A Tiny Homestead

Spring Hill Tree Farm - Oh! Christmas tree...

Today I'm talking with Dan at Spring Hill Tree Farm. You can follow on Facebook as well.
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00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 Dan at Spring Hill Tree Farm. Good morning, Dan. How are things in Georgia today? Good morning. Things are good, sunny, clear skies, and I just got done working in the strawberry field a few minutes ago.
00:30Nice. It is incredibly overcast and sprinkling here in Minnesota this morning. For the third day in a row. So strawberries, is that for next year? You're getting them ready for next year? Yeah. So in South Georgia, you grow, you plant strawberries in October, and then they fruit usually in March after that last frost, about 30 days after the last frost.
01:00Okay, cool. So tell me about yourself and what you guys do. Yeah, so I am a third generation specialty farmer, if you will. We do what you what you call agritourism. So we're here on Spring Hill Farm in Bainbridge, Georgia. And we've been doing agritourism for about 40 years now. Agritourism, simply put, is
01:29Really, I mean you can take the two words right so agriculture and tourism and sort of blend them together and It's anything that you can do on your farm whether it's an event or maybe like a you pick scenario Trail rides something of that sort right to get people to come out and enjoy your property and You know usually charge some some small fee for them to come and do that Okay, so you've been doing it for 40 years I know that
01:59Agritourism has been a thing, like a buzzword for the last few years, but it's always been a thing. I mean, I'm 55 and I remember my parents taking me to farms where they were like, let's go on a hayride and pick apples or let's go see cows or whatever it was that they were doing. So you're an OG, you're an OG agritourism dude. Yeah. It's funny because, you know, my dad and I, so I'm...
02:29I'm 28, I'm the younger person on the farm that's sort of starting to take over things a little bit more. My dad's been doing this for a long time. And I remember he and I would go on trips to Atlanta because we're in South Georgia. And a few years ago, man, it was longer than that, 10 years ago or so maybe, we were driving down Highway 27. And we saw this sign that says, you know, Georgia's first agritourism farm on the left.
02:57We're thinking, well, what's agritourism? That sounds like what we're doing. And we started to learn more about it and we said, well, they're not the first. And we don't, we don't claim that we're the first, but, but it is growing in the, in, it is a buzzword and I think it's the second largest or second fastest growing business in Georgia and has been for some, for some time.
03:22Yes, and I am a huge proponent for agritourism because so many people have never set foot on a farm. And I think that they thought that they couldn't like, call and ask if they come visit. So I love that people are opening up their properties to people to come see what they do. Yeah, that's, that's what my grandfather would have wanted when he bought the property. He, he worked his whole life, was in the military and
03:52sort of came across the US, started in Oklahoma, went to Texas, went to Atlanta, then came here and always wanted to buy some property with the end goal of being able to share it with people. And what's really cool about this property is he came down here and searched and searched and searched for some property and everything down here is flat, you know, peanut fields, corn fields.
04:19And he just wasn't interested in flat land. He had seen enough of that in Oklahoma and wanted to see more trees. And they found this property. We're on the highest elevation in Decatur County is where we're at. And we are 321 feet above sea level, which is not a crazy amount, but for here it is. And we're on what's called Curry Hill. So it's this ridge that runs through.
04:49um this area and it just it has you know springs on the farm creeks on the farm valleys um really beautiful property and i think when he and my dad found this place they kind of looked at each other like hey you know don't say anything let's let's go ahead and get this deal done um so and so 40 i think we got it they got it in 1982 and the next year uh my grandfather had
05:18you know, so many hundred Christmas trees and he and my dad were going to do that. And unfortunately my grandfather passed away before they, before they arrived. And so my dad just kind of had this, uh, you know, I guess he had a decision to make and when the Christmas trees showed up, um, he planted them and then the rest is kind of history. Sure. And that is a fantastic story. Um,
05:46So I want to get to the Christmas trees since we're now in November and it's getting to be that time. But I also want to know what you guys do from like spring through till now. Yeah. So spring is reserved for strawberry, you pick. But of course we do, we grow other things. We grow sweet onions. You can't call them Vidalia because you're not in Vidalia, Georgia, but they are.
06:14the same type of onion. And we grow bok choy, we grow lettuce, we grow all sorts of greens, kale, things that are companion plants to strawberries. Strawberries are our main bread and butter in the spring. And we usually sprinkle in some events with that. Our events are, you know, really family oriented. You can come out and you can pick. You can also do a hay
06:44We do these actually, you may have seen it like a state fair. We actually do a pig races. Those are one thing we do. We do horseback riding, all sorts of stuff that people just really enjoy. You don't run out of things to do. We do horse trail rides. We do 5Ks. So that's kind of what we do in the spring. Okay. The summertime, it's so hot.
07:13It's so hot here in the summer and it's so humid. We will try to, at the end of the spring, early summer, do like a watermelon sort of day. People can come out and pick watermelons, eat watermelons, and then we'll have like a summer splash pad thing going on. So really it's just something for the kids to come out and sort of cool off a little bit and enjoy some good fruit. But really once you get past that last...
07:43you know, May, really everybody in South Georgia is inside by the air conditioner. You don't go outside that time of year unless you can help it. So we really sort of just, we sort of hit a lull through the summer and just let the field sort of recuperate, you know? And so then we go from there and then we go into fall, which is our busiest season. We just got out of October.
08:12And we do fall family fun and we do a huge, huge event every weekend in October where we do a few of the similar things that I was mentioning in the spring. But we've got one of the only pumpkin chunkers, it's a trebuchet in Georgia and it's really neat. So it's one of those things that you would see like medieval, you know?
08:42Yes, yep. And basically you put the pumpkin in it and it flings it way off in the distance, is that how it works? Yeah, so it's a trebuchet. It's not a catapult, it's a trebuchet. It's got about 800 pounds of weights affixed to it and then we pull down the top of it with a winch and then you stick a lever through it, put the pumpkin in the net, you pull the lever, the weights drop and the pumpkin goes.
09:12Is there anything actually pumpkin looking by the time it hits the ground or is it just pumpkin pieces everywhere? It's just pieces everywhere but within a couple weeks or so, you see it's almost like a pumpkin patch at where that happened. Yeah. Yeah, fun. Okay. So, let's talk about Christmas trees. There is a Christmas tree grower here.
09:40where I live not far from where I actually live in my house. And I have to get ahold of them because I was supposed to talk to them last fall and things didn't work. But since you grow Christmas trees, I have questions. Number one, when you guys get new Christmas tree seedlings in, are they just little tiny or are they like a foot tall or how does it work? Yeah. They're about a foot tall and they're a plug.
10:10They've got the soil already on them. In most cases, you know, I should really preface all this with just letting you know the varieties that we can sort of plant down here. Yes, please. So down here, even though we are on the highest elevation, we are nowhere near the elevation we need to be to grow the type of hallmark Christmas tree you might envision. So that would be your Frasier fir.
10:39or your Douglas fir. And those are just beautiful trees. They can only be grown at above 3,000 foot sea level, that elevation. So clearly we are far from that. We do bring those trees in by the truckload because so many people want them. We get them from a farm in North Carolina. So we'll have those, but then to answer your question, the...
11:09What we can grow is Virginia Pines, Murray Cypresses, and Carolina Sapphire. And those all grow really well. The Virginia Pine, they're going to be like a bare root. No soil. The root is about a foot long and so is the tree when it comes in. We'll take a dibble and stick it in the ground. And then it's important to make sure that you plug the root into the ground straight down. You don't want it to...
11:39what you call J root where the root is sort of comes back up. And so that's how you plant a pine tree. The Carolina Sapphires and the Cypresses, they come in, um, they already have soil. They've already got great roots. We, uh, take a little post hole digger, dig a small hole and, uh, just put them right in the ground. Okay. So I have another question based off of your answer. Um, the, the balsam fir that you were talking about, that
12:05needs to grow at over 3000 feet elevation. Why is that? It's got something to do, and I'm not an expert with it, obviously because I can't grow them, but it's got something to do with the length of the day. And how much sunlight they get in certain seasons, if that makes sense. Okay. Yeah, that does make sense.
12:31I know that sunlight affects chickens. Chickens will not lay eggs if they don't get 12 hours of sunlight a day, typically. So the sun has a lot to do with how things grow or produce. Okay, cool. So you're not an expert necessarily on everything Christmas tree, but I have a question you might be able to answer. When I was a kid, my dad would go out and cut a Christmas tree from not private land.
13:01I grew up in Maine, so Maine's a little bit less pissy about people cutting Christmas trees or they used to be. And he would typically cut a spruce tree. And there was one year that he got what was called a skunk spruce. And there's a variety of spruce trees. That's not the actual name for it. But if you cut them and they warm up, they smell like a skunk. He didn't mean to cut that kind, but he did.
13:30And so that one went out in the woods and fed birds all winter because he put peanut butter and bird seed on it. And then he cut down a regular spruce tree and that was great. My question is, back when I was a kid, we had the big lights that threw heat on the strings that went around the tree. And people don't do that anymore. They do LED lights because LED lights don't get hot and don't cause fires. And I swear to you,
13:59The trees that I grew up with in my house at Christmas time smelled amazing. You could not walk in the house without knowing there was a live cut tree in our house. And for the last 10 years when we've gotten a tree at, oh, I don't know, Home Depot or Lowe's, they don't smell like anything. So my question is, is it the heat from the lights that made it smell so good? Is that why?
14:28Well, you're going to have different smells with different types of trees to your point, right? I've noticed that, you know, a cypress and a pine don't have as much of a smell versus a fir and a like a Carolina Sapphire. They're almost like what you would see people, you know, try to like block their neighbors with or, you know, like the trees that get really bushy. Those smell really good.
14:58And I really think it does come down to the variety. But also you brought up like Home Depot and Lowe's, they are not known to have the best quality trees. When we buy our trees from North Carolina, for instance, we have a conversation with the grower and it's very frank. And we say, he says, you know, do you want ones or do you want twos?
15:27and ones are going to cost a lot more than the twos are. And we go ahead and pay that premium so we can get trees that we know, one, don't have any holes, but also we're probably cut a lot closer to the delivery date versus the twos, right? And so when I say ones and twos, I mean like premium versus like, okay. And so that's what Home Depot and Lowe's are doing. You may say, well, I find a great tree there.
15:57Okay, but not all the time, right? They, from what I see, they are buying not as good of trees as we are. And so that also means that when you get that tree, it's probably almost dead. And that's gonna have a lot to do with the smell. One thing that we encourage our customers to do is when they come out here, and we go ahead and offer to do it for them, but when they come here and they get a tree from us,
16:26We will put a fresh cut on it. You've probably heard of that. And you need to put a fresh cut on every tree that you get unless of course you cut it fresh from the field. But if you're getting one that's already cut, say at your local store, you need to put at least an inch of a fresh cut on that stump and within the hour, you need to get it in lukewarm water. And that's going to open it up to be able to absorb that water and that's what's going to get your smell going again.
16:56Okay.
16:59Okay, awesome. I just, I didn't know and I wanted to ask because I've been trying to find out for years because it makes me so sad that we get a real tree in our house and I can't smell it. And I have a really good sniffer. My nose is great. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to smell a Christmas tree in my house. So, and I want to share that Christmas tends to be my favorite holiday ever and not because I'm particularly
17:25religious but because I feel like Christmas is a very cozy, very sensory full holiday, you know all the tastes, all the smells, all the sights. And I just freaking love Christmas time. And so when I saw that you guys grow Christmas trees, I was like, yes, finally someone who I can talk to about Christmas trees. And it's November. We are literally rolling into my favorite holiday time. Yeah.
17:51Yeah, we love Christmas obviously. I grew up pretty much looking forward to Christmas all the time. Not only because of like, you know, how great and cozy it is and all the things you said, but for me it meant I've got a job, right? I've got a job from the day we open until the day we close and then the day we close, my dad and I would be able to spend time together because he'd be done with for the year and...
18:20I look forward to that. So it means, I feel like to your point, you know, Christmas means a lot of different things to different people. For me, I think of the smells, I think of the music that we play under the barn. I think of hanging Christmas trees with my dad, cutting Christmas trees. And you know, it's just, it's a special, it is a special holiday.
18:49light, whether you're talking about the light of the world as in Jesus Christ, or if you're talking about light coming back into the world because Christmas usually falls around the solstice when the days start to get longer. But it's all about bringing light and peace back into your world. And it's such a beautiful thought. And right now, considering today's election day, I am all for bringing light and happiness and peace into the world.
19:16Yes, I'm sure a lot of people can appreciate that. Uh huh. Yes, I am. I'm going to go to bed tonight and be like, okay, if the person I want to win doesn't win, I won't be surprised. And if the person I don't want to win wins, I won't be surprised. And that way I don't have to cry my eyes out tomorrow morning either way. So yeah, there's a lot of feelings wrapped around today and tomorrow. And I don't talk politics on the
19:44the podcast so I will never say who or what but it's gonna be a very long day today and a very long night tonight for a lot of people waiting to find out what happens. So Christmas, let's see, what's your favorite Christmas food? I figured that's probably a good question if you love Christmas. Oh, it's hard to pick just one. I'd probably turkey.
20:12And if not the turkey, hmm. My grandmother always made these, she would take cucumbers and slice them up and make like this, like soak them in some sort of like cranberry sauce or something. I don't know if you ever had this before, like cranberry cucumbers. They're like pickled cucumbers. Yeah. And man, they're out of this world.
20:39So you should, you should Google that and get, and get the recipe. Cause if you, we, we always had fresh cucumbers and then she would jar these things up and they're tremendous. Nice. I would never have thought of cranberry sauce as a, a pickling agent, but that makes sense. Um, I make a homemade cranberry sauce with fruit, with fresh cranberries and orange peel and I don't even know what else goes in it, but it's a very.
21:08fallish tasting cranberry sauce. I think there's cloves and ginger in it too. And the first time I made it, I had no idea what I was doing and I thought this is going to turn out awful. And I did it to take to a family gathering where my husband and I were making the dinner for the whole family. And I'm like, I'm going to try something new and embarrass myself. Everybody raved about this cranberry sauce. And I was like, oh, I guess this is a new favorite. Okay.
21:38My favorite Christmas food is a tray of all different kinds of Christmas cookies. That's my favorite thing about Christmas is somebody handing me a little plate with like eight different kinds of Christmas cookies on it. Very nice. I live for Christmas cookies because I don't like making them because when you make them, you're stuck with one kind and there's like 50 cookies of the same kind.
22:07I want other people's Christmas cookies. I don't want my Christmas cookies. Well, you can have them. I've never been a big sweets person. What I just described with the cucumbers is probably about as far as I would go sweets-wise. For some reason, never cared for them. Well, everybody's different. Everybody's palate is completely different. So I'm okay with that. Yeah. So do people...
