HELP US COMPLETE AND MAINTAIN OUR ARCHIVES
If you are a FRESHFARM Market farmer or producer but are not listed above, or,
if you would like us to update your existing information, please send your bio
and a digital photo (JPEG) to
info@freshfarmmarkets.org.
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SOLITUDE
Loudoun County, VA
Located just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Western Loudoun County, VA; Solitude dates back to at least 1790. Gretchen Frederick and Joan Ferenczy came to Solitude in 1992, a decade after the 200-acre farm had shrunk to 10 acres. They raise a small flock of Romney sheep, a few American Alpine dairy goats and tend a large kitchen and garlic garden.
Since 2006, Gretchen has been working with another Loudoun County shepherd, Sue Bundy, to create small-batch artisan yarns from the wool of their own and other local flocks. Both hand-spinners who love wool, they hand-select each fleece, usually at the farm on shearing day, then create breed-specific yarns such as soft, fine Merino, lustrous Leicester Longwool and coarse, strong Karakul. The fleece is washed by Sue, spun at cottage-industry custom mills in the U.S., and comes back on cones. Then it is skeined, washed and some of it hand dyed by Gretchen.
If eating is an agricultural act, so is knitting with Solitude yarns. Your purchase supports local farms by creating a viable market for their wool. Solitude pays what they know good wool is worth, not the pennies a pound of commodity buyers, and they preserve and identify the source of the wool in every small batch.
Solitude sells part-time at our Dupont Circle and By the White House FRESHFARM Markets. If you would like to be on their email list for notification of when they will be at market, send an email to Gretchen at f-fsolitude@mindspring.com. To see Solitude yarns and hand made items visit their website: www.solitudewool.com.
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