Tactile Reading for the Fiber & Natural Dye Community
2 • New Fibershed Producer Members
3 • Mapping the Fiber Manufacturing Capabilities of the Western US
• 2020 Fibershed Wool & Fine Fiber Symposium: Healthy Soil and Sea
• Carbon Farm Cohort
4
• Practicing & Supporting Intentional-Equitable Industry Disruption
• First Releases from The New Grazier’s Toolbox
5 • Going Virtual to Share Skills While Sheltering in Place
6 • Fibershed Learning Center
• Producer Meet-up
• 2020 California Healthy Soils Program Grants to Fibershed Producers
7 • Enhancing Soil Health Literacy with Slow Factory Foundation
8 • Producer Voices
12 • Producer Classifieds
17 • Call for your Classifieds, Art, Poems, and Stories
18 • Fibershed Affiliate Voices
20 • Fibershed Staff
“To be devoted to the non-linear path & the flexibility of grass” by Katherine Rutter “I originally made the drawing when Marie Hoff invited me to participate in this year’s Transhumance show. I went to her farm in Potter Valley where I spent some time with the sheep, observing and taking photos. The show required that artwork submitted had to be primarily made from materials sourced from Northern California. I was already using algae and oak gall ink in my work, so I just omitted the gouache that I often use and replaced it with clay paint harvested here in Ukiah.” – Katherine Rutter Medium: algae, oak gall ink, clay paint and pencil To order prints: visit the shop at KatherineRutter.com, or email Rutter.k@gmail.com
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.com/producer-directory/
• Eleri Design – established in 2013 by Erin Alders, the Nevada Citybased studio combines a love of both traditional and modern processes in clothing and textile design and a passion for weaving and natural dyes, digital design, and machine knitting.
• Fox Farms – refurbishing a 100-year-old farmhouse on the Sacramento River, Sue Fox and her husband are growing their flock with Wensleydale, Fresian/Finn, Jacob/Merino, dorpers, and more.
• Gynna Made – with a passion for creating beautiful and functional items, Gynna Clemes uses an antique circular sock knitting machine and locally grown yarns for limited edition, functional items.
• Housework – offering inspiration and practical pathways, Marcee and Hubbard Jones founded Housework as a retail project “in which all aspects of all objects are given careful consideration” and their online shop includes a curated collection of goods grown and made by fellow Fibershed members.
• Kámen Road – following the motto “Carry What You Love,” Kathleen Murphy leads the design of bags and accessories in all-natural materials, with a goal to source 75% of their full-grain leather and fabrics from regional Fibersheds by 2021.
• Lissy’s Zoo – specializing in fine Merino raised in the Sierra Foothills, Lis Lucas creates naturally dyed yarns and wool blankets, with products available at regional shops including Made in Amador and Mendocino Yarn Shop
• Nasimiyu Designs – employing traditional weaving skills learned from her grandmother, Nasimiyu Wekesa creates handwoven baskets made from elephant grass, reeds, straw, and other grasses harvested in late spring from the wild places of Marin County.
• Sunnyside Farms – Icelandic and Finnish sheep support Susan Chappell’s family goal of food and fiber self-sufficiency, with excess offered for sale including purebred breeding stock, raw handspinning fleeces, roving, millspun yarns, and sheepskins.
• The Wolf and Horseshoe – nestled into Sonoma Wine Country, sheep help maintain the landscape of this boutique and elegant retreat space which also produces olives, lavender, walnuts, and fruit.
Top row: Eleri Design, Sunnyside Farms, The Wolf and Horseshoe; middle row: Housework, Nasimiyu Designs (photo by Paige Green), Kámen Road; bottom row: Gynna Made, Lissy’s Zoo, Fox Farms.
Mapping the Fiber Manufacturing Capabilities of the Western US
BY NICHOLAS WENNER
Each year, the United States produces enough wool to create millions of sweaters and enough cotton to cut and sew billions of t-shirts — so, why is it so hard to fill our wardrobes with clothes that are grown and sewn close to home? And why is it so hard to get home-grown fibers and dyes processed into usable products?
Fibershed’s Regional Fiber Manufacturing Initiative has been tirelessly researching this soil-to-skin disconnect. The first half of 2020 focused on mapping the ecosystem for the supply and processing of wool, linen, hemp, cotton, natural dyes, and hides.
Through dozens of interviews and analyzing manufacturing databases, we mapped the current footprint and capabilities of existing enterprises as well as their plans to expand. We also came to understand how gaps in regional infrastructure affect our producers and create bottlenecks in the soil-to-soil system.
Based on our interviews and on-going conversations, we see many opportunities for relieving those bottlenecks in the West. Using insights from our ecosystem mapping as a foundation, the RFMI is now engaging our committees to develop solutions that leverage the resources available to us and close the gaps in our regional soil-to-soil system. In the near term, we see particular opportunities to support processing for wool scouring and carding, bast fiber processing, natural dyeing and tanning.
To learn more about our ecosystem mapping results, check out our recent blog here:
2020 Fibershed Wool & Fine Fiber Symposium: Healthy Soil and Sea
This year’s Fibershed symposium focuses on how our natural fiber and dye systems positively impact soil and sea. The largest carbon pools on planet earth are the scapes in which we humans work, and the impacts of our lives are made evident. The work that fibershed producers do each day is instrumental in producing textiles and durable goods that benefit the earth’s largest carbon pools.
