Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farm (Photo courtesy Polyface Farm/Rachel Salatin Photography)
Polyface Farms: Swoope, polyfacefarms.com or (540) 885-3590
History: Polyface Farms got its start in 1961, when owner Joel Salatin’s parents bought the property.
“It was an eroded rock pile when we first came,” he says. After some landscaping, the family began tilling the land. In the years since, it has become a multigenerational family operation, with Salatin’s children and grandchildren all working the farm.
Specialties: Though it’s known for its pork and pastured poultry, the farm also specializes in raising cows, turkey, ducks, lambs and rabbits.
Production methods: The poultry at Polyface is raised on pastures, and gets moved on an almost daily basis to have access to fresh grass. The birds enjoy a diet of local, GMO-free feed, and they’re processed directly on the farm. “There’s the list of things that we do do that are positive, like frequent pasture movement and all that,” said Salatin. “And then there’s the things that we don’t do, the negatives that are all the drugs and the GMOs in the grains.”
Where to find in RVA: Customers can order through the farm’s website, which delivers to the Richmond and Midlothian areas. Polyface also sells goods on the farm, at Ellwood Thompson’s and through relayfoods.com.
