Ring of Trees farm began as an idea early in 2012 when I asked my then fiance, Fred, what his dream was. He said that he wanted to start a small family business.Maybe a sheep dairy. The sheep that I had been exposed to were not cooperative and had very small teats. Trying to milk one sounded like a very bad idea to me. I agreed to look into it. This is where Ingrid enters the story. We went to loo
k at some dairy sheep that were for sale. They were very timid, but curious. All except for Ingrid. She looked at me with her head crooked to the side, shoved her way to the front, and all but placed her head in my hand. I was hooked! Ingrid and Margaret came home with us that day and the building of our flock began. By our wedding in July of 2012., we had eleven ewes and one ram. We had a working farm, but no name. Our pastor solved that problem for us during our wedding ceremony. Fred's first wife died of cancer leaving him with three great kids and wondering who he was without her. My first marriage left me with two great kids , no self esteem, and a fearful heart. Our pastor compared our new family to a ring of trees that grows after a devastating fire burns down the original tree. We had both been through the fire. His comparison touched us and we had our farm name. Our logo is a ring of seven trees. We bred our ewes in August and I began working with sheep's milk for the first time.I am an artist by nature and I love to cook. An artisan cheese maker was born. Sheep's milk fascinated me. The texture, color, and mild taste are wonderful. We have many friends who cannot have cows milk products and are not fond of goats milk products. We held an open house tasting and many of them found that they can eat, and enjoy sheep's milk products. Starting to build the farm was becoming a necessity. People liked our cheese, our flock was growing, and our barn was way too small. Fred quit his job the end of July 2013 and began building. We needed a new barn, legal milking parlor, milk house, and creamery. He worked fifteen hour days taking care of the farm and building. It all paid off on April 3, 2014 when we became a licensed dairy and creamery. We are now in full production milking twenty four ewes twice a day and making cheese three days a week. It looks like we will be up to forty four milking ewes next year.. Things are moving fast, but we love it!
