Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

It really is the season-of-plenty at the moment, both for us and our livestock. The photos below are a snapshot of how much 'food' our land is currently producing for us and the animals.
The duckling in the first shot is in the compost heap and as we know from when we turn and level it, just beneath the surface are a host of invertebrates. To the ducklings this is the equivalent of being in a sweet shop as with every 'dabble' of their beaks they find a mouthful of food. Ducks don't have teeth but what they do have are tongues fringed with 'lamellae' - these are fleshy sensitive strainers (tooth-like in appearance but soft) that help them sieve through the compost sorting out the food from the non-food. When ducks dabble they can be seen shaking their heads and beaks as part of this sieving process.
As mentioned already this week, the grass is starting to grow again and all the goats are enjoying an hour or two of grazing each day. Picture number two is of Thyme eating grass at the bottom of the polytunnel whilst next to her is Hips, one of our dairy kids, tucking into some beech branches (these are actually from a neighbour on this occasion). The beech smelt so good we were almost tempted ourselves...
Jupiter (first photo second row) helped himself to some overhanging hawthorn branches, one of the advantages of being tall. Alpacas have the most amazing split lips which means they can very carefully pick around the sharp spikes on the hawthorn and just get to the leaves. The turkey poult in the final photo has learnt that if s/he flies up to the branches of this blue pine, there are rich pickings to be found in the way of flies and other flying invertebrates. As with many birds, having one eye on each side of its head means it can see things on both sides and so spot those minibeasts really easily.
And finally: the middle photo in the bottom row shows the vegetables we ate for tonight's meal (along with a leg of lamb). There are just six types here (onion, carrot, garlic, potato, courgette and cucumber - did you get them all?) but in the polytunnel at the moment there are over twice that many we are currently picking and using.
Healthy eating all round!!