Joel Salatin’s Lunatic “Meat ‘n’ Greet” Potluck

Lunatic and Dreamers, Unite! Don’t miss Joel Salatin’s high-energy pep-talk and your chance to mingle at our Meat n’ Greet, literally – celebrate and sample lunatical local sustenance from your neighbours, Alberta farmers and artisinal foodcrafters!

Wednesday, Mar 20, 2013 - Wednesday, Mar 20, 2013 6:00 PM - 9:30 PM

 Price: $30  Attendee Limit: 100

Register

Note:

This was the teaser for six tabbed pages:

 Event Description  Meet Joel Salatin  Schedule & Location  Want to Host a Table?  Who's Attending?

Lunatic Farmers and Dreamers, Unite!

Joel Salatin may be the most famous of the self-dubbed lunatic farmers, but we know he isn’t the only one… All over Alberta (and North America!), farmers, food producers, and their allies are gaining the reputation…

So whether you’re already reclaiming healthy , food, and lifestyle on your own , whether you’re supporting the cause from academia or government, or whether you’re wondering where to start creating a beyond-organic business, you won’t want to miss our Meat-and-Greet at the Highwood Memorial Centre, in High River, AB, March 20th, 2013.

Featuring Joel Salatin’s high-energy pep-talk, “The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer,” this very special event grounds the Small-Agro business message with real-world networking and local resources while it kicks off three days of inspirational – and instigational! – workshops by Joel.

 Starting at 6:00 p.m., you can meet veteran small-farm entrepreneurs, supportive agencies and visionary career-changers…  Enjoy fresh, organic, local treats offered for sampling or sale by local farmers and artisanal foodcrafters…  Discover businesses and organizations whose mission is to support the small-farm business you own – or dream of creating!

If you’d like to take part in the optional Potluck, bring a small dish to share for 6:30 pm. Please also label your dish & ingredients (It is all about the food, isn’t it?)…

Then settle down at 7:30 for Joel’s lecture – lecture, did we say? Try “theatrical presentation” – “stand-up comedy routine” – and “mini-college course!” You’ll be laughing and scrawling notes on your napkin as you picture how your life can change for the better with just a touch of Joel’s brand of lunacy.

Oh – and if you’re already running a small-agro business, find out how you can host a table in this trade-show setting! You can give the public a taste – literally! – of your work while you educate and inspire them with your experience as a small-farm entrepreneur. You’ll wind up with enthusiastic additions to your existing clientele…and help to spur the change from conventional farming in our province. Check out the Host a Table tabfor more info.

Don’t wait to sign up for this magical, motivational event – seating is limited and going fast!

***Discounts available for Slow Food members!*** See the Logistics tab for details. Introducing Joel Salatin…

If you’ve spent any time experimenting with sustainable technologies, you’ve experienced the…er, thrill…of bumping up against the popular mindset as it’s been legislated into law, and then educating the government through lobbying or legal appeals.

After our experience with the City of Calgary shutting down our greywater system, we can assure you, it’s loads of fun…the sort of fun that we’d rather experience just once in a lifetime, thanks!

So when we heard about Joel’s pioneering work in sustainable farming through our friends at Milkwood – and heard about his book Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal – we just had to connect with this guy….

Joel’s been bucking the mainstream since before he took on the leadership of Polyface in 1982, and his war stories literally fill a book…several, in fact! As he says, Polyface and its international reputation “would not exist if the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services had their way.”

Why the confrontation? Well, as Joel says, up until the 1940’s organic and chemically-based approaches to farming had been equally respected….but after WWII, the USDA swerved to follow the profitable petrochemical approach, changing the course of farming in the U.S. and the world in the process…

Joel’s grandfather, Frederick Salatin, was among those who stayed on the organic path. Joel’s father followed suit, purchasing a run-down, hard- scrabble property in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and, with the help of the family, going dead- against industry experts’ advice and USDA principles to create the fertile, self-sustaining farm that would become Polyface.

As Joel trained to take on the stewardship of the farm, he witnessed the impact of USDA teachings in practice – dead outside factory farm buildings, the pervasive smell of drugs and manure – and he came away vowing to have nothing to do with the “agro-industrial monster.” During his 30-year leadership of Polyface Farm, he has passionately charted a beyond-organic course, challenging federal and state requirements over issues ranging from the local sale of clean, healthy, and well cared-for meats, to his right to opt out of a highly bureaucratic system seemingly designed to not only regulate, but obliterate the small-scale farmer.

