Flax, Coreopsis and Hopi Sunflower planted and cultivated by Fibershed team and volunteers supported by Dustin Kahn.
2020 Fibershed Carbon Farm Seed Fund Recap
2020 marked a successful first year for our Carbon Farm Seed Fund (CFSF). Thanks to donor support for funding carbon farming projects, $52,992 was distributed to 12 producers across 12 counties in Northern California. Collectively, the award recipients implemented 21 carbon farming practices, which we estimate will draw down 971 Mg CO2e from the atmosphere, the equivalent of removing the emissions from burning over 100,000 gallons of gasoline.
Projects were implemented on a range of scales, from mulching half an acre to planting forage over 150 acres. Many producers applied compost to their croplands or rangelands, which is an excellent practice for improving soil health and structure, boosting soil organic matter, increasing plant productivity, and improving soil water holding capacity. Other projects entailed planting native grasses, dye plant buffer strips, cover crops, and trees like ash, oak, or fruitless mulberry to establish silvopastures. Funding also supported infrastructure such as fencing for prescribed grazing for fire fuel load reduction, helping expand grazing opportunities for producers.
Applications for the second year of the CFSF were collected this summer from June through August. We are pleased to announce that we will fund 16 projects this year, ranging from installing rainwater catchment systems for irrigation and livestock needs, compost application, fencing to support prescribed grazing, and riparian restoration, among others. Ferndale Farms for example will be using their award to rent equipment that will help them spread almost 400,000 lbs of composted manure, wood chips, and hay across 38 acres. True Grass Farm will be planting out a wide palette of native trees, shrubs, and forbs to restore a riparian area. They’ll be planting various oaks, Oregon Ash, serviceberry, elderberry, currants, salmonberry, willow, and many others. They are also planning to work directly with the original stewards of the land, the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo tribes at the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. In addition to general donor support for the CFSF, this year’s projects will, in part, be funded directly by price premiums on greasy wool sold through the Northern CA Climate Beneficial Wool Pool. We expect upwards of $22,000 from the Wool Pool, from the sale of 77,000 lbs of fine count wool.
Carbon Farm Practice Reporting
Thank you to everyone for playing a role in restoring the ecological integrity of your lands and for taking on climate change with us. Because of your stewardship and your thoughtful documentation, we can track the collective impact that these practices are having. It may at times seem tedious to report to us that you spread compost over your acreage or seeded a rangeland, but as you can see, this data is essential for communicating a major message: that regenerative land management practices have a substantial role to play in addressing climate change and ensuring a livable planet for future generations. Thank you for your efforts and care.
What is Mg CO2e?
Mg refers to metric tons (also known as “tonnes” or “megagrams”) and is equal to 1000 kilograms or about 2,240.6 pounds. It is a common way of quantifying and measuring greenhouse gas emissions.
CO2e (or “carbon dioxide equivalent”) is the standard unit for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions. Because different greenhouse gasses contribute to global warming at varying degrees (methane, for example, causes 25 times more warming than carbon dioxide), using “CO2e” allows the impact of all greenhouse gas emissions to be expressed in a common unit, where 1 Mg CO2e is the global warming equivalent of 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide.
“After entering the Climate Beneficial program guided by Fibershed, I made plans to plant a silvopasture as a means to sequester carbon and provide a sheltered space from heat for the alpacas. I have since planted 14 fruitless mulberry trees as this tree grows to provide good shade, and it is not a toxic plant for the alpacas– in fact, they will eat every leaf that drops!
I am also grateful to learn about place-based regenerative practices. Our ranch is located in the San Francisco Delta region, and as such, we sit upon a heavy clay pan landscape. One of our regenerative practices is to till in a mixture of alpaca poop, less desirable alpaca fiber, and wood chips. We have a rotational plan for working the organic matter into the clay as we hope to plant forage for the alpacas.”
Alley Cropping Demonstration Trial: Integrating Cotton, Mulberries, and Figs in Kern County
Nathanael and Bekki Gonzales-Siemens (Gonzales-Siemens Family Farm) are trialing an integrated food and fiber alley cropping system in Kern County with the support of a Demonstration Grant from the California Healthy Soils Program, awarded in 2020. Together with Fibershed and the White Buffalo Land Trust, and with collaboration from UCCE Kern County and the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), the Gonzales-Siemens Family Farm is undertaking a 3-year project to test and demonstrate a new approach to growing cotton within an alley cropping system with mulberries and figs.
Alley cropping is a farming practice that brings deep-rooted perennial trees into alternated rows with alleys of crops planted between the rows of trees. Deep perennial roots can impact water penetration into the soil while improving soil organic matter and soil organic carbon accumulation. Tree crops can also offer farmers a diversified array of products to market. Mulberries and figs were selected for this project due to their general hardiness and tolerance for salinity. Mulberries could have market value for both their fruit as well as coppicing for the abundant and nutritious fodder they can produce for livestock.
