Episode 172: How to Teach Kids Real-Life Learning | Homesteading, Trades, & Purpose-Driven Learning

🎙️ Introduction & Spring on the Farm

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Homestead Education Podcast. Today, I have my good friend Daniel Salatin here. We get to hang out at all the conferences, and so I decided it was time to bring him on and share all his expertise with you guys. So, welcome, Daniel.

Oh, thank you for having me, Kody. This is super fun. We’re excited to be here. It is springtime in Virginia, and so there’s baby calves, baby chicks, we got our first match of meat birds on the pasture already, and we are rocking. So we’re on the western side of Virginia, so we’re up against kind of West Virginia there.

And just odd little facts, elevation, about 1,800 feet. So it’s a little higher than you might think for Virginia.

Oh yeah, in Idaho, I’m lower than you, I’m at 1700.

Right, exactly. And our mountain, I know for Idahoans it’s not a mountain, but our back hill is like another thousand feet elevation, so our farm has a thousand foot elevation difference from one to the other, so that’s pretty cool. And so we’ve got a good seasonality of watching the leaves get green as it goes up the mountain.

And we also have the four seasons, so we have spring, summer, fall, and winter, which is really exciting. So we’re in full spring, and spring in Virginia, you can be—we had 25 two nights ago, and it’s gonna be 80 tomorrow, so it’s just a very keep all the clothes ready at all times, you never know.

Right, that’s a little similar to North Idaho. Like, we were heading to town the other day, and I was like, oh, it’s like a caprian sweater type day, like I don’t have to wear the full garb, and it was snowing.

Yeah, right, you’re freezing.

🐖 Farm Life Realities

So yeah, we’re a little behind you on getting the yard and birds out and everything, but we had all the calves born, we made it through 4-H farrowing season. I hate 4-H farrowing season, because they’re all born in January, and they all die either from being froze or stomped all over. It’s a disaster.

Yuck.

You’ve been to our area, and it’s a very small county. I think there’s only about between 85 and 100 pigs that go to our fair, and we sell between 25 and 50 of them a year.

Okay, wow.

Kind of have a pretty big market there. But it’s still my least favorite. I’m ready for spring farrowing. That’s when they’re all cute and out on pasture, and not just piglet popsicles.

Right, no kidding.

🌱 Background & Homeschool Journey

So, tell us a little bit about Polyface in general. Actually, let’s back up. Tell us about you.

Right. Well, I’ve been farming my entire life. My father, Joel Salatin, I’ve grown up here on the Polyface farm for my entire life. I was homeschooled. I like to consider myself a homeschooled dropout.

I struggled with reading early. I didn’t like anything that had to do with English, writing, spelling, or reading.

I’m pretty sure my oldest thinks I invented math to ruin his life.

I didn’t mind math, because math has rules. Math is always the same. I don’t like when things are sometimes and maybes.

🔥 Purpose Over Traditional Education

For me, I’ve always told myself as I’ve gotten older, when you know what your life-calling passion is, and you can earn a living to provide for yourself and your family, and be a positive contributor to your community, you can quit school.

Until then, you stay in and keep working until you figure it out.

Those principles have not held me back in any way.

You need to have mental processes to problem solve.

That’s what I always say—if the internet can do everything, why don’t you just learn how to be a good person and use problem-solving skills?

Exactly. That’s the great thing about farming. There’s always something new. The weather’s different, the animals are different. You’re always problem solving.

🧠 Learning Through Real-Life Experience

That desire to problem solve and be a positive contributor is what put me on a path to success—not memorization.

Learning doesn’t have to happen by a certain age.

I learned to read in a month when I actually needed it.

That’s awesome.

That’s my journey. My calling is to be a mentor and teach people, not in a classroom, but outside.

🌾 Raising Capable Kids

I’ve had a similar experience with my son. He didn’t want to learn to read until he needed it.

That’s so true. Being comfortable not knowing everything is important.

There’s so much to know today, but what matters is knowing what’s important.

Our ancestors had to know real things—how to find water, how to read the land.

But now we can Google anything and still feel like we have no purpose.

Exactly. It doesn’t help us at all.

🏡 Modern Life vs Real Skills

Think about how we used to memorize phone numbers. Now we don’t remember anything.

I don’t even know my own wife’s number.

Same. Everything just falls right out of your brain now.

That mental engagement is missing. We don’t think through processes anymore.

🚜 Finding Purpose in Work

When did Polyface really become your thing?

I disliked school, so I leaned into farming.

I tried construction work, learned a lot, but it didn’t fulfill me the same way.

I enjoyed building something I could see grow over time.

Farming gave me that sense of legacy.

💡 Fulfillment & Legacy

Building a house and walking away wasn’t fulfilling.

But putting hay in the barn and seeing it every day—that was.

That’s such a good point. People are missing purpose.

🎓 Polyface Stewardship Program

You guys have a great program for young adults.

We call it full farm immersion. It’s a 5-month program.

We get 70 to 100 applicants, narrow it down through applications and a two-day trial.

Then we select about 8 to 11 people.

They live on the farm, work daily, and gain real experience.

By the end, they can process chickens at a high level through repetition.

🌟 Final Thoughts

It’s about learning, growing, and gaining life skills.

Not everyone becomes a farmer, but they leave with something valuable.

That’s what matters.

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🎙️ Introduction & Spring on the Farm

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Homestead Education Podcast. Today I have my good friend Daniel Salatin here. We get to hang out at all the conferences and so I decided it was time to bring him on and share all his expertise with you guys. So welcome Daniel.

Oh, thank you for having me, Kody. This is super fun. We’re excited to be here. It is springtime in Virginia. And so there’s baby calves, baby chicks. We got our first match of meat birds on the pasture already and we are rocking. So we’re on the Western side of Virginia. So we’re up against kind of West Virginia there and just odd little facts elevation about 1800 feet.

