This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're speaking with Megan Bogle, the owner of True North Farmstead in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

Bogle raises East Friesian/Lacuane crossbreed sheep for dairy products, meat and fiber.

She and her husband started True North after moving out of Philadelphia and into the country where they developed an interest in sheep farming. Their shift toward agriculture is reflected in the name of the farm.

"In order to find true north, you have to adjust yourself to the world around you," Bogle said. "It has guided us in the sense of we can make decisions based on the needs of our family, based on our needs of our community, based on our farm and our land. So, it's always this constant moving and shifting and adjusting in the world."

With that philosophy guiding their way, Bogle and her husband jumped into dairy sheep farming.

There was a lot to learn, from animal husbandry to the regulations involved with making and selling dairy products.

While they were able to learn some of it from reading, Bogle attributes a lot of their success to the supportive community they've found.

"The shepherding community and the cheese making community are awesome. I mean, everybody is very much like, ask any questions, come see, we can talk. So it never feels competitive. It just feels like, hey, let's lift each other up. We're here together."

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're speaking with Lauren Sattazahn, a commercial apiarist.

Sattazahn and her husband John Tittle own Tittle Apiaries in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.

The apiary has about 2,000 hives and makes a variety of honey as well as beeswax products.

Additionally, Tittle Apiaries offers pollination services for farmers.

"When we have larger crops — when you're talking hundreds of acres — you can break it down to a science of how many hives you need per acre to really pollinate what you're trying to get," Sattazahn said.

One of the apiary's biggest annual pollination jobs is taking hives to Maine to pollinate the wild blueberry fields.

And the blueberry honey made from that pollination is one of the best sellers.

"I feel like Maine is just the place for blueberry honey. It just comes out much better there," she said.

In addition to the blueberry honey, Tittle Apiaries sells spring, summer and fall honeys, all made from flower pollination in Pennsylvania.

"The bees are pollinating different things throughout each season, so that's what's going to give your variation in color and flavor," Sattazahn said.

Sattazahn said one of her favorite parts of the job is offering honey tastings while selling at markets — and the reactions that come from tasting the different varieties.

"They say 'honey is honey.' But once you get them to try the differences, they're blown away." Sattazahn said.

With the business growing to thousands of hives, the apiary partners with landowners to serve as hive hosts throughout the year.

"We've had a lot of people that we've kept bees on their land that have said that they've noticed a big difference in their home garden or their flower bed," Sattazahn said. "It's nice to know that it's benefiting both of us."

The bees are overwintered in Georgia to keep the hives thriving during Pennsylvania's cold season.

Tittle Apiaries sells honey wholesale, online, at an on-farm stand, and at a variety of farmers market and vendor events.

"Our foundation of sales really lies on wholesale," Sattazahn said. "But I've noticed that being a part of the community, like our market sales, that seems to just help really building relationships the most."

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we spoke with Lulu Redder, the owner of Feral Woman Farm in North Bend, Washington.

Feral Woman Farm is a pastured pig and chicken operation located within a historic farm park. The land is publicly owned and offers trails and play areas as well as a farmstead.

This means the farm gets plenty of visitors, offering Redder an opportunity to interact with and educate the public on agriculture.

"We get to work in this space which has a lot of history and a lot of public interaction, so it was kind of the perfect place for us to do a community-based farming operation, which I love," said Redder.

Redder takes pride in the closed production loop she's created on the farm. It's important to her that all aspects of her animals' lives are managed on the property, from birth to slaughter.

To keep everything on-site, she trained as a butcher and now processes her livestock on the farm. She also offers community butchery classes to those interested in following in her footsteps.

"I did a lot of exploration and learning about butchery because I felt that I came to a point in my farming career where I was like, if I am going to raise animals for me, I really need to be comfortable with that whole process from start to finish to feel good about that," Redder said.

Many of the people in her classes are women, which Redder appreciates given her own journey.

"I have been a woman on a professional journey and some very typically male-dominated spaces," she said. "And I think it's important as a woman in ag to be pushing for our place at the table and to break the glass ceilings that are walling women in, in certain spaces."

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we spoke with Annie Hasz of Broadwing Farm.

The Berks County, Pennsylvania, farm started in vegetable production but now focuses on grass-fed lamb for meat and pelts.

Hasz also co-runs Rooted Home Herbalism, an annual eight-month course that teaches growing and using herbs.

"We achieved our original dream and we grew loads of produce. We sold at farmers markets and through CSA and then more and more to restaurants," Hasz said. "But I had other interests developing in herbalism. So, as time moved on, things shifted."

Hasz developed an interest in herbalism early in her farming journey. After being mentored by an herbalist from the Lehigh Valley, Hasz pursued clinical herbalism education in Virginia.

And while the term herbalism is relatively new, Hasz said the practice goes back many years.

