Name: Pogo and Marcia
Friends Folly Farm
Location: 319 Norris Hill Road
Monmouth, Maine 04259
Phone: 207-632-3115
Email: friendsfolly@roadrunner.com
Website: www.friendsfollyfarm.com
Products & Services:
-custom fiber processing services
-retail shop in a yurt
-online shop
-books and supplies for knitters, spinners,
and felters
-workshops on cheese and soap making, dyeing
yarn or fleece, weaving, felting
-re-purposed items made from silver plate
silverware and feed bags
-spin group that meets in the fall, winter, spring
-dairy cross meat goat kids for sale
-farm raised goat meat for sale
-multi-colored Cross rabbits for pets, pelts,
and meats
-chickens
What Makes Friends’ Folly Farm So Unique?
Many factors add to the uniqueness of Friends’ Folly Farm in Monmouth. Perhaps the two aspects that contribute most to setting it apart from other fiber farms is that they operate a mill shop which allows them to custom process fibers for other farms and they conduct their retail business from a thirty-foot yurt!
Finding a mill that will process a small quantity of fiber can be a challenge. Pogo and Marcia, owners of Friends’ Folly Farm, began raising
Angora goats twenty-four years ago. They started out as hand spinners. After they acquired some sheep they were not able to process all the fiber by hand. They purchased a Patrick Green Cottage Industry carder in 1992, and they began processing rovings and batts for themselves and other small farms. Eight years later they purchased spinning equipment. They also do custom dyeing of their yarn.
As time allows, Friends’ Folly Farm now offers
custom fiber processing to small farms and spinners and felters. With a gigantic industrial
washing machine, Pogo and Marcia can wash
the fibers. They also are able to card the fibers into rovings or batts, and spin them into worsted, DK, and sport-weight yarns. Blending of fibers is available. Friendz Blendz is their line of specialty dyed roving and yarns.
Their Friendz Blendz products can be found for sale in their unique retail shop which operates out of a thirty-foot yurt. Their choices of their yarns include a hand-dyed 50/50 worsted weight; married 50/50 worsted weight; soft spun single ply worsted weight; a mohair/wool/silk DK weight; and an 80% Mohair/20 % wool sport weight. Friends’ Folly also offers their own kits and patterns for hats, hexi-hats, socks, mittens, tams, scarves, modular hats, and sweaters.
Their bright and airy circular yurt structure holds an assortment of basic equipment and supplies for spinning, dyeing, knitting, and felting, as well as some beautiful products from other Maine fiber farms. End of the World Farm has supplied some roving, yarn, and locker hooking supplies. Beth from Ackers Acres in New Gloucester has some of her Bunny Blend yarn, batts, and Angora fiber for sale in the yurt. Finn roving, yarn, and felted items from the Packard Heritage Farm in Monmouth are also available.
There is a resource library situated in the yurt that includes books on knitting, felting, and dyeing. A prized collection of twenty years of
Spin-Off magazines is a great resource that is also on hand in the yurt. Be sure to budget quite a bit of time if you plan a visit to the yurt since there are spinning wheels, hand cards, specialty fibers, beautiful handmade hats, wall hangings, and sweaters, mohair, and a large collection of hand dyes to enjoy. The books that are sold do not only concentrate on different fiber art crafts, but there are also some that focus on sheep and goat care. For customers looking for Angora goat skins and washable sheep skins, Friends’ Folly has a selection in whites, tans, and grays.
Pogo is a wealth of information on the history of carding, spinning, and weaving in our country. It was interesting to hear her speak about how men focused on the weaving in colonial times,
while the carding would be delegated to the children, as the women did the spinning. She
explained that Maine was a good location for growing flax and an acre of flax was grown per person to provide the necessary materials for clothing.
Pogo and Marcia lead workshops for adults and children twelve years of age and older on many of the traditional crafts that used to contribute to the self-sufficient lifestyle of farms in the earlier times. Their classes include topics such as how to make your own cheese or soap; how to spin; locker hook; dye your own yarn or fleece; weave; learn wet felting or needle felting; and raise goats for milk, meat, or fiber.
Friends’ Folly participates in several annual events including the Maine Spinners’ Registry
Annual Meeting in April; the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival in May; the Maine Fiber Frolic in June; Open Farm Days in July; the Monmouth Fair and the Topsham Fair in August; and the Common Ground Fair in September.
It’s quite a sight to see Pogo leading one of her goats pulling a cart around the grounds of the Common Ground Fair. Pogo and Marcia are presently raising thirty Angora goats. They import registered white and colored Angora bucks every two years to expand the gene pool
in Maine for base breeding stock for Angora, Cashgora, and Pygora goats. Their current buck lines are from Missouri, New York, and Virginia.
Friends’ Folly Farm also raise rabbits for pets and meat. They have been experimenting with
a variety of crosses with the intended results of
ease in handling, rapid growth, and hardy, vigorous, and interesting rabbits. They are selling does and bucks for meat breeding stock.
The website that Friends’ Folly maintains is
a great resource for individuals interested in
fiber arts and raising goats, rabbits, and sheep.
Various suppliers of equipment and different
animal associations are recommended. There are directions to the farm and their hours, as well as a calendar of special fiber-related events, a listing of informative articles and websites, various online groups, frequently asked questions, and a journal. Friends’ Folly operates an online store which can be accessed through their website. They also have a link to their Etsy Shop. To learn more about this incredibly unique farm, go to: www.friendsfollyfarm.com