Reservations Are Now Open for This Fall’s Grass-Fed Lamb

It's been a bountiful growing season here in Shaftsbury. Our flock has spent the last six months moving daily through our pastures and newly planted oak and chestnut orchards while strengthening the soil and forage with every lap.

After our first year working our easternmost fields, we’re seeing increased plant diversity from our targeted overseeding, and improved forage density and coverage from our managed grazing. While these particular fields presented a starkly degraded baseline, it’s been powerful to watch life above and below ground steadily expand this summer. What a treat to spot monarch butterflies these past few weeks, landing on the third growth of red clover as they begin their long relay migration south!

As the late, great Wendell Berry tells us, "Eating is an agricultural act."

We are part of a movement to keep small, independent farms alive, because we believe they have an outsized impact on the environment and community around them. A small farm looks ahead in decades and generations, not quarters. Small farms are the keepers of knowledge about place and craft. Our own head shepherd, the incredible Miranda, is a living example of that—part veterinarian, sheep midwife, laboratory scientist and heavy equipment operator, all in one human. Living knowledge about where our food comes from and what it takes to grow it sustainably really matters, and protecting it is important.

So when you order food from our small farm, whether it’s for your household or a loved one’s, you’re helping support our direct partner farms like Studio Hill, and also the constellation of farmers, growers, value-added food and drink makers, and farm-to-table restaurants who are all connected by a stubborn, rugged love of land and community.

You can visit our Farm Store to check out our grass-fed lamb Grill Box and Roast Box options. Not a meat eater yourself? You can still share the harvest through our food pantry donation option, which brings nourishing, locally raised food to neighbors who need it.

Please reach out to us with any questions. We’ll answer you from a desk, or preferably, a field.

Thanks and happy fall,

-Cally

Bell & Burrow Farm