Speakers:
Marceen Hammer DVM
Dr. Marceen Hammer is a 1993 graduate of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota. She has practiced medicine in private mixed animal practice since graduation. She was raised on a dairy farm in north central Minnesota. She has always had a special fondness for small ruminant medicine, but also enjoys dairy medicine. She and her husband and 5 children live on a small farm. They enjoy raising a small commercial flock of mixed breed sheep, a few goats, a guard llama, and laying chickens.
Jen Kellen
Jen Kellen is an incurable flower addict and grower, a greenhorn cattle rancher, and a Waldorf-inspired homeschooling mother of two, who has homesteaded, with her husband, in a little, hand-built log cabin on Northern Sun Farm in Shevlin Township, 15 miles west of Bemidji, MN since 2004.
She has been growing countless varieties of specialty cut flowers using sustainable methods in the field and, in an unheated high tunnel since 2010. She has marketed and sold directly to local florists and designers, and has experimented with farmers' market sales. In addition, she and her family have also raised custom-finished black Angus beef. While debating the pros and cons of organic certification, they use essential oils, certified organic mineral and trace mineral mixes, and rotational grazing to focus on herd and pasture health. They direct market their beef. Email [email protected] for availability and more information.
In her free time she tends a one acre vegetable garden, raises chickens and pigs and bees, preserves garden produce, hauls firewood and plows snow, works on their never ending building projects, agonizes over the MN Twins, dreams of having time to knit again, hopes to have a llama someday and collapses into bed each night.
Alethea Kenney
Alethea Kenney is a traditional naturopath, Western herbalist and aromatherapist and is the small ruminant consultant for North Central Feed Products, LLC in Gonvick, MN.
She has spent many years working with animals in a veterinary setting and on the farm. This experience led her to design her own natural sheep mineral and eventually a livestock mineral line (Back in Balance Minerals®).
With her husband, she has farmed since 1996 and now raises Icelandic and Black Welsh Mountain Sheep and various other fiber animals sustainably on a farm south of Shevlin run primarily on renewable energy.
She writes and teaches about fiber crafts and natural dyes; herbs, homeopathy and minerals as they relate to health in humans, companion animals and livestock. In her spare time, she spins, knits and weaves the frightening amount of wool she has accumulated and attempts to outwit her flock of sheep.
More information can be found on her websites: www.borealbalance.com www.backinbalanceminerals.com and www.reedbird.com
Lydia Strand:
Living in the Twin Cities most of their lives, Jared and Lydia Strand first began farming in an urban setting in Seattle in 2008, growing produce and raising laying hens. In 2010, they purchased a small starter flock of Icelandic sheep and raised them in the city for about a year before relocating to a more rural area of Western Washington, finally returning to Central Minnesota with their sheep in late 2013. Lydia has seen first hand the dangers of improper management and animal husbandry, and the toll it takes on livestock. The lessons she learned while working with other shepherds, through various educational opportunities, employed as a farm manager and through personal experience have assisted her in setting up management plans for sustainable sheep breeding programs and for improving her beloved flock of Icelandic sheep. She and her husband Jared raise registered Icelandic Sheep, a small flock of laying hens, Belgian Bearded D’Anvers on a small sustainable farm in Little Falls, Minnesota where they market products locally and help with the local farmers market and sustainable food distribution. Lydia is passionate about Icelandic Sheep and sustainable farming and works to improve the breed and help others learn how to get started in sustainable sheep and farming, with an emphasis on the importance of nutrition for disease prevention and compassion for the Earth.
She will be offering hands-on beginning shepherding courses in 2015 and is available to speak on topics related to sustainable agriculture.
Sue Wika
Sue Wika is a rural sociologist and sustainable food producer. Sue and Tom Prieve operate Paradox Farm, located in the oak savannah region north of Ashby, Minnesota. Paradox Farm is a perennial forage-based, permaculture farm featuring integrated livestock systems. In particular, the owners have realized great potential for small ruminants in a holistically managed production system. Sue is a sustainable farming educator for the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota.
