Family farmer making it with a day job, an understanding wife, and a herd of yaks

Telling your wife you just got a great deal on a small herd of yaks wouldn’t go over well in every family, and Mary Kaspari is not the kind of wife who goes along with everything her husband, Phil Kaspari, has to say. For example, she insists on pronouncing their name with the i on the end, even though the rest of the family says Casper. But yaks make a surprising amount of sense in Alaska. After eight years, the family’s farm east of town has 125 yaks, nearly enough to make a profit, according to Phil’s business plan. Yak is on the menu at a couple of restaurants here and in Fairbanks and will soon be available in Anchorage. More