Transcript

Mary Burns · WashCo Insider

speaker-0: I might be biased, but today's episode of the Washcoat Insider might be my favorite yet. You'll soon see why, because today I have Mary Burns with me from the one and only Crafty Alpaca and Avella. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to learn everything there is to know about alpacas, so buckle up and we'll get right into it with Mary when we come back. Well Mary, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited. speaker-1: I'm so happy to be here. This is gonna be fun. It is. speaker-0: I had the greatest day yesterday on the farm with you. So we got some B-rolls. So I'm excited for to learn more about alpacas and for everyone to learn about the crafty alpaca. All right, let's get right into it. Give me some basic facts about alpacas and tell me a little bit about the farm for people that have never heard of you or have driven past. speaker-1: Perfect, I love to share. Good. Yeah, perfect. ⁓ let's start with like what is an alpaca? Because so many people do tend to get ⁓ confused with llamas. So we gotta kinda let's get that straight. Alpacas are the shorter, cuter ones is what I always say. Yeah, they're not really tall. You notice that I'm only like about five foot. They didn't tower over me. So they're like a a real nice compact size and they're cute. Those llamas tend to really tower over me. ⁓ so if you ever look and see what's the difference, well the llamas so much bigger. speaker-0: They are really cute. speaker-1: ⁓ we are located in Washington County, of course. ⁓ we've been there twenty two years and we love to share our alpacas and we do a lot of it through education. Yeah, yeah. Tours are a big thing and we do tours all year round. ⁓ we can do like quick little tours and maybe you're, you know, stuck on time and say have a half hour, forty five minutes, so let's go over and visit the alpacas and maybe do some shopping. speaker-0: Hi. Yeah, well we'll get into I know you have a lot of different kinds of experiences that you offer, but I wanna get into your story because talking to you yesterday, I was so fascinated by kind of your progression from where you were into running an alpaca farm. So how did you kinda get into that? Has this been something you've always wanted to do or did this just kinda come up? Tell me about it. Yeah, it w speaker-1: Definitely was not a direct path. I knew from a young age I did want to have a farm. I just didn't know when and if and ⁓ eventually I was a teacher and I was teaching living in the suburbs and I had a couple of kids and figured this is just going to be our life and that's that was fine. ⁓ we then decided we wanted some land and we found a Vella and we went ahead and you know, we built on the land and then we said, Okay, time to start a farm. What animal though? We have no experience with livestock whatsoever. So I sat down and said, okay, let's make a list. what do we want in this animal? So I did the ⁓ th I need something cute, I need something sweet, I need something so if my children go in with them, I don't have to worry about them being intimidating. ⁓ I needed something that didn't make much noise. ⁓ So I searched and we waited and we went to a festival one day and I saw the opaca and I said, ⁓ this is definitely an animal I have to check into. I had never heard of an alpaca before that day. speaker-0: Really? Mm-hmm. speaker-1: So we did some research, bought some alpacas from across the US, ⁓ Oregon, and brought them in, and that was the beginning. It was two thousand and four. speaker-0: ⁓ my gosh. So you've been doing this a long time then. And you told me yesterday alpacas are not very common in the United States, right? No. speaker-1: they're becoming a little more common as far as like people knowing about them. But there aren't a lot of farms. There aren't a lot of people farming alpaca or even harvesting their fiber. You know, once a year getting those in you know annual clips and making something from the fiber. ⁓ so yeah, I mean we're hoping that maybe someday, you know, more people will get into that type of farming. Absolutely. speaker-0: And so that's what I find so interesting about Washington County. So Washington County has a very deep agricultural heritage and we experience that. ⁓ I'll name the Washington County Fair as a great example of people getting to experience ⁓ that level of agricultural heritage that we have here. But you didn't come from a farming family, right? speaker-1: No, not at all. Not at all. Okay. ⁓ yeah, it was just I've always loved animals. ⁓ my parents instilled it by having, you know, different types of pets that I had over the years. And it was just natural. I it didn't seem to be a hard adjustment. It's just and but it's living and learning. You know, we had to learn everything by doing, hands on, made plenty of mistakes. It's been a growth for us as well as, you know, like our children growing up with them, you know, but it's been such an incredible journey. speaker-0: That's awesome. And