Cluxatawney Henrietta (left) with Muscoot Farm Curator Jonathon Benjamin | Westchester County Parks Dept.
Muscoot Farm’s resident weather-predicting farm fowl clashes with Pennsylvania’s famed groundhog to signal the coming end of winter.
Not since the 1993 Bill Murray Peace Accords has anti-groundhog sentiment been so high in America at large. With Punxatawney Phil’s early-morning prediction that winter 2022 will continue unabated for an additional six weeks, Americans everywhere are fed up with the fat, lazy rodent.
“Can you eat groundhog?” jumped to nearly 100 search queries on Google in just the few hours since Punxsutawney Phil delivered his (cold) hot take — which doesn’t seem like a lot but, when the search normally averages zero, that’s a pretty big data spike.
Luckily, Westchester County’s favorite resident meteorologist (sorry, Joe Rao) has fired the first shots in the groundhog/chicken weather wars and denied Phil’s dire predictions, not with something as frivolous as a shadow, but with the scientifically sound and proven methodology she knows best: She laid an egg.
“We love traditions here at Muscoot Farm and, since we don’t have a resident groundhog to observe Groundhog Day on the farm, our Cluxatawney Henrietta has helped us celebrate in our own special way,” says Jonathon Benjamin, the farm curator at Muscoot.
In the wee hours of the morn at Katonah’s Muscoot Farm, Cluxatawney Henrietta — a chicken — laid an egg, signaling a swift end to winter.
Westchester County Parks Commissioner Kathy O’Connor was quick to vocalize support for our avian allies in the coming rap feud-level hostilities with the rodents. “Muscoot Farm has found such a special way to observe Groundhog Day, which is unique to the farm, and I am proud that Westchester County Parks has its own weather-predicting chicken!” she says.
Whether the weather will bend to the will of its mighty chicken overlord or this is just a sweet lie we desperately need to cling to to get through another six weeks of 2022, time will tell.
On a completely unrelated note: Westchester Magazine‘s fan-favorite Wingfest event this year will either be postponed or bigger than ever. (Don’t disappoint us, Henny.)
