I Just Met Four City Hens! (March 3 Garden Project)

“Farm fresh eggs” has been the mantra.  Dinner Sunday though was “city fresh eggs”.

Right in the middle of Albany Park is a back yard that’s going garden and pecking around happily in the dirt are Ellen Malloy’s four hens.  She and her friend Marc ripped up pavestones, tore out raised beds and turned over dirt and the hens couldn’t have been happier, rooting around for worms in the loose soil and nibbling beet greens.  Yup, chickens right in the city!  I have to say, it seemed perfectly natural and what Ellen refers to as “chicken TV” is certainly true:  you can just sit and watch them for hours.

I left happy to know hens with names like Nugget and Pot Pie and toting four beautiful, fresh eggs thanks to them.  Dinner was gently coddled city fresh eggs with La Quercia prosciutto and fingerling potatoes, garnished with chives from my own “garden”.  Know your food, know your farmer…or in this case, know your hens.