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Under the Canopy
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, former Minister of Natural Resources, Jerry Ouellette takes you along on the journey to see the places and meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and Under The Canopy.
Under the Canopy
Episode 129: Alpacas, Fiber, And Winter Woodstoves
Wood heat hums, snowbanks rise, and the small rituals of winter living turn into hard-won wisdom: how to stretch a stack of deadwood, read a stove thermometer, and keep the creosote at bay. From there we pivot to what the cold teaches our bodies—aching wrists from repetitive work, the quiet power of a good adjustment, and the simple chemistry of vitamin D, hydration, and chaga for clearer mornings.
Then the conversation opens into a warm, woolly world. We sit down with Donna, an experienced alpaca breeder from Campbellford, Ontario, to unpack how a small herd becomes a thriving fiber operation. She walks us through choosing bloodlines across Canada and the U.S., why Canadian winters grow longer staple lengths, and how hypoallergenic alpaca—softer than wool and similar to cashmere—keeps people warm without the itch. Annual shearing is a precision dance: eight minutes per animal, six to ten pounds of fleece, and a skirting table that separates blanket from seconds. Graded fiber finds its destiny—top grades spun into buttery yarns for scarves and hats, mid-grades into breathable, wicking socks, and coarser cuts into felted dryer balls, insoles, and rugged goods that last for seasons.
Beyond the loom, Donna’s farm invites people into the process: in-pen hand feeds with curious alpacas, guided treks on private trails, and calming yoga and picnics under the trees. Even the manure earns its place—a low-nitrogen, non-burning fertilizer that behaves like peat, perfect for houseplants and garden beds without introducing weeds. It’s a full-circle model where land, animals, and community shape each other, proving sustainable fiber can be both luxurious and practical.
If you’re chasing real warmth and durability for winter, or just want to meet the animals behind your favorite socks, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who lives in wool, and leave a review telling us which alpaca product you’d try first.
Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision to amass the single largest database of muskie angling education material anywhere in the world.
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SPEAKER_01:As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear. But they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Olette, and I was honored to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as Chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal applications used by indigenous peoples all over the globe. After nearly a decade of harvest, use, testimonials, and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession. And I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of this strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy Podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places, meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. So join me today for another great episode, and hopefully, we can inspire a few more people to live their lives under the canopy. Okay, as always, we want to thank a lot of the uh listeners out there, both Canada, the States, all across the world, Switzerland, Ghana, Caribbean. We really appreciate that. I got a couple of questions that we'll get to at some point. But I got to tell you, it's uh it's it's nice having the insert in the fireplace, but it's starting to tax on me. Oh boy, is it ever wearing me down. So with all the shoveling out there, and and it can always tell when you're driving down the road, who's got a snowblower and who doesn't. That's how much snow we're getting this year. Because when you drive down the road, you can see the the driveways with banks on it are the ones who are shoveling the driveways, and all the ones where the snow is level out pretty much has got the snowblower throwing the snow off the driveway. Well, I'm telling you, I got banks on mine because I haven't well, I got a snowblower that uh my father-in-law, bless his soul, left us. And I have never used it, but that's it this year. I'm digging it out of the garage, getting it fixed up with my my two-cycle engine guy, and uh no more no more shoveling, especially when the plow goes by at the end of the road. It gets tough. I was out doing it this morning, took a runner for his his normal uh run this morning. We had a there was a few buddies of his out there. But as I was saying, with the the snow and the the the wood, oh boy, the the insert's nice, and my cost uh outside of burning wood is virtually down to nothing. Or last year and previous years, I'd spend on weeks like this about$100 a