Turkey

Did you know that turkeys chirp?

Did you know that geese (not Canadian) are good watchers for chickens and turkeys? They will alert people or others of any predators, and look after the flock as if they are their own.

We walked through hills of green. I brought a hat, and was just wearing shorts and a tshirt. It was sweltering anyway. At least for this girl who sits in an air conditioned office most of the year.

After seeing the little chickens, the big chickens, and turkeys, we took out a blanket and had our sandwich lunch under a tree on the Polyface front yard. It's certainly a different experience, knowing that the turkey you may take home and eat tomorrow, is watching you eat your lunch. If you go to a conventional farm, the poultry will run away from you because they think it's their time to die. Here, a person means food and care.


I have never seen happy pigs before. They were laying in the shade, up a hill, looking happy to be a pig.

We also saw their huge garden, and Daniel's rabbit house.

I couldn't make it up the hill to see the cows, I felt so hot I was going to pass out. I went back to the house to get some shade, and Teresa invited me to cool my feet off in the small pool they have in the front yard. I took up her offer gratefully, and socialized with her and one of her college friends for some time before Vince re appeared.


Joel had been on the phone most of the time after we met, about a new book deal. While we were trying to beat the heat, we got to know their house guests, and I introduced their youngest to Pixel Puzzles. Another addict was born that day!

Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel. We took a slight detour up to the Blue Ridge Moutains, but I was so carsick that it wasn't really fun for me. Beautiful, but not fun.

We accidentally took a three hour nap (go ahead and laugh at us techie-city-folk), and woke up in time to make dinner, and go back to sleep again.

If there is one thing I can say over and over again about the Polyface, it's about the grass. The different colors of grass are everywhere, and they complete the whole picture of how Polyface works.

Pacing

Sunday morning there was a lot of pacing. Since we didn't know how long their church service was (and he never answered as to appropriate attire), I left in a long skirt, high collared shirt and dress shoes, with Vince in nice pants and a nice shirt. I also packed a sandwich, and KIND bar, and some trail mix in my purse, just in case. Go to www.kindsnacks.com for information on these awesome snack bars! My biggest fear was that they would invite us to lunch back at their house, and I would have to pass on everything. For example:
"Would you like some milk we got from the cow this morning?"

"Oh, well, then how about some freshly baked bread from last night"

"How about some pastured eggs from our chickens?"


Regardless, at 9:15, we were ready. We walked to the lobby at the front of the hotel, and waited outside. Writing this in late fall is VERY funny because it's about 35 degrees outside now. It was HOT. During the day it was getting up to 95 degrees F. I also wasn't sure if this church had air conditioning!

For those of you who are Salatin nerds, I have some information for you. He drives a Subaru. I can't tell you what the model was, but it was a four door. Teresa and Joel picked us up, and if I could read lips from outside a car, I swear I saw Joel say to Teresa “Well, they are real! Here they are!”.

I was so happy to meet both of them, and the first thing I noted about them is that they laugh. A lot. If you read “Everything I want to do is illegal”, this might surprise you. They have been through, and continue to go through, a serious amount of hardship just to bring folks clean food, raised well, that tastes wonderful!

They were courteous, asking us about our trip (Teresa, his wife, gets car sick too). He said that he was really glad to hear me talking. Teresa had, and rightfully so, brought up the idea that I may be a mumbler. He was relieved to know that the person recording the book knew how to speak well.

They had to take a different route to church (their house was about 25 minutes from the hotel), so Teresa directed Joel. We then had a discussion about GPS systems, and he said that he's never used one. He does a lot of traveling to do speeches, especially in the little Subaru, and said he would just prefer the old fashioned way.

This is when our education about the Shenandoah Valley began. The highway we followed was a very old route, followed by Native Americans. Evidently, this valley is very bountiful, with lots of different food sources, so it was well traveled.

before going any further

Before going any further, you should know some of the things that this farmer wants to do that are illegal. I'd strongly encourage everyone to read Omnivore's Dilemma by Pollan, and then Everything I want to do is illegal by Salatin:

On farm processing. He would like to slaughter his own chickens, hogs and pigs on his own farm.

He would like to sell his neighbors jams, jellies, cider, etc, at his on farm store.

On his own property, he would like to build a 900 square foot house.

Those things are illegal.

You'd be surprised at how the other half lives....We thought this was outrageous. Especially consider that we believe that the way most animals are raised is disgusting, and we would like to have the ability to buy direct from a farmer.