Getting Ready for Farmers Market

[Meadowsweet Lamb and Herb Farm]

Now is the busiest time. Running a small farm while we both work and need to make time for family is challenging. Karla graduated from Champlain College, Magna Cum Laude, with a degree in Marketing. We are so proud. Derek is finishing his Freshman Year at Fryeburg Academy and enjoying friends, video games and playing his electric guitar.

I am in the garden every day planting, weeding, & rototilling, repotting seedlings for market. It's time to flush our ewes, as we start breeding in another week. Bruce works on coming up with the right grain formula hoping to increase our lambing rate. Can't forget to make sure our rams are in top condition for their important job. Duncan, our Dorset ram is looking great, but is unproven. Vince, our Oxford ram will serve as backup if needed. In our spare time, we go to the butcher shop, fine tune our marketing plan (twitter will be a new tool), go over our pricing, and proof read our lamb cookbook before it goes to the printer.

But, all this planning and activities are what makes operating a small farm so worthwhile. Granted at the end of the day, we are tired, our old backs are sore, and we are a little chewed up by the mosquitoes and black flies. But, as we walk outside at night, for one last trip to top off the water buckets, we stare at the stars, listen to the frogs chirping and the whip-poor-wills that hang out in the woods, and it seems like heaven to us.

Bruce & Donna