photo essay: ninety farms
Ninety Farms was founded 1993 along the Stillaguamish River by Linda Neunzig with some of the first Katahdin Hair sheep on the west coast. Linda currently keeps approximately 125 breeding ewes which produce 250 plus lambs each year. About half of them are sold as breeding stock all over the world while the remaining lambs are found in some of the very best Seattle area restaurants.
I had the opportunity to take KING5 Seattle to meet Linda. She's one of those farmers that has mowed down the proverbial grass ceiling. She has been farming vegetables and sheep for over twenty years, she is also the Snohomish County Agricultural Coordinator, and a single mom to two. No easy feat considering she was a rarity when she started out as a producer. She recalls times when a local farmer stopped by her farm to tell her she had no business as a woman being a farmer and that she should sell the farm. She shared how she fought long and hard to earn her seat at the table and have her voice heard in county agricultural policy and remembers often being the only woman at the meetings. Today she is still often the only woman at the meetings, but now she's the one running them.
I hope you enjoy our segment and the images I managed to take along the way.
