Seminar

Yesterday, January 31, I attended the 9th Annual Buy Local Foods Seminar, at which I gave a seminar entitled: Why Raise Alpacas? There was a very interesting and varied group of presenters, and even though I don't plan on raising my alpacas as food, I obtained a great deal of information about non gmo grains, and their processing from a new mill called Shagbark in Athens, Ohio , as well as great general farming information from Christine Tailer, who does Non-GMO farming and beekeeping on a six acres where they also live Off the Grid. I am interested in using non GMO grains to grow the fodder for my alpacas, and learned that spelt is an even better grain than barley(which is also hard to find) to grow good fodder. Shagbark had several products we could sample, that were made from their processing plant, in particular, chips. They are hoping to be able to sell those at Jungle Jim's in the future, and it would be great to have another alternative snack like this available to those who don't want GMO foods. Although the group that attended the alpaca seminar was small, it was a very interested group of persons who use fiber, and I was able to answer many of their questions about alpacas. We had a large display of our products available for them to see and touch, from raw to finished products in both natural as well as dyed fiber. Several of the attendees expressed an interest in visiting my farm in the spring. Many thanks to my good friend, Shannon Smith, for her help in getting things set up, and I believe that Shannon enjoyed this day as much as I did, meeting folks from all over who are interested in pursuing non-GMO products as well as other topics of interest to farmers and those who purchase products from local farmers. It was very interesting to note, that Shagbark is part of a farmer's market in Athens, Ohio, that is, according to what they said, the largest farmer's market in the country. Brown county currently has a farmer's market, and I hope to be able to become a part of that again.