what is a Steward directory?

We envision a locally rooted fiber system of Stewards who tend animals, plants, the land, and textiles. Our Steward Directory is a membership-based network of shepherds, plant-based fiber and dye farmers, foragers, natural dyers, artists, makers, designers, fiber millers, shearers, and retailers living and working within a 175 mile radius of Minneapolis, MN.

The purpose of a Steward Directory is to enable all members of our local fiber community to have equal access to resources and opportunities to connect with other members of our decentralized textile community. As part of our mission to connect our community to local fiber, labor, and dyes, the folks listed in the Steward Directory embrace and embody the ethos of a ‘soil-to-soil’ textile system through their products and work.

Our Steward program reflects the beliefs and core mission of Fibershed: local fiber, local labor, local dyes. Agricultural stewardship is at the core of how we view creating healthy soil which serves as the basis for our local textile economy. As climate change continues to destabilize our communities, we feel it is important that TRF Stewards practice or are transitioning to an ethos of agricultural stewardship. Practices of agricultural stewardship will be unique to each Steward, as we believe agricultural stewardship is rooted in Indigenous wisdom and decolonizes our relationship to the land