Cedarhollow Farm

Cedarhollow farm stand will be open tomorrow, 10/28, from 11-6. Stop on by for a spooky time! There will be wonderful heirloom pumpkins and squash for the soup cauldrons, lovely beeswax candles, homemade soaps, baked goods, Flora jewelry, homemade apple and pumpkin pies, amber honey, and many other delights to celebrate fall!

Cedarhollow Farm would like to introduce Flora Jewelry designed and made by this special artist. It is inspired by the flora and fauna found in the forest and through the garden. Each earring has a sterling silver hook and delicate colored beads. They can be found at the farm stand or by special order. We think they are beautiful!

Here is the morning lineup out to the pasture! These sheep are so funny. They only travel on the tiniest of paths, all single file. There is a general order to their lineup. At times, it can be easy to tell who is not feeling well if they seem out of step in the line. Sheep are very gentle grazers and do not upturn the soil like other animals. Every morning, one young shepherd feeds the animals on the farm and does barn duties. Then two shepherdesses move the sheep from the barn out to the pasture. They’ll repeat the process before night falls. Our new ram and his wether friend are living a good life locked in a barn. The ram is getting too eager for the upcoming date with the ewes and our fencing is taking a beating. If he can’t see the ewes then he has nicer manners. “Out of sight, out of mind” seems to be working for now!

Cedarhollow farm stand will be open tomorrow, 10/14, from 11-6. We will have heirloom squash, pumpkins, honey, dahlias, baked goods, and more!

Cedarhollow farm has two registered ewes available for new pasture. If preferred, they can be bred to a champion ram for spring lambing mid March. Send a message for further details!

It’s a busy season at Cedarhollow Farm! Our farmstand will be closed this Saturday so we have all hands available to clear the gardens, build a secondary barn, and do our annual fall health checks and partial shearing of sheep. Sheep depend on preventative care to keep them healthy and able to deal with the change of seasons. We are changing their coats to allow for a fuller growth of fleece. Our barn will be used for our breeding group, birthing ewes, and hay storage. Wish us luck as we try to beat the rain and get it all done! There’s never a dull day on Cedarhollow Farm!

Cedarhollow farm stand will be open tomorrow, 9/30, from 11-6. A little baker has been cooking up yummy things with the last crop of peaches! We will have heirloom pumpkins, squash, honey, fresh eggs, beeswax candles, peach pies, homemade soap, dahlias, and more! It should be a beautiful fall day on the farm!

We are excited for two new boys on the farm! One will be our breeding ram and the other, his faithful wether friend. Cedarhollow Farm will have spring lambs this year! Both boys have beautiful fleece. We like to make the introductions to the breeding group slowly. Over the next couple of weeks, the ewes will begin to cycle as they sense a new ram is present. We don’t breed all the ewes every breeding season. As you can see, the introductions are going well! Breeding season typically begins at the end of October. If anyone wants a laugh, stop by the farm on October 31st.

In other news on the farm…. We now have a greenhouse! This project has been in the works for years now. We have always started our seeds inside the house, but the future seedlings can now have a place of their own. We like this project so much that a small someone has insisted on claiming a table for her homeschool studies inside the greenhouse. We are thrilled to have more space and to not have gardening dirt on the kitchen table!

Cedarhollow Farm has been busy this summer! A certain shepherdess had a grand idea for an Alaskan sweater project. She helped to shear the sheep, process the wool, spin the batts, and finally knit the sweaters. Each sweater was carefully chosen from a favorite sheep in our flock. The sweater motif reminded her of the flora found in the wild wilderness of Alaska. It took many months to complete this project, but, in the end, six sweaters were made! It was an epic undertaking that we will never forget! As we hiked tall peaks in Denali, we felt gratitude for our kindly sheep, their warm and soft wool, the loving hands that made the sweaters, and the beautiful place we were in. These sweaters will remind us of all the good things in life that we cherish and love.

Cedarholllow Farm stand will be open today from 2-6 pm. After a busy summer, we are looking forward to the change of seasons and dropping leaves. We will have honey, candles, soap, flowers, jams, baked goods, fresh produce and more today.

Merry Christmas from Cedarhollow Farm! We wish you peace and joy in this beautiful season.

