Taranaki Farm near Woodend, Victoria opened it's gates today and welcomed several hundred people in to meet their meat in a way. But visiting the farm today, especially under the guidance of guest Joel Salatin, was so much more than just saying a passing hello to a potential pot roast - as warm and fuzzy as that may be. It was a couple of hours of food revelation - standing in the pasture surrounded by pigs, hearing such wisdom and common sense from Joel and Ben about how well a food production system can work at it's best. How simple principles like 'animals move, move with them' and replication of wild relationships - like birds follow herbivores for pasture health, are so very visible and so obviously working.
Having been to Dumbo Feather's Joel Salatin in conversation with Rohan Anderson evening on Tuesday, I'd spent a lot of the week thinking about some of Joel (and Rohan's) philosophies. Most of all Joel's advice to "get to know a farmer, get in the kitchen and cook from scratch".
I expected to be a little cold this morning, maybe a little muddy. . .but I didn't expect to be tearing up in the first couple of minutes of Joel's talk, as Joel choked back the tears. He seemed quite overcome with emotion when he first addressed the crowd - by how proud he was of the Taranaki crew and Ben for having the courage try his brand of farming. After that he promised he wouldn't cry anymore. Humble. Inspiring.
Farm reared chickens slowly roasting over charcoal pits.
The portable dairy
“You know if you’ve gotta walk through
sheep dip and put on a hazardous materials suit to go visit your food you might
want to eat that food”. JS
“Why can’t they sell the
milk to drink? The powers that be have so ordained that it’s perfectly safe to
feed your kids Twinkies and Coco Pops and Mountain Dew but it’s unsafe to feed
them raw milk. . .I’m a big advocate of consumer freedom of choice”. Joel Salatin
Happy pigs - expressing their true piggy nature.
Portable water points - electric fences. Everything's portable.
Herds, flocks and crowds.
Beyond Organic Pastured Egg Production
Happy hens in the portable chook tractor.
Happy kids, lunch on a tractor.
Delicious Taranaki pasture reared chicken roasted over the charcoal pit.
More happy pigs - doing their piggy thing in the newly made poly tunnel.
You can follow Taranaki Farm on Facebook HERE. They'll be selling direct to their supporters soon.
Audio and more to come.
