Shearing the Sheep

Skirting the Fleeces

The Fleeces

The Shearers

The post Sheep Shearing appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

1-Aesthetics: Let’s face it. Little baby lambs are cute. There is nothing quite like walking by a big beautiful pasture full of lush green grass and mama sheep with tiny new lambs.

2-Wool: The Gateway sheep are sheared twice a year, in the spring and fall, and the wool is available for sale to Earthaven residents and friends. Just imagine wearing a hat knit by one friend from yarn spun by another friend with wool that was grown right in your own back yard!

3-Pasture Fertilization/Integrated System: Gateway is one of several farms at Earthaven and the sheep are one piece of a farm system working towards sustainability (while realizing that we have a long way to go.) Sheep, chickens, turkeys, winter storage vegetables, bio-fuel, house building, solar energy and human connection are some of the many pieces involved. Poop makes great fertilizer.

4-Education and Radical Responsibility: Two Earthaveners slaughtered one of the Gateway lambs to serve for the Thanksgiving dinner served in the Council Hall. One had experience with animal slaughter and the other was excited to learn. Both were taking radical responsibility for their food by being a part of the death that gives them life.

5-Meat: The lamb meat was roasted in the oven at the Village Terraces common kitchen while we listened to food songs on WNCW, drank wine, and prepared stuffing and gallons of gravy. The meal was a sort of pre-arranged potluck and folks could choose to purchase (at cost) turkey and/or lamb. YUM!

6-Haggis: “Made from all the parts of the sheep the English won’t eat” read the sign in front of this dish that many of us have only heard about in old stories. This version was made by one of our Dutch members using the organs to create a surprisingly (to me) tasty treat.

7-Head Cheese: No it’s not cheese, and Yes it is made from the head. A molded gelatinous ring making good use of even more parts of this animal that would often be discarded.

8-Fiddle Strings: A friend heard that a sheep was being slaughters on the land and called to ask if he could have the intestines to make fiddle strings. The request was of course honored and perhaps he will honor us with some of his music in the future.

9-Testicles/Stretching Our Comfort Zone: The testicles, batter dipped and fried, were served as an appetizer before our incredible dinner. My mind was a bit squeamish (ok, repulsed) at the thought of eating testicles, but I certainly wasn’t going to pass up this rare opportunity. I pushed through the discomfort and was rewarded with a superior taste sensation. I mean really, batter dipped and fried? You can’t go wrong.

10-Stock: After dinner the lamb bones came back to the VT kitchen where they spent 24 hours simmering on the stove to create a rich delicious nutrient dense stock. We love to use this for soup, cooking grains, or mix it with miso and drink it. We also pressure canned a round of it to use in next Thanksgivings’ gravy.

One more

11-Hide: The lamb hide is currently undergoing the tanning process. You just might see it as apparel at next years’ dinner.

The post Top Ten Uses for a Gateway Sheep appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Springtime at Gateway Farm this year means our fifth lambing season is upon us! It is that magical season when you can walk into the field at dawn and find a just-born lamb, tottering up onto its delicate legs, and with great determination, stumbling towards the teat.

Our sheep are Icelandic and, true to their hardy breed, they birth on their own in the pasture and often bear twins. Fifty-nine lambs have been born at Gateway since 2008, and this year we expect that our current flock of 30 (19 adult ewes, 10 yearling ewes, and 1 yearling ram) will double.

By May, the pasture should be full of frolicking new lambs, each one a marvel of tiny hooves, budding horns and soft, curly wool. For now, we eagerly await our first birth of the season.

Caroline Williford has been a shepherd since the sheep arrived at Gateway Farm in 2008. She came to the valley in 2004, and has worked with The Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference and Red Moon Herbs at Earthaven. She is an arts administrator, videographer, choreographer and dancer, and likes to experiment in many an art form.

The post Spring Lambs at Gateway Farm appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Sorry to our subscribers for the long gap between this and our last newsletter.  Much has been going on at Earthaven despite our silence! Some of these are covered in this newsletter; another issue is planned for release in about six weeks. If you want to continue to be on our newsletter list, please click the radio button.

Five Icelandic Sheep have arrived at Brian and Farmer’s Gateway Farm. They are considered good breeds for milk, meat and wool. In April we expect a group lambing. Cute! Cute! Cute!

Michaeljon is rebounding wonderfully from bypass surgery, having only just come back from a trip to Machu Picchu, with Kiesa, when we were all surprised by his sudden illness.

Village Terraces neighborhood cleared another three-plus acres of land on the west side of the complex. And Martha and Finch moved into their downstairs flat next door at “Pokeberry Hill.”

Andy and Julie are expanding their biodynamic Yellowroot Farm by clearing close to an acre near the new campground. Their second CSA-season is just about sold out.

Chuck just returned from a permaculture teaching and design sojourn in Jamaica. Since he and Marjorie were married last Thanksgiving, life has gotten fuller than ever, as activities resume to move his Useful Plants Nursery to an officially leased ag site near the former campground. Chuck’s apprentice of the past year, Bruce Johnston, is about to become a new Full Member and a co-lessee on the site.

Folks from the Mediation Center in Asheville, through their federally funded Community Mediation Project, have twice (at our request!) sent a skilled mediator to help us communicate more effectively and prepare the ground to go deeper into some of our hotter issues. Some members have said they plan to take mediation training at the Center this season.

Jill graduated from Gaia University’s Masters program and intends to bring Gaia students to Earthaven for accredited learning experiences. Soon-to-be Provisional Member Mana McLeod has now enrolled in the Masters program as well.

The line to board the Membership Train continues its steady flow. There are currently still eight Provisional Members living on the land and another five Exploring Members, two of whom have already begun the Provisional application process.

Greg has gotten the Earthaven weather station up and running.  You can get very up-to- date information by going to www.earthaven.org and clicking on the weather link. More detail in the next newsletter.

The post News Notes – Spring 2008 appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.