A New Year's Introduction

Usually, humans are behind the camera for this missive. This time, for the New Year and new subscribers, we jumped in front of the camera to say hi!

We are Jeff and Elise Koning, the husband and wife team behind Sylvanmore. We started our farm in June 2020, a month after we were married, with just a few sheep. Now, we've grown to many sheep, goats, llamas, and Christmas trees with plans to incorporate Clydesdales and agritourism.

As we began our new life and farm together, we knew that we wanted to both preserve my (Elise's) farm heritage and incorporate Jeff’s specialties, creating a new path with an exciting future. The name Sylvanmore reflects the heritage of two of my family's farms: Woodland Farms and Strathmore Commons Farm. “Sylvan” refers to a wooded area or a spirit of the woods. A sylvan person lives in a woodland region and is shaped by trees. “Sylvan” also can mean “pleasantly rural or pastoral.” The word “more” (meaning “big” or “large”) is often seen in place names in Scotland, such as Strathmore, the valley where my grandmother grew up.

Between the two of us are years of agriculture, travel, and tourism experience. I have traveled the world and worked on several New Zealand farms, while Jeff has traveled and worked around the United States. We met when I returned home to Indiana, where Jeff was living around the corner from the farm where I grew up. It's the same farm where we now raise our livestock and trees.

The last two years have seen a lot of growth, and we're making plans to offer more for you this year. During the last two winters, we've produced Light in Winter, sending an illustrated letter from the farm each week to subscribers. We also have started offering quality breeding stock for sale and will be adding Shetland and Shropshire fleeces, as well. And in a few years, when our Eastern white pines, Canaan firs, and concolor firs are grown, you can take one (or more!) home for your Christmas tree. 

We're looking forward to all the possibilities of 2023, and we appreciate you joining us as we share life on the farm!

Thanks for Reading!

And we hope you feel refreshed and rejuvenated for the week ahead. Consider:

• Who are you excited to hang out with in 2023?

Share your excitement and this newsletter with them!

If Sylvan Sundays was forwarded to you, welcome! Subscribe to receive this newsletter each week by clicking the button below.

This Week on the Farm

We're looking forward to meeting with fellow members of the Indiana Shetland Sheepbreeders Association this week. It's always nice to bounce ideas off of fellow sheep enthusiasts.

Jeff continues distributing lime on the Christmas trees. The picture below is from Friday night. Purple stretched across the winter sky and landscape. Lately, there've been a lot of gray days and nights, so the color was a nice break from all that.