Eggs and Potatoes

Apologies for the recent dearth of posts, dear readers. I assure you, it is due entirely to the time-consuming nature of my current projects, and not to any faltering of the will to blog. I have become even more immersed in all things chicken as I raise three chicks (for a current total of five birds) and work on the chicken coop addition to the greenhouse. This coop is my first major building project, and construction is slow as I research how to build, make mistakes and have to rebuild, and occasionally suffer minor injuries.

It's not all work, though. The Sunday of Labor Day weekend, RC and I stopped to check out the Yelm farmers market, which is organized by the Yelm Food Co-op and hosted by Nisqually Springs Farm. The market (and the food co-op) is relatively small and new; I think this is only its second summer, but I thought it was a great little event. We drank delicious root beer floats served by the happiest woman on earth, ate roasted corn, and bought a jar of hot sauce and lots of beautiful produce. There was even live music! A band of one middle-aged man and two middle-aged women called, I believe, Big Daddy and the Hot Flashes.

The vendor I most enjoyed meeting was the potato guy. A gregarious man with a long gray beard, he treated every potential customer to a description of his farming methods and all the different potato varieties he's created, while showing off an impressive array in all shades of yellow, red, and purple and shapes from big and round to long and knobby. He showed off a long, skinny and crooked, dark purple-brown specimen of a variety he'd created and named Witch's Finger! I bought two pounds of a pinkish-yellow round type called Harlequin, and I can attest that they were very tasty.

The reason I enjoyed meeting him so much is because he represents exactly the sort of wizened old rural weirdo that I love and admire and hope to become someday. I am impressed with his dedication to potatoes. I am also impressed that he uses no gas-powered equipment of any kind in his fields, instead using a horse and plow. I mean, goddamn.

My goal is to eventually have a large enough poultry operation to produce eggs for sale, not just for our own consumption. I went to the farmers market not just to buy veggies but to check it out as a potential place to sell, and I noticed that there were no egg vendors there. Meat and dairy, yes, but no eggs, so there is a place for me!

Also, I think we (the chickens and I) will be able to provide very interesting eggs that most people around here don't get too often. You see, when I went to the feed store a few days ago, I got to talking to the sales dude about chicken breeds, and he was quite impressed that I have a Cuckoo Maran and Welsummers, because not many hatcheries produce them. So just as the potato guy has all his different potato varieties, so I could provide a rainbow of egg colors from unique chicken breeds. All free range, of course, which you can easily discern for yourself when you see the chicken poop on the porch.