News of the weird from the BBC: an unidentified chicken in Cornwall, England has laid an egg that is four times the size of a normal chicken egg.

The egg, which was found at Julie and David Hewitt’s farm, weighs 8 ounces and measures 8 inches in circumference.

If this is for real, then one of the Hewitts’ 30,000 chickens has been working overtime. The couple told the BBC that they aren’t sure which one of their chickens actually laid the egg. No comment on how one would go about determining that….is one chicken walking funny?

Oh wait, I said NO COMMENT. Sorry.

This does make me think, however, about my recent infatuation with farm fresh eggs. I’m pretty sure that as long as I can get my hands on country eggs, I’ll never buy grocery store eggs again.

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It’s been four years since we bought our first house over in Northwest Roanoke, and it may finally be time for me to start my first garden.

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long.

As tempted as I am to go whole hog, planting row after row of tomatoes, green beans, squash and peppers, I think I had better start small this year. So I plan to spend this weekend tilling up a small square in the corner of my yard — a patch just big enough for a beginner.

After my family relocated to Virginia from Colorado in the early 1980s, my parents always had a garden in the back yard. It was barely half the size of my grandparents’ garden, but it still turned out all of the veggies I mentioned above, along with spring onions, asparagus, corn, lettuce greens and much more.

My father has a green thumb. When he ran out of space in his own backyard garden, he borrowed a big plot on a friend’s farm and planted enough green beans to feed five families for a year.

I doubt if I’ll ever get to that point of infatuation, but I know I have it in my blood to at least grow a few Better Boys. In light of the tanking economy and the burgeoning slow food movement, I figure it’ll save money and help the environment if I can do at least a portion of my produce shopping in my own backyard.

How many of my faithful blog readers out there are gardeners as well as foodies? What are your favorite vegetables to grow?

If you’ve got any tips to share with a beginner, bring them on.