Just had to stop for ice cream…

Sometimes all you want to do is just simply get home…leave work, get in the car and drive, windows rolled up, A/C on, tunes playin’ on the radio…your own little living room on wheels transporting you to your big living room with a roof and a mortgage. This was a Monday all day long and my brain died while I was still trying to use it …so, I really didn’t need to stop at the grocery store on my way home….and if it wasn’t for that Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia I wouldn’t have…ah, yes, the ice cream…I’ll get to eatin’ that later, but first this thought is buzzin’ around in my head!

I get through the market almost unbruised…well, except for the kid in the grocery cart who thought it would be funny to stick his foot out in front of my cart as I went by, kicking me in the elbow, then me holding my funny bone (?) stopped to say something sweet to the kid and he began to cough God-knows-what all over me…maybe that’s why he stuck his foot out, he needed a target. So, now I’m on the home stretch and proceeding with caution to the self-checkout aisle where I’m convinced there must be a film crew up in the ceiling taking video to play later on The World’s Funniest Grocery Store Checkout Videos. How can those things possibly save anyone any time?…. I only go there to keep from interacting with a cashier that ignores me and a bagger who puts my watermelon on top of my $3.99/lb. tomatoes on the vine, but NO, the stupid checkout machine won’t leave me alone, it doesn’t let me put my groceries where I want to, sensing that I may be stealing something and tells me to wait for an attendant…but I NEED my ice cream so I hang in there, knowing that I’m only moments away from my car and I’ll soon be back home, if all goes well.

OK! Great!…I’m heading for the car and there’s a woman parked next to me loading her groceries into the back of her pumpkin orange Saturn SUV. She finishes, hops in her car and proceeds with caution to back out of her parking space…just then and from out of nowhere walks a woman directly behind the SUV while it’s in reverse…all I could say was NOOOOOOO, like in slow motion, I could just imagine her hitting the pavement and I was already thinking 911 in that split second…the SUV missed her by 1 millimeter, no more no less…it only took me a second to spurt out “YOU WERE ALMOST HIT BY THAT CAR!!!!” and she just looked at me and kept walking past and into the sunset not seeming to care that those steps behind that car might have been her last…she had no reaction and almost seemed mad that I interrupted her train of thought, well her train was almost de-railed!

Now, I’m in my car, trying to calm down from that near miss, I pull out of the parking lot onto the street and notice that a big green bug, a cicada, I believe, had attached himself to my side view mirror on the mirror side. At first I thought he would fly off if I slowed down…I knew that if I opened my window to shoo him off he would most likely fly into my car. So, my only choice was to drive…30, 35,….40…45 mph and he’s still hanging on! The longer he hung on, the more compassion I felt for him…we were bonding perhaps…well, not exactly…I just admired his chutzpuh, he was hanging on for dear life! Could it be that the bug had more of a survival instinct, appreciation for my efforts to save its life, than the woman behind the car in the parking lot? I’m rounding the corner now on the home stretch and 100 yards from my driveway…yes, he’s still there..Well, I’ll go inside and check on him later…he’ll be gone. A couple of hours pass and, hmmm, he’s STILL there, and it struck me…he was seeing his image in the mirror, probably thinking to himself, “hey, you look maw-val-ous daw-ling, simply maw-val-ous!” ..afterall, it is the height of the summer when all the bugs are lookin’ for love, not only the love-bugs. I guess he realized that he found a beauty and he wasn’t about to let her go now when he could see his unborn children in her eyes!

My mama always told me that there’s a lesson in everything we experience, but I do declare, I learn more from the animal kingdom than all that book learnin’ they teach in school. This bug was testimony to that which has been buzzin’ round in my head for the past 3 years (30 days at a time…), if you find that special someone whose mere reflection sets your heart on fire and makes you want to hang on for dear life, go with it, you never know where love will take you!

Dreams Realized….

Years ago I dreamed that I would one day have grandchildren and have the pleasure of introducing them to and teaching them something about gardening. Along with the garden I would have a few farm animals and instill into those ‘grandbabies’ the concept of where our food comes from and how to care for God’s creatures, perhaps while gathering a few veggies and eggs along the way. I would spend time digging in the dirt with them, picking up worms and looking at bugs. Well, tonight around 7:30 p.m. it dawned on me that my dream had come true….not on a farm as I had envisioned, but in the back yard of my residential lot…my urban homestead, The Little House In Suburbia!

