We are always delighted when an employee actually comes from the Sequim area where our farm is located. Local eating should mean more than just people living where their food is grown. It should also mean providing local employment. Several people that have appeared in these newsletters come from our immediate area, and among them is Jordon Mueller, the man who takes good care of our pig herd.
Jordon grew up around pigs, as his family raises much of their own meat, and he started hunting with his Dad at the early age of nine. “It’s been a really great bonding experience for both of us,” Jordon says, “We usually go out at least once a year, bag our deer or elk, and bring back between 400 and 600 pounds of meat for our family and friends.”
Jordon is a person who really likes the outdoors. He is very interested in wild edible mushroom foraging and at one point was thinking of working in mycoremediation, or using fungi to reduce contaminants in soil. “I’ve learned a lot about mushroom identification,” he says. “My favorites are oyster and cauliflower mushrooms. They are not as common as the chanterelle, but they taste fantastic.”
In school Jordon loved to play baseball and football, but after suffering a knee injury, he took up skeet shooting and trained at the Dryke family’s Sunnydell Shooting Range in Sequim. He also likes to hike to waterfalls on the Peninsula. “There are some really beautiful ones in the Brinnon area, and also around Forks,” he remarks. “I just find a creek, follow it for a mile or so, and almost always come to a waterfall.”
Jordon started working at Nash’s in 2012. He is very good with the animals and some of them follow him around and allow him to pet them. He has a knack for knowing what they need to thrive and the skills to provide it. While our pork is not part of our Farm Share program, it is an important part of the diversity we strive for on the farm.