Many thanks to you and to the Local Farmer Award Folks!

Hello Friends of Leyden Glen Lamb……

Wow —— last week’s Amherst Farmers Market was hopping. It was so wonderful to see so many of your smiling faces after a slow summer at the market. Every late July and August it seems that the market slows to a crawl. As a vendor - I wonder if it will ever pick up again and if we are just wasting our time. And then September rolls around….. So thank you - from Leyden Glen Farm and from all of the other vendors - for showing up and supporting the Amherst Farmers Market.

This past spring, we found out we were awarded a Local Farmer Award from the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation. This grant program has been funded for ten years and is now working in partnership with several local companies and generous local patrons to help to bolster the local food system. We have applied several years and this is the third grant we have received. Thank you so much to the fine folks at the Local Farmer Awards.

We used the grant money to pay for a portion of the construction of 3 farm gates here in Leyden. Fencing and gates are integral to livestock operations. No good fences and our sheep will be out grazing our neighbors’ yards and gardens or snarling traffic. The fences at our farmhouse were constructed 25 years ago and they are sadly sagging and falling down in many places. That’s a project for another year……

The original gates were no longer functioning and we were using wire hog panels as stop gap measures for years. Not only are the gates for keeping the sheep in, but there’s also the situation with our Great Pyrenees guard dogs Beau, Elsa and Max. They are big roamers even if the fences are good.

Local contractor Bob Deane Excavating came to our rescue…… The new gates are going to last for years. Here are some short videos of the construction for all you folks who are fans of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

Digging a hole!

Making it sturdy!

Here’s a photo of one of the finished gates with Elsa on the right side!

Here’s Beau on the wrong side of the fence. He’s a love but a real challenge.

Thank you so much to the fine folks at the Local Farmer Awards. Without their support, our gates would still be hog panels tied with baling twine. These gates should last a good many years. (And thank you from our neighbors too!)

Thanks to all who came out last week. Hope to see some of you Saturday at the Amherst Farmers Market from 8-1:30. I’ll have lots of recipes for our delicious lamb and some new pieces of pottery too.

Yours in local food and agriculture,

Kristin and Mark