Two takes on urban sufficiency.

I applaud the spirit behind The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen). I really do. I'm on board with their opening projects: composting, a little raised garden bed, container gardening, etc. But when it starts to veer into hardcore, I'm afraid I have to get off the train. A few things I will not be doing:

1. Well, pretty much anything from the "Urban Foraging" chapter. I will not be harvesting and eating weeds (I have eaten weeds--Mom used to make dandelions like endive; chopped up and mixed with mashed potatoes and a bit of bacon--but I got enough of that in my youth) or dumpster diving for food.

2. I know it's all the rage right now, but I will also not be keeping chickens.

3. Composting toilets, making use of my own waste? No freaking way, man. I LOVE my flush toilet, I'm clinging to it until civilization ends, and then I'm just going to give up and die. If that makes me a bad person, environmentally, then so be it.

So I will not become an urban homesteader. There were still a few interesting things in the book, although I found a similar title, Kathy Harrison's Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens, to contain more helpful information about being prepared and what to have on hand for basic emergencies and first aid. Over the weekend I also picked up R.J. Ruppenthal's Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting, which I predict I will find interesting until it actually comes time to plant something. Further bulletins on this book as events warrant.

Comments

[Venta]

Hi, CR!

In the chapter on chickens, does the author mention anything about what to do when half the chicks one buys turn into roosters? I know people say they can sex chicks, but I don't know a farmer who believes that. I say this as an animal rights person, if an urban dweller wants to keep hens, I'm o.k. with it as long as they do want farmers do with unnecessary roosters. I bet most city folks couldn't do it. In Seattle, people are dropping off roosters at the animal shelter!! A friend of mine runs a farm animal rescue, and she has more than 20 roosters, and it's not like they get along with each other. This is an issue that drives me wacky!!! I've gone to web sites that discuss sustainable living and chickens, but there is no mention of what to do with roosters. I also hear about how people keep hens to make sure their food is "natural." How about working toward abolishing factory farming??? Aaahhh, that felt good.

I hope all is well!!

[Citizen Reader]

Venta,
Embarrassingly enough, I've already taken it back to the library, so I can't tell you what it says on chickens. Is it ever possible to wait and buy chickens until you can tell what sex they are? Or find someone who doesn't want their chickens anymore and take them off their hands?

And, this may be my callous farm background showing, but wouldn't a way to deal with roosters be to, um, have a chicken dinner? I wonder if there's anyplace still around that will do butchering for you and would take care of the roosters. I'm sorry if that's not what you had in mind, but I agree, some thought has to be given to these aspects of livestock keeping. (And I'm TOTALLY with you--put me down as one of the girls who is happier to buy from a small local producer than to raise her own animals. I am simply TOO LAZY for that.)