Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

As July continues to bring sunshine and rain, our harvest from the polytunnel brings more than enough both for our meals and treats for the animals. We are letting some of the mange tout develop into peas, harvesting them as and when they become ready to eat, the first photo shows one of the pods just seconds before the peas were eaten. Sadly pests and diseases are also enjoying the crops, particularly caterpillars which eat the leaves of the greens (cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli) and the broad beans. The middle photo shows one little chap who has just pooed, before disappearing between the leaves of the cabbage. The photo also shows how much damage has been done to this plant by caterpillars within just a few hours - it was checked first thing this morning and had no holes whatsoever!!
And so we are faced with another decision: what do we do about caterpillars in the polytunnel? They are only eating to grow, change into a chrysalis and then a full blown butterfly. But on this journey they are eating the crops that we want for our meals. If we pick them from the plants and move them out of the polytunnel, they will almost certainly die as their food source will not be available; if we plant sacrificial greens (plants that we don't mind getting eaten) we will then need to make sure the butterflies that emerge once the caterpillar has pupated are allowed to escape the polytunnel and fly elsewhere (and is this fair on the other gardeners in the area?); and finally if we squash and kill them is that just cruel??? What would YOU do?
(PS The caterpillar in the photo is very much alive - no animals were harmed in the making of this diary entry...)
Away from caterpillars and their poo, Parsley's kid (yet to be named) is doing really well and today has been really exploring the barn. In the third photo she is looking at mum who has probably just said: 'now don't you wander off too far...'
Onion's face and neck are still quite swollen: the vet has said it will take a couple of weeks for the puffiness to go down mind you. We have been giving her 'hot compresses' (hot flannels pressed against her skin). This encourages the blood to travel to the surface and hopefully then take some of the excess fluid with it when it returns to travel round the rest of the body!!
Finally, the goslings are doing really well with their chicken mum and we have had some more cross-breed chicks hatch out.