I know the free-range chickens at Whippoorwill Hollow Farms in Walnut Grove are the real deal because I've been watching them freely range for a few years now. Our friend Nancy sometimes comes from South Carolina to judge horse show events at the farm next door and when she does I'll come over and watch the ponies prance for awhile and hang out waiting for her to be able to take off and go to dinner ("Come on, Nancy, just pick the spotted one and let's go").

From the horse farm, you can see the occasional ranging rooster at Whippoorwill Hollow if you look past the arena and through the bushes. These birds are honest-to-gosh free, running and pecking and chasing bugs and participating in whatever kinds of activities chickens like to do. You can only imagine. I've seen it with my own eyes.

Anyway, we keep hearing the Whippoorwill Hollow name when we ask restaurateurs about where they're getting their good, organic, locally produced food. Hilda, the farm's proprietor along with husband Andy, told us that she sells her wares at the Brick Store Pub and Leon's, Watershed and other local eateries we've reviewed. 

Hilda characterizes herself as a "thriver," meaning that she is in that group of people who have received a cancer diagnosis in the past, beat it, and sees themselves as being a lot more robust than the more common term of "survivor" suggests. She credits her current vitality to the tasty organic food she eats. Lookin' good, girl. 

Now we're eating it, too. We're snacking on those little tomatoes that Hilda truthfully told us were "as sweet as organic M&M's" (and a lot better for you I would guess). And we're making plans for the eggs we know were laid by free-ranging chickens. We saw it with our own eyes.