Wordy Wednesday - It's a long road

I stayed up later than I should have last night, reading Keith Stewart’s It’s a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life. Stewart put together an informative and entertaining collection of essays about nearly every aspect of his farm in New York that you could think of, from “The Driveway Rabbits” to “The Unweeded Garden” to “A Man and His Tractor.” He also uses some big words. Help from Merriam Webster and the Online Etymology Dictionary.

From “Working Man’s Mesculin:”

The leaves that don’t pass muster are thrown to our flock of chickens, who devour them with much clicking and gallinaceous enthusiasm.

gallinaceous: of or relating to an order (Galliformes) of heavy-bodied largely terrestrial birds including the pheasants, turkeys, grouse, and the common domestic chicken.

From “Kuri,” Stewart’s first and best loved dog:

In less than a year [of heartworm treatment], he was back in fine fettle, ranging across the fields, chasing raccoons and woodchucks, and generally exhibiting his great enthusiasm for life.

fettle: state or condition of health, fitness, wholesomeness, spirit, or form. From Old English fetel “a girdle, belt.”

Photo from Wikipedia.