18th May 2019
Meeting Joel Salatin
Today I met Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm. I had booked my spot at a workshop being run by the SJ Food and Farm Alliance, where both Joel and Dr. Christine Jones would be giving presentations and I have been looking forward to this for months.
Unfortunately I came down with the flu late last week and despite resting and trying everything to speed up my recovery I still woke up with a bad case of the 'sniffles' today. This wasn't helped by the fact that the mercury plummeted to 3 degrees Celsius last night and with a day time high of just 9 degrees forecast for today, things were decidedly chilly as I set off this morning, armed with a box of tissues and my thickest polarfleece jacket.
The workshop was held in a markee at 'The Natural Circle', a stunningly beautiful regenerative farm right on my doorstep. Despite not being at full mast I could not help but marvel at the beauty of the farmland surrounding me it truly was a magical setting for this event.
Joel didn't disappoint, he was every bit as inspirational and entertaining as I had hoped and I was lucky enough to get to chat informally with him at lunch time. I asked him what had been the motivation behind him doing what he does and he replied simply "I was hungry" and we both laughed.
It was a stark reminder, never to forget that the end goal (in wherever my journey leads me next) should always be to produce natural and nutritionally dense food for the people I care about and to seek to do this in a mindful way, that nurtures and heals the earth that feeds me.
P.S. I really wish I had taken a thick blanket to cover my legs because all my new plans will need to wait until I defrost.