Clean Cashmere Has Big Plans for Small Farms | Farm & Fiber Knits

Clean Cashmere Has Big Plans for Small Farms

The quintessential luxury fiber, American-grown cashmere is difficult to find as fiber, yarn, or clothing. An accidental cashmere farmer is building a network to change that.

Gale ZuckerSeptember 10, 20242 min read

feeding goats on a farm — At home at Hulse Hill Farm, Christine Hulse’s daily goat chores include morning rounds of letting the 24 goats out of barns, feeding, and checking the herd. Photos by Gale Zucker

Christine Hulse didn’t plan to change the United States cashmere farming landscape when she brought goats to her family’s agritourism business in 2004 at Hulse Hill Farm. Nor did she foresee a new career as partner in a nationwide organization of cashmere farms to support standards and sustainability and provide a market for their fiber.

A former school counselor, Christine grew up as a 4H kid. When she decided to add small animals to her picturesque 14-acre hillside farm a few minutes from Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, she chose cashmere goats. She thought they’d pique the interest of her farm-stay guests.

Cashmere goats at Hulse Hill Farm in Fly Creek, New York.

It didn’t take long for Christine to learn that the US cashmere market was in disarray. Although interest in the luxury fiber was abundant, small family farms raising cashmere faced challenges in bringing their high-quality

Clean Cashmere Has Big Plans for Small Farms

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