Acorn Smoothies

We finally got some much-needed rain yesterday morning and light rain again today.  Not a lot, but I’ll take it.  The burn ban was also finally lifted, so just about everyone was burning leaves.  The scent of the burning leaves, stoked fireplaces and wet leaves filled the air with a wonder Fall Fragrance. 

I’ve been keeping Rhiannon busy by having her pick up acorns around the house.  Granted, she puts two in the bucket and immediately dumps them out again, but hey, it’s keeping her occupied for a while.  The ones that I pick & manage to keep in a bucket have been going to Pan (our Nigerian Dwarf buck) and the freezer goat in the backyard pen.  I put about two cups of them in with their grain rations.  They like it and it saves some money on feed so it’s a win-win situation.  I’ve also been giving them to our does as treats.  We’ve had a bumper crop of acorns this year so I’m hoping that the rain doesn’t sour them before I can pick up some more. 

The goats will eat the acorns whole, but the chickens can’t so I thought I’d try grinding them up for them.  I put a couple handfuls of acorns in my craft blender (i.e. cheap blender) and whizzed them until they were chopped up pretty fine.  

Took it out to the goat / chicken pen to see if the chickens would eat the acorn meal. The chickens didn’t even get a bite as the goats mobbed me at the gate & finished off the bowl.  So I went back in to blend up some more.  I dumped a bunch in their scrap bin, but they just kind’a picked at it.  After I put some whey in with it they seemed to be much more interested.  Acorn & Whey smoothies for the chickens!  What spoiled livestock I have.

I saved some of the blender acorns (minus the whey) for the goat’s evening feeding & everyone got some in their bowls.  Bowls were licked clean.  So from now until the acorns are gone I’m going to supplement some of their usual grain with the blender acorns during the evening feedings.  Gott’a love ‘dem A’kerns!