Lovavore Project One....

As we planned for our fifth week of local shopping, several projects had hatched in our household as we sought to put into place some of the suggestions mentioned in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Having already made TWO delicious Chocolate Zucchini Cakes (both received rave reviews) with farm eggs, the conversation about building a chicken coop in the backyard intensified. To be honest with you, the chicken conversation has been ongoing for months. John Alexander and Stephen attended a meeting of backyard chicken farmers this past spring at North Carolina State University and our friend, Melissa, has keep the conversation going, asking "the boys" repeatedly when they were getting their chickens!

So project one involves a great deal of "chicken and coop research." If you read back to earlier posts, cake one contained beautiful pastel farm eggs brought to us from Blacksburg by Melissa after her most recent trip to Southwest Virginia. Thus, in Chapter 6, "The Birds and the Bees", when Kingsolver describes the chickens that her daughter (Lily) acquires to begin her own chicken business, we took careful notes. Indeed, when Lily made her chicken choices, her thoughts were much the same as ours. "First of all, some Araucanas," she decided. "Because they lay pretty green eggs. My customers will like them (p. 96)."After EXTENSIVE research, John Alexander thinks that he wants to get three hens...one Araucana, one Plymouth Rock, and one Rhode Island Red. Now the issue is determining whether or not he can get three grown laying hens (that can get along) OR if he will get chicks that will not lay eggs for quite some time. Thankfully, no chickens will arrive until a coop is built. With an architect for a dad, John Alexander will most likely have LOTS of time to decide about the size and breed of his chickens. Today was spent measuring and drawing "coop designs."

More about project two in the next entry.....

-images from http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/poultry/chickens/araucana/ and flickr.com