Fiber CSA

So i'm taking a quick mental break from documenting... yes, I'm pretty busy this time of year... and I discovered something I just had to write a new blog post about.

Half of the time I blog as a way to store information for myself. I use my blog for recipes, links, and as a general reminder about things I've read or heard about. This is one of those posts, but hopefully it will be of interest to others as well.

I was reading a magazine and it had an article about starting your own fiber CSA. For those who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Most of the time, you purchase a share in a CSA in return for a monthly box of seasonal produce. CSAs have expanded to include meat, cheese, dairy, flowers, herbs, fruits, honey... But a fiber share? What a dream for any knitter! Now of course I am not literally interested on purchasing a herd of sheep and starting one myself, but it did inspire me to google "Minnesota fiber share"... and I found one here on localharvest.org. I gave the contact person a call. They are a small operation but are expanding. She refered me to their website kindredspiritfarm.com and said I should also send her an email and she will let me know when she has updated prices and availablility for new members. There is also a general local harvest page for the farm Here.

Over the phone she gave me some estimates. They offer two basic types of shares, one for completed yarn and the other for raw or washed fibers and roving (for spinners). She stated that a 1/2 share of yarm would be about 6 oz of yarn every other month and that a spinning/fiber share would be about 1 lbs of fiber every other month.

So I'm very excited about this, especially since I tentatively have been OKed to purchase a spinning wheel by Equah if I can find one that is economical (under 200 bucks, these things aren't cheap!). I will have to compare prices as it is much easier to find local roving than local yarn. Also, these have rabit, goat, and sheep fibers so it would be a good way to learn to spin different fibers.

Here's to new adventures.

Simple Soaps

This is a soap I got at the winter farmers market a few weeks ago. The brand is Simple Soaps and they are from a local lady who uses her own goats' milk in the soaps. I know goats milk soap is pretty popular, so I was curious to try some. They have a variety of scents to choose from, both based on essential oils and others using synthetic fragrances. The essential oil fragrances are very well constructed and very nice, not something all EO enthusiasts are able to pull off. Some people like synthetic fragrances, others avoid them, but you have to admit, they often smell a lot better. I think it just takes a keener scent sense to make an appealing EO blend.

At first I used this just as a hand soap, but lately I've been using it in the shower since I've been running low on my own soaps. It smells very nice, mine is a blend of peppermint, basil, and ??? I would say it is a bit too drying for me to continue to use on my skin, probably only because I'm so sensitive to fragrances. So I think I will return it next to the sink... It will last longer there anyway.

I visited the website for Simple Soaps today and it looks like they just opened a shop in Dover MN. I think that might be worth a visit once the roads shape up. For now, you can order them online, they even do custom batches of 15 bars or more... How nice would that be for wedding or birthday gifts? Check them out atsimplegostsoaps.com

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