brindabella farm

Brindabella Farm is a partnership of two families.  The farm is owned by Bruce Vaughn and Patty O’Brien who have two young sons, Aelfred (aka Farmer Freddy) and baby Lachlan.   Our farm-partners are our good friend Jonathan Neill-Dore and his children, Lindsay and Alexander (who is fast becoming a lambing expert too). 

Set in the shadow of the Blue Ridge, Brindabella Farm produces grass fed lamb and breeding stock using sustainable agricultural practices and rotational grazing.  Our growing flock of Clun Forest sheep and their guardian donkey, Cocoa, enjoy the rich pastures of Rappahannock as well as its fabulous views. 

The farm has been a work in progress for many years.  Bruce’s great passion is the environment, improved pastures and sustainable agriculture which allows for the co-existence and flourishing of native flora and fauna as well as ensuring that we do not negatively impact on the environment, especially the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, on which our farm is situated. The farm participates in the Best Management Practices program by fencing off streams and creating hedgerows to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and provide wildlife habitat for the deer, bear, turkey, fox, coyotes, rabbits and songbirds that share the farm with the sheep.

We are also all descended from long lines of tillers-of-the-soil on three continents.  Bruce was raised in Connecticut in a family that owned a nursery and landscaping business and he was a regular visitor to his maternal family’s farm in upstate New York.  Patty hails from Sydney Australia and shares the love of the land, especially at the natural and healthy edible end of the process.  Like most Australians, Patty was raised on lamb and fresh produce of the land, and loves feeding her family and friends on the local and homegrown slow food that abounds in Rappahannock County, our veggie garden and orchard. Being from Durban South Africa, Jonathan was also raised on lamb and a great love of the natural world.   In raising Clun Forest sheep Jonathan is able to build on his expertise in horticulture and his knowledge of good farming practices, and he is also our sheep’s favorite human. He is keen on trying our hand at raising chickens that we plan to house in enclosures similar to those promoted in Joel Salatin’s Pasture Poultry Profits. Farmer Freddy wants to expand operations to include honey bees, which are now also on the agenda.