The bumper sticker, above, looks so much better in shades of black and white, than in its real color — black and “safety” orange! It is an original, oldie-but-goodie from the early 1960’s — from my mom — back when she had a beautiful show flock of Dorsets. But the message is timeless, isn’t it?
So do. Wear wool, and eat lamb.
Speaking of wool — did you know that it is a super-duper mulch in the garden for your peppers and tomatoes? Think of it like a wonderful eco-friendly wool blanket for your plants! It is water permeable and reusable from year to year. No synthetics, no chemicals, no red plastic sheeting, or black fabric — just straight from the sheep, compostable, reusable… wool. We just so happen to have gallon ziplock bags stuffed with your choice of locally-sourced alpaca fiber or our flock’s sheep wool for your garden mulching pleasure, available for sale, right now. It will be sure to take the nightly chill off your tender plants in the weeks to come when placed in a layer on the top of the ground.
In gardening books from the 1940’s, wool was used in greater quantity (an entire sheep’s worth at a time — about 8-12 pounds of fleece) underneath the soil, where it was used to retain moisture and left to slowly release nutrients and compost into the soil. This might be the perfect year to try that method — it has been painfully dry of late.
Although I haven’t packaged this up yet, we could also make some compost available for any gardener who requests some.
For wool lovers who are not gardeners, our very own yarn will be available in June. There will be four distinct yarns, each painstakingly analyzed and then processed using different individual sheep’s wool — and then run in different batches to create different color combinations, weights, and plys. Colors will all be natural, but our flock ranges from snowy white to the deepest chocolatey-black.
Back to the garden wool: I drove through the remnants of some light rain last night in Sunderland and Amherst this morning, but in Shelburne, last night was just another night without any rain. The soil is completely dried out. We are having to overfill the pig water tubs to create artificial lagoons of water to give them moisture to wallow in.
Dress your plants or your entire garden in wool (or alpaca fiber) — your vegetables will love you for it. Now on to the eat lamb part…
Wells Tavern Farm has lamb in stock and ready to go — check out our price list to see what is still available. We enjoyed a leg of our goat and a leg of our lamb for Easter dinner last week – there is still time for you to pick up some to enjoy for any occassion! The flavor of the goat was fabulous — and the lamb was spoon tender. I highly recommend them both.
If you feel more like pork — then there is Bacon! It was very nice to see Kristin of Leyden Glen Farm — she swung by to pick up some Maple Syrup Cured Hickory Smoked Bacon today. We also have all kinds of chops, three types of ground sausage, Garlic Parmesan sausage, fresh kielbasa, Maple Syrup Cured Hickory Smoked Ham Steaks… AND(!) whole young chickens. All four freezers are stuffed to the brim with local, antibiotic-free, pasture-raised meats. When you come by, pick up a dozen chicken eggs for just three dollars in our chic new recycled and recyclable boxes.
Enjoy your wool and lamb. And pork. And goat. And chicken.
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