30 Lambs Going to Hampshire College

The other day I was at the Tuesday Farmers Market in Northampton and I met a lovely woman named Brook and her daughter Olivia. They were both knitters and had all my knitting books. They were so excited to run into me as I was to run into them. That's why I like doing the Farmers Market - I frequently meet someone interesting and have a good conversation. We chatted and chatted and they took home both Crafting A Colorful Home and Crafting A Patterned Home because they couldn't decide which they liked better. 

I learned that Olivia is graduating from Hampshire College in a few weeks. She told me how she loves sheep and how she would take her knitting and go knit with the sheep that Hampshire College raises each year in their farm and food program. I said - oh what a coincidence.... those sheep were born on our farm and we sold them to Hampshire College. She continued to tell me how popular the sheep are with the students, alumni and community. And she also told me that her roommate Celeste Jacobs who is an art major did a lovely papercut project of the sheep last fall. And get this - her design was chosen to be the Graduation poster, t-shirt, and mug design for the class of 2018. Here is her poster. It is lovely. 

I told Olivia and Brook that Hampshire College was coming Thursday to pick up 30 more lambs. The farm manager Mo arrived with 4 farm interns and they loaded the sheep. Coincidently they were all young women who had never handled a sheep before. My Farmer loves Hampshire students - he thinks they have the best can-do attitude and are willing to do anything. These girls did a great job carrying the sheep out of the barn, loading them onto the scale, and then out the other end and onto the trailer while I recorded all the weights. The lambs weighed between 50 and 75 pounds and were born in late January/early February. I took these photos of them as they loaded the last lamb. And then they were off. 

Here is a photo from the Hampshire College Farm Instagram feed. The lambs are happy grazing the green grass. If you follow @HampshireCollegeFarm on IG you may see the lambs pop up in the feed through the next year. Eventually the lambs will be used to feed the students and alumni at special events at the school.  Thanks Hampshire College for being a loyal customer. Have fun with the lambs.