November 9, 2023
Personally, I think the day after Halloween should be a national holiday. For years, we’ve spent it collecting leftover pumpkins from various churches and farm stands. We haul trailer load after trailer load to our pastures. The piles last for months as the animals happily work their way through them. Such an abundance of readily available food makes for a very content flock, be it chickens, pigs or sheep.
The pumpkins are a wonderful supplemental feed for all of them and have some therapeutic value as well. A study published in 2016 by the National Institute of Health proved what indigenous people have known - and farmers have proclaimed - for years. Pumpkin seeds can get rid of several kinds of internal parasites in both humans and livestock. The study (“Evaluation of Anthelmintic Activity and Composition of Pumpkin Seed Extracts”) also proved that they do so with no ill effects - unlike their synthetic commercially available counterparts.
Last weekend, we invited the entire world to bring their leftover pumpkins and throw them over the pasture fence to our sheep at Hill-Stead. We also set up our pumpkin launching slingshot for the day. Several hundred kids, ranging in ages from 2 to 80, tried their hand at launching pumpkins over the fence, across the pasture and into a bucket that we put there for the occasion. One child wanted to know what the prize was for getting the pumpkin into the bucket. I told him “if you get your pumpkin into the bucket, I will say very loudly and enthusiastically “Oh My Goodness! You got it in the bucket!!!” He wasn’t overly impressed but gave it his best shot anyway.
As our animals make their way through the various piles, their first preference is to eat the seeds, then the pulp, and lastly the shells. Sheep easily eat through the outer shell to get to the seeds and fleshy prize within, but our pigs have a much harder time with that. They are smart enough, though, to wait for a sheep to do it for them and then chase the sheep off and take over. (They don’t call them pigs for nothing!)
The sheep at Hill-Stead were thrilled with the post Halloween celebration. They received an abundance of food, nutrients, calories, and a healthy dose of parasite conquering preventative medicine. The humans on the other side of the fence got what we all sorely needed as well. Fresh air, exercise, comradery, and lots and lots of laughter. A good day indeed, was had by all.