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Libertarian farmer Salatin—eat the potpie, don’t drink the Kool-Aid... by B r o o ke J a c k s o n
I
went to see Joel Salatin the other night at Dominican University. A pioneer in farming and food production, Mr. Salatin was participating in the Food for Thought series sponsored by Point Reyes Books. His eighth book, Folks, This Ain’t Normal, has just been published, and his discussion Sunday evening had to do with topics directly from this book. In case you don’t know him, Joel Salatin has been a catalyst for change in sustainable agriculture, as modeled on his farm Polyface, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He was featured in the movie Food, Inc. and talked about in Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. He has inuenced and mentored farmers around the country, including Dave Evans of Marin Sun Farms and Tara and Craig Smith of Tara Firma Farms in Petaluma. What sets his farming model apart from traditional agriculture methods is that the livestock and poultry on his farm are all pasture-raised and grass-fed, imitating natural patterns. Cattle are rotated to new grass every day, chickens are sent to the pasture the cows just vacated to eat what they missed and peck out the bugs from the manure. They also add their own natural fertilizer to the ďŹ eld, which will rest until the next time the cows come through. A similar idea is carried out with the egg-laying chickens, turkeys, rabbits and hogs at Polyface. Each is moved through fertile pasture, allowed to scratch, peck, root and chew as nature intended, then the mobile fence is shifted to another section of grassy land. Salatin’s model, although gaining ground around the country, has been hampered by federal food and farming laws. In his latest book, Salatin rants about the trappings of big government and how the many regulations that target the ag industry are geared toward big factory farms but stunt the growth and creativity of emerging smaller operations. A self-described “Christian-
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A variant of English meat pies, the ‘pot’ pie was a 19th century American version baked in a deep crust-lined pot. Originally, the crust wasn’t eaten—it was there to keep the pie ingredients from tasting of metal.
libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist-lunatic farmer,â€? much of what he was saying at the Dominican lecture garnered nods from the crowd: In the United States, 50 percent of all food consumed is not cooked at home. Lack of participation in raising, procuring and cooking food removes integrity from it and leaves people disconnected from the source of their food. The big ag and factory food industries have created things that we can’t ethically, spiritually, physically or mentally process, such as genetically modiďŹ ed organisms, high fructose corn syrup, food that doesn’t rot (like Velveeta cheese) and mad cow disease caused by feeding herbivores chow made from dead animal parts. He is a proponent of creating scale-sensitive food laws, which are currently held back by regulation, and he repeatedly mentioned how small food producers, making things like potpies and hearty stews, were unable to sell their goodies because of these laws. But this is Marin, after all, and when he spoke of how the government healthcare plan would allow the feds to dictate how and what we eat, I sensed the crowd wasn’t drinking all the Kool-Aid. Still in his crotchety way, Joel Salatin makes a compelling argument to support local, sustainable food production. He plants the seeds for all of us to be more involved and more informed about what we eat and where it comes from.
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Joel’s Spring Potpie Salatin—a valuable source of information on potpies; not so much on the healthcare bill.
Serves 4-6 Take advantage of sweet spring vegetables
from the farmers market to enhance this pie. 1 cup of each:baby carrots cut in 1-inch pieces; new potatoes unpeeled and cut in 1-inch dice; shelled peas (or frozen); asparagus—woody ends broken off and cut in 1-inch pieces; baby portabella or crimini mushrooms, quartered 2 cups cubed, cooked chicken 1 teaspoon olive oil 2 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup all purpose our 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce 1 sheet frozen puff pastry—thawed according to manufacturer’s instructions
Preheat oven to 400. Steam carrots and potatoes until crisp-tender, being careful not to overcook. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a small saute pan. Add mushrooms and saute until golden and tender, about 5-7 minutes. Combine all vegetables with chicken in a medium mixing bowl, season well with salt and pepper to taste and set aside. Melt butter in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in ďŹ&#x201A;our and stir continuously until roux is golden brown. Add stock in small amounts, whisking after each addition, until sauce is smooth, adding more stock as needed as the mixture thickens. Raise heat to high, bring to a boil then lower heat to medium and simmer mixture until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and ďŹ&#x201A;oury taste is gone. Stir in tamari and a few grinds of black pepper. Remove from heat and add vegetable mixture. Pour into a pie plate and top with puff pastry, cutting sheet with scissors to ďŹ t top of pie. Bake in oven until puff is nicely browned and ďŹ lling is bubbling hot, about 40-45 minutes. < Discuss farming with Brooke at brooke.d.Jackson@gmail.com.