The Yarn - Fall 2023

The Yarn

Fibershed’s Community Newspaper

Fall 2023

What’s inside?

• Fibershed News and Events

• Environment, Economy, Education and Advocacy

• Stories from our Producer Network members

• Updates from our global Affiliate Networks and lots more!

Sheep grazing at McCormack Ranch in Solano County photograph by Paige Green

The stewardship of grasslands using managed and prescribed grazing is an important strategy for carbon sequestration in the face of climate change. We work closely with ranches and county-level Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) to develop Carbon Farm plans, to help preserve ecosystems and strengthen soil health. The ranches we work with in rual Contra Costa and Solano counties are at risk, from land acquisition and development. To learn about the Greenbelt Alliance’s work to protect Solano County from development sprawl, visit greenbelt.org/blog/protectsolano.

FEATURED IMAGE

Fibershed is a non-profit organization that develops regional fiber systems that build ecosystem and community health. Our work expands opportunities to implement climate benefiting agriculture, rebuild regional manufacturing, and connect end-users to the source of our fiber through education. We transform the economic systems behind the production of material culture to mitigate climate change, improve health, and contribute to racial and economic equity.

Cecilio Trinidad, Land Steward

Heather Podoll, Partnership and Advocacy Coordinator

Lexi Fujii, Producer and Affiliate Network Coordinator

Marilu Rivera, Land Steward

Melanie Honda, Land Steward

Mike Conover, Climate Beneficial™ Technician

Paige Green, Photographer

Rebecca Burgess, Executive Director

Sarah Keiser, Grazing Specialist

Sari Monroy Solís, Learning Center Workshop Coordinator

Siena Shepard, Climate Beneficial Verification Program Director

Sirima Sataman, Director of Programs

Vicki Russo, Finance Director

The Yarn is produced twice per year—in spring and fall—for the expansive Fibershed Community.

All members of the Fibershed Northern California Producer Network receive a copy in the mail as part of their membership benefits.

Co-Editors

Lexi Fujii and Sirima Sataman

All photographs unless otherwise noted

Paige Green Photography

Graphic Design

Nicole Lavelle

Printer

Make My Newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, USA fibershed.org

2023

Fibershed Team

The Yarn

Welcome to The Yarn. Contents

We’ve reimagined and renamed our Northern California Producer Network newsletter, for a wider audience and a more engaging reading experience. The slightly smaller size will allow us to use less paper, and mail them more easily.

We’re excited to share updates about Fibershed’s work. We’ve pulled together all the information specific to our amazing community of Producer Network members. We share stories from the broader Affiliate community of regional Fibersheds. Our reorganized Events section helps you see the breadth of opportunities to learn, connect, and engage with the Fibershed community. We’ve redesigned the Classifieds section to help you better find what you might be looking for. Check out The Yarn Gallery, a page in each issue that will be dedicated to visual art.

We hope you enjoy the changes. Let us know what you think! As always, we invite your contributions and updates. We value your voices.

Fibershed’s mission is focused on the environment, the economy, and education and advocacy. This newsletter helps us achieve our goals, as a tool for education, and a medium for sharing the important environmental and economic work being done by our community, including our Producer Network members, and the Affiliate Networks who bring the Fibershed movement to a global scale.

Thanks for being here with us.

Fibershed News

We’ve hired three new members to the Fibershed Team!

We welcome Sirima, Sari, and Sienna to our team here in Point Reyes Station.

Sari Monroy Solís, Learning Center Workshop Coordinator

Sari Monroy Solís supports and collaborates with artisans teaching at Fibershed’s Learning Center. Sari holds a J.D. and has dedicated over a decade to labor and human rights work with migrant communities. She is a Mayan Kaqchikel weaver and active in revitalizing ancestral fiber arts in her communities, both in California and internationally. Sari’s work at Fibershed is inspired by the interconnection of land stewardship, culture, and Indigenous sovereignty.

 Read more about Sari’s work on page 8.

Siena Shepard Climate Beneficial Verification Program Director

Siena is responsible for scaling the strategic direction of the Climate Beneficial Verification program to align with market demands for measurable, traceable, and holistic climate solutions. Siena’s passion for regeneration began after living next to a small scale cattle rancher in Colorado, and they believe strongly in reconnecting the narrative of communities and ecosystems in our contemporary sustainability discourse.

 Read more about Fibershed’s Climate Beneficial Verification Program on page 6.

Join us for Borrowed From the Soil, a farm-to-closet design exhibition

NOVEMBER 10–16, AT THE BUDDHA BARN IN POINT REYES STATION

Today’s clothing relies on transnational supply chains, petroleum-based materials, and land and labor exploitation. But what if your clothing could build ecosystem and community resilience, while regenerating healthy soil and land?

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1–3PM Soft Opening Reception Part of Annual Fibershed Symposium, tickets at fibershed.org/symposium

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 11-2PM Opening Reception 11am–1pm Meet the Makers

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 11AM–3PM Public Open Hours

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16 Open for School Visits Educators, if you are interested in organizing a visit for your class, please email heather@fibershed.org

 Purchase tickets, learn more about the participating makers, and engage with Fibershed’s work to develop regional fiber systems that build soil and protect the health of our biosphere. fibershed.org/design-exhibition

Sirima Sataman, Director of Programs

Sirima Sataman helps bring Fibershed’s programs, communications, and operations into strategic alignment to further the organization’s efficacy and impact. Sirima has a deep and diverse background in sustainability, design, regenerative agriculture, and fine art. She is also a Fibershed Producer member and tends a flock of 20 Shetland sheep on seven acres in Coastal California.

 Read more about Sirima’s work on page 9.

The Borrowed from the Soil exhibition explores a future vision where the way we produce and use one of our most basic human necessities—clothing—can support the longevity and health of our local ecosystems and communities. Explore the process behind the production of locally-grown and made clothing that connects you to California farms, mills and designers. This exhibition follows the journey from cotton fields and sheep ranches through the transformations of raw materials into beautiful textiles, embedding into the design process an understanding of how these materials can be healthfully returned back into our soils. We invite you to help build a collective understanding on the interconnectedness between material, design, and consumer choices, and the land and people whom these choices impact. Borrowed from the Soil November 10–16, 2023

Fibershed Learning Center

Visit our Learning Center

The Fibershed Learning Center is a multi-use space to demonstrate and provide hands-on connections to natural fiber and dye systems, and part of the Black Mountain Ranch community of agrarians and artists located in Point Reyes Station, California. We are working and learning within traditional Coast Miwok Territory and collaborating with tribal community members to support, enhance, and care for essential plant populations that are key for the health of the ecosystem and multimillennia honed agricultural practices.

Our small farm includes an array of crops from multiple ancestral lines and long classical breeding histories, all of which we grow seasonally for pigment, dye, and fiber. The crops we tend and harvest are used to support an array of farm-tofashion activities, ethnobotanical practice, and skill building workshops that we offer to the community. We provide scholarships and fellowships to support the deepening of our cross cultural learning and appreciation for people and land.

We are a proud partner and agricultural member of the Black Mountain Ranch community of agrarians and artists. We are working and learning within traditional Coast Miwok Territory and collaborating with tribal community members to support, enhance, and care for essential plant populations that are key for the health of the ecosystem and multi-millennia honed agricultural practices.

Our small farm includes an array of crops from multiple ancestral lines and long classical breeding histories, all of which we grow seasonally for pigment, dye, and fiber. The crops we tend and harvest are used to support an array of farm-tofashion activities, ethnobotanical practice, and skill building workshops that we offer to the community. We provide scholarships and fellowships to support the deepening of our cross cultural learning and appreciation for people and land.

 Learn more about our work in and around the Fibershed Learning Center: fibershed.org/programs/education-advocacy/learningcenter

 Support our work at the Learning Center by becoming a Supporter. Donations are tax deductible and 100% of funds benefit the Fibershed Learning Center, in Point Reyes Station, California. fibershed.org/learning-center-supporter-program

Upcoming Workshops at the Learning Center

MONDAY, OCTOBER 9 • 10AM–1PM

Animal Husbandry Workshop

Learn about ruminant health and lambing with Dr. Rosie Busch

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5 • 10AM–4PM

How to Create Patterns

Learn to create patterns from your favorite outfits with Gynna Clemes.

See our complete event listings on page 19.

Environment

Carbon Farming in Practice

Fibershed develops natural fiber and dye systems that contribute to the stabilization of our climate. We work directly with land stewards to implement land management practices that build soil carbon and increase productivity naturally. Our Climate Beneficial Verification program provides direct technical and financial support to farmers and ranchers for the implementation of carbon farming practices.

A big thank you to all the producers in our Climate Beneficial Program who carried out Carbon Farm Seed Fund (CFSF) projects this past year! This was our biggest year yet for the CFSF, with a total of 28 projects funded. Some of the most common types of projects involved planting hedgerows, applying compost to pasture and rangeland, seeding cover crops, and purchasing portable electric fencing to carry out a prescribed rotational grazing plan. Here are just a few examples of some of the projects that were carried out this year.

Red Twig Farm

Gina Smith at Red Twig Farm applied compost to an orchard of fruit trees, planted a cover crop for forage and to help out-compete foxtail, and planted native riparian species along an exposed area of creek. All of these practices improves overall soil health and increases carbon sequestration in soils.

