Study the earth.
Story
I grew up on a beef cattle farm in rural Virginia. Farming is somewhat of a family business--both of my parents were raised on cattle farms before they married and started their own operation.
Our farm is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, with all sorts of various wildlife, grasses, vegetation, trees and critters. Part of the property line is edged by the Rapidan River. As my parents scaled their business, caring for the land and the wildlife was just as important as caring for the cattle. The streams were fenced out so that the cattle couldn’t stomp through, reducing the effects of erosion and protecting water quality. My mother lodged bird houses across the farm, inviting wild fowl to habitate, balancing the insect population. Every single day, my father rotates “the herd” from one pasture to the next, giving the grass and the soil the time needed to replenish and regrow before the cattle graze it again.
As a kid, I thought our farm operated like any other. That a steward for the cattle was also a steward for the land. It wasn’t until college that I learned about Big Ag and factory farming and its harmful effects on the land and animals. It was still years later that I realized my parents had been practicing “grassfed farming” before it was the trend du jour.
“As a kid, I thought our farm operated like any other. That a steward for the cattle was also a steward for the land.”
More time passed before I started learning how our personal vitality is also interwoven with the health of our environment. This realization started with a personal health crisis, as it does for many. In 2016 I experienced a full body eczema breakout. A wave of red sores, dry scales and lesions across my torso, back, thighs, calves sent me into a panic. It was painful, it was embarrassing and it was a sign.
I started assessing everything in my immediate environment. What was in the never-seems-to-expire body lotion that was always discounted at CVS? What lurked under the rim of my daily Starbucks elixir? Fortunately, I had my mother in my corner and she helped me seek replacements for the harsh and toxic convenience store products that I had stocked my vanity with for over a decade. At the local farmer’s market she found what would become the cornerstone of my beauty routine--a bar of tallow soap.
With tallow as the hero ingredient, this bar helped my inflamed skin begin to soothe and heal. As I used it to cleanse my body and my face, I not only saw the rashes mend but I noticed the pores on my face minimize, my fine lines soften and my skin glow as it received the nourishing and hydrating elements of tallow.
I began to love tallow not only for its gentle effectiveness, but also its part in the larger process of regenerative farming that I had grown up educated by. While cattle graze on pastures, they fertilize the land with their excrements and til the soil with their cloven hooves. Their four stomachs process the nutrients in grasses which humans cannot. We receive these nutrients in well-sourced animal-based products like tallow, which is most commonly a waste product of the agricultural system.
