A Tiny Homestead

Minnesota Farm Living

Today I'm talking with Wanda at Minnesota Farm Living. You can follow on Facebook as well.
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.
00:29share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Wanda at Minnesota Farm Living and by the name of the farm, you know it's Minnesota. So good afternoon, Wanda. How are you? Good, good. I'm glad to be here. I'm happy to have you. And I'm really glad you're in Minnesota because when I ask you about the weather, we can just grin because it's sunny and it's warm.  Oh, know. It's crazy. And it sounds like this next week. I mean, the next like seven days is going to be like a roller coaster. And I mean that literally almost.
00:58Highs near 70 and it will be down to lows in about the 30s by the end of the weekend and probably snow again. Yeah, but not much not much snow and will melt next week.  Yeah, exactly.  can't Considering the winter we've had and how little snow we've had I would be very happy to not have three feet dumped on us. That would be great. I'm in Lasur. Where are you? I am in Welcome, Minnesota. So I'm actually right along the I-90
01:25In fact, I can actually see I-90 from my house and yeah, just south central Minnesota. Okay. I have no idea how far away that is from me in Lesor, like an hour. I'm going to guess an hour and a half. Okay. Cause I think St. Peter for us is like an hour and 15 minutes. So you're a little bit north of that. So yeah, we're about 10 minutes due north of St. Peter. Yep. We go to St. Peter all the time. It is such a cute town. Oh my city, I guess. I think it's a town.
01:52But I think every town is a town other than Minneapolis. So  yes, I had a daughter that actually went to school there for a year. So it gets Davis. So familiar with that. So  yeah, my son and I, a couple of springs ago went down to the campus and there's this really pretty like park area and they have some walking trails and it's really, really gorgeous. So we, we enjoyed that cause we moved to Lusore.
02:18little over four years ago and we really busy getting things set up in our new home  and getting a garden plotted out and getting a chicken coop set up and you know things you do when you buy 3.1 acres in the middle of cornfields  and so there's hadn't been a lot of time to go familiarize familiarize there we go  ourselves with the area and we went down to St. Peter and I was like  I want to live in St. Peter this is so pretty and then I got home
02:46Then I got home and went, no, I want to live in the middle of  I hear you.  So anyway, yeah, the weather is going to be a little nutty  starting Friday and be nutty into Sunday. And then I think we might be through the worst of this winter. think we might be on our way to spring. I would be okay with that for sure.  Me too. So Wanda does a whole bunch of stuff, but I think the biggest thing is, that you guys grow.
03:16pigs to supply Hormel, is that correct? That is correct. we've been- Okay, tell me about that. Yeah. So we've been raising pigs for 47 years. So that's how long we've been living on our home site. And so we've always raised pigs. We started off with actually having sows and boars and they would feral, which is another name for giving birth. had 24 farrowing stalls.
03:44And so we could have 24 cells actually giving birth at the same time.  And so then at first we just started raising them up just a feeder pig weight, which is about 40 or 50 pounds, because we didn't have any room for them to grow up to like 280 pounds, which is what we do now. And then we would sell them, we'd go to Windom, Minnesota, and we sold them on a feeder pig auction.  So that was how it started. And then eventually we got into,  we actually,
04:12built what we call gestation barn, which is where our cells actually were housed.  And the reason we did that, if anybody really knows much about pigs, they can be pretty aggressive towards each other because what they have to do is they have to figure out their pecking order, you know, who is going to be king sow. And so the way they do that is they can kind of fight with each other. And that was kind of hard to see at times. I mean, we actually had a sow die because another sow attacked it because they were just trying to figure out
04:41Who's going to be King Sal? So we built a gestation barn so they could all have their own individual areas. And I tell you, was like night and day difference. They were awesome. They were calm, you know? And so we could take much better care of them. So we brought them indoors and then eventually we built some barns that we could fill them, you know, to actually grow them out to market weight. And we have always sold to Hormel. So Hormel is located in Austin, Minnesota.
05:08It's about an hour and 15 minutes from where we live. yeah, I sometimes I call myself a grocery store farmer  because if you go into the grocery store and you go to the meat counter and if you see the Hormel label, those pigs could have came from our farm. So. All right. Well, the next time I buy Hormel pepperonis, I'll know where maybe some of that came from. Absolutely. Because we do occasionally buy those for making homemade pizza.
05:37And honestly, we actually  take our pigs locally to a locker. I have three freezers in my basement and it's just my husband and I here. But we have three freezers, but we have three daughters too that are grown, but we have lots of pork and beef on hand.  And the pork is from the pigs that we raise. Nice. It's really funny we're talking about pork because guess what's on the menu for dinner tonight?
06:00Ooh, hopefully pork, huh? Pork chops and tater tots and green beans. That's dinner tonight.  lunch, we had pork patties.  yep. So we eat a lot of pork.  Yeah.  I was never really a pork fan until I got sick of beef.  bought a couple halves a  while back. Like we bought a half. We ate most of that, bought another half of beef.  And  I've said this a bunch of times, my husband and my son would eat beef
06:30breakfast, lunch and dinner if they could. And I'm just over it. I'm so over it. And I was like, okay, I kind of like pork chops. I guess we could put that in the lineup.  And then my  other son, all my kids are grown. They're all adults.  One of my adult sons who doesn't live here came to visit and I said this not three episodes ago, but he made  sausage, gravy and biscuits for us.
06:58Okay. And he made it super black peppery. You know, he put a lot of black pepper in it and it was so peppery. I couldn't eat it. And so I was like, I think I actually would like it if it just wasn't so peppery. So I made some last winter, not this one, but last year. And I put the smokehouse maple seasoning that we get at the store. don't know what brand it is.
07:24And I put that in the, in the gravy and some salt and a little bit of black pepper.  And it was fabulous. So right now the only pork stuff I really, really like is pork chops and sausage and gravy biscuits. I'm, I'm good with those things.  And honestly, if I could get away with it, I would probably be vegetarian because I'm just so sick of every dinner having, having to have meat with it. My husband is a big meat and potatoes kind of guy,  but
07:50I do like what I just said, so I'm glad that you provide pork to people. Okay. So can I give you a hint? Sure.  Um, so we actually use the seasoning. It's very popular in our County kind of South central Minnesota. In fact, I think they even use some of the seasoning up at the twin stadium.  Um, so it's called Martin County magic seasoning  and everybody just raves about it. So that's what we use when we grill pork chops or do anything with pork.
08:19again, Martin County  Magic Seasoning and you can guess where I'm from, Martin County.  So yeah, so it's a very, very popular seasoning. People can get it into their local grocery stores.  You can order it online. I think it's like martincountypork.com.  So yeah, so that's very popular around here.  I will have to look that up and see if I can find it because that might help my case about meat.  I just, didn't grow up having meat at every dinner.
08:49And so for me, it's weird. I'm just like, aren't you sick of meat yet? And my husband's like, I will never  not want a steak. And I'm  like, okay, babe, that's fine. okay. So I do not want to put you on the spot, but I do want to talk about  factory farming  because I've talked to one lady,  she's a rancher in Nebraska.
09:18I've interviewed her, love her, she's fantastic.  And  she had kind of  a not great reaction when I used the term factory farms.  And  she was telling me that they have many, many, many cattle steers  and that they take really good care of their steers. They love their steers. They're not best buddies with their steers because steers aren't friends like that.
09:46I'm paraphrasing badly. Please Leah. Don't be mad at me.  Um, but basically that factory farms have gotten a bad reputation  and that  That factory farms are not evil. Yeah, and I believe I believe her. So what is your take on that? Okay. All right. So let me just let me go back a little ways here So I started my blog over 12 years ago
10:11and the in Minnesota farm living. And the reason I started it was because I was so frustrated as being a farmer, but all the misinformation that was out there in the media, you know, and one of the terms of course was factory farming. And I'm like, and to this day, I don't even know what a factory farm is. And the reason I say that is because  when I think about factory farm, I'm thinking about  massive producing, you know, whether it's,
10:38crops or specifically livestock and that you don't have that connection with them, that you don't care about them, I can tell you that that is the exact opposite.  So we have one employee, so between my husband and our employee, they're out in those barns multiple times a day checking on those pigs, making sure that everything is working fine, making sure they've got water, making sure they have feed, making sure no one is sick, no one is injured.
11:06They're constantly monitoring them. Yes, there's quite a few  in a barn,  but there's really not part of the factory part of it.  And I'll just give another example of how  we're so connected to our animals.  This was a number of years ago, and not in a personal sense, but just knowing that this is our job to take care of these animals. This happened quite a few years ago.
11:33And this was when we had the sows and the sows would feral give birth. Well, there was a virus that was going around. It's called TGE. Nowadays we don't have it. They have eradicated it. But at the time, what would happen is  when the pigs were born, they were healthy, but then they would have this virus and they would almost immediately die for about three weeks,  100 % pig mortality. Nothing to do.
11:59what would happen is that the salus would build up a natural immunity to it and then actually pass it down to the pigs. So after three weeks, then the pigs were fine. So  anyway, it happened to be Thanksgiving  and had the girls, we were all going to go to my mom and dad's for Thanksgiving because this is what we do. And he said to me, he said, you know what? He said, I'm going to stay back because I am bound to determine that I'm going to keep these pigs alive. And I said, okay.
12:27For one thing, this isn't something you do. My mom and dad is like,  no, you come to our house for Thanksgiving. This is a holiday, you know? And I said, okay, you do your thing. So he stayed back. You know, the girls and I went to my mom and dad's had Thanksgiving dinner. But like I said, he was bound to determine, I'm going to prove the veterinarian wrong. I'm going to stay with those pigs and I'm going to keep them alive. Do you know what happened?  You know what I mean? I mean, that just shows you just the connection that we have as farmers to our animals.
12:57Yes, we don't have a personal name for them because there's too many, but we are completely 100 % committed.  Our animals are actually, you know, have a higher priority a lot of times than what our family is, unfortunately. But, you know, we just are just so committed to, you know, to raising those healthy animals. So. Thank you so much for answering my question because I get real twitchy when I ask questions like that because I'm afraid I'm going to make people angry.  And I feel like I gave you an open door.
13:27to talk about it. Yes, yes.  And that's one of the reasons, like I said, that I decided to blog because what I want to do is I want to create that connection  between agriculture and consumers. And hopefully if they have any questions or, like, why do you do this? And why are you doing this? And what about this?  I can just have that open line of communication to explain, OK, here's what we do. And this is why we do what we do. Another example, just to kind of, you know, not the factory farm, but
13:55We have volunteered at the Minnesota State Fair a number of times in the swine barn.  And if you've ever been there, you go in there and there's a sow  in a fair ring stall with the baby piglets. So we, my husband and I, we would get in the crate with them.  And then  people would come and take a look at the  sow and see how big the sow was and how little  the pigs were. And then they could ask us questions. I love that because the questions were wonderful.
14:23What I found is that, for example, someone might say, why do you cut their tails? They kind of say it really kind of a negative aspect, like, why are you doing this? But once you explain why you do what you do, 90 plus percent of the people go, oh, yeah, that makes sense. It's just that they don't know. So I love that kind of communication. Yes, absolutely. since you brought up cutting their tails,
14:52We have an Australian shepherd dog and she's been really well behaved lately. She has been barking in the background,  but she has a docked tail. Okay. And  I, because I didn't know anything about this breed, didn't know that they aren't born with docked tails.  I thought she was just a naturally short tailed dog.  Okay. And then I was talking with our friends that have the mom and dad dog and they were like, Oh no, no.
15:22No, she hurt, she had a tail, but we dock their tails when they're like a day or two old. Yup. Yup. And I said, but why?  And I wasn't mad. I just didn't know.  Yeah. And she said, because most of our puppies are going to be adopted out to be working farm dogs. Okay. And they really like to wag their tails. And if they wag their tail too hard, they can smack it on something in the barn or in the barnyard.  Okay. They can break their tail.
15:50She said, and she said they are the dogs that get up real close and personal with the  livestock  and they can get their tails stepped on and broken. It's just a thing that's in the way. So we dock all the puppies' tails unless we're asked not to by the potential new owner. Okay. And I didn't know we were getting Maggie until she was like,  oh man, I think I met her when she was two weeks old.
16:19It was way too far past to not have her tail dock.  So my lovely, beautiful, classic Australian shepherd girl  has a nubbin  and we call her a nubbin wagger because when dad gets home, she is wagging that tail,  that non-existent tail like it's a full length tail.  So there are reasons for the way that things are done with animals. And if you don't ask, you don't know.
16:47Exactly, that is absolutely correct. So again,  the reason that I do the advocacy work I do for agriculture is just really to open that communication and answer people's questions. So, yeah.  When I started doing this podcast, I really thought that it was going to be more of,  okay, so tell me about pigs, tell me the lifestyle, life cycle of pigs, tell me about how many babies they have, na na.  It's really not. It's become this overview of what you do.
17:16And then all these philosophies and lifestyle things that come up and I really love it because  if it was just about a life cycle of a pig, it would be one episode about pigs because why would I do more?  So it's great that I get to talk to people like you and find out your take on how you do things and your perspective out into the world on how other people do things.  Uh huh. Yes.  Okay.
17:44So I was looking at your website literally when you signed on to talk to me. Okay. And you have recipes on your website and  you have gorgeous photos to go with those recipes. So  I didn't have a chance to really dig into it. Is it just one recipe per photo or is it like if you click on that, there's a bunch of recipes under it?  There should be a bunch there.  I put recipes on there even though it's probably not my main focus.
18:14of my website, but I do put some out there. And again, pork related, you know, recipes and you know, when people, for example, I know one that I've got out there is like, well, what happens if you go into the grocery store and you buy this 13, you know, 10, what, 11 to 13 pound pork loin? What do I do with it? You know, I mean, you know, unless you're going to have a huge crowd at your home, what do you, what do you do with it? And just kind of give some suggestions. Here's how you cut it up. And then you can.
18:41actually freeze it up and use it for pork chops or, you know, just other, you know, things in your recipes. And, you know, that's just one example of something I have out there because I was in the same situation. What do I do with this big, long piece of pork loin? You know, so,  And  we do that. We buy a pork loin from Sam's like once a month and we, and we cut it up and we use it for pork chops.  We used to do pork roast, but we're kind of not.
19:09into that right now so we haven't done one in a while.  And the end pieces where they're not the same thickness, we will chop those up and do pork stir fry with them. Oh sure, that'd be perfect. Yes. And it's way less money if you do it that way. You know, if you're trying to save a buck on groceries, it's a really good way to do it. Yeah.  And some of the other recipes I have out there are just family favorites. I mean, these are things that my mom's recipes,  they'll go pretty special to me.
19:38I actually have, she had the best handwriting. I have the worst handwriting. I will tell you straight up, that is nothing I inherited from her, but she had the most beautiful handwriting. So I have all of these recipe cards with her handwriting. And of course, a lot of things were made from scratch. And so I like to duplicate that and follow her recipes. And I still make a lot of the food that she used to make when I was young. So, and those are some things I shared on there too.  Nice. I love that.
20:07Did you happen to put a photo of one of her recipe cards up so we can see her handwriting? That's actually a good question. I'm not sure if I have one out there or not, but I definitely have them in my house.  I think you should take a photo of one of them and put it on there because handwriting is so distinct. Oh, it is. And when you have really beautiful handwriting, people really love seeing that.  Yes, yes. It's good idea. I'm going to take your suggestion and do that.
20:35Yes. Yeah. My grandmother on my mom's side had the most beautiful loopy handwriting, but it was small. So, know, consistently rounded, beautiful handwriting. And I was digging through my, my keepsake box when we moved here four and a half years ago. I'd go through stuff and rearrange and I found a card from her and it said, it said, love you, Mary Evelyn, grandma on it. Okay. Oh, and I'm going to tear up. didn't think I was going do that. Um,
21:04Anyway, I was looking at it I was like, I need to take a photo of that. Yes. need to get a necklace made  with that on it. Fantastic idea. I  haven't done it yet, but I still have the card and I keep saving it thinking that I'm going to do it.  Yes, absolutely. Yes. Those things are very special. Yeah. And her, her grandma, you know, her written grandma is just so pretty.  Okay, sure.  So yeah.
21:33handwriting is really special and it is absolutely a representation of the person that wrote it. Yeah, part of my side interest that I have right now that I really want to start getting into is the genealogy. So when you mention that story, those are the stories that you need to keep, you know what I mean? In saying those for future for other family members or just for yourself, you know? And so, you know, we talked about the recipes that my mom did.
22:01that will definitely go into my family history and I will definitely share those. But I think those are very special because,  you know, if we don't share them or save them, they're just gonna go by, you know, gonna go away, you know, and I don't think that should happen. Yeah, and it's so easy to just  not see how important it is. I  live like five miles from this really beautiful cemetery.  it's one of
22:30the two oldest cemeteries in Minnesota, supposedly. Oh, really? Okay. There are Civil War soldiers buried there. Oh my, yes. And it's up a hill and it's in  an oak grove, basically, and it's just beautiful. And  some of those gravestones are super duper old.  Oh.  And there's kids, you know, there's kid gravestones up there from 1800s.
22:55And I went up there and I wandered around because I'm weird. love cemeteries. They're quiet. They're usually very pretty. They're calming. And I was looking at these headstones and I was like, man, I wonder what their story was. I know. That's exactly what I was just thinking. I mean, each one of those has a story and you wonder what is that story? Yeah. And unless they were famous, nobody knows about what they did. Yes. Yes. So yeah, history is really important. you know, I mean,
23:25There's a saying about if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it.  And it's a terrible saying. mean, it's true, but it's very negative. But history is also full of life and brilliance and fun.  Oh, yeah. And you just, don't know, I just feel like people are so focused on moving forward. Yes. That they don't entertain what came before. Yes. No, I agree completely. I love history. Actually, I might
23:55My  college degree is in secondary education social studies. So history falls underneath that.  And so I hear exactly what you're saying. There's so many great stories that I would just love to write about all of them, you know, so.  Yeah, exactly. OK, so  agritourism, you were telling me something about you're starting a new blog or you did start a new blog. Yeah, I have a new blog. It's not been out a real long time. It's called the Minnesota Traveler.
24:25Basically kind of focusing on Minnesota travel, road trips, solo trips, that sort of thing. But I also go  beyond  Minnesota if there's some things in the Upper Midwest. That's really what I'm going to focus on.  And I love agritourism  because again, that connection with the farm. I think it makes a lot of sense.  So I will write about that and share those stories. I guess the first one that comes up to my mind is like the Spam Museum that's in Austin.
24:53And I love that because this Hormel and that's where I sell our pigs, you know, so there's a special connection there,  you know, and just kind of  kind of really just really focusing on some of the small towns  right along the I-90 like Fairmont. So if you're into pigs, if you ever go to Fairmont, Minnesota, they have over 100 pig statues placed around town and around the community. Please stop and check them out.  You know, so I've got that, you know.
25:21best things to do in Fairmont, Minnesota. It's a town of 10,000 people, but there's five lakes and it's just, you know, it's kind of these places that nobody thinks about, you know, like, why would I go there? But there's a lot of really cool things there. I did one on Blue Earth and one did one on Albert Lee in Austin and you know, working my way to the West and doing something with Jackson. On my bucket list is Laverne, Minnesota, because I guess they have a Nutcracker Museum there and I want to check that out.
25:49So yeah, so just small towns, agritourism.  In Iowa, there's actually going to be a, I don't know, celebration in Clear Lake,  Iowa. It's called Evolution of the Heartland, and they really focus on agritourism and really what's, you know, how these small towns were created based on the, you know, farming backgrounds of the area. So that interests me. so,  so. Fine, you should come to Lasur.
26:17And I will tell you why  the Jolly Green Giant  thing got started here.  Oh, yes. Yes. And you can see that in Blue Earth, right? To the statue or no, that's the Jolly Green Giant. Yes. But yes, yes. Uh huh. Yeah. We have a big billboard coming into town that has a Jolly Green Giant and Sprout. Sprout. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They just repaired it like last summer or the summer before, like it was torn apart and then they redid it because it was  falling apart. So.
26:47I need one. There's a brand new billboard up for that.  Yep. And, the Mayo M A Y O house is here and it's, I have not been in it. I have not figured out a time to get down there, but they have tours that they do. You can go in that little house and see where the guy that started the clinic stuff live. Okay. Way back when. Yes. That'd be very interesting.
27:15And I live like four miles out of town. So if you decide you're going to visit LaSalle, we'll have to set up a coffee date. All right. That sounds like a deal. That would be fun. Yeah. It's really kind of fun because I grew up in New England. I grew up in Maine. Okay. And moved to Minnesota back over 30 years ago, kicking and screaming. Did not want to go. And it took me probably 15 years to realize that I actually love Minnesota.
27:44It's not that different from Maine.  Okay. Okay. It is and it's not.  I call it a lateral move. Okay.  And  I  saw like a baby when I realized that I actually loved Minnesota because I had been fighting it for 15 years. I felt like  a traitor if I embraced where I lived, you know?  Minnesota has so much going for it. It's so beautiful.
28:14And there are so many different quirky little things about every single city in town.  Yes.  It seems like every town, no matter how small, has some kind of little festival they do every year.  Absolutely. Yep. They do. They're all different.  I haven't spent hardly any time up north. I think the furthest north I've been is Duluth. Okay. Yeah. So I know nothing about  northern Minnesota.
28:41I keep being told that I should take a road trip. Oh, yes. That is one of my favorite, favorite places to go  is Duluth and up to harbors and Grand Marais.  We go up there fairly often or when we can kind of get away because that is one of our favorite. I love Lake Superior. So  yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful area. Yes. The one thing I can say is I had never seen a lake that
29:09big in my entire life in Maine.  Yes,  that's for sure.  There are some beautiful lakes in the state of Maine and there are some beautiful rivers, but I don't think any of them are as big as Lake Superior.  it's taken me a while to embrace my situation of living in Minnesota, but  we had the choice four and a half years ago to move,  to leave our house in Jordan and move.
29:39And we debated moving back to Maine. And  Maine is expensive because of the tourist state.  sure. Sure. And they have really good lobster, right?  Yeah. Yeah. Much better than what we can get here. Yes.  The problem is  land and houses are fairly, or they were at the time, fairly reasonable. Uh-huh. But the cost of living is really expensive.  Ah, okay.
30:07All right. And so for about a month,  I was convinced that we were going to move back. And then I looked into it and I was like, no, we're staying in Minnesota. The cost of living here is way less money.  Okay. So I made a choice when I had the choice to stay in Minnesota. That's how much I have decided that I love it. Okay.  It's a hard choice, but that's where I'm at. Yes. Well, I think it's a good choice. So  I do too.
30:35I really do. It's a lovely place to live. Yeah. Yeah.  I have no story to compare that to. I've only lived in Minnesota. In fact, I tell people and I know this sounds very unusual, but I've only lived in two houses my entire life.  Wow. I was born and raised in Fairmont and I stayed in that house until I was 18 after I graduated. Shortly after I graduated, I got married.
31:00And we moved out to the farm about eight miles northwest of Fairmont and I have been here ever since. So I have a pretty boring life. you're happy. can hear that. Yes. Absolutely. So I've got one more thing because I was thinking the other day that I needed to find someone who was older than me. Not old, but older. I'm 55. Yep. And talk to them about what it was like when they were teenagers because I was a teenager in the eighties.
31:30Yep. And the 80s was a really silly time. No, no one's going to argue with me about that. Uh huh. When, what, what decade were you a teenager in? Yeah. So I would have been in the seventies. Yep. So I'm about 10 years older than you are. Um, so yeah, I mean, the things that we, I don't know, trying to think you're in, that's like a long time ago. Um, but I know that we had definitely, whether this is good or bad, but we had a lot more freedom. mean,
32:00Like parents weren't worried about where you were at. I mean, you would have to have a curfew. You would need to be home at a certain time. Um, but there was no, course, definitely no cell phones, nothing like that. You know, it's just, you just said, well, I think I'm going here to  one friend's house and okay, sounds good. But they would never, you know, they would never know if you changed your mind or not, you know?  Um, but one, one story when I think about when I was young, you know, especially with the farm and everything. So, um,
32:29And I laugh about this yet today. So my best friend actually lived on a farm right outside of Fairmont and they had pigs. They had a few pigs on the farm. And so like best friends do, we would stay overnight at each other's house. And so this one night, Friday night, I stayed overnight at her house. Saturday morning came and her dad said, you need to go out and clean the pig pens. You've to go do pig chores. So I told her, I said, you know, I said, I'll come out, I'll watch.
32:56I'm not going to help. I'll come watch you."  So we went out and did that. So she did her chores. And when she got done, I looked at her and I said, I will never marry a hog farmer.  So we laugh and we laugh. it's like, I bet you God was just rolling on the floor when he heard me say that. like, you have no idea, Wanda.  So we laugh about it. So this is kind of funny how that was. But  a lot of time we spent  as a teenager,
33:26We did have like a place that we would have dances that we would go to. We would do a lot of just driving. know, that was back when you had that kind of the hot rods. My husband to be at the time had a 1969 yellow Roadrunner. You know, the back end was jacked up and you'd go up and down the main street of Fairmont and hang out at the mall parking lot. And that's kind of where you would talk with friends and other people. And you know, that was kind of what we did. You know, it wasn't.
33:54Drive-in theater was in Fairmont. We could go there.  So yeah, was nothing too exciting beyond that.  But it seemed exciting at the time. Oh, definitely.  definitely. Yep,  absolutely.  I wonder if hanging out at the mall is still a thing for teenagers. Yeah, I don't know. know in Fairmont it's not. I don't even know where they even hang out, be honest with you. They just go to...
34:20each other's homes and kind of hang out there, but it's not like it used to be, you know? So yeah, that's actually good question. But I know I have been at the mall like on a Friday or Saturday night and it's not a thing locally, but maybe some other places it is. I'm not sure. Yeah. I have no idea. My kids, my youngest is 23 and my oldest 35, so they don't know either. Yep. And you wouldn't catch me dead in a mall these days. I haven't been to a mall in years.
34:49years and years.  I see no reason to go.  They're a dying breed. mean,  it makes me sad because  the Fair Mall was like, it was the place to go when I was young. mean, they had restaurants, had grocery stores, all the  stores were full. And now you go in there and there's maybe two retail stores left. I mean, it's so sad. You you go in there, it's like, this is not what it used to be, you know? So it's just kind of a change in times, you know?
35:20Yes, it is astounding to me how things have changed since my dad was a teenager. I mean, he's 81. Uh-huh.  And he's so like with it. He's so up to date on stuff and he's in great health. He's in great shape. He's smart. Oh my God, this man is so smart.  Awesome.  And I asked him what it was like when he was a teenager.  And  he has this story about his foster mother because his mother died when he was two.
35:50Okay. And his dad, his dad worked for the state of Maine fixing roads. That was his job. Okay.  And, uh, my dad tells this story. He can't stand corn. My dad will not eat corn to save his life.  Okay. Part of it is that when he was growing up and spending his time with the foster mom, when dad was, was working,  she made a lot of corn recipes because they grew corn. Oh, sure. Yep.  And,
36:19He can't handle it. And I'm not a big fan of corn either, but that's just, I don't like it. I don't like too much of it. And I'm like, there's gotta be other stories. And he's like, well, he said, I spent a lot of time fishing in the creek behind the house and watching the eagles come in and lay their eggs. You know, they had nests in the trees and in the, um, the rock walls, going up the side of the creek. And he said, I just spent a lot of time out in the woods doing boy stuff.
36:49He said, and if a girl wanted to hang out with me, she had to like do him buy it boy stuff too. Sure. Yes.  And I just he's so far removed from that that talking about it is  weird for him, think.  Uh huh. What a great life, though. What a great life.  You mentioned that. And I think about back when I was young, too, I used to climb a lot of trees. I mean, that's what we did as kids. You know, you'd go to the neighbors or friends or whatever. Let's go crime. Climb a tree.
37:18I don't even see that happen anymore, you know, but you know, we don't have phones in front of our faces and that sort of thing. So that's what you did. But that just sounds like a wonderful life of your dad. Yeah. And us kids kind of followed in his footsteps because we lived  quite, I mean, we lived a good half an hour away from a lot of our good friends.  So we spent a lot of time playing in the woods that were behind our house when we were growing up  and going out.
37:46the creek and catching brook trout and  I don't know, just the stuff you do hanging out in the woods as a kid.  I don't know that a lot of kids have that experience right now. Yes, I know.  It kind of makes you sad really when you think about it.  Yes. But I was just curious, I'm trying to find somebody who's like  90, who is still in good health and still capable of having this kind of conversation with me.
38:13Just have a nostalgic conversation about what it was like when they were growing up So if you know anybody, let me know I will definitely do that. Yes,  because a lot of what we farmers and homesteaders and ranchers are doing  It's based on what those people did too. Uh-huh. Yep So that's of where I'm trying to go with that But  either way I grew up in the 80s the 80s all I can think of is Madonna and Prince I listen to a ton of music
38:43And back in the eighties, that's when MTV came around. Sure. Sure. And if I wasn't out in the woods screwing around or riding my bike, I was in front of the TV watching MTV and  all the lyrics to music. That's what I was doing. Yeah. I'm a huge music fan too, especially live music.  Sticks is my favorite band. So anytime I get a chance to go see them, I love that. So classic rock, that's kind of, that's my thing. So  that makes sense for the seventies. Yep.
39:12Absolutely. Yeah. And I grew up on all the weird overtly sexual strange music.  The stuff you couldn't get away with in the seventies, you could get away with in the eighties. So,  all right. Thank you for entertaining me on that question. It's really not necessarily homesteading, but it's sort of within the realm of history. So  thank you so much for your time today, Wanda. I really appreciate it.
39:40Absolutely, I loved it. So thank you for asking me.  Oh, absolutely. And you'll have to come back and visit me in a year and we'll see what you're doing and where you're at. good. Thank you.  Thank you. Have a good afternoon. Yep, you too. Bye.
 