Robin Lynde of Meridian Jacobs spread composted manure and bedding from her barn over 6.5 acres with a manure spreader. Spreading compost on rangelands increases soil organic carbon levels, improves soil water infiltration, water and nutrient hold capacity, and forage production.

PT Ranch

Molly Taylor of PT Ranch planted 125 fig, mulberry, valley oak, western red bud, and elderberry trees in a 1000’ hedgerow. Trees in hedgerows provide habitat and food for native wildlife species, while increasing carbon sequestration in soils and vegetation, and providing barriers to wind and noise.

Valley Oak Meadow

Johanna Greenberg and Lennie Moore of Valley Oak Meadow (formerly Liberty Meadow) made progress on their plan for a diverse 200’ multifunctional, agroecological hedgerow for forage/browse, food, wildlife habitat, screening, and a windbreak. They planted a wide variety of plant species including valley oak, loquat, ceanothus, and mountain mahogany, among others.

Fibershed Quick Guides Carbon Farming Education

Which practices are best suited for a farm or ranch will vary based on ecological and other factors. Fibershed has produced a series of Carbon Farming Quick Guides on specific practices that are highly popular and beneficial to producers in the Northern California Fibershed.

Each guide contains the benefits of the practice, an overview of how the practice is implemented and generally associated costs, complementary practices, and a list of regional technical support opportunities.

Here are some practice we recommend implementing in this time of year, each of which have a quick guide:

• Compost Application on Rangelands and Croplands

• Hedgerow, Windbreaks, and Shelterbelt Plantings

• Tree/ Shrub and Silvopasture Establishment

Meridian Jacobs

Economy

The Benefits of Contract Grazing for Vineyard Systems

Contract grazing companies own and raise flocks and offer their services to landowners who wish to benefit from targeted prescribed grazing. These grazing contracts are generally customized to the specific needs of a particular land area. Kaos Sheep Outfit is a contract grazing company in Lake County, CA, and part of the Fibershed producer network. Run by a team of highly skilled shepherds and land stewards, the company uses Australian Corriedale sheep in vineyards, orchards, and even on golf courses and for homeowners’ associations.

“I want people to understand the ecosystem restoration opportunities that sheep ranching could and should provide,” says Jamie Irwin, half of the wifehusband duo who runs Kaos. “What we’re doing is not so different from what the mountain state sheep ranchers have always done, moving their herds frequently, never staying too long in any one area.” Kaos is excited to see studies of these practices gaining attention, especially the impact on soil health and soil carbon done on land where managed grazing is occurring amongst perennial crops, annual crops, and combinations of the two. This research can empower more ranchers, farmers, and shepherds to work together to create dynamic carbon farming systems and solutions.

Despite the high value contract grazers like Kaos provide to landowners and ecosystems, many operations are experiencing heavy financial pressure. Even though grazing is increasingly recognized for its land and soil benefits, flock owners often struggle to derive enough income to meet the high labor and input costs of grazing work. Recent increases in these costs are threatening the viability of this work.

In recent decades, the wool market has experienced a worldwide decline, as synthetic (plastic) fiber production has grown dramatically. This is alongside increases in the costs for skilled labor of shepherds (moving animals frequently and thoughtfully is particularly labor intensive), and growing land stress due to California’s recent droughts and subsequent wildfires. So, while farmers and ranchers who are making crucial shifts in landscape stewardship for climate resilience can provide enormous value in contract prescribed grazing, without new and innovative ways to support these operations, they’re at risk of ceasing to exist.

Designing New Income Streams for Contract Grazers

In 2020, Fibershed was the recipient of a Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) from the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the USDA. CIG awards support “the development of new tools, approaches, practices, and technologies to further natural resource conservation on private lands.” This grant provided Fibershed the opportunity to explore a new way to economically support contract grazers within integrated sheep vineyard systems.

Fibershed and our project partners at Regen Network have specifically been developing a new potential income stream for grazers called Ecosystem Grazing Credits (EGCs). EGCs merge traditional agriculture practices with efficient modern technology to monitor, verify and incentivize the beneficial practice of targeted prescribed grazing within a perennial crop like vineyards.

Mike Conover, Fibershed’s Climate Beneficial™ Technician, shares that EGCs will be aligned with Fibershed’s mission because the system “keeps people and animals on the land, helping to ensure the longevity and viability of modern pastoralism, and promotes the practice of integrating sheep into cropping systems.” The program will connect vineyards in California with the grazing practices of sheep herders in an effort to create healthier ecosystems and a climate-positive impact.

We hope that the EGCs program will provide essential support for the long-term economic viability of integrated targeted grazing, including its ability to enhance ecosystem function, produce more nutritious crops, and improve soil health.

The pilot version of Ecosystem Grazing Credit launched this fall. The initial pilot supports prescribed grazing in vineyard systems we have been monitoring over the past three years, and we hope to adjust it over time to apply more broadly in other integrated-crop livestock systems. Through the program, sustainabilityminded companies will be able to purchase credits that directly support land stewards, invest in local economies, and promote healthier ecosystems.

 Excerpted from “Revitalizing Ecosystems and Bottom Lines: Innovative Approaches Aim to Sustain Prescribed Grazing Operations,” published August 22, 2023 on the Fibershed Blog. bit.ly/fibershed-grazing-innovations

Advocacy

Policy Perspective: How Fashion Companies Can Take Responsibility for Their Waste and Move Toward A Just Circular Textile Economy

On average, a person in the United States sends 81 pounds of clothing each year to landfill—an increase of 55 percent per capita since 2000. This increase can be traced to the emergence and popularity of the fast fashion industry, which promotes the sale of low-cost, low-quality clothing that goes out of fashion with increasing speed. The rise of fast fashion contributes to a “disposability” mindset that incentivizes ever-growing consumption with no regard for its impacts.

Besides direct disposal to landfills, our clothes are overwhelmingly dumped on vulnerable communities, primarily in Africa and Central and South America. The U.S. is the largest exporter of secondhand clothing globally. The fashion industry uses the “receiving” communities that participate in the global secondhand clothing trade as a defacto waste management strategy. However, more people are calling for collective action and accountability in this harmful and broken system, which enables financially wealthier countries to ignore the damage caused by a culture of overconsumption by passing waste to countries with scarce resources to safely manage it. In a recently published position paper, Stop Waste Colonialism, The Or Foundation describes the burden placed on these communities and shares recommendations for policies that can account for

decades of exploitation. You can stand with the Kantamanto community and advocate for a justiceled transition to a circular economy by signing your name to the Stop Waste Colonialism position paper: stopwastecolonialism.org.

There is an urgent need for global accountability and policy mechanisms that hold textile producers accountable for the financial and physical work of processing fashion waste. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy tool that shifts financial responsibility to the producers in order to combat the inequitable consequences of growing textile waste.

A goal of EPR programs is to cultivate circularity: the cycling of products through phases of use, re-use, repair, and recycling while minimizing or eliminating waste. It’s important to note that circularity alone does not address the larger systemic impacts of current textile overproduction, pollution through microplastic emissions from textiles, or plastic use and impacts. Well-designed EPR policy can be inclusive of all these issues, which are clearly integral to textile waste and its impacts.

An ideal application of EPR would be to assign fees on all textile producers adjusted according to

production volumes and to costs due to product longevity, recyclability and environmental impact. These fees should be sufficient to affect product design and material choice, to create a more favorable economy for products that pollute less and are likely to be used longer.

California was the first U.S. state to introduce EPR legislation attempting to mitigate the clothing industry’s staggering impact on the environment and overseas markets. The proposed bill, SB 707 (Newman), would create an EPR program for the implementation and management of an end-to-end system to optimize the recycling or repair of textiles. The bill would require reporting on the quantities, types, and fate of materials collected, in order to reduce the amount that ends up in landfills or in overseas markets.

 Read the whole article, published May 26, 2023, on the Fibershed blog: bit.ly/fibershed-circular-textiles

 To learn more about SB707, the EPR policy being proposed in California, we encourage you to explore bill sponsor California Product Stewardship Council’s website, calpsc.org/legislation . Stay tuned for updates from Fibershed as the bill moves through the California legislature in 2024.

Producer Network

Updates from Fibershed’s Producer Network

Welcome to our new Producer Network Members!

