Sheep-SmellBed Pillows

Dateline: 13 August 2013

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A couple months back, Marlene and I decided to go to the Home Green Home store in Ithaca N.Y. and look at "natural" bed mattresses. Marlene had been complaining about our Sealy Posturepedic mattress that we bought, used, 25 years ago. I was okay with the old mattress, but she has issues with her back and with getting a good night's sleep, and she has been complaining about the mattress for a few years.

Well, ya know, there is an old saying.... "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." 

That is a true old saying, and, fortunately for me, my wife is not normally a complainer. She puts up with me remarkably well (she says she has me figured out), and I've never known her to have a mercurial personality. I'm blessed to have such a wife. But she wasn't happy with the old bed.

In time, we ended up buying a new bed, but I don't want to talk about that, thank you. It's a painful thought when I consider what the thing cost. It's the pillow I bought Marlene that I am most impressed with.

I always thought that if you wanted a good, natural pillow, then goose down was the stuffing to get. And, fact is, I bought Marlene a goose down pillow several years ago. She appreciated getting the gift, but she didn't really like the pillow. It was too soft.

At the HomeGreenHome store, I saw that they had several different natural pillows. They had pillows stuffed with kapok, pillows stuffed with cotton, pillows stuffed with buckwheat hulls, and pillows stuffed with lamb's wool.

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Lamb's wool? How come I had never heard of stuffing a pillow with wool from sheep? It was a completely new concept to me. I bought one..... for Marlene.

The pillow I bought is a 20"x 26" "standard soft." It has a zippered cover, like the picture above shows. It is made by White Lotus Home and cost $55.  

Thus far, we like the pillow (I borrow it sometimes). It's a comfortable pillow. I can see where it might mat down, or get clumpy after some time (maybe not), but I would suppose that is just the way wool pillows are. We'll see.

The thing I like best about this wool-stuffed pillow is the smell. It isn't an overbearing smell, but when you get your nose up close to it, there is an unmistakable sheep-barn odour. I happen to like it, and so does Marlene.

That pillow got me to wondering why people who raise sheep don't use their "homegrown" wool to make pillows. I mean, this could be a great little homestead business idea, don't you think? It turns out that the wool in my pillow came from New Zealand! Now, don't get me wrong... I like New Zealand, but don't Americans still raise good wool? Of course they do.

I was talking about wool pillows to the girl who I bought the pillow from and I found out that she started raising sheep a couple years ago. She is building up a flock of some sort of hardy, heirloom sheep breed. I asked her if she was going to make pillows with the wool, and it turns out that is her plan.

Are there small-scale, home-based, wool-pillow-making American folk out there? Have I been totally out of the  loop on this idea? Does any one reading this know of any homestead sheep-pillow makers? I'd like to know about them. And does anyone else have a sheep-smell pillow? I'd like to get your opinion about them.

You can learn more about the White Lotus pillows at This YouTube link. And a Google search will bring up numerous other wool-pillow companies (not home-based operations) on the internet.