Fall Squashes as a Centerpiece

I belong to an online local food co-op called Coastal Farms. While I mostly buy produce for our meals, I recently bought some fall squashes and miniature pumpkins that were too pretty to eat, so I arranged them into a centerpiece for our kitchen table. They were inexpensive and will last quite a while. Three of them:  the "Turks Turban," and the two acorn squashes, are edible. The two miniature pumpkins were advertised as decorative squashes. (The "Turks Turban" squash is also called a "Mexican Hat").

It feels good to support our local farmers when purchasing fall decorations. I could have spent three times the money on some cheap plastic frippery imported from China and not been half as happy with the results. Here are some pictures:

Fall Centerpiece of Local Squashes

Acorn Squash and Miniature Pumpkins as a Centerpiece

Another View of a "Turk's Turban" Squash (on left)

Update on 1/28/13. I cannot believe how long these squash have lasted! One got moldy back in November and went straight to the compost pile. But the rest have been fine. I have recently started cutting them up, scooping out the strings and seeds, and feeding them to my laying hens. Chickens love squash and pumpkins seeds, which are very nutritious.

Then I baked the squash and fed it to them. The girls liked that, too. I'll gradually cut up, scoop out, and feed the rest to the hens over the next few weeks, especially as a warm treat when the days get cold!

Moonflowers

 I have terrible luck growing morning glories or their relatives, the moonflowers. They are supposed to be easy to grow-- invasive, even, in some areas-- but you wouldn't know it by the way they grow for me.

Part of the reason I have trouble with them is that the seeds require nicking, soaking, or both, before being planted, and I do not have the patience to bother with this. But Don does! He nicked the seeds for me before I planted them just below our front porch. We have old wrought iron railings there, and I hoped the plants would grow there and be pretty.

It worked! Sort of... only one plant grew well, a moonflower, but it was well worth it.

Moonflowers on the porch with potted purple passion in the background

They are called moonflowers because they are white and round, like a full moon, and bloom in the early evening and at night. They are pollinated by nocturnal creatures such as moths. Some varieties smell wonderful, but mine have a very faint scent. They cover the porch railings so gracefully, and the flowers look so good and dramatic in bloom, that Don says we are definitely going to try them again next year. But we will try nicking and soaking the seeds before planting, and keeping the seeds well watered until established, to see if we can't get more of them to germinate and grow.

Moonflowers in bloom

If you decide to try morning glories or moonflowers, be careful about planting them around young children. They are toxic, especially the seeds, and can be fatal!

I found a short Youtube video of a moonflower blooming in real time.

Moonflower vines cover the wrought iron on our front porch

The Chicken Activist's Letter to Scott Matheson

I belong to an grass-roots network, 4 Chesapeake Hens, that is trying to change local zoning laws to allow more residents to keep backyard laying hens. Here is a letter emailed to a member of City Council as a part of this ongoing effort.

Dear Scott W. Matheson:

Common wisdom states that whoever “controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world."

I belong to a grass-roots organization called “4 Chesapeake Hens.” Our quest for backyard laying hens is an effort by “we the people” to control where our own money goes, to make a small dent in the world’s petroleum consumption by eating as locally as our own backyards, and to take control of our food supply for our own health, safety, and happiness.

Some may argue that hens should be restricted due to urban density. But a retired basketball player, Will Allen, established a non-profit organization, “Growing Power,” that proves otherwise. “Growing Power” is located in the major city of Milwaukee, the 28th most populous city in the United States. 

Will Allen

A successful author, Allen is a recipient of a MacArthur Genius Award and was named one of the top 100 “people who most affect our world” in Time magazine in 2010. His organization operates an urban mini-farm on two acres, a lot no bigger than that of a small supermarket. People from all over the world come to learn how “Growing Power” manages to successfully raise over 20,000 plants, vegetables, and livestock such as worms, bees, goats, rabbits, and chickens so intensively and successfully on such a small lot. In a world facing economic hardship, peak oil, global warming, and the twin crises of food insecurity and alarming obesity rates, many see Allen’s growing methods as instrumental to solving some of the problems that we as a society are facing. As Allen puts it:

Everybody, regardless of their economic means, should have access

to the same healthy, safe, affordable food that is grown naturally (source).

Or as Time puts it:

A new movement is sprouting up in America's low-income neighborhoods.

