It is the ram's favorite time of year at Whinmont Farm: Breeding Season. 
This is Erik our ram. He is a Suffolk ram with a mild disposition who loves to have his ears rubbed.  He has eagerly been awaiting mid-October. 

Sheep are short day breeders. Which means the ewes will come into heat as the daylight gets shorter each day.  We choose to breed our sheep later in the fall than most farmers.  The majority of farms will turn their rams out with the ewes in August or September. This would result in January or February lambs. I am not a fan of lambing in the middle of winter and this leads us to turning our ram out in the middle of October.

The ewes have been very interested in Erik recently as some have already come into heat. There is a lot of longing stares between the two pens.

We are excited to announce a new listing on our Etsy site. For the upcoming holiday season we are offering bulk soap purchases.  Select from one of our popular scents and we will make and ship you a batch of 10 bars. You save 16% by ordering in bulk and will be stocked for those last minute holiday gifts.

Please allow 4-6 weeks to ship as we will be making these soaps custom for you and they will need to cure before leaving the farm.  Click the two links on the right below to find out more! 

Our sheep milk soap is handcrafted at our small farm from fresh, never canned or dried, milk from our sheep. Sheep milk is higher in fat and protein than both cow and goat milk, making it a great addition to handmade soap. 

Our soap is made with sheep milk, natural olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, almond oil, castor oil and beeswax. All the ingredients combined make for a soap that cleans while restoring moisture back to the skin. 

**** Your batch of soap will be made shortly after your order is placed. It will take roughly 5 weeks to properly cure and will ship after this. For guaranteed delivery before Christmas please order before 11/13/2015. Please designate which scent you would like made in the comments with the order. ****

Choose from one of the 5 Scents:
• Unscented : Our original soap. Nothing fancy, just soap. 
• Gentle Citrus Scrub : . Dried and ground orange peel creates gentle exfoliation, scented lightly with Jasmine. 
• Lemon Lavender : . Lemon rejuvenates while lavender calms, the perfect morning combination. Exfoliation from dried and ground lemon peel. 
• Rosemary & Mint: Rosemary and mint provide a refreshing, tingling experience. Mild exfoliation from mint leaves.
• Refreshing Lemon: Dried lemon grass provides invigorating exfoliation, scented with lemon essential oil.

I was very excited to find that my chocolate cake placed 3rd in the fair! All that late night frosting making and baking paid off.  Well at least with the chocolate cake, the zucchini bread placed almost last, but whose counting.

I have always said I wanted to enter something besides our sheep in the fair. This year I finally did it!  I entered Zucchini Bread and Chocolate Cake (with cream cheese frosting).

The baking was judged this morning. We will find out when we go back to feed the sheep tonight now I did.
 

Last night I did what every 28-year old woman does,

Make frosting for my cake entry in the Coshocton County Fair.  That's typical for my age group right? 

This is my go to recipe for frosting. It is not too sweet but at the same time not too "cream-cheesy".  

1/2 Cup Room Temperature Butter
1 8oz package of Room Temperature Cream Cheese
2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
5 1/2 to 6 1/2  cups powder sugar

On medium speed, cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla until light and fluffy. Then on low-medium beat in sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, fully incorporating between additions. Add until desired consistency and taste. 
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