When I was a child and first saw “Return of the Jedi,” I not only wanted an Ewok for a pet (along with E.T., Riki Tiki Tavi, and Puff the Magic Dragon), I also wished that I could live in the Ewok Village – up in the trees with suspended pathways from one hut to the next. I haven’t stopped loving the idea of it.

In our greenhouse we have a smart pot with a bunch of volunteer lamb’s quarters growing in it. All spring we have been using the greens in salads and sauteing them, but they’ve been getting tougher and more bitter, so we thought we’d rip them out and plant something new.

Then, we got the brilliant idea (Ok, I am going to take the credit on this one.) to put the pot in the coop and let the chickens have some fun before we pulled everything out. They loved their new “houseplant” and began nibbling away at the leaves they could reach.

Georgette enjoying the tops of the greens from the high perch.

Well, today I decided to make it even more fun and make them a very small scale Ewok village. I added a couple of branches going into the pot so they could easily access more of the leaves. They are having a blast pecking and nibbling in their lamb’s quarters jungle and my guess is that soon they will have stripped the stems of the tasty and super nutritious leaves and we’ll be able to pull out the stems and plant something new.

Since we don’t let our birds free range yet, this feels like a nice way to bring the outside to them. And since they are still so little, a few of them can get in there at the same time.

Secretly, I wish I were one of them so I could join in the fun.