Some urban residents, sick of fast food and the scarcity of grocery stores, have decided to grow good food for themselves. (ibid.)

“Growing Power” runs youth programs for inner-city youth that are so (sic) inspiring and effective. In January Allen earned national recognition for his efforts from the National Education Association (http://www.growingpower.org/blog/archives/905).

What does this have to do with Chesapeake?

Our contention is that, just as residents of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Chicago, and even Milwaukee can raise chickens legally, so can we here, given fair and just zoning laws. Changes to our zoning laws will allow us residents to feed ourselves better and to teach our youth the value of sustaining ourselves in an ecologically sound and humane manner. Through 4-H and other programs, the youth of Chesapeake will learn valuable economic and science lessons as well as learn where our food comes from.

Please change the zoning laws in Chesapeake to allow residents to keep up to six laying hens as pets. Open the door to residents and change-makers, perhaps even a future Will Allen, to make hens a part of our future urban farming efforts.

 Update: On November 20, Chesapeake City Council voted 6-3 to allow hens with certain restriction in residential areas.

City Chicks in Chesapeake!

  Through a Facebook page called 4 Chesapeake Hens, I've been organizing a grass-roots network to change the zoning laws in Chesapeake, Virginia, to allow more residents to keep laying hens as pets. Current zoning allows chickens only on land zoned agricultural or on three-acres "residential estates." Recently the City Council voted to send the "hen issue" to the Planning Commission for review and a recommendation with only one "no" vote, as explained in prior posts.

The Planning Commission will review the matter as early as its regular meeting on Wednesday, October 10. On October 9, Patricia "Pat" Foreman, the author of City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-recyclers, and Local Food Producers, will appear at the Chesapeake Central Library as part of her East Coast Book Tour.

Pat graduated from Indiana University with a Masters of Public Administration.  She went on to graduate school and received her BSC both from Indiana, and then from Purdue University, where she majored in Animal Science, Genetics and Nutrition.  She is both an author and licensed pharmacist. We've been told her lectures are fascinating.

During this lecture, she will explore the role chickens play in the following four subjects:

• Enhancing Backyard Agriculture
• Diverting Food and Yard “Waste” Out of Landfills
• Decreasing Oil Consumption and Lowering Carbon Footprints
• National Defense & Emergency Preparedness

Our group has gotten positive media coverage in the past from the Virginian Pilot, the Chesapeake Clipper, and WTKR News Channel 3. Reporter Marjon Rostami, in a recent article in the Clipper, pointed out that "dozens" of our supporters came to a recent City Council meeting decked in red, the color of the "Little Red Hen." 

"4 Chesapeake Hens" at City Council

We've been told that one of our key roles in the community should be to educate the public, and we are doing just that. We have invited our media contacts, the City Council, the Planning Commission, and others to Pat's highly educational, interesting, and well-informed lecture. If you would like to help, please attend our event, distribute flyers, and encourage others to do the same. Books for the book-signing portion of the event must be purchased in advance of the event. Tickets are limited and available for a donation to the Gossamer Foundation but must be acquired in advance through this website: http://citychicksinchesapeake.eventbrite.com/.

If the media took notice of a few dozen supporters, imagine the kind of attention our cause will get at an event of over 200 people that sells out! Please, help us make that happen!

Update: On November 20, Chesapeake City Council voted 6-3 to allow hens with certain restriction in residential areas.

Parting Words from Dr. De Triquet

Despite his "no" vote recently on our "hen issue," I am getting to like this City Council Member better and better. Here are his parting words to me on my response to his rationale for this vote, as reported in previous posts:

I received your detailed and very well reasoned and articulate support of the proposed resolution. What I've learned over the years as a physician and an elected official is that all arguments or information must be carefully weighed before making a final decision. Please be assured that I will do the same with yours.

On another note I want to assure you that I have not, and will not, lobby any of my fellow Councilmembers to support any opinion I may finally reach on this issue. Let every member study the issue and vote as he or she sees fit. Hopefully then the outcome will be reached in a fair and unbiased manner.

John De Triquet's "No" Vote Explained

I belong to a grass-roots organization, 4 Chesapeake Hens, that is trying to change local zoning laws to allow more residents to keep micro-flocks of laying hens.  At Chesapeake, Virginia's, last City Council Meeting, only one Council Member voted against Robert Ike's resolution to move the "hen issue" to the Planning Commission. That member was Dr. John De Triquet.

