#PickoftheWeek | Queens Farm’s Sheep-Shearing Festival Is May 8
BY QEDC It's In Queens
It’s time for a haircut.
Queens County Farm Museum will host a Sheep-Shearing Festival on Saturday, May 8, from 11 am to 4 pm.
Visitors will watch the mammals lose their manes during outdoor spectacles that always provoke oohhs and aahhs as part of a program that explains the fiber-production process with wool-spinning and weaving demonstrations. Some of the product will go to an upstate fiber mill to be washed, carted, spun into yarn, and returned to Queens Farm.
Plus, Queens Farm will set up socially distant crop circles so patrons can take a load off and safely listen to Mama Juke play harmonica-heavy, New Orleans-influenced blues, soul, funk, and folk music. Plus, the Con Edison Ecology Booth will give away craft kits and teach about the Adopt-A-Worm composting program. Local food vendors, a plant sale, tours, and suds crafted by Rockaway Brewing Company round out the fun.
Admission is $12, but $8 for those under age 13.
Spread out over 47 acres, Queens Farm’s entrance is at 73-50 Little Neck Parkway in Glen Oaks. There’s free on-site parking.
The term “shearing” refers to cutting and shaving wool from a hirsute farm animal. Experienced shearers can remove a full fleece in about two minutes. Ivan Scott set the world record for fastest machine-aided shear at 37.9 seconds in Ireland in 2016.
Images: Queens Farm