Food for Thought

We love talking to our guests about food and sharing the inspiration, creativity and philosophy around our farm-to-table operation. But it’s not just the humans on the Farm that we pay special attention to food for. Our Livestock team is dedicated to providing the best care and the best diet for all the animals who call the Farm home with us. Each animal has specific nutritional needs. Like humans, some have special dietary concerns, and some have favorite treats! Assistant Farmstead Manager Christen Waddell is sharing what she and her team “plate” for some of our animals.

Donkeys have adapted unique nutritional needs to survive in deserts where food can be scarce. Although they look similar to horses, their digestive system works a little differently. Instead of hay, they are often fed straw because they need a very high-fiber, low-energy forage. Donkeys will also browse shrubs and graze grasses and forbs in the pasture. Since they are prone to obesity and laminitis, donkeys should not be fed bready foods or cereal grains, and treats should be extremely limited. We have two donkeys on the Farm now, Sally and Daphne. Instead of edible treats, we ask guests to give our girls face scratches – they love it!

Sheep primarily graze grasses and legumes, such as clover, in the pastures. They will occasionally browse trees and shrubs but not as readily as goats do. Sheep are ruminants, meaning they have four compartments in their stomach. In the rumen compartment, bacteria and other microorganisms help sheep break down grass and other fibrous foods that other animals cannot easily digest. We rotate our sheep through different pastures, allowing each pasture to rest periodically, to make sure that what they are eating is high quality and at the optimal part of its growth for nutrition. This process also helps reduce parasites in the pastures that could make our sheep sick, and it keeps our pastures healthy and productive. For treats, sheep love scraps from the Garden and kitchens like carrots, celery, lettuce and more. Like most of our other animals, the sheep also love to munch on the pumpkins used as our Fall decorations. We make sure our sheep avoid eating too many rich or sugary foods to protect them from a harmful condition called bloat.

Pigs are omnivores with strong stomachs, and they can handle most foods. We try to avoid giving them citrus due to the high acidity and very cold foods. Most of the time, a pig will know to avoid eating something that might upset its stomach. The food scraps from our kitchens are our pigs’ main source of food, but they also get the whey leftover from cheese making, some of the spent grain from the brewery, and leftover property decorations like pumpkins and corn. They can eat almost anything in moderation, but we make sure that they are getting plenty of fruits and vegetables. Like people, pigs can be picky, and they have their favorite foods. They love the leftover pastries from breakfast! By eating the kitchen scraps, our pigs help us reduce waste all over property and contribute to our sustainability efforts. So, it’s a win-win! Pigs are almost constantly looking for something to eat. So, in between meals they forage for acorns and other nuts.

During the day our chickens forage for insects, grubs, grasses and legumes in the fields, allowing them to produce more nutritious and flavorful eggs. In the evening, they are fed a formulated layer feed to make sure that they get proper minerals and grit for digestion. Chickens need grit, like small pebbles or sand, to grind up the food inside of their gizzard. Another critical part of a chicken’s digestive system is the crop. The crop is a storage pouch attached to the chicken’s esophagus that holds food until it is ready to move through the rest of the digestive tract, allowing chickens to eat a lot of food at once and digest it later. Chickens should not be fed anything too large or tough that might lead to an impacted crop. For treats, our chickens get kitchen scraps such as fruits (ours love blueberries!), vegetables, cooked eggs, corn grits and oatmeal. They ate our Fall decorative pumpkins before our Floral team was ready to take them down! Chickens should not be fed too many bready or salty foods in order to help them maintain a balanced diet.