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Date: 12/1/25
Duration: 22:21
Guest: Allie Rae Beck
Website: Ellaberry Llama Farm
Listen on Spotify:
Summary:
In this episode of Living Local with Frisbee Real Estate, Ed sits down with Allie Beck, co owner of Ellaberry Llama Farm, a first generation llama farm on a sixth generation apple farm in Edneyville near Hendersonville, North Carolina. Allie shares how a childhood love for one special llama turned into a full time agritourism business that now includes 36 llamas and 3 alpacas. She explains what an orchard hike looks like, why you walk llamas instead of ride them, how they are used as guard animals, the difference between llamas and alpacas, and how their herd once ran a black bear up a tree.
You will also hear how Ellaberry Llama Farm fits into the growth of agritourism in Hendersonville and Edneyville, why the area has become such a draw for visitors, and a few of Allie’s favorite local spots to eat and explore. Allie breaks down their by appointment only farm tours, llama led orchard hikes, birthday parties, and wedding appearances, plus two new holiday events: the Fa La La Llama Farm Tour and a Christmas Open Farm with photos, obstacle courses, llamas in costume, and tractor rides through a lighted apple orchard. If you are looking for a unique Western North Carolina experience for your family, guests, or next event, this episode is packed with ideas.
Learn more or book a visit at: ellaberryllamafarm.com
Watch on YouTube:
Transcript:
thanks again for joining us today. And today is our special guest is Allie Rae with Ellaberry Llama Farms here in Hendersonville-ish. I guess actually Edneyville, but super excited to have Allie join us. Thank you, Allie, for taking time. Thank you so much. your busy schedule. So give us a quick overview about yourself, what you do and about the llamas. And then I have some questions that will come to mind and we'll go from there.
Awesome. So yes, my name is Allie Beck. My husband and I, Isaac, we run the llama farm full time. So we are a first generation llama farm on a sixth generation apple farm in Edneyville. Like you said, pretty much our main goal is to offer the opportunity for people to come and see our llamas. We do all kinds of agritourism events like farm tours, orchard hikes, birthday parties, weddings, all kinds of stuff ⁓ amidst the beautiful outlay of the apple farm.
So what does an orchard hike look like? So an orchard hike is when you get to have your very own llama. And you get to, it's pretty much like walking a big dog. And you get to do a 1.4 mile hike through our apple orchard. So you get mountain views. It depends on the season you hit. You might get apples in bloom versus apples on the trees. And then lots of time with a llama. And so we teach you all about them during the hike. You said lots of time with a llama. When would you not have a llama? Never, pretty much the whole time. You get there, you pick your llama.
We halter them and get them ready for you and then we hike and you don't ride them, correct? You can't ride them. Okay wish you could you can't they're just backbone can't support weight like a horse can so just like a walking buddy and how many llamas do you have so we have it changes all the time, but right now we have 36 llamas and three alpacas Wow. Yep ⁓ Is that the most you've had it is actually yes, and it's going up from from there at the moment We have nine babies due in this in next year. Well, that's exciting. Yep
And that's intentional? It is. Is it to grow the farm or to do you sell them or? We do. We do both. So what we do is we'll breed our females. You know, we look at their genetics and their phenotype, genotype, everything to breed. And we sell them as show animals or, you know, guard animals, fiber producing animals. And then the ones that we want to keep, obviously we keep and train and we use on the farm for agritourism. And what got you into llamas? So growing up on a farm, I've always had animals. I've had, you know, cows and sheep and goats, even rabbits and things.
But when I was nine, our neighbors had a baby llama born. ⁓ And I had never paid attention to the llamas before until that baby was born. And I fell in love. I asked my grandma if I could visit them. And she was like, absolutely. I'll give him a call. So she called him. He said, absolutely sure, come on over. And that baby, I mean, I absolutely, I just fell in love. So every day I helped that couple. It was an older couple feed their llamas at three o'clock every day. And they ended up giving me or inherited on one. ⁓
Gentleman Hank Balch passed away. He left me that llama, that baby llama. And he was about eight months old at the time. So I told my parents, I was a llama farmer now and they have to have a buddy normally. So we got Jelly Bean to go with him. So I have JJ and Jelly Bean. And then now we have 40. And do you still have those llamas? do. I still have both of them. And the first one's name is? JJ. JJ. That was my buddy. So how old is he? So JJ will be 12.
