I’m still giddy from our little afternoon adventure to visit the farm and family who produces the meat we buy. Jason and I decided to drive down to Dallas, which is just west of Salem, to visit the Jondle family and get a little tour of their gorgeous 210 acre Abundant Life Farm.
We’re part of their “buying club” and get to select the cuts and quantities of meat we want each month, and they bring it up to a drop off location just a few minutes from our house. It’s really the coolest thing ever.
Even just driving up and seeing their sign and house in the background, we knew this was going to be a fun and special afternoon.
Marilyn was kind enough to take a break from the farm duties to show us around — and was so patient in answering all my many, many, many silly “city girl” questions.
It was so fun to find out they moved up from the Bay Area ten years ago, leaving behind the software engineer gig Scott had, and hear their story about how they studied under the amazing Joel Salatin (you know, the awesome farmer in the documentary Food Inc.) before settling into their routine in Oregon.
They showed us their chicken coop — a little bigger than ours, eh?
And their sweet calf that they use for milk.
And the 80 cows they are raising for meat.
Marilyn explained that this time of year they stay in the big barn we visited and munch on hay but come spring, summer and fall they move them around their property and let them graze on grass and clover. No corn fed antibiotic pumped up cows here!
But by far, my favorite part was visiting the pigs! They have seven right now, and at first they were pretty scared of us and wanted to stay huddled in their little cave (aka a camper top).
But pretty soon they came out to see who we were and what we were all about.
They have such funny personalities — they were cracking me up!
It was fun to see how they do things on their farm and get to know the farmers who provide our meat to us. It costs a little more, for sure, but the quality of the meat and the way the animals are raised makes it all worth it.
And now our freezer is all stocked up on farm fresh meat that is from just down the road!
Yard to Fork 
I can’t begin to tell you how jealous I am! I’d LOVE to have access to a farm like that. Very cool!
Thanks for sharing your visit – I love the Jondle’s farm! Did they have any sheep when you were there? When I visited 2 lambs had been born just that morning – so sweet. =)
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