If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may have noticed some photos of the new additions to our ‘homestead’ over the past two or so weeks. Most notably, you may be following along with my attainment of some wonderful chickens, and the slow growth of our garden project for this year. But where is this all coming from? Why are me and my husband taking on all this ‘extra’ work, and becoming a bunch of ‘strange farmers in the suburbs’?
Slowly but surely, my Husband and I have agreed that we want to take control of our food to put less reliance on an industry that values quantity over quality, and sales over the value of human labor. So, we’ve been making additions to our lives that guarantee access to accessible, affordable, healthy, sustainable, human rights oriented, and guaranteed gluten free foods that we KNOW the source of. You could say that Spring 2014 is our grand kick off with this movement, but what have been the steps to get here?
Last spring our father in law converted an old unused swing set into a chicken coop:
That’s the work in progress. The finished product is entirely encased in chicken wire, and the house on the left is shingled with the same shingles as the house. And last week, we finally got some tenants. We brought home three chickens from a local farm out east called Garden of Eve. They’re a farm that is completely GMO free and organic, and takes great care of their animals and plants.
Meet Attila the Hen, Buckley, and Henrietta:
Now we can tell them apart, and even over the past few days we’ve learned their distinct personalities. They’re even sweet enough to leave their eggs in a convenient pick up spot!:
They lay right next to our egg collecting door, to the left.
We were told by a gentlemen that ran the class we attended when we got them that “this is one of the most rewarding and inexpensive hobbies” and so far this seems to be true. The price for the three chickens, 50lb bag of organic feed, and hay was about $80, and we’ve had them for almost one week and have 13 eggs. I’ll share a bit more about how these eggs taste in a separate post, since many people have asked.
Now, onto the garden. We are lucky enough to have property to play with. We pulled up the grass in one corner of the backyard, pulled up the grass and got to work tilling a 15 foot x 10 foot plot:
We thought out what we wanted:
And then we purchased the seeds. We purchased them from Seed Savers Exchange, a company that strives to bring organic, heirloom, GMO free, and almost extinct plant varieties to home and industrial farmers:
Here in Long Island we’ve still been getting frosts up until last week, so the process of planting in the ground is a slow one. While we sift the soil of rocks and debris for the root vegetables we’ve started the tomatoes, kale, peppers, some of the herbs, and onions in their biodegradable seed starters. They’ve sprouted over the past few days:
Next up is finishing the garden and getting everything fully planted, as well as making any modifications to the chicken coop as needed. As I sit here typing this I can hear my chickens making happy little sounds up in their coop, and am surrounded by ever growing seedlings. I am so happy that we are moving in this ‘unusual’ direction. We are not only taking control of our food which helps me feel empowered, but are also improving our healthy through more exercise, outdoor time, and improved nutrition. Further, we are supporting local and sustainable companies that value humans over their profit. This makes me truly happy!
While I know chickens and a garden aren’t options for everyone due to money, space, or policy restrictions there are so many ways to improve your access to gluten free foods and take control of your food. Join a Community Sustained Agriculture group, make more conscious decisions of where you purchase your food (maybe you have neighbors with a garden, or local farm stands) and what companies process them, and in general just keep in mind what makes food good for you also likely makes food good for our environment and society.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted as things continue to grow and change here!
