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.
