Thistle Byre farm is a family farm located in Burnettsville, Indiana with over 80 acres of pastures, gardens, and woodlands. It is owned and operated by Abby Abbott-Rider and her husband Jeff Rider. Abby is passionate about sustainable agriculture, healthy, NON-GMO food and sharing her quiet, tranquil property with anyone who wants to learn about sustainable, healthy living.

Below written by Abby Abbott-Rider of Thistle Byre Farm

I grew up on a farm in Central New York and have been passionate about agriculture from a young age. My play-pen was often put on a wagon and taken to the field so I was not far from my parents as they worked together on my family’s dairy, potato, apple and grain farm. My parents have always loved welcoming visitors from around the world on their farm. Growing up meeting and listening to these travelers and their stories drew me to pursue international travel – especially to farms around the world. Several of the European farms I stayed at were the highlight of my travels and they sparked in me the desire to give others the same opportunity in the US – just as my folks did. It was because of traveling that I was also led to pursue coursework in international agriculture at Purdue University, before settling down to graduate with a more production-oriented degree in agriculture.

Thistle Byre is a family farm where my husband’s cousins were raised. They remember fields of strawberries and watermelon on part of their farm that was about 1 mile from the main farm up a private, beautiful, gravel road. We are located in the heart of rural, northern Carroll County’s rolling, wooded hillsides. The main farm is located on a dirt road but is not far from the amenities of a lake town – Monticello, Indiana – where water sports abound and shopping is available. We are also very close to Purdue University and the Lafayette area; the home of great sports and culturally-diverse offerings year round.

In addition to being a farmer, I am an adult, nurse-practitioner. Although I am a prescriber of medicine, I know the most powerful prescription is clean food. As a woman who has battled autoimmune disease, I know the power of clean food on a cellular level. It is my hope our visitors can learn to appreciate clean food, raised with care and concern for our environment. I believe as hosts we learn so much from our visitors and it is the rich stories shared by my guests that make this fun for me, and in turn, I want to teach visitors about how clean food is grown and raised.

At Thistle Byre, we’re passionate about modeling responsible land-stewardship, growing and raising our food using ecologically beneficial methods, and we strive to teach others about how to grow their own food in a sustainable way for a healthy and nurturing home. Therefore, we humanely raise NON-GMO-fed, hormone and antibiotic-free meats and NON-GMO, vegetables, fruits and herbs. Our sheep and cow herds are 100% grass-fed and pastured. The sheep are Katahdin/St. Croix cross, hair sheep and the cows are also a cross of Galloway/Devon with a bit of Black Angus. These are hearty crosses that can withstand the harsh, winter weather we often have. Our Red Wattle/Berkshire cross pigs are fed NON-GMO corn and a 16% protein NON-GMO hog ration. We are a farrow-to-finish operation and also sell our extra feeder pigs to individuals that want to raise their own pork. Our chickens are a mixture of breeds that are given NON-GMO feed and have exposure to grass in the summer. Turkeys, ducks, and goats can be found here as well. The farm has a large market garden and we like to put our energy into the herbs and veggies our family enjoys canning and freezing.

-Abby Abbott-Rider

The Thistle Byre Farm stay is a remote, peaceful place in the countryside located in a private wooded area – a mile down a country lane to the main farm – and boasts clear night skies away from city lights. During your stay, the hosts invite you to learn about sustainable farming by taking free guided tours of the farm to meet the livestock and peruse the gardens. The farm offers fresh flowers and a dozen farm-fresh eggs and has many additional offerings for a fee: a farm-to-fork, 3-course dinner by a campfire once a month (June-Sept), tours, gardening and canning classes, and a CSA basket for guests who book 1 week. The fully-furnished, spacious farmhouse is newly remodeled with 3 bedrooms, a full kitchen, a reading nook filled with books and games and an outdoor fire-pit (for s’mores!) stocked with complimentary wood.

Thanks to Abby for sharing about her lovely farm and farm practices. If you’re an Indiana native and want a quiet, local getaway or if you’ve always wanted to visit Indiana’s countryside, check out Thistle Byre’s profile to learn more.

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This is what they told us…

1) When did you take up farming and what was your vision?

