A young farm with high hopes

We then take the remainder of the milk to 107—a petite and friendly lamb named by his ear tag. 107, whose indifferent name does not accurately reflect the care he is given each day, is Saundra’s bottle-baby; his mother ewe was unable to produce enough milk to support him and his sister. As he suckles from Saundra’s bottle, she notes, “I was pretty indifferent to the sheep when we first got them, but with lambing season, I just fell in love.” To illustrate 107’s irresistibility, Saundra tells me how when he was very little, he could crawl through any fencing; when she came out for morning milking, 107 would leave his flock and follow her through the fields wherever she went.

Michael and Saundra struggle to find the balance between expanding their enterprises and maintaining their current size. With such a diverse farm, Michael says he feels like he is “always playing catch-up…” but, to be financially sustainable, “we have to keep growing.” Highlighting the dilemma between growth and maintenance, Michael says, “I don’t want the quality of my work or product to diminish… I don’t want to cut corners.” Saundra agrees, “I like the scale we’re at; I know we have to grow, but I want to do it deliberately.”

So Michael and Saundra are focusing on developing their systems first—out of which they will have the infrastructure to support healthy growth when the time comes.

You can find Michael and Saundra, as well as their meat and eggs, on Sundays in NYC at the Jackson Heights Greenmarket in Queens and the Columbia University Greenmarket, and, in the winter, at the Red Hook Winter Market. Additionally, Michael and Saundra are in-process of working with the town planning board to be able to have an on-farm year-round weekend farm stand, where they hope to serve the local community as well as those passing through pastured eggs, grass-fed meat, and fresh vegetables.

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