If you need to clean up your garden, to dispose of mostly all garden weeds, Milkshake the pig will gobble them up for you. It keeps him in shape and reduces the chance of lingering dead crop rot, but his diet is still monitored and maintained by workers at the facility. I had the chance to feed him what I weeded out of a lettuce bed last time volunteering at the facility after given permission by staff.

Practices like these are done to maximize use and minimize waste, part in parcel with the higher ideals of holistic agriculture. It reminds one of how inter connected we all are with the environment, feeding off nutrients borrowed from the earth. Temporary use is often times the case as nothing lasts forever, we see this in how Green Grow first got their bee frames. They were received as hand me downs at a dinner party, but that doesn't seem to bother the bees or affect their harvests of sweet honey. 

All of these pets at Green Grow all are able to provide something for us, if we are able to provide care for them. It is hands on approaches like this, which don't fret at getting dirty that make farmers a unique group within society today. It gives insights to, in some cases, ancient practices of agriculture and co-existence with the natural world. These are lessons that should not quickly be lost or forgotten in our rapidly evolving culture and society.

                                                                            - Robert Kennedy