Our Newest Cria! - It's a girl

photo (6), originally uploaded by goldentouchfarm.

It has been raining every day for the last 3 weeks but we managed to snap some photos in between passing showers of the girls out in the fields. Here is a shot of our newest addition to the herd, name coming soon!

New Video: Hummingbirds in the Rain

Hummingbird Sneak Peak - Summer '09 from goldentouchfarm on Vimeo.

We have been tremendously busy this summer (if you can even refer to it as that) so you will have to excuse the lack of video posts. Although we haven't been posting we certainly have been capturing tons of great footage, it is just a matter of getting the time to sit down and edit them all together.

This video was taken yesterday and sums up what the first month of Summer felt like for us - Cold, Wet, and Busy just like the Hummingbirds themselves!

NEAFP in the News!

picture from the Herald News article - A New Fleece on Life

Recently the Herald News came out to our mill in Fall River to do a story on our Fiber Processing business, The New England Alpaca Fiber Pool (http://www.neafp.com). For those of you who do not know, along with running our Alpaca Farm, we also got involved in the commercial processing of Alpaca Fiber over 7 years ago. As new Alpaca Owners, one of the first questions we asked ourselves was "What can we do to utilize this fiber?" - We soon learned about NEAFP, which was conveniently located practically in our back yard and we became very involved in the day to day activities of commercially processing Alpaca in the United States into finished products for resale.

Since those early days we learned a tremendous amount about running a textile business in the United States, and eventually took over the company 5 years ago. Over the last 2 years we have seen tremendous growth in how much fiber we process each year, as well as how many products are being resold by Alpaca Farms to the general public.

Although the Economy is weak across the board right now, we couldn't be more excited about the future of our business and the U.S. Alpaca Fiber Industry as a whole. As more and more farms embrace the Fiber Side of their business, the animals and their fiber are being introduced to more and more people. Their charisma alone can win any cold heart over and we believe the entire industry is in for some amazing growth as more and more people embrace alternative investments and support local, sustainable businesses and agriculture in their communities.

When you have a free minute, head on over to the Herald News and read the article

We will be a vendor at the Providence Open Market June 6th!

We are happy to announce that we will be setting up as a Vendor at the Providence Open Market this upcoming Saturday June 6th from 10am to 4pm. The open market is located just outside of Lippits Park, on the East Side of Providence.

We will be selling the majority of all of our Alpaca Products - including Survival Socks, Casual Dress Socks, Knitter's Yarns, Rugs, Tote Bags, Hats, Gloves, and all sorts of other great items!

"The Providence Open Market, now in its 3rd season, is the city’s only Open-Air Market where you can shop for handmade artisan goods and fine art. Now located in picturesque Lippitt Park, on the east side of Providence, at the juncture of Hope Street and Blackstone Blvd, where Providence borders Pawtucket."

Click Here for Directions

We hope to see you then!

Great Video and Article about Alpaca Farming

Alpaca farm prepares for World Alpaca Conference

You can also find the full article by America's Heartland here

Catch up on all 45 of our Farm Videos!

I was just going through our Vimeo account and it is hard to believe that we have uploaded 45 videos of our farm in the last year and a half. We have had such a tremendous response to them, and it really helps us showcase our farm to people across the globe. The best part about it is that it is a lot easier than you could ever imagine.

 

Believe me, I am not the most technically savy person in the house hold, yet capturing, editing, uploading, and sharing these videos is do-able by even me. I also have to give a lot of credit to Vimeo.com - their quality cannot be beat and the community is very helpful and friendly. YouTube.com might have a lot of eyeballs, but I have always believed in Quality over Quantity, and the immaturity that runs rampant through their comments are a huge turn off.

Below are all of our videos, catch up on all the ones you missed!

 

 

Hatching Chicks!

A few days ago the Chickens started hatching in the incubator and we now have 13 little chicks! There are some Silkies and the rest are Rhode Island Reds. We have had chickens for the last year and a half and absolutely love having Fresh Eggs each morning. Our neighbors, friends and family has also enjoyed the extras! You really can't beat the taste, I don't think we will ever go back to grocery store bought eggs.

Video: The End of Mass-Marketing w/ Seth Godin

As a small farm constantly looking for new ways to connect with our local communities through grass roots approaches, we found this video very inspiring. Most certainly worth the 15 minutes!

Breif Synopsis: Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.

Handheld Hummingbird Feeders

We recently purchased some handheld hummingbird feeders from http://www.theplantwhisperer.com and we are excited to see if we can get our growing H.Bird population accostumed to them.

It will be amazing to capture some video of Hummers eating out our hands, especially for when people come to visit the farm.

Here is a demonstration video of it in action:

The World According to Monsanto Documentary - Video

The World According to Monsanto is an in-depth Documentary that looks at the domination of the agricultural industry from one of the world’s most insidious and powerful companies.

You can watch the other 9 parts in DVD Quality on YouTube

20% OFF at our Online Farm Store!

Didn't get Alpaca Socks for Mother's Day? Well we can fix that, we are offering 20% off our entire catalog for the rest of the month of May. Use the COUPON CODE:
"motheralpaca" at checkout to receive the discount on all orders of $30 or more.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact us!

http://www.GoldenTouchNaturals.com - Our online Farm Store!

HD Video: Hummingbird Sneak Peak!

We were glad to finally see the sun come out this weekend after 6 rain filled days and the birds enjoyed it too. After Mother's Day family dinner we managed to capture some great shots of the Hummingbirds getting out and stretching their wings at the feeders. Enjoy this sneak peak video!

Hummingbird Sneak Peak from goldentouchfarm on Vimeo.

Video: Mortgage Broker turns to Alpaca Farming

With the volatile stock market and shaky economy, the Swikard family said they are glad their 401(k) comes on four legs.

International Year of Natural Fibers 2009 - United Nations

As you might have already known 2009 has been declared The International Year of Natural Fibers by the United Nations to help promote the production of textiles using Natural Fibers. They sent out an email blast this morning releasing all their marketing supplies ranging from the video embedded above to brochures and posters.

If you run a Natural Fiber business, farm, or run events these are great marketing collateral you can share with your community to help promote the International Year.

You can head here and download yours today! - http://www.naturalfibres2009.org/en/iynf/media.html

New HD Video: Sunset on the Farm

Last night while the sun was setting the Alpacas were relaxing after a long day and we got some amazing shots of them. We got some great shots of some of our newest Cria, they are just too cute and starting to love the camera! Enjoy!

Note: If you notice a stutter on playback - hit pause and the let the video fully buffer. If you have an older computer it might help to turn HD Off in the top right corner.


Sunset on the Farm - Alpaca Barnyard from goldentouchfarm on Vimeo.