Today’s handmade interview is all about woolly sheep and busy honeybees. Natalie and Paul are the hardworking folks behind River Farm, RI. I first noticed their beautifully photographed honey on the Etsy front page and had to visit their shop that instant. Their shop is gorgeous and filled with amber colored honey and the coziest, woven blankets. Things that sound so perfect on this rainy day!
Q. Hello Natalie and Paul! Could you tell us a little about yourselves?
Why hello! Paul and I work on a small, private farm in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. We raise Merino sheep, pigs, laying chickens, and honeybees and keep a kitchen garden. Paul manages the livestock on the farm, while I take care of the post-shearing crafting and marketing. The farm and its goods are part of a local system of production, in which we rely on the skills of a hand shearer, the fiber processing at Still River Mill, and the weaver Peggy Hart. Our blankets are the result of the efforts of artisans working together to make the best product we know how.
Q. Everything about your shop from the curation, to the photo styling is so inspiring! How did you get started?
My degree is in illustration with a fascination for fiber arts, so I have the pleasure of designing our packaging, website, and shooting the product photography. I also get to wander around the farm photographing content for our blog and visiting with the animals. Just a few years ago, when the only livestock on the farm were the chickens and two pot bellied pigs, we became interested in raising Merino sheep as a way to maintain our pasture land and produce beautiful yarn for friends and family. There are not very many flocks of Merino in New England, and we started with just 6 ewes of different colors and our ram Joseph. Now we have 20 sheep and far more yarn than we could use on our own! I try to do justice to the care and hard work that goes into producing our blankets through my photography and design.
Q. Do you have a favorite item to make?
I adore the first taste of honey every autumn. Extracting and jarring the honey is truly sticky work, but when it is over we have all the tastes of summer preserved to enjoy for the next year.
Q. What’s a normal day like for you?
A day on the farm is always an adventure. Our Merinos are put out to pasture with their guard dog Remy early in the morning. At this time of the year, any day could bring a new lamb, so Paul checks on the sheep often and takes care of the 5 little ones who have recently joined the flock. In the meantime there are eggs to be collected, pigs fed, firewood chopped… In a few months, the mature sheep will be ready for their shearing, while the lambs gambol nearby.
Q. What inspires you most of all?
The natural beauty of our animals and the landscape around us. We strive to be good stewards of these, and are always learning and improving our farming practices. It is important for us to share the story of our produce and community with our customers, and to foster an appreciation of local, natural, and sustainable commerce.
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