Eggs in the Backyard

Last year, I read an article in Edible Brooklyn that really got me thinking about eggs. For me, they become representative of industrial farming, our lost connection with our food sources, and a small step that I as an individual could take. I was already rarely buying eggs by the time I read the article, but after having read it (along with quite a bit more literature on the industrial raising–or what’s called “growing”–of poultry), I almost never buy eggs, and when I do, I buy them from small, local farms, at the farmer’s market. The idea of an egg that could be as much as 90 days old by the time you eat it just seems wrong, and I’d rather avoid that possibility if I can.

When my mother was young, her family lived in the countryside of Taiwan, where they had 20 to 30 chickens at any given time. They ate fresh eggs every morning and young roosters would be taken from the coop every once in awhile to be killed for my grandmother’s amazing fried chicken (I have yet to have fried chicken–or fried pork chops–as good as hers) and other regular meals. Soon though, the family moved to the city, and that life became just a distant memory–something I didn’t even know about until I mentioned raising chickens to my mother.

Here in the US, I’d barely even been on a farm as a child, and since my mother is not a pet person, we didn’t have any kinds of animals at home, let alone farm animals. However, I am determined to have chickens, and I do hope that you’ll read the Edible Brooklyn article and see what all the fuss is about.

Bonus: If you’re in NYC, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens has an upcoming class on raising chickens.

Room with a Coo [Edible Brooklyn]