Nowadays, when we think of a chicken, we can only imagine it in a cage, a pen or, at best, in a fenced outdoors. But there was a time when the life of chickens was very different.
Today’s roosters and chickens are domestic descendants of the Gallus gallusan aggressive red rooster, of the pheasant family, which inhabited the forests of northern India and southern China. These animals began to be domesticated in Thailand before the 7,500 BC and they arrived in the Mediterranean around 500 BC
As it explains Harold McGee in our reference book, Cooking and foodit is not clear why chickens began to be domesticated, but they were most likely valued more for their prolific egg production than for their meat.
Some birds only lay a set number of eggs at a time, no matter what happens to the eggs. Others, including the chicken, They continue laying until they accumulate a certain amount in the nest. If a predator takes an egg, the hen lays another to replace it, and can continue doing so indefinitely. And this made chickens a very useful resource for humans.
Despite this, in the West chickens were nothing more than a scavenger species on the farm, which received very little attention. It was not until the 19th century when large birds were imported from China and the real breeding of these began with the objective of obtaining as many eggs and meat as possible – in addition to exploiting themselves for pure entertainment in fight shows that still survive in many countries.
Between 1850 and 1900 the chicken experienced more evolutionary changes that throughout their existence as a species, all of them were intended to intensify their laying capacity, if they were wanted to obtain eggs, or their size, if they were wanted to obtain meat.
The result is what we all know: the industrialization of poultry farms.
Return to the forest
The treatment we provide to roosters and hens today causes so much suspicion that even the European Union has legislated to set limits such as Minimum space that a chicken can have and the short-term ban on cages. But there are those who believe that it is not enough for chickens to enjoy the outdoors; they also want to return them to their original habitat: the forest.
Massimo Rapella, 48, claims he became a chicken farmer by accident. He and his wife ran an educational NGO in the northern Italian town of Sandrio, but when the financial crisis hit and the Italian government cut back on social enterprises, they decided to move to a pre-Alpine village in the Valtellina region. . They got some chickens for their own consumption and soon noticed something interesting: the chickens They loved to go into the nearby forest.
How does it count Vittoria Traverso in a report for Atlas ObscuraInstead of limiting their outings to the forest, Rapella encouraged this behavior and saw that it could even constitute a business.
Today Rapella’s company, Uovo di Selva, has 2,100 chickenswho live in semi-freedom – at night they are locked in the chicken coop to avoid the predator attackon a two-hectare plot of chestnut forest.
Compared to chickens on industrial farms, these They don’t lay eggs every day, but it is still possible to collect about 1,300 eggs per day, which Rapella distributes in 24 hours to its clients, about 400 families and 40 restaurants in the provinces of Sondrio and Milanese.
Adapting chickens to what was their natural habitat centuries ago has not been an easy job. The first chickens that entered the forest were completely lost and were scared by the snow, but little by little they began to adapteating everything they found on the ground, just like their ancestors.
According to Rapella, eggs are tastier than any other, even those from organic production (a certificate that, in any case, they also have), and they have more protein, because chickens feed largely on insects. As a result, a beaten egg reaches three times the volume of a conventional one. Egg yolk can even change with the seasons. In autumn, when chickens eat tannin-rich chestnuts that fall from the trees, they take on a darker color and richer flavor.
The model is undoubtedly a success, but the Italian farmer refuses to implement it elsewhere. “My eggs are born in this forest, here in Valtellina,” Rapella concludes in Atlas Obscura. “It would never be the same anywhere else.”
Images | Uovo di Selva
In DAP | Egg recipes