Well, I hate to ask, what's the life expectancy of a llama? 20 years, typically. Oh, okay, good. Yeah, so I know, it's pretty good. 20 to 25, but. Nice, so you showed llamas or still show them? Yep, yep, I showed a lot during like middle school and high school for sure. And then now since I've graduated college and married, we only get to go to about, we went to two this year, which is great. But showing's really fun. And that's actually how we market our breeding herd, you know, is to other llama farmers, you know, your animals.
Once they have so many winnings under their belt, obviously that's good to produce. And you can sell their babies, part of it. And where are the shows? Are they local or further out? Unfortunately, they're all pretty far away. The Midwest has a lot of shows. We go to a few in Texas, ⁓ as well as there's a lot out west, like on the West Coast. But there's everywhere. So not many on the East Side. There's really not too many. The Southeast has a little bit of a, they have a show string, but typically they're in Georgia. So really not many here in North Carolina, for sure.
Are there any llama farms in the area? So I believe there are a few alpaca farms that I know of. Now I'm not exactly sure of their name. I don't want to say I'm wrong. But like some toward the Asheville area, you know, and farther out like Rutherford 10-2. But we're like the only pure llama farm that I know of in this area that lets you, you know, get up close with them. We actually, you you don't just come to view them and that's why we're by appointment only. We actually like let people.
walk them, pet them, love on them, take pictures. I mean, you get to hug them. Like you're up close, you know, rather than just on the other side of a fence. And that was my goal. You know, I wanted people to really get to handle them. That's really cool. Safely, of course. But yeah. Do they spit at you? So they do spit. That's the short answer is yes, they do spit at me. Not as much. We try to train them actually, believe it or not, when they're babies, you know, not to spit at us for no reason, right? They shouldn't just spit for fun because that's not.
But they spit at each other because that's their way of defense. So every day when we're feeding them in the morning, they're spitting. ⁓ So it's not just a sound. They're literally No, it's literally a spit. It's actually like llama throw up. Wow. It is. So they are ruminant animals, pseudo ruminants. So they pull ⁓ that food from their stomach in their C1 and they can spit it. How about that? Yeah, it's amazing. It's actually amazing. Do you wear a mask? No, I do not. But let me tell you something. It smells horrible. It does.
It does stink. So that's why we don't want them to on people and they hardly ever ever ever spit on people but they spit on each other. You know what I'm saying? They just do. That's funny. It is funny. So you mentioned by appointment only but go ahead and tell people how do they find you or where are you that kind of stuff. Absolutely. So we actually have online ticketing so what you can do is go to our website at ellaberryllamafarm.com and you can either stay on our homepage or look at our services page and click on a farm tour.
Orchard hike we also do birthday parties, which is you know a private event of course for your family or your party ⁓ But yeah, you can click on there and we have all of our times and dates listed on our website And you can buy your tickets right there on the website and are the times of date? Typical every week or changes or so it kind of changes typically almost every Saturday We will definitely have a few farm tours one or two then when it gets busy season like this week We're going to have almost one every day. So we have two tomorrow actually none on Thanksgiving
two Friday and one Saturday. So we have a lot of events when it gets around the holidays. ⁓ But we also, if you don't see an event on their website that works for you, we encourage you to give us a call or email and ask us, hey, could you make this day work? And typically we can. But we try to pick, you know, popular days like weekends and evenings. And you mentioned weddings. Have people actually had weddings? So not at the farm, but we have brought llamas to weddings before.
And what did the llama do in the So we dressed them up typically in like a bow tie and a veil or you know whatever they would like a flower ring ⁓ and they greet guests when they come in or during the reception they're there to greet them take pictures with them you can pet them and learn about them they make great photo. It's awesome yeah they'll give you a kiss you can feed them a treat we've trained a good few probably five or six to give you a kiss for a treat so that's fun too. And how many would you take to a wedding?
Typically two. Yep, typically two. We can do three. We have done three before for big weddings, but typically two. Are they strong enough to pull a carriage? So actually, yeah, they can cart. ⁓ I have not started that endeavor yet. I think I would love to train a llama to cart. It's a big deal to train them, obviously, but ⁓ we there's a lot of people that do it that that cart their llamas. Well, you mentioned weddings. That'd be cute to see them, you know, dressed up and they can also carry a pack.
