Q&A: Ruth Allen

Fast-forward a couple of decades and Allen, 34, is once again on a farm after burning out on her education career. Last year she approached Charnwood Forest Alpacas in Leicestershire, England, about helping out and learning husbandry. She now spends her days with about 100 alpacas, mostly Huacaya and a few Suri. She’d fallen for these sweet camelids while traveling through South America when she was 19.

“We’re not a large farm, but we are growing and trying out different things,” Allen says. “We open at the weekends to the public for walks, but in the week it’s all about developing the stock and exploring the educational benefits of alpaca time. I’m really interested in how time spent with these beautiful animals can reduce anxiety and behavioral problems in children.”

Modern Farmer: Why do you consider yourself a modern farmer?

Ruth Allen: Firstly, I am not born to this and I came to it with no experience. But the owners of the farm took me on and have taught me as much as I want to learn. I started out mainly lugging hay and filling water troughs, but now I get all sorts of delightful jobs like rubbing oil into alpaca toes! In the summer, I’m hoping to be taught how to shear. I’m really excited about that. Secondly, the UK doesn’t have vast acres of space for the most part, and the land that there is left, outside of the big farms, is very expensive – prohibitively so in many cases. Farming this way gives me a chance to be part of the farming world that I wouldn’t otherwise have the means to access. I feel a lot of responsibility for the animals when I’m there – it might just be me out with the animals all day dealing with things as they arise. This makes me feel like a modern farmer as opposed to “a casual helper.” I’d like to go on to do more farming – perhaps learn more about crops and fighting food poverty.

MF: Why is it important to you to support local agriculture?

RA: I wanted to be part of the community, supporting this endeavor, and seeing how it could give back to local schools. Alpaca farming is still a cottage industry in the UK – we’re a long way off of being viable in the fiber business, but I like the idea of being there at the beginning. Maybe it’ll never grow to the size it would need to be, but that’s not my driver for being involved.

MF: If you could grow or raise any food or animal, what would it be and why?

RA: Since farming the alpacas I have been looking for ways to be more in touch with farming every single day … toward the end of 2015, we rescued a few chickens for the backyard. They’re just for laying, but every day I’m amazed by the miracle of eggs. We also have a vegetable plot, and for the last few years, we’ve been trying out different crops to see what works in our soil and position. But of course, if I had the land I would start my own alpaca herd! I am drawn to livestock, but I’m also really interested in how you can use both crop and livestock to enhance each other organically.

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MF: What’s your favorite vegetable?

RA: Corn. Because it grows beautifully in our small garden. That and beetroot. I make a mean beetroot, pistachio, and feta salad with my own harvest.

MF: If you could give other modern farmers any advice, what would it be?

RA: I would say find ways to get involved, and don’t let a lack of history get in your way. If you’re eager and hard-working someone will find a use for you. Working with livestock has really taught me about being without ego. The need of the animal is always first, even when my hands and feet are frozen. It’s been wonderful for finding my balance in life again. I love manual work; it’s a real antidote to modern stasis.

MF: Do you have a farming/agricultural hero? Why do you admire them?

RA: No one specific, but any farmer who farms on mountains and hillsides has my highest respect and awe; from the Carpathian farmers who sleep out with their flocks on the mountain for months at a time, to the farmhands on the Argentinean altiplano, to sheep farmers in the Lake District, UK, raising the beautiful Herdwick sheep. Some farmers are really up against it with the physical and the socio-political environment, and I admire their tenacity to keep going.

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