A question I hear allllll the time…..

So many folks ask me,”Farmer Judith, what do you give your sheep for treats? Do you bake cookies for them, or make popcorn? Do they like pie?”

Okay, I’m joking of course. But really, the sheep do like some variety in their diet—and a couple of their absolutely favorite things are apples and pumpkins. For real.

I’ll tell you what, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a rugby scrum of sheep scuffling over a big old pumpkin, taking jaw-cracking bites of it, chasing it down the hill. Or watched them run full-tilt toward their favorite apple tree and blat at me to knock some apples off for them. They should have their own comedy show.

This year, I planted a pumpkin patch JUST for the sheep. Sure, I may have saved the biggest pumpkin for my darling grandson, but the rest are for the sheep. And the dogs and I regularly go up to a field David and I call “White Rock Orchard” (because it has, umm, a big white rock and about 30 wild apple trees), and pick buckets of apples for the sheep.

It’s not just about pampering my flock, although that’s pretty high on my list. Apples and pumpkins are good food for sheep, with lots of vitamins and minerals. Pumpkin seeds are especially good for them. If my sheep are happy, then I’m happy. And boy are my sheep happy.

This year, we added to the heirloom apple trees in some of our pastures by planting other forage species—mulberry and honey locust, in particular. Mulberries are great for people AND sheep; the locust trees will produce very high-quality forage in the form of their seed pods. We’ll add a few more apple trees or other forage species this year to provide diffuse shade that won’t keep the grass from growing under the trees, while at the same time providing just enough cooling shade so that our cool-season grasses continue to grow even during the extreme heat we’ve been getting. It’s a complicated dance, nurturing the soil to nurture the sheep to provide the highest-quality lamb possible—and I couldn’t be happier.

What do you do to nurture your world and your loved ones? Let me know at LuckyDogFarm17@gmail.com

Enjoy the autumn, Farmer Judith