An Evening with Joel Salatin
Urban Acres is pleased to bring you a casual evening of conversation and cuisine with featured guest, Joel Salatin. Joel, like the farmers of Urban Acres, uses sustainable farming principles to produce healthier organic food that is sold in local communities. A third generation alternative farmer, lecturer, and acclaimed author, Joel is a committed practitioner and advocate of good land stewardship.
Event Details
The evening will include a four-course dinner featuring ingredients donated by local, organic farms and prepared by celebrity chefs from Dallas restaurants.
Proceeds from the event will sponsor local farmers’ participation in the Clean Economy Series workshop featuring Joel Salatin on March 27, 2013.
~ Tickets are $125.00 ~
Seating is limited and reservations are required.
Will you be joining us?
Yes - Reserve my place at the table today.
No – But I’d like to make a donation.
About Joel Salatin
Joel Salatin, 56, is a full-time farmer in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. A third generation alternative farmer, he returned to the farm full-time in 1982 and continued refining and adding to his parents’ ideas.
The farm services more than 5,000 families, 10 retail outlets, and 50 restaurants through on-farm sales and metropolitan buying clubs with salad bar beef, pastured poultry, eggmobile eggs, pigaerator pork, forage-based rabbits, pastured turkey and forestry products using relationship marketing.
He holds a BA degree in English and writes extensively in magazines such as STOCKMAN GRASS FARMER, ACRES USA, and FOODSHED.
The family’s farm, Polyface Inc. (“The Farm of Many Faces”) has been featured in SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, GOURMET and countless other radio,television and print media. Profiled on the Lives of the 21st Century series with Peter Jennings on ABC World News, his after-broadcast chat room fielded more hits than any other segment to date. It achieved iconic status as the grass farm featured in the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA by food writer guru Michael Pollan and the award-winning film documentary, FOOD INC.
A sought-after conference speaker, he addresses a wide range of issues, from “creating the farm your children will want” to “making a white collar salary from a pleasant life in the country.” A wordsmith, he describes his occupation as “mob-stocking hervbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization.” His humorous and conviction-based speeches are akin to theatrical performances, often receiving standing ovations.
Chefs Preparing Your Dinner
Nicole Van Camp
Dallas native Nicole Van Camp is the creator of the Chef Nicole’s Secret Supper Club, farm-to-table dinners using all organic, free-range, grass-fed and local ingredients. The Secret Supper Club’s signature is the element of surprise; the menu items are only shared with guests the moment they’re served.
Van Camp received her culinary training at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and received an Associate of Occupational Studies at Le Cordon Bleu. Following her training, she worked at Nana on the 27th floor of the Hilton Anatole and trained for three years under Anthony Bombaci, James Beard award semi-finalist. In 2009, Van Camp left Nana to work as Graham Dodds’ Sous Chef at Bolsa in the Bishop Arts District and continued her stay in Oak Cliff by becoming prepared foods chef and manager at Urban Acres.
In addition to the Supper Club, catering and private events, Van Camp spends her free time volunteering at Urban Acres and Eden Creek Farm, learning about bio-dynamic farming, sustainability and harvesting.
Graham Dodds
Graham Dodds is Central 214’s award-winning Executive Chef, known for his passion for using locally sourced ingredients for farm-to-table cooking and his close relationships with local Texas farmers and suppliers.
Dodds received his culinary training at the Cordon Bleu Institutes in Portland and London. He has traveled and worked nationally and internationally as well as locally in Dallas (Star Canyon, The Grape, The Green Room, Dragonfly at Hotel Zaza, and most recently as executive chef at Bolsa in Oak Cliff, for which he received rave reviews from Dallas press). Dodds’ accolades include recognition by the Dallas Morning News as one of the Top Ten new chefs in the Dallas/Ft Worth Metroplex area, by The Dallas Observer as one of the Top Nine New Chefs, as well as national exposure in Bon Appétit Magazine. He frequently appears on morning shows promoting local sourcing and gives cooking classes.
Adding dimension to Dodds’ culinary talent is his continuing work with beekeeping, which he learned as a child while spending summers in England with his grandparents. Today, he maintains several hives and has established a trademark of integrating locally produced honeys into his cuisine.
Chad Houser
Chad has been a chef for 16 years, most recently selling his share of partnership in Parigi Restaurant to devote his full attention to Café Momentum as executive director. Chad previously served as President of the board of directors for Dallas Farmers Market Friends, and is the current Vice Chair of the El Centro Exes Association. Awards include the 2011 Edible Dallas/Fort Worth “Local Hero - Chef” award, and multiple nominations from D Magazine for Best Up-And-Coming Chef (2010) and Best Chef (2011 and 2012).
Farms Providing Your Food
Caprino Royale
Caprino Royale is a micro-dairy and small sustainable farm in Waco, TX producing pasture based goat milk products. The farm is owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Eric Tippit and Karen Dierolf. As James Bond fans, they created the name of their dairy from the word “Caprine,” the scientific term meaning “of or pertaining to goats” and as a spoof on the James Bond film Casino Royale. This developed into the goat herd name “Caprino Royale”. Their herd consists of purebred registered Nubian goats, which are known for their superior quality of milk, high butterfat content, and friendly disposition (not to mention, their big floppy ears!). We think Caprino Royale’s goat-milk cheese (fromage de chevre) is simply the best. For something sweet, try their Cajeta caramel sauce and Cajeta Pecan Cheese - yum.
Richardson Farms
Richardson Farms in Rockdale, TX is a family farm where one thousand 100% pastured turkeys roam happily. Each Thanksgiving, we offer these farm-fresh pastured turkeys to our members, and trust us, you'll never taste a turkey this good. Plus, you have the peace of knowing the turkeys were raised humanely and happily and are as fresh as it gets. The Richardson family has been involved in farming for several generations. They are conservation minded in their farming efforts and care deeply about the health and well-being of their animals. All of their livestock are in large open areas/pastures and are free to interact with each other.
A Steward's Dinner - Jim Richardson from Urban Acres on Vimeo.
Sand Creek Farm
Farmers Ben and Alysha Godfrey run Sand Creek Farm, a family farm in Cameron, TX that supplies us with our wonderful aquaponic lettuce and more. Aquaponics is a system for farming fish and plants together in a mutually beneficial cycle. Sand Creek says, "Everything we offer to your family is also what our family eats. In fact, that's how we became farmers. We wanted healthy foods, free of chemicals, free of antibiotics, free of GMO's, free of soy, and full of nutrients." Sand Creek says they are "soil and grass farmers" more than any other kind of farmer because everything they eat starts with the health of the soil. They believe the art of farming is a beautiful symphony of attention to detail and timing.