That'll do

There is a page on Ravelry, the incredible online fiber community, where all kinds of contests are listed. While many of the contests involve chance (post a comment and a random generator will pick a winner), some involve some kind of participation or skill. Two weeks ago a contest called "Name the Alpacas" was posted. That'll Do Farm in Grafton, Ohio ran out of names before they ran out of baby alpacas - crias - and needed two more names. The only requirement for the names is that they had to start with the letter "b".

My suggestion was Balderdash for the gorgeous black female and Bourbon for the handsome golden brown male. Much to my surprise, the name Bourbon was chosen! His full registered name is "That'll Do Black Forests Bourbon Buzz" but you can call him Bourbon for short - his friends all do. You can read the farm's droll account of the brias and their names and see photos of the gorgeous alpacas at their blog.

So what did I win? That'll Do Farm sent me a gorgeous skein of 90% alpaca and 10% Merino yarn in a rich dark brown/black shade. It looks just black at first glance, much like our cat Spenser, but look at the yarn in the sunlight and you can see the brown tones, too. I tried and tried to take a good photo, but this is the best I could do:


The photo does not show the subtle sheen of the yarn. It is gorgeous, decadent and soft. And get this: the 90% alpaca in the yarn came from Bourbon's mother, Charlie's Angel - that'll do, for sure.

A grand day out

Wallace and Gromit would have approved of what we did yesterday: we visited three farms on the Finger Lakes Cheese Trail. Yesterday was the 2011 Holiday Open House and all farms were open to visitors from 10 am to 5 pm.

Our first stop was 4 Tin Fish Farm, a goat dairy in Conquest. Owners Andrew and Kim have a small herd of Alpine dairy goats, and produce chevre and feta cheeses. Andrew took us into the barn to meet their very friendly and inquisitive goats. Aidan quickly made a new friend:


Andrew even let Aidan go into one of the stalls, where he was quickly surrounded:


Although it may not be apparent from the photo, Aidan loved being amongst the goats and we had a difficult time getting him to come out of the stall.

Doesn't it look like this goat is smiling?


Although there was no feta available, we tasted, enjoyed and purchased the herb chevre. Last night we topped our grilled hamburgers with the chevre and the result was delicious.

Once we pried Aidan away from the goats, we drove down to Auburn to have lunch at one of the restaurants that 4 Tin Fish Farm supplies, Bambino's Bistro. What a delight! We had a delicious, satisfying and very affordable lunch, and we would go out of our way to stop in Auburn to eat there again.

We then traveled down to King Ferry to visit Keeley's Cheese Company at McGarr Farms. McGarr Farms is a third generation dairy farm with Holsteins and Jerseys. We met Keeley, who makes a semi-soft Irish-style cheese in the washed rind style. She had both regular and reserve cheese available, and all three of us preferred the slightly sharper and more complex reserve. We bought a wedge, said hello to a few of the cows in the barn and headed to our third and final stop.

Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery produces probiotic raw milk kefir cheese using the milk from their Irish Dexter cows. The Dexters are more petite than many breeds and are very pretty:


I like the various rich colors of their coats:


Neither James nor Aidan cared much for the cheese, so we did not make a purchase. We pointed the car north and drove up the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, enjoying the beautiful weather and the beautiful scenery.

Would you like some cheese, Gromit?