Chapala Chickens on Garden Gossip

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get into Jason and Michelle's garden. That's for sure.
Jason and Michelle are urban farmers in downtown Santa Barbara, CA. who started with a few chickens and has since expanded into ducks and raised vegetable beds full of every kind of produce you can imagine. Chapala Chickens is the name of their facebook page, which they started as a way of keeping their friends up to date on their chicken world. If you haven't checked out Chapala Chickens, it is a great page with lots of fun stuff.
As a chef, Jason is accustomed to utilizing great ingredients so it was a natural progression into growing his own food. His inspiration was his grandfather, a police officer and urban farmer in Santa Barbara, CA. Jason's story is inspirational in itself. His grandfather definitely set a good example for Jason. Michelle, Jason's girlfriend couldn't get a word in on the show, but she and Jason were celebrating their two-year anniversary. They look like they are made for each other. Congratulations you two!
We had fun talking about their livestock and their vegetable garden and if you look closely at the picture, you'll see the fabulous basket of produce they brought us! Yum, yum.
For me, it is particularly exciting to see younger folks becoming as excited about gardening as we are. 
If I can figure it out, technically, you will soon be able to listen to Garden Gossip on my website, blog or facebook (whichever I can figure out first). I would love so help from a technical person out there. Until next time, fill your garden with joy! Lisa  

  Chris and Lisa Cullen, Michelle and Jason and the ever-perky Leana Finley

Song of Solomon

"For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come; and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land."  

~Song of Solomon~

Spring Musings

"It is one of the first days of Spring and I sit once more in the old garden. Here the only movement I am conscious of is that of the trees shooting forth their first sprays of bright green, and of the tulips expanding the radiant beauty of their flaming globes, and the only sound I hear is the blackbird's song..the liquid softly gurgling notes that seem to well up spontaneously from an infinite joy, an infinite peace at the heart of nature and bring a message not from some remote Heaven in the Sky or Future, but the heaven that is here, beneath our feet, the joy, the peace, at the heart of the mystery which is Man. For man alone can hear the revelation that lies in the blackbird's song." Havelock Ellis~Impressions and Comments 1918

Garden Gossip Radio Show April 2, 2010

What do you get when you cross a bunch of gardeners with a musician? The Garden Gossip first annual joke show with musical interludes by Spencer Barnitz (aka Spencer the Gardener)! Okay, last week's show was a bit unconventional, but we had fun. Spencer played tunes from his CD Organic Gangster and we told jokes. Like this one: "What do you get when you cross a four-leafed-clover with poison oak? A rash of good luck!!" Or, how about this one? "What do you get when you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole? Hot cross bunnies!"
And, "How do you turn a duck into an R&B singer? Put him in a microwave until he's Bill Withers."
Anyway, Spencer ended up having a good time I think and we sure enjoyed his songs. This new CD of his is his first kid's record, with songs like "Don't eat genetically modified food" and "Worm Girl".
You can get his music on itunes and at the link to Spencer the Gardener website. Anyway, I am working on getting the Garden Gossip website up so that I will be able to post our shows and you will be able to listen any time you want. Oh, but I have a learning curve on that...hope to get it done soon...until then, contemplate this "What do you have when you have two Pinon nuts in one hand and on Pinon nut in the other hand? A difference of a Pinon"..Guess that sort of sums up last week's show...
Until next week, fill your garden with joy! here is the link to spencerthegardener.com