Joel Stalin

Thank you. I missed several posts.

"maybe" included all you can eat salad bar from the gardens?

No skin, no fat... no thanks... that's where all the flavor is!

My favorite part of southern fried chicken (if done right) is the crispy fried skin.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

I honestly didn't know...
and, there's nothing wrong with being an oaf. Or a slave, for that matter. I spent most of my youth as a slave... of course, I treasure now what I then thought was virtual slavery. I got the slavery stuff over with by the time I graduated high school. I know many people who didn't/haven't.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Before the GF arrived, most weeks I got by on less than 5$/week, at least on storebought vittles.

Many a year, my budget simply didn't allow for more than this.

All the meat, most all of the vegetables, all the fruit, were found on farm/field/orchard. Milk, sugar, salt, spices, were what was bought. A nice steak maybe once a year. When I thought (erroneously of course... this was pre-internet) I had scurvy, I'd buy a piece of citrus.

I sometimes watch the Food Network. I'd love to cook some of their dishes... but one meal might still be a month's food budget. I've heard of people spending hundreds of dollars per person each month... only way I could see that happening is if people actually ate whatever they wanted. A strange concept I've never grasped.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Texican, you would ENJOY the Salatin books!

He started out eating off of his farm, also. He was trying to pay off the farm by working while he raised his own food. Once the farm was paid off he quit his town job and became a farmer instead.

I tried farming two years, and lost my shirt. Even following the Rules of Four (plant one for yourself, one for the neighbors, one for the weather, and one for the varmints). That was a very lean year. My place is paid for. I can only think of one crop that'd pay what I'm making right now, I set my own hours, splitting time between courthouses and home. I logged six hours work today, in between goat milking, calf feeding, chicken feeding, checking on my gas well, playing with the dogs, etc.

Anyone that can follow his techniques/plans and get er done, more power to em.

I was forced into the entire circle of dirt to marketing while in high school... learning to dicker on the job, was not fun. I made no money. Half the time I had to bring the produce home and can/freeze it. I got totally turned off on marketing and dealing with humans at an early age.

Face it... you really have to be a people person, to make it work, selling farm goods to consumers. Good people skills you gotta chance... Bad people skills...well phooey. Most people say I have good people skills, and I probably do, but I'd rather not put myself out there all the time... it's mentally exhausting to a neo-hermit like myself.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

I've read all the posts in this thread and some past threads on the topic and I've noticed a few common complaints and my simple responses to some of them.

1) He got his farm for free from his family - Salatin talks about the "portability" of his pastured poultry and encourages people to start using rented land if they don't own property. He doesn't encourage anyone to start big or spend megabucks getting started. Most of his structures/equipment are minimal (not pretty looking) handbuilt things made from materials from his farm. He wears thrift store clothes and drives used cars.

2) He's making most of his money from telling people about farming rather than from farming - I don't think this should be a shocking issue since many people who farm have off-farm jobs. His off-farm job (writing and speaking) happens to be related to his on farm job. He did the farming first starting as a young boy and selling at farmers markets and wrote the books and seminars later. If you can't swing the cost of a book you can easily get an interlibrary loan through your local library. Don't go to a seminar if you don't want to or if it's too expensive for you.

3) I couldn't get his prices for farm products - This could very well be true. He talks about his location being ideal since it's remote enough that land is cheaper and zoning allows farming but within an hour of a couple major cities. Even if you couldn't get what he gets would you like to get more than the local supermarket does? Would you like to lower your cost to produce? (cheaper buildings, fences, less depriciating stock and equipment etc) if so I think his books can help you.

4) The intern thing - His operation and his writing attracts a lot of people who want internships he offers a few. People want to do it enough that they work for minimal pay. While that undoubtably adds to his financial success his operation isn't predicated on that. If you don't think it's worth it please don't do it. I don't think he has to actively recruit to fill the internship positions and I'm sure he turns people away.



The most recent comment by Texican on haggling with people is kind of funny because Salatin doesn't do it. If you want his products you pay his prices. He wants to sell you a whole chicken because he can butcher it and you pick it up that day on ice. He's not a specialty butcher and isn't in the business of giving you just the cuts you want and then trying to figure out ways to get rid of the lesser cuts. His price structure is built accordingly. He doesn't discount or cut his prices. He will offer surplus farm products as free samples to gain new customers or to expand his existing customers into a new product. Unlike a megaproducer he is limited in what he can produce so he doesn't aim to attract every customer just the ones that are on board and happy with what he's offering. Those customers usually do a lot of his word of mouth sales work for him.

I really find it odd that people take whatever they think they know about Salatin and make it into a reason for avoiding the opportunity to learn from him. As a homesteader I've learned a lot from him. I'm OK with the fact that I may not choose to, or be able to, do everything he does but I'm definitely a better homesteader from reading his books.

Best Wishes to you all

Actually, in one of his books he mentions that he bought his father out with money from his town job.

He also farmed as an adult, after buying the farm from his father.

Last week I saw the movie made by Polyface Farm about 4 or 5 years ago. I was impressed that he emphasized working with your land as it is, not how "experts" say it should be. He is extremely knowledgeable about what animals, grass, trees, etc need & now to provide for those needs in as natural a way as possible. He really cares about the land and animals.

One thing that all of us watching the movie noticed was the lack of pretension & fanciness about the farm. It could have belonged to any of us with its scrap-wood projects & hand-hewn fence posts.

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God bless,
Bonnie
Opportunity Farm
Northeast Washington

"While we have the opportunity, let us do good to all." Galatians 6:10

Exactly true.

The Northeast Kingdom would the place to deliver out of, not too.

Boston would be the place to deliver to, not farm from.

This is why over 20 years ago I picked a location that was in the low cost area of our region but within easy drives to higher priced markets. I wanted lower real estate costs and lower taxes among other things. I took maps and drew circles on them around my markets, looked at where they intersected and then checked the zoning and other things in those towns. I then picked the best towns, looked for land and picked the best I could find for my purposes with a mind to good water and such. We deliver to a circle about 1 hours distant around us.

Works great.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
Save 30% off Pastured Pork with free processing: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

I was honored to be able to ask him a few questions and post them on my recall news website awhile back. This is a person I truly respect: http://www.usrecallnews.com/2009/11/...l-salatin.html

I wonder how his marketing is fairing in todays down economy??? I agree with him about the "Everything being illegal" and with the current admin in DC that isn't likely to get any better.

The prices at Salatin's farm and others I have seen make we wonder what a realistic cost basis is for raising your own meat naturally. How does $13/lb at his webstore compare to price/lb of me raising a healthy flock of broilers and a feeder pig at home.

Is healthy, naturally grown meat truly an expensive luxury? Or are Salatin and other high end farmers simply fulfilling their chosen niche of the market?