. . . Funny observations of chicken behavior are shared, as is advice on issues like mucking out coops or preventing older hens pecking at young chicks.Read it all.
The dozen members present at [Barbara Glassman's, aka “Madame Poulet,”] home cringed at the connotation that their gatherings were a sort of “hen party” — rather, they prefer to think of themselves as an intrepid breed of urban chicken farmers in Henderson County.
“We are women who kind of knew each other before, but we instantly bonded over chickens,” Glassman says. “It’s an obsession.”
Famed quilting instructor Georgia Bonesteel [of Flat Rock] is a member of the Hen Society who has been keeping chickens for about five years.
“I think it’s genetic,” says Bonesteel, adding that her grandfather raised chickens. “I got them mostly for the eggs, honestly. I won’t buy eggs in the supermarket.”. . .
In addition to spotting and seizing the opportunity to help usher in a cider sea change, the foursome [at Flat Rock Cider Works] also saw the chance to give North Carolina's apple country a brand it could call its own. They set out to make Naked Apple a truly Henderson County product, starting with the fruit.Read it all. Jim Sparks and Tom Davis, part of the Flat Rock Cider Works team, are the former owners of the Highland Lake Golf Club, now The Park at Flat Rock. Connections, connections. . .
The company has its own orchards — one they lease and one they own. It's this vertical integration that makes the cidery unique: They can take their cider from the orchard, through the production process, through bottling, and to the final customer. . .
