Urban Chickens
Food Chain Radio Show #1159
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Urban Chickens
Guest: Lisa Steele, FreshEggsDaily.com
A few years ago I took the three-hour drive from Washinton, DC to visit the Polyface Farm of Joel and Teresa Salatin in Swope, Virginia.
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Urban Chickens in the City
I arrived to find that a pasture had been turned into a parking lot and that many of the parked cars had DC area license plates.
At the farm I found a long line of people standing at the entrance to a barn, and having been a sailor, I did what sailors do, I got in line!
The person waiting in front of me was a well-tended middle-aged woman who, given the clothing she was wearing, was most likely from the big city.
I said to her, “Excuse me, but why are we all standing in this line?”
“We’re standing in line to get chickens, of course!” she replied.
“Are you from D.C?” I asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
“You drove 3 hours to buy chickens?”
“No, no, no!” she answered. “I drove 3 hours to buy Salatin chickens!”
Later that day, Joel showed me why people drove three hours to buy his chickens, and by the end of my stay at Polyface Farm, I was wondering at the advisability of stuffing a few of those chickens in my suitcase for the flight back to the West Coast. That experience leads me to ask…
Leave a comment below: Can one safely keep kitchen chickens at home?
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