This year’s Fibershed symposium explores the benefits of our regional system in light of the consequences of fast fashion in our oceans, our soils, our manufacturing sector, and our fiber & dye sovereignty.
We look forward to promoting and incorporating our Fibershed producer members via this virtual event through the following optional activities (details to come via email from Marisol Valles):
1) Website listing page promoting your business
2) Fibershed producer members showcase — short “business and personal biography video clips” produced by the member
3) Opportunity for Fibershed producer member workshops facilitated by members who are comfortable teaching and demonstrating how to use their natural fiber and dyes for a general public audience virtually (limited capacity)
Flax illustration by Helen Krayenhoff
This graphic captures the high-level results of the RFMI’s ecosystem mapping efforts, identifying the scale of existing manufacturing processes in the Western United States (CA, OR, WA, NV, ID, AZ, UT, NM, CO, WY, MT) for cotton, bast fibers, wool, natural dyes, recycling, and tanning as well as highlighting gaps in the existing system. As a rough measure, we define artisanal-scale production to be on the order of tens of thousands of pounds per year, whereas we define industrial-scale production to be on the order of millions of pounds per year. Dotted rectangles indicate processes that might be included within a single facility. (Diagram by Nicholas Wenner for Fibershed).
Carbon Farm Cohort
BY ERIN WALKENSHAW
In 2020 the Fibershed recruited, coordinated, and conducted site visits with members of a new Carbon Farm Cohort located in Mendocino County. We also continued our support of Cohort 1 through coordination of in person and online gatherings.
Members of the first cohort, located in northern Marin and southern Sonoma counties, expressed their desire to stay in community with and support one another through the Coronavirus crisis. In response to these requests, Fibershed started a bi-monthly virtual meeting for the cohort. In our first meeting, members shared pictures, videos, or verbal updates of their efforts to continually improve their land management efforts. Following this virtual meeting, the group met for a field walk in June at Meridian Farm to see their Silvopasture project and native plant installations.
The second Carbon Farm Cohort (Cohort 2) is composed of four producers in Mendocino county who expressed a strong commitment to learning how to increase carbon drawdown through their land management and implement carbon farming practices on their landscapes. To help them describe and achieve their goals, Fibershed is implementing the trial phase of the “Small Farms Carbon Farming Workbook” with these producers and is working closely with the Mendocino Resource Conservation District to provide technical assistance as needed. We are excited to work with these producers and the regional partners for Cohort 2.
Photo from a site visit with a member of the second Carbon Farm Cohort. This is a hayfield where they have applied compost in 2019 and the are practicing intensive rotational grazing with hot wire. It is hard to see the temp electric fence but it is there. We discussed opportunities for adding or enhancing a windbreak along the upper pasture fence line. (Photo by Lynette Niebrugge)
Practicing & Supporting Intentional-Equitable Industry Disruption
BY TEJU ADISA-FARRAR
In late July, six Fibershed producer members came together with Teju Adisa-Farrar to discuss Fibershed’s values and commitment to creating inclusive regional fiber economies. During the first session, our Producers’ Cohort and Teju Adisa-Farrar talked about their personal heritage, relationships to the land they work on, and desires to expand land access to communities who have been excluded due to legacies of racism and classism. This is the first of several conversations with Producers about issues Fibershed thinks are important and is working to change through their work. The Producers Membership Network is integral to Fibershed, and so the hope is that Producers will join Fibershed in engaging issues of equity and justice. The pandemic has shown the deep divides and inequities in this country. Through collaborating with Teju Adisa-Farrar, the Producers Cohort will be able to think about how they can share their resources toward establishing more diverse, resilient regional networks.
First Releases from The New Grazier’s Toolbox
Birthed out of our ongoing Business Curriculum (https://fibershed. org/business-curriculum/#Dec12), our support of the Grazing School of the West (grazingschoolofthewest.com), and our partnership with educator and consultant Olivia Tincani, Fibershed continues to expand services for our producers. This year we are putting together the first release of practical tools she has developed for contract grazing businesses: The Grazier’s Toolbox. Each tool is geared towards emerging and existing goat/sheep grazing outfits that operate for various needs, including fire mitigation, integrated crop-livestock systems (ICLS), municipal land management, and general land or property maintenance and stewardship. The first three of these tools are available to producers now:
• Legal Grazing Lease Agreement: A contract between you and your paying clients, developed in partnership with CA FarmLink. This agreement is most suitable for private and corporate landowners and doesn’t apply to cattle or state/federal land agreements, as those entities usually provide their contracts. This agreement will give you a strong idea of how to protect yourself against risk in a grazing arrangement, and sets meaningful terms for the relationship, declaring who is responsible for what. Note that the contract with CA FarmLink is accessible directly through them, and you will receive a how-to for attaining the contract template and working in tandem with CA FarmLink and Fibershed. Contacting Olivia is the first step.
• Contract Grazing Job Breakeven Analysis (.xls): This calculator allows you to identify all costs that go into a grazing job, set a price and analyze resultant margin, and compare multiple job types against each other in terms of revenue, cost and resulting profit.
• Sheep Herd Growth and Lamb Meat Production Calculator (.xls): A simple excel spreadsheet helps you keep track of important production record keeping such as the number of head on the ground, culls or livestock sales, conception/birth/weaning/predator loss percentage rates, and more. It allows you to project both actual lambs available for meat sales while simultaneously estimating herd growth in the future for your breeding program.
