A Farm That Inspires LIFE

It is only offered once every three years to the public

A full day of exploring, listening, learning, watching……and can’t forget eating REAL food!

A gracious offering from the Salatin Family for all of us to come….come and bear witness to life. Life toiled up from the soil, life birthed, life layed, life ended, life serving another’s purpose.

I have done some pretty dumb things in my day, but this was the craziest……most radical……completely lunatical thing I have ever done!

Really who on earth would want to pack up 6 children in their van drive 800 miles across the country for 14 hours…..did I say without a husband?……Just to see some farm? Of course to make the experience complete she is going to go tent camping~au natural.  There is a reason they refer to these sites as primitive.

Well this girl would and she did!

I had the honor….undeniable privilege of fully experiencing Polyface Farm with my family.

A little background info for those of you who are saying what’s Polyface Farm and who are the Salatins?

If ya have ever seen Food Inc……you know the farmer interviewed throughout the movie. Or maybe you have read Michael Pollen’s book The Omnivores Dilemma?  Ok….still clueless read along and even if you don’t know who they are or what this farm is about you’ll hopefully have a good understanding in the end.

Joel Salatin

So…..what’s the big deal with this farm and why would I be willing to go through so much trouble just to go there?

Well, first I will share with you that there a few trials along the way. Like the moments when my older kids who were supposed to be helping with little ones so I could actually HEAR what was being said, where….. simply no where to be found.  Or….how about Sunday when all these whinnying little lovelies were told that I was going to call there father to come pick them up and they could all go home WITHOUT ME because I was staying in Virginia!  Or how about the fact that I was ticked that I couldn’t go to dinner and see the premiere  of Mr. Salatin’s new movie called American Meat.

I will be forever grateful that I took that giant leap and DID this!

This farm is about beyond organic

Animals living as close as possible to their natural design, while being governed by humans

You know where a cow can be a cow and a chicken can be a chicken and a pig can be a pig

Just imagine animals being outside eating grass, searching for grubs, foraging throughout the forest

A complete ecosystem where each piece is dependent on the other and fully self-sustaining

There have been a lot of spotlights shining on Polyface in the past few years and with that comes notoriety, the fame, more moola. Yet when I pull up to this farm all I see is humility, realness, genuine, clothes on the clothes-line, animals in the fields, and workers workin hard.

On our last day in Virginia we had to go back to the farm because who could come all this way and go home empty handed?  I had to bring home some of this infamous Polyface meat! It was perfect because just then they happened to be slaughtering the chickens and we got the up close and personal view. No, it wasn’t gross it actually was truly amazing. It was quick, efficient, & so much working in unity with one another. In fact when we walked away my 3 year old cried because he wanted to see more, so…..we went back of course.

A year ago I NEVER would have been willing to see an animal being killed. My OLD phylosophy was I don’t want to meet it before I eat it!   I now feel it is our obligation to know exactly from start to finish how our food gets to the table. You want to eat that chicken well learn how it became this white hunk of meat you’re chowin on. Not only will you be more informed and educated, but you also will gain an appreciation and respect for everything that you choose to consume.

So why did I go to Polyface? It is in part because I am radically changing what we eat, how we eat, & the way we view food in general. Was it really just to get some real whole meat, learn more about beyond organic farming,maybe meet some like-minded people, or to simply say I met Joel Salatin once?

Well yeah, but ultimately it is about life. Here is a Christian family on this mission of fully living out life as God intended and in-turn living fully.  That is the ultimate beauty…. taking our precious, numbered days and making them count….making them count for something abundant……beyond ourselves.….beyond this world. 

That’s what this journey is all about.

Who or what is inspiring you to live out life today? Due share, we can never have too much encouragement.