Come join Rural Vermont and Mary Lake on Saturday, August 16th at Smokeshire Hilltop Farm in Chester for a lamb on-farm slaughter and processing workshop. In the first half of this 2-part workshop, participants will learn how to slaughter a lamb humanely and then how to efficiently butcher and process a lamb in the second half.

The workshop will be held at Peter Hudkins and Donna McNeill-Hudkins’ farm, Smokeshire Hilltop Farms, where they raise about 25 Dorset crosses as well as heritage breed (Suffolk Punch) draft horses. Their goal is to have a traditional, sustainable Vermont Hillside Farm using old and new technology. They raise blueberries in the summer, are tree farmers doing restorative forestry with horses; and they process and sell firewood.  They also raise and sell grass fed lamb to local restaurants and markets, as well as to individuals for their freezers.

This workshop will be instructed by Mary Lake. Mary Lake is a professional itinerant slaughterer, butcher and sheep shearer who lives in Tunbridge. Mary learned the craft of slaughter through several years of full-time work with the Royal Butcher in Randolph, which is a USDA inspected slaughter facility. Her expertise and engagement through testimony was essential for the  improvements to the On-Farm Slaughter law.

At the slaughter workshop, Rural Vermont will present the updates to federal and state on-farm slaughter regulation, particularly around the proposed clarifying language being advocated for by Rural Vermont and its national partners. There will be plenty of room for questions and discussion throughout the event.

Ticket Price: $70

Registration: Registration and advanced ticket purchase is required and a minimum attendance of 7 people per workshop is needed for this event to take place. Please bring our own drinks and lunch for this event - snacks will be provided.

A Special Note About Workshop Pricing & Registration:

Rural Vermont works alongside farm hosts, instructors, and other non-profits to bring a variety of workshops and peer-to-peer learning opportunities to our members and communities throughout Vermont.  Our ticket prices are built on the needs of the community, the needs of the farm hosts and instructors, and the structure of the workshop itself. We work hard to provide accessible, quality programming and to also pay fair compensation to our farm hosts, our instructors, and to cover the cost of managing and producing our workshops. As such, our ticket pricing varies from workshop to workshop and we strive to keep our pricing within a fair range. Thank you for participating and learning alongside us! 

Smokeshire Hilltop Farms