I promise I will post more recipes soon but before I do that I want to share with you an experience I had last weekend.  Now that my boyfriend and I have made the switch to local, organic, pasture-raised milk, eggs and meat (milk and eggs in my case and all three in his) we felt it important to go visit some of the places where these things come from.  My boyfriend found a way to get on a tour of Marin Sun Farms – which is one of a few farms where we get meat and eggs.

I really had no idea what to expect when we rented a Zipcar and headed across the Golden Gate Bridge and up Highway 1 to Pt. Reyes.  We’ve come to love the town of Pt Reyes Station so we built in some extra time to grab breakfast at Bovine Bakery and coffee at Toby’s.  After filling up on some great local food we headed out to H Ranch in Inverness (about 10 miles from Pt Reyes Station) where Marin Sun Farms is located.  I won’t give you a play by play of the farm tour but I will say this: it was incredible!

The owner and the farm manager spoke to us all about the philosophies they use to move the farm forward and then we walked to the fields where the chickens, laying hens, and cows were grazing .  The farm is over 1000 acres so we only saw a small portion but we got the message: these are people who understand the importance of sustainability, eating local, and producing quality food.  The farming philosophy that struck me most is that they feel the farm is all first and foremost about grass.  All of their animals are given tons of room to graze on fresh grass that is maintained by nature (not by fertilizers and pesticides).  In fact, the egg laying hens (and the roosters that live with them) having no fences keeping them where they are.  As farm manager said, they have to keep the chickens happy or the chickens will leave – and I didn’t see any chickens leaving.  The animals living on H Ranch truly have an idyllic life and are raised the way our food should be.

For those of you who have read Omnivore’s Dilemma, the farm reminded me of what I think Joel Salatin’s farm in Virginia must be like.  Marin Sun Farms uses many of the same practices that Joel Salatin does (including moving the chicken coops daily).  While reading about Joel Salatin’s farm I was thinking to myself that I wish I could get meat and eggs from a place like that.  Now that I’ve been to Marin Sun Farms I know that I’m getting a product that was made folowing my values.

While this isn’t a direct plug for Marin Sun Farms (though for those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area they do have a meat/eggs CSA), I think they run a type of operation that is going to become far more relevant in the future.  They also think that their methodology will be gaining more and more ground and are planning to start an apprenticeship program at H Rance to train the next generation of farmers.

I’m so glad we went on the tour of Marin Sun Farms.  I would recommend doing something similar in your area if you’re able.  I think that in a world where a lot of what we eat comes from thousands of miles away it is very important to connect with your food.  Being able to see the farm and hear from the farmers how much they are thinking about sustainability, etc, reinforced to me why it’s important to spend a bit more on food to ensure that it’s coming from the right place.

Note: The meat at Marin Sun Farms isn’t Kosher although I know there is pasture-raised Kosher meat now avaible on the East Coast.