Meadow Gate Farm in Lawrence Township, with its herds of alpacas, will be the site for a fund-raiser for the D & R Greenway Saturday
By:Christian Kirkpatrick
Alpacas look like shaggy little camels, but they have the temperament of shy cockerspaniels. When a strange human comes to visit a group of them in their pen, they do not growl or bare their teeth. They just mill around him, too afraid to look him in the eye but too curious and friendly to run away.
When the visitor leaves, however, they hurry after him as if they were losing their best friend. Their startled eyes seem to cry, "Come back! Why are you leaving; is it something we said?"
Diane and Lee Rosenberg raise these docile creatures in Lawrenceville on a 20-acre farm called Meadow Gate. Alpacas, Ms. Rosenberg notes, come originally from the mountains of Chile, Bolivia and Peru, where they have been domesticated for 5,000 years. She has bred them for close to four years, during which time her herd has grown from four to 57.
She enjoys the animals’ sweet dispositions and appreciates their neat habits, so undisruptive to the environment. For example, when they eat grass, they nibble it only to the ground, leaving the roots to regenerate. And because they have pads on the bottom of their feet, they do not dig up pasture.
Ms. Rosenberg values this kind of good ecological citizenship both as an animal breeder and as a conservationist. She and her husband are selling the development rights to 6½ acres of their property to a land conservation agency, the Delaware & Raritan.
The property, which includes a pond, several trails and a stream, abuts that of neighbors who have also sold their development rights. Their land, in turn, lies along other conserved parcels that together create a stretch of land that Ms. Rosenberg says goes almost to Rosedale Park. This land will never be turned into houses or offices, but will always remain open for recreation and aesthetic enjoyment and to support local ecological systems.
This interest in preserving local land is also prompting the Rosenbergs and their neighbors, Isabella de la Houssaye and David Crane, to host a benefit for the D&R Greenway. Individuals and families are invited for Saturday, Sept. 23, to pet the alpacas, tour the farm, enjoy refreshments, hike in the adjacent woods and see Ms. de la Houssaye’s collection of Oriental artifacts.
Ms. de la Houssaye has traveled on dirt roads throughout the far and near East, stopping at huts in tiny villages to purchase Burmese household temples, lacquered bowls, books written on palm leaves, 16th century Tibetan paintings, yak oil lamps, Chinese silk robes, Turkish headdresses and literally thousands of textiles.
Her house is a museum in itself, and she is the most knowledgeable of docents.
The D&R Greenway protects and preserves land along the Delaware & Raritan Canal and the streams flowing through the surrounding 1,000-square-mile region. It works with the state and with landowners to protect land through donations, bargain sale agreements and conservation agreements. It also works with citizen groups and municipalities to create local open spaces.
An Alpaca Afternoon will be held on Saturday, Sept. 23, beginning at 1 p.m. at Meadow Gate Farm, the home of Diane and Lee Rosenberg, and at the home of David Crane and Isabella de la Houssaye, both on Lawrenceville Road in Lawrenceville. Admission to the D&R fund-raiser is $50 per person or $100 per family. For more information, call (609) 252-1708.