Family Warms up Customers with Alpaca Products
Lori Weber and her family sit around a table on a cold evening in late January, the surface dominated by alpaca-related items. Socks, scarves, a…
Lori Weber and her family sit around a table on a cold evening in late January, the surface dominated by alpaca-related items.
Socks, scarves, a shirt, even a stuffed animal, which Lori rubbed every so often, are strewn about.
Outside, a polar vortex cold for even snowbelt-hardened Geauga residents blankets the area.
Whether it’s -11 or not, the Weber family companys products, including blankets, are starting to cover Geauga County and beyond.
The Bainbridge Township family Lori, her husband, J.R.; and her four children own Sirius Alpacas and Andean Accessories, a distributor of alpaca-based products.
“I actually did a story on alpacas for a business magazine,” said Lori, who was a freelance writer prior to her current job as marketing manager for the Geauga County Public Library.
“I did the story and the follow-up story,” she recalled. “My husband and I fell in love with those animals.”
That passion lead to the family running an alpaca farm for nearly a decade.
The animals, bred for centuries in South America, were imported to North America in the 1980s, according to their website.
Lori, born in Cleveland, later moved to Chardon, where she spent most of her formative years.
She met J.R., a contractor, and they bought a Hambden Township house in 1999. Five years later, they moved to a farm in another area of Hambden, where they lived from 2004 to 2013. They moved to Bainbridge earlier this year.
But that decade in between changed their lives and introduced them to the world of their furry friends: Alpacas.
They visited alpaca farms in 2003 and learned everything they could about the industry, networking with other farms and industry insiders.
They bought a few Peruvian imports and began growing, showing and raising their own herd. At one point, they cared for roughly 26 animals by the end of the decade.
Their children Gabrielle, Barrett and twins Maya and Kira also trained cria, younger offspring and learned the basics of running a farm, J.R. said.
Through it all, the entire family cited teamwork and trust in making the farm work smoothly.
Geauga County, and Northeast Ohio by proxy, loves its alpacas, said J.R., a contractor.
“It’s sometimes called Little Peru.”
Around 2009, the family realized alpaca gifts and products were as exciting as caring for the animals themselves. They built a website marketing products and established a kiosk at Great Lakes Mall in Mentor.
“Alpaca fleece is among the most luxurious fibers in the world,” Lori said, adding silky, warm and bright alpaca fiber is comfortable and lightweight. “It can be woven, knitted or felted into garments, blankets and accessories.”
The fleece can be worn against the skin and makes sumptuous sweaters, scarves and hats, she added.
The unique nature of the alpaca fibers attracted the attention of family and friends.
They would shear their alpacas, send the fiber to a regional cooperative, who would sort and collate all the fiber from various alpaca farms. Then, the best-quality fiber would be marketed and distributed.
After years of this practice, the business started focusing solely on the marketing and distribution end, acquiring high-quality product to distribute and sell.
The whole alpaca culture helped build cross-promotion, J.R. said.
“It was neat, because we’d go to a show and people would ask us about alpacas, so we’d point them to the animals,” Lori said. “People over at the alpaca stalls would ask about fleece and the animal owners would send them to us.”
Alpaca fiber is not sheep wool, she added.
She said all varieties of wool are water-resistant, moisture-wicking and heat-retentive. But alpaca fleece is appealing because it offers a positive of what many people consider a negative wool trait: softness.
Alpaca fiber is noticeably softer than most of its sheep wool counterparts.
“Earlier this decade, the family decided to sell off their personal alpacas and find homes for the alpacas they boarded, focusing solely on the distribution of their products,” J.R. said.
Their children — most did 4-H, for good measure — chipped in and talked about what the farm meant to them.
“It was fun giving alpaca socks to one of my teachers,” said Maya. “He had big feet.”
Her twin, Kira, added when friends would visit, the first thing they would do was head to the barn.
“They wanted to meet the alpacas,” she said.
A weather report recently stated the cold won’t go away: Temperatures the week of Jan. 20 to Jan. 24 were not expected to top 18 degrees Fahrenheit.
But at least one family in Geauga County said it would provide warmth to those seeking all things alpaca.
For more information, visit www.siriusalpacas.com.
