07/01/2026
This past weekend, 20 shepherds from all over the country and Canada came together at Knoll Farm for our second annual Shepherds Retreat. These incredible shepherds are also flower farmers looking to incorporate a small flock, weavers planning a textile mill, midwives seeking to care for animals, designers building fiber sheds, biologists restoring land and sequestering carbon, educators teaching teens through farming, dreamers finding belonging and small farmers raising children and making homestead life work. We talked about grasses and grazing, parasites and maternal health, breeding and lambing and butchering. We learned about fiber mills and the ergonomics of knitting, and we saw our hair stand up in front of an oncoming storm, followed by a rainbow. Most of all, I think, we came away feeling that living this life of farming, which is so often about trial and error and heartbreak when so much is out of your control, can also be about solidarity and community and devotion and joy and that most of us wouldn’t have it any other way.
Shepherds 2026 would not have been possible without the collective support of Knoll Farm staff and all the collaborators, Kind Horn Farm, Cassie Petrocelli Mary Lake ✨Selection of winners ✨ Elaine Clark and Barbarina Heyerdahl. Shout out to Rachel Cernick for the photos! ❤️❤️❤️ feeling so much gratitude, Helen Whybrow
