Day #293 Wholesome Country Farm Chickens

I spent Sunday afternoon with Julie Porath at her Wholesome Country Farm in Buford GA. What an amazing, enlightening experience.

I’ve told you about my long-standing fear of my grandma’s chickens (see day #288 - 7/27/11). Well, I decided to do something about that fear.

I took these pictures of chickens eating at my feet, because I couldn’t hold a bird and take a photo at the same time.

Finally Julie took pity on me and my less-than-fancy phone. She took some pictures of me actually holding a sweet little hen (the tiny gray one - 2nd from the right in the left-hand photo). As soon as she sends them to me I’ll share them with you, but for now I had to spread the good news:

I’m not afraid of chickens anymore ! ! !

The funny thing is that the chickens haven’t changed a bit. They’re still just being chickens. I’m the one who had a change of heart – and it’s all based on education. I was afraid of those birds when I didn’t really know them.

Now that I’ve met some real live chickens, accompanied by a person who was understanding of my fears, I can see how silly I’ve been all these years, carrying around a vision of hens as bloodthirsty harridans.

Thanks Julie! You helped me grow a lot. I'll see you at the next farmer's market -- and I have a gift of two of my books for you!

And, look what I brought home with me!

BEEattitude for Day # 293:

       Blessed are those who help others to grow, for they shall rest in the knowledge that they have made the world a better place.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy your print books from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.
my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart
my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats):  http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Fran+Stewart

Day #259 Fresh Eggs and Green Beans

I’d be willing to bet that people who keep bees as a backyard hobby are the sorts of people who:

a.      have a vegetable garden

b.      buy food at farmer’s markets, and

c.       who conserve water as much as possible.I made two out of three on that list.

If you recall those blogposts of mine months ago where I gushed on and on about the vaggie garden I was putting in for the bees and for me—fresh lettuce! great beets! crunchy carrots! zesty radishes!--you’ll probably assume that item a is high on my list of priorities.

My garden, other than a whole bunch of fresh lettuce early in the spring, has been a dismal failure, though. I think it’s time to admit it.

I’m okay with shrubs and trees and perennials, as long as they don’t have to be pruned, fiddled with, or cosseted.

I’m reminded of a garden I started in Vermont way back in what seems like another lifetime. My dad could grow a garden anywhere, and I’ve always had this feeling that I ought to be able to as well. One of my dismal failures in Vermont was cucumbers. I don’t to this day know what I did wrong. I only know that a patient at the family dental practice where I worked at the time was bemoaning his garden’s lack of success. “Thank God for cucumbers,” he said. “Of course, any fool can grow cucumbers.”

This fool couldn’t, but I didn’t admit it to him.

From now on, all my veggies (except maybe some lettuce and green beans) will come from farmers markets. I love ordering from www.Gwinnett.LocallyGrown.net each weekend and picking up my goodies on Tuesdays at Rancho Alegre. The local farmers in their network really know how to grow good stuff. And I get to pick and choose exactly how much or how many I want of each item.

I do have one ongoing gardening success. I planted five Kentucky Wonder bean seeds in the early spring. Three of them came up. Now, each morning, I step outside my front door and harvest five or six beans, which is just enough for me to cook in my oatmeal or mix into my scrambled eggs.

And speaking of eggs, my neighbor Janet, the one who bakes such wonderful bread, gave me eggs from her sister’s hens. Some of them were blue, and here’s the picture to prove it.

Next year (except for the lettuce and the green beans), I’m planting buckwheat. The bees will love the flowers, and I’ll love the honey they make from it. I hope it grows better than those cucumbers.

BEEattitude for Day # 259:

       Blessed are those who know how to do what they do and who do it well, for they shall be recompensed accordingly.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com
my eBook sare on Amazon or Smashwords