My Town Monday: Oasis Camel Dairy in Ramona, CA

There are A LOT of fun things to do in San Diego. A LOT. Some, like the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld, everybody knows about. Some, though, are a little off the beaten path.

Like the Oasis Camel Dairy in Ramona.

You may have heard of Ramona on the news. It's where the Cedar Fire, one of our largest wildfires, began in October 2003. What else? James Cagney owned a bunch of land in Ramona. As in 900+ acres. And the town got its name from the Indian maiden in Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel Ramona. Ramona is about 37 miles northeast of downtown San Diego.

Okay. Back to the Camel Farm. I've lived in San Diego for a little over, ahem, 20 years. And I've NEVER been to the camel dairy. BUT, the next monthly tour is July 11, and I'm so there along with at least a couple of my children.



Gil Riegler and Nancy Kobert-Riegler run the 34-acre dairy, which, by the way, is the ONLY camel dairy in the entire USA.

Some trivia about the dairy and/or camels (in no particular order):

-Camels live to be about 50 years old.
-Camels have THREE eyelids to help keep the dessert sand out of their eyes.
-Gil was actually in the Israeli military and rode camels with the Bedouin.
-There are about 18 camels at the dairy.
-You can rent a camel from the dairy for a party or Nativity scene.
-Contrary to popular belief, camels really don't do a lot of spitting.





Camels produce rich milk that can be fed to foals and crias (baby llama) who are sick or injured. Camel's milk soap is full of vitamin C and is great for sensitive skin. You can buy it at the dairy or order it online (website link below).

Mike Rowe of the Discovery Channel's DIRTY JOBS shot a show last Feb. at the Oasis Camel Dairy!! Here's a link to Nancy's blog post about that very cool event.

Here's the website for the Oasis Camel Dairy.

Travis Erwin has stepped down as our My Town Monday leader. Although I'm sure he'll be back with future MTM posts because who can resist the allure of My Town Monday?!

Clair Dickson (Thanks, Clair!) set up a very adorable My Town Monday blog with links to all the participants. Please hop on over and check out everyone else's MTM posts.


Sources:
http://www.ramonajournal.com/default.asp?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramona,_California
http://www.blendradioandtv.com/Ramona_CA/index.htm
http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/xarchive.php?id=578
http://www.bloggersbase.com/articles/lifestyle/travel/oasis-camel-dairy-ramona-ca/ (including photo credits for all but the top pic)