To access the tools, please email Olivia directly to receive documents at oliva@oliviatincaniandco.com Please note: these are proprietary documents for exclusive use by Fibershed producers, not to be shared outside of the producer collective. Continue to be in touch directly with Olivia if you have questions about these tools and stay tuned for an indepth instructional video for all three coming in the fall and more tools as they are released. Future tools include meaningful documents such as herder job descriptions and hiring guides, cash flow tools specific to contract grazing, and more. We hope to build a centralized online home for our forthcoming tools, but until then, reach out directly to receive or get assistance.
Members of Cohort 1 pick citrus during their field walk at Meridian Farm (photo by Sarah Keiser)
Going Virtual to Share Skills While Sheltering in Place
BY JESS DANIELS
This spring, Fashion Revolution Week held a different significance as many communities, including our Northern California home base, were impacted by Covid-19 and public health measures to reduce the spread of the virus. Since its inception in 2013, Fashion Revolution Week has focused on increasing transparency in supply systems and raising awareness of the value of clothing. Fashion Revolution Day, April 24th, initially marked the devastating collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, the tragedies of the fashion system continue to this day, as the pandemic revealed that major fashion brands intended to walk away from purchase orders without payment, leaving Bangladesh garment workers on the line.
It can seem like a small act to grow skills in our home community to care for our clothing and textiles. But it’s one part of changing our material culture that currently relies on such exploitative systems. Since we couldn’t gather in person, I worked to connect the Fibershed community with the themes and tactile skills of Fashion Revolution Week with two virtual demonstrations in late April. Cory Gunter Brown of Earth My Body led an eco-printing tutorial using Climate Beneficial Wool cloth and foraged materials. Heidi Iverson of Honeyfolk Clothing taught mending stitches and the steps to make a beautiful patchwork pouch with scrap fabric.
Both demonstrations resonated with a theme of mapping place with tactile practices and gathered materials. It offered the opportunity to mark this historic moment in time through the color of plants or the movement of thread. Together these virtual demonstrations engaged more than 130 people, and those who joined the live sessions expressed gratitude and appreciation for these virtual learning experiences:
“Thank you so much, it’s perfect for this time sheltering at home. I’m so grateful. This was very inspiring.” – attendee of the virtual mending demonstration with Heidi Iverson
It was a pleasure to participate in organizing and assisting with these virtual demonstrations, and I loved learning from Cory and Heidi’s practices. If you are looking for an engaging activity, I hope you’ll try one of these video demonstrations and share your experience with all of us. I’ve stitched one pouch so far and I intend to create more – as Heidi mentioned in the session, it would be a beautiful way to share a care package of treasures with a friend.
• Learn mending techniques and the steps to sew a patchwork pouch with Heidi’s virtual demonstration – go to Youtube.com/Fibershed to watch the video. In the description of the video, you can read an outline of the hand stitching techniques and mending strategies that Heidi shares.
• Explore eco-printing with locally foraged plant materials and iron mordant variations with Cory’s virtual workshop – go to patreon. com/Earthmybody and select a membership level to receive access to this video. By hosting the video on this platform, Cory’s generosity in sharing the virtual workshop provides ongoing support for Earth My Body.
Fibershed Learning Center
BY REBECCA BURGESS
In the Spring of this year, we began developing our organization’s first land-based learning center. The learning center is located on the historic Black Mountain Ranch in the Tomales Bay Watershed within Coast Miwok Territory. The ranch is protected by a land trust easement and provides leases to agrarian businesses such as Stemple Creek (who grazes Black Mountain), Little Wing, and Table Top Farms (row crop vegetables and quail farm). The ranch is within minutes of the Point Reyes National Seashore and a short bike ride or drive to the town of Point Reyes.
The Fibershed Learning Center is both a physical indoor location and a small farm site. We recently constructed herbivore protective fencing on a 1⁄4 acre, constructed spring-fed irrigation systems, and planted just over 1,000 indigo plants, several hundred dye producing flowers (and pollinator forage), and a range of heirloom vegetables for the local food bank. The land tending goals at this site include developing patches of native sedge, willow, dogbane, and hazel species for basketry for first nations gathering needs, as well as advancing composting demonstrations that showcase different approaches to building microbe-rich inoculums and soil amendments. All of these efforts combined will allow us to demonstrate what a landscape-level fiber, dye, food, and natural medicine system looks like, and how it can provide material for our in-person classes and internships.
The indoor space is an actual home site. We have begun painting walls, building shelving, situating sinks and stoves, and slowly transforming it into a location where educators (from near and far) can come to work and share their land based skills with adults and children alike. The indoor space will also include meeting rooms for our team, other local organizations, and steering committees to use for discussions specific to agriculture, climate change, environmental justice, fiber and food system sovereignty, land access, and regional economic development specific to manufacturing.
We are so looking forward to seeing you on-site when we can all gather once again. In the meantime, we have online classes you can join, listed on the Fibershed Learning Center website: fibershed.org/programs/ education/learningcenter
Producer Meet-up
Fibershed’s second Producer Meet-up of 2020 was a virtual event on June 1. 19 producers met online to share resilience strategies for the COVID-19 Shelter in Place, and learn from UCCE Veterinarian Specialist Rosie Busch. Staff announced the release of the Carbon Farming Quick Guides and the upcoming Carbon Farm Fund Call for Proposals.
