#527 Polyface Farm revisited

In the two years since I first visited Polyface Farm, owner Joel Salatin's message in support of local food has gone mainstream.

Time Magazine

 In 2011, The Atlantic magazine touted Polyface Farm as a "Mecca of Sustainable Agriculture".  A subsequent Time magazine article on Salatin hangs framed on the wall of the farm's newly expanded sales center.  Author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules) cites Salatan's sustainable farming techniques in contrast to the "industrial organic" approach. 


USA Today visited the farm and over 100,000 people watched.


So when University of Virginia Professor Rachel Most kindly invited me to return to Polyface Farm today along with her students, I was eager to see how things have changed in two years.

Joel Salatan has not changed.

He explained his farming philosophy and answered our questions in his unique hay bale amphitheater.

He demonstrated the first installation of his newest idea, sidewalk gardening, still under construction in the growing hoop house.

He quoted historic accounts of grasses taller than horses covering his Shenandoah Valley soil.

Clearly his crowd is growing.  He made a few more believers today.

Yours in going to the polls three times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
Kelly