Christmas at The Alpaca Barn

Seasonal Recipe

Alpaca Crafts

The words Warp and Weft are terms used in weaving. Warp is the vertical thread on a loom, and the weft is the horizontal thread which is woven in and out of the warp. Both together form the strength and shape of the fabric being made. These Newsletters are intended to show how this also relates to AzSu Alpacas and life here on the farm.

In the first sections we aim at the existing alpaca breeder/owner. The rest we hope will be enjoyed by all who have requested to receive a copy.

Christmas at The Alpaca Barn

‘Where has the year gone’ I am sure we are all asking ourselves. Christmas is here again! Hopefully we can make your gift selection a little easier and that bit more unusual this year. On the weekend of the 6th & 7th December we will have a Christmas exclusive showing of our wonderful new range.

Throughout the weekend we will be serving tea/coffee/homemade mince pies and savouries. Come and enjoy a relaxing shopping experience. You may even get the chance to get up close and cuddly to a real alpaca.

Please note our new opening hours from December: Saturday & Sunday 10:30am - 3pm. Until then, it's still Friday and Saturday as before.

To visit The Alpaca Barn website, click here.

Diary Notes

On 29/30th November (Saturday & Sunday) we will be exhibiting at the Produced In Norfolk (PIN) Christmas Craft Show which is being held at the old Bally Shoe Factory on Halls Road, Norwich. Remember, all the artisans must be in Norfolk and what they produce must be made in Norfolk. To buy British is good, to buy Produced In Norfolk is even better. To find more about this event and PIN in general, click here for a link from our website.

Seasonal Alpaca Care Tips

With all the damp weather we have been experiencing, please be extra diligent in testing for worms of all kinds, including Fluke as this is not necessarily seen in a normal routine faeces spin. Fluke comes from snails which live in wet grasses and damp areas. The snails are brought in by birds on their feet. If you live in an area where there are deer, they carry ticks if they get in the grass or on the alpacas and can result in Lymes disease. A recent report was done by Countryside Magazine on this. Now that the corn has been harvested, the rats will seek refuge in the shelters so ensure these are kept to a minimum as their urine can cause Leptospirosis in alpacas and other livestock as well as humans.

Foot infections between the toes and split pads are other potential problems to watch out for in these wet conditions. If they are walking on wet and muddy fields, then the toenails may need more regular cutting, this is also a good time to check the pads and between their toes.

With the onset of winter remember to give your alpacas ADE with B12. We routinely give our mature herd the paste every 6 weeks over the winter months, starting at the beginning of November. The crias we give every 4 weeks starting at the same time. This we continue until the weather improves and this can be end of March/April or even May if the spring grass is slow to grow, and the month exceptionally wet.

Hope you all had a good birthing year. Our's was superb. We have an amazing group of crias with lots of black babies. Many from our new herd sire Farquhar and some also from Caramello. Later this month we will start preparing our weaning paddocks in preparation for the end of December/January crias who will need to be weaned off their Dams. An unhappy occasion for both, but this can be lessened by ensuring they are well out of sight of each other, and the crias are done in groups so they have their pals with them.

Princess's Diary

The 5th September was a big day for us as Princess gave birth to her second beautiful daughter. With great delight we watched whilst Mum proudly stood as baby Duchess struggled to her feet and found her way to the milk.

At the end of September we moved all the females, together with respective crias over to their new barn to graze off the hay field. Total of 70! Princess with cria moved too and within an hour of her being there, Venus and Lilly found them and ever since they have been a united foursome. So now she has three sets of eyes to guide her in and out. Both Venus and Lilly also help to look after little Duchess and ensure she is never far from Mum.

See more of Princess’s story on our website.

Jottings from the Herb Garden

At this time of the year, it is worth mentioning the hedge of hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) that surrounds the herb garden. It has other uses as well as hedging. Its flowers, berries and leaves have all been used in medicinal preparations as a cardiac tonic, a diuretic and astringent.

The ripe berries make a lovely jelly (see recipe below) and a liqueur when combined with brandy.

