Local producers invited to Display at Royal Agricultural and Winter Fair by Richard Buell - Part II

    There’s more the mere cash involved for a producer who’s been invited to have a go at the Royal Agricultural and Winter Fair, the country’s most elite and illustrious such fair, held every November at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds (Exhibition Place) in Toronto.

    There’s more than mere cash – there’s a wealth of prestige. Northern Breeze Goat Farm owners Bob and Jo-An Guitard have been invited to begin displaying their products made from the downy inner coats of their growing herd of cashmere goats at the fair, beginning in November of 2014. They will be traveling to Toronto this November for an introductory tour in preparation for their putting together a variety of locally-made cashmere products in time for next year’s gala event. Northern Breeze has, step-by-step, been increasing its herd of cashmere goats, animals prized not only for their luxurious coats, but for their gentle dispositions. Currently taking up residence at Northern Breeze Goat Farm in Monteith are five females – four of them pregnant with twins – and Jo-An readily admits that, although the tender little creatures are pets, they have the potential to be very profitable as pets because of the demand for products made from their luxurious coats. “This is all very exciting for us,” she said. “We have a lot of producers, making a lot of different things here in northeastern Ontario, and maybe this will be an encouragement for even more local and area producers of all sorts of different farm-related products to make an effort to go beyond their boundaries. Farming – whether it’s goat farming like we’re doing or the farming done by the new Mennonite community – is going to become a major industry here, and we’re just proud and glad to be in on the ground floor. “I’m so glad that other people in our area have been invited to the Royal Winter fair as well – there’ll be alpaca products displayed and honey producers will be represented – we should all be working to support the growth of farming and of locally made farm products.” But for Northern Breeze Goat Farm, it all boils down to what can be created with the exquisitely fine cashmere down from the growing little herd. Cashmere, for the uninitiated, is the down that the goats annually shed – its name comes from their historical home in the state of Kashmir, in India, a typically high, arid region where the goats need the down for warmth. The goats typically have a very coarse outer coat, a coat that helps protect them from the harsh climate in the plateaus that look down over the Gobi Desert. It outer coat does its job, of course, but the goats couldn’t survive the bitter cold without that much finer fibre, right next to the skin, that provides the ultimate in insulation. Think of it in the same way you think of a Great Snowy Owl in -40 degree temperatures. The outer feathers of the owl provide a certain protection – but the bird would freeze to death were it not for the downy layer of feathers close to the skin.      “Cashmere is the most sleek, soft and luxurious natural fiber in the world,” Jo-An says. “There’s no mill nearby where I can get our cashmere processed, but still our farm tries to maintain the highest possible standards – it took a lot of searching, but we have found a mill in Connecticut that does a beautiful job.” The Northern Breeze cashmere family of goats is small – and the amount of pure cashmere fibre produced is minimal – so it takes a while for the farm to produce enough quality cashmere to send it to the Connecticut mill for processing. The precious under-fleece from the goats must be combed out before the goats start to moult – in the mountains of Asia the process can take up to a month because of the vast numbers of goats – but at Northern Breeze Goat farm it’s not as big a challenge. Still, the amount of cashmere produced from each goat is so small that several combings over several months are required to make it worthwhile to have it processed at the Connecticut mill. Only about 200-250 grams is recovered from each goat. The raw cashmere is collected in its three base colors - brown, grey and white and is sorted by hand to remove impurities. First the fibre is treated to remove dust, and then gently washed. Cashmere consists of a coarse guard hair and down which has to be separated. Only after washing and the hair has been removed, by which time it may be reduced in weight by as much as 50%, is the cashmere deemed top quality.  A sweater of normal size could conceivably use all the cashmere provided in one year by five goats. When the processed cashmere is returned from the mill, it is – and has been – made into a variety of products such as hats, scarves and mittens – and the Guitards hope to develop a new fibre by combing cashmere with another fine fibre such as Angora or even Alpaca to produce even more unique Northeastern Ontario products. (Others have already combined cashmere and angora into a product called CashGora.) Northern Breeze Goat Farm is also in the process of developing new products in the personal care line – and will be making an announcement shortly about products made from local ingredients that will enhance to quality of life for all northern residents.   Feature Picture: Northern Breeze Goat Farm’s Jo-An Guitard is displaying the soft, luxurious undercoat of a cashmere goat. She will have a number of cashmere products, made from the cashmere of local goats, at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto next year.