The project faces the challenge of being located on a site with severely high levels of soil salinity, an increasingly common problem in the San Joaquin Valley. The opportunity here is both to develop a new cropping system and share it with the region, incorporating practices that remediate and hopefully restore health to the soil and ecology.
In the first year, the project has focused on establishing upgraded irrigation systems, improving soil conditions with compost application and cover cropping, getting the alley cropping system established with berm shaping and tree planting, identifying optimal conditions for germination and success for the plants seeded into the alleys. In May 2021, volunteers from the Southern California Fibershed joined the project team for a volunteer tree planting day at the farm site, just outside of Buttonwillow, in Eastern Kern County. An educational field day is planned for later this fall.
Volunteers joined members of the Gonzales-Siemens family to plant mulberry trees in the Buttonwillow Alley Cropping Demonstration trial in May. (Photo by Ben Podoll)
HREC Hedgerow Demonstrates a Plant Palette for Sheep Producers
The University of California’s Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC) participates in the Fibershed community as a Fibershed Producer Program member and an educational resource for Northern California sheep producers. For years, HREC has offered workshops and on-site events to present research, educational, and training opportunities to the community. HREC worked with Fibershed to develop a small flock management and shearing school curriculum, piloted in 2021 in an online format due to COVID restrictions on inperson gatherings. In 2020, HREC was awarded a demonstration grant from the Healthy Soils Program to establish a biodiverse hedgerow in one of their sheep pastures. Fibershed producer members will have a chance to see the hedgerow about a year after planting at this fall’s Producer Meet-up on October 23 at the Hopland Center.
HREC’s 8 ft x 320 ft demonstration hedgerow includes an array of plants selected for their suitability for the site’s conditions, emphasizing native plants, sheep forage plants, pollinator habitat, and natural dye species. Fibershed staff assisted with project planning, plant palette design, and natural dye plant selection. Over the next two years, Fibershed will support the project through outreach and support for onsite field days, including natural dye workshops using plants from the demonstration hedgerow.
We look forward to sharing the results and learnings from the HREC demonstration hedgerow with our Fibershed community at the October 23 producer meet-up and upcoming presentations and articles documenting the growth, success, and use of the hedgerow plants.
Healthy Soils Program Funding Will Be Available in 2022!
After a one-year interruption in funding, the Healthy Soils Program (HSP) operated by the California Department of Food and Agriculture received an allocation of $50 million in the current state budget. The program will once again offer funding support to farmers and ranchers interested in expanding or establishing conservation farming practices that build soil health, sequester carbon, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Fibershed producers have received HSP funding in previous years to support woody plantings such as hedgerows, silvopasture, and riparian restoration, as well as cropland and rangeland practices such as compost application, cover cropping, prescribed grazing, and range planting.
Funding timelines and application details have not yet been announced at the time of this printing but will be posted on the HSP Incentives Program Website: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/healthysoils/ IncentivesProgram.html. Information will be shared by Fibershed via email to all producer members once those details come available. There will be technical assistance available for producers interested in applying for an HSP grant.
If you are considering whether an HSP grant may be a good fit for your operation and have any questions, reach out to Mike Conover at mike@ fibershed.org.
Fibershed Producer Meet-up–Save the Date!
Saturday, October 23, 11:00 am-4:00 pm
After a year and a half of virtual gatherings, we are planning for an inperson Meet-up of the Fibershed producer community on October 23 at the UC Hopland Research and Education Center from 11 am - 4 pm.
Details for the Meet-up will be sent out via email – please be on the lookout! We look forward to the chance to visit with each other, share updates, see and learn about the HREC demonstration hedgerow for sheep grazing systems installed last year, and participate in a native plant natural dye demonstration.
We will follow updated health protocols for COVID safety, with more information on those guidelines coming soon. We ask that each attendee bring their own food, snacks, and beverages.
We hope to see many of you at the Fibershed producer meet-up on October 23!
The Regional Fiber Manufacturing Initiative (RFMI) was launched last year to catalyze the growth of textile processing in the Western US. After conducting extensive research and ecosystem mapping in 2020, we have focused this year on supporting entrepreneurs who fill critical gaps in the current system. A cohort of entrepreneurs was selected to receive specialized technical assistance to help realize their unique visions for growth and impact: a bast fiber processor, a natural dye house, and a cotton shirt producer. Each business is receiving assistance in engineering, finance, equity, and cooperative development. With this holistic approach, our goal is that this will attract financial capital and enable these companies to have lasting positive social and environmental impacts.
