Fitzwilliam Fiber Farms - Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival

Fitzwilliam Fiber Farms | Gretchen Wittenborg | Fitzwilliam, NH | willidog@aol.com

Collaborative Fiber Farming

Fitzwilliam Fiber Farms is a women’s agricultural collaborative. They are all shepherds with each farm focusing on their chosen breed & committing to improvement of their flock and fiber. The farms work well together in supportive ways including helping problem solve. The women each bring new ideas and experiences to the table so that they learn and are better able to achieve goals. Sometimes help is given to each other on shearing days and in transporting fiber to be processed.

Preservation and Promotion of Rare Old Breeds

Nancy and Gretchen have been breeding Teeswater sheep for years and are also in an upbreeding program. Nancy and Gretchen (together with Gretchen’s husband Don Moulton) have worked together for years. They co-own a ram or two and make breeding decisions together, have a common nutrition program and sometimes move sheep back and forth between farms. Both farms share the same mission: the preservation and promotion of rare old breeds.

About Teeswater Sheep

Teeswater sheep were brought into the UK by the Romans sometime around 57 BC. They were isolated in the Pennines and kept genetically close to their origins because they have been used to create and improve other breeds. The Jacobs may well be one of the oldest breeds in the world, but in many other countries the breed has been adapted and changed. Some of our American Jacobs, Paula’s specifically, are close to the original, as far as is known. The Teeswater is considered to have the finest lustre long wool in the world. It has no kemp, no coarse hairs and is generally in locks.

Our Teeswater Mission

While we love the fiber produced by our Teeswaters, its sheen, its drape, its beautiful hand, the thrill of working with a wool that is so silky, our real passion is for the character and the qualities of the animals themselves. Teeswaters are medium size, but very ‘leggy’ sheep, generally physically very beautiful and well built. They are characterized generally by their black noses, sometimes black around the ears and eyes and black on the knees and then the long lustrous locks of their fleece. They are hardy, easy birthers usually producing twins, remarkably friendly and easy going with people, exceptionally smart and with excellent temperament.

The Fitzwilliam Fiber Farms

Wind Ridge Farm

Visit the Wind Ridge Farm website

My focus at Wind Ridge Farm , a small farm in Ashburnham, MA, is on the Teeswater sheep, which dates back to the Romans. They are wonderful mothers, friendly and of a sweet nature. I am enamored with their locks & the luster of their fiber. Bringing them into my existing flock has improved fiber quality and size of my sheep.

I have fiber all year round and market lambs in the fall.

I love having a life with sheep. Time spent caring for them keeps me grounded.

– Nancy Charron