week in heat. But now I'm spending about probably realistically about$15,$20 a month as opposed to$100 a week. So it's had a big impact. But, you know, everybody said that, like I mentioned before, that you're gonna use way less wood in it. Yeah, if I take about six inches round, put four pieces in that are six inches by fourteen, fifteen inches long, they'll last seven hours. But I got the darn thing going 24-7. So I'm burning about the same amount. Uh it's just as last year, but I didn't plan for that because everybody said, oh, you don't use as much wood. So instead of having three, four bushcord, I only ended up with two, and I'm just about out. So it'll take uh I'm out there and when I'm taking Gunner for his his run, I clean up the trail and I use one of these handheld little saws, a battery-operated one, and grab enough wood for the the day. And I can usually cut about five, six pieces, uh, about uh three sections long. I usually cut three sections, three pieces, so I get nine, which lasts me more than the day, so I'm hardly cutting into the little bit I have left. But yesterday I was out taking care, and with all the snow and the cold weather, I I had my chainsaw. I went out two days ago, and lo and behold, I went to pull it out, and the the springs on the pull start were frozen or something in there, and they got stuck, so it didn't work. So I had to take it into my chainsaw guy, get it fixed, who'll be the guy fixing my my snowblower. And I was out, got it, picked it up yesterday, and I went out and cut another load, got a truckload. But so what I cut this time of the year is standing deadwood that you can tell that's that's been there and standing for quite a while, because it's got no bark on it. It's about six inches, seven inches round at the bottom. This one I took down yesterday was maple, and it's all no bark on it, it's all grey wood, and the tops are dead bone dry. So it burns really good this time of year, and I don't have any problem with that. And one of the things was that for Christmas, my mother, bless her soul, she's in her 92nd year, got me a couple of those little heat-activated blowers that sit on top of a wood stove, and we put it on top of the fireplace insert because there's a little bit of a shelf in the front of it. And it's got all this stuff that tells you, okay, so it's got a little thermometer with these things, and it's it's it's magnetic, so it sticks to it. And it's got uh basically three sections uh creoso buildup, optimum performance, and overheating. Well, creoso buildup goes from about to 200, about close to 300 degrees on this, and that's Fahrenheit. And then creoso, our optimum performance runs from about four to around 650 on it. And it's it's been a handy little thing, and I gotta tell you, but when I close it down, close down the fireplace, it uh meaning it's got no airflow in additional airflow into it, it it does take it down to around 250 degrees Fahrenheit or a little over a hundred degrees Celsius, and it supposedly says it's got creoso buildup with that, but it's hard to sell because I see because I don't see it on the inside when I'm putting new pieces in. It looks pretty clean, and you'll get creoso buildup. So it's kind of a little toy that I enjoy. But yeah, it's so I'm taking these things out, haul out a three pieces of wood, and what I do is I walk down the trail that I built, worked with Noel Hutcheson, the former Parks and Rex director for the city of Oshawa, and we built a trail through the woods there, and there's a lot of dead stuff that comes down and covers the trail. So what I do is I take this little saw and I'm the one who cleans up the trail. And then I'll put these little pieces of logs, haul them out to the end of the trail, set them on the road, and then when I leave I stop by with the vehicle and throw them in the back and take them home and then cut them up for the day. So yesterday I took out three pieces, so that gives me basically nine blocks to split to be able to take for the day. But it's all most of it's all ash, although I did get some cedar yesterday because they needed a little bit of kindling. But in yesterday I'm hauling out the deadwood, the gray maple that I was used with a sled. I picked up one of these sleds that were on sale at one of the the uh importers that's pretty popular around, and use that and haul it out on the snow. So but after all that and cutting the wood and splitting and hauling and taking trees down, and of course they don't come straight down on the bush. A lot of times they'll hang up, and you'll have to do some heavy work to try and get it to fall completely. And when I take Gunner, he just knows to sit back, and he as soon as I start that saw, he sits back and I'll tell him back farther, and he'll go back farther, and he'll sit and he'll wait until I say okay. And once the tree's down and I make sure there's no Chicos or