By Bev Eckman-Onyskow
For the Daily News

Laughing Sheep Farm & Serendip Orchard

     Looking for a different travel destination as summer vacation winds down?
     Journey north two hours from Alamogordo to Lincoln, and you'll find two places well worth the drive.
     One is Serendip Orchard, which has acres of pick-it-yourself berries and vegetables.  The other is Laughing Sheep Farm, which raises beef, sheep, pigs--and buffalo--and sells the meat and other products.  That was a diversification move by owner Sally Canning to save her farm after a drought.
     Both Serendip and Laughing Sheep have their own restaurants on-site.   Serendip has true Mexican at its El Rebozo Cafe.  Laughing Sheep has grass-fed chemical-free beef, pork and lamb, and other foods, burgers, sandwiches and entrees.  Both are excellent.
     And both have shops selling their products and other merchandise.
     First, the fruit.  If picking berries is your penchant, Serendip is the place for you.  Pick your own blackberries, or three different kinds of raspberries, all delicious.
     That's what close to 40 members of the Otero County Master Gardener Association, their spouses and kids, did last week, and enjoyed every berry.  After snacking, there were those who managed to save some to take home.
     "We tried 10 different kinds of blackberries, and only Triple Crown worked," manager Felipe Macias told the assemblage.  "They are just beginning to come in now."
     Look under the leaves, he said, as people fanned out with the Styrofoam cups that were provided, and filled them up.
     Serendip has "about 16 acres," Macias said. " Six in raspberries, two in blackberries, two in vegetables and the rest cherries.  We use drip irrigation, with water from the river, and it's a very good system."
     As for most gardeners and farmers, the main problem, he said, is "keeping the weeds out."
     And beware wet weather. Mother Nature can be cruel.
      "If the berries get wet, they can become moldy," Macias said.  "If it's raining every day, you can't pick.  Last year we lost 70 percent of the crop."
     What happens to the berries that aren't picked?  "The over-ripe ones, we make jams and jellies.  And we have a guy up by Albuquerque who makes table wine out of raspberries."

     Macias explained the how-to:  "Pick the red raspberries pulling up.  The purple ones are the best, the most flavorful.  Pick the black raspberries that are all black.  If they're a little red, they're not ripe, they're sour."
     Macias' wife, Cecilia, cooks, and their children, Brenda, 13, and sons Luis, 10, and Brian, 7, help in the restaurant and store.
     Right now, Macias said, Autumn Blaze, Ruby Red and Dinkum raspberries are in, and Triple Crown blackberries.
    Master Gardener Jim Money of Alamogordo raises raspberries and other crops, and spent some time talking with Macias about how to get them to bloom and produce.  Money said he thought heat is the culprit and they may do better as the weather cools off, and Macias concurred.
     Jim and wife Alice picked a pound of raspberries.  "We ate them before we got home, that was a given," Money said.
     "We enjoyed the tour."  They had lunch, burritos, at Serendip's El Rebozo Cafe.  "It was really good," Money said.
     Vegetables are available for self-picking as they mature--squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and okra.  All are chemical-free.
     Serendip Orchard is open June through October.
     Across the bridge, over the Bonita River from Serendip, is Laughing Sheep Farm, owned by Sally Canning.
     Her father, Jack Canning, ran cattle on what was then Canning Ranches.  "He's in the Brangus Breeder Hall of Fame," Sally Canning said.  That's a hybrid of Brahma and Angus breeds.
     When change in the form of severe drought came, Canning said she knew she had to change her focus.  She'd spent her entire life on the ranch, she said, and intended to stay there.
     Her flock of sheep could no longer be the primary support of her farm, which has been in the family for generations.
     Canning's Laughing Sheep Farm still has the sheep, but she has added different animals, including free-range pigs, calves, milk cows and a steer and a bison a year.
     For diversification, there's a store with a deli, and a sunny, airy restaurant glassed on three sides, which seats 26 inside and a dozen people outside.
     "We are a travel destination," she said during the recent visit by the Master Gardeners.
     Why Laughing Sheep Farm?  Dad and I started handling the sheep, to calm them down, Canning said.  Look at those sheep, we said, they are so contented, so happy, they are laughing.  Eight years later that became the name and the marketing. 
     The sheep still look content, and they should.  They have free-range exercise, their pastures are tested and they get supplements.
     Canning had 250 sheep before the drought of 1997-98.  "I was selling lambs, but it got drier and drier, and I had to cull back the sheep.  I couldn't run that many on this acreage.  It was so blasted dry that I got down to around 25."
     And because of the drought, she said she decided "to direct-market, and not just lambs.  The other meat came from consumer demand, so I added another animal, and another animal.  It all started with lamb and eggs, and we have worked our butts off."
     The "we" includes Steve Duff and Pam Gass.  Canning does much of the cooking in the restaurant, but Duff "is the best cook in the county," Canning said, and Gass is an able assistant.
     Duff is a very recent addition to the staff.  He pretty much wandered in, and the restaurant was so busy, he started to help out--and got a job as a cook and server.  "I've eaten in enough restaurants that I know how people like to be treated," Duff said.
     The restaurant is airy and sunny, glassed on three sides.     On the other side of the building is the country store, which has everything from the farm’s meat and eggs to cast-iron cookware.
     Mother Earth News would love this place, said Master Gardener spouse John Onyskow.
     Master Gardener Gail Goossen was there with husband Stu.  She noted that the next time she’s in the area, I’ll bring a cooler so I can really stock up, this place is great.
      Canning has a great attitude.  "I just love life," she said.  "You get out of it what you put into it, and I consistently try to put a lot into it."
     Before becoming a full-time farm entrepreneur and because she loved to ski, Canning put in a stint as a full-time instructor at a nearby ski area, which she did for more than 20 years.  "I loved to teach children," she said. 
     But her first love was Canning Ranches.  "I did all the pasture restoration, road repair and fence work.  My dad bought a bulldozer, and gave it to me to figure out."
     Canning said she had to "spend a lot of time researching sheep behavior. Coming from a cattle background, I really didn't understand sheep."
     She also had to learn sustainability, she said, and learned how to terrace fields and put in eight varieties of forage.  "Sheep eat the short grass and cows eat the tall grass.  They get along well together."

