Zen Lamb: Hidden Acres Natural Farm

HIDDEN ACRES NATURAL FARM is picture perfect in many ways with its pretty pastures, abundant vegetable patch, sweet farmhouse,
and of course healthy happy sheep.

One of the biggest personal challenges that owner Vickey Russell faces is being the best shepherd that she can be for her sheep especially her breeding ewes with whom she has formed a strong bond.  

Combining her best efforts, excellent shepherding skills, her compassion, and the help of her sheep dogs Vickey produces an excellent quality lamb from her hair sheep: which is quite different from the lamb I grew up with.  In season, free range lamb is readily available in the UK, and Welsh lamb in the spring garnished with mint sauce, served with tiny new potatoes (still tasting of the earth), was a Sunday dinner at its best.  The lamb that I grew up on and probably the only lamb that is available in the UK comes from wool sheep which have more fat and a stronger flavour than hair sheep. This is hardly surprising given their hilly terrain ('moors' as they are called in the U.K.) and hardy lifestyle: Vickey's main breed is the Katahdin, with some cross breeds with the Damara. Another difference between the hair and the wool sheep is the breeding cycle. Wool sheep are seasonal breeders and ewes are usually mated in the autumn to give birth sometime between February and April. Generally ewes in the U.K. are bred only once a year but as sheep are plentiful so are the lambs, and there is a bit of money to be made on the side from the wool - so sheep farmers get by. Hair sheep have monthly cycles and hence breeding is flexible: Vickey harvests lamb four times a year (March, June, September and December). The meat is sold direct from the farm and is available by the side or the whole lamb; the pre-butchered weight is around 80lbs., the hanging weight will be just under two-thirds of this. The lambs at Hidden Acres do not have to suffer the trauma of travelling long distances to the processing facility and everything is taken care of at Blalocks - a local meat processing facility in Rabun which offers large to small processing including custom cuts. Vickey says that she wants to feed families; she wants children to grow up on healthy naturally raised meat and for this reason, despite entreaties, has not got into the restaurant trade.
 Interestingly she became a sheep farmer in the first place through her dog training business. She acquired a couple of 'cast-off' sheep from a friend to train her dogs in the art of herding - two sheep became three, three became four...and the rest is history.
Her expertise as a dog obedience trainer means that she has excellent help from her border collie 'sheep dogs' and you can watch the video we took of her and one of her dogs in action (this is one of her 'fresher' collies and he has a bit of challenge from a bossy momma).

Sitting in the shade of the trees chatting with Vickey an atmosphere of serenity pervaded the farm, despite the fact that life is busy for Vickey - with only one assistant she runs both the sheep farm, dog obedience training school, and boarding kennels.  We later found out that Vickey begins her busy day with yoga and meditation.   It is a time honoured fact that the 'energy' we put into something is reflected back and I am sure that this peaceful stress-free environment is reflected in the meat - this isn't just my hippy-dippy point of view: it's a fact.  Makes you think doesn't it - ninety five to ninety nine per cent of the meat found in supermarkets comes from industrialized farms (I am assuming you aren't new to our blog, website or Facebook posts and you know by now what goes on behind the closed doors of factory farms): not only do these places produce dirty and diseased meat but are a breeding ground for negative energy.  Factory farms are hostile, devoid of heart,  devoid of compassion, often abusive, and the animals are miserable and stressed - all of this negativity goes into the meat, and this negative energy infiltrates our bodies every time we bite into a piece of factory farmed meat.  This isn't just New-Age claptrap: look at it in terms of human health, we aren't just what we eat, our health is also dependent on what we think and feel.  It is a medical fact that the way we humans lead our lives in industrialized countries is the biggest contributor to our 'western diseases' - the 'energy' that we put into our daily lives, including stress, leads to high blood pressure, heart disease, digestive problems, some cancers, and the list goes on.  It's a medical fact that type 'A' personalities are more susceptible to heart attacks because of their tendency towards competiveness, and over-achieving personalities. In other words disease does not necessarily have its beginnings in physical factors - the energy we put into something reflects in the end product: it follows then that good vibes = good meat.  At Hidden Acres Farm these good animal husbandry 'vibes' are carried through with the lambs right to the very last.  Vickey drives the lambs to the abattoir herself and always takes a trusty collie to gently herd the lambs off the livestock trailer into the holding pen - familiarity and compassion right to the end.
Vickey tries not to become emotionally attached to the lambs for obvious reasons, and she says of her lambs they "live short and they live well" - nonetheless this is not an easy task for her  - but having done the best she can for her flock from birth to death she says a prayer then lets them go.   

 ~ THE ACTIVIST