The Cottage Foodie

Today I'm talking with Matt at The Cottage Foodie. You can follow on Facebook as well.
A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Homegrowncollective.org.
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.
00:29share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Matt Rosen, also known as Sergeant Shortbread at the Cottage Foodie, because he has a new thing going on. Good afternoon, Matt. How are you? I'm doing fantastic, Mary. Thanks for having me on. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Just  to catch people up, Matt and I talked quite a while ago about his business, Sergeant Shortbread. He makes fabulous shortbread, I have heard.
00:54And then he decided he wanted to do this new thing called the cottage foodie. So this is kind of a catch up and to talk about that. So tell me about yourself  and what you're doing now.  Yeah. So like you said, I started out in the cottage food  community or the cottage food industry as Sergeant Shortbread.  I still am a cottage food producer here in Minnesota. Yeah,  I love it. I don't know if I'll ever quit.
01:23Physically, that might be the only way that I stop, but we'll have to see. Only time will tell, I guess. But  yeah, I've been a cottage food producer here in Minnesota for,  seven years now. Yeah, seven years in April 2018 I started. yeah,  like I said, been a cottage food producer since then and about a year and a half ago or so  just had a...
01:50I don't know, a revelation if you want to call it. I'm not sure  what exactly you'd call it, but  I just felt like there was a need for a  directory  of cottage food producers.  for those of us who remember  the yellow pages,  maybe I'm dating myself here a bit, but. I remember them. Yeah. There's no digital yellow pages for cottage food producers. look for.
02:19for this and I saw there are some out there but it didn't look like they were really being  managed or maintained and I wasn't sure if they were still being used and so I thought well I'm gonna do a  new upgraded version of this and  so  yeah, joined up with a social media, a digital marketing company  and we created a platform for cottage food producers to  become members and have profiles on
02:48the cottage foodie  and  then  in return, what I do is I do some of their digital marketing forum. I don't take over their digital marketing and so I tell them, keep doing what you're doing. This is just gonna be  in addition to what you're doing.  So  I run Facebook ads  for them. Anywhere we have members, I  run paid advertising in their areas. So for example, I think
03:17in Minnesota here alone, we're close to 70 members. so essentially I just run it in the entire state of Minnesota, just because I'm not going to pick and choose little communities. Once I do that, I'm going to be covering the whole state practically anyway.  But take for example, California, I think we have four or five in California.  Two or three of them are in kind of the Los Angeles area and that surrounding area. And then two or three of them are up in like the San Jose Sacramento area. So
03:47So I just run specific ads within those areas. I'm not running in the entire state of California.  I mainly just want to highlight the cottage food producers  within their areas.  So for example, I might put San Jose in the Facebook when I'm doing a targeted  audience, I'll put San Jose plus 20 miles. And so it'll be San Jose and then 20 miles from downtown San Jose, it'll cover that.
04:16So yeah, that's what the cottage foodie is all about.  I  grew my business, my cottage food business from  being a cottage food producer to moving into a commercial kitchen. So I do have a  wholesale food manufacturing license on top of my cottage food producer registration. So  I just wanted to help other cottage food producers  grow their businesses if that's what they wanna do.  If their goal is to...
04:46move into a commercial kitchen and sell in grocery stores and coffee shops and things like that, then I just want to be able to help them achieve that.  And I know that one of the hardest things that we as cottage food producers  will run into is,  and I hear it all the time,  how do I get my name out there? Nobody knows I exist. I can't hire somebody to do my marketing and I can't afford.
05:14all this paid advertising on Facebook and social media. And so,  so that's where the cottage foodie steps in is I just want to be,  I want to help out in that way. If  as much as I can. Next step should be starting a podcast, Matt.  Oh gosh, don't even get me started by my wife. She will not be happy that you mentioned that because  she's  she, she had, matter of fact, she told me once I started the cottage foodie, she's like,
05:44please promise me no more businesses. Please don't start any more businesses.  So,  you never know,  who knows? Maybe you and I can team up to do a podcast together. We could be co-hosts or something. That would be really fun. I have not done a co-hosting thing. The closest I've come is guests, because you guys are basically my co-hosts for each episode.  Yeah. So a different co-host every day. It's amazing.  Yeah. When I started the podcast, it was about
06:13exactly what you're talking about. was about getting people a platform to be able to talk about what they do. And it's worked really, really well, actually.  So I love it. And I keep saying that I'm sure people are sick of hearing me say I love my podcast, but I do.  Well, yeah. And I know you love what you're doing. So it's it's kind of great when you find something that  I don't know, get you up out of bed in the morning with a smile, I guess. Yeah. And and the thing is that
06:40people like your listeners and the people who buy my cookies,  they can feel that when someone like you and I are passionate about what we do and we're excited about what we do, people feel that and they just, they gravitate to that. So it's just a lot of fun to  be within that community where people are just as excited as you are about what you're doing and what they're doing. And so  it's just, it's a lot of fun. And so it's just fun to be part of. Yeah. Who knew good vibes were attractive.
07:10Weird, right?  Okay, so  I thought that the cottage foodie was just from Minnesota, but it's not. It's nationwide. It is. Yeah.  So, funny story.  It,  my whole goal when I thought of it and when I started it was I wanted this to be a nationwide  platform or a  nationwide directory.
07:35But the initial thought was, okay, let's start in Minnesota because obviously that's where I'm from. And  this is where I have my roots and this is where I know like a lot of the cottage food producers in the state. And so it was just natural, let's start in Minnesota. Let's just see if this works. Let's just see if people are even interested in, know, cottage food producers are interested in joining.  Will consumers come and actually know that this exists? Will they come and search? You know, can we get traffic to the site?  And...
08:04Yeah, so I went live May 1st of last year, so 2024. And in August, I happened to have a conversation with a national business platform for cottage food producers. I don't want to, it's not mainly in the sugar cookie, the decorated sugar cookie community, but predominantly that's who a lot of their customers are. It's called My Custom Bakes.
08:32And they are,  it's an online business platform for cottage food producers to when consumers come, they can, it's a great way for them to customize their order so they can do very specific. Like for me, there's no customization. You're going to order a dozen blueberry lemon shortbread cookies or you're not. I mean, it's not going to be, I'm going to have like three blueberry lemon and then I'll have seven dark chocolate sea salt.  You know,  you can't customize that  through, you know, the
09:01the platform that I'm on, but with My Custom Bakes,  it's very detailed about what a consumer is ordering. so  the person who  founded My Custom Bakes also founded Borderlands Bakery, which is an online bakery supply store. So  any kind of bakery supplies.  And I had a conversation with them  and they actually said,
09:29We'd literally have been talking about this for months about wanting to create something exactly what you've done. And now you did it and we don't have to. So what do you say we partner up and how can we like join forces? And so, yeah, from that point on, that was August of 2024, I said, well, I guess we're going national a little quicker than I anticipated. And so just because they have a...
09:58I think, you know, they're in the thousands of members in their, in their My Custom Bakes platform and, and then Borderlands Bakery, uh, just on Instagram alone, they have, gosh, I think it's 180,000 Instagram followers. And so, so I thought this is just a great way to, um, get our name out there, um, on a national, on a national scale. And so I don't want to miss this opportunity to just really grow.
10:28the cottage foodie nationwide. so we jumped right in. We said, okay, let's do it. It's a little quicker than we wanted to, but let's go. And as of today, we have, I believe, about 120, a little over 120 members and 110 of them have actual profiles in the directory. And we are in 22 different states covering 22 states.
10:58with our cottage food producer membership. That's amazing. And I'm actually one of your members, but I just haven't done anything with it yet.  When, when ingredients went up in price sharply was about the time I was like, I am not getting into this right now. Yeah. It's tough. Yeah, it is. And the other thing I wanted  to bring up is I got an email the other day from somebody.
11:26who wanted to know if I was available for a cookie pickup on March 27th, because supposedly there's a big corporate event that's gonna happen in LaSore, Minnesota. And I read this and I was like, I don't think there's a big corporate event happening in LaSore, Minnesota on March 27th. That sounds like bullshit to me. So I wrote back and I said, have a couple of questions. How many cookies are you looking for?
11:54And something else, I remember what the other question was.  And  the person wrote back and said something like, like, I just need to know if you're available and then we can talk details. And I thought, yeah, that's got scam written all over it. And so  the reason I bring this up is if you are a new cottage food producer,  do your research when people approach you about making something for them, because  that, would have been a really weird
12:24thing, you know, and I didn't say yes when they asked if I was available because when you say yes to something on the phone or in an email,  you might be saying something, saying yes to something you aren't actually prepared to say yes to. Yeah. So be careful people.  And the other question I have for you, because you were a college food producer  is like, God forbid this happens, but let's say somebody says I need
12:5250 shortbread cookies two months from now  and you know, they pay half upfront. And then for some reason when you make them last minute, because lots of people do that,  they burn and you don't have time to make the rest of them. You don't have time to redo it.  Do you like consider that that payment that half down a deposit and if something goes wrong?
13:18you refund them that money and pray they don't bad mouth you or how does that work?  You know, if I ever ran into a situation like that,  I would refund it all. I would give it back.  And that's just who I am.  I would feel right.  I would just have to eat the cost  of my time, my ingredients. I'm the one who burned them. It's not their fault.  And so,  you know, think about it from their standpoint. Okay, so I burned these cookies and I
13:48email them the night before, oh, by the way, you're not going to have your 50 cookies for your event tomorrow. Yeah. You know, know, look at, look at the, the position you're putting them in. And then for me to say, Oh, by the way, that half down, I'm keeping that because that was just your deposit and that's non-refundable.  So,  um,  yeah, I, I just, I would not, I would not feel right. Yeah. Hanging onto that deposit. I would just have to say, I have to own it. I, I messed up.
14:18I'm not gonna be able to fulfill the order that  they requested. So here's your money back. I'm so sorry this happened.  I sincerely hope that you'll give me another chance.  Exactly, yeah. No, it's just, I know things go wrong with businesses and it could be as simple as burning the cookies  or as bad as your house burning down. And that definitely burned the cookies.  It's just one of those things.
14:46When we used to do a CSA, people would pay us for the season ahead of time to the tune of 500 bucks for the biggest share we had. And we would put that money in the bank and we would leave it until the end of June because that way the people that were coming to get their stuff during June,  if they weren't happy,  we could return their money.  If they didn't say anything by the end of June, that
15:11then they were out of luck. were getting what they were getting for the rest of the season and that was in the contract for the CSA. So, yeah, I was just curious about how people handle that because I have not really sold anything  yet.  Well, I've sold granola at the farmer's market with my cottage food registration, but other than that, I haven't really done a whole lot with it yet. Yeah, yeah, that's  and you know, I guess  each
15:38to each his own,  everyone can run their business how they want, but  I just, I wouldn't feel right.  I'm the one who messed it up. Now, if the consumer comes and says, you know, I've already made the cookies and they come back and say, oh, you know what, nevermind, cancel the order.  Then in that case, like, okay, that's fine. know,  good luck finding somebody else and that your deposit, I've already made the cookies, so your deposit is.
16:06is non-refundable. I would definitely not refund it then. Yep. And then what you do is you turn around and find somebody who wants those cookies and you sell them.  Yep.  Yep. You sell them. And if you're  feeling generous, just take them to,  you donate them to a local shelter or a hospital or take them down to the police station or  somewhere. You donate them to  somebody.  That's what I would do. mean, normally what I would do is
16:34If I have extra cookies from an event or something, I go on Facebook on, I live at Eden Prairie, so on the local Eden Prairie Facebook groups and I say flash sale.  I couldn't sell these cookies yesterday. They're half price. so  rarely, I don't think I've ever  not sold them when I put them on  Facebook for half price. They go pretty quick. Oh yeah. I also hear that assisted living facilities really like donated cookies.
17:04Yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely. I didn't even think about that.  I will keep that in mind for sure. That's an amazing idea.  Yep.  They,  it's really funny because a lot of the older folks, I don't want to say old, just older than me,  certain cookies really bring back memories for them.  And shortbread, I would bet would do that. So. Yeah. Oh, I would guess the same thing.
17:33Food is such an amazing thing. mean,  again, food can be really hard for people who have issues with it. But for people who don't have issues with food, food is one of the best things in life. And it's about the sense, it's about texture, it's about the memories it brings back.  And baked goods for sure are a huge trigger. Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, okay, the cottage foodie thing. It is  only for people that
18:04do cottage food, is that right? That's correct. Okay, so like canned goods are okay, baked goods are okay. I know in Minnesota we can't use  cream cheese, frosting, and  there's water restrictions in the food, things like that. But basically anything shelf stable, right? Correct. Okay. All right, cool.  And  we still can't ship in Minnesota.
18:34Still can't do it. You can ship pet treats, but,  and this is funny, I've had numerous conversations with the cottage, Minnesota Cottage Food Association, and we chuckle about this when we think about it.  Pet treats,  and I don't make pet treats, but I  think that they have to be  essentially for human consumption. They've got to be made with ingredients that are for human consumption. Yes. So we can ship.
19:03these dog treats that we could eat,  but we can't ship cookies that we could eat  because it's not a pet treat. So maybe we just need to label everything dog treats.  Only for doggos. But if  you take a bite to make sure it's okay, that's cool.  I actually had a brain thing, I don't know what you call it, inspiration, talking with someone months ago on one of the podcast episodes.
19:32And it occurred to me that if we're going to ship, you know, baked goods,  we're going to make the stuff in our kitchen. We're going to package it, package it up in our kitchen.  We're going to hike our cute little butts down the post office and get a tracking number when we ship the treats. And then they end up exactly where they were meant to go to the person that ordered them.  Where is the problem with this? It is tracked.
20:01all the way through. Yeah.  Yeah. I do not understand. Oh, this is a passion project of mine too, because like I mentioned, I've got a wholesale food manufacturing license and a cottage food registration. So I make these my cookies in the commercial kitchen. Okay. I take them to the post office. I ship them because then from a commercial kitchen, as long as they're made there, I can ship all I want. Yeah.
20:31I'm taking these cookies to the exact same, the exact same people would be handling these cookies, my boxes,  whether it's coming from my home kitchen  or from a commercial kitchen.  And the reason, from what I understand, the reason that the legislature is not approving us shipping is because they're worried about food safety and us not handing it direct to the consumer.  Well, I mean, that just doesn't make any sense to me. The same people are handling it, whether I make it in my home kitchen.
21:00or in a commercial kitchen.  And if the box is opened, when it gets to the consumer, they're probably not going to eat it. They're like, they're going to send it back to me they're going to call me and say, Matt, this is damaged. It was opened.  it just,  there's just, I just don't see the, the food safety, quote unquote, scare  of shipping something in the mail.  There, there isn't one. And the only thing I can think of is that the people, the powers that be as it were,
21:30Don't quite understand this. Yeah, that's that's all I can think of and
21:39I'm not going to say what company, because I do not want to start a flame war on my podcast, but we, we ordered some tomato seeds from a company,  um, a month ago. Um, there would, we ordered four packages of 125 seeds each and they came in the mail and my husband was planting them. And because he has ADD,  he counted each seed as he planted it.  One pack was like,
22:0780 seeds, one was 91 seeds, so far short of 125 each. Oh yeah. And I emailed the company and I was like, um, just so you know, there's not 125 seeds in these packages. And the person that wrote me back was super nice. And they were like, um, would you like us to replace the two that you've opened or would you, know, how do you want to make this right? And I said, well, ideally I'd like four new packages because the other two are probably short as well. They were totally cool with that.
22:36We're going to put former packages in the mail. Should you marry? Here you go. It'll be here. It'll be there in a week or so. What they didn't know is that once those packages got mailed out in the little paper mailer that they sent it in, it got mangled in one of the machines at the post office. We got two packages out of the four. And my husband was like, you've got to be kidding me. And I said, it's not the company's fault. It's the mail.
23:04And I said, I am not emailing them and being like,  so this time this is what happened.  he says, yeah, he said, we're going to save seeds from our tomatoes this year and that way we'll just have them for next spring. said, that's a great plan. Let's do that.  so yeah, there's no accounting for what happens when it goes into the mail system. And  if you ship a box of cookies and they get, the box gets ruined in the mail, that is not your fault. It's the mail's fault.
23:35Yeah. So, yeah, yeah. Unless that, you know, unless they open up the box and they see that I didn't like package it at all.  Just like  random cookies laying around in a box that then it's, yeah, then it would 100 % be my fault. But the way that it, when I'm shipping from the commercial kitchen, the way that I, the way that I package those, it's like, unless the post office is using my boxes for a football or a basketball,
24:03There should be no reason why the cookies don't get to where they need to go unharmed. And knock on wood, had one person say that the cookies didn't arrive in perfect shape, but they also in the same breath, were like, yeah, but the box was not, it was intact, but they could see that it was mishandled. was not, they could tell that it wasn't my fault. So they didn't ask for a refund. They're just like,
24:33Just want to let you know that this is what happened.  So if you hear anything else, you might want to check with the post office to see what's going on. Yeah, for sure.  Back  to the powers that be that won't let us ship our goods.  The other thing that I wonder about is if maybe our people in our local government have bigger fish to fry.
24:57Yeah, yeah, it,  who knows, I just,  I do, agree with you that I think it's just a lack of knowledge.  And,  you know, that's, that's a big thing. And so they don't,  if they don't really know a lot about it, yes, they're going to move on to like you put it, the bigger fish to fry, we have other things to worry about. I don't really know exactly what this is. So let's just
25:24you know, let's just move on from that because I don't know exactly what that is. So let's just move on to, yeah, as you put it, you know, bigger fish to fry with budgets and things like that. So yeah, I would agree. Yeah. And the other thing that I laugh about is most cookies have so much sugar in them, their half life is forever. Like they wouldn't be rotten even 150 years from now. They'd be hard as a rock, but they wouldn't poison you. Yep. Yeah.
25:54Yeah, like my shortbread cookies. I will,  I've like  date tested them or I don't know what the actual term is, but you know, I just,  I'll have them sit  and they'll actually be sitting out on my counter. I won't even have them in anything.  And even sitting like that, I'll come back to it. You know, I'll keep  testing them and like two weeks after they have  been made and they're still good. They're still good. They're
26:21They're  drier, of course.  You can taste the difference. They're not fresh. But yeah, they're still good. Nothing in a shortbread cookie or any other cookie, a chocolate chip cookie or sugar cookie, nothing in those cookies is going to be harmful to you if you ate a cookie six months from now that you found in your freezer or  on a shelf somewhere. In the cabinet because you put them there thinking you'd get to them and didn't. Yeah.  Yeah.
26:50Because truth be told, you can forget about cookies in the cabinet and  not remember them for a year. Oh, it  is definitely possible. I had some in my freezer, some frozen cookie dough,  and  kind of forgot about it. It just kind of gets pushed to the back.  yeah, was in there for, gosh, it was in there for,  I hate to say it, but almost two years.  Pulled it out, made it, baked it. It was delicious.
27:18Yeah, it's still just fine. Yeah. And if you live at my parents' house in Maine,  they have a border collie who will not let them forget that they have snickerdoodles for her.  My mom  makes snickerdoodle cookies. She does them as a bar. So she just spreads the batter in a pan and bakes it.  And they give it to their dog as a treat.  I keep trying to tell them that giving dogs sugar and cinnamon probably isn't the best plan.
27:48Every time I tell them my dad says well Mary Evelyn and I hear that and I'm like, uh-huh This dog  runs like ten miles a day on the property. She's just burning that sugar. So it's okay. I'm like, all right  Okay  So that dog gets the best treats on the planet as far as I'm concerned. Oh, yeah
28:12I would agree 100 % with that.  Yeah. Our Australian shepherd does not get snickerdoodles because I want the snickerdoodles.  Well, that's the other thing.  And  I don't know how many people really know what a snickerdoodle cookie is supposed to be because there are stores in Minnesota that sell them and they're weird.  they don't  even compare to a homemade snickerdoodle.
28:42Oh yeah. Yeah, I don't make snickerdoodles, but  I should make that into a shortbread now that you mention that. I should see if I can get that flavor into a shortbread cookie somehow.  It's just butter and cinnamon and sugar. I'm guessing you probably could do it super easy. Yeah, yeah. But  yeah, I don't, so I don't know exactly what goes into a snickerdoodle, but yeah, I mean, a homemade is
29:12is always, it's not even gonna compare to,  or a store bought cookie is not even gonna compare to a homemade cookie. There's just no way. Yeah,  I found the recipe for those cookies you get. I don't even know what they're called. They're like a sour cream cookie that all of Minnesota stores sell. And they're the ones that are just a white cookie  that have like a buttercream frosting on top with sprinkles.  Oh yeah.
29:40And I don't love those. They're super dry and I won't buy them because I'm not going to eat them.  I found a recipe for them. I'm going to try making them and see if they're better than the ones you can buy.  I will be shocked if they're not.  And I swear to you, my husband made huge, God, they must've been five inches across, maybe six inches across  chocolate cookies a couple of weeks ago.
30:09He just wanted to make them. I was like, okay.  And they came out really flat and they were crispy on the outside and really like gooey, chewy on the inside. It's the recipe that his mom used to make. And I bit into one of these cookies and I was like, you didn't really use the recipe that I have. You made them the way your mom made them. And he said, I hadn't thought about it, but yeah, these are exactly like my mom's. And I was like, I'll TV proud.
30:37And he passed away like five years ago.  And I'm telling you, I bit into that cookie and all I could see was his mom handing me one of these cookies. It was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like you mentioned earlier, that's what food does.  You know,  it brings you back. It  reminds you of something,  especially baked goods, you know, like a cookie or a loaf of bread or, you know, anything like that.
31:07It takes us back to  memories of growing up nine times out of ten. Yeah, my kids are always going to be reminded of me when they get a really good brownie, because I make a killer brownie.  And they would ask for them for their birthday instead of birthday cake.  Yeah.  So I can just imagine when I'm gone, my kids are going to be like, oh my God, this is just like the brownies mom used to make, you know?  Yeah.  So.
31:37Anyway,  the cottage foodie thing,  what's in the works? Is there anything happening with that or just keep growing it?  Yeah, just keep growing.  Ideally, we get to all 50 states because,  well, take that back. I wonder.
31:59Don't have to spot check me on my facts here, but we might only have cottage food laws in 48 out of the 50 states. But yeah, just keep growing. That's my ultimate goal is just to keep growing and keep helping cottage food producers quote unquote, get their name out there. So, and we'll see where it takes us. You know what I think would be super fun? I mean, you don't have to do it, but I was just thinking about it.
32:29You need merch, you need like baseball caps and t-shirts and stuff.  Oh,  again, I go back to my wife is not going to appreciate that we had  this call right now.  So I think that's a great idea. Like, I'm  and for me, the very first thing I would do,  and it's probably more for me than an apron.  No,  no quarter zips.  I'm like pull over.
32:58quarter zip.  Not really a switcher, but yeah,  I'm addicted to quarter zips. I've got a closet.  My closet is half full of just different quarter zip.  So if I could throw some logos on there, I'd be in seventh heaven. But I think an apron would be great.  That would be cool. That would be cool. And  I'm forgetting, do you have an actual logo for the cottage foodie? You do, right? I do. Yeah. Yep. It's
33:29It's basically like the shape of a house and then almost like a stamp of approval in the middle and it has the word homemade and then there's a check mark in the middle of the stamp of approval. Yeah, I want an apron with that logo on it right now. Well, I mean, now that you've mentioned it, I'm thinking that, you know, the logo right smack dab in the middle of the apron. Yeah, that would be pretty cool. Yeah, it'd be really fun. But your wife said no more businesses, so you got to figure out a way to loop it underneath the cottage foodie business.
33:58Yeah, see, well, yeah, this is I'm not starting a new business. I'm just expanding the current one.  It's just promotion, honey. That's all. Yes, exactly.  This podcast is actually under our A Tiny Homestead LLC business. And I got paid for something the other day and my husband was like, I'm going to need that number.  And I said, what number? And he said, the number of dollars that you received. And I was like, for what? And he's like,
34:27taxes. And I went, ah crap.  Yep, okay fine, I will get you that number.  And I was so excited when this happened because I was like, I made money finally off the podcast. And then I was like, I gotta pay Uncle Sam some of that money.  Yeah, that's definitely the downside to making money.  Yep, it's There's always a handout.
34:51It's not much but it's just kind of sad when you have a number in your head and then you're like Oh, I only get to keep this much of it. Yeah But still very excited because I really was working on this for a while and I'm like I just needed to make some money to show that it's worth it. That's Yeah,  well, that's awesome.  So  anyway
35:12I can't think of any more questions. I'm really glad you took the time to catch up with me today and very excited about the Cottage Foodie Directory. I think it's brilliant. Oh, well, thank you. And thank you so much for having me back on again. was  thrilled that you messaged me a couple of days ago and say, hey, want to come back on? Well, yes. When do you want to talk? I'm ready.  So  thank you so much for having me back on. It's just blast  to be able to chit chat with you. So I had a lot of fun. Well, you're welcome.
35:42And I wanted to wait a while before I had you back so that we could talk about what was happening with it. Yeah, perfect timing. Good. All right. So you have a great weekend. It's Friday. Who knew? And enjoy it. It's supposed to be nice tomorrow and then kind of not nice Sunday, I think. So enjoy tomorrow. That's what I hear. That's what I hear. So, yep, you have a great weekend, too. All right. Thank you so much, Matt.
36:11Thanks, Mary. Bye. Bye.
 

