Don't throw that away -- bring it to the farm!

Done with your Halloween pumpkins? 

Bring them to the farm for the pigs and goats!

Raking up leaves from your yard?

Bring those dry bagged leaves for our goats!

Your kids won't eat all of what's on their plate? 

Scrape it into a ziploc, throw it in the freezer and bring it to farm school when you come next!

Do you have more apples than you can use? 

Bring them to the farm and press them using our cider press!

Taking down your Christmas tree?

Bring it to the farm so the goats can munch on it!

It's November and we are happy  to take your leftover pumpkins from Halloween.  Our storage is all full of bagged leaves so we are no longer accepting leaves.  

We try to use as much as we can, both to reduce waste and to nourish the animals with farm fresh food. Here on the farm,  it's a kind of closed system...

• Greens grown in the garden get harvested and fed to the chickens, rabbits, pigs, goats.
• Apple mash from cider pressing gets fed to the pigs, goats and chickens.
• Neighbors drop off bagged leaves and we drag them to the barn and store them.  Then we break them out in the winter months for bedding and snacks for the goats.
• When we pull weeds from the garden, we haul them directly to the animal pens for munching.
• Here at the house we have separate pails for chicken scraps and pig slops. We talk about the distinctions and feed the appropriate foods to the critters.
• Christmas trees are fed to the goats at the end of the holiday season.  They love to nibble the pine needles and sometimes even the small branches.
• When kids are eating their lunch, sometimes they walk their bread crusts over to the pigs and feed them directly.
• We have portable fences for our goats so they can rotational graze (and eat the weed seed heads)  in our cover crop area.  They fertilize, as well!
• We rake the leaves from the farm onto our garden beds as we put the garden to sleep for the Winter and add organic matter to the soil.

We always love for the kids to bring food scraps for the chickens and pigs.  Here some things to remember:

• Chickens and pigs are both omnivores.  We feed them meat scraps but don't feed chicken to chickens or pork to pigs.  Makes sense, right?
• Sometimes we give the animals food that is 'expired' or a little old but we don't feed rotten or moldy food as this could make them sick.  If we wouldn't eat it, we won't feed it.  If it's really old and slimy it goes to the compost instead. Slightly wilted vegetables and stale bread or grains are fine.
• I chop up the scraps for the chickens (like stems or vegetables) so they can eat it more easily.
• Foods NOT TO FEED THE ANIMALS: banana peels, potato peels, citrus peels, chocolate, avocado pits or skins, really strong flavors like raw onions and garlic, raw beans, rhubarb (this is toxic) , coffee or tea bags.
  

If you have a question about how to drop off goodies for the critters, just send me an email.  And thanks so much for all you do to create this beautiful relationship between our farm and YOU, our awesome community!
~FarmHer Rosemary