Milkweed for Monarchs and a Daily Piggie Feast

Surely these ravenous beasts need weaning soon she thinks. Sorry Charlotte not for  couple more weeks.

They are in training to drink water from the spigot. Do you see the little spigot poking through the fence, this is attached to a hose that runs out of the base of a big water barrel on blocks. It is gravity fed and if they nibble at the steel spigot out rushes the water.  The moment pigs see water in a vessel the upturn it and lie in the water.

They are learning to eat their solids, the store sends out old grapes and bananas and potatoes, melon skins, bags of old lettuce and carrots. Everyday I pick weeds and silver beet (the favourite),  corn stalks, and eggs and grass Any leftovers from the house and the gardens go in their bucket. Raising pigs on food!  I am This Close to finding a source of organic grain that I will use as treats to call them in off the fields.

Added to this is the garlic, molasses and flaxseed oil. But they still need their mothers milk for a few more weeks honey. Poor Charlotte. They are so big now. And so noisy and boisterous when they feed.

We grow more than vegetables and meat on the farmy though. We also grow food to nourish butterflies. Milkweed is a protected plant in our gardens and like an Indian cow is allowed to flourish wherever it likes, though not always in the right place and every year we attract more and more Monarch butterflies. Milkweed supplies nectar for the butterflies, and food for the caterpillars. A very important plant for the monarchs.  So we let them all grow.  In New Zealand we have a plant called the Swan Plant that has a similar status. But the Swan Plant will not survive the cold and I have no seed this year, I forgot to buy my supply when I was home.

So we only have  milkweed this year. However there is more than one kind of milkweed, all of which are natives to North America and I am eager to find seed for one or two of the others to sow down by the creek. The older people around here are appalled when they see them shooting up in my flower garden and wild areas, as they were always taught that this is a noxious weed, and hack at it if they find it in their gardens and wild areas.

It is poisonous to humans and animals. In fact if a bird eats a caterpillar who has been eating milkweed he is going to feel very ill indeed – what an excellent plan of the clever monarch.  The Ancient Native Americans used Milkweed for glue, fibers and medicine.  This is an old wild original plant, it stands upright and its flowers have a heady old fashioned scent that layers itself into the air in waves. I don’t grow it in the fields.  But I believe that it is an important part of the ecosystem.  And every year we have more and more Monarch butterflies returning. They have put us on their secret map.

The Daily View. I must look back and see when we started this. I know I was going to show you this view for a year.

Good morning. Today I suit up and inspect the bees. I think I am going to have to combine the two hives. Nefertiti’s hive is very very quiet, whereas Cleopatra’s is heaving with bees. I will show you tomorrow.

But first I will move the cows back into Pat’s paddock. They can only be in the Dairy Mistress paddock for the evening, through the night  and into the morning. We are reaching a hundred degrees each day now with high humidity, no breeze and full sun, and there is no shelter in there as yet (your  Fellowship Forest willows go in this fall – I am growing them from cuttings) but this is where all the good feed is. So in a few hours the cows will come and stand at their gate and I will bring them through the fields, past the pig sty and into the deep shade with the big water trough. After that I open the pigs gate again so the piglets can run out into the long grass while the cows stand under the trees behind the fence and watch. Time sharing a field.

Have a lovely day.

your farming friend, celi