Our History
Taste and See Family Farm was established by Paul and Candace Lehrer in 2012 on our 6 acre mini-farm in Clinton, Tennessee. As first-generation farmers, we navigated the steep agriculture learning curve by trial and error, learning by doing. At one time or another, we had laying hens, honey bees, pigs, goats, dairy calves that we raised up for beef, and sheep. In 2020 we were prompted by family needs to relocate to West Tennessee, where we purchased a 58-acre farm in Bethel Springs in McNairy County. After first renovating the house, we finally reestablished our farming operation in 2024 with 16 ewes, a ram and 2 guardian donkeys.
Our Practices
Humane Animal Treatment
We do our best to keep our animals as stress-free as possible. Our practices include:
- Full time access to natural shade
- A new allocation of fresh pasture approximately every 1-3 days
- Lambing in springtime when the weather is mild and fresh forage is plentiful
- Low-stress handling -- usually our sheep will follow the donkeys to wherever we need them to go, but in those instances where we have to herd them, we do it slowly and on foot.
100% Grassfed
Our sheep's diet consists only of mother's milk, pasture forages, fresh water, and minerals (including small amounts of apple cider vinegar as an occasional supplement for digestive health). They never receive any grain whatsoever.
No Pharmaceuticals
We do not treat our animals with any pharmaceuticals other than topical treatments for minor injuries. In the event an animal may need treatment for an illness or parasite infestation, that animal will be humanely treated and removed from our normal protocols and will not be sold as 100% grassfed.
Rotational Grazing
We rotate our animals around the pastures on a regular basis, usually remaining in the same paddock (pasture subdivision) for about 1-3 days, except during winter or lambing season. Rotational grazing has many important benefits, including:
- Animals stay on a more level plane of nutrition
- Better forage utilization (animals tend not to focus as much on preferred plants)
- Improved soil fertilization due to better distribution of urine and manure
- Better pasture productivity (due to longer recovery periods and improved soil health)
- More diversity of pasture plants (animals cannot overgraze and weaken preferred plants)
- Reduced problems with internal parasites
- We know exactly where the animals are and don't have to go looking for them
- Helps with the donkeys' effectiveness as guardians, since they're kept together with the sheep