PLACE A SHIPPING ORDER BY DECEMBER 15TH TO RECEIVE IT BEFORE CHRISTMAS.        ORDERS ARRIVE DECEMBER 19TH.        WE WILL RESUME SHIPPING IN JANUARY OF 2025 |

From the Field

written by

Joel Salatin

posted on

December 11, 2023

Written by Joel Salatin, 2018


As a teenager in the early 1970s, I sold farm-processed beef and pork at the Staunton Curb Market. These animals never left the farm; we handled them from field to final customer. We didn’t haul them up the interstate; we just did them quietly right here on the farm, put them in packages, and handed them to our customers.

Those days are long gone. In order to legally sell your beef and pork today, those animals must leave the farm and go to a government-inspected facility. As the regulatory environment increased, the number of these neighborhood abattoirs decreased. By the 1980s, none existed in Augusta County for Polyface to use; the nearest one was in Harrisonburg, about 30 miles north.

Tommy and Erma May owned and operated T&E Meats in Harrisonburg. Although Tommy did not go to school past the 8th grade, he was business savvy and shepherded the small abattoir through those decades of increasing government regulation. When Polyface began marketing to restaurants and offering individual cuts (T-bone, pork chops) in the mid-90s, T&E became our lifeline to legal direct marketing. 

By that time, Tommy and Erma were already in their 60s. By 2000, Polyface was their largest client for custom processing and we developed a close friendship. As Tommy and Erma hit their 70s and Polyface became more dependent on T&E, their age became a point of concern. What was the succession plan? What if one or both suddenly passed away? 

Teresa and I took them out to dinner one pivotal evening to talk seriously about the future. As a result of that summit, we realized there was no succession plan. The plant would die with them. Immediately I began seeking a buyer. For the next decade, everywhere I traveled, I’d ask: “Does anyone here want to buy an abattoir?” I took many potential buyers up to meet Tommy and Erma, tour the plant, and talk about the future. Meanwhile, Tommy and Erma hit their 80s. Still going to the plant every day. Still paying the bills, but definitely slowing down.

Tommy spilled some hot water on his foot and was laid up for a couple of weeks as the severe burn healed. I was becoming desperate. Finally in about 2010 Joe Cloud entered my life. He was a landscape engineer whose parents owned a farm in Fishersville. Living in Seattle, he was ready for an entrepreneurial opportunity, especially one that would enable him to get closer to his aging parents and care for them. He said he would buy T&E Meats on one condition: that Teresa and I would join him as partners.

By this time, Polyface was nearly 35 percent of the T&E business, and he was afraid that if our family did not put skin in the investment, we might jump ship if someone built a closer facility. Of course, his fears were justified. During this time, we had pursued many options, including building a facility here in Augusta County. The partnership arrangement seemed to be the best insurance that this plant could stay open to serve not only Polyface, but other farmers in the area. To honor Tommy and Erma’s legacy, Joe and I decided to keep the name T&E, but changed it to stand for True and Essential Meats (that’s the official and unabbreviated name today).

In 2011 we organized a purchase through the Salatin-Cloud LLC partnership. Finally, Tommy and Erma could retire and know that their life’s work would continue. Needless to say, during their waning years, the plant was not upgraded: floors, electricity, boiler, wastewater, corrals. Rather than getting any investment back, the partnership has used every dime of profit to modernize the infrastructure, including the workforce. At the time of purchase, 12 of the 19 employees were more than 70 years old.

I joked that we had just purchased the most geriatric abattoir in the country. Joe immediately assumed responsibilities as general manager and the Salatin component became a behind-the-scenes partner. The business was bleeding red. Over the next three years, we eliminated what had once been a profitable wholesale delivery component. Then we eliminated the retail meat counter. Focusing completely on custom meat fabrication for local farmers, we gradually transformed the business into a new vision: the nexus of the local meat processing value chain.

As the old guard retired, we replaced them with younger and more innovative folks. Instead of being the cheapest place in town, we aspired to be the best place in town. Major upgrades created new opportunities and

new efficiencies so that today Polyface has shrunk to just 20 percent of the client business and instead of serving only three local brand-name farms, we service nearly 100. To say that we’ve grown the local food system and

enabled many farmers to access their neighbors would be the understatement of the year. But now what?

This spring, we’ve launched a $500,000 remodel for value-added products: smoked ham, bacon, charcuterie, spiral ham, jerky, lard. Part of this project includes investing nearly $100,000 in new scales, tracking, and barcoding capabilities so that Polyface and the farmers we serve can access sophisticated markets requiring deep-data electronic interfaces. Many institutional buyers like colleges, hospitals, and schools increasingly demand this information as part of liability and inspection requirements.

For the first time, rather than taking the raw product out the back door and sending it to further processing facilities, we can do this in-house without any additional carbon footprint. Logistics alone make this a fantastic project. But by keeping further processing in-house, it minimizes the chance of contamination and what we call “oopses” in the value chain. It will offer you, our valuable and loyal cheerleaders, more convenience and ready-to-eat

options. That, in turn, should stimulate sales, which means here at Polyface we can be more economically viable, ultimately touching more land with healing and germinating additional land-caressing farmers. 

