Photos from Chantal and John
Over the past few weeks our friends Chantal and John have been sending us some amazing photos Chantal has been taking on and around our farm. I think she should become a professional photographer – they are outstanding! Hope you enjoy them too. Here are some great shots of hummingbirds as...
read moreBuild a fence and our ewes will come.
Today we moved some of our sheep to some pasture out on the Saanich Peninsula. The owners of the property wanted it grazed and built a fence so we could keep some sheep there. We think it’s a win-win situation. They get greatly reduced land taxes and a beautiful pastoral view of grazing sheep and we get access to more grazing land which allows us to keep more ewes. We also have sheep at Marley Farm Winery on Mt. Newton Crossroad, some more at some chicken barns on John Road near Sidney, and a few more at a nursery on the...
read moreWhy grazing is an important way to decrease global warming.
What?!? “Everybody knows cows are bad – they produce methane, which increases global warming!” If you think this, you might be interested in hearing this TED talk. I often hear people say that land and the crops grown on it shouldn’t be used for feeding animals – that that is an inefficient way to produce food. I would probably agree if one is talking about farming flat, sub-irrigated land that could be used for vegetable production. However, there are 5 billion hectares of grassland in the world that...
read morewebsite email up and running again.
We seem to have fixed our email woes – thanks, Brian! – so are again reachable at contact@parrybaysheepfarm.com and johnbuchanan@parrybaysheepfarm.com. Thanks for your patience if you’ve been trying to get through to us!
read moreA day at the farm
A day at the farm – The riding ring where the pregnant moms are fed and closely watched and the barn where they give birth and spend the first day with their lambs before returning to the fields the next day. Thanks to Bruce and Denise who visited the farm and took this wonderful video! Video starts at 6 seconds.
read moreUpdated farm store and “where can our products be found?” information.
Here is a copy of our new rack card listing what we sell and where it is available: PARRY BAY SHEEP FARM & STILLMEADOW FARM FARM STORE NOW OPEN Every Sunday from 11-1 4198 Stillmeadow Road Together with our friends and co-farmers Tom and Vio at Stillmeadow Farm, Parry Bay Sheep farm is selling home-grown wheat and flour (milled from our wheat), free-range chicken, lamb, and mutton. Stillmeadow adds pork to the list as well, including delicious ham, bacon and sausages. We also offer Metchosin-grown eggs and a selection of Fry’s Red...
read moreOpen Barn Day at the farm, this Saturday, February 18th.
For anybody who would like to come and experience lambing time, we’d like to invite you to our farm this Saturday, February 18th, between 10:30 and 12:30. We can’t guarantee it, but you may see lambs born and you will certainly be able to see new lambs with their moms in our maaaaaaaternity ward, (s0rry, couldn’t resist!) and perhaps even get to feed one a bottle. Bring your cameras and wear boots, as it’s muddy. If you’d like to be able to hold lambs, it’s best to wear old clothes as well, as baby...
read moreHolstein cross lambs??
Holstein crosses for Valentine’s Day? More photos and lambing updates on our Facebook.
read moreAnother interesting article by Michael Pollan and some lambing news.
Many of you who have read my comments on this website will know that I am a Michael Pollan fan. His letter to the “Farmer In Chief”, published in the New York Times in 2008, is required reading for our farm apprentices. In case you missed that and would like to read it, here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?_r=1 For anybody interested in food security and ethical and sustainable agriculture I would also highly recommend his book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. More recently he...
read moreFirst lambs!
First lambs have arrived. Hope we get a few hours gap before the deluge starts. The tractor tire fell off yesterday – spindle broke – so we’re still cleaning out the barn and setting up lambing pens, trying to keep ahead of the lambs. I’ll try to write updates each day if we don’t get too swamped! Also be sure to check out our facebook page HERE! We try to post news on both facebook and the website, but sometimes we only have time to do one. There is plenty of content on our Facebook which you may not have seen...
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