Farm Tours and Fall Update
Hello Friends,
It’s been a while since we've taken time to sit down and write. It feels like only yesterday that Spring came upon us with its promises and long list of chores. Since then, it's been a whirlwind as we welcomed 21 new lambs into the world, hosted the Orcas Garden Tour, planted and harvested dye flowers and young tea plants, opened our new farm store (the Woolly Homestead), and celebrated our youngest daughter’s high school graduation and entry into college. Now it's Fall and the days grow shorter.
Throughout, we’ve been flattered and excited to see how many of you have chosen to stay connected with us, either through Instagram or by signing up for this newsletter. Thank you and welcome!
Orcas Farm Tour this Weekend, Oct 2-3!
It appears that 2026 is 4th Seed Farm’s coming out party, first through hosting the wildly successful Garden Tour and now the 2026 Orcas Farm Tour -- we are open Fri-Sat from 12-4pm.
Suzanne will be on site at our barn to share her work with dye plants and wool processing from our Clun Forest sheep and Pygora goats. Roger will be present to speak to our experimental tea crop with varieties hailing from the mountains of Tiawan to the shores of the Black Sea. The Conservation District has also generously volunteered to share about our collaborative work – particularly our newest wetland enhancement project.
As always, the Woolly Homestead will be open, where visitors can view and purchase farm products -- squishy skeins of yarn, dye kits, rugs, candles, tshirts, and more. We are also excited to have two resident artists present -- fiber artist Mandy Troxel and eco-dye artist Sammeh, who will have lovely works of art on display, all inspired by colors of the natural world. We look forward to seeing you all here!
Lambs and Kids Update - babies are growing!
In April we welcomed our largest cohort of babies since moving to the island -- 21 lambs in all! Now weighing in at 80-100 pounds each, they are hardly babies, but they still run and kick up their heels with joy, and are such a pleasure to watch grazing in the fields.
As many of you know, our Clun Forest breed is listed as threatened by the Livestock Conservatory. So, new births for this breed bring a sense of hope beyond the significance of a new life in the world.
We breed first for wool quality and confirmation to the standards set by the North American Clun Forest Association. Our 2026 babies did not disappoint. There are some real lookers in this group, and a few have already caught the eye of other farms, which they have now joined to contribute their genetics to growing flocks of Clun Forest in Washington and Oregon
In addition to lambs, we also welcomed baby Pygora goats to the farm in early August. Nolan and Naveen are now 5 months old and have the silkiest silver-colored curls. They are spunky and have settled in quite well with our 4 older girls. Pygora fleece is a highly prized fiber and blends so beautifully with our wool to make luxurious yarns and rugs. We are excited to expand with these two!
The Woolly Homestead
It took three years to get to this point, but our farm store has officially been open this whole summer.
Much work went into rehabilitating the old log homestead, originally built on this farm in the late 1800s. Originally a square, one-room home, it was expanded and converted into a fruit drying and processing facility when the Hansens and Nordstoms had large orchard operations here and exported fruit to global markets. We’re thrilled to bring new life to this structure and open its doors.
Today, this "Woolly Homestead" houses our farm store and many products for sale. We sold a lot of yarn this summer in all shades of beautiful, natural colors, but new stocks have just arrived as well as piles of freshly loomed rugs that feel so warm and squishy underfoot!
In addition, we’re grateful to partner with Mandy Troxel who has established her art studio here. She keeps the doors open and is hosting workshops on a regular basis to share her artistic craft.
The Woolly Homestead is open Thursday-Saturday from 1:00-4:00 pm, with the added Farm Tours this Friday and Saturday only -- your chance to walk around and see for yourself. We hope you'll join us!
Celebrating the Life of Wendell Berry
Finally, we feel called to make mention of Wendell Berry’s passing this past month.
Berry was an American novelist, poet, essayist, cultural critic and farmer who captured the glorious spirit and value of rural life and farming while fighting to preserve it over his long career. He was, for us and many others, an admired mentor that spoke the words written in our hearts for a way of life connected to the land, for the glorious responsibility that comes with such work, and for a world moving quickly away from being able to preserve that which we so love.
Our world is lessened without him being a part of it anymore – but so much richer for the long life he lived and the passionate call he sounded for us all to heed.
Emblematic of this is his poem shared by the Berry Center this past May for Earth Day 2026:
“The need comes on me now
to speak across the years
to those who finally will live here
after the present ruin, in the absence
of most of my kind who by now
are dead, or have given their minds
to machines and become strange,
“over-qualified” for the hard
handwork that must be done
to remake, so far as humans
can remake, all that humans
have unmade. To you, whoever
you may be, I say: Come,
meaning to stay. Come,
willing to learn what this place,
like no other, will ask of you
and your children, if you mean
to stay. “This land responds
to good treatment,” I heard
my father say time and again
in his passion to renew, to make
whole, what ill use had broken.
And so to you, whose lives
taken from the life of this place
I cannot foretell, I say:
Come, and treat it well.”
Wendell Berry
“2010, XI.” This Day: Collected & New
Sabbath Poems, Counterpoint, 2013. p. 355
Comments