We can all easily ignore where our food comes from. We live in a world with a food system that makes it easy to be disconnected from our food. However, we also live in a world where we have the ability to learn, and the ability to choose. We can choose to know our farmer and choose to buy locally. Here at Pastura, we choose this responsibility of caring for animals because we want to be connected; we yearn for this connection. We also want to be nourished. Research has shown that the meat from animals raised on pasture contain more phytonutrients (from the plants!). In a paper published in 2021, the authors state, “Several phytochemicals found in grass-fed meat and milk are in quantities comparable to those found in plant foods known to have anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, and cardioprotective effects” (Vilet, Stephan van, et al.).
Moreover, we know that the food we eat is more than just nutrition, it is a sacred bond between plant, animal, and human.
Why Eat Pastura Lamb?
Our Farming Practices
Spring, Summer and Fall
From May until early November, our sheep are out on pasture eating a diverse array of plants such as clover, various grass species, goldenrod, willow, alfalfa, invasive autumn olive, honeysuckle, multi flora rose, and whatever else decides to grow. Their preferences change throughout the season as the palatability of certain plants increase and decrease. This is one of the benefits of rotating sheep on pasture. The animals get to choose what they like to eat, and they never just have one thing to choose from. We love that they get to exercise their instinct to eat a diverse diet. This leads to healthier and happier animals, as well as a nutritious and delicious product for us humans.
Daily, we are out in the pastures with the sheep setting up their next move. Using portable electric fencing to make “paddocks” that connect to a solar charged battery, we are able to get the sheep into almost every corner of our farm. They are never in the same paddock for more than 48 hours. Moving frequently allows just the right amount of pressure on the land, grazing just the tops of the plants, and scattering “fertilizer” aka manure and urine evenly. The plants recover with just the right amount of disturbance, creating stronger root systems. This type of grazing does something magnificent that is not visible to the naked eye, but deep in the soil, microbes thrive, water retention in the soil increases creating less run-off, and carbon is sequestered from the atmosphere. I am never not amazed by the process.
The Beauty of Perennial Agriculture.
Winter, Early Spring
In the winter months, we move the flock into our ventilated barn, always with access to the outside. This allows the pastures to properly rest under the heavy snow blanket that winter provides. The ewes spend their days heavy and pregnant with the coming years’ lambs, eating as much hay as they desire.
In March, we lamb. This is always a special time on the farm. The ewes mostly deliver their lambs unassisted, but every now and then the shepherd is needed. Day and night, we check the flock, awaiting our new additions.
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Keep up with what’s going on here via my Shepherd’s Jornal. Also, feel free to drop a message or a question. I’d love to chat!