Newsletter 8/8/18 – Pigs!
Working hard is neither their purpose nor their strong suit. They’re often sleeping, eating, or roughhousing amongst themselves in the mud. Between long naps in the shade and endless veggie showers turned buffets, our fat, happy pigs are doing their best to transform any excess harvest into delicious meat. Every day, the group of ten pigs consume as many vegetables as the average human child is likely to willingly consume over a span of multiple years. They’re remarkably healthy eaters, but wouldn’t pass up a candy bar for the life of ‘em—in fact they will eat about just anything they can get their hooves on. Including twist ties and rubber bands… so when feeding the pigs, we go to great lengths to keep any unwanted items out of their possession.
Aside from making vegetables transform into meat the pigs double as efficient landscapers. Their accuracy is terrible and they have no regard for aesthetics, but they do an impressive job at helping us keep up with the fast-growing grass. They don’t quite mow it as preferred, but instead trample and turn the topsoil just enough to temporarily stunt the grass. When we move their pen to a new zone, a weekly adventure, the mowing list becomes shorter and shorter as they haphazardly make their best attempt at helping to maintain the grass. For me, it means less work—good enough.
As time progresses our pigs have become quite interested in people, tractors, and trucks: they’re becoming very social. Upon passing their pig pen, in addition to receiving their ripe scent, I am greeted with oinks, what seem like tail wags, and incomparable excitement. As I unload crates of old or excess vegetables next to their enclosure all the pigs crowd the fence anxiously wondering what’s on the menu for the day. Instantaneously, celery, beets, carrots, spinach, kale, radishes, broccoli, lettuce heads, onions, and every vegetable imaginable all take flight. Seconds after leaving my hands the veggies shower down around the pig encampment and the buffet begins. More often than not, manners are set aside and the free-for-all commences. Don’t get between a pig and its vegetables… not these pigs anyways—they’re health freaks.
– Blake
Rainbow Carrots
Rainbow carrots, though bunched together, are actually a mix of different varieties of carrots. In addition to being mighty colorful they are also mighty rich in mixes of carotenoids and antioxidants, including lycopene and lutein. Each variety of carrot has its own host of heath benefits that it brings to the table. So eat your carrots and enjoy the rainbow!
What’s the Big Dill?
Wondering what to do with the bunch of dill in your share this week? Here are 13 recipes to get you inspired: 13 Recipes to Use Up a Bunch of Dill