My wife's Papa has been growing a plant on the property in Magatas, which he calls spinach. As one can see from the accompanying photographs, this does not look like the spinach we grow in the U.S.. These particular plants have grown to height of 5 and 6 feet. I'm not 100% sure what he's growing. but it ain't spinach.
My American friend says the plant is called hog weed in South Carolina. I saw to reason to doubt him, until I did a Google search of the word "hogweed". Judging by the photos, this plant is most definitely not hog weed.
From what I've come across on the Internet, I believe the plant is the green stem variety of malabar spinach. I was told Papa was growing it to sell, but I haven't seen any evidence of any selling going on. As can be seen it the photos, insects have eaten holes into a few of the leaves.....those can't been sold to customers, I'm told. Maybe the leaves with holes aren't salable to humans, but I can't see any reason why the leaves can't be fed to the pigs. The pigs are starting to require more feed and anything I can get to supplement their diet is very much appreciated.
In addition to this "spinach", the pigs seem fond of the madre de aqua that grows wild on the property, as well as banana skins and a number of vegetable peels from our kitchen.
Come next pay day, we'll be finishing up the 2nd area of the piggery so that we can separate the larger pig from the smaller two. She doesn't like sharing the food and that's affecting the growth of the others. They're doing OK, but they'll put on more weight if she's set apart.
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