Coop de Tour No. 5 takes place Saturday

The 5th annual Chicken Coop de Tour, hosted by Slow Food Spokane River, takes place Saturday, June 18, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Audubon and Garland Neighborhoods. Participants will meet at Audubon Park and carpool to three area residents’ backyards to learn ‘backyard chicken coop 101,’ covering topics such as care and feeding of chickens, coop design and safety, how to winter chickens, various city laws governing backyard chicken coops, and predator control. Across the nation, in the past three to five years, this backyard hobby has seen robust growth, as people are looking more and more at ways to save money, as well as wanting to eat healthy and keep food local. Coop de Tour stop 3 will be Kelly LaGrutta’s house. She has been involved with the Tour for three years, and says, for her, raising her own chickens is a great fit. “I garden a lot, so it just makes sense to grow a protein source as well,” says LaGrutta. “Another added benefit is you also get nice, compostable chicken poo, which makes for rich compost for your garden.” She says egg production is typically an egg a day per hen, making for about two dozen eggs per week. Although that may seem like a lot to some people, LaGrutta says when you cook more from scratch, you’ll naturally use more eggs. For example, for the end-of-the-tour potluck lunch, she’s making a frittata and cupcakes, “because they take five eggs…you gotta think about that.” LaGrutta will be hosting the lunch; Participants are encouraged to bring a dish of their choice. Cost of the tickets is $10 per person; children 10 and younger are free. Profits from the Tour will go to benefit Slow Food Spokane River, a local arm of the “global, grassroots movement that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.” Pre-registration is necessary as the tour sells out quickly. All registered participants will receive directions and a map via e-mail prior to the tour. Door prizes and giveaways at the potluck will be courtesy of Aslin Finch. The Slow Food movement was originally founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 in an effort to protect the sanctity of enjoying healthy food produced by our communities and enjoyed around the table with our neighbors and those we love. Through a variety of initiatives it promotes gastronomic culture, develops taste education, conserves agricultural biodiversity and protects traditional foods at risk of extinction. The movement now has over 80,000 members in over 100 countries.