Along with supporting individual businesses, the RFMI is also conducting research that will inform the organizational design and funding structure of a Western textile hub inspired by the Carolina Textile District. In our vision for an organized hub focused on the Western US (CA, OR, WA, NV, ID, AZ, UT, NM, CO, WY, MT), we hope to find ways to support the growth of this industry while also facilitating cooperative ownership, inclusive prosperity, and resource/knowledge sharing among the textile community.
Demonstration hedgerow at UC Hopland Research and Education Center (HREC). Photos courtesy of Hannah Bird, HREC
Welcome New Producers
We want to welcome and highlight producers who have joined our Northern California Producer community since the publication of the previous issue of this newsletter. As always, you can find information about local fiber, dyes, and skills within our community, alongside direct links to contact or support their enterprises, in our Producer Directory: fibershed.org/producer-directory.
• Indigenous Love Design - passionate cultivators and land stewards, currently growing sustainable flowers and dye plants for our local community.
• Pennyroyal Farm - committed to sustainability and modern farming practices and striving to be a regenerative vineyard in the mold of a traditional old-time American farm, and our wines reflect this dream.
• Blackberry Farm - self-serve farmstand (Farm Shed) at Blackberry Farm has seasonal flowers, organic eggs, heirloom fruit, and local goods from the farm.
• Brunner Family Farm - committed to organic farming practices, we endeavor to cultivate a productive and sustainable landscape that nourishes mind, body, and spirit.
• Shear Bliss - fiber artisan creating handspun yarns and knitted/felted/woven products with wool from her own flock of majestic Jacob sheep using natural colors or forest and garden dyes.
• Herderin - clothing atelier focusing on luxury sustainable womenswear made from US-grown organic and sustainable textiles. Multi-ethnic, woman-owned company.
• Shannon Ranches - transforming the ranch into one of the agricultural icons of California’s North Coast, and in doing so changing the face and substance of grape-growing in the USA.
• Fillory Yarn - a world where people can explore their creativity and express themselves without judgement.
• Holst Station - raising a small farm flock of Icelandic sheep for meat and fiber for over 20 years.
Left to right, top to bottom:
Producer Voices
Bay Area Ranchers’ Cooperative (BAR-C)
BY MARCIA BARINAGA
Bay Area meat producers will soon have a new option for harvesting their livestock locally, a rancher-owned, cooperative harvest facility located near the town of Tomales.
The Bay Area Ranchers’ Cooperative (BAR-C) was born out of the crisis generated by the closure of the Marin Sun Farms slaughterhouse in Petaluma to private-label clients in 2019. The closest slaughterhouses handling all species of livestock are in Eureka and Modesto, and some producers who sell at farmers’ markets or through CSAs found themselves trucking their animals 250 miles one way every other week for harvest. This was an unsustainable situation: costly for the rancher and stressful for the animals, and costly to the environment in greenhouse gas emissions. “We are selling our meat within 40 miles of where it was produced but are trucking it 250 miles for harvest,” said Sarah Silva of Green Star Farm in Sebastopol.
The seeds for BAR-C were sown in December 2019, with an organizing meeting convened by UC Cooperative Extension, Sonoma County Farm Bureau, and the Sonoma County Economic Development Board to brainstorm about local harvest solutions. At that meeting, five ranchers volunteered to form a steering committee to explore the possibility of purchasing a mobile harvest unit. That group determined that a mobile unit, essentially a harvest facility in a trailer, was the way to go but that it would only be economically feasible if parked in a fixed location where ranchers can bring their animals for harvest. The group advocated a cooperative business model to keep ownership in the hands of the producers who would be using the harvest services. “By ranchers, for ranchers” became their motto.
A meeting in June 2020 introduced the concept to interested ranchers, and 16 stepped up as founding members. The Marin Agricultural Land Trust offered to be the group’s fiscal sponsor until it was established. With that help and guidance from the California Center for Cooperative Development and Marin Ag Ombudsman Vince Trotter, BAR-C was incorporated as a California agricultural cooperative in July 2020. The group raised more than $1 million, with investments ranging from $500 to $250,000, and now has 38 rancher members who pay a onetime membership fee of $3000 each. Membership is still open to new applicants. BAR-C plans to have its unit in operation by September. Harvest-scheduling priority will go first to member ranches, but BAR-C expects there to be some harvest capacity for non-members also on a first-come, first-served basis, especially in the slower winter months. While providing a much-needed solution for their community, the founders of BAR-C view their newly-formed cooperative as much more than that—a new model for decentralized, small-scale animal harvest that maintains control by the producer of this key link in the local foodproduction chain.
Visit the BAR-C website at www.bayarearanchers.com.
Thoughts on Flock Dynamics
BY ROBIN LYNDE
Ijustgot back from a road trip to Texas where my husband and I visited my daughter’s family and drove back with our 6-year-old granddaughter, Kirby, trading a 4-legged kid (out of my Nubian doe) for a 2-legged one in the process. I saw the call for articles for this newsletter and may make the deadline with seconds to spare.
