62 Mail Order Chicks Later…
Posted: May 22, 2012 Filed under: Agriculture | Tags: agriculture, chickens, chicks, cornish chicken, ethical eats, industrial food system, meat chickens, raising chickens, self-sufficiency, washington Leave a comment »
So, we’re raising 62 meat chickens.
After finishing up evening chores yesterday, I walked into our make-shift greenhouse (the room below our kitchen area where I’ve been nursing various seedlings) to find a whole new set of tender challenges. In a metal incubator set on the seeding table were 62 tiny chicks peeping and scuttling like 1st graders let out for recess after a week of rain. The owner purchased them online and they arrived during the day with only one chick DOA (a good turnout).
The chicks are Cornish crosses, so they’ll quickly lose that adorable yellow-fluff and transform into dirty white little monsters. Their legs will forever be too bulky for their bodies; their breasts will grow heavy and tip the pullets toward the ground. Cornish crosses are the meat industry standard: their modus operandi during their short lives is to eat – constantly and furiously – as they mature to processing weight within six to eight weeks. Past that? They die off by ten weeks.
Totally crazy, right? After working with both Heritage meat birds and some gorgeous layers, I’m a little apprehensive to work with these franken-chicks. Plus, this will be the first time I’m raising something solely for slaughter. I’ve been on most sides of the animal industry equation (distribution, retail, slaughterhouse, dairy), so I guess it’s about time that I take on the system as a whole.
{Beautiful and healthy layers, a far cry from a mature Cornish cross}
My newest venture notwithstanding, I’m definitely not eating meat anytime soon; I’m viewing these next eight weeks as an experiment in sustainable meat production. To begin, I picked up a copy of Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens. Until next time…
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Day 2: Toledo to Chicago to Madison
Posted: April 23, 2012 Filed under: Artisan Eats | Tags: agriculture, ethical eats, food culture, local food, road trip 1 Comment »The longest leg of our journey is over Day 1 – 9.5 hours from the Hudson Valley, NY to just outside of Toledo, OH.
Yesterday we trekked it straight on I-90 to Chicago and then Madison. Having only an hour to spend in the Windy City, we headed over to Millennium Park to see the famous reflective bean. Yup, it’s a giant shiny bean all right:
For whatever reason, Wisconsin has always been at the periphery of my potential-new-home-vision. Maybe it’s the state’s reputation as an agricultural and dairy hub (the license plate slogan is “America’s Dairyland” afterall); maybe it’s my secret obsession with the midwest. In any event, Madison is the city I’ve been holding out for.
Of course there’s the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I still have a foot in the graduate school camp, and their programs in agroecology, rural sociology, dairy science and animal sciences (nerd alert) are really hard to pass over. But my one critique is dairy in Wisconsin is synonymous with cow – maybe some sheep – but goats are nowhere to be found.
Enough of the nerding anyway. Unfortunately, our trip had us arrive in Madison on a Sunday around 4PM – just as all of the businesses were closing for the weekend, including Fromagination, a cheese shop on Capitol Square that showcases local farms and creameries. From what I could see from the outside, the shop is bursting at the brim with cheese, wine and other artisinal ephemera.
We had dinner at the Old Fashioned (“Where Wisconsin is King”) also on Capitol Square. Check it out: over 150 Wisconsin beers and all for around $4.00 a pint! Hot damn! And (as if that wasn’t awesome enough) beer battered cheese curds and beer and cheese soup topped with popcorn. We were hoping to eat at Harvest, which boasts local and organic fare, but the white linen table cloths and oversized wine glasses seemed a little unfitting for our road trip/camping attire.
Our stay in Madison was too short for sure, but we’re hoping to someday head back out this way and tour some of the dairy farms and creameries in the area. For now, onwards to Minneapolis!
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A Grand Change
Posted: April 16, 2012 Filed under: Agriculture, Goats | Tags: agriculture, consider bardwell farm, farming, goats, vermont Leave a comment »It’s been almost 6 months since my last post, and in that time I’ve managed to quit my full-time job, buy a car, rent our Brooklyn apartment and pack our most necessary belongings into the trunk of our Subaru Outback. It was about time that Noah and I began realizing our dream of starting a farm: post-grad life in the city was making us restless. We said bittersweet goodbyes to all of our closest friends and moved our lives (temporarily) to the great state of Vermont where we begin our farmer training. Of course, we threw ourselves a bangin’ goodbye party in our gutted apartment for all of our friends. Balcony, keg, beer pong, good company, what more?
