A2B—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 7,1984 BY JACK HUBLEY ATGLEN An afternoon drive to this place is a step back in time. Leave the bumper-to-bumper behind in Lancaster, head for Strasburg, then south to Ninepoints, a left, a right, top the rise, coast down the hill and you’re there. The old two-story stone and stucco house has been there since the 1830’s, tucked away in a wrinkle of southern Lancaster County only a half-mile from the Chester County line in Sadsbury Township. Like a fetching bookcover, the outside of this house insists that you see more. Walk across the hardwood floors and warm your hands by the woodstove within the chest-high hearth of an ancient fireplace. A window sill as deep as your bedroom closet catches your eye. They don’t make walls and sills like this anymore, so you walk over for a closer look and happen to spy the herd of sheep out back. No ordinary flock of uniformly white animals, these sheep range in color from black to chocolate to a silvery cream. There are a lot of questions stirring in your head so you shoo the snoozing cat from the Two different fleece types to be found at Wasteland Farm are (left), the dark, heavy Karakul, and the light, softer Romney. Through crossbreeding, the Schoonhovens hope to produce a softer wool while retaining the rich color variations of the Karakul. V This young Katakul/Romney hybrid displayed by Caren possesses the dark, lustrous fleece of interest to hand spinners. The black sheep of Wasteland Farm stuffed chair and settle back for a chat with Caren Ohoonhoven on the suject of Wasteland Farm. Born and raised in California, Caren Glotfelty had already owned the old stone place and it’s 20 acres for five years before she married Wim Schoonhoven in 1982. Wasteland Farm? The name •nee seems no more appropriate >h<i.. ''ailing a continent north of the Arctic Circle, Greenland, but Caren explains that in years past the area’s steep, wooded hills were of no use to farmers, hence the name Wasteland, which was also applied to a church and cemetery in the area. And this was just the kind of “wasteland” that appealed to Caren and Wim, whose careers as environmental planners brought them great distances-she from California, and he from the Netherlands-to settle in Lancaster County. As environmental planners, the couple’s concern over erosion influenced their decision to convert the surrounding cornfields to pastureland, and to raise sheep. It was in 1981 when Wasteland Farm acquired its first flock of eight Karakuls. Mrs. Schoonhoven explains that the breed probably reached the height of its popularity early in the century when the sheep were imported from Central Asia to satisfy the demand for Persian lamb coats. Though today’s commercial operators are not fond of the Karakul’s relatively poor carcass and black (usually applied to any color fleece other than white) pelage, Caren points out that Karakul fleece is popular with hand spinners interested in the natural color variations and long staple (length of the wool fibers) characteristic of the breed. The Karakul begins life as a black lamb, becoming blackish brown as a yearling, chocolate brown as a two-year-old, and changing to a silvery salt-and pepper at age three. The breed’s wool is coarse and heavy, which led the Schoonhovens to begin cross-breeding their ewes with purebred Romney rams in an effort to produce a finer fleece. Results of the breeding program have been gratifying, yielding lambs with a richer, more lustrous fleece while retaining the distinc tive Karakul color. The couple has taken their program one step further by breeding these first generation lambs with a black Romney ram in an effort to insure a colored fleece. Why take pains to produce these black sheep with the current emphasis on meat production and white fleece? At the present time Caren’s greatest concern is producing quality fleeces for her own use, but she also points out that a small but healthy market does exist for the better black fleeces, with prices ranging from $2.50 to $9.00 a pound. One of the keys to satisfying such buyers lies in producing a clean product, free of chaff and vegetable matter. Clean wool is important to hand spinners who don’t want to be bothered with repeated washings, and the Schoonhovens have experimented with various feeding methods in an effort to keep food from working its way into the fleece. Shearing time plays an im portant role in the cleanliness of the finished product, as well. As air temperatures warm, the lanolin in wool begins to coagulate, resulting in oily yellow deposits that are difficult to remove. With their second-generation sheep rancher on the way last spring, the couple delayed shearing until late June, a mistake that Caren vows not to repeat this year. These days Caren is no longer alone as she tends her flock, with nine-month-old Jake supervising from his perch in mom’s back pack. Arriving home from work each evening at about 6:30, Wim takes charge of the evening feeding, as well as any barn or fence-mending chores that need to be done. j 'Uiit vU J ctitJ ilUl fattening lambs for market, Caren emphasizes that good nutrition is no less important for wool production. The flock is fed good quality alfalfa hay along with a trace mineral supplement, and Caren points out that a creep feeding program instituted this year has already resulted in a noticeable improvement in the lamb crop. Caren reports that both Rom neys and Karakuls lamb easily, but recommends always being on hand for the occasional emergency Wasteland ewes are bred in late July and August, with the lambing season getting un derway in January Though future plans include house renovations, and rebuilding of the barn on the original stone foundation that remains, for the present the Schoonovers admit to concentrating ail ot their spare lime and resources "n ih<Mr sheep Caren Schoonhoven examines one of her Romey rams as son Jake looks on. |k „ * A salt-and-pepper flock of Romney and Karakul sheep feeds contentedly at Caren and Wim Schoonhoven’s Wasteland Farm. T t Millie, the foundation ewe in the Schoonhoven’s breeding program, shows the silvery fleece characteristic of Karakuls when reaching three years of age. The flock is currently made of 16 “but with prices at their current breeding animals, including three levels there’s little incentive to hybrid bred ewes, and 12 hybrid breed for a better product.” lambs With Jake’s head start in the But current prices and a scarcity business, Caren hopes to interest of markets for their colorful wool their son in the 4-H program, are hardly deterrents to this whei e she hopes the family’s in- Atglen couple in their quest for the fluence may stimulate more in- Golden Fleece, and in years to lerest in quality wool production. come those seeking the finest wool "The wool pools could certainly for the manufacture of rugs and l>« i nme more organized and exert outergarments may well find their moie influence,” she observes, f irtune in Wasteland. -
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