Its wood has a fine grain and takes a good polish. The root wood being traditionally used to carve small boxes and combs. It makes an excellent fuel – the hottest fire wood. Charcoal made from it is said to melt pig iron without the aid of a blast. So the hawthorn is far more than an attractive shrub!

Seasonal Wildlife Notes from the Farm

The green woodpeckers (Picus Viridis) make their presence felt throughout the year. Their striking crimson crown and plumage of green and yellow, coupled with their deeply undulating flight, makes them easy to spot. Perhaps even more noticeable to us is their very loud ringing ‘laugh’ which is traditionally known as a ‘yaffle’ and a very descriptive word it is!

Watching them feed on the lawns by the farmhouse, we are reminded of an ancient legend which tells the story of how man first learnt to plough by watching the green woodpecker drive its beak through the soil.

Seasonal Recipe

Hawthorn Jelly

Pick the haws when ripe but before they start to shrivel. Boil them in water for about 45 minutes allowing approx. one pint of water to 2lbs of fruit. When soft and pulped pour into a jelly bag and leave to drip overnight. Do not squeeze the fruit pulp as this will result in cloudy jelly. Next day measure the resulting juice and place in a heavy bottomed pan, allowing 1lb of sugar to every pint of juice. Heat slowly at first to dissolve the sugar and then boil rapidly until a setting point is reached. Pot and cover in the usual way.

This jelly has a wonderful jewel like colour. Hawthorns are very high in pectin and it is possible to make very pretty hawthorn sweets by pouring the hot jelly into small foil sweet cases and allowing it to set. It is also possible to make the jelly using a combination of crab apples and hawthorns which will give both a paler colour and lighter set and is very palatable. Very nice with pate, game or cheese.

Alpaca Crafts

No.3 Spinning & Weaving

First thing in the morning as the sunlight shines through the grass and trees, the enchantment of the spiders webs gives an ethereal feeling to everything.

The word Arachne is symbolic to those with a fear of spiders, but the name belonged to the greatest spinner of all times who lived in ancient Lydia. Her work was so beautiful it was much in demand by tailors and weavers and people would come from far and wide just to watch her working. But she was also very boastful of her talents and this came to the ears of Athena the goddess of wisdom and crafts, who issued Arachne a challenge.

Athena wove a picture of Mount Olympus with all the gods, showing them to be handsome, generous, clever, heroic and kind. She wove in all the creatures including a kitten and a horse which appeared to be so lifelike, the urge to stroke them was great.

Arachne sat alongside her and she too wove a picture of the gods, one that depicted them getting up to all sorts of silly acts and generally behaving badly. But she also wove a delicate butterfly sitting on a blade of grass which looked as if it would fly away any second. Then she wove a lion which made people shriek with fear and run away. Her water shimmered and her corn waved and her tapestry was indeed more beautiful than nature itself.

Athena complimented Arachne on her tapestry admitting that she was indeed the better spinner. Arachne gloated and preened and with smug satisfaction said ‘didn’t I tell you so’. At this the goddess became very angry and told Arachne that her pride was even greater than her skill and because she had made fun of the gods she would punish her. She took the shuttle out of Arachne’s hand and hit her on the head with it. Her arms stuck to her sides, her body shrank down to a black blob but her fingers were left long, which frantically wriggled and twisted. A thread dangled out of her mouth with which Athena hung Arachne in a tree. The first spider was formed!

Athena left, telling Arachne that she could weave her tapestries for ever and no matter how beautiful they were people would pull them to shreds and shudder at the sight of her. She was doomed forever to spin webs in corners of rooms, in bushes and in dark unswept places.

How true this is, for no matter how beautiful cobwebs are, not many of us look at them as wonderful pieces of weaving, and master at the delicacy and intricacies of each pattern.

The strength and structure of a cobweb has been analysed and is now used in such things as cloth for parachutes. But here on the farm, we use them as a coagulant. Wrap a cobweb round your finger and put it over a cut. It works wonders.

A reminder that we now hold stock of GWF Camelibra, Fibregest and Joint Aid for dogs.
So these are readily available from the farm.