As Bob Silverstein leans in to kiss one of his 17 alpacas, his past as a New York executive seems more distant than ever.
The Manhattan-born businessman turned Nova Scotia alpaca farmer runs the operation with his wife Norma on Cape Breton Island, where they bought property in the late 90s.
“Coming here (from) all the skyscrapers is very different,” he told CTV Atlantic on Monday. Silverstein owned his own company in New Jersey before working as national sales manager at Nikon Canada, and later becoming COO of a bio-tech company. They live in Nova Scotia part-time for many years while Silverstein travelled for work.
Though they’re both of retirement age and enjoy the quieter life, it’s not all leisure on the farm. The Silversteins run a shop where Norma makes and sells products woven together from alpaca wool, which offers powerful winter weather defence.
“People come to me at the market all the time telling me how they bought an alpaca sweater 20 years ago or so and it’s still in really good shape,” said Norma. The material also wicks water, is hypoallergenic and is five to seven times warmer than traditional wool, they said.
The alpacas are a decidedly more docile field of work than the high-powered American business arena. And it’s one that Silverstein thoroughly enjoys.
“It’s much slower paced up here,” he said. “The big thing that was really nice is that I enjoy this.”
With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald
