i dont really think of my chickens as food but,

[fasttense]

3. Yeah my tomatoes were bad this year too

I put them out late, then the aphids attacked. It was just a very tough year for our organic tomatoes.

There is a chemical farmer who sells at our farmer's market right next to me. He had the prettiest tomatoes. He had some older varieties like yellows and strippies. He dropped a box and I got to watch them bounce several times then roll under my table. When I handed them back to him they were still perfect, no bursting, no smashing. The few tomatoes I managed to grow would have been tomatoe soup if they had fallen like that.

He was selling them left and right. His tables were overflowing. I sometimes think I always have to do things the hard way. Organic farming isn't for the faint of heart.

By the way, I had to eventually slaughter some of my very old hens because they were eating most of the eggs. They were 2nd hand chickens I bought from an Amish farmer. They were 1 year old when I got them. They picked up the egg eating habit at his place, they just kept getting worse and worse. Out of 50 hens I was lucky to get 6 eggs because of their bad habits. So I slaughtered all the hens I knew were eating eggs. Oh my God, they made the best tasting chicken soup ever. The broth was rich and yellow. So enjoy the the surprise bounty.