04/16/2026
Grazing grass, just as they were meant to be 💚
We added these ladies to the farm to serve several very important roles. Being ruminants, they have an almost magical ability to take stuff we can’t eat and turn it into to useful products—all while supercharging healthy soil biology.
Shetlands are a hardy heritage breed of sheep with excellent quality wool and great tasting, mild flavored meat. They are well suited to a low-input system and are less vulnerable to key health issues that can target pasture raised sheep (mainly parasites and hoof rot).
This week marks a major milestone: our first pasture turnout!
Grass is growing, and the girls (and their lambs) are ready to get to work processing it into meat, fiber, and fertilizer. We are using mobile electric fencing powered by a small mobile solar unit to graze the odd-shaped, marginal acres AND orchard understories across the farm.
This will allows us to do two key things:
1) stack additional production onto our orchard ground, making each acre more profitable
2) Passively fertilize and rehabilitate the soils on this ground in truly sustainable, regenerative ways, that don’t rely on continual fossil fuel inputs or harm waterways or wildlife.