Fab lunch @ Cornflower Cafe.....at Toft!

Hey Hey Hey,

Best lunch ever!!! Proper Barrista Cappuccino, salami and salad bagel, goats cheese salad and chutney ciabatta, asparagus pea soup with smoky bacon bits and it was all yum luscious. Don't be cheeky that was for both of us. Shirley and I had late lunch at the new Cornflower Pop up Cafe in the Toft Alpaca Studio.

Open Thursday through Saturday for Coffee Tea, light lunch and proper English afternoon tea. 

Watching baby alpacas with your coffee and cake? Is there a better way to enjoy the summer?

Perfick!

Well done Jenny and Georgie I hope you are run off your feet in the glory days ahead! xxx

Toft triumph at the Heart Of England Spring Alpaca Fiesta

Another busy weekend and another great show for Toft Alpacas at the Heart of England Alpaca Fiesta.

 We took eleven Toft alpacas to the show and every one of our entries achieved a rosette including three firsts and a Reserve Champion. 

TOFT MATILDA- 1st, Huacaya Junior Female Brown and Reserve female Champion Brown

TOFT ADELE- 2nd, Huacaya Intermediate Female Brown

TOFT TIMOGEN- 1st, Huacaya Junior Male Brown

TOFT TAIPAN- 2nd, Huacaya Junior Male Brown

TOFT LEANDER- 6th, Huacaya Junior Male Brown

TOFT IKRIT - 1st, Haucaya Adult Male Brown

TOFT RASTABAN -3rd, Huacaya Adult Male Brown

TOFT TITUS- 5th, Huacaya Junior Male Fawn

TOFT STALA- 4th, Huacaya Junior Female White

TOFT MARY QUANT- 3rd, Suri Junior Female Light

In addition we took 2 clients animals and they both got rosettes with one of them achieving a Championship Ribbon.

Terry and Liz Davis of Snapdragon Alpacas got 4th in the Huacaya Junior Female Light with Toft Bootes

Ben Harford of Ashcroft Alpacas achieved First in the Huacaya Junior Female Fawn and Champion Female Fawn with a Lavender Park Tulley girl- Ashcroft Tulley's Zephyrine.

And to top the lot we entered Timogen and Matilda in the Sires Progeny alongside Zephyrine on behalf of Lavender Park Tulley of Ashcroft alpacas and won the cup. Epic!

A great day for Team Toft and a big thanks to our herdswoman Linda Newport and our new trainee herdswoman Freya Shuttleworth for preparing and handling our alpacas throughout the show. It was Freya's first alpaca show and she took to it like a seasoned Alpaquero. Well done Freya!

British Alpaca Society Alpaca Judge Cathy Lloyd of EP Cambridge judged the show with great skill, clarity and professionalism at a pace that was very impressive. We may have had early starts but on both days we were done and dusted by 3pm. Thanks Cathy a great job well done!

The Supreme Champion Huacaya Alpaca was won by Houghton Bentley a beautiful fawn male owned by Liz and Mick George of Houghton Hall Alpacas.

A big Toft thanks to Lulu Oliver of Lusi Alpacas and Paul Stead of Saphire Alpacas for organising and running the show on behalf of the Heart of England Alpaca Group. Your efforts were much appreciated -thankyou. We are already looking forward to next year when we shall all meet up and do it all again. 

Well that's us done showing for 2014. We shall start shearing the herd on May12th and saying goodbye to the 'Teddy Bears' and welcoming the 'Pink Panthers' as we start preparing for the birthing season where we are expecting almost 60 cria before the end of July. It never stops at Toft Alpacas- Perfick!

Heart of England Alpaca Group Halter Show this weekend

We are dodging the rain here at Toft today squirrelling the Toft alpaca Show Team into various sheds to keep them dry for the show. The. Heart of England Alpaca Group Halter Show is on at the Royal Agricultrual. Centre, Stoneliegh this Friday and Saturday. With almost 300 entries it will be a bit of an alpaca festival, providing an interesting alpaca event for alpaca enthusiasts all over the Midlands.

This will be our last show of the season as the birthing begins in earnest in May and continues through to the end of July. 

After our tremendous success at the BAS National and Alpaca Showtime we have our fingers crossed for a few rosettes this weekend- who knows? Different time, different judge? We live in hope.

Congratulations to Primrose Alpacas...

Only three days into their new equestrian alpaca, craft and smallholding business in Norfolk and the Robinsons of Primrose Alpacas took delivery of a fabulous Toft Alpaca Fibre Herd to begin their alpaca adventure. No flies on you guys. 

Have a great time with your new herd and good luck in getting your new life sorted.

Well done Team Toft

Here they are - the full Toft team, minus my good self, seconds before the Toft Easter Monday Farm Open Day.  Apologies for the darkness of the photo but the cars were already arriving as I was taking this and we didn't have time to shuffle the gang into the light. The Herbert in the high vis vest who is supposed to be greeting the people and parking the cars is busy posing like he's in the cast of Oklahoma and it would have ruined the moment and delayed the day to shift him.

Joking aside, we had a fantastic day on the Manor. The Toft Team ran the event with a precision and professionalism that would have made. Swiss clockmaker cry. The cars got parked and left without incident. The workshops created and crafted. The Pop up Cornflower Cafe went down a treat. The people were alpaca walked and talked. The Knitters were able to touch and feel in a unique atmosphere created by all the  Toft Team, who pulled their puddings out to make this a memorable day for all the attendees. Long may the Team Toft continue to bring joy in abundance to these special Days on the Farm. Thank you all and well done Kerry Lord for pulling it all together and making this a very special Alpaca event.

And a very special thanks to all those who came along to enjoy our alpacas on Easter Monday. I was very appreciative this morning when I went on my walk round to find not one single piece of litter on the Farm. I thankyou all for your responsibility and respect.

The Cornflower Cafe will be popping up again soon at Toft. In two weeks time it will be popping up in the TOFT Studio from Thursday through Saturday right though the summer. So make a date to get along get some great coffee and cake and take in a little alpaca. The babies start arriving in three weeks time.

Cornflower - all 'popped up' and ready to serve

Here she is Cornflower tea shop has popped up in the Toft Studio for the Toft Alpaca Open Day today,

Happy Easter surprise...

Came across the first Toft Alpaca cria of the season yesterday morning during my rounds. Unexpected to say the least at four weeks early. With a cold wind raking the hill the cria had been on  the ground about an hour when I found him. He was freezing and floppy and struggling to hold up his head. He's a big lad and I have the felling it had been a long labour as he seemed exhausted,as well as cold. A quick run to the shed do get mother and baby out of the wind and the challenge began in earnest. 

An hour later with the hair drier working like a Trojan he perked up a little but not a lot. I managed to get some colostrum down him and a coat on him to keep the wind out. In short bursts throughout the day as he warmed up  I managed to get some more milk down him until eventually  he  managed to stand. Overnight thankfully he started to feed from Mum and today although he's not exactly running around with the joys of spring he is happy on his feet and feeding regular and getting stronger by the hour. Needless to say I didn't get a lot of me 'busy jobs' done yesterday.

 I know it's tempting fate but I think he's over the hump now. However he'll be a touch lonely for ge next few weeks as the rest of his 60 colleagues are not scheduled to arrive for another three weeks.