22:36I don't know how to ask this right. When you are selling your Christmas trees, you start selling them Thanksgiving Day or the day after Thanksgiving Day? Yeah. Thanksgiving Day at 2 p.m. our whole family will eat under the barn and then at 2 we'll all get ready to put our gloves on and people will start showing up. Okay. So you said you bring in spruce trees because you guys don't grow them.
23:05or furs, sorry. So- Fraser Furs, yeah, we bring those in and we hang them underneath the barn so people can sort of peruse through them. Okay. And I'm guessing that you have families come in to pick out a tree for their home. Oh, yeah. We have so many people come that have been, I mean, I remember kids that were my age coming with their family.
23:36you know, obviously we're older and now they're coming out here with their family. And so yeah, I've been seeing the same people my whole life. And then every now and then, you know, we start seeing a few new people that moved to the area and, you know, different Christmas tree operations shut down and they start coming to us. We see a lot of that. So, but yeah, you see a lot of the same people. It's a lot of, it's very family, family oriented.
24:04Okay, so the little kids like four to six years old when they come with their family to pick out their tree. Cause that's about the time kids start really remembering things and getting into the holidays, like starting to understand that it's exciting and fun. Are they, when they walk in and see all these trees, do their faces light up and are they bouncing up and down? Oh yeah. Yeah. They're, uh,
24:29I want this one, I want that one, you know, and usually they get their way or mama gets her way. But yeah, no, they're happy. But there's so many, most of the kids that come here are really familiar with our farm and so when they get here, they're like, you know, they're really interested in the Christmas tree for a few minutes and then they're like, oh, okay, they still have their corn maze up or they still got those horses over there, they've still got tire swings, they've still got mini golf.
24:56And so they start running all over the place because they know there's so many other things to do. They're just besides themselves, you know. Oh, yeah. I didn't even think about the fact that it's Georgia. It's probably not six feet of snow and freezing when they come to get their Christmas tree. No snow. I think I've seen snow here once in my life. I can't imagine a December without snow.
25:23I have always lived in a northern tier state, so there's usually at least a little bit of snow in December. It's so foreign to me to even consider the fact that you could have a warm day where you are on Christmas Day. I have seen many Christmases be 75 degrees and 100% humidity. Crazy. I can't, I have no concept.
25:51I know that my granddaughter saw her first snow in October here, four Octobers ago, five Octobers ago, something like that when we moved to our place, because she grew up in Arizona. And so her mom and she and her dad, her dad is my stepson, long story, not going to get into it, but they came to visit and she was like eight, I think.
26:18And at the very end of their visit, we had a day where it was very cold here in October. And it had been pouring rain and we were out running errands trying to get back before the temp dropped and it started to spit. And we rolled into the driveway just as it had started to snow and I still can't believe the look on her face. She was just looking up in the sky with her hands palm up. Like it's snowing and the grin on her face was just, I mean it ate her face.
26:46She was so excited. That's great. Yeah, she's never seen it in Arizona, that's for sure. No, not where she grew up. She'd seen it in Nebraska, because that's where her other grandparents live. But it was just like a gift. She didn't expect to see snow in October here. So it was really fun. OK, so when people come to get their treat, they can buy a pre-cut one, or can they go cut one as well? Yeah.
27:16We actually are what you would call a choose and cut farm. So directly behind the barn, there's about, I'll just say like give or take 10 acres of Christmas trees that they can walk through and pick out what they want. And we have all those different varieties. And we usually just tell people don't cut anything shorter than five foot. And you know, our prices are really actually,
27:44very, very, very reasonable. I don't think we've ever changed our prices since we've been open, like in the last 40 years. Our trees are $8 a foot. So if you got a six foot tree, a little bit under 50 bucks, you know. Wow, that's amazing. That's fantastic. The only ones that we have to change are the furs because...
28:12those, of course, the market continues to go up every year. But what we grow, I mean, it's very, very, very affordable, I would say, for someone that wants to get a nice, you know, I mean, and I don't want to brag, but I think, you know, after three generations of this, we've sort of figured out how to take care of a Christmas tree, you know, whether it's fertilizing, watering, or trimming.
28:42You know, you're supposed to trim at certain times of the year, and there's certain parts of a Christmas tree that you trim at different times of the year. And there's really a lot to that. I'm not sure I could voice it all over, but there's something to do with moon cycles. We usually try to trim before full moon. We usually leave the top growing for a while to let the tree have something to sort of
29:11reach out to, you know, to reach to the sun. And then at some point, we will cut that top and let it sort of fill out a little bit more, if that makes sense. Yes. And don't feel bad about feeling like you're bragging. My podcast is so that people can talk about the things that they love and that they're good at and that they are trying to do. So you want to brag, brag all you want. Okay. Thank you.
29:39Yeah, I mean, it's an art form and you are you are making it go and you're making people happy and you're leaving the trees that you can affordable to people and nobody is doing that right now. Nowhere in any business. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's the same thing with our fall festival. We opened up for our fall festival about 15 years ago.
30:06And our price for entry was $10 at that time. And our price for entry is $10 today. So really everything that we can, we'll try to leave it the same, you know? Super. I love that. Because there are lots of people right now who just don't have the extra money to take their families to do something fun.
30:35and your farm is fun and you're keeping it so that they can take their kids and do something that is a lifetime experience and memory. Yeah, and well, I mean, what we've noticed is that like, the more that we do that kind of thing, the more it pays off for us. So we may stay at the same price, but we see more people come and we grow more popular.
31:05And we don't get, sure we've gotten a bad review here, there every business does, but I'm really proud of what our reviews look like. We're very close to completely five stars, you know? And I think we get a really good rapport in the community because of how we treat people, not only, you know, money-wise, but just being a family business. You know, we're a family and you wanna bring your family here.
31:34And that's just the atmosphere that we tried. We're not trying to make a crazy amount of money doing this. This is just our lifestyle, you know? Yeah, and customer loyalty and word of mouth are the best ways for you to get more people to come. People to come back and then new people to come too. Oh, no doubt. Yeah, I mean, it's all about whether or not people have left here feeling like they got their money worth
32:04Is it something that they would want to do again? And if that's the case, if both of those answers are yes, then they're going to go and they're going to talk about it and they're going to tell other people. And that's what we've seen. We just sort of trusting in the process and that is, um, you know, and, and doing everything we can in between, you know, um, sometimes you just have to, you just have to have faith with it. You know, sometimes we don't know when we're starting a new venture with strawberries, we just started that four years ago.
32:32We had no clue if that would work. But all of a sudden we open up and then we see, whichever family has been coming to pick pumpkins with us or Christmas trees for the past however long, now they're coming out for strawberry season. So it's just a full circle thing. Very nice, I love that. I have one more question for you and then I'm gonna let you go. When people come out to do the events, to be at the events,
33:01Is it totally cool for them to take photos with their cell phones and, you know, are there like photo opportunities for them? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, the farm has plenty of beautiful, you know, topography, rolling hills. The landscape out here is great for that. Obviously really big Christmas trees they can take photos in front of. We've got wild flowers on the farm, beautiful broom sage.
33:28We actually just had someone come out and do a session yesterday. So sometimes people will come into a session, which we only charge $25 an hour to do a session and usually no one needs more than an hour. But if someone comes to our festival to answer your question, no, there's no problem at all, they could even bring their camera and take photos. We wouldn't charge them for anything like that. They've already paid the entry fee. So as far as we're concerned, they can go anywhere on the farm they want to go.
33:59So it's a have-at-it policy is what you're saying. Yeah, it's a have-at-it policy. We definitely have insurance and we definitely try to take precaution and make sure people are as safe as they can because of course, you know, having a have-at-it policy does come with a little bit of, you know, maybe some safety measures. You just want to watch out for people. People that have never been on a farm may not realize, you know, the dangers of walking through very tall grass in the summer.
34:28in Georgia, right? Yes. So, you know, but yes, we want people to feel like they are free when they come here, you know, and can do whatever they want, you know, in a sense, right? And that's how we feel and that's what we want to share, that feeling. Awesome. All right, Dan, I try to keep these to half an hour. We're at almost 35 minutes. Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.
34:59Thank you, Mary. We appreciate it. Have a great day. All right, you too. Bye.
 

Cassandra - the self-professed non-homesteader

Today I'm talking with my daughter, Cassandra, about how being raised by a mom with homesteading skills has impacted her life.
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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00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 my first born child and my only daughter, Cassandra. How are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I don't know what the weather's like in Florida right now, but it's gray and misty and cold here today in Minnesota. What's it like in Florida?
00:29It's in the 80s and sunny and not a rain cloud in sight. Must be nice, although honestly, I'm real happy to see fall rolling in. So Sandra was nice enough to come and visit with me because she is a self-professed non-homesteader, at least that's how she told me or explained herself to me. But I think that there's some homesteading genes in there somewhere because
00:57You are taking care of your mother-in-law's citrus plants and avocado trees, right? Yeah, mango trees, avocado trees. We have a lychee tree and banana trees. I think that's it. I thought you had lemons or oranges or something. We have a baby lemon and a baby lime tree. They are making fruit, but they're very small. They're not making grocery store-sized fruit yet.
01:27So they look like toys? Yeah, it's really funny. Uh-huh. And how are all the plants doing? Well, so we just had two hurricanes. So the plants are not doing great right now, really anywhere near us. But right before the hurricane, the starfruit, that's what we have. We have a starfruit tree that just drops probably hundreds of fruit in October. So right before the hurricanes, that was producing like crazy.
01:56But now we just have a lot of trees that are twigs. Oh, no. Okay. So, I don't know what you know about all the fruits that are growing on that property, but did they all, are they all in season at the same time? Or is it just different? No, definitely not. I can't remember when the mangoes go, but it's like the mangoes have their season.
02:24And they're the kind of mangoes that like don't ripen until you take them off the tree. So they will stay, they'll stay good for like months as they're growing. And the lychee is a different season. And like I said, the starfruit is a different season as well. So you can't have a citrus lychee, starfruit salad all at once out of the garden as it was? Not from my yard, no, yeah. Okay.
02:50So tell me about getting prepared for the hurricanes that came through. Yeah, it was kind of crazy. We had another hurricane, not the most recent two, but another one earlier in the year. And I'm not from here, my husband is. And he was saying like, oh, the hurricanes are not a big deal. They haven't really hit St. Pete in like 10 years.
03:15So the first one was fine, we didn't do any prep. And then the second and third one, like people were predicting it to be so, so bad, we were like, okay, well, maybe let's go get some water. But, um, we talked about water. We have these big glass jugs that we always fill. My mother-in-law always fills before, um, hurricanes. We went.
03:38The joke in their family is that the only hurricane supplies you need is boxed wine and bananas. So we got boxed wine and bananas in addition to like ramen and batteries and candles. Okay. And you told me that Helene wasn't bad, but Milton was worse, right? No, Helene was bad. Helene is the one that brought the floodwater surges. Yeah.
04:08And that is what did most of the physical damage. Milton wasn't as like floodwater heavy, but the winds were crazy. So it took out like it took out trees, power, we were without power for like a week, I think here. No, I meant, I meant out of the two for you where you are. I thought Helene wasn't as bad as Milton. Because I live like on the only hill in St. Petersburg. So Helene didn't affect us as much. We're just we are not susceptible to flooding where we are.
04:38Okay, cool. So I don't even know what to ask you. You were saying about... Let me ask you. So what's your wake up in the morning homestead life routine? Okay. And then we can compare and contrast. Oh, well, my wake up in the morning is at like 430 in the morning because I can't stay asleep past four. My get up is 430, five o'clock in the morning. And it's go directly to...
05:08potty and then to the coffee maker and then to my phone to see if any new people have said yes to talking to me on the podcast. Sure. That's my get up routine. Yeah. What do you do throughout the day for home setting stuff? Meal planning? Do you do? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. We do a weekly meal plan. We usually do it on Sunday.
05:34or Saturday and then shopping happens because sometimes you got to fill in on what you're going to need to make a thing. And we got rid of our chickens. We don't have chickens anymore. Oh, when did that happen? A month ago. We only had like nine or ten and we were only getting a couple eggs a day. They're old. Oh, okay. I see. So we called them and we're going to get new chickens in the spring because we didn't want to feed chickens that weren't producing over the winter.
06:03Right, that makes sense. Yep. I thought you meant like you stopped, you chose to stop having chickens on your homestead. Oh, no, no, no, no. We will have chickens again. But feeding chickens through the winter who are only giving us two eggs a day out of nine or ten chickens, that's not a sustainable thing to do. Everybody's got to pay their rent. Yes, exactly. They have to do their job or they have to go. Yep.
06:27Really a lot of the homesteading stuff this summer wasn't great because our weather was so terrible in the spring that the gardens really fizzled out. Yeah. So a lot of the homesteading stuff that we would have been doing didn't happen because there was nothing to can. Right, right. So it's been a very lackluster homesteading skills. Spring, summer and fall. Kyle has been...
06:55getting the insulation stuff up in the greenhouse over the last few weekends, so at least that's getting done. That's good. That's the other thing is like when you guys are working on projects on the homestead, like do you and your husband, Kyle, my stepdad, whatever, do you guys have like a weekly meeting or do you just kind of share information as it comes? It's usually a meeting before a project starts.
07:22And then it's just more updates of what's gotten done. Sure, yeah. So it's... Go ahead. Like, he was working on repotting some lemongrass out there today. And I was helping Cameron with something in here. And Kyle came in and he was like, so the lemongrass and the bottom part of the lemongrass plant, which is what you're going to cut to use as seasoning, is about as big...
07:51same diameter as his pinky finger. Okay. And he was like, so I repotted them in bigger pots so they can keep growing and get bigger. And I was like, that's awesome. So that's what he's working on today. And lemongrass is not a northern state kind of plant. You got to have some heat to grow it. So the greenhouse is great for that. Yeah, I was going to say like, I didn't know that you could grow lemongrass in Minnesota. You can, you can grow it outside. But it does much better if it's a really hot summer.
08:20Yep. And we don't want really hot summers here because hot summers are miserable. Tell me about it. As you know in Florida. Yeah. So what? It was like 100 plus degrees all summer every day here. Yeah. Global warming. Woo. So I wanted to ask you if you think that the way that you were brought up with us doing homesteading skills in the old house had an impact on you.
08:49Yeah, but not in the way that you would expect, I think. It's kind of like, you know, if you stylistically are like a very basic person, your kid is probably going to be over the top in personality or dress or whatever. And I feel like that really happened with me with the gardens at the house versus how I chose to like spring into just being a city dweller immediately after high school.
09:18I definitely was like beneficial. Like it was so nice to have like fresh produce in the house. And I remember you making a lot of rhubarb pies. Yep. Strawberry rhubarb. Mm hmm. Yep. And it was cool. Like we always had snacks like always cucumbers, whatever in the summer. But then I have like no skill in growing things. Like we talked less, we, you and I talked personally about permaculture.
