Spring 2025 - Northern New England Fibershed news & events in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine | | |
Note from the NNEF Board
Hello Northern New England Fibershed folk! This edition of our newsletter represents a merging of the general interest NNEF Fibersaid, and the flax- and hemp-focused Hackler newsletters. Going forward, you will find the Northern New England Fibershed's regional news and events from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont under this masthead.
Over the winter, the NNEF board has been working on a variety of administrative tasks related to the organization. Watch this space for updates regarding work on our financials, non-profit status, producer directory, and more. There are a lot of resources available now on our website - please check it out!
A lot feels uncertain these days, but Spring is a time of renewal and hope. Here's to a peaceful and productive season for us all.
"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade."
- Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
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News from Maine
Belfast Public Library Hosts Maine Fibershed and Climate Action Coalition
Tuesday, April 1, 6:30pm
Join us in person or from the comfort of your home!
Pat Harpell, co-founder of the Maine Fibershed, will talk about easy ways that individuals can make a sea change of difference with their fiber choices. She will discuss how to differentiate fresh carbon from fossil carbon fibers, how a Soil-to-Soil system works, the importance of local fiber to our economy, and how raw wool is being used to replenish soil.
The program will be held in the Belfast Library Abbott Room with Zoom Option. Register for the Zoom link here.
Pat will take us on a “tour” of Maine’s rich fiber farms via a garland of local fiber swatches that range from alpaca to yak, and we’ll explore what is needed to go from shorn sheep to a locally-made garment. Come learn how the Maine Fibershed plays a role in carbon sequestration, diminished greenhouse gas emissions, erosion control, flood and drought mitigation and income equity throughout our local fiber supply chain.
This program is presented by the member organizations of the Waldo County Climate Action Coalition and the Belfast Free Library.
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Maine Fibershed Pop-Up at Heavenly Yarns Recap
A heartfelt thank you to Heavenly Yarns for hosting Maine Fibershed and our new, limited-edition kit offerings fundraiser. Long a supporter of Maine-raised fiber, Heavenly Yarns made us feel right at home, and the Belfast annual Ice Festival made wool top of mind for many!
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Local Yarn Stores Increase Maine-Raised Wool Inventories
With an emphasis on income equity and community collaboration, Maine Fibershed is pleased to announce the latest addition to our “matchmaking” between yarn producers and local yarn stores. Annie Buchholz from the Southport General Store reached out to us in January for recommended local yarn producers.
Established in 1882, the Southport General Store is the epitome of Maine community culture: year-round home-baked meals, community gatherings and workshops, and a penchant for helping local farmers and producers showcase their goods.
Already carrying yarn from My Maine Farm Girl, Annie expanded her locally-grown inventory via Stacey’s Spinning Haven. “We love the quality of Stacy's products, the variety she produces, and the local fibers she's working with,” commented Annie.
To see all of the goodness of Southport General Store and the local farmers who grow their luscious yarns, please visit their websites:
Southport General Store
Down home with My Maine Farm Girl
Stacey's Spinning Haven -Fiber Mill and Fiber Mill Store
Other conversations are happening! If you’d like to explore having your wool carried at a LYS, or if your LYS wants to inventory Maine-grown wool, please send an email to mainefibershed@gmail.com
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Waldo County Soil and Water Conservation Commission (WCSWCD) Annual Report Spotlights Maine Fibershed
As a vocal advocate for helping farmers and the environment via waste wool, Maine Fibershed was honored to submit an article to the SCSWCD 2024 Annual Report. Text of the report is reproduced below. Click here for a link to the full report.
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Flax Presentation at the Nelson New Hampshire Library
On February, 15, 2025, Nelson Agricultural Commission invited Phyllis Marinoff, member of the Northern New England Fibershed, to speak to the community about her journey in the exploration of flax, the history of flax production in the town, and the cultivation and processing of flax straw into spinnable fiber. She spoke to the community of the viability of resurrecting locally sourced fiber and the formation of a nationwide movement of Fibersheds across the country.
For those unfamiliar with the term, “Fibershed,” a definition would be; a geographical landscape that defines a resource base, a community organization that is building a climate beneficial local economy, a network of fiber farmers, weavers, knitters, slow-fashion entrepreneurs, soil activists, and conscious consumers, a source for education focused on connecting consumers to the source of their clothing, and a grassroots movement to promote the use of natural fibers, both plant and animal.