I took the liberty of emailing Dr. De Triquet regarding his rationale for the "no" vote. Here is his timely and well-considered response:

First let me compliment you and everyone who has addressed City Council on this item. Everyone made their case with clarity, courtesy, and civility. It was very refreshing since this is not always the circumstance.
  Let me address the issue at hand. I have always felt that when folks choose to live in neighborhoods they have certain expectations. Paramount in those expectations is that new activities which may run counter to those expectations will be critically considered before any changes are made. I think that before any changes in allowable activities in residential neighborhoods are approved, there should be a clear and overarching public need or interest.
  I've been very consistent with this opinion over the years. I've not supported allowing home beauty salons, lawn mower repair, and many other activities in residential areas. In fact at the next Council Meeting a request is being made to allow a home salon in a residential area. I intend to vote against this request.
  I hope this in some way explains my position. As I hope you can see it really is not predicated on anything specific to a few hens in the back yard. It is, however, based on my overall responsibility to preserve and protect the expectations of homeowners in residential areas.
  Having said this, should City Council approve your request I wish you and all your friends the very best in this activity that I know you all love.

 At least we understand his point of view now. I have posted my response to his letter in a follow-up post.

 Update: On November 20, Chesapeake City Council voted 6-3 to allow hens with certain restriction in residential areas. De Triquet was one of the three Council members who voted against the ordinance. The others were Council Members West and Ritter.

The Lone "No" Vote and The Chicken Activist's Response

Here is my own response to Council Member De Triquet's email, which I reported in my last post. My sincere belief is that if he puts time into researching this issue, he will change his mind. And if this message fails to nudge him in that direction, perhaps nothing will:

Thanks for your clear response. I certainly now understand your point of view.

In my own eyes there's a difference between moving to a residential area and moving to one that has a homeowners' or residential association. When I lived in Elizabeth City, I lived within the city limits. In that city, which is just as urban as Chesapeake in certain sections, hens are considered neither pets nor livestock but poultry.

Although livestock is not permitted in the city, poultry is. Residents can keep up to three hens (no roosters) with restrictions regarding noise, odor, and keeping the hens out of roads and on one's own property. I volunteered with the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals there, and very rarely did Animal Control need to bring in chickens. They are not much of a problem. But since my home used to be in a location with a homeowners' association, and this association prohibited chickens, I followed the bylaws.

If homeowners have such deeply held convictions about not having hens near their residences, these residents can live in areas with such restrictions. It's a free country, and the proposed zoning law will not remove residential associations and their restrictions. But the rest of us should be able to feed ourselves, fertilize our gardens, improve our soil, improve our health, fight pollution, and prepare for disasters or other local emergencies as we see fit, assuming we are not impinging on our neighbors. With hens we can do all these things to improve our community. And our proposed ordinance will give the (sic) Chesapeake a law with teeth that can address any rare instances where residential chickens present a nuisance due to owners' negligence.

In our view, there is "a clear and overarching public need or interest" that our proposed ordinance will address. Society's needs and expectations change over time, as this 1918 advertisement by the U.S. Government proves. Research shows that we now live in a world with drastic climate change, the threat of bio-terrorism, increased population density, increased pollution, health and nutritional challenges, and imminent peak oil. Hens and local foods are an important part of the solution. This is certainly the view of Patricia Foreman, a Cornell-educated (sic) author and lecturer who plans to appear in Chesapeake sometime in the coming months.  The City of Chesapeake, led by intelligent and well-informed City Council Members such as yourself, should therefore take a proactive stance by supporting the urban agriculture movement in general and our proposed ordinance in particular.

I fear I am belaboring the issue. If you follow up on my assertions, you will find selected readings and research available on Google Docs through this link. After researching these issues for yourself, if you still disagree, we will simply have to agree to disagree.

Update on 8/20/12: I doubled-checked the "About the Author" information in City Chicks, and Pat was educated at Purdue in Indiana. Ow! My apologies, Pat!

Update: On November 20, Chesapeake City Council voted 6-3 to allow hens with certain restriction in residential areas. De Triquet was one of the three Council members who voted against the ordinance. The others were Council Members West and Ritter.