Todd grew up in a rural town on the North Shore of MA.  As a young child, he spent countless days at his neighbor’s farm sometimes helping with harvests and planting, and getting to interact with the goats, pigs, and geese.  These were fond memories for Todd, so when he was contemplating a career change, he began volunteering on a farm while taking a culinary program in Austin, TX.  He continued to work on farms after he moved back to New England.  He attended the University of Vermont Farmer Training Program for a summer, apprenticed at a large farm in Hamilton, MA, and managed an urban farm in Lowell for a season, before he and Suzy decided to purchase their own farm.

Suzy grew up in the suburbs of NYC, but always dreamed of living on a farm.  She spent her childhood days in New York riding and caring for her horse.  While attending university, Suzy studied animal science but changed paths, after college, and took a job at the zoo in Boston caring for exotic animals.  After working at the zoo, she became an agriculture volunteer in the Peace Corps where she taught the women in her village how to grow a small vegetable garden.  During her experience in the Peace Corps her daily meals included eating fresh cheese, homegrown beans, farm fresh eggs and other local foods.

We were both excited about the idea of having our own farm, growing our own food, and raising our children to appreciate where their food comes from.  We were also excited about the idea of sharing this experience with people who may be curious about life on a farm, but unable to spend more than a couple of days on a farm.

2) How did you come up with the name Fat Sheep Farm?

I wish I had a really good story as to how we came up with the name, but it’s really not that exciting. We wanted something fun and easy to remember. We also knew that we were not going to be a “traditional” farm (which you can easily determine that we are not at all traditional, when you arrive on the farm), so we did not want a “traditional” farm name.

One day my best friend and Todd were brainstorming names and one of them…we still don’t know the truth as to who said it first, but one of them threw out the name Fat Sheep Farm. We did some searching to see if there were any other Fat Sheep Farms in the world, and to our surprise, there was only one very small family farm out in Washington state that has the name (and unfortunately owns the domain name, as well). It didn’t take long before we committed to the name “Fat Sheep Farm”.

3) What are guests allowed to do on your farm?

While staying at Fat Sheep Farm, guests are invited to participate in morning animal chores all year round.  During the summer months, this includes feeding the goats and bringing them to pasture, milking the sheep and bringing them out to pasture, feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs.  During morning chores, guests can have all of their burning questions about farming answered.

All summer long, the sheep are often grazing right in front of the guest cabins.  You can sit in the Adirondack chair on your porch and watch the sheep graze.  Guests are also welcome to walk around the vegetable fields.  The animals return to the barn around 4pm each evening.  Guests enjoy walking through the barn and visiting with the animals in the evenings, as well.

In the spring when the lambs are born, guests can enjoy the opportunity to help socialize the lambs (aka lots of lamb hugs).  We also have a one mile trail through our woods and a half mile walk through our fields.  At night, guests are welcome to come sit around our fire pit and enjoy the sunset and s’mores.

4) I hear you offer workshops?

Once there is a Covid vaccine and travel becomes more normalized, the farm will once again offer cheese making and bread making workshops.

In the Basic Sourdough Bread Making workshop, guests learn the basics of how to work with sourdough and make, shape and bake their own dough for the perfect loaf.  Guests are even given dough to take back to their cabin to bake the following morning and starter to take home.

The Cheese Making workshop focuses on making cheese at home.  Guests are guided through the process of making fresh cheeses, such as Halloumi, Feta and Ricotta, or learn to make an aged cheese, such as Gouda. They are also instructed on how to create their own space for aging cheese at home.

5) With multiple guests on the farm at one time, since you have five cabins, what is that experience like for them?

All of our guests, big or small, are able to enjoy the farm experience at Fat Sheep Farm in their own time and their own way.  Guests usually have different motivations for staying with us. Some guests want to participate in chores once, while some want to join for chores everyday during their stay.  Other guests want to relax on their porch, take in the views, and take day trips to the surrounding area attractions.

We are always happy to help our guests plan their trips before their arrival and make further suggestions of things to do and places to eat while they are at the farm.  We encourage guests to contact us way ahead of time if they are interested in attending a workshop on the farm, so that we can plan accordingly.

6) Why do you offer farm stays?

Why do we offer farm stays…there are so many reasons! Many people have become so disconnected from the land and where the food comes from.  Our farm gives people the opportunity, whether it’s for one night, or annual week long visits, to disconnect from their screens, ask farming questions, snuggle a sheep, taste their first farm fresh egg, prepare a meal using produce from our farm, or learn a new skill like bread making or cheese making.

