Sunday, October 30, 2011

2011 Chicken Tales

You may remember our try at raising chickens last year.  We saw three chicks grow, lay eggs, and die all within a few months.  This year our luck has been better, only one chicken died, and he was illegal in the city anyway!

I don't have any pics of them as chicks because, well, we were hatching our own chick at the time.

Here's the ladies hangin' out on the back patio.  One day the most beautiful one started crowing, and unfortunately got sent to my grandfather's farm to later be killed by their dog.
That's the life of a chicken farmer.

The door to the coop blew shut before bedtime...so they went to bed on the roof!

Often when chickens start laying, the eggs are odd shaped, have more than one yolk, or have other abnormalities as they figure out what they are doing.  Not our chickens, they laid nicely sized beautiful eggs from the beginning.  Here is one way we used the eggs, an omelet with fresh local tomatoes!  

And this is what we found last night.  I'm including it in the chicken post because I'm pretty sure that's what he was after.  Thanks to my cell phone alarm going off every evening ("Time to put the chicken's to bed") we haven't forgotten to close the coop this year...so this guy won't be as lucky as last year's possum.

As the days have shortened, so has the size of the eggs.  We're not the kind of people to hang a light up in the coop, or let them come inside, so we'll see how much longer they lay.  Until the next season, we'll find somewhere else to buy brightly colored eggs.  

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The pictures say it all!

If you are a regular follower, you may have noticed I haven't posted since August 23rd, oh my!  I will not drone on and on about why - bloggers who do that drive me nuts!  Instead, I will post some of the pictures of our local foods fun from the summer.  Enjoy and be encouraged in your own local food endeavors.

Fresh asparagus from the Food For Thought Spring Fling.


Our cucumber purchase at the Old Town Farmers' Market.


Picking grapes at the KMUW Grape Harvest Gathering at Grace Hill Winery.  A full post to come soon, but for now, here's a visual taste of the local foods fun.


Enjoying fresh watermelon from Great Grandpa's garden - who says kids don't eat fruits and veggies?


The days are shorter, the weather cooler, and the eggs are coming less frequently (yes, we tried again with three hens this year).  I hope your fresh local foods season has been as excellent as ours!  More to come soon...