Wendy Rhein is trying to round up the sheep hanging out among the hazelnut and walnut trees of her Chutzpah Hollow farm in Tryon, North Carolina .

“Hi, Brea. Come on down. I hear you,” Rhein calls to the bleating queen of the flock. If the Barbados black belly ewe moves, the rest will follow.

Brea, a bottle-fed lamb named Hadassah and their flock mates bound down the hill when Rhein rustles a box of kosher tea biscuits. The small treat reveals something different about this farm. Rhein is remarkable for several reasons: she’s a female farmer in a male-dominated industry and a single mother who had no farming experience when she launched her farm at age 52. She’s also Jewish.

Wendy Rhein examines an injured sheep at her farm in Tryon, North Carolina.

Rhein, who also works as vice-president of a faith-based advocacy organization, is part of a renewed interest among Jews in farming as an expression of their religion, culture or values.…