"It's the use of, or partnering with, plants for some sort of health or enhancement of your life," Hasz said. "I really love to teach basic botany and just help people get really familiar with any plants they're going to encounter."

While Broadwing Farm no longer grows produce for commercial sale, Hasz still grows vegetables along with herbs.

"There's just this feeling for being with plants," Hasz said. "I think that's really the core of my whole interest in all these things is any plants, I'll be into it."

Now, the main part of Broadwing Farm's business comes from sheep.

Hasz raises both Texel sheep and East Friesian sheep to sell both meat and pelts.

"We definitely wanted the meat to be centered, and that they would be great at thriving on grass," Hasz said. "And then just to have nice wool — to be that all-purpose animal."

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we spoke with Lindsay Eshelman of Plow Farms.

Eshelman grew up on the Plowville, Pennsylvania, farm that specializes in Christmas trees, and while she still does work with the farm today, she spends much of her time living in New York City.

"I'm kind of the leading voice in PR and marketing, and more importantly experience," Eshelman said. "My role is to bring the experience to the farm and to create this capsule of joy and Christmas that we have."

One of the biggest ways Eshelman creates joy on the farm is its annual Newfoundland Day.

Each year, hundreds of Newfoundland dogs come to Plow Farms to haul Christmas trees for customers.

What started as an event with a few dogs and handful of attendees has turned into a massive event with people coming from out of state to spend the whole day surrounded by huge, fluffy dogs and Christmas trees.

"I took a video of it and I put it online and we got a million views on this video, which blew my mind. It was a 15-second clip of a dog walking through the snow," Eshelman said. "The Newfoundland has gone from being our pet to basically being the face of the farm."

While Eshelman runs her family farm's marketing, she also works in marketing outside the farm, including previous jobs with celebrities and global food companies.

These experiences led her to a lot of travel, where she's gotten to see firsthand how farming works around the world.

"Seeing how other countries are fostering agriculture in a modern way but also keeping traditions is what I love to take back to the farm," Eshelman said. "One hand meets another. As I get all this global experience it makes me love my farm even more."

Growing up on a farm has benefited her by teaching her the value of hard work. But her time spent living in the city has shown her how important it is to get people to visit farms.

"The more things we can do to get people to the farm and to experience this agro-entertainment I think is really exciting," Eshelman said. "I want to build that as part of Plow Farms' identity and narrative."

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Julia Inslee, owner of Locust Hollow Farm in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

Inslee has lived on the farm since her parents purchased the property in the late 1970s. At the time, it was home to a farmhouse, a few rundown barns and several acres of untended land.

Over the next few decades, Inslee's family transformed the property. In 2010, Inslee started a dairy sheep operation and now raises East Friesians for milk and fiber.

"One of the major misconceptions about sheep is that they're all the same," Inslee said. "Every single ewe has a very different personality, and when you're with them on a daily basis, that really comes out."

Though Locust Hollow sells fiber from its sheep, Inslee's main focus is dairy: sheep's milk, yogurt and cheese.

Inspired by childhood trips to cheese shops in Philadelphia, Inslee taught herself how to make cheese with her sheep's milk, which she saw as an opportunity for additional income.

"I started experimenting and those first batches of cheese, they were terrible," Inslee said of the learning curve. "I think it took about five years to really get a good routine down and really figure out which cheeses worked for me."

Inslee now makes and sells a variety of sheep's milk cheeses, including feta and a Manchego-style cheese rubbed with rosemary grown on the farm and named "Rosy Morning."

Inslee sells her products at several local markets and enjoys the opportunity to educate the public about sheep's milk products.

"I think we're on the cusp of the general public being a little bit more aware of sheep's milk products," she said. "People in general, customers now are looking for something other than cheddar."

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Brittany Peachey, the aquaculture operations manager at Hudson Valley Fisheries in Hudson, New York.

Peachey's interest in aquaculture was born from an aquatic biology class in college. After earning her master's degree in aquaculture nutrition, she came to work at Hudson Valley Fisheries, a fish farm that specializes in sustainably raised steelhead trout.

Peachey was recently awarded the New York State Fair Golden Hoof Award, which is given in recognition of outstanding animal care and husbandry.

She acknowledges it's unusual for a fish farm to be considered for such an award and is grateful not only for the honor but for the opportunity for fish to be included in animal welfare discussions.

"Fish welfare is increasingly important in the marketplace, not just from a business point of view but from an ethical point of view as well," Peachey said. "People will argue, do fish feel pain? And to be honest, I don't think from a producer standpoint we need to think that way. Let's assume that they do and then grow them in the best way possible."

Peachey works in many aspects of Hudson Valley's operations, including its recirculating aquaculture system, or RAS, which allows the facility to reuse 95% of its water.

"RAS farms tend to be more efficient with water resources as compared to more traditional forms of fish farming. So, we're producing more fish with less water," said Peachey.

