No Waste on the Old Time Homestead

On my grandfather's farm there was absolutely no waste of anything. Leftover's were never thrown in the garden. So I would like to talk about those scraps and scrapings that your children leave on their plates, or the food that got pushed to the back of the refrigerator, or the new recipe that didn't quite turn out as good as you thought it would. There are the farm animals and the compost pile that will happily dispose of those items for you. My grandfather never wasted anything, all scraps were fed to the barn cats or the dog. It cut down on their feed costs and saved him from throwing away hard earned and hard to come by food. Now, I know that veterinary medicine has become so much like human medicine and now people are worried about their dogs cholesterol and all that jazz. And because of today's backyard inbred population of dogs that is probably a very legitimate concern. Backyard breeders looking to make a quick buck have destroyed the hardiness and toughness of most breeds. And the "good" breeders, don't let me forget them, many of them got so involved in what did well in the show ring that they have bred weak examples of their breed. Pitiful excuses for animals that were once fine, majestic examples of the animal kingdom. OK, now that I have royally ticked off a number of you. I will get back to my original train of thought. Nothing on a farm is wasted. What the humans don't eat the animals will. Chickens, rabbits, and goats will clean up all those fresh veggie scraps. You know the ones- the ends off the carrots, those few leaves that you peel off the lettuce or cabbage, things like that. Worms will clean up those things also including egg shells. When feeding a worm bed just make sure to chop everything up fine. Dogs and cats will clean up the rest. I prefer to feed it to the dogs first as they are opportunistic feeders, eating what they can when they can. Cats really are carnivores and so don't really take kindly to bread and rice and such. Dogs will happily clean up those scraps off the plates and, you have cut down on your feed cost, and nothing has gone to waste.

**Disclaimer. I am not a veterinarian. This is not considered medical advice and if you have one of those poorly bred pups that has health problem the use your own judgement about what you feed your dog.