so I I just love that you're you're part of that fabric of our county now. You're a new farmer s and your kids got to grow up around that, right? What was that experience like and you know, kind of by extension the visitor experience to grow up or experience animals like alpacas? speaker-1: Yeah, ⁓ I think we gave our children a unique experience into farming. It taught them a lot, everything from just respecting animals, ⁓ giving them their space, learning to read their body language. Yeah. We don't believe in chasing and grabbing alpacas. We we'll maneuver them to where we need them to be. So it's all about the trust and the respect. also learning about family dynamics. You know, the children wanted to do soccer and basketball, musicals. I wanted to have a farm. You know? So we all worked together so that everybody got what they wanted, but we had to be flexible and help each other out. speaker-0: ⁓ and did they share in like some of that responsibility, learning to care for them as they grow up? That's awesome. speaker-1: ⁓ absolut and even in creating the business, the retail aspect of it with our store, they were part of it all. speaker-0: That is completely invaluable experience for them, I'm sure. So you hit on something real cool there is the educational aspect. And w we kinda talked at length about that yesterday, but tell me about, you know, your education, your outreach efforts at the Crafty Alpaca. How does that work? speaker-1: Sure, we do it several different ways and I think it sort of just came naturally to me because I was in education and I I found that when we first got into the alpaca business, no one knew what an alpaca was. I mean it was, you know, way back when, what's an alpaca? So education began there and then it just developed over time. You know, what is an alpaca to? Why do you have alpacas? What's the fleece for? What do you make out of them and why? ⁓ so we do that right on the farm as we're talking to our guests as well as we have an education center. And that education center doesn't just teach them about alpacas, teaching them about other fiber producing animals like sheep and things that happen on our farm, ⁓ like harvesting wood and what we do without wood, or even as I'm walking around I'm finding birds' nests and we'll put in the education center. ⁓ we do a spinning wheel demonstration, you know, how to make yarn. ⁓ as well as we go off site, we take alpacas with us or I go do you know, speaker presentations. ⁓ we've gone to libraries, ⁓ that's a big thing for us right now. But we'll go like anywhere if deals with education or bringing in alpaca and yeah, we really like to spread the news. speaker-0: I bet you are like the most popular person in these library th they're like it's the alpaca lady. speaker-1: Yeah, right. They don't know my name, I'm just the Alpacolate. speaker-0: Hey, it's not a bad title to have. It's really not. So there's this kind of educational aspect for other people, for kids, but I also want to talk about you. This has been kind of this was a new venture for you. What have the alpacas kind of taught you as you entered this new journey of your life? What are they still teaching you 22 years in? speaker-1: ⁓ they're they're taught me so much on trust is a big thing. And it goes both ways. I've learned to trust them, you know, that they are a herd animal, but I'm still sort of part of that herd as in they they trust me to take care of them and to handle them. that's big because I think that's integral in the whole farming business, you know, having to trust, trusting my partner. You know, my husband helping and and building and creating and what needs to be done and what's best for the farm. ⁓ mistakes, we've made lots of mistakes. ⁓ they're forgiving. I think like a lot of animals, you know, you just kind of pick up and you move on to the next day. And being present, which is hard for me. I'm very goal-oriented, so I keep going. ⁓ I'm not always detailed oriented, and sometimes it's slowing down. It's walking in the bar and saying, Stop, you sit on the floor. Don't move. Yeah. You know, and you're with them. And then I did it the other day. I sat down. We have little barn kittens running around. I sat on the ground and I looked up. All the alpacas were surrounding me and they're all cushed laying around and the kittens are playing. And that's just a reminder, like stop, slow down. Yeah. speaker-0: 'Cause they're only here for a limited period of time. And it was kinda funny, I noticed yesterday when I came out to the farm, they all had their little different personalities. So you kinda have to put as much effort into the individual because they're all different. They all have different personalities. They're like I I compared them to cats yesterday because they really did remind me of my cats. Some of them were more like timid and shy. Others like really wanted to to be loved and be up there. So animals are teachers. I really enjoyed kind of getting to experience a little bit of that on the farm