Sheep Camp Wool booth offers local yarns and lamb

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — There’s no better taste memory than picking a fresh snap pea out of your garden and eating it raw, tasting the first wild raspberries when you’re hiking, or biting into a perfectly ripe apple picked from your backyard tree.

Learn how to produce those fresh “raw” tastes with certified raw food chef Mary Whalen at this week’s Glenwood Downtown Market’s Fresh, Live, Raw Food Demo.

Whalen’s demonstration will begin at 6 p.m. in Centennial Park. She will demonstrate a simple but vibrant fresh tomato marinara over zucchini pasta, and a yummy chocolate chia seed pudding topped with a rich, dairy-free cashew cream.

Come experience these nutritious and absolutely delicious raw foods. Her recipes will be available at the demo. Stop by to learn about raw food classes and consultations. She enjoys a meatless, dairy-free, gluten-free diet that offers amazing health advantages.

On Ninth Street near Grand Avenue is the Lloyds’ Sheep Camp Wool display. This is the Lloyd family’s second season at the Tuesday market. They are located in Molina at the Georgia Mesa Schoolhouse.

The Lloyds raise Bluefaced Leicester, Shetland and Merino ewes in a natural, grass-finishing, branded lamb program. They sell the Bluefaced Leicester rams for crossbreeding programs to improve production.

Their wool is grown, shorn and processed all in-house by the family, who are fifth generation ranchers. They own and operate a mini-mill from Prince Edward Island. They process to roving bumps and woolen yarns. The roving process draws wool through a tube that rolls the wool together and pulls it out. This helps the fibers become parallel to one another. The bump describes a unit of measure for larger quantities of processed wool.

The woolen yarns come in a wide range of colors, and the spinning wheel in use is fascinating. The cream, gray and tan of their natural wool yarns are the perfect start for a winter knitting project.

The National Sheepdog Championships are coming to Carbondale next week. With that in mind, I attended a benefit showing of the film “Sweetgrass.” It’s a no-nonsense story and photo essay that follows sheepherders taking their sheep into Montana’s Beartooth Mountains for summer pasture. After seeing the film I appreciate even more the time, effort and dedication it takes for the Lloyds to produce and market premium wool and lamb on healthy pastures and bring it to our market.

For the last five weeks of the market, in the food court area, a new booth will serve Ethiopian food. They will offer several choices for vegetarians, with unexpected spices and tastes.

Melody Hartman will be performing at the market starting at 5:30 p.m. Hartman began singing folk music in Europe at 18. She now lives in the Roaring Fork Valley, performing and teaching guitar lessons. Hartman also writes songs for children and her CD, “Dinosaurs and Other Critters,” is a hit with children and their parents. This week’s music sponsor is A’ La Carte.

Gould Construction will be back at the market this week offering more of their Mammoth Peat. They bring small bags to the market, but larger quantities are available for your garden beds. The fall is a great time to add natural nutrients to the soil.

Stop by the market’s information booth to sign up for the weekly giveaway basket of produce. You can also give us your email address to receive our weekly newsletter.

We can accept charge cards in exchange for tokens that can used to purchase any of the market vendors’ products. We can also help you find local products from Palisade to Hotchkiss.

If you run short of local produce during the week, don’t forget the Saturday Farmers Market in Glenwood Springs, open 7:30 to a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Rite Aid parking lot, or take a look at what the Good Health Downtown Market and Deli on Cooper Street has to offer.

See you from 4 p.m. till dusk on Tuesday at Centennial Park, Ninth and Grand Avenue, in Glenwood Springs.