I enjoy books about pretty much any kind of pursuit that works with part of nature in a respectful way. Whether it’s gardening, homesteading, farming, wilding, or – as in this case – raising chickens for eggs. It all started with a modest backyard brood of hens. Manageable, not too difficult to care for, produced delicious eggs, and even seemed not too far off being pets. When Lucie’s husband first raises the idea of growing this into an egg farm, she’s not excited by the idea. There are a lot of reasons – she’s done a lot to support him already, and this feels like it’s not something she’s interested in risking the farm (ahem) on.
But then her husband loses his job unexpectedly. And they’re faced with a decision: He can either find another soul-destroying but secure job in a cubicle… or they can take a chance on his new dream of starting a large-scale pasture-raised egg business. They decide to give it a go.
As you can imagine, it’s not smooth sailing. They don’t own an acreage, so they have to find one to rent. Then they need to set it up so that they can use it for chickens. Then they need hens. Each step of this process is expensive, stressful and time-consuming, but they eventually do get the egg farm going. They finally have their hens, but it’s so much harder than either of them could have expected – not only the hands-on work of taking care of them, but trying to figure out how to get permits to sell their eggs (not a simple or transparent process – the info they had been given wasn’t correct and they end up having to rent a facility that is appropriate for cleaning the eggs).
But a surprising thing happens. As the business progresses, Lucie finds a niche within it. She discovers that she’s actually quite good at the media relations and marketing part of the business (the name, Locally Laid, was her idea – it’s cheeky, but it certainly gets attention!). But even more surprising, she finds that she’s interested in learning about agriculture. How it became what it is, the issues with the traditional, large-scale agricultural model, and what other independent growers and farmers are doing differently. She even learns that there’s a term for where Locally Laid falls within the range of agriculture – Middle Agriculture. She becomes passionate about the why, even if she’s not quite as enthusiastic about the how.
I really enjoyed this book. It’s a great story, sure, but it’s also full of really interesting information. At each step of the process they have to make choices. How will they feed their hens? Where will the hens live? Will they go organic or not? Each of these choices (and many, many more) is accompanied by a lot of research, a lot of weighing of pros and cons, and ultimately making decisions about what is most important to them. I liked learning about why they wanted to sell locally, why pasture-raising their hens was so important – not just for the health of the hens or the quality of the eggs they produced, but also in terms of supporting local feed producers. They learned so much about the importance of producing healthy food that can be sold to people in the community, and as they did so, we learn it right along with them. There are so many timely issues raised, and so much information shared. I enjoyed every moment of it.
I won’t tell you how things turn out – you’ll have to read it for yourself (which I highly recommend), but I will say that they learned a lot along they way, and they were able to change not only their professional lives, but how they think about the food they eat and the communities they are part of. It’s an important thing we all need to spend more time thinking about. A really interesting, entertaining, and thought-provoking read.
How a Midwestern family with no agriculture experience went from a few backyard chickens to a full-fledged farm—and discovered why local chicks are better.
When Lucie Amundsen had a rare night out with her husband, she never imagined what he’d tell her over dinner—that his dream was to quit his office job (with benefits!) and start a commercial-scale pasture-raised egg farm. His entire agricultural experience consisted of raising five backyard hens, none of whom had yet laid a single egg.
To create this pastured poultry ranch, the couple scrambles to acquire nearly two thousand chickens—all named Lola. These hens, purchased commercially, arrive bereft of basic chicken-y instincts, such as the evening urge to roost. The newbie farmers also deal with their own shortcomings, making for a failed inspection and intense struggles to keep livestock alive (much less laying) during a brutal winter. But with a heavy dose of humor, they learn to negotiate the highly stressed no-man’s-land known as Middle Agriculture. Amundsen sees firsthand how these midsized farms, situated between small-scale operations and mammoth factory farms, are vital to rebuilding America’s local food system.
With an unexpected passion for this dubious enterprise, Amundsen shares a messy, wry, and entirely educational story of the unforeseen payoffs (and frequent pitfalls) of one couple’s ag adventure—and many, many hours spent wrangling chickens. – Goodreads
Book Title: Locally Laid
Author: Lucie B. Amundsen
Series: No
Edition: Audiobook
Published By: Avery
Released: March 1, 2016
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Farming, Local Food, Middle Agriculture
Pages: 336
Date Read: June 28-30, 2024
Rating: 8/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.03/5 (1,707 ratings)