City Girl on the Farm

So where does this fiber that I love so much come from really? That question has been rolling around my head for a while now. Of course I know the general answer to that question; from a sheep or some other wooly creature: sheared, cleaned and processed into a thread form that’s easily usable. But beyond that, this city girl doesn’t know much. 

Fortunately, for me we live in an area rich in fiber farms. Seriously we do, Google it. And one of them, Feederbrook Farm, offers an apprenticeship program where people like me can learn basics of fiber farming and processing, up close in personal from February to November. 

Sign up? Oh yes I did!



Gina (my Nav system) got me to the wilds of Baltimore County safely, and my first thought was, “the banner photo on the farm’s website (above) doesn’t do this place justice”. It’s even more picturesque than the photo, and it was gray sky raining during first our session.

February – Introduction to fiber animals, animal care and behavior

After a quick meet-and greet and program overview, Lisa Westra, fiber farmer extraordinaire and our fearless leader throughout the apprenticeship, led us to the barn and sheep pen to start our animal introductions.

There are quite a few: sheep (Shetlands, BFL, Teeswater) and goat (Angora), llama and alpaca. We met them all and learned about their habits and basic care: feeding - they're fed an all natural grain diet twice a day to supplement the hay and grasses, with some molasses added to their water to prevent freezing, add some calories and because they have a sweet-tooth, health  - learning the signs that an animal may give to let you know they’re getting sick , and morale – they do best in groups and don’t like to be separated, it’s best to keep at least two together so they don’t get distressed.

A couple of the females are ready to lamb soon, so we learned about the special care they receive during pregnancy. We also discussed the merits of feeding animals at the same time each day (not as easy to do as it seems), and feeding the males a premium diet (statistically more female lambs are born). The first day was lots of information, and discussion and learning.

And, do you get your hands dirty? Yes! Lisa had us on light duty this week: spreading hay and putting out food. I expect we were being tested to see how much work we'd be willing to do, and of course to see if we could be trusted with the animals. After all we've been invited into Lisa's family business and home.

At the end of the session, we enjoyed tea by the fire at Lisa's Mom's house and talked more about our impressions of the day. It was fabulous! 


Feederbrook also produces a line of yarns, so I had to check-out the shop before heading back to the city, already looking forward to my next lesson and trip out to the farm. How's that for the city girl?