Friday, October 12, 2012

Life on the Farm in Autumn



 Ahhhhh….fall is finally here and now our busy season begins!



Our last blog was about what the Fashionista’s would do this year at the Garden State Sheep and Fiber Festival. Despite the sticky weather on Saturday, the Festival was a huge success! Amy & Illumina won the Shepherd’s Lead class wearing an ensemble inspired by the fall colors. If you love the scarf that Amy is wearing, come visit the Farm Store as we hand dyed a few in the same color palate.  



All of the farmers markets are in full swing, until they sing their sweet swan song at the end of October or the weekend before Thanksgiving, depending on the market. We are at full tilt at the markets, as the weather has turned chilly and everyone is looking for our alpaca socks and blankets! Stop by a farmers market near you and see our selection of alpaca and llama wears.

As we have still not yet had a killing frost, my great gardener friend Leisa and I have been strategizing what we can save and what we have to put to bed until next spring. Amazingly we still have a fair amount of color in the gardens and Leisa’s addition this year of grasses has been spectacular. My favorite is graciella with her graceful plumes – sounds like a great name for an alpaca cria too! In our efforts to save as much as we could, Leisa decided to take Madame Gardenia home to her eastern sunlight breakfast nook. This year Madame performed better than any other gardenia that I have ever raised with prolific blooms all summer. Too our dismay, we learned gardenia’s are poisonous to cats and dogs, thus not a good choice for anyone with indoor pets. If anyone reading this has a greenhouse, or home without pets and a great eastern sunny exposure, let us know right away. We would love to give Madame Gardenia a new home.

Crias and little yak calves are being born. What a thrill!

We invite you to the farm to share the wonders of the fall season!

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