This is one of the sentiments in Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
It’s a sentiment that we have endorsed and have been living for some time. It resonated strongly with us as we continue in our attempts to eat a healthy diet, free of processed food. Food that we know is grown in the most natural way possible.
This is top of mind today because I picked up our chickens and turkeys from the wonderful supplier of our meat, Big Coulee Farm, near Athabasca, Alberta. We’re currently waiting for our beef (1/2 cow) and pork (1 pig), each to be shared with our daughter and her family. We also get fresh eggs from them every two weeks.
The arrangement the Bellamy’s have with their clients is you place your order for delivery on the second and last Thursday of each month. Rusty has a pickup truck with a couple of freezers in the back and a generator. He waits in the parking lot of one of the city’s malls where their customers come to pick up their orders. They also have a table at the St. Albert Farmers’ Market every Saturday until sometime this fall when the market goes into winter hibernation. We rarely make it to the market because we’re living our lodge lifestyle just about every weekend!
I love picking up my order for two reasons. The first and obvious one is stocking up on more really good and really nutritious food! The other is the chance to chat with Rusty!
Each time I pick up we chat a little more about their operation, the farming methods they use, their current and future marketing strategies, and the challenges they face. Or we might just discuss the best way to barbecue a steak! It’s all fascinating. Today we talked about rising costs and their looking into inclusion on the EatWild website. I suspect that could be a real boon to their business. This site is listed in both of Michael Pollan’s recent books, In Defense of Food as mentioned above and his previous work, The Omnivore’s Dilemma
We also discussed the possibility of them having their own website but had to cut that discussion short when another customer came to pick up her order. So perhaps we’ll continue that next time!
Big Coulee Farm is a strong proponent of grass feeding, with no grain feeding their beef at all. The chickens get a small supplement of grain, but are mostly grass fed. The turkeys are completely grass fed as are the pigs. The meat and eggs are wonderful!
It’s very important to us to be eating food that we know has not been pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics! Big Coulee uses neither.
They welcome people to visit their farm, and so we took them up on that a couple of years ago. They gave us a great tour, talking about the innovative feeding methods for their chickens (movable pens that are relocated daily) and other aspects of the operation. Surprisingly, we were the only customers who had visited (at that point, anyway).
We took another trip out about a year later to pick up a kitten for one of our granddaughters!
If you can, try to find someone local you can buy your food from… shake the hand that feeds you!
