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Hello everyone! I am currently working on designing a new layout for this blog. I am hoping to bring it back "better than ever!'

So this is Fall...?

Thank goodness that I have a mother and mother in-law that live so close! And I am not saying that in sarcasm at all! Fall means 'hunting season,' hunting season means that my husband will leave most weekends starting late October through December. Because my amazingly talented and fun mothers live so close, I tend to spend most of my "husband-free" time with them. Fall is a great time to spend in the kitchen or work on small projects. I plan on having my grandmother out here in a week or so to help repaint my kitchen. (Yeah!) All that to say, I am super excited to start working on projects and try better at keeping things posted here online. 

Believe it or not, but this is my little niece with "Snookie." Snookie would be this chicken, odd name I know. But it seemed to fit the newest addition to the coop. She is a 'silky' bred chicken, all white except her blue feet, beak and ears. Weird right? This would be the chicken that I referred to in the "Redneck Swap Meet" post. 

Redneck Swap Meet

 A few weeks ago we went to the Swap Meet out in Fordland, MO. Ryan and I took several dozen eggs, along with 3 roosters (they were not contributing to our egg production, so they needed to find a new home) in hopes to make a few extra dollars and maybe get a few laughs out of the event. I don't know if many of the people that are reading this have every been to a "swap meet" but it should be on everyones 'bucket list.' I promise, you will not regret the experience! The Swap Meet is more so a 'redneck reunion' amongst old farmers in the area that pretty much come to swap livestock. Ryan and I tried to get in on the action, but had no luck in trading/selling our roosters. So, I turned to my secret weapon, my little brother Stewart. Who in their right mind is going to turn down a blue eyed, blonde haired 12 year old kid?! My thoughts exactly!! I turned him loose with my roosters and it was only a matter of time before he came back grinning ear to ear. Stewart managed to trade 3 roosters for some kinda funky looking chicken. The thing is 'fluffy' and completely white except for its beak and ear lobes that are a striking blue. After a little research, I found out it is a silkie! Beautiful chicken! Odd, but beautiful all the same. More on her later. Stewart was as proud as anything and with his renewed enthusiasm to be "the ultimate salesman," he took 2 dozen eggs and was off again! Once more, he came back with his prize, but rather than another chicken, he traded 2 dozen eggs for a duck. Don't ask me what kinda duck, I only know chickens, but a duck none the less. The Swap Meet was a blast! And I would encourage anyone to give it a shot! It's the only place I can think of that you can turn roosters into chickens and chicken eggs into ducks! And on a side note, the duck went home with my brother, his commission for the days work.

Eggs for sale!

       $2.00 a dozen

Right now, we are getting several dozen eggs a day! And we would love to sell them to you! So come get your FARM FRESH EGGS here at Hessee's Homegrown. Call, post, send an email, saddle your horse or send a dove! Just let us know and we can take care of ya!

                                             Email me at: hessees.homegrown@live.com

And so it begins!

Missouri winters the past couple of years have been utterly horrid! One can typically expect to find himself (or herself!) spending the majority of the chilly months, cooped up in doors and praying that an ice-covered branch doesn’t collapse on an unsuspecting house below.  But this last year, “status quo” was broken and even though the days were short, the weather was confusingly bearable; even for a Tennessee farm girl like me. I say all of this to say, that as a “new wife”, living in a “new little” house with lots of land and rich soil just beckoning to be planted in, I was more than eager for winter to end and spring to come. Strangely enough, January brought a few days of 70 degree weather; just enough to tease me into thinking spring was nearing. By the time March rolled around, I couldn’t wait any longer! Soon I was at ‘Lowes’ buying strawberry plants, squash, eggplants, cucumbers and an array of flowers in hopes of turning the once “bachelor pad” into a “his and hers” home.  After weeks of fighting the soil trying to plow up new ground for a garden, we finally finished our 20x30 plot!  As if that wasn’t a big enough item on my “honey-do list,” I also submitted a request for a chicken coop. Because I have an absolutely amazing husband, he went right to work; remodeling an old shed into a rather large chicken house. Buying my first batch of baby chicks was the next step. I researched online the best laying hens that I could afford and that would also yield a large amount of egg production. I settled on a verity of different breeds. I decided that I was going to purchase my chicks from Cackle Hatchery in Lebanon, Missouri. There, I purchased nearly 30 pullets (female chicks). I would recommend Cackle Hatchery every day of the week! They were amazing to us and provided wonderful “chick saving” advice. Fast forward five months later, and the eggs have started “rolling” in. May the adventure begin here at Hessee’s Homegrown Hatchery!