Marceen Hammer DVM
Dr. Marceen Hammer is a 1993 graduate of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota. She has practiced medicine in private mixed animal practice since graduation. She was raised on a dairy farm in north central Minnesota. She has always had a special fondness for small ruminant medicine, but also enjoys dairy medicine. She and her husband and 5 children live on a small farm. They enjoy raising a small commercial flock of mixed breed sheep, a few goats, a guard llama, and laying chickens.
Jen Kellen
Jen Kellen is an incurable flower addict and grower, a greenhorn cattle rancher, and a Waldorf-inspired homeschooling mother of two, who has homesteaded, with her husband, in a little, hand-built log cabin on Northern Sun Farm in Shevlin Township, 15 miles west of Bemidji, MN since 2004.
She has been growing countless varieties of specialty cut flowers using sustainable methods in the field and, in an unheated high tunnel since 2010. She has marketed and sold directly to local florists and designers, and has experimented with farmers' market sales. In addition, she and her family have also raised custom-finished black Angus beef. While debating the pros and cons of organic certification, they use essential oils, certified organic mineral and trace mineral mixes, and rotational grazing to focus on herd and pasture health. They direct market their beef. Email [email protected] for availability and more information.
In her free time she tends a one acre vegetable garden, raises chickens and pigs and bees, preserves garden produce, hauls firewood and plows snow, works on their never ending building projects, agonizes over the MN Twins, dreams of having time to knit again, hopes to have a llama someday and collapses into bed each night.
Alethea Kenney
Alethea Kenney is a traditional naturopath, Western herbalist and aromatherapist and is the small ruminant consultant for North Central Feed Products, LLC in Gonvick, MN.
She has spent many years working with animals in a veterinary setting and on the farm. This experience led her to design her own natural sheep mineral and eventually a livestock mineral line (Back in Balance Minerals®).
With her husband, she has farmed since 1996 and now raises Icelandic and Black Welsh Mountain Sheep and various other fiber animals sustainably on a farm south of Shevlin run primarily on renewable energy.
She writes and teaches about fiber crafts and natural dyes; herbs, homeopathy and minerals as they relate to health in humans, companion animals and livestock. In her spare time, she spins, knits and weaves the frightening amount of wool she has accumulated and attempts to outwit her flock of sheep.
More information can be found on her websites: www.borealbalance.com www.backinbalanceminerals.com and www.reedbird.com
Lydia Strand:
Living in the Twin Cities most of their lives, Jared and Lydia Strand first began farming in an urban setting in Seattle in 2008, growing produce and raising laying hens. In 2010, they purchased a small starter flock of Icelandic sheep and raised them in the city for about a year before relocating to a more rural area of Western Washington, finally returning to Central Minnesota with their sheep in late 2013. Lydia has seen first hand the dangers of improper management and animal husbandry, and the toll it takes on livestock. The lessons she learned while working with other shepherds, through various educational opportunities, employed as a farm manager and through personal experience have assisted her in setting up management plans for sustainable sheep breeding programs and for improving her beloved flock of Icelandic sheep. She and her husband Jared raise registered Icelandic Sheep, a small flock of laying hens, Belgian Bearded D’Anvers on a small sustainable farm in Little Falls, Minnesota where they market products locally and help with the local farmers market and sustainable food distribution. Lydia is passionate about Icelandic Sheep and sustainable farming and works to improve the breed and help others learn how to get started in sustainable sheep and farming, with an emphasis on the importance of nutrition for disease prevention and compassion for the Earth.
She will be offering hands-on beginning shepherding courses in 2015 and is available to speak on topics related to sustainable agriculture.
Sue Wika
Sue Wika is a rural sociologist and sustainable food producer. Sue and Tom Prieve operate Paradox Farm, located in the oak savannah region north of Ashby, Minnesota. Paradox Farm is a perennial forage-based, permaculture farm featuring integrated livestock systems. In particular, the owners have realized great potential for small ruminants in a holistically managed production system. Sue is a sustainable farming educator for the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota.