8 april 2018 |
Jan Dean’s sheep farm is located at
the 1,250-foot elevation of Kalopa
mauka near Honoka‘a. The location
offers the perfect microclimate for
raising romney sheep. (opposite):
Jan Dean spins homegrown yarn on a
traditional spinning wheel.
FEaTurE
Big Isle shepherd welcomes newborn
lambs to her sheep farm
aster came early a few weeks ago
at Jan Dean’s 12-acre sheep farm
near Honoka‘a with the birth of two
adorable lambs. The new arrivals are
the latest members to join Jan’s fl ock of
purebred Romney sheep that she raises for wool.
Jan is not sheepish about sharing her enthusiasm
for homegrown wool. Through her many years
of raising sheep, not only does she shear her own
fl ock, she also hand-processes the fl eece, dyes the
wool and spins it into yarn. This year alone, she
singlehandedly sheared more than 150 pounds of
her 200-pound harvest of raw wool.
“I’ll do two or three sheep a day,” she said.
“When it rains, you can’t shear wet sheep, so
it took me a couple of weeks. I have a closed
fl ock, which means that the breeding that I do
is within the fl ock itself. Every few years, I will
bring in new genetics. I don’t do
any crossbreeding.”
Jan sells her handmade wool products at the
Waimea Town Farmers Market every Saturday at
Parker School. She is joined by fellow Big Island fi ber
producers Jenny Brundage, of Ahualoa Alapacas, and
Gayle Maruess, of Kalani Alpacas near Waipio Valley.
Some of their fi nished goods include hats, scarves,
knitted toys, shawls, and crocheted tops.
The art of processing wool is labor intensive,
from hand-scouring the fl eece, to cleaning and
straightening the fi bers with a drum carder, then