Dan Barber on Farms

I just recently found Dan Barber on bigthink.com.  I DID watch all of the videos, and can say that the amazing chef describes himself perfectly as the "neurotic, finicky, Upper East Side Jew".

Although these videos are all from 2008, I still enjoyed listening to them.  I want to share three of the videos that really stuck with me.

The first video gets really good at about 1:06 to the end.  He discusses the history of restaurants and food and where we are at now.

The second video I like because he explains one of his theories, "When you have a story, you have delicious food (as long as you don't screw it up)."

And finally you have my third highlighted video.  Here he talks about breeding pigs.  Not only does the food the animal eats affect its flavor, but also the mother, the father and HOW it was bred.  I like this theory.  I'd like to find evidence on it.

Be How You Think Things Should Be

This past week I had the opportunity to hear Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms speak.  Joel is a pretty amazing rancher AND speaker for that matter.  I actually found out about him from Michael Pollan's book, Omnivore's Dilemma.  From there, I immediately became intrigued by him.  He rotates his animals (chickens, rabbits, pigs, and cows) in order to bring in the least amount of food from outside his farm and make the least amount of impact on the environment.  Being "local" is more important to him than being 100% organic and natural.  Although his animals are raised naturally once they are on his farm, he doesn't worry about buying USDA-claimed organic seed.  He'll buy seed from his local buddies instead.  The only animals I've seen (I purchased a DVD of his) that he actually births are chickens and rabbits.  I believe he purchases his cows and pigs as babies, then raises them from there.  In that case, he also buys a few supplements in the beginning to help them get into the groove for his "salad bar" of grasses.

I already knew of Joel Salatin's practices.  I was a little concerned he would just talk about stuff I already knew when I went to hear him speak.  I commend him for knowing his audiences.  For him being in Boulder, he was expecting that everyone there knew who he was and knew what he did.  (I guess that makes sense.  If you are going to buy a ticket to hear someone talk, you know you are most likely going to enjoy it.)  He did call people out about choosing biking over gardening and a dog over ten chickens (which was awesome.)  But he also REALLY motivated me personally.  One thing he said close to the beginning of his talk was, "You need to be how you think things should be."  So many people have asked me "what's the point?" after I talk about my passions with them.  I get the "especially in Nebraska, you know the farm right next to you is going to have a TON of chemicals on it.  Yours can never be natural."  I always tell them that you have to start somewhere!  If I would have to be the example for others to follow, then so be it!  I think whenever I'm faced with that question again, I'm going to use Joel Salatin's words.  "I will be how I think things should be."

There will be many more posts about Joel; I'm just not prepared to write them.  I wanted to write about his inspirational phrase before it lost its luster.