Windrush Farm earned its name yesterday. The winds blew across drought-defiantly green pastures while folks like me snapped pictures of the ewes and lambs grazing there. It was a gorgeous Spring Lamb Day at the farm.
Windrush is the creation of Mimi Luebbermann, author, farmer, and craftsperson. (An in-depth profile of the farm and Mimi can be found here, on Fibershed’s blog.) Spring Lamb Day is just one of the farm’s annual open house events, when Mimi turns her front yard into a parking lot and invites the community in. And the community clearly appreciates the invitation: the courtyard was filled with people spinning while kids played in the water fountain, ogled the baby goats, and fed bread to the sheep.
I missed the farm tour first thing in the morning, but was on-hand for the natural dye demo, where we learned how to turn onion skins into mustard gold and brown dye.
Room for demonstrations
The farm, which is located in Chileno Valley, just west of Petaluma, CA, now has a permanent flock of just ten corriedale-crosses and seven shetlands. Mimi wasn’t quite sure how many new lambs she had, but said she had to keep her numbers low due to the loss of critical pasture land last year.
I picked up a lovely skein of golden yarn (dyed with onion skins!), which I’m hoping to turn into a sweater for a friend’s baby this fall.
Naturally dyed yarns
- What fiber does Windrush Farm produce? Wool from a flock of corriedale crosses and shetlands. The farm also has also a couple of alpacas.
- What products does Windrush Farm sell? Yarn (natural and dyed) and raw fleece. Windrush also holds a variety of fiber arts classes and even has farm summer camp for kids.
- Where can I buy these products? Check out the farm’s facebook page for events and markets where Windrush yarn is sold. Check out the farm’s blog for info on classes and farm camp.
