WEST TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– Alpaca lovers from around the Wabash Valley gathered at the White Violet Center for Eco-Justice Saturday, for the Sisters of Providence “Alpaca Encounter” event.
Attendants had the opportunity to see the alpacas firsthand, and see more of how fiber they produce gets used to make products like gloves, hats and more, according to farms project coordinator Tara Elmore.
“We’ll bring people in, let them meet the alpacas, and then we’ll show from the time they get sheared, which is once a year,” she said. “From that, what we do with that fiber. The steps that we take so we can make things like hats and scarves and gloves.”
Elmore said she looks forward to the event each year to help educate people on the alpacas and what they do to help the farm.
“We are a sustainable farm, and what makes the alpacas sustainable, and that’s that they are great land managers,” she said. “They nibble grass down, they don’t pull it up by the roots.
She also said the products they produce also helps them support the farm financially.
“That’s just going back into helping offset the cost of what it takes to have a farm. We have not only the alpacas, but chickens and we also the five-acre garden, so all that together, we try to put anything we can into trying to make us financially sustainable as well,” Elmore said.
The farm will have more interactive events in the near future. Elmore said they will host people for Earth Day, and when the alpacas get sheared in May.