By Kenny Coogan
On an eight-hour layover while traveling abroad in England, I circumnavigated “the tube” — London’s underground public rapid transit system — to visit a chicken owner in West London. Hidden at the end of a line of townhouses, Sara Ward and her family have transformed their house into an urban smallholding dubbed “Hen Corner.” They are living the country life complete with 24 hens, 100,000 honeybees, a vegetable garden, fruit trees and micro-bakery — all on a small city lot.
Ward and her husband, Andy, welcomed me into their home on a stereotypical drizzly England day. As we sat in their conservatory, where weekly homesteading classes are held, they offered me Earl Grey tea and homemade freshout- of-the-oven cinnamon buns.