Meet my sheep

We popped into Paddy Pallin, the outdoor adventure store on Saturday to pick up some bits and pieces for our upcoming trip to Bhutan. Amongst our purchases was the jacket shown above by New Zealand company, Icebreaker.

Now it is normal nowadays to know exactly where your food comes from. I can purchase my meat and vegetables from my local state - and often from my own local region. I can narrow my eggs down to a particular local farm - and the farmer's photograph is emblazoned on the carton. Same with my chicken. Apparently this helps me to make informed and ecologically sound choices. Generally we don't know quite as much about our clothing, though. I can check the label, sure, to find out where the garment was manufactured, but I can only guess at the rest.

Not so my new jacket. On an inside label in my jacket is a unique baacode. If I enter this number on their website, http://www.icebreaker.com/, I can track my jacket's journey from the farms in the beautiful New Zealand countryside where the merino wool was grown, right through to the factory it was created in. There are videos where you can meet the farmers and their families. There are photos of New Zealand farms, homesteads and lots and lots of sheep.

If you'd like to take your family on a bit of a tour through New Zealand and listen to a few fun accents at the same time, here's my baacode: 045758361. You're welcome to see where my jacket has already been without me. Perhaps in a few more weeks I'll be able to tell you about its journey with me inside of it as well!!