Michael Pollen to the Next President

This is an interesting paper published in the New York Times Magazine regarding issues facing the next president. The premise is that even though the topic of food is not a part of the current campaign, you can link all the big issues being talked about back to the issue of food and more specifically our industrial food chain. The industrial food chain that demands tremendous energy to produce food, and also creates health problems that ultimately cost the population tremendous resources to care for the sick. The article is linked at the right, and I am going to embed the video as well.



-George

tiny carots (from toys and organic produce)

Hey kids lets tell vegetable stories do you love to eat Nash's organic carrots? Do you love to play with toys? We"ll i have a special blog entry for you.At that farm store they're selling carrot toys they look so silly you want to laugh all day do you think? Also organic carrot news you saw the egg came 10/17/08, today 10/18 /08 when it was almost winter our garden changed into a disaster but the tiny carrots rose since the beets did also thanks again to ORGANIC.
-Mac

Scenes from Summer

To reflect a bit as we now enter our dark days here in the Northwest, I have included some images from the garden this year. It was work, but well worth it especially during August when we were able to enjoy the fruits of our labor. The big successes have to be the cauliflower and broccoli which we had in abundance. We also really enjoyed the yellow squash once it came up later in August. I would say that buying the starts mid to late April for some of these veggies and then moving them outside May-June was a good plan. They probably could go out earlier, but this year it was quite cold during the spring.

Apple and pear trees seem to do well despite the cold spring due mostly to a well timed warm spell during the flowering of the trees and some nice pruning over the winter. We are really enjoying the apples right now.

Enjoy the pictures.

Eggstacy!

Hello again from the lame (I haven't blogged in a very long time) Chicken Run blogster. I could give a good excuse like, "hey its been harvest time and I have been busy!"

But that would be a lie, not really enough produce to keep us that busy, but back again and for good reason. Today our girls- one of our girls- did a good deed. We had our first egg after about six months or 24 weeks we are officially chicken farmers or as the sign entering our driveway read we have offically entered the "Chicken Zone".

The really exciting thing for me is that breakfast tomorrow will take on new meaning when we crack this perfect little blue wonder that emerged just yesterday from the rear of one of our hard working girls. And to think, I feed these birds compost from our kitchen like stale bread, veggie scraps, half eaten lunch sandwiches (no chicken salad) and they give us back perfect little blue protein bundles. This is cool. - George

Feeling OK About Eating Other Animals

Pay the extra money for the free-range happy chickens? Why not when you can rest easier as you chew on that yummy chicken leg. We are animals. We need to eat other organisms for our survival, so why not feast on animals that we know had a better existance- pass the BBQ sauce.

Thanks to Lee for the great chicken cartoon.

- George

Small Talk

An unexpected benefit of chicken ownership has recently occurred to me. It seems owning chickens has provided me with excellent small talk material- you could call it a bonanza of chicken chat. You see, no matter what the social situation, I always find a way to segue into talk about our chickens. And this always leads to talk about other peoples chickens, and next thing you know we are discussing food, and fertilizer (which brings up the current president), and then we talk about coops, and the grocery store, and a mix of other topics. Chickens provide a conversational pathway to all many topics and at the same time allow for comfort knowing that no matter how bad things get we can always raise chickens and have eggs.

-George

Chicken Talk

After releasing the girls to their new digs, I wondered if they were getting used to the workings of the chicken ark. Did they know how to use the ramp? Can they figure out the roost? Will they complain about the interior design?

To get an understanding of how they were interacting with their new environment I mounted a secret "chicken cam" within the coop to capture their first reactions. Watch the candid chicken action on the clip below, and if you listen carefully you might even understand what they are saying.

-George