Our Favorite Farmers What are you doing today Rodger? Oh, fixin everything we broke yesterday Kim was, at that moment, trying to climb atop one of her favorite hogs which used to let her ride them back in the day; today...at least...not so much (although the shrug off seemed quite genial). Rodger ambled up, precisely on time for a lunch date with Me and Rob P, PQM uber-regular and friend of the shop; a couple of City Mice on a dream date with two of the greatest Food Artists in America. Rodgers reply to Kims opening question may have sounded like schtick but he had, in fact, had a combine go down the day before (he also does Corn and Soybeans) and suffered a set of repaired truck brakes which revealed themselves as unrepaired. This dual mechanical failure was probably the only reason he deigned to join us for lunch on a day he would typically spend in the field. I have written about Kim, Rodger and Rob in this space before. KIms farm (Faiths Farm) is in Bonfield, IL in Kankakee County. It is a magical and utterly sincere place that I have never walked away from without being - A - Inspired and B - Smarter and C - Certain that there is no other place like it in the whole world. Her animals do not live Free Range; her animals live Wild. Taking off my loaned rubber boots on her porch I had, in my proximity, pastured Rabbits, Sheep, A Turkey, innumerable chickens, Kims Bees hovering and, just neighboring, Donkeys, Cows, Pig Clans (the clans are separated by a low lying hot wire but aside from that, and the perimeter of the farm there is no enclosure, no confinement whatsover). The only thing thats supposed to be confined is Kims tractor, but the sheep took a shine to its garage so the tractor sits outside and its former lodging is now a lamb resort. She goes with the flow. Rodger raises Grass Fed Beef. We buy his entire output, save one cow. Hes moving into Mangalitsa Hogs...so stay tuned. Rob is an OG customer, friend-of-the-shop and trusted Advisor and Friend. I help Janelle run the joint. It may have not seemed much of a big deal that we all sat down to a hot Charcuterie (Darin, no one has ever set off the smoke alarms like this...Reply - Im Front of the House) for lunch...but it was actually kind of a mission statement from two angles. I will not (cant) recount the Conversation in full but I will deliver its Aria. While we were lunching on PQM sausages and marinated kale (Kims wonderful daughter Abigail was trying to pick out her second taste of the Chicken and Waffles sausage from the herd), Kim started talking about a tour group of Chicago Southside kids who came out to her farm. It was just me and Abigail, this big bus group, like 50-60 kids came down. And they were Hard...they were not into it. They just had that closed expression. These kids were not having a bad day. They had had bad lives. I kept trying to think of a way to break through and when we were out by the creek I said Hey, do you guys want to just throw some rocks? We started throwing rocks into the creek and skipping stones or just making big splashes and it was great. A lot of these kids had never been out in the country before. Theyd never gotten dirty. We chucked rocks around for a awhile, finished the tour and one of the girls asked Miss Kim, can I use the bathroom? You can use the bathroom but theres only one bathroom, so you gotta take your shoes off, you gotta be quick, no fancy lady stuff, you gotta go. Caveat - Kim had baby chicks incubanating in her living room. To edify and entertain the bathroom line she put them in the hands of these kids, who gently passed them around. Finale: These hard-faced kids departed leaning out of the bus windows crying Thank you Miss Kim. As Kim related this story she started to cry. As I re-relate this story, I am starting to cry. This is Publican Quality Meats. We are About Something. I encourage you to share this post and promote the mission.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 11:24:11 +0000