About Leyden Glen Farm

Mark and Kristin began raising sheep in 1979 as a way to combine Mark’s interest in farming and land stewardship with Kristin’s interest in wool fiber, yarn, and knitting. Our flock has grown from the humble beginnings of four Romney ewes to the present breeding flock of 200 plus ewes. Our flock is still based on dual-purpose Romney sheep, which means that both their meat and wool fleece is desirable. In 1999, we moved to our present 54-acre farm composed of abandoned apple orchards and pasture. Our farm is located just north of the Leyden Glen – hence the name of our farm. The Leyden Glen sheep also graze neighboring hillside pastures in Leyden, Greenfield, and Bernardston, Massachusetts.

We practice rotational grazing which is a pasture-based management system. We use electric net fencing to protect our flock. The fence is picked up and moved frequently, giving the sheep a new section of grass to eat while letting the just grazed section rejuvenate to be grazed later in the season. During the grass growing season our sheep eat only fresh green grass. During the summer and fall season, Mark harvests hay for the sheep's winter feed. He produces large 800-pound round bales which are fed to the sheep while the grass is dormant and under snow.

We do not use antibiotics or hormones in our feed. Our sheep always have access to the outdoors and adapt to the changing seasons of our New England climate. In the winter, we shelter our sheep in a “greenhouse barn” at our farm in Bernardston. Baby lambs are born in January, February, and March and sometimes later. In late April/May, the sheep and their lambs begin grazing our fields.

Media Files for Leyden Glen Lamb Farm

Interviews and Newspaper Articles about Leyden Glen Farm

You can read more about life on our farm on Kristin’s blog which she wrote from 2006 until recently.

Currently Kristin writes a Substack Newsletter about our farm and her art, books, and ceramics which you can subscribe to and read here:

Kristin is an artist, designer and author of knitting, stitching, and decorating books which you can purchase on her website or find at your local library. You can see more of her work at her website here:

HouzzTV Video about our Farm

This video was filmed back in 2014 after a profile of our farmhouse was featured on the Houzz website. A three person film crew came from California including a camera operator with a drone when drones were brand new. You can't imagine our excitement to have a West Coast film crew spend a couple days at our farm including flying the drone over our sheep and Border Collie Ness as they ran through the pasture. The reaction from the almost half a million folks who have watched the video has been so interesting.

You can read the original web article by clicking on the link below. The comments that people left about our farmhouse were one of the reasons HouzzTV made the video. Kristin even got a two book publishing deal from the feature. Many thanks to the incredible photographer Rikki Snyder who originally approached us to shoot our home for Houzz.