Cotton Cupcakes, LLC

Today I'm talking with Nikki at Cotton Cupcakes, LLC. You can follow on Facebook as well.
A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Homegrowncollective.org.
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.
00:29share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Nikki at Cotton Cupcakes LLC. Good afternoon, Nikki. How are you? Good afternoon, Maryam. Great, thank you. Good. I always, I swear like one out of three intros that I do, I screw it up somehow and I'm like, ah, it's all right. It's okay. We got it covered. Those are the ones people remember, so that's good. I'm sorry, say it again.
00:54And those, think those maybe help people remember the names. So it's good if you mess it up, then maybe someone will remember the name more so than not. Or they just giggle and go, yeah, that's Mary again.  Okay. So you're in, where are you in New Hampshire? So I'm in a small, very rural town called Alexandria, New Hampshire. What's it near? So we're near Newfound Lake, which is a stunning, gorgeous, pristine lake. We're very, very fortunate to be beside it.
01:23And  we're also close to Plymouth. So we're close to PSU, which is the university up there, Plymouth State University. Okay, that doesn't actually help me because when I think of Plymouth, I think Massachusetts. So what's the next biggest town or city? We have Laconia, which is pretty close. We do a huge  annual pumpkin festival at Laconia Pumpkin Festival.  you know, I probably haven't heard of that. Maybe you have, I don't know. I actually grew up in Maine, so I do know where Laconia is.
01:53fantastic. All of my family's from Maine. Yeah,  and now I live in Minnesota of all places. Oh my goodness, that's quite a ways away.  Yes, yes, I've told the story a few times. I'm not gonna repeat it. It's just sickening to keep saying it over and over again. If you really want to know, I'll explain when we're done recording.  So  your business name is Cotton Cupcakes LLC, but you don't do cupcakes, right? I do not make, I mean, I make cupcakes for
02:20for joy, you know, for my family and for neighbors and whatnot. But cupcakes, I do not produce cupcakes as a business, no. No.  So tell me about yourself and what you do do at Cupcakes, LLC. Okay, so Cotton Cupcakes came about  because I have wanted to own my own t-shirt company for about 20 years.  So 20 years ago, my husband and I said, we're going to do this thing, we're going to start a t-shirt company. Then we went down to our state house and we applied for our name.
02:49And one thing led to another and we never got to do it. So 20 years later, my children, I've been a homeschool parent for forever. And about a year ago, about a year and a half ago, my littlest said, I've decided that I don't want to be homeschooled anymore. I want to go to public school. And I was devastated. I went, I was just almost in mourning for a little while, but I've always told my children that if they wanted to go in public school, they could, the option was there that we're homeschooling.
03:19because we have the pleasure of being able to do so. So I said, okay. So she went in and then my eldest who's going to be starting high school,  just after a year, I said, you you should take some courses so that you can get ready for high school. So I went through a bit of a little emptiness syndrome with one in school full time and one starting to take courses. And I started to freak out like,  oh no, I've got to be something because I've been a homeschool parent for years.  And  I made a picture.
03:47I was painting a picture and I put it between two pieces of plastic and I pressed on it. And then I pulled the plastic off and I looked at it it was a squished cupcake. And I was like, oh my gosh, I love this squished cupcake.  I want to do something like this because I went to school for design and I've used it in various  elements of my life, but I haven't really been able to do anything for quite a few years with it. And I sent it to my husband, I took a picture and I sent it over the phone and I said,
04:15you know, do  you think  if I start my t-shirt business now?" And he just responded, that's it. That's it. He just said, that's it, as the words. And I went, I knew it. I was like, okay, because he and I are very in sync and  we believe in a lot of the same things and feel a lot of the same ways. And he said, this is it. This is what you're supposed to do. So I took my squished cupcake.  I call it pressed art. Some of my art is called pressed art. I'll  paint a picture.
04:43and  I'll either leave it as is or I take like a plastic covering and I press it and then pull it off and see what I have. And if I love it,  I send it away to a digital transfer company and they put it on a gang sheet for me and send it back in duplicate. And then we  have pressing machines and I press all of my own stuff. So it's all original artwork  and  it's right out of my home for now. Our goal is to hopefully
05:13be able to have an open shop someday.  But yeah, so that's how Cotton Cupcakes came about. That is such a fun story. I love that. So you're one of the few people that I've had on the podcast who is actually a crafter because the painting part is the craft. Yes.  And I do all of it. do.
05:3899 % of it is all just painting. And then when I do download it onto the computer, I'll digitally enhance some of it or do some of the work with it. But for the most part, it's all just painting. It's all just paintings. some of them are  actually some of them are really, really old pictures that I had done 20 and 30 years ago. used to, when I went to college, I was very, very homesick and I used to paint little pictures for my mother all the time and send them in the mail.
06:06and she saved every single one of them. She had them all and she passed away a few years ago and  she always would save ephemera. She had all of her papers everywhere. And I started to go through them and I found all of these illustrations that I had done for years. So I'm doing a line of little  characters  that are in my mom's memory  of all of these little things that I had sent over the years and she had every single one of them. So  it's fun. Some of my stuff is sentimental  and
06:37It's just,  it's definitely from the heart, that's for sure.
06:42That's really special, Nikki. That's amazing.  Okay, so I have a question about the transfers. These t-shirts aren't silkscreen. They're like the sticky plastic kind that goes on a t-shirt, yes? So  that's like a vinyl. So there's vinyl and there's silkscreen and there's digital, it's called DTF,  digital to film transfers. So that's kind of a relatively  new technology. I mean, I wouldn't say it's totally new. It's been around for a few years, but.
07:13It's getting very, very popular. In fact, it'll make the t-shirt company industry supposedly go up by 11 % from now until 2030. So t-shirts will boom a lot more simply because people who do artwork now can do their artwork, take a picture of it, send it to these companies, and then you get your artwork literally back and compress it within moments. So it's not...
07:38Like when I go to press something,  simply cut it off of the plastic gang sheet. set it on my shirt and I press away and there you go. 25 seconds later, you have your first press and then you tear off the plastic sheet. You do another 25 second press and you have  a viable item for sale, which is so cool. It just opens up a whole world to people. You know, so that's, that's one of the reasons I was intrigued by it is because I did a lot of studying on it before I did it.  And, um,
08:09I was most impressed with this because it would allow me the most flexibility with my artwork.
08:16Okay, so I'm not trying to be  nitpicky, but  the vinyl ones, after like a year or so of wearing and washing, that vinyl starts to lift up off the t-shirt material. Does the way that you're doing it not do that? So what they say is, and I have to go by obviously the company, the digital transfer film company, supposedly the digital transfer film that's on your shirt will outlast the life of your shirt. Okay, cool. So that's how they sell it.
08:44Now I'm not a digital transfer film company and I've only been in this company myself for nine months. I started nine months ago. So,  so far in the nine months that  I've been doing it with the shirts that I've been using, we've seen fantastic success. I mean, you press and it's just like a silk screen. It's like a vinyl. It's the  same concept,  it's you still have to press them.
09:10at like 325 degrees or whatever degree you need for wherever you're living because sometimes it can range from  environment to environment. But for the most part, it's exactly the same thing. It's kind of the same like if you go to Old Navy or if you go to some of those commercial based  t-shirt companies, they have a lot of DTF transfers as well. That's what a lot of those shirts are. So  it's just it's a mainstream item, but it's very, very popular. And now it's kind of it's an industry that's open to the general public now.
09:40So that's why it's so accessible whereas before I don't think it was very  accessible and it is still  newer than Vinyl Transfers, Sublimation and what was the other one we were talking about? Can you remember? But anyway, it's relatively  newer  but it has been around for a few years.  Okay, the reason that I asked is my youngest son had a t-shirt that he loved and it was the vinyl kind.
10:09you know, picture on the t-shirt was the vinyl kind. And after a couple years of wearing that over and over again,  the design started to peel off and he was little and he was heartbroken. And I didn't think to buy two of them because he was going to grow.  know what size to get for a second one. So I just didn't.  I should have. He grieved that t-shirt. I'm not kidding you. You know what's sad is he probably could have had that
10:38Because vinyl is the same thing. They're pressing vinyl onto fabric. It could have been repressed. I bet you anything that could have been brought to a press shop and pressed and you probably would have, it might have had minor cracks in it where the vinyl cracked, but I bet you it could have been pressed again. Yeah. Well, it's way too late now. He's 23 now.
11:05That's the thing with like with DTF transfers. Yeah. Yeah. You probably could have had it repressed. I mean, even these in the future, I'm sure that if you overdry a DTF transfer, if you put it in the dryer and you leave it for extended periods, like maybe you overdry your clothes after hundreds of drying cycles, you will see cracking and peeling just like any shirt, you know, after wear and tear. But the interesting thing about these DTF transfers is you can put them right back on your platen.
11:35on your pressing unit and you can repress and  it  looks exactly the same as it did when you first pressed it,  which is pretty crazy. So it's really neat.  It's a very intriguing world. Like when I started into it, I knew very little  and it's just fascinating to me. It's fascinating to me that I can paint something on a piece of paper. I can take a picture of it. And then three days later, cause I work with a company that does like rush orders.
12:02Three days later, it's on a shirt and I'm looking at my daughter run across the lawn with it. It's crazy.  So I saw on your Facebook page that you have little Easter egg t-shirts right now and they're very, very cute.  I do. The question I have is if somebody, I don't know, if somebody had like a favorite pet who passed away or  a signature from someone they loved who's passed away,
12:31Could you do a custom t-shirt for them? Is that something you would consider? Well,  it's kind of like,  so a few people have actually, not a few people,  many people have asked me, many people have said, you know,  can you do something for my  kids soccer team? you do, so primarily I'm kind of like life is good t-shirts. Like I'm starting my own brand. So I'm trying to brand my own style.
13:00And my style, sadly, because a lot of people have asked me this, does not include words. People have said, oh, well, you put words on it. I specifically say that's not  the style of my brand because when I started out with it,  you have to differentiate yourself because I'm up against millions of t-shirt companies. There's so many t-shirt companies out there. And a lot of people starting just like I am because of DTF transfers  that you have to, they say, don't even bother getting into it unless you can think about how to be different.
13:30So originally I said, okay, first of all, it's my own original artwork, so that's different. It's not like computer generated, it's paint. Like you can actually see the strokes on my shirt. It's my artwork. So I said, all right, I'll do that. And then if I put words on it, unfortunately, you can't really dress up the t-shirt. And one of the main things about my shirts that I try to impress on people is you can actually wear one of my shirts with like a tool skirt, a blazer, slacks.
13:59and you can actually dress it up because it doesn't have any words on it. So it was fun. went down to TD Bank, which is our local bank down here, and they're wonderful to businesses and TD Bank said,  you know, you can come into our lobby for a month and we'll put a whole display of your business because I have  a check-in account with them. And they said, we'll help advertise you for the month, which they do for all local businesses. And I said, oh, this is fantastic. So I brought my stuff down and I explained to the women,
14:28that were the tellers that my shirts could be worn dressy or they could be worn with a pair of jeans. It's whatever you choose. So the bank manager said, I would never have thought, I don't think that you can wear a t-shirt and dress up. And I said, Barbara, try it. Go try it. Go home and put on something and wear the shirt that's a pop of color and see how it turns out for you. And she did it. She went out and bought a pair of slacks and she got a blazer and she came in with,  you know, all the ladies got one of my t-shirts.
14:55And she came in and she looked, she goes, I never would have thought about this. Like I never would have thought that I could wear a t-shirt and feel like I could pull this off. And I said, well, that's the difference between my shirt and somebody else's. I don't have way to go underneath my words. I don't have something to try to enhance the painting. The painting itself  enhances itself. So I don't try to add anything on to umph it up. I just say, this is it. And  it's pretty funny. I did a whole blog about it.
15:25and  saying how you can feel elegant in a t-shirt. And it's amazing how many people resonated with that blog. Like they said, oh my gosh, like this is me. Like I want to wear a t-shirt and a skirt and feel dressy. And I said, well, that's me. I don't like to dress up. I don't like to feel like something that I'm not. And I can wear one of these t-shirts and I can wear a dress and I can wear a nice pair of flats or even a pair of heels if I have to. And I feel like myself,  but a little classier, a little dressier and it works.
15:55That's why I don't often put words on. So if people say, oh, I want my kid's name or whatnot, said, well, that's not really my brand. That's not really how I go.  Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And  the other thing is that people are wearing art if they're wearing your shirt. That's right. Yeah, they're wearing original artwork, which is totally fun.  And some of them are wearing artwork from 20 years ago.  one that you saw with the Easter eggs.
16:20On my Facebook page, I explained that when they get those, they're going to see cracks in the Easter eggs.  And I said, don't be alarmed. That's not your DTF transfer. I painted those little eggs 20 years ago for my husband when we first got married on barrel slats.  And the beauty of a DTF transfer is I took a picture of my artwork on the barrel slats. And when you delete the background and you have just the eggs left,  have eggs painted on wooden barrel slats.
16:47So it's neat, it gives you a textural feel. It just allows you to do so many things.  You can paint on anything, remove the background, and put it on a t-shirt. Yeah, and what you're talking about is the wood grain showing through the paint on the eggs. It absolutely does. It's so cool. So it gives an antiquey feel to a painting that I did 20 years ago, and now  people are wearing it. And actually, that little series of Easter shirts,  inside the shirt, I've hidden a teeny, teeny, tiny Easter egg.
17:16They have to go find it. It's either pressed inside the shirt or under the arm or some random place and it's tiny. It's like the size of like the eraser at the top of your pencil. And they have to go find it. And when they find it, they go into my Facebook page and say, I found it. And then I enter them into a Easter package surprise that they can win before Easter. So it's really fun. they get to go on an Easter egg hunt with us when I go send out their shirts. It's a virtual Easter egg hunt. I love it. That's the whole point.
17:44Fantastic. You're brilliant. You are very good at this. I'm trying. I'm trying. I'm still fairly new to it, but I'm trying.  And it's a full family affair. And one of the reasons that we did the business was to  not only  it wasn't only just to start a new business, we actually sold our business of 12 years  last fall. And then it was my turn. You know, my husband said, it's your turn. Let's do it. Let's do what you've wanted to do. But I also wanted to make it completely.
18:12completely interactive for my children and my family. I wanted it to be a full family affair. And it truly is a full family affair. Like my kids have been the models for me. My husband has helped me try to market it. Like all four of us are involved. it really is, it's been creating a future for my family and we're doing it together, which is just, it's a blessing. It's awesome.  It is a blessing when you can work with your family.  I'm gonna  tell a story. My dad,
18:41worked in the medical field. He wasn't a doctor or anything. He actually repaired  like the EKG machines and the ventilators and things like that. So he was a bio med tech is the term. And when we were younger, he worked a lot. And so when he was home,  it was an event. If dad was home, we wanted to be with dad. And when I had my kids with my husband,  when dad walked through the door, my husband,
19:10The kids were like, daddy and run and jump and just be all over him all evening until they went to bed. And he was like, why do they love me so much? I said, because you're gone five days a week for 12 hours a day. And he was like, oh, and I said, I said, now you could be on the flip side. You could be the mom who's home with them all day and they want nothing to do with me. He was like, no, I like my role better. I said, good.
19:38You be the good time dad, I'll be the kiss the hours and help with homework mom. He's like, okay, good. So it's really great when you guys can all be together and be working. I know it's a really amazing. mean, for 12 years we've dreamed about this. Like we've really dreamed about being able to spend more time with my husband because the business that we created was, it got extremely busy and he was on the road all the time. And, and
20:07We just seldom get to see him. So when he finally retired from that job, he's not retired, obviously, because we're going to do this business. But when he retired  from his business,  was like the kids were like, they were shocked. They get up in the morning and dad said,  I'm taking you to school today. And the kids were going, oh my gosh, dad's taking us to school. Because even my homeschooler has a couple of classes in the morning. And obviously, my little one is full time now.
20:34He just,  was, it's the coolest thing. now, and then he comes home and we press together, you know, he's pressing the neck presses and I'm pressing the front press. And,  it's so we've just always worked very well together. I know that doesn't happen with all spouses, but for us,  we started out as EMTs together on an ambulance and we just loved working together.  And over the years, you know, altered and we started this business instead. And  we really wanted to get back to being able to spend time together. And I can't believe that.
21:03you know, it's happening that he's here and we're doing a whole new venture and we're going for it. And the girls are included too. So it's really, really fantastic. I'm so happy for you. You sound so tickled with this. I am. I'm shocked actually. Like I get up every morning and I'm like, I'm so excited for the day. Like I'm so excited. And I think,  you know what?  I'm going to tell a story and it's,  I'll tell it quick,  but I was in a grocery store.
21:32I was in a grocery store yesterday and this is, I would say like my seventh experience that I've had  in the past two weeks. And I'm not kidding. Like it's gone over and over again. having the same experience. Went into the grocery store. There's a woman who is a cashier, known her forever, known her since my little kids were little. And I could tell something was off and I said, what's going on with you today? And she just kind of mumbled and I'm like, you're not yourself. And come to find out as we were speaking, I said, how many...
21:59How many years have you been here?" And she said, I've been here 23 years. And she looks all of 23. So I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And she said, no, I'm 39 years old and I've been here for 23 years. And I said, oh my gosh, you're not happy. You don't want to be here. And all of a sudden she looked at me and she started to sob. And thank goodness there was no one behind us. So she came out from around the counter and I'm holding her and I'm rubbing her back and I'm saying, oh my gosh. I said, what was happening? And she basically ended up saying,
22:28I really want to do something else. want to go be a nurse, but I don't feel like I have a support network to help me. And this is what I want to do. And she's the seventh person within a two week period that I've spoken to that is absolutely  miserable.  you know what, the only thing I can say, Mary, is we have one life that we're going to remember. We have this life and  it's so sad to waste it. And I know life can be daunting and I know it can be intimidating.
22:58But if you stay in a job that you do not like and you lose all those years of your life, there has got to be something more. It's just, it's not the right choice for you. It's not the right choice for your family members. And if you don't have that support network, you've got to find it. You've got to find the people that would support you. And it's just devastating because, you know, I want to teach my children that
23:21they can't be complacent about the job that they have in their life, that they've got to be in love with it. Yeah, they'll have some jobs that are kind of like a means to an end, but it's the end that matters. You know, like, are you happy? Are you gratified? Are you excited? Because it just makes life so rich and otherwise, what are we doing?  Like literally, what are we doing? Yeah, exactly. And  I'm gonna say something about my podcast yet again. I had no idea that I would love
23:50doing this podcast as much as I do. If you had asked me five years ago if I would be good doing a podcast, I would have been like, no, I hate being on video.  I hate listening to my own voice recorded. No, I don't want to do a podcast. And then I was like, but people keep telling me I have a voice or a face for radio. They joke because I'm not ugly or anything, but you know, they're like, you have a face or voice for radio. And I never did anything with it because I was raising kids.
24:20And when I started thinking about what I wanted to do when the youngest moved out and that was short lived, he's back. I was like, what am I going to do? And I thought and thought and thought, and I was like, I'm going to do a podcast. It's like the most out of character thing I can think of. It's a challenge. I'm going to do it. And I thought I'd do a couple of episodes and it would fail. would just be like, nobody listened. Oh, well, whatever. tried it and I freaking love it.
24:49I love the people I talk to. Some of them become friends. Some of them become acquaintances. I'm okay with either. It doesn't matter to me. People are people.  And I just, get up in the morning when I know I have interviews to do and I get my coffee and I go look at the pages that I found the people on and I'm like,  oh, they do this thing. Oh, they do this thing. And I'm just so energized when I sit down to talk to you guys.  I'm so happy with it. So I get it.
25:18But the one thing I will say is that it's a privilege. know, a lot of people are not in a position to go after the thing that they love. Number one, because they may not have the support system. Number two, they may not have the seed money to get it going. And number three, they just may not have the confidence to jump off the cliff. Yeah. I know. And it's devastating. So I get what you're saying. And yes, I wish that everybody could go do
25:48the thing that they love and make money from it and support themselves. But not everybody can and it's a huge bummer. Yeah, it is. truly is. That's all I have to say on that part. I agree. I agree. But I'm very excited for you that you are having a ball and you're putting out some really cool, uplifting things for people. Thank you. I'm trying. mean, I think the really
26:18wonderful thing is  your t-shirts are adorable. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, the people that have been following the Facebook page. I said to my husband, I never expected to  get to know some of these folks.  And it's amazing how they have become part of our world. You know, like we'll put something like now I'll ask opinions. Now I'll say, what do you guys think? Which design do you like the most? need to know.
26:46or I'll show them a line of sweatshirts. Like this week I found sweatshirts for kiddos. And I said, what do you guys think? Do you like these? Do you think this is something I should add on to the website? Because every article of clothing that I choose to add on is a financial investment. So I like their thoughts.  If they're into it and they think it's great, then I know it's something I should do. And they respond, which is amazing. I can put something on and there'll be 22 or 23 comments within an hour. And I'll go, oh my gosh.
27:16So I can really get  my finger on the pulse of what  a much larger mass of people is thinking.  And they know that I value their opinion. And some of them I genuinely  hope to meet someday, which is kind of crazy. Like some of them have become friends and it's a gift. It's really cool.
27:39So our hope for Cotton Cupcakes is, mean, primarily we're an online store right now  and we've started to go into some different retail shops locally. But the goal is actually to have our own storefronts  and you know how far we go.  I don't know. I'm excited about just my first one.  In June we're going to be opening up just a small shop that's off of our barn.
28:02where people can come in and they can actually choose the transfers that they want pressed on the shirts. They can even choose the location where they want the transfers put. If they don't want to them squarely in the middle of the chest, can choose where they want them to go so we can give them a more personalized experience. But  the goal is to have some shops and  to have people be able to walk in the door and try those shirts on because
28:25As much as I really appreciate things that are online, I'm also a tactile person. I want to touch things. I want to feel things. I want to see what they look like on me. And I'd like to give those experiences to the people that are enjoying our designs. It reminds me of a tattoo shop, but there's no needles involved. There's no needles. Yeah. It's much friendlier. Less painful. Yeah, absolutely. My daughter has tattoos.
28:51She sends me photos because she lives in Florida and I live in Minnesota and she sends me photos of her newest tattoos and  I'm a really cool mom. I'm like, that's gorgeous. What inspired that one? And I get the story and yay. But man, every time I think about that body that I grew covering the tattoos,  it kind of hurts my heart a little bit. My husband is a big tattoo guy. He loves the tattoos. I have none.
29:16And I don't know what direction my children will go because they have one versus the other, which is pretty funny. And we just say, whatever you're going to do, you're going to do. So we'll be prepared for anything.  Yeah. just, when she got her first one, I don't even remember what it was now. It was,  it was important to her. It was lovely. It looks good on her. And she was like, so what do you think? And I was like, do you want the cool mom answer or do you want the heartfelt mom answer? And she said both. And I said, the cool mom answer is it's gorgeous. I love it.
29:45and I'm really glad that you can handle the owie of that.  I said,  the genuine mom answer is,  I grew you. I grew that perfect skin and you just had needles with ink poked into it.  And she's like, yeah, but, and I'm like, I'm not telling you not to get tattoos. It's fine. It's your body. It's your choice with what you do with it.  But it hurts my heart just a little bit.
30:11that that skin is not the skin I grew. And she's like, well, honestly, body cells regenerate every however many years and it's not the same skin you grew anyway. And I'm like, enough, yes. Oh man, that's a very intelligent response. Yeah, well, she's a smart ass and she's smart. So I had to accept it. And she's 35 now. I mean, she got her first tattoo in her early 20s, I think. But either way.
30:38I don't know how we got on tattoos. Oh, because  you're letting people choose where they have the design on the t-shirt.  yeah, definitely.  But yeah, being a mom's hard. I'm just going to leave it at that.  It's one of the most wonderful and thankless jobs on earth. I think we all know that if we have kids. So absolutely. Absolutely. All right, Nikki, I try to keep these to half an hour and we're at 31 minutes and 26 seconds. So I'm going to cut you loose.  Thank you for being like the third.
31:05Genuine crafter I've talked to you in over a year and half on the podcast. I'm like, thank you for having me It was wonderful. Yeah, it was really fun and keep keep making those t-shirts are awful. I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it. Thank you, Mary. All right
 

Heirloom Garden Studio

Today I'm talking with Josie at Heirloom Garden Studio.
A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Home Grown Collective.
If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.
00:29share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Josie at Heirloom Garden Studio. Good morning Josie, how are you? Good morning. I'm great. How are you? I'm good. You're in Texas, yes? Yes,  I'm in Houston. Okay, how's the weather?  The weather is great. Spring has sprung here.  It's going to be close to 90 degrees today.
00:56So we're getting some warm weather, but you know, Texas does this little two-step thing where we kind of stutter into spring and then we'll have some cold weather again and then warm. So it's kind of all over the place for a while until it gets hot. Yeah, we've been going through that in Minnesota. It hit 70 here yesterday. Oh, that's wonderful. That's great. It was kind of really refreshing to step out on my porch.
01:25and the window was open and I was like, oh, it's beautiful. It's not gonna freeze my face. This is great.  I can't imagine.  I could never live someplace where it gets cold like that.  I love the heat.  Yeah, I love it when people are like, I'm never gonna live somewhere where the air hurts my face. And I'm like, well, you're also missing out on spring, summer and fall here. that's really great. true. And I understand. I can't imagine living somewhere without the season.
01:54So we're kind  of on opposite ends here, but I do get  it. All right. So tell me about yourself in Heirloom Garden Studio. Okay.  Yeah. So  my name is Josie Haley with Heirloom Garden Studio. As you mentioned,  I design and install kitchen gardens or backyard gardens, whatever you prefer to call them.
02:19in and around the greater Houston area and I also provide gardening services  and I teach gardening classes and workshops.  Awesome, I love you already.  Great.  We also have a small  urban homestead which is funny to say. I never thought I would hear myself say that but here we are. Well, what do you do on your urban homestead because I'm always trying to make the point that you can homestead anywhere.
02:48Correct, yes.  we  live very close to downtown, about four miles  in kind of an urban area.  We have about  an 8,000 square foot lot, so not big. And  we have three chickens  right now,  which give us plenty of eggs, but we also have five baby chicks that my kids just love. And we're hoping to introduce them to the flock.
03:16in a few weeks here and get some more eggs going for this year. And then of course I have my beloved kitchen garden, which is where it all started. So that's what we have here. Nice. What do you plant in your kitchen garden? Do you have herbs or is it just veggies? my. Herbs and veggies, yes.
03:43Houston actually I know everyone thinks oh my goodness it's so hot here you can't grow much but believe it or not we can grow year-round so I have four raised beds about a little over a hundred square feet of growing space and  I love to pack in as much as I can and right now we're starting to plant all of our  tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and squash  and
04:12Just everything spring  and  it's just it's probably my favorite time of the year. Anytime I can put a tomato plant in the ground, I'm  as happy as I can be. So  we're also harvesting all of our what we call winter vegetables  here.  Our cool season vegetables like lettuces, snap peas,  brassicas and all of that. So.
04:42So what you're telling me is that you're never without fresh produce during the year to use in your house.  That is true. And that's what I really love. And I love teaching it to people here locally because, you know, in Houston, it's cyclical, right? Gardening.  You should never have an empty garden bed.  You can be growing something and constantly adding to it and taking things out. So
05:10You know, even if you just have a few minutes every day to go out and grab a handful of snap peas,  you should do that. And then you should also plant something.  Uh huh. I'm right there with you, sister.  I agree completely. Um,  what I, what I try to tell people when they're like, I want to start a garden, but I don't know how to do it. And I want to start small is I tell them to start with herbs, like chives and thyme, because chives and thyme are really hard to screw up. They really are chives. I would say are a beginner.
05:40a gateway to gardening for sure. and they're easy and they taste good and you can dry them. So you can use them in sour cream dip things.  Oh yeah.  And they're really pretty when they bloom. You can actually stick them in a  bottle and they look like a bouquet. They're really beautiful. Yes. Yes. I love bringing in fresh herbs into the kitchen and  my husband, he doesn't like  dill.
06:07But I love a big bouquet of dill whenever it's going to seed and blooming and it just smells so amazing. absolutely. My husband plants the mammoth dill every school. If I go out to the garden, the first place I go is over to the dill and I run my hands through it. And then I can smell my hands for hours afterwards. I'm like, pickles, pickles, yes.
06:29Pickles, yes, yes, for sure.  and thyme is great here because it will continue to grow through the winter under the snow as long as it's not like minus 30 for days on end. Right, right. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we get  basil here that I can plant now and will grow through the spring and into the fall. And that's like our go-to herb.
06:56keep saying it, I freaking love basil and basil  loves heat.  When we have a hot summer, our basil does amazing. Right. Exactly. Yes. And people like assume that basil is only good in spaghetti sauce, but it's actually good in salads. It's good in soups.  It's good with fish. We've tried it with fish. Okay. You can use it in a lot of things other than spaghetti sauce. Absolutely. Yes.  So.
07:25Okay, so now we've raved about all the great things about those.  I also suggest to people that if they want to start small, don't want to do herbs. Do lettuces because lettuces you can put in a bowl of dirt in your kitchen by a sunny window and they will grow and you can eat it and they continue to grow. That is true. Yeah. Lettuce has a shallow root system.  So easy to grow. You know, you bring up a good point. Starting small.
07:55Actually, in my garden classes, I like to teach people that,  you know, sometimes starting small is not the best way to go.  think  people get discouraged easily.  They'll say, oh, I had a garden last year and I had a couple of this or that. And then  they say, oh, but I didn't get much and it's not worth it. You know, it's not worth it to me. And they get discouraged. So  my goal is really just to
08:23keep people encouraged and I want people to continue to garden. So I like to  offer raised beds in my packages. And I think, you know, this is a common pitfall for beginners is just to start too small.  And  there's a lot of reasons why you shouldn't do that. And I think, you know, there's nothing like going out to your garden and getting a whole bowl full of cherry tomatoes, you know.
08:52That's encouraging, that's exciting and fun.  And yummy. Yes, for sure. Yes. And the only reason I said that I tell people when they say they want to start small,  is because it's usually people who have a small apartment and they're like, I don't really have any space.  So I try to find things that they could start on  their table or their windowsill in the sunlight from the window.  Absolutely. And I think herb containers are wonderful.
09:19But if you have room to put in a raised bed, yes, do that.  Definitely. Okay. So how do people,  this sounds like I'm ending the podcast, but I'm not.  How do people find you to get help from you?  Sure. Well, for right now,  messaging me,  DMing me on Instagram or Facebook.  My handle for both is heirloom garden studio.
09:46and they can reach out that way.  I have my phone number  on  both  pages  and my email address.  Okay, cool.  Yeah, I noticed you didn't have a website and I'm like,  why does she not have a website?  Well, you know what? I don't have a website yet, but I mean, I'm a millennial, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I feel like a lot of people just use their Instagram account now, right?
10:15Yes, yes, they do. But if you're like me, who's 55, and if you're like my mom and dad, who are 78 and 81, They want a website. Websites are fun, you know, we get to find out your story or why you're about, you know, and it's just a really fun billboard. I get that. Okay. It's super easy to do. I just went to a different
10:43website host  for my podcast, my designated podcast page.  And it's,  I can't think of it right now. Webador is the name that I click on to get to it, but that wasn't it. I think it was Weebly,  W-E-E-B-L-Y.  And it's really user friendly. I feel like my mom who's not tech savvy at all.
11:07would be able to get a free page website in about two hours if she tried it. Okay, well I'll look into that. Yeah, and it's not that expensive. And that's the other thing is websites aren't that expensive these days. You buy the domain name for about 13 bucks, you pay maybe $10 a month for hosting and you're set for a year. I have a domain name actually, but my business is new so I'm still working on a lot of it.
11:37I feel like you have a really cool story because I was looking at stuff earlier on your Instagram page and your photo. you. There's got to be a story here. There has to be a story. There is a story. Yeah.  So tell me the story. Okay. Well, so I wasn't always a gardener  before I started gardening or getting into it as a hobby.
12:04You know, I have a degree in architecture from Texas A &M University.  I worked in the high-end kitchen design industry for 10 years before I had children.  And also, I guess  maybe one thing that kind of developed my interest in gardening was that I have some creativity in my blood. My mom...
12:31is an artist and my dad is a master carpenter and he always taught us like to appreciate quality craftsmanship  and to build something right the first  time.  And then of course my mom taught us how to appreciate beautiful things and arts. And so I kind of feel like gardening is  my canvas to be honest and I enjoy it.
13:00so much. know,  let's see. Also,  you know, Houston is just a really huge city, as you know, it's chaotic, it's stressful, it's a rat race.  And I feel like I what kind of led me to gardening was that I needed something beautiful in my life. I needed an outlet  for relaxation and peace. And I just found so much fulfillment.
13:29through growing my own produce and realizing just how incredible it tastes and how the stuff from the store just doesn't even compare. And I just really want to share that with my clients. Nice. I usually jump onto the food from the store doesn't taste the same as stuff from the garden. Yeah. I'm going to go a different direction today. Okay, great. Carrots. Carrots are so
13:58good when you grow them in your own garden. It's true. The carrots at the store taste like cardboard to me.  Yes. carrots in our garden are so sweet. Yes.  My kids love  harvesting any root vegetable really, but carrots, I don't know why. They just love pulling them out of the ground and seeing how much is grown underneath.  And my daughter will eat them just like crazy. She loves carrots and the ones from your garden. It's true.
14:28They are so much better. Yeah. And the other thing is celery.  Celery is supposed to have like  a peppery bite. I never get that from the celery store, but my God, I cut all the tops off my celery two summers ago when we had it  and I dried it.  And if you put that in a soup or a soup,  oh sweet Jesus.
14:54The leaf celery grows really well here. And I actually have some of that right now. Yeah. You can just use the leaves to create that flavor. So, yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah. But I think tomatoes, that was like my aha moment.  My neighbor across the street,  he, he's since passed, but maybe about eight years ago,  maybe 10 years ago, he brought us some big slicer tomatoes. There were probably like  a
15:22beef steak, if I'm guessing, but he brought us some one day and I tried it and I just thought, you know, what have I been eating from the grocery store my whole life? This does not make any sense. And how can I recreate this? Like that was my light bulb went off.  Just like, what am I eating  in the grocery store? So.  Yeah, we actually went through that with eggs for the last four months too.  Just got chickens. I don't want to go too far because
15:53Eggs are a  big subject right now everywhere. That's for sure. So I don't want four people,  but we were buying eggs from the store and they were not great. And our chickens just started laying there 24 weeks old. Oh yeah. Yay. That's fun. Oh my God. I had  scrambled eggs with three other little eggs the other day. The baby ones. Yes. And I was like, I'm not crazy. These are, these are fantastic. They do taste different. They actually taste like something. And
16:22the texture of these eggs was like creamy and the Sorobot eggs not so much. Yes, and it's true. And you can really see that in the yolk color.  You know, if you have like that rich dark yolk from your backyard chickens, it's just, it's incredible.  Yeah. And I mean, I hate to keep riding the subject, but you eat first with your eyeballs.  So if the food looks appealing,
16:49It tricks your brain into thinking it's going to be yummy.  And usually it is.  It's true.  mean, um, anything where you know the source  of your food supply,  I think makes it taste better. Yes. The more you know, the more you infer, the more you enjoy it. Right. Right. Yep. Yep.  Okay. You were saying that you designed kitchens before.
17:14Were these like restaurant kitchens or were they home kitchens? yes.  So residential, worked  actually in the, excuse me,  high end kitchens. know, multi-million dollar homes.  We designed these dream kitchens.  so  kitchens are really important to me. And I, you know, learned a lot about the functionality of a kitchen.
17:42So I mean, I think in also design,  so  that's kind of has inspired me and led me to incorporate the garden, your backyard garden or your kitchen garden into your everyday life.  It should be as functional as your refrigerator or your pantry. Yep.  OK. Well, I want to get back to the gardening stuff, but I also want to talk about kitchens for a minute. OK, go ahead. When?
18:13There are so many people who do not cook these days, okay?  When you design these kitchens, were they designed for actually cooking or were they designed for entertaining?  That's a good question. I would say it was about 50-50.  We get a lot of people that would  come in to our office and they had personal chefs basically most of the time or...
18:39They didn't cook. Yes, that was a common denominator.  But then they have these beautiful appliances and beautiful cabinetry. But some people did say, oh, I love to cook.  So we saw about half and half. Yeah. It's a minor bone of contention with me because I love to cook. really do.
19:04Yes. I only learned in my  20s. It's not like I grew up cooking with my mom. I think I've watched what she did and I took it in my head, but I didn't really cook. the kitchen in the old house that we had, that my husband and I had, had a galley style kitchen. And I swear to you, everything was within arm's reach in that kitchen other than the refrigerator.  And I made some of the most fabulous food in that kitchen.
19:31Yeah. And then we moved to our new house a little over four years ago and it has a huge kitchen. I have to walk steps to get to the sink from the stove or the refrigerator from the stove or whatever. My triangle is very big. Okay. And I find myself frustrated sometimes because that little galley style kitchen was so convenient. Right. Yeah.
19:57Yeah, it has to be designed correctly and functional to make you want to use it. Yeah. the one thing that saves me is that in the middle of our kitchen, there's a big island. And underneath that island is storage for pans and bowls and stuff, which is fantastic. But the island is situated so that I just bring everything out and put it on the island, measure everything out, put stuff away, and then I'm set to just do the thing. That's nice. And so that's really great.
20:27And the other thing that's really great is that my husband and my son, who my son's 23, he still lives here. Um, we all love to cook together. And so when we all want to really cook, that island is great because we can all stand on one side of it, you know, one on one end, one on the other and one on the middle. And we're just chopping veggies and talking and there's music on and we're throwing stuff in a bowl or a pan. And it's just so fun. That's nice. That sounds wonderful.
20:55So the reason I even asked about the kitchen design is because for me, kitchens are made for cooking. They're also made for getting other people involved in the cooking. Yes.  Yes,  I agree with that 100%. I love the idea of having a big island with no  appliances or sink in it and where you can just have like a complete work surface to just chop and  nothing's in your way.
21:24Yeah, it's great. And the other thing that's great about it is I have a friend that comes over about once a month for coffee and we get caught up. And there's two bar stools that go underneath the side where you sit, you can put the island. And when she comes over, I heat up the kettle because she does tea. And we sit down and she's got the pot, the tea kettle pot, and I've got my coffee. And we're just sitting there in my pretty kitchen talking. That's wonderful.
21:52And there was no place in the old house to do that. So  I love the fact that my kitchen is so  livable. Does that make sense? Of course. Absolutely. Yes.  I'm so I'm a huge fan of kitchens, but I'm not a huge fan of kitchens that no one cooks in. Cause I think that it's sad when nobody cooks in the kitchen. It is sad. I,  um,  I kind of, um, swiped an appliance from our showroom years ago when we remodeled our house and I have a
22:2248 inch  range top,  a wolf  with a big griddle in the middle. And I tell you what,  if I ever move, I think I'm gonna like take it, take it with me, because I love it so much.  And of course with the garden,  it comes in super handy. I love being able, my garden is actually right outside. I have these two big glass  doors in my kitchen and my garden is right outside.
22:51I can literally step out barefoot and grab some herbs or whatever I need to cook with and bring it into my kitchen and get to work. is so awesome. I love to cook also. Yep. I do. And I get full on the smells from cooking. I sit down to eat and I eat three bites and I'm like, I'm done. I'm already full because I smell like the whole time we're cooking. I end up snacking while I'm cooking, just tasting everything, you know? Oh yeah.
23:20Yeah, you got to taste it because you won't know if it's any good if you don't. Right, exactly. Yeah. And I'm so jealous of your kitchen garden because our garden is like a good 200 feet away from our house. I think that's also a big misconception. I hear people say, oh, I want to put my kitchen garden behind my garage or in this space on the side of my house. And I almost start shaking my head immediately. No, no, don't do that. You want it to be
23:48right outside your kitchen window or as close as you can get maybe alongside your driveway when you pull up, you can  see everything that needs to be harvested and it's a reminder.  just again, being so close that it's almost like a pantry is pretty fantastic. kitchen gardens,  they're meant to be beautiful.  And I think it's wonderful to see it from your  house.
24:16Oh, I can see the garden from my living room windows, but it's 100 feet by 150 feet. Okay.  It's a big old garden. Okay. That's incredible.  Yep. And I keep trying to figure out how to put an herb garden near my house because that's what I would go out and grab is herbs. Yeah, absolutely. We have the most wonderful dog named Maggie  and her lead.
24:42you know,  she's on, so she can't run wild on our property because  the road out front is way busy with semi trucks and I'm scared to death she'll get hit.  Sure. And that would ruin my life, not just my day.  So her lead, she can get to everywhere around the house except the front of the house.  And there's no door to the front of the house. We have one door in and out of our house. That's it.  So we're not set up to have a kitchen garden at all.
25:11unless we don't have the dog and I am not giving up my dog. love  her. So if we didn't have the dog, I have a perfect spot for a kitchen garden right outside my kitchen window above my sink  and I would do that. But we have the dog. Yeah.  And in Houston, you know, everyone, it's so urban.  know,  I think part of the challenge is trying to figure out where the garden should go. And that's enjoyable for me.
25:41Yeah,  I love that you do what you do because people do have a hard time envisioning a place for growing things.  And that's an innate talent for you. So they're like,  this is my property. Where do I put a raised bed? And you're like, right there.  Exactly. Most of the time I go in and I automatically know exactly where to put it. I just have to listen to the client first.  Yep, exactly.
26:10I just, I've talked to a couple of people who do stuff like you're doing.  And  it's always amazing to me because  I talked to a couple, like they're married to each other  and they do, they help people set up raised bed systems and gardens and stuff. And they're just so into it. They're so excited. Right. And the husband said that  they actually help people for free at first.
26:40that it was frustrating because he would run into the person that he helped and he'd be like, how are the gardens going? And they would be like, eh, we didn't do it. Oh no. But a minute they made it a business and started charging for their services,  then the people that are paying for the services have skin in the game. Right. Absolutely. And they actually do it.  Yes. I've never thought about it that way. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I think  I got a lot of
27:09You know, over the years, people know you as you know, that's your hobby, your gardening. Yeah. And they ask you tons of questions. But then when you ask them to pay for advice, well, then they, you know, they they take it more seriously for sure. So, yeah, it was just funny the way he said it, because he sounded he was trying really hard not to sound mad, but he definitely was frustrated with the fact that he had spent all his time trying to help. then, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
27:38And he was, he sounded very,  I don't know, amused and excited at the same time that when they started charging, people would actually do the thing. Yes. Yeah. They take you seriously for sure. Yeah. And  I love people like you because I am not a good teacher. I do not have the patience  and I talk too fast when I'm trying to teach somebody something, cause I know the thing. Yes.
28:05And so when I meet people who teach and who are good at it and who enjoy it, I'm just like,  I bow down to you. You have skills I do not possess.  Well, I think teaching is really the big picture. The whole point is  setting your customer up for success.  I don't want them  to give up like I mentioned earlier. I want them to have all the tools. I want them to learn from
28:33my mistakes.  And I think that's important because  as a gardener, especially in the beginning, you really, you don't know what you're doing.  And it's all one giant experiment, right, that you're learning from. It's trial and error. And I think having them  skip that part and me leading them and guiding them is important to their success.  It is. It absolutely is.
29:02And I just love that there are people in the world who can do that for other people.  Because I had some fabulous teachers when I was in high school.  they were friends. Most high school students don't consider their teachers to be their friends.  But if I was after school for something, not because I got in trouble because I had to stay after for something, help or a volunteer thing or whatever.  I saw one of my teachers in the hallway. I would be like, hi, mister or missus, whatever.
29:31And they would come over and be like, how are you? didn't get a chance to talk to you in class today. What have you been up to at home with your folks? And it was so great knowing that I had adult friends at school who were supportive of me almost to the same point that my parents were supportive of me. That's great. That's wonderful. Yeah, I have a mentor actually in the neighborhood that lives across the street.
29:59She's amazing. She grows everything, landscape, vegetables, flowers, everything. And I'm constantly like, as soon as I see her out, I'm like, hey, I have a question for you. So she's great. She loves it. But she's helped me a lot. So. Yeah. And when I think about that, if someone calls me or messages me or is here and sees something I'm doing and says, how does that work or how do do that?
30:29I'm real good at being like, oh, this is how you do it. But I don't consider that teaching. I consider that sharing my information.  I think of teaching as  more hands on sitting down with someone and trying to show them how to do something. Right, right, right. Yeah.  Well, yeah, you know,  that's true. Sometimes I have to back up.
30:58and explain it like I'm explaining something to my kids. Like, oh, they don't know any of this.  And I know it, so I have to  sort of start at the beginning.  Yeah, I have reeled off my recipe for bruschetta a bunch of times on the podcast episode.  And when I do,  it's to someone who knows how to cook, so they kind of get it.  And I realize after I do it that just because I say, oh, you just chop up these things,
31:27You put it in a bowl, you add some olive oil and some balsamic vinegar, and then you toast up some bread and you put stuff  on top of the toast and you eat it. That's  not all there is to it, clearly. And  I keep forgetting that if you've never cooked in your life, there's a whole lot of questions that come from that description. Exactly. Yes, yes, for sure.  So it's funny to me. And I remember not knowing how to cook. I remember not knowing how to...
31:54put dirt in a container and plant seeds and do things to make seeds grow. remember. Yeah, it's so true. And you know,  people come to me all the time and they say, well, I try to grow tomatoes and, you know,  I always hear this like the same. It's a pattern. People have an interest and a passion, but they don't  know how to do something and they make a common mistake like growing tomatoes in like a 10 gallon container.
32:23And  I think just giving them the tools they need and  giving them the knowledge, I think it's just so encouraging.  Absolutely. And again, really glad that you are in the world to encourage people to grow things because right now I think everybody should be growing food.  Oh, yes,  I agree.
32:51I'm really into organic gardening and that's important to me and I think that's becoming more important to a lot of people and just  knowing what kind of soil was  my vegetable grown in or what kind of  pesticides or hopefully lack of pesticides were used in this produce.  think it's  really important. People should know how to grow their own food because they're really missing out if they don't know how to grow their own food.
33:21Yes, and we're going to get done here in a minute because I tried to keep this half an hour more past that. But the other thing that I would suggest people try growing because it's quick, it's a quick turnaround and it's really yummy is radishes. For sure. Radishes. I love growing those. Again, my kids love to pull them out of the ground, maybe too early. But yeah, there certain vegetables that you can grow with a quick turnaround and it's a lot of fun.
33:51It's a lot of fun for sure. Yes. And there are people in the world who don't like radishes. I'm not one of them. I don't like beets, but I love radishes. I love beets. I love beets. Can't do it Josie. They taste like dirt to me. My mom gets so frustrated with me. She'd harvest the beets and she'd be like, I'm going to slice some of these up. Do you want a slice? And I'm like, no, no. Yeah, they're so good. And they're so pretty. But radishes are beautiful too. And I like them raw, but
34:20I started roasting them. Have you done that? They're great. have not, but I have pickled radishes.  Okay. have with dinner. That sounds good. That's lovely. And it takes like 10 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Pickling thing.  I'm not a pickler. My husband is the chemist  in the family. He loves anything like that. So  he always does the pickling. Yep. Well, I call it a pickle, but it's really more like a marinade.
34:49Right, with some vinegar.  Yeah, vinegar and whatever oil you want to use, whatever oil choice you like to have.  And some honey. Okay. Oh, that sounds good. And I think it takes mirin, which is an ingredient most people don't know about. It's  like an alcoholic  cooking wine, but it's called mirin. And you just kind of put a little bit of on the sliced up radishes and you let it sit in a bowl for about 10-15  minutes.
35:17And it's like a pickle, but it isn't a canned pickle. Do you ever add any lemon juice or anything like that to it? No, you could. OK. You could, but I don't. Sounds good. The vinegar has enough acid in it to do the thing. Yeah. Sounds yummy. But radishes, literally from planting the seed to pulling them out and eating them is like four weeks. Yes. It really is cool to watch them grow so fast. Yeah. And the quick turnaround is great because you can
35:47You can start them in February in your house if you wanted to because they don't need to be pollinated. They don't need any bees to do the job. Absolutely.  The funny thing is this year,  since we have chickens, this is our first year to have them.  I had to figure out how to keep them out of the garden  and then also let pollinators in. But  all of the cool season vegetables are brassicas, leafy lettuce, radishes,  root vegetables.
36:17I can grow those under ag fabric and  I have just like tinted my raised beds, which is great. And the chickens can't get in there to destroy  everything. So  that's been really great. Yes. And I  was just going to add, it has kept the caterpillars out. So I'm getting like the most wonderful harvest this year. Good.  Yes. And chickens will decimate a garden.
36:45They will completely destroy it. do. And even if they're not eating whatever it is that's growing, they just get in there and they scratch and they kick stuff around and they destroy your seedlings. so yeah, you have to keep them out. Yeah. We have chickens right now and they are going to be not free-ranged when my husband puts the garden in. Right now they're allowed to run of the property, but they won't be in May. That's smart. Very smart.
37:14We learned the hard way the first summer we were here, they ate some of the seedlings he put in and he came in from the garden and said, where my seedlings disappeared. And I said, um, were the chickens out? no. I I made that same mistake. had some corn. I had started some corn seedlings and I was going to plant them a few days ago and I forgot I had left them out and I went out there. Of course they had like.
37:42knocked all of the pots over and taken them all out and now I have to start over.  Yep, there's lots of good to be said about chickens, but if you give them free reign, they're going to take it.  For sure.  All right, Josie, thank you so much for your time this morning. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Mary. This was a wonderful opportunity. It was really fun. Thank you. Have a good day. Okay, thank you.  Bye.
 

