Homestead Jenn of Rent The Chicken - Checking in - races, salsa, blue ribbons, and more!

 

Hello!   Homestead Jenn here! I'm the Co-Founder of Rent The Chicken together with my husband, Homestead Phil. (When not in work-mode, I just call him Phil - haha)   Even though it is only September, we are winding down our "season". We'll start accepting reservations for 2027 in October. Stay tuned for more info! If you haven't reserved for the Fall for Hatch The Chicken, we still have availability in many areas. If you already reserved for Fall of 2026, thank you and we'll be in touch about a week before your delivery with more information. For Rent The Chicken pickups, most occur in October or November depending on when your rental was delivered and where you are located. Your Local Affiliate Provider will be in touch (if they haven't already) to arrange for pickup and/or adoption options.   A big thanks to all who participated in our Facebook Cover Photo Contest last month! The winner can be found on our Facebook page.   So much has happened since I checked in last! If you're within driving distance of Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Northeast Ohio, go and enjoy the massive trail system! I participated in Burning River 100 as part of a relay team in July. It was so beautiful! I'm not super fast but I was moving fast enough to not enjoy all of the sights on my relay leg. Our team of 6 (for an 8 person team!) finished 100 miles of very hilly trail. My commitment was 10.3 miles with half on flat rail trail and half on a single-rail hiking trail in the woods. Many individuals finished 50 miles and 100 miles! What stamina! There's a photo below at the race.   We snuck away for a short weekend to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. It's a life size museum of Noah's Ark from the Bible. If you haven't been, we highly recommend it! There's a photo below - Pic or it didn't happen, right?   Next, our local county fair - Dayton Fair - was held in August. We camp, visit with friends and family we don't see often, volunteer, submit items for the exhibit hall, win ribbons, and this year, I was honored to be a first time Fair Queen Judge! I earned first place / blue ribbons for Gobs (some regions call them whoopie pies), Chocolate Chip Cookies, Bar Cookies (Oatmeal Butterscotch), Peanut Butter Cookies (Homestead Phil's favorite!), Sourdough - other category (English Muffins!), and Child Crocheted Hat. I submitted other items that placed in second, fifth, and my poor home-canned Apple Pie Filling didn't place but it sure is delightful! haha There's a photo of the cute hat and my ribbons below!   Garden update: We canned 22 pints of salsa from the tomatoes in our garden! More tomatoes are ready! Next up: spaghetti sauce!   Last but not least... I had a birthday yesterday. The big 5-0. I can't even believe how time flies so quickly. I feel very loved on the regular but even more loved on my birthday. :) I made the peanut butter pie recipe that I wrote about a few months ago. Just as good as before! If you want the recipe, shoot a message and I'll send it over!   The next time I touch base, we'll announce a new location and new options for 2027! Stay tuned!   Making magic happen, Homestead Jenn Rent The Chicken, Co-Founder ---------    Reminder: We'll start accepting reservations for 2027 in October!   Here are some helpful links: Rent The Chicken Locations Hatch The Chicken Locations   To reserve for the remainder of 2026 (We may be sold out in your region!): To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here. To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here. To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here. To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here. **For Hatch The Chicken, before reserving it is best to find out what dates are available in your region. Feel free to respond to this email and we'll be happy to send the available dates over to you!

Hello from Homestead Jenn of Rent The Chicken!

 

Hello!   Homestead Jenn here! For those who don't know, together with my husband, Homestead Phil, we are Co-Founders of Rent The Chicken. We hatched Rent The Chicken more than a dozen years ago! (See what I did there?!)   If you already reserved for 2026, thank you! We'll start accepting reservations for 2027 in October. Stay tuned for more info! For remaining 2026 Hatch The Chicken rentals, we'll be in touch about a week before your delivery with more information.   Before I provide an update on what's been going on here at The Homestead, I must tell you... We are hosting a Photo Cover Contest on our Facebook Page. Have photos of chicks and/or chickens? Please click on over to our Facebook page and comment with your favorite photos! We'll narrow down to our favorites and then we will have everyone on our Facebook page vote! Don't forget to give our Rent The Chicken Facebook Page a follow while you are there!   Homestead Phil and I went on a sailing adventure at a nearby lake. He's quite the pilot with this little sailboat! My cat, Henry (he's not a hen!), watched some ducks hatch here at The Homestead recently. Did you know that in a few regions, Hatch The Duck is available? Western Pennsylvania, Connecticut (sold out for 2026!), Toronto (nearly sold out!), Victoria BC (sold out for 2026!), Omaha Nebraska (sold out for 2026!) and Washington DC / Northern VA / Maryland DC Suburbs. Hatch The Quail is available in Connecticut and Washington DC / Northern VA / Maryland DC Suburbs. There's one requirement for both Hatch The Duck and Hatch The Quail, you must first participate in our Hatch The Chicken program! To find out availability or to reserve, just respond to this email and we'll provide dates! I had the best meal out recently - Turkey Devonshire. WOW! The delicate cheese sauce wins for this dish! Union Grill in Pittsburgh is where I devoured it. (Google it.. if you like turkey, bacon, and cheese, see if this Pittsburgh dish is at a restaurant in your area!) Check out some photos below!   I'm still doing training runs.. my next race is this weekend. I'll report back!   Cluckin' along, Homestead Jenn Rent The Chicken, Co-Founder ---------   Here are some helpful links: Rent The Chicken Locations Hatch The Chicken Locations   To reserve for the remainder of 2026 (We may be sold out in your region!): To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here. To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here. To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here. To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here. **For Hatch The Chicken, before reserving it is best to find out what dates are available in your region. Feel free to respond to this email and we'll be happy to send the available dates over to you!

