Happy Spring 2022! Winter flew by and we're nearly half way through spring. There's lots happening on our farm these days! Life on the farm always means welcoming new members and saying good bye to others that we've loved so much.
We were sad to say good bye to one of our very first rescues, Johnny Cash, our beautiful, black Tennessee Walker boy, who passed after a brief illness. Johnny came to us neglected and thin when we adopted him. After some good food, medical care and lots of love, he emerged as quite the character who responded with a whinny every time he heard his name called - "Johnny Cash!" He'll be joining, who else, June Carter, our rescue mare that preceded him in death a few years ago. There are beautiful, green pastures waiting for these babies over the Rainbow Bridge.   One of our flock guardians has moved on to his own pasture. Ellwood, our Great Pyrenees, found better accommodations on another farm earlier this year. Our other Pyr, Jake, remains and he's now joined by two guardian helpers, Gabriel and Michael (pictured front and back respectively), our new mini-donkeys. After finishing up their quarantine, they'll be added to our herd of "littles" (Shetland sheep) and our (bigger) Leicester Longwools. We'll be able to learn more about them and their personalities soon. And finally, the Bees. Are. Back! We were happy to find that our two hives made it through the winter. We are in the process of splitting them and bringing in new queens. We hope to have 4 more hives soon. The plan is to have some delicious honey later this summer but we'll wait to see what the bees have planned for us. Watch your email inbox for updates! Spring and Summer EventsWhile there's a lot of activity on the farm, we'll also be attending events off the farm. Our spring and summer are filling up with local fiber events where we'll show our products and meet new artists all over the region. Please stop by and see us if you're at one of these events. And if you can't make it, let your friends know or keep up with us on our social media! Our schedule is below. April 2022 Sat, Apr 23 9a - 5p 10th Annual Fiber Farmers Day Asheville (WNC) Farmer's Market Shed #5 570 Brevard Rd. Asheville, NC This festival brings together the best of spring in the mountains of NC, celebrating regional growers, fiber and local food. There will be music, food and day of fun. ** Roving and raw fleeces for sale** May 2022 Sat-Sun, May 20-21 Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival This will be our first visit to the Bluegrass State as a fiber producer. We're looking forward to meeting other farmers and artists from all over the state and parts beyond! Masterson Station Park 3051 Leestown Rd, Lexington, KY June 2022 Fri, June 3 Blue Ridge Fiber Fest Higgins Fairgrounds Sparta, NC (click the link above for directions) **We'll have all our products available for sale** And that's what's happening on the farm this spring! 🐏🐑🐇🐕
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Happy New Year everyone!!!! Life has been busy on the farm this past Fall! We were super busy with so many events and shows at the end of 2021. Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) SAFF was amazing as always. We did well but unfortunately most of the sheep came back with pinkeye and we have been battling that since Halloween. We have the last few of them in the barn and they’re looking like they’re on the mend. That being said, I don’t think we will be competing this year. Way too much time and money go into getting them well, and besides this is the year we will be vendors at the fiber fairs! We're still determining which ones we'll attend but as soon as I find out y’all will be the first to know. Our Flock We are taking a break from breeding the Shetlands this year and will be focusing on our Leicester Longwool (LL) flock. Humphrey, our white LL ram, has been with his 3 ladies since October: Melly, a white LL yearling, and Ri and Ro our two natural-colored yearlings. Fingers crossed we will start looking for lambs in March but considering how warm our Fall was it may be later. New Products Coming Soon A few weeks ago, we took our fleeces to the mill in TN and we will soon have a new batch of yarn and roving for you! This will be our first time offering our LL roving and, hopefully, a little LL yarn too. We are also blending our Satin Angora (SA) bunny wool with both the Shetland and LL wool in this new batch. SA makes the yarn billowy and warm. We are very excited to bring these to new items to you so watch your inbox for the release dates! Also, coming this quarter we will be focusing on our kits. Kits will include yarn of your choice, needles, and a pattern. The current projects we have to offer are a pair of fingerless gloves, a cap, and a gorgeous shawl! Stay tuned this winter as we will have those in our online store soon! Check our Goods menu. We're adding new items all month long in January! Thank you for signing up for our mailing list! It has been growing quickly. This gives us a chance to let you know about all the things "growing" on around here. To celebrate, we are excited about our first sale this year! For the month of January, we are offering 22% off our yarn in honor of the New Year. Be sure to stock up while the savings are big! Also, a special thank you to my dear friend Susan who takes care of our online store! She’s amazing and we couldn’t do this without her. Happy Winter everyone!