09:47which is just like growing plants that are native to the area, essentially. Yes. Um, and like that is the only reason that anything in my Florida home has thrived. Like if I have to actually pay attention to it, it's over for me and the plant. But we do have, um, we have like a little herb garden and raised boxes. In addition to all the fruit, um, it's like basil chive sage. My husband does a lot of cooking.
10:17So he sure does. Yeah. So it's nice to have just like basically a live spice cabinet. Yeah. And do you help with that or does he grow it? So neither. We are staying with my mother-in-law. My husband's family's heritage is Guatemala and it's like pretty normal to have several generations in one home. So we are
10:45doing that and she is the one who planted the beds, the raised beds. But because it is so humid here, like they don't really require any maintenance. Like sometimes we have to go cut them back because they grow so aggressively with all the water that's available. Yeah. And I suppose your basil just grows all year round because it never freezes. Yeah. I think almost everything in the herb garden does grow all year round.
11:12Yeah, for us, if there's basil outside, minute it gets below 40 degrees, we're done. Yeah. It hates anything below 40 degrees. It gets a little black spots on the leaves. Yeah. We did have a problem for a little bit this summer where all the herbs were just burning. Um, like the sun was so hot and we had like a little dry spell, which is like a week for us. Um, and they just got scorched, like the basil leaves, the...
11:41the sage leaves, they're like too soft, too delicate, the sun kills them. Yeah. Don't feel bad about the fact that you went the opposite direction regarding the homesteading thing and going to a pool. I mean, I don't, but go on. Going to be a city dweller because I have talked to a lot of people on this podcast who basically left the family farm, went to college, swore they would never go back to farming and now they're farmers. So it happens. Yeah.
12:10Honestly, I'm sure homesteading is in my near future, just by way of like, the farther way you get from something, the closer you end up being to it at the end or whatever. It seems that way, doesn't it? Yeah, we have been talking about selling this house and getting a piece of land and inviting more of the family to live on the land with us. Kind of like communal living, like the plan, the loose plan is tiny houses and then one main like mess hall basically.
12:40This is the first I'm hearing of this. I don't know why. I don't know why I haven't mentioned this to you. It seems very like anyway. But if we do that, then we'll have like more reason to cultivate our own food. And like, you know, each person can take lead on whatever kind of product they want to like I want to have pigs. Like I love pigs. And I even told my husband,
13:10I do want pigs and I do love them, but you can also eat them. It's going to like, I've made peace with that. It's hard though. It's really hard, especially if you get them as piglets. Yeah, I definitely see a lot of TikToks of baby piglets and just lose my mind. Uh huh. Yeah, I'm not, I'm that way with baby goats, but we have decided we're not getting baby goats. They eat so much, right? Yes.
13:37The thing is people think that they eat the same stuff that cows eat, but they don't. They really like leaves and brush. So if you have a forest you need cleared, goats are great. But we don't have a forest, we have a tree line and we really don't want them to eat the black raspberries because we like the black raspberries. You want to eat the black raspberries. I damn right I do. Make fun. So anyway.
14:06So your husband is an amazing cook. Yeah, he really is. And your mom, it was, is an amazing cook. You were vegan for a while. Yeah, for like six years. Yeah. Go ahead, go ahead. No, you go ahead. Andre's cooking is what made me break, actually. Like, you know.
14:31I was very connected to my veganism, but also when you are in a marriage, there are battles that you can't win. And I got tired of having the same discussion. So I broke my veganism or whatever and literally put on like 60 pounds in the next like six months eating everything he makes. You do understand that cooking from scratch is a homesteading skill, right? Well, yeah. Yeah.
15:01And Andre does not just cook comfort food. He's very fancy sometimes with the stuff that he makes. Yeah. And he makes truly everything from scratch, like mayo he makes from scratch, which blew my mind. And he ordered citric acid and xanthan gum to do some gastro stuff. And truly, I was just like, I didn't even know that your average consumer could buy these things. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you can.
15:31If it's not illegal, you can buy it. Right, yeah. When he made the mayonnaise, did you actually watch it come together by chance? Yeah, I've seen it a couple times. Isn't it cool? Yeah, it's definitely interesting. Yes, I've made it once in the Ninja Blender thingy, and I didn't think it would work. Right, because it doesn't look like it would.
15:57No, I was fully convinced that I was going to do this and waste the entire thing of ingredients. And it came together and it was Mayo and I was like, I will be damned it works. Yeah, it sure does. I couldn't believe it. It's some magic. I mean, I know it's a scientific thing. It is chemistry. Science is magic. It's fine. Yeah. But I was just so impressed with myself. I was like, oh, I can do this now. Yay. Yeah. So...
16:27As you know, I recently got a job in a cold pressed juice shop and now I am having to cook not because of the juice, but we have little to go food or whatever. I don't cook, but my boss was like, do this and that's my job. So this week I made a mixed berry compote and overnight oats, which is nothing, very simple, but all day after I finished it I was like, I cooked something.
16:57I didn't even burn the compote. So did you, you did that at the shop? Yeah. So is there like a stove top at the shop? Yeah, we have like very nice hot plates basically. And like the shop that I work at, we used to have two locations. And now we're down to one, but the one location that is left where I work used to be the kitchen for the other location.
17:25So we have all of the like processing stuff there as well as like a small counter. Nice. Okay, so when you made the berry compote, how did you do it? Because I know how I do it, but I want to know how you do it. The instructions that were left for me were put the, it was like put however many cups of berries in and then sugar and I think that was it. You just put it on low and slow. And did you stir it a lot?
17:56Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's how we do it too. And we try to put very little sugar in it because usually what we're cooking has enough natural sugars that we don't have to do a lot of sugar into it. Yeah. I was pretty surprised when I saw that it like called for sugar. I understand like the chemistry of cooking, you have to have it or whatever for it to break down that way. But we use so little added sugar in everything at the shop. I had to be like, where even is that? Yeah. Okay. And then what was the other thing she asked you to make?
18:26Oh, the overnight oats. Yeah, so I had to make overnight oats also to like, make a parfait. But the overnight oats, it's not really cooking except that we also make our own cashew milk from scratch, which is also not cooking. But like, when I say from scratch, maybe from scratch, like I had to make cashew milk from literally cashews and water. And then we use the leftover cashew like goo, because you strain it through like a cheese
18:54We use that for vegan cheese making. And then the cashew milk goes into the oats with chia and then it sits overnight. That's overnight oats. But like, it makes me laugh that I went from like, can barely make a cup of coffee to having to hand make milk. Well, you're an intelligent young woman. I'm pretty sure you can follow directions.
19:24I mean, yeah, when she was like, can you cook? I was like, I can follow a recipe if you leave it for me. Yeah, most people can. Yeah. So the vegan cheese, are you going to have to make that too or does somebody else make that? I probably will at some point. Someone else is making it presently. But I think that it's just the cashew product with, what do you call it, nutritional yeast. Okay.
19:51And I remember for me, the nutritional yeast is the king. You put it on everything because it tastes kind of cheesy. It definitely has the umami taste that a lot of vegan foods are missing. Yeah.
20:06Okay, cool. Um, all right. So this is gonna be a short one, guys, because Sandra is really not a homesteader. Okay, here's the thing though, is I do have like a lot of homesteading related hobbies. Like I'm really into fiber arts, right? Like crocheting, cross stitch, like that's, that's kind of like adjacent field, no? Oh, it's it's homesteading. Yeah, totally.
20:35Yeah, like today I had, or not today, this week I had to patch the upholstery on my mother-in-law's couch because my cat ripped a hole in it. And like, I have like a darning kit and I busted it out and just took care of it. And it's so great to have those kinds of skills. And that's, that's definitely stuff I picked up growing up with you. Like when something is broken, you fix it. Like if you at all can.
21:03That's my girl. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And like I'm always like modifying clothes or whatever. Yeah. When you were a teenager, you were always taking clothes and changing them. Yeah. And I still do. I just post about it less now. And like, I'm really handy. Like when I first moved here, it made me laugh so hard. My mother-in-law was like, you're like if a man was a girl.
21:32I think because I had installed like a bidet and fixed like a porch door handle. So the, what do you call that? What is that? The like, not, it's not really stick-to-itiveness, but it's like a kin. Tenacious? Yeah, the tenacity of just like, it kind of doesn't matter what happens, like I'll just take care of it is very much like, I feel a homesteading attitude. Uh-huh. And it's also when you grow up with a family that doesn't have a lot of money and we need to make things work.
22:02Yeah, I was not saying that to be polite, but that is definitely where it comes from. Oh yeah, absolutely. And you know, I was raised in a home where there was one income, and my parents had a garden and we loved eating out of the garden and my mom canned. And my mom sewed clothes for us. She made clothes for us when we were little. So it does get passed down through the generations. Yeah, definitely. I have one more thing.
22:32Mm hmm. Handy, crafting, tenacity, I don't I don't know. My point is like, oh, I was gonna say, um, the the poverty aspect is definitely very real. And like, now I like, live comfortably. But there is still like, it's so ingrained, like, I could just go to the store and get a new whatever, like, I am literally across the street from a grocery store. But
23:01it never occurs to me to replace something when I could fix it. Yeah. And why would you? Why would I? Longevity is king. Yeah. Although I got to tell you, we replaced lights in our living room, living room last night. Yeah. Yes. The fixtures that were here when we moved in, neither Kyle nor I have ever really loved them. You walk in the living room and they're like, look at me, I'm a light fixture. And I'm like, I hate those things.
23:30So the plan was always eventually to replace them. One of them kept flickering and we couldn't figure out why. And Kyle was like, I'm done. We're gonna get new light fixtures. And I was like, yay. So he got these very low profile white rimmed lights. So they sit almost flat on the ceiling. They're only about, they're maybe three quarters of an inch deep. And they have the thing. Do they call them like canned lights or something?
23:59They're not. They're not because they're not up in the ceiling, but they're very slim. Yeah. Gotcha. And they have three settings. So you can do a low, a medium or a high. And he just set them on high because we're rolling in the winter and we just turned the clock back and he was like, you need that extra light. Having good light this winter would be good. And I was like, sure. So we didn't know how bright they were going to be until he turned the power back on.
24:27It's like two blazing suns in our living room. Incredible. But the thing is the light fixtures that we had, the globes for them were like a, almost like a brass glass, a brassy colored glass. So they were a very soft light, even with the, the daylight light bulbs in them. Yeah. And it made it really depressing in living room. And, uh,
24:57got up this morning and turned the lights on I was like oh my god it's like having the sunshine pour in the living room and it's dark out. So sometimes new is better. Yeah yeah. But but when it comes to clothes that might have a hole in them you can patch them and they're good for another year or two. Yeah. Or if you have a pan that gets dented. If it's dented and it doesn't impact how you're using it to cook you can keep using it. Right.
25:26So, yeah, I mean, frugal is a word associated with poor, but I think that frugal is actually a good way to not be poor. Yeah, I agree. And you know, people who have wealth are often described as like stingy or cheap or whatever. But that is how you stay wealthy is by not spending it. Yeah, it's called saving. Yeah. Mm hmm. Exactly.
25:55Okay, so we're at 25 minutes. I try to do these at 30 minutes, but I'm good if you're good. Yeah. Thank you for chatting with me, Sandra. I know it seems weird because you're not a homesteader, but you have homesteading skills and I'm really proud of you for using them. Thank you. I am happy that you instilled them in me. I am too, because it's important. It really is. All right, Sandra, thank you so much. I will talk to you soon. All right. Love you. Bye.
26:25Bye.
 

Off The Beaten Path Homestead

Today I'm talking with Val at Off The Beaten Path Homestead.
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00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 Val at Off the Beaten Path Homestead. Good morning, Val. How are you? Good morning. I'm great. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. As I was telling Val before we hit record, I discovered Val on...
00:29on Facebook through her videos and I fell in love with her immediately because she has such a great personality. Thank you so much for that. Yes, absolutely. So tell me about yourself and what you do. Well, my name is Valerie Bias and I live in Virginia. I've been here most of my life. I
00:55I grew up in a small town in Virginia, in Buckingham County, and six sisters, so my mom and dad had seven girls. And I watched them garden and take care of livestock. And of course, feeding seven children was quite a feat. And so they had to do whatever they had to do to stretch what we had.
01:24And so they garden and they preserved food and we had livestock, hogs and chickens and goats. And, uh, that's what we did to survive. And, um, so when COVID hit, you know, my, me and my husband were talking and, and we started thinking, you know, this is different and, and, and we've got to do something, um, because.
01:52Our world had changed and so we moved from our home in North Chesterfield, Virginia, and we purchased a piece of property in a rural area. We're only about 20-25 minutes from amenities. We can still, you know, get to the grocery store. And so we moved out here and we started doing what I learned to do as a child, which was
02:21We only have chickens right now. We've only been out here since 2021. And so we just love it out here and we love what we do. We garden and raise our own food. And we also have a farm store that we put our excess products in. We are just a shed and.
02:48We stock that with food that we preserve for long-term use. And so that's what we're doing out here and we're trying to get our community involved and so that we can learn from each other. That's been a bit difficult because we don't know anyone out here trying to find people who do what we do and who wanna learn from us and so that we can learn from them.
03:15And so that's what we're doing out here. We just. I love it. I'm so excited that you decided to do that. We did the same thing. We moved from in town to out in the country in 2020. So, Ben, where you are. So your videos on your Facebook page are so fun. And the way that you say hello to your viewers and then.
03:42Identify who you are is adorable. Could you could you do it for me? Well, I mean it's part of my personality and who I am and when I Meet people or I'm introduced to people. It's hi, sweetie. How are you? And so I start my videos off with hey sweet people. It's mama Val and so That's who I am My my daughter she's 41
04:12and all of her friends, they refer to me as Mama Val. And I love it and that's who I am now. And most people who know me, they're younger, they call me Mama Val, so. Yes, and your accent is a little bit more pronounced on the videos too. And that was the thing that really caught me because I am a big, I don't know, I'm obsessed with people's.
04:38accents. I think that it's so fun when people talk in a way that's different than I do. Oh, wow. I've never noticed that. Yeah. And I don't know if it's a southern accent or what it is. And it probably has to do with my stepfather was in the Navy and we moved around so much. He was in the Navy for 36 years. And we moved all over and
05:07I'm sure it has something to do with moving around. Yeah. Yes, I would say that your accent is a generic Southern drawl in the best way possible. And basically to me, you sound like a warm hug and a glass of sweet tea. Oh, you are so sweet. That's how it sounds. Yes. It makes my heart sing, so hearing that. Yeah.
05:34I just, I don't know, I just, I saw your video and I just sat there and I was like, I love this lady. She's amazing. Thank you, Mary. Thank you. Um, yeah. You're welcome. And I'm not typically this effusive, but when people grab me, they grab me hard, like grab me in full and you're one of them. I don't know why. So any, anyway, um, you're okay.
06:01your videos that I've seen one was making two pennies into a dollar and one was something else and I can't remember but the two pennies into a dollar one really struck me because I have raised four kids. My youngest is 22 and he still lives with us. Back when they were young, we were a family on one income. I was a stay at home mom and I was trying to cook for six people total.
06:31And so I cooked for an army basically every time I cooked and we would, we would have leftovers and the kids never blinked at eating leftovers because it tasted better the second time you ate it anyway. It does. So, and so I was so excited to see you do something that was touching on using up what you have. And so if you want to, if you want to talk a little bit more about that, I would be tickled. Well,
07:00As I said, my parents had seven girls and it was hard. And mom did not work. She stayed at home and took care of us in the house as women typically did back then. And so she used everything. We ate what we were fed. And if there were leftovers, they did not go in the trash.
07:30She would use them up and what she was so great at was converting those leftovers into an entirely new meal. And we had no idea that they were last night's leftovers or that to us it was a different meal from the night before. And we just loved it and we ate it and that's how we grew up. And so that's what I do now. I have
07:59only been married since 2012. And so I raised my two daughters by myself, the youngest having autism and, you know, paying child care and taking care of a child with so many health issues and trying to work. And I had to stretch what I had.
08:26And that's what I did. And I learned that from my parents. And so, when things get rough or things get tight, I go back to what I grew up with. What would mom do or what would dad do? And that's pretty much what I've done all of my life as an adult. And that's what I'm doing now. Groceries are so high and...
08:54what we get in the grocery stores, it's not healthy. They are putting all sorts of things into our food. And if we can grow it ourselves and produce a healthier quality of food to nourish our bodies, why not? Why not, you know? Yes, and it's not that hard to grow your own food.
09:20No, what we've ran into here on this land is that our land is so heavily laden with clay, is that we are having to remediate our land. And so while we're doing that, we use raised beds, we grow in our greenhouse, we use containers, we use whatever we have to produce our food. And it's working out so far.
09:49To correct the soil, we are using wood ash, compost, wood chips, whatever we have, we use.
10:02Yes, and trying to amend soil that is clay is really difficult and I commend you for doing the work because it's not easy and you've got to commit to it. Oh yes, you know what we do is we actually work in sections. When we moved here there was a Finston area and the lady who we purchased the property from I actually had the opportunity to meet her.
10:30And she said they had goats in that area. And so the soil was a little bit better in that area, but still needed some work. So we started there in ground. And like I said, we added raised beds outside of that area. So we could use the land that we had. We're only on three acres, and I'd say about an acre and a half of it is wooded. Can you hear me, Mary?
11:00Okay. Um, and so, uh, we also, um, grow up, we use, uh, I'm not sure what you call them. They're stackable pots. We use those to grow up. Um, we trellis a lot of things, our tomatoes, um, we try and grow up. We actually had a tomato plant this year that was about 10 feet tall because it grew up on, um,
11:29we found some old bamboo poles and we use those. And so whatever we can do, and I'm gonna tell you, YouTube is amazing for learning a lot. I set up half the night on YouTube, researching and watching what other people do, other homesteaders, and you can learn a lot from YouTube.
11:56You sure can. My husband is addicted to all the farming channels and all the gardening channels. Yes, there is a couple. I think they are in Georgia and the name of their channel is Homestead Heart and I watch her a lot. Yeah, so the community, you know, which stretches across the US on YouTube and and it
12:26These, the homesteaders, people who homestead and are going back to the old ways are so inventive and creative. And it's working, it's working. And if we could spread this throughout our communities, wouldn't it be wonderful if everybody just grew their own food and we shared what we have with each other? That would be awesome. You're singing my song, Val.
12:56Yeah, and we are currently working on and learning about food forests and how to do that. How to intermingle plants and grow those together so that one plant benefits another. That's what we are researching and studying right now. And so hopefully that works out for us.
13:25Isn't it fascinating when you start digging into the food forest thing? Isn't it fascinating how that all works together? Yes, and the other thing Mary that we found here on the land is the plants the the plants that naturally grow here as an example, I harvested last spring chickweed and We we make tea out of that we
13:54dry it and then we cure it in the oven and we actually make tea from that. And the wild lettuce, we use that to make medicinal, that access, it's sort of nature's opioid. And so it takes care of pain because I suffer with rheumatoid arthritis and I was getting
14:21all this different medication from the doctors and nothing was helping. In fact, it was causing more issues. And so I started delving into how can I heal my own body? What can I do? God gave us everything that we need here on this earth to take care of our bodies and our health. And so I've started sort of venturing off into that world and it's actually working.
14:50out in the farm store, we sell a lot of, I don't want to call them medicinal, but herbal products that we get from the land that we then convert into tentures and teas and sabs. And our customers that come to the farm store actually love that and they try it once and they come back again for it. And so it's working.
15:17What what we get from the farm store, we don't make a lot of income from that is we have the opportunity to Teach our community What they can do to heal their own bodies how they can live a more healthy and sustainable life And so that's what we that's the purpose of the farm store is to let people know what we are doing to draw people To us so that we can meet others
15:46like-minded people and learn from each other and feed off of each other. Yep, and you're in Virginia. I know there are like-minded people around you because Virginia is the land of homesteading and farming. Oh yes, yes. Have you heard of Polyphase Farm and Joel Saladin? Who is that?
16:14gonna write that down no I have not. He's in Virginia or West Virginia I can't remember right now but he has an open door policy for his farm and so people can just come and see what he's doing and he's been doing it for a very long time and he's big into the regenerative farming so you might want to go find him on YouTube and see what he has to say because you'll probably learn a lot from him too. I certainly will that's gonna be my
16:45what I do this evening. That's my relaxation is searching YouTube and learning and finding new people. And so we'll find him tonight. It'll be really easy. He's very well known in the home setting. And that's Sallison? S-A-L-I-S-O? Nope, S-A-L-A-T-I-N. S-A-L-A-T-I-N. Thank you for that. Yeah.
17:13Yep, he's very, very famous. And if you want to go look on my podcast episodes, I got to interview him months ago. He's super nice. You're wonderful. So anyway, just wanted to throw another one at you so you have something else to delve into. So would you, this has been on my heart for a month now. And I think you might be the right person to ask. Are you into the being prepared part of homesteading and farming? We are.
17:42Um, we are, are working towards that. Um, we purchased a, a shed. Um, and we have started, uh, we put shelving in it and we are, you know, stocking that up, um, with water and medication foods that are canned and preserved and ferment it. Um.
18:09So we are into that. I wouldn't say we are by any means doomsday preppers, but we are prepping for whatever is coming down the road. Okay, so the reason that I asked and the reason I bring this up is because I've been wanting to talk with someone on one of the episodes about the preparing for the unknown. And it's been driving me crazy because I didn't know who to talk to about it. And...
18:38Do you mind if we talk a little bit about that for a minute? Sure, that's fine. Okay. With everything going on in the world right now, we're rolling into winter time. And I know you're in the South, but it gets cold in the South too, in the dead of winter. And ice storms happen and snow sometimes happen and sometimes the power goes out. And so I really feel like with winter coming on and the election coming up here next week,
19:09And the world is just a little topsy-turvy that maybe people should be considering if they're going shopping, maybe they buy two of something that they use a lot instead of one thing, you know, an extra if they can afford it and put it away for the future. And medicines, my husband takes a medicine that is prescribed, my son takes a very important medicine that's prescribed.
19:37get down to the very last of your medicines, stay on top of your prescriptions, that kind of thing. So what would you suggest for being on top of things as much as you can be right now? Well, my husband and I were having a conversation the other evening about just that thing, medication, and the problem with prepping or storing up prescription meds is that you can't get...
20:06your medication refilled until you almost ran out of what you have. And so yes, making sure that your medicines are always, that you always have them on hand, definitely. But that's why I went off into trying to find natural things that were sort of comparable to what I'm taking. Like other things I can use for the rheumatoid arthritis.
20:36or for pain because you may not always be able to stock up enough of your prescription meds to get you through. If something happens and the pharmacy was closed and you couldn't get it, well what do you use in place of that? Is what we have been looking at. That makes sense. Yes, absolutely.
21:01And I'm not saying stock up for a year. I'm just saying don't get to the point where you have two tablets left and there's a blizzard coming your way and you can't get to the pharmacy. No, absolutely not. Um, I just lost my train of thought. Um, it happens. Yeah. The other thing you were, you just mentioned, you know, if you're going to the grocery store, instead of getting one or something, uh, get two or three, or if you find something on sale to get that because
21:31A lot of people who they, you can still stock up even if you don't grow from grocery store items. For instance, I use Azure standard. And we order a lot of things from there. We know it's good quality food. It doesn't have the antibiotics, herbicides and pesticides in it. And so we order in bulk from there.
22:00And I ordered some rice not long ago and we used mylar bags to separate that and put it in. So we've probably got rice and beans enough to last us for maybe a year and a half. So yes, buying in bulk or stocking up on things that you find on sale is definitely a good way to go. Yes. And since you mentioned
22:29rice and beans. Here's the thing that I want people to know about if things go real bad and you have to live on what you have in your home or on your property, the variety of foods is going to be real slim because you're not going to just be able to go to the store and get something that's completely out of season. So what I would suggest is if you have to live on pasta, beans and rice and whatever you manage to store in a
22:57a canning jar, like if you can meat, that meat is not the same as a steak on the grill. You need to have seasonings. You need to have salt. You need to have pepper. You need to have herbs that are dried. You can grow herbs and dry herbs and put them in canning jars that are sealed tight and they will last for over a year. And they taste way better than the ones you buy at the store. So there are things that you can do to plan ahead.
23:27for if you're stuck in your house for three days because a blizzard comes through, an ice storm comes through, and you literally can't drive anywhere. But there are also things you can do to handle like a week and a half without power. I just have had this on my heart so much because my daughter just moved to Florida last winter. Wow, wow. And so she was in St. Petersburg through Helene and Mark and what was it, Melvin?
23:55Milton, Milton, Milton, a couple weeks ago. And I was quite beside myself with worry about her and come to find out she and her husband live on one of the highest points in St. Petersburg. So they were fine, but they could have just as easily not been fine. And when, when the first one was announced, when Helene was mentioned on the news a week before it hit, I messaged her and I said, are you prepared for this?
24:26And she said, oh, yeah. And like three days before it was coming, I said, my darling daughter, are you prepared for this? And she said, well, yeah, we've got. And I said, you need to have bottled water. You need to have stuff that you could eat out of the can or the package without heating it up. If the power goes out and your water doesn't work, you need those things. I said, I raised you better than this. And she's like.
24:55We're going to the store tomorrow. I'm like, good, please do. I'm really worried about you. Helene was a cakewalk. They were totally fine. Milton was a little worse. They were out without power and water for a week, I think. And they were, they were better than lots of people who went through both of those hurricanes, but she thanked me.
25:19later, she was like, thank you for reminding me that you used to draw water when there was a storm coming and you used to do all these things. I'm like, yes, there's a reason that we prepare for emergencies. So she was quite reminded of why that is. I certainly can relate to that. My daughter, my oldest, who's 41, she teases me all the time, Mom, if something happens, we're going to come out there.
25:49You guys are gonna take care of us, like, no, dear. You and your husband need to learn how to do these things. And although she really doesn't participate much, the awesome thing, Mary, is that the grandchildren are interested. And they come out and spend time and they're learning these things.
26:15They're learning what to do and how to do it. And they're learning from my husband and I. But you're absolutely correct. Being prepared is very important. And we are trying to do that, as you were saying, drying herbs and things to season with. There are Mylar bags. There are food-grade containers you can use to store stuff in.
26:43You use some of those oxygen absorbers and put those in. There's a lot you can do to prepare yourself for all types of situations. My husband and I are currently looking into solar because yeah, what if the electric goes out? What are we going to do? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, our generator has a dead battery right now.
27:12And my husband told me this two evenings ago. And I said, you are going to get a new battery for that, right? And he said, yes. And I said, okay, good, because I don't want to go into the middle of winter with no alternative power source. And he said, no, no, I'm going to get a battery for it this weekend and get it put in. And I was like, great. And then they started predicting two days ago. So that same day, they told me the battery was dead, that we were going to get snow today. And
27:41I was like, please God, don't let the power go out today. Because if it does. Have you noticed that happen recently? The power went out last winter for like four hours, but the generator had a battery, so it was fine. And it kicks on. As soon as the power has been off for like four or five minutes, the generator just automatically kicks on and sends the power to the house. It's amazing. So I. Yeah.
28:11Yeah, the whole house just runs just like if it was the power from the electric company. It's fantastic. And so of course, last night I'm laying in bed thinking, please don't let the power go out tomorrow because the generator's dead. But you know what, Marie? I hear a little bit of, you know, please don't let the power go out because the battery's dead. I think...
28:39We don't want to, or at least I don't want to, I don't want to scare people. I mean, it's important to do what we're doing, but I think if when we're prepared, it puts our mind at ease so that we can focus on focus on other things. Um, and I don't want to veer off topic here, but, uh, I know that.
29:04since my husband and I have started doing this and actually not just doing it as a hobby, it's become a way of life that we seem to be a little less worried about things. We can enjoy life more because we know that in the event something happens that we are probably one of the few families who can make it through.
29:32and hopefully help someone else. Yes, absolutely. And before you go any further, the reason I didn't want the power to go out wasn't because I was worried about the power going out. I really wanted to talk to you today. If the power had gone out, I wouldn't have been able to use my computer to connect with you. You're absolutely correct. That was part of the reason why I was like, I really wanna talk to her tomorrow. I really would like the computer to work.
30:00If the power was out, I wouldn't be talking to you, number one. And number two, we have hurricane lamps and we have leggings and sweaters and blankets if it got cold in the house. And we have water and we have food that I could heat up on our gas stove because with a gas stove, you can turn the burner thingy on and light it with a lighter and it works. I wasn't worried about it for actually surviving it. I just wanted to talk to you. Well, thank you so much.
30:29I'm glad you said that. Now we don't have a gas stove. We are a total electric here, which I don't like, but what we have done is prepared or built alternative things outside that we can cook on. Learning how to make a stove out of things that we find around the house. Learning those things. So if you don't have gas.
30:59and your power does go out, that you do have another way to cook. So that's what we're doing here. Yes, and some of us have like 18,000 ways to cook and that's a big journey, big, big stretch. We have, we have a old tire rim from a tractor that the former owner left here that they use as a burn ring. Yes.
