Learning about sustainability on a dairy farm Local Lens Seattle

This video screams fall🍁 to me! I have pumpkins, pumpkin beer🍺, cows🐄, and much more in this latest episode.
Unless you’re a dairy🐮 farmer, you may not realize how cows, beer and giant pumpkins go together. I sure didn’t. Until local Krainick Dairy farm walked me through this particular circle of life and in the process, I learned a lot about sustainability. And I got to attend a pumpkin weigh-off and a beer festival (all for educational purposes, of course. 😊)
I started this journey by heading out to Enumclaw, Washington to Mike and Leann Krainick’s Dairy. They work sustainability into everything they do including using leftover products from Puget Sound breweries to making their own compost from cow manure. That special brand of fertilizer is called ‘Scarecrow’s Pride.’
The Krainicks visits local breweries like Elysian Brewing Company to collect spent grain, which is a great protein source for the cows. I had no idea that dairy cows were such great recyclers because of their ability to digest complex fibrous foods and other by-products that humans can’t eat. If the cows didn’t eat this, it would end up in landfills.
It was amazing meeting Leann and hearing all about closed-loop recycling. She showed me around the farm and of course, I had an epic day being around all the animals. They’ve been using spent grain as feed since the 1950s.
From there my second stop on this sustainability journey was to Georgetown and Elysian Brewing. They co-sponsor the ‘Great Pumpkin Weigh-Off’ with Krainick Dairy, (Kranick provides the prize money for the event - a total of $12,000.) Local growers haul in their gigantic gourds to determine the biggest pumpkin, which will take the honor of serving as a pumpkin beer vessel at the ‘Greatest Beer Festival’ at Seattle Center.
This year, a pumpkin from Oregon tipped the scales at a whopping 2023.5 lbs. Many of the pumpkins showcased at this event use Krainick’s compost, with the seven largest ones earning a spot at the festival.
My visit came to an end as the kegs of beer found their way into some of the prize-winning pumpkins. Leann was also present, educating attendees about sustainable recycling practices.
To learn more about these events see below:
www.elysianbrewing.com/user/l...
Pumpkin Weigh-Off- Elysian Brewing Production Brewery
5510 Airport Way S Seattle, WA 98108
The Great Pumpkin Beer Festival- seattlecenter.com/events/even...
This video is sponsored by Dairy Farmers of Washington.
Some Video and Photos credited to: Elysian Brewing/ Rachel Jones.
#DairyFarmTour #dairyfarm #greatpumpkinbeerfestival
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[@WalkiTalki]

Yumm pumpkin beer!!!

[@br3jam]

Love that whole cycle!

[@Lbbisher]

😎👍