OXFORD, Ohio – You have to be scrappy if you’re going to farm; you must find ways to make money. That’s what Bethany Cantwell figured out. She and her family are doing this on their Aurora Blue Farm. They raise slow-growing, heritage breeds: Jacob and Icelandic sheep, kunekune pigs, chicken and beef.

They use every bit of the animals to avoid waste. They eat all the meat and they make bone broth. Cantwell has even found a niche market for the sheepskins. She has a waiting list of people eager for her sheepskin products, and to enroll in her classes to learn how to tan hides.

Seth, Bethany, and their children Bella and Sam all work on the farm. Bethany Cantwell is the head shepherd. Growing up, she showed Suffolk sheep through 4-H and FFA. But when they moved to Aurora Blue, she wanted something different.

“I wanted a breed that was not “improved,” she said. “One that would thrive on pasture-based systems, that was good for milk, meat and wool. I also wanted a smaller breed of sheep because I knew I would be the one physically handling them.”

Cantwell is an avid researcher. Using the Livestock Conservancy as a starting point, she invested in Jacob and Icelandic sheep breeds. The next step began in the fall of 2017. She walked into the pasture to check on the critters and found a lamb dead.

“Brokenhearted to find such a beautiful ram meant to live on in our flock as a herd sire deceased, I felt helpless and wanted to honor his life,” she said. “He was beautiful and spotted black and white. Now, I realize that most of you reading would not have the instinct to do this, but it is what I did. I took out my grandpa’s pocket knife, saved what I could of his pelt, and then buried him.”

She salted the hide and sent it off to be tanned. It came back beautiful but smelled nasty with chemicals. That wouldn’t do. She decided to learn how to do it on her own.

“People have been tanning hides for thousands of years. There has to be a way to do this without chemicals,” she said. “I just YouTubed it. I followed a few farmers on Instagram. It took a while, but I finally figured out what worked and found a consistent method.”

Now she has a waitlist of people who want sheepskins to use as shawls, as pads on chairs, for pets and much more. Wool is an amazing fiber. It keeps you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It helps to regulate body temperature.

“We had piglets born in February, and it was super cold,” she said. “I needed to give them some bedding under the heat lamp that they would not get tangled in because they are so tiny. So, I got one of my scrap sheepskins and put it under the heat lamp. Those piglets were happy because it helped regulate their body temperature.”

Cantwell has since written an eBook about tanning sheepskin. People come from all over the country for classes she offers on the farm. Each year Slough Farm on Martha’s Vineyard flies her and Seth, who makes the tools she uses, to the farm for a workshop.

The family markets their products from the farm and at the Oxford Farmers Market. For information visit www.aurorabluefarm.net.