"Meet Your Eats" Farm Tour

 My last post was a bit of a bummer, so we'll lighten things up a bit tonight with an update on our "real food" journey.  It's no secret that Charlottesville is a haven for foodies and the real food movement in general.  There are sprawling gorgeous farms everywhere you look.  It's not hard to "eat fresh, buy local."
  This past weekend the city farmer's market sponsored a "Meet Your Eats" tour of many of the farms in the area.  We bought a pass and decided to go for it!  We picked out a couple of farms that were within 15 minutes of our house and set out for a Saturday adventure!  The first farm we chose to visit was Free Union Grass farm.  Literally 17 minutes from doorstep to drive.  We got out and were greeted by a friendly farmer and some noisy pigs!  I knew right then that the girls were going to love this!
  So if you aren't familiar with the term "grass farmer or grass farming," it is generally attributed to Joel Salatin of Polyface farm in Swoope,VA.  His farm has been getting lots of attention from Michael Pollan's books, (specifically "The Omnivore's Dilemma.")  His approach to farming is that of a scientist invested in an entire ecosystem.  He recognizes that animals and the earth really have a symbiotic relationship.  If the earth is suffering the animals with suffer and vice/versa.  He considers himself a "grass farmer" because grass is literally at the root of the ecosystem.  You take care of your grass and everything else will fall into place (more or less.)  He does this by creating a poly culture of multiple animals and grasses and he rotates the animals on his pasture so no one area is over-run or destroyed.  Every animal has a specific role to plan in the system.  It's really fascinating.  Long story short - the farmers in Free Union follow the same system.  They rotate cows, chickens, ducks, goats, and pigs.  The pigs especially do a lot of the clean up for them. 

   Chicks!

   Ivy was sucking on this wooden board.  If she doesn't die of avian flu or ebola or something in the next week it will be another testament to the cleanliness of this farm's practices... or something...  I think she licked the bottom of her shoe later on in the car as well. 

 Ducks!

 Chickens!

 Laying hens!

 Cows!!  They are super huge because they are calfing right now.  The one's we took pictures of are due in a week or so.

 It was tough shlepping all of the kids around the farm and pretty hot outside too, but I'm so glad we brought the kids and made it out.  It's amazing to see what can be accomplished with some land, animals, sun, rain, and a lot of hard work.  It's also incredibly refreshing to me to see that there are still people out there that don't believe "roundup" and antibiotics are the answer to everything.

We didn't make it to all of the other farms we wanted to see as toddlers started to melt down, but we did end the day at our favorite local peach orchard and that is a success in my book.  We came home and made black bean burgers and like the good little locavores that we are, we used local heirloom tomatoes on them as well as local micro greens and local cheese!  I love C-ville!  How will we ever make ourselves leave???