You may know Full Belly Farm for their delicious produce, flowers, and lamb available at local farmers markets and through their community supported agriculture (CSA) veggie boxes. They also have sheep! They are mowers and fertilizers that make yummy wool too! We are excited to be able to offer their yarn to you.
Click here to see their blog post from last May about sheep shearing. There is a fun time lapse video that shows the shearing process. Below are pictures from that shearing day showing sheep before and after being shorn and a whole fleece laid out. Note that the sheep are not harmed in this process. The need to be shorn annually to prevent overheating and disease.
100% local certified organic wool, a blend of Rambouillet, Lincoln, Suffolk and Merino wools
225 yards / 4oz (114g)
Worsted weight / 3-ply
Available in two natural, undyed colors white and brown/grey. We wash it to remove the excess lanolin to bring out its natural softness.
See some vegetable matter (VM)? Take that as a good sign. It means the sheep have happy lives frolicking in fields. It also means that the VM hasn't been burned out the wool. This usually happens via a process called carbonization. It involves sulfuric acid, lots of water, and may cause harm to mill workers. The VM can be picked out as you work.
Full Belly Farm is a 400 acre organic farm nestled in the Capay Valley, northwest of Sacramento. Their unique approach to farming includes growing over 80 different crops, providing year round employment, using cover crops to fix nitrogen, and planting habitat areas for beneficial insects and wildlife. Sheep are an integral part of their diversified farm, eating down crop residues and turning plant materials into fertilizer as they are rotated through our harvested fields. The sheep are sheared once per year, in May, and their wool is processed at the Green Mountain Spinnery in Vermont, one of the only Certified Organic wool mills in the country. The blending of wool from the different breeds results in a soft, high-quality yarn perfect for knitting, crocheting or weaving.
Some images are courtesy and copyright of Full Belly Farm.