Farm Tour 2009

As you can tell from the title of this blog, we went exploring
some local farms out here in Western North Carolina. There
were 38 participating farms, B&Bs and gardens that opened
up there homes for a weekend for all of us "city slickers" to
get a glimpse into their worlds. Chris and I managed to visit
5 farms, not a lot when you consider there were 38, but we
they were only open from 1-6pm each day and we found
ourselves thoroughly intrigued by places we stopped
by and ended up staying longer than expected at each place.
Of course, we had our own agenda....learn as much as you can
from each visit, ultimately trying to figure out what kind of
animals and crops we would like to raise on our land.

Here's a small sample of what we saw....

This one is an Angora rabbit, fortunately (for the
bunny) they don't have to skin her to get the fur,
they just pull it off. Sorry kids, no Easter eggs from
this gal, just bunny fur, and lots of it.

Farmer Ted and his llama called "Forrest Gump".

Forrest was assigned to the sheep pen, keeping

them company and the coyotes at bay. We also

learned that donkeys are great security from the

coyotes as well.

Momma llama and her little one.

Some of these guys are trained to be

pack animals, others are used for their

fiber (the fiber is spun into sweaters,

hats and such). We also learned that

one way to tell the difference from

a llama and an alpaca is the shape of

the ears. Llamas have banana shaped

ears and the alpaca's ears are more

pointed at the top of the ear.


Still no eggs, but this gal was destined for

someones dinner plate. She is a New Zealand

rabbit, goes for $8 a pound at the market. Sounds

good, but not sure Chris could come to grips with

"processing" the bunnies. It was funny to hear

the farmers using the word "processing", guess

it is easier for the "city slickers" to comes to grips

with the fact that these cute animals are used for

more than looks, they are someones livelihood.

Awe, ain't she cute. But most people are probably

thinking of mint jelly instead.


This fellow was 80 years young, still keeping

active with his dogs and sheep. He used to raise

cattle, but eventually went to the dogs. You can

hear some "city slicker" asking those probing

"tell me all you know, because I paid my $25

for you to pass on your wisdom" type of

questions. What a goober! Just shut up and

enjoy the demonstration already.