31:27We don't actually use that anymore. We did start a fire in it when we first moved here and it was really fun. And you can put a grate over that and cook over that. And we did, we made percolator coffee on it and we made burgers and hot dogs on it, cause it was fun. We have an actual really pretty fire ring that we bought the second summer we were here. And that has a grate on it for cooking as well. We have one of the little folding
31:57fire stands, I don't know what they're called, they look like a notebook and they open up in a V and you can put wood and stuff in there and start a fire in there and it has a grate. If you have fire and a way to keep it contained, you have a way to cook. Absolutely. And I'm glad you said that because this past weekend, that's why I haven't done any videos. It's been maybe two weeks since I've done a video.
32:25The reason I have in it is I was preparing for an event that we had this past Saturday. We actually had a visit the farm sort of day and we taught people how to cook outside. The kids were making hot dogs on alternative heating sources outside. Just being able to share that.
32:53with the younger generation. I mean, we made it a day of fun and they had a great time, but our whole purpose for doing that, having that event that day was so that people can learn, you know, in a fun, entertaining way. And I think they did. And I think quite a few of the younger folks actually took something away that they could use. And so, yeah, just sharing with our community.
33:21what we do in a fun way. You know, because if you learn, if you're learning and it's fun, you'll probably remember what you learned and be able to use it. Should you need it? Yes. And I'm glad you said that because you don't want to be learning how to start a fire when you need a fire. You want to know how to do it before you need it.
33:49So I love your heart. I love that you did that because there's so many people who are like, oh, I could start a fire if I needed to. And then they're trying to do it in a panic. And it's not as easy as you would think. It's not just sticking a lighter under some newspaper. Right. All right. So. So yeah, I love what you're doing. I'm so.
34:11Happy that you took the time to talk with me today Valerie. I'm gonna I'm gonna let you go because I try to keep these To half an hour and we're almost 35 minutes because it's been So fun talking to you. Thank you again George speaking with you Thanks for the opportunity and you know, I hope to talk to you again in the future We'll have to talk in the spring. I'm gonna try that it sounds wonderful. In fact, and I know we've got to go
34:36In the spring, we will actually start teaching classes here on the property, how to do these things we've been talking about. So yeah. Fun. Let's do that. Probably like end of April. Sounds great, Mary. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye.
 

FarmHer

Today I'm talking with Kirbe Schnoor at FarmHer. You can also follow on Facebook.
"FarmHer is all about the women who love the land, care for their community, and feed the people."
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
00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 Kirby Schnoor, which is really hard to pronounce, at FarmHer. Good morning, Kirby. How are you? Good morning. I'm great. Thank you for having me on. Oh, thank you for coming because I have lots of questions and you're going to be an amazing person to get them answered.
00:29Uh, so first question is, are you based in Nebraska or is FarmHer based in Nebraska? Well I'm based in Fort Worth, Texas. And FarmHer is kind of based all over, I would say most of our crew, our two videographers, editors, producer, they're all in Nashville at our offices there and studio there. And then we have offices in a studio here in Fort Worth and then we have office space in Omaha as well. Okay.
00:58My stepson lives in Nebraska. So when I saw Nebraska on the website or the Facebook page for FarmHer, I was like, oh, Nebraska, here we go again. Okay. So tell me about yourself and what you do regarding FarmHer and tell me about FarmHer. Awesome. Well, thank you again for having me on to talk about this. I grew up in a farming family in the Central Valley of California, a tiny town called Chochilla.
01:27It's based in between Fresno and Modesto. And then if they don't know those places, sometimes they'll say Bakersfield. Bakersfield is about three hours south of us. But I say in between LA and San Francisco, right? But it's all the heart of agriculture in the center of California. And I grew up, my mom's side of the family, they farmed in ranch and my dad's side of the family, they farmed.
01:56Yeah, so it's just been a multi-generational thing that's carried on in our families. We used to farm a lot more diverse crops. And over the years, given land and regulations, prices, you name it, in California, kind of had to go into one main thing and make it a bigger production. And so my family mainly now farms almonds, and we do hay as well. But we used to back in the day do corn and alfalfa and tomatoes.
02:24as well as almonds and hay and cotton. And so it's just interesting that I was able to grow up exposed to all of that and the diversity. And like I said, it's changed over the years, but still, yeah, everyone in my family, for the most part, is involved in the farming aspect. And I went to college at Fresno State in California, and I majored in mass communications and journalism.
02:52emphasis in broadcast journalism and I said, oh my gosh, I'm never going to go into TV. I loved writing and I just didn't know what I really wanted to do. I didn't want to do a local network or local news station and hard news and things like that. But I found a place for me here in Fort Worth, Texas working at Superior Livestock Auction and they were the nation's leader in livestock marketing cattle via…
03:20satellite and television. It was started by two gentlemen who grew up on our group ranching and they partnered with Patrick Gotch. They actually helped Patrick Gotch kind of get his start, Jim O'Dell did back in the day because Patrick, who is the founder and CEO and sadly had passed away earlier this year, he founded RFD TV and then which led into the Cowboy Channel and Cowgirl Channel as well.
03:47He grew up in a farming family in Nebraska. And so that's where the roots of Nebraska and Omaha come from. Okay. But yeah, so I got my start with Superior Livestock and they didn't have a place for me. I started answering the telephone and working on the bid line and there it spiraled into some of their television shows that they did. And that still air to this day on RFD TV. And so I worked closely with RFD TV, never directly until several years ago.
04:16I made the transition when they decided to open up the branch in Fort Worth called the Cowboy Channel. I helped get that started and I've been with RFD and the Cowboy Channel ever since. I basically have been with RFD since the start of my career, 2012, 2013. The two connected. I grew up showing livestock with my sisters. We had a cattle company, still do called Schnorr Sisters. We showed cattle throughout the United States.
04:45And it was really fun and coming from the farming background with my family, running cattle, raising cattle, I was exposed to quite a bit. And when we started the Cowboy Channel, the original creator of FarmHer, she wanted to branch off into rancher as well. And so she said, she was so great. And she's like, her name's Margie. And she said, Kirby, would you host this? And so I said, sure.
05:15And so it seemed like an easy fit and it was fun and, you know, it was a whirlwind of a year and got to travel to different ranches across the United States. And then Margie, you know, life happens and she had different career opportunities become available and her kids are getting older. So she didn't want to travel as much. And she sold the brand to farm her to Raquel Gotch Keller, one of Patrick's daughters. And Raquel was like, hey, you ready to do this again? And so.
05:44It's been fun myself and then Janie Johnson, host rancher. And I've been able to kind of transition and go to farms across the United States and really take me back to my roots and talk to, you know, the people who I like to say feed and lead the world. Okay. Wow. That's all that I just gave you. No, that's amazing. So my first question is what does RFD stand for? Roll free delivery.
06:14So, back in the day, that's kind of how it was out in rural America. And so, yeah, I, you know, that's the name that Patrick came up with. Rural free delivery. Yes. Okay, cool. And then my other question before we get into what farmer is, farm her is, I keep saying farmer and it's not farmer, it's farm her, H-E-R. It's farmer, yeah.
06:40Okay, tell me about how FarmHer got started. Was it the daughter that you were talking about that started FarmHer? Well, it got started Margie. She was the creator and starter of FarmHer. And truthfully, she was fascinated by the agriculture industry and then more specifically fascinated by the females in it. And Margie started taking pictures and created a digital space to tell these women's stories.
07:09basically through pictures. She's a great photographer as well. And so that's what she did. She started telling their stories on Instagram and Facebook and even a website. And then her and Raquel, which is one of the daughters, Gotch daughters, they got together and Raquel's like, we can, this could be a TV show. And so it evolved from there. And that is basically how it got started, just telling the stories of women involved in agriculture.
07:39Not to take away from the men, right? But sometimes what we have found over the years, I would say, especially like when I was doing Ranch Her and now more specifically Farm Her, but Margie was even doing it, you know, women are more eager to talk about, you know, the land, the adversity, the practices, the politics, you name it, the family aspect. And men, they're just, you know, sometimes they're a little quieter. They don't.
08:08doing the work and, you know, living on the land and not advocating as much for the industry, I would say it's not that they don't, it's just, you know, females will take the first step in doing that. And there's a lot of female farmers out there that do it alongside men, do it with the help of men. But then there's a lot that do it on their own too. And I think that Margie and Raquel both were fascinated by that and telling those stories. And so we've just been able to carry that on.
08:38and tell the stories once Margie decided to sell the brand outright to Raquel to just be more at home with family because it's a time commitment. We're traveling and we travel to as many states as we can. And we try to get a story told in a day and a half, but it's a 30 minute television show and there's so much that goes into it. And we're doing 13 episodes at least a year. And we're trying to do the industry justice, do the women justice.
09:07And so there's a lot on the pre-production and post-production side. So yeah. Okay. The thing that I have learned by doing this podcast for over a year now is that women are the communicators. I interview more women than I do men because women tend to be the ones who say yes. And they are the ones who have the many, many words that they want to get out to be heard. Men are harder.
09:36there have been two men I've interviewed that have been very reticent and very one-sentence answers and I've really had to dig and push to get them to open up. So yes, women are the communicators. We are the owner of all the words. You've said it perfectly. And that's, again, nothing to take away from the men. That's our genetic makeup, right? Yep. Yep, absolutely.
10:05I am so glad that that's true, although I've talked to some men who were very chatty and very communicative and really, really good sources of information that was easy to listen to. So men are not excluded from being communicators. It's just that women tend to be the more communicative verbally than men are. That's all there is to it. Exactly. Okay.
10:35farmer. Is there a lot of we need to do makeup and hair or can they just be themselves? They can just be themselves. There's a lot that goes into, like I said, pre-production and I will save you all the time for the podcast and not go into that. Several calls, video calls that lead up to going to a farm and speaking with a female. But really what we try to encompass when we are there is a day in the life.
11:05of the female farmer. We let her know she probably won't get as much work as she typically would get done on a normal day without cameras all around her because, you know, they're starting, they're stopping, there's, okay, wait, tell me that story again. And really like getting instead of going through, I would say an activity is what we call it, but going through the motion, you know, they have to do it much slower and really more detailed and refined for us.
11:33We want them to be who they are in their space, and that's exactly what they do. Now we do have a sit down interview portion that we say, if you would like to get dressed up or do whatever, look however you would like, feel free to do that. And some women love to do that because they're like, it's nice to show that, hey, I do actually get a shower and at the end of the day and blow dry my hair and do it and put makeup on, especially if they're not like that every day.
12:01So we give them that opportunity as well. And it just gets to show the female, especially in her space, wearing the many different hats that she does, especially if they're mothers or daughters or sisters or aunts, their wives, their friends, right? They help out in the community or sometimes they're in a very remote place and they're like, I don't have time for makeup. I don't have time to change out of this button down because I'm not going anywhere. This is my everyday 24 seven.
12:27But then there's some women who are like, I've got to make it to the PTA, you know, school board meetings. So it's nice to let them be able to really showcase that. I am so glad that was your answer. I am going to be 55, Monday, November 4th. And I'm not having a hard time with 55. I did not really have a hard time with 30 or 40 or 50 as well. I feel like I am...
12:55grateful to still be alive and still be healthy. And I'm definitely going gray and getting wrinkles and the whole bit. And I don't love it when women are told to be on camera, you must be coifed and foofed and made up. I just don't. I feel like aging is a natural process and that it should be embraced and recognized. And it makes me nuts when
13:24These women who are 70 look like they're 45. Yeah. And, you know, I know that that's just our society, especially this day and age, right, with all of our digital platforms that we have and the spaces to share things. I think there's that whole knick and knack of, you know, trying to, I don't want to say be something we're not, but just to like fulfill that space of what we think we need to be.
13:54And I find it so refreshing to go out on these farms and ranches. And there's some women who wake up every morning and they do put their makeup on. They do do their hair and they're like, I don't look like this at the end of the day, but it made them feel empowered and, you know, personally to do that every day, going out just on a ranch or farm, even if they don't see anybody. And then there's some women who don't get – they don't do that and they don't have to or they do. And like I said, they have to run into town because they sit on the city council.
14:23And it's really just great to show all those sides and roles. Yes, exactly. And I am absolutely not saying that women who want to do makeup and hair and wear a dress shouldn't. I think you should be you. Do whatever you want to do. I don't think that women should be forced into trying to look 25 years younger than they are if they don't want to. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. And I think that was a great question that you asked because I'm…
14:53I know there's a lot of, you know, television's different and we're almost like a reality show in a way. But you know, there's a, especially when you're turning on your camera, I, you know, you feel like you need to be done in a way. I think we've put that pressure on ourselves and other women. And I think it's nice and refreshing. We as a network and we as a show, we don't put that on these females.
15:23Thank you. Thank you so much for not doing that. Yeah, absolutely. It's not for me too, I'm like, I could just throw my hair in a bun. This is great. Absolutely. I think that we all need to be who we are. And if we feel like crap one day, we get our act together and we go do the job we're committed to do. But it doesn't mean we have to look like a princess doing it. Exactly. Yep. Okay. So...
15:50How do you go about finding the people that you're going to have be on the show? We get a lot of just by other sharing, by word of mouth, I would say. And then we have a submission form on our website and we get tons and tons of submissions daily from the state of Maine to down in Arizona, to the state of Washington, down to the state in Florida.
16:19And it's fascinating, women of all ages, properties of all sizes. And so we are very fortunate that people will go to farmher.com and fill out the submission form and submit it, I should say. And then people will constantly email any of us about individuals or, you know, word of mouth, just call, they'll call the Cowboy Channel, they'll call RFD, they'll let people know.
16:49And yeah, so we are very fortunate that we get that. And we do our own research too as a team. We're constantly researching people throughout the United States as well. But you know, not everybody is on the internet, especially if you're in a remote or rural place. So it's great when people refer others and let us know about people. Cool. So, so how do you whittle it down? I mean, if you're getting that many options, how in the world do you choose places?
17:20That's a very challenging part because we have so many, we can't wait to go show and tell their stories. It usually is based on location and where we have gone before and like the timing of if we have two weeks to get out there. There's a lot of logistics that go into it, I should just say, and timing of the year, what we need to showcase and the diversity of what we can showcase. So we'll kind of...
17:48pick a location and see if there's good three or four women that are diverse enough within, you know, whether it's driving distance, sometimes just flying to shoot those three or four different shows. And so basically, it really does. It's all based on logistics and location and we go from there. Okay, cool. All right. I still can't remember the question I was going to ask you when we started talking. I'm still spinning, but it's not there.
18:19So when these farmhers find out that you're going to come and get them on camera and do a show about them, is it like all kinds of different reactions or is it one, oh my god, really reaction? I mean, are there any that are your favorites? There is lots of different reactions, to be honest. There's some that are like, no, no, you don't want to showcase me. Surely there is someone better. Let me give you the names of five other people. And that's happened quite a bit.
18:48I've had two good friends, their families run farms and it's not that they wanted to be on camera, but they just were like, oh, there's way more qualified people, way better stories, all this stuff. And so it's just so funny the different reactions that you get. Most are completely honored and flabbergasted by the fact they're like, really? What I do is just what I do. It's what I know. And they are instantly surprised, I think.
19:17by how their story does transform into really this piece of art. And it's like what you do is really amazing. And we just are so thankful and grateful to be able to tell their story and tell others about them as people and what they do. And so yeah, their reactions are typically I don't want to say standoffish, but a little like, are you sure? You know, second guessing, like, are you sure you want to tell the stories of us?
19:46And then obviously they're just, they're proud I think at the end and not in a, not in a snotty proud way. They're proud of their work. They're proud of their commitment to this industry and to the people that get to, you know, live off of it and enjoy it and the fruits of their labor. So it's really fun. Okay. So do you have a favorite reaction of anyone or not? Who? I'm trying to think.
20:15Honestly, there is a really fun reaction of one that I've had. And it was my first episode that aired this first season. And it's Megan Shanley, Shanley Farms out in California. And I got connected with her through a friend and they farm a really unique thing called finger limes. And they also farm avocados or Morro Bay. So they sit on this hillside and you could see the ocean.
20:43You could see the coast of California from their farm and it's just stunning. But her and her husband do it all. They were in real estate. Her mom passed away several years ago and her dad just a few years ago by an accident in Costa Rica. She has taken over her dad's and her family, like what they were doing, farming operation with her husband.
21:12I just think her reaction was like, are you sure? I know what we do is crazy, but I don't even… She goes, I'm just learning the ropes. I don't even know what I'm doing. So I just loved her reaction. And we keep in touch with all of our farmhers for the most part. We try to. We check in on them. They check in on us. It's really great. And I know that after the episode aired, and she's talked about the struggles of being able to keep that land and what they were going to do and going to the bank and getting
21:41owning land and farming. And recently, I just saw that they were able to get one of the loans that they needed and to continue on the legacy that her dad had started. And so, again, like from the reaction of being on the show to now she's seeing, you know, people were purchasing because they had never heard of Finger Limes. I hadn't. And, you know, just knowing more brand awareness for her company and her farm is just really great that, you know.
22:11they're able to continue it on. Because that was a really big scare for her. She's like, this is going to air and I don't even know if we'll still be in business. Uh-huh. So yeah. Yeah. Actually, that leads me to a thing. I have had a couple of people that I've interviewed on the podcast who have had some unfortunate things happen since I interviewed them. Yeah. Like two or three of them in the last six months.
22:37And I had a moment the other day where I was like, maybe I shouldn't do this anymore because I feel like I'm jinxing them. Have you had people have bad things happen after they've been on the show? Yeah. One, she wasn't able to continue on her farm in Tennessee. And so she was closing operations. She had those feelings before.
23:07filming the episode, but she was just hopeful, I think, too. Again, the cost of everything that goes into farming is quite taxing on a person and their pocketbook. As far as the show having negative impact on any of the farmers or anything like that, I know your podcast obviously hasn't had negative things on the individuals you interviewed. It hasn't been directly correlated with…
23:36the show. We always tell the farmers, especially with our network, obviously our viewers, they want to see things like this. We're shedding light on these individuals and what they do in the most positive light. And we would never show any practice or them in any negative way that would negatively harm their operation or the industry. And so fortunately for us, you know,
24:05if things have turned negative for them, it's because of, you know, what's going on in our country, to be quite honest. Yeah. And maybe I didn't phrase the question right. I wasn't saying that your show caused the negative impact. I just, when I saw these couple of things come through from people that I've talked to, I was like, oh my God, I feel like I'm...
24:29I don't know, bringing some kind of dark cloud over this and I'm not, I know I'm not, but it's really hard when you get to know. You get that pressure on yourself, right? Because you're wanting to share the stories of all these individuals and what they're doing because you're so passionate about it. You believe in what they're doing and you want others to hear their stories and I totally understand what and then you kind of put that, you take it upon yourself to be like, oh gosh, maybe if I just...
24:57let them live or let them or didn't you know, I totally understand. Yeah. But I mean, if you're not letting people have a voice on this platform, who else is? Mm hmm. Yeah. And that's where I landed. But it's really difficult when you do this kind of thing, your situation, my situation here with the podcast, you get to know these people and you get to care about these people and you kind of stay in contact. And
25:26when something rolls through your Facebook feed about someone you have built a relationship with that isn't good news, you're like, oh no, you know, your heart sinks. And that's just because we're carrying human beings because obviously I wouldn't be doing this podcast if I didn't care about people and you wouldn't be doing what you're doing if you didn't care about people. Yep, you're exactly right. It's hard though, but like you said, because it's, you take it personal for yourself too when...
25:55things don't work out for them because you've gotten to know them and you know their story and you're just so hopeful that they get to keep doing what they love. And sometimes that's just not the case and it's gut wrenching. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it really is. And especially when, I don't know if you've had this experience, but I've had a couple where people are just so excited.
26:21about what they're doing. It is just rolling into my ears through my headphones. And they're so happy and so lit up. And then something bad happens. And it's like, oh, oh, I hate that. So yeah, it's tough, but it's the way things are. Life was never no one ever said life was a bowl of cherries. It's not. It's a struggle sometimes. So
26:45Anyway, we could do that all day, but we're not doing Psychology 101. This is not the podcast for that. I'm sure there's one out there, but mine is not it. So how long have you been doing the FarmHer? So Margie who started, created the brand, she's been doing it. She did it for over five years. So several seasons.
27:15And I believe I started the sixth or seventh season. She might have done it six seasons and I started the seventh. And yeah, so we've been doing it quite some time. And really, again, it started with Margie and I have just been in the industry and working for RFD and telling stories of, you know, all agriculturists and then, you know, rodeo, cowboys, you name it. And then when Margie decided to spend more time at home and go a different direction in her career.
27:44that's when I took over the FarmHer show, I would say. Okay, so is FarmHer looking like it's gonna just keep on rolling or is there an end date for any of this? That's a great question. As of now, we keep on rolling because there's so many stories to tell. March is Women's Month and we go in so many different directions sometimes of
28:12wanting to expand and not wanting anyone to be left out of, you know, women in agriculture and farming and ranching and with our two shows that we have. But we also know it's like, we wanna tell the men's stories as well. But there's other platforms to do that and there's other ways in our network space to do that as well. So to answer your question, we have no time or we have no plans of stopping the show anytime soon.
28:40And as long as the stories keep coming in and the people part of the project want to keep working on it, and our lovely sponsors want to keep sponsoring, we will continue to do the show. Okay. And since you brought up sponsors, who are your sponsors? We've got some great sponsors. So we have Nationwide, who's a sponsor. We have Yeti. We have... Oh my gosh, they're all... It's going to...
29:09slipped through my mind. I'm trying to think like, we have so many. We have John Deere, we have, oh gosh, we have handfuls and handfuls. They'll keep coming to me. Now that you asked me that question, I should have been prepared for that. No, that's okay. I'll have to think of more of them. But yeah, we have a lot of great sponsors within the industry, outside of the industry that support what we do. And it's really great. But it's again,
29:36They, you know, their businesses, their corporations are directly affected by, I would say by the shows, by the people on the shows. And so any way that they can be a part of it, they, you know, they want to be. That's amazing. Fantastic. I have some more. That's right. Cavenders, St. Claes, Bayer, Berner Ingelheim, New Dart, yeah, John Deere and Yeti. And so...
30:04Again, just a nationwide, they sponsor a lot of awareness things that we do across the country, whether it's a part of the TV show or not, they'll put on events and have us there and make sure, you know, ATV safety is a huge thing, grain vent safety and things like that. Awesome. So it's not just, this is going to sound terrible. It's not just that they want people to hear about them and go spend money with them. It's that they're trying to help too. Yep. Correct.
30:32Yeah, because all of, I mean, they could submit females that they know of and things like that but they don't have any, they just, you know, have a presence on the show in the sense of being a sponsor and a funder of the show which is really fantastic. So I have one more question then we'll probably wrap it up because I try to keep these to half an hour.
30:57Who do you think your audience is? Do you think it's people who are farming? Or do you think it's people who are just interested in how it works? Or do you think it's both? I would say that it's mainly people who are farming. But we've seen shifts based on episodes, too, right? We have over the last year to two years, we have gotten a big shift of people that
31:28COVID changed that. And I'm sure you could understand that people wanted to get back to their roots because of COVID. They wanted to get back to living off the land, understanding how to care for themselves, whether that's growing their own food and just kind of taking care of themselves and in a wide open space. And not everybody's fortunate enough to have a farm or a ranch, but like, again, we showcase people with who are starting out too with garden size.
31:57plots and hoping to grow one day. And then we showcase people who are literally putting their products in the grocery stores that we are all seeing on our dinner plates. So to go back and not get too lengthy with my words, which I can tend to do, I think our transition of viewers, especially when it's FarmHer or even RFD TV in general and the Cowboy Channel has shifted since 2020 because of those reasons, because of COVID.
32:25And they're wanting to just connect with easeability in a way and just being able to care for themselves. And I think that's what's been interesting. So yeah, we're having more and more, I should say, a mix. Yes, it's farmers who are watching, but it's more people who are just curious. And again, it's one of those things, especially with ranchers, it's beautiful. It's vast landscapes through Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, and Louisiana, Texas, Florida, you name it.
32:54We are human beings, right? We're nosy people. We like to see what other people have. And so with that, we have attracted a lot of viewers, whether it's because of the Yellowstone era, and we're thankful for that. People like seeing how other people live their lives and what it takes to live their lives. And like I said, to be just frank, what other people have. And so it's drawn in this audience of curiosity.
33:20from outside of the rural communities, which I think is interesting because we're also educating them. Yes, believe me, I understand that people are nosy. I'm one of them. That's why I do the podcast the way I do it. All right, Kirby, thank you so much for your time today. I really, you have no idea how much I appreciate it. Absolutely. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. Yeah, this is really fun. Have a great day. Okay, thank you.
 

Blue Star Farm

Today I'm talking with Paul at Blue Star Farm.
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
00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 Paul at Blue Star Farm. Good morning, Paul. How are you? I am doing very well. Thank you. Good. So tell me about yourself and how this all got started because you have a lot of things that you guys do at the farm.
00:30Well, I purchased this property back in 2016. I had been farming full-time and, oh gosh, I guess I started in 1993, actually. I was in a dairy business for a number of years and moved on to a couple other career paths for a while. And then I purchased this property and decided it'd be fun to play around with an apple orchard. I also grow some other vegetables, pumpkins, popcorn.
01:00gourds and do a little bit of hay as well. So this is a part-time venture. I have a full-time day job as well at the moment. But most recently, I opened up a storefront where currently I make sweet cider and I'm in the process of getting licensed to make hard cider. Hard cider is the best. It doesn't give me a headache. Most beer gives me a headache, but hard cider does not. Okay.
01:29So why? Why did you get into this? Well, it started off as kind of a little bit of a hobby, the hard center in particular. And there seems to be a market for it and I thought it would be a nice project to work on. I am not too far away, well a few years probably, from not having to have to have that day job.
01:59can't sit still very long so I figured I'd create some kind of business keep me occupied and something that would be fun and make them hard cider and having people enjoy it is it's a good time for me for sure. Absolutely. So you're in Sharon Springs New York are you I don't want to offend you but I'm gonna ask are you near the Beekman boys guys?
02:26I am not too far away. The farm that they purchased is about two miles south of the village of Sharon Springs here. Their flagship store is located in the downtown portion of our little village here and that is less than a mile from where I'm setting right now. And actually the building that I recently acquired where I'm starting my cider operation, Beekman 1802, used that as a warehouse for their product for a number of years.
02:56So, thank you very much.
03:00Very nice. The reason I said I don't want to offend you is because I've heard two sides of a coin about them. That they came in and made Sharon Springs not a small town anymore and made people mad. And the other side of the coin is that they came in and got Sharon Springs on the map. So I don't know which side of the coin you're on.
03:22Well, honestly, Sharon Springs had been on a map for a number of years as a tourist destination for the mineral baths. It was in direct competition with Saratoga Springs, New York. And unfortunately, Saratoga had a little bit more going for it. They kind of won that battle, I guess you could say. But eventually, prior to Beekman 1802 coming to life here in the village,
03:50There had been a resurgence, our former mayor, he and his husband had opened up several businesses in this area and they had, and actually I think their influence is why some others had relocated here, such as the folks that took over the Beekman farm, so it's been a long, slow process.
04:15Okay.
04:18Yes, and we haven't been home to Maine in a while. My parents live in Maine and I'm in Minnesota. So when we drive back, I don't fly. So we always do a road trip. So when we go through New York, I always see the sign for Sharon Springs on the highway that we're on. And I'm like, we should go to Sharon Springs someday. And my husband's like, the only reason you wanna go to Sharon Springs is to go to the Beekman store. And I'm like, well, yeah.
04:48And we haven't done it yet, but someday maybe we'll do it
04:54Okay, I do know they've got limited hours, so I think they're not open. They used to be open seven days a week there. I believe they're only open Friday through Sunday. I can't say for a fact, but you'd have to check their website.
05:10Yes, and I don't have any plans to do a road trip in the next couple of years. So we're good for now. But it's just, it's funny because when I saw Sharon Springs, I was like, I wonder if that's the Sharon Springs. And so it is. Okay, so, so you're doing this as your retirement plan, basically, from the sounds of it. So you're not going to retire, you're going to keep working.
05:36That is correct.
05:40Yeah, I think that's the case for a lot of us who are over 50 at this point. I don't think any of us who are over 50 are like, you know, retirement sounds great. I don't think retirement sounds great. I think that I want to be doing a podcast. I want my husband to keep doing what he loves to do, which is growing a farm to market garden and raising chickens and trying to keep our barn cats from making more barn cats and you know, that kind of stuff, because I feel like
06:10Anyone over 50 was raised in a time frame where we were taught that we can do anything we want to do.
06:19I would have to agree. It's one of those things where I've always, like I said, I've always been active. I've got all kinds of hobbies, actually. But being someone who started on the farm when I was in high school working for a neighbor and had some cousins, my father grew up on a farm. I did not. But it's one of those things. It was of great interest to me. And I just, I find it a...
06:46As much physical work as it is, I find it somewhat relaxing. I know that sounds a little bit strange, but I just like being busy.
06:56Yeah, and it keeps you active, which means that your body doesn't start to give up on you. That's a big part of it. I think, you know, as someone in the upper end of the 50s here, I find that if I sit still too long, things start stiffening up and that's just not a good feeling. So I'm going to keep moving as long as I can.
07:18Yes, it downright sucks to wake up in the morning and be like, did I even get any rest? I don't feel like I slept because you know, you wake up and you're still.
07:29Exactly. Yeah. So I saw on your Facebook page that you have goats. You still have goats?
