A Farm of Many Faces
Monday, May 17, 2010 at 12:01PM My husband and I have decided to try to eat less processed foods and focus on local and natural products. We aren't extremists when it comes to this sort of thing so we aren't completely cutting everything out and we still plan to enjoy fast food or take out pizza now and then. However, we are fortunate to live in an area with a lot of farming and it is pretty easy to eat fresh local food so we figured we might as well take advantage of it when we can. To get started, we went here last weekend.
Polyface Farms is only about 8 miles from our house and is well-known for grass-based, natural, organic farming. It is a family-owned farm and the head of the family, Joel Salatin, has written several books and tours the world speaking about the importance of natural farming. The farm has been featured in the movie Food, Inc. and the book Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
Every Saturday and by appointment during the week, they sell their products on the farm. We headed out to the farm Saturday morning and had a great time. They are currently building their store front so it is under construction, but they have a list of items for sale and you pick your selections out of the freezers and refrigerators in the store. They have a wide assortment of beef, poultry, and pork. They also have eggs and cider. They even had whole fresh chickens that were processed only the day before.
Joel himself was working in the store and sold us our food. While it isn't cheap to eat this way, it feels so much healthier. And the neatest part about their farm is that they have a transparent policy. Every day, except Sundays, you can come out and tour the farm and go anywhere on the property that you want to see how they care for their animals. They also do guided tours if you are interested. I forgot my camera and it was very close to Riley's naptime so we didn't tour the farm on Saturday but we plan to go back in a few weeks and check it out. It is a beautiful farm and I think Riley will love seeing the animals.
So far we have cooked breakfast sausage, steaks, ground beef and chicken tenders from the farm and it was very delicious. We can't wait to go back and try some of their other offerings.
Sorry for the non-design related post but I thought it was an interesting place and wanted to share it with y'all. Do any of you buy your food directly from the farm?
Food, Polyface Farms
Reader Comments (9)
I am a huge fan of Joel's! He visited our Community Food Systems Planning class at UVA when I was in grad school for urban planning. His broiler chickens and eggs are just amazing. So cool that you visited Polyface. Have you heard about Retail Relay? Hopefully they'll expand to Staunton soon, but it's a super-easy way to buy local without driving out to a farm every weekend.
You are so lucky to live near a farm like this!!! I get most of my meat and eggs from the farmer's market. Someday I will get chicken...but it is so expensive. I also get most of my veggies there. Everything is so fresh and yummy!
I try to, especially in the summer when there are plenty of in-season, local things to eat! We do a CSA for our produce, but also visit farmers' markets and order local meat, dairy, and eggs. The produce is definitely much more healthy and tasty!
Lee has been trying to get me to do this forever. My biggest concern (other than cost) is just the amount of food we'd need to buy versus our tiny freezer. How much did you guys buy?
We are part of an organic vegetable CSA and then buy all our meat & eggs from another local farmer. You're right - it's definitely not cheap, but the quality is so much better and we find we just eat less meat. I've also just found another farmer to get my milk from - so we're pretty excited about that!
This place looks great and I agree fresh and local food is the best. I just finished planting my garden last night and have several farms I use for milk, meat, eggs, etc..
Hey - will you let me know when you guys go back? If you don't mind Clara and I would love to tage along - she's been asking to see some live farm animals lately and I am sure she would love to go with Riley!!
Hi Rachel: I converted to this way of eating a year ago and now I only buy grass fed meats, pasture butter, local eggs and organic milk. We buy our meat and cheese from at CT farm called Cato Corner - they raise jersey cows that are grass fed and their cheeses are all raw milk based. No more cereal in the morning - only oatmeal, bacon or eggs. I also try to soak my grains, but w/a part-time job, a toddler and home improvement projects, it's tough to always prepare in advance. I love it though when we eat like this! Thanks for sharing!
Very cool! I'm reading an Omnivore's Dilemma right now and find the book 'eye-opening' to say the least. I moved to England from North Carolina almost 4 years ago. I had no idea how 'processed' so much of our food has become. The UK is about 20 years behind the U.S. as far as giant grocery stores and lots of processed food. There are still local butchers, fish mongers and green grocers but they are disappearing fast. I like my box of Mac & Cheese as much as the next girl but it sure does feel great to buy quality food at the local market too. Thanks for a great post.