The last day

The last day

It was monday morning, time to pack up and head back for Ohio. This was a very sad parting. We left, wishing that there was some way that we could pay off all of our debt, and do this ourselves. On our way out of town, we went back to Polyface to visit the on farm store.

We spotted Teresa on the way in, putting out a fire about a group of folks who had ordered Joel's books, but not gotten them. They were in the process of renovating the farm store, so the order probably got lost when their lines were down.

Let's see... we bought a chicken, one rabbit, two pounds of ground beef, two pounds of Italian sausage, and a dozen eggs. Vince and I also bought two fun shirts they have available at their store. One says “Support your local lunatic farmer”, and the other says “Everything I want to do is illegal”.

While we were in the store, they were putting together food for their co-op. They have some really hard workers with their interns and staff, trying to get everything right for their customers.

While we were there, we met Joel's mother. She was cross stitching, so I went to the car and showed her my cross stitch. We talked for awhile, and it was good to meet her and get to know her.

We snapped some pictures with Teresa, and when we were headed out, Joel pulled up with someone he was helping with some hay. We took a quick picture, and headed back to Columbus.

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.

The big day

The big day to visit the farm, and present Joel with my work (so far), had finally arrived!

He had given us specific directions as to where to park, and how to approach the house properly at the time we arrived.

I was thinking...
“What if he doesn't like it?”
“What if the copy we brought doesn't work?”
(We had brought a copy on cd, jump drive, and on the laptop).
What if he's really a jerk?

We walked into the house, astonished at it's beauty and age. I've never been in a house that old before. The woodwork was done by hand, the hearth is a historic marker, and it depends on as little energy as possible.

We were welcomed into the sitting room, and I felt privileged to be sitting in the same place as Michael Pollen, and many others who have gone through a journey to discover their food.

We gave him the cd to play (I was shocked that he had an Imac), and it didn't work. We brought the jump drive, and it worked! He listened to it for a bit, and said “Well, if the point of this meeting is to give you the go ahead to continue, go ahead and keep doing what you're doing. Once completed, we'll bring in someone to make copies to sell at our store, and we can probably put it up on our website for people to listen.”

I was glad, but also astonished at the same time. These folks had to have a lot of trust in us to let us into their home, wander around the farm, and be let into their lives this much.

When we teased him about the Imac, he said “I got this laptop so that I could write whenever I was on trips. I don't really know how to do anything else with it.” His book collection does really show his colors. It was a testament that him and Teresa, and his family, spend a lot of time thinking about who they are, and why they do what they do.

Their houseguests were downstairs, so we began our tour around the farm. Everyone is welcome there. They really do want people to come see where their food comes from. I believe this is a direct contrast to so many “farms” where you are not allowed to see the animals, for various reasons. These can be found and exposed more deeply in “The Omnivore's Dilemma” by Pollen, or “Everything I want to do is illegal” by Salatin.

Church

Church
Well, the first thing to be noted, which was different than any other church experience I've had, is that their church has an Israeli flag hanging in the sanctuary. When asking Joel about this later, he said that they believe, and this is a paraphrase “God is not done with Israel. We believe that God still has a plan for Israel. We don't know exactly what it is.”

It seemed like a normal non denominational church. A big open room with a few screens that displayed the music verses, and lots of chairs. People were friendly, greeting us and Joel and Teresa on the way in. There was singing beforehand, and Joel sings REALLY loudly, reminding me of my Uncle Joe. This fact is neither here nor there, but I didn't know a single song that was sung. I didn't feel judged at all for not singing along.

At the beginning of the service, they ask if there are any guests, so I introduced us to the congregation.

The preacher that week was the youth pastor, and it was the first time he preached the Sunday service. He was excited to be able to preach in shorts and sandals. I would say it was about an hour long.

Teresa had some catching up to do, so Vince and I stood with Joel in the back of the church while she socialized. We talked a little more about our faith backgrounds.

Once we were back in the car, Joel apologized. He said that they would like to have us back to their house for lunch, but they have houseguests and a really busy schedule, so they wondered if they could take us to Chipotle for lunch. The particular Chipotle they wanted to take us to is one that serves Polyface pork, so they were anxious for us to try some of their food (without spending an arm and a leg at a nice restaurant).

Travel

Travel
Well, here we were on our adventure to meet some people that we've never met, or talked to on the phone, about an audio book that I was in the process of voicing.

Something to keep in mind here is that because of my health problems, we had to pack almost every piece of food we ate. This takes some serious organization, because we're also foodies. No blah food here!

The drive was about six and a half hours, down route 33, through West Virginia, and into Virginia. The alignment was really off in our only reliable car, so I was sick and feeling nauseous most of the time. Which sucked. Once we got back from the trip we took money out of savings to get it fixed.

I have NEVER seen a place so beautiful. His farm is right between two mountain ranges, in the Shenandoah valley. If you go to his website polyfacefarms.com, you'll see a picture that won't do the area justice in any way.

We arrived on Saturday night, and after eating dinner, hopped into the car to do a test run to the farm. The last thing we wanted to do is drive there on Monday morning, find out that our GPS really couldn't find it, and be driving around ANGRY (sans cell phone service). It was a relief to drive from country road to country road (with country music on the radio), and just breathe. We found the farm, then drove back to the hotel.