Common Threads

This charming display at our food co-op, promoting Basque cheeses, made me think of a event we'd considered attending this year, before going to Iceland rose to the top of our list -- the annual Trailing of the Sheep Festival in Ketchum and Hailey, Idaho, October 10-13.

Each spring, the sheep are herded north from the lower elevations of the Snake River plain to summer high mountain pastures, and then retrace their journey in the autumn. Their traditional route takes them through the towns of Bellevue, Hailey, and Ketchum.

The four-day Trailing of the Sheep Festival has something for everyone -- a Fiber Fest offering a variety of classes, championship sheepdog trials, a Folklife Fair, a "Lamb Dine Around" at a number of local restaurants, and the parade on Sunday, with 1500 sheep moving through Ketchum's Main Street.

It would be worth going for the Folklife Fair alone, which offers demonstrations of sheep shearing, sheep herding, spinning, and weaving; traditional Basque food featuring lamb; craft booths; and performances by the Boise Highlanders (bagpipers, drummers, and dancers), Peruvian dancers and musicians, Oinkari Basque Dancers, and Polish Highlanders of North America. (Both Scots and Basques were influential in the success of sheep ranching in this region of Idaho; today, most Idaho herders are Peruvian.)

I think this event will stay near the top of our "must see" list! (The photos on the website are excellent -- do take a look at the link in the first paragraph.)

And -- I can tie the Idaho event into our Iceland trip, as well! We'll arrive at our self-catering cottage on an Icelandic horse farm in northern Iceland on September 7, and on September 8 we'll watch the réttadagur, when the sheep brought down from the summer pastures two days earlier are sorted. (You can see a great video of the 2012 round-up and réttadagur -- note the early September weather! -- made by the owner of "our" horse farm on YouTube here.)