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Honey, Furniture, Wilderness DVDs, Photography
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Brookfield Farm (Walking-Wild.com) focuses on the beauty and bounties of Washington's wilderness: raw honey, raw honey and
beeswax products, wildlife photography, rustic house wares, and handcrafted wooden furniture of historical design. We produce
and create all of our products. Karen Edmundson Bean deals with bees, honey, and photography. Ian Balsillie makes wonderful
creations from wood.
Our off-gird farm lies beneath cedars, alders, and big leaf maples on ridges cut by flowing creeks in the Mount Baker foothills,
near Maple Falls, Washington. We share our lands with a myriad of wildlife from deer and bald eagles to bears and cougars.
We have been able to do this with the able assistance of our livestock guard dogs, who create a vocal, but peaceful co-existence
with the native animals which live on and roam our lands. This also allows us to be certified Predator Friendly by Keystone
Conservation.
The diversity of the wilderness that surrounds us is reflected in our crafts and products.
Bean's the beekeeper. Her honeybees have been flying for over a decade from chemical-free, antibiotic-free hives at the
farm and from near-by bee yards. She tends the bees and harvests their raw, unheated, unfiltered honey. Bean also creates
Brookfield Farm's herb-infused raw honeys; organic vinegars infused with raw honey; as well as salves and lip balms made from
our chemical-free, antibiotic-free wax.
When not working with bees or honey, Bean is a photographer and cinematographer. Her award-winning wilderness DVDs focus
on Washington state wilderness trails, with special attention to the Pacific Crest Trail. Bean's backcountry pinhole photography
and "ripping tales"; (hand ripped wilderness photo collages) are shot during her sojourns into Washington's backcountry.
If you find a woman perched on the side of a mountain, pinhole camera in hand, while two or three pack goats wait near-by,
that probably is Bean.
Balsillie is the craftsman. Balsillie's specialties are rendezvous chairs and wooden tables which fold to three-inches
wide with no metal hinges. His handcrafted furniture is based on historical designs, to which he adds his own special touch,
including stains created from strong British tea. Rendezvous chairs were used during the Civil War. The tables are documented
in the Napoleonic era. Ian adds his own personal touch to these historic designs, including a wood stain he creates from
strong British tea.
He also creates rustic house wares: lazy-susans, candleholders, cutting boards, and clocks. Some are created from milled
lumber; others are hand-hewn from the branches of trees downed by the wind. Balsillie believes that life and work should
be simple and not require computers or undue mechanization. He uses a circular saw to cut the milled lumber and a drill to
make holes. The rest of the work on Balsillie's furniture and house wares is done by hand. Visitors to Brookfield Farm's
market booths will often find him working on his furniture.
Brookfield Farm started out as a dream: We wanted a place in the wilderness. Fifteen years ago we found the land which
is now Brookfield Farm.
We focused on natural fiber in our early years at the farm: Shetland & Jacob sheep and Cashmere goats. An older website
WoolAndWood.com, still comes up on some web searches. Then I (Bean) became tired of shearing, and fell in love with bees
around the same time. Bee keeping's wonderful. It's science, nature, art, and just plain luck, all rolled into one.
We have kept our "retired" cashmere goats (lets just call them pets) and my pack animals. As we wound-down
the fiber side of Brookfield Farm, we began to expand the beekeeping operation. Brookfield Farm Bees & Honey continues
to grow each year.
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