Coop - A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting – A Book by Michael Perry

I picked up this gem by Michael Perry eight years after its publication.  Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention—I don’t know how I missed this book for so long.  Not only is it a first-rate and compelling book, but I feel like Perry is speaking directly to me.  Needless to say, his other books are now on my reading list. When I first cracked open the cover, I was expecting a story about chickens.  That’s not what it’s about. To be sure, chickens are minor characters in this book, but it’s a memoir—so it’s really about Michael Perry.  Perry tells us the story of his first year in an old house on a Wisconsin acreage with his new wife and daughter, with frequent flashbacks to his childhood on a Wisconsin dairy farm amidst an “obscure fundamentalist Christian sect”.  Along the way he discourses on home birth, milking cows, slaughtering pigs, building a chicken coop, and even blowing one’s nose using a technique he calls the “farmer snort”.  And ultimately, perhaps he offers us his perspective how one should live one’s life.

The Chicken Encyclopedia – A Book by Gail Damerow

The Chicken Encyclopedia

An Illustrated Guide

Gail Damerow

Storey Publishing

2012

I discovered Gail Damerow’s “The Chicken Encyclopedia” back when I first got the notion that I should get a few chickens.  I decided I needed a few good informational resources before plunging into this new project and I found this book on Amazon.   It was a serendipitous find since I knew nothing whatsoever about it when I ordered it.  As it turns out, this is a book that has never made it onto my bookshelf because it’s in constant use.

"Why Did The Chicken Cross The World?"--A Book by Andrew Lawler

To be completely honest, while the hipster hens liked the book, they loved the scratch grain in front of the book.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The World?  The Epic Saga of the Bird That Powers Civilization

Andrew Lawler

Atria Books
2014

In the fall of 2014 author Andrew Lawler lectured in the Twin Cities to promote “Why Did The Chicken Cross The World?”  While a few of my friends attended this lecture I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to go due to a conflict.  But I was excited about the approaching December publication date.  I’d been waiting for a book that dealt with the history of chickens, since before this book there was no single book that dealt with the domestication of chickens, their spread throughout the world, their impact on civilization, and civilization’s impact on them.  You can be sure that this book was at the top of my Christmas list in 2014.  You can also be sure that I started reading the book on Christmas Day.  It not only lived up to my expectations but I continue to pull it off the bookshelf frequently as a reference to all things chicken. 

“Locally Laid – How We Built A Plucky, Industry-Changing Egg Farm—From Scratch”—A Book by Lucie B. Amundsen

“Locally Laid – How We Built A Plucky, Industry-Changing Egg Farm—From Scratch”
Lucie B. Amundsen
Avery
March 1, 2016

Lucie Amundsen and her husband Jason are out for out for a romantic dinner date at a local Mexican restaurant on a warm summer evening:  ‘”I want to talk to you about something,” he said, clearing his throat. “Commercial egg farming.”

“If this were a sitcom, a record needle would scratch across vinyl and someone would cue the laugh track.  But this was just my life.  I blinked and kept shoveling salsa into my mouth between gulps of beer….Poultry wasn’t exactly the foreplay talk I was hoping for, so instead I just enjoyed the rhythm and cadence of his voice.  I heard something about pastured hens foraging on fresh grasses producing healthier, delicious eggs with less fat and cholesterol, something about the local food movement and its ability to remake America’s food system.”

My fellow Minnesotan, Lucie B. Amundsen, is a wonderful writer.  Her book is an autobiographical account of how the Amundsens created a unique, commercially viable egg farm.  She writes warmly, humorously, and honestly as she tells what is really a very personal story about her family and herself.  And in the process, she explains how modern farming practices have gone off the rails and how people like the Amundsens have rolled up their sleeves and gotten to work in an attempt to set things right.  I have nothing but high praise for this book.