We got back late in the evening and Kirby, still on Texas time, woke up at 5:45 a.m. Pacific Time. She and I headed for the barn to look for her favorite sheep that she last saw before COVID disrupted all of our lives.
We didn’t have to search. Jade, on the left, and her daughter, Hazel, on the right, found us. They are always on the lookout for scratches. They are the sheep that I can let into a crowd of 1st graders (in pre-COVID times) and be confident that no one will be hurt.
I’d like to use this as an opportunity to mention my thoughts on sheep handling for owners of small flocks and those new to sheep. Sometimes Jacob sheep have the reputation for being wild and flighty and certainly not all my sheep are pets like Jade and Hazel. Most are not. They want to avoid being caught and try to bolt past if cornered. However, the flock is used to being handled in a calm way and once I have hands on any sheep who was born here it settles down and I can handle it safely.
Recommendations:
1. Use low-stress handling techniques when working with livestock.
2. Set up your facility so that when you need to move or catch sheep you can move them into smaller spaces and are eventually able to get close to them without creating a rodeo scene.
3. When you crowd sheep together it is easier to catch a single one.
4. Keep a wether around whose purpose is to be the buddy for any sheep that needs to be isolated. A single sheep panics.
5. Cull a sheep that never learns to settle down under your low-stress management protocol. That doesn’t mean that you sell all the sheep that don’t want to be caught. I’m talking about the sheep that runs into walls or through a fence in a panic.
6. Watch your sheep. Learn their body language and “personal space” issues and behavior.
I hope this little bit of insight might be useful to those of you who are new flock owners or considering adding a small sheep enterprise. I was certainly pleased that Kirby demonstrated that her experience with the sheep when she spent time with them in the summer of 2019 (at age 4) has stuck with her and she is able to walk through the flock like a pro, without fear but with a healthy attention to flock dynamics.
BAR-C Board of Directors, employees, and advisors posing in front of the new harvest unit at a ribbon-cutting ceremony held last month for members.
Robin’s granddaughter, Kirby (center) with Jade (left) and Hazel (right).
Photo by Robin Lynde
Rainbow Fiber Co-Op Project Update
BY KELLI DUNAJ
Rainbow Fiber Co-Op is an exciting new wool co-operative and partner project for Fibershed. The co-op aims to improve the financial sustainability of three of the largest flocks of Dibé dits’ozí (Navajo-Churro sheep) remaining on the Diné (Navajo) reservation. The Diné-led co-op aims to create more equitable market outcomes for the flocks by raising funds through grants and private donations to start up an e-commerce marketplace for Diné-grown Navajo-Churro weaving yarns. The co-op will pay a stipend to the shepherds for shearing help, a fair price for their raw wool by the pound, mill processing fees for 1,800 pounds of yarn, the cost of creating an e-commerce website, and legal and administrative fees for the formation of a registered agricultural cooperative. The project’s goal is not to profit but to make enough money from the sale of Diné-grown weaving yarns to fund the wool buy the following year again. A one-time investment in establishing an online marketing channel will create a reliable and self-sustaining cycle of economic benefit for these shepherds and their flocks.
“Churro sheep are worth more to my family and me than money. It’s a legacy being passed down from generation to generation. It’s my grandparents and where their heart always was. My parents and where home will always be. The sheep will always hold onto this land for us, and they will always take care of us. So I have to take care of them.” These were powerful words from one of the co-op’s shepherds, reflecting on what Navajo-Churro sheep mean to them and their family. The sheep are a tie that binds Diné families together through the rhythm and discipline of day-to-day life tending their flock, the nourishment and security of homegrown food, and the rituals of the ceremony. Rainbow Fiber Co-Op believes that the shepherd’s hard work to preserve their culture and traditions through Navajo-Churro sheep has enormous value. Our goal is to provide these shepherds and their wool the same opportunity that other shepherds in the U.S. have access to via online marketplaces. The income generated will go right back into caring for these critically important flocks.
Last year Diné shepherds were paid .01-.05 cents per pound for their Navajo-Churro wool. At one trading post, a shepherd’s family member explained through tears that “their [Churro] wool was kicked away.” Producers are encouraged to cross their flocks with “more lucrative” commercial fine wool or meat breeds. Many traditional shepherds resist because commercial sheep simply don’t do well out on the desert range. They have limited flocking instincts, sometimes abandon their young, or lose most of their wool on the rough brush and terrain. The decision by Diné shepherds to continue raising Navajo-Churro sheep is borne of a great sense of cultural purpose and determination. They also understand how important it is to preserve a breed of sheep that has evolved over centuries to call the high desert its naturally adapted environment. Even as the valuation of the industrial market would seem to suggest—”your sheep and wool are worth nothing.”