BLB Farms

Today I'm talking with Bobbi at BLB Farms. You can follow on Facebook as well.
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.
00:29share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. A tiny homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free to use farm to table platform, emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. Today I'm talking with Bobby at BLB Farms. And Bobby, what does BLB stand for?
00:53Butcher's lazy bee farm and depending on who you talk to myself or my husband is who the lazy bee is. Oh Okay, I get it Yeah, we don't swear on the podcast so lazy be is perfect Thank you for explaining that you're in Texas and What's the weather like in Texas right now? Well, we just got over having two tornadoes come through
01:21One was three miles and one was about eight miles from us. So it's nice and beautiful and sunshiny right now, so we'll take it.  Yeah, I'm really glad it was three miles and 10 miles away because I would be very sad if I wasn't talking to you right now. Thank you. We would be very sad too. We lucked out. We didn't have any damage this time around.  Last couple of years,  we have really bad straight line winds here. So it makes farming very difficult.
01:50Yeah, I'm in Minnesota. We have tornadoes here too. Luckily, I've never actually seen one in the over... Oh my God. I don't know how many years I've been here since 1991. So over 30 years, I think? Never seen a tornado, but I have seen the sky look really scary and like it could turn and I don't love it. So, and for those who don't know, I talk about the weather at beginning of the episodes because it's my way of expressing my esteem for the person I'm talking to.
02:20So the weather in Minnesota today is sunny and it's supposed to hit 70 degrees this afternoon.  Yay.  And no tornadoes that I know of. we're set. So all right, Bobby, tell me about yourself and what you guys do at BLB Farms.  I am a  47 year old housewife  and farmer,  chief cook and bottle wash.  And I have three children.  My youngest is 18.
02:49oldest is 27. So we kind of spread them out there a little bit. But I found out very early that I wanted to do farming. was raised with farmers. So I already had a good background. And we just kind of, you know, rolled with it from there. Okay. So have you always been farming?
03:18Yes,  we were raised,  we grew all of our produce.  My mother,  we did chickens. We processed our own chickens.  We had friends that done their own meat chickens. So  that was the extent of the animals  that I grew up with. But as far as vegetables, fruits, anything like that, that we could grow, we did so. And my mother preserved them.
03:47via  freezing  or  dehydrating or even  canning, pressure canning or water bath.  I think that's a beautiful way to grow up. It was.  I took it for granted.  And then when, because I was raised between my mother and my father had gotten a divorce and  we had moved to Alaska when I was three. So up there things were very expensive.
04:16So if you have a good ground somewhere where you can actually do some of your own produce, it's best to do that.  And so  when we moved back to Texas,  I was lost because that's what we done. And it was cheaper down here, so we got the routine of just going to the store.  So I had to come kind of full circle back to  the way I was raised.
04:44I feel like that happens to a lot of us.  When I was growing up, I grew up in Maine. My parents had an acre of land  on  a block. So you would drive down a mile  into the woods and there was a block. You drive down, hang a left, come back out around on that same one mile lane again.  my dad put in a garden, oh my goodness, I think the first year that we lived there in
05:14Oh, moved in the summer of 76, so must've been 77. He put in a big garden and he had a garden every year until I moved out and I was six when we moved in there and I moved out at almost 19. And so I watched my dad and my mom garden. And then when I moved out, I moved into the city and lived in cities or suburbs until, oh, can't think.
05:421999 maybe? And then  moved in with my husband and we were in a little tiny town and we didn't have a big lot. We had a tenth of an acre lot with a house and a four car garage on it.  And my husband  hadn't thought of doing any gardening at all. And then we got some  hand-me-down plants from his mom, some irises and lilies. Nice. We put those in and they did great. And I was like, hey, we have the backyard that's just gross.
06:11weeds and grass, we could dig that up and put in some topsoil loam, and we could have food producing plants back there. And he was all for it. And that's where the bug started. That's when he loves gardening. And then a little over four years ago, we moved to a 3.1 acre homestead with a house and a pole barn and a useless garage and a woodshed. And he now has a 100 by 150 foot
06:38farm to market garden every summer. Nice.  So  I really  wasn't  into any of this until  his mom gave us those plants. And then I was like, hey, gardening is kind of fun.  Yeah, it is. It's the best therapy you can ever have.  Sunshine and dirt underneath your feet.  You can be grounded. And it's very good for the soul and the body.
07:08Yes, and one of the best smells on earth is fresh turned  good dirt.  Yes,  yes it is. That and shucking corn. Oh my god, I love the smell of shucking corn. Yes.  And it's amazing.  I made some dilly beans yesterday. I was canning  and the smell of fresh green beans.  I was remembering all the times we snapped
07:36beans to get ready to can them for my mom.  It just brought back so many memories and you forget about those smells and then something will just trigger them and you're like, oh, that's the best smell right there. That's how you know you're doing good again.  absolutely. Now, how long is Texas's growing season? Because here in Minnesota,  we don't put anything in the ground until May 15th and we're pretty much done with outside growing.
08:05by end of September if we're lucky? Well, last year  we went from March to November, middle of November, which is very unusual. Usually we've done had a good heart frost that shut everything down.  But we were still shelling peas in the pea sheller  the second week of November.  It was very mild  and we took advantage of
08:32every day we could possibly get out of it.  So we do have some wild weather.  So we kind of just  play with whatever we can.  I'll start indoor seeds sometimes November, December to get them ready for the greenhouse for the following  January, February, depending on what I need to be growing,  what's being requested.
09:01Um, sometimes it's not until January or February that I start the seeds. So, um, if you have a greenhouse, you can go all year.  Um, but if you don't and you strictly are doing in-ground, then you know, March for the cold weather stuff,  um, to probably October is usually when our shutoff is.  Okay. So you've got  three months more.
09:30than we do basically.  And my husband, I'm lucky if I get him to wait until February 15th to start seedlings in the house. Oh, I know it's hard. It's so hard. Uh huh. Yeah, we've got, he just repotted  yesterday.
09:48Let me think Swiss chard and kale  and romaine lettuce and butter crunch lettuce that was in the little tiny seedling trays. Nice.  He just repotted those and took them out to our hard sided greenhouse because he looked at the forecast and he said they're cold weather crops. said it would have to get to minus 20 to kill them.  And I was like, okay. And he had, he has a whole bunch of tomato seedlings and basil seedlings.  said, do not go to the greenhouse.
10:18He also has peppers. would be surprised how hearty tomatoes and petunias are.  They can take some pretty good cold and it'll keep them from bolting and just growing super fast and getting really leggy.  It kind of controls them. If you kind of use the weather, the cool weather  to  help you grow, sometimes it's beneficial. Yeah, I'm scared.
10:47But they're only like two week old seedlings. They're only about an inch tall. Oh yeah. No, no, not that young. So I basically, he's the gardener and I try to defer to him on what he wants to do. But I said, I said, please do not take the tomatoes, the peppers or the basil babies out. I said, because I will literally sob for a week if they die. And he said, I don't want to see you cry for a week. said, no, you don't. really don't. So they stayed inside. They're all safe on the table.
11:17They're going to keep growing inside for another at least two weeks, maybe a month. And then the water greenhouse and then  May 15th, God willing the creek don't rise.  They'll be in the garden itself.  we're very excited about this because I don't know if you've listened to any of the episodes of my podcast, but all I've done for the last six months is bitch about the summer last summer. Cause we had a terrible growing season here. Really?  See ours  surprised us because we did have that.
11:45110 degree weather there in July and August  and it was short-lived though.  So we didn't suffer unduly.  So we got a break in it and we, my okra,  I had to replant it because the spring started out really bad. We had torrential rains, it was washing everything out and then it went straight into the heat.
12:10Yeah, it was, it was not a good year here last year. We probably lost about $5,000 on produce that we could have been selling.  Had our art not been soup for too long. So yeah, it was, uh, it was painful and sad. And, uh, we're really looking forward to this year because we've looked at the long range forecast.  We have looked at the farmer's almanac long range forecast, and it doesn't look like we're going to need to build an art in May. that's  Thank goodness.
12:38I'm telling you it was bad and the baby plants look good. So we're we're really kind of we're kind of doing the rain dance But only the grow dance for the plants. I don't want rain. No rain dancing here, right? Not like last year. It was insane See that was the way we had last year for last is what done it to us I was in the same boat you were in it was miserable. We had a snowstorm. It was just awful
13:08Yeah, it was nuts. I don't know what Mother Nature was thinking last year, but I hope that she's thinking something much better this year. Okay, so I saw that you have  chicks for sale. Yes,  yes. Are those laying hen chicks? Yes.  We take their eggs and we incubate them.  We have everybody segregated, so we have...
13:35the roosters that are supposed to be with the hens that are like, you know, Brahma's light,  the lights with the lights and the buffs with the buffs. And  we have some Jersey Giants, which we did get some crosses with them, but I don't think the eggs are going to hatch because we had lost electricity for three days with that spasm. I think we've lost those, but  it's part of farming. happens.
14:05It does. It really does. You're not, preaching to the choir. Everybody who's listening to this podcast, who's in the  homesteading, farming, ranching realm understands exactly what you're saying.  Yeah.  It can be so amazing and it can be so  heartbreaking sometimes. Yes. I always say heartbreaking.  But there's a balance and if you can find the balance, you're doing okay. Yes.  Some years are better than others. It's just kind of the
14:35you know, to Mother Nature, really. mean, there's some things we can control and there's some things we cannot. Yeah. All we can do is set up the best,  I want a word and it's not there,  the best growing situation we can, whether it's an animal or a plant,  and then just pray that everything else works. Yes. So what else do you have on your farm?  We started doing wholesale growing first.
15:05And we were doing vegetables and hanging baskets.  And then I started meeting a bunch of farmers  and  everybody was talking about having problems selling their produce. They were having masses amounts left over that they were just dumping  because they couldn't find good farmers markets or people to buy their.
15:34you know, bigger than a farmer's market normally, but they're not big enough to attract Walmart or Albertsons or Safeway or some, you know, one of these big places to sell. So  we started a farmer's market here on our property  because we were having problems getting approval in town for one. had tried for years and then I tried and  it just wasn't working.  So,
16:03We started the farmers market and we are doing amazing with it.  We keep  the emission free  to set up or  just enough to cover the porter potties, know, something like that. So everybody, we're coming together in a group and attracting people to come shop with us. And we're doing better as a group than we would singly.  So  we added that.
16:32We're adding a, we added the farm store this year.  Almost got the interior of it done. It's a little 16 by 40 building. We'll have electricity and coolers that we can, in the freezer, we can keep produce longer.  Cause I've been running with ice chests in the back of my little GMC train  to and from other farmers and the farmers markets and  trying to keep things cooled off and.
17:02I think I need to buy an ice machine too because I've been supporting Dollar General in their ice. Uh huh. Yup. So, but we just kind of let everything  fall into place where it calls us to. I mean, we see a need and we just kind of go with it.  Um, and kind of come together as a group to help others.  Um, a middle gentleman that he was farming peas.
17:30And just, he's an older gentleman and just couldn't get the peas sold. And so when I met him, he was like, can you, are you interested in buying some peas? And I was like, absolutely.  So he  stumbled on a miracle because he grows some old fashioned stuff that I didn't think anybody grew anymore. Some little lady cream peas and they're so good. And so we just started.
17:59making friends and networking together and just adding stuff here and there. It's amazing what happens when a group of comes together and has a plan, huh? Yes. I mean, you just about be able to move mountain.  It's really been something to watch and see how everybody blooms together. Not just one person. It's not just one person being greedy or
18:26suffering, you know, we all come in and pitch in and then we can  all get raised up. We can  all, you know, make our living  at a decent rate. You know, it's not,  don't know how else to explain it. It's just, it's really nice to see other people enjoying what they do  and being able to make a living at it. Yeah.
18:53It's too bad that not everybody in the world could do that because it would be a much happier world, I think. And I'm not being a smart ass. I really do wish that people would find their calling and be able to make it support them for their whole life, you know? Yes. Yes. A lot less stress, lot less bickering. People just doing what they love and just being happy. Yeah.
19:19And happy goes a long freaking way. really does for me. I  am,  I'm  going to say this. am an  oldest, oldest child. am the oldest of my three siblings and  I was raised to be really independent, almost too independent. My parents outdid themselves, I think. And I think that they were sorry about that when I hit about 12 years old, but that's another story.
19:46The hardest thing for me is to ask for help because I don't want to bother anybody. I don't want to put anybody out. I don't want to take from someone if they don't have something to give freely.  And I've been having a hard time with the podcast because I really would like the podcast to be more than a hobby. And so I've been trying to figure out how to make the podcast make a little bit of money.
20:12I finally realized that people don't quite understand what sponsorship means, but they understand advertising.  And so I've been offering like a little shout out at the beginning  of every episode.  When I can talk, it's really good.  And, you know, for a little bit of money, I just say, here's a shout out to whatever business is what they do. You can find them on Facebook and at their website, whatever that is. And I felt really weird about.
20:41Asking people if they wanted to do it and I've made $30 in the last five days because people were like yes I want to do that and I was like, whoa, really? Really? Okay, cool. And I felt so I don't know just anxious about asking I'm having I'm doing the same thing with the porta potties on the farmers markets because I was trying to keep it free but
21:09$140 for two porta potties coming out of the store account. It hurts. It doesn't sound like much, but it hurts. That's every month.  So yes,  I can feel exactly where you're coming from.  It's,  it's so dumb because you  are providing your land as a place to have the, the farmer's market.  And that's commendable. That is amazing.
21:39And like, I don't see any reason why the people who want to sell at the farmers market can't kick in five bucks. You know? mean, right. It's not a big ask and you're providing a service that  I know the  one of the big farmers markets here in Minnesota. Just to be there. It's like a thousand dollars for  the summer.  That's a lot of money. Yeah, it is. It's a crazy amount of money.
22:08So I'm not saying that I should be asking, you know, $2,000 for a 15 second, hi, this is who these people are, go visit their stuff. I'm saying that sometimes you can ask and sometimes you will get a yes. I just always expect a no. I got you. So I was very excited to know that people like the podcast and want to be featured and enjoy it and want to support it. It was very...
22:37I don't know, it was very satisfying to know that people actually like it. It was good to find that out.
22:44So, and you're finding out that people want to be at  your  farmer's market. I don't know what is wrong with me. cannot get words to come out today. So anyway, yeah, if you have a dream  and  you're afraid of pursuing it,  don't be afraid. Just  try. I mean, the worst that's going to happen is people say no.  even if they do.
23:10It might  just not be, it might be a not right now kind of deal.  But there's somebody out there that'll say yes.  Yeah, and it's gotta be the right situation.  know,  if I messaged, I don't know,  a jewelry store and said, you wanna have me shout out your business for five bucks? They would be like, no, because jewelry has nothing to do with homesteading. And they would be absolutely right.  Right.
23:39So it has to be the right circumstances, the right people, the right timing.
23:45And always do your research.  I  always tell, we always have some new people that are starting. They love to come to ours.  Cause we're so laid back. We don't have a lot of rules. So I tell them, I'm like, talk to your customers.  If there's somebody in front of you, that's your potential customer.  Use your time wisely with that person. Talk to them, find out what they enjoy, what they love.
24:14Don't just sit there and look at them.  Greet them.  They're people. They want to talk to you. They want to know about you. They want to know about your story.  don't use your time wisely. Always learn. Be ready to evolve. Add things. Take things away. Some things will work perfectly and other things is just a little bit too  no. So you just need to work it.
24:42Absolutely. And this is why my husband does the farmer's market and I do a podcast  because he's so good at just getting people to laugh  and I'm,  you're going to think this is really dumb. I'm actually really shy.  I have no problem with the podcast format because I don't have to be in a room with somebody. I'm good. I'm good this way. get that. My husband  is quiet. He's not a people talker.
25:12I  am, I have ADHD. I'm severe at a time where we didn't, I grew up with, we didn't know what that was. I was just the chase the boys and talk too much in class and stayed in trouble and  that was me. So he's always like, no, you can sit there at the farmer's market. You got it. You're good. Yeah.  And honestly, I think it's a talent.
25:37I listen to the stories when my husband comes home from the farmers market about what went on and what was said and who said what, about our stuff or the vendors are chatting with each other.  He's so energized. He's so high on it.  I listen and I laugh and I make notes on things that we could do or not do.  When he's done, like,  I'm so glad you do the farmers market. It's so good for you.
26:04And he's like, I'm so glad I do the farmer's market. It's so good for the community. And I'm like, yeah, it is. It is. And I understand exactly your, your take on him because that's,  I do the same thing. He does the same thing for me as well.  Um, and  it's,  I do,  it's wonderful seeing your friends, new customers,  um, somebody that's been sick that you've
26:31prayed for  and they're out walking around, you know,  and you're happy to see them. It's a genuine feeling  of getting to know everybody  and  meet new people and seeing the new babies and grand babies and  it's just a  ray of sunshine. I mean, it's just wonderful. It's good for the soul.
26:57Well, the way it feels to me is like the town socials back in the 1800s. Oh  yeah. When people used to come and bring food and they'd have a dance and they'd all just hang out and talk and  drink whatever they had to drink and eat some food and the  teenagers would go out and dance and then sneak off to make out and you know, stuff.  To cook up recipes and... Yeah. And  I feel like the...
27:22The farmer's market these days is about as close to that as you get unless you're a part of a church. Yes. Absolutely. And you get fresh vegetables too. Well, sure. And craft stuff and goodies like cookies and cakes and things. And I'm a big fan of brownies. So my husband brings home a brownie. He's good for a week. He's in my good graces for a week. And then he comes home with another one and I'm like, okay, we're good for another week.
27:53We had a new vendor,  this first farmers market opening.  He's a young autistic gentleman  and  young teenager  and he makes some amazing cookies.  Oh, and his parents  are  supporting him  and letting him live his best life. And it was great to see him. He'll come up, shake your hand and talk to you.
28:21tell you his ideas of what he's wanting to plan and it was really refreshing to have him. We always get excited when we have young people that get involved with the farmers markets and we love seeing the 4-8 and the ag, rabbits and chickens and goats and you name it. We want to know. We follow him on Facebook.
28:50We cheer them on when they're winning or if they don't win, we still cheer them on. So it's just a huge community. mean, we just, they need support and I'm glad these kids, young kids are getting involved with this. And it's really something to see. I was really proud to have him out. Awesome. I love that. Our son goes to the farmers market with his dad. He's 23 now.
29:20And he went almost every time two summers ago now.  And then he was like, I got stuff to do. I can go, you know, to every one out of four.  And my husband was like, that's okay. And that  last, that was last summer, summer before when our kid decided he didn't want to go to every single Saturday.  people would come up to my husband and be like, where's your kid? Yeah.
29:47because the kid's really good at talking to people too and he's very polite, he's very kind. So I get what you're saying. It's actually really good for kids to be involved in that stuff because they learn how to function in a way. Because our schools aren't teaching them anything like that anymore. Unless they do have an ag. I'm not sure they ever did. We, well in the south,
30:14Um, we had Ag programs.  Um, we would show the animals.  Um, they taught you how to butcher, um, all that good stuff. But also we had growing programs where they would show you how to raise your tomatoes, plant them,  and eventually harvest.  Um, we had the home ec that taught us how to cook and quilt and  all that good stuff. um, my kids didn't have that.
30:44I'm so jealous. I'm a Yankee girl. grew up in Maine and the North and we didn't have that kind of stuff. We had a home ec, but it was not,  it was not in depth. It was a very surfacey kind of home ec class. Oh, wow.  Um, we even used to get our hunter's education, um, as part of a school program, um, where we would have youth,  um, hunting trips that we could go on, but  they've since discontinued that now as well. Huh.
31:13Okay. Well, you had many more resources at your fingertips than I did in school. And I'm really glad that you did.  I would have jumped on a lot of that stuff if we'd had it.  Um,  so the one thing I want to say before I cut you loose, try to keep these to half an hour  is if you're going to be part of a farmer's market, like you're going to be a vendor.  One of the things that we did is we made business cards and business cards are kind of old fashioned, but
31:40people take business cards off the table because they want to know if they need something that they like that you make,  if they can get hold of you.  And the other thing I've done is I've made a QR code and I've blown it up and my husband tapes it to the table  and people can use the QR code on, you know, user phones and that goes directly to our website. So those are the two ways that we get it so that people can find us.  I love that.
32:08I haven't done the QR codes, but we do the business cards,  which we're in a small community. They usually just message, hey, I'm on my way. I'm okay.  So that's usually how we get  a heads up. that, and that's fine with us. We don't mind.  I'm here all the time, just about, unless I'm out doing deliveries. So.
32:30Yeah. And the other thing that's really good at a farmer's market, if you can afford the cost of it, is to have a banner that has the name of your business on it.  Because if people see it enough times, it sticks in their head. Yes. So,  hint.  The banners. And another thing I would add to that is make sure that your banner and your card, your logos, they all match. Yes. Because it'll get confusing to them. They think they've seen three different
32:59businesses when it's only just one. And sometimes that's hard.  It's just something, a goal to work towards. Yeah, it is really hard to come up with a logo.  It's always going to be difficult unless it just pops into your head and you're like, that's it. That's the one. And then you got to figure out how you're going to create the logo because do you have somebody create it for you?  Do you draw it? Do you do it on the computer? How do you do it if you're not an artist?
33:28Right. A lot of times there's programs that will  allow you,  like a Pies app is an app and there's a free side to it. And then there is also  a  pay to use it by the year. If you get really in depth with it, cause I do all my own advertising for the posters on the farmer's market.  And  I do not, they don't pay me to say that. That's just the one.
33:57I know people use Canva.  There's others, but they have little programs in there you can actually design your own for free. mean, so you don't have to spend a lot.  Yeah. And the other thing, my  friend that I worked for for like six years, she was in PR and marketing.  She was always telling me that I was too, I don't remember what the word was, but I want to say esoteric when I would think of naming names for things.
34:23Because I would, I have a really weird brain. have all kinds of associations when I think of a word, like there's all kinds of words that go with it. Like if I think apple, there's the apple we eat, there's the apple computer, there's all kinds of things you can do with apple. And she would be like, it needs to be obvious. It can't be 16 layers down, Mary. Yes. Right. Oh yeah. So when I was trying to come up with a logo for a tiny homestead,
34:53for our place,  I was like, I just need a little farmhouse with two little potted plants on the sides of the steps that go up the door of the farmhouse and a couple of chickens.  And I ran that by my husband and he said,  that's perfect. That's not 16 layers deep. And I went, uh-huh. Thanks, honey.  It's kind of making fun of me,  but  either way, keep it simple, you know, and,  and keep it the same. Don't, don't change it every year because people do get confused.
35:22Yes, they will. All right, Bobby, I have loved this conversation. didn't know it was going to be about the farmers market, so I'm kind of glad it was. Well, thank you for having us. This is the first one we've ever done. So I was excited. I was like, yay, somebody asked me to be on their podcast. I love talking to people like you because you're so bubbly and full of information and all you want to do is chat. And that's what I need. I love these conversations.
35:52Thank you so much for your time, Bobbi. Have a great day.  Thank you, you too. Bye-bye.
 

