Back in the Coop

Okay, okay. I know I once proclaimed here that chickens are "so early 2009" before blithely moving on to such things as backyard goats and Babydoll sheep. But what came first, the chicken or the...goat? In my case, it was the urban chicken movement that got me thinking of all the other possibilities.

I've been so caught up with my impending shepherdhood that I've given scant thought to chickens. But while traveling this week I picked up Janice Cole's Chicken and Egg, a simply delightful memoir of suburban homesteading with 125 recipes. Although I'd all but fallen off the chicken bandwagon, I thought the book might be interesting because the author keeps backyard chickens not far from my hometown. I was more than a little curious to see how her chickens fared during the brutal Minnesota winters. What a charming account of learning to raise chickens! Janice, a food writer and former chef, also blogs about her Three Swingin' Chicks.

Because my supernova self often takes things to the extreme, I loaded up on chicken books this weekend. There are many good books for beginners, but I would be remiss if I failed to mention Chick Days, a fun new book by Jenna Woginrich. You might recall that Jenna graciously invited the Wrangler and me to visit her farm when we were in Vermont last fall, and we had a wonderful lesson in beekeeping and spinning wool.

And that is how I've come to be preoccupied with chicks, coops, and delicious fresh eggs all over again.