The Omnivore’s (non)Dilemma

Issue #53

I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a food snob. I blame Michael Pollan.

True, I was raised in a household that prized healthy eating and living, and that has continued through my American journey (except for a brief period in grad school when I ate dinner at Burger King for two months straight – don’t ask).

A couple of decades ago, eating healthy was one level of nuts but caring about the source of the food was surely a nut factory level of crazy. And that was because of Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” When you combine an evocative writer and a meaty topic the result is often the wholesale washing of brains.

Tracing the compromised food supply from factory farms and feedlots to corn-in-everything supermarkets, Pollan laid out how an idyllic vocation had turned into the food-industrial complex. While the abundance that resulted undoubtedly fed millions cheaply, it also came with a heaping side serving of diseases, from obesity to diabetes, that show few signs of abating.

But one of the things he described that I (and my equally nuts wife) found fascinating was the description of a farm in Virginia that followed very traditional and natural processes . . . and thrived.

Wouldn’t it be awesome, we wondered, if we could try out a farm like that?

As providence would have it, our local newspaper soon carried an article about exactly such a farm about an hour away in rural Lancaster County. We packed up the kids and drove west, passing horse-and-buggies into the heart of Amish country.

At the farm, we were welcomed and taken on tour by Farmer Alvin, with several of his ruddy-cheeked little ones giggling and following along. We gaped at cows that grazed on open fields of grass moving from one field to another in a regular seasonal cycle, chickens that ran around in the open pecking for food . . .

It was just like the circle-of-life farm that Michael Pollan had described where everything was natural, nothing was wasted, and the output was delicious, wholesome and abundant. We were captivated.????

So, we decided to start buying some of our food from that farm, trying out many things over the years – eggs, yoghurt, butter, meat, honey, kombucha . . .

Can I rave about those eggs for just a second? You crack one into a pan and a shiny, orange globule undulates, bearing no familial relationship to the pale, yellow imitator dominating grocery aisles. They are so good that we now supply some neighbors too – and got them hooked as well.???

The farm’s a small enough family-run operation that we get a note with our deliveries and a longer review at the end of the year (all handwritten). For a long time, the egg cartons would even have my wife’s name handwritten on them. It’s farm-charm with no-harm food.?

It’s now been about fifteen years since our first visit – so when an invitation recently arrived for an official farm tour, we couldn’t resist.

We spent the morning walking around the farm getting up close and personal with the animals. We petted the horses that eagerly nuzzled us, avoided the fresh cow patties while reading the cattle nametags (yes, they have names, as do the horses), admired the robust chickens, and marveled at the fact that the animals don’t need any artificial boosters to stay healthy.

The tour was conducted by a pleasant, chatty young man (Farmer Solomon). As we each described our individual journeys to this food, we mentioned our visit from fifteen years earlier with Farmer Alvin and his gaggle.?

“Oh, that’s my dad,” he said, “I was probably one of those little boys following you around.”

It truly was the circle of life.???

Could this day be any better, we wondered, climbing into our car for the hour-long drive back. Indeed, it could. We turned on the radio to hear our good friend, and next-door neighbor, Glen Macnow’s soothing voice.

You see, it was Glen’s last show after 31 years on sports talk radio (more than 6000 shows and 25,000 hours). He was inducted into the station’s Hall of Fame and was being feted by legends such as Voice-of-the-Eagles Merrill Reese, Flyers President (and former star) Keith Jones, and St. Joe’s University’s legendary basketball coach Phil Martelli (among many others).

Glen richly deserved it. And you know one of the foods that powers him?

Yep, those lustrous, luscious farm eggs.???????

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#health, #food, #farm, #insight, #learning