dead branches up in the canopy, then it might come down. Then I tell him okay, and he comes running with his ball, and I throw him a ball while I'm doing a bunch of work and he gets his exercise. But after all that, with the the shoveling and the the wood and the hauling, uh I can feel in my wrists. My wrists while I'm talking are going numb from the carpal tunnel. So I can do a couple things. One, I've got a back roller, and that I'll take, it's in the basement, and I just lie on it. It's a long roller and it works great. And you can hear crack, crack, crack when you're rolling it out on the back. And but the wrists and all that, uh, I got my chiropractor appointment uh this coming Monday. So I try to get my wood all done that I need before each appointment. So he'll go in and he'll put my wrists back in place, because apparently, according to him, there was a study in the States that showed that 91% of carpal tunnel is actually a bone that slipped out of joint in the wrists, and he puts it back, he puts it back in place. And to be perfectly honest, yeah, uh my hands don't go numb, I don't have the problems. Plus, he'll also put my my knee back in place because I I had a bad fall last February and my knee fell out of joint. So I wear a a support, like a it's an elastic kind of band, a rubberized uh knee brace. And but I've been doing exercises with that, and it helps quite a bit to strengthen the knee. So I make sure and build that back up. And he also puts a rib back in place. And I can feel when when there's a pain in my just below my right shoulder and my arm, I know my rib's out of place, and plus that, I my breathing, it's not as deep as normal. And so I'll see the chiropractor of this coming money, and he'll put my rib back in place, fix my knee, and take care of my wrist, and I'll be good to go. But this time of year, you've got to watch out. As I was listening on the radio and the and the the disc jockey spinning the the music I listened to on the way here, he was complaining about uh this every year in January and February, she gets so depressed and everything else. Well, that's because she's not taking her vitamin D. And if you take your vitamin D, it seems to help alleviate a lot of those problems, and I gotta admit, I give it to a number of people, and a number of people take it, and certainly you see a mood change because you're not getting out in the sunshine, and your body naturally produces vitamin D. So taking vitamin D is an important way to help make sure you get through those winter blahs, as they call them, or sad seasonally adjusted depression. And if you look, I talked to a number of doctors who uh utilize vitamin D, and it's about 10,000 international units a day. But when I give it to my wife Diane, for example, I spread it out over the day, but I give it with her. So when she has her food, because vitamin D is fat soluble, where vitamin C, for example, is water soluble, so you can just take that without eating anything and it'll get into your system, or vitamin D needs to get in the system with uh material, so you eat it with food and that way you get in, and otherwise it just comes out naturally and you're just wasting your money. And the last thing is I'm taken care of right now is brain fog in the morning. I get a lot of people asking about that. And the brain fog, I find if if people drink more water just before they go to bed or in the evening, or when they have a bottle of water or a lot of liquids in the morning, it'll help get rid of brain fog. And brain fog, antioxidants will certainly help in Chega does a lot with that. So those are the things that I wanted to go over a bit before we get to our guest. And I have to tell you that uh we've got an interesting guest, because this uh she was on the on the 100th anniversary of the Peterborough Farmers Market, or the 200th anniversary of the Peterborough Farmers Market show. And there were some questions come out about alpacas. And right now we've got uh Donna with us, and Donna is an alpaca racer, rearer, whichever. And welcome to the program, Donna.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, thanks for having me. Happy to be here.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's good. So wait, tell us uh so our listeners know whereabouts you're located, uh, so our international listeners know, say from Toronto.
SPEAKER_09:Okay, so I'm uh located in a little uh hamlet called uh Campbellford, Ontario, and it is about two hours east of Toronto, so in what they call Trent Hills. We have a lovely hundred-acre property here.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so now alpacas and you raised how long you've been raising uh alpacas?
SPEAKER_09:Well, actually, 2026 marks the 20th anniversary for us getting into the alpaca industry.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, and what got you into it in the first place?
