By Marie Hoff, Fibershed
Despite numerous farming and crafting projects, from fiber to culinary, Rhoby’s Ranch is not hectic. There is a serene quality in the air. Everyone is working together: the sheep, the geese, the dog, the shade tree, the hugelkultur, the hedgerow, the grasses and microbes, the soil — and everyone helps each other work.
By Kalie llana Cassel-Feiss, Fibershed
Gracefully bringing together all the elements of locally grown, milled, and made organic fabric, Lydia Wendt's work takes shape with California Cloth Foundry: textiles and apparel in collaboration with nature.
By Jess Daniels, Fibershed
Inside our own closet is one place we may begin to make changes that will have lasting impacts on our biosphere, climate and personal health, and for this reason we created the Fibershed Clothing Guide to share a menu of actions and options.
By May Reid Marr, Fibershed
Alison is equally dedicated to breeding preservation, quality wool production, pasture management, community building, agricultural education, and being a business owner. She manages to attend to each priority with grace and aplomb.
By Heather Fordham, Fibershed
A few miles south and across the California border, I had just seen raw, local wool being carded and made into batting at Woolgatherer Carding Mill, then stuffed and hand sewn into mattresses, toppers and pillows to be sold by Shepherd’s Dream.
By Marie Hoff, Fibershed
A fascination with intricate mathematical patterns and natural systems flow through Joan’s passions of farming and weaving. At her 6 acre farm on the northern edge of Petaluma, Joan, along with her husband Allan, and son and daughter-in-law, raise sheep, cattle, fruit trees, vegetables, wine grapes, California native plants, blueberries, natural dye, and olive trees.
By Sarah Lillegard, Fibershed
When Marcail first described Jane she called her fearless. The mill is not the only legacy shared between the two of them. It’s the same spirit of fortitude, community building, and that word for Jane: fearless.
By Marie Hoff, Fibershed
The co-benefits to diversified farming are numerous, from economic stability to increased water retention in the soil, integrated farming makes a lot of sense. Also known as Integrated Crop and Livestock Systems, ICLS works by relying upon the mutually beneficial relationships that plants, animals, and insects have with one another, as developed in nature.
By Sarah Lillegard, Fibershed
In choosing the name of a place, The Chico Flax Project is pointing to more than the location of their farm — they’re highlighting the numerous community members interwoven with the vision to make a Chico-based cloth.
By Sarah Lillegard, Fibershed
Arriving at Flying Mule Farm on the cusp of lambing season and on the heels of a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the fields are damp with recent rain. Ewes and lambs call to each other and in the morning light. It’s easy to get sentimental about spaces like this where the animals match the rhythms of the land.