Hungry, Hungry Heifers

It has been a busy week at the farm; markets, work, renovating an appartment, animals, booking their trips to the butcher, cutting wood for the winter, cleaning up etc. It seems like there is a never ending list of activities and no matter how much you feel you accomplish, you always seem behind.

But life is so exciting and will often throw a wrench in you plans. Like the lovely ladies in the photo. They love the pasture, but what they like more than the pasture is left over garden goodies. Every week after the market we collect all the beet, turnip, and carrot tops that we take off for people at the market, as well as seconds, thinnings and anything we can't eat ourselves. And they love it, they see it coming and crowd the gate and jostle for position to get the pick of the greens. Many of them surprise me and eat things I thought unsuitable for a cow. like onion tops and old garlic scapes.

But unfortunately, we may have unknowingly created 8 monster. One day while the two of us were at work, some of these voracious ladies escaped the plentiful pasture for greener fields on the other side, the other side being our veggie patch. Though they may seems slow and graceful in the pasture when left on their own, they can also systematically consume whole successions of carrots and beets in a matter of hours. One escaped heifer managed to browse through 150 ft of both beets and carrots.

So needless to say our girls are well fed with organic greens, and our market table may look a little bare for the remainder of the season. Though she only ate the tender younger plants, I still have a patch of mature beets that will make the transition to pickles this weekend.