Olympia Farm: Snuggly Goats and Wooly Hydroponics

During a recent photo shoot for The Creative Color Collection, our team was delighted to witness the daily happenings at Olympia Farm, a family farm on the Connecticut shoreline owned by Mark Lahner and Anne McIntyre-Lahner. To give readers a peek into life on the farm, and to give context to the scenes that you’ll see in this latest collection of knitted accessories, we sat down with Anne to learn more about Olympia Farm’s Romney sheep, their goat dairy, and their hydroponic farming methods. We’ve also shared some behind-the-scenes photos from the shoot.

Here's how Anne describes the workings of the farm:

You will often find me (Anne) working sheep, and I manage all things fiber. You’ll likely find Mark anywhere on the farm, but check first in the Dairy, where he produces our award-winning cheeses, or in the vegetable gardens growing something healthy and delicious. You’ll find our daughter and farm team member, Olivia, on the tractor, feeding baby goats, in the chicken coop, or wrangling cats.

Farm & Fiber Knits: Thank you for welcoming us to your Connecticut farm for our most recent photo shoot! Please tell us about your farm; sheep, goats, veggies, honey—it looks like you are quite diversified.

Olympia Farm: Our adventure started just over 30 years ago with four laying hens. Goats came next, and then sheep. We purchased our farm property more than 20 years ago to create a healthy and connected life for ourselves and our young family. We’ve gradually expanded the farm to connect others to the land and to locally raised food and fiber. We sell wool and fiber products from our flock of Romney sheep, which produces award-winning fleeces, locally spun into soft, lustrous, yarn. We also operate a seasonal goat dairy and sell small-batch goat cheeses, plus eggs, low-till vegetables, and grass-fed, grain-finished meats.

Get a closer look! Click any image in the gallery below to open it in full-screen mode and read more about the animals on the farm.

Shropshire sheep pose for the camera. The Lahners welcome visitors to their farm store, where they sell seasonal produce and goat cheese. The Lahners operate a seasonal, Grade A goat dairy, with cheese available from early March through November, or, as Anne puts it, “until the ‘girls’ say ‘stop’. Our goat cheeses are fresh cheeses, not aged, and maintain their clean, bright, non-goaty, flavors. Our whole-milk ricotta is especially popular. Our cheeses have won multiple medals at the Big E cheese competition!” Photographer Gale Zucker holds a new kid in the barn.

FFK: I hear that you’ve been using waste wool for your hydroponic vegetables and herbs. Please tell us a little about this.

OF: In hydroponic farming, it is necessary to use a medium that will hold the seeds as they germinate and begin to grow, and that will help support the plants as they grow in the tanks. We realized that we had a great medium in the waste wool that was too short to spin. We have been using that waste wool as our medium with great success—and we love that it is all natural, which is in keeping with our goals.

Get a closer look! Click any image in the gallery below to open it in full-screen mode.

Mark prepares the seedlings using wet waste wool that was taken off the sheep during skirting. The wool holds the seeds as they germinate and will support the plants as they grow. Kelly is ready to model the Clover Ridge Cowl while Mark checks on some of the seedlings. Kelly helps plant the lettuce and greens, which are grown hydroponically in little pots with soil and wet waste wool.

FFK: Do you sell your products at farmers markets or directly from the farm?

OF: Both! We sell directly from the farm through our farm stand, which is open most days of the year. We love welcoming customers to the farm! We also sell yarn at the Connecticut Sheep Breeders Festival, the Fiber Festival of New England, and the Wayland Winter Farmers’ Market Farm Fiber Days.

Click on an image below to open in full-screen mode.

Mark shows Kelly how to transplant rosemary starts. Kelly is wearing the Parastripe Shawl. Soon, these little guys will be ready for the farm store.

FFK: You sell fiber. Any knitters in the family?

OF: I am a knitter who became a spinner who became a shepherd. We provide others with the opportunity to learn how to knit and spin in our wool studio, plus enjoy some unstructured community time to get advice on their projects during our Woolly Wednesday events.

Click on an image below to open in full-screen mode.

The sweet face of a Romney lamb at Olympia Farm. Photo by Anne McIntyre-Lahner Romney sheep heading home. Photo by Anne McIntyre-Lahner

In addition, I am a past president of the Connecticut Sheep Breeders Association and also the outgoing president of the American Romney Breeders Association—a group dedicated to promoting the Romney breed, a dual-purpose breed with long, lustrous fleeces, perfect for spinning and knitting. Our daughter Olivia recently joined the sheep-raising efforts, with a small starter flock of Shropshire sheep—we are enjoying and experimenting with the wool from our Romney-Shropshire lambs!

Find Olympia Farm on Facebook @OlympiaFarmGuilford or on Instagram @olympiafarm.

They are also in the process of updating their website, which will be relaunched in the very near future. Visit olympiafarm.net.

See more of Olympia Farm in The Creative Color Collection eBook.