Shear Country Pleasure

If you want to enjoy a day in the country without leaving the San Fernando Valley, try the annual Farm Walk on Sunday at Pierce College. A popular attraction on the Woodland Hills campus will be the sheep shearing demonstration by faculty member Bill Lander. A 20-year veteran of the teaching farm faculty at Pierce, Lander said shearing is anything but an exercise in nostalgia.

“These sheep are stronger than a person,” said Lander.

Having learned his craft as a teenager in the Valley, he said he has seen a growing demand for sheep wool and milk by the boutique food and clothing industries.

“There are four times the number of sheep being raised in the West today as during frontier days,” Lander said recently. In addition to Lander’s demonstrations, which will take place each hour beginning at 10 a.m. at the farm’s sheep unit, there will be exhibitions on wool carding and spinning.

At the horse unit, visitors can watch experts grooming horses and demonstrating equipment, and a farrier will shoe horses. There also will be horticulture demonstrations and a plant sale. Visitors are encouraged to take self-guided farm tours, view farm equipment displays and hike through the upper areas of the farm for a glimpse of how the entire Valley used to look.

Besides the Farm Walk, the annual Pierce College Intercollegiate Rodeo gets underway tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. in Shepard Stadium on campus. On Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Pierce College Farmers’ Market, with more than 30 vendors, will be at the corner of De Soto Avenue and Victory Boulevard. And Sunday, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Farm Walk takes place at the teaching farm. Enter at Victory and Mason.

BE THERE

Pierce College Farm Walk, Sunday from 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., 6201 Winnetka Ave., Woodland Hills. Requested donation $5, children under 12 free. (818) 719-6463. Also, Pierce College Intercollegiate Rodeo today and Saturday at 7 p.m. Adults $8, students, children and seniors $6. (818) 710-2980. Pierce College Farmer’s Market, Saturday from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at De Soto and Victory.