I have uploaded several months worth of changes to Pages From An Ozark Herbal, including more than twenty new entries, new photos, new reference sources, and updates throughout the existing text. This year has been exciting for learning new wild plants and new uses for existing ones.
I have several new sources for dye plant information and have been doing quite a bit of experimentation with plant dyes and wool this year. Getting those notes organized and included will be my next major step.
A local sheep rancher is retiring. We are absorbing his entire backlog of unprocessed fleeces: Suffolk, Southdown, and Dorset wool. Since he had 300 head of sheep and we have about 14, this is a lot more wool than we normally process (we have some 600-800 pounds of wool sitting on our front porch at the moment). We will be working through it steadily and taking the opportunity to invest in our equipment and infrastructure to do this faster in the future.
As we process this wool we will make it available for sale at all stages (raw-cleaned, dyed, spun, finished goods). This is an opportunity for local folks who want to get started in the fiber arts. We cannot give the wool away as we have to pass some cash through to the rancher, but we have some leeway for barter, especially for people who are interested in helping and learning as you go. Contact us or come see us at the demo in Stockton this Saturday.
And by the way, as this shows, we do process wool for cash, consignment, or trade (we give you processed wool and keep some of it as our cut). We know there are many folks raising sheep in the area who cannot get the wool processed (too expensive to send it to South America). We are working to develop and encourage the development of bulk fiber processing industry in Missouri. If you are a troubled shepherd, contact us and let's see what we can do for you.
