Value Chain Producer:
The Buzzard Farm

THE BUZZARD FARM

Industry, PA
email: Thebuzzardfarm@gmail.com
website: www.thebuzzardfarm.com
instagram: @fiberinthefoothills

The Buzzard Farm is a small, regenerative fiber farm in the Pennsylvanian Appalachian Region. The journey began after visiting a street fair in Ohio in the fall of 2017. There was a booth with a local alpaca farmer and four of her alpacas. I had never seen an alpaca and I was enamored! Not just by the alpaca but all of the hand knit garments she had available. There was a small selection she paid someone to make and I purchased a pair of gloves I keep as a reminder to why I started. After that day, I spent the next two years developing a plan for our farm. In 2019, I was at my son’s school and a fellow parent was talking about wishing to rehome her alpaca and the stars aligned.

Within a year, we had a built barn and I became a farmer and very quickly a fiber artist. My goals have changed a lot since. Discovering the challenges of creating a successful textile business being the largest, I switched gears to create slowly and with purpose. I currently hand craft limited amounts of quick knits from hand spun, hand processed yarn each yarn from our seven alpaca and five sheep.

As an aspiring carbon neutral fiber producer, we hope to merge farming and cloth production by means of knitting machines and looms. Our ultimate goal is to produce clothing as a small scale manufacturer, designer, and fiber supplier. By enacting responsible rotational grazing, composting manure to spread on healing lands, we hope to help our planet even with the small amount our farm allows by improving our overall soil health while keeping our own carbon footprint as small as possible.