We’re Green! | Stratton Hall 1794

Caring for the environment has been a life-long interest for us. We recycle, use cloth bags when shopping at the grocery store, and burn wood from fallen trees on our farm to help reduce our oil consumption.

We try to use our house in accordance with its 18th century design. Each room can be closed off from the adjoining room and the center hall to help direct and conserve heat and reduce drafts. With a programmable thermostat, wood stoves, and dressing for the heating season (wool sweaters, wool socks and wool throws of course!) we are comfortable during the coldest winter. In the summer, the house is naturally cooled thanks to its high ceilings, thick brick walls, large windows, the airy center hall, shutters that help block the hot sun, and shade from the trees that surround it.

In the fall of 2011, we installed a 9.66 kW fixed ground-mount solar PV system in a former sheep pen. It supplies all of the electrical power used on our farm with excess to spare. Unused energy is diverted to the public power grid. We are happy to share our renewable energy experience with visitors.

Wool, the fiber we produce on our farm, is natural, renewable, and biodegradable (unlike oil-based synthetic fibers.) It is durable. With care, woven throws, blankets and garments will last for many years instead of clogging landfills. Wool is odor-, stain- and fire-resistant. The insulating qualities of wool keep you warm in winter and cool in summer.

Sheep help take CO2 from the atmosphere by eating grass and other pasture plants. Through photosynthesis, plants store CO2, a natural part of our atmosphere, in their leaves and roots. Sheep eat the plants, recycling and converting the carbon into the amino acids that create wool fiber. Biological carbon makes up almost half the weight of clean wool. At the end of its life cycle, decomposing wool will return carbon to the ground to be used by other plants and animals.

We send our home-grown fiber to Green Mountain Spinnery in Vermont for processing. Green Mountain Spinnery uses a chemical-free green process to scour the raw wool which is then custom-spun into yarn for us.