OUR STORY

            Far Crick Farm is located in the rolling hills of south central Pennsylvania in Southern Juniata County, outside of a small town called East Waterford.  The founding owner, Dr. Michaela Fry, graduated from veterinary school in 2008.  She returned to her hometown with a bottle baby Suffolk ewe lamb that she had been given at one of her last farm calls during senior year of vet school.  Her passion for sheep grew from that moment on.   Fry’s Sheep Farm was established in November of 2008 when Michaela purchased 8 acres of land very close to where she grew up and started clearing the land and building a house and fences.  The following fall she supported the local 4H kids and brought home two Suffolk 4H wethers named Liam and Callum who participated in public outreach programs such as live nativities and petting zoos.  Liam and Callum have both passed on but the lessons they taught and the memories they helped create continue to live on.  

           In 2014, after almost two years of researching the Romeldale/CVM breed, Michaela purchased four ewes and a ram named, Bart Jr.  In 2015, the farm purchased three more ewes and another ram.  

          Even though Michaela has been breeding Romeldale/CVMs for only a few years, she has been working diligently to improve the breed by breeding and selling sound breeding stock and by doing breed outreach in a variety of ways, including a breed showcase at the local fair and a facebook page to both promote the breed and the farm.   Michaela previously held a position on the National Romeldale CVM Conservancy, Inc.’s board of directors and she looks forward to contributing as much as she can to the organization in the future.  Michaela has become extremely passionate about sheep color genetics especially in the Romeldales and continues to learn more every day.   

         Far Crick Farm started out by selling fleeces on Facebook and they now cater to the small scale hand spinner and sell individual fleeces often to repeat buyers.  Their following is growing as they continue to market their product and get their name out there.  In 2016, they entered a fleece that took second place at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in the Romeldale class.    In 2019, they entered 3 fleeces in the Pennsylvania Farm show and all fleeces placed multiple times with the highest honor being the Reserve Grand Champion Fleece overall in the non-sale portion of the show.  Michaela plans to continue to enter fleeces in the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival show and sale as well as others shows to allow them to see how their product measures up so that they can continue to make sound breeding decisions to produce the best product possible. They keep a very diverse array of color in their flock and continue to breed for color variations yet with the solid traits that make the Romeldale so wonderful.  They track a variety of different data points throughout the year to be able to continue to push for the best.  Average daily gains, fleece quality and staple length, mothering ability, feet quality, conformation, and color are just a few.