A visit to Joel Salatin's Farm: a visit in our past...

Most days, feeling like we are always on holidays is great. On the odd day, like yesterday, it's not so great. We were pretty excited to go visit the farm of a man that was a great mentor for us when we had our little homestead in the Eastern Townships in Quebec. We packed a quick lunch and left, eager to reach the farm before the store closed at noon. We had to leave the trailer behind because of the narrow and bumpy roads that led to the farm. Virginia has a very particular climate, perferct for farming, especially the Shenandoah Valley. There are fruit trees and lilacs in bloom everywhere. We were lucky to have an ongoing fall when we came down (from August in the Yukon to December in Arizona), we might just have a continuous spring as we are coming back up!

Then, in the middle of all that beauty, my phone beeps announcing a rush contract for 2 pm... and another one for 5 pm. It's 11:30 am. And we didn't even think about bringing a computer with us. We have to go back to the campground and pick one up... (why we don't take both computers at this point, I still don't know...). We have our farmers hat on, I guess! So, balancing a laptop on my lap, I try to start the contract while navigating the bumps and curves and realize that I will get sick before I finish the first paragraph... but I don't get that chance, because we lose our Internet signal... JF is now holding our hotspot device in the air in one hand while driving in the hope of seeing a couple of signal bars showing up, while we are looking at all the cute spring calves in the fields... Finally, at the top of a hill, there is a faint signal. I put a sweater in the window so I can see something in my screen, they go out to eat the strawberry spinach salad we had prepared on the truck tailgate (and soon realize we had forgotten the forks... ) and before I could finished my document, my computer battery dies...

I have 45 minutes left to hand it in. We are about 30 min from the campground. We decide to do a beeline for the next town (15 min) and we find a cute little café. Pfew! The girls play games with JF (and pick a smoothie and a bagel with butter: I am more and more amazed at the choices they make. We told them they could pick whatever they wanted. We suggested hot chocolate, chocolate cookies, brownies, etc.). All was good again! Staunton is a beautiful little town. I could have spent the afternoon taking pictures there, but we wanted to visit the farm, so off we went! I finished the two contracts and by 2:45 we were on our way.

Some people heard the name Joel Salatin for the first time when the book The Omnivore's Dilemma was published and grass-fed beef became popular for conscious meat-eatear. Many nights at the farm, I had fallen asleep reading Salad-bar Beef, You Can Farm, Family-Friendly Farming or Pasture Poultry Profit before or after trying to memorize a Waldorf story to tell the girls the day after...

Polyface Farm has been advocating the local movement and non-industrial food system long before it became the buzz. Since they have an open door policy and a transparent farm operation, they allow anybody to do a self-guided tour for free. I was very surprised to see that, mostly for the safety of the animals. We could have fed them whatever we wanted, opened fences, walked into their pens (I don't think people would do mean things intentionally but simply out of ignorance). We felt incredibly welcomed and never felt out of place. The employees talked to us and smiled at us the whole time. There is a very simple vibe there. It was a great experience.
 

It was fascinating to see what the girls remembered from our farm life, especially Mathilde since she was so little. When we approached the pig pen, she exclaimed: I remember that pig smell!! 

The girls fed the pigs fresh green grass for 30 minutes. We could not help but wonder how our dream would have been different if the girls were older at the time...

We found a black snake skin that is great shape! What a find! We can even see the eyes on the head!

In the end, it was great that we were there late in the day, because we got to see the afternoon chores. Daniel (Joel's son and the inventor of the forage-based rabbit system) arrived with his son to move the cows in a different pasture (just like in the book!) He called them and moved forward on the ATV, while his son stayed behind and did a different call to rally the stranders.

Of course, there is a part of us that misses the farm life. We will always partly be farmers, but I would not be farming for meat anymore. I would be farming to be with the animals. I miss them! However, I don't miss all the work and the (very!) sedentary lifestyle that comes with farming. This is not the season of our life right now. I really think we have found joy. And it feels great. We might just try to housesit or help on farms more. Everybody knows that most farmers always welcome a helping hand!