Trey Hey, Friends! Here’s what’s happening on the farm this month! Home From the Fair We are just home from SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair)! The sheep did really well and we are super proud. Some highlights are:
 We won 3rd in fleece off the sheep as well as many 3rd, 4th, 5th, and sixth places. It was a lot of fun to be with our sheep family and meet so many new friends. A few sheep came home with an upper respiratory bug, so our very own Vet Scott got to make a visit and treat everyone. Farm News Jonathon and Charlotte were just here for shearing! 36 bags! We appreciate wholeheartedly all their hard work and talent! Our Leicester Longwools have been put together for breeding season! Hopefully if all goes well we will have our first LLs born at the end of March.  We are taking a break this year from breeding the Shetlands but we did bring home a handsome Shetland ram for next year! His name is Frazier and he is a sweetheart, with very crimpy fleece.
We will have Satin Angora bunnies available soon so reach out if you’re interested in having a beautiful soft and shiny white bun bun.❤️ Save the Date(s) Our farm will be out and about at several local events during November and December. Be sure to mark your calendars and come see us.
Hope to see you soon at one of our local events. Have a great November!🐏🐑🐰 Hi folks! Here's what's happening on the farm this month.
Headed to the Mill We are super excited to be headed to the mill on the 19th to watch our yarn going through the mill. I'll be shooting a video and sharing it so you can see the whole process! Upcoming Event - Stone Ashe Winery We are excited to announce that we will be participating in our very first local artisan's day at Stone Ashe Winery on Thursday July 22nd! Come out between 11 am and 6 pm to shop in person with us! We will have roving, yarn, knitting and crochet needles (new items alert!), as well as raw fleece and other SourWood merch! Come see us - ages 21 and up only please). And if you can't make it out to shop in person, you can always shop at sourwoodfiberfarm.com! Farm News July is the month when our lambs are weaned and ready for their new homes. We are excited to see babies go to their new homes. The sourwood is in full bloom and our busy bees are making lots of honey! Scott's tomatoes look amazing as well as the rest of the garden. Scott saved a little wild Turkey from being run over (the fowl, not the bourbon😁). Both its eyes were crusty. Scott has been doctoring it and both eyes are now open. We will be releasing it back into the woods soon. And that's what's happening this month! -Trey We are starting a monthly blog of things that are happening on the farm for you guys so that you can get a glimpse of what the going-ons are. We hope you enjoy it. Here is our first!
We are currently enjoying watching the grass coming up from the seed, lime, and fertilizer we put down in April. We have found that perennial ryegrass does much better for us as we have trees in our pastures. We haven't had much rain, so you know what that means . . . moving water hoses and sprinklers! It allows us to get our steps in though. We finished lambing season a few weeks ago and those babies are growing like crazy! It will be time to start the weaning process and getting them used to being haltered. We will be picking up our last Leicester Longwool soon. She will be the last in our foundation herd. She's a beautiful English Blue. We just brought two beehives to the farm. One of our hives did not make it over the winter last year and the other swarmed. They are currently bringing in a TON of pollen as we are having a crazy time with our allergies! Hopefully, we will have a nice sourwood bloom this year, and the ladies will be making that gorgeous, delicious honey! Our rabbits are great. I'm very excited about the wool on them currently and may bring in a new Opal buck this month. Our Great Pyrenees, Jake and Elwood, had fun at the vets and groomers! So proud of those boys. The new laying hens are getting big! They should be laying soon, so we hope to be in better egg production. Also we are getting duck eggs here and there. Scott has his garden in! We have peppers, beans, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, onions, garlic, and a bunch of fresh herbs, and of course, parsley for the rabbits. Summer sparks the beginning of skirting fleeces for us. I hope to make a video so you can see the process from start to finish. Once those fleeces are cleaned and ready, we will take a field trip to our new mill next month. We’ll get to watch our wool enter and go through the mill. We will share a video of that too so you can see how our fiber is made into yarn and roving. We added new yarn and roving to our store a few weeks ago and we'll add more roving over the upcoming weeks as well. Spring is busy on the farm! If you have questions, reach out to us. Happy Summer! - Trey |
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