Keeping it on the DL

A metro neighborhood paper unexpectedly wrote a story about our place which was published Labor Day weekend.  Hmmm.. Just when the girls disappeared.  We got a phone message last week from a woman who was interested in learning more about our "urban farm" because she'd read the article.
B. and I have always sparred a bit about calling our place a farm.  He does so easily and without shame.  To me, it's disrespectful of real farmers.  We do have a large garden, a small orchard, and well... we used to have three chickens.

I remember Dad once told me you have to have 14 acres to qualify as a farm in the U.S.census.  I don't know if that is still true or not. The IRS says you need to sell something to deduct farmer things, so not a farm by those standards.  Our friend Galen said they used to have 3000 chickens (or some number larger than three).  That is agriculture--or maybe it will be again, now that mega chicken agriculture is getting busted.  It was reported that the two Iowa operations involved in the salmonella recall housed a combined 7.7 million caged hens.  Does that qualify as a farm in the U.S. census?

Small is beautiful.