If you follow me on Facebook, you already know that I recently received a draft contract for my first book. It stipulates a tight time schedule: the finished manuscript is due on February 1, 2013. Obviously I've got my work cut out for me in January, especially since our business taxes and the renewal of our organic certification are also due by the end of the month.
When I originally was planning my first book project, I was envisioning the possibility of including first-person anecdotes from people who grew up around heritage-breed poultry. I would love to hear your stories, or even stories you might have heard from your grandparents or other relatives. Particularly valuable would be stories dating to before World War II; this was before modern production hybrids were generally available.
I have a great anecdote from my mother, who grew up on a farm in Illinois. She was quite young during the war, but remembers that virtually everyone had chickens in those days. Her family raised New Hampshire Red chickens for eggs and meat. The "egg money" from farm egg sales was an important supplement to many families' income during the lean war years.
This is the kind of story or recollection I'm looking for: location, type of poultry, what purpose they served (food, money, etc.). Please contact me through Facebook (Victoria Redhed Miller) or post a comment on this blog with your contact information if you'd like to submit a story for possible inclusion in my book. Don't wait too long, though; I'll need to hear from you no later than January 10, 2013.
Thanks a lot, and I hope to hear from you soon!
