By Elizabeth Maker

Photographs by Antoine Bootz

For Fiona Ocain, a gifted young flutist from Cornwall, her career trajectory was fortuitously redirected by a text from her father about alpacas for sale on Craigslist.

“My Dad sent me and my sister this Craigslist thing as sort of a joke,” says Ocain, 24, regarding her father, local logger Gary Ocain, and sister, Chloe, 26, of Brooklyn. “We looked at the pictures of the alpacas and their sweet faces, and we’re like, um, yeah? We’re getting them! Obviously!”

The demure Ocain, with long auburn hair and an easy laugh, strolled around the 50-acre property where she lives with her parents—land that’s been farmed by her family for generations—and recounted her journey from flutist to farmer. She earned a bachelor’s degree in flute performance from Connecticut College, then a master’s in music from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2020. “But during my masters, I was becoming really disillusioned with the music world, and told my professor that I really needed a break,” she says. “It’s a super competitive environment, not really suitable for my temperament.”

Around the same time, students were sent home because of Covid. “Being home again, I started to realize how much I appreciate living in a rural area and how much I love being outside with my animals,” she says, stroking her three alpacas, Thea, Theo, and Mary, and looking out across a mesmerizing expanse of undulating mountains.

So Ocain got busy and did what any millennial determined to learn how to make alpaca fleece products would do: “I went on Youtube!” Within weeks, she had hired two local men to shear the alpacas (which involves tying their legs together and lying them down—“a little dramatic, as with all things alpaca,” Ocain says with a giggle); skirted the fiber (which means removing anything coarse or dirty); sent the fiber to a local mill for carding and spinning; and began knitting socks, mittens, shawls, Christmas ornaments, and gifts.

Ocain created an Instagram account for her fledgling business, @cloverhillalpacas, in November of 2020, and the next month began selling her wares at The Local in West Cornwall. The Local, just beyond the historic Covered Bridge over the Housatonic River, is a market collective where all profits flow back to the farmers, artists, cooks, and craftspeople who live and work in the Cornwall area. “I just love how sustainable and local it all is,” she says.

In 2021, the family added five sheep to the farm: Ivory, Peanut, Daisy, Stormy, and Gussie. Their sheared wool combined with the alpaca fiber, “gives it more strength, more integrity,” Ocain explains.

She’s also begun selling products on Etsy, which keeps her so busy, she often recruits her sister, mother, aunt, and grandmother to knit and craft to meet demand. “We’ll have a family dinner or something, and everyone’s sitting there knitting or making something!” 

Caring for the livestock is the easy part. “They’re very set -and-forget animals. They eat just grass, hay, and a vitamin supplement. They’re happy, that’s what they do all day is eat. Eat and get loved.”