“Being a Fibershed member ‘way down south,’ I have never been able to attend a producers’ meet-up — too far from home, too much to do on the ranch and locally to justify the travel time and expense. So, I was happy to attend this virtual meeting, which was my first, and I hope not the last, producers’ meet-up.
“My favorite part was the break-out session. I thought the speaker was good and informative and appreciated the time and trouble she took to prepare her presentation.”
– Lynn Moody, Blue Oak Canyon Ranch
“ Thanks for putting together this program. When people ask what is the hardest thing about raising sheep, I always say that is the parasite problem. Dr. Busch had a good presentation.”
– Robin Lynde, Meridian Jacobs
2020 California Healthy Soils Program Grants to Fibershed Producers
Our Fibershed producer community continues to expand and innovate adoption of land management practices that build soil and landscape health. The combined impact of these increasing practices across our regional landscape improves the health of regional soil and water systems, biodiversity, production and resilience, as well as benefits the global climate through sequestering carbon- drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and incorporating it into long-term storage in plant material and soil.
Supportive funding and technical assistance are critical to the continuation of this important work among our community. This year, the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Healthy Soils Program (HSP) offered expanded technical assistance and an updated and streamlined application, based on the input they have received over the past several years from producers and their advocates, including Fibershed. Another change to the program this year was funding offered on a first-come, first-serve timeline. While a record number of Fibershed members expressed interest in the HSP program this year, the spring of 2020 presented an extra-challenging time for many. Several producers who began or completed applications found that
Top, ethnobotanist Deepa Natarajan prepares to teach the first in a series of online classes organized by the Fibershed Learning Center. Above, Japanese indigo, for making dyes and paints, being planted in the Learning Center pigment garden. (Photos by Dustin Kahn)
all the funding had been expended before their applications could be considered.
In the HSP Incentives Grants announced in May, Nathanael and Rebekka Gonzales-Siemens received support for a multistory cropping project, mulching and compost application to croplands in Modoc County. True Grass Farms in Marin County was funded for a new hedgerow installation, and Free Hand Farm in El Dorado County will be completing a range planting and hedgerow project with their HSP funds. In Amador County, PT Ranch received a grant for compost application to croplands, cover cropping, and no till farming. These projects on Fibershed member landscapes will all together receive $372,000 to support practices estimated to have a combined impact of sequestering 513 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. Congratulations to these producers!
This year’s HSP Demonstration Projects, announced at the end of July, will offer exciting insights for fiber producers into innovative land management for wool and cotton production systems. UC Hopland Research and Extension Center will offer a series of events and field days over the next
few years to document and share learnings from a demonstration hedgerow project in their sheep production system. It features a diversity of native and natural dye plants. In a very innovative approach to cotton production, Fibershed is partnering with White Buffalo Land Trust, NCAT (National Center for Appropriate Technology) and UCCE Kern County to support a demonstration alley cropping system in Kern County in collaboration with Nathanael and Rebekka Gonzales-Siemens, featuring cotton grown between rows of olive and mulberry trees.
We are hopeful that producers whose HSP applications could not be completed or funded this year will be able to submit proposals in the next round of HSP more easily or may be able to take advantage of new emerging opportunities to receive support for practices to build soil and ecosystem health. As California faces a massive state budget deficit in the coming years, immediate funding for additional rounds of the Healthy Soils Program is in question. Fibershed will continue to update members about HSP funding status and other opportunities. Please reach out to Heather Podoll (heather@fibershed.com) with any questions about HSP or other funding opportunities for soil health and land stewardship.
Enhancing Soil Health Literacy with Slow Factory Foundation
Through a seasonal collaboration with the team at Slow Factory Foundation, Fibershed developed a series of weekly educational illustrations. These graphics connect some of our key learnings and values about soil health and growing thriving regional community fiber systems. We shared these graphics on a weekly rhythm on social media, and are highlighting parts of the series here. By sharing these educational messages with a growing public audience, we hope to build value and appreciation for the work you do as land and material stewards.
Producer Voices
A Shepherd’s Manifesto
BY GUIDO FROSINI, TRUE GRASS FARMS
There is an oppressive silence that must give way to untold stories.
There are times when our landscapes needs disturbance to stay healthy.
As shepherds we give attention, tend and relate to, the unspoken parts of the world. As shepherds we learn and embody how to be of service.
As shepherds we become storytellers and represent those who cannot speak.
We help evolve our relationship to consciousness through patience, listening and connection. We seek to inspire others with our invisible work, through reciprocity and attentiveness, with glimpses into our shining mistakes, shared openly and without shame so others may learn.
Our accounts evoke and echo the cycles of life and death of the inner and outer landscapes of our experience. In sharing our experience, we seek to highlight the connection for people to place.
A place of inclusion, nourishment and abundance. A place that can heal the sense of alienation and separateness we feel. We are reminded daily of the reflective and trans-formative power of land.
For the vast majority of people, this power from land and connection to place is not available, and has been taken away forcibly and with intent. Self-identity is deeply tied to sense of place; without proper ground it is impossible to grow roots. Without roots new growth is not imaginable.
We are here to nurture new growth in all its forms. We are here to offer ground where ground is needed.
We are here to share this power of connection with those that seek it and with those that don’t know it exists. We are here to honor the importance of being seen, recognized and welcomed in all its nuance.
To envision a life woven into a common thread, a sense of place, a dream where we all belong.
Let us support one another in times of transformation. Let us show the wisdom, strength and resiliency of the earth for those who seek it’s guidance. Fertility for those who have the seeds of change ready to germinate.
