Rain may have kept the crowds at bay, but it didn't dampen the spirits of the owners and visitors during the first-ever Llamas and Alpacas Openhouse Weekend, which took place June 24 and 25.
The event featured 14 Llama and Alpaca farms from across eastern Ontario and was well-attended, despite some dreary weather, said Elisabeth Kaufmann, owner of Elisabeth's Llama Ranch near Winchester Springs.
"I got quite a crowd here once the rain stopped Sunday afternoon," she said. "Most of the farms got quite a few visitors over the weekend. There weren't as many as we'd expected, but that's because of the weather."
The free tour gave participants a view of farms in Brighton, Crysler, Dunvegan, Hammond, Hawkesbury, Kemptville, Morrisburg, North Gower, Osgoode, Oxford Station, Rigaud, St. Eugene, Winchester and Winchester Springs.
Kaufmann held a spinning demonstration and sold several rolls of the fine llama yarn.
"And we had a baby llama born on the Saturday, a male, so that was quite exciting," she said. "Two other farms also had babies born that weekend, so they were able to show their guests how big a one-day-old baby is."
While most of the farms have had open house weekends on their own before, this was the first time they opened their doors in conjunction with each other to share with visitors the joys of llama ranching.
When asked if there were visitors who weren't sure what a llama even is, Kaufmann said, "I think it's gotten to the point now where most people know what llamas are. A few years ago, they'd come up to them and say, oh, I thought it was a bird. Most of the people who came to the open house just came to learn more about them and some seemed interesting in buying them in the future."
Kaufmann said she a few of the farm owners have already expressed interest in hosting another open house weekend next year.
From the Archives:
News, July 2000
