Happy to bring you February’s Mindful Meat Mondays offering featuring our good friends Ian and Cathy Finley of Laurica Farm and Leanna Leanna Caterina Cappucci Bedrock Living.
First up is Laurica Farm.
Not only is it the right thing to do when you pasture raise animals, but you miss out on so many resources when you don’t.
I’m often asked if we are an organic farm, to which I respond “we are so much more than that”, and then begins the talk about permaculture.
All the animals are raised biodynamically here on our small family farm. They are allowed to live as close to nature as possible but their resources are utilized in such a way that the meat is merely a (delicious) bi-product.
The heritage pigs here are the masters of permaculture farming! They till our fields meaning we reduce fueling heavy machinery & killing our valuable soil by tilling. They pull up weeds from the root. Of course, they provide a rich fertilizer as they go meaning we avoid the ridiculously resource-laden practice of buying in compost from an outside source. The hogs pasture diet is substituted with organic food waste that would otherwise end up in landfill. We’re currently collecting around 5 tonnes of organic produce, granola, spent grains, whey and bread each week for the pigs to turn into fertilizer.
One of the things that I believe is often missed in the narrative around the environmental impact of animal agriculture is the symbiotic relationships between soils, plant, animals and human that can be nurtured. Valuing the animal as more than meat is a key element to sustainable farming. To us at Laurica Farm, placing the animals’ welfare at the heart of our ethics is paramount to harnessing the benefits to the animals as a resource.
Through a process of rigorous pasture management, we manage to free range 30+ hogs, 100 chickens, 10 sheep, 7 ducks, 4 dairy goats & 2 wild children on our 5 acre plot.
In 2015, our little farm won a Chamber of Commerce award for Environmental Leadership. We were the only farm nominated throughout the entire night and winning pushes a change in rhetoric about sustainability and challenges people’s perceptions of animal agriculture.
It saddens me that people have forgotten how to cook well. I remember hearing Joel Salatin comment that we’ve never had such well equipped kitchens before, yet we’ve never been so removed from our kitchens. A constant part of our narrative with customers is about how to use food to its fullest benefits. When using meat, we promote the idea of using less, choosing it well and using the entire animal. It seems to be working as we hold a waiting list for our pork and supply some of the best chefs in the area. The feedback is the best thing any service provider could possibly hear from their customers!
You can find us at:
Facebook
Twitter & Instagram:@lauricafarm
Website
Phone: 604-719-3749
Thank you,
Cathy Finley
Next up is Bedrock Living:
Leanna Cappucci,
Certified Nutritional Therapist:
Biography:
In what seems like another lifetime, I was a pre-med student majoring in biology, and minoring in psychology and anthropology, working full time in Vascular Surgery. This experience opened my eyes to the fact that the western medicine approach to healing the body is a broken system. In my journey to discover a better solution, I now combine modern scientific research with ancient holistic knowledge, mixing anthropological evidence to create optimized solutions tailored to the individual. This is accomplished primarily through diet, movement, sleep, stress management and lifestyle factors.
More specifically, I am a mother of three who was a chronic workaholic and found myself getting sick and gaining weight despite doing everything that commonly is the “prescription” for good health.
I “found” Paleo after an introduction by my brother to the ‘Paleo Solution’ by Robb Wolf, and after careful consideration, I put it into practice. Suddenly I became hooked, the science fascinated me, the results astonished me. Since that time I have been living it, soaking it up, reading, researching and sharing it full time.
Since then, I’ve immersed myself in the Ancestral Health community and expanded my practice beyond just strict Paleo by focusing on holistic approaches to wellness combined with an Ancestral Based Diet and Functional Nutrition & Movement.
In my own life I have seen it have a tremendous impact on my life, as well as that of my spouse, my children and even our pets. In the lives of those I work with, I’ve seen amazing results in health and well being. Everything from medical, physical, and emotional improvements to the ever important: weight loss.
My personal goal is to help people find the information they need to put healthy eating, and good choices into play in their homes. I want people to know that it can be done quickly, easily, painlessly and economically and that you, YES YOU, CAN do this! Give me 30 days, and your life will be forever changed too!
Facebook: Bedrock Living and Bedrock Babe
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