Winchester Ridge Farm

Nutrient-rich protein grown in Winchester on a dryland farm

Winchester Ridge Farms is perched on the edge of the Camas Prairie between the Salmon and Clearwater Rivers. Winchester was once a booming logging and mill community. The cutover timber soil of the Winchester area grows nutrient-rich grasses and forbes that Winchester Ridge Farm sheep thrive on in the summer. By grazing the timber pastures along with rotational cover crops on the farm ground, you will find their American White Face lamb some of the mildest, yet most flavorful lamb you have tried.

Eric and Sheila Hasselstrom, with their 3 kids, Kameron, Hunter, and Koleen, farm and once raised cattle on this ground. As the kids transitioned out of the house, Eric and Sheila transitioned into Sheep.

With a family background in the wooly ovine, Sheila and her daughter started with 50 sheep. Now the farm supports 700 breeding ewes. In the summer months with lambs at their mothers’ side, the numbers push to 1700, hungry, quick-stepping, bustling wooly’s.

The Rambouillet ewes are sheared before lambing time each year. The wool is a fine wool that is sold to Pendleton Woolen Mill for use in their famed Pendleton Wool Shirts. The lambs are marketed in the fall. Replacement ewe lambs are chosen for the next breeding year and a handful of weathers are put on feed to fatten and bring directly to their customers.