This evening after work I picked up my granddaughter, we went to dinner and then, at her request, came home to work in the garden. As I do almost every evening, I carried each of the chickens to their ‘playground,’ a fenced in area of the garden where the chickens tractor a section of the new garden bed… (as part of their room and board) …As I carried each one I would stop so that Ava could ever so sweetly pet and talk to them before I placed them in their run where they would hunt and peck and scratch until dusk. As she began to pet Frannie Frances, the Araucana chicken with the tufts of feathers around her ears, Ava exclaimed, “Mimi, I can see her ears right there behind her feathers!” I had never told her anything about the anatomy of the chicken, she noticed that all on her own! How many 6 year olds know what a chicken’s ear looks like or even where to look for it? Well, now Ava does!

Ava then began to fill up her little watering can and to water the peas and then the okra…she declared, “I like fried okra!” On her way down the garden aisle …”Whoops, sorry Mimi, I just tripped over your plant…oh look, is that a baby watermelon?” (Don’t worry, no watermelon was harmed in the making of this wonder-filled evening!) Next, she put on her Dora the Explorer garden gloves to do a little raking in the coop when spying a well-pecked corn cob….”Mimi, how do the chick chicks eat this little tiny corn on the cob?” I explained to her that it was a regular sized cob before the chickens got a hold of it! After that, it was time to harvest some veggies; two zucchini squash (one with a blossom attached and upon opening the blossom we found some little ants…she thought that was curiously awesome), one ‘Flying Saucer’ patty pan squash (that name made her laugh!), a Japanese eggplant with a tiny little hole in it that she had to examine closely (note to self, get a magnifying glass before Ava’s next visit), a gypsy pepper and a radish! She was disappointed that the carrots weren’t ready to be pulled when she shared, “I’ve never in my whole life (of 6 years) ever pulled out a carrot from the ground, ever!” She carried the bounty around in a market basket for a few minutes and then remembered that she hadn’t checked the coop for eggs. The Easter Egg Hunt was on..she hurried into the coop and gathered the 4 eggs from the nesting boxes…not even concerned a bit that she might get some poo on her shoes, …”Mimi, it’s OK if I get my shoes dirty…” well alrighty then…right into the coop she went… just like a real farm girl! Then into the house we went for a good soak in the tub!

What a great evening, seeing the garden through a child’s eyes….my granddaughter and I sharing a very special time together, a dreamy time for me, a learning experience for us both, a time that I hope will remain in her memory in the years to come when she conjures up “Mimi”… I know it will always remain in mine.

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out if I’m nurturing the plants and animals or are they nurturing me….? Maybe Ava can help me figure that out…

Gardening grows more than food…it grows love!

For this moment….

everything is calm and as it should be …in my little world, my microcosm…

Last Wednesday I came home after shopping at the open air farmer’s market and took my time about getting out into the back yard to check on the hens…much to my shock and dismay, I found one of ‘the girls’ dead on the coop floor. Let’s just say that I wasn’t prepared for the emotions that would ensue. I mean, after all, the girls just had their 1st birthday on Ava’s birthday, May 28th. It was one of the Barred Plymouth Rocks, “Big Bird” as we affectionately called her. It’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with the death of a pet, the last was Ebony, my 15 year-old black lab. That was so very difficult as I had to make the decision to end her suffering, tough stuff. I had no idea that I could get so attached to a chicken…just a chicken. Those silly hens each have their own very special personalities and Big Bird had a lot to say. She was the first one to speak to me when I walked out into the back yard, she used to fly up to the roosting post outside in the run as I approached just so she could look me in the eye when I came to the coop door. She also had a fetish for sweet clover leaves and flowers as no matter where she was pastured she just knew that the grass was going to be sweeter on the other side of the fence. She would fly the coop just as soon as I would put her in the enclosed pasture that the girls were supposed to be ‘tractoring,’ just to prove her theory.