We recognize the feeling of fear in accepting complexity and the unknowns of the world that surrounds us and that lives within us. We are here to lead with curiosity and seek advice in those wiser than us.
It is our responsibility as shepherds to speak of the love we have found, in the privilege of being land-based and in having a space in the world to share from.
It is our responsibility to nurture this connection with others, to facilitate access to land, to give space for others to lead, to share and help create a sense of belonging beyond ownership, borders or nations. To support, in all our different ways, the next steps of this cultural shift.
We commit our lives to help imagine realities we never thought possible, to take shape.
Let us inspire one another to evolve into something we can’t stop loving.
Valley Oak Wool Mill Update
BY MARCAIL McWILLIAMS
Wow, July 2020!!! In my previous update I said I’d been “looking forward to the year 2020 for quite a long time”… I just thought it was cool having those numbers as a year, but wow if I’d known what would happen. In spite of Black Sheep Gathering being canceled I just completed my first virtual fiber festival through a group called WAFA, Wool and Fiber Arts, who base all their media presentations through Facebook. It was interesting, I’ve never done that before but I think I’d do it again. Lambtown Festival plans to do a virtual show this year as well so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes down.
I hired my very first employee earlier this year and it’s such a blessing having a hand with all this mill work! She’s such a hard worker and quick learner, most of all we mesh really well and I like having her around. It was such a difficult winter having everything constantly on my shoulders, I feel like I have a new motivation to press on and get things done. I won’t say to customers that my yarn turn around time is any quicker yet, but I’m hoping that will pick up as our work methods continue to get established.
Summer is always a build up into the rush of fall festivals and crunch time for the holidays. It’s so nice that the machines are happy with the “warm” (aka HOT) weather, but that means it’s hot for all of us workers too, and I prefer it. Days of longer sun and warmth make for a much happier millwright than the cold winter days, but we must accept what we cannot control and I have plans in place to make it better than last year: I won’t be alone, and I have orders lined up specifically for processing in January that should work well through the mill.
I’ve been encouraged by the generosity of my customer base reaching out during the past 5 months to make deposits on their orders, and continue to send wool for processing. None of us knew what to expect, and I suppose we still don’t, but it was a special feeling that so many people reached out in a thoughtful way. Thank you all!
What’s Next: I’m looking forward to Lambtown’s online festival, should be a lot of fun, please get on the mailing list for that and be sure to check it out. Also looking forward to celebrating 3 YEARS of business in November, and wool-wearing season. :)
Natural Dyes
BY FELICITY GILBERT (daughter of Sarah and Matt Gilbert, Mendocino Wool and Fiber, Inc.)
I’ve been naturally dyeing for a couple of years. The first natural dye I used was indigo with friends in the back yard. I started dyeing for customers about a year ago.
I source my dye material from friends who garden, my own backyard, and some food scraps like avocado skins. I grow Hopi blue Sunflowers,
Preparing for Fire
BY AMY SKEZAS
Fire season 2020 is here now along with our COVID pandemic. Our family, home, animals, silvopasture plantings, and carbon-farming/ fiber-producing infrastructure are all at risk from wildfire.
We care passionately about what we do and how we are in the world coming from this land, in this place, and we have invested significant time and resources to build our operation here. So, we are getting ready for wildfire.
We always keep a full 5000-gallon water tank and a stocked pantry, and in Fall 2019 we bought an animal trailer and a generator. A few years ago, we formed a wildfire cohort of Tender Shepherd fiber-producer friends; we’ve hosted humans and animals from our cohort here during two wildfires in the past few years and it is good to know we have some options of other places to go if that is needed in the future. But beyond these preparations, I felt overwhelmed. I was not sure of what to do, or how to do it, and my bottom line: I just hoped we would be spared.
That changed in February/March 2020 in the online course Farmers Build Wildfire Resilience, founded by Natalia Pinzon Jimenez (natalia@ farmercampus.com) and put on with help from Katie Brimm of Singing Frogs Farm. I learned that it’s not “if” a fire comes, it’s “when.” Fire is an integral part of our landscape in Northern California and for thousands of years Native people here have practiced land management accordingly. We can adopt this wisdom for our circumstances.
Before the course, I could not bring myself to focus in detail on what to do about the risk. After the course, I have a step-by-step plan of what to do. The course features videos of people who have lost everything and come back, as well as emergency preparation professionals who understand how to make your environment safer, plus exercises to help you wrap your head around your own situation.
Some of the preparations we are currently planning and implementing at our farm:
• Totally clear 10' of defensible space around each structure; in 10' - 30' zone keep vegetation well watered
• Get adequately insured; inventory everything with photos & lists to make it easier to get paid if we do have a loss, and also for a better management picture
• Train the animals in evacuation sequences
• Set up an emergency communication plan
• Upgrade eave and vent screens to 1/8" mesh (best spark-stopping size)
• Remove aged, rotted wooden deck and replace it with a stone patio
• Segregate flammables and label the area on a map given to first responders
• Upgrade aged, rotten siding to fire-resistant type
• Invite the Fire Marshall to come visit and give suggestions
fennel and Pokeberries in our garden. I want to figure out how to grow zinnias for dyeing as well.
Natural dyes are pretty and using natural dyes is better for the ecosystem. I mostly dye wool and wool blends. My favorite natural dye is definitely walnuts because it’s easy and pretty and you don’t have to mordant it to get the color to be lightfast.