Thank you for being part of that. We couldn’t do it without you. Here’s to more healthy eating and land healing. 

More from the blog

Why Choose Fermented Foods?

My grandparents on my father’s side used to make sauerkraut in wooden barrels in the basement. My mother’s side made cheese and salami. I could smell these concoctions throughout the entire house.  Fermenting is part of your national heritage, no matter your family’s country of origin.  Alongside nourishing grass-fed/grass-finished pastured meats like Polyface raises, every person should include real fermented foods into their diet. This method of food preservation goes back farther than most realize, reconnecting us with ancient traditions, long before the refrigerator-freezer was invented. Every culture consumed something fermented every day.  Here are the reasons why I like fermented foods. Fermentation preserves food without using high pressure, high heat, or chemicals, so it both conserves and increases them. The nutritional value of fermented foods lies mostly in the pro-biotic bacteria that are present, and byproducts of their digestion. The bacteria’s digestive “waste” is a collection of vitamins, enzymes, and co-factors needed for every system of the body. These include: Vitamins B1, B6, B12, C, and K2 Superoxide dismutase (SOD, an antioxidant) GTF chromium (assists sugar metabolism) Glutathione (a potent detoxifier) Phospholipids (cell membrane building blocks) Digestive enzymes Beta 1,2 glucans (present in shiitake mushrooms; modulates immune system) Fermentation neutralizes or eliminates these: Phytic acid (present in seeds, nuts, beans, legumes) Enzyme inhibitors (also present in seeds, nuts, beans, legumes) Nitrites Prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) Oxalic acid (binds minerals) Nitrosamines (known carcinogen) Glucosides Probiotics and enzymes in whey neutralize phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, allowing your digestion to access the nutrients in the food. Enzymes are proteins. Proteins are delicate molecules with very complex structure and shape.  The structure of the enzyme gives it its function. Without structure and form, the enzyme will not do its job of catalyzing biochemical reactions. Without enzymes, biochemical reactions would cease. Enzymes are denatured (unraveled or broken down) by high pressure, high heat, acidic conditions, toxic chemicals, and electrical disturbances. Once denatured, they lose their form and shape, therefore they lose their function. Unlike canning and commercial processing, fermenting occurs at atmospheric pressure and room temperature, encouraging beneficial bacteria to thrive. Temperatures above 117 degrees Fahrenheit denature enzymes and kill probiotic bacteria.  If you wonder what 117 degrees feels like, it’s the temperature at which you cannot touch an object with your bare hands and hold it for a few seconds. If it’s hot, but you can still touch and hold it in your hand and not pull away, it’s under 117 degrees.  This innate protection mechanism (i.e., reflex) prevents your own protein (i.e., skin on your finger) from being denatured. It’s also a good indicator of when your food is hot enough to kill probiotics and denature enzymes.  For best results, fermented foods must be eaten raw, never hot or cooked. Fermented foods are safe and protective against pathogens.  USDA scientist Roger McFeeters, who oversees a fermentation laboratory, says, “The lactobacilli can number a billion per gram of tissue at the height of fermentation. The bad bacteria can't compete."  According to McFeeters, lacto-fermentation has caused no known food-borne illness. "As far as we know, it's been going on for thousands of years. It's perfectly safe.” The sauerkraut that my grandparents made had a layer of raw pork chops embedded in the salted cabbage. When the sauerkraut was done, you could safely eat the pork chops raw! They were pre-digested by the bacteria, and “cooked" by the organic acids in the kraut.  Probiotics prevented pathogens from establishing. None of us ever got food poisoning. My grandmother lived to be 100. Fermented foods have anti-carcinogenic properties.  They normalize blood pressure and heart rate, help to break down fat in the liver, and maintain healthy systemic pH. And they are quite tasty. In the supermarket, look for fermented foods in the refrigerated section, not on the shelf with canned foods.  Shelf-stable canned foods were subjected to high temperatures. The probiotics and enzymes have been denatured.  Look for “live cultures” or “live probiotics” on the label. Eat something lacto-fermented every day, like your ancestors did.  Just a tablespoon or two of sauerkraut or an ounce or two of cheese is enough to have the desired effect.  Choose a salad dressing made with raw apple cider vinegar, or a tablespoon of a fermented condiment such as ketchup, mustard, or mayonnaise. Try a fermented beverage, like kombucha, beet kvass, or ginger ale. (Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon has some great recipes for all of these.) The original condiments were digestive aids. They’re easy to make. Try it. May you be deeply nourished! Susan

SOY

We've had a breakthrough in soy. We've had our chickens checked by energy fields, pendulums, crystals, chromatography...Now we have definitive proof.

Thanksgiving

The older I get, the more grateful I am for my parents who embraced different. Indulge me in a couple of stories from our family's past to illustrate how we relished "maverickness".