Green E-Market Bulletin March 1, 2019

WHAT'S NEW THIS WEEK: VICTORIA HAS RETURNED FROM A BRIEF SOJOURN IN NORTH CAROLINA AND TENNESSEE WITH A DRUM CARDER, ENABLING THE PRODUCTION OF ROVING FROM OUR VAST STORE OF KARAKUL FLEECES. WATCH THESE PAGES FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS OF NEW PRODUCTSEGGS CONTINUE TO ABOUND, PLEASE ORDER

Awfully placid sources of fever Karakul Fever Hi All, Mark here.

The world confuses me some times. For reasons I may never understand, after raising them for eighteen years our Karakul sheep suddenly seem to be a hot commodity. Was I wrong, I wonder, to think of phasing myself out of farming and transferring the operation to Troy and Victoria, when I may have finally hit the jackpot? Should I switch gears and give up my law practice to devote myself full time to mining this mother lode?It’s not unusual in this season to get inquiries or orders for slaughtered lambs, as Easter and Passover approach. What has been unusual in the past couple of weeks is to get four different requests for Karakul breeding stock. Troy has been talking about reducing our herd by about half to fit in with his and Victoria’s plans as to where to devote their farming energy. Remarkably, despite the birth of a couple of dozen lambs since last month, thanks to this level of interest it seems they will be able to achieve that goal.As with all other aspects of life, I am constantly struck by the variations in human desire. The first request we received was from a professor in New Jersey who wants to start raising a small herd of heritage breed sheep on her property, starting with four ewes and a ram. I’m presuming a lot here, but based on her academic profile and the scale operation she contemplates, I assume her desire is driven by something akin to what motivated us to start with our four matriarchs, Bridget, Myra, Kybele and Marina, back in 2001. Call it the romance of sheep keeping.My late partner, Peter, and I had seen some Karakuls at the Sheep and Wool Festival during our first year on the farm. This fat tailed breed reminded Peter of the sheep he had seen grazing all over Turkey in the forty preceding years he had spent living and traveling there. They produced the rough type of wool that was used for weaving the Turkish flat weavings (kilims) and making the felt products that he sold in his business. After researching their history he was entranced by the romance of their being possibly the ur-sheep, the first breed bred by humans from which all the other breeds branched off. Hence our choice of Karakuls.I have viewed myself as just a sidekick to Peter’s projects and desires, but this morning realized I already had a certain romance regarding sheep in my own mind as well. My senior year in college, my friends and I rented a house in a ritzy Philadelphia suburb, Gladwyne, from a professor on sabbatical. Though his house was no mansion, it was on a road overlooking the Schuykill River across the street from an estate owned by the Dorrance family, of the Campbell Soup fortune. We never actually saw the house, to my recollection, but their front gate was in fact in the midst of a sheep pasture, where the site of a grazing flock, quite a novelty to me, gave me great pleasure. In retrospect, I think it may also have made me associate grazing sheep with gentility and privilege. I wonder if my sense of satisfaction now, when I look across our pasture and see the sheep peacefully grazing, doesn’t have some element in it of that unconscious association, giving me a delusion economic success.Our next inquiry came from a fellow who had purchased about fifteen sheep from us last year, and wants more. He is, I believe, of Uzbeki ancestry, and his desire appears to be more in the nature of establishing a culinarily oriented business. Central Asians seem to enjoy eating the meat of the Karakuls when they get to mutton stage. But for many, especially the Jews and Muslims for whom pork would be anathema