Last night we had our Annual Program Planning Meeting for the Worcester County Sheep Producers here at Greenwood Hill Farm. The night began with our usual expansive potluck supper complete with great desserts. The business meeting covered a review of the Blanket Program and the news was not good. We currently have only half of the wool pledged that will be required to do another blanket for next year. Those present voted to give two more weeks to the effort to bring in more pledges and then our Blanket Chairpersons will make a decision to move on or cancel the program for this year. I should add that there was some discussion about some new and exciting venues for selling our blankets and we decided to pursue them with "vigor". One opportunity is a new indoor farmers market at the Prudential Tower in Boston. Now we're talking!
The Association also voted to send $100 to the Harris Family Farm in Peter Harris' name in accordance with the family's request.
Doug Gillespie, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau, presented an overview of key legislative initiatives on Beacon Hill and encouraged all of us to attend "Ag Day" this coming Thursday 7 April.
Discussions around next year's program were energetic and several new ideas were brought forward. Work began this morning getting speakers signed up. We hope to have an "open mic with a Vet" night in October in conjunction with a "new membership drive" to open the year. We also are trying to schedule a Federal Vet and USDA rep to speak to us on the need to remain vigilant on the Scrapie front. We are planning a workshop on wool products and how to make them complete with spinning, knitting, composting, etc; presentations. Also on the docket is a processor demonstration on cutting up a lamb, a lamb tasting asking each attendee to bring in a cut of lamb from their flock and doing a taste comparison. I wanted to name it the Great American Suffolk Putdown, but Gordon objected...grin.... We also are trying to schedule someone from ASI to come talk to us about Wool Grading; and we added a June meeting predicated on there being a Blanket Program that will adjourn to the barn to help skirt, weigh and bag wool for the program. All of this and our Christmas Party at the Kerns and a planning meeting. Mark your calendars for the first Tuesday evening of each month from Oct 2011 to June 2012.
For those of you who are hosting one of these meetings, please support Barbara in getting any information she requires to her so she can publish the meeting schedule as soon as possible. There are some very good opportunities to publicize our organization coming up next month and we can take better advantage of them with a printed meeting brochure.
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