Our heritage and our future

Now, please indulge me on this one!It's wool, so technically speaking should be on one or both of my knitting blogs, but I had to share this one with you. I am passionate about the old breeds of British sheep and supporting any efforts to ensure they survive. The best way to ensure this survival is to use them - for meat, for wool, good breeding programmes, etc to secure their future. Any breed lost is a domestic tragedy.
So, I was delighted to find this at the County Show at the weekend:

Not a breed local to Dorset, but from the Isle of Man - Manx Loaghtan wool. It is just so tactile and beautiful; although I haven't started the knitting yet, a ball sits out for me to touch and stroke as I pass LOL. I know some of you will understand.
I sold two o fmy hats from the Guild tent to a delighted customer, and that moneyww ent straight into the pocket of these good people:

http://www.eggardonhillnaturalfoods.co.uk/ehnf/index.php

The wool is grown in Dorset, only a few miles from my house, and spun by The Natural Fibre Co in Launceston. Also hugely important is the fact that the sheep are reared organically, and that this entitles the wool to be labelled organic as well. The natural colour when spun up is a very beautiful shade of mid-brown; comes in 4ply ( which I bought) and Aran weights. It was on sale at the show for only £2.50 per ball. I bought £30 worth, and can't wait to get it on the needles! I have an idea I'll be ordering some more. :)

As I said, thankyou for you indulgence, here; it's really, really important to me to make sure that small producers sucjh as Eggardon Hill Natural Foods get all the publicity and promotion they can, and deserve. It's both our heritage and our future.

Edited to add later:

I've just come across this whilst looking for something else, ended up watching the whole episode (about an hour).
A very salutory tale, I think, and an improtant piece of film on mnay levels, apart from some of the patronising commentary. Well worth a watch and very, very thought provoking.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ml5nv