SPEAKER_09:Um, we were living on a 50-acre parcel with a new barn, and we were looking for some sort of livestock or something that we could utilize a property. Um, we had small children at the time, I didn't have any farming experience or any large equipment. So we were doing some research and uh it kind of fit the bill for us. I mean, they were smaller livestock, they're easy to handle, they just had a lot of bonuses. So we purchased a couple of yearling males and tried to learn everything we could about the animals and how to take care of them and husbandry, and uh yeah, just absolutely fell in love from there.
SPEAKER_01:So, okay, so where do you pick up starter or breeder alpacas in the first place? And how did you, you know, how does that sort of take place?
SPEAKER_09:Well, there were a lot of and then still is there's a lot of um small breeders in the area, or in Canada for that matter. Um we uh chose some bloodlines from Ontario. We picked a couple from out west, and then we wanted to kind of form our own niche in the uh niche in the area. So we started importing some uh unique genetics from the United States just so that we would have something different, and uh, we really were trying to, you know, create um something more unique.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so you you got some from uh Western Canada, some from Ontario, and some from the States. Roughly how many animals would you have, Donna?
SPEAKER_09:Um, we have about 25 head right now.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. And uh uh do they are they is it expanding? Are they breeding in in the the herd? Is it called a herd getting larger?
SPEAKER_09:Yep, the herd is getting larger. So we are uh expanding. We had six offspring this year. Um we will go through those and decide which of the six we will keep in the herd and what we will sell off, and then we're expecting another five uh midsummer this year as well.
SPEAKER_01:So when when you sell them off, what kind of what's the going rate for a and what do they call it? It's not like a fool. What do they call a little alpaca?
SPEAKER_09:Um up until their first birthday, they're called a Kriya. And after that, they would be a yearling. A Kriya, C-R-I-A, Kriya, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_09:And then Korea.
SPEAKER_01:And when do you sell them? Is it Kriya? Do you sell them as a Kriya or do you sell them as a yearling?
SPEAKER_09:Usually a yearling. We'd like to, you know, see how they grow out, you know, make sure that they're um all confirmationally correct. They have the fiber characteristics that we're looking for, and then we can put an adequate price on them at that point. Um, I would say females, uh, average female you'd be looking for uh would be about you know the$5,000 range. Um males would vary uh depending on bloodlines and stuff like that. Um they they would be maybe you know four to six thousand, you know, just at the quality that you're you know looking to produce.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So now I know because when we talk goats, there there's milk goats and there's meat goats and stuff like that. So is there different qualities for um for is it called wool?
SPEAKER_09:Uh fiber wool? Yeah, fleece or fiber.
SPEAKER_01:Fiber, okay.
SPEAKER_09:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_09:And there is.
SPEAKER_01:So we have is there different qualities like that? Yeah.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah. So we have different measurements on the fiber for so we grade them on uh their fineness, their density, um, how much uh uniform a fiber is on their body. So all of this kind of makes the price go up as you know the quality improves on the on the fiber.
SPEAKER_01:So how long does an alpaca live?
SPEAKER_09:Um actually, when they came into Canada and North America in the 80s, the literature that came with them was about 15 to 18 years that they live. But now, 20 years later, or all this time later, what I'm noticing is uh with our improved nutrition and the care that we take of them, we're seeing animals that are living to be 22, 23 years of age now.
SPEAKER_01:And they're still producing fiber at those ages?
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, it just changes what you do with the fiber. So as the fiber becomes coarser and shorter as they age, then we change what we do with it. So usually those go into our felted products, be our dryer balls and our insoles.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so so how do they handle the the cold weather?
SPEAKER_09:They actually don't mind it at all. You'd be surprised. I mean, I guess you know, alpaca is one of the warmest fibers you can wear on your body body. So it goes to show that um that they handle the cold very well. We uh provide them with open shelters that they can choose to go in and out of. And for the most part, they are outside in all of the, you know, the snow and the cold. The only time I find they hunker down is they don't seem to like the high winds or, you know, the freezing rain, of course.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So if they're outside in the wintertime, because I know they put horse blankets on horses in order so that they don't grow long hair. If alpacas are outside in the winter, do they do they grow more fiber for protection and better for for your business?