VT Blodgett Family Farm

Today I'm talking with Dawn at VT Blodgett Family Farm.
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.
00:29share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Dawn at Vermont Blodgett Family Farm. Good morning, Dawn. How are you?  Good morning. I'm doing good and you? I'm great. Tell me I pronounced Blodgett correctly. You did. Okay. Cause  I was like, could it be Blodgett or is it just Blodgett? Blodgett.  Awesome. Good. I always hate like slaughtering people's names. I feel really bad about it.  What is the weather like in Vermont this morning?
00:55This morning we've actually had a warmer day.  It's up in the  30s.  We got about an inch and half of snow in an hour this morning when we were milking.  So the roads are nice and slushy and we're all white again.  Well, it's pretty. I'm sure that you're like a lot of Northern Tier State people. You're probably looking forward to spring. Yes. Yes, us too.
01:22just to do my usual thing that I do at the beginning of every episode. Here in Minnesota this morning, it's bright and sunny and it's warm. And we're supposed to hit 70 degrees today for the high. I'm jealous. Yeah, me too. I'm gonna be real happy to see that hit this afternoon. The problem that we're having with this though is that it's really bouncing up and down. And today it's to be, it's supposed to hit 70.
01:51And then it's supposed to go back down to like the fifties and then Friday they're saying that it's going to be over 70 and we're, might get, um, severe thunderstorms in March. Wow. Yeah. I'm like, you know,  this is not great. I don't, I don't really love the, uh, the zigzagging and the up and down that we're going through right now,  but hopefully by May it will have worked it all out and it'll be okay. Saturday.  was  negative five with the wind chill.
02:21Oh, all day long. Yeah, a week and a half ago,  two weeks ago here,  we were in like minus 20 real temperature weather for a week. So yeah, it's really hard to know how to dress for the day. I'll tell you that. Layers and it all then can come off.  Exactly.  All right. So tell me about what you guys do at your farm and about yourself.
02:51So we are classified as a dairy farm. So we have 45 milking jerseys. So we ship to Organic Valley. so that is what we actually do. Like our whole farm is set up as a dairy farm. We've been here for almost 10 years now. are high.
03:20What is it?  High rotational grazing or intense. That's it. Intense.  Great  rotational grazing.  We have  about 50 acres of land that we we pasture.  We have about 100 acres of land that we hay  and then we have beef cows. But we only have 15 of them.  That's more for the farm stand that we have.
03:48And about three years ago, four years ago, my husband built the stand, the farm stand, and I have been increasing my egg sales since. So I'm up to 670 chickens. Wow. But we are a dairy farm. OK. I understand that you're a dairy farm, but 670 chickens lay a lot of eggs. Yes.
04:17You must be very popular right now with egg sales.  Very. I right now because I have various ages of birds.  I have about  250 that are laying consistently.  So I get about 21 dozen eggs a day and I sell out within an hour.  Well, I was impressed that our chickens just started laying a week ago. They're starting to be consistent and we've been getting 10 eggs a day. So  21 dozen a day seems like a wonderful thing. Yes.
04:47It is a lot of eggs. I'll be happy when we have a dozen a day because we have 12 chickens. So if they're all laying the way it was supposed to, we will have seven dozen a week, which would be really nice right now. Yes.  Yes. And I don't really want to talk too much about eggs and chickens because it's all over the news. And I saw your post  on Facebook that you did  about your chickens and what it costs to take care of them.
05:13And I'm going to share that on my page and my tiny homestead podcast page because  people don't quite understand that that that first outlay for the chickens is expensive.
05:27So  it definitely can be. As you said, I posted it. But for the first four months of a chicken's life, it actually only cost about $10 for  four months to feed them. But what's going to cost you the money is starting up. So you need a housing place to put them.
05:53Yep.  So you need  the waterer, you need a feeder, you need  a place to keep them warm. When I first started, actually kept them in my bathtub  with a heat lamp, right? my, you know, because I could shut the door and my dogs, you know, and my cat couldn't get to them.  And so,  I mean, you can do it cheaply.
06:21You know,  if you have a place to put them in a place to do things,  but  it's not really the first four months that becomes an issue. It's when they  start laying  that they  that they'll start costing you because it takes a lot for them to lay an egg.  Uh huh. So  you have to,  you know, make sure that they have.
06:49the right amount of feed  and the right amount of  temperature. As you know, you have chickens.  In the wintertime, they're cold. They don't lay eggs. Their energy goes to body heat instead of producing an egg. A lot of people forget that chickens are seasonal. The only time they're not seasonal is that first  winter  because they're still technically considered a pullet. A pullet is anything under a year old bird.
07:19Yeah. So yeah, it costs a lot of time too. Yes, they do. And I mean, it's not hours and hours a day, but you, do spend time with your chickens. You do spend time cleaning out the coop. You do spend time  gathering the eggs and making sure the chickens are okay and all that. Yes.  Like I said, I don't want to get too far down the rabbit hole because I've talked about this a lot on the podcast lately because it's the topic of the month basically.
07:46But what I want  to say is if you're fortunate enough to have the funds to go get chickens  and raise them and have  the means to make a home for them and you have the time,  it is well worth it. But if you don't, find somebody who does have chickens, know, a local grower, local farmer and buy from them because  you're supporting them and you're going to get great eggs from them. Correct.
08:13And it's going to cost you less than the grocery store, probably from the farmer that, know, because I'm not going to be charging $10 a dozen for our eggs. I'm looking at probably $5 a dozen when they, when we have enough to sell. So. Correct. Cause we have less people touching the eggs. So less people to pay. Yes, exactly. So support your local farmer or your local homestead or your local grower. If you can't be any of those things, I guess is what I'm saying. So, okay. So you said you have 45.
08:43dairy cows. Yes. That's a small herd  for a  dairy farm.  how did you get into this? So  actually my husband,  I grew up in a  dairy farm background.  My father  and his family  were big into dairy farming  from
09:10You know, the early, I would say, I think they bought their farm in the late sixties,  early seventies.  And so they made it big  in the eighties when you could actually make money farming. Yes. So then they bought a lot of land and they were, they had 300 cows back in the eighties, which  is, you know, milking cows,  which was a large, you know, industrial farm  back then.  And  for Vermont.
09:39I mean, other places may not have been, but for Vermont, that was a pretty  substantial amount.  so  I was with it when I was at my dad's  every weekend and being part of  the farming, not really farming community,  because I wasn't big into it.  But I was always out in the barn with my dad helping and  learning how to take care of animals  and dealing with stuff like that.
10:09I'm actually, my children are ninth generation Vermonters. Oh wow.  Yep. And so farming actually kind of goes back on my grandmother's side, you know, all the way to the  1700s.  So  that's kind of a cool little history background. And they all lived, we all lived in the same area. I was the first one to move away.
10:37So my husband,  his family had a farm and his grandparents had a farm  and his parents  lived a couple houses down, which in Brookfield is  probably, I think it was like a mile away. they had sold all the cows by the time I met my husband, but he had farmed with,  bought a farm with his brother-in-law and sister and were farming and they had different views.
11:06So my husband got out of it. And in 2011, he's like, I want to start again. So the new adventure started. So we've been farming together for 14 years. Moved here almost 10 years ago. OK, I don't want to be nosy, but I have to ask, is this your job or is this your job outside of your job? This is our job. OK.
11:36So I quit my job. I was a nurse. I worked with a podiatrist. And I quit my job in 2000 of November of 2012 to do it full time because we had two small children at the time. One was in just started school and the other one was, you know, still technically, I guess a toddler. But the school district was not in the farm district.
12:05So he would have to stop what he was doing and go pick up our son,  either from the house where  the bus dropped him off or picked him up at school,  and then  find either his parents or my parents to watch them while he went down and farmed. financially,  it was a little difficult taking that income out.
12:34But  time wise,  it was  the only thing we could do. He could not be a stay at home dad  and a full time farmer. No, because that does not go hand in hand.  No. And see, the thing that a lot of people forget about farmers versus homesteaders  or  people who have a few animals  is this is 24 seven, right? Like he gets up at four o'clock in the morning.
13:04and he goes until six o'clock at night. And that is an everyday thing.  And if then there's haying or calving or  something breaks  or something like that, he literally is gone longer out of the house. We have no workers  other than me and him and then our 16 year old son helps.  But as we know, what 16 year olds, they like to do other things.
13:33It's a very time consuming thing. So  when I got done my job, it was mainly to be  a stay at home mom helping on the farm because our kids just took so much time  away from him.  then when we moved here 10 years ago, because now we lived on the farm that we actually have before we rented the farm that was about five miles away.
14:03it became, this became my full-time job also. Okay, cool. The reason I asked is because a lot of people, even full-time farmers,  they're  full-time farming as much as they can, which means every hour they're not at their jobby job. And it's a really, really hard balance from what I've been told. I haven't had to do it. Thank God.  I would not have the energy or the patience for it.  But  you were saying in messages that
14:33that was I sure that I wanted you to be on the podcast because you're farmers, not homesteaders.  And Dawn, there's a lot of overlap between homesteaders  and farmers. There's a lot of  skill involved that are the same skills.  And I feel like there's some homesteaders that consider themselves to farmers  and farmers that consider themselves to be homesteaders as well. So
14:59It's all under the same umbrella for  what I'm trying to get to on the podcast. That makes sense.  So  I think, to be honest,  that is true to some extent.  I think  the thing that does separate a homesteader  versus a farmer, and what I classify as a farmer, I know that's kind of a loose term.
15:28is  most homesteaders do it for themselves.  A farmer does it to feed the community.  And I think that is something  that just plays a part in it. So like when I was talking about I was more of a stay at home mom,  and I helped on the farm.  So at that point, I would classify myself as more of a homesteader because I used
15:57the materials, right? I had my garden.  you know, I cooked from everything from scratch because I had more time to do it.  So I did more of the homesteading and  I use quotation marks on that one because, know,  labels just aren't very nice anyway. They sound horrible.  But  I had more time to be able to do some of those things. When we became
16:25farmers up here or when I became a farmer, should say.  I could not do a garden anymore.  I pay for my vegetables.  I have a friend who  that's what he does full time.  we barter meat for vegetables because I do the meat, he does the veggies.  I do not have time in my day to do a garden.
16:52I have to literally pencil in enough time  if I want to can my chicken broth just because I have so many, you know, frozen chicken in my freezer that I've got to get out of. Right. So I'm staying up late at night  to  to be able to do that because there just isn't enough time. So I think that is a big difference between homesteaders is  it's just  they're they're doing things to feed themselves.
17:22And then making money with the things like that versus farming is like our full-time job. Yep. Okay. I see the distinction now, but, but again, I thought I was trying to, I know it sounds horrible trying to get it out, but there is a distinction and there's not, it's not a bad thing. Yep. Right. I'm not trying to say homesteaders are lease,  you know, less than farmers. It's just different.  yeah, absolutely.  And
17:49Again, going to stick by there's a lot of overlap in what you guys do regarding skills because,  because homesteaders, a lot of them definitely have a of dairy cows and they milk them and they do the thing, but it's not like what you're doing. You are an operation as it were. So the skill set is the exact same,  right? The difference is, like you said, we're doing it as an operation. have 48 milking cows versus they have one. Right. So my cows, you know,
18:19Myles and I were actually just talking about that this morning where  somebody was saying how I read somewhere about washing the udder and brushing down their cow before the milking procedure.  I went, could you imagine if we did that  for every cow we had before we brought them into milk?  And we would be milking for 12 hours every day,  like sitting there brushing our cows.
18:47Because it's an, so we, you know, we just do things differently. Yeah. Right. But it's still the end result is getting milk out of the cow and healthy milk and clean milk. Exactly. So if you have that many cows, do you actually have babies in the, in the, during the year or not? So we are seasonal. Um, because, um, I growing up in, in a farm,
19:15household, my father was never available. He was always out milking or doing chores or doing something.  So Christmas, we had to wait  until he came in to do, you know, Christmas presents. And we never got to take vacations.  And we never got to do anything. Yeah. So for my family, I told my husband when we started farming, we were  going to still be a family first,  no matter what.
19:44So we were taking vacations. We were going to basketball games. We were doing all of the things that my kids needed to do to be, you know, children. So we became seasonal in 2017. So everything got dried off, everything capped within six weeks to two months. Sometimes there's a little, you know, tail-enders there that got pregnant a little bit late. The prices. Yep.
20:13So  we dry everything. We go down to once a day normally in the beginning of July.  And then by August 1st, we dry everything off at once.  So we are not milking anything. And we have our first cow, Cavon, in  mid September. Okay. And then  because you already have so many milking cows, do you keep some of those babies or do you sell them?
20:42So I keep 10 babies  a year  and then I sell everything else.  Okay, cool. So  you're keeping your  herd fresh and in rotation, I guess is what I'm trying to get to. Awesome.  And you get the joy of dealing with calves.  Right.  And  I say that with kind of a weird tone to my voice because  I love calves, but I don't have any, you know, to me a calf is something.
21:12calf is something I go  to visit and pet and be entertained by and then I get to leave it with its parents. But for you, this is this work. So  so do you still get to enjoy the calves or are they just a means to an end?  I enjoy my calves. Okay. I think we look at it definitely different where yes, they are means, right? We have to have them on the farm to
21:40bring in new life to the farm because cows get old, cows get sick, right? So we do look at them very different, but every one of my calves  are loved on, they're played with.  We have kids that come over that love playing with them and  desensitize them, because having a spazzy calf is not fun.  But they're fed.
22:09They're bottle fed, they're,  you know, they're named, they're loved.  We love our cows just like we do our dogs.  Every one of them has a personality where we're just like,  you're just like your mother. Like coming out, you look at them and you're like, wow, you're just like your mother.  But they,  and I think that that's where the small dairy farm comes in versus some of the larger ones.
22:38is we do, because we are small, we have time to  get to know our animals,  right? We're touching them, we're playing with them, we're part of their community versus like them being part of our community. Right, yeah. So what kind of  farm dogs do you have? Because everybody has a favorite. I mean, we have friends that have two Pyrenees, so. So we have three golden retrievers that  are our mascots.
23:07and they are not allowed in the barn. Uh huh. Because they have the longest, most beautiful golden hair and they would love to be on my bed being covered in cow crap. So our dogs are babies. Yes. Versus, you know, when we were a Thai stall, when we first moved here, Thai stalls have a lot different atmosphere because the cows are tied to, you know, where they're supposed to be. Yeah.
23:37So they only poop in one spot. So having the dogs out there wasn't a big deal because they just knew not to go in the gutter. But now that we're in a free stall,  there's poop everywhere.  Yep. And cow poop is amazing for manure, for  fertilizer, for a garden, but it's not amazing if you're wearing it. Yep. That's exactly.  I actually have a really funny story about wearing poop.  So we had just moved here.
24:07And  so a manure pond  is where all of our liquid manure sits until we can get it spread on the field. Yes. So  there is a special little tool that can be backed in and it has a propeller on it to  agitate the pit. Yeah. And it's got a spray hose on it. Well, my husband,  I had to talk to my husband about something and I was walking out and I went.
24:35That would really suck if somebody got sprayed with that. Oh, no. And it  was in the spring, by the way. So the manure had sat in there for all winter. And then, of course, we had just moved here and the previous owner hadn't emptied the pit. So that poop in there was ripe.  Right. So I went over and I was standing there waiting for my husband to  see me and pay attention.  Well, he put the hose  on the bottom part underneath me.
25:04to try to  get the poop  to move away from where it was.  And literally a wave of poop covered me.  Oh no.  My silhouette was on the wall behind me. Ugh.  His face was, he didn't know if he should laugh.
25:29Or run. Yes. Yes, run fast away because she's probably really mad right now. I actually could do nothing but laugh. It was just the funniest thing because I had just said that would really suck if somebody got sprayed with that because it did it stunk so bad. For like a week it was in my nose. Oh yeah. That smell. Even after you showered and put deodorant on and perfume, you still have it stuck in your nose.
25:58I had to throw away all of my clothes  because I could not get the smell out. And if I could have taken my skin off, I would have been thrown that away. It smells so bad. Oh yeah, absolutely.  I don't have a Kalmanor story, but I have a skunk story. When I was a teenager, when I was in high school, our Samoyed dog, the big white fluffy dogs,  got sprayed by a skunk and he took a direct hit.
26:26My parents had to bring him in the house and, you know, get him in the bathtub with tomato sauce or whatever they used to try to cut some of that smell because it is really intense.  And because they brought him in the house, that smell was all through anything that was cloth in the house, including my clothes.  And I don't know how high school was for you, but I was not popular and I got teased a lot.  You can just imagine.
26:51the two weeks or three weeks after that happened me going to school because I couldn't go buy new clothes and even if I did the house still had that smell in it.  yeah. Yeah. It was not fun. Three weeks to a month after that happened being in high school smelling like a slug.  It was really bad.  So yeah, I've had my experiences with stinky things too, but not, not calminor. The only time,  the only story I have about calminor is we went to visit my folks in Maine.
27:20back in 2014  and they have a hay field that they basically let a friend of theirs cut and and in exchange my parents get venison from them I think or be foreign the other and So  when we went to visit it was right around the time that a guy was gonna put manure on the hay field  and my mom was just crossing everything that he wouldn't come until after we had left because it's stinky  and
27:47That morning that I got up and heard my mom swearing like pirate as I was coming down the stairs at their house  was the morning that he brought the the shit spreader as my parents call it.  oh, my mom was mad. I have not seen her  that upset about anything in a long time. And she used words that I've never heard her used before.
28:12And I basically had to give her a big hug and be like, it's okay. I know what cow poop smells like. It's fine. She's like, he could have just waited another day. And I'm like,  mom, when it needs to be done, it needs to be done. She's like, you're taking this much better than I thought you would. I said,  I remember driving through this area when we were kids  and the windows would be down and we would smell cow poop.
28:38And we would be like, oh, it stinks. And you'd be like, that's mother nature's gold right there. I said, we're not immune. This is not a new thing for me or my husband or our kids. It's time.  So yeah, she was mad, really, really mad. I have so many words I'm not using right now. yeah, mean,  a lot of this lifestyle, whether it's farming or homesteading or ranching,
29:05There's a lot of messy things about it, but it is  so incredibly worth it, I think. So it is a lifestyle,  right? It is.  And if you don't like the lifestyle, then it's  it's miserable. Right.  And actually,  I grew growing up because of how my father was. I kept saying to my mom,  I was like, I'm never marrying a farmer.
29:33I hate Vermont. I'm moving away and I did move away, right?  I moved away to Virginia Beach when I was 21. So,  and then I moved back and I met my husband. It was fate.  We actually had gone to kindergarten together all through school. Our paths have,  you know, intertwined.  It was meant to be.  And I found where I belong, right? It took forever, but this is where I belong. This is, even though it's frustrating.
30:03Like I did a post the other day about how tired I am,  but it's not the fact that I'm tired of the nonsense. I'm tired of  how things work  in our society. They shouldn't be so hard for farmers  or for homesteaders or people to be able to make a living doing what they enjoy.  a bunch of people said on my post, they were like,  oh, well, but it's so rewarding.
30:32That doesn't make it less tiring. No, no, it does not. That actually makes it more because our job is so demanding on all of our time. I say it, my husband's not just married to me. He's married to 48 other women. Yes. And, he treats them better than me sometimes. I'm sure he doesn't mean to. Oh no, he does. He says it all the time. They get everything, but it's okay. Most of the time it's okay.
31:03But the thing is, it's all the other stuff that makes a tiring job even more tiring. Like, why are we fighting our government,  right? To be able to  provide good food for our community.  Why are we fighting people because they don't understand and believe in what we do? Yeah. You know?  And I think that's the hard part is  that's what makes it so tiring is
31:33all the other.
31:36Yes.  And  if you love what you do,  it makes it a little easier to deal with that. But man, if you don't love what you do and you're having to deal with all that stuff, you're going to get out. You're just not staying in it. And so I think another part that people forget  is, you know,  farming,  again, like homesteading is a lifestyle, right? It is a profession.
32:04But, and this is where it kind of overlaps, you were saying,  is  once you get to a point where that farm is no longer making enough money  to sustain itself, you have to make choices  of either getting out  or passing it on and finding something else to do. Farmers don't know what else to do. And they will hold on to their lifestyle longer than they really should.
32:34But they don't know any different. They don't know what else to do. Yeah.  It's so hard. Like I'm talking to you and I'm like, oh, it's so hard and it's so, I don't know, negative sometimes.  And then I talked to other people who are farmers, like actual farmers, and they're so high on it because everything is going well. So I think it's  an any given day thing.
33:03where you're at with how you feel about it?  Yes.  I have had, and I'm not trying to put down farming in any way.  This is an emotional week for us.  Last week was the anniversary of us losing my husband's brother.  It's been three years. And so we had that huge emotional,  you know, that's when his accident was.  He didn't pass away until March 24th.
33:33Right. And so there's a lot of emotional baggage still,  you know, with with all of that. And then  last week was a big week because we had a lot of vet checks, right. We had a lot of extra.  So.  For for me right now,  I'm just I mean, tired,  right, is is what I keep saying  is I just need to be recharged. So.
34:01That's why I take vacation every year, why we go on vacation and do the seasonal thing. And so we can recharge  and bring that energy back in the next season. Yeah. And, you know, it's really hard with a winter, right? The way we have,  it's just draining. It's just tiring. I know I say that word a lot, but,  you know, right now we're at the end of that season. Well, Dawn, I'm going to tell you,  I
34:31appreciate what you do. And I'm not sure you hear that enough, but right now I've got about a third of a gallon of milk in my fridge because my husband was supposed to go and get milk yesterday and didn't get it at the store. He said he's going to and they got sidetracked. And I was like, did you ever go to the store? He's like, no, it was past time to go. So I love milk. I drink it in my coffee. I have it with cookies when we have cookies because I can't eat a cookie without milk. That's not happening.
34:59And I also have really gotten into making sausage gravy and biscuits this winter because it's really filling and it's not  it ain't good for you, but it's yummy and It's great for you. Yeah It just depends on you. It's great for the soul. Yes, exactly And it was really freaking cold here a couple weeks ago Sausage gravy and biscuits was very warming and I was very happy to have it, but it takes like three cups of milk.  So
35:28I really appreciate what you do. really appreciate what dairy farmers do because it is a lot of work. And I know that sometimes you can have a bad batch of milk that you can't sell and you lose that money and that's not good.  So I appreciate you. Thank you for doing what you do.  Thank you.  And  it actually,  it's nice to hear when people appreciate you because, and I, you know, I feel very fortunate.
35:58my Facebook page that we have  has a lot of supportive people, right? Like I love my people.  But every once in a while we get one, you know, where they're just like, oh my gosh, I hate dairy. And it's like,  well, come learn,  right? And you wouldn't hate it. I mean, yes, it's like any industry. There's parts of it that  are not,  that aren't pretty,  that are, that's hard.
36:28We make hard decisions every day. Like there's a cow that's not producing and isn't pregnant. What do you do?  Do you lose money? So, you know, that's the difference. You know, sometimes is people just don't see it as a business. They put their emotions in it. Well, I'm going to say something that's probably not very popular to my, well, to my listeners, probably fine, but to anybody else, probably not.  I feel like.
36:58people  are not very good at considering the other person's life and perspective. You know, the walk a mile in my shoes thing.  And I have been trying to do that for a very long time because I used to be  very sharp with my tongue when I was young and I used to not really understand that the world didn't revolve around me because teenagers are like that.  And after I had my daughter,
37:26when I was 20, my whole worldview changed. I wanted things to be good for her.  And I started doing, I read a lot before that, but I started reading a lot more things about other people and other  ways of living and really tried to pull in what I learned into my, my own paradigm of just because I do it this way, doesn't mean it can't be done successfully in a different way.  And so
37:57My big thing  is please just consider other people's viewpoints. You don't have to borrow them. You don't have to embrace them,  but at least consider them. Yep. That's all I really want because I feel like the world would be such a better place if maybe people had a little more patience and consideration. Yep. I agree with you 100%. I  always sound very Pollyanna-ish, like very idealistic with that, but  I don't think it's a big ask.
38:27I feel like every human being is capable of listening to someone's story, processing it and going, I've never done it that way, but huh, it worked. Yep.  Well, so like  I  feel very strongly going off from that. I feel very strongly that there's enough room for everybody. Yeah. Right.  I'm not competing with the person next door. Right.
38:54I am there to support the person next door.  if  we are both selling hamburger, I don't care  where you go, just go.  I tell people all the time  on my farm page, right? Hey, go here, go here.  Support this person, support this farm.  To be honest, I'm not in competition with anybody  and they shouldn't be in competition with me.
39:25It's a let's help everybody grow. There is enough business just like I am not one for  almond juice,  coconut juice. I personally find them so sugary.  I can't stand them. Right. So that's why I drink real milk.  know,  but I understand why more people why there's people that drink those. My best friend's allergic to milk. Yeah. She can't have any dairy. she's  like,
39:54I'm so sorry. like, why? It's not your fault. Right. It's like, even if you don't just don't like it and fine with it, but  you know, so  she doesn't bash me for it. She's like, well, you know, she just she supports the farm. But it's like, I don't know. I feel very strongly where  it doesn't matter what you want. Like.
40:20There's enough people in the world that we all can support each other. Yes, and we should. So I'm going end the podcast episode with that because we should all support each other. I think that that is a really good way to end it. Everybody  try to support each other. Try to be encouraging. Try to help  because it's so important.  Dawn, I really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much.  Thank you for having me. All right. You have a great day. You too.  Bye.
 
