Chickens!

We have had the exciting experience of raising baby chicks!  My industrious husband bravely attacked Craigslist for candidates and found 20 newly hatched chicks for sale not too far away.  He drove several hours to get them and I constructed a fabulously stylish styrofoam home for them, haha.  It was pretty redneckish, honestly and it sat IN OUR LIVING ROOM for 4 weeks (I promise we're not crazy, just dedicated).  But it worked and the baby chicks were sooo cute and funfunfun to watch.  Quite a mix of muts.

We first decided we wanted to raise chickens while we were still living in Los Angeles.  We watched Food Inc. and read You Can Farm, in which, the inhumane and unhealthy practices of the egg business are really laid out.  Yes, it's just as bad for the meat industry, but you have to start somewhere and we decided we'd like to start with eggs.  So, this should be a healthy and educational experience for the whole family.  And hopefully, not tooooo expensive.  It should get easier on the wallet, after we can start growing food for our chickens (corn, millet, oats, sprouts, etc...) But we use a LOT of eggs anyway, so this could be a good way to save eventually.

Since this blog is supposed to be about gluten free food, I'll close with my favorite GF way to eat eggs:
An omelet.  If you don't know how to make an omelet, please go to Youtube and watch Julia Child make one.  She is the queen, in that respect.  But I like to add onions, bell peppers, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese to mine.  Top it off with a bit of fresh salsa and it's even better.  Yes, I do have odd tastes.  It runs in my family like glitter and puff paint on a toilet seat.  :S

Our City Garden

We live in Los Angeles, in a small house with a tiny backyard.  Our big dream right now is to 'one day become homesteaders with a real self sustaining farm'.  This, of course, means leaving LA.  We'd like to move to Tennessee ideally, since I'm a native.

     But for now, this is our lot.  Or, at least, our little box garden.  We're growing eggplant (my favorite), brussel sprouts, lettuce, two types of tomatoes, corn, squash, basil, carrots, potatoes, onions, stevia, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, bell peppers, watermellons, cantelopes and random flowers (and there are several unopened seed packets that my husband keeps buying). 

Yes, that sounds pretty ambitious for people with a backyard the size of most people's living room, but we've squeezed stuff in everywhere we can.  And amazingly, the plants seem to enjoy all the crowded company. 
Our last year's garden looked like a small jungle had exploded in one corner.  We had tomatoes off and on all through the winter.  And the strawberries began blooming before spring had rolled in.  This is due to our very mild weather (some say we don't actually have 'weather' here at all).

These February photos, with beloved cartoon characters, show what our garden looked like in the midst of a massive Tennessee snow storm.  We know all about it because my family called us several times to tell us about it and sent us 'invites' to view their web albums of the said snow storm.  Meanwhile, as you can see, we were hanging out at the beach and enjoying vine ripened cherry tomatoes...  But yes, we want to leave all of this LA 'goodness', for a bit of affordable land and less madness.  We can't wait.  So we're studying up about farming and gardening.   We highly recommend Nature's Harmony FarmCasts, if you want to learn more too.