Perspective: Sheep Dreams on the Farm
Story by Evan Bishop
Photography by Stephen Heraldo and FarmsteadEd
In this Perspective piece, Evan Bishop of Rêves de Moutons shares how he and his wife decided not to wait for retirement to change the course of their lives and start their own farm, where they raise goats and sheep for cheese production.
The idea to start a farm came to my wife Kristy and I about 10 years ago when we started talking about our later retirement. What was then a “crazy” conversation about raising goats and sheep and making cheese is now our reality. People often refer to farming as the “simple life,” but that’s not what it’s like out here on our modest 10 acres. Every day is a new challenge, a different problem to solve and new things to learn.
Growing up, my sister and I would spend summers at my uncle’s dairy farm in Maine, which is where my initial contact and love of farm life began — early mornings in the milking parlor, driving the little motorcycle to round up the cows — and later in my teenage years, helping out with calving. When my uncle retired, my cousin took over the farm and decided, due to financial pressures, to sell it. Even at a young age, I recognized the work and challenges my uncle and our family faced while farming. Farming isn’t easy and a couple of hard years can make it hard to afford feeding all the animals. Even still, I realized when it was gone that I wanted it back.
After Kristy and I discussed our future and the prospect of owning land, we moved from San Diego to a small cottage in Paso Robles. On the very day we moved to the area, a piece of land that checked all our boxes became available. Divinity, happenstance, call it what you will but it felt meant to be. We purchased the land and got to work. The name Rêves de Moutons, which translates “sheep dreams,” reflects both our dream to build the farm as well as the quality of life we hoped to provide our animals.
As I learned in my early life, farming can be a challenging industry to earn a living in so we diversified our business by adding a bed and breakfast and farm tours. Guests at our B&B enjoy touring the farm, spending time with the animals, tasting cheese and eating the fresh produce and eggs that come from our farm.
When it’s birthing season for the animals, guests might even encounter newborn lambs and kids, as baby goats are called. It used to be that I’d get up several times in the middle of the night to check and see if any of the expecting mothers were in labor. This would wake up the other animals because they thought it was time to eat. Now I use a WiFi-connected camera to help check in so I don’t have to go out so often. Guests are always excited to experience birthing season and will sometimes take flashlights out to witness the birth and feeding that follows. They get to help name the new additions to the flock.
Our sheep and goats also help the community by eating weeds at wineries and olive orchards. They help cut down on flammable vegetation on hillsides throughout the county. But their primary job is to produce milk that we use to make a variety of French style cheeses. Later this year, we plan to open a cheese kitchen and welcome the public to learn more about our farm and our cheese production. One of the reasons we chose this area is because of its proximity to Cal Poly, which has a great agriculture and dairy program. We aim to bring on student interns and employees. Kristy and I are enthusiastic about growing and developing our farm but we will always stay small and serve our local community.
When we decided to embark on the journey of farming, one of Kristy’s caveats to this lifestyle change was that we’d have to go into the city one day each month for dinner at a restaurant and a movie or concert. That requirement dissolved almost immediately as soon as she, and I, got a taste of the farm life. Even though she still works in the medical field and I continue my photography, we are both deeply committed to this farm and spend most of our time tending the animals and the property.
