We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kathryn Stuart. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kathryn below.

Kathryn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I am a single Mom and I have four children. At the time when we came up with the idea for Northern Viking Farm – I was still homeschooling my three youngest. We were pretty burnt out from our current homeschooling model and decided to take a year off and start a business. We had moved back to the original Stuart family homestead on 100 acres in the Ottawa Valley and had gotten a couple of Icelandic sheep and Icelandic chickens. We had some brainstorming sessions about what we envisioned for the farm for our future and what ideas and dreams we would like to see come to fruition. We came up with a logo and created a website and things just sort of took off from there.

The risk we took was that when we started this venture we had zero knowledge of animal husbandry and breeding purebred animals. It has been a steep learning curve – but one full of rewards and unexpected blessings.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

At Northern Viking Farm we are passionate about Icelandic sheep and Icelandic chickens. The Icelandic sheep is one of the world’s oldest and purest breeds of sheep. They were isolated in Iceland for over 1000 years and kept by the Vikings. These Viking Sheep are truly triple-purpose, treasured for their fiber, milk, and meat.

We raise and sell purebred registered Icelandic sheep for breeding stock purposes; we sell grass-fed gourmet Icelandic meat products; various cuts, sausages and pepperettes.

We also make use of the Icelandic sheep’s unique double coat; we shear the sheep ourselves and wash the fleeces. turning this amazing double layered wool product into roving for hand-spinners, felting wool for crafters, as well as spinning it into yarn.
Icelandic sheep come in a wide variety of natural hues with 92 different registered patterns. This makes each fleece unique and adds an extra layer of excitement during lambing season.

In an attempt to use every part of the animals that are selected to be used for meat – we process the skulls and horns into ornamental pieces.

The Icelandic chickens are also super special and are considered endangered. They are known as a Landrace breed – having been isolated in Iceland and kept by the Vikings for over a 1000 years as well. There, they developed to the specific environmental conditions of Iceland. They come in a beautiful and wide array of colours, they are a hardy breed and overwinter in our cold Ontario winters with no added heat or light. They lay eggs year round and prefer to forage when weather permits rather than eating grain. Best of all, they can fly, making them practically predator proof.
We ship hatching eggs throughout Eastern Canada, as well as offering straight run chicks, some hens and roosters.

We have been expanding our Icelandic sheep flock and have been collecting older genetics from the first ever export of Icelandic sheep to come out of Iceland. Interestingly, that first export came to a farm just an hour and a 1/2 south of us. This means that there are still some of those rare and older genetics out there. It is important to us that as the breed modernizes, the original traits that have made Icelandic sheep so valuable and different, are not lost. For example; easy lambing with twins and triplets, amazing fleeces, good milk production, and the ability to thrive on a 100% grass-fed diet.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

The sales from Northern Viking Farm are primarily seasonal.

For example;
Meat is sold in the fall.
Breeding stock sales of lambs takes place in late summer/ early fall.
Wool sales tend to pick up in late fall and pre-Christmas.

This year I found that despite the small business loan I had secured to expand the flock and purchase new fencing last year, I was still going to fall short and need extra money to expand and fence new pasture. So, I decided to turn one of my artistic pursuits into a side business for funding the fencing. I took up my paintbrush and created over 70 acrylic-on-canvas paintings of scenes of trees inspired by life on the farm. I secured a show at the local Bonnechere Union Public Library where my works are currently on display and for sale. The show is titled: Winter’s Trees – A Study of Light and Shadow in the Season of Darkness, and is on until May 31st 2024.

This artistic endeavor was a way for me to channel my creative energy and be productive, while not compromising my need to stay home with my homeschooled children, and be able to tend the flock.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

When we started out with the Icelandic sheep, I knew I wanted to use the wool … but I didn’t know anything about how one goes about turning a sheep’s coat into yarn, or what steps might be involved.

I am not someone who is inclined to turn to online learning vidoes for help – which is often the go-to tool people will point one to. So my path was through trial and error, and just plain diving in and trying and failing, and trying again.

Eventually, I met some key people who really helped me with the process and upped my knowledge – but truthfully, this whole business has been built on just forging ahead despite my not having the skills, and just a huge amount of trust that I will come out the other side, and that the people I need to meet will appear at the right time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.NorthernVikingFarm.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthernVikingFarm/ https://www.facebook.com/people/ART-Kathryn-Stuart/61556355397156/
• Other: email: [email protected]

Image Credits
All photos by Northern Viking Farm