Gotland's Sheep

Everywhere you look on Gotland you see small black and grayish sheep wandering around munching on grass and bleating. Often it is hard to tell to if there is even a shepherd attached to these sheep. Every farm seems to have at least a handful of these small woolly sheep. Attached to most of these farms are little shops that sell some of these goods produced on the farm or on the neighboring farms. Two things you can invariably find in these shops are lammskinns (exactly what they sound like) and beautiful spun grey wool, still oozing the smell of lanolin.

Frans' farm has about 4 dozen Gotland sheep (some are seen above eating the "bad" carrots he harvested earlier in the summer) and a few Leicester (which have finer and whiter wool, but are not native). The Gotland sheep are not the original native breed- that is the Gute- but since the Gute's genetic characteristics made it less desirable than other European breeds, it was cross bred with the with Karakuls and Romanovs during the early 1900's.

The Gotlands are raised primarily for meat, but the skins, and more and more the spun wool is being sold to tourists and being sued by local crafts people. Because of the EU's progressive agricultural politics many people have been able to hold on to there flocks even when they are not able to support themselves from it. The EU recognizes the important of the keeping these smaller breeds and genetics alive, and also the ecological use of the Gotlands, nothing keeps the land clear (and therefor more desirable for tourism) as economically and sustainably as the Gotland. You can read more about the EU's agricultural policies on there website.