{"id":16098,"date":"2025-10-15T23:37:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T05:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmers-market-mesa-lamb-wool-sells-both-meat-and-fiber\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:54:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:54:45","slug":"farmers-market-mesa-lamb-wool-sells-both-meat-and-fiber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmers-market-mesa-lamb-wool-sells-both-meat-and-fiber\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers Market: Mesa Lamb & Wool sells both meat and fiber"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kristen
Kristen Mischker demonstrates how to hand-spin wool at the Mesa Lamb & Wool booth at the Durango Farmers Market on Oct. 4. (Nick Gonzales\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mesa Lamb & Wool formed out of a knitter\u2019s desire to explore the production of yarn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I had more store-bought yarn than I could ever knit in my entire life, and I wanted to get closer to the process of my craft of knitting,\u201d Kristen Mischker said. \u201cIt\u2019s brought us, as a family of five, closer to the food we eat, right off of our land, and then to the fiber that I actually spin and work with my own hands and knit. It\u2019s a good feeling to be as close to our own supply chain as possible \u2013 to close the loop like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to meat, her family sells lamb and mutton as whole shares and by the pound, as well as organ meats, roasts and chops.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sell to customers individually, and we\u2019ve also sold to local high-end restaurants,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mesa Lamb & Wool shears its own sheep and processes the wool. Mischker demonstrates how to hand-spin it at the Durango Farmers Market, but some of it is also sent to a mill. Whole fleeces retail for $50.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have tanned hides that are washable and pleasant-smelling sheepskins for your home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The sheep \u2013 Navajo churros that come in a variety of colors \u2013 are raised six miles South of Durango on the Florida Mesa. Mischker said she believes they are the closest grass-fed lambs in proximity to Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur animals are on pasture year-round,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re often born in the field. The mothers take care of them. They graze their whole lives \u2026 they\u2019re entirely grass-fed on forage, and they live a pretty good life out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the farmers market, Mesa Lamb & Wool sells its products on its website, mesawool.com<\/a>, and can also be reached through its Instagram account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can sell direct to customers as the winter comes \u2013 when they\u2019re looking for meat to put on their table,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

ngonzales@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

churro sheep are raised and grazed on Florida Mesa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1934,438,28,1263],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmers-market","tag-food","tag-headlines","tag-ranching"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16098"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20014,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16098\/revisions\/20014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16098"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}