We Are Back

After a few months of hiatus we have returned to our food blog, as I have many new things to add and nostalgia has taken over. For now I am afraid I will have to go because we just got visitors, but I promise to update you blog ole friend in the next few days.

-George

Chicken Laughs

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I think one of the most amazing things about chickens is their presence in popular culture. Chickens are everywhere once you become "enlightened" to the various images that surround us daily. How did these animals make such an impact on us?

I think chickens have pecked their way into subconcious because in addition to the fact they are a great food source. They also have character and they make us laugh.

-George

A Culture of Overeating

Food and Friends

There is something about the smell of cinnamon rolls cooking. For me this smell makes a home feel warm and sweet- filled with the promise of something good to eat.

The holidays brought the second annual visit of an old family friend from Olympia; lucky for us she is a baker. Here is a tribute to our friend owner and operator of Eight Arms Community Bakery in Olympia.

Thank you Jen, you always make our lives warm and sweet.

-George

Cold Weather Gone and Moss Back in Bloom

We seemed to have survived the three week cold spell with feathers in tack. However, the white stuff has caused problems beyond the icy roads and depressed wood pile. Without the green fields to graze my girls the eggs are not of the same quality. I feel somewhat guilty actually making this claim because of the amount of energy these girls put into making eggs during the winter- who am I to bitch about the quality of the yolks. I guess I have become somewhat of an egg snob, a bit of an eggspert I guess. I am just glad to see the lawn again, and know that the chickens are too.
-George

Frozen Chicken

The last week or so it has been extremely cold, at least for us here on the wimpy west coast. I love snow, but only when it promptly goes away after a day or two after I have enjoyed the novelty of it. After a few days it starts to become a bit of an inconvenience and I want my dark, wet, 30 - 40 degree days to return.

Now here I sit in my warm house complaining about the cold, when the four girls get to actually be immersed in the white stuff freezing their feathered butts off. I am hopeful that temperatures moderate for them soon, but for now we change the water daily and provide an extra abundance of scraps to bump up the calories. And despite the frigid temperatures the egg factory continues to stay on production.

I have new appreciation for their endurance in this cold spell.

Eagle and Chicken Can Co-Exisit

I love watching birds in my yard, in fact for years I have kept bird feeders with the goal of attracting as many species as possible. I once had the pleasure of witnessing a large hawk take a Pine Siskin (sp?) after it gorged on seeds while sitting underneath the feeder. It's nice to know that nature balances itself so nicely - feed yourself to full of seeds, risk getting eaten by large predatory raptor. I assume our country's obesity problem would take care of itself if we had large predators that hung around fast food joints and took out the masses as they waddled back to their cars.

Anyway, today I had a special sighting which has never happened in the years of me keeping black oil sunflower seeds to attract wild birds. It seems without really trying I have placed a new larger, and more protein filled "prey item" to attract much larger birds into my yard. The new larger bird feeder seems to be the four chickens that sit rather helplessly (a sitting duck if you will) in their chicken ark.

This morning I was getting dressed and saw a very large bald eagle fly into the yard and perch in a tree directly above the chicken yard. I was thinking "cool" a bald eagle in the yard. It didn't really occur to me what the bird was doing in the yard until I saw it directly above the girls who were happily clucking away. It would be a chore for the eagle to get into the chickens, but who wants to find out for sure. In fact I don't think I would have the same reaction to the eagle taking one of the girls that I had when the poor Pine Sisken met its fate.

I quietly crept out the front door to get a closer look and the large bird decided the restaurant was closed for the day and flew away.

-George

No More McDonald's?

When I was young my Pop had a tradition of bringing me to McDonald's for a treat when I would visit him in Chicago. This created a very clear associated memory for me with respect to this restaurant and spending time with my grandpa. This tradition probably nestled many warm fuzzy memories of eating hamburgers with my Pop in the recesses of my brain.

Over the last few years of my son's life I have perpetuated this association through to the next generation by taking an occasional trip with him to the golden arches. Although these trips have become increasingly rare over the years.

Lucky for my daughter she is older and has already classified McDonald's into the "gross" part of her brain escaping the brainwashing bestowed upon my son.

Now new reason to distance myself and my family from all forms of fast food- like we needed a new reason. The past reasons included: very high calorie, very high fat (and scary fats at that), very wasteful packaging, evil corporation!, globalization, etc. Now we have added to the list new data from a recent research report which clearly links the hamburger and chicken protein to the diet and environment the animal experienced during their life.

Sorry Pop!


-George

Food Storage As Grandma Knew It

I have been thinking quite a bit about storing food, preserving, canning, freezing. We were successful this year in picking blueberries from a local organic farm and storing away about 25 pounds in our freezer for use until into November. We also picked and stored apples from our trees in a plastic bin in our storage room, and we are currently enjoying fresh apples. However, my dreams of canning large amounts of fresh tomatoes didn't pan out, and I really would like to grow and store more of the food we eat. Today I ran into an interesting article in the New York Times with the title of this entry and it peaked my interest again in learning more practical applications of food preservation and storage. I have attached the link to the article here.

