“Chickens are naturally forest birds.” A tour of Gord and Ann Baird’s edible landscape starts at the off-grid chicken house and yard, containing fruit trees that provide a protective canopy against flying predators. Roof rainwater becomes drinking water for the chickens, whose “rototilling” has prepared land now being planted in grains — for themselves and people. Don’t miss Hannah Hen catching a berry in mid-air! Then visit a Hobbit-ish above-ground root cellar built of cob, where cheeses, vegetables, and beer stay cool and dry. Then on to a shipping container shed whose sunny living roof produces a bounty of winter squashes. The roof’s nutrient-rich rainwater is caught in a barrel, then used as compost tea (fertilizer) for other plants. “It’s all connected,” says Ann. “We’re connected to the chickens, and they and we are connected to the land…. The biodiversity here is actually increasing.” [www.eco-sense.ca]. Episode 289.
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