And his name shall be Levi.

A new addition to Olde Homestead Farm in Marstons Mills makes a long-awaited appearance.

Summer is a time of emergence and revelation around the farm. Crops, and wildflowers are in full blown glory, the bees are buzzing with renewed energy as they take advantage of the longer days and the rich bounty that changes with each passing hour. The chickens are doing their job by eating countless unwanted bugs, resting in the shade, laying eggs and producing invaluable manure by-products. The turkeys inquisitively inspect every visitor as thoroughly as any Homeland Security agent. The lavender has taken root by the acre and is stretching skyward as it catches the breeze and shares its heady scent across the fields. The hillside has turned a jubilant shade of red as the raspberry bushes burst forth with plump, ripe morsels that will soon find their way into jars and ultimately onto a crisp piece of toast. 

And in the paddock down in the hollow, the rubber-necking, freshly shorn small herd of alpacas casts a wondering gaze at anyone who approaches their enclave. Perhaps it is the protective behavior they have all recently adopted as they are prepared to defend one of their own: young Maggie who has been expecting her new cria (a baby alpaca) over the past year. Maggie and her twin sister Eve are now in adjacent stalls in the 200-year-old barn at the center of the farm because Levi, the young male made his debut one overcast July afternoon. “I was in the house in a Zoom meeting,” Joan Spiegel, co-owner of the farm explains. “The guys came in from outside and they said to me, ‘The baby fell out!’” A claim Spiegel, an obstetric anesthesiologist must have found humorous if not truly...