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, they do actually. Colder the winter, the more they seem to produce. So what you'll find is Canadian alpacas uh grow longer staple length on their fiber than the ones that are down, say, in some of the warmer states in the United States.
SPEAKER_01:So I guess the thing to do is in the summertime you have air conditioned barn for barn. For them to promote growth.
SPEAKER_09:Wouldn't that be ideal? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Hi everybody, I'm Angelo Viola. And I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's favorite fishing show, but now we're hosting a podcast. That's right. Every Thursday, Ang and I will be right here in your ears, bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Hmm. Now what are we going to talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know there's going to be a lot of fishing.
SPEAKER_08:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors. From athletes.
SPEAKER_05:All the other guys would go golfing. Me and Garchomp Turkey. And all the Russians would go fishing.
SPEAKER_08:The scientists. But now that we're reforesting and anything, it's the perfect transmission environment for line.
SPEAKER_06:Chefs, if any game isn't cooked properly, marinated for eating me. You will taste it.
SPEAKER_03:And whoever else will pick up the phone. Wherever you are, Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER_01:And now it's time for another testimonial for Chaga Health and Wellness. Okay, I'm here in Millbrook with Trevor, who had a great experience and wants to share with us with the skin cream, the Chaga Skin Cream.
SPEAKER_00:Trevor, uh, tell us uh what you went through and how much you used, and go ahead. I've had eczema on my arm since I was a little kid, and it's always been quite a rough patch there on my arm. Um and no lotions seem to ever get it so that it was smooth, right? But using the chaga probably for three weeks, it's feels like normal skin now. Yeah, and how often did you put it on? I put it on maybe once every other day. I didn't remember to do it every day. So once every other day, one time a day. Very good. And you had great results, and now it's feels like normal skin again. Very good. And you didn't try anything else, so you figure that's what no, that was they work, so I'm sticking with that. Very good. Well, thanks, Trevor, here in Millbrook. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01:We interrupt this program to bring you a special offer from Chaga Health and Wellness. If you've listened this far and you're still wondering about this strange mushroom that I keep talking about, and whether you would benefit from it or not, I may have something of interest to you. To thank you for listening to the show, I'm going to make trying Chaga that much easier by giving you a dollar off all our Chaga products at checkout. All you have to do is head over to our website, Chaga Health and Wellness.com, place a few items in the cart, and check out with the code CANopy. C-A-N-O-P-Y. If you're new to Chaga, I'd highly recommend the regular Chaga tea. This comes with 15 tea bags per package, and each bag gives you around five or six cups of tea. Hey, thanks for listening. Back to the episode. Some people may not know what an alpaca is. Maybe they should kind of describe it before we even get farther into this.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, of course. Um, so an alpaca is what uh part of the camelid family. So it is the woolly version of uh belongs to the same uh family as um camels, uh llamas. Uh there's a wild version called the vacuna and also a larger version called the guanaco. So the alpaca is the one that over um the years has been modified for its fiber characteristics, where the llama was raised more to be a bigger or a pack animal, the the fiber on the animals is what made the alpaca stand out.
SPEAKER_01:So how how tall do they stand? And because it's it my vision of them when we're talking here is more like a like a llama, but a smaller size, correct?
SPEAKER_09:Correct. So to give you an idea, llama average weight on a llama would be about 550 pounds. Um, the average weight on an alpaca would be 160 pounds. So they'd be waist high at the back, maybe a little bit taller than that, and then probably about uh six feet at the top of the head.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So what would these animals eat and how often do they eat?
SPEAKER_09:Um, they're very easy to keep, actually. They're very efficient on their use of water and uh food intake. Um we feed them a good quality hay, and then we do work actually with a nutritionist, and she takes samples of our hay in our pasture, and she designs uh a pellet or that has all the minerals and extra like selenium, vitamin D and calcium and things that they require just for their overall health. So very easy to take care of quite and what kind of volume would they consume in a day? Um we have, let's see, 15 girls in one pen, and they eat about a small bale and a half a day of good quality fiber. So when you're comparing that to what say cattle eat, you know, very, very minimal.
SPEAKER_01:So how many acres roughly do you need per alpaca to be to run an effective um operation?
SPEAKER_09:To pasture them, they say five per acre. You can put more on, but you're probably gonna be dry lotting them and giving them hay supplements at that point. But per acre, five alpacas per acre.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so a lot of our listeners wouldn't know what dry lotting means as my as for myself as well.
SPEAKER_09:Uh it just means that that's if you're supplementing hay all year long instead of just in the winter months.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah. Okay, so very good. Now, is there problems with allergies with alpaca fiber?
SPEAKER_09:No, actually, it's considered hypoallergenic, has no lanolin in it. So that's usually why people don't like wool or choose wool. So uh, and on top of that, and they warmth of alpaca fiber, it's also as soft as cashmere. So it's a very comfortable fiber to wear.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So it would be the younger ones that have the soft fiber as opposed to the older, coarser ones, I think you mentioned, right?
SPEAKER_09:True. But it's also part of our breeding program. That's that's the goal is to make the animals that are five, six, seven years of age still have incredibly fine fiber on their body that can still be made into yarns.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So and and I don't know, uh, because as I mentioned, um, you know, we've got you to dairy goats and your meat goats. So what happens at the end of an alpaca's life? What do you what takes place with them? Are they are they consumed? Is it something that uh that people would? I have no idea.
SPEAKER_09:Um, I guess every farm has their own business plan and what they do with the animals at that point. Um, we're not a huge operation. We do have a ton of um property. So, in my opinion, they give me something every year of their life that I use. I can let them retire and just live the rest of their life out and enjoy it on the property.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So, okay, so now it's like a sheep where you shave the fiber off.
SPEAKER_09:Yep, correct.
SPEAKER_01:And what time of the year is that done? And how long does it take? And how often do you do it?
SPEAKER_09:So we do uh share them annually. We try to choose uh last weekend in April, first weekend in May. Um by that point, you know, they're getting pretty heavy with fiber. They're getting quite warm as the you know season turns into spring. So we share them that weekend, about that weekend. We have a team come in. Um they share, takes about eight minutes per animal. And by that, by the end of May, then it gives them about a quarter inch of fiber back on their body when the bugs get really bad. So that's kind of why we choose that. And also gives them enough fiber back on their body as we head into the next winter. So they, you know, they've grown that much back.
SPEAKER_01:So do these animals shed at all? Is it something that they naturally lose their their fiber or their hair?
SPEAKER_09:No, they don't. It actually has to be sheared off of them, yeah, for to, you know, for their for their health, you know, they they actually have to be sheared annually.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So all right, so walk us through the process. So the it's that time of the year before May, so they want to you you shear them. Then what do you do with the fiber once it's taken off? And how much fiber would you get off one animal?