When I’m dyeing I’m more interested in experimenting than taking specific notes. But taking notes is important for repeating the dye recipe and I sometimes do take notes when I want to repeat a specific color recipe.
Short list; many hours of work! But facing this has become energizing for me. Getting ready one step, one day at a time is do-able. I feel that any small improvement is a win.
Are you feeling ready, overwhelmed, or somewhere in between?
The Farmers Build Wildfire Resilience course is being offered again, starting August 2020, for free online self-directed study, farmercampus.com/fires. If you would like to talk about fire preparation, starting a wildfire cohort, or other ideas—farmers, designers, manufacturers, artists, all Fibershed folk welcome!—I’m at farmer@meridianfarm.com
Reflections on Mask Donations for the Diné People of the Navajo Nation
BY MARIE HOFF
Let me first start out by acknowledging the land I live and work on, which is Northern Pomo land. I don’t feel I know the true and deep histories of this place, nor its ancestral people, and I don’t think I ever will. I wish I did. In this absence of rooted history and culture, I find myself – a white woman – working towards a known sense of place. I try to better understand the land and its histories via various grazing projects, grassland and oak woodland restoration projects, listening to people who are Indigenous, and reading what I can access of Indigenous history.
I’m aware that through fiber arts, the sharing of stories and culture has persisted, as well as the maintenance of, adaption to, and relation to the surrounding landscape. I’m also aware that through fiber, genocidal force was applied to Indigenous communities (for instance through smallpox-infected blankets). Fiber itself is a tool people use to relate to each other and the world – the relationship can be healthy or it can be abusive. Currently, fiber can serve to protect people from the Covid-19 virus, in the form of face masks.
When talking to my friend, ag inspiration, and sometimes collaborator Mai Nguyen, of Farmer Mai and California Grain Campaign fame, I shared my plans to sew and donate a couple hundred face masks to the Navajo Nation. Note, when I say “my plans to sew” what I mean is purchase the fabric and hire Bonnie Reardon, a local seamstress, to sew them. Bonnie then sent them to me for natural dyeing, which I accomplished (I did this part myself) with plum leaves and pennyroyal, the dye plants I had growing around me in early April. Mai suggested reaching out to Fibershed about a larger scale, coordinated mask drive, and working with First Nations Development Institute to distribute them amongst people at risk.
Fibershed then took the lead in reaching out to, and working with, California Cloth Foundry to focus their “Buy 1, Gift 1” weekly mask campaign on the Chinle Chapter of the Navajo Nation during the first week of May. Fibershed also helped to support this effort by hosting a natural dye online class with Deepa Natarajan, from UC Botanical
Garden and Plantspeople, with proceeds going towards mask purchasefor-donation from California Cloth Foundry.
In her class, Deepa demonstrated dyeing a mask with turmeric for a brilliant golden yellow, as well as dyeing with a blend of rosemary, mint, and thyme for a smoky sage-green. Deepa also talked about the ayurvedic/health properties of these dye plants. The class was attended by 65 participants. In total, the Fibershed community was able to come together to donate 635 masks to Diné elders in the Navajo Nation, as well as my initially commissioned masks, which raise that number to 835. There is still much more to do. Indigenous peoples continue to be at higher risk and experience higher rates of Covid-19. It’s not too late to donate money, masks, and supplies, as Kelli Dunaj from Spring Coyote Ranch did with a pet food drive in June. No donation is too small or too large. For donations, see First Nations Development Institute online at: www.firstnations.org/covid-19-emergency-response-fund/
You can view Deepa’s natural dye demo online at: https://vimeo.com/419095969. Password is: maskdyedemo
Lunar illustrations by Marie Hoff, painted with BioHue inks by Judi Pettite
PT Ranch Carbon Farm Plan
BY MOLLY TAYLOR
Writing a carbon farm plan for PT Ranch was one of the first ways I engaged with agriculture as a beginning rancher. The planning process allowed me to capture the potential of the ranch to store carbon long-term in a document and create an implementation strategy for accomplishing this goal. Even practices that felt far away or intimidating were added to plan, which has proven especially helpful when funding becomes available.
The ranch received CDFA’s Healthy Soils Incentive grant in 2020, which will enable us to get started on much of the worked outlined in the plan. Moving forward, we will reference the plan as we grow and, with any luck, add more complexity as practices are implemented and monitored for their impact on soil carbon and other soil health metrics. It is exciting to be a part of a growing group of farmers and ranchers who now have these plans.
It is my hope that farmers and ranchers are supported in understanding their stewardship potential and learn how to communicate that to the consumer. We must continue to advocate for agriculture’s potential to mitigate climate change and convince consumers that their buying power matters.
Producer Classifieds
Ace ’n The Hole
Kits below are available. To purchase please contact Ace Vandenack at aceinthehole07@hotmail.com or 707-834-1790. He can take PayPal, Venmo or a personal check.
Below: These are natural colored dryer balls including 5, 1.5-ounce balls in a brown bag with instructions included. $20
Above: Included in this kit are 5, 10-gram balls of natural colored Romney roving including 1 brown, 1 fawn, 1 light grey, 2 natural whites then there is 1 ball dyed jet black for a total of 6, 10-gram balls for needle felting. $17
The Northern California Fibershed Cooperative Marketplace held its first virtual popup “Shepherds and Stewards” in June. The goal and underlying theme of the Coop Marketplace is connecting those who care for their flock with those who care about our soil. We chose the theme “Shepherds and Stewards” for our virtual popup as a reminder that we are truly connected as a community of shepherds and stewards.
Our focus is on educating our community about our merchants, consistently providing our customers with sustainable products, and supporting our merchants with our marketing efforts.
Please consider joining the Northern California Fibershed Cooperative and becoming an artisan and/or a merchant. For more information, please visit NorCalFibershedCoop.com. To shop at the Coop Marketplace, visit FibershedMarketplace.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to keep up to date on the latest happenings and events.
Bodega Pastures
For sale to fiber lovers! Bodega Pastures had a bumper crop of lambs last winter, and we are offering ewe lamb starter flocks $200 per lamb plus handling fee, born in January 2020. Our sheep are born and raised on range, hardy, mixed wool breeds. We also have a wide variety of fleeces for sale, great for felting and spinning: $40 plus shipping.
Call to hear about all of our other fine wool products or check out our website: www.bodeganet.com/BodegaPastures
For wool products call: Hazel at 707-327-6816 and for lamb inquiries email mroskool@icloud.com
Lissy’s Zoo
Lissy’s Zoo in Sutter Creek, CA raises Delaine Merino Sheep creating luxurious Merino Yarn and Cozy Pendelton style blankets. Yarn has blends ranging from locally sourced Alpaca, Silk, Yak, Camel, Sari Silk, and Bamboo. Find her on Facebook (Lissy’s Zoo) and Instagram(@Lissyszoo).
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 e-mail 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.
Menagerie Hill Ranch, Vacaville, CA Deb 707.290.7915 deb@menageriehillranch.com
Black Mountain Artisans
Black Mountain Artisans is a collective of local fiber artists on Main Street in the heart of Point Reyes Station.
We offer accessories and garments that are hand spun, hand knit, hand woven or hand dyed from local wool and alpaca.
Many of the fleeces are hand processed into a variety of hand spun novelty yarns, and we also have mill spun wool and blended skeins.
Summer Solace
Nourishing Organic Skincare & Goods
Handmade in Oakland, California
Holistically crafted, pasture-raised skincare and home goods made from premium, organic ingredients. Leading the Slow Body Care Movement™ with ethical, grass-fed tallow balms, slow-made artisanal soaps, handcrafted candles, and natural perfumes. summersolacetallow.com @summersolacetallow
Do the responsible thing and design ethically!
BY CELINE NADON
Keyaira has partnered with Quin Bishop, owner of Reveal Hair Salon (www.revealhairsalon.com, 1519 4th St, Santa Rosa, CA) to offer customers a unique experience.
Quin has offered up her space to hang Keyaira’s fiber works. The relationship between the two is mutually beneficial; the salon has fresh artwork to display, and Keyaira has a place to share her work with the community. Many local businesses are opting for this type of exchange over traditional décor options and we hope to see more of this in the future.
Spring Fog (photo above) is a large scale 41 x 45.5" handwoven tapestry constructed from all-natural materials, mostly sourced within our Fibershed system. She hangs on a beam of solid walnut wood which has been custom designed & milled locally for this piece in Rohnert Park, CA by Beam and Branch Co. In the body of the weaving you can find eucalyptus bark collected locally in Sonoma County. Bordering the bark is white and gray roving, constructed from Rambouillet sheep wool, Carbon & Climate Beneficial Wool from Lanis Lana in Cedarville, CA. The ash rose fringe is a vintage wool rug yarn.
Learn more about Keyaira and her process in last years’ blog post, All of Her Own Making: Designer and Fiber Artist Keyaira Terry (fibershed.org/2019/03/04/all-of-her-own-making-designer-and-fiber-artist-keyaira-terry), and shop her works at www.keyaiira.com
This fifth volume of the Fibershed Producer Newsletter is designed to be a space to re-acquaint and connect, as well as refresh ourselves on the who and what of our projects and collective efforts.
We look forward to hearing from you about what kinds of information sharing, column ideas, poems, art, doodles, updates on your family and business, and notes from the field that you’d like to offer for the next publication. Newsletters will come out twice yearly to start, and our next edition will be sent in February, 2021.
Ongoing Public Notices: Do you have an internship, a residency, an ongoing course or service that you offer? We will again include a Producer Classified Section in our next newsletter.
Classified ads, as well as your thoughts and visions, should be emailed to marisol@fibershed.com
Feel free to submit both your ideas and your classified ads between now and January 25, 2021.
“Combining unique, simple design with fiber and plant-based materials is a true passion.” – Keyaira Terry
Fibershed Affiliate Voices
Regenerating Cotton Traditions in Fibershed Affiliates Around the World
BY JESS DANIELS
The Fibershed Affiliate Network formed because communities across the global landscape recognized a shared vision and need to build fiber systems in our home communities. Fibershed coordinates the Affiliate Program to connect peer-to-peer learning and share resources. We learn so much from our global community, and we are honored to facilitate seed funding for a limited number of Fibershed Affiliate projects each year. In 2019, Fibershed Affiliate Micro-grants were provided to the Prakriti Fibershed in India and the Acadiana Fibershed in Louisiana. Both communities have been sharing updates on their efforts to reconnect and rebuild cotton traditions. Here we share notes and images from the field directly with you, for a sense of connectivity to this growing community:
The Fibershed Affiliate Micro-grant for drip irrigation and community organizing helped Prakriti Fibershed develop a 5-acre pilot farm project now growing into 50-acres of regenerative cotton with native plants and livestock. (Photos courtesy of Nishanth Chopra)
Click here to watch a virtual farm tour and interview with Nishanth Chopra: youtu.be/cUqd9XVtmCs?t=2900
“Fibershed grant helped us set up a pilot regenerative cotton farm, and all the funds were used to set up drip irrigation to meet with water scarcity problems in the area. I’m happy to inform you that due to the drip set up, we’ve used 70% less water than the nearby farms using conventional canal irrigation systems. I am also glad to inform you that the 5-acre pilot farm project has grown into a 50-acre regenerative farm with a diverse variety of native plants, trees, and animal husbandry.”
