Li'l Ned recently recommended a book, "Farm City" by Novella Carpenter. Novella is the daughter of hippies who went back to the country, along with 999,998 others in the 70's. In recent times, Novella started out with a few chickens and a hive of bees on the back deck of her second story apartment in a ghetto of Oakland, California, and became an urban farmer. I am about two-thirds of the way through the book now, right at the point when she and her boy friend purchased two little red pigs. That's right - raising pigs in the ghetto. They are hauling them home in the back of their station wagon.
It is one of the funniest books I have read in such a long time. Novella is well-educated, self sufficient, and truly making a difference. All of us old hippies are so proud of her!
Visit Novella here and see what she is up to at Ghosttown Farm: ghosttownfarm
I also ordered the full length documentary "Mad City Chickens", chronicling the success of urban hipsters in Madison, Wisconsin in changing the laws to allow people to maintain a few hens in their back yards within city limits. It is a resource of great information for raising a few chickens. Two people from Kansas are featured in the documentary, one being Cheryl Long, editor in chief of Mother Earth News, based in Topeka. She is filmed driving her electric car that costs 25 cents to recharge!
The book and the film were just so much fun. Thanks, Li'l Ned!!
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