Our Mission:
Educate and empower generations to come by regenerating a connection between people, food, and farming.
Our Vision:
Grow the knowledge of farming and food sources and in turn, expand the availability of nutritious foods.
Encourage an entrepreneurial and self-sufficient mindset through the practices of agriculture.
Educate all ages on the importance of “getting your hands dirty” and the soil that sustains us all. Learn More about our Mission!
POD Speaker Series
Join us for our first Speaker Series event, focused on bringing light to the regenerative agriculture movement!
Our first speaker, Joel Salatin, 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 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.
Tickets are $99 / guest and include dinner and speaking engagement.
Additional wine & cider available for purchase.
Our Story
Our story is rooted in family & farming
The Family:
Our grandparents, Bob and Faye Zurschmeide have six children, nineteen grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren with number five on the way. We all grew up in Western Loudoun County, born as cousins and best friends. From our very early days, Pawpaw and Mimi, watched over us while our parents
worked the farm and taught us about the value of sweat and hard work.
The Farm: We grew up on the farm playing in the chicken coop, competing to pick the first ripe strawberry of the season, raising puppies and kittens in the barns & fishing in the pond. After a day in the greenhouse helping plant the first of the spring crops we’d be exhausted and dirty but had a strong feeling of accomplishment. Our parents would always say “Dirt Don’t Hurt” and we took that to heart.
As we celebrated the fourth wedding our our cousin’s generation and prepared to welcome the fifth great grandbaby to the family we began thinking; How can we foster continued love for family & farming in this next generation? How do we support each other to work the farm and take care of the great-grandbabies as they arrive? How do we share the farm lifestyle with others and help them to build a healthy lifestyle?
Sitting up on the mountain one evening, we remembered a saying Pawpaw shared from his mother. “She’d say you’ve gotta eat a peck of dirt before you die.” We think she was on to something!
With that, we formed the “Peck of Dirt” Foundation to help foster education and experiences for all ages to help renew connections to our soil, our food, farming and our health and empower a generation to continue farming and feeding our community. Won’t you join us?
~ The Zurschmeide Cousins