– Nishanth Chopra, Prakriti Fibershed
Acadiana Fibershed: Next Steps: Field to Fashion in Acadiana – Acadian Brown Cotton
Click here to learn more about the forthcoming “Field to Fashion” Acadian Brown Cotton museum exhibit: hilliardmuseum.org/ exhibits/acadian-brown-cotton-the-fabric-of-acadiana
“The generous Fibershed grant played a pivotal role this past year in the development of our project. We accomplished several short term goals, including adding expertise to our team and effectively strategizing for the future.
“The purchase of two Terratek hoes enabled our farmers to more quickly and efficiently weed their ABC fields. Eliminating the use of herbicides is a major element of our mission of regenerative, sustainable farming.
“The New Orleans Guild of spinners and weavers developed prototypes of potential ABC products and created their works of fiber art. Austin Clark apprenticed under Elaine Bourque and mastered Acadian carding, spinning, and weaving techniques. Every traditional example of Acadian weaving was reproduced under Ms. Bourque’s guidance, thereby truly preserving the past and securing the future of the Acadian textile tradition.
“We recently added two new team members with expertise in regenerative farming and marketing and sustainable fashion. Our outreach to potential farmers continues, and our number of farmers and artisans is increasing…. Our exhibit Acadian Brown Cotton: The Fabric of Acadiana, opening at the Hilliard Art Museum in September, will provide an opportunity to educate the public about the mission and benefits of our Fibershed and Field to Fashion in Acadiana. Museum programming will include day-long work-shops/seminars on regenerative farming and sustainable fashion as a pathway to a climate beneficial economy…
“The 2019 crop resulted in over 200 pounds of seed, which is being preserved in the seed bank at LSU Lafayette, overseen by Mark Simon. Current expansion envisioning includes: creating an agricultural cooperative, strategic marketing and branding for Acadian Brown Cotton, increasing crop yield and expanding the supply chain, and exploring the cultivation of native Louisiana indigo and Gulf Coast Sheep for integrated production and processing.”
– Deb Waldman, Acadiana
The Acadiana Fibershed is lofting their “Field to Fashion” effort to revitalize historic and culturally significant Brown Cotton. Their 2019 Micro-Grant supported a farmer and partner roundtable event that nourished collaborations throughout the community and is helping grow their seed bank.
Photos courtesy of Suzanne Chaillot Breaux, cotton illustration by Helen Krayenhoff
PO Box 221, San Geronimo, CA 94963
hello@fibershed.com • www.fibershed.org
Fibershed Staff
REBECCA BURGESS
Rebecca Burgess is the Executive Director of Fibershed, and Chair of the Board for Carbon Cycle Institute. She has over a decade of experience writing and implementing handson curriculum that focuses on the intersection of restoration ecology and fiber systems. She has taught at Westminster College, Harvard University, and has created workshops for a range of NGOs and corporations. She is the author of the best-selling book Harvesting Color, a bioregional look into the natural dye traditions of North America, and Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy, released in 2019. She has built an extensive network of farmers and artisans within our region’s Northern California Fibershed to pilot the regenerative fiber systems model at the community scale.
JESS DANIELS
Jess Daniels is the Director of Communications & Affiliate Programming for Fibershed, where she creates written and visual collateral connecting wearers to the ecological and social source of their clothing, and facilitates an international grassroots network of communities building soilto-soil fiber systems. She has a decade of experience working to strengthen local food and fiber systems, from urban farming and education to sustainable agriculture advocacy campaigns and litigation, and her work has been published in the journals Agriculture and Human Values and Making Futures. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Visual Art from Brown University, where she completed textiles coursework at Rhode Island School of Design and studied with the International Honors Program ‘Rethinking Globalization’ field school in India, Tanzania, New Zealand, and Mexico.
HEATHER PODOLL
Heather Podoll is the Partnership & Advocacy Coordinator for Fibershed. She manages communication and outreach relating to public grants and other core Fibershed projects. Heather holds an M.S. in Agricultural Ecology from UC Davis. She has spent the past 20 years involved with research, practice, promotion, and teaching of sustainable and organic agricultural systems, working with a range of nonprofit, philanthropic and educational organizations. As an avid knitter, she is delighted to bring together her background in ecological research and agricultural systems with a holistic and local perspective on fiber arts and textile systems.
MARISOL VALLES
Marisol Valles is the Deputy Director for Fibershed. She is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience in non-profit and hospitality management graduating with a BA from San Francisco State University. Through her solid management, a keen eye for detail and consistent application of policy, Marisol oversees the operations, human resources, and finances for the organization.
Fibershed works with a talented team of consultants and project leaders, all of whom conduct specialized services for the organization. Thank you to Teju Adisa-Farrar, Olivia Tincani, Erin Walkenshaw, and Nicholas Wenner for their contributions to this newsletter.
