Are your porch pumpkins sagging? Are your jack-o-lanterns listing starboard? Have your gourds gone to seed? They still have life in them yet. Bring them to Filbert Street Garden to feed their goats.
Filbert Street Garden put out a call on Facebook asking people to drop off their used pumpkins at the front entrance of their garden, as long as they do not have too much ink or writing on them. The community garden will use them for compost and feeding their ten Nigerian Dwarf goats. The garden did have Shetland sheep, but they were re-homed to their original farms last year.
Charles DeBarber, external relations coordinator for Filbert Street Garden, gave Baltimore Fishbowl the personality profiles of the goats who are poised to enjoy your decaying pumpkins.
“We have 10 Nigerian Dwarf Goats,” DeBarber said. “Their names are… Cheese, Ed, Winter, Elliot, Maverick, Coraline, Pepperjack, Twinkie, Anna, and Handsome Hans.”
“Ed is our pushy sweetheart in there,” DeBarber continued. “Cheese is the shy matriarch (mother of Ed, Winter, and Pepperjack). Elliot and Maverick were two friendly brothers abandoned in Patterson Park. Coraline is a beautiful shy rescue cattle goat. Pepperjack is a friendly hand raised (aka Bottle Baby) goat getting over the recent passing of his twin sister Brie. Twinkie is a friendly hand-raised boy after his mother rejected him at birth. Handsome Hans and Anna are a sweet pair that grew up together and are besties.”
The community garden is a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 as part of the City of Baltimore’s Adopt-a-Lot Program. Located in South Baltimore’s Curtis Bay, they have 20 available garden plots every spring. They also provide education about gardening, animal husbandry, and local wildlife.
Speaking of wildlife, the garden supports two local wildlife projects apart from the goats that will feast on the past-their-prime pumpkins. Filbert Street Garden is home to 200-300 native bats and is host to the largest community garden beeyard in the State of Maryland.
“Our honeybees pollinate a 3-mile radius around our garden covering most of Curtis Bay, Brooklyn, and Brooklyn Park,” notes their website. “In addition, we rehome swarms and established honeybee hives throughout Baltimore.”
Given that all 10 species of bats in Maryland are considered “Species of Greatest Conservation Need,” Filbert Street provides bat houses for hundreds of urban bats.
“Our state’s bats can be subdivided into tree bats and cave bats,” according to the site. “In general, tree bats either migrate or spend the winter in tree cavities, under bark, or even under leaf litter. Cave bats tend to hibernate in caves or tunnels. Bats are extremely important in reducing pest insects to include mosquitoes that spread the Zika and West Nile viruses.”
Goats are one of the earliest domesticated animals, and the first to be milked by humans. The ones at Filbert Street Garden helps clear the brush. They get delicious food in the process, and the humans are saved work and the need for lawnmowers. The pumpkins, though, are special treats.
“People can leave their pumpkins right at the gate and we’ll haul them in,” DeBarber said. “The goats find them delicious!”
Clear out those porch pumpkins once they have clearly seen better days and drop them off at Filbert Street Garden to add some variety to the sheep and goat diets in Curtis Baaaaaaaaa-y.
Filbert Street Garden is located at 1321 Filbert St., Baltimore, MD.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include the most recent information from Filbert Street Garden about the goats and Shetland sheep, and quotes from Charles DeBarber.