We want to welcome and highlight producers who have joined our Northern and Central 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 at fibershed.com/producer-directory

Elissa Callen

Oakland

Elissa Callen is an artist working with local plants and fungi to make natural pigments, inks, and dyes that she uses as the staple materials in her painting practice. She holds a degree in fine art, has a professional background in horticulture, and nearly ten years of experience using natural, locally gathered materials sustainably for color. She has taught ecological pigment and ink making with numerous California institutions. She is passionate about California ecology and believes in using her work with natural materials as a means of increasing community interest in environmentalism, preservation, and connectedness to the native landscape.

elissacallen.com callenelissa@gmail.com

Hen and Harvest Farm Turlock

Hen and Harvest Farm is a small, woman owned regenerative farm. It was created from a lifelong dream to raise food and animals in a way that works collaboratively with nature. Our flock of chickens and ducks are cage free, free range and even better, pasture raised—they live on pasture, all day, every day! We raise both wool and hair sheep that are integrated into our rotational grazing system. Our animals have access to more than five-and-a-half acres of carefully managed and diverse forages. Using rotational grazing practices also gives our land time to rest, creating a strong and healthy soil. Our happy, healthy animals give us eggs and meat that is fresh, delicious and full of nutrition! henandharvest.farm hello@henandharvest.farm @henandharvestfarm

Rare Rabbit Studio

Cotati

I am a self-taught wool fiber artist. I first discovered the craft of needle felting with wool in 2008. Creating with roving and specialized barbed needles is like fiber alchemy, allowing one to sculpt wool into amazing art forms. I started teaching this technique eight years ago! It is my great pleasure in sharing this amazing bit of wool magic with others. It’s a skill most anyone can learn! In 2021 I opened Rare Rabbit Studio, a makers space filled with folklore, fairytales, creatures, and of course WOOL! I recently purchased a felting machine which will add a new dimension to the process. I share needle felting classes twice a month and hold a monthly “Felting Frolic” gathering to work on wool projects and introduce new friends to this craft. I hope you will visit my website, and perhaps sign up for a class!

denisemarshallart.com dmarhsallart@icloud.com

Whimsy Makes Sebastopol

Whimsy Makes is a textile arts studio. With a background in events, floral design and organic farming, owner Chelsea Dennis has applied her experiences in these fields to create textile, housewares, and accessory offerings aligned with her passions. Whimsy Makes is focused on transforming fabric into practical magic through small batch dye methods. The studio uses custommade plant-based natural pigments made with flowers, veggies, and herbs to transform the earth’s offerings. Combining the ephemeral magic of nature with an intuitive dyeing practice, Whimsy Makes crafts oneof-a kind hand-dyed pieces.

whimsymakes.com

whimsygatherings@gmail.com @whimsy_makes

Producer Network

Estuary

Petaluma

A sustainable lifestyle brand inspired by life in Northern California. Our store is a dreamy destination for discovering the essentials that turn your home and garden into a serene sanctuary. We pride ourselves on sourcing items that are fair-trade and locally made whenever humanly possible. These hand-picked goods aren’t just practical but are a joy to use because so much thought goes into the design.

shopestuary.com april@shopestuary.com

We breed and raise a small flock of miniature spotted sheep—registered Harlequins and crossbred Babydoll and Finnsheep. All our sheep are halter trained and fully vaccinated. Located in Northern California we breed and raise high-quality mini sheep as grazers, pets, wool fiber, and for education. We are not a business, however we usually have a few lambs for sale each year and hopefully will have yarn in the future.

shootingstarsheep.com

shootingstarsheep@gmail.com

Rancho Las Palmas Davenport

Diverse organic vegetable farm on the California central coast, rotational grazing sheep on crop residues, and pasture to increase soil heath and carbon drawdown. CCOF Certified Organic, providing fresh organic produce to the earth!

rancholaspalmasorganic@gmail.com @rancho_las_palmas

Pacific Textile Arts Fort Bragg

We are an all-volunteer educational nonprofit existing to support, share, and celebrate the fiber arts. Our campus includes a gallery in our historic Victorian house, where exhibits are new each month; an extensive catalogued textile library; a tapestry weaving studio; a large classroom for meetings, events, and workshops, stocked with weaving looms and equipment; and an outdoor patio for social events and dye workshops.

pacifictextilearts.org outreach@pacifictextilearts.org

Barbara and Jim are both retired educators, who share in the joys of raising fleece sheep and working our farm. The farm is situated on 40 acres in the central valley at 400 feet elevation on the Butte/Tehama county lines adjacent to the Sierra foothills. Their flock of Shetland sheep graze year round on pasture. The farm has achieved grid neutrality through solar production and practice water conservation.

roadsendchico@gmail.com

Our store is a dreamy destination for discovering the essentials that turn your home and garden into a serene sanctuary. We pride ourselves on sourcing items that are fair-trade and locally made whenever humanly possible. Reinvesting in the place we live and do business is something near and dear to us. It’s why we donate 1% of our profits to organizations here in our backyard, so every purchase, big or small, helps to support this place we call home.

poppypiefarm@gmail.com

Two Rock Corner Two Rock

Tiny farm in Two Rock, with almostferal chickens, dairy goats, and Jacobs sheep. Offering urban grazing and cheese making adventures, and gentle, attentive, small-flock shearing. Striving to improve soil health, habitat, community food security, and local, sustainable fashion. Doing our best to be good stewards of this tiny piece of unceded Coast Miwok land. tworockcorner.com saill@tworockcorner.com

Shooting Star Sheep

Saint Helena

Road’s End Farm

Chico

Poppy Pie Farm

Petaluma

Producer Voices

Hear from your fellow Producer Network Members. Want to share a project or an update? How about sharing a call to action, a resource, or a poetic musing? We’re ready for your submissions. Write to lexi@fibershed.org with the subject “Producer Voices.” We will fit submissions as we have space, and prioritize timely submissions.

Contribute to the Fibershed Community Natural Dye Library!

HELEN KRAYNOFF

Producer Network Member

LEXI FUJII

Fibershed Producer and Affiliate Network Coordinator

Have you ever wished you could find natural dyeing information all in one place about what colors you could get from local plants around you? Or a place to get solid information on how your peers are approaching their dye practice? Or a fount of natural dye inspiration when contemplating your next fiber creation? Or even a place to refer friends and colleagues to when they want more after you’ve inspired them to rethink their wardrobe? We are working to create a Community Natural Dye Library to fulfill as many of these desires as possible for artisans, production dyers, designers, educators and more!

Fibershed Producer Network Coordinator, Lexi Fujii, and Producer Member, Helen Krayonoff has started a repository of dye samples on locally produced fiber by members—The Fibershed Community Natural Dye Library. The current version is located at the Fibershed Learning Center for natural dyers, students, funders, designers, and other community members to engage with. We need your contributions to make it better, fuller and more diverse!

Steps for submission:

1. Choose Fibershed-certified fiber: 1 yard of yarn (or ½ yard bulky) and/or 4-inch square of cloth

2. Choose a locally grown or foraged plant material (cultivated, natives, food waste, and invasives are all good!)

3. Dye or eco-print using your chosen fiber and plant material. So we can correctly match your sample to your form, attach a label to each sample with: the date, your name, the name of the dye plant and a way to contact you in case we have questions (be assured your contact info will not be listed in the archive)

4. Fill out this Google Form to submit all of the necessary information to capture your process: https://forms.gle/UYcedDxxGnDc8YsG7 OR email lexi@ fibershed.org to receive the printable form.

5. Note: Each archival page will represent one dye bath project (or one ecoprint), but can include any variations amongst your samples depending on modifiers, time in bath, etc. You can submit up to three samples per submission (ie. 3 samples of coreopsis but with three different modifiers). See Sample Form below

6. Send your dye samples (plus filled form if you chose to print) to: Helen Krayenhoff, 3629 Dimond Ave, Oakland CA 94602

Producer Network Resource

Producer Voices

Japanese Indigo: Field Notes Fall 2023 | “Indigo Blues”

CRAIG WILKINSON Producer Network Member

Just when you think you are confident and in sync with the learned practices needed to propagate a healthy crop of Japanese indigo seedlings, nature reminds you of the many challenges and variables agriculture can present.

My order to propagate 3,600 seedlings had a poor germination rate and produced less than 1,000 seedlings. I quickly cleaned and sent more seed for the potential of a better germination which was the case and received approximately 2,000 seedlings in the second half of May.

I also propagated approximately five hundred seedlings from indigo seed given to me by Rimiko, a Fibershed volunteer. The seed was sourced from Japan and harvested in 2022. The germination was very good and this added to the back-up efforts to provide indigo seedlings for the 2023 season.

All in all we were able to deliver indigo seedlings for the Fibershed School Garden Program, participate and distribute indigo seedlings at the Fibershed Spring Farmers Market in May, and provide over 1,000 seedlings to the Fibershed Learning Center including a number of the second variety propagated from the indigo seed Rimiko sourced from Japan.

I was also able to deliver seedlings to a handful of other regular indigo growers who look forward to their yearly delivery.

So with what I titled “Indigo Blues,” I aspire to be gentle on myself in reflection of times of stress and grateful for the insights learned from the creative process.

I look forward to hearing about individual indigo successes from those who cultivated seedlings this year.

Remember to try and save some seed for next year!

In Memory of Peter Stull

Peter Stull, a longtime resident and sheep supporter at Bodega Pastures, left us on June 24th, 2023. A fisherman, he loved poetry, animals, and kids (both human and goat), and the interspecies friendships between those he observed. He taught me that fishermen were like fiber artists because patience could be learned by untangling fishing nets and rope, same as could be learned from untangling yarn. Most frequently he could be found tinkering with his beloved light blue vintage truck or making wood-burned signs for local businesses, while wearing blue blockers (for a rose-colored view of the world) and drinking what he termed sherpa coffee. Once, his goat named Hezbollah (Hezzy, for short) crashed his car by leaping inside, releasing the emergency brake, and then leaping out as the truck rolled down and into the gulley. He owned almost every tool imaginable, unless it was new, all organized in front of his house according to a system only he understood. He was the heart and soul of the ranch, and will be missed.

