I used to live in a place
where people found it weird that I kept chickens.
How do you get eggs without a
rooster?? they wondered.
What happens to all
that…poop?? One woman actually worried that deer would come at night
and eat my hens.
In Vermont, thank goodness, people are enlightened about
critters. In my yoga class of ten, there are two shepherdesses, two women
who keep goats, one who barters eggs for tuition (that’s me), one who has
donkeys, and one who raises turkeys. Vermonters understand that our
relationship to the land is mediated by animals.
From the earthworm to the cow, critters keep the wheel of Nature turning: there
are no vegetables without manure, no eggs or milk without vegetables. The
Vermont landscape bears the centuries-old imprint of humanity
and its retinue of helpful beasts. And if mankind is ever to achieve
balance with Nature, Vermont may just be the model it needs.
Chickens on the prowl for cutworms; a wheelbarrow full of compost;
a gardener weeding: this is my Vermont. In an era when most Americans have forgotten
the history of the food they eat the cycle in Vermont continues for all to see, and be inspired by.