I've Never Done This Before

I've never published another farmer's thoughts in Fresh Thoughts on Real Foods. But I guess there's a right time for everything. This crazy story feels like the right time.

Plus the farmer who wrote this piece is none other than the renowned Joel Salatin himself, the farmer/writer/philosopher of Polyface Farm, so maybe you'll forgive me.

Some folks call Joel the most famous farmer in the world...

Just Imagine! What if you'd wake up on The Family Cow farm some chilly but sunny morning in March? What if we'd allow you to tag along with our chicken manager, Marlin Charles, as he expertly starts our first 600 chicks for the year? You'd go with Marlin every step of the way... picking the chicks up at the post office, settling them safely into their cozy brooder and helping them each find their first feed and water.

Good afternoon folks, It IS a GOOD afternoon even though bad things are happening. It's still good because, in spite of the bad, good is here to overcome the bad. Let me explain: What is The bad? Organic milk customers are being disrespected and intentionally deceived by factory farms into thinking that their 'organic' milk comes from cows on grass and happy in pasture when it actually does not. And it's happening on a very industrial, family-farm-crushing scale. To make matters worse, this deception is aided and abetted by the USDA. This is bad.

Top of the morning to you, friends! OK... so everyone seemed to enjoy the new "Listen In" newsletter inspiration. I will say that I do find it refreshing to target my writing to one of our tribe and have the rest of you listen in than to try to write to all of you at once. So here is this week's "Listen In." ENJOY!

Happy New Year? Absolutely! 2018 is all set to be a wonderful new year! Thanks everyone for your enthusiastic endorsement of our 'Rescue Farm' project. It means an awful lot to feel personal excitement through your kind words of affirmation. It's clear that many of you were moved by the message of the "Amen Acres" plaque that we found on the old barn wall. Isn't God so amazing?!

Hey... We're Rescuing a Farm!

Actually, let's get this straight. It's not really us.

All you who support our Family Cow farm, you are helping us rescue another farm. We couldn't do it alone. So it's a tribe effort! :) Isn't this exciting?!

New years are for looking forward, of course, but I also can't help but reflecting back a bit. 2016 was an exciting year in the raw milk world. As some of you regulars know, a few years ago our Family Cow farm was among the first few farms in the world to be listed under the high standards of the then-newly-formed RAW MILK INSTITUTE (RAWMI)...

Something's been bothering me for a while. Sometimes it's just a niggling in my background consciousness. Other times it comes to the forefront and gets in the road of other important stuff. But it's always there. That something is GMOs...

Sometimes I feel like a double agent privy to inside information.

Often it's sensitive, potentially damaging information on chemical farming to which, if the "chem farm" folks were wiser, they really shouldn't allow me access. Especially since they should know who I am. You know, one of those lunatic, chemical-free, organic farmers!

You might think I'm overly excited because Dawn and I just got back from two weeks in Cambodia mentoring Kenny and Lindsay Mathews, a newlywed farm couple setting up the very first dairy in Cambodia...overly excited because this farm, Moo Moo Farms, is a raw milk farm to boot which means that 100% of Cambodian dairymen specialize in raw milk! :)

Hi Family Cow Family, You know what?...There's a lot that's going right with Americans and food for 2015. You heard right...

Just Imagine!

What if you'd wake up on The Family Cow farm some warm dewy morning in June. What if you could tag along with our boys, Wesley and Roland (13 and 11), for the first hour of their day...go with them every step of the way as they carefully tend the hens that produce The Family Cow's truly pastured, soy-free eggs?

In this early morning photo tour through Wesley's eyes, we’ll let you peek briefly into a typical farm morning and at the same time get a behind the scenes look into the holistic pasture and livestock management that we put into Family Cow pastured eggs.

I think God has been trying to tell me something this Christmas season. The message keeps coming out of unexpected places. And even though I can be slow to sit up and pay attention, eventually he gets his message through...

What is is about cows? It seems we were created to live in harmony with these gentle mothers... to be co-dependent. How else can we explain the historically proven phenomena that persons who live closest to the cows are often the healthiest, and strongest of their society?

You ask how, during these difficult times, our family finds the strength, courage and stamina to go on. Many of you are afraid for us… or for yourselves...

They missed him, the inn keeper and his family did. But you can't blame them really. They were flat-out frantically busy! Town was full! Thousands, even millions, were traveling from all over the world for the special decreed taxing by Caesar Augustus...

I was struck immediately. A friend had just introduced me to Ted LeBow, a self-described "serial entrepreneur." In our first conversation, Ted defined a sustainable agricultural community as "a farmer incubator." It was love at first sound. A Sustainable Farmer Incubator! It's the Big Dream of The Family Cow expressed perfectly!

Six-year-old boys have a unique perspective on life. They trustingly take every word at face value and run with it—so innocent, so sure that they understand it all...

I really shouldn’t tell you this. My wife wasn’t sure about it, my friends just laugh, but I’d like to let you in on the secret anyway. It is risky telling so many people, because if it doesn’t work, you’ll never let me forget it. But, being a notorious risk-taker plus an eternal optimist, I still feel like letting you in on it...

Our family had a food safety wake-up call in January 2012 when some of our raw milk customers were diagnosed with diarrhea from campylobacter. I'm sure you read about it in the news at the time. If you did not read about it then, I think it is important that you read about it now...

I’m neither a psychologist nor a sociologist, but I have observed that one of the most basic human needs is to feel approval. We simply like affirmation that our life's work is not only noticed, but valued. Maybe that explains our family's completely illogical delight when a pair of American Bald Eagles and their young consciously chose The Family Cow as the source of their organic chicken!

I think cows have an affinity with their human companions. They look forward to the weekend. They may have even coined the term the-weekend-get-away! How else can we account for the fact that they so often choose Saturday night or Sunday morning for their escapades?

If you're a locavore, the simple act of eating becomes a powerful, three-times-a-day vote for the food system you support. There is power in grocery shopping. You can make a difference. If Food Inc. makes you sick...

I don’t know why I waited so long to read Dr Francis Pottenger’s classic entitled Pottenger’s Cats. I had read excerpts from it in many other books, and they always fascinated me, but until this past week had never read the actual book from cover to cover. Dr Francis Pottenger Jr. was a medical doctor in California who conducted nutritional/feeding experiments with 900 cats over a 10 yr period during the 1930s...

“So much about life in a global economy feels as though it has passed beyond the individual’s control—what happens to our jobs, to the prices at the gas station, to the vote in the legislature. But somehow food still feels a little different..."