MARIE HOFF, FULL CIRCLE WOOL Producer Network Member

Valley Oak Wool Mill

MARCAIL MCWILLIAMS, VALLEY OAK WOOL MILL Producer Network Member

Hello everyone! In the last Fibershed newsletter I talked about purchasing a new Belfast mini mill card with rug yarn attachment. I feel like I’m now in a good place on operating it but it did contribute to other yarn orders moving slower through the mill. I apologize for the slowdown, but such is life when you’re running a mill mostly by yourself. Things feel much more stable now and I’m looking forward to catching up on regular orders.

There have been a number of machine fixes and improvements this year: some new chain installed on the Whitin spinner, a decent extractor machine to cut down on wet wool drying time, bolting the skein winder to the ground (no more skein winder rodeos lol), a chain hoist to enable me to switch to carding batting all by myself, and a pesky vent was sealed shut to keep out wind, rain, wasps, and birds! Hurrah!

I attended Black Sheep Gathering in June and had a nice time. I enjoyed staying with an old friend on the way up and back, as well as meeting others along the way. Sales were better than last year, and enough to make me feel alright about attending again next year. I will be back up that way in October for OFFF, looking forward to that. Apparently a large solar eclipse will be happening that weekend? I hope that will be alright to manage… maybe I better prepare by taking more of my own food so I don’t have to navigate crowds…

October will be a busy fiber month as usual, I will be offering a day of reserved mill tours on Saturday October 7th in combination with tours and tastings at my neighbor’s property, Frate Sole, who grows olives for oil. The two of us used to offer combined tours before COVID and we’re happy to start bringing these back. Later in October I was invited to speak at the Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Guild meeting. Looking forward to that, it’s been a long time since I had a speaking engagement so it’ll be nice to share what I do with them. They will also have their own private mill tour after the meeting.

In the beginning of 2024 (woah, I don’t like how fast that’s approaching!!) I have another guild from the Bay Area who contacted me for a mill tour. Let me know if anyone wants to schedule a group tour. Groups of six to ten adults are ideal, I charge $12/person for approx. an hour and a half to two hour tour depending on how many stimulating questions are asked :) Small children are usually not interested in the mill, and it’s also not very safe, minimum age is six or seven years old. Thanks for understanding.

Producer Stories

Amazing Graze at McCormack Ranch

by STEPHANY WILKES photographed by PAIGE GREEN

Kelsey Nichols is the Ranch Manager and Shepherd at McCormack Ranch in Rio Vista, California. Owned by Jeanne McCormack and her husband, Al Medvitz, the Ranch has provided natural, nutrient-dense meat and grain since 1896–as long as the Ranch has practiced sustainable farming. Today, the Ranch raises and manages South African Meat Merino (SAMM) sheep that produce food and fine wool and play an important role in pasture management and implementation of the Ranch’s Carbon Farm Plan, created with the help of Fibershed and the Solano County Resource Conservation District (RCD).

“McCormack Ranch has always been a very holistic system,” Kelsey says. “Small grain farming and sheep fit really well together. The sheep cleaned up the fields to help control the weeds and, at the end of grain harvest, cleaned up the seeds. After harvest, the sheep went back on to control the weeds and stayed into the next year, when it’s pasture again. And then the Ranch had the meat from lambs and bread from

the grain. It hasn’t changed too much since then.We do a three-year rotational system, but I have been transitioning some of the ground to more permanent pasture,” Kelsey says. “Not to be grazed permanently, but to get away from destroying the ground.”

She explains that some of McCormack Ranch’s six square miles is leased to neighbors as grain ground. They fallow it in summer, when the sheep control the weeds, and then disc the ground in preparation for fall planting. The discing is what Kelsey wants to change, because it can damage soil structure and health over time.

Improved forage for animals means less ground can support more animals, important for the Ranch’s overall efficiency and long-term sustainability, as well as local food security.

Alfalfa has a bad rap. It is one of California’s two most vilified “thirsty crops,” almonds being the other.

Before the rainy winter of 2022–2023, the media periodically asked whether almonds and alfalfa should be grown at all. Dryland alfalfa, however, is not irrigated. It is a very drought-tolerant, perennial legume with deep tap roots.

“It likes our clay soil that holds the water deep,” Kelsey says. “We got a crop planted last January, a year and a half ago, and we had maybe an inch of rain after that. I thought it failed. I thought it all had died, because it all germinated and then was gone. But it all came back. You drive up the road, and it’s green, and to have green feed in the summer in California, not irrigated, is pretty incredible. It’s really exciting.”

 Read the whole article, published August 13, 2023, on the Fibershed blog: bit.ly/fibershed-mccormack.

 Learn more about Greenbelt Alliance’s work to protect Solano County from development sprawl: greenbelt.org/ blog/protectsolano

Taking the Long View at Mustang Acres

by STEPHANY WILKES photographed by PAIGE GREEN

At Mustang Acres, the needs of people, animals and landscape come together in a beautiful dance of mutual care and support. Even in its early days, Mustang Acres is a lesson in adaptation and an oft-overlooked aspect of regeneration: community.

“A lot of this is accidental,” Fiona Wong says, walking toward a small flock of sheep on bright green grass, the drizzle light enough to pass for heavy fog. “It was all unplanned. I didn’t plan to have sheep. I’m a real city girl, from Singapore. I never foresaw a life with severe autism. I never foresaw a farm.”

California has long been home to intentional communities of myriad kinds, and Mustang Acres is another. It is made up of four families, five and a half acres, nine sheep, one llama, and one single-family home, nestled in the unincorporated area of East Petaluma. It will soon be home to four adult men living with profound autism, one of whom is Fiona’s son. “It’s all about adapting to what you’re facing,” she

says. “Adapting without choice. What can you do with what you’re handed? What choices do you have?”

Fiona is frank, clear-eyed and pragmatic. “We are four families who have sons with severe autism. Our adult children will live 24-7 here, with round-the-clock caregivers on-site, so we can grow old and die. We can’t wait to kick them out,” she winks, half joking like most parents of young adults. “But,” she adds, “the funny part is that while we are looking forward to the day they will live away from us, I can tell you that most of us parents are actually looking at moving to be near them after they move to Mustang Acres!”

Fiona continues, “More seriously, a lot of parents with disabled children punt on it, push that worry down. Then some get into their 60s and 70s, even their 80s, and start to panic about what will happen when they’re gone. We started building this when I was 48, three years ago. Our families didn’t know each other until two years ago, when we met

and learned that we had the same dream for our disabled children. We intentionally sought to build this community together. We are like-minded parents, all from very different backgrounds but wanting to establish a sustainable system that will ensure our children’s housing and care long after we are gone.”

Fiona doesn’t say so, but she is clearly a determined, organizational powerhouse and doer. It is one thing to think about what’s necessary for profoundly autistic adult children to outlive their parents, and entirely another to organize and make change happen. Realizing the idealistic is a lot of work and, mercifully, not entirely Fiona’s.

 Read the whole article, published March 28, 2023, on the Fibershed blog: bit.ly/fibershed-mustang-acres

 Learn more at mustangacres.org , or on Instagram @mustangacresfarm

Producer Stories

Weaving Lineage in Diaspora

by STEPHANY WILKES photographed by PAIGE GREEN

Sari Monroy Solís is a Mayan Kaqchikel and Xicana weaver, teacher, dyer, herbalist-in-training, and Fibershed’s Learning Center Workshop Coordinator, with a decades-long career as an immigration attorney. Sari revitalizes ancestral fiber arts in California and internationally–a journey and practice that started with a family loom and revitalizing her own connections to craft in her homelands of Guatemala and Mexico.

Sari grew up in the border region of Southern California with parents who initially immigrated to Mendocino County in the 1960s. “My dad worked in the old sawmills and then at the Mendocino Beacon newspaper doing typesetting,” she says. “He brought a loom from Guatemala when he migrated to the U.S. Among the very few things he carried was a loom. Mom was an apiarist from Veracruz, Mexico, and taught me fiber arts since I was little. All of us were taught traditional textile and fiber arts–embroidery, knitting, sewing.” But not weaving.

Her father’s loom was a constant presence in Sari’s house, but–working two and three jobs–he didn’t have time to teach his children how to use it. When Sari’s dad died, his loom was lost in the shuffle, but reappeared when the house was sold. At the time, Sari was in her twenties and, she says, “No one wanted the loom. I wanted to preserve it. I remembered it. And from there I determined I needed to find home, where he came from, find somebody in his family and see if they could please teach me to weave.”

Sari embarked on a genealogical fiber journey to Guatemala. “My parents were of another era,” she says. “They were in their fifties when they had me. And the older people they would have known? Those people were gone by the time I was born.”

As an immigration attorney, however, Sari knows documents and records. She started with the paperwork from when her father migrated. “I ended up pulling his whole immigration file,” she says. “Everyone he had contact with since he entered the U.S. And that documentation gave me names, places—which part of Guatemala, then which part of the town. So I had the town names and once I had the town names, I could go to the cemetery.”

“And that led me to go to the Hall of Records, in the town where they were born. This is the Valle de Panchoy area of Sacatepequez, Guatemala (now called Antigua and San Antonio Aguas Calientes). I had to find them. I wanted to know where my paternal family were buried, because that’s part of our culture, being able to honor where our ancestors are buried. I wanted to be there for them and go and decorate their tombs, bring flowers. I had so many feelings. It was overwhelming.”