yesterday. So with that in mind, side note, do you have a favorite alpaca? speaker-1: ⁓ no. Of course I do. I I do. I have to say it's Teddy Bear. Aww. Yeah. He's my favorite. He's he's very personable. ⁓ he likes to be loved on. ⁓ he's the guy in charge. He's one of the smallest, but he's the guy in charge and he does it quietly. Yes. And sweetly. You know, just little movements, you know, little sounds, nothing aggressive. And he just has a lower energy, like a real comfortable energy, not high strung. So I'd have to put him up there. ⁓ speaker-0: He was so cute. They're so fluffy too. I love them. So talk about a little the kind of experience beyond, you know, the educational aspect. what kind of different experiences do you have for people on the farm? I know you have different types of tours and things that you hit on earlier. Give us the scoop on that. speaker-1: Yeah, we wanna have something for everyone. Some people just wanna come, just let me see the alpacas, don't talk to me, Mary. You know, just go and you can. We can, you know, touch them and feed them, maybe learn a little bit about ⁓ take your photos. Mm-hmm. Wanna do some shopping? Great, and then go. Yeah, short and sweet. There's other things to do in the area. ⁓ if you want a little more time or a little more education, a little more hands on work, we can do a tour where we have the education center and the spinning wheel demo in addition to the basic. But we have what we call deluxe too. So people are really into it, maybe if you like knitting and spinning or dyeing of fiber, maybe you just want to really see from the beginning to the end, from when they're shorn to when a product is made, we do what's called deluxe. So we can do like the entire way. And we even I even ⁓ teach spinning wheel, like how to use the spinning wheel. Yeah, 'cause it's fun. speaker-0: I would love to see that. Yeah. It's so fun. And alpaca wool is superior, correct? speaker-1: Of course I think so. But and alpaca thinks so but right. That's the thing with alpaca, you can ear wear it year round 'cause it repels the moisture. Mm-hmm. So like the socks that I gave you yesterday, they're thinner, but you can still wear them. But it's yeah, alpaca's warmer than wool. It's hypoallergenic 'cause it doesn't have lanolin. Soft is cashmere. So you just imagine, you know, sweater against your skin, which speaker-0: I think so too, after getting my socks. speaker-1: It's little harder to wear a wool sweater against your skin, but the softness of alpaca allows you to do speaker-0: Yeah, and you have a whole farm store full of products, right? speaker-1: I do. We do our own hand hand knitwear as in I spin and I die and my mother does the knitting. So we have hats, headbands, fingers, gloves, and scarves. All one of a kind design, so something special for everyone. And then I do some felting like cat toys. Okay. Dog toys jar balls. And then we bring in things from Peru where alpacas are from. speaker-0: Nice. And so it's you, your mom, does anybody else help you make the products? I think you said your friend makes the really pretty felted stuff. speaker-1: I do have a friend. Her name's Connie. She's a fiber artist and she helps create those needle felted pins ⁓ that we do. ⁓ my mother of course does all the knitting. I don't knit, so it's great to have her on board. ⁓ yeah, my husband he does, he's like all the behind the scenes that you can imagine from the barns to help me get back and forth to the shows. Okay. Or to help pick up like the tours, especially if there's more than one going on or something else. ⁓ so there's a whole family. Going on here. Whole thing has speaker-0: It is. It's a lot to run a farm too. It is speaker-1: It's I I can't I really could not imagine doing this by myself. I don't know how we do the farm and the business and everything that goes in it. I I mean my husband and I we we sit down and we talk everything through to see what's best for us, what's best for the animals and our customers. speaker-0: Exactly. And you know, you're always at the shows. You mentioned the shows. I have seen you at so many I've seen you at Pennsylvania Arts Crafts ⁓ Arts and Crafts Christmal F that is really hard to say. PA Arts and Crafts Christmas Festival. I've also seen you are you a covered bridge? Okay. Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Yeah, we do Ebenezer. That's our first one. Our first big one is Ebenezer. speaker-0: Yes, 'cause that is in September, by the way. You should go if you're thinking about it. Where else do you go during the year? speaker-1: Cecil Fall Festival, Hickory Apple Festival, which I think we're celebrating around twenty years without Wow. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ losing count. It's been a while losing count. Yeah. ⁓ yes, Houston. Houston Pumpkin Festival and then down at Washington County Fairgrounds for the Christmas one you were just talking. Yeah, no, we we do so many. ⁓ and then we can't for we do one in Steubenville. Okay. Yeah, that's a fun one. speaker-0: Yeah. Calendar. speaker-1: Yeah, we do almost every weekend from mid-September through December while still juggling shoppers and tours. Yes. Yes. But everything is online. So our schedule. So everything from the schedule for events as well as our schedule for availability for shopping and tours. speaker-0: Wow. That's quite a lot. Nice. So do you have a most popular product that you sell either at the farm store or during events? Socks, of course. speaker-1: Socks. The most popular, especially when we get into the colder weather and Christmas gifts. Yeah. ⁓ our warmest sock is we call it the ultimate sock because it's the ultimate warmth. Right. It goes with it. So yeah, that I'd say, yeah, socks. speaker-0: I can definitely see why. So moving in, I wanna talk one more thing. We talked at length yesterday about the fact that only a few people in the country are farming alpacas. So what are your hopes for the future of alpaca farming, alpaca farming maybe in Washington County specifically, or just generalized in the country? speaker-1: Yeah, alpacas really are economically and environmentally friendly and sustainable, which means that this is an animal ⁓ that you can have that doesn't tear up the environment or create erosion and you don't need much space for them. If you have a little format like a small farm, you can farm alpacas or a livestock as long as you're zoned, you know, agriculture. I would love to see more people not just appreciating and going to alpaca farms, but maybe farming. Because there are so many different things you can do. You could do the breeding of the alpacas, you know, increase the population, but you can go the fiber end, y you can go retail end. Yeah. There's a lot that can be done. And I think there may be the possibility we could grow into a cottage industry where more people nationwide even know more about alpaca and why purchase alpaca products. speaker-0: I would love that. Especially in Washington County. You know, absolutely. You're located in beautiful Avella where there is a lot to do around your farm. ⁓ what are your hopes for the farm in the future? Are you looking to grow? Do you wanna tell people how many alpacas you have? 'Cause I feel like I I must have skipped that. Yeah. speaker-1: Right now, right now, always changes right at 14 alpacas in one llama. Yeah, and it we're always changing. I ever twenty-two years our business plan has changed greatly and you kind of have to adjust to it. Right now I'm sort of evolving, ⁓ which is showing some growth. ⁓ we are doing more things off site. And I have a couple of things in the works that I won't quite mention yet because you know they're that's not on paper quite yet, but they're exciting. ⁓ and it's off site. It's it's moving somewhat off site. ⁓ but yeah, always changes. We're we're hoping to maybe do some changes with the website and ⁓ bring more people to us. ⁓ we've moved on to Airbnb experiences. ⁓ not that we have a place for people to say for Airbnb, but you can go on to Airbnb Experiences. And you can find us, ⁓ so wherever you are, like across country you come visit. So we're changing, we're evolving with the times and spreading the word and hopefully more people get to find us. speaker-0: Good, I love that. Well, ⁓ speaking of your website, you wanna tell people what the website is so they know how to find you and book a tour? speaker-1: Easy enough, the crafty alpaca dot com. And if you ever have problems on the website, you just reach out, even if it's a text, an email, phone call, ⁓ the crafty alpaca at gmail.com is easy enough. You can get a hold of me, ask any questions. ⁓ and then we're always on Facebook. We do Facebook and Instagram. I tend to lean towards Facebook a little more just because that's what I'm comfortable with in all honesty. But y you can always find us there. speaker-0: Okay. Well, before we wrap up, anything else you wanna plug, any upcoming announcements, anything we missed? speaker-1: ⁓ this was great. I think we're pretty thorough, but just yeah, k yeah, keeping every we're we're involved in whatever anybody can think of and be creative. We do birthday parties on site as well as, you know, we can go off site or photo shoots, but pretty much just reach out if you have a question, if we can help you out or you wanna come out for a field trip or we're there. speaker-0: We try to be here. Nice. Well, I highly recommend the tour, by the way. It is really fun. The alpacas are so cool. I love them. I I told Chase I said I kinda wanna quit my job and become an alpaca farmer. speaker-1: I know just a place to work. speaker-0: I'll I'll be contacting you after this, by the way. Sounds good. Well, Mary, thank you so much for being here. I learned so much and I really hope that people come out and visit you because it is so fun. speaker-1: ⁓ thank you so much. I just enjoy sharing our passion. speaker-0: Problem. Well, that is all for this episode of the Washcoat Insider. Thank you so much for watching and listening, and we'll see you next time.