The Rainbow Fiber Co-Op has made great progress so far, with enough money raised through a grant from First Nations Development Institute and private donors to execute their wool buy trip at the end of July and pay a deposit on their processing fee at Mora Valley Spinning Mill. They are currently seeking grants and private donations to cover the balance due to the mill later this fall and legal and administrative fees related to forming the co-op. For more information on the Co-Op, please visit rainbowfibercoop.org. In addition, you can donate to support the project through the “DONATE” page on their website. All donations are 100% tax-deductible, with Fibershed as fiscal sponsor. You can also follow the co-op on Instagram @rainbowfibercoop.
Integrity Alpacas & Fiber
BY CHARLENE SCHMID
As a city dweller, I learned a lot when I began ranching. I thought I could just have my herd graze the pastures and life would be grand. As we had a few years with good rainfall, I found challenge managing the excess water. In the years of drought, I have to buy a lot of orchard grass. Our climate seems to be all over the place and each year I was met with new teachings. As I became more involved with Fibershed, I learned about a variety of practices that could be used to regenerate the soil health, sequester carbon, and manage water absorption all while raising my alpaca herd.
After entering the Climate Beneficial program guided by Fibershed, I made plans to plant a silvopasture as a means to sequester carbon and provide a sheltered space from heat for the alpacas. I have since planted 14 fruitless mulberry trees as this tree grows to provide good shade and it is not a toxic plant for the alpacas-- in fact, they will eat every leaf that drops!
I am also grateful to learn about place-based regenerative practices. Our ranch is located in the San Francisco Delta region and as such, we sit upon a heavy clay pan landscape. One of our regenerative practices is to till in a mixture of alpaca poop, less desirable alpaca fiber and wood chips. We have a rotational plan for working the organic matter into the clay as we hope to plant forage for the alpacas.
Above: Shearing wool headed for the Rainbow Fiber Co-op’s first wool buy. Below: Rainbow Fiber Co-op founders Kelli Dunaj (left) and Nikyle Begay (right) with shepherd Irene Bennalley (center). Photos courtesy of Rainbow Fiber Co-op.
Planting fruitless mulberry trees to establish a silvopasture. Photo courtesy of Charlene Schmid
Growing Our Micro Mill: A Journey Through Fabric Making with Huston Textile Company
BY KAT HUSTON
More than others, this past year proved how invaluable years of collaboration, planning and hard work have been. Relating directly to the small businesses and our integrations as a regional textile mill in the diverse spectrum of suppliers, educators, investors, organizers and clients, we extend our heartfelt “Thank You!”
We reflect on the abundance with which we’ve been graced, while never discounting the suffering and issues encountered the past years for many, nor the work ahead to repair, restore and progress in our mission: To empower and engage resilient bioregional supply hubs and ecologically sound practices through our small business and textile manufacturing.
Virtually and socially distant, 2020 into 2021 was a time filled with humility as we grappled with our roles as parents, community climate stewards and entrepreneurs. With California’s worst fire season on record, a global pandemic, and emblazoned trade wars highlighting repatriation of our critical infrastructures for essential goods, we found ourselves balancing many issues. We are grateful for the community that embraced us before, during and in the now, where we stand in 2021 more confident to tackle visionary projects with our community and clients. While safely distanced and seeing through the haze of it all, we excitedly welcomed new partners who have committed to a path where scaling our regenerative textile productions, recommissioning heritage machinery and working with fiber artisans in field and factory is also aligned with a vision of market leadership through knowledge and know-how mastery, not simply production dominance.
We offer a range of services including research data, product development, design consultation, production planning, on-site development sessions and tours/educational events. We can support either as an end-to-end solution interacting with raw material and supply chain partners to produce novel fabrications that fit a client’s needs, or as a late-stage manufacturer. Our capabilities include prototyping fine woven goods, technical packaging, and advanced knit constructions using healthy, domestically sourced inputs.
From handloom, to power looms and textile preparatory equipment to meet demand created by our initial products, the Huston team took a big leap and expanded operations from their garage and into a former airplane hangar on the retired Mather Air Force Base just outside of Sacramento, CA. The wide-open floor space that once housed airplane parts for American Armed Services, is now home to a fleet of vintage American-made machinery like Draper and Crompton & Knowles shuttle looms, a Davis and Furber pinless dressing reel and a WhitinSchweiter automatic bobbin winder dating as far back as the 1940’s. With the steady hands and creative minds of lead engineer and company founders, Mr. Ryan Huston, his wife, Mrs. Kat Huston, and community of experts, many rare missing parts were found by going through great
lengths to track them down (or custom fabricate them), ultimately to satisfy with growing demands for our fleet of machinery.
Our restored collection of vintage 1960s Draper looms makes us one of the only “selvedge fabric” (or fabric with finished edges) artisans left in the United States. Huston signature fabrics include the timeless car curtain canvas, natural chambray blends, and double-slub selvedge denims.
