April CSA Delivery

It’s hard to believe that April is almost over.  What a glorious Spring we’ve had. I’ve savored the last five weeks of mild weather and watching the grass and trees turn green.  It seems that most farms have at least one big old apple tree.  Ours is next to the house and it is in full bloom.  It is breathtaking.  We’ve already had salad greens and baby spinach from the garden.  Peas, onions, garlic, and potatoes are up.  I got an early start in March.  But after that, I had to get busy with other things.  So the rest of the garden won’t get planted until the middle of May.

We are all done lambing. Finally, we had more ewe lambs than ram lambs.  We have four Lincoln rams: Imax, Imogene, Ida, and Ike.  We have one Romney ewe, she is colored and her name is Imogene.  We have four Leicester Longwool lambs: Indigo, Ike, Isadora, and Ivy.  Can you tell that this year we are on the letter “I?”  They’ve been able to be on grass during the day since last week.

It’s crunch time. Shepherd’s Harvest is two weeks away.  I’ve been getting wool to our new local mill in Houston, Minnesota almost weekly.  I picked up a large order from the mill I usually use (Rach Al Paca in Hastings) two weeks ago.  I’m washing wool and carding wool just as fast as I can.  As always, there is wool everywhere.

If you’ve never been to Shepherd’s Harvest, I highly recommend it.  This year marks the 15^th annual Shepherd’s Harvest Festival.  It is held at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo.  Llamas, Alpacas, sheep, and goats are on display in the barns.  Shepherds like me bring their fleeces to be judged.  There are many other competitions as well.  There are great classes and workshops.  The most fun are the four buildings of fiber venders.  The yarns, the colors, the textures are a feast for the eyes.  Really, if you haven’t ever gone – YOU HAVE TO GO.  We’ll be there with sheep in the barn and our booth is in building B.  We share a booth with EK Sheep.  They raise Lincolns and they’ll have their Lincolns in the barn.

This week is our first delivery of the new CSA year.  I always try to get it out at the beginning of the month.  But sometimes things get away from me.  I teach during the school year and have four kids at home, so I’m going all of the time.  This month, the shepherd’s shares consist of naturally white Aran wool.  I’m really excited about this yarn.  I’ve been working with Rachel at Rach Al Paca for almost two years to produce traditional Aran and Guernsey yarns.  We finally did it.  This yarn has a lovely soft sheen or luster.  Eugenia, a Lincoln-Romney cross provided the wool.  (That’s her and Dennis in the photo) The spinner’s shares are getting art yarn kits.  This is something new that I’m putting together and will have available for sale at Shepherd’s Harvest.  Each kit contains carded wool, glitz or Angelina, locks, ribbon or trim, and beads.  It’s all color-coordinated and I tried to pick out colors according to your preferences. Have a great month, enjoy the fiber, and I hope to see you at Shepherds Harvest!