Thursday, July 29, 2010

the next step

So, we decided we should see if Joel Salatin had any books available from our library. He did, but I don't really care about Salad Bar Beef because I'm not a farmer. We found a book called "Everything I want to do is illegal". That sounded funny, so we looked for an audiobook. None of his books had audio books. Because of this, we checked out the book, and started reading it to each other in the month of March.

We were charmed by the book, and irritated by the issues presented.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

and the saga begins

Let me begin by telling you a little bit about us.

In late 2009, while my husband Vince was wandering around the Whetstone library, he saw a book called "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. The first time he saw it, he thought "Looks like a diet book, no thanks."

Since we have mind numbing jobs, we listen to audio books a lot to keep our minds active. He came back a few weeks later and it was still sitting here, so he picked it up.

We both listened to it and liked it, so sought out other books by the same author.

Thanks when we happened upon "Omnivore's Dilemma" by the same author. That book changed our lives.

In that book, Pollan explores local food systems, and contacts a guy named Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia. Trying to find out what's so different about local, grass fed beef, he asks Joel to send some Tbone steaks to him at his home in New York. Joel refuses. Pollan goes to Polyface instead, and experiences farm life, and the system that Polyface uses.

This is all documented in "Omnivore's Dilemma", and we were fascinated by the events described.