Following on from the cracking workshop we ran with Joel Salatin in Jamberoo earlier this month, here’s the links and resources we devised as post-workshop notes for everyone who came along.
There’s so much goodness in Polyface Farm’s regenerative agriculture techniques! And heaps that can be applied usefully, at a range of scales to create resilient local food economies. I tried to catch as much of the essential stuff in these notes as I could, but this world is wider than a list. Still, there’s lots of inspiration below…
Polyface Farm online resources:
- Polyface Farm principles of farming
- Polyface products produced on farm
- Polyface resources including farming suppliers and magazines
- Polyface shop books, t shirts and more
- Polyface apprenticeships: the only way to currently get a copy of Joel’s fabulous intern booklet!
Polyface piggies in their winter quarters (hoop houses)
Video resources
- Joel Salatin’s public talk – in Canberra on ABC Big Ideas 2010
- Joel Salatin in FRESH – excerpt from the doco. Short overview of techniques and ethics.
- Polyface on USA Today – a very digestable overview of the how and why.
- Joel Salatin TED talk – including that poached egg story…
- A three-part series on Polyface Farm by ‘Meet the Farmer’ TV: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3.
- Various videos on Polyface: Pigs / Salad bar beef / Broilers.
- 5-part interview with Joel on lots of everything – part one here
- How to choose farmland – with Nick Ritar at Milkwood Farm
- Debt free farming – with Nick Ritar at Milkwood Farm
- And last but not least; How to cut up a chicken
The motherlode of Joel Salatin clips on YouTube can be found here.
If you’re interested, there is a full DVD available that outlines Polyfaces’ techniques here.
Pastured broiler chickens in their hutches, moved daily
Aerial of Polyface pastured broiler system… you can see the short phase of pasture recovery is followed by a greener than ever field…
Workshop links
- Grass Productivity – Andre Voisin: a pioneering book on time-controlled grazing that heavily influenced Joel’s Father – free to read at Google Books
- The economy of ideas – an article mentioned about who owns what in the digital age
- Greensand – added to compost at Polyface as a mineral supplement
- Sir Albert Howard – composting pioneer – some great resources under this link
- The Land institute – mentioned frequently for their pioneering work with perennial grain cropping and other important things
- Paul Stamets – fungi maestro
- Community Supported Agriculture – the wikipedia version at left and a smaller primer put out by the DPI
- Pastured eggs have more vitamin D – and a bunch of other health benefits, as explained by Mother Earth News
- Zen Cart – online shopping software, mentioned in Polyface-style direct marketing of on-farm products as an alternative to paypal
- The various Holistic Management companies and approaches: Resource Management Services, Ranching for Profit, RCS, Principle Focus and Holistic Management International
- Small Giants – companies that chose to be great instead of big – book
Polyface pastured rabbits (note dig-proof floors)
Joel Salatin having a baby rabbit moment. And who could not…
Workshop exhibitors included
- Allsun Farm (tools and netting)
- McCallum Chicken Tractors
- Feather and Bone (farmer-consumer interface)
- Food Connect (farmer-consumer interface)
- Near River Produce
- Permaculture Sydney West
egg laying chickens in the feathernet system, with x-wing millenium chicken house (new Polyface innovation)
And just a couple of views from the outside:
- Growing the Grower’s Polyface diary
- Life of a Polyface apprentice
Lastly…
We’d like to thank you again for coming! Please join our monthly newsletter so you can stay in touch with what’s emerging, and what’s actually working, in the many fields of regenerative agriculture and permaculture. Stay in touch about your journey and we look forward to seeing you again sometime soon.
All the best,
Kirsten Bradley + Nick Ritar
Milkwood Permaculture / RegenAG NSW
Joel Salatin was in Australia in 2011 through RegenAG, an alliance of farming families who are committed to helping regenerate the world’s farms, soils, communities and on-farm livelihoods.
Great – I’m supposed to be working my way through my correspondence PDC readings, and you post this! How am I supposed to get any work done?! 🙂
That’s a seriously great list of links and resources. Thanks Kirsten!
We have chickens, broilers, eggs, pork and lamb all moving ahead this Spring… thanks to Joel’s inspiration and belief. Great to see Milkwood supporting folk to get their heads aorund it. My advice is to just start something – be it small, be it crazy – you will learn more from that, than not doing anything!
What an inspiring presentation this was – and thanks for creating these notes to enable us to share Joel’s philosophies and systems. Better than trying to read my handwriting! Cheers, Jess.
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