Gardening - grace grits and gardening

Backyard Chickens in Munger Place

March 27, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Meet Liam McGregor. Liam is the Chief Eggsecutive Officer of Munger Place Natural Egg Company. Only six blocks from my house (less really), Liam raises backyard chickens in Munger Place where he lives with his family and a menagerie of pets… A young Dr. Doolittle? Maybe so. One thing’s for sure, his chicken operation is impressive.

The garden is not half bad either.

What you see in the picture above is an off-the-grid ecosystem. The chickens not only provide eggs, but they produce rich manure fertilizer for the raised beds and serve as a natural exterminator by eating insects in the backyard compost and garden.

Liam became interested in chickens while attending preschool in College Station. Now at age thirteen, chickens are a big part of Liam’s life. Last December, he began selling eggs to Munger Place neighbors. His brood currently totals thirteen and includes several ancient breeds— Silkies, Rhode Island Reds, Frizzle, Polish and Barred Rocks.

According to Liam the most fun thing about keeping chickens is the chickens themselves. Each has her own language, he says of his all female chicken population. They “talk” to each other. And they have unique personalities just like people.

This is Princess, a beautiful white Silkie.

And the most difficult thing about being an egg entrepreneur? The time requirement. Liam (a busy seventh grader at William B. Travis) also plays violin and lacrosse, so my Mom helps out a lot, he says.

Eggs are harvested each morning and immediately washed and refrigerated. The chickens lay about 8 eggs a day. Liam’s customers are patient and willing to wait for fresh eggs. The rules of purchase are simple—leave an empty carton on Liam’s front porch with contact information, and arrangements will be made to deliver when the eggs are available. Eggs sell for $0.30/each, $1.80/half dozen or $3.60/dozen.

Proceeds go to the Liam Doesn’t Get An Allowance Fund.

Beautiful eggs, great variety.

Sounds like a great cause!

For additional information, email Liam or his mom at [email protected].

To read information on backyard chickens and the many benefits, click HERE.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Chickens aren’t background animals like fish or sheep or horses. Chickens are in-your-face animals. Chickens if you have them, come to bracket your days. The rooster hollers all morning, and then in the evening the hens have left you their mysterious gift of eggs. – Jeanne Marie Laskas

I may never get my book published, but I can grow the perfect onion.

March 25, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Underneath an endless sky, I have no concept of time. I gather kale and purple lettuce and baby spinach and the first onions from my garden. Perfect onions, like the ones momma grew on our farm when I was a kid.

Such a bountiful first harvest surprises me, especially the onions—fat, white bulbs topped with hearty greens and a tangle of roots filled with soil. Soil I worked with my hands. The same hands that string words together day after day. All day. Except when they are busy in the garden.

Even my husband is impressed. That onion came from our garden?

Everything came from our garden. Well, except the tomatoes. No tomatoes yet.

He stares, amazed.

And then while eating freshly harvested salad, I tell him about the email I received only an hour before. It was a good rejection letter, if there can be such a thing. She said I had a “light, delightful style” and her “decision was troublesome”… like maybe she almost said yes to publishing my book…

I ramble. Frustrated. Disheartened.

My husband listens. Condoles. She doesn’t realize what she’s missing…

I laugh yet don’t feel like laughing. I know I can sell my book. I told her that.

You did?

I nod.

I can’t believe this came from our garden, he says.

Well, I may never publish my book, but I can grow a perfect onion. And that’s worth something.

You should tell her that too.

Grace Grits and Gardening

“Life is an onion – you peel it year by year and sometimes cry.”
― Carl Sandburg

Dandelions. I kinda like them…

March 20, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Who decided dandelions were weeds?

American poet Ella Wilcox said a weed is but an unloved flower. This is so true.

Dandelions have popped up throughout our neighborhood, bright buttons of yellow growing in clumps near fences and sidewalks. I kinda like dandelions. To me, they are one of the first signs of Spring.

My sister and I couldn’t wait to be big enough to mow the yard. Once the day finally came, that John Deere riding mower became ours until we left for college. Of course the excitement quickly wore off as the summer sun baked our vast yard. The grass grew fast, probably because it was mostly weeds—dandelions, henbit and those pale pink flowers that look like lacy cups. Sometimes we left patches of dandelions in the side yard because they were so pretty. Daddy didn’t much like that…

If you look closely, dandelions are not that different from mums. Or asters. Or daisies. Only easier to grow…

Why not celebrate the hardy dandelion? Instead we make things difficult, wrestling with prissy flowers that may or may not survive.

The happy go lucky dandelion asks for nothing except to be left alone to grow and spread. If we pay attention, they will even predict the weather—open and fluffy during a stretch of sunny days but shut tight when rain is coming. With leaves that can be used for tea and salad and wine, the dandelion is useful too.

But the very best part…

When the time is right, the flower head transforms into a light white feathery globe, a parachute ready to spread tiny seeds across the land. What other flower miraculously transforms a roadside or abandoned lot or ditch bank into a thousand wishes?