The shock and sadness of Big Bird’s passing was so very powerful, a zillion thoughts filled my mind..she was just fine Wednesday morning when I came out to give them their morning cracked corn. Bob went out to see them later in the day but hadn’t checked the inside of the coop. One or the other of the girls is always in and out of the coop and nesting boxes either laying eggs or checking on somebody else doing the same. It just seemed like a normal day on ‘the farm’…no need to take a head count. By the time I went out there around 6:30 she was stiff and cold, not a sign of what might have happened, no struggle, no blood, her eyes closed, neck stretched out..just lying in a fresh clean pile of pine shavings as I’d just cleaned the coop the evening before. I lost it, like I have before….when human loved ones passed…denial “NO, NO!!!!”….”WHY WHY?”…then guilt…”What did I do, what didn’t I do…what should I have done?”…then….fear, “Oh my God!…what if it’s something contagious and they all die!” ..then the tears, sobs…moans and such deep painful empty loss…over a chicken…A CHICKEN! I can’t begin to tell you how much of a sense of peace and appreciation for life that those chickens have given me.

Everyday we go about our daily business…get up, go to work to a place we don’t want to be going, doing things we don’t want to be doing just as fast as we can while we multitask in order to do as many of those things as we can, looking at the clock and waiting for the moment that we are released, to go back home to the filling station and get recharged to do it all over again…ok, it may not be quite that mundane but for me the moments are superficial. Those moments are all about earning money to pay for things like food shelter and clothing…but MUCH more that that…many material things that cause me to serve THEM instead of the other way around.

I have had this opportunity for the past year to observe life from a different angle, a slightly familiar and nostalgic one. Through taking charge of growing some of my own food, my life had suddenly been slowed down a bit to the point of being able to be both a participant and an observer of the precious miracle of how things grow…first a patio container filled with a tomato plant, pepper plant and some herbs…then a 4’ x 8’ raised garden bed overflowing with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra and cucumbers. I couldn’t stop with that, next were 8 fuzzy 2 day old chicks in a homemade brooder in my laundry room with them looking up at me wondering if I was their mother…well, I was the next best thing, Mother Nurture but not Mother Nature. The chicks grew up so fast, as did the garden, first the tomatoes and then…they were laying eggs. It didn’t take long for me to become enthralled with it all and the possibilities that may be ahead….bigger garden, more animals…goats, goat cheese, more chickens and maybe someday ….a little farm! It all started with 1 tomato plant on the patio.

Big Bird’s untimely passing has been another reminder of how precious are life’s moments. Her death is so very fresh on my mind, but it’s her life that I must remember as it’s given me more reasons to want to be a good steward, to plant, to nurture to watch it grow and to be hopeful, knowing that with every harvest there will be some loss and that love can be found in the most unusual places…even in a chicken coop in your own backyard.

Big Bird died on June 3, 2009 was cremated on June 4th at Paws Whiskers & Wags Pet Crematory. Her ashes will rest in the garden and in the fields of sweet clover of Coop d’ville Farm ….wherever that may be now or in the future.

Georgia Organics Conference...at last!

Where did March go…? I’ve been meaning to sit down and bring you all up to date on the Georgia Organics Conference…I, having been tethered to a very old desktop computer for the past 9 years, just couldn’t find the time to sit at the office desk and muster up the patience to endure that slow-as- molasses computer any longer; so, I’ve now done my part as a good American and put some money into the sluggish economy to purchase a laptop! Now I can take it outside, sit down in the Adirondack chair in front of the chicken coop and watch what Bob calls “Chicken TV” while I blog away the hours! What a wonderful life I have, ey?

Day One of the Conference..or should I say Day One/Morning….

