Novella got her start growing vegetables in raised beds on an abandoned lot next to her house. Then came a box of live chicks that arrived in the mail. Now she calls chickens the "gateway urban farm animal" that led her to rabbits, pigs, and eventually goats. Because feeding these critters (especially the pigs) was expensive, Novella and her boyfriend took to scavenging for feed after dark in the dumpsters of Oakland's Chinatown. She described the Chinese donuts and wontons they scored, along with buckets of gross but protein-rich fish guts. As she found herself wading through garbage wearing a head lamp in the middle of the night, Novella reflected that she and her boyfriend were now "these pigs' bitches." So much for feeling like the powerful humans at the top of the food chain.
But as a result of one such dumpster-diving "date" behind Eccolo Restaurant in Berkeley (known amongst dumpster divers for whole roast chickens and other treasures), she met Chef Chris Lee. He would eventually help her make prosciutto and salami from the slaughtered pigs.
As for coming to terms with killing the animals she'd raised, she said that from the start the intent was always clear: she would give these animals a great life, and then they would provide her with meat. But still, she said, "I hate slaughter day."
These days, she has turned her attention to Nigerian dwarf dairy goats, which measure only about 20 inches in length and produce a lot of milk, some of which she uses for making cheese. Novella's gardens produce enough fruits and vegetables for neighbors to wander in and harvest them, which makes her feel as though she is "feeding the community," a source of pride for any farmer. But it's not a profitable endeavor--she breaks even, she says. Most urban farms are nonprofit, but she'd like to see a program that would teach people how to make money from growing and producing food in the city.
In Boston, more city-dwellers are farming than you might expect. A woman named Holly spoke next about raising chickens locally in Cambridge, where the law allows "chickens kept as pets." Some of her neighbors know about the four hens that live in a coop she built out back, she said; some do not. But so far her urban experiment--spurred on by a class she took with Joan Teabagy at Codman Farms in Lincoln, MA--has been very successful. And her hens produce enough eggs to keep Holly and her partner in plenty of fresh pasta.
Some advice from Holly on raising your own chickens in the city:
- Check the local laws: though Cambridge is relatively tolerant (there are lots of chickens in Cambridgeport especially, she says), Somerville does not allow chickens.
- Plans for building a hen house can be found online (Holly's is 5 square feet, with an additional 60 square feet for a run, which is enclosed with a plexiglass roof so that hawks can't get to the chickens).
- Shredded junk mail makes great chicken litter.
- Chickens need space to peck in the dirt (once everything dies in her garden, she'll let them run there, Holly says).
- As long as you keep their house clean, chickens don't smell (Holly adds fresh litter regularly and clean out the coop every couple of months).
- Skunks, possums, raccoons, cats and dogs are all threats to city chickens; keep them safe with chicken wire that is dug into the ground.
- Roosters can't be kept in the city, but this is not a problem unless you want to breed chicks.
- Using a bulb to light the hen house will keep hens laying eggs even during daylight savings time, when they normally wouldn't have enough daylight hours to lay. (Hens lay about one egg every day.)
- Fresh eggs will last up to a month in the refrigerator as long as you don't wash them.
- You can rent a mobile poultry processing unit for small slaughters (however, there is only 1 of these in Massachusetts at the moment, so demand for it is high).
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