Homestead Phil - Checking in... 50k?

 Hello!

 

Homestead Phil, Co-Founder of Rent The Chicken, checking back in! I can't believe it's almost the end of June!

 

Again, thank you to all who already made your reservation for 2026! Some of you have already participated in Hatch The Chicken for 2026. So amazing! For Hatch The Chicken rentals, we'll be in touch about a week before your delivery with more information. For Rent The Chicken rentals, we are working on late June and July deliveries depending on where you are located. Stay tuned for more details!

 

I like to make fresh salsa every year from my garden, but that might be harder this year. I was late getting to the garden center, so my garden is significantly smaller. Normally, I plant tomatoes, bell peppers, banana sweet peppers, and banana hot peppers, but when I arrived about a few weeks ago, there were only tomato plants available!

 

Thankfully, we still have some peppers from a previous season in the freezer. So, we should be good! The onion bulbs I planted back in March are doing okay but they’re not looking as good as previous years. I have some fish‑based fertilizer that I might try spraying on them for a boost. Last year, I failed to harvest my garlic and then replant it, so I have no idea what this year’s garlic is going to be like! Usually it’s not ready until July, but I think it’s ready now!

 

Aside from gardening, Homestead Jenn (my wife and also Co-Founder of Rent The Chicken) and I recently participated in a veterans' benefit ultramarathon - Eagle Up Ultra. Homestead Jenn was part of an 8‑person relay team that ran 100 miles in under 24 hours! Her commitment was 3 5-mile loops spaced throughout the day. I decided to take a try at a 50K ultra run (about 31 miles) and finished in 10 hours. I’ve never even signed up for a half marathon or a full marathon race—maybe I’m a bit crazy for jumping straight into the 50K!? Check out our selfie below - Pic or it didn't happen, right?

 

So why did I do the 50K? I turned 50 this year, so I decided that was one way I wanted to celebrate.

 

Our chickens are doing great here on the homestead. They are egg‑laying machines. I’ll report back on my garden and any fresh salsa I manage to make this fall after the Great Dayton (PA) Fair in August.

 

Until then, hit reply - let me know what you’re growing or what big goal you’re chasing this summer!

 

Enjoy the sunshine!

Homestead Phil

Rent The Chicken, Co-Founder

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Here are some helpful links if you haven't yet reserved for 2026!

 

To reserve:

To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here.

To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here.

To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here.

To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here.

**For Hatch The Chicken, before reserving it is best to find out what dates are available in your region. Feel free to respond to this email and we'll be happy to send the available dates over to you!

Homestead Jenn - Checking in... Potato Costume?

Hello!

 

Homestead Jenn, Co-Founder of Rent The Chicken, checking back in! It will be June and officially Summer before we know it!

 

Again, thank you to all who already made your reservation for 2026! Some of you have already participated in Hatch The Chicken for 2026. So amazing! For Hatch The Chicken rentals, we'll be in touch about a week before your delivery with more information. For Rent The Chicken rentals, we are working on May and June deliveries depending on where you are located. Stay tuned for more details!

 

Due to missing high mileage training runs because of a cold in April, I was very undertrained for my recent Pittsburgh Half Marathon but I finished! This was my 13th half marathon since starting to run them in April of 2021. My first 6 were within 10 months of each other from April 2021 - January 2022. That's pretty crazy, right? I slowed down after that but added in triathlon training and also ultramarathon relays and also a 50k trail ultramarathon. (Any race over 26.2 miles is considered an ultramarathon.)

 

At any rate, earlier in the Spring, I applied to be selected to wear a potato costume in exchange for my race entry fee to be covered by Potatoes USA. Potatoes USA is essentially the advertising arm for all of the potato farmers in the USA. Their initiative is to promote that potatoes are a great source of fueling for distance races. There are 26 grams of good carbs in potatoes so there were 26 of us wearing potato costumes at the Pittsburgh Half Marathon and Marathon races! Pasta gets so much credit for carb loading (and don't get me wrong... pasta is delish!) but potatoes are great as well. Did you know.. they have more potassium than bananas?! True statement. The stats are on the back of my costume! See below for a fun potato costume photo! It's from our pre-race run as a whole pack of potatoes. Peep that Rent The Chicken branded winter hat!

 

I have 2 relay races coming up in June and July so I continue to run 3-4 times a week. But I also love to eat! I made a delish homemade peanut butter pie recently. Let me know if you'd like the recipe! Every election day, a local church hosts a "soup & bake sale" including slices of said peanut butter pie. The maker of the pie passed away in the last few months. After she passed, I learned that her recipe was published in their local church cookbook - THAT I PURCHASED YEARS AGO! So I had been living life without even knowing that recipe was in my house for years! haha Someone else from the church made the pie for our local primary election day this week so of course, we bought a few slices! It's THAT good!

 

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I have more big news!

 

We are continuing to egg-spand but we aren't ready to announce quite yet! I will next time!

 

Here are some helpful links if you haven't yet reserved for 2026!

 

To reserve:

To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here.

To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here.

To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here.

To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here.

**For Hatch The Chicken, before reserving it is best to find out what dates are available in your region. Feel free to respond to this email and we'll be happy to send the available dates over to you!

 

Enjoy the sunshine!

Homestead Jenn

Rent The Chicken - Co-Founder