Our journey began here, interning at Consider Bardwell Farm during their busiest time of year: kidding season, when all of their 92 milking does give birth.
Sadly, our time in Vermont is already coming to an end. We’ve fallen head over Muck boots for this tiny village called West Pawlet and of course, the farm. We’ve met some pretty incredible folks during our time here, not the least of whom are the farmers. It’d be impossible to sum up all that we’ve learned in just a single post. Instead, I’ll offer a video of what fills our days:
Next up? Grand ol’ Washington state. Barring any more car trouble (check engine light blinked on yesterday), in four days, we’ll be packing up our lives once more and trekking it across the country where we’ll be interning at Pine Stump Farms. I’ll be posting a map of our route later this week; we have just 10 days to get ourselves across the continent!
Dirty Girls – Meet the Urban Women Farmers of New York City
Posted: October 20, 2011 Filed under: Farm Women Fancy, Finger Foods | Tags: agriculture, bees, brooklyn, feminism, food justice, local food, NYC, school food, urban agriculture, women, women farmers Leave a comment »
Women farmers have hit the big time – the BUSTy, feminist, big time. I can barely believe it, but if you pick-up the Ocotober/November issue of BUST magazine you’ll see my humble name in the table of contents! “Dirty Girls: Resourceful urban farmers are giving new meaning to the term asphalt jungle. By Stephanie Fisher” Over the summer I spent a month running around Brooklyn interviewing women farmers – from bees to sub-irrigated planters to organic vegetables, all of these seven women are doing their part to bring a little bit of nature into this hectic gotham. The women also gave us some farm-centric projects that you can do at home, like a low tunnel cold frame and beet infused vodka. Check out the issue (it’s the eco issue, so there’s tons of good stuff) and meet a few of the beautiful women farmers of New York City.
Craft Fairs, Honey Festivals, and the Nation Magazine – Oh My!
Posted: September 16, 2011 Filed under: Art & Craft, Finger Foods | Tags: 2011 maker faire, agriculture, autumn, bees, brooklyn, brooklyn homesteader, bust magazine, craft, craftacular, feminism, food policy, globalization, hunger and nutrition, industrial food system, news, NYC, nyc honey festival, the nation magazine, urban agriculture, women, women farmers Leave a comment »
Ok, so that wasn’t the best play on the famous Wizard of Oz mantra, but I tried. This weekend is choc-full-of exciting events here in New York. Saturday and Sunday is the World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science. Be prepared for reclaimed disaster relief housing, vertical gardens, and robots that teach you things. I’m nerding out over the whole event, but I’m easily most pumped for BUST Magazine’s sub-section Craftacular! (Also, keep an eye out for the Oct/Nov issue of BUST! Yours truly wrote the feature story on urban farm women in NYC!)
Craftacular is BUST Magazine’s outdoor shopping village featuring 50+ vendors, deals, and demos. Check-out hand weaving, mozzarella making, and more!
Purchase tickets to Craftacular and the Maker Faire here. See you there!
Do you like honey? Do you like the beach? If you answered “yes” to these questions, then let me propose this: what are you doing tomorrow, Saturday September 17th beginning at 10AM? It’s the premier of the NYC Honey Festival at Rockaway Beach, sponsored by rooftop farm Brooklyn Grange, and featuring one of the women I interviewed for my BUST Magazine article, the wonderful Meg Paska of Brooklyn Homesteader.
So what can you expect: beekeeping demos, food raffles, cooking demos with the folks at Brooklyn Kitchen, honey-beer brewing with the guys at Sixpoint, honey mustard pickles from Horman’s Best Pickles, and a honey-themed dinner on the boardwalk after dark. Pack some sunscreen, a bathing suit, and your beekeeping veil and head down to the Rockaways for a new twist on a day at the beach. For more information, visit http://www.nychoneyfest.com.
In other food news, the Nation magazine premiered its annual food issue. This is an important one for the food world, as it carries pieces on food economics, crisis, and the environment. The 2011 issue features a roster of a who’s who in food systems celebrity, including articles by the likes of Michael Pollan, change-maker Vandana Shiva, Raj Patel, Frances Moore Lappe, Anna Lappe, Eric Schlosser, Daniel Imhoff, and Civil Eats editor Paula Crossfield. Check-out the full list of articles here, and be sure to pick-up your copy on newsstands today.
