Biodynamic treechange (homesteading)

A Truly Most Unusual Panel Pairing

Back in September this year, at a suitable conference, the boffins at Google somehow convinced what I consider to be two of the food industries leading opponents to both join a panel to discuss ‘Creating a World That Can Feed Itself’.

One of these people was Hugh Grant, Chairman, President and CEO of Monsanto, and you can imagine the angle he took in the discussion.

The other participant was Mike Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism, UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and author of ‘In Defence of Food’ and ‘The Omnivores Dilemma’.

I’ve written about Pollan before, and am a keen supporter of most if not all of his ideals. And I’ve written about Monsanto before, and am a keen opponent of most if not all of it’s ideals.

The discussion is most enlivening and interesting. Click below to view the battle!

Blue Eggs and ...WHAT??!!

(With apologies to Dr Seuss)

Recently one of our hens has gone broody, and all the others have gone off the lay in support, or maybe because they are worried that she'll steal their eggs, or for whatever reason causes chooks to go broody.

At least the bantams are smart enough to know what's going on and are still laying their eggs.

Previously when this has happened, we've isolated the hen from the rest of the flock for a few days, and then they've come to their senses and gotten back on track. But as Mahatma, our gander now resides in the old duck shed that we've used for that purpose in the past, a new strategy was needed.

We were about to try the practice of dunking her in a big bucket of water, when a good friend suggested using her to raise some fertilised eggs. Having never done this before, that hadn't occurred to us, but makes perfect sense.

So yesterday I headed over to see Morna at Pembrooke Plants and Poultry and collected a dozen eggs.

 

Hmmm ... these are blue. That's different.