Monday, June 6, 2011

Chickens at Sunset

Holy cluckin' crap am I exhausted. This weekend kick ass urban farmer Esperanza Pallana of Pluck and Feather and I gave a presentation and fielded hundreds of questions on raising backyard chickens.



We asked for it and boy did those questions come. We were a very popular booth,



which may have had to do with the fact that I brought all of my chicks and hens for show and tell. The kids loved it.



And so did the adults. Most were smitten with the vintage camper inspired demonstration coop in our booth designed by John Wright. There were a lot of folks interested in the idea of chickens, but I was thoroughly shocked to meet so many Sunset readers who currently raise their own hens, some of whom have been doing it for years and years.My favorites may have been the friends of Dorothy trio living in Sacramento where one had been raising chickens on the sly for nearly 20 years. Apparently, it has been illegal in Sacramento since the 70s, but they are hoping to change the laws this upcoming month. I wish them the best of luck.

Another highlight from the event was this totally rad chicken coop called the Kippen House (Kippen means "chicken" in Dutch) that had a garden bed for a roof. It was absolutely gorgeous!



I didn't have much time to explore the rest of the festival with all the people wanting to chat chickens. I am so grateful that our friends over at FARMcurious and Dog Island happened to be there too, as they were indispensable in helping out with all the cluckin' questions. By the end of it all we were completely chickened out. I think Esperanza's face says it all.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

5 comments:

  1. Oh my god, my throat was trashed and of all the words that hurt to say "chicken" was literally painful. Dude, the folks at Farmcurious rocked it!

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  2. Thank you both so much for coming! You guys were a run away hit. Hope to see you next year.
    best,
    Miranda

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  3. Great Job Heidi and Esperanza!
    Thank you so much for the help with the modern coop. It was really great to meet both of you. It's impressive what a resource you both are. Since back to Portland, I have been talking a fair bit about the two crazy smart chicken chicks from SF that know more than you want to know about chickens.

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  4. You two and the Kippen House coop rocked the place!

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