Learn about Lamb Shoppe
Lamb Shoppe, owned by husband-and-wife team Connie Karstens and Doug Rathke, has raised grass-fed meat for since 1986. Today, their 180-acre farm in Hutchinson, Minn., is home to over 500 sheep, with flocks spending their days grazing pastures of grasses, clovers, and various herbs along the winding Crow River.
In addition to offering lamb to local co-ops, Lamb Shoppe is a farm, meat-cutting facility, and retail shop that offers classes on health and wellness. The couple leans on their expertise—Doug as a prized sheep shearer and Connie as a biologist, former nutrition professor, and herbalist—to manage their farm using a holistic method.
Keeping age-old traditions of nurturing the land, they believe that caring for the earth from the soil-up ensures healthy plants for their animals. During a trip to New Zealand early in their farming journey, Connie and Doug were introduced to management-intensive grazing, something unheard of in the U.S. at the time. Drawing on those techniques alongside Connie’s background in biology, Lamb Shoppe’s farming selects the best sheep to produce self-sufficient, reliable flocks of Dorsets that play an active role in soil health, balanced with careful mineral management. Lamb Shoppe’s holistic approach to farming and their grazing techniques not only yield high-quality lamb but foster an environment for both land and animals to flourish.