Vermont is now in the season of sheep shearing, which comes right before the season of lambing.
Mary Lake is a sheep farmer, sheep shearer and itinerant slaughterer, and this time of year she drives all around the Northeast shearing sheep and talking with shepherds about the health of their flocks.
She was shearing recently at the Maplemont Farm up in Barnet, and producer Erica Heilman stopped in to talk with Mary and farm owner Amber Reed.
This story was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Mary Lake: So, Amber has well-conditioned sheep, which means inside the belly, it's not just like a bunch of chewed-up grass. It's also a ton of fat inside the belly. So what Amber did was she fasted them, so their bellies are pretty empty, even though they look nice and round. But if she hadn't fasted them, they'd have these big grass-filled bellies, and they'd be like, pooping and peeing, which makes them kick. So while I'm shearing, they'd be kicking, and that would be really dangerous for everybody, and I'd have a harder time getting a wool off nicely.
Erica Heilman: I'm thinking about when I make a turkey, and I'm working with all the joints of the turkey to move the things. You're pressing down on… certain points of her joints to keep her comfortable and still.
Mary Lake: Yep, I can push down on her leg to straighten that out, and then I'm just thinking about keeping the skin nice and taut so I don't hit a wrinkle with my comb. I could get a wrinkle in there and cut skin…
Erica Heilman: All the while Mary worked, she talked with Amber about her sheep: How they looked, what they were eating, the ram that got out and had illicit relations with one of the sheep. Amber was clearly anxious to hear what Mary thought about things. It was a little bit like watching a parent-teacher conference. When she was done shearing, I asked Mary if she would sit in the car with me and talk about these important conversations she has with shepherds while she's shearing and butchering.
Erica Heilman: From the outside, it's like, what's so hard about this? But these are incredibly sensitive conversations. Why?
Mary Lake: Yeah, there's a lot riding on it. So a successful sheep farm has slim profit margins. You know, most sheep farms are breaking even, and it's because of other stuff, like farming is so ridiculously expensive, so there's like half a year or a year of work, that on a day like shearing day or slaughter day, you can be like, "I could have done the last six months a little bit differently and had better results right now." And that can be hard to hear when you're working so hard all the time. You think you're doing all the things right, and then on shearing day, you find out that all of the sheep have a wool break, or all of them are underweight, or on slaughter day you have small carcasses, or you're just like, things aren't what you thought they would be.
If there's a situation and the sheep are bad year after year after year, then it's like, "We really have to talk about it. This is a lot of suffering." I don't think I've ever been like, "This is inhumane." But I have been like, "This is like borderline inhumane," you know, like, "We really gotta dial this in, and what can you do? I know it's so hard to get good hay, but maybe there's something else we can do." And you know, like, just kind of work it out. But for the most part, everybody has gotten better every year, or has tried, or there's usually a reason, and then the next year that's resolved.
Erica Heilman: Do you think that people worry about your coming in the same way that I worry when I go to the dentist?
Mary Lake: Totally, yeah, it's a lot like going to the dentist.
Erica Heilman: At any moment that hygienist could say, "Are you flossing?" And I’m like, "Why are you asking? Because obviously you already know."
Mary Lake: Yeah, totally. I ask questions like that too. Like, "So what are you feeding? What kind of hay? Like, how much and how often?" Yeah, I get into it, because I'm like, "You're not. You're holding back."
Erica Heilman: Farming is hard, and the profit margins are always slim. And I think that we do forget how hard it is to make our food.
Mary Lake: Farming is pretty hard. But what makes farming super hard is that we're trying to do it in this system that doesn't really respect farming anymore. We have these consumer expectations that are wicked ridiculous, and so when we do make our own things, like our own clothes, it doesn't make any sense. Like, my son got a pair of Nike sweatpants for $12 at TJ Maxx, and he's like, "I love this! This is so great!" And then he also has, like, this hand-knit sweater from his mom, or my mom, which is also really great, but the value of that sweater is like $500. But he does love these sweatpants almost equally as much as he loves this sweater. And honestly, he's gonna wear the sweatpants more than he wears the sweater. And I kind of ruined the sweatpants for him, because I was like, "There were a lot of people who helped make those sweatpants that did not get paid what they should have gotten."
Erica Heilman: And how did he take that?
Mary Lake: He said, "Yeah, but I really love TJ Maxx." And I was like, "I know! It’s so fun!"