So it's like they're a pack animal in South America where they're native is where they're used, you know, mainly for that. But even here when we go on hikes, normally one llama in our little group will carry a pack with like a medical kit, you know, extra water, snacks, stuff like that. Yeah, they're pack animals. So you could always put stuff in their pack at a wedding too. Yeah, like flowers or whatever. That's really cool. ⁓ have lots of ideas. A llama could deliver a house key to a new homeowner. They could. They could. That'd be a great. They're so personable. They really are.
How much does that cost? Fish, ballpark, Yeah, typically, I mean, for a wedding, so typically we charge about the hour, you know what I mean? So typically people will hire us for an hour to come and be there for an hour. But we also have to factor in traveling. We've traveled up to three hours for a wedding before. One way? Yeah, one way. because they really wanted us to come. And we were probably the only people they could probably find, maybe in the area that offer that too, I'm sure. ⁓ But anyway, typically it's about $2.50 for an hour. And then we work with...
pricing to travel. If you're in Hendersonville, you know there's no travel fee because we're here. But if we have to travel for- per animal? For an hour, for two. Okay. Yeah, yeah. That's a great deal. I mean, it's really fun. Travel is when it gets expensive, If you mentioned you heard it on the podcast, it's 250 an hour. That's a great special. for sure. Wedding special in the spring. Let us know. I know. That's really exciting. So what's the difference between a llama and an alpaca? So the main difference is size. Your alpacas are a whole lot smaller than your llamas.
Typically a llama can be about 400 to 500 pounds full grown. your alpacas can get up to about 250. So there's always a good 100 pound difference there, maybe more. But also their ears are different. So when they're babies, it might be hard to tell the difference. But if you'll look, llamas have banana ears. They're almost shaped like a, people say I'm like a devil horn, but I like a banana better. And the alpacas are short and pointy, almost like a cat, like a triangle. So look for those curved banana ears and it'll tell you it's a llama. So you intentionally have some alpacas also?
We do. Just to mix it up? Yes. And the main reason we got our first alpaca, probably, guess it's been five years now. I've had Max at least five years, ⁓ was because people were asking what is the difference, right? And they're like, you know, we want to, they want to see both at the same time, right? And so I was actually very blessed. I was gifted Max from a friend of ours that shows llamas and alpacas. And then I fell in love with Max and we got two more. Their names are Moony and Rosie. So we've got three you can meet when you come. Cute names. And they all get along?
They do. I typically keep our girls separate from our boys. Even though most of our boys are gilded, so they cannot, you know, have babies. typically the girls are kind of moody. So we keep our girls together and our boys together, but they do get along. I meant alpacas and llamas. Yes, they can. They get along. They live together. girl alpacas live with girl llamas. And you mentioned a llama as a guard animal. I you said that earlier. What do they guard?
So llamas can guard, I mean sheep or goats are probably the two most common animals that people put them with. But yeah, they're excellent guards because they're so attentive and they're naturally, like I said, looking out all the time. And they're better than a dog? So it just depends. Here's what's good about a llama versus a dog. So your llamas can eat the same food as your sheep and your goats where your dogs can't, right? They have to be fed separate. They're more like livestock where dogs are not livestock, right? So typically they're just a little bit easier.
I mean people have great success with them guarding their sheep or goats. So we do we have we have them with our alpacas to guard them as well And even when we had chickens, I mean they kept everything away as long as there were llamas nearby And what do they do? Do they go just walk towards an aggressive? So so typically they'll charge whatever it is. They have an alarm call So that either alarms the other llamas or even the other animals in the herd alarm call meaning they make a sound yeah, it's a super loud screeching like
Are you gonna demonstrate? wish I know I cannot I wish ⁓ if you want to you look it up on YouTube It's actually crazy. Google it. Yeah, totally Google it. ⁓ but they'll charge their predator might have killed a possum and a raccoon before ⁓ Stomping it, you know, they'll it to death, but they also spit I mean that's a unique defense for a mammal in the States, right? So I mean when they're spitting at their predator, it smells horrible. It's scary ⁓ And like I said, they charge them and they'll stomp them. So yeah, and ours have treated a bear before
I forget that story is really fun too. Well, tell us. Yeah. So this is a few years ago, but we had a pasture with trees in the middle. There's like a group of trees in middle. ⁓ And so one day we were kind of looking off our porch down and we saw the llamas were circling the tree. There was like six boys in there circling, circling. And I thought I didn't look right. Something's going on. So we went down there and looked and sure enough, there was a bear, a black bear up in the trees that they had, you know, run it up the tree and they would not let it down. They were alarm calling and just freaking out. So we had to lock the llamas up and let the bear run off.
Wow. Was the bear just He was just hanging out up there. I'm sure we live on the edge of the woods. I mean, I'm sure he came out and if he got in the pasture, they were not going to let him out. So, yeah, they're really protective. So people have to make an appointment to see y'all. location wise, you're in Edneyville. So you're out Highway 64. We're about 20 minutes from downtown Intersonville. OK. Of course, no traffic. But yeah, not far at all. You mentioned no traffic. That's good. Never happens. And you're open year round just by appointment only.
special events, you're open to other creative ideas. Definitely. You can reach out if you have any other questions though. Reach out by email or phone. If you want a special address is? ellaberryllamafarm.com Got it. And llamas, two L's. Yep. Two L's. That's right. That's right. Alright, so you grew up in the area? I did. So my dad and my mom are, well my dad is a sixth generation apple farmer. So my mom and dad both still farm. And then my husband and I mainly do the llamas. That's really On a farm everyone's involved in everything, you know?
We've had a few people who mentioned farms and it's a lifestyle and it's a grind. Sure is, you have to love it. It's 24-7, so least sounds like it. ⁓ Tell us what you've seen that change since you grew up in the area. gosh. you seen Hendersonville change? Asheville, the area, roads? Definitely Asheville has changed a lot. feel like Hendersonville just itself has become...
I feel like such a tourism spot. mean, there's so many more tourists here than there was, know, even 10 years ago or so. Which I think is why, like, we have flourished and your downtown Apple stands have, you know, seeming to be flourished just because of that. People come in here to hike, see the mountains, you know, ⁓ obviously visit Asheville too, but even come here and get the kind of country, mountain town feeling. So, I mean, we're not complaining because we're agritourism, but I know that it's, I mean, just we see.
In Edneville, there are lots of family plots of land that are being sold off to be housing developments. I mean, we've seen it right across our road. It breaks our heart because we used to see apple trees and now it's going to be built with houses, which I understand things change, but it's hard. It's sad. not everybody wants to farm and finds that a priority. You know, they have other goals in life. So, but yeah, it's ⁓ Agritourism, that's a big industry for our area. Not a lot of people understand that or understand what that could.
could do, but even you mentioned the past 10 years, it's interesting to see how, it may not be apple farmers per se, but like grandads or Jeter Mountain are doing stuff more, not necessarily year round, but into the Christmas season. And that's newer, I think, the past few years. And I think it's smart. I do too. If there's a demand, then take advantage And be open, absolutely. That is something, yeah. If you can handle it. For sure. The workload, but I just think things like that will continue to open up or expand.
I could see that too. Agritourism, like you said, is huge. It's the way farming is going. It's actually kind of how we are able to sustain our apple farm coming forward. it's a huge part of how we live, for sure. Interesting. ⁓ If you ever go out to eat, you have any some?
Hot spots places you recommend to people. Yeah, so I mean my husband and I were not super fancy We love like a cafe or just easy dining but costas fireside kitchen is like my favorite breakfast or brunch place ever the first person to say that really lecture right well or no I'm telling you anytime like his parents are in town because he's from Minnesota. That's where we go ⁓ Sunday morning Saturday mornings. We love it. I also love blue sky cafe over there on Hendersonville Road beside the old costas that place
The food's always really good and it's fresh and it's not you don't break the bank. So I like it a lot. Those are my two go-to's because I've never ever had a bad experience at either one. Nice. But yeah. And if you have friends coming to visit the area or family is there anything in there you say, hey, you got to go check this out other than the farm. Yeah, right. You got to come to Elevary Llama Farm. ⁓ I mean, the apple stands always have really good treats if they're open. That's always fun. We still stop by and get apple treats. Which apple stands? Well, I mean, we have there's a lot that we love. ⁓
But Justice Orchards has the best fried pies, I think. Granddad's has amazing cookies, holy cow. And then Slushy's from McConnell Farms, that's actually where we get most of our cider, believe it or not, is from McConnell. So ⁓ those are three good places. But also, like the hiking, if you're new to the area, obviously the hiking's amazing. Pretty Place Chapel, it's about an hour from where we live, so it's probably 45 minutes from downtown. But you go through DuPont State Forest, that's gorgeous, obviously. ⁓ We love that place too, to visit. See the mountains.
