Tag Archives: Andrew Holliday

Joel Salatin’s Vision of a Local Food System

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dinner-in-yard

Joel Salatin believes that if we want to save the environment we need to rediscover our kitchens and learn how to cook. We will rediscover the joy of sharing meals with loved ones and value our world more. Photo courtesy of www.aholliday.com.

This last weekend I had the great pleasure of meeting Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm. He was speaking to a sold-out crowd hosted by the Cowichan Agricultural Society in Duncan, BC. Joel Salatin speaks passionately about family run, grass-based farming. In his own words, he is “in the redemption business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture.” The guiding principles behind “Polyface are:
TRANSPARENCY: Anyone is welcome to visit the farm anytime. No trade secrets, no locked doors, every corner is camera-accessible.
GRASS-BASED: Pastured livestock and poultry, moved frequently to new “salad bars,” offer landscape healing and nutritional superiority.
INDIVIDUALITY: Plants and animals should be provided a habitat that allows them to express their physiological distinctiveness.?Respecting and honoring the pigness of the pig is a foundation for societal health.
COMMUNITY: We do not ship food.?We should all seek food closer to home, in our foodshed, our own bioregion.?This means enjoying seasonality and reacquainting ourselves with our home kitchens.
NATURE’S TEMPLATE: Mimicking natural patterns on a commercial domestic scale insures moral and ethical boundaries to human cleverness.?Cows are herbivores, not omnivores;?that is why we’ve never fed them dead cows like the United States Department of Agriculture encouraged (the alleged cause of mad cows).
EARTHWORMS: We’re really in the earthworm enhancement business.?Stimulating soil biota is our first priority.?Soil health creates healthy food.”

My husband Shaen has read most of Joel Salatin’s books, so much of the information in the lecture wasn’t new to him. Near the end of the lecture, Shaen asked Joel Salatin if there was any big differences in his thinking now compared to when he wrote his books. Joel Salatin answered that in the past he believed thousands of farmers would communicate directly with customers. But most farmers find marketing and distribution very difficult and don’t like the work. Now he sees “clusters of farms” working with “local streams of marketing and distribution”. Joel talked about a six part system for a successful local food supply: producer, processor, accountant, marketer, distributor and customer. My husband and I looked at each other and wondered if there is a place for GO BOX Storage and eatkamloops.org in this new vision.

We realized we could become a local food distribution center for Kamloops. We could form a buyer’s group for Kamloops. We could increase the size of our orders and get better prices for everyone. We could run pocket markets or personal deliveries for a cost. If you do not know about pocket markets please read:?Pocket Market Toolkit.

It was exciting thinking that we could become part of a successful local food system which helps all of us get the best in local food at a reasonable price. If we could develop a successful local food system, Joel Salatin believes “we could give the big-box stores a run for their money.”

Update November 25, 2009: I contacted Sally Fallon and asked if she knew of anyone who could mentor me to start a buyer’s group for Kamloops. She suggested John Moody who started a buyer’s club called Whole Life Buying Club. Before a new member can join the Whole Life Buying Club, they recommend the new member watch The Story of Stuff. The Whole Life Buying Club follows a Food Philosophy which defines the type of products the buying club will bring in for members. John Moody has written an essay for the journal Wise Traditions called Building a Local Food Buying Club.

Updated December 23, 2009: I have just learned from Sandra Burkholder that Joel Salatin will be coming to Quesnel, BC on March 27, 2010. Joel Salatin will be speaking at the 2nd Annual Poultry and Rabbit Forum being put on by the Cariboo Central Interior Poultry Producers Association. Sandra Burkholder and her husband Chris Newton are building a earthship house in Darfield, BC. An earthship house is made from recycled materials and is designed to be completely self-sufficient housing system requiring no outside support. The earthship is the brain child of Mike Reynolds of Earthship Biotecture.

Updated February 28, 2010: I found a series about Polyface Farm on Watch.MeetTheFarmer.TV. You will get a personal tour of Polyface Farm with Joel Salatin. There is an incredible amount of information in this video series about his pasturing systems for the watchful viewer. He will go into the types of grasses and herbage plus the effect of mass group grazing and resting of the pasture. He goes in to some theory but most of the videos are very practice. If you are interested in the theory behind his practices please read his books for more information. Here is Part I, Part II and Part III.

[The road to] hell is paved with good intentions.
English Proverbs

Pastured Poultry Profits

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Here is a family member of a Kamloops chicken radical. Backyard chickens help people that have never had contact with livestock connect with our food heritage. Photo courtesy of www.aholliday.com.

I have been reading Pastured Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin who runs Polyface Farm. We could not get this book through inter-library loan but fortunately it was someone’s birthday. This book is a must read for anyone interested in a unique system of poultry production.

