Farm Diversity

Attended an excellent talk on farm diversity by Maria Benjamin of Nibthwaite Farm.  From a non farming  (arts, hospitality) background Maria choose to live with her partner on his farm near Coniston Water on the condition that he let her have a Castlemilk Moorit sheep . She had been horrified to find he'd been paying shearers £1.50 to shear a sheep to get a fleece that he sold for 30p.  There's an unwashed fleece of Castlemilk Moorit selling on Etsy  for about £14.  Maria uses them to spin into wool which she sells on her website. Apparently its highly prized by hand spinners because it is kemp free, not that I understand why that's good. Anyway, every farmer needs a Maria Benjamin.  She seems to have a knack for looking at everything they do on their diverse farm and working out how to make money from it, without subsidies or middle men.  A very enterprising woman. You can buy Jersey cow soap from her "tested on farmers! " online here as an example of one of her many diversifications. . 
The cups were being awarded at a WI dinner. Maria's talk was very interesting but our WI did not win any cups .