Cedarhollow Farm stand will be open on…
Friday, 10/14 from 10-6
Saturday, 10/15 from 2-6.

It is our fall shearing weekend and the sheep are excited for new coats! The farm stand will have our plump and dimpled heirloom pumpkins, yummy apple pies, hand dyed indigo kerchiefs and towels, flowers, soaps, candles, drop spindle kits, yarn, and much more! The two farmers at the stand would be happy to provide a drop spindle demonstration for anyone interested in learning all about fiber and yarn. Happy fall days!

We have some amazing giant Hubbarb squash at the Cedarhollow farmstand today, 9/30! These are beauties!

Our favorite time of year is here! Well, if you don’t count spring lambing and the first summer strawberries! We are pulling out our pumpkins from the magical patch that may have overtaken a few blueberry bushes in their enthusiasm to grow. They don’t always mind their manners and space! We will have lots of heirloom varieties available at the farmstand this Friday, 9/30, from 10-6. They are not only beautiful, but they taste delicious too! If you need any recipe ideas, the two farm girls at the stand can share an idea or two.

Cedarhollow Farmstand will be open tomorrow, September 23, from 10-6. We have been busy cleaning up our gardens, feeding the bees, tending the new quail chicks, and sharpening our clippers for our twice annual shearing day. Our sheep are always happy to see new faces from over the fence. Feel free to stop by and you will be greeted with a friendly baa or two!

Cedarhollow Farmstand will be open this Friday from 10-6. We will have fresh eggs, flowers, candles, soaps, baked goods, flower sachets, honey, jam, yarn, indigo kerchiefs and more! Fall is in the air and our pumpkins are hanging off their vines. Hope to see you there!

Sweet little quail chicks no bigger than her thumb! We have had a happy chorus of tweets accompany us in all our doings this week. They spend their time chasing each other from one end to the other end in the trough. Then, they drop down completely exhausted for a short nap. We like their strategy for living! This chicken farmer loves her babies!

Cedarhollow farm stand will only be open on Friday, September 2, 10-6. Come and enjoy the bounty of this season and stock up on yummy things for the long weekend! Happy days from Cedarhollow Farm!

Cedarhollow farmstand will be open this Friday and Saturday from 10-6. We hope to see you there!

Cedarhollow farm stand will be open this Friday and Saturday from 10-6. We are excited about our new signs! We will have lots of summer bounty - flower bouquets, soaps, sachets, fresh produce, honey, candles, baked goods, spinning kits, yarn, hand knit items, and more! We look forward to seeing you!

Yeah for garlic scapes! We have harvested them by the armful. Can anyone use any scapes? We love them in pesto. We have plenty to share!

We thought we’d share some farm happenings from this week! We have trimmed all our lavender. We have three different varieties of lavender which we dry to use in our soaps, sachets, and sugar scrubs. We also have one week old kittens named Pixie and Plum. They are so cute!

Every May, our garden springs into action. After the last frost is behind us, we can safely tuck our new seedlings into their beds. One gardener prefers to start her special plants in toilet paper rolls that hold the soil and seeds inside. These cardboard roll seedlings can be planted directly into the garden. We use our compost to fill our garden beds. Our chicken manure has to be aged before we add it to the soil. But, here’s a cool sheep fact - their manure is non acidic and can be added directly to the garden! Yeah for sheep!

We want to introduce our sweetest lamb at Cedarhollow Farm! Her name is Fern. She had a twin brother who died in the womb. The pregnant ewe’s uterus became twisted in labor which prevented the lambs from making their exit. Thankfully, we were able to rescue this sweetie. The mom is making a full recovery after the traumatic delivery. We have learned that after a certain amount of time, if the mom has not progressed to the next stage of labor, then it is best to investigate and figure out what is wrong. We are grateful we didn’t lose all of them. We are in love with Fern’s adorable lamb smile!

Part 4: The last step! After spinning the fiber, we wash the skeins and then run them through a yardage meter to determine the length. They are now ready for sweater making! Pictured here is yarn which represents the natural colors of our flock. We have moorit (cinnamon brown color), black, mioget (light moorit), white, and light gray. Through this process of transforming raw fleece to yarn, the fiber moves through our fingers at least thirteen times. By the time we are done, we feel immense gratitude for our sheep, our land, and a craft that connects us to a history long past.

