Friday, July 23, 2010

We're back!

What a fun trip! A little bit of Alexandria, VA ~ Driving through the beautiful countryside ~ Two 14-hour intensive training days on the farm ~ A few state parks and caverns ~ and lots and lots of learning and note-taking. We had a bit of a frame of reference since we have been raising chickens and turkeys this year, which allowed us to ask some detailed, specific questions. We learned lots about pigs and cows, which we want to raise in the future. We met many people devoted to local farming, grass-finished meat, pastured poultry, etc. Joel Salatin was the teacher and we followed him around his entire farm for 2 days. The training was limited to 30 people to keep it intimate and give enough time for valuable discussion. Virginia is a beautiful place, but so is Salt Lake City and we're excited to be back home to farm in our own local community. The visit to Polyface was so encouraging and positive. The Salatins have been farming for years and decades, so it was fun to see all the possibilities and come back to our own little growing farm. Thanks again for sharing this adventure with us. Enjoy the pictures!

p.s. if you don't know who Joel Salatin is yet, watch the movies Food, Inc. and Fresh, the movie or read the book The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. We highly recommend them.

2 comments:

Gage said...

Very fun pics. I am incredibly grateful that you labeled the forest "the forest". Otherwise, i would have been very confused. :):) Cute skirt.

Kristal said...

Danny! This is defaintely amazing and awesome ! We'll defaintely come check it out when we come up to Utah. I'm sooe xcited for you. and we're jealous! We've got a few of our own chicksn, and we get all of our meat from local farmers, but to own a huge farm like that...LOVE IT! Congrats!!!