I’m glad you decided to get to know Forest café in more detail!
On this page I’ll tell you a little about myself, the company, its employees and Forest Café.
Forest Café and it´s alpacas are run by a one-woman company called Savon Elämyspalvelut Oy, whose entrepreneur is me, Jaana.
I’m originally from North Savo, from the “strawberry capital of Finland”, Suonenjoki. I’ve attended schools in different parts of Finland, in Kuopio, Turku and Vaasa. My education includes, among others, Environmental Designer (BA) and Master of Public Administration.
Before starting my career as a café entrepreneur and alpaca farmer, I’ve worked in a variety of different development projects, including abroad. Boredom with the lonely office work and creative madness, which is common here in Porosalmi, made me jump into a new kind of life in the middle of the most beautiful nature of Lake Saimaa.
What has been important to me in entrepreneurship has been finding my own service promise, sticking to it and develop it, respecting the surrounding nature, communities and culture. At Forest Café, I strive to promote local products and Finnish products as much as possible.
I have been doing horse riding almost my entire life and animals are close to my heart. I first became interested in alpacas about ten years ago. At that time, I had sent my own mother a picture of an alpaca and joked that it would be fun to own such animals! You should be careful what you joke about. Now I own six alpacas!
Forest café alpacas
The alpaca boys arrived at Forest Café in the spring of 2024. After six months of practicing the everyday life of a café entrepreneur, I was ready, to welcome Forest Café’s new employees. Tyko, Lionell, and Enzo from breeder JS´s Alpacas, as well as Isac and Jackpot, arrived at Forest Café in the end of April. Later, Fransu, who needed a new home, joined the herd.
The previous autumn, I had already been to Wuthering Heights farm in Ahlainen to practice handling alpacas and learn theory about these funny South American camelids, under Carita Saarinen’s tutelage. Carita also helped with the acquisition of alpacas and went to shear the boys in their new home for the first time. Wuthering Heights farm offers very good courses for anyone interested in alpacas, where you can learn about alpacas both theoretically and practically. www.humisevaharju.fi
Alpacas are sensitive, curious and gentle animals by nature. They are semi-wild animals that have been bred as pets, and in principle do not care much about being touched. The purpose of breeding has been to produce wool and meat, and nowadays, especially in Finland, alpacas have become more and more pets and can be used for animal-assisted activities in a variety of ways.
Read more about Forest Café´s alpacas on the introduction page: LINK (soon coming)
Alpaca wool
In addition to the alpacas’ great nature, they also produce wool once a year. Alpacas are sheared at the beginning of summer and the wool can be spun into yarn or used for felting, for example. Alpaca wool is not called the fiber of kings for nothing; it is warm, soft and light.
Forest Café´s alpaca first-quality wool is spun into yarn at the Saimas spinnery every year. You can buy yarn from Forest Café and soon also through the online store.
We use 2nd and 3rd quality wool for felted products. Forest Café´s shop offers felted jewelry, bow ties and cards.
If you are interested in alpaca wool, Forest Café a also offers hand-carding and needle felting upon request. We also sell untreated raw wool to those who are interested.
You can buy Forest Café alpacas’ wool products and other alpaca products in the online store:
LINK (coming soon)