 

Valor + Harvest

Today I'm talking with Daniel at Valor + Harvest. You can follow on Facebook as well. 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Daniel at Valor and Harvest. Good afternoon, Daniel. How are you? Doing well. Thank you for having me.  Oh, absolutely. I live for you people to talk to me. This is what I...
00:27I spend my life doing lately, so thank you for being here.  So tell me about yourself. Well, actually first, tell me what the weather's like, where you are, where are you? So we are located  just north of Cincinnati, Ohio, behind Kings Island Amusement Park, if you're familiar with that.  Well, I'm not, but that's pretty cool. And what's the weather like there today? The weather is, we'll say mixed, so we have partly cloudy.
00:54and sunshine mix between the two. It's very windy out there, probably right above freezing.  Could be wrong. Ohio weather is very hit or miss this time of year. So  it was snowing last night. I think it's supposed to be  60 or something tomorrow. So it kind of gives you a  overview of what we have around here.  We're in that spring crazy weather pattern right now. Yeah. I'm in Minnesota, but I grew up in Maine.
01:22And my dad used to say, if you don't like the weather, wait a minute. And,  and Minnesota is like that too. And honestly, I think every state is like that.  So,  okay. So we've done the weather report from Ohio. Yeah. Ohio you said, and Minnesota this morning. tell me about yourself and what you guys do.  Yeah, absolutely. So we started Valor Plus Harvest back in October.  We are a bath and body company.
01:50We initially started with candles.  We have soap coming, also beard oils and other items.  So the very basics, that's what our company is.  We're a veteran owned small business. So I'm a Marine Corps veteran. I served in OIF 1 and 2, straight out of high school. What's unique about our company is first and foremost, our products are made with,  we try our hardest to get all locally sourced ingredients.
02:18and Made in America products. It's very hard, but that's what we're going for. And what's really interesting about our company in totality is the end of the day, we give back 10 % to veteran organizations. So I know you're not familiar with Cincinnati, Ohio, but we're very close to the  Disabled American Veterans Headquarters. That's our organization that we donated to last year. That's the  national headquarters for all disabled American veterans. you know,
02:48Not only do we create a good product and what we're striving for in our space,  we also like to give back and that's at very high level, that's our company.  Fan, I would use the F word, I-N, tastic, but I'm not going to do that because I don't do that on my podcast. My son was a, well, he says that once a Marine, always a Marine. So he's a Marine, but he hasn't been in service for a bit. He served for eight years actually.
03:17duty. Nice.  Thank you for his service.  Well, I don't know if I'm saying this right because I don't know a lot about how this works, but  he was  in the Marines for eight years. I don't know if active duty means like fighting with guns or it just means being in. Yeah,  same eight year contract for myself as well. So once a Marine, always a Marine. Still live by that motto, created really good work ethics and self-discipline. Yeah.
03:46I always joke that I started the process of growing him up and the Marines finished him. There you go. That's a very good way. I like that. Yeah. And he came back like a year after he  enlisted  to visit me specifically before the kids got home from school.  And we had a slightly rough parting of the ways  when he moved out  and he showed up at the door to the house that he grew up in.
04:14knocked and I was like you don't have to knock just come in to your house and sat down and first thing he said was I need you to listen and I need you not to say anything and I was like okay he said first off I'm sorry I said for what he said for being such a pain in your ass and I was like oh well that's that's okay I said I love you and he said I love you too and then we just kept talking
04:41It was the most beautiful moment of my life with that kid, swear to you. That's good. I'm glad you have that relationship. That's really important.  Yep. And I don't talk about it a lot because it's very,  it's very personal, but  I was scared to death that he would get killed when he enlisted.  And I, I'm not a praying girl, but I, I said a lot of messages to the universe saying, please keep them safe in that eight years.  And so.
05:08when he came out and he was okay. I was very grateful. Awesome. That's amazing. Yeah. Very tickled that he survived his eight year stint in a situation that could have gotten him maimed or killed. I was very happy to have him not in that situation anymore. So I don't want to keep talking about this. So you started this in October, you said? Correct. Yeah. October of 2024. So I mean, to give you some color about,
05:37background. I'm right around 20 years of in my career outside of the military. I have a bachelor's degree in finance, a master's degree in business. I've worked for some of the largest corporations,  global, national,  more so specifically in the financial services space. I spent some time in Washington, DC, working with the US Treasury. I do have a day job.  know, entrepreneurship is a big thing right now.
06:05And, you know, I think that I was steered like a lot of the early state millennials in my category. It was go to college or else.  And so I'm from that generation and I did comply with that. And it's not by any means a sense that I'm trying to bash college. I have a lot to show for my career, but there's something to be said about entrepreneurship and building your own brand.  And so that at its core foundation is also another
06:31very important part of Valor Plus Harvest and just everything that I'm going for. And it is a subset  of college. And I'll tell you,  we send our youth to college and we learn all of these great skills. And I feel that I've used  my more so my master's degree more in the last six months than I have over the last entire 15 plus years of my career.  it's been a really interesting process,  learning experience.
07:00You you're so used to going to a job interview and you know, they have a sentiment of the type candidate that they're looking for  And another thing that's so unique about entrepreneurship is there is no interview. It's you  You are the you are the CEO if you will  and so it's been very unique for me and it's a different road if you will  Now keep in mind, you know, it's very hard to replace a salary overnight,  but it's it's just something
07:29through this process that's been very, you know, it's all ownership, it's all you.  You have your support network and your friends and family, right, to your point of talking about your son. But what's really cool about this chapter and this company is it's just me, myself, my wife, and my family. And so that's what's been really neat for me  as a new entrepreneur over the last, we'll say, four or five months.  Yeah, have you had that moment of, oh my God, I did it, it worked?
07:58Yes, I will.  You know,  there's been a lot of milestones,  you know, classic Marine Corps  in me, just like your son, you know, we're trained to do  execute, get the job mission completed at all costs. Right.  And so usually at the end of the top of the hill, any type of mission objective or success milestones in the in the civilian career, you get this  sense of accomplishment. Right. And I'll never forget  right around.
08:27Actually, it was right on Halloween to be exact as I got my first order. And so I use  Shopify. I love Shopify for its integration.  It'll give an entrepreneur  get from A to B with very little startup costs. And I'll never forget that first feeling, that feeling that I had.  And it was so funny because the order, my first order was $52. And I said to myself, my goodness, this is the first time.
08:55in my entire life and I'm in my  early forties now that I ever just made money for myself,  for my own brand. And that feeling is something that I hope, you know, that, you know, no matter if there's other entrepreneurs that listen to this,  regardless of generation, I hope more people get to experience that because it is a sense of feeling of  self-pride. And, you know, you're taking all that school and all those things that society in America
09:23told you that you must do and you must have to  perform whatever job. And now you just kind of flipped out on its top and it's like, no, this is my route. And so it's been a  lot of fun so far this journey.  Yeah,  I do understand because  I have made things myself and sold them to people  and there was no middleman. It was just I made the thing, person bought the thing, I made money. It was amazing.
09:52But I have my first experience with me doing the job and getting paid for it back when I was 12.  my,  principal of my elementary school, if you can believe it,  wanted me to babysit her infant grandchild.  I was 12  and this was a baby, like maybe, maybe a month and a half old.  And she called my mom, she knew my mom. And she said, do you think that
10:22that Lynn, my nickname's Lynn, would want to babysit my grandbaby. And my mom was like, do you really think you want to have Lynn babysit your grandbaby? And my principal's name was Mrs. Mosley. I don't think she's with us anymore. I'm 55. I'm pretty sure she's not. And she said, well, yes, she's so responsible and she's so helpful and she's a good student, da da da. My mom said she's never babysat any kids except her younger sister and brother.
10:51Mrs. Mosley was like, all she has to do is come and be in the house for like four hours and the baby will be asleep. And if it cries, all she has to do is see if it's got a wet diaper and give it a bottle. I had never changed a diaper in my life. luckily this, this baby was perfect. Slept the whole time, never even cooed. And they came home and they paid me like $40. I was 12 years old.
11:21I was so excited. It started my babysitting career. Like I was never without pocket money from the time I was 12 until I graduated high school. Great. So I totally get what you're saying, but I was a lot younger than you are. So  it's really cool when something that you do, just you, gives you some form of satisfaction in that way. Yes. Yep.  So you said you're
11:49You have been doing candles, but you said soap is coming. Yes. Yeah. So another big important part is, you know,  the military connection. So both my wife and I travel a lot. We've been to a lot of countries  in our lifetime. And so,  you know, what's unique about our products is we try to make them with the least amount of gradients possible.  So I could go on a whole rabbit hole of what's in most of the candles that you get at the store.  So.
12:17Way too many things.  Way too many things. A  lot of,  you'd have to be a chemist to basically understand or maybe even pronounce in totality the word that's in there that makes the scent. So our candles are all Clean Scent certified.  We use organic products  sourced in America.
12:37But yes, we have soap coming, but it's the same song and dance from an ingredient standpoint. usually like to use an analogy for people of comparing it to a TV dinner instead of going to your local produce section in your local grocer. So our products would be from the produce section in comparison to the large cap companies that create TV dinners. If that gives you a good analogy of where we're going.
13:04We have soaps that are coming. They take six weeks to cure.  sure do. Yes, they do. We went through two months of trial.  We also have beard oil. So I have a couple of partnerships. have a very large selection of that.  There's already a couple on my store existing and a couple in the pipeline.  And then at the local level here, when we get doing some of our booths later this spring, we'll be selling locally.
13:34sourced honey. So it's not something that I'm going to have  ship nationally, but for my local booths, I will have that. So that kind of gives you the realm of my products, if you will, and where we're going. it's very, it's, you know, and back to the  travel piece that I mentioned. So last year we went to France  and I'll never forget the lotion that was in our hotel.
13:57And I looked at the ingredient, I'm like, my goodness, this smells so good. And I'm not usually big on hand lotion. I'm a guy, right? I'm considered a sitter. And I started saying, well, man, why does it smell so good? There's three ingredients on it. Right.  And so I started doing this compare and contrast. And so that was really last year was when I really started to see how a lot of products in this country, you know, I don't want to talk politics, but
14:23There's just not a lot of regulation, no matter if you're talking food or you're talking any other form of consumables. So,  you know, up the road here, we have an old  school that was  vacated, a lot of towns, and they repurposed it into a small business shop. And in there, you'll actually find a lot of similar companies that are similar to ours that all make locally sourced products.  There's a big market right now for
14:50detergents that you wash your clothing in.  You can go down a rabbit hole with that. So  every industry with time kind of ebbs and flows. And I think that, you know, from a consumer standpoint,  more so in the  millennial population and Gen Z, not to say baby boomers or not, but I really think people are paying attention to the sourcing of their products, the ingredients of their products.
15:16And kind of looking at that from a sustainability issue and saying, do I want all of this in my product? It smells really good, but is that right for me?  And so that's really where a lot of this is going when we started to create our business is we've seen the trend, we support the trend and we want to kind of be  produce a good product that's good  for consumers.  And so we've had
15:43pretty good success. actually been extremely surprised  even to be sitting here on a podcast in the month of March  with being started in October.  did an interview with the Jar Store, so we're going to be featured on our supplier of our American-made  vessels for our candle line.  And it's been a good experience this far.  Fun. I'm really glad that it has been.
16:09because sometimes you start a business and it seems like nothing but roadblocks and doorways shut in your face.  And I'm not, I'm not saying that happens to everybody,  but it can, and it can be really, really discouraging. Now I have a couple things to go back to here. I don't want to talk politics either, but anybody who's in America right now might want to really look at where they can get things  locally.
16:36Correct. Because of the terrorist situation. That's all I'm going say about that. Plus if you're shopping locally, you're supporting your neighbors and your community. So do that. It's good for everybody.  Yes.  Number two,  beard oil.  I don't like beard oil because I have really sensitive skin and if my husband has it on his beard, it makes my face get all red and blotchy.  Yeah. If he kisses me and I really like it when my husband kisses me. So he doesn't use beard oil.  But
17:05But if he needed to use some kind of beard oil, because for whatever reason,  one of the things that I have found is coconut oil is really good for beard oil.  Like the most basic beard oil ever, and I don't have any reaction to that. So that's all good. But I know that there are people who absolutely love beard oil because it smells good. Yes.  Yes.  And then the third thing I was going to say, because I was going to say at the beginning of the podcast episode, and I forgot to mention it,
17:35I have been doing a sort of every other episode update with our chickens that we just got four weekends ago this coming weekend.  They are just starting to lay.  My husband, my sorry, my son who still lives here brought in 10 eggs from 12 chickens this morning. Nice.  Yeah. So anyone who's been following along with the, many eggs did we get today? It's 10 out of 12 chickens today.  I am so excited. I cannot tell you.
18:04Nice. Yeah, that's a good thing to have. Right now it sure is. It's like gold. Yeah. Yeah. We've seen a lot of chickens too. That's one thing for international travel. you know, chickens are to any of your listeners,  sustainable source of protein  for multiple reasons.  They're a good thing to have.  I do. tell you on the downside, they, are a lot to clean up after sometimes. You also have to watch out for predators.  grew up in the outskirts of the big city. So.
18:32You got to watch out for the fox and the coyote  for Mr. Chicken, but they're really good to have.  And we're really lucky. The coyote is like our neighbor's property far more than ours because they have more animals than we do.  So when I hear the coyotes early in the morning,  they're always sounding like they're over by the neighbor's property, which is like half a mile from us.  And I'm like, I'm so sorry if they're losing critters, but at least they're over there and not over here.
19:02Yeah, it's something to pay attention to.  probably a matter of time.  Yeah. And our chickens get locked into their coop every night and  they have a chicken mansion. have one of those,  uh,  those sheds that you can get at like Home Depot or Lowe's. It's the  vinyl stuff.  And, and they actually have a lot of room right now. Cause we had, I think 30 chickens at one point that all went in there at night and now we only have 12.  So they have.
19:30They have more room than they can possibly use and they seem to be very happy. So we're,  we're tickled to have eggs again. had chickens until last fall and then we got rid of them because they were getting old and not giving us very many eggs and we screwed up because you're supposed to stagger the new chickens every two years. You're supposed to get new, chickens.  We didn't. So they were all the same age and my husband didn't want to feed them through the winter. And  he said, do you mind if I just call them? And I was like, no, that's fine. And then chicken.
19:58the eggs prices went up and I was like, God damn it.  So we now have new chickens and they're beautiful and they're producing and I'm so excited because  like I keep saying on the podcast, store-bought eggs are not great. I've actually said store-bought eggs suck.  So very excited, meant to mention at the beginning, didn't do it so I'm saying it now halfway through. Do you guys, where do you guys live? Do you live in a house or an apartment or on land or what? Yeah, we have a very big house.
20:28Yep.  And we're on a half acre. do live in a subdivision, but we have a lot of space.  There's three of us. So we have a pretty big house, a house that we're going to own for a long time. Very fortunate. So I think I mentioned at the start that we, you know, we've spent time in Washington, DC.  We both used to work there.  We backtracked here to  Southern Ohio and we wanted to start a family and just be not in the limelight 24 seven.
20:57I'm very, very fortunate.  But on the house front, I'll tell you, my first house was built in 1901. So  it's just that classic thing. Very similar to a car, if you will.  Think about back to your first car  and just kind of teeter totter with time in your life.  Yep, for sure.  And  do you mind if I mention the third person in your household?  No, no, absolutely. Yeah. So we're new parents.  baby, yeah.
21:27new baby. And you know what's funny is we've started this venture. I think that's a really good thing to bring up. So right before our baby was born is when all of the stars aligned for our business. Time management is very important. So I'm a basement dweller. I'm the type person, I'm not sure if you've heard of the analogy, but I know what your nine to five is, but what's your six to 10. And so
21:55To answer that, it's twofold. One is parenting and second is growing this business. And so I do it in the wee hours of the night, whenever the feeding's done. I've even came down here at 3 a.m.  just because I have a new idea for a new scent or product.  so we're currently in our basement  and we're scaling fast and it's been,  you know, it's been extremely hard. So I've been told no more times that I've been tied.
22:24told yes,  but each no is one step closer to a yes. And so that's kind of how I look at things from a business standpoint. And, you know, it's been a good journey this far and a long way to go.  Uh huh.  Yup. Exactly. And honestly, you're in the new high of having your first baby. So  that energy that you have is fake.  It's fake energy, but it works. Yeah.
22:52I mean, I look at it a sense of I have another excuse to get out of bed each day. And so, you know, I've been very driven from a career standpoint and, know, it's always, you know, you start from the ground up like most people I think do. And so it's nice to have another reason to get out of bed and be somebody in the United States right now. So it's a good source of motivation. I know it's challenging, but I've loved, it's kind of like the poke the bear analogy. Each day I'm like, yeah, you
23:22don't have an option to not get up now, you're getting up.  So it's been great. really am an advocate of parenting.  And where I was going into it initially, I  was not as excited as what I actually am and have been. So it's been great.  Uh-huh. have three. I have four children, three of my body.  One is a stepson, but he's the child of my heart. He's the one that was the Marine. Okay.
23:50When they put my daughter, my firstborn, in my arms in 1989, I  thought to myself, wow, 18 years is a damn long time.  And I was brand new. I had no idea what I was doing. I was 10 days past turning 20.  And my husband was older than I was and he already had a daughter. So he was a huge help at the time because he had already been through this thing.
24:18When the day she turned 18, I was like, oh my God, 18 is a blink of an eye. And it's so funny how your perspective changes. So what I'm going to tell you, even though you're near your 40s, or over or under 40, but what I'm going to tell you at 15 years older than you are is enjoy every single moment with that baby and then that toddler and that preschooler and then that elementary school kid and then that preteen and then the teen.
24:47And then the young adult, because you don't get them back. Yup. So, so soak it all up dad, cause, cause you gotta take it while you have it. Absolutely. Time is of the essence, right? Can't replace time. No, no. And take all the pictures you can, you can possibly store in your hard drive on your computer or in your phone and keep them. Absolutely. Because that little baby they put in my hands and in 1989 is now 35 years old.
25:15And she is a full-grown, fully-fledged, gorgeous woman. And  every time I see her, I'm like, how did this happen? Yeah. That's good. And I don't want to make podcasts into parenting advice because I get into this a few times every few months with people on the podcast, but  it's important. If you want to be fulfilled as a dad, you got to do the work and you got to be in it and you've got to...
25:43value every moment as far as I am concerned.  yep, absolutely. Just like a career, right? You get out what you put in. Yeah, absolutely. My youngest son still lives with us and I still, he does things and I just like make a bookmark in my head  of  this is one of those moments where it's new for him, which means that it's new for me to watch him do something new. And I just take like a snapshot in my brain so I can remember it.
26:14And he's 23. You know, would think I would be past this, but I'm not. He's still discovering new things, which is fantastic.  So anyway, how's your wife doing? Is the baby a girl or a boy?  A girl.  Yes, my wife is doing very well.  She started going back to work.  yeah, very blessed.  Looking forward to,  we haven't...
26:37gone on a... so my wife does a lot of travel. She's gearing up for her first back-to-work travel, which is going to be interesting, but I'll tell you what, FaceTime is a very big friend of ours in a lot of households, I think. I mean, I can't tell you how many times... back to the formula, I forgot what formula she wanted me to get and just pull up FaceTime in the store and there you go. But yeah.
27:04Everything has been really good in that, in that sense. know, back to Valor plus Harvest and everything, it's just gives us a new reason to get up each day and get out there and press it our goals.  Yeah,  absolutely. You have all the reason in the world to do that.  You were saying  back in the beginning, how awesome it is to be working for yourself.  Yeah.  The other thing that is involved in working for yourself is remembering that you are the face of your brand.
27:34You are it.  whenever somebody tells me they started a business, I usually very gently say, just remember that from now on, every interaction you have with another human being  is the impression they have of you, which means it's the impression they have of what you do, which means that if they talk about you, that you want it to be good. That's right.  And so I'm not being nearly as gentle with you because I don't have to be.  You are the brand.
28:01That's right. You are the brand. I think that from a responsibility standpoint, that is one another thing, you know, I don't want to bash corporate America. Like I said, it's been a good experience for me, but a lot of times, you know, we have so many filters to go through to get from A to B, rightfully so to protect the brand, right? You think of big corporations that there's filters there for a reason. you know, back to, think, what are we, what I talked about the early state, you know, I've always
28:30been in that realm of, know, there's a pass through, need to go, you know, to get to B, you have to unlock these codes and go through these approvals. And so  it's really been a wake up call. And I've used my degrees that I went to school for more so now than ever. And it's really something. I also do a lot of speaking.  I'll keep the organization  private, but I'm a part of a professional organization where I serve in the president's role. And one of the parts of our
29:00engagement is community outreach and also next generation training. So I talked to a lot of  college students and entrepreneurship is a big topic right now.  Brand equity is a big topic.  A  lot of parents that, excuse me, a lot of students that watch their parents dedicate 20 plus years to XYZ company  missed a lot of birthdays, things of that notion. You can't, back to what we talked about, you can't replace that time.
29:30And at the end of the road, come up short of the company or there's a mass layoff and their parent dedicated their entire life to this company. Right. So I guess that's another point I'm trying to stress about entrepreneurship and what's neat. It's like, yeah, we all can fail. But you really have more, I guess, opportunity from an entrepreneurial standpoint to, to pave the way for the next road.
29:57Where at the large cap companies don't necessarily have that option  You're absolutely right and I will tell you why I say that  My husband worked for a rather large company for almost 30 years  And he had had it back  two years ago  this month actually and he came home from work on Friday and he was very cranky and Saturday morning he got up and he was still very cranky
30:26And we were sitting outside on our porch and I said, um, what's up? He says, I need to quit my job. And I said, okay. I said, I've been saying that for five years. So are you actually going to, are you actually going to quit your job?  And he said, I think I am. I said, no, that's not good enough. I said, are you going to quit your job? And he said, yeah.  I said, okay, what's plan?  He said, we're going to make this place go now.
30:53This place is a tiny homestead, where we live, it's a three acre hobby farm basically. Nice.  And uh, we had a...
31:05We had a farm to market garden going. You know, that was what we've been doing. We had done a CSA for a couple of years. We had chickens  and  he was like, I can sell stuff at the farmer's market and we have, can sell eggs and we can make, we can make our soaps and our candles and our lip balms and stuff in more quantity and we sell those.  And I'm not going to lie. My first thought was that is not going to be enough money  and come to find out it wasn't. He actually got a job that.
31:36that same year in October,  but he took six or seven months to get his head straight and to take a mental break and do what he loved to do. Yeah. And it really helped him. So just because he's no longer just an entrepreneur  doesn't mean that it didn't help. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it's such a
32:01important topic, know, mental health, you know, when I first started my career, it was all about composite. And if you came to me and said that you're going to pay me $20,000 more to join your company, I wouldn't even before you could even tell me that I would already respond to you with a yes. throughout my career, I've learned that, you know, think shift. Money is not the only thing. Your purpose in life is also
32:29different as well. example, back to the DC analogy, I worked extremely hard, made a lot more money, but my quality of life was the worst it's ever been. actually am a pretty fit person, always been into the gym, athletic community. I started to acquire high blood pressure  and  gained weight. And it's like, is your XYZ salary worth what it's doing to you from a physical standpoint on your life?  And so it's so hard and it's,
32:58It's going to continue to be hard. don't want to sugar coat things because, you know, I could talk for hours about global competition, but it's true. It's like the playing field. Yeah. I was used to, I like to use the analogy of the Olympics.  The rest of the world is catching up.  Rightfully so. And so it's going to continue to be a constant challenge.  But you just really have to dig deep and, and then follow your North star and do what's right for you.
33:26But  it's very hard for a lot of people right now.  Yeah.  You have to want it. Whatever it is, whatever your it is, you have to really want it. Yeah.  And  do what it takes.  Yeah,  exactly.  And like with this podcast, this podcast started out as  a placeholder because my youngest was going to be moving out and I didn't want to go through empty nest syndrome without something to focus on. Yeah.
33:56And  I was like, yeah, I'll do a couple of episodes and see how it goes. And it probably won't do anything. And a year and a half later, it is the thing that I love  to do.  is my favorite thing  during the week to line up interviews and talk to people because there's people like you.  There's people who are coaches. There are people who are just growing food. There are people who are raising cattle.  It's never the same. It may fall under the same umbrella, but it's never the same conversation.  Awesome.
34:26So I kind of really love it. I want to keep doing it. So this is my it.  My husband's it is the growing plants and growing chickens and getting eggs. I'm not as into it as he is. I will cook any of that stuff, but he can grow it. It's all good.  So anyway, Daniel, I try to keep these to half an hour and I'm sure you have a baby you'd like to go snuggle. So I'm going to catch you loose. But thank you so much for your time today.
34:53Thank you so much for having me.  encourage people to check out valorharvest.com and be on the lookout for our future products.  And thank you for having me and you know where to find me if I can add value for you long-term, maybe follow up with me in a couple of years, see where I land.  Oh, I would love to do that.  All right. You have a great afternoon. You too. Bye.  Bye.
 

