Chickens are in this year . . .

In Northern California, backyard chickens are the latest accessory. They have by far surpassed the Prius in popularity contests among the eco-conscious housewife set. They make an amusing addition to the household. Happy chickens will give you an egg a day once they are mature. Another benefit - you can feed them all of your veggie table scraps and use the chicken poop for your compost. What a time saver!

Actually, backyard chickens have been around here since the last wave of planet savers came through in the seventies. Here's an article from the la times about a local flock that is creating havoc: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/traffic/la-me-chickens8-2008dec08,0,6832003.story.

I have run across these fellas a few times myself. They're just a few miles away. I find it refreshing when a chicken stops traffic - even if I am in a hurry.

gisele

City Chickens: eggs a la backyard

Some friends and I have been dreaming about having chickens in our backyard for some time now. Can you just picture waking up on a Saturday morning, having a piping cup of coffee and reading the BBC, and then going out back, 10 feet from your door to harvest some eggs, go inside crack them in a pan and golden sunny side up eggs completes the morning. Eggs fresh from the backyard, you know where they came from, you know what the chickens eat and they are so delicious its like wandering through a Haruki Murakami novel in your mouth?

Well, you can legally keep chickens in your backyard in Chicago. Currently there is no blog or website that shows this, but you can attend a class near the city to show you how to care for your new lovelies. And check out this blogger from California that has been following this movement.

Seeing the local agriculture movement break into the city scape is not only giving us some edible landscaping and beauty, but is allowing us to appreciate how our food gets to us from farm, or backyard, to plate.