“Our technology is pretty old-fashioned and it seemed we couldn’t qualify for a loan anywhere…until Harvest Impact came along. The financing and the support we’ve received has been absolutely amazing! ”
–Jennifer Osborn, Founder of All Sorts Acres & Eco Wool Canada
Impact Over 5-Year Term
Social/Environmental Impact
- Saves hundreds of pounds of unused wool from their own flock and creates small batches of washed and processed wool for spinning
- Soil health improved with no chemical inputs
- Localized soil fertility
- Less water needed for plants
- Waste product made into something useful
- Increased farmer’s income
- Biodegradable
All Sorts Acres is a regenerative farm that specializes in sheep and dairy products and a variety of art supplies. All Sorts Acres founder Jennifer Osborn’s latest venture with husband Tim, is Eco Wool Canada Inc. a business built on circular practices, leveraging a Canadian reality in sheep farming – only approximately 3% of Canada’s wool is suitable to make a sweater, and even the best sheep wool still has 20% that is too dirty to be used, which typically leaves tonnes of wool destined for landfill.
All Sorts Acres already saves the hundreds of pounds of unused wool from their own flock and creates small batches of washed and processed wool for spinning. The goal for All Sorts Acres is to further innovate the use of wool for other products such as acoustic panels, dog beds, felted rugs, garden felt, and fertilizer pellets.
Through participation in the Circulate CoLab, Jennifer was able to expand her business into EcoWool through production of wool pellets. These wool pellets are created from shorn sheep wool that contains too much organic material to be used in textiles. The collaboration as well as loan financing has enabled the purchase of the pelletizer machine, and broadened the farm’s offering to the local agriculture market.
All Sorts Acres is hoping to address the local issue in Grey County, home to the largest concentration of sheep farmers in Ontario. This would divert around 150 tonnes of wool and reintroduce it back into the commercial market, lessening the amount of wool and wool products being imported.
