Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you are all safe and manage to keep the stress level down till the feasting is over!!

How about a little history for dinner conversation?

Try this article from the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/opinion/25prosek.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212

"But if eels were an essential food for Native Americans and early colonists, then why are they neglected as a food fish in modern America? Why isn’t eel, instead of turkey, the symbol of colonial resilience and gratitude? "

Yum!

Two Chicken Stories

In the fall I get my laying hens from a farm that raises 13,000 chicks for 20 weeks or so, to pullet stage. My four or dozen hens each year, as you may realize, are a drop in the bucket to them, but they treat me like I am their best customer. Usually I take a nice ride to Myersdale in October, get to see the fall leaves still changing a bit south of us, and get my few new hens.
I made my call a few days ago to arrange a time to stop and - what? They were sold OUT!

You have to understand that just last year, there were thousands still unsold, and it took till before Christmas to unload them all. They even muttered about giving up the business for a minute. Today they have nine roosters left. Good luck with them giving eggs!

So what changed? Its all about the salmonella scare. Farms can't keep up with their egg sales and are increasing their flocks. Oh My Goodness! People are willing to pay more for safe eggs. Hurray!I told the woman I talked to that I was happy for them, and I think at first she thought I was kidding, but as we talked, she realized I meant it. We talked about slow sales the last couple of years, and that this year they are trying to get hens from another flock to fill their orders, but can only get a few hundred more. She took my name, even for a few measly hens, and said if they get some hens from Virginia in November to fill their wait list, and a few aren't taken, I might get them. No promises.

Well, my girls are still laying, but I expect them to slow down fast. My refrigerator is not as stocked anymore, but that's okay. We will appreciate what we get till spring arrives and the eggs pick up again.

And then this story in the New York Times today:
New Way to Help Chickens Cross to Other Side By WILLIAM NEUMAN

“People don’t want to know too much,” said Marc Cooper, a senior scientific manager in the farm animals department of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in London. “It’s hard to sell humane killing as a concept.”

I think that's the story in a nutshell. Read it and see what you think.

Fair Reading

This morning I am reading this article with interest as this is our fair week. The article is about state fairs, but much holds true for all fairs.

As Life Spins On, the Midway Beckons

Excerpts:
"Despite urbanization, suburban sprawl, the collapse of family farms and the rise of corporate agriculture, every year, regular as the seasons, the midways light up, the Tilt-a-Whirls clang to life and the judges study the ample rumps of the local livestock. "
"It would be a long drive. And along the way there would be deep-fried Oreos, grilled bratwurst and church-sponsored plates of peppery fried chicken.

With luck, and a strong stomach, one might even get a look at whatever new country is being born right now in that place — perhaps the only place — where country meets city, suburb and exurb in a shoulder-to-shoulder immersion in half-forgotten American traditions and deep-fried everything."

"Huge, maze-like and teeming, they reminded me a bit of Vegas casinos — chaotic looking at first, but gradually revealing the underlying pattern of food stalls over here, midway rides over there, agricultural barns hugging the periphery. The slapdash and transitory nature of it, the sense of a place that was thrown up over a weekend and could disappear overnight, is part of the pleasure. You can get lost in a state fair; it rewards exploration.

Most state fairs have taken place for decades in or near the state’s biggest city or capital. Partly, that’s because such sites were most accessible, the place all the highways went. But it was also by design, to give the country folk an exciting taste of city life as they gathered with their stock and traded tips on the latest farming trends — and to give city folk, many of them only a generation or two off the farm themselves, a whiff of the old life."

' “The new thing this year,” confided C. LaVon Shook, a former shuttle driver at the fair who has become its official historian, “is chocolate-covered bacon.” '

Read on with me...

As Life Spins On, the Midway Beckons

What An Egg Costs

Its been a while since I did the math to see how much feed I buy, how many eggs I get, sell, use and trade, to see what my eggs really cost. I can guarantee that I am not breaking even, at least dollar wise.

Initially I got four pullets, to just put something in the barn. It seemed like a good way to start using the space. A stall in the barn became the chicken coop, with some chicken wire and PVC pipe. A couple purchases for a feeder, water dispenser, the first 50 pounds of feed, the four or five bucks for the hens, and we were behind - what? Two hundred bucks easy. Then we had to wait for the girls to mature and lay but once they did, we had four eggs a day for about a year. Then came the disappointment. Winter and its short days came and they quit laying. Not one egg for days sometimes. Its all part of the natural process, but after having Easter every day for a year, its a BIG let down!

I know we benefit in other ways from the hens. Parasite control in the barn and pastures. Compost turning. Grub control when we dig in the spring. Peace of mind - we know where the eggs came from, and how old they are. Entertainment - they can be so funny to watch. But how do you value that?

Today an article in the New York Times talked about some of the costs of raising hens for eggs and meat, especially since more people are doing it.

Jasmin Middlebos, 36, a librarian who lives with her husband, a sheriff’s deputy, and their three children in a rural area outside Spokane, Wash., began raising chickens last year. She now has 26 birds, which produce up to two dozen eggs a day. (In hot weather, production can drop by half, and in winter it can stop altogether.) In September, she began selling some of the eggs — she gets $2 to $3 a dozen — and started keeping track of her income and expenses.
Since then, Ms. Middlebos said, she has taken in $457 from egg sales and spent $428, mostly on feed. That left $29 in the Mason jar where she keeps her earnings, to spend the next time she buys feed.
But that accounting does not include the cost of buying the birds as chicks — $1.50 to $4 each, depending on the breed — or the $1,500 she spent converting the old shed in her yard to a henhouse.

Keeping Their Eggs in Their Backyard Nests (read more)