-George

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

The Great Unknown

Well, as the chicks, (or more like chick-agers, since they have most definitely left that stage in their life,) have moved out, there are some concerns...

-Will they get cold and die?

-Will they get eaten and die?

-Will they not discover they can move down the ramp, to the food and water, and starve and die?

And even more importantly, as we were gone for Mother's Day Weekend on their first venture into the Great Unknown, without any surveillance, (except for a visit from Tam, thank you!) we were obviously worried. As George and I left to visit Leigh's mom and go to a nearby baseball game, we silently pondered about how there was the possibility that we might come home to an empty chicken tractor. After all, what with the naming of them, we have grown quite attatched to the chicks.

I'm not sure if this has been brought up already, but all the chicks have finally been named. There is Scout, the very first one to be named, whom I named after the character in To Kill a Mockingbird, because she is very brave. Kelly has named one of them Kind, because it always looks like it is smiling. Another has been named Happy Tamara, after the wonderful help Tam and Lee have given us in building the chicken tractor. Yet another has been named Dot, due to it's markings. They are all dotted, but this one more than the others. 

But when we came home, all the chicken's were safely huddled together up in the top level of the coop... so we know that they learned to walk the ramp, weren't cold because they had each other to cuddle with, were not eaten, and most importantly... did not die. So all's well that ends well... although I would hardly call it the end. No... this is the beginning. "The beginning of a beautiful friendship."

-Rahne

"Girls Night Out"

This phrase "girls night out" for my partner Leigh conjures up images of freedom, no kids, good conversation, perhaps a glass of wine with friends, and otherwise an escape from the roles and responsibilities of daily family life.  This phrase for me today means freedom from the smells, sounds, and realities of having four chickens share  your living room with you.  Today is the first time in nearly four weeks that I suddenly feel less crowded in my home, because today is the chickens (the girls) first night outside in their new Chicken Ark.    

Big thanks goes to Lee and Tam that helped expedite the project as the smells and sounds just overcame our family and necessitated the rush to completion.

I have captured the joyous event in a quick video here. 

-George

ESCAPE FROM THE TUB

We knew it was only a matter of time...Four teenager chicks in a tub together trying out their new feathered wings...

The other day when I was cleaning out their tub (which, as I know I've mentioned, needs to be done almost daily) I took the lid off of the tub and I took the water canister outside. Luckily Sunny was out there, too, so he did not see the smallest one hop up to roost on the side of the tub. (This was before PHASE ONE of the introducing of the chicks to Sunny had taken place, although, I am not thoroughly convinced that the introductions have made Sunny less interested in these little girls!)

When I came back in (and, yes, I left the front door open too) I realized that "Kind" (named by Kelly because of her cute little happy yellow cheeks) was perched up on the side of the tub...looking curious...but also a bit nervous. I decided to wait and see what happened (instead of chasing her around the living room). Sure enough, she hopped back in with the others and I popped the lid back on! (WHEW!)

Lessons Learned from the "Chicken Escape Prevented Narrowly Scenario"! 

1) Could have been a disaster if Sunny had been in...make sure to close doggie door and put the dog out when cleaning the tub from now on.

2) Could have been a disaster if Chick had flown out the front door and met Sunny outside...make sure to close front door when taking water canister out to dump it.

-Leigh

The Time Crunch

Recent days have been filled with increased attention to the loud and smelly teen like (eat, sleep, and argue) chickens still living in our house.  The chicken coop is nearly done, but the size of the chickens, their ever increasing chatter, not to mention their stink has caused a "get it done now" urgency to the coop construction.  It is funny to think back on when I first thought of making this little portable coop.  I looked over a few plans, and thought naively "that looks simple".  Well over three weeks later and the coop is nearly done, but for me and the family this will not be soon enough.   

In addition to the chicken time crunch we also have increased the time needed to get the weekly groce

ry shopping done.  When you attempt to purchase food from local farmers, as we have bee

n doing more lately, it changes the one-stop shopping at Safeway into a longer process. We have enjoyed getting some of our weekly food at a couple of local farms in a nearby vall

ey.  New discoveries:  

• Raw whole milk from the Dungeness Valley Creamery
• Farm fresh eggs from a couple of local farms (girls will help with this later)
• Fresh veggies from Nashes Organic Produce

Please see attached photos of progress on coop see above and local the milk photo is courtesy of "mostly-filler" (Thank you Lee). 

Footnote:  Phase one of operation "My Chickens!" has begun with our dog Sunny.  Phase one activities include blocking off the kitchen and bringing the girls out of their pen to nervously walk around on the floor while the dog is allowed to meet the birds.  All the while we assert our Alpha pack leader dominance over Sunny exclaiming "My Chickens!" so he understands that he isn't allowed to harass, nibble, lick, suck-on or otherwise taste the girls in anyway.  Thank you for this idea goes to John Grogan author of Marley and Me who wrote an article about his current dog Gracie and training her to not eat his family chickens.

-George 

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