So it’s a little higher than you might think for Virginia.

Wow, yeah, in Idaho I’m lower than you, I’m at 1700.

Right, exactly. And our mountain, I know for Idahoans it’s not a mountain, but our back hill is like another thousand feet elevation. So our farm has a thousand foot elevation difference from one to the other. So that’s pretty cool. so we’ve got a good seasonality of watching the leaves get green as it goes up the mountain.

And we also have the four seasons. So we have spring, summer, fall, and winter, which is really exciting. So we’re in full spring and spring in Virginia can be, we had 25 two nights ago and it’s going to be 80 tomorrow. So it’s just a very keep all the clothes ready at all times. You never

Right. That’s a little similar to North Idaho. Like we were heading to town the other day and I was like, it’s like a Capri and sweater type day. Like I can I don’t have to wear the full garb and right now for a baseball game and it was snowing.

Hey, you’re freezing. gosh.

🐖 Farm Life & Farrowing Season

So, yeah, we’re a little behind you on getting the yard and birds out and everything. But right. We had all all the calves born. We made it through for each fairwing season. I hate for each growing season because they’re all born in January. They all die either from being like frozen or stomped all over. Or, yeah, it’s a disaster. But we you’ve been to our area and it’s a very small county. I think there’s only about

between 85 and 100 pigs that go to our fair and we sell between 25 and 50 of them a year. So like we kind of have a pretty big market there and but it’s still my least favorite. I’m ready for spring farrowing that’s when they’re all cute and out on pasture and not just like piglet popsicles.

Okay.

Okay, wow.

Right, yeah, yuck, no kidding.

Yeah, it’s no fun. mean, we have 13,000 and only like five of them even faroed for January. It was terrible because we do all the live cover and everything.

Sure, exactly. letting nature take its course. So hopefully those are the best and the brightest and the toughest.

🌱 Background & Homeschool Journey

You know, we have some really for the most part, we have good stock and a lot of them are heritage and the meat is just. Yeah. So, you know, tell us a little bit about just like polyface in general. Sure. And like, you know what? No, let’s back up. Tell us about you.

Right. Well, I’ve been farming my entire life. started my father, Joel, some of you might, that’s the more popular name in the Salatin connection. Salatin guy. right. And so we, I’ve grown up here on the Polyface farm for my entire life. I was homeschooled. I like to consider myself a homeschooled dropout.

I have one of those.

Yeah, and I was a very, I would have been put in the dyslexic class. I struggled with that. I didn’t learn to read early. I didn’t like anything that had to do with English or writing or spelling or reading or anything at all.

Pretty sure my oldest thinks I invented math to ruin his life.

Well, see, I didn’t mind math because math has rules and math has givens and math is always the same. And I don’t like when things are sometimes and maybe’s and well, not this time. It makes me nuts.

🔥 Purpose, Education & Real-Life Skills

You know what though? He’s been an electrician apprentice for five years, so.

Exactly. And so that’s where I say, so my, this may be, I might be giving away the home run statement at the very beginning of the podcast, but for me, I’ve always told myself, as I’ve kind of gotten older, I started having a look back, having regrets like, maybe I should have done more and you whatever. and then I really started thinking about as we started teaching our own kids and kind of doing some homeschool, try to figure out what worked for us.

Basically what I specifically told them I said look when you know what your life calling passion is and you can earn a living to provide for yourself and for your family whatever that looks like and be a positive contribution or contributor to your community, and that’s everything from giving your time giving your trades giving your assets and giving your financials to your greater community

like we’re so broke I can offer up a pig like you want to pay

And that’s the thing. I’m very much adamant on the you know the verse silver and gold have I none but such as I have give thy thee. And that’s very real example of there are different gifts and talents that each one of us have to be given to the big community.

Anyway, so those three things, know your life’s passion, be able to provide for yourself and your family and be a positive contributor to your community. And you can quit school.

Until then, you stay in and you keep working until you figure it out.

🧠 Problem Solving & Learning

those principles have not held me back in any way or form. In today’s society I don’t know how you get anybody to stay in school. You can just ask Google anything. Why do I need to know anything?

Now you need to have mental processes to be able to deduce and to problem solve.

That’s what I always say, like if the internet can do literally do everything for you, why don’t you just learn how to be a good person and use some problem solving skills

Exactly and that can be done and that’s the great thing about farming and agriculture and homesteading and agrarian society is because it is a complete mind field of different problems and not in a bad way but just there’s always something new because the weather is different the sow is different the weather is different at that right time all these things are different and so you’re always problem solving

🌾 Learning Through Experience

And so I think that that’s for me, that desire to problem solve and that desire to be a positive contributor to my family and to my community was what put me on a path to success.

Not the fact that I knew that A E I O U and sometimes Y were vowels.

learning doesn’t have to be by a certain age.

I learned to read in like a month, because I needed it.

🌟 Closing & Where to Find Polyface

For us, polyfacefarm.com is our website. We are on Facebook, Instagram. Joel Salatin’s on X. We don’t have a YouTube channel, but we have all those other things.

Polyface Farm on Facebook, Instagram.

If you ever want to reach out to me personally, there’s an email on our website, contact us and it’ll come through the screeners and we can definitely connect.

Ultimately come to the farm. We’re in Swope, Virginia and we would love to have you come and walk around.

We have lots of tours. We have an on-farm store. You can enjoy the animals and go out and put your hands on the pigs and look at the chickens and all those things and have that connection.

Thank you so much, Daniel, and everybody go check out what they’re doing because they’re great and have so much knowledge to share in this world that we’re living in.

Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a real pleasure and Godspeed to you and your message as well.

Thank you.