Which came first?
Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 09:15PM 
Eggs. If you can't find local eggs in Alabama, you simply aren't looking hard enough. Hens in Alabama layed 2.1 billion eggs in 2004, the most recent year for which I could find hard numbers. That's about 9 eggs a week for every mother's son and daughter. Although many of those eggs are shipped outside the state in typical agribusiness fashion (Alabama is the nation's number 3 egg producer), my experience has been there's no shortage of folks selling eggs locally in any given rural locale. We're all getting our eggs now from Bryson Farm, in McCalla, which is about 1.5 miles up the road here from our place. Mr. Bryson does a brisk business amongst the country folks around here. He also sells chicks - which is where we got our flock (pictured: Henrietta). Actually, all of our hens are named Henrietta, which keeps things simple. Our rooster, a Bard Rock, is called Silvestre (doing his well-rehearsed Godzilla impersonation here). They are quite a sight: genuinely better than anything your TV has to offer. 
Speaking of eggs, we missed the big local event: the Chicken and Egg Festival in Moulton (link) this past weekend. I really hope to go to lots of local food-related festivals. Particularly looking forward to the Butterbean festival. These festivals are great opportunities to celebrate local food and consume unhealthy quantities of the same.
And also speaking of, raising chickens in the city has become pretty common: check out this article from the Mobile Register: The Urban Chicken. You can do it too!
Reader Comments (3)
Joe, You've done it. Your piece is the final henstraw on this city dwellers back. I gotta get me some chickens. I've thought more than once about how amused I was at the chickens at Sweet Home Farms. Now your blog plus the Mobile Register article has sent me plummeting towards cooping. Now I just have to convince my dear husband...or maybe I'll just talk my new in-laws into keeping my brood on their ample land. Rachel
Godspeed. Today: your backyard, tomorrow: the world!
Cam about your blog via another one... i am seriously thinking of raising chickens once me and my husband move out of our town home. any advice?