We are trying to implement Joel Salatin’s system of “perennial prairie polyculture” on our property in Kamloops. As I stated in another blog, we are fortunate to have over an acre of land in the City of Kamloops and thus can have chickens on our property. I believe it would be a very good thing for the City of Kamloops to allow all single family zoned properties this same right. Unfortunately, this is not the case at the moment. If you are wanting backyard chickens contact the Kamloops Urban Hen Movement and work to change this bylaw or you may have to consider civil disobedience.

pastured-poultry-profits

Pastured Poultry Profits is my favorite book written by Joel Salatin.

We have been running the Cornish Cross breed, which is known for its incredible feed to meat conversion ratio. They go from the egg to the freezer in eight weeks. Watching these chicks is a lesson in sloth and gluttony. The chicks gorge on feed, then fall over and pass-out until the next session of gorging. My sister Christine has been horrified watching these selectively bred birds do what comes natural to them. The trick with these birds, when it comes to pasturing, is to make it easy for the birds to get to the pasture. The birds do not like walking much.

Joel Salatin has designed a system of “chicken tractors”, which are small pens that are moved daily to new pasture. This solves the walking problem for the birds. The farmer does the moving and the birds do the eating. The fresh pasture provides diversity of forage and a variety of insect life which makes for very healthy birds with incredible flavor. With daily movement of the pens there is no smell and the birds are not living in their excrement like what is typical for industrially raised chickens. With fresh air, a clean environment, and good food these birds do not need to be given medicated feed just to survive.

In Kamloops we have what Joel Salatin called “brittle” grasslands. The area will produce well if irrigated but some of his methods will not work here. So far, moving the chicken tractors to new pasture has worked on our property. We don’t have what I would consider good pasture and I would like to lease pasture in the area if we were to do more birds.

We will be producing enough birds to have chicken dinner, twice a week, all winter long. Slaughtering day is not a fun experience but at a store price of $20 to $25 for an organic bird, I can find a way to do it. These birds done with Joel Salatin’s method are considered “beyond organic pastured chicken”, and are another product not available through the industrial food system.

We are in week four of our production cycle. I will keep you posted regarding outcomes of our research in using Joel Salatin’s methods in Kamloops.

Update September 7, 2009: For an update please go to the posting called Slaughtering Chickens dated September 7, 2009. We lost one turkey within the first few days and one chicken about a week ago. I found it breast up in the hoophouse. Cornish Cross chickens are prone to heart attacks. We had under 2% death rate. A hoophouse, also known as a gobbledygo, is another Joel Salatin method of chicken rearing. It is used during winter and in areas where pasture is limited. It requires a deep litter to fix nitrogen and not loose it to the air. This system worked well for us.

Chicken Scratch and Fresh Grain for Home Milling

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backyard-chickens

Having a backyard flock, connects us with our food. We become concerned about our flock's health and about the quality of the food we produce. Photo courtesy of www.aholliday.com.

I have been looking for a local organic supplier for chicken feed. We are fortunate to live on an acre of land in Kamloops and can have backyard chickens. Chickens help clear the yard of weeds and pests. They will take kitchen and yard waste and turn it into the best soil available. They produce eggs and meat which adds healthy protein and fat into our family’s diet. Children love the company of chickens. Children learn about responsibility, feeding and watering the birds. They learn about the environment and how they can be a helpful part of the cycle of life.

Presently, the City of Kamloops does not allow chickens on single-family zoned properties. The city has suggested that they would look at site-specific zoning to allow individual property owners to re-zone. Re-zoning is very expensive. Even if you apply for re-zoning, it doesn’t mean you’ll get what you want. Presently, if people want to have a few chickens they face the consequences of breaking the law while others forgo this wonderful addition to their household. How did we get to the point where the government decides if I can have a dog, cat, goat or chicken in my backyard? Why is it illegal to have a useful animal?

The City of Vancouver now allows backyard chickens. The City of Victoria has always allowed backyard flocks. Hopefully, our city officials will see the ecological and social benefits of bringing back livestock into the urban landscape. A few chickens and a small garden starts making people aware of what they are eating and where it is coming from. This new awareness could have a positive effect on local ranchers and farmers as city dwellers start to think about their personal food supply.

grain-mill

Fieldstone Granary has a number of grain mills and flakers.

I drove out to Armstrong, BC to visit Fieldstone Granary. They process only certified organic grains from their farm and a number of other certified organic farms. They are the only certified organic grain processor in the province that can do numerous types of grain and custom processing. They specialize in human consumption spelt, rye and golden flax. They produce livestock and chicken scratch. Spelt hulls can be used as bedding material or garden mulch. They have seeds for green manures and cover crops. We bought half a pallet of organic chicken scratch and a pallet of spelt hulls. The price was very reasonable for organic feed. Our birds went wild finding the gleanings in the spelt hulls!

Fieldstone Granary sells home grain mills and flakers. A good machine is not cheap. The flour, cracked cereal grains and flakes produced with a home mill is superior in quality to anything you can buy. If you use flour, cracked cereal grains or flakes it should be freshly ground. If you don’t know why you should eat freshly ground grains please read: Be Kind to Your Grains.

