WILLIAMSBURG — A love of and a desire to preserve their family’s land spurred Jim and Nancy Forster to get into the alpaca business nearly two decades ago.
Nancy’s mother’s maiden name is Nash, and the 125 acres of land off Adams Road where they raise their alpacas has been in her family since the 1870s. The signature of a Nash is also on Williamsburg’s founding document.
“We’ve always loved the land,” said Nancy.
Her grandfather was the last family member to farm it, and he did so with horses and oxen, never using a tractor.
“We had a beautiful vegetable garden,” Nancy said. “I had my own little pair of oxen.”
“Lots of great memories on the farm,” she continued.
The property has the Forsters’ house on one end, and the farm on the other end at 81 Adams Road.
Jim and Nancy, who began dating when they both attended Hampshire Regional High School and are approaching 45 years of marriage, chose to get into the alpaca business because it was booming at the time, and because Jim Forster wasn’t interested in raising animals to slaughter. This was done after a conversation they had with their four sons in 2004, where the sons expressed the desire for the land to be an active farm.
Grass Hill Alpacas was subsequently founded, getting its first animals in 2006.
At first, the Forsters focused on breeding alpacas and selling them, because of the high demand for the animals in the 2000s.
“Babies were selling for big bucks,” Jim said.
However, Jim said that they knew the bubble would burst eventually. Sure enough, that happened in 2009, and while its end happened sooner than the Forsters planned, they managed to successfully transition the focus of the business to fiber production.
The Forsters are part of the New England Alpaca Fiber Pool, which they send their fleece to. They then receive fiber credits, which they use to buy items such as mittens and socks that are made from the fleece that pool members send in. The Forsters then sell these products.
“It’s a pretty good business model,” Jim said. “We were actually retailing enough to pay all the bills on the farm.”
One of the places the Forsters regularly sell at is the North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival, which is held on a farm in Orange that’s owned by Jim’s relatives.
However, everything changed for Grass Hill Alpacas when COVID-19 hit, because of closure of the places they normally retailed at.
Once again, Grass Hill Alpacas pivoted. One of the Forsters’ daughters-in-law revamped the farm’s website to allow people to buy from the farm online, and Jim took a course through the Hilltown CDC to learn how to market the farm through social media. The Hilltown CDC also hooked him up with a consultant.
Subsequently the farm launched Backporch PacaStop in 2020, where for a three-month period from October to December the farm decorates the Forsters’ home at 58 Adams Road with Christmas decor, and sells alpaca products from it.
“People loved it,” Jim said. “It was local, it was outdoors.”
The PacaStop also returned last year for the same timeframe.
And while Jim said that sales aren’t what they were before the pandemic, Jim said that the business is sustainable and they’re hoping for a comeback.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed,” said Nancy.
In addition to selling products made from local alpaca fleece, they also sell products sourced from high-quality fiber from Peruvian alpaca fleece.
“Peru’s been doing it for thousands of years,” said Jim.
Nancy described alpacas as “curious, kind of timid animals,” and she said that some are very friendly while others are aloof.
“We have some that will lay down in the pasture with us and put their heads on laps,” she said.
The current herd at the farm is 10 animals. The Forsters stopped breeding in 2012, and they gave six animals away as well.
“This is probably it for us,” said Jim, who said that when the current herd dies they’ll be ready to leave the business.
As for the future of the land, Jim said that one of his sons plans to raise beef cattle on it in the future.
“We’re making plans to transfer it to the next generation,” Jim said.
Jim said that from the very beginning their goal has been to preserve the land.
“We like the farm land,” Nancy said.
Jim also said that he appreciates their regular customers.
“It’s all about family, and the animals and friends,” Jim said. “And they appreciate that and they keep coming back.”
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.