Create Your Food Treasure Map

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posted on

July 8, 2025

Create Your Food Treasure Map

A friend recently asked me "what brings you peace these days?" and without blinking an eye, I answered "feeling rested, healthy and strong."

As I pondered my answer that evening while fixing dinner, I took a memory trip back to summer 2023 when I visited Polyface Farm for the first time. I'd attended the Two Days of Truth Summit that June. I remembered chuckling to myself then about how I'd bagged a planned beach trip for a weekend of learning! I could feel something shifting in me then, I just didn't know exactly what or why yet. I sat on the edge of my seat listening to the speakers, filling my notebook with mind-spinning ideas and inspiration. It was the impetus for me making it a priority to understand my health choices; mind, body & spirit.

It's hard to believe that was over two years ago now, and somewhere along the way since then - be it in a book, interview or podcast - Joel introduced to me the concept of creating a "Food Treasure Map," with the big idea being to take one year (that's right, a year!) and invest a good chunk of free time into mapping out the best choices and sources for my (and my family's) food.

"There is peace of mind when you know exactly what is in the food you are eating and feeding your family" Joel writes in the book Beyond Labels: A Doctor and a Farmer Conquer Food Confusion One Bite at a Time, which he co-wrote with Dr. Sina McCullough. I bought this book at the Summit and it has been an indispensable resource for me as I navigate through all the noise out there, and feel empowered instead to listen to my body and "finally figure out the diet my body needs to be happy, healthy & free."

Reading the book feels like having two friends at your kitchen table gently sharing ideas, or "Practical Bites" as they call them, for small shifts toward knowing "what to eat, how to procure it (they list resources and websites to help folks find their local farmers), how to prepare it, how to eat it" and how to save time in the kitchen to boot! Building community and and being mindful in the moment finds a place in the book as well.

Embarking on a year-long adventure to create a Food Treasure Map goes hand-in-hand with endeavoring to feel your best (on all levels) and being empowered by your choices. Practical Bite #1 reads: "You have the power to shape your food supply into what you want it to be." How exciting!

Where to start, you might ask? I'd encourage you to write down all the questions you can think of to help you know what it is that you are looking for and why. What is my body telling me it needs? (Dr. Sina is a big fan of this question!) Is the restless mind craving more quiet and routine? How much time do I wish to spend procuring my food? What will it feel like to trust my food sources? And so on. Paint the picture and ask yourself "what's my why?"!

When I consider the "why" behind my answer to the question of what brings me peace, I know it's because it's the way I want to show up for all the life I am given - rested, healthy and strong.

Food and community play a big part in that. I absolutely relish the time spent investigating this market or that food grower, visiting a farm, sharing tips with friends and strangers alike. It's all part of it!

I hope you have fun with some of these ideas, please share any you might have for creating the Food Treasure Map of your dreams!

Blessings & Happy Hunting!

Kristi

Short of Turkeys and Beef

For the first time in many years, we’ll be short of turkeys for Thanksgiving. Consistent with our policy of full transparency, here is why. And we’ve been short of beef now for some time. The underlying theme of this explanation is to inform you completely about why and what we’re doing about it. Unlike many businesses, we don’t call up other outfits to supplement ours when we’re short. We figure out how to produce more and until then, simply run behind. Because of that, when we explore new markets, we can’t adjust our inventory instantaneously.We’ve had a couple of incredibly exciting market developments this year. We’ve always tried to experiment with new opportunities when markets request product. You never know which ones will be long term, short term, positive, or negative. Over the years, we’ve given away turkeys when we overproduced due to assuming a certain market opportunity would come through; that’s not financially viable. As a result, we’re pretty careful about expansion. Three years ago, a large corporation in Virginia asked us to supply turkeys and Christmas hams to their 300 employees. We had no idea they would hang with us this long, but here they are, happy and showing unbelievable loyalty. We’ve been reluctant to count on them simply because these kinds of things normally don’t last. But isn’t it exciting and even exhilarating that a big company is buying our kind of turkeys and hams for their employees? The other thing that developed—and these things develop slowly—was Azure Standard asked us to supply them with 1,000 turkeys as a trial to see if their customer base would like them. By the time that deal was formalized, we were too late to order more turkeys and did not have the full number for them, but we we did the best we could. Some of you who are Azure Standard customers will no doubt see our turkeys pop up on their sales platform. When an engine going somewhere wants to hook to us, we always try to at least collaborate in an experiment. That’s where we are; if all are happy, this could be an extremely positive strategic client for us in the future. In the same way, we’ve been contacted by a new internet marketing outfit wanting some of our beef. We’ve agreed to let them have five in 2027. We’re hoping ongoing discussions will lead them to carry our poultry and pork as well—right now they’re only beef. None of this is about building an empire. It is about collaborating with the cutting edge of authentic food and circumventing Big Food, Big Ag, and Big Pharma. Innovation comes in many ways. Polyface perhaps leads the world in the production element. But processing, marketing, and distribution are also undergoing innovation and staying relevant is a daily objective. That some of the most creative significant players in the integrity food movement are asking us to play with them is wonderful. They could just handle industrial organic meat poultry, which doesn’t see pasture and doesn’t enjoy the happiness context of Polyface livestock. But they’re talking to us, and that’s awesome. All innovation carries a ragged edge as it develops, refines, and hopefully becomes efficient over time. Thank you for indulging us the freedom to explore these new venues and to collaborate with some of the best players in the good food movement. As you can imagine, growing and experimenting create their own sore muscles. Being short is not fun for either of us, but be assured it’s not because our animals are sick or we’re getting tired of being farmers. You can laugh at that. It’s because, true to our history, we are committed to putting food worth eating on plates held by friends. We count you as friends; that’s why we’re taking you on this little explanation behind the curtain. Hang in there and thank you, thank you for your loyalty and patronage.

Create Your Food Treasure Map

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