Shepherd's Way Farm

By Christina Nicholson

Steve and Jodi of Shepherd's Way Farms

The Rains Came

When I first heard about the flooding in Southeast Minnesota and Southwest Wisconsin in late August, I was heartbroken. It was the beginning of the harvest, the worst possible time of year for the floods to hit, and I realized pretty quickly that these farmers were going to have a long journey back from such devastation.

I learned this from two farmers I met in the fall of 2005, Steven and Jodi Read of Shepherd's Way Farms. They experienced heartache of a similar scope to the flood-hit farmers. In April of 2005, fire destroyed their lamb nursery, burning it to the ground. It was such a blow, financial and emotionally, that they're still journeying back from that brutal night when the fire struck.

What would any of us do when all of those long-held plans and dreams are suddenly washed away?

Fire in the Night

"The fire started over here, and then it moved this way and this way," Jodi Ohlsen-Read explained to me as her fingers traced a photo of a lambing shed that hasn't existed since January of 2005. "And the sheep wouldn't stay out," she continued. "Steve [Jodi's husband and business partner] and I would get ten of the sheep out of the barn here," she points to another part of the barn structure that is now only a scattered pile of rocks at the closest edge of their pasture, "but then they would turn around and start running back in, towards the fire."

Her round face and her bright blue eyes reflect on a cold January night, when Shepherds Way Farms, the sheep cheese operation she and her husband had been dreaming of and working towards for years, was almost laid to waste. The loss, once tallied, was astounding. The entire lambing shed, full with new babies and their nursing mothers, was torched in what was later determined to be arson. The total number of sheep that perished that night was well over two hundred, and there were many more that in Jodi's words, "were still badly hurt, we just had no idea at the time how bad off they were."

Beginning Again

And yet, here we sit, in Steve and Jodi's retail store on the farm, some lingering decorations from a friend's recent wedding reception still visible, on a beautiful early fall day in 2007. My reason for visiting the farm was to ask Jodi, in as gentle a way as I could find, one of the most personal and difficult questions that can be asked, "How did you and your farm make it through this tragedy?"

I explain to Jodi a little more about the reason I came to the farm, and the rough connection I formed in my mind between the recovery process that she and her family have embarked on, in relation to the journey that many of the flooded farmers are just starting. Jodi nods appreciatively.

"Right after [a tragedy], there is lots of support. It's like a funeral, kind of." Jodi pauses. "It's like it's the most horrific part, but its almost easier because there are so many things that you have to do in the immediate aftermath.

"Then, after about two weeks, or a month, you know, if the person who died was really close to you, people expect you to be okay. No more crying, no more tears. No one wants to hear the story of what happened any more. But for you, it is really just starting."

Remembering not to forget

As I write this, the timing of Jodi's comment hits home. It is the end of September, approximately one month since the floods hit, and I realize that the focus on the flooding and its aftermath have certainly waned in the mainstream press.

"On a farm, none of your bills come with one zero," Jodi laughs, as she talks about the journey that she and her family have been making since the night of the fire.

All the reports from the local farmers suffering through recent floods bear this out, too. Their losses all have many zeros attached to them. There have been extended issues of more rain, rot in the field not discovered until the last two weeks, and a myriad of "could be saved" that have turned into "can't be saved."

But step by step, Shepherd's Way has been recovering over the last two years. They have recently moved a 120 foot 1930's dairy barn onto their farm, a salvaged barn from Big Woods State Park just four miles away. This structure will replace the destroyed lamb nursery and house over two hundred lambs once they raise enough funding to build the foundation for underneath the barn. Shepherd's Way Farms has also converted a 1940s dairy barn into a sheep milking parlor, a cheese production room, and cheese aging room with a viewing hallway for visitors.

Before Jodi gave me a tour of the farm, I asked her what has sustained her and her family through this process of hitting bottom and then coming back up, and what, if anything, she would want to share with other farmers who have encountered such huge losses.

"There is a huge community that believes in [our] ideals," she said, referring to ideals of sustainability, organics, and local farming. "It might feel like a drop in the ocean, but it adds up. You realize that you are not just a dot on a map. We all are linked to others by our tragedies. You realize that you are never going to be alone."

Shepherd's Way website

Shepherd's Way Farms' Big Barn Rescue

Review: Shepherd's Way Farm's Big Woods Blue Cheese (Cowgirl Creamery)