blogger at cardhouse has put together a frequent shopper's guide to Trader Joe's that outlines some of the high and low points of the store. Among the highs are some of their excellent products, like Trader Joe's Smokey Black Bean Dip and Trader Joe's Banana Waffles. Low points include their annoying tendency to replace name-brand products with store-brand clones. Is it worth it? Only time and experience will convince Trader Joe's newbies for sure.

[Via A Full Belly]

Source

Trader Joe's is keeping one of its newest locations under wraps. The specialty grocer has taken out a lease and is beginning construction in a storefront in Madison, Wisconsin, but has not yet officially announced this as a new location. This Trader Joe's would be the first in the state, yet a representative from the company declined to answer questions from a Capital Times reporter. Apparently, the company has too many unconfirmed details to resolve before it is willing to speculate on an opening date. Madison residents can still be fairly certain that it is only a matter of time before they'll have a taste of Trader Joe's right in their neighborhood.

Source