The result? Polyface is now the world’s premier example of , producing popular, high-value products including “salad bar beef” (named for the diverse, self- sowing plants that the beeves eat) , “pigaerator pork” (named for the pigs’ role in making compost and tilling the ground), “pastured poultry“ (feeding on the bugs in and pig droppings), and forestry products. Roughly six interns and two apprentices train on-site at the farm each year, while Joel spreads his gospel of sustainable agriculture at workshops around the world.

As Joel has watched the worsening impact of chemically-based, industrial agriculture on the quality of food, public health, the environment, the economy, and cultural values, he’s become a man on a mission. His commitment is stated up front on the Polyface website: “We are in the redemption business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture.”

His message of redemption isn’t just for would-be regenerative farmers, but for anyone who cherishes a dream of creating a practical, healthy and sustainable lifestyle that respects the earth and the integrity of plants, animals and humans populating the earth:

“It’s not important WHAT you do, as long as you do SOMETHING, and as long as you do it NOW. Do something, even if it’s wrong. You’ll always learn more from your mistakes than you will from your successes. Go ahead, take the plunge, and get started NOW.”

And what better way can we offer to help you get started building your dream than under Joel’s personal guidance, March 20-22, 2013 in High River?

Using Joel’s favorite self-description, this performance captures, with hilarious stories and drama, the difference between Polyface Farms and today’s average farm. If you’ve ever wondered how a local, pasture-based, relationally-oriented farm differs from industrial commodity-based machine-driven farms, this presentation takes away the mystery. With topics ranging from ponds to people to politics, you’ll never think about food and farming in the same way!

Logistics: Who, What, When & Where…

Location When you’re hosting a superstar speaker like Joel, it’s a good idea to have an easy-to-reach, large- capacity venue….preferably one with a long track record as a community hub!

And those are precisely the qualities of the historic Highwood Memorial Centre, located in the heart of High River, 30 minutes south of Calgary. Now marking its 70th year, the Centre was originally the recreation hall of the High River’s No. 5 Elementary Flying Training School, and since then has hosted gatherings ranging from massive tax protests to symphonies, from county fairs to weddings and family reunions.

Address:

128 – 5 Avenue S W High River, AB T1V 1M3

View Larger Map

Directions from Calgary:

Google Map Directions to Highwood Memorial Centre

Host a Table!

Calling all unconventional, or should we say, “lunatic” farmers, food producers, CSAs, and all the great businesses & organizations that work in the farming and food industry!

This is your opportunity to give the public a taste – literally! – of your work while you educate and inspire them with your experience or resources. You’ll wind up with enthusiastic additions to your existing clientele…and help to spur the change from conventional farming in our province.

Tables are $30 and include one free admission to Joel’s presentation. More info and registration here:

*Please note, we reserve the right to decline table requests that do not fall into the evening’s theme of farmers, food producers and artisans, CSAs, permaculture groups, and farm supporting organizations.

Who’s Attending?

We’re thrilled to have the following groups confirmed to join us at the event:

Living Soil Solutions

Living Soil Solutions works with back yard gardeners struggling with low production, ugly and sickly vegetation who feel frustrated with their time and effort they have put in. We help them re-vitalize their soil using natural methods which allow them more time to enjoy stronger and more productive beautiful plants that are the envy of their neighbours and gardening friends.

What makes us Lunatic Farmers: Living Soil Solutions is working with the urban gardeners and seeing inspiring success so why not get all crazy like and amp it up with some like minded farmers who like high nutrient natural and immensely tasty food.

The Goods: At this event we might have some soil blocks available and will have worm castings!

Radicle Routes

The lunacy of faring against nature is what motivates us. Sometimes productivity is simply based on our integration with our surroundings, implementation of systems and honesty about ourselves. We feel that everyone can benefit from designing nature into their enterprises instead of battling against it.

What makes us Lunatic Farmers: At Radicle Routes we believe that our food, our families, our communities and our livelihoods are all closely connected to the earth. By stewarding the earth and decreasing our impact, we allow our lives to gain momentum and increase prosperity. We offer consulting, design and construction for your space on this earth with the intent of increasing your abundance and creating perpetual prosperity. Utilizing techniques such as carbon farming, overland water harvesting, low input/high output landscapes and gardens,Keyline design and holistic property management we can add value to your enterprise and decrease the overhead costs of maintaining a garden or farm.

Trail’s End Beef

We sell quarters, halves and whole beef and when available, individual cuts and sausages directly to our customers. The beef are allowed to grow naturally for more than two years, which is a year longer than commercial beef creating slow developing, natural marbling and delicious flavor. We encourage everyone to visit and walk the fields to get to know their rancher, the land and and the animals.

What makes us Lunatic Farmers: On our 5th generation near Nanton our family raises grassfed and finished beef, free from hormones, antibiotics and grain!

