Stew Leonard’s Shears the Sheep

On June 30, the Stew’s Little Farm locations at Stew Leonard’s locations in Norwalk and Danbury, Conn., and Yonkers, N.Y., are holding their annual sheep shearing event, with kids invited to watch as the two sheep at each Little Farm are shorn by local Connecticut farmers.

During the demonstration, which takes just a few minutes per sheep when performed by a skilled shearer, the farmers teach children about how and why the procedure is done and how the wool is used after it’s removed. Sheep are typically sheared once a year in late spring to keep them cool during the summer.

The Stew's Little Farm concept was born in 1969, when Stew Leonard Sr., founder of the chain, had to relocate his Norwalk-based Clover Farms Dairy because of the construction of the Route 7 highway. He set his sights on an old farm on U.S. Route 1, owned by Hazel Schultze, who didn't want to sell because she wanted the pasture for her sheep. Leonard came up with the idea that if Schultze sold him the land, he would build a farm for her sheep, even adding some goats, ducks and chickens to make it more like a “real” farm, and she could visit her sheep every day.