In addition to using an RAS, Hudson Valley sends fish waste to a composting facility to be used for fertilizer, continuing its emphasis on sustainability while catering to a growing market.

Peachey argues that the comparison between farmed and wild-caught fish should be put to rest, particularly given sustainable aquaculture practices and the risks of overfishing.

"With fish being such a healthy protein source, we want people to eat more fish. Where's that going to come from without the price skyrocketing? It's going to be aquaculture," said Peachey.

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're ushering in the holiday season with a special seasonal episode featuring an interview with Kelly Piccioni, Penn State's Christmas tree-focused Extension educator.

Piccioni comes from a family with roots in selling Christmas trees. Her great-grandfather began selling trees he bought off the Orange Car—a railway-side produce stand that opened in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the 1930s.

Her grandparents continued the tradition when they bought what is now the family's Christmas tree farm, Geissler Tree Farms.

"Christmas trees is pretty much where our family story really began," Piccioni said.

As Pennsylvania's sole Extension educator who specializes in Christmas trees, Piccioni's work takes her all over the state as she works with growers to overcome challenges like recent droughts.

"I've been out in Christmas tree fields more than I've really been in an office," Piccioni said, adding that she enjoys knowing her work contributes toward people's holiday traditions.

"People are excited this year to find that joy in Christmas," she said. "And Christmas tree growers think so hard all year long about what they can add to their farm or the customer experience to make it magical."

In addition to talking with Piccioni, we discuss family cookie-baking traditions, including German-inspired chocolate chip meringues and a debate over the correct thickness for sugar cookies.

We'll also touch on a couple holiday traditions from around the world, so join us for the tales of the Belsnickel and St. Lucia.

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're speaking with Denise Bosworth of Rohrbach's Farm.

Bosworth is part of the farm's fourth generation and runs the farm market in Columbia County, Pennsylvania.

Bosworth and her husband, Dan, returned to the farm in 2013 to begin a new culinary venture, Big Dan's BBQ.

In 2015, Bosworth officially took over the farm market portion of the business and her brother, Mark Rohrbach, took over the farming operation.

"I like to say my brother grows the food, Dan cooks the food and I throw the party," Bosworth said. "We all definitely bring our own strengths to the table but then work together to bring it all together."

Bosworth gives a lot of credit to the farm's third generation — her parents, aunt and uncle.

While the transition wasn't necessarily planned and executed perfectly, she said mutual respect and conversation led to the farm's current success.

In addition to running the farm market, Bosworth also does community and educational outreach.

She has written two agricultural-themed children's books, "Penelope Pumpkin" and "Are They Ready Yet: A Strawberry Story From a Pennsylvania Farm."

"I always say, if I could only grow two things, it would be pumpkins and strawberries," Bosworth said.

Additionally, she launched a nonprofit called Seeds of the Future to provide agriculture education and farm experiences that are accessible, affordable and relevant.

The organization focuses on students and people with special needs with a goal of helping the community.

"I think women represent agriculture incredibly well," Bosworth said. "If we want kids to be part of agriculture now and in the future, we have to represent it well."

On Nov. 1, Rohrbach's Farm was announced as one of seven recipients of Lancaster Farming's The Farmer's Choice Award.

Recipients were nominated and voted on by Lancaster Farming readers.

"To be acknowledged on this platform with these other people is extremely humbling to me," Bosworth said.

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Casey Wisch, co-owner of Long Stone Farm in Lovettsville, Virginia.

Wisch's interest in farming began in college. After graduating, she spent time in New Zealand and Australia where she first encountered permaculture and experienced being part of an agricultural community.

When she returned to the U.S., she and her now husband began working toward founding Long Stone Farm.

"We wanted to start this grazing operation and we wanted to produce good clean meat for our community, and we wanted to pursue a better path forward for our own farm," said Wisch. "And so it was kind of those values and ideas that drove us to start Long Stone Farm."

At Long Stone Farm, Wisch and her husband raise pastured beef, pork, poultry and eggs with a focus on sustainability.

They were recently honored for their hard work with a Grand Basin Clean Water Farm Award. The award is given to Virginia farmers who have implemented conservation practices to protect water quality.

"This is a lifetime achievement award for me," said Wisch.

A meeting with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation further inspired Wisch to continue sustainable farming efforts.

"They showed the different watersheds and we got a really clear understanding of exactly where our runoff goes and what that day-to-day work really means in terms of watershed health," Wisch said. "And it was really amazing to know that those day-to-day decisions are really impacting our overall region."

When she's not focused on keeping her farm sustainable, Wisch is busy marketing the operation and raising the family's four children. She wears many hats but knows she's doing what she was meant to do.

"There's multitasking happening all the time. There's things that need care and attention and details. And I think women are set up for this. We were made to do this," Wisch said.