Getting Sheared: Mary’s Alpaca Farm Store | Community

Alpacas and fiber products in The Plains

When Mary Forte first encountered an alpaca, she found herself staring at a strange creature. “I see this head on a long neck just over the fence line looking down at me,” she said. “That was my introduction to alpacas. They are very cute, but when you first see them they look a bit like miniature Loch Ness monsters.

This chance encounter literally changed Forte’s life. Fast forward to present day in the Plains, and she has become an expert and herder of alpacas, and more recently, she has opened a farm shop selling fiber products and exquisite clothing.

The beginning

With a background in breeding Arabian horses, she also became interested in breeding alpacas, and in 1994 when they were imported from Peru to this country, she had the chance to fulfill her desire. . “An alpaca was only supposed to be for royalty in Peru, and you had to be of royal blood to even wear alpaca clothing, but Peru was in financial trouble.”

She started with three alpacas and eventually started raising them. Now well known in the alpaca world, she has been named Small Breeder of the Year several times and has won numerous national and regional championship ribbons.

The move to the plains

Forte and her husband Harvey lived in Miami where they didn’t have a farm for her alpacas. “I missed my herd and had to fly all over the country to train them for the show ring,” Forte explained. His twin sister, Anna Carner-Blangiforti, suggested the Middleburg area, and Forte saw Cedar Hill Farm (est. 1865), a 160-acre estate, in the Plains. “When I saw it, my mouth dropped open. It was so beautiful. The earth rolls and stays green almost all year round,” she said. cultural venues, and she wanted a farm, so that fit the bill, and they bought it in 2004. After she passed away, Forte moved to Cedar Hill with her 40 alpacas.

Mary’s Alpaca Farm Store

Forte has built a huge two-story barn on the property that matches the old stone “French country” style of her home. This is where Mary’s Alpaca Farm is located. This truly unique boutique with its pretty red carpet and sparkling chandelier sells beautiful and comfortable alpaca fiber goods.

Before opening the store, Forte didn’t know what to do with all the fiber left over from shearing the alpacas each spring. She simply gave most of it to commercial mills.

“Now I take the fiber and swap it out,” she said. “I have 600 pounds of very first quality fiber and I send it to different suppliers in the United States whose company collects as much as possible from breeders in the country. They then ship it to Peru, or use their own knitters, and I buy the finished products wholesale and resell them retail in my farm shop. I now have the opportunity to design some products myself.

Customers can find socks, shawls, women’s and men’s sweaters, gloves, scarves, “softer than soft” and hypoallergenic stuffed animals, fiber dryer balls and much more.

The most expensive thing in his store is a men’s black opera cape with a white silk-lined hood. “It was made by a designer and I got it at an auction in Peru. It’s just beautiful. One of the principal dancers at American Ballet Theater modeled it for me when he was staying here on the farm in our Airbnb cottage.”

All in the family

In the inventory of his store is a book written by his sister. “It’s called Blossom – The Wild Ambassador of Tewksbury and I think they’re going to make a movie out of it,” Forte says.

The store also carries a product called Unicorn Clean, designed to clean fine natural fibers, developed by Anna and her husband Pino. Forte’s daughter, Melanie, co-owns the business, which operates from an office upstairs in the barn.

Fleece

Forte explains that there are actually two types of alpaca fiber, or fleece. “There’s Huacaya, which is very soft, and then there’s Suri, which looks a bit like dreadlocks, but the fiber is longer and very smooth. It usually grows between three and five inches, and the longer the fiber, the better the garment you can make of it. Of her approximately 100 alpacas (she had more than 160, but sold many, many of them locally), nearly all are Huacaya.

Due to the way alpaca fiber grows, it not only feels super silky, it’s also hypoallergenic and 30% warmer than wool. “Items made from alpaca fibers are usually blended with another material, such as merino or silk, to give it some stability,” she explained.

Fleece from different parts of the animal is used for different products. “The cover portion, from the neck to the front of the tail, is the best the animal can produce,” says Forte. “It’s top quality fiber. So the blankets area would be used for sweaters, shawls and that sort of thing. Other parts, like the fleece of the legs, for example, would be used more for things like socks.

Manage the busy farm

In addition to the alpacas, Forte has 12 semi-retired polo ponies, including Angel Baby, Simba, and her favorite, Peach; a 2,200-pound Belgian draft horse named Cam Cam; a donkey named Giuseppe; a Dalmatian named China; and two adopted cats, Sushi and Dhabi. “It’s a whole menagerie of fun!” she said.

But it’s a lot of work.

For the past seven years, Forte has had a family of Quechua Indians (a mother, father and son) from Juliaca, Peru to help care for the alpacas. They are there 10 months a year.

Her partner, Fr. Jay Fetner, helps her run the farm, as does Anna. “I sold her part of my farm and she now lives next door,” Forte says. “She watches over my animals while I’m gone, and she’s like an animal whisperer.”

Forte is generous in sharing her farm with others. In addition to the Airbnb “Alpacas and the Stars,” which guests say is “like heaven,” she has participated in the Fauquier County Farm Tour and offers tours of the property and animals.

“Alpaca people proudly speak of the ‘Alpaca Lifestyle’. As you’d expect, that means different things to different owners, but my farm, Mary’s Alpaca, exemplifies the common denominator of a vast quest happiness that includes the whole family, from babies to seniors, that transcends typical herd farm animals.

The farm and Mary’s Alpaca Farm Store are open by appointment only, by email at [email protected] or by text at 305-803-1444

This article was first published in the January 2023 issue of Warrenton Lifestyle.