293. Vermont Grand View Farm | Kim Goodling Modern Day Shepard

Jackie,

Great! Then I feel I may have something of value for your audience. We have a flock of Gotland sheep, and that is our main focus along with offering Farmstead vacations to people. Oh now that may be an angle you would like to explore, adding agritourism to your farm business! I can talk about that for days on end. We also raise pigs and use them to reclaim pasture and to add nutrients to the soil. We do have a small garden and hoop house, but I only grow for our own needs and do not sell produce. We do however, sell our pork. We, at some point, may offer lamb, as in to eat, however, right now we are growing our flock and concentrating on selling breeding stock. I am not a vegan, so if that would be offensive to your audience, then warning should be given.

We are NOT certified organic, but 99% of what we do is organic.

Ha! I graduated from high school in 1980. I think what may be inspiring for those listening is that our homestead grew out of a desire to teach our children about life and death and the value of working the soil with your hands and about having a strong work ethic and being self sufficient. I homeschooled my children from birth till they went off to college and much of what we do now was out of a desire for them to experience life fully. Life and death tend to be taboos in our society, lock people up to die and lock women up to give birth...well ok, that sounds a bit dramatic, but my point is that birth and dying are not talked about in general. I wanted my children to see that it is a natural process and it is to be celebrated and treated with great reverence. So, at age 40, we added sheep to our family homestead. We began knowing nothing and as a family learned together.

There is so much value in the words from those who are older. My website is https://www.grandviewfarmvt.com/ and I keep an extensive blog on shepherding at http://www.livingwithgotlands.com/.

And from this email we would share this awesome interview!

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