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A Few Fowl Friends can Feed Faithful at St. Stephen Parish in Caseyville

Story and photos by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

“Here, chick, chick, chick, here chick.” Living on a working farm is unusual for some of us but not for all of us. Across the diocese people live and work on grain farms, dairy or beef farms and hog farms.

Some people grow their own vegetables on a plot of land or a part of their back yards, with some of the fresh vegetables being shared with neighbors, friends and even the parish.

However, St. Stephen, Caseyville parishioner, Norma McQuade raises a few (Rhode Island Red) chickens — actually a dozen right now if you include the Turken (also called Naked Neck) rooster and hen, and the mallard duck, Jesse — along with her granddaughter, Hope, 9.

McQuade, who was born and raised in East St. Louis, said she always wanted to live on a farm.
“So I went out and found myself a farm boy,” she said, and smiled. She lived with her husband, Mike, on a farm and raised five children.

Later, the McQuades moved closer to her home town of East St. Louis, but they still lived on a working farm, raising cattle, hogs and the chickens.

When her husband died 10 years ago, Norma didn’t want to give up her life on the farm, but she knew she couldn’t handle the larger animals by herself. Out went the cattle and hogs but not the chickens.
“I’ve had chickens forever,” she said.

Hope said she likes working with the chickens, and one, Carmel, is kind of a pet. “I can catch her,” Hope said.
Hope also likes the chickens and the duck because she said, “they’re good listeners.”

When she’s in the chicken yard feeding or caring for the birds, she talks to them, sharing her day or maybe a frustration she may have, and they always seem to listen.

Every weekend Norma takes cartons of eggs to St. Stephen’s for parishioners. When she was charging $2.00 a dozen for the eggs, a parishioner told her she needed to charge more, so now eggs — brown of course — are $2.50 a dozen. “People really like fresh eggs,” she said.

The chickens are the ever-popular “free range,” but they’re ranging inside a fence now. Recently, she let the chickens out of the fenced area, and a pack of wild dogs came by and reduced her flock from the 17 she had to the present 12 she now has.

Besides the chickens, Norma and Hope have gardens in a number of locations in the yard.
Norma grows herbs, peppers, tomatoes and beans, and Hope grows watermelons and muskmelons (cantaloupes).
“Everything here is fresh,” Norma said.

Like others in the diocese, Norma shares some of the produce with the local food pantry, and she also provides some vegetables to the parish picnic later in the year if she can. She’s quick to point out that others in the parish do the same.

Norma loves living on the farm. Growing food and raising chickens keeps her grounded, she said. It teaches “patience and determination.”

This link to the land and to caring for what she has planted are important to her even if the farm is small.
Being a “country girl” for most of her life and making fresh eggs available to fellow parishioners and friends has been satisfying, she said.