Baaaaaahhhhhhh

The best thing about Canreg Station Farm & Dairy Pasture is that whenever I would call my friend Kelly, who is interning there for 6 months, I got to hear her try to say "Hello, Canreg Station Farm & Dairy Pasture, Kelly speaking" without messing up. In fact I maybe called her more often than I needed to, just to hear her say it.

Back in the winter, when Kelly and I realized that we would both be interning for the growing season, we secretly decided to arrange a farm exchange where we would each visit each other's farm for a week to learn the ropes. We never actually ran this by our bosses, and as our internships began (and I saw my window of freedom slowly closing) we wondered whether we'd ever make it happen. In June, when I called Kelly to announce that I was now free as a bird for the next four months, the scheming began. Finally, during the last week of July, I borrowed my brother's candy van and made my way to Finch, Ontario.

My previous sheep experience consisted of living with a giant anatomically-incorrect stuffed sheep named Princess for two years in University, so a chance to deal with the live version meant that I would be breaking new ground. 


I was welcomed warmly into the Regli family and fed a steady supply of delicious sheep's milk and cheese. Over the course of the week I got to see how Josef, the famous moustached cheese man from the market, made his artisan cheese. I helped Barb milk the 125 dairy sheep and I developed a deep appreciation for sheep manure, which drops out of the animal's behind in neat little pellets. This is very good news. 

To round off the week, I joined Kelly at the farmer's market where we sold cheese, lamb and mutton. Kelly is a fellow city girl at heart and it was fun to see how much she has learned in just three months. Now if only she could get the name of her farm straight....

Even though Kelly is elbowing me out of the way to be in front, I must admit that she is a fantastic sheep milker, barn cleaner and market saleswoman.