|
|
| |  | |
| From peaches to alpacas (March 2007) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sandy Binder leads a busy life, and a fulfilling one
By Charles Johnson
Move fast if you hope to keep pace with Sandy Binder as she whisks among chores on her acreage near Mexico, Mo. She may start out pulling weeds in her large garden, then head to the barn to do a little work with the alpacas. After that she’s sorting apples, tending to the chickens, picking peppers, stacking jars of jelly and jam, and taking phone orders.
She hesitates to call it work but whatever it is, it never stops around this place. There’s an old-timey feel here that warms the senses and makes you wonder if grandpa and grandma put this much energy into the old family farm years ago. Binder has a lot of things going on her land. The tired word “diversified” that ag economists like to throw around somehow seems inadequate here.
Binder and her husband, Dave, settled down on 38 acres here, five miles up a country road from Mexico, Mo., in the mid-1980s, after living near Toronto, Ontario several years. Dave worked as an accountant for a brick-making company. Sandy taught school.
They planned to generate a little business from their place for retirement income. First came the apple orchard. Other projects accumulated. In 1998, the Binders reached full tilt when they bought their first alpacas.
A few years ago, Dave had an accident and can no longer do physical work. “He’s my apple washer and runs the egg route,” Sandy says. That turned her into the full-time manager and top hand on the place.
She grew up on a dairy farm near Belle-ville, Ill., but, by her own reckoning, those childhood days are long past. She learned agronomics, beekeeping, fruit production, chicken-raising, the livestock business, and weaving by trial and error.
It all turned Sandy Binder into a one woman whirlwind of activity. She sells her organic garden produce, eggs, homemade bread, and other goodies at farmers markets in Mexico and Columbia, Mo. In addition, she sells all that and more at an on-farm market.
That should be more than enough to keep a person busy but it’s far from enough for her. She opens the farm to U-Pick apple customers during late summer and fall, and they often spend the day here, picnicking and enjoying the quiet rural setting. Most of all, though, she spends time tending to the herd of alpacas.
They’re close to her heart. Any creature that cute just has to pull you into its world. As 2006 wound to a close, she had 37 alpacas and could talk in detail about the idiosyncrasies of each. To her, they’re all special.
“Compared to everything else around here, the alpacas are very relaxing and they’re easy to take care of. They’re not stressful at all. They don’t eat all that much and they’re gentle and well-behaved,” Sandy says.
“I shear them, give them their shots, trim their nails, and don’t have any problem with them. I spend two hours a day with them.”
Lovable and cute as they may be, they’re still not pets. She does, after all, sell them. “Selling one alpaca equals my profit for the apple orchard for the whole season. The alpaca business is number one,” she says.
|
|
|
|
