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The Pure-Growtm Wool Story
The Pure Growtm Wool
project is a unique program that emphasizes a long-term commitment
with local ranchers to insure pure, clean wool for our products. The
"Pure Grow" wool ranchers are asked to follow healthful farming practices
such as:
1. Utilize year
round rational grazing and responsible land management. Good
nutrition to maximize animal health. Non-crowded conditions,
fresh air, daylight, clean and roomy shelters.
2. In the
shearing process, use a clean room and a surface free of dirt, dust and
pests. Clean shearing produces clean wool.
3. The wool is
removed in a single fleece and placed on the skirting table; there it is
inspected for length, strength, dirt and pests. Care is taken to
keep the wool as clean as possible during shearing to eliminate any need
for chemical treatments to remove burrs, brands, dirt and other
impurities. Only top quality wool is used in our products.
4. Shorn wool
is immediately separated by color and placed in clean dry sacks.
5. The wool is
taken to a scouring mill where it is soaked in hot water to remove loose
matter. Then it is washed a minimum of two times in hot water with a
safe, biodegradable detergent, rinsed in hot water and wrapped into large
bales.
6. The clean
wool is then shipped to manufacturing. Several lots of wool are
blended to insure uniform quality and then carded. The carding
process involves mechanically combing the wool fibers into smooth bats.
7. The shorn
wool goes into our products including pillows, comforters, wool pads,
and for comfort as well as a natural fire retardant in our organic cotton
and natural rubber mattresses.
Wool is a springy,
resilient fiber that contains an abundance of air. This fiber/air
combination acts to cushion the body and prevent the formation of annoying
and painful pressure points.
Wool has the ability
to absorb large amounts of moisture vapor without feeling wet and clammy.
The average person gives of a pint of vapor as perspiration during an
eight-hour sleep period under a comforter. The ability of our wool
fiber to handle this moisture is very important. Wool handles body
moisture under warm and cool sleeping conditions in a manner superior to
cotton, down, or synthetic fiber.
A study conducted by
the Ergonomics Unit at the Polytechnic Institute of Whales confirmed that
a wool filled comforter is more comfortable that the equivalent
weight and construction of synthetic comforters. The physiological
data showed: The heart rate under the wool filled comforter was
significantly lower 100% of the time. The humidity next to the skin
above 91 degrees, which is considered to be the optimum level for sleep
comfort, was significantly higher under synthetic fill comforters 80% of
the time.
Why is it better than certified
organic wool?
Organic wool is processed (carded) in a
facility where other fibers are processed. We are the only facility which
processes are wool from the organically raised sheep in our own facility.
The wool is washed, then it is fed into our machine which shreds the wool
in order to separate the fibers. It goes into a long tube which carries it
to another machine where it is further cleaned and separated. It then
magically comes out into neat folds of carded wool. The machine does not
process anything but our Pure-Growtm Wool so it does not get
contaminants into the wool. I did try some organic wool but found that
there were contaminants such as poly fibers in the wool. We know that
years ago when the machine we use was purchased and the dye was put
through the machine, it took a couple of years before there were none of
the dyed fibers, so companies that send theirs out or use their machine
for other items do get a good amount of contaminants from the various
other items that were processed before. You can ask for a ball of the
carded wool from a company and maybe you can see some of the foreign
fibers. That is what I did. There seems to be no way to prevent
this. So what we are now looking at is a fine organic wool that meets all
the requirements of certified organic wool, is carded without contaminants
and could be certified except for the natural dewormer (cattle certified
organic) that is used to protect the sheep.
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