Artisan Wool Grown in West Marin, California
At Rockwood Ranch we raise sheep, Shetland and Ouessant, for their wool and to graze the grasslands for soil health and vegetation management. We collaborate with local wool growers, processors and designers to create beautiful wool products that are from and for our local landscape. We sell our wool products, such as felted wool blankets and yarn, along with wool products from other local growers, at our sister store, West Marin Wool Shed in Point Reyes Station.
FOR CUSTOMERS
Want to Find Rockwood Ranch Woolens?
Our Products are available at West Marin Wool Shed in Point Reyes Station, CA.
FOR PRODUCERS
Are You an Artisan or Designer?
We also sell our wool to local wool artisans and designers who use it in beautiful products they make under their own labels. Some of our collaborators include JG Switzer, Valley Oak Wool & Fiber Mill, and artist Lisa Wilde.
Land & Herd
Rockwood Ranch is a 100-acre ranch in the middle of Marin County, California, on land that was tended by Coast Miwok Indians and farmed since 1857. The original farmhouse and dairy barn are still in use and majestic Valley Oaks (Quercus lobata) dot the meadow along the creek.
Our Ranch
Six years ago, the first 6 Ouessant sheep arrived at the farm. Ouessant sheep are a rare breed, one of the Primitive Northern short-tail sheep breeds, from an island off the coast of France. Ouessants are known as the smallest sheep breed and adults weigh around 50 pounds. Their wool is either white, black or, rarely brown. This breed is particularly friendly and, because of their small size, easier to manage. In addition to Ouessant, we now have Shetland Sheep, another Primitive Northern short-tail sheep from the Shetland Islands in Scotland. Shetlands come in a multitude of natural colors – brown, gray, cream. Both sheep breeds are hardy, good mothers and comfortable in our cold, wet winters. Between our Ouessant, Shetland and Shetland/Ouessant crosses (which we call Croissant) we are up to 68 sheep in our flock.
Our Sheep
At Rockwood Ranch, our goal is to use managed grazing and regenerative practices to improve soil health and water quality and produce healthy agricultural products for our community. We also want to demonstrate that food and fiber can come from land that, managed properly, increases plant and animal biodiversity and is a healthy home for wildlife. As we learn best management practices and what the land needs, we may grow and raise a variety of plants and animals, but for now we are focused on raising sheep.
Ranch Ecosystem
Rockwood Ranch is a grassland ecosystem and home to many grassland plants and animals. Majestic Valley Oaks dot the meadow along the stream, and we are planting young oaks as they are such an important food source and habitat for wildlife. Deer, bobcat, badger, coyote comfortably roam and forage on the ranch. Because preditors are our neighbors on the land, we use guardian dogs to protect our sheep. There is breeding pair of redtail hawks that nest in the eucalyptus and each year the barn swallows nest in the eaves under the barns. This is truly a place where agriculture and nature coexist.
Map/illustration by Obi Kaufmann
How Land Can Benefit from Grazing Animals
Pastoralists have been taking advantage of the symbiosis between plants and animals since domesticating sheep, goats, and cattle and other ruminants 10,000 years ago. When done properly, grazing domestic animals can fill the role that herds of wild animals once played in maintaining healthy grassland environments, and produce food and fiber from solar energy in the process.
Grasses evolved with grazers. Grazers move across the grasslands, pruning back the grasses and adding fertility to the soil through their dung and urine. Grasses respond to the pruning and manure deposits by developing healthy root systems. Healthy root systems of a balanced grassland ecosystem create resilience during drought and fire and hold healthy soils in place. By mimicking nature, animal agriculture can be good for animals, people and the planet.
Creating a Local Wool Economy in West Marin
Local wool producers are slowly bringing back wool products and making clothing and household goods from farm wool and yarns. The local, small-scale wool industry depends on working together with shepherds, shearers, and mills that turn raw wool into spinnable wool. Artisans then make beautiful products from local wool.
What Wool Can Do
Humans have been using wool to keep warm for centuries. Wool is a warm, flexible, durable fiber that has been used by humans to create protective clothing and shelter for centuries. Today, wool is valued as an all-natural fiber and when it comes from sheep grazed properly, it can also be climate beneficial, helping sequester carbon in soils and in the wool itself. 100% wool is also fully biodegradable. Products made from wool are durable and will last for generations, but not forever in our soils as microplastics.
There are many ways that wool can be used today to make sustainable products:
Wool Pellets made from waste wool can be used as a fertilizer and soil enhancer made by Point Reyes Compost.
Felted Wool makes beautiful and practical home goods by JG Switzer.
Locally spun farm yarns by Valley Oak Wool and Fiber.
Wool can also be made into natural wool insulation, which Havelock Wool is doing.
ABOUT US
Wool is a Way to Take Care of Land And Community
The story of Rockwood Ranch Woolens starts with my connection to the land and my twin passions for flowers and fiber. Flowers and Fiber bring beauty and warmth to people and help make the world a happier place. As the owner of neighboring Blue Dot Farm, an organic flower farm and horse barn, I became interested in sheep as a means to manage grasslands and undergrowth and the fiber that they produced in the process. As my experience with sheep grew, I dedicated Rockwood Ranch to the sheep and began developing wool products from those sheep. In other words, the wool business has evolved from my desire to sustainably manage the land.
My goal in making wool products is not only to promote sustainable land management, but also to support your local community of wool producers, artisans and mills. By marketing their products at my store, West Marin Wool Shed, producing wool for local designers, providing jobs, and developing new processing facilities at Rockwood Ranch, I can help strengthen the local agricultural economy.
Liebe Patterson, Owner of Rockwood Ranch
Questions?
Find Rockwood Ranch Woolens at West Marin Wool Shed in Pt. Reyes Station.
Are you an artisan, designer or wool processor? Contact us.