Whether guests are interested in the farm experience or just want a quiet place to rest their heads, everyone can appreciate the serenity of our farm and the magical views of the Vermont hills that everyone can enjoy from their cabin porch.

Find out more about Fat Sheep Farm at Farm Stay USA. We are happy to know them and to know their story. We hope you are too!

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COVID-19 INFORMATION

• Please be aware of Vermont cross state travel information. Contact Fat Sheep Farm for more information or if you have questions.

• Demand Is High For Independent Units Now — Cancellations Are Posted to Facebook and Instagram — Check our Availability

• Fat Sheep Farm maintains our high standard for cleanliness, including sanitizing and disinfecting surfaces with EPA certified cleaners

• Fat Sheep Farm has Blueair Blue Pure 121 Air Purifiers in every cabin

• We offer a remote check-in and check-out process in order to limit person to person contact

• Enjoy the beauty of Vermont and our farm while easily following all social distancing guidelines

The post Fat Sheep Farm in Hartland, VT Offers Farm Life Up Close and Personal appeared first on Farmstay.

David and Caroline Owens bought their first farm in 1992 in Pelham, NH as a place to raise their kids and grow their own food. Caroline was a former vocational agriculture teacher with a degree from Cornell now working for a feed company; David was a biomedical  engineer with a degree from Boston University. Soon enough, friends and neighbors were asking to buy meat from them. They were on the cusp of the local, pasture-raised food movement raising sheep, pigs, cattle, chickens, and turkeys. They jumped all in.

Fast forward to 2006 when the size of the Owens’ operation had outgrown the existing farm infrastructure. Caroline and David began the search for something on the East Coast with more acreage, especially in pasture for their burgeoning sheep business. The search led them to the current 112 acre Owens Farm in Sunbury, PA in 2008, and they have been farming the land there ever since. Located in the beautiful rolling hills of the Susquehanna River Valley, they have found their ‘forever’ farm.

The Owens currently raise sheep, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, selling to local families. No small production, they birth upwards of 175 lambs in March, with piglets in April and October, and chicks brought on farm in April to grow into meat birds. All are heritage breeds raised sustainably on a rotational system through the pastures. To help move the sheep flock, part of which spends the summer controlling vegetation under the solar panels at Susquehanna University, the Owens include border collies in their animal count.

The Owens offer classes in Lambing and Sheep 101 for individuals with or thinking about getting sheep, beekeeping and honey making, and a Sheep Bootcamp for Ag teachers. They also offer tours of their farm for a close-up look at how they raise happy and healthy animals in a natural setting without the use of chemical inputs.

As exhausting as all the above activity sounds, the Owens decided to ‘share’ their farm with overnight guests starting in 2015 because they felt the benefit of 24+ hours on site gave a much clearer picture of farm life from dawn to dusk. They also had loved to travel when their kids were young and often stayed in unconventional lodging or looked for home stays.

A former carriage barn became the ‘farm stay’, and the Owens now host guests from mid-March to November when there are the most hands-on activities (and least amount of mud!). When asked about guests’ reactions to their stay, Caroline mentions her conversations tend towards the seasonality of things – that livestock births happen during the months that most benefit survival and production, not everyday on the farm; that summer is the best (and most prolific) time to eat out of the farm garden; that grass grows fastest in spring and summer so animals are rotated through the pastures to keep it fresh and not overgrazed… also when they send out their band of sheep to keep the solar arrays cleared; like that. Additionally, there is great surprise in the abilities of her working dogs to herd and corral the sheep (probably because Rover at home is not so well behaved or interested in a job!)

This farm might be in PA but it’s right off I-80 with guests arriving from New York City, Baltimore and DC in 2-4 hours. So, if you ever want to throw yourself into the middle of a working operation with 112 acres to roam, and you find yourself in Pennsylvania or had a hankering to go to Pennsylvania, Owens Farm just might fit the bill. Take an unplugged vacation, not because there is no wifi but because your electronics don’t hold a candle to this farm experience!  Retreat to the country and breathe it all in. We can promise you your trip home will be filled with stories of your stay and your camera will be filled with the photos to back it up.

Check out Owens Farm here on Farm Stay USA for more information and to book your stay today!

(All photos courtesy Owens Farm)

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