Farm in the city

When people think of Detroit, they think of cars, urban blight, Eminem, and maybe casinos. If you ask Sophie about Detroit though, she'll tell you that's where farms are, and where you hang out with chickens and collect eggs. That's what happens when you bring an almost three-year-old to visit your friends who live in Detroit who have turned the abandoned lots next to their apartment complex into a wonderful cornucopia of fresh vegetables, healthy happy chickens that lay eggs everyday, and of bustling bees that help with pollination and also produce a modest amount of honey.

Talking to Rachel about the chickens

Trond and Rachel have painstakingly turned what was otherwise another prairie-zed piece of land into a precious gem that is just teeming with life. Sophie spent the evening feeding mulberries to the clucking chickens and learned about all the different baby plants (squash, tomato, chives, lettuce, potato, etc.) that would soon bear fruit and vegetables. I think it was good for her to see the effort that goes into growing and cultivating the food that makes it to our table and to recognize that food doesn't just come from the store or the market.

Helping to feed the chickens

She was particularly thrilled to be able to help collect the freshly laid eggs and put them carefully into a carton for us to take home. It occurred to us that since she can't actually eat the eggs because of her allergies, it's the closest contact she can probably have with eggs for now :)

She can't eat them, but she sure knows how to pack 'em!

We made the eggs for dinner tonight, as part of "Breakfast for Dinner"- the country bacon was from our new favorite artisan sausage store, Biercamp, and the potato and fennel were from the farmers market. It was about as local and farm-fresh as they come and it was as soul-satisfying as it was delicious :)

Country bacon, farm fresh eggs, roasted potato and fennel

[More pictures here]