That was the first. Gorgeous. Let's see. What else am I forgetting? What are some of the top roundabouts? Always ask about roundabouts. You're a fan of roundabouts or no fan? Yeah, I like roundabouts. Good answer, because everyone else has said yes. Good. Good. I'm no problem. That's good. Even pull on a trailer? No, no problem. No, I'm ever good with that. Yeah. My dad's made me pull a trailer since I can walk. so your trailer carries llamas. Yep.
Is it a horse trailer? It's not. we actually like a stock trailer works better than a horse trailer. So slant load, you know, kind of limits your space with llamas. They're more like sheep or goats where you can really kind of pack them in in a sense. So we have a 16 foot like stock trailer that has two sections and we can fit like at least 12 llamas in there. 12 to 14 llamas. We've carried 14 in there before. Big llamas too. Yeah, they just, as soon as they get moving, they lay down. That's how they travel. You put them in and they lay right down. That's cool.
So we don't, we're not set up to be mobile, but it'd be really fun to bring in the cameras one day and Making a point with the llamas. That would be fun. So we do not want to have them come here. Does not know not llama friendly. Llama proof. What do you do for weddings and stuff? Do you, how do you, do you, they wear a little bag or something? So actually what's cool and this is a good question. Llamas and alpacas, they actually typically like they poop in one spot in the pasture. Like they pick a spot and go. ⁓ so typically like in the trailer.
If that's where they're going to go, they'll go. And they're good for, I can trust them about an hour or two. Of course, if something happens to an animal, we can't control it. But they're actually really good about that. They don't just stop and go whenever. We can kind of take them to a potty It's different than a horse. Yeah, definitely different. Totally different. They also don't, yeah, it's a little bit different. So it's easy to clean up too. It's like pellets, which is nice. It really is nice. Great for fertilizer too, by the way. do you sell that?
do in a sense, it's kind of like come and scoop it yourself and you can have it type of deal. ⁓ But one day we want to be able to market that, just haven't got there yet. But it is amazing fertilizer. It's actually not what people say hot, like chicken poop or cow poop is hot. You know there's fertilizer, you can't put it right on your plants, it'll burn it. Llamas alpacas, it's totally different. You can put it right on your plants. ⁓ And it doesn't really stink like others, so it's really nice too. You can have bring your own shovel days. your own. Help us out and help your plants. ⁓
That's awesome. For sure. Well, this is exciting, Allie. I have. Yeah, we could do a whole nother episode, maybe in the spring or maybe we could have people reach out to us, have suggestions and you could say that's stupid or that's a good idea. OK, we're up for it. Things you can do at the llamas. That's right. Well, good. So we look forward to hearing about the second and third generation. I probably wouldn't be around for the third generation, but of the the llama farm. I I hope my kids love llamas. That's really cool. Yes, sir.
great success for y'all and I think you'll do quite well. so we're around the holidays, anything people should check out, your website to see. Definitely. we, definitely, that's great. We have two main Christmas events coming up that we would love to have people come to. They're both new too, first year doing it. So we have a Fa La La Llama Farm Tour. So it's like our general farm tour, but it's like the whole barn is spruced out in Christmas attire. So is the obstacle course and the llamas as well.
And at the end of that, we're gonna offer family photos with llamas dressed up as like Santa and an elf and a reindeer in a Christmas sleigh. So that's really fun. By tickets only? It is by tickets. And those have limited tickets because of the farm tour style. But then we have another event called, it's a Christmas open farm is what we're calling it. It's a four hour event, kind of drop in style. You purchase tickets, they're $10 a person and you can come the whole time or just an hour, whatever you'd like. We're gonna have llamas dressed up for pictures. You can take them through the obstacle course.
There's going to be llamas loose outside in the playground to just pet and love on. We're going to have a tractor ride going through the orchard lit up in lights. ⁓ And so there's, I believe, two days for the open farm and then there's four different days for the farm tour. So check our website. Really cool. How far so far so good as far as tickets? Yes, for sure. On our farm tour, they're for sure filling up the Christmas farm. We don't really have a limit, which is nice right now, since it's a four hour thing. So there should be plenty of spots, but definitely look. That's a really great idea.
We're excited about it. We're excited about this. Thank you for taking time, Allie. Absolutely. You're welcome. a super time. Thanks for having me. I hope you do great. I think you will. Again, check them out. Allie Beck with Ella Farm. Ella Berry. ⁓ boy. Berry Llama Farm. Yes, there you go. Dot com. Not dot net dot org or anything. Dot com. All right. Keep living local. Thanks again for watching. Until next time.