Part 3: How carded fiber becomes yarn! Carefully, the spinner drafts the fiber from the carded batt and feeds it into the spinning wheel. As the twist moves up the drafting zone, the fiber is strengthened. She spins a single yarn then plies another single yarn to it so they interlock and balance each other out. This is what makes for a circular shape of yarn. After this is done, the yarn is washed to set the twist and hung up to dry.

Part 2: How we card our fiber! There lives at Cedarhollow Farm a certain young shepherdess who has perfected the art of carding. Each and every batt has been carefully carded by her hands. She uses a Strauch fine drum carder that is made for processing finer breeds of wool. She feeds the carder the open locks of wool and then gently turns the handle as the carder aligns all the fibers in the same direction. Depending on the particular fleece, she may run the batts through the carder at least 2-3 times. She has a good eye for detail and fiber. When she is done, she rolls up the batts and stores them for spinning. She loves her natural colored fibers but also dabbles in dyeing. Dyeing is another post for another day. In these pictures are batts that are individual to each sheep in our flock. She keeps them separate but sometimes she will blend different colors together. She also blends other fiber with Shetland to give greater variety.

Part 1: How does wool become yarn? We thought we might show you how we process our fiber so we can eventually knit sweaters! It starts with clean fiber! All our sheep wear coats to protect their fiber from any vegetable matter that might fall into it. After shearing the sheep, we sort and pick through the wool to make sure we don’t have any second cuts. After this is completed, we scour our wool in laundry mesh bags which makes it easy to move the wool around. We do a series of three washes in very hot water and mild soap to remove all the lanolin and dirt. We like to do this part outside. Once scoured, we spin out any water and then lay out the fiber to dry on racks. It is getting very fluffy at this point! Once dry, we open the locks of fiber to prepare for carding. We usually have a mountain of fluff stacked up! Next up is carding in Part 2.

This girl is sporting a new look! Hopefully by the time this patch falls off, her eye will be feeling much better. She developed an ulcer on her eye and light is bothering her. Sometimes we have to get creative with our solutions!

Twice a year, Cedarhollow Farm harvests honey. We take a box from the top of our beehives that is surplus to the colony and not needed for winter supplies. This is the only amount we take because we try to keep our beehives alive through the winter season. We try to separate our honey by colors or seasons. It can be surprising how different honey can taste from one season to the next. It all depends on what the bees are pollinating at that specific time of the year. We take one frame of honey, uncap the cells that hold the honey, then spin the honey out. The flow is then filtered to remove any beeswax that remains. We leave a little pollen in the honey because pollen is so good for you! Did you know it takes 12 worker bees to produce 1 tsp of honey? Bees are amazing!!

By the time November rolls around, we are all wearing new attire! The chickens and quail have finished their fall molting and are looking beautiful in their new set of feathers. Even the sheep get in on the fun and are sporting fresh coats after their fall shearing. Zeus, our ram lamb this season, chases me around logs and tries to chew on the zipper of my new coat. It’s his way of complimenting me and letting me know he approves of my new coat.

It’s shearing day at Cedarhollow Farm! Twice a year this is a farm tradition. For those who wonder why our sheep wear coats.... these pictures explain why! The lighter areas of the fleece were protected from vegetable matter, dirt, and weather. The fleece is pristine! Beautiful locks with great crimp. No matting. The dark areas of the fleece are where the coat did not cover. It makes such a huge difference! Even though managing the coats takes more time, in the end, it is worth it! And, by the way, this is our sheep named Forest. He is being very patient this morning.

Every October, at Cedarhollow Farm, we find ourselves busy with our annual candle making. Hands stay busy purifying the wax, melting the wax, dipping the wicks, and rolling the sheets of beeswax. Our kitchen smells like honey, flowers and bees. From all of this, comes the sweetest of birthday candles, acorn candles, and tapers. The Farmstand will be open tomorrow, 10-5 pm. Candles help us to feel cozy when the daylight hours retreat and dark settles in for a longer stay.