We are proud to announce that Rosehaven Alpacas is celebrating its 15th year in the business. And wow we have grown! Rob and Michele started with 2 alpacas, and now we have the largest herd in Sullivan County at 125! We sell both champions and fiber animals and herdsire services to farms all over the country. We attend alpaca shows, greenmarket events, harvest festivals and other events throughout the year. However, our favorite time of year is watching the new crias race each other over our fields. Green pastures, white fencing, trees in bloom, water in the stream, birds trilling their summer songs, and baby alpacas running through out the fields. Sigh.
Though starting as breeders, we quickly vertically integrated into products from our alpacas. From the first time we received yarn back from individual alpacas, our inventory of product has grown and changed. Not only do we have our own yarn, rugs, hats, gloves and sweaters made form our own herd, but we have added lines from other places in USA as well as Peru.
And then we took another step! We started a mill 3 years ago at 2027 State highway 17B in Bethel NY. Here we make roving, batts, popcorn yarn, rug yarn and dryer balls for local fiber farmers. We aren’t just an alpaca mill we also process, sheep, llama, angora, camel and occasionally other special animals. Recently we added a Feltloom to our mill. We produce felted sheets for our clients, as well as holding classes, and fiber arts classes for felters.
We also opened a boutique on the same property as the mill., as well as our products on line and on etsy.. We are also very proud to host the Rosehaven Alpaca Festival at Bethel Woods Harvest Festival every year on the Sunday of Labor Day. We continue in a smaller tent the rest of the weekends. We try to be a presence at all the fiber festivals we can and recently started the Catskills Fiber Festival in Bethel NY. We also are very proud to be at the GrowNYC Greenmarkets at Union Square on Wednesdays and Fridays in NYC, Fort Green on Saturdays from October through January.
We look forward to another 15 years in the wonderful alpaca business. Come and get a tour of our mill or the farm. Look for us at Bethel Woods or in NYC. If you are interested in buying alpacas, please get in touch – we are happy to show you what we have to offer.
