Shearing and lambing tours are fun, educational
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by Susie Sannito
for Capital Newspapers Is their fleece really as white as snow? Do they follow wherever you go? People who know nothing about lambs except what they remember from nursery rhymes will have myth sheared away from reality firsthand with an interactive educational experience at A-Z Farms in Oregon. For owners Ray and Alice Antoniewicz, keeping "a few" (40) sheep was a hobby they enjoyed while they worked full-time (he at UW-Madison and she at St. Mary's Hospital) and raised their four children. Showing their kids' friends around the barn evolved into class field trips. After retirement, the couple turned their 37-acre farm into a business that now hosts as many 7,000 visitors in a year, including national and international agricultural tourism, research, and direct marketing groups, as well as busloads of curious preschoolers on up through seniors. Ray says that "for people who don't have access to a farm, we try to fill that void by providing an educational experience with agriculture." |
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