Every day, Sari bought fresh flowers from the same flower stall, in case that day would be the one in which she found her family’s tomb. “One day I was carrying flowers around and realized: It’s right here. It’s unmarked, but I followed the cemetery map and realized it was actually right below me. I found where my grandmother was buried. I felt this overwhelming warmth like, ‘Wow, you made it. You made it back.’ I was able to take my son there. I found them. Not only my family, but I found my people.”

On that same trip, Sari found a teacher in Master Weaver Doña Lidia de Lopez. Her brocade looms are a work of art, handmade in the ancestral style of her hometown of San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Sacatepequez, Guatemala.

The loom Sari’s father had carried could not be used, as Sari knew: “It was missing half the heddles,” she says, smiling. “There are so many sticks on this! I didn’t know how I was going to learn. I was a perfectionist. I learned to always do something right, you know? Just getting used to a full backstrap loom was something.”

The backstrap loom is one of the oldest known tools in the world, dating back thousands of years. It evolved in a more limited, specific number of places–including the Western highlands of Guatemala–than other fiber tools.

A backstrap loom is different from frame looms, Sari says, “because you become part of it. It’s anchored to the tree, or a post; you’re anchored to the earth. You work outside. Inside the home is not really where its place is.” The sticks on the loom become wider to make a panel of fabric longer, and are based on the shoulder width of the wearer.

Natural dyes are part of the Mayan textile tradition, too. “Guatemala was a trade crossroads,” Sari explains. “You can see the movement of the alpaca from Peru; there was a road. The trade in natural dyes, cotton, came all the way from South America. Today, Sari’s work taps into and recreates that memory, by reviving craft practices and knowledge. Her mission is bringing teachers to new audiences. “You’re recreating the culture,” she says. “That’s how we find our way back. Through our garments.”

 Published September 11, 2023, on the Fibershed blog. Read the whole article: bit.ly/fibershed-weavinglineage. Learn more about Sari at sarahmonroy.com and on Instagram @theblueweaver

These producer stories feature two of our new staff members, Sari and Sirima. Both are Producer Network members, connected to their local fibersheds in meaningful ways, through creative making and land stewardship.

Two Women and Two Generations of Stewardship at Blackberry Farm

by STEPHANY WILKES photographed by PAIGE GREEN

At Blackberry Farm in Bolinas, two generations of women have stewarded the land for 50 years and counting. In 1972, 29-year-old Aggie Murch and her husband, Walter, left a houseboat for a farm across the road from Bolinas Lagoon, on the west side of Mount Tamalpais. Today, Sirima Sataman–artist, shepherd, horticulturalist; mother, wife, and Aggie’s daughter-in-law–is taking soil health deeper, implementing so many climate beneficial practices that it is hard to keep up with them.

Blackberry Farm’s seven acres (five grazable) includes an old farmhouse, a weathered gray horse barn and sheep pastures that wrap around the U-shaped property past the olive trees, apple orchard, and redwood trees.

“It was a wonderfully derelict, very imposing old house,” Aggie says. “We fell in love with it. That front lawn was all daffodils, ten thousand or more. The children sold them by the roadside. Coming here… It was a way to raise children through the discipline of farming, horses, chickens. We had a constant understory of children. The land itself was a base.”

The 1970s marked a time of peak Bolinas mystique and cultural influence, buoyed by the likes of the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and a myriad Beat-era poets. Though they would not describe themselves as such, Aggie and Walter Scott Murch are legendary, too. A nurse, Aggie was one of the West Marin midwives. As an equestrian, she cofounded the Marin County Pony Club in 1999 and helped found the community radio station KWMR. Walter Murch Sr is a world renowned film editor and sound designer. His work on The Conversation, Julia, Apocalypse Now, and The English Patient has earned

Oscar and BAFTA awards and his book, In The Blink of an Eye, remains a cinema classic.

Blackberry Farm played host to sustainable agriculture legends, too. Warren Weber started Star Route Farm next door to grow salad greens for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse. And “Bill Niman lived in what is now the upstairs bathroom,” Aggie says, gesturing toward a window with her tea cup. (Niman’s allnatural pig, goat, and chicken operation later became Niman Ranch.)

Aggie tended green things, horses, and children, a linchpin of the Bolinas community. And then, she says, “came the fallow time. The horses died. The children grew up and left home. And I started an orchard.” She planted Wickson crabapple, Pippins, Winter Pearmain, Ashmead’s Kernel, and Bramleys for baking. “The orchard was something that I thought I could do, something that would survive me,” Aggie says.

Sirima’s background in design, environmental studies, and art gave her the ability to really see Blackberry Farm. With forensic eyes, Sirima looked at the land–at Aggie’s fenced English-style garden, orchards, bees, and willows–and thought, “I see what this is supposed to be, what the intention is,” she says.

The orchard, for example, provided a foundation for silvopasture, in which trees, forage, and animals are managed equally in an interdependent, multispeciated and highly diverse system. Silvopasture creates not just soil but financial benefits: It gives a farm multiple products, one or more from each of the silvopasture components (like apples, cider, chickens, and eggs).

Sirima re-established beekeeping and orchard grazing, bringing sheep and chickens (and their manure and critter control) to the alleys between the apple trees. Thanks to a Carbon Farm Seed Fund grant from Fibershed, she has planted more native plants as a pollinator hedgerow and improved the mix of forage and permanent cover crop.

And that is just the start.

“We’re in our second year of no-till. We have a dye garden and I hope to add indigo this year. We have more native grasses and cover crop for pollinators, birdsfoot trefoil, vetch, and mustard greens bust up hard soil and fix nitrogen. In spring, it’s radish up to my armpits in the orchard, which provides cover to a covey of quail,” Sirima explains. “ It’s remarkably humid in the middle of all that radish. If I can keep the orchard green, I can help nature help itself and everything along.”

With all of this, how does she find time for art? Sirima has been a full-time artist since 2014. When asked, she shakes her head and smiles.

“There’s beauty in the creation of all these things on the farm,” she says. “Shaping the land, building a shed, weaving a willow fence or arch. It comes back around to why I need to make art. I’m interested in the environment and human ingenuity and partnership with the environment. At the heart of it is this balance in living in partnership with Nature.”

 Read the whole article, published May 1, 2023, on the Fibershed blog: bit.ly/fibershed-blackberry-farm

 Learn more on Instagram @bbfarmbolinas

Resources for Producers

Producer Network Members have access to toolkits and curriculum to help with best practices around business operations, field work, and connecting with and supporting fellow Network Members.

Grazier’s Toolbox

Birthed out of the Fibershed Producer Program’s Business Curriculum and its support of the Grazing School of the West, this is a series of practical business operations tools developed for contract grazing businesses: The Grazier’s Toolbox.

Each tool is geared towards emerging and existing goat/sheep grazing outfits operating for various needs, including fire mitigation, integrated crop-livestock systems (ICLS), municipal land management, and general land or property maintenance and stewardship. Some tools are also relevant to sheep/goat meat and fiber producers, regardless of contract grazing activities.

Included in the Grazier’s Toolbox:

• Contract Job Breakeven Calculator

• Contract Grazing Agreement

• Lamb Meat Production and Sheep Herd Growth Calculator

• Grazing Business Plan Templates

• Three-Year Cash Flow Budget Template

• Lamb/Goat Meat Yield and Margin Calculator

• Hiring Guide

The Grazier’s Toolbox is available to all Fibershed producer network members.

 Learn more about the tools and access these resources at fibershed.org/fibershed-graziers-toolbox

Email lexi@fibershed.org for the access password.

Producer Business Curriculum

All Fibershed producer members have access to our Business Curriculum, which is designed to empower Fibershed Producers with basic business, strategic planning, marketing, and financial skills applicable to fiber economy businesses at any stage in development or tenure.

Courses are served “a la carte”, delivered online through recorded webinars, and includes a suite of practical template-based tools to apply to each specific business. All webinars will be 1-2 hours long. Courses are applicable to Producers at all levels of business experience and are exclusive to Producers with a current membership.

Here are samples of the course offerings:

• Financial Basics for Fiber Economy

• Sales Strategy: Margins, Pricing, and Channels

• Social Media Marketing Best Practices

• A Framework for Structuring Fiber Businesses

• Holistic Business Breakeven and Enterprise Budgeting

• Insurance and Liability

• Agritourism: Opportunities, Challenges, and Considerations

• Introduction to Strategic Planning

• Values-Driven Leadership and Management Skills

 For a full library of courses, visit fibershed.org/ business-curriculum.

Email lexi@fibershed.org for the access password.