It was even more awesome than I could’ve imagined AND was right here in Decatur! Two weeks ago Friday, I awoke at 5:30 a.m. to be at the Conference registration at Agnes Scott by 7 a.m.!...I, being the anal person that I am, didn’t want to be late for registration…so, I was there even before they were setup..and was the 3rd person to register! It was still a bit dark and quite cool, especially in the event tent which was set up on a luscious carpet of thick long, dark green grass. I grabbed a blueberry muffin and some juice from the buffet and headed out the door towards Presser Hall for the extended workshop which was to be given by Jules Dervaes of Path To Freedom . I was just rounding the corner when I spotted a man bending down attempting to pick up several bags and boxes when he, looking up at me, asks, “Do you know where I’m supposed to be setting up?”….oh my gosh that’s Jules Dervaes, I’d know that face anywhere…I’ve watched Homegrown Revolution and other hours of his YouTube ‘episodes’ about urban homesteading in Pasadena! I’m trying not to be star struck, and I never thought of myself as a groupie…I’ve been to lots of concerts of famous artists and never once thought of rushing the stage or camping out for hours to buy tickets…but this was different…this guy symbolizes what I only thought was possible, and yet, he’s been doing it for almost 20 years…farming his suburban residential lot in downtown Pasadena just a couple of blocks from the Rose Bowl and inbetween 2 freeways! He and his 3 grown children grow enough food (about 6,000 lbs. on average) to live off of and to sell (about $20K a year) to local restaurants. Oh wait, he’s not alone…he’s brought the whole family and, …. here comes Anais, the older daughter, schlepping more bags and boxes than Jules. As I walk over to her to see if I can help her carry something, I say to her in my excitement, “I didn’t know you were coming, as well!” She replies, “Yeah, that was a surprise to all of us!” What a deal!...the whole family and even Janice, the administrative assistant, loaded into a van and drove to Decatur from Pasadena, California just for the G.O. Conference! The first thing Jules spoke about was how he used Map Quest to plan his trip route, being so pleased with himself that he figured out how many hours it would take to make the trip, he forgot one little thing…the 3 time zones he would pass on his journey, thus throwing him off by 3 hours! They had arrived in Decatur at 2 a.m. and were on the Agnes Scott campus by 7:15 a.m….I just wanted to hug them all and thank them from the bottom of my heart for sharing with us, for those 4 wonderful and informative hours, for telling their story of how they’ve pioneered the Urban Homestead movement! They grow many varieties of veggies and fruits, gather eggs from their chickens and ducks, and have 2 goats (heavy sigh….) that will soon be giving milk for cheese, they make bio-diesel fuel for their delivery truck, use a solar oven, utilize solar panels for most of their energy (even selling back some energy to their local electric company) and even have and use a solar shower in their garden that waters their banana trees…OK, so maybe that’s taking it too far for some of you…but, just think about it….growing your own food, right there in your own backyard!...they, the Dervaes family, were my inspiration when I happened upon them in my delirium of Googling last April…I finally got a chance to tell them in person that they have given me the confidence (through the virtual medium of cyberspace) to jumpstart my dream of growing some of my own food! Come to think of it, it was about this time last April that I decided to get the chicks and plant a garden after taking up the 100 Foot Challenge on their website. It was a weekend much like this one,…Bob was out of town and I had too much time on my hands…by the end of that weekend and by the time he came back home, I announced that I had this idea of raising chickens and doin’ a little farmin’ in the backyard…he asked me what we needed to do to make it happen, then he helped me make it so! Thanks to Jules and the Dervaes family for showing me that urban homesteading is possible and thanks even more, Bob, for your love, support and assistance in making it a reality!..(pssst, don’t tell anyone but I think Bob’s almost as hooked on this idea as I am…shhhh!)……to be continued ...

"You Are What You Eat"...I have proof!

The Zen Hens were put in my care to teach me the simple, yet valuable, lessons of the Universe.

 

In May of last year Caryn and I drove 50 miles, all the way to Dallas, Georgia to pick up eight baby chicks just two days old. Just like children and pets they began to develop their own personalities. I had some chickens as a young girl in Tucson; made friends with some of them, but didn’t study them as I do now. I would like to think that I’m ‘studying’ them and not just “obsessing” over them. As they grew, one by one each starting to lay eggs like clockwork at 5 months old, I began to pay closer attention to the details. Maybe it was because I knew that I’d be eating those eggs, that I began evaluating what the chicks were eating. I had read that you shouldn’t give laying hens onions or garlic because most likely the eggs would taste of onions and garlic, which I guess wouldn’t be so bad if you were making a Spanish Omelet…but what about when you wanted one of those eggs for a Janet’s Lemon Meringue Tart (more on that later). As all of the hens began to lay, I couldn’t help but noticing that each egg was different in its size, texture, shape and color. As the months passed I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out who laid what egg.

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I just can’t help feeding those that I love. So, the “girls” eat well. Their everyday ‘chicken feed’ is a hormone and antibiotic free vegetarian chicken food pellet. BUT every morning they get greens…collard greens or mustard greens, napa cabbage or kitchen veggie scraps. Since spring is around the corner, Lorraine and Janet are pulling weeds from their garden and yard, toting them over from down the street, daily placing them at my door like an offering at the alter (they LOVE “the girls”)! Weeds, yummy…dirt and all, are the “girls” favorite snack! They have an addiction, though…corn…corn in any form, it’s like crack-rock to them. The problem is this, corn doesn’t have all the nutrients they need to keep them healthy, let alone to keep them laying. So, corn is a treat given a little at a time. If I change their diet it shows the next day in their eggs, the size and color of the shell, and the color of the yolk inside the shell. For the past 3 days they’ve had an extra abundance of weeds and today their eggs have been the largest and the yolks have been the deepest yellow-orange I’ve yet seen….those eggs are a direct reflection of what the hens eat…and up the food chain it goes…into the next link, me and many of you. It’s so comforting to know where at least one source of my food comes from…the Zen Hens in the backyard!

