Last Christmas, one of my best friends – Anja, gave me a chicken. This is not the start of a bad Christmas song (in the summer), she really adopted a chicken in my name. I posted the letter on twitter, which explains that we made sure this chicken (and her friends) have a nice space at the farm to move around in freely. In return, I get to have some of her eggs for free.
After the Christmas holiday, some of my students asked me what I got for Christmas and I explained this cause to them, while they looked at me, smiling and thinking (out loud) “you’re such a hippy ma’am”. I also told them you could visit ‘your’ free-range/organic chicken, to see the good work done on these farms and that I was planning on doing so one day.
They liked the story: a few months later they asked me if I had already met my chicken, what her name was and if I could bring a picture when I would see her. So this summer holiday, when I had planned to do a few things in Amsterdam anyway, I went to the forest in the middle of the city to see how she’s doing and I thought I’d share that.
The farm truly is amazing. Which is a bit odd to think, as it should just be like this everywhere. But nonetheless, if you’re out for a walk in the neighbourhood – with the family and the family dog on a Sunday early afternoon or something – go and have a look. You can walk in as freely as the chickens, the goats and the other animals. There is a playground. And a store, selling really fresh goods. The only thing the farmer asks, is to keep your dog on the lead and if you sit down on the terrace, that you order something from them rather than bringing your own food and drinks.
It attracts a lot of people. Maybe the sunny weather helped too, but I saw lots of kids enjoying sitting on this tractor (especially for them) and feeding the goats a bottle of milk. There were lots of chickens, everywhere; I imagined them all to be a little bit ‘my chicken’. But maybe most of all I thought it was good to see this teacher taking her young students to a place like this, where they can touch the animals and experience how they should be treated.
Before I left, I sat down on the terrace, with a milkshake made of fresh goat milk and I shared my piece of organic apple pie with this curious chicken that just happened to wander along from under my chair.