Producer Network Membership

If you are a farmer or artisan in the Northern and Central California Fibershed and would like people to know that your work supports regional agriculture, a local and fair economy, and ecological balance, consider joining the Fibershed Producer Program. Benefits of the $40 annual membership fee include:

Inclusion in the Fibershed Producer Directory

Access to free educational resources

Monthly Producer community email updates with relevant resources and event reminders

Opportunity to be featured in the Fibershed blog

Inclusion of your upcoming events on the Fibershed calendar and promotion via Fibershed email newsletter and social media channels

Support to become part of Fibershed’s Climate Beneficial Verification program

Invitation to vend at select Fibershed events

Fibershed Certified Producer web-badge and Fibershed Certified Product tags

10% member’s discount on all Fibershed events

Complimentary subscription to biannual print newslette

Invitation to bi-annual producer community meet-ups

 Learn more and find the Membership Application at fibershed.org/programs/regional-textile-economies/producer-program

Yarn Consultation with Gayle Ravenscroft

Have you ever found yourself wondering, “What does my yarn want to be?” As owner of Pacific Knitting Retreats, Gayle Ravenscroft has developed a mission to stitch together adventurous knitters and the special yarns of our fibershed. Through free yarn consultations, Gayle offers to share her expertise with Fibershed Producer Members who may be wondering how best to market their wool. Interested producers are asked to share key information in advance, and send a skein to Gayle through the mail. From there, Gayle will invite you to join a one-on-one yarn consultation over phone or zoom to discuss appropriate uses and ideas for your yarn.

 If you’re interested in a yarn consultation, please contact lexi@fibershed.org

Producer Network Resource Producer Network Resource Producer Network Resource

Affiliate Network

Updates from Fibershed’s Global Affiliate Network

The Fibershed Affiliate Program supports an international grassroots network that promotes the development of regional fiber systems communities, including economic and non-economic growth, in the form of building relationships and new global networks. Fibershed Affiliates are grounded in place-based community organizing efforts that work to connect fiber farmers, processors and artisans. Fibershed offers Affiliate members ways to share stories, and enhance their organizing efforts, through online webinars, social media, networking, and project feedback. From design challenges, fiber field research, and community education projects, the Fibershed Affiliate Network includes over 65 groups worldwide with a diverse array of interests and a shared goal of strengthening regional fiber systems.

An excerpt from Growing Regional Fiber Systems Worldwide, a Fibershed Affiliate Network publication

by LEXI FUJII Membership and Learning Center Coordinator

I’m in awe, each time I think about the origin story of the shirt I am wearing; the initial seed or blade of grass powered by solar energy—an abundant and reliable source indeed—nurtured by networks of microbial life and nutrient exchanges beneath the soil’s surface. The plant (think cotton), the rumen (a grazing animal eating the blade of grass, i.e. sheep), unconsciously working to turn seemingly nothing into something. As these plants and animals grow, stalks and other plant parts are harvested, animals are shorn, and they continue on their lifecycles; but left in their wake is an abundance of fiber capable of transforming human society.

The intricate processes involved from taking that initial seed or blade of grass and turning it into longlasting clothing—each individual step itself worthy of a moment to pause and appreciate—is beautiful and awe inducing. Plant stalks are peeled, fermented, softened; cotton bolls are harvested; wool is shorn, cleaned, carded—all to be twisted into yarns and woven into fabrics. This depiction itself is far too simplistic to outline the complex processes involved. It’s full of craft, skill, wisdom, and is a work of art to create the basis of our textile systems.

We are all a part of this textile system—whether we grow, create, or wear. Clothing is and always will be one of humanity’s basic needs; a protection from the environment, a cultural identity, a place of comfort and home, freedom of expression, a societal indicator, our second skin. And although our recent track record shows a lack of consideration and protection of our basic needs—water, food, medicine, material systems —they are the foundation to our livelihoods,

and all interconnected through ecological systems and human stewardship. There are communities around the world, continuing ancestral ways of caring for the land and these stated systems.

There are communities around the world revitalizing land-based textile economies that restore the soil and cultural practices. This collective action is necessary and inspiring.

Fibershed has the honor of supporting some of these communities through our Fibershed Affiliate Network. In this network, there are 65+ fibersheds working in their specific bioregions to connect the pieces of intricate land-based textile systems—working with the fiber farmer, shearer, spinner, weaver, designer (and many more people) to produce clothing and other textiles rich with life and stories of the land and communities. Some of these stories are told in this year’s Threading Resilience Zine, while some are quietly moving along with a strength that is ready to transform a system. I encourage you to follow along on the journeys of these grassroot organizers who dream and act out of necessity, out of creativity, and out of pure will to believe that the world can be different.

The answer to many of humanity’s current challenges is not in new technological innovations, it is and has always been here. You just must be willing to look at what is already happening, rumbling beneath the surface—literally and metaphorically. I hope you join this movement of climate activists who believe that collectively we can live abundantly and in balance with the natural world while generating a LIVING material culture.

Affiliate Network Updates

Acadian Brown Cotton Is Back

In the six years since its inception, the Acadiana Fibershed has brought Acadian Brown cotton seedstock, cultivation, and culture back from the brink of near-permanent loss.

In 2017, when only two known people had Acadian Brown Cotton (ABC) heirloom seed, the Fibershed affiliate set out to begin seed banking, revitalize Acadian cotton production with farmers committed to regenerative practices, and establish a short, fully traceable supply chain that honors and maintains Acadian culture. They have done that and then some.

Founder Sharon Donnan, Jennie Lallande, Larry and Andre Allain, and Randon and Jena Dufrene have re-established Acadian Brown cotton in diverse environments: a single-acre regenerative battleground bordering sugar cane fields, a suburban lot, and a small 12-acre farm. Together, they and other Acadiana Fibershed members are a living seed bank, ethnobotanists, craftspeople, educators, and land stewards.

Jennie Lallande studied environmental science and farms full time in Iberia Parish, just south of Lafayette in New Iberia. “I’m first and foremost a plant person,” Jennie says. “I want mixed species in every growing space. I say I have a demonstration farm, but I’m just demonstrating that you could actually have every plant you can imagine instead of a dead turf lawn.”

“Here, most people stop gardening in June.” Jennie explains, “You can grow okra and cotton and that’s about it. Cotton is a natural fit, rotating in as the summertime crop. My cooler weather plants and crops die off, and cotton takes their place. It gives us a lot of vegetation to keep those healthy systems cycling.”

Fellow Acadiana Fibershed member Larry Allain agrees. He and his son, Andre, are creating a 12-acre, regenerative oasis on an old race-horse farm, tucked away down a long driveway. Larry is an ethnobotanist and retired prarie ecologist, “trying to grow and recreate what my Cajun ancestors grew,” he says.

Their farm’s permaculture design incorporates forest and native grassland. Larry and Andre have rabbits, pigs and chickens for natural tilling, compost, and meat. Once the farm is fenced, they want to add sheep “as a management tool for the native coastal prairie we are restoring on 7.5 acres,”

Randon and Jena Dufrene met while working as land managers. They work full time and live in Lafayette with their three kids, aged six, four and two. Randon and Jena tend an acre behind her parents’ house, west of Lafayette in a subdivision with big lots.

“We are growing cotton inside the vegetable garden and have about 50 x 86 feet of growing space, with plenty of room to fill in that back acre. Why cotton? Randon says. “You can grow cotton in your backyard and produce things with it. My wife is a knitter and the traditional gift was cotton for the second anniversary, so I put two plants in the front yard, five years ago. And those two are now a field of cotton plants, and in the process we’re learning about regenerative agriculture.”

The Acadiana Fibershed has accomplished a great deal in a short time, including research and product development and agriculture policy changes.

Jennie has developed a fiber-yield-centric seed viability test. At the end of each growing season, all of the participating Acadian Brown cotton farmers

turn in finished cotton bolls and we take a weight on the unprocessed cotton bolls. Generally, 25% of the total weight is fiber. So we do have a lot of seed that comes out of each crop.

After the seed comes out of the cotton gin, members process it, then process it one more time to pick out and distribute the seeds with smooth seed coats. We really are trying to dial in efficiency, to get more cotton fiber back for the same inputs and the labor cost.”

Sharon points out that Larry and Andre are only growing Acadian Brown cotton today because of efforts the Acadiana Fibershed made to change the statewide policy of the Louisiana Boll Weevil Extermination Commission. (The boll weevil is a beetle whose larvae live entirely within the cotton boll, destroying both the seeds and cotton fibers.)

“Our next big push has to be the Farm Bill,” Sharon says. “Small farmers have had absolutely no representation, ever. It’s $480 billion that we’re talking about, and there isn’t a single person from Louisiana that’s on that Agricultural Committee. I think that’s going to be one unifying part of this movement, to really try to grab our politicians from parish level all the way to national or federal, and really focus on small farmers and regenerative agriculture and how we can make a change in terms of climate. We’re all in it together. And there is power in that.”

 Originally published July 5, 2023, on the Fibershed blog. Read the whole article: bit.ly/fibershed-acadianbrown . Learn more about Acadiana Brown Cotton at acadianbrowncotton.com . Support and share Acadiana Brown Cotton on Instagram @acadianbrowncotton

by STEPHANY WILKES photographed by PAIGE GREEN

Nordenfjeldske Fibershed, Norway

Nordenfjeldske Fibershed is a nationwide Norwegian grassroots organization that works to promote sustainable textile production. We want to inspire cooperation and information flow in a member network consisting of farmers, the textile industry, designers and craftsmen, research environments, universities and consumers.

