‘Fun on the Farm’
Prospect Park in Brooklyn has just acquired some extraordinary weed-killing machines. They’re energy-efficient, quiet and ecologically sound (no harmful chemicals).
Some might even call them cute.
You can judge for yourself on Sunday at “Fun on the Farm,” where they will be up and running: eight goats of different breeds, including the pygmy, Alpine, Oberhasli and LaMancha.
“They will eat anything,” said Sue Donoghue, president of the Prospect Park Alliance. “They’ll eat poison ivy, any kind of plant and weeds, and keep eating it. We have English ivy and goutweed here. They’ll eat all of it.” And when a weed is gnawed incessantly, she added, “it won’t continue to grow.”
The alliance obtained the goats through a grant from the National Park Service, intended to help the property recover from storm damage. When an event like Hurricane Sandy destroys trees, part of the forest canopy disappears, allowing invasive species to take root. The goats, which will probably remain through the summer and into the fall, will help clear about 1.5 acres along the park’s northeast perimeter. They’re well equipped for the job: Each has four stomachs.
“We’ll do tree removal and slope stabilization and replanting,” Ms. Donoghue said. “The goats are part of the overall process.”
At “Fun on the Farm,” presented by the Lefferts Historic House Museum, a restored Dutch-style farmhouse that recreates Brooklyn life in the 1820s, children will make goat’s milk ice cream with an old-fashioned hand-cranked device. They can also take a Bleat and Greet Goat Tour, led every half-hour by Annlilita and Larry Cihanek, the married owners of Green Goats in Rhinebeck, N.Y., which supplied the animals.
No one can touch the goats — they’ll be behind a construction fence — but children can observe them closely, and those longing to pet farm creatures can do so at the nearby Prospect Park Zoo. In fact, at 1:30 p.m., the Lefferts staff will organize a parade to the zoo, which is hosting its weekend-longFleece Festival, including Sunday sheep shearing. “They’re incredibly mellow about it,” Ms. Donoghue said of the sheep.
Back at the Lefferts house, children can join in washing and carding the shorn fleece. They’ll learn how to use a drop spindle, and Catherine Conrad will demonstrate making wool thread with a spinning wheel. Young visitors can also use the carded wool to create a felt ball, an old-fashioned toy that cats appreciate. Just don’t give one to a goat: It might try to eat it.
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