We feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do the work we do here at Studio Hill. We love the land, we love the work, we love the adventure, and we really love the animals. As you already know, we take great care in making sure that all the animals we bring to the farm enjoy safe, relaxed, and natural lives. We want a sheep to be a sheep and a pig to be a pig, and so on. This approach to raising animals, of course, requires frequent and intimate interactions with all the animals here. We haul water, we haul food, we move pens, we scratch heads, we check feet. Over the course of an animal’s stay with us we come to know each one rather well. And so, I’m sure you can understand why animal harvest days are particularly hard for us.

This week, with the help of our butcher’s mobile team, we did the work of slaughtering 14 lambs for our winter lamb harvest. I’m very proud of the meat we’re sending to the butcher. It is clean, natural meat that has been raised entirely on clean water and clean grass. Our lambs will become healthy food for healthy families in the area. I’m proud to be a part of raising food on these fields once again.

But, I never sleep well the night before a harvest day, and I am always sad throughout the work of the day. This is the hard work of farming.

In happier news, our lamb is in great demand! Just as we sold out of our Thanksgiving turkeys in November, we sold out of our first winter lamb harvest in December! People are talking around town and the word on the street is that folks are excited to find local meat from animals that were thoughtfully-raised and humanely-treated.

Our lamb order pickups and deliveries will begin next week. I’ll have the exact date for you soon.

If you’d like to place an order for a lamb from our second winter lamb harvest, please let me know. We can be reached at 802-379-9070.