07:40Yeah, I've got two little goats right now. We started off with three, unfortunately, one did not survive last winter. But yeah, we had Larry, Curly and Moe. Moe was the unfortunate one. Shortly after he came to the farm here, he had an infected tooth that impacted the way he was able to chew after the fact, and he wasn't able to chew his cud properly. And he just could not gain weight.
08:08It was not a good situation for the poor little guy. But the other two, they are out in their little pen there. Their little pastor just having a grand old time today, sitting there in the sun, doing what little goats do, jumping up on rocks and climbing trees. They're trying to climb trees. Anywhere to get a better vantage point is where they're headed. So are they just entertainment, or do they have a job?
08:34Their job is to entertain me and they are quite efficient with that. I sit there and giggle at the silly things they do all day long. Nothing like watching the goats when they're running around. They got that little hype to them sometimes. They are very, very entertaining in my mind. And I'm not really much on reincarnation and all that, but if it ever does come to that, I want to come back as a little goat because they always seem to be having a really good time.
09:02I want to come back as a pampered house cat. That's what I want to come back as. I have worked a lot. I've raised four kids. I have done all kinds of things. And I think it would be lovely to just have humans who fed me and petted me and let me sleep whenever I wanted to. I think that would be a great job.
09:23Yeah, I think that's probably not a bad thing.
09:33Mm-hmm. So, I don't know what to ask you. I'm stumped for the moment. So what's the purpose of the farm? Is it just that you needed a hobby that's going to become your retirement business? Or is it that you felt called to have a farm? Or what?
10:00Well, as I said, I had been farming full time for a number of years. I always enjoyed it. And when we purchased this property, I thought it would be an ideal location. I had to start a little apple orchard and do a little bit of, you know, fresh vegetables and that type of stuff. Again, it was a...
10:22One of those things where I know I want to stay busy and I enjoy that type of work. And it kind of de-stresses me from the day job on occasion. So, yeah, that was kind of the intent here. And actually when I started this place, I was working at a college and I had the summers off and it's like, well, I'll have all kinds of free time to work on the farm. So of course that, that changed a little bit, made a career change. And I.
10:51still manage to do it nights and weekends. And again, it helps relieve my personal stress. And, you know, if I can add a little bit to the community here, that's all part of it as well. Kind of a farm area that we're in and we have a fair amount of tourist trade. We're not too far from Cooperstown, New York, which is a big draw for visitors. My farm is located right on the US Route 20, which has got a scenic highway designation here in New York.
11:20So we've got a lot of traffic here it seems and I thought it would be kind of nice to bring a little bit more to the village of Sharon Springs. The farm is actually located right on the edge of the village. Part of our property is within the village limits. So we live here, try to make it a little bit nicer.
11:41Okay, since you said part of the farm is within village limits, is village limits the same thing as city limits? Because we moved, we moved so we got out of city limits four years ago because city limits limited us on what we could do. So do does the part of the property that's within the village limits have different rules than the part that isn't?
12:07There are some different rules, but it depends on how much acreage total parcel is. And our rules are probably not too different than some other larger cities, I guess. They don't want you to have ten roosters in the quarter acre lot somewhere and disrupt folks. But because of the size of our property there, we're kind of exempt from that because we got enough room and space between us and the neighbors.
12:37So there are some things that would limit certain activities in the village, but it hasn't really been anything detrimental to what I'm up to here. It hasn't been an issue. And again, being a small village, there's less than 500 people that live here. We really don't have the number of rules and regulations you might find in a larger municipality.
13:05Yeah, the town that we lived in, I think when we moved four years ago, it was like a little over 6,000 people. And we were not supposed to have chickens, really. And we basically knew our neighbors and said, we're getting four chickens because it was back during the bird flu thing years ago. And I had four kids at the time, and they liked cookies and they liked cakes as treats.
13:32And I didn't want to pay what the grocery stores were asking for for a dozen eggs. So I was like, guys, if we share some of our eggs with you, is it okay if we get chickens? And every neighbor was like, absolutely. And you don't even have to share eggs with us, just get chickens. So, so in our town, it was a complaint based system. If you did something and everybody was okay with it, it was fine. But if somebody complained, then you had to get rid of the thing that was causing the problem. That was how that worked.
14:05That's pretty much the way it is here even though we do have some regulations on the books. Like I say you're not supposed to have more than so many chickens and no roosters in the village and so on and so forth. Unless someone's complaining it's not really that big of a deal. This is a pretty rural area here so most people are not really all that upset by a rooster in somebody's backyard.
14:34being such a small village, you kind of know just about everybody here anyhow, so it's pretty easy to talk to the neighbor if it's a problem. Things will get resolved that way.
14:47Yeah, a village to me feels like it would be much more neighborly than a city. And that may not be true. There may be villages in the United States where the neighbors don't actually know each other. I don't know. But when I hear a village, I think friendly, small community. When I hear city, I think, oh, a bunch of people living in the same area who don't know each other.
15:11And that's probably true. I, though I must admit, I've been here for eight years and I certainly don't know everyone here. But again, it's, it's a little bit more laid back. There's not quite as much intensity here in our village. So I think most people, because of the rural environment that we're in, are more accustomed to that type of stuff. So they don't really get as excited over things as some of the...
15:41larger places where people don't know each other at all, really. So just a personal thought there. Yeah. Where there's not as much compassion and consideration for the fellow man, I think. But, uh, but I don't really want to go further down that road. Things are already a little tense in the world this week and probably until the end of next week. So, so we're going to keep it real light and fluffy bunny today. Um,
16:11So do you have kids? Grown kids?
16:16Yes, I have three adult children. The youngest is 28 now. They're all off and about in various parts of New York. And my daughter, she ended up in Durham, North Carolina. Okay, so did they come back to the farm and just they're like, this is awesome, Dad, great, nice to see you. I'm going to visit and then go or they, do they get hands on with you at the farm?
16:46Well, my two older children were actually quite involved when I had the dairy. So they were in the barn doing the barn chores, feeding calves, and cleaning and such. So they're quite accustomed to that type of work. But basically now they'll come visit and hang out a little bit. But they're not too much into the farm work anymore, that's for sure. And again, with my daughter being so far away, it's just a...
17:15a quick visit in the summer or a week or so and then it's back to other things. So, and with my boys, they both live within an hour for me and again, full-time jobs, live in their own lives and I'll come back and visit for a little bit. But now they'll just hang out and then they go back to doing their own thing. Okay. So is it just you doing all the work on your farm or do you have people that help out?
17:45It is just me, 99% of the time. I do have a couple of friends that show up on occasion. And actually I have a rental property here and I had some former tenants that were very interested in doing a little bit of farming. They've since bought their own property and they're starting their own garden and raising chickens and ducks on their own. And it's fantastic to see them taking off.
18:14what they did when they were here. So it's kind of neat. And then by one 10th, she'll show up once in a while. She was here over the weekend helping me press cider just because she enjoys it. So yeah, it's kind of neat.
18:30You were an inspiration to them. That's awesome. Okay, so tell me about the cider situation. I haven't talked about, I haven't talked with anybody about cider before. So tell me the process of going from apple to cider and then going from cider to hard cider. Well, the process from apples to cider is basically the picked fruit gets ground up, reduced in size a little bit, and then you run it through a cider press and just extract the juice.
18:59It's about as simple as it can get really. In New York it is required that it is treated for E. coli and cryptocytogenesis so you have to pasteurize your juice in some form. I use a UV light system on mine. I just got into the sweet cider business this fall, just a week ago actually. I finally got all the permitting required by the standing New York here.
19:28But the process to turn it into hardy cider is pretty simple. You just set it in the corner of the room there in a sealed container and let it go. Some people will add some yeast. Typically, I will do that to help it along in the fermentation process. But it's really quite a simple process.
19:54Okay, so when you say set it in a corner of the room and let it do its thing, is that in like a glass, I don't know what they're called, carboy or something like that, or is it in just the plastic jugs?
20:09I've used oak barrels, I've used plastic buckets, I don't have any carboys, I know some folks that have used them before and they seem to work pretty well. Yeah, any container you can see all out there is suitable for making cider. I've done small batches in like a gallon jug, I've been airlocked on that and that worked pretty well when I was first playing around with it. So yeah, it's a pretty simple process.
20:38The key to it is make sure you use good fruit and go from there.
20:46Okay, and when you had to get your, I don't know, permission from the state of New York to do the hard cider, is it like a liquor license or what is involved?
21:01Yes, it is a liquor manufacturer's license. And what you need to do first is the federal government, the tax and trade bureau of the ATSF, you have to put it in an application there for the type of operation you want to have. And CIDR falls under the winery classification. So.
21:22That process took me a little over three months to get approval. And right now I am in the application stages with the state of New York gathering up all the documents I need. And, uh, I will be going through what they call a far from cidery license here. And that process could take three, six months, possibly a little bit longer, depending on if they need any additional information with my application. Kind of a long process, unfortunately sometimes. But, uh,
21:53We'll, uh, we'll just sit back and wait for it to happen.
21:59Okay, so here's what I'm really curious about. When you decided you wanted to do this hard sider part, did you call the powers that be on the phone and were you like, how do I get this started or did you email them from their website or how did you do it? No, it was just a web search error. I could look at the regulations online and that's what I did. There were no phone calls involved.
22:30Just doing a little online research.
22:35Huh. Okay. Cause I talked to somebody who lived, maybe it was Pennsylvania, not New York. It might've been Pennsylvania. And they were a little bothered at some of the things that the state of Pennsylvania requires them to do for licensing things on their farm. And they kept referring to Pennsylvania as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And I understand that it is a Commonwealth. So maybe I'm confusing the two.
23:05situations. I'm guessing that maybe New York isn't quite as hard to deal with as Pennsylvania when it comes to regulations.
23:15Um, well, I can't say for a fact, um, that New York is not known for being, uh, regulation free, that's for sure. So there's, there's enough here. Um, yeah, I, I really honestly couldn't comment on what the process there is in Pennsylvania in terms of alcohol production. Um,
23:39Yeah, and it wasn't alcohol. It was just farm stuff, like homestead stuff that they were having issues with. But either way, my point is that every single state is different. Minnesota's rules are... yeah. Yeah, Minnesota's rules are... Minnesota's rules are very different from Wisconsin's. I'm guessing that New York's are very different from Pennsylvania. I'm guessing that Maine...
24:07Is there a different from Massachusetts? Not every state is gonna have the same rules.
24:16So, and it's, in one way, I think it's great because not every state has the same growing conditions. They don't have the same situations as other states do. So it makes sense that the regulations might be different. But on the other hand, I kind of wish that some of the regulations were more across the board for the United States because it wouldn't be so confusing sometimes.
24:42That would be a little bit helpful at things. Yeah, it's, and I understand a lot of the regulations are put in place for food safety. You don't want to be sending anything out that's going to hurt anyone. And of course, you've seen the results of that with all the major food recalls we've seen in the last three to four months. So I get it.
25:08But it would be nice if it was a little bit more consistent with the board so you knew exactly what you had to do. And yeah, I think some of the regulations could be a little bit streamlined, so a little more clear.
25:24Yeah, that would help a lot. I feel really lucky to live in Minnesota because Minnesota, if you are a agrower of produce, there's very little stringent crackdown on what you can and can't do. I mean, clearly, you don't want to be spraying cow manure on vegetables that you're going to pick in a week because that's a bad plant. Don't do that. But.
25:53You don't have to be following 6,000 rules to sell a freaking tomato. You know, it's, it's fairly simple. They're a little harder on, on livestock and they should be. But, but yeah, Minnesota is a good place to be if you are just starting out farming or homesteading small scale. Cause there's just, they're just like, do what you're going to do. And if you have questions, get hold of us.
26:24This is true. This is true. Yeah, there's some regulations out there that it's like, wow, I'm sure they're there for a reason, but it's like, it kind of leaves you scratching your head some days. It's how intense some of that stuff gets to be. Like you say, same thing when I was growing up, you know, we had extra tomatoes that were canned, the neighbors needed some, there you go guys.
26:52Yeah, it's really interesting to me, I don't know if it's interesting to anybody else, but it is to me, that we used to do all this stuff, we as humans used to do all this stuff. We used to grow our own food, we used to can our own food, and we used to just give it to our neighbors if they needed help or our neighbors would share their stuff with us and there was nobody saying, oh, you got to have this piece of paper to prove that you did this thing. And now everything requires proof that you did the thing, you know?
27:24Yeah, I think the world's changed a little bit and some of that, it's a little bit disheartening, I guess. It's just, again, I'm sure the regulations were put in place for a reason somewhere, so there must have been some kind of mishap, but it's kind of unfortunate the world we live in, it seems, has gone a little overboard. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. I can remember my mom making bread and jam.
27:52And she didn't make butter because we didn't have any dairy cows, but she would have made butter if we'd had dairy cows. And if someone had a baby, she would take loaves of bread and jars of jam and a casserole over to the house and be like, here, you're going to be busy with your new baby. Here's something to keep you going. And thought nothing of it. It was totally fine. Yes. And having said all of that, you and I both, there is no country in the world I would rather live in than America.
28:23I've been fortunate to travel to several other countries in the world. I've seen some very beautiful places, but you know, there's really no place like this country in Dallas, L.A. And I've been fortunate enough to travel to just about every state here in the Union. And you know, we are quite fortunate with what we have here, for sure.
28:49Yes, and the reason I even say that is because we're talking about regulations that we need to follow to do the things that we do. But at least we have the option to do the things and follow the regulations so that we can do what we want to do. I think about the young women in Middle Eastern countries who cannot even attend school now. And I can't imagine.
29:16I loved school. I can't imagine not having the opportunity to go to school.
29:23And education is one of the most important things that a person can go through in some way, shape or form. And to be denied that, it's insane. It's just insane to my book. I don't get it. Yeah, and it's sad and it's unfortunate. And I, again, am really happy that I was born in the United States and I live in the United States and I will probably die in the United States. So...
29:51All right, Paul, on that very bizarre note, I'm going to let you go, but thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it.
30:01It's been a pleasure. Thank you for inviting me here.
30:06Yeah, it was great to talk with you.
30:11Have a great day.
30:14Alright, bye.
 

White Pine Berry Farm

Today I'm talking with Andrew at White Pine Berry Farm. You can follow on Facebook as well.
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00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 Andrew at White Pine Berry Farm. Good morning, Andrew. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on. Yeah. So tell me about what part you play in White Pine Berry Farm and...
00:28the story of White Pine Berry Farm. Great. I'll kind of start at the beginning. My dad was a dairy farmer for his whole life. Opportunity presented itself that some other family, my uncle, my cousins would continue the dairy farmer. And my dad went from dairy to berry and started a you pick berry and egg tourism farm from just a neighbor's, you know, kind of hobby bee farm. And.
