Glen Allen farm to host fiber festival later this month

Mesta Meadows will provide farm animals, fibers and family fun March 26 and 27.

The farm, located at 12005 Hwy. 34 in Glen Allen, Missouri, is owned by Ed Crowley.

Along with running the farm and teaching at Southeast Missouri State University in the management department, Crowley has also been employed by several large tech companies, including Lexmark and Texas Instruments.

He and his wife sold their farm in Kentucky along with a lot of their livestock and moved to the area in February 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning in the United States. Crowley said last year they held a small festival at the Bollinger County fair with a couple of vendors, but this year will be much bigger, and it will take place at their farm.

"That's kind of our goal is to make this a really neat, immersive experience. So we're having it here on the farm," Crowley said.

Attendees of the Fiber Farm Festival will be able to pet Mesta Meadows' many Highland cows. Highland Cows are a Scottish breed of cattle, bred to withstand the harsh conditions of the Scottish Highlands.Submitted

"We're up to seven or eight vendors, and we have Green Dirt Farms, which is a dairy creamery north of Kansas City [Missouri] and they make these incredible cheeses. So they're going to be here working with Barrel 131 and doing a wine and cheese tasting. And of course it's cheese made from sheep milk."

Other activities Mesta Meadows will include in its fiber festival are sheep-shearing demonstrations, fiber artisans who specialize in cleaning and dying fibers, rug weaving, multiple types of refreshments and a petting zoo including sheep, Highland cows and great Pyrenees dogs at the farm.

Crowley is hopeful the event and turnout will be a success and mentioned already receiving more than 25,000 views on the event's Facebook page, which can be found on Facebook under Ozark Highland Sheep and Fiber Festival.

"All day we're going to be having spinning and weaving demonstrations, and if people want to go to our Facebook page, they can see some of the times of the events we will have," Crowley said. "We're gonna have talks on livestock, guard dogs, how to raise good quality wool and other topics I think folks will find pretty interesting."

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 26 and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 27. Admission is free.

Crowley said the farm does not map well on navigation apps, so directions on how to get to the farm are provided on the group's Facebook page.