     Now she has what she termed "a micro-managed integrated farm, which is one of the last working farms in the area."  In addition to the sheep, pigs and a bison, she raises 24 calves a year.  I love my milk cows," she said.
     How many acres does she have?  "It's insulting to ask a farmer or rancher that, like asking someone how much money do you have."  However many acres, she consistently turns down offers to buy the farm and subdivide it, or turn it into something else.    
     Bison burgers are on the restaurant menu, along with beef and lamb, "all meat is grass fed, chemical free, low fat, low stress and raised right here on the farm."  She buys calves, then "grows them and processes them."
     The Laughing Sheep greenhouses produce most of the plants for the vegetables that are grown and sold, everything from lettuce and spinach to squash.
     She's considering adding rattlesnake to her menu, "because it's a healthy, therapeutic meat."
     Sally Canning is not one to rest on past accomplishments.  She is working on establishing the Canning Meat Co.  We’ll be packaging chemical-free grass fed meat for the Whole Foods chain, she said.   
     She plans to build a pool, and sell memberships in it.  The refrigerated boxcar is going to be a private tea room, and a massage room.  I already have three massage therapists who want to come in.  
     And she’s considering starting seminars on what she does and how she does it.  A lot of people want to learn how I’m making this work.  Other producers in agriculture are willing to get out of the box and hear for themselves about new-age agriculture.
     There is a way to keep the farm in the family, and keep the family on the farm.  I’m a hardheaded workaholic, so I started going for the quality.
     I do a few things that people say they desperately want, like live culture cottage cheese; you would not believe what that has done for my health.
     We would do some workshops on drying foods, and canning foods.  I’m chemical-free.  People should be able to get and afford good food."
     Already underway is expansion of the restaurant / shop building, adding a new kitchen with a state-of the art stove, a dehydrator for jerky, a 60-gallon kettle for meat sauces, and something Gass said she is looking forward to--a user-friendly floor, instead of the concrete and wood over concrete we’ve walked a million steps on.
     Canning bought insulated boxcars in Alamorosa, and uses them for storage.

       Visitors to Laughing Sheep Farm can purchase and take home not only lamb, but venison, buffalo and pork, all grass-fed and chemical free.  They can also stock up on marinades, bastes, glazes, rubs, soups, jellies and lavender products in her country store, as well as milk, bread and eggs.
     And dog treats and bones, and soup bones.  "We use everything," Canning said.  "We have people who come here specifically for our dog treats."  
     Canning's daughter, Amber, works in Alamogordo as a veterinary assistant.
      Granddaughter Molly, nicknamed Tinky, is 4 years old.  She is the catalyst for the addition of another type of animal to Laughing Sheep Farm.  Grandmother Sally is planning to get Tinky a horse.
     "Tinky will be raised on a working farm, and that continues our family's heritage," Canning said.

     Bev Eckman-Onyskow is an Alamogordo-based freelance writer and vice-president of the Otero County Master Gardener Association.  E-mail her your gardening questions and comments at beckmanonyskow@aol.com.