With the help of worms, of course!

The garden is well established, and if I was a more consistent blogger, you'd know what it looks like now.  Very weedy.  But aside from the weeds, everything is coming up gangbusters.  Potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, swiss chard, beets, green beans...it's all good.  I just don't have photo proof yet, because I'm a slacker.  So you get to see photos from over a month ago instead. 

Gardens don't just plant themselves, of course.  They need help.  They need worms, bees, chickens and humans.

 Can you guess what this is?

That was the scene in front of my vehicle one morning a few weeks ago.  I'm not sure what processing facility those thousands of chickens were headed to or which large-scale, climate-controlled, factory poultry operation they came from, but I think it's safe to assume that the ride on the back of a flatbed trailer provided them with the most fresh air they'd ever experienced in their short lives.

The stench outside those poultry "houses" is unreal.  I smelled them even before I saw them as I was driving around Amish country one day in June.

I think the differences between those birds in the truck and the houses and our birds in the grass are compelling.  I have no other deep thoughts than that.  We're so thankful for our local customers who purchase and consume our pastured whole chickens.  I think they find the differences compelling, too.