Our Story

One time, long ago, after spending too much time on craigslist, we found a rescue opportunity for a small 6 sheep flock of dairy ewes. It was a complex situation, as rescues often are, and it took us almost 6 months to convince the folks to finally let the sheep go. They were good hearted and well meaning - both the sheep and the people - but it was a wrong thing/wrong time, marriage couldn't support it kinda thing. It worked out great for us, but we lost touch with them.

In parting, we asked for the sheep’s names, because…you know…all animals have names, right? They looked at us a little funny and said they were just “the Susans” because one of them was named Susan, but they couldn't remember which one and they all looked alike, right? Well, we looked at them and they looked at us and we all nodded and went our ways. When we got the girls home, it didnt take too long to differentiate them and give them proper first names; but their surnames always remained “the susans”. After all these years, the only one of the original girls who is still with us is Stinky, aka 32. 32 because she was the only one with an ear tag and the only indicator on the tag was the number 32. Her branch of the family was originally binary, but after a while, the non mathematically minded folks on the farm won out and within 3 generations the kids had both binary and prose names; after 4 - only prose. And then Stinky did something no one could ever forget (and it put her into retirement) and she earned her very malodorous nickname “Stinky”.

They looked at us a little funny and said they were just "the Susans".

Everyone on the farm is an individual. They all have unique personalities and characteristics. Some traits win them prizes, some traits win them bus tickets; but everyone is a winner. Back in the early days, we named first and then tagged, these days there are too many so we number first and make them earn their names. Everyone knows their names though I’ve learned that they don't always like to let on (particularly infront of strangers).

In the early days of the farm, we were product forward. In other words, we decided we wanted to make a particular cheese and set out to make it…and usually did. Sometimes it was absolute magic and lit up the kitchen, sometimes it was lack lustre and easily forgettable. It was hard to understand rhyme and reason and frankly we burned a lot of energy trying to understand why things worked and didnt. Then one day, whilst doing something completely unrelated (sort of - it was a wine tasting), the subject of terroir came up. Any milk can be made into any cheese (except velveeta and cashew), but some milks made in some areas and from some animals are better suited for some cheeses made at some times…it is a terroir thing. And ultimately who knows best what is what is the producer of the milk. We brought the sheep into the dialog and discovered that our product list was too broad and tilted into the wrong traditions. The girls helped us back onto the path through the moor and we narrowed our focus to Feta (exceptional), Tome d’Arles (spectacular), Manchego (OMG), yogurt (but of course), and a full palette of gelato made with some secret ingredients that we will never divulge (but are all legal and made on the farm (check the ingredient list on the containers 🙂 )). No one knows everything, so we have given the task to a couple of the ewes to experiment in the lab with some different cultures and continue to look into what else our terroir excels in - keep a look out for more!

Certainly, all this anthropomorphizing might make eating meat hard; however, the farm subscribes to the “one bad day” philosophy. We ensure everyone has the absolute best life they possibly can. We raise our flock to be dairy sheep - in fact some of the best dairy sheep around (one was recently identified as within the 96th percentile across North America against everyone in her breed - not a bad honor regardless of your backstory). However, not everyone can stay. We often use the sports team analogy - you have a first string and a second string and a farm team, but you can promote someone from below unless you waiver someone from above. There is always a point at which you age out. The “one bad day” philosophy is that if we offer them always a great life, except for one bad day, and then honor them in both life and death - it is fair. We frequently sell some of our better sheep to other farms to build their flocks, but then average and below end up with early retirement in the waivers program and a fully funded trip to freezer camp, thus opening a slot for someone else to move up and allowing them to be enjoyed in a different way by a different audience.