Issues → January/February 2008 → More Yankee →

Only in New England: Bear Hair and Emu Oil

How do you groom a bear?

by Sara E. Pratt

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Tags: bears

Each winter, the bears at Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, New Hampshire, build up thick, woolly coats just like their wild kin. Come spring, however, Clark's bears enjoy something that their feral relatives don't: a baby-shampoo bath and a good brushing from trainer Maureen Clark, whose family has held bear shows at the Post, May to October, since 1949.

Seven of Clark's eight ursine charges, ranging in age from 5 to 27 (their birthdays are all in January), will let themselves be distracted -- one raisin (or unsalted peanut) at a time -- for varying degrees of grooming. The oldest, Spooky, a male, will have none of it, while the most hirsute, 18-year-old Victoria, doesn't mind the help in shedding some two and a half pounds of fur per season. "As you can imagine," Clark quips, "a pound of bear hair is a lot of hair."

Clark sends the hair -- a combination of the short, coarse, brown undercoat and the longer, shinier, black outer guard hairs -- to Fiber Dreams of Temple, New Hampshire, where it's washed and formed into loose ropes. Shirley Walker of Lee, New Hampshire, then spins them into fuzzy single- and double-ply yarns. Maureen's sister, Nola Grant, and Maxine Tyler, a longtime Clark employee, then knit it into hats, sweaters, mittens, booties, and teddy bears, each bearing two labels: one for the knitter and one for the bear (that's Moxie, age 23, in the photo above, with Maureen Clark). Unfortunately, the plush items aren't for sale, but are raffled off for charitable causes or given as gifts to folks who help care for the bears.

Clark's Trading Post, Rte. 3, Lincoln, NH. Call or visit Web site for schedule. 603-745-8913; clarkstradingpost.com

Essence of Emu

The emu, like its cousin the ostrich, is a strange bird: 5 to 6 feet tall and 90 to 140 pounds of fat, muscle, and feathers, impossibly balanced by 6-inch, flightless wings. Ten years ago, the first generation of American emu entrepreneurs lost their shirts, and the number of such farms in New England dropped from more than 30 to fewer than five. Today, however, one of the survivors is making a comeback, not just from sales of the bird's meat, but now also from its oil, which is rendered from the fatty rump.

Dee Dee Mares of Songline Emu Farm in Gill, Massachusetts, says she's seen the oil applied to treat eczema, psoriasis, burns, arthritis, and other wounds for which traditional emollients failed. "What it's doing is creating an environment," Mares notes, "giving the body what it needs to work at its optimum."

Aborigines in the emu's native Australia have used the oil for centuries, and although early studies here in the U.S. have been promising, large-scale trials and FDA or USDA approval are likely years away. In the meantime, Mares sells everything from antifungal creams to pet shampoo to bath crystals, all enhanced with emu oil.

Songline Emu Farm, 66 French King Highway, Gill, MA. 866-539-2996, 413-863-2700; allaboutemu.com