SPEAKER_09:Um, we would get so it um goes by grade and by parts of their bodies. So the middle section of their uh torso we call the blanket or the prime. So that is the best part of the fiber. And then you have your leg hair, your neck hair, and your belly hair, and that's what we call uh second cuts or seconds. Um the average animal, what we try to achieve, of course, uh a heavy cutting animal would give you about 10 pounds of fiber off that the entire body at shearing. Um the average is about six to eight. You know, again, that's part of the breeding process is trying to choose animals that'll give you heavier weights. Once um they're sheared, I go through and I do what's called a skirting sorting process. So I pick out any uh offal fibers or dirt or things like that. And then I assess the fiber and I allot it a grade. So we use a grading system from one to five, one being your finest uh animal, five being your coarser, usually your older animals, of course. And then all the fiber is sorted and it is allotted into different products. So your grade one, two, your nice, soft, beautiful fiber that usually goes to the mill, it's made into yarn, and then it comes back and it is hand-dyed and then made into the products like your scarves, your hats, your you know, headbands, things that are worn close to your skin. The um middle grade, so your you know, two, three, three, four fiber, that center range, that is the stuff that's really good for making socks. And then your coarser fibers, like I mentioned before, go all into our large like a rug program or into your felted products, you know, dryer balls, insults, different things like that. So then it is all sent off according to what it is going to be allotted for and then made into those products that we sell in our store.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so so out of one animal, you get anywhere as, you know, you mentioned the 10-pound mark, but uh quite a lot on average, it's less than that. What would you be able to produce out of that one animal for retail purposes?
SPEAKER_09:Oh, it's a good question. I guess it depends on what you're making out of it. Um it's it's hard to break it down into how many pairs of socks come out of one animal. I mean, there's a lot of things that come into play, like length and waist, of course, but ultimately, you know, you're trying to get the most out of it. I'd say that a good animal would give you, you know, 15 to 20 skeins of yarn. You know, it doesn't sound like much, but it does go a long way, believe it or not.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so um when you before you shear them, do you actually wash the like do you do you wash the animals first to make sure that the fiber is clean, or is it done afterwards or how?
SPEAKER_09:Uh it's done afterwards. So because the animals have what we call density and all the fiber is packed tightly onto their body, a lot of the dirt does not penetrate down to the skin. So there is a bit of debris that is, you know, natural from your hay and things that they've eaten over the you know the season. And that's part of the skirting process. So I would take as much as that I could out by hand before I would send it to the mill. And then they would use machinery, what they call pickers and things like that, that would actually take the rest of it out. And then it is washed at that time. So um, being that there's no lanolin in their fiber like sheep have, it's very easy and you don't have to use heavy detergents to actually clean alpaca fiber.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay. So um Rick was telling me last Saturday last that uh he loves your socks and was heading over to pick up some more and extremely warm. So it's it's much warmer than other materials you're finding.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, so actually they they consider it about four times warmer than wool and without the itch factor of wool, and then being approximately soft like cashmere. So it gives you that buttery, soft feeling, but it's breathable, it has a wickaway to it. So it's it's a very enjoyable product to wear. It's it's um yeah, it's extremely warm.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So what products do you produce from the fiber from the alpaca you raise that you you sell? What kind of stuff do you have? You mentioned socks, dryer balls. Okay, so for a lot of people, what are dryer balls and what do you use them for?
SPEAKER_09:So dryer balls is something that uh is developed by felting the product into balls and they are added to your dryer instead of uh dryer sheets. We all know that dryer sheets have a lot of chemicals in it. So this is a way to put these into your machine. You can add uh natural oils, scented oils to them if you want to, but they create movement in your dryer. So they open up your clothes as you're drying, they dry faster, they absorb your static cling, and they, you know, it's just a healthier way to dry your clothes.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so what other products now then? What products uh is it that you specifically produce that you sell? And do you have a store where you're located? Is that how you do it? Or you just do events like the farmers' markets and shows and things?
SPEAKER_09:Uh, we do have a farm store. So we carry some of our bigger products there, like our blankets, a few clothing pieces, things like that on the farm store. At the markets, we bring in um, we have our hats and uh headbands, scarves, mittens, gloves. We do socks, um, again with the the dryer balls, insoles. Insoles is one of our biggest sellers. Um, yeah, lots of things like that. So everything you can do with wool, you can do with alpaca.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so last year I know I picked up from my son who works out in, well, at the time, uh, I think last year he was working in Saskatchewan on a potash uh mine in minus 40 weather. And they still have them working at that temperature. But I picked up one of your hats, and actually he's a Green Bay Packers fan, so I got Green Bay Packer colors for him, for him, and he he seems to love the the toque that I got him, so keeps him warm in that minus 40 weather out west. But uh, those are some of the things that you have. Very good. Yeah. So Donna, so so you had you mentioned some other things that I didn't see, some clothing and blankets. What sort of clothing do you have then in in the alpaca fiber?