We bought some spelt and rye. Spelt and rye makes a low gluten flour. My daughter Sonja spent part of her afternoon hand grinding the grain. We will make sour dough starter over the next few days. Any ground flour should be used within four days or stored for later use in the freezer. I am really glad my daughters will know how to make bread using traditional methods with the best grain and flour available.

Eating Local Challenges: Part I

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It's hard to believe that growing our own food has become a radical act. Just a generation ago, growing your own food was the norm. Photo courtesy of www.aholliday.com.

There are a number of eating local challenges. One is called the 100 Mile Thanksgiving which challenges people to eat a local Thanksgiving dinner. The 100 Mile Diet is a more permanent change towards local eating.

I have mixed feelings about this movement. On one side, eating local is a great idea. Challenging your family to local eating for a period of time can be a great learning experience for the modern industrial eater. It allows the family to learn how dependent we have become on imported foods from around the world. Eating local for a period of time helps the family to find all of the great local food sources. This can be a fun experience.

But in the hands of a zealous person, local eating can be expensive and unnecessarily restrictive. It could make people feel guilty if they cannot live up to some high artificial restriction. Some people might quit in frustration while others “cheat” on the program and feel “bad” about not living up to some ideal. At worst, it can turn human tragedy into some kind of game. It makes “fun” of the real poverty and starvation faced by a billion people on our planet that must eat locally or die trying.

If you like to watch this type of program, which dramatizes the human condition though the distorted lens of reality TV, I have a link for you. Here is a commercial for a show coming soon to a TV near you: 100 Mile Diet in Mission, BC.

If you decide to do your own local food challenge and want to avoid these common pit falls, a good “acid test” might be a simple question. Are you having fun and learning something about yourself or are you feeling pressured and frustrated? Don’t let our society’s distorted ideals of achievement destroy a good idea.

Update April 26, 2009: Path to Freedom has announced a new challenge called the 100 Foot Diet. The idea is to eat from your property. For more information and tips about growing your own food go to: 100 Foot Diet Challenge. I can dig it!
In our society, growing food yourself has become the most radical of acts. It is truly the only effective protest, one that can – and will – overturn the corporate powers that be. By the process of directly working in harmony with nature, we do the one thing most essential to change the world – we change ourselves.
Jules Dervaes

Thinking about Motherhood

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sarah-pregnant

Sarah Harder had difficulty conceiving for four years. She introduced nourishing traditions foods and now she has a beautiful baby girl. Photo courtesy of www.aholliday.com.

When Dr. Weston A. Price researched different isolated traditional populations, he found they ate very different diets depending on the local food supply. He also noticed that all traditional cultures had special diets for any couple considering conceiving a child. The traditional cultures also planned the spacing between children. These pre-conception diets were based on nutrient dense foods for both the mother and father to be. Pre-conception diets would start three to six months before the marriage of the young couple or before an existing couple decided to have another child.

The WAPF has guidelines for a pre-conception diet that concerned parents can use. A nutrient dense diet before conception can help ensure a healthy happy baby and mother. Growing a healthy baby puts a great strain on a mother’s body and good nutrition will help the new mother have an easier birth and avoid postpartum depression. A well nourished mother will have good physical resources for the demands of breastfeeding and the care of a new family member.

Prenatal nutrition is very important for the long term health of the child. Unfortunately, lack of nutrition before birth cannot be corrected later because basic structural growth has already occurred. This does not mean giving up on the health of a child. Just that a mother’s nutrition is of utmost importance if she is considering conceiving a child.

Children with less than ideal nutrition during gestation may be helped by dietary, dental and medical interventions. It is even more important that a child without proper nutrition during gestation, get the most nutrient dense food for the first 15 years of life. During these growing years the child’s body can adapt, if given the right materials to work with.

If you are considering having a child, please read these essays:
1. Diet for Pregnant and Nursing Mothers
2. Vitamin A for Fetal Development
3. Vitamin D and the Infant
4. Is Mother’s Milk Sterile?
5. Successful Breastfeeding … Successful Alternatives

Sally Fallon has written a cookbook called Nourishing Traditions. You can find the book in the Kamloops Public Library. There is a whole section on feeding infants including homemade milk and meat based formulas. Her book has a recipe for soaked and fermented grain based gruel.

Update June 1, 2009: If you would like an traditional alternative for baby’s feeding schedule please read: Nourishing a Growing Baby. Here are some recipes for Homemade Baby Foods.

Updated August 5, 2010: If you are having trouble conceiving Dr Andrea Hansen specializes in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture. She teaches Natural Fertility Awareness Method. For more information about this method please read The Garden of Fertility. Below is her contact information:
130-546 St Paul St, Kamloops, BC V2C 5T1
T: 250.682.7289
E: dr.andreahansen(a)gmail.com

Updated February 25, 2011: Here is a very interesting article called How “The Pill” Can Harm Your Future Child’s Health.

Updated February 26, 2011: Here is a podcast by CBC Ideas on How to Think About Science with Dr Ruth Hubbard. The podcast covers a variety of topics including reproductive technologies, recombinant DNA and probability testing.