The Market Garden

January marked a complete transformation of the market garden, as it turned from brown to shimmering green. With the help of super friendly people in the community, we planted over a thousand seedlings. The brown no-dig beds were soon filled with tiny organic seedlings of kale, lettuce, Swiss chard, beets, arugula, coriander, and parsley. 

The first day they went in, there was a tremendous wind that raged from the north and we raced out to cover the newly planted seedlings with plastic. The wind blew and the plastic flew as we tried to secure metal poles and tie down plastic as a kind of temporary greenhouse. 

The wind died down, a trickle of light rain arrived, and then it was summer! Yes, it is still January and although they are not yet using the ‘drought’ word, this is the driest winter in Israel for 60 years. There may be rain next week, but these sapphire-blue skies do not look like they are portending precipitation.

We are fortunate to have a watering system. The warm, intense sun is doing its magic and the plants have quickly grown in just three weeks. This spurt logically leads to the next step; what are we going to do with so much produce? We will have to find a way to sell it. Somehow.

It is a pleasure to work in the vegetable beds on a fresh morning, the silence punctuated by the migrating cranes flying in formation above. (It is a bit worrisome that they are still migrating, and some are going in the wrong direction. If I were a crane, I would just say put; what is the point of flying to Ethiopia just to turn around and come north again?)

Watching the migration in the skies above.

While the veggies were growing, the chickens arrived. But first, they needed a coop. Amir and a friend sawed and drilled, and hammered until we had a predator-proof coop complete with a retractable poop tray and a large treed yard that would make any free-range chicken cluck with joy.

We bought six one-month-old chickens and as it happened to be a cold, rainy night, the chicken seller said they needed a heat lamp in the coop. The hardware store was closed and despite the fancy chicken digs we had, there was no way to keep the chicks warm.  So these new, nervous chicken parents put them in the basement. We draped the furniture with old sheets, turned up the heat and left them. Boy, do they make a racket. 

We moved the chickens to their big digs and I spent the next morning cleaning the poopy floor. We soon had a heat lamp set up complete with a timer, a feeder, and a watering system, and as we were admiring our handiwork, our kitten walked right through the bars of their fence. 

I had no idea a cat could contort itself with such ease to fit through a tiny area a fraction of its size. This coop was not predator proof! We used chicken wire to fill in every hole we could find, then made the chickens a tiny area outside their hatch that was cat proof complete with a fenced-in roof. 

I now have to fatten up my kitten and my chickens. I have seen large cats sitting in chicken coops without disturbing the feathery inhabitants and hope my cat will one day feel the same way. As for the dogs, they simply feel left out.

The other chicken surprise came when we bought seven more chickens. When we asked for hens only, the new chicken seller said “I honestly can’t tell the difference. I thought I knew, until people woke up to a cock-a-doodle doo one morning and then returned them. I can’t do business like this. If you want to bring them back, fine, but I cannot refund you.”

When we explained that the first chicken guy sold us six females with confidence, he replied, “I admire his skill, but I cannot assure you.” He then picked out a Silky chicken from a cage and put it in a box. This must be the most ridiculous looking chicken I have ever seen. If a rabbit were a chicken, it would be a Silky. 

We now own several breeds of chicken including Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks, Sussex, Legbar, Bielefelder, Penedesenca, and of course, the Silky rabbit chickens. This is a whole world unto its own as each chicken breed has a distinct personality.  

They are adapting to their new digs and so far, we have not heard a cock-a-doodle doo, but I am sure we have a few roosters in the coop. I will deal with that when it happens. The females will not lay eggs for another four months. That’s a lot of eggs, unless there are more roosters than hens.  

Not sure, what will happen then, but we may also be selling eggs! Not sure who is buying, but we will soon find out – or we will be eating lots of omelettes!