New funding granted to transform waste wool

In January, Nordenfjeldske Fibershed focused on preparing a Nordplus grant application. We would be collaborating with the Norwegian mill Selbu Spinneri and the University of South Eastern Norway. We outlined the foundation for our project–FELTWOOL, the goal is to exchange knowledge, build a network, and form business collaboration among the participants whose ambition is to to add value to unwanted wool. We invited partners from Estonia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden with an emphasis on the value chain of wool from the farm to the industrial felting of products. In the Baltic and Nordic countries, a varying volume of the wool produced is a waste problem. The insights from the different regions will be gathered and disseminated for those who work with textiles, such as artists, artisans, commercial organizations and universities/schools. On the 23 of May, we received notice that our grant has been approved and the 2 year project will start this autumn.

 Learn more at fibershed.no, on Facebook at facebook.com/fibershed.no, and Instagram @nordenfjeldskefibershed

Pembina Fibreshed, Canada

Five years of operating a small-scale wool mill

It was five years ago that we started our small-scale wool processing mill. One of the biggest things I’ve learned in the last 5 years is the many ways in which access to fibre processing can be beneficial to community (fibre arts, farming, textile, fashion communities). The goal when we opened the mill was to ‘“meet a need” among other sheep and wool producers. I had no idea how important this need was and how having access to a fibre processor can ignite a small-scale textile economy in a region. Mills create an opportunity for farmers to get their product to market and the ripples within a community are far-reaching. Here is a brief look at the impact the mill has had in our community in the last 5 years:

• Processed 2954.29lbs of wool and other fibres for 68 farmers or sheep producers

• Processed 274.26lbs of wool and other fibres for 26 fibre artists in our Province

• Provided five indy dyers with 270.69lbs of yarn for test batches and future supply

• Worked with six small-scale wool brokers producing 213.55lbs of wool

• Spun 186.64lbs of wool for in-house yarn for three community based yarn stores

In total that is 3890.43 lbs of wool that we have transformed into marketable products for 108 individual farmers/businesses. When farmers, wool brokers, indy-dyers, yarn stores and fibre artists have access to local processing we see an increase in local fibres, yarn and other products in our fibre/textile industry.

Without local mills, that fibre isn’t processed at all, or it’s shipped far and wide for processing. Our small drop in the bucket can lead to an even bigger ripple. That’s why we hope you will continue to support our mill, and support small mills in your community. We took a risk in 2018 that a mill would be supported and needed in our region, and we were right. Now we look towards the future and how we can grow our mill, and the Canadian Wool industry as a whole.

 Learn more about the Pembina Fibreshed at pembinafibreshed.com. Follow along with Anna Hunter at longwayhomestead.com and on Instagram @longwayhomestead. Anna will speak at the 2023 Fibershed Symposium: Relationships of Change, on November 10. Learn more about the symposium on page 23.

Anna Hunter of Long Way Homestead is a mill owner, wool advocate, fiber farmer, and member of the Fibershed Affiliate Network as the co-coordinator of the Pembina Fibreshed in Manitoba, Canada.

Events October

OCTOBER 9 • MONDAY, 10AM–1PM Animal

Husbandry Workshop

Fibershed Learning Center, 14000 Pt. Reyes-Petaluma Rd Point Reyes Station, CA

Instructor Dr. Rosie Busch leads a workshop covering overall ruminant health and nutritional needs, and how to prepare for lambing, potential complications and how to manage them. Rosie will cover the three big sheep diseases—CL, CAE and Johnes—how to prevent them from getting into your flock and what to do if you do find that you have a positive animal. We will touch base on zoonotic diseases—what our sheep can pass to us and how to prevent that. Please come with questions! We will be using Fibershed’s new Jacobson flock for demonstration!

Email Sarah at sarah@fibershed.org to sign up.

Fibershed Producer Network Members receive 10% off this course at the Learning Center. When emailing, let Sarah know you’re a Producer Member.

OCTOBER 19 • THURSDAY, 10AM–3PM Beginning

Spinning

High Desert Fibershed Learning Center, at Warner Mountain Weavers, 459 South Main Street, Cedarville, CA

Join instructor Melissa Harris to learn to spin, using one of our spinning wheels and local wool. You will learn how to spin, as well as basic wheel mechanics and an introduction to turning fiber into your own handspun yarn. If you are bringing your own spinning wheel let us know.

Class $85, materials fee $10. Limited to eight students. To register, visit warnermtnweavers.com/shop, call (530) 279-2164, or email warnermtnweavers@gmail.com

OCTOBER 20 • FRIDAY, 10AM–12PM

Intro to Plying

High Desert Fibershed Learning Center, at Warner Mountain Weavers, 459 South Main Street, Cedarville, CA

Join instructor Melissa Harris for this continuing-level class which will focus on plying singles to create a thicker, balanced yarn. Plying gives spinners more options for using their yarns. We will also be trying different numbers and types of plies, including novelty combinations.

Prerequisites: Beginning Spinning or equivalent. You need to be able to spin a single. You do not need to have any plying experience. Let us know if you need to borrow a spinning wheel. If you are bringing your own wheel, please be sure to practice on it and make sure that it is in working order.

Class $60, $10 material fee. Limited to ten students. Please bring: bobbins of singles, and at least one empty bobbin to ply onto. Other tools that are nice to have: niddy-noddy, lazy kate, hand cards, notebook, pencil, scissors, oil. To register for a workshop, visit warnermtnweavers.com/shop, call (530) 279-2164, or email warnermtnweavers@gmail.com

OCTOBER 20 • FRIDAY, 1–4PM

Spinning Clouds

High Desert Fibershed Learning Center, at Warner Mountain Weavers, 459 South Main Street, Cedarville, CA

Instructor Melissa Harris will teach students how to manipulate dyed roving and braids to get differing results and celebrate color in spinning!

Prerequisite: Beginning Spinning or equivalent. Worsted spinning experience a plus. Class $60, materials fee $15. Limited to ten students. To register for a workshop, visit warnermtnweavers.com/shop, call (530) 279-2164, or email warnermtnweavers@gmail.com

OCTOBER 20–22 FRI, 12–5PM, SAT 8AM–5PM, SUN 8AM–3PM Crutching, Wigging and Catch Pen Dynamics

UC Hopland Research and Extension Center, 4070 University Road, Hopland CA

A hands-on, advanced sheep shearing course copresented by Hollenback Shearing, Fibershed, and the University of California Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Registration: bit.ly/Crutching2023

OCTOBER 28 • SATURDAY, 1–4PM

The Carder, a Tool to Expand Your Spinning with Color and Texture

Windrush Farm 2263 Chileno Valley Road, Petaluma, CA

Join us at Windrush Farm and learn about the amazing uses of the drum carder to make your own creative, colorful, and textured yarns! All materials and tools provided.

Registration: eventbrite.com/e/694436818217

High Desert

High Desert

High Desert Learning Center

NOVEMBER 1 • WEDNESDAY, 1–2PM

Ongoing: Carbon Farm Conversations via Fibershed Zoom

FIRST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH NEXT DATE: DECEMBER 6

Once a month, producer-member Amy Lofting has been facilitating a one-hour Carbon Farming Conversation online. Everyone is welcome, whether you are new to the ideas of carbon farming or already have lots of experience.

Carbon farming is moving carbon! We take it from the atmosphere(where, in excess, it is currently causing lots of problems for life on Earth, like climate change) and put it into the soil (where it is a valuable raw material that fuels life-enhancing processes). Anyone can carbon form on the scale that’s right for them. Even one small action, right for your unique life circumstances, can make a difference and help us all get on track for a healthier planet.

So, come on down! Join us for one or many conversations, amicable interchanges of opinions, news, information, and reflections. We will be joined sometimes by Mike Conover, Fibershed’s Climate Beneficial Technician.

Zoom Information: us06web.zoom.us/j/86038617158 Meeting ID: 860 3861 7158

Find your local number: us06web.zoom.us/u/kcIUERpQu8

NOVEMBER 5 • SUNDAY, 10AM–4PM How to Create Patterns

Fibershed Learning Center, 14000 Pt. Reyes-Petaluma Rd Point Reyes Station, CA

A slow and sustainable wardrobe doesn’t have to be uncomfortable! With instructor Gynna Clemes, learn how to create patterns from your favorite outfits so that, as they wear out, you can re-create them using sustainable materials.

Registration: eventbrite.com/e/697223964647

Fibershed Producer Network Members receive 10% off this course at the Learning Center. Use the code PRODUCER at checkout.

NOVEMBER 10 • FRIDAY, 9AM–1PM 10th Annual Fibershed Symposium

The Dance Palace, 503 B Street, Point Reyes Station, CA

This year’s symposium “Relationships of Change” will explore the interdependence of people, policy, and materials that are necessary for transforming our soil-to-skin system. Every choice we make when wearing, caring and consuming elicits a direct environmental, economic, and human response. In this year’s Symposium you’ll hear from those working on critical issues of supply chain decarbonization, garment worker’s rights, and new laws that are aiming to internalize the costs of our textile “waste.” We will also take stock of our regional fibershed economies—and you’ll have an opportunity to hear about the work of the Fibershed Affiliates, the Fibers Fund and efforts to bring climate-benefiting farming and ranching incentives to the national scale. This will be a hybrid event, and you may join us in person in Point Reyes or virtually.

Tickets, $40 (in-person or virtual).

Registration: eventbrite.com/e/716165770097?

NOVEMBER

10–16

Borrowed from the Soil Design Exhibition

The Buddha Barn, 13201 Pt. Reyes-Petaluma Rd. Point Reyes Station, CA

Today’s clothing relies on transnational supply chains, petroleum-based materials, and land and labor exploitation. But what if your clothing could build ecosystem and community resilience, while regenerating healthy soil and land?

The Borrowed from the Soil exhibition explores a future vision where the way we produce and use one of our most basic human necessities— clothing—can support the longevity and health of our local ecosystems and communities. Explore the process behind the production of locally-grown and made clothing that connects you to California farms, mills and designers. This exhibition follows the journey from cotton fields and sheep ranches through the transformations of raw materials into beautiful textiles, embedding into the design process an understanding of how these materials can be healthfully returned back into our soils. We invite you to help build a collective understanding on the interconnectedness between material, design, and consumer choices, and the land and people whom these choices impact.

CONTINUED IN NEXT COLUMN 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1–3PM

Soft Opening Reception

Part of Annual Fibershed Symposium, tickets at fibershed. org/symposium

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 11AM–2PM Opening Reception 11am–1pm Meet the Makers

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 11AM–3PM Exhibition Open Hours

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16

Open for School Visits

Educators, if you are interested in organizing a visit for your class, please email heather@fibershed.org.

Tickets: $10 (pre-sale or at the door). Purchase tickets, learn more about the participating makers, and engage with Fibershed’s work to develop regional fiber systems that build soil and protect the health of our biosphere, at fibershed.org/design-exhibition

NOVEMBER 11 • SATURDAY, 1–4PM

The Art and Surprise of Plying

Windrush Farm 2263 Chileno Valley Road, Petaluma, CA

Join us for a captivating day of artistic exploration and delightful surprises as we dive into the world of yarn plying! Learn to create unique and textured yarns, strengthen single-ply yarns, and introduce colors and textures during plying.

Registration: eventbrite.com/e/694441070937

NOVEMBER 24–DECEMBER 31

Annual Hand Made Closet Sale at Fiber Circle Studio

Fiber Circle Studio, 113 Kentucky St., Petaluma, CA

This event is focused on bringing new life to our handmades, whether they are knitted, crocheted, woven, or sewn! We’ve all made things over time that we just simple aren’t in love with, or would love to find a new home for.

Whether you are a maker or not, buying something handmade is so special, knowing that every inch was made with love and passion. It can be the perfect time to start adding handmades to your wardrobe or get gifts for the holidays!

For more information, call (707) 774-6101 or email info@ fibercirclestudio.com. Visit fibercirclestudio.com/pages/ hand-made-closet-sale to make an appointment to consign your lightly used hand made closet sale items!

Events

Coming up in 2024

FEBRUARY 13–23, 2024

Textiles in Guatemala: Natural Dyes, Spinning, Weaving, and Cooking

Antigua and Lake Atitlán, Guatemala with Fiber Circle Studio and Kakaw Designs

Join us February 2024 for a small-group textile adventure in Antigua and Lake Atitlán, Guatemala! Enjoy a unique textile and culture-filled itinerary designed for the fiber lover that generates sustainable income for our partner artisan groups and communities. We will be exploring the traditional techniques of natural dyeing with indigo and cochineal, spinning cotton on a malacate, and weaving on a backstrap loom. The trip includes all in-country transportation, home cooked meals, lodging, workshops, translators and guides.

$3150 Single Occupancy; $2900 Double Occupancy

More info at fibercirclestudio.com/pages/visit-guatemala. Questions? Email alisha@fibercirclestudio.com

Monthly / Ongoing

Check out these monthly mending events in our Northern California Fibershed hosted by members of the Fibershed Producer Network!

East Bay Monthly Mending Bar (Early) Happy Hour

Werkshack, 481 25th St. Oakland, CA

THIRD SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH, 11AM–2PM

Each session will have a mending teacher with an area of mending expertise, but all mending welcome! Located close to AC Transit and BART Hosted by Elaine of KOSA Arts.

For more info, and to RSVP, email ejhamblin@gmail.com

Monthly Mendocino Mending Circle

Rotating locations throughout Mendocino County

No supplies provided, although natural fiber scraps to share.There will be snacks, drinks and good company. Any crafts (beyond mending) are welcome! Hosted by Marie Hoff of Full Circle Wool.

For more info, and to RSVP, email admin@fullcirclewool.com

OPPOSITE PAGE

Sequoia sempervirens (Coast Redwood) by Laurie Mahan Sawyer. Created with natural pigments handmade with Redwood cones foraged from the Fibershed Learning Center.

Laurie Mahan Sawyer dedicates her art to engaging viewers in the wonder and complexity of the natural world. A longtime resident of Point Reyes Station in coastal Marin County, she grew up on the southern California coast in Malibu. Sawyer graduated with a degree in illustration from the Art Center College of Design, and a degree in science illustration from California State University, Monterey Bay. She has collaborated with such organizations as NOAA at Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary and Marin Resource Conservation District. She has worked in scientific illustration, created lively murals, and taught art classes. Her work informs her viewers and invites them to be curious and learn more about nature. These illustrations are from a series of commissioned scientific illustrations of natural dye and fiber plants for educational use and display in our learning center.

 Laurie’s illustrations can also be found at Flowerbed Florals, her new shop in Point Reyes Station and online: Instagram @FlowerbedFlorals @NewCompassDesigns

Classified Ads

Grange Home and Trina Turn Collaborate on a Zero-Waste, Circular Home Collection

Trina Turk’s 30-year textile archive of bold signature prints and patterns meets the upcycled and regenerative sensibilities of Grange Home in a modern-day collaboration.

Introducing Grange Home’s collection of zero-waste, circular pieces for your home. (Re)Discover past Trina Turk collections of signature floral designs, textural novelty wovens and shimmering jacquards that have been reimagined by Grange Home.

Grange Home thoughtfully pairs each unique Trina Turk textile with a mix of regenerative or deadstock fabrics. Blending Climate Beneficial™ Wool; deadstock selvage edge denim, or yarn-dyed striped cottons as well as woven bindings in whimsical, contrasting patterns. Made by hand in Grange Home’s San Francisco studio, these are one-of-kind interior pieces that are as beautiful for your home as they are gentle to our planet.

Luxury Reimagined, California Style

Product launches October 15, 2023, to open Modernism Week at Trina Turk’s Palm Springs Flagship boutique.

891 N. Palm Canyon Dr. Palm Springs, CA 92262 (760) 416-2856

thegrangehome.com

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. $20 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

menageriehillranch.com deb@menageriehillranch.com

Nasimiyu Designs

Handwoven baskets with all natural materials. Large baskets for sale.

Dimensions: 20–22 inches across, 14–15 inches in height, bottom is 15–16 inches

There are 2 baskets in stock per design. Only sold by owner

Allow 2 to 3 months to reorder

nasimiyudesigns.com nasy@nasimiyudesigns.com

West Marin County

Purebred Romneys (white and recessivecolored) and black and white purebred Corriedales, as well as Cormo, Romney and Corriedale crosses. We have locally produced yarn, both natural-colored and hand-dyed with natural dyes.

Our newest product is beautiful locally woven blankets made from our wool. We also have fleeces, lambskins and breeding stock for sale.

barinagaranch.com marcia@barinagaranch.com

Mendocino Wool and Fiber Inc. Ukiah, CA

Mendocino Wool and Fiber Inc. has been working hard to increase production and we’ve got a great team working through orders faster than ever. We’re making cloud, sliver, roving, yarn and custom woven blankets and we’ve got room on our customer list. Send us your fiber now!

mendowool.com info@mendowool.com

Take a Tour at Valley Oak Wool Mill in Woodland, CA!

Valley Oak Wool Mill offers group tours of our local wool mill. Groups of 6–10 adults are ideal, minimum age for children is 6 years old.

Cost: $12/person

If you’re interested in scheduling a tour, please contact Marcail McWilliams. valleyoakwoolmill@gmail.com

Marshall,

Explore the interdependence of the people, policy, and materials transforming our soil-to-skin system.

A hybrid event, in-person at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station, and broadcast online via livestream.

$40 online attendance, $50 in person

Tickets at eventbrite.com/e/716165770097

More information at fibershed.org/symposium2023

Support Fibershed

Your contribution to Fibershed directly supports the re-emergence and in-perpetuity existence of soil-to-soil fiber systems. Contribute as an annual Fibershed supporter toward all of our programs, and enjoy these benefits of membership:

Madder Root Supporter

$40/year

Benefits: 10% discount on one Fibershed special event ticket

Indigo Supporter

$250/year

Benefits: 10% discount on Fibershed symposium, gala and special event tickets; a set of natural dye postcards with photography by Paige Green; and a collection of dye garden seeds

Coreopsis Supporter

$100/year

Benefits: 10% discount on Fibershed symposium, gala and special event tickets; and a set of natural dye postcards with photography by Paige Green

Black Walnut Supporter

$500/year

Benefits: 10% discount on Fibershed symposium, gala and special event tickets; a set of natural dye postcards with photography by Paige Green; a collection of dye garden seeds; and 50% discount for one event ticket.

Designing for Regional Resilience

Designers play a unique role in our fashion and textile systems, with the potential to build greater resilience, longevity and health in the regions where they live and work. This visually rich booklet gives an overview of considerations and approaches for designers to center resilient and healthy ecosystems and communities in their work.