Wintertime greens

[Sammster]

Sprouts! I sprouted barley and the chickens loved it, greens and roots.View attachment 4284988
View attachment 4284989

Would this be just barley you get at the grocery store? Or...?

 

[Sally PB]

Would this be just barley you get at the grocery store? Or...?

I ordered the barley from a place called The Mad Hatchery in Corunna, MI. Sadly, it's closed.

I don't know if the barley you can buy in the grocery store would sprout. This stuff has the hull on it.

Perhaps a feed store/farm supply store would have it? I'd want to make sure it wasn't treated with anything though.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Anything you can get to sprout. I prefer legumes and pulses over grains, of course. Clover, fenugreek, the above mung beans, chickpeas, lentils, etc. I've even tried a heritage broccoli used for making salad microgreens (they didn't care for it, I found them edible). Heck, you can just sprout a "salad microgreens" mix.

 

[Vicker]

I live in Texas, so there is usually some kind of green weed or rye grass growing, but this year I tried growing azolla in tubs. I'm trying to keep some alive on my 4-season patio, although it works well to grow a bunch in summer and store it in dried form for the winter.

 

[NatJ]

Leftover herbs and vegetables from whatever I cook. I had a bag of shredded lettuce go brownish, they got that yesterday along with an "expired" container of semi-dried parsley in the fridge. It was still fine.

The other day I made sausage potato kale soup, and only used half of the kale. They went crazy over the leftovers! I don't go out of my way to buy them their own vegetables, but I have been trying to buy a lot more fresh vegetables this winter for my own family to eat. My chickens get whatever we don't use.

That's how I do it, too. The chickens get the parts I don't want. Since they are less picky than me, everyone ends up content with that system.

Yesterday my chickens got the dinged-up outer leaves from romaine lettuce (my salad) and cabbage (my soup).