Our family took our first trip out of state together last week, and we went to Polyface Farm!! Homesteading keeps you home. Our youngest child will be 9 years old this fall and we have never gone more than two hours away for 2 days (last summer), so traveling 9 hours away for 5 days was a REALLY big deal. Only an opportunity like touring the very farm we model ours after could tear us away. We are fortunate to know a teen who understands the responsibilities of caring for animals, so we were able to leave the farm in good hands and seize the opportunity!

You guys. WE MET JOEL SALATIN!! We didn't just meet him, we hung out with him. We took a 2 hour hayride and toured his farm and listened to him talk about his methods and reasons for doing what he does. One of the most unique and special things about Joel Salatin and Polyface Farm is that anyone is welcome to visit at any time, unannounced, to walk the property and see what's going on. How many farms do you know that are open to the public and welcome scrutiny? They hide nothing and are quite proud of the way they raise food. That's the way it should be.

The first stop on the tour was to visit the pigs. Polyface pigs are kept in mobile paddocks on silvopasture, or pasture in the woods. A pig's nature is to root and dig, and that natural instinct can be used to disturb soil in woods and change the landscape in a way that's similar to how Native Americans used fire to control growth in forests. Polyface pigs are moved regularly to create just the right amount of disturbance so that desired vegetation grows for herbivores that will come through the paddocks later.

You can view a video from our tour of Joel talking about Polyface pigs here.

The farm is located in the Shenendoah Valley, framed by the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains. Joel described how water is gravity fed to the pigs and other animals on the 250 acres of pasture through a permaculture style, 10 to 12 mile network of water lines ran from a series of small ponds strategically placed in higher elevations. Using that water delivery technique, he said they get 70psi through the lines. Whaaaat?! Amazing.

The next stop was the hay shed/composting area. It was majestic. The amount of hay and compost they produce is staggering, and the effects of using it on their land over decades has had tremendous benefits. Since the farm was purchased in 1961, the amount of organic matter in their soil has raised from 1% (which is the current national average) to 8%! To illustrate the impact that has, each percent increase in organic matter results in 20,000 gallons of water retention per acre! Polyface has increased that 7-fold, resulting in pre-European levels of soil organic matter and water retention. Talk about drought resistance and financial independence! Their entire fertilizer budget goes toward a wood chipper and manure spreader. No chemicals, no reliance on outside companies or subjugation to market fluctuations. Just good old fashioned farm produced compost. Beautiful.

From there, we moved on to the broilers, or meat birds, where we saw a number of chicken tractors spread over a vast area of lush green grass. Every pen is moved daily to fresh grass, giving the chickens the opportunity to express their natural tendencies to scratch and forage. Moving the birds exercises their muscles and creates firm, dense meat. Providing fresh grass and bugs every day keeps the birds happy and healthy, and we all know happy chickens are tasty chickens!!

After the broilers, we visited the laying hens and then turkeys, which were also out on pasture, enclosed by electric netting and joined by a goose for predatory protection. There were no overpriced half-million dollar chicken houses full of birds who never see sunlight engulfed in a fecal pall. Instead, hundreds of birds are kept in quarter-acre paddocks with a mobile coop to protect them from weather and are moved daily to fresh grass. In winter, the birds are moved to a racken (rabbit/chicken) house, where rabbits are kept a few feet off the ground over deep bedding, and chickens roam around underneath scratching and pecking.

In nature, nothing is stationary. Mobility is crucial to raising healthy animals, so there is a common theme at Polyface Farm of moving them in paddocks under intense management. Pigs move through a space first to disturb the land so it grows diverse vegetation, then herbivores come through to eat the vegetation and are followed by birds in a symbiotic dance similar to the oxpecker that lives on a rhino's back. Birds scratch and peck through the manure of herbivores, eating bugs and larvae, spreading the natural fertilizer and adding fertilizer of their own.

Our final stop on the tour was to visit the cows and we had the pleasure of attending on a day when they were being moved. Joel talked about growing grass for grazing and the effort it takes to raise grass finished beef that isn't too tough, which is the most common complaint of customers who are used to conventionally raised beef. He explained that grass finished cows need to live a little longer than conventionally raised cows to get more tender meat. The growing stage of the grass they eat is vital too. It really is an art and a science raising high quality, nutrient dense meat.

It's a beautiful thing to see humans working closely with animals and honoring their God-given unique characteristics, following the patterns of nature, healing the land, and growing healthy food. At every stop, Joel described the methods of moving and protecting animals, and discussed the importance of biodiversity for human and animal health. His sense of humor and quips kept things light, and he provided time for Q&A sessions at each point. He even hung out for hours after the tour to visit and and answer additional questions. He's the real deal, and while he may not have known me at all, I felt like I was visiting an old friend.

When the tour was over, we wandered the farm and visited the racken house in hopes of purchasing a few breeding rabbits. Unfortunately, the person in charge of the rabbits wasn't available that day, but now we have an excuse to go back! We also checked out the hare pens, feed bins, hay and compost barns, got new ideas for brooders based on their design, and gazed in covetous awe at the immaculate and organized processing station. We ended the day buying meat and merch at the farm shop, took lots of pictures, and left feeling validated, affirmed, and inspired.

Seeing what Joel Salatin is doing with hundreds of acres gives us confidence to do the same with our little corner of the world. We're home now feeling freshly inspired and ready to dive deeper into healing the land and raising the best meat around. We hope you've been inspired by the sustainable, regenerative practices described in this email, and the examples of true stewardship and humane animal husbandry. If you feel moved to support the cause and eat high quality, nutrient dense, locally raised and processed meat, then please take part in our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share program. There are a few shares still available for summer, and the fall share is open for purchase.

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Thanks for taking the time to read this email. I know it was long, but I hope you got a feel for the important work farmers like Joel Salatin are doing. It is a growing movement that is changing the world for the better and giving new farmers hope for entering the field to make an honest living without a mountain of debt. It's a grassroots movement (quite literally), and requires the support of people like you who want to have relationships with your food and farmer and promote a healthy, wholesome lifestyle.

I included some pictures for your viewing pleasure and will add more to our Facebook page. I took lots of videos that I'll add to our YouTube channel as well. Then you can hear Joel talk for yourselves in more detail about the farm. You can always look him up on YouTube to find higher quality videos too.

Onward and upward!