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| FEATURES | BLOGS | DAILY DIG | GEAR |
Jonathan Adelson
Has a handle on chicks
By LAURA DARGUS
del.ico.us
reddit!
The hurdle with serving fresh eggs in the city is not in the building of chicken coops, nurturing chicks to maturity or the occasional roaming raccoon. The issue is getting people to order the damn things.
"People are very interested by it. They want to read about it, they want to talk about it, but for some reason, people don't order them," says Jonathan Adelson, who's chef/owner of the Teele Square café and who, prior to opening his restaurant three months ago, had started raising chickens in his backyard. His four hens lay an egg a day, which keeps Adelson's three-person family well stocked. He started bringing the fresh eggs into the café for breakfast, and has resorted to a guerilla method of turning on new converts. "I've been sending them to some regulars. ... They order a meal, and I'll just send them an egg on the side and see what they think."
Adelson admits there's a palpable difference in taste between his eggs and the grocery-store variety. "It's just a cleaner flavor, I think. The yolks are brighter and richer," yielding some impressive over easy or sunny-side up presentations. But what makes the eggs a commodity is not all in how they're used, but also in their nutritional composition and how they're raised.
On the Medford/Somerville line, Adelson hand-built his chicken château from the spare parts left over from renovations on his own home. The chickens have free reign of his backyard, eating grubs, worms and grass all day—a little different than the corn-based diet of their industrial counterparts. They're exercised daily with the help of Adelson's daughter and dog.
During the winter months, Adelson employs the deep-litter method, a layered compost model that helps heat the coop; though, he's admittedly a "maniac" about cleaning it whenever the temperature's above 30-40 degrees, as he can't seem to keep his daughter out of it. As for city-bound predators, cats and raccoons may pose the biggest threat, but Adelson's chickens can hold their own with smaller attackers. "I've watched my little flock of chickens chase away many a squirrel, so they're not afraid of squirrels."
In true 4-H form, Adelson is considering offing one or two of his flock this summer, "'cause a year-old chicken is good eats." Though, he's uncertain he'll have the heart to do it. In the meantime, he'll stick to building a demand for the eggs at his café on most weekends.
TEELE SQUARE CAFE
1153 BROADWAY ST., SOMERVILLE
617.625.0082
TEELESQCAFE.COM
