Next in a series: North Texas cities, towns, and neighborhoods celebrate fall with all the gusto of people who have suffered through a Texas summer, and we are here to let you know about the best area fall festivals, Oktoberfests, pumpkin patches, and Halloween fun over the next several weeks. Today, we’re covering Tx-Ture Farm’s National Alpaca Farm Days, a truly unique event this weekend in Aubrey, TX. If you know of a great fall activity that needs to be showcased, let us know! Here’s the series so far.
Neighborhood/Area: Aubrey, TX
Where: TX-Ture Farm (pronounced Texture), 1833 Dr Sanders Rd, Aubrey, TX
What makes it special: A better question might be what’s not special about this place, the event, and the people behind it? TX-Ture Farm was started by a family — Russell and Annemiek Foster, and their kids Sean and Chris — during the pandemic.
“People needed to get outdoors. We started a festival and it took off, and we’ve been doing it ever since,” Foster said. TX-Ture is both an alpaca farm and a lavender farm. The family had been thinking about the idea prior to COVID-19, but the needs of the pandemic brought their dream into reality.
National Alpaca Farm Days is a weekend celebrated at alpaca farms all across the country. TX-Ture Farm usually puts on a more typical fall fest, with pumpkins and such, but this year’s celebration has been scaled back a bit due to the impact of the intense summer on the farm. Foster shared that the hotter-than-usual summer and lack of rain were hard on both the animals and the lavender crop. But don’t let a lack of pumpkins and corn mazes keep you away — you can get those at any fall fest! What you can’t get is farm-fresh lavender prosecco, alpaca yoga, and a day of fun activities on a working alpaca farm!
Yes, I said ALPACA YOGA. And that’s not just this weekend — the farm will be offering classes on Saturdays and Sundays through October 15! This weekend families will enjoy barnyard games, feeding the alpacas, and the Paca-Express barrel train ride for the kids. Alpaca products are available for sale in the shop as well.
And I didn’t even get to the really special part yet. This summer, one of the alpacas, a show animal, fell pregnant out of season. Alpacas have a hard time with pregnancy during the heat of the summer, so this was an accidental breeding. The baby was born five weeks ago, and both mama and baby had a very hard time. Sadly, the ordeal was too much for the mother, and she died. The farm was left to raise the sickly orphan baby, bottle-feeding her slowly back to health. Thankfully she is now thriving, and they have named her Relentless Summer, Summer for short.
I’m not crying, you’re crying. And if you weren’t already slapping on those yoga pants, and packing up your sunscreen and hand sanitizer (cause we’re petting all the alpacas), I know you are now so you can catch a glimpse of baby Relentless Summer. Make sure you look for the owners, Russell Foster and Anna Miek, and wish them well as you enjoy that lavender prosecco!
When: September 23-24: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday
Alpaca Yoga
September 23-October 15, times vary
Read more here:
Facebook Event | Tx-Ture Farm Website | Facebook Page
And here’s another baby alpaca, in case you were still thinking about not going to Tx-Ture Farm’s National Alpaca Farm Days this weekend:
