I was talking with another mom this weekend who mentioned that she had heard about our chickens and was so thrilled to hear the stories about them.
There’s something about growing your own food and understanding where it comes from, she told me. That sense seems to be missing today, no one makes the connection that food is a valuable resource.
I didn’t realize when we decided to get these chickens, just how much we had taken for granted about our food. Sure, we occasionally visited local farm stands and even stopped at the odd umbrella shrouded tables at the end of driveways to buy summer squash and tomatoes from local neighbors. For the most part though, we got the majority of our food at the grocery store. You pick it out, you buy it, you take it home.
Our first and only attempt at a garden was disastrous. We live under tall pines and the years and years of decomposed pine needles proved to be too strong of an advisory. That first garden gave us one tiny zucchini for all our efforts – seriously? We couldn’t even grow a zucchini?
But with chickens that provide us eggs, things have changed a little. We are all getting it.
Eggs are food. Food is valuable. We sell our eggs and we eat our eggs. Eggs are a commodity and a valuable resource.
Respect the chicken
The kids understand that in order to get more eggs, we need to take care of the egg layers. The hens need clean water and food. Their coop needs to be mucked out. If we treat them well, they’ll produce for us. It’s a gentle, cooperative partnership
And while I’m sure that our kids are collecting the funny stories about our chickens to tell their own children someday, I’m as equally sure they will also tell them about being able to go out to the chicken coop early on a Sunday morning to fetch fresh eggs for use in our breakfast.
NH.com
WZID 95.7 fm
What people are saying