Sweetpea visits the Farm Sanctuary

In the 5 1/2 years since I started the bakery I haven’t had a chance to take many vacations. So when the flier came in the mail for Farm Sanctuary’s annual Hoe Down at the Orland, CA farm, I took one look at the pictures of happy cows and goats and sunny skies and ran to the computer and bought tickets. Orland is only an 8 hour drive from Portland, and I’d be able to bring a gift basket for their silent auction, as well as treats for the staff and volunteers.

after 8 hrs in the car and a night of camping it didn't look this good

It pretty much sounded like the perfect weekend trip. Except for the camping part, but I was overlooking that, mostly because my partner was so excited about it. (I mean, does anyone really LIKE camping?) I left Portland dreaming of having this amazing experience where I reconnected with animals, reinforced all of my beliefs about animal rights and remembered why I started a vegan bakery in the first place. I guess I wanted to renew my motivation, and stop being so bogged down in the day to day of running a business. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to make that happen.

I was already giddy about petting cows and goats, but I didn’t realize how excited I’d be about being in a farm setting in general. I’m such a city girl. When I came back I told Chad (from Food Fight!) that I couldn’t believe how bristly the pigs were, and he said “You’ve never touched a pig?!” and I have to admit, I hadn’t! I guess I’m a great example of how disconnected we are from these animals that many people consume as food on a daily basis.

underdog

As it turns out, I’m scared of cows. Did you know that they are HUGE? Their size and power amazed me, and I was nervous just being next to them. Of course they turned out to be so gentle and soft, and I quickly picked out a sweet brown cow named Harrison to spend all my time with. He was smaller, and less intimidating to me. Josh attached himself to the oldest cow he could find- he had a steady stream of drool blowing in the wind (the cow, not Josh, although Josh drools pretty often too). The pigs were so funny and grumpy, unless you were rubbing their bellies. Again, I was amazed by their size.

those ears! that mohawk!

I love goats.  LOVE THEM! They unfortunately, were not as fond of me. I also stepped in goat poop, but it did not dim my love of goats one bit.

run goat run

Turkeys were so rad, and I just never get tired of that gobble gobble noise. They look like characters from a Star Trek movie. We learned about how hey are bred to have such big chests (for breast meat) that their feet can’t bear the weight of their bodies.

giving me the stink eye i think

And when I got out of the tent at 6 am to pee for the 4th time that night (camping and beer, good idea, bad idea!) the sky and the moon were so beautiful I had to run back to the tent for the camera and get a picture, which of course just doesn’t do it justice.

let's all go back

As much as I loved being close to all of the animals, the best part of the trip for me turned out to be the people. Some were old friends who it was nice to just spend time with, like my mini-mall neighbors, Josh, Michelle and Ruby from Herbivore. We made new friends (Hi Kile and Missi!), met some phenomenal volunteers and staff and even got to meet the founder of Twitter, Biz, and his wife Livia, who are vegan and big supporters of Farm Sanctuary. By far the most exciting person there for me was Tanya Petrovna, the owner of Native Foods Cafe. Meeting another female vegan restaurant owner just made my whole trip off the charts, especially since I love Native Foods, and her cookbook. Tanya was so friendly, warm, and funny and the Chilaquiles she made for us were delicious (and easy!).

After stopping in Eugene on the way home to eat at  PRI and the Sweet Life, I couldn’t wait to get home with my renewed motivation and positive outlook. Getting back into the kitchen and remembering that every time we bake a cake without eggs, or a muffin without cow’s milk we keep an animal from suffering. I’ll never know how many animals lives have been saved by what we do on a daily basis, but I know that we are making an impact. If a year goes by, and I’m starting to forget, you will find me at Farm Sanctuary again next year, remembering!

3 Comments

• 

  By Julie, May 12, 2010 @ 8:26 am

  “he had a steady stream of drool blowing in the wind (the cow, not Josh,” HAHAHAHAHAHA! that made me picture both the cow, and Josh, drooling.
  I wish I could have gone. Sounds like it was a blast!

• 

  By Rob, May 12, 2010 @ 9:21 am

  We love Farm Sanctuary too. We visited for their Thanksgiving event and fed dinner TO the turkeys. That was a wonderful, soul-cleansing experience. While we were there we saw someone sunbathing in a field. We walked over and sat down in the grass next to him. His name was Hugo, and he was a brown and white cow. He was really big, but he had every reason to be scared of us, not the other way around. I was surprised at how easily he trusted us though, so we easily trusted him too. Linda and I scratched his neck and rubbed and face, and gave him big hugs. I apologized to him profusely for things I had eaten in the past and hugged him some more; he seemed to forgive me. I think about him a lot when making dairy-free and meat-analog stuff, and when I’m in the store. My guess is that he was a veal calf rescued from a dairy, but he was such a kind and gentle soul. When we left Farm Sanctuary, veal was no longer “veal;” it now had a name: it was Hugo. We had also met turkeys, pigs, goats, and rabbits, and we knew that back home the grocery store would no longer be filled with products, it would be filled with friends of friends. That’s a life-altering, game-changing experience. We couldn’t possibly do non-vegan foods now.

  Here’s a picture of Hugo at Farm Sanctuary in Orland: http://knowthankyou.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/pull-my-hoof/

• 

  By missi, August 27, 2010 @ 10:16 pm

  awww, shucks! it was really awesome to meet you and josh as well. we have made so many good friends over the last few years going to FS events (aka – your mini mall neighbors and many more).

Other Links to this Post

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment