Ed And Charlene’s Alpaca Adventure

Mother and daughter get acquainted. Alpacas are small cousins of camels and llamas, with a lifespan of 20 years.

Charlene Friedman was flying home from a trip to San Francisco and was flipping through an airline magazine when she spotted the advertisement. “It was just a small ad placed by the AOBA, the Alpaca Owners & Breeders Association,” she recalls. “I knew nothing about alpacas, but for some reason the ad intrigued me.”

When she got home she sent off a letter to the AOBA and, in due course, received a brochure describing the services offered by the association. More importantly, it featured several photos of young alpacas.

“Those fluffy little faces were so adorable,” Charlene says. “You might say I fell in love right away.”

Charlene was already familiar with the pros and cons of running a farm. With husband Ed, she visited an alpaca farm not far from their home in Boalsburg, Pa. Ed, skeptical up to this time, found himself equally fascinated by the furry little creatures. “After one visit to a breeder we knew alpacas would be perfect for us,” he says.

The Friedmans were owners of a real estate firm in nearby State College, Pa.; seven years earlier, in 1986, they had also purchased a 175-acre dairy farm they later named Mountain Edge Farm. “Part of the attraction was the spectacular view over Pennsylvania’s Happy Valley region,” Ed explains. “Before deciding on alpacas, we had considered the usual menagerie of horses, cattle and sheep. We didn’t want to use the area for beef cattle or pigs, because we were not interested in raising animals for slaughter. And when the idea of alpacas came up, we knew they would make good use of our acreage because they’re grazing animals.”

Read the entire article in the March 2008 issue