Tee’s Kitchen

Today I'm talking with Christi at Tee’s Kitchen.
If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee 
https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes
00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Christy at Tee's Kitchen in Louisiana. Good morning. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing well. Good. So what's the weather like in Louisiana this morning?  Oh, it's...
00:29Actually, it's raining. It's raining here, kind of humid, muggy, the typical Louisiana weather. Okay, well, it's like 35 degrees, I think, here in Minnesota and the sun is just pouring through the window. Oh, wow. I'm a little jealous. Yeah, so we're kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum, but that makes sense considering how far north I am and how far south you are.
00:56Okay, so did the obligatory weather report. This is a thing now. I do this on every episode  and tell me about yourself and what you do. Well, my name is Christy. I'm from South Louisiana, as far South as you can get. I'm married to my high school sweetheart  and we've been married for 20, 25 years.  And we have two, I'm a boy mom. We have two boys, an 18 year old  and a 10 year old.
01:24I'm an elementary teacher, so I currently teach third grade in the charter school system.  And I also have, I guess you could call it a business,  T's Kitchen,  which kind of started out as a,  I would bake from my home. slowly kind of got away from that lately because I've been so busy, but  now I mostly do, like as my side gig, I do social media. And so I do  cooking videos and.
01:52Sometimes I work with brands and so I enjoy that social media aspect of my life, which is more of a hobby, but sometimes I wish it would be my full-time job because I just love it so much.  Yeah, I'm discovering that  media content production is really fun. Who knew? It's so much fun.  Yeah, I mean, I'm not doing videos, but I'm definitely sharing my voice and other people's voices. And when I started it,
02:18I was really nervous and now I just sit down and like, hi, how the hell are you? Let's chat. Right. Me too. I was so nervous at first too. I wouldn't even show my face. Like I would just show my the food, you know, and then slowly I started showing myself and becoming more vulnerable and I feel like people really connect to that, you know. Well, I think your face is adorable. I watched a couple of your videos and you're really good at it. Well, thank you.  Yeah.  Okay.
02:45So we need to stretch this to half an hour about what you do. We're going to talk about your videos first. Your videos are really  good. Like  your diction when you talk, you are so clear, which is really helpful if there's actually like something you're trying to get across on how to do something. That's helpful.  And you're always smiling. Whether you want to be or not, you're always smiling. I think it's beautiful.  And some of your videos are funny, but
03:14a lot of them are just really interesting.  thanks. Wow, what a compliment.  you know, we're always  our own worst critic, you know, so  I don't sometimes it's funny to  see how other people's people, not people's other people perceive you, you know, so that's such a compliment. Thank you. You're welcome. And believe me,  I am always my worst critic.  I listened to the podcast back before I released them, obviously, to edit them.
03:42Some of them I'm like, I don't know about that one.  I'm not sure I want to put that one out.  And I wait, I wait like a couple of days and I sleep on it then I listen to it again.  I'm like, I don't know why I thought that was bad. It's fine. There's nothing wrong with that.  I know, I know. And sometimes, you know, whenever you think something is terrible, other people really connect to it. And I don't know if it's cause it's, you're a little more vulnerable. I don't know, but  some of the videos that I release and I'm like, the next day I'm thinking, Oh, I shouldn't have posted that.
04:11I get the most comments or the most private messages from people that were like, I'm so glad you shared that. I'm going through that too.  yeah.  Yeah. The episodes I  really get tweaked about when I'm doing this  is if somebody says something that makes me tear up and you can hear it in my voice, and I don't like hearing my voice like that.  Yeah. I'm like, that's a real reaction.  It's important that people realize that
04:41I'm human too, so. Right, right. Yeah. I've done my fair share of crying on social media.  I'm really glad that it's not video from mine because I have the worst ugly cry face you've ever seen. no, that's not going to ever be seen on a video on the internet if I can avoid it.  Okay. So are you in gumbo country? We are. We are.
05:10So where I am, I'm actually located in Vermillion Parish. We have parishes here.  And it's referred to as the most Cajun place on earth. So  and the food here is, I mean, everybody thinks of New Orleans and I love New Orleans. But when you think of Louisiana, you think of New Orleans and the food is just different here. It's  I think the food is much better here personally.  I don't know. That's just the.
05:38The people around here know how to cook and men and women equally that we,  they all cook, you know? Yeah. Is, is barbecue a big thing in Louisiana? Uh,  not,  I mean, we do barbecue. love it on Sun. Usually people will do it on Sundays, you know, when the weather's nice in the summertime,  um, not as much as we cook rice and gravy around here.  Um,  so yeah, barbecue.  I mean, people do it, but it's not.
06:08the most common thing here.  Okay. And I would say we do it, but we don't do it as well as other like Texas does it a little better, I think.  Okay, cool.  Um, you said, you said rice and gravy.  Um, my, one of my sons,  uh, came to visit like, I don't know, a year or so ago and he made sausage, gravy and biscuits. Ooh, yeah. And that's,  I hadn't ever really had it before.
06:36He put a metric ton of black pepper in it and I'm not a fan.  And so I really wanted to love it and I just couldn't get past the black pepper. And I ate like two bites and he was like, you don't like it. And I said, I think I do like it. I just think I would like it better if there wasn't as much black pepper in it.  And he was like, oh, that's eight years in the military for you. And I was like, yes, I'm sure you a lot of black pepper.  So like, I don't know, six months ago.
07:05I said, you know, I'd like to maybe try making my own sausage gravy and biscuits.  there's this sausage we get from a local store and I love it's breakfast sausage and it's really good. It's not peppery. It's not super sagey. It's just this really nice blend of seasonings.  Right. So we had a pound of that in freezer. was like, I'm going to try my hand at sausage gravy and biscuits. Yeah. That is my number one like favorite breakfast sausage. Yeah. I love that. like it. I like it for dinner.
07:35But anyway, made some and I used this this smokehouse maple seasoning in the gravy and some salt. And oh my God, I loved it. And my husband loved it. And the kid who still lives here loved it. And we just had that the other night for dinner. And I was like, I don't know why we don't have this more often. And then sweet and savory sounds good too, you know, love sweet and savory.
08:00And then after I ate dinner, I was sitting there on my phone doing something for the podcast and I was like, Oh, I know why we don't do this more often. Cause it's really heavy. Right. I was like once a month, every two months in the winter time. Awesome. And the summer, maybe not so much. So yeah, food is, I am so glad I'm talking with you this morning because food is such a gift and it's such a, it's such a thing that brings people together and everybody can relate to it.
08:30So when I saw your videos and what you do, was like, yeah, I to talk about food on Saturday morning. know. And that's why I think that's why I love to cook and I love to bake. And I think that's why. it does. It brings people together. I guess it's, and I always say this, like my husband and I laugh and we're like, food is our love language. It's how I show my love. Like that's instantly, if I want to make someone feel better, I cook for them. That's my way of showing I love them, you know?
08:59And  I've lost most of my family,  you know, now. And so  when I make their dishes or I make their recipe or certain things that I'll eat, it just takes me back and it reminds me of them. You know, so I think it does. It connects so many people together.  Yeah, absolutely. I actually told the story that is a representation of that for me  back months ago on the episode, but I will, I will shorten it and share it with you.  My mom's mom used to make.
09:27what she called Christmas candy every year. And she would make like peanut brittle and divinity and  buckeye candy and fudge and just stuff that she  would make. And she would send us like a 30 pound box of  Christmas candy  for Christmas.  And she had Alzheimer's or  whatever dementia, whatever they called it.  And she was no longer with us by the time I was,  oh,
09:5730? Might have been before I was 30. And I adored her. She was this little tiny lady and she loved everybody and she was a fantastic cook and she was fun. And she loved flowers, she loved peonies  and like she was just this sweet little lady.  And so  back about 15 years ago, I was like, I want to make grandma's candies and I want to send some to my  family for Christmas.
10:22Yeah, and I made grandma's candies. I didn't make all of them I didn't do peanut brittle because peanut burles kind of a pain in the butt Yeah, I didn't do divinity divinity is also a pain in the butt to me. did I did her little chocolate bonbon candies and I did Potato stick candy. I don't know if you know what that is. Yes Yeah, did that and some fudge and a couple other things and I sent my parents like a 40 pound box of candy
10:48and said, divide this up between you two and my sister and my brother and  your friends.  And they still had candy in the freezer  that following November.  Oh, wow.  But it was really, really neat using What a special thing.  Yeah. So I think that if you're raised in a family where someone in the family before you  makes a certain thing,
11:15It's really kind of fun and really kind of important to try making it. Yeah,  I agree. I agree because like I said, most of my family,  they were great cooks. Both of my grandmothers were amazing cooks.  My mom was a great cook. My dad didn't as  my dad worked, you know, away a lot.  So he didn't cook as much as my mom, but he had like the best fried chicken.  And to this day,  and that's
11:40kind of how T's Kitchen, like more the cooking side developed was because I wanted to preserve those memories. But, you know, once he passed away, it was kind of sudden and kind of traumatic. And I just, we realized like,  none of us actually watched him fry the chicken because I was inside helping my mom with the mashed potatoes or whatever.  And he was outside frying chicken and none of it, he never wrote his recipe down  and it just, we don't have it. And so I said, you know what, I'm gonna
12:09I'm going to video myself. I'm going to make sure like my husband and I have been loosely working on a family cookbook for a couple of years. And I'm like, I want my boys to have that. I want them to have those memories because, you know, I wish that I still had that.  still like my mom recently passed away  of dementia in October,  excuse me, September. And,  you know, there's things that  I'm like,  I wish I wish I knew how she made this or
12:39recipes that I can't find, you know,  because it's true. Like, and I guess that's why I love food and cooking so much. It involves all your senses, you know?  So it's like the most vivid memories revolve around food. So take, you know, once, when I have things that my mom made or my dad or my grandparents, it reminds me so much of them. So I want my boys to have those memories, you know? Yeah.
13:04Have you ever tried making something that you hadn't tried making before that really brought back memories and you're just standing there chopping vegetables crying? Oh, yeah  It happens to me often  especially recently, know, cuz cuz both my parents are gone, but Yeah,  so many things like and you know, I was scrolling through  Facebook yesterday or day before and  I was scrolling and I came across a
13:32I don't know you've ever had this, but it's like an apple salad. So it has apples, raisins, and maybe just mayonnaise, I think. my mom, I have not had that in, my mom used to make it when we were kids. And when I saw it, I'm like, I haven't had that in over almost 30 years. And it just instantly took me back, you know? And I'm like, okay, I have to make that. Yeah. I think it's called Waldorf salad. I Yeah. Okay. What I've had. But yeah, it has, and it has walnuts in it.
14:02Oh, okay. See, mom never put walnuts, probably because we didn't like nuts as kids.  And it was so good. And I guess the sweet and savory, I'm a big fan of sweet and savory, like I said, but  I was like, okay, I have to make that. But it instantly just took me back to my childhood.  Yeah. And you were saying you want to make sure that you have a family cookbook put together for your boys.  I've done that. I have actually made, I've done  the little binders with the pages and put the recipes in them.
14:30for my boys. I have a daughter, she's the oldest and I have three boys after her.  And my oldest boy  kept saying, kept calling or messaging or emailing and saying, how do you make this? How do you make that? Cause he remembers me making it.  And I finally was just like screw it. And I literally put together a binder with the recipes that I have and sent them, sent it to him for Christmas one year.  Oh, how nice.
14:56And he sort of kind of knew it was coming because I asked him what recipes he really liked from when he was growing up. And he got it and he called and he was like, thank you. Now I don't have to keep asking you all the time.  Like,  exactly. it's just, it's a, it's a really simple thing you can do for your kids. Yes. And they do appreciate it. Whether, whether they're like  really excited and
15:23Yay, thank you. This is amazing. Or if they're just like, thanks, you know, they appreciate it. Right. Yeah.  So, um,  I was at my mom's funeral and my, call them parent. It's my godfather. So my godfather, he's really shy and reserved. And he came sit next to me and he said, you know, I have some,  uh, he's probably trying to make me feel better. He said,  I have some recipes,  uh, from my mom, from my grandmother. And he said, would you like those?
15:52And I'm like,  of course, I mean, that's like gold to me. I'm like, yes. And he's like,  I need to get those to you. I'm going to get those to you. But I have a, think he said recipe cards or whatever, and I'm going to get those recipes to you.  We really still haven't connected to do it, but  I mean, it was like, okay,  instant, like my heart just burst, you know, like  that was his way of trying to comfort me. And he knew that  I loved food. And so I can't wait to get those recipes and, and start
16:21digging into that, which I'm kind of curious to get because my grandmother was actually legally blind.  someone else must have written those recipes for her. So I'm kind of anxious to get them and see what it's like, because most of the things that she cooked and are baked, she would just feel. would, know,  and she didn't measure really well. She used the coffee cup  to measure.  So it should be interesting.  so this brought up, I need to see about that.
16:49Yeah. when you,  if and when you get them,  make sure that you scan them and save them in your computer. Oh yeah. In case something happens, the actual hard copies, cause that would be terrible to lose those. Right. I know that's true. The other thing I was going to say for you and for the listeners is that  people don't live forever. We know this. So if you have, if you have things like  you want to know what your grandma's recipe for brownies is  or
17:19family history or any of that.  Ask now while they're still here. Yes, yes. I know. So on my dad's side of the family, his only living sibling is  he has a sister.  And I was telling my cousin the other day, said, you know, we really need to one day I sat down with her and we had coffee and I'll do we'll do that every now and then.  And she was just telling me all kind of information that I never knew about my my my family, you know, and
17:45I'm like, I need to go back though, because now I'm like, I'm 45. So my memory is not great. Um, and it's been a rough year for me. So I think that's having that's a little bit having to do with the memory loss, but I need to sit down with her. And she was like, of course I said, I'm going to bring a notebook and I'm going to write down all these facts because she just has, she's getting up in age though, and her health is not great. So I really need to do it soon, but, um, she is a wealth of information and she has a great memory. So.
18:15I I need to make it a point to sit and  write all that down because now I mean once  your family starts passing away, it's like I'm almost in a panic, you know,  I do know because my dad's mom passed away when he was two. He never knew his mom.  Oh,  and my grandpa was so madly in love  with my grandma that it just it just killed him that she died so young  and he never really talked about her.
18:44He just couldn't. And then he remarried.  And my mom, when my grandpa passed away, my mom went up and helped clean out his house and she found a box  of cards that had been sent to my dad's mom when my dad was a baby. And little notes about what a pretty baby Calvin was. Things like that. That were so precious to have.  So I do understand that
19:13you gotta ask the questions now. And we didn't have the opportunity to do that because  she was long gone by the time I was born.  But yeah, there's just, I mean, I have a whole extended family on that side of the family out there somewhere and I don't know how to get hold of any of them.  It's hard. It's really hard when you know there's that potential but there's just no way to make that connection. Right. Right.
19:41It's so important though, because that's, you memories are,  you know, you have to preserve those memories, especially, you know, as you now I appreciate things that, you know, at the time I thought were so insignificant. And now I just, I really, and I'll talk about this sometimes on, on my stories on  Instagram and Facebook,  like just little things will just, you think they were insignificant at the time, but it just triggers an instant memory, you know? Yeah.
20:09My youngest likes to make baked beans and my mom used to make Boston baked beans. And so when my youngest, who's 23 now, when he gets the beans out and he actually, he gets the bags of beans and he soaks the beans overnight and boils the beans to soften them and they make baked beans.  And when he makes it, he puts that molasses in there and all I can see is my mom  in her kitchen making Boston baked beans.  Right. Yes. It's like, dude.
20:39I'm so glad and so not glad that you like making these.  Exactly.  So, and the other thing that I really want to say is you guys cooking  is not as hard as you might think it is. No. And I feel like the first step  in cooking for anybody  is learning how to boil water because there are people who have burned a pan boiling water. Oh, wow.
21:07Yeah. Because they don't know. They don't know that they have to, you know,  watch for it to boil. Right. once it boils and you know, you know, sort of where that mark is,  you know, it takes about this many minutes for this big a pan.  And then you can move forward to like boiling eggs. So you have hard boiled eggs. And  the easiest way to make hard boiled eggs for me  is I put five eggs in a small saucepan and I cover them about an inch over the top of the eggs with water.
21:36And I bring that to a boil and then I let it boil for 10 minutes and then I shut it off. Oh yeah. That's how I do it. And if you can boil an egg to hard boiled for egg salad or deviled eggs or whatever, you have officially cooked something. Right. Right. So it's, not that hard. is, it is being able to follow directions, pay attention and then eat what you made. Yeah. And I think, you know, a lot of people are intimidated, but you just have to get started and
22:06you know, some of them,  when I receive compliments from people that say, oh, I didn't realize you make it look so easy. That's just like, that means the world to me because  I want people, I want it to look easy. want, I don't want people to be intimidated. You know, you nowadays, it's like, we have to, you have to learn how to cook for your family. You know,  um, it's, what brings people together. So you have to learn how to cook for your family. And  like you said, it doesn't have to be complicated. It can be so simple.  Um,
22:36But you just have to kind of take that first step, I guess, you know? Yes. And the most simple cooking is not any harder than reading the back of a microwave  dinner box that says, that says peel the plastic back,  put it in the microwave, set the timer for two minutes or whatever,  take it out, take the plastic off, put it back in for a minute. You have food.  If you can do that, you can cook. Right. Right.
23:03And I'm not trying to be snotty about this because I know that a lot of people just literally think they don't have time to cook. there are some people who may not have time to cook. They may have a full-time job that's 60 hours a week and have four kids at home who want to eat the minute you walk in the door. I get it. But you got to make time for yourself. And one of the most pleasurable things that I do for myself is cooking from scratch. Yeah, me too.
23:32I love it. And I think it's because it's  for me and I always say that it's  sort of like therapy for me. You know, when  I'm cooking, I'm not, you know, worried about anything else. It's kind of relaxing. I know it's not like that for everyone, but  it is for me. It's like therapy. Yeah. It puts you in this zone where you are focused on  one task. And when you're focused on one task, it's really hard to worry about other things. Yes.
23:59I love that part. really do. love the cooking zone.  Okay, so you're an elementary school teacher. Yes.  Yes. So do you talk about cooking and food with your students?  Not so much. I don't, um, some of my kids, like they'll note it, they'll, they'll figure out, I guess that I'm on social media, but I don't really advertise it. You know, I don't say too much about it.
24:24But  that is  something that I would like to somehow figure out how to incorporate more of. Like every now and then for years I've done, like for Mardi Gras, we'll do homemade  king cakes and I use, know, Pillsbury,  just the cinnamon rolls out of the can and I show them how to make a king cake and we've done that.
24:44You know, little things like that. Last year, I was, they asked me to be on the local news and I did like a cooking segment. And so I had to miss school for that. And when I came back, I guess the other teachers were talking about it and the kids were just like,  Ms. Christy, show us, you know, show us the videos. And so I did show them  those, but, and they were so excited to see their teacher on TV, you know? But I really, I don't, kind of, I've been, I've kept that.
25:10part of my life a little more private, you know,  but I do want to figure out a way to kind of incorporate more of that into the classroom if I can. Because it is an important skill and I don't think, you know, don't think nowadays I don't think they teach enough life skills at school.  They do not.  I guarantee you they do not. I I know that we don't, we just don't, you know.  Yeah, it would be nice if they did, but they don't.  So you were on TV. How was that for you? It was
25:39It was amazing and it was live TV. So I was very nervous at first, but  the host was just so he was great. so I just did, I'm trying to think of what it was. Oh, it was Valentine's Day treats for mom. was like a mother's day special. And so I had to come, you know, and I would sort of prepare the food.  I mean, it was quick things. They didn't have a kitchen. So I would just kind of show it was showing kids how to make little treats for their mom for Valentine's Day.
26:08And was so much fun. That sounds like a ball.  I would have  been nervous as a long-tailed cat in room full of rocking chairs. I hate being on camera.  But yeah, that does sound like a lot of fun. And you are so bubbly and so personable. I'm sure that it came across really great.  Well, thank you.  OK. Well, what's on the horizon for your cooking stuff in your  social media?
26:38Content creation thing you got going on.  Oh gosh, I don't know, you know  I'm just I'm at a point like I said, I've kind of  I wasn't as consistent this year just because of the hard year we had  with social media,  but I'm kind of in a good place where I'm just  I guess I'm a little bit more vulnerable and  Just being more authentic on social media. That's kind of my thing. Like I'm not one to
27:05follow the trends and that's probably why I don't grow as fast as other people. just not,  don't want to force anything. So if it's something that I'm not comfortable with, I don't really do it.  So I just kind of go off of, and most of the stuff that I film, it's truly what we're having for dinner. Like I film what we are cooking. And so it's not, don't plan content, I don't do any of that.  But  I would like to expand it.
27:33My goal, one of my goals is to teach a cooking class, whether it be online  or in person. I'd really love to do a kids cooking class. And I've been talking about this for a year and I just have not been able to make it happen because of location and all of that. So that is probably one of my goals that I really want to work on is starting that, like  doing some kind of cooking class.  Um, and I really would like to, you know, collaborate with more local Cajun.
28:01brands or businesses. love promoting local businesses.  there's actually  it hasn't been announced and we haven't really figured out all the details, but I do have  a collaboration and working opportunity with a new local business  that kind of like encompasses all of what Cajun food is all about. So I'm excited and I really hope that it pans out.  So I have that going on and  I don't know. just
28:29I'm just kind of, I've been praying about it and you know, cause I was stuck for the longest time and I've just been praying and saying, you know, just I trust in you and show me what I need to do. What is your purpose for me? know?  yeah. Okay. So I, I try to keep these to half an hour, but you just gave me another question to ask you.  Um, so I know very little about Cajun cooking. I, I know about, um,
28:56uh, Cajun blackened chicken and I'm not a fan, but that's because I've had it in Northern States. Who knows how it is when it's cooked the way it's supposed to be cooked.  So what makes Cajun food Cajun food? Is it a specific set of seasonings? What, what makes it Cajun?  Well, most Cajun dishes we, do have our own, um, they have cayenne pepper bits.  Most people think that Cajun food is spicy and I would say it's really not.  It's just got such a good.
29:25I don't know. It's got a good, it has a little bit of a spice, but it's, it's a great flavor. Um,  so I think first and foremost, if it's Cajun, it's gotta have the Cajun seasoning, which is usually like salt, cayenne. We don't use a ton of black pepper, but some, some Cajun seasonings do have it. Garlic. cook with a lot of garlic  and most dishes start with onions, bell pepper, celery, and people call it the Cajun Trinity. know? Miraflour, yes.
29:54So  it starts with that, but Cajun food is,  I would describe it as more country. Like people in this area were just poor and they lived off the land. know, like  my family, like my boys hunt, like we, hunt and they fish and it's, you know, we have a lot of seafood and you  know, we boil seafood, we boil crawfish, we boil crabs.  Like I said, most around here, everybody cooks rice and gravy.
30:24And that's basically like Cajun people would take their tough cuts of meat. They would brown it and they would throw in onions, bell pepper, celery, you know, or what really whatever they would have in their garden is what it would, they would use.  And you just braise it. You cook it low and slow for a long time and they serve it over rice because in this area, rice is a major crop and we have tons of rice farmers.  um, you know, it was a cheap way to just, okay, whatever cut of meat they had or seafood or whatever.
30:54you would just cook it in a gravy and it stretches the meal and it really, you you can just kind of cook it while you're cleaning or doing whatever, let it just cook on low  and serve it over rice and it stretches the meal and it just feeds a lot of people.  So I would say Cajun food is just humble country. We eat a lot of rice, a lot of seafood just because we have it available, a lot of wild game. We even eat alligator like.
31:21Just whatever is available. Like in my freezer currently, it's, I don't normally buy a whole lot of meat from the store, maybe chicken,  sometimes pork, but it's mostly a lot of wild game and a lot of seafood is what we have.  Very nice. I'm so jealous. spice is just, oh, it's amazing. Like there is nothing like it. And if it's done well, it's, you know,  it's really, really good.
31:46I'm so jealous of the seafood. grew up in Maine. I could eat seafood whenever I wanted to and I didn't like it. And now I'm an adult.  I like it, but I can't get my hands on good seafood in Minnesota. Gee, I wonder know, we're so spoiled. We're spoiled. And now I see people eating like  the imitation crab meat and I'm thinking,  don't get it. Like, why would you eat that when you have crabs available?  but. Because it's the same thing as people who eat Miracle Whip versus people who eat real mayo.
32:16Right. Yeah. think it's the same thing, but it is not the same thing. It's not.  It's not. And I guess we're spoiled. We're so spoiled because we're used to having crabs. I mean, we went and we caught crabs a couple of weekends ago and we had that. That's what we had. And it's like, most people would be so jealous of that. know. Me? Yes, me. I would be jealous of that. I am jealous of that.  So is gumbo like...
32:43I haven't really had it. it's kind of like a stew over rice. you serve it over rice, but it's a little thinner  than a stew. So  it starts off with a roux, you just, but you brown the roux really, really dark. Okay. And then you add the onions, bell pepper, celery, and then  you add enough water and your meat. Like around here, we do different, like everybody thinks that
33:11um you need okra and gumbo. Around here it's a little bit different. So we'll have a chicken and sausage gumbo or we'll have a shrimp and okra gumbo or we'll have a seafood gumbo.  You know sometimes we have okra in it sometimes we don't.  So yeah it's like the same flavor of a stew but it's a little more watery I would say. Okay.  And you just serve it with rice and then we always have potato salad with it.
33:39Oh man, you just got me. love potato salad. too. Summer's coming. Potato salad is our thing in the summer. So I'm looking forward to that first. Yeah. Brat and burger and potato salad and fresh cucumber from our garden. That'll happen in I know. I can't wait for the fresh vegetables.  Oh, I can't wait. My husband usually... I have a brown thumb.
34:02But I love when  he's got the green thumb and his garden is always amazing and I cannot wait for those fresh cucumbers and tomatoes.  Me either. I got four months to go, ma'am.  Oh my God.  Yeah, tomato. Good tomatoes in Minnesota in the wintertime.  Real hard to find.  I would think so, yeah.  Yeah. Yeah, there's a company I keep mentioning them and I need to let them know I keep mentioning them.
34:30But  they have  hot house tomatoes that they grow here in Minnesota in the big greenhouses.  And usually hot house tomatoes are not great.  These tomatoes are fantastic. They actually taste  almost like the ones we pull out of our garden in July and August. And I love this place. And so if I'm going to do like a bruschetta thing  with the basil and the,  can't talk,  the olive oil, balsamic vinegar,
34:59tomato, garlic, basil leaves,  and  mozzarella chopped up in it  on toast.  I'm going to get tomatoes from that company from the store because they are the best ones.  yeah, you definitely need to mention them.  Like you said, let them know you mentioned them.  Wow. Yeah, I talk about them a lot because they're the only game in town for a decent tomato in Minnesota right now.  All right, Kristy.
35:25Thank you so much for your time today. I pushed it to 35 minutes.  I'm okay with that though.  Thank you. you again. This was so much fun. I'm so, I'm so honored that you invited me. This was so much fun. I'm so glad you had time to chat with me.  You have a great weekend. Thank you. Same to you. All right. Bye. Bye.
 

Country Roads Farm

Today I'm talking with Danielle at Country Roads Farm. You can follow on Facebook as well.
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00:00After listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Danielle  at  Country Roads Farm. That's it. Good morning, Danielle. How are you? Good morning. How are you, Mary? I'm good. I've got a really goopy voice.
00:26Right now, I don't know why, hopefully it'll clear itself up as we keep talking. It's that weather. Yeah. We got some real weather last night. We were supposed to get six to seven inches of snow, supposedly, but we live in the plains area of Minnesota. So the wind just blew and blew and blew and there's maybe an inch and a half on the ground out there. But the wind was really, really bad.  I mean, I had the fan on in my room and I could still hear the trees creaking outside. was like,  oh.
00:5550 mile barwind. No, have in, we are in the thumb of Michigan  and it's been a winter. It's been a long time since Michigan has had a good winter. I don't want to say hard. It hasn't,  but it's been a good solid winter and honestly we need it. But this week is finally  40s and today is almost 50 and it's  definitely given spring fever.
01:25You're having the week that we had  last week. Last week was gorgeous here.
01:32Yeah, we're supposed to have snow.  Oh,  I saw it in the forecast. I want to say it's in a couple of days.  you  know, lovely,  lovely Michigan.  Well, it is spring in a Northern tier state. You just never know what you're going to get to quote Forrest Gump. You just never know. Right. All right. So tell me about yourself and what you guys do. So.
01:56We have country roads farms, which is  last year was our first year being open for business.  And we are  a an agro tourism farm, I guess is the best description of it.  We have a petting farm  and  we offer you picks.  We do workshops,  all sorts of fun stuff. We're open from May to December.
02:26fun. And for anyone who doesn't know what agritourism is,  it basically is a farm-ish place that offers entertainment through people going and experiencing the activities on the farm.  Right? Yeah. So it's absolutely what it is. Okay. Good.  Yeah. I was looking at your Facebook page. Your place looks like so much fun. I want to go.
02:55It's definitely a lot of fun and we kind of,  oh,  so what started out originally  as  the idea for a Christmas tree farm quickly involved into being more of a multi-seasonal.  And more so it was, know,  financially it was driven just  by not putting all of your eggs in one basket.
03:22Christmas trees are a little bit of a risky business in that they take seven to 10 years to grow. during that time, you have to hope and pray that they make it, know, blights, know, drought, too much rain, you name it, everything in between doesn't wipe out your tree lots. So.
03:47So yeah, we decided to just kind of open it up and  then we were given the advice  of  several other farmers about  agritourism and  looking for ways to invite the public to your farm and kind of capitalizing on that. And we absolutely love that aspect of our farm. So I'm really glad that you do. I'm guessing you're not shy.  No, I'm not shy. I'm.
04:14I'm a mom of four kids and we're all outgoing and kinda, there's not much that holds us back, that's for sure. We're a spirited group. I love that. Spirited is such a great word. So you diversified your business is what you're telling me. What did you add in?
04:38We open in May with Mother's Day flowers  and  flats of vegetables.  And I'm sorry if you can hear that. That's my dog scratching at the door. I kicked him out so they wouldn't bark. are so many dog noises on every episode of my podcast. It's totally fine.  So, but we, well, that's good. So I'm not the only one,  but  no, so we have  the flowers and the plants and that kind of, and then we do hard dip ice cream.
05:09in the petting farm. So all that opens up in May. And then come June, we start transitioning into cut flowers  and dupix.  And then as that goes, the vegetables start coming in. So then we start getting the produce for the farm market.  And then that transitions into fall with the mums and pumpkins.
05:34Apples, we are licensed to press their own cider. So we do that and do cider slushies  and fresh donuts.  And then we transition into Christmas  with the pre-cut Christmas trees, wreaths,  porch pots.  And in between all of this, we're doing field trips.  We do...
06:00workshops and different classes and events  and farm to table events.  We also do fundraisers. So there's a lot that goes on on  any given day, week, month. So. Wow.  I don't, I don't want to know what your whiteboard looks like.  It's, it's insane. We were actually, it's absolutely insane. I was looking at getting one of those digital calendars, wall calendars.
06:28And maybe that'll help. I don't even know. Oh, and then we have, you know, the animals and the chickens and the eggs and all that stuff. So. Yeah, you're a busy lady. Holy cow. Or holy chicken, whatever. Right.  It takes the whole family.  My husband  is amazing. So he's a huge, you know, he he's I couldn't do it without him. So.
06:55Yeah, I've got one of those too. He could probably do it without me, but I couldn't do it without him. Yeah, that's about it.  Okay, so two things. One's about dogs.  My dog has  been behaving herself admirably lately. She has not really barked in the background lately when I'm recording. And  I'm very proud of her because her job is a watchdog.  So on the days where she doesn't bark when I'm recording, I go downstairs and I pet her and I love on her and I'm like, thank you for not barking, Maggie. I appreciate it.
07:24And then the ice cream thing. Do you guys make the ice cream from scratch?  No. So we have, we just use all Michigan brands and,  uh, and that's what we offer in our farm market. So, you know, it's a kind of a, you know, we're staying local and that we stay with the Michigan brands.  I can't do that.  I don't have enough time in the day to  make my own ice cream.  So.
07:50I was just curious because I have had the experience of making ice cream from scratch with the old fashioned bucket that you turn the handle on  and it takes a while and I have never used a modern day ice cream maker, but I'm guessing they're small. So that probably wouldn't help you. Yeah, we have, we actually have two,  two of them. One attaches to my KitchenAid and then we have just a regular plugin one I think my kids got for Christmas one year. And we love, we used to make it all the time and the kids were little, the homemade ice cream, but.
08:20You know, we haven't made it since  adding it to the farm market. Now you just go and grab, grab some when you want some.  Uh huh. Exactly. It's handy and it's already made. It is. I find I skip a lot of meals and you know, just kind of go quick, grab some ice cream. It's probably terrible to say, but.  Well, milk is good for you. We'll go with that. Yeah. Well, I like the triple peanut butter. So I figure it's got the protein in it. So we're good. It's dairy, it's protein.
08:50It's a frozen protein shake. It's good for you. Yep. That's what I go with. Yeah. I'm going to ride that train all the way to the end. That'll work.  Okay. So what do you have for animals?  So we have  mini,  they're all minis because of the putting farm, but we have the Shetland ponies.
09:13Fainting silky goats.  And then we have Highland cows and we bred those to a miniature breed.  So this summer we're excited to be able to have the little mini cows.  And then we have  maybe 50  chickens.  And we're getting ready to add meat birds.
09:40to the mix and do meat, birds and turkeys for this fall, well summer and fall.  Awesome. Awesome. That's great. And are you,  are you doing the meat, chickens and stuff for yourself or are you going to sell some of them too? Both. Yeah. Both. So obviously we're going to keep some back, but we're also going to  sell it through the farm market as well. So. Well, you have yourself a really fine enterprise going there.
10:10Danielle.  You know, sometimes I feel like I bit off way more than I can chew. then  it comes, it's always the pre-work that's stressful.  And then it starts coming together  and then it's not so bad.  But I feel like this time, which should be the slow time, I feel like is almost the busiest time, because you're hustling, trying to get all of, you know, like all my seeds and I'm starting to get all those going.
10:40and trying to keep the lisianthus alive.  you know, there's just so much going  behind the scenes that I feel like once everything's planted and going, I can breathe easy. And, you know, then it's a matter of paying employees to help upkeep it. It's not solely on me. Yeah. Is January your month to maybe have a little breathing room? Yeah. So  this year we closed
11:09about a week, a week and a half before Christmas.  Um, and then we all kind of, my husband and I just kind of plopped for two straight days on the couch  and, uh, and you know, and from, from then on, we just kind of relaxed for a good six weeks. Good.  Um, but yeah, ended January, you know, it all kind of starts up other than the Lizzy Anthus. Those got started early, but, um, other than that.
11:39There was a lot of pre work to be done, a lot of pre planning, figuring out what I want to grow, getting those ordered,  all of that. Now, and now I'm, you know, sewing every day. We're sewing stuff.  Yep. Your kind of business is the kind of business that if you don't force yourself to take a break, you will burn out and you've only been doing this for a year, right? Yeah. Yeah. There, there definitely has been,  um, last year being our first year open,
12:09Um, I want to say it was kind of the learning year  and there was definitely some burnout that we had to address very quickly. And I find like with my husband, I, when we both start getting burnt out is when you start arguing and squabbling over things that normally wouldn't,  you know, you're sure you're just stressed out, you're tired.  Um, and so we had to, cut back in our hours for the farm market. We, you know,
12:37Um, we, we've just learned that you just can't be working non-stop 24 seven. We hired employees because at first we thought we could do it all ourselves.  Um, that's just not feasible.  Uh, so. Is, know, it's just kind of learning and then, you know, learning to  let things go because not everything's always going to be perfect. So you just gotta let things go sometimes and, and let it work itself out. Cause it will.  Absolutely.
13:06Perfectness is silly.  I've said this before, I'm going to say it again. It's okay to shoot for perfect, to have that be the goal, but sometimes good enough is good enough.  You know, I learned last year that everybody was thrilled with good enough.  They were thrilled. I mean, it was our first year, right? was nowhere we're still building and still growing and still expanding and
13:36And I felt like last year, the best I could do was good enough.  um, and  everybody was thrilled. And so I think it kind of taught me that I need to lower my expectation and my bar just a little bit. It's okay.  And,  uh, you know, as long as my plants are growing and I have crops to deliver and, know, the animals are taken care of, I mean, it's a good day. So.
14:06Yeah, what you thought was good enough, everybody else thought was just perfect.  Right. I think part of it, this type  A personality of mine, like, you know, it should be like this beautiful, pristine Martha Stewart type of farm. And that's just not reality. That is not a, and we are a working farm that, you know, we try our hardest to keep it beautiful  and to make it an experience. But
14:33There are times when, you know, it's going to be a muddy mess because it's a farm  and, you know,  there's going to be dead plants and there's going to be weeds, you know, and it is what it is.  Yep. And when people come and see those baby cows this summer, they're not going to care about weeds. They're going to care about the baby cows.  Yes, they are. I know my, was joking.  Well, not really joking, but my husband and kids and I were all talking about it and they said, you know,
15:03We could probably have like a little goat, like a goat channel. These people probably watch these fainting goats and all their shenanigans. You should. Probably all of those little animals, they're quite, quite humor, especially like the pony, because they're all together. The ponies and the goats and the, even the chickens will run in to the main, you know, pasture and.
15:30They,  it's funny because they all kind of play with each other and it's very humorous to watch it  happen. Yeah, you should, you should do that. You should set up a YouTube channel. And if you don't already have one.  No, I don't. It's only spare time. should  find some teenager who wants to play and let them set it up and let them set up the cameras. And I guarantee you, you will have more subscribers than you can even guess at in a month and a half to watch the goat.
16:00and the cows and the baby cows and whatever else. Chickens too, probably. Yeah, they do. And they all kind of play and  it's quite funny, especially the one male pony Ben likes to play with the goats and chase them and kind of get them going. And then they'll pass out,  over  and faint, guess I should say, and fall over. And he'll just kind look at them like, what just happened? This was not the plan. You're not running.
16:30And, but it really is funny cause he'll kind of chase them and he gets a little, he gets a little spirited, especially being winter and kind of cooped up. So. Yeah. Yep. He's going to be really happy here in about three weeks when it's not so yucky out anymore. Yeah, definitely.  Well, you sound like you absolutely adore what you're doing. I do. I love it. It's been a dream of ours for a long time.
16:59We, oh gosh, how long goes it out? About 10 years ago, I wanted to start a Christmas tree farm. And at the time we were kind of, so we flipped houses ever since the crash and we lived in it for two years and it literally was right on that two year mark. So you didn't get capital gains tax, but right on that two year mark, we would.
17:23list the house and move on and buy a new one and renovate. And these were always, you know, farms. So we've always had a hobby farm of one sort or another, but this one particular property would have been a beautiful tree farm.  And my husband being an engineer  is a very black and white spreadsheet kind of guy. I,  created a whole Excel spreadsheet color coordinated, created the cost analysis so we could kind of sit through it and
17:49He looked at it and that's a great plan. said, yeah, this would be a perfect retirement.  And, and shortly after that, our son had,  was diagnosed with cancer  and it just kind of put everything on hold and you know, and it stayed on in the back burner for years.  And you know, he's, he's perfectly fine now. It was  two years  of chemo and crazy and scary and lots of prayers and
18:18You know, now he's  an 18 year old strapping young man that thinks he's, you know, invisible to everything. Like your typical 18 year old.  Um, but last two years ago,  we, um, we had just built a house on a lake.  It was, you know, it was in the woods,  um, on a lake  and, it was our dream house. And, uh, very quickly we started realizing that.
18:46We are not Lake people. the first time where we didn't have a farm or were in more of agricultural  area.  And it just wasn't us. And so we sold it and bought the farmhouse that we're in now and started our dream 10 years later. Which just goes to show that you can make a choice and if you're not happy with it, you can change your mind. It's okay.
19:13You absolutely can. know, it was, was one of those.  It was so, I mean, it was a beautiful, it was a dream house. We built our dream house, what we thought we would want.  Um, and we planned on staying there forever. Cause you know,  we were flipping houses and up until that point, we, know, we decided this is it. We're done. It's time to put in roots. We have moved our kids so many times that,  and this whole time we stayed it within the same school district, but.
19:42Every two years our kids were in a new house  and it was time  to stop and to be done and just to settle. And so we built it and  I looked at, we had the discussion, said, we can, the housing market was insane.  We could sell it now as a new build and sell it very quickly or we can wait till the kids are all graduated  and hope and pray that the values are still there, the housing market's still there.
20:12And, and, you know, and obviously we decided just to kind of rip the bandaid off  and, we were, you know, I think a lot of it was pride. We just built this house and there was a lot of opinions on how, you know, our crazy, our craziness, our indecisiveness, I guess you could call it.  But we knew that we weren't going to be there long-term. It just, we are not  relaxed,  sit down, lay back and stare at the lake kind of people.
20:42So it's great for vacation, but it's just not us. So. Yeah. Yeah. And it's great that you knew that, you know, I mean,  so many people think, Oh, I want to move to Italy and remodel a villa and, and eat tomatoes and basil all day long. And then they, go do something like that. And they're like,  I hate this. I want to go do something else, but they're so, they're so caught up in that, that I don't know that choice that they can't step.
21:11out of it. So I think it's great that you just knew that that was not going to be where you'd be happy. So I want go back to the Christmas tree thing. does your place already have Christmas trees growing? So we, last year, we planted our first set of trees. So we planted 3000 Christmas trees.
21:34And then we have another 3,000 on order for this year. So every year our plan is to plant 3,000 tree blocks essentially.  we have them, they're not ready to be cut yet, which is why  we  do pre-order trees for the Christmas season. Right now, yeah. For now. For now.  For now. So we're hoping the trees will be done
22:04So we spent a little more money, got a little bit of bigger trees  and invested in what's called,  oh gosh, it's either L-POTS or L-E-POTS, it's E-L-L-E.  And basically these trees,  their roots have never been disturbed throughout their lifetime. They stay in these biodegradable pots and they continuously just get potted up.
22:31And so you have to hand plant all of them in.  but their roots at these trees just have taken off and done amazing. It was worth every penny  of our investment on these trees. But,  um, so we're hoping in five to six years,  uh, we'll be able to start offering, uh, our own trees. So I have five, six years to grow our farms by the time we're ready to open for that Christmas season.
23:01I want our place well established and well known. So I my work cut out for me. I feel like that's a hefty goal, but we'll get there.  are incredibly smart about this. I'm really impressed because most people don't understand that you got to have the people who know, trust and like you to come and visit you and spend their money in your establishment, you know?  Right.
23:30You're building your farm. You're making it as pretty as you can so that it's attractive for people to come. You are growing your animals for your petting zoo. Obviously they're going to keep growing. people are finding out about you every year. And so when you do have your own trees, people are going to be like, oh my God, they're finally ready. they're going to walk through.
23:55That's the goal, you know, then one last year, a big pivot, one I never saw coming, never saw it coming. It kind of took me by surprise and I decided to roll with it. But in our area, so we're in, you know, the thumb of Michigan, it's very rural, very...
24:20Uh, I don't want to say poor, but it, you know, it is  a lot of rural America areas,  um, have a much lower, you know, um, income ratio than,  and so,  um, but we were finding a lot of people coming to the farm still buying our produce, but wishing that we could accept,  um, EBT snap benefits and WIC and, know, senior fresh and all that stuff.
24:50And so  last August, I started looking into it.  And so I'm excited. So this year moving forward,  we'll be accepting  the SNAP and WIC benefits  and hopefully the Senior Project Fresh and the  various benefits that you can get for it. So I believe last year is the first year that they opened it up to
25:18actual farm stands to be able to accept those benefits.  That's amazing. I'm so glad you did that.  My question on that is how hard was it to to make that happen? Was it a lot of paperwork or was it just filling out a couple forms? No, it's  it's taken months and I'm still working on my approvals.
25:40I started in August and I'm still going. And it's funny because I just did a webinar for MSU Extension about my journey. I told her, said, I am not doing a how-to because there is no rule book or instruction manual on how to do this. And WIC is state-based.
26:07where SNAP is, you know, through the USDA, and they don't work with each other. The  Senior  Project Fresh is something different, and there's all different things in between. The Double Up Food Bucks, they all work  not with each other. So you're having  all these separate, different approval processes that you're going through, simultaneously. Well, I'm glad that you were
26:37dealing with the hassle to make this happen because that's really important. So  it's a need in our community. And I think,  um, it's a much needed, you know, that it's tough to get good produce that,  um,  is,  know, we, are not certified organic, but I do grow them organically, um, due to the Christmas trees, we will never be certified organic because, um,
27:06Honestly, I refuse to go organic with them.  takes, you know, seven, 10 years to grow them and I  won't risk, you know, them getting wiped out from, you know,  from bugs or, you know, blight or you name it.  And so I do spray my trees and I'll always spray them because to me it's not worth the risk. But  the flowers and the vegetables, you know, I grow very much organically.
27:35And to be able to explain it and them, you know, them coming that, you know, the customers that come and buy the produce, they love that it's healthy. They know how it was grown. If they want, they can go do the you pigs and pick their own if that's what they want to do. So it's a fun experience. And it's it really like we grow here. We grow.  I tend to grow at both like not at both things, but I like the colored carrots.
28:04And you know, like  there was a family that came in, we had purple green beans and the kids had never seen it. And they were begging their mom for these purple green beans. And she kind of laughed. goes, I don't think they've ever eaten a green bean in their life.  But the fact that it was purple, you know, made it fun. And the kids were excited to go home and eat these purple beans. So I think it's different and it's fun. And you know that you're getting
28:31the healthiest, freshest produce possible that you just don't get from a grocery store. Yeah. You heard it here first folks, colored, different colored green beans and carrots are the way to get your kids to want to eat vegetables.  It really is something. It's just different.  And I think when they're invested in it from the very get-go, when they pick it out and then they're going to help cook it.
28:53And you're just instilling these values at a young age that hopefully carry on for future generations.  So. Yeah. And I mean,  people are bringing their kids to your place. Your place is an event.  It's a memory that's being made with the kids and their parents.  It is definitely an event. There's not many, you know, markets, grocery stores, whatever you want to call it that you're going to come.
29:21and pick out some produce,  know, get an ice cream, the goats, jump on the jumping pad, maybe do a barrel train ride. You're not going to get that at any other grocery store.  No,  no.  And the thing is  what you are providing is a place for families to make really good memories because  they can, they can have the memories in their heads, but I'm sure that everybody has a cell phone with a camera. the picture's being taken  and
29:50you are encouraging these kids to know where their food comes from. Yep. I see nothing wrong with any of this at all, Danielle. I think it's fabulous. is.  It's definitely been a fun journey and I can't wait to see what this grows into. And  I was asked not too long ago about the long-term goals and I said, you know, I'm building a legacy for my children.
30:19I want this farm to continue on with the children and I want them to grow it into something maybe I never even dreamed of, you know, and  I'm setting these foundations for the future and we'll see. It's been a lot of fun and I think our, you know, our kids are young, but you know, they get fed up with the hard work like  any farm kid does,  but they also see the value.
30:48in it. So which I think is important stuff. I love it.  I'm so glad that I asked you to be on the show. This has been so much fun, Danielle. I was worried because I think it's a little bit different because we're not a homestead. I we've done homesteading in years past.  We've done lots of that, but we're not a homesteader. But I definitely think, you know, a lot of homesteaders  aspire to some of this. So
31:18Yeah. And I just changed the intro  on the  podcast episodes  and now it says and topics adjacent. Oh, there you go. You are a topic adjacent. Yes.  So my  newest thing was, so I do what's called companion planting for all my vegetables. And that's how I've been able to organically grow them for years.
31:44Um, but last year was my first time with the massive, it's not rowcraft, but it's a lot bigger than a garden. And so, but I did my traditional rows and, uh, this in, we're kind of running out of space, so I can't expand it any bigger. Um, and I would like to try to bring it in a little bit smaller to help it be more manageable. So what I'm playing with this year, which I've never done before, um, there's a few terms, so it's called intercropping.
32:13or inter planting. Another word is called relay,  relay planting or relay cropping. So essentially you're having multiple crops growing in the same rows or the same containers at the same time with different harvest dates to save on space and to, you know,  to quadruple what you could normally grow in normal rows or a normal garden.
32:42Nice.  it's been to me, it's a little stressful because I've never done it on such a big scale.  So  I'm hoping I'm going in a prayer that's going to work out. So  I think there's a lot of praying going on right now on a lot of fronts regarding gardening this year. Everybody I talked to last year had something go wrong  or they just didn't get a whole lot out of their garden because the weather was so weird almost everywhere. So
33:11So I'm going to say a little prayer for you. can say a little prayer for me  and  maybe everything will at least be decent this year in the gardening front. How's that?  Yeah, I will say I think this year is going to be a normal year, like a normal spring with normal timing. Last year, everything was at least a month early.  Everything. It was crazy.
33:35Um, I had roses blooming in May, like early May. I've never had that. That's insane.  Um, you know, and typically we've always been zone five and for whatever reason, I was looking at it last year and we're now zone six. I don't know when that happened, but,  uh, I don't know if I quite trust it, but,  um, it's just, I don't know. The last year was definitely a really odd year, but I think.
34:04I've been watching all my plants and my perennials and everything still, you know, sleeping how they should be. Last year, my roses never lost their leaves. And we're in Michigan, up in the thump. Yep. It was just a bizarre year. Yeah. My son sliced his thumb open or his finger or something. can't remember in October and he needed stitches. So I ran him up to the hospital. He's an adult. So he just went in and had them give him stitches for the cut.
34:34And I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for him and the lilac bushes that were over on the edge of the parking lot  were blooming in October. I was like, is just wrong.  Yes.  I heard that  a couple of friends of mine said that their lilacs had bloomed. mean, it wasn't like your normal spring flush.  said,  yeah, they had had, cause we didn't have any in the spring  because it was such a, we had such a
35:01It wasn't even, I wouldn't even call it a winter. The ground never even froze last year. But I wanna say, I think there was just a late frost that kinda wiped out the blooms or the buds, but they did. They bloomed in the fall, which is crazy. I don't think I've ever seen that happen. Never heard of that happening. I've seen it once in my lifetime. I'm 55, so if that tells you anything. I've seen it once before.
35:30The one thing that was really cool is it was very pretty. You know, it was, it was nice to see color because October is not a time when you're seeing flowers. it was kind of, was kind of special to see it. You know, I will say that and lilacs I think are one of those triggering flowers because they have such a potent smell. I think there's a lot of memories and a lot of good feelings that are tied to lilacs. So I think any time they're blooming, they're appreciated.
35:59I think those are one of those flowers that are just,  they're a well loved flower, but I've never met someone that says, hate lilacs.  So my sister actually sneezes if she smells them. So  she's not a fan, but she also thinks they're really pretty. So they are pretty.  All right, Danielle, I need to get off  the computer here because I have stuff I got to get done and I try to keep these to half an hour. So
36:26I'm gonna let you go, but thank you so much for your time. appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you. And it was great talking with you. You too. Have a great day. You too. Bye. Bye.
 

