Suzanna Crampton & Zwartbles Ireland

Suzanna is a blanket-designing shepherd who lives and works on a small farm in the River Nore Valley in South County Kilkenny, Ireland.

Her first flock of sheep was conventional commercial stock. As she enlarged her flock, a farmer friend and neighbour pointed out that she couldn’t make much money with conventional sheep on such small acreage. He suggested that to earn adequate income from sheep farming a high end pedigreed or rare breed of sheep might work. In 2008 when the National Ploughing Championships came to County Kilkenny, Suzanna inspected sheep breeds to see what she might like to choose. All top end pedigreed breeds cost well above her cash bracket. But she met Ray Sweeny with his Zwartbles sheep.

She shears fleeces that are spun locally into yarn. They are woven to make three sizes of blankets. She also sells lambs for breeding and meat. The Zwartbles wool blankets are sold via her farm and website and shipped internationally. Social media has been her sole means of marketing and to spread news about what, where, why and how she raises sheep and produces blankets from their wool on her environmentally sustainable farm.

Three weeks after launch of the blankets, the Crafts Council of Ireland selected her Zwartbles Travel Rug for the 2013 London Design Festival. Three months later The President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins chose Zwartbles Ireland Travel Rugs as diplomatic gifts for his trip to South and Central America.

Suzanna often appears as a guest on local, national and international radio programs as far away as New Zealand, Australia and USA. RTE, BBC and Sky TV have interviewed her on many elements of farming from biodiversity to carbon sequestration, traceability of her products from wool to meat and about her book.

She appeared in the films ‘Minds of Makers’ about process of wool from sheep’s back to spun yarn. Also in ‘Small Green Fields’ that celebrates Irish food and farming, she presented her guests with lamb stew, sheep’s milk ice cream, sheep cheese and sheep’s milk for their tea and coffee. Subsequently the USA herb company Penzeys asked her to write a unique Irish lamb stew recipe.

Suzanna is a talented photographer, teaches photography and uses social media. She communicates with a broad variety of social media followers; wool lovers, teachers, veterinarians, scientists, writers, environmentalists, food specialists and farmers from over the world. Many of whom have now visited the farm in person. She is a founding member of Southeast Women in Farming Ireland and she advocates for women who farm. She also co-founded Regenerative Farming Ireland.

Suzanna wrote Bodacious: The Shepherd Cat. From the perspective of Bodacious the cat, this beautifully written memoir of his life on Black Sheep Farm and all that entails early mornings, frosty starts, beautiful sunrises, adventurous rare-breed Zwartbles sheep, hard work, entertaining animals, mouth-watering food, kind people and idyllic country living with its highs and lows.