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Friday, January 23, 2009

Lunch & lecture with Joel Salatin

Today Zari and I met Eric on campus to attend a lecture by Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farm. He is the "grass farmer" featured in The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. If you haven't yet read Pollan's book, he wrote an excellent article in Mother Jones about Salatin's farm, called No Bar Code.

The lecture was accompanied by a free lunch consisting of locally-grown foods. We feasted on:
  • locally grown organic hybrid beefsteak tomato salad with herb vinaigrette
  • baguettes & whole grain house made brioche made from local stone ground whole wheat flour
  • local barbecued pulled pork shoulder
  • free range chicken salad
  • local house cut sweet potato chips
  • local berries in the snow (delicious crumbly crust topped with creamy sweet goat cheese filling & berries)
Joel Salatin's speaking style was fiery with lots of rhetorical flourishes, waxing evangelical at times. It was enjoyable if a bit surprising; I had imagined him as more of a soft-spoken man. I didn't end up going to his evening lecture, but I imagine it was likewise well-attended. Many thanks to the campus organization Students for Sustainability that sponsored this event!

11 comments:

  1. waay cool. thats the problem with living at the bottom of the word...limited access to lots of resouces. sounds like a great afternoon.

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  2. that all sounds SOOOO delicious. Especially the goat cheese. mmmmm

    when i was a kid, my siblings did 4H and raised goats. We had fresh goat's milk that I grew up drinking and my mom made her own goat cheese.
    God I love the stuff.

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  3. Oh, I'm a little jealous! I loved reading Holy Cow and Hog Heaven. I imagine he's a spit-fire. I saw him on a PBS show that visited sustainable farms with kids, then created food with the fruits of the farm, with the same kids.

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  4. I am super jealous! We actually live not far from Polyface Farms and have visited it, but never gotten to see Joel speak yet. The lunch sounds delicious!

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  5. We live near Salatin's place as well and he was quite instrumental in my parent's commitment to organic/sustainable farming. Lucky you to get such a feast!

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  6. Wow, that sounds wonderful. All of it - the food, the lecture, all of it. I, too, love goat cheese, and that is why I want to raise goats. So I can make it.

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  7. Sounds like a wonderful event. I haven't been here for a while and I like the new title and header. Zari has really grown up and looks adorable. Congratulations on your upcoming birth:)

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  8. oh I'm a bit jealous too! sounds like a lot of fun!

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  9. oh man- i would love to hear him speak!
    sounds like a great event!

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  10. I've tagged you in a 25 Things about Me post. Please see my blog if you'd like to play along!

    http://studentnursemidwife.blogspot.com/2009/01/25-things-about-me.html

    Amanda

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  11. I believe one of the organizing professors who made Joel's appearance possible graduated from my department in Communications and Culture at IU. He's a great guy and is doing a really interesting Phd.

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