Flax tools, finished line, tow, spun fiber, and finished linen goods were shown and passed around. Attendees were able to get their hands on some retted flax straw and try the process themselves. Resources for continued learning were handed out and many questions were answered. The program was well received by the community.
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NNEF to present at Monadnock Region 2025 Earth Festival in Keene, NH
April 26,
Noon-4pm
Join Phyllis Marinoff as she represents the Northern New England Fibershed at the 2025 Earth Festival in Keene, New Hampshire.
For more information, go to the Monadnock Food Coop's Events Page. Hope to see you there!
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Fourth Annual
Gilmanton Farm & Flax Day
Saturday, July 26, 10am-3pm
Mark your calendars for the Gilmanton Farm and Flax Day on Saturday, July 26th, 2025 (rain date is Sunday the 27th). The event is held at The Gilmanton Farm Museum, 245 Meeting House Road in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, and sponsored by the Gilmanton Historical Society.
At the site, visitors can tour the historic Tom Howe Barn, and see the flax retting pond, with a guide on site to explain how this unique landscape feature was used in the process of turning flax straw into linen. A variety of demonstrations related to flax processing, spinning, and weaving will take place during the day. The event runs from 10am to 3pm, and is free and open to the public.
For more details please contact Lori Baldwin at: ljb.mama2@gmail.com
| | Flax &Hemp News from the NNEF Hacklers | |
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Top: The crews from Taproot Fibrelab and UVM Extension NWCS Hemp Research project pose for a group picture with the newly-delivered Taproot Hackling machine at Borderview Farm in Albergh, Vermont.
Middle: The Hackler being carefully removed from the back of the van used to deliver it.
Bottom: The Hackling machine in it's new home at the UVM research farm.
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University of Vermont takes delivery of
first-in-the-USA Hackling machine manufactured by Taproot Fibrelab
On March 11, 2025, our friends Patricia Bishop and Josh Oulton drove with their
daughter Lily from Nova Scotia to the Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh, Vermont to hand-deliver a new hemp fiber hackler to the UVM extension NWCS team. They managed to fit the machine into the back of a sprinter van, and our farmhand, Travis Driver, also managed to lift it out in one piece.
The hackler represents the third step in a three-part scutching line that Bishop
and Oulton have developed to process long fibers like hemp and flax at a
cottage industry scale. The role of the hackler is to take the long fibers, which have already been broken or decorticated, and comb them rigorously to open up the fiber and separate the fiber bundles which are 'glued' together by naturally occurring lignin and pectin.
The machine is the first of its kind in the United States. Prior to our purchase,
there was only one hackler like it in all of the western hemisphere; that being the one belonging to Bishop and Oulton at their processing facility in the Maritime Provinces known as Taproot Fibrelab.
It is a dream to see our hemp processing capabilities expand as we add mechanized elements to the intensive ongoing hand-processing that is necessary to extract fiber from biomass. We hope that this historical moment will mark just the beginning of our bast fiber processing capabilities in Northeast. Much more infrastructure will be necessary in order to see the industry grow here, but we are in it
for the long haul. Many thanks to the USDA Sungrant cycle for sponsoring this project! You can follow along with this ongoing project by searching award number 2020-38502-32916 (3TD372-PSU).
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For Flax growers and the Flax-curious:
Please take our Flax Seed Survey
Northern New England Fibershed
Fiber Flax Seed Survey 2025
The Northern New England Fibershed would like your help in understanding seed-sourcing challenges for fiber/textile flax growers in our region.
We have developed this survey to:
- inventory flax varieties presently being grown in New England
- understand what kinds of seed-saving efforts are underway
- begin to address chronic seed sourcing challenges by:
- building our capacity to grow, save, and share fiber flax seed suitable to our region
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Fiber Flax seed
for sale!
The Northern New England FIbershed, working in partnership with the PA Flax Project, Fibrevolution (OR), and Mountain Heart Farm (VT) have a good supply of textile/fiber flax seed available this spring.
As of this writing, we expect to have two French varieties, Damara and Aramis available, as well as Avian and a smaller amount of Christine flax. If you need seed, please go to the seed section of Mountain Heart Farm's online store to place your order.
Twenty-five percent of the proceeds of seed sales support the work of the NNEF.
Happy growing!
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Zoom Recording of March Flax/Hemp Community call
Our March 17 call discussed seed sourcing and spring planting plans for flax and hemp growers in our region. Here is a link to that call.
If you would like to be informed of future Flax and Hemp Community Zoom calls, or you have regional news and events you'd like to share in this newsletter, please send us a message at info.nnefibershed@gmail.com.
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