Ewe Turn Blog
Whitefish Bay Farm, Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WisconsinAutumn Harvests
Autumn has definitely arrived at Whitefish Bay Farm. Temperatures have cooled down slowly. We have toyed with frosts on a couple of mornings, but not seriously enough to end the growing seasons of any plants. More significantly, we have experienced frequent and...
Foggy Morning Grazing
Since I last wrote, weather conditions have changed drastically, in our case all for the better. After nearly two very hot months without rain, it finally rained seriously during the last week in August and the first week in September. During that period at the farm...
Herding Skunks and Searching for Rain
At Whitefish Bay Farm we are not immune to the extremes of weather which seem to be hammering much of the planet. While we are not suffering the extreme heat and drought that has plagued much of Europe, including my friends in Denmark, we are undergoing what is...
Meeting Midsummer Head On
It is definitely the middle of summer here at Whitefish Bay Farm. Signs of the season seem to be everywhere. Temperatures and humidity have been high for a number of weeks. Our Barn Swallows are in the midst of fledging their second brood of young with great noise and...
A Season of Color — Week Four — Mullein
It has been a while (June 23rd) since I completed the week four dyeing project. I now have time to write about what we did. Many of you may remember that last summer we had to put in a new driveway to get tractors and equipment to and from the machine storage shed....
A Season of Color — Week 3 — Lily of the Valley
There is a large, vigorous stand of Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) on the west side of the house. They are remnants of the Lily of the Valley plants that were growing here when we purchased the farm in 1983. I had never considered Lily of the Valley as a dye...
A Season of Color — Week Two — Stinging Nettle
I had read in two different natural dyeing books** that Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) could be used for dyeing and would produce a green yellow. On June 2nd, the Stinging Nettle behind the barn and along the rock wall were about 12 -15 inches tall. I collected...
A Season of Color — Week One — Dandelion
For many years, I have been following the blog of a natural dyer, Leena Riihelä, in Finland. This winter she decided to experiment with new dye materials found in her back yard. I have been following her results with great interest and it has inspired me to try a...
It’s a Slow Start, but We Made it
Tuesday, May 22nd, 6:30 AM. It is foggy and very damp. Overnight it rained lightly, adding to the moisture. Yesterday the waterline to the pastures was pressurized (successfully) for the first time in 2018. The previous day the four pastures closest to the barn...