 

There are farm sources all around us that care as much about the growing of their food as we do. Coincidentally, I just found Eat Wild …a website for meat, eggs and dairy that gives locations near you. You might have to drive a little farther and spend a little more; but, remember...you are what you eat AND you're worth it!

I sometimes get distracted, no surprise here...but I missed President Obama's address to Congress last night...until I realized that I could watch it on CSpan, so I stayed up until past midnight listening. I think it to be important to listen to everything that's available from our new President, to hear his words as they're leaving his mouth...so that the press can't tell me what I heard, as I don't need someone to tell me what I heard if I can hear it for myself. I can't say that I have alot of interest in politics as such, but I do care and want to keep up with those that do, those that have been elected to office, those that have vision, integrity and the competence to accomplish a positive agenda. Let's face it, we do need change, change for the combined good of us all. Obama spoke with a message of hard work but he also gave a message of hope...and where I come from a little hope goes a long way...it makes us want to pick ourselves up and brush ourselves off and become determined to get through the tough times. I am impressed that Obama is listening...listening to and getting advice from those whose expertise, education and experience can guide him and ultimately us through this down swing in the American and world economy.

There are so many issues that haven't been addressed through the last administration, issues that effect us all, one of which I was pleasantly surprised to hear in President Obama's speech concerning my favorite subject...food. I don't profess to know everything or even a whole lot about previous Farm Bills or commodity subsidies; but, I do know that lots of our tax dollars go to subsidize huge agri-businesses (think huge here...not the farm down the road....hundreds of thousands of acres all over America run by megamillion dollar companies like Archer Daniel Midland ADM "the supermarket of the world" as their commercial indicates. This is how it works; Farmers growing corn—the crop most favored by government policies, in this case let's just say the huge agri-business, gets a direct payment based on the past corn acres. They do very well if corn prices go high, and they would be fine if prices went low because another government check would make up much of the difference. This production subsidy policy urges farmers to maximize production of a few preferred crops like corn or soybeans, even at the expense of the environment, instead of a variety of crops that replenish the soil or maintain the integrity of the soil in regards to erosion.

Michael Pollan, the author of several books, one of which is The Omnivore's Dilemma, is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism. Pollan served for many years as executive editor of Harpers Magazine and is now the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley . He will be the keynote speaker at the 12th Annual Georgia Orgaincs Conference and Trade Show that I will be attending on March 20-21, 2009. In a Georgia Organics interview he was asked what he is the most hopeful about in regards to the new Administration and the new Secretary of Agriculture. His response was, "My hope is that as Obama tackles everything from economic redevelopment to healthcare reform to climate change, there will be a recognition that he needs to deal with the food policy as well. There is not a lot of support, for example, for commodity subsidies in this country. You know, even if you asked farmers, most farmers would like to see them capped, if not radically reformed....So that's what I hope-more visability for the issue (food policy), and I'm hoping both Obamas will contribute to that."

....Bringing me to this point...last night President Obama said that there will be no more commodity subsidies to the big agribusinesses! Now, that got my attention...maybe he is listening...now, if you'll excuse me I've got to get back to reading The Omnivore's Dilemma

I've finally finished reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" a Barbara Kingsolver book about a year of food life, existing almost totally on what she and her family of four could raise on their small Virginia farm. At the end of that year Kingsolver reflects on the meaning of their efforts, "These efforts might just get us past the train-wreck of the daily news, or the anguish of standing behind a child, looking with her at the road ahead, searching out redemption where we can find it: recycling or carpooling or growing a garden or saving a species or something. Small, stepwise changes in personal habits aren't trivial. Ultimately they will, or won't, add up to having been the thing that mattered."

 

I have a small backyard flock of 8 laying hens that, in their zen-like manner, have persuaded me that it's time to follow my heart and my conscience and travel the path to a more sustainable way of life...this Blog will serve as my diary, my blue print and...oh, my thesis!