If the wooly lambs and kicky kids in the Capricious Goats section of the upcoming Farm To Table Expo brought nothing more to the table than being snuggly, cuddly, just-a-little-baby buddies, we’d think they were doing more than enough.

But while these junior animals may not currently have any more pressing responsibilities than being irresistibly adorable, once they get a little older they’ll be earning their keep. As adults, they’ll clock in at one job site or another and get to work, toiling the day away at a task some of us wouldn’t mind making a career of ourselves- eating.

Capricious Goats utilizes these hungry hungry caprines as a thorough, effective way to remove unwanted vegetation, clearing spaces with swiftness and efficiency. Owners Monica and Tim Shields originally invested in these landscape goats to tend to their own space, a 62 acre parcel so exuberantly rich in overstepping greenery it was influencing even the trees . With an eye on an environmentally friendly solution, the answer didn’t come from the store, but from the barn.  And once these billys, nannies, and bucks strutted their stuff on the Shields estate, everyone wanted a visit. A business was born.

It’s easy to see the allure. A frightening amount of commercially manufactured products designed to do the same job has a detrimental impact on soil, water, plants, animals, people. Many outdoor spaces (especially in Pittsburgh) present challenges to traditional equipment with ground for which “uneven” is the tip of the jagged, jaggy iceberg. Goats are green, clean (I mean, mostly) eating machines able to access the trickiest of terrains with not a single complaint.  And for the few chores they can’t handle, Capricious has two-legged workers willing to pick up the slack.

For the Farm To Table Expo, however, with a lack of land they’ll be social animals, and instead of eating will be meeting, greeting, and bleating.  Come see them, and us, and a wealth of vendors and speakers, from March 7th to March 16th at the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show!