Joel and Loralei Hallet began to research the state of agriculture in our country and the world, in response to a deep desire to provide healthful, nourishing foods for their family, early in 2011. As their research began to point out how deeply flawed our current industrial agriculture system had become, the Hallet's felt a growing conviction in their hearts. Convinced that in order to be part of the solution, they needed to provide a solution, Joel and Loralei began a deep research cycle, focusing on how to ethically raise livestock in such a way that the animal is able to fully express its genetic identity, and provide the best possible nutrition when harvested for human consumption. After reading the works of Joel Salatin, Allan Savory, Gail Damerow, Julius Ruechel, and many others, we began to look for opportunities to put this wisdom into practice both for our family and for our community. The end product: we moved to Enumclaw, WA to rent 1 acre of farm property, applied for and were accepted to the Seattle Tilth Farmworks program, and have begun to build our farming business!
Our three generation family farm team consists of Joel Hallet and Loralei Hallet, Mark and William Hallet, our 3 and half year old twin boys, Gwenyth and Miriam Hallet, our 9 month old twin daughters, And Roger "Papa Guz" Hallet, the patriarch of the Hallet family, and a long time green thumb gardener. In addition to our family farm team, we have the support of our cohort and teachers at Seattle Tilth Farmworks!
Papa Guz brings his experience as a plant nursery worker and home gardener to the farm, while Joel and Loralei bring an extensive amount of sustainable agriculture research and hands-on backyard farming knowledge, developed in their previous South Seattle home. Mark and William, farm hands extraordinaire, excel in all areas of farm work which involve the all important task of "digging in the dirt." Meanwhile, their sisters, Gwenyth and Miriam, offer expertise in all farm tasks which require eating the dirt that their brothers are digging up!
Hallet Family Farm is developing our farm business in partnership with Seattle Tilth's 2012 Farmworks program. As members of the Farmworks cohort for 2012, we have access to expert farm mentorship and an encompassing support system as well as extensive training on the ins and outs of running a farming business. Our hands-on experience with raising poultry has been gained through our own personal backyard flock over the past year. In addition to this hands-on experience, we are voracious readers and researchers of all things Farming, but especially sustainable humane agriculture practices, and to put it simply, we want to be Joel Salatin when we grow up :-)