As Mr. Huston reflects, “In 2021, our team has taken a deeper dive into research and development using innovative raw fiber blends and biomaterials featuring American long and short staple cottons, bast fibers (industrial hemp) and Climate Beneficial™ wools certified by Fibershed® and their producer network. Each plant and protein fiber blend offers its own special textures and unique performance benefits. We are working towards better qualifying domestically sourced, natural and regenerative raw materials for multiple value-added processes and goods for our production purposes.”
Huston is invested as a value-added textile manufacturer collaborating with U.S. farmers and ranchers helping to improve fiber quality while also enriching the natural ecosystems their local communities depend on. From farm to fabric, every step in our textile process is more and more transparent, bound to the Earth in hopes of building a better, more sustainable tomorrow.
For more information about our products and services please call us at 916-546-5001 and visit www.HustonTextile.com today!
Chico Flax CFSF
BY SANDY FISHER
In 2017 we expanded our growing of flax for linen on a 3.75-acre farm that was once an almond orchard. In the back ½ acre there is an area where nothing grows well. This area we call the dead zone. It is adjacent to a railroad right of way, once the dumping ground for the orchard with an old burn pile and chemical residue from long ago. Thanks to Fibershed’s Carbon Seed Fund we have been able to work on amending the soil so that it can be productive for growing flax in the future. Some of the practices that we have applied with great success: adding endo mycorrhizal fungi, certified compost, mulch, cover crops over winter and summer. We are seeing signs showing great improvement. Having these practices covered by the carbon seed fun allowed us to rent some goats to graze over the area.
The Carbon Seed fund has also allowed us to start another venture on the farm in partnership with our flax. This venture is to grow natural dye plants. The carbon seed fund allowed us to purchase a variety of perennial and annual dye plant seeds to be planted on the border to our flax and cover crops fields. This addition of the border of dye plants helps us complete the vision that we started 3 years ago when planting our hedgerow of over 1000 California native plants that were selected for their dye attributes.
Our pictures tell the journey over this year, showing improvements of a year of focus on one area. We are seeing habitat change with dragonflies hovering over the area, bees working on the blossoms of the cover crops, soil improvement of water retention of health cover crop rotation and earthworms around the roots of every weed pulled.
Compost application Feb 23 2021. Photo courtesy of Sandy Fisher
Selvedge textiles woven by Huston Textile Co. on their vintage looms.
Developing Silvopasture
BY AMY SKEZAS
When we moved to Petaluma in 2000, there was little on the land. In 2016, we started a primitive breed sheep flock (meridianfarm.org/ ouessant-sheep). We built some fences, ran some hoses, and began grazing 1 acre near the house.
In 2018 we began planning to graze the entire property. We would need cross-fencing, water infrastructure, and shade on the back 7 acres. While we would build some animal shelters for shade, all of us, human and animal, longed for trees.
I spent over a year observing the land with tree planting in mind, researching plants on Bert Wilson’s incredibly helpful websites. (www. laspilitas.com), and Calscape (calscape.org).
I noticed that Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) thrives here. With research, I understood why. Its stats (pH range, annual rainfall range, etc.) align with what this site offers. This tree is beautiful, hardy, green all year round, and a powerhouse for building soil organic matter, minimizing soil disturbance, maximizing soil cover, providing continuous living roots, enhancing soil water retention, providing habitat, and enhancing biodiversity. It is our anchor plant. Near the oaks, I planted companion shrubs to foster synergistic relationships and build plant community (www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/ communities). Our primary plant community here is Oak Woodland.
To increase biodiversity above ground, I also installed different species and different varieties of California native trees and shrubs, including some from hotter and drier regions, as insurance against our changing weather conditions.
I cage the planted areas to protect the tender young plants against grazing and wildlife, who are hungry and thirsty in the long dry months and can quickly destroy the plants. You can read about our planting methods on our website (meridianfarm.org/carbon-farming/ silvopasture-refugia).
If well chosen, California native plants require summer water for a few years until they are established and then will require no water. We are designing and building animal shelters with metal roofs with rainwater catchment and storage systems so that soon, there will be ample water in place for the animals and the nearby silvopasture plantings. With this resource, I can plant more silvopasture!
I wrote a poem about caring for the young plantings and what they mean to me (meridianfarm.org/stories/carbon-farming-poem).
Carbon Farming Poem
BY AMY SKEZAS—FOR MY CFP TEACHERS
I wanna hitch my wagon To the sun. It’s not Absolutely inexhaustible, but for My lifespan and The life of my people, It’s good enough.
Choking on heat?
Burning in fires?
Parching with thirst?
My friend, step this way: Soil organic matter Is the answer
To your fever dreams Of despair, your Pleas for help, That some people Would have you believe Are inherently Unanswerable.
Fiddlesticks to those naysayers! A pox on all our houses If we give up, Roll over, Stop dead in our tracks.
I saw a bluebird today
Flitting from an infant shrub Planted two years ago
In this drying land; Last week, a native bumblebee, And a black-and-yellow butterfly.
Nature is whispering encouragement Through subtle and open movements While I carry buckets Of yesterday’s livestock water To trees and shrubs In the cool morning hours Before my upper lip Beads with sweat.
The dogs smile and pant:
What’s the game today?
The sheep jump, four-off-the-floor, When we enter a fresh paddock.
And now here I am, Learning how to plan
Carbon farming, Talk the talk, Crunch the numbers.
Flowers grown at the Fibershed Learning Center. Photo by Paige Green.
Valley Oak Wool Mill Producer Voice
BY MARCAIL MCWILLIAMS
Hello
Fibershed community, it has been an interesting year so far for Valley Oak Wool Mill, things never cease to surprise me. While 2020 was my best year yet this year has had some uncertainty as a business owner. The wool intake I usually receive in the late spring hardly came in and my workload has been very low. I’m viewing this as a good thing but also a concern. The disappointed look on a customer’s face when they heard it would be one year to get their yarn was never something anyone enjoyed so it feels great to tell the customer 2-3 months instead.
The first couple years of operation I did everything myself, but last year I had a fantastic employee who helped me catch up. While it feels concerning to not have the security of a year’s worth of work there have been a handful of customers that I’ve processed yarn for multiple times this year! I’ve never had that ability before so it’s fun!
Last month I drove up to Oregon to pick up wool. The trip was a success, I came back with a car load of wool, but I still currently (July) don’t have enough work to last until next shearing season (May) so if anyone reading this has wool or roving you would like processed please contact me! The majority of what I make is yarn but I can also make roving, batting and carded fluff.
The best wools for my mill are Romney cross, or a total mixture of different breeds. I love these wools because they’re usually a good length, can have plenty of softness and strength, and they do what I ask
Sheeping Shannon Ridge
BY MIKE CONOVER
Shannon Ridge Family of Wines has been producing wine in Northern California for more than 25 years, selling over a dozen brands of wine under the Shannon Ridge name. They manage thousands of acres of vineyards throughout the Sacramento Valley, Napa Valley, and Lake County. What sets them apart from many wineries in the region, however, are their land management practices, their goal to create a regenerative organic viticulture system, and their use of sheep as an integrated part of their wine operation. Shannon Ridge’s owner and founder, Clay Shannon calls this their Ovis Cycle (“ovis” is Latin for sheep). At their 900-acre flagship vineyard in Lake County, known as Project Ovis, they are working towards a closed-loop agricultural system—reducing their need for external inputs and making use of the many benefits of sheep instead. Some of their initiatives include eliminating all in-row cultivation of crops; eliminating all herbicides and use of fossil-fuel-based fertilizers and fungicides; and reducing water usage with drought-tolerant rootstocks, drip irrigation, and dry farming techniques. In the summer of 2021, they were recognized for their environmental stewardship practices as the winner of the 2021 California Green Medal Environment award.
Shannon Ridge is a prime example of a successful Integrated SheepVineyard System (ISV), where the sheep provide a variety of agroecological benefits to the farm, reduce labor needs, improve soil health, and provide additional products for Shannon Ridge to sell. They graze about 1000 Corriedale sheep through 3-4 acre vineyard blocks, moving them about every two days. The sheep are rotated through vineyards between one and three times a year, depending on the vineyard.
them to, hahah. Meaning they behave themselves on the machinery. Cheviot,*Corriedale, Jacob,*Shetland, and Suffolk also do well.
(*some flocks in these breeds are too fine for my machines)
Wools like Wensleydale, Lincoln, Cotswold, and other slippery types need a non-slippery type blended with them for processing at my mill. Same for alpaca, llama, and mohair—they do not have the grabby scales that some wools have. Navajo Churro and Icelandic do well here if they’re sheared twice a year to prevent matted areas in a raw fleece. If the under coat is not long enough it’s possible I will need to add wool to make these types hold together.
If you have fine wool fleece it can be sent to Morro Fleece Works for processing into roving that is spun at my mill. I love this option because she does not spin yarn so we have been sharing customers to each other and she does amazing work!
In September I will have been milling wool as a career for 12 years, and in November I will celebrate 4 years of being in operation. It’s crazy to think it has only been 4 years, because it feels like so much longer and I’ve been through so much, but I’m thankful to have made it this long!