The Goods: At this event we will give out samples of our pepperoni made from our grassfed and finished beef. Pepperoni and other sausages will also be available for purchase.

Taste Better Foods At Taste Better Foods we care about providing natural healthy meat products to our customers. As we support local family farms in the Ponoka area of Alberta including some Hutterite farms we aim to deliver the finest quality of beef, pork, and chicken from their environmentally friendly to your table!

What makes us Lunatic Farmers: We only deal with local, , antibiotic & hormone free, grass fed farms.

Prairie Dawn Bison

We began farming in 1883 then in 1990 we got our first bison, by 1995 we became certified organic with our grain farm. Our son came on board and started farming full time with us in 2008. We began farming 1000 acres of land for Nature’s Path Organic Breakfast Cereal company and brought it into full organic production by 2010.

What makes us Lunatic Farmers: We are focused on raising nutritious healthy food without the use of harmful chemicals or fertilizers. We grass-feed our organically raised bison on organic land and sell the lean high quality meat. We also work at promoting alternative health products as an alternative to pharmaceuticals, specializing in Young Living’s pure therapeutic grade Essential Oils. Shelley and I home schooled our 5 children for 10 years, and our family follows the teachings and principles of the Baha’i Faith.

The Goods: We will offer bison meat samples, likely in the form of jerky or other forms of dried meats. We will be able to take orders for grass-fed bison meat freezer packs as well.

The Light Cellar

The Light Cellar is a Health Food Shoppe and Teaching Kitchen. Specializing in the arts of Raw Chocolate Making and Fermented Foods ( amongst many others), we teach workshoppes that empower people to begin fermentation experimentation’s of their own! Looking forward we are looking backwards! The New World is the Old World!

What make us Lunatic Farmers: Here at Light Cellar we craft a whole spectrum of fermented foods! We have sauerkrauts of All colours and flavours and we are fearless when it comes to experimenting with something new and bold! This is awakening the people to what food is meant to be!

The Goods: We shall hope to have a variety of sauerkraut to sample as well as to Sling, as well as books about fermentation and information about upcoming workshoppes at The Light Cellar!

Noble Meadows Farm

We are a family owned goat dairy farm and goat milk processor. We make a variety of goat milk products right on our farm and sell mainly to Calgary.

What makes us Lunatic Farmers: We raise our goats as naturally as we can. We don’t use hormones. They are on pasture as much as it is possible in Alberta! We feed them non-GMO grain and source our alfalfa locally from trusted farmers. The Goods: Will have soft goat cheese and Greek yogurt!

Bluerock Gallery

Bluerock Gallery is a beloved destination for one-of-a-kind fine art and fine craft! We currently represent over 150 regional fine artists and fine craftspeople, and most of them live and work within 100 miles (160 Kilometres) of the gallery! Their awesome talent and the art in our gallery make us proud every day – we have some fabulous artists living in the area!

What makes us Lunatic Farmers: We are both fanatic about local, organic, biodynamic food and go out of our way to support local growers and people committed to a local food economy. We consider the gallery a great opportunity to involve people in conversation, and carry many books that have vital messages for us to consider.

The Goods: We will bring local wool dyed with plants grown here in Alberta (marigolds, lichen, juniper and more!) postcards, calendars, books, some potter (mugs, etc) and the like.

The Permaculture Calgary Guild

The Calgary Permaculture Guild is comprised of a great group of people who encourage, promote and practise permaculture in Calgary. We bring in speakers from all over this great world to share knowledge. We also share expertise of our own growing membership through skill-building workshops on topics ranging from urban beekeeping and mead making to mushroom propagation, and everything in between! The CPG actively is engaged in building community as well as permaculture through the Permablitz Network and Calgary Harvest. Come and join the fun!

What makes us Lunatic Farmers: We embrace all types of Lunatic Farmers, whether you are an urban bee wrangler, spin farmer or small-scale-organic-local producer you will find others with interesting and tasty ideas at the PCG and some of the best potlucks in Calgary to boot.

Leaf Ninjas

The Leaf Ninjas are a small family of entrepreneurs; the team has set out to design and cultivate highly productive urban farms and permaculture gardens in Calgary, AB. Working towards providing clean healthy food for the city within the city.

What makes us Lunatic Farmers: Our farm is based around the idea of using existing infrastructure and land for young farmers to get involved with agriculture. In the past we were supporting big ag. through our clothing company and cotton industry, we new it had to change.. and naturally when you have a clothing, you become a farmer. We’ve used the community and skills built in our past business’s to use in our current farm. Through video, events and us being us a step we want to make is to bridge the gap of pop-culture to permaculture. Let’s make it cool for our young generation to see the value of agriculture and clean food again. whoop!

The Goods: Micro Greens!