SPEAKER_09:Um, we try to do uh just kind of unisex uh sweaters. Uh we have a couple of sweater coats though that we like to do. We're we're moving, hopefully, within the next year or that's we're gonna expand out the clothing line. We're going to try to get into some products that um that like shawls, um yeah, I would say sweaters, things like that. Um, blankets, like I mentioned before. We do have like queen size blankets, bed blankets, uh rows just for on the couch. Um, yeah, some of our bigger pieces. Um, we do um import some of that stuff too, just to provide a selection. Try to choose high-quality alpaca products that kind of reflect also what we're doing with our own animals with the same quality and stuff, just so that everybody can experience a different version of alpaca and enjoy it.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So, and are they very durable?
SPEAKER_09:It is actually, it's it wears very well. It's quite strong as far as being such for such a fine fiber. It is, it wears well. I do hear lots of people pop into the market and tell me, hey, you know, I've had this pair of socks for four years, still going strong, you know, which is what we really strive for. You know, it's an expensive product. I want it to be durable. I want you to love it for years to come.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, very good. Okay, Donna. So tell people how do people find out more information or how do they get in touch with you or, you know, like tell us about your farm business and where can people hook up with you if they're looking for alpaca materials?
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, for sure. So, like I mentioned, we do have a farm store. We also do do things on the property in the nicer weather with the animals. We do uh in-pen tours with the animals, which is a hand feeding event. We do trekking where we take them off into the trails that we have on the property and you can walk them. We do meditation and yoga and picnics, um, all with the animals. You can find us on all the social media platforms. We do have a Facebook page at Averegan Alpacas. I'm on Instagram at Averegan Simmons and Averegan Farms. So you can find us there and you can Google us using um Averegan Alpacas at OpenHerd. And that'll take you to my website, keeps you posted on all the events that we're doing, where we're at as far as markets and events in the area.
SPEAKER_01:So where is uh where's the farm located? Is it on the highway?
SPEAKER_09:It is um off of the main road going into Campbellford. Uh it's pretty um secluded, so it's private and everything, and it keeps it uh, you know, a hidden gem in the area, but we're kind of right in the middle of Campbellford, Workworth, and Hastings, right in that perfect little Okay, so so one last thing that just came to mind was uh because I know that uh some of the zoos do something special and they have zoo poo.
SPEAKER_01:Do you have alpaca poo for fertilizer? And does it work for fertilizer?
SPEAKER_09:Yes, actually, we do, yes. So um Oh, you do? I do, yes. So we do sell it in I you reuse our feed bags. So I do collect it, let it sit over the winter, and then collect it and sell it on the farm in large bags. And then at the farmer's market, actually, we take it, we grind it down. It it dries almost like a peat moss. It's uh a non burning fertilizer, so it doesn't, it's not hot. It's uh it's a very low in nitrogen. Um, and what we do is with the stuff that I grind up and sell at the market in little bags, you can put it in your house plants. Um, you just sprinkle it in and then let it water through. And it really is incredible because they're so efficient the way they have three stomachs and chew all their food. They uh it's not a lot of weeds you'll find when you use alpaca manure, and you you just sprinkle it into your gardens. We've used it in all of our garden beds. It's it's pretty incredible.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, very good. Well, Donna, we very much appreciate uh you spending the time and informing us. I know I learned a lot about alpacas because I virtually knew not much about them at all. You know, I see you at uh the market and I see some other alpaca suppliers at some of the other locations I do, but I've learned a lot and appreciate that. Thanks a lot.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, no problem, and just uh something a little bit different out there under the canopy. Thanks again for all our listeners.
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