Skylight Farm

Today I'm talking with Meg at Skylight Farm. You can follow on Facebook as well.
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00:00After listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Meg at Skylight Farm in Wisconsin. Good afternoon, Meg. How are you? Hi, I'm good. Good. I was just telling Meg before I hit record, the weather here in Minnesota right now is
00:29Going from it to gross It was over 40 degrees this morning and now it's 33 degrees It's raining and I expected to shift to snow any minute. So we're kind of excited. They had said two to five inches They're now saying six to seven inches overnight
00:47Wow, that's a lot. I think we will probably get dumped on here at least one more time this year, but I definitely would rather the frozen ground and the snow right now over the rain and the mud. Yes, me too, because we have a dog and I have a husband and an adult son who live here. And mud is always on my kitchen floor right now. For sure. Yep. This past week, it's been like May, you know, it's been like May mud.
01:14and dirt and leaves from the lawn or the, we don't have a lawn from the yard. And it's been kind of messy and that's great because it means strings on its way, but it's kind of bad when you got to sweep it all up. Yeah. So Meg, I always talk about the weather at the beginning of the podcast, just to give people an idea of what's going on. And it's a record of what was going on at the time. And so tell me about yourself and tell me what you do at Skylight Farm.
01:42We do a few things here at Skylight Farm. Originally, initially, I've been a full-time horse trainer since 2012, and we purchased the farm here in Wisconsin for boarding and training of dressage horses in 2019. Yeah. And, you know, since we've had this beautiful, wonderful place, things have...
02:07evolved a little bit and we do a little bit more of the farmsteading homesteading sort of stuff in conjunction with what we do with the horses. So we have like, I think we have 25 raised beds, we have some really beautiful soft root that we, that's come to, it's come to be, you know, a really adult producing.
02:33thing now. We have really beautiful raspberries and currants and soft fruit. And just, you know, kind of try to do everything that we do here with partnership with nature and more surrounded by nature preserve here and in the southern kettle marine. And it's just, it's beautiful here. It's like our little paradise.
02:54Everybody says that about their places if they're a homestead or a farm. I can't tell you how many times I've heard my little piece of heaven or paradise or whatever. And I love it. I really, really do. So you're the first person that has mentioned dressage horses in over a year and a half of doing interviews and podcast episodes. Um, so do you, do you offer training or how does that work?
03:19Yeah, I have been a full-time dressage trainer since I started my business and left pharmaceutical sales in 2012. So I offer board really top quality, top, top quality care, really comprehensive care board training lessons. And we actually are capable here and do a fair amount of what we call rehabilitative boards.
03:49horses that come in here that have had major surgeries or major injuries and are able to help them rehab in that difficult time of their lives and provide that kind of care that they they need oftentimes it's intensive with bandage changing and hand walking and medications and you know some some pretty intensive requirements for those horses, but I have a wonderful team here and I'm
04:15I'm really grateful that we can offer those services because it's actually really hard to find.
04:21Okay, cool. I want to talk about this for a minute because I love horses. I don't have any. I wasn't a horse girl growing up, but I think that they're gorgeous. And dressage is to me, every time I hear dressage, I think dancing horses, but I don't think that's right. Yeah, that's absolutely right. It's like a dance together. When it's done well, it's really beautiful. And it's all about the partnership.
04:48So how old are the horses when people start training them for this? Well, that's a good question, actually. So my philosophy on that is from day one. And I kind of specialize in starting young horses, actually. So we don't obviously ride them as babies, but all of their interactions with people and learning how to trust people and learning how to interact with people on the ground.
05:18All of that happens every day, even when they're very, very young, and that sets them up for success in all of their training later on. We generally take our young horses between three and four years old and get them started under saddle. It's a really methodical kind of slow process for us because we really want it to be about that trust and partnership. Some horses hit the ground running a little faster and others just take a little bit more time.
05:48Okay. Cool. I'm like, my whole brain is spinning now because I didn't know you did this. I didn't see anything on your Facebook page about it. And I was like, oh, okay. So my biggest question about the training the horses once you're riding them for Drusso is how many times have you hit the ground because the horse misunderstood a signal? Well, let's see. I have hit the ground.
06:17Thankfully only a few times in my long career with horses actually, but I think that's probably a testament to How methodical we are in the training? Of course it is one of those things when you work with horses for a living that it it's not an if it's a if It's going to yeah But I think a lot of times it's more
06:43So let's see, the last time I fell off or ended on the ground, it was totally a miscommunication. The horse spooked at something that was totally valid and then tripped at the same time. And he went right and I went left and we both got up and looked at each other and had no idea what happened. So, you know, for the most part, safety is really, really important to us here at the farm and we do everything we can to keep everybody safe. But inevitably, once in a while, things go.
07:13a little bit haywire when you're working with animals. Yeah, and the reason I phrased it the way I did is because horses are really smart. And if you know the horse and the horse knows you, the only time that something, I feel like the only time something really goes wrong is if there's a miscommunication or if the horse gets pooped like you were saying. Horses, once they know you, they're like
07:42Usually, right? Yes, very, very much. They're really connected and it's, I don't know, it's just a very cool thing with horses. I could geek out and go down the rabbit hole with that all day long, but they are, they really want to be connected with people. And I think the better listeners we can be, the better we have a chance to communicate with them. And, you know, other times there are things that once in a while go unnoticed that we'll
08:10you know, will result in a not so good situation with the horse. And sometimes it's pain related. And of course, we of course, we do our very, very best to keep our team of, you know, vets and body workers and everybody involved. But like, for example, I, I got dumped a couple of years ago by a mare that had she must have done something out in the field. And this was a tried and true steady eddy.
08:36super, super kind horse and she ended up doing something that she pinched a nerve in her back. And it was just, it was a pain situation. And once we were able to work the kinks out of that, there was, it was never an issue again. But, um, you know, most of the time they're, they're pretty darn wonderful. Yeah. I, I've said this before, but I'm gonna say it again. Had I had access to horses when I was 10,
09:04I absolutely would have been a horse girl. I would have been begging my parents for horse riding lessons and being at the stable to help groom and take care of them. I would have been obsessed. It's a damn good thing I did not have access to horses because my parents would have disowned me. Yeah. Well, it's definitely, it's up there with things like sailing and other very, very expensive sports. It is definitely.
09:33It's definitely an investment, but if you ask me, it's worth it. Oh, absolutely. But my, my parents were not wealthy and that's okay. And, uh, we wouldn't have been able to afford how deep I would have wanted to go down that rabbit hole with horses when I was 10, if I could have. So it's a good thing. It's all right. I'm good with it. I think horses are just so breathtakingly beautiful.
09:58And I'm not around them very often. So I'm like sitting back being a spectator of what other people do with their horses. And I'm all good with that. So with you saying that it is an expensive thing to get into, I have a question about kids and horses and dress up. How old would you recommend a child be before they get involved in it? Well, I mean, it's probably.
10:25probably similar to my answer with the baby horses. Like I think it's great for kids to be around horses very young as long as everything is kept, safety in mind of course. But I find that when I have kids that are actually starting to take lessons, that like body stability and awareness and a little bit of tension span.
10:52I'm finding that a lot younger than like five or six is a little bit challenging. I mean, it's super fun to pop a little one up on top of a horse and hang out with them there for a few minutes while they get that experience and they have that joy and all of that fun. But really instruction and lessons and that kind of thing, I think it's a little bit challenging to do when they're a little less than five or six years old. It's just our attention
11:22get the most out of it. Yeah. And I was thinking probably kindergarten age would be a good place to start. Yeah, about that. And then the last question I have about this, because I do want to get on to your homesteading stuff, is are there specific horse breeds that are good for dressage or is it just a horse-by-horse thing? Well, it's definitely something that I think almost every horse can benefit.
11:49from dressage training. I mean, it's all about helping the horse find the best version of themselves. It's helping them maintain and find balance. It's helping them find confidence and posture and suppleness. And what we find is that all of our horses, even as they get into their golden years, I have 18, 19, 20, 21-year-old horses here that are still competing at the highest level of the sport. And
12:19on a national level. And they're, in their late teens, the best version of themselves, where I think the downside of some other horse disciplines at times, I think, can degrade the horse's body and mind and spirit, where I think the goal of classical dressage is to build all of that up. So that being said, any breed really can benefit from it. What we have here is mainly
12:46We have mainly warm bloods and I also import Iberian horses from Portugal. So those would be Lusitanos mostly. What else do we have here? We have a strafe region or two, but mostly warm bloods and Lusitanos. Okay. I don't know what a warm blood horse is. There's different types of warm bloods, like the German warm bloods and Dutch warm bloods is mostly what we have. So.
13:14Those are like their sport horse bred horses. You can have sport horse warm bloods that are bred specifically for jumping too. But ours are generally more dressage purpose bred warm bloods. So German and Dutch warm bloods. Okay. Awesome. Thank you for entertaining me with my questions. I have what I call got to know itis and when somebody brings up something I know just a little bit about, I'm like, what's that? Tell me about it.
13:44So if you are, if you have interest. Um, so the, the farm here, I, we have the, the farm is actually owned under Skylight farm, um, but my dressage training business is called dressage solutions, LLC, and I've been operating that since 2012 and, um, I have a, I have a separate Facebook page for that. Okay. Um, do me a favor and message me that later when we're done and then I can put it in the show notes too, for anybody who wants to get hold of you about.
14:14maybe being involved in dressage training. Cool. Because I bet there's some people in Wisconsin who would love to learn. It's very fun. Yeah. All right, so tell me about the other stuff at the farm. Oh, you know, I think we just, we love to be, again, connected with nature. And I find that the, I've been bitten by the gardening bug since probably before I was born. And my dad's side of the family,
14:42We're real farmer farmers here in Wisconsin, and my dad's the youngest of nine. And my mom is also my mom is the youngest of 14, I think 12 or 14. I'm horrible that I don't know that specifically. I should from Western Pennsylvania. And they were farmers to my mom's also a master gardener. So I just I've kind of been surrounded by it and have
15:13Just been connected with it since very, very young. You were immersed in it. Yes, totally. Uh-huh, cool. Just, it's so connecting to be in the garden and digging in the dirt and connecting with nature and seeing how things evolve on a daily and a seasonal basis, it's really beautiful.
15:36It is and I'm telling you, I am so happy that spring is coming. I mean, I'm looking out my window right now. You'd never know spring was coming. But it's March, ma'am. It's coming. I'm so excited to be outside. I'm so excited. I have everything ready. I got the grow lights ready last night and everything is ready to start our first batch of seeds and it feels like we've been delivered from yet another northern winter.
16:03You know, we get to the actual calendar date for the first day of spring, not the meteorological first day of spring, which was March 1st. And that morning, my husband gets up and gets his coffee. And it's usually the 20th or the 21st. He gets his coffee, and I wait, and I wait till he's got his first couple sips of coffee in him, and I say, we made it through another winter, honey. And he just asks me, now we've been together for like 20 something years. And he's like, it must be.
16:32spraying equinox and I'm like, yes, it is. And he just laughed. He's just like, honey, you know, it's going to come every year. And I'm like, well, there's no guarantee we're going to make it through another winter. And he's like, Oh God, here we go. He said, you're going to be higher than a kite for, for about a month and a half on all this stuff is showing you the leaves are going to, the trees are going to have leaves again, and then you're going to be even higher when we have seedlings to put in the garden.
17:01And then you hit high summer and you're gonna be like, I hate high summer. Yes, I know that feeling. So my birthday is on the 20th of May and like growing up mostly in Wisconsin, I've lived in other places too actually, but you know, kind of having my roots here in Wisconsin, like that time period, the late May, around Memorial Day, my birthday, early June, that's when like, I feel like for me, that's the most.
17:29heightened energy time of the entire year and we're just starting to ramp up to that now so I'm definitely feeling it. Yep. It's so funny because I love spring. Like April and May are my favorite months, warm months. I love fall. Oh my God, I love fall. October, November. Yes, I do too. Favorites again. Everything else, I could just skip. It would be fine. And you said that you have everything ready to go to plant seeds.
17:59It's pretty. My husband beat you by two and a half weeks. I'm glad. That's wonderful. He started planting seeds two weekends ago, three weekends ago. We have inch and a half tall pepper seedlings right now on our table. And we have little basil seedlings coming up and we have romaine and we have tomatoes coming up. And I...
18:26I've said this before, I feel like I repeat myself all the time on stuff I share with you guys, but I lose my kitchen table for eight weeks in the spring because that's where the grow lights go. And we have a hardsided greenhouse now that went up last May, but it's still too cold to start seeds in it right now. So my husband got stuff ready three, two, three weekends ago to plant. And I said, it's only February.
18:55He's like, yeah, but in eight weeks, it will be warm enough to take him out to the greenhouse. And I was like, yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. That's fine. Yes. Yes. Yes. I've always been curious to try. I do not have a greenhouse here, but that's on my bucket list for sure. One of my gardening gurus that I follow, he, um, he starts a little warmer climate than what we have here, but he starts a lot of his seedlings and hotbed in his greenhouse in early spring. And I've always been curious about.
19:23of about trying that method. And so if I ever am able to have a greenhouse in my life, then that will definitely be on the list. Well, are you talking about like a high tunnel style greenhouse? Are you talking about a hard sided greenhouse? He has a hard sided greenhouse and he does a like a four by four square raised hotbeds. So he uses like, it's
19:50He uses fresh horseman orange straw and as it's composting hot for like the first two months of it composting, it creates a really warm environment and he starts a lot of his seedlings right on that. Yeah, my husband put a couple raised beds in that greenhouse. Oh cool. I don't know, a month or so ago. He as soon as that greenhouse went up, I knew I was going to lose him. I knew he was going to be out there all the time. That's great though.
20:19He went out a couple months ago and built the boxes and put the compost in and a little bit of just dirt dirt on top. And he planted radishes. And he's been waiting for these radishes to pop. And he sent me pictures two days ago of the baby radishes starting to come up. And literally capital letters in the text, radishes and three exclamation points. I was like...
20:44Oh my God, you're still a frustrated farmer. You should have been a farmer, not a gardener. But it's great. It's so fun and everything is looking good for this spring. And that's probably why I was talking so fast a minute ago, because we're so excited. Last year was awful here with the rain or the week and our gardens were so sad. Like the production level was terrible.
21:14So we've been hanging in and planning and wishing and hoping that this year will be better and it's starting to look like maybe it'll be okay. Well, that's great. That's great. I'm hopeful here too. Last year, I decided that I was going to start gardening season on time and be ahead of the schedule and be really organized.
21:39I was super on the ball, I think all of February, March, April, May, planting. Everything went in like without a hitch. And then we had, so at least another 30 acres to the south of us here, and we make hay. Our first crop hay was the most disastrous hay crop I've ever had in my life. And after what we lovingly refer to as haypocalypse that was late June, I never was able to catch up. So.
22:07It was still a really successful growing season, but I felt like I was playing catch up from June on until the very end. Yes. One of the things I have really learned from this podcast and from doing our farm to market garden in the last four years is that this lifestyle will give you the highest highs and the lowest lows and you don't know when they're going to hit.
22:33Yep. And I think you just have to give yourself some grace sometimes too and know that you just got to roll with those things. And you know, if a few things just don't get done, they just don't get done and the world isn't going to end. And if you have to feed a few things to the chickens, it's not the worst thing in the world. So I've tried to remember that this last year. Yeah. And the chickens very much appreciate it. So you're doing a good thing for them too. Yes, they do.
23:03It's, I don't know, there's so many things that people do when they're in this lifestyle. Like you do hay and you have, you, you trained your massage horses and you rehabbed with massage horses. I never would have thought of that as a part of homesteading or having land or whatever. I don't know why I should have. And I talked to a lady the other day and she has taken her years and years of experience from ranching.
23:33doing articles and she's doing public speaking. Sure. And part of the reason I love the podcast so much is because everybody is so creative and ingenious with their skillsets. It's so fun to know that just because you live on acreage, it doesn't mean that you're out there with a trowel and a shovel digging in the dirt. There are other things that you can do. Excuse me, yeah, and I think.
24:02I think everybody that lives, excuse me, this lifestyle has such diverse backgrounds, such diverse stories. I feel like a lot of our hearts are in the same place or similar place, but just kind of understanding how everybody got to where they are is always really fascinating to me. I love to hear people's stories.
24:29Yes, me too. That's why I chose this to talk about. I love it. I mean, I don't want to spend the next 10 minutes telling you how much I love doing this, but I really do. It has been such a gift to listen to people's stories and how they got to where they are and what they're doing currently and then what their future plans are. Because one lady had like 18 future plans. And
24:58And I'll probably maybe get some of those done. Yeah, sure. Well, it's really fun to dream big, that's for sure. Yeah, and if you have 18 ideas, if you even get five of them in place and they work, you're doing great. Yes. So on that note, what's your future look like at your place? Well, I'm actively, I have building plans and permit, building permit.
25:26to add on to our existing barn. So that will help us to maximize a little bit more hay storage space and just do things in general just more efficiently and all of those things. So not in not adding more horses to the mix, but adding just being able to help my team be more efficient and make life easier and just provide yet even a better higher level of service.
25:54So the barn addition, I'm hoping that we're going to be able to do that here this year. Things are looking really positive for that. And beyond that, there's, I have a big dream to hopefully I can purchase the property here to the south of me that's really, really stunning, beautiful, cuttle marine land. It's surrounded by nature preserve like we are here on all three sides.
26:23And I would love to kind of restore that. That's a little bit of what my dad does, things like that too. He was the president of a big environmental restoration company for years and a mining engineer by trade. And so again, just really, really connected with that nature piece. And I'd love to, the ag land has been really, it's been really abused. It's been really...
26:52know, over-tilled, over- herbicided, over- is herbicided a word? I'm not sure if it is. You just made it a word, yes. It is now. So, you know, the ag land has been really, I don't know, abused and I'd love to restore that and help plant some prairie. And this area down here was once a really special bur oak savanna, like so prairie bur oak savanna.
27:19And I'd love to restore some of the woods and there's some spring-fed wetland back there and just, you know, kind of bring things back to the natural glory that it was once. So, I, that's my, that's one of my big dreams, but. I love that. That's awesome. It's beautiful down here. Okay. I forgot one question about your horses and I want to end the podcast on this because it actually might be relevant. Do you breed any of your horses?
27:49Currently, no. I have one breeding stallion here. I should have mentioned it earlier and I didn't think of it. I'm not sure why it didn't come to mind at the time, but I have a very special breed of horse here that has very, very long-standing classical roots in dressage and that's called the Lipizan. I have two breeding stallions here.
28:17that one of them I own, he is not breeding. I was really lucky and blessed to have him come into my life when one of the largest breeders of the lipozons in the world here in Chicago closed last year. So his name is Batoasta. We call him lovingly Toast. He's a big goofball. So Toast is here. And then we have a really beautiful young breeding stallion that's owned by the
28:48previous managers of Temple Farms. And he is actively breeding. And we'll see where that goes. It's a very small breed. It's really tight-knit bloodlines. He is very unique in his genetics.
29:11we don't have any mares here that are having foals, but we do have some stallions that we stand here, if that's a clearer answer. Yep. Okay. And that breed, the Lipizan, is that Italian, German, it's from somewhere, right? Yeah, they came from a few places in the world now, but I think what most people would associate with the breed would be the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria. Okay. The dancing white horses.
29:41Okay. Yeah. I was first, I was thinking Italian and I was like, no, that can't be right. And then I was like, I bet it's a Slavic country. I bet it's Germany or Austria or all those. Yeah. There's quite a few of them in Hungary now too. Okay. Cool. Thank you for that because I know just enough to trip over my own feet about this stuff. All right. I try to keep these to half an hour and we're almost there. Like five seconds left. So Meg.
30:10Thank you for entertaining me and my questions because I know I can be a bit much when I'm like, what's that? But thank you for your time, I appreciate it. Yeah, of course, thank you for the call, it was really fun. All right, you have a great evening. Talk to you soon. Yep, bye. Bye.