In the fall, they graze the vineyards post-harvest, eating spent grapes, cleaning up leaf litter, and preventing the vineyards from having microbial issues in wet weather. They get pulled for lambing and then graze again from late winter to early spring, mowing down cover crops planted between the rows of grapes. These cover crops—clovers, vetches, peas, beans, mustards, and others—provide their own benefits as well. They reduce weed pressure and erosion, improve soil health, and increase the drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide. During the summer months, some vineyards get a third pass. The sheep defoliate the grape plants pre-harvest, which allows for greater sunlight penetration and air circulation, saving hundreds of dollars per acre in labor costs. The flock will also graze annual summer weeds, and undesirable young grape suckers sprouting up, as well as assist in fire fuel load reduction in the non-vineyard areas.
“The vineyards feed the sheep, the sheep feed the vines, lamb feeds the people, people drink the wine, and wear wool.”
-Clay Shannon
“What’s interesting about reintegrating livestock into cropping systems is creating this circular or semicircular flow of nutrients and energy to better use services provided by animals for production.”
Thanks to research by Dr. Amélie Gaudin and Kelsey Brewer at the Gaudin Lab at UC Davis, Integrated Sheep-Vineyard Systems are being studied to better understand all of the agro-ecological benefits that can result from these systems, not the least of which is a boost in soil health and fertility. The nutrients and carbon contained in the cover crops, for example, are cycled back into the soil through the sheep’s dung and urine, making them available for the grapes to take up and reducing the need for fertilizers. The additional carbon in the soils increases their water holding capacity, boosts soil microbiological health, and improves both soil porosity and the formation of soil aggregates. All of this is in addition to the key role that land-based carbon drawdown can play in mitigating global climate change.
In addition to all their wines, Shannon Ridge sells 1500 grass-fed lambs a year in Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Sacramento, and San Francisco counties and uses the Ovis Cycle to market their wines, dedicating a full line of wines to the sheep themselves. They are set up for educational tours and have a tasting room at their Vigilance Vineyard in Lower Lake, CA, so take a trip and give them a visit!
Shannon Ridge’s Corriedale sheep grazing in their Vigilance vineyard. Photo by Jeff Tangen
Producer Classifieds
Earth My Body
Earth My Body Climate Beneficial™ Wool ruana leaf dyed with Black Walnut and Eucalyptus leaves. earthmybody.com www.instagram.com/_._earthmybody_._/
Macedo Mini Acre
Alpaca batts, roving, pre-felt in natural and dyed colors (we grow many of our own dyes). Dryer balls at wholesale pricing. Classes in skirting, felting, spinning. Turlock, CA
Maureen & Larry Macedo 209-648-2338 or 209-6482384 macedosminiacre@gmail.com www.macedosminiacres.com
Black Mountain Artisans
Bo-Rage Yarns
BMA is a retail cooperative of local fiber artists on Main Street, Point Reyes Station. Fostering Marin and Sonoma fiber, local artists, and the local economy.
We offer one-of-a-kind accessories and garments that are hand spun, hand knit, handwoven, and hand-dyed from local wool and alpaca and local dyes.
11245 Main Street, Point Reyes Station Open Thursday - Sunday 11:00 am - 5:00 pm borageyarns.com bma@sonic.net
Summer Solace Tallow X Northern California Fibershed Co-Op Marketplace
Visit the Summer Solace Tallow x Northern California Fibershed Cooperative Marketplace booth every other Sunday at the Temescal Farmers’ Market in Oakland. There you can peruse our curated selection of Fibershed Climate Beneficial™ products, including locally spun yarn, felted home goods, natural-dyed hand-knitted hats and socks, handwoven shawls, blankets, organic FOXFIBRE™ cotton clothing, luxurious sheepskins, as well as handcrafted regenerative tallow goods from Summer Solace.
Find us every other Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at: Temescal Farmers Market
5300 Claremont Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618
Shop online at www.summersolacetallow.com, @summersolacetallow
Email: hello@summersolacetallow.com for any inquires.
We would love to carry your items and represent you in North Oakland!
Menagerie Hill Ranch
Alpaca Manure
Fresh or lightly composted alpaca manure is mild enough to top dress your plants, but nutritious enough to enrich your soil. Bring your truck, we’ll load it for you. By the pickup load (4-5 ¼ yard buckets) or trailer load - $10 per load/yard.
Alpaca Rentals
For Weddings, Special Events, Photo Shoots. Make your occasion special and fun! Call or email for pricing.
Alpaca Products
Alpaca fleece, roving and yarn for your next project. Natural colors: white, light fawn, brown, silver grey, rose grey and black. Visit our farm store for best selection. Appointments required.
Deb Galway Vacaville, CA 707.290.7915 deb@menageriehillranch.com
Barinaga Ranch in Marshall, West Marin County
Purebred Romneys (white and recessive-colored) and black and white purebred Corriedales, as well as Cormo, Romney, and Corriedale crosses. We have a new line of locally produced yarn, as well as fleeces, lambskins, and breeding stock for sale.
See our website at www.barinagaranch.com or email Marcia Barinaga at marcia@barinagaranch.com.
