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Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm on Pinetown Road in Preston was the backdrop for the 2025 Chesapeake Agricultural Innovation Center’s Producers Unveiled event on June 4. The occasion brought representatives from the USDA and Senators Van Hollen and Alsobrooks’ offices, the Maryland Department of Agriculture, and the Mid-Shore Regional Council, as well as agricultural entrepreneurs from all over the Eastern Shore to the heart of Caroline County.
CAIC is a subsect of the non-profit Eastern Shore Entrepreneurship Center. They provide support to those in agribusiness by offering courses in business growth and development, receiving the majority of their funding from the USDA.
Phil and Vickie Liske own Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm, which sits on about 15 acres in Preston. Phil said it was “really exciting” that Outstanding Dreams was chosen to be the venue for CAIC’s annual event, “at first they had this long list…Pam came out and checked out the place and she was very enthusiastic. She informed that there were a lot of different places that they were looking at,” he said. Within two weeks of the initial visit, Liske was told his farm made the final four. A week after that, Outstanding Dreams was chosen. “Honestly, it was quite an honor,” said Liske.
Pam Foulke is Galbraith’s daughter and one of the Producers Unveiled event staff. She said that Outstanding Dreams was a favorite from the start, “As soon as I saw the alpaca farm, I was like, that's it. It's perfect…My heart melted when I got here.” Foulke said she wanted to find a place that “really just dropped people in” to the local agricultural atmosphere.
Liske said he has spent the last month getting the property ready to host Producers Unveiled, “right up to the last minute, you're cutting grass and you're mowing and you're weed eating, you know, just getting everything presentable.” While he said he is used to spiffying up the place for Outstanding Dreams’ annual festival in the Fall, he was particularly focused on having the farm look good for this event because “years ago somebody told me, and it has stuck to me like glue, ‘You get one chance to make a first impression’, right? So, you know, this is a representation of my farm, my business, my passion, so I want to make a good impression.” He hopes the exposure from CAIC and the high-profile crowd will “lead to more things like this.”
CAIC’s Program Director Emilio Espinosa explained, “The reason why we have this event is we want to build community among the region…sometimes the in-person doesn't happen as much at the Ag Innovation Center, we do a lot of education courses and business development services, but they're all online, and so this is a great opportunity for the community to get together and network and get to know each other.”
Shore United Bank, Farm Credit, Chesapeake College, and other entities were there as sponsors for the conference and/or to share their resources with the small entrepreneurs or aspiring small entrepreneurs in attendance.
Not only was the event held in Caroline County, but the keynote speaker was Gayle Galbraith, owner of Federal Brewing Company and Federal Beverage Company of Federalsburg. Chef David Murray from the Chesapeake Culinary Center in Denton also gave a demonstration to attendees on the methods of cooking Blue Catfish.
