Chickens Downtown?

An FCGA member recently contacted me asking if I knew about about anyone working to change the law banning farm animals (particularly chickens) downtown. I decided to do some research and found this blog:

http://urbanchickenunderground.blogspot.com


It was started by former Frederick resident Sarah Hempel Irani, who was also manager of the site eatlocalfrederick.com, which was sadly shut down this year when she moved away.


Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone has more insight they want to share on this topic. I know Baltimore City allows residents to raise up to 4 hens (no roosters though)for eggs.

It seems that with Frederick's agricultural roots, they would be more open to the idea. I guess there is a bit of a stigma with chickens being noisy and smelly, but hey if it's working in Baltimore, why not give it a try?

Anyway, heres a few more links in case you're interested reading more about chickens as part of the Urban Agriculture movement.

http://www.urbanchickens.net/
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5900
http://urbanchickens.org/
http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/index.html

Work Day Recap

Thanks to everyone who came out to our first work day of the year. The weather was gorgeous, and we accomplished quite a lot! Special thanks to Olde Towne Historic Landscape for donating and delivering compost. We also would like to extend many thanks to Alexis, Nick and the Common Market for donating supplies and lending a hand! We still have lots of work to get the garden set for this year, so if you weren't able to make it today, stay tuned for future work dates! Enjoy some pictures from the day!

Not that we need any more reasons to grow our own food, but this is a great explanation about how our global food system works ( or doesn't work for that matter). Thanks Michael for sending me this link!

How to feed the world ? from Denis van Waerebeke on Vimeo.