00:56I just was helping out a little bit the first couple of years, helping out the first couple of years just on the weekends and getting it going. And he ran it for seven years. And then in 2019, I came back as the manager and dad took a different full-time job, but it was still helping me a lot on the weekends. And I ran it for the last five years. And then this year we've been running it together as he retired from the...
01:27the job that he took as a farm director at a local university. That is so fun. Was it his dream that you guys would end up working together? Not necessarily. It seemed like it worked out that way. It worked out that way. It was something that we talked about when he was looking at what we want to do if he ever wanted a farm.
01:54This intrigued me a lot compared to just dairy farming. If you always look at different farms, I think this is both really good fit for our personalities. We enjoy working with people. It's having guests and public out to the farm. Yeah.
02:10Okay. Is your dad Greg? Is that his name? Yes, Greg Farmer Greg. Okay. Yeah. Farmer Greg. I was looking at your Facebook page today because I have been crazy busy and hadn't actually looked at it since I booked the interview with you. And I was like, it looks like such a fun place to be. And your Facebook page is brilliant. I don't know who handles, who handles that, but whoever does it is doing a great job.
02:38Well, thank you. It's something we've always enjoyed. My wife and I have done it for many years. The last couple of years we have joined with. So thanks for the comment on our Facebook page. My wife and I had been running the Facebook together for many years. And then we also have hired an intern the last four or five years to give us a hand with it, especially on the video editing side. But it takes a whole bunch of us to come up with some fun, creative ideas and put them together. Yeah.
03:08looks super fun and the the way the videos and photos are taken it's very colorful and inviting and that's what you want for people to want to come see you. Yep and we like to think that our Facebook reflects our farm when you come out here you're out here to have experience it's not just about us growing you know fruit and vegetables and pumpkins it's about having a good time on the farm.
03:35making memories with your family and friends. And yeah, I just want to be a place that is really welcoming and just something that people look forward to. And we reflect that on our Facebook and our website as well. Yes, I was just going to say your website is crazy full. Yeah, it's really hard to describe what we do just in one page because we, like you were saying, it's all summer and fall long.
04:02We start out with strawberries usually mid-June. Follow that up with strawberries at the beginning of July. Then raspberries, blueberries, and currants come into play. Throughout those times we also have strawberry shortcake days where we have shortcake we sell out of our store and food and wagon rides. On Saturdays we typically do those.
04:26In July, we have the ElocoCoop Farm Tour. We're a part of where other farms and us, we are kind of used to open our doors. We open our doors, have people from all over Western Wisconsin and the Twin Cities area come out and check out what we got going on. Moving into August, we saw some blueberries that we do our sunflowers and zinnias. In the fall, we do a corn maze pumpkin patch.
04:49Sometimes we sell some flowers depending when the frost comes, fall raspberry pickin', we even have golden fall raspberries, guided wagon rides on the weekends. We had at least six to seven hundred kids come for field trips this year and always a blast. On top of that we planted Christmas trees which are still a ways out and we host a handful of weddings here as well in our wedding barn.
05:18And those photos are stunning. I can't imagine being a young bride and having my wedding at your place and then seeing the photos afterwards. I think I would just cry in absolute sheer happiness. Yep, and the blessing with having a nice acreage is no matter what time of year it is, there's a beautiful place to take photos. And we'd have a neighbor who lets us use his ground for some sunset photos, because it has a nice slope to it.
05:43There's no lacking of finding pretty places to take photos at our place.
05:50Mm-hmm. Okay. So your season is over now for the summer, yes? Yes, our last fall event day was this Halloween weekend. And then we got just two little days will be open if somebody wants to come to get our corn maze the next couple of days. And then in winter time, since we now have a commercial kitchen, we had been open a little in the winter time. We have like we don't have Christmas trees yet, but we've been open in winter time.
06:19found most people who wanted our fudge, we either do delivery or we bring our jams and jellies and fudge to craft fairs. So in Rochester, Minnesota, we're attending Feast for the first time. It's a food and beverage only event. We'll go to a couple other local craft shows kind of at the end of November and early December as well and bring our products there. Okay, so you're going to Rochester, Minnesota? Is that what you meant?
06:49Yes, we'll be heading down there for a food and vendor fair. OK, so that I have a question about that. How does that work? I'm assuming because you have a commercial kitchen, you're not you're not strapped by the the the cottage food laws that Minnesota has. So basically, it doesn't matter that stuff is made in Wisconsin, but you bring it to Minnesota to sell it. Yeah, you got to fill out the forms for like sales tax in Minnesota. But as far as like with having to
07:19our food license were able to sell both wholesale and at other states as well because the Minnesota college law wouldn't apply to us in Ternan, Minnesota. So it's because we have our retail food license we're able to. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. So when you say we, how many people are involved in this enterprise because it can't just be you and your dad?
07:48have full-time jobs but also help out during our busy seasons and they take care of the books. So there's four of us family members involved. My sisters have each also played roles in the business as it's grown or throughout it's growing as well. But kind of the ones who us are mainly focused out of the four family members. And then we have about 50 seasonal part-time employees.
08:16That includes our store managers who also do all the baking and fudge making and jams and jellies and caramel apples for us. We've got a lot of high school and middle school help that work throughout the summer and some in the fall. We've got a couple of college students and some adults who help out as well, but it takes a full crew for what we do. One of the things we're most known for is our organic strawberries.
08:42that takes just a boatload of work to do. The weeding is unreal. We could, you know, me and dad would just be weeding all day if it was only the two of us out there trying to grow as many strawberries as we do. So we do bring in a full team to help us out. And I've just been blessed with a lot of great adults and kids who have helped out from the local community to put this all together. Wow, so you have a huge team and that's fantastic because otherwise it would never work.
09:12When did this really start, the berry farm situation start? Yeah, 2012 was when Dad first started planting things. We started the first year with one fall family day where we had our pumpkins that we grew, did the corn maze. We had planted strawberries that year, but we plant June berries, so it takes a full year before you get a crop. So we started out in 2012.
09:42planting some things. In 2013, dad really expanded a lot on planting blueberries and raspberries and currants and asparagus and really was the first year things took off but then also opened up for strawberries. The growth was a little slower than we expected. He planted two acres of strawberries to start out with and we only would have needed about a quarter or a half acre to meet customer demand that for those first couple years. But as we kind of get
10:09got more well known and just wanted to be a place that people were happy to come. It's definitely grown a lot since then. We're at about four to five acres of strawberries now. Wow. So, I guess what I'm trying to get at without being nosy or rude is what would you say the percentage of growth has been since 2012 with the business?
10:38I guess that's really tough to compare. I mean, the first year, let's just say we had a hundred customers come on the farm when we were open in 2013. Sorry. I think that got out there. So I was saying that, you know, first year we had maybe about a hundred customers. By year four, we were maybe about four to 500 customers. Now we're pushing, I would guess somewhere between 10 to 20,000, probably about 10,000 customers a year. That's just a guess.
11:08Wow. Wow. Well, I guess that slow growth of first year must have gained some speed. Yep. Yep. And it's really changed a lot. And we added a farm store in 2020. That allowed us to have more event days and just be able to run our business a little more efficiently when we had these big event days. But that was
11:362020, which was a big year for us. You know, a lot of business, unfortunately, had to close their doors or had limited business they could handle. We were a outdoor-based business, so we had lots of people looking for activities to do with their kids that week. And that definitely helped us, but we're also, each year got bigger and bigger as far as the amount of people that came out.
11:58Sure. The reason that I was trying to pinpoint a number is because a lot of people in 2020 decided they wanted to go do something different. And a lot of people decided they wanted to go buy land and grow things or raise animals and build a business out of it. And we're now four years later down the road and some people are having great success and some people are still struggling
12:27The reason that I really like talking to people like you is because you are an example of you start it and you stick with it and you grow it and you grow it and you grow it and then here you are. And I mean, we are at a position that we are getting lots of customers. We think we've got a really good going thing. Our customers love the experience out here. I mean, we just hear awesome feedback.
12:54once they leave, you know, they leave a smile on their faces. A lot of times they leave their kids without smiles on their faces because they're mad because they wanted to keep playing and they're drug out of a corn box or we're having a good time running on the bales or, you know, you know, that's, that's, we, we get more tears from kids leaving than, you know, other things here. So, um, there is a lot of success that we've had for getting people out, but I'll be honest growing products, the profitability isn't where we'd like it to be.
13:22You know, this is a business we're trying to grow here and we've been able to increase the customers, but we're still looking at ways to say, okay, how can this be something that can sustain our families long term? And I think that there can be profit in growing vegetables, you pick side of things. But I think a lot of people look at us from the outside, whether they're customers or are other businesses similar to us.
13:51You don't think, oh, they must be really doing great. Look at this full parking lot. And they got, you know, 500 to 1,000 people on their farm in one day on their really busy day. What you're really seeing there is to me the highlight reel. So that is all the work we've done, all the weeding we put into it, all the, you know, investment we made into the land and the plants and the store, like you're seeing the fruit of that, you know, the fruit of our labor, to put it in a funny little term.
14:20But that all that stuff that we're putting on, even though it looks like it's going great, there's still very big investment in cost to that. So it's I'd love to say like, yes, it's been very, very profitable. We've had a lot of great successes, but there's still it's it's not what a lot of people I think might might make it seem from the outside. I mean, that the highlight reel these fun days. There's so much labor that goes into that work.
14:51that that has been our biggest struggle and that's something we're really looking into and one, how can we decrease our expenses, but also how can we increase our income as well? It's two sides to it. So I think that there is ability to make profit when it comes to let's just say market garnering or you picks, you know that, but it's not as easy.
15:21homesteading and trying to make a go at it. It's, there is profit out there, but it takes a lot of work. And I don't think it's something that if you're wanting to find a get rich quick scheme, you're not in the right business. If you're gonna do, whether that's you pick or market gardening. Yeah, no, this is not a get rich quick scheme and it's not an easy lifestyle to choose either. It's a lot of time and work and patience and heartbreak.
15:51And I don't know what your summer was like in Wisconsin, but our market garden did terribly this year because we got so much rain in May and June. And then there was no way to get anything in the garden because it was soup. It was soup. And then when we finally did get stuff in, it stopped raining. So we were on the other end of the spectrum. So it's not easy and it's frustrating. And...
16:17It's also joyful because we planted tomatoes. We did three plantings of tomatoes this year. First ones rotted out. Second ones just grew, but stalled out. Third ones grew and produced beautiful tomatoes, not as many as we would've liked. But we actually had tomatoes this year and we didn't think we're going to have any. So that was the one joy that we got out of this summer. I don't know what it was like for Wisconsin. What was it like for you? We completely got tons of rain in June and.
16:45It saved us a little money on our irrigation bill, but I would guess we lost tens of thousands of potential dollars due to those rains because when we, the week that we got most of the rains was our prime picking strawberry week and rain does two things. Well, a couple of things. One, it can just cause Mary berries to get water logged. So that was potential profit loss that there's just berries that would have been beautiful, but just got too much water.
17:12Two, there can be some molds, which wasn't actually as bad as I would have expected. Traditionally, we have not put a lot of fungicide or any fungicide on our berries, and luckily it wasn't too bad. We had more that were just damaged to waterlog. And three, when you're a upick farm, people want a beautiful day to come picking. So if one day it rains, you hope that the next day it's nice so you can pick the berries before they get too waterlogged.
17:39You know, people will come out and get them before they get too overripe. But when you get a couple of big rains in a row, it just kind of was the perfect storm for what would have been our biggest crop ever. What we believe would have been our biggest crop ever was actually one of our worst years we ever had in strawberries, just looking at per acre wise, only because of those rains in one specific week that just came too much and and not at the right time. So.
18:07It's always a struggle when you're dealing with something that's dependent on the weather. Our pumpkin crop wasn't quite what we would have liked, but we're blessed that we had a pumpkin crop because I know some of our farms who didn't. We're just blessed that we were blessed for what we got. And then also really blessed that when we had a couple of days that had good weather.
18:33of our customers just responded and we were really upfront with, hey, we need people to come out and pick. Like, this is the day. We had two really huge picking days that really helped us get a lot of berries off. That would have been, if it wasn't for those two days, we would have really had lots of berry loss. But one of the beauties of social media and kind of the marketing platform that we did is we try our best to be communicating with customers constantly what conditions are like and what's in season.
19:01just appreciate the response they gave us when we said, hey, we need you guys to come out. Now's the time to come pick. And it was crazy. They came out. So just really blessed and grateful for them. Yeah. Come save the strawberries, please. Yeah, that's essentially what we said. Yup. So I was just, no, it was a long...
19:26A long summer, I would say a long summer, but it was a interesting week for sure that all that rain came. Just unreal. Yes, it was a horrible, well, horrible is probably a little extreme. It was a rough summer for many, many people who were growing produce this year. Yep. We were, like I said, we were blessed that we have lighter soil that we did get some
19:56some crops on it, but it wasn't what it could have been without. We were so blessed that we didn't have a frost early this year. Like it was warm. We thought great, no frost damage. And then all the rains came. So if it isn't one thing, it might be another, but that's also part of just farming. My dad's farmed for many years and you know, you get good crops and you get crops that are a struggle. It's, it's always been that way. Yes. And when my, uh, when my husband told me that he really.
20:25eventually wanted to have land and grow a garden. I was like, are you talking about a garden? Are you talking about field crops? And he said, a garden. And I said, good, because if you said field crops, I would have said no, because there's so much risk in it. I didn't want to play that game. Yep. So we don't play that game. We have a really pretty garden and we sell what we can and we can and freeze what we can.
20:54And we make the most of it and the best of it even when it's not doing great It's not the easiest thing in the world to grow produce and it's not the easiest thing in the world to raise animals either So when I started the podcast, I really wanted people to tell me How things were going in the most honest terms because people think that it's very pretty and it's very easy and it's not as You are explaining Yep
21:20So we've done our best if another girl reaches out to us. We love being a resource, sharing our information, kind of saying, here's what's worked for us, here's what hasn't worked for us. We've done a lot of economic, internal bookkeeping and number crunching to try to find the cost of our labor. We have all of our team members track what they do.
21:48Every single hour they work here on the farm and code it. Um, which my wife is an engineer, so this is very hard to duplicate, but she built the Excel spreadsheet program that when they check out, they write down, mark down what they do, um, every hour, they're actually every 15 minutes, they, they kind of record what they did that day. And it's a perfect no, but compare that to four years ago when we were looking and we're like, I don't know if we're making any money at strawberries. What's our labor in it?
22:17Now we can get a pretty good estimate of where it's at based off what it is. But with 50 kids, that's a lot of training you need to do and a lot of time for them to clock out every day and mark down what it is. But it's been very interesting to take a look at those numbers and has really helped influence some of the decisions we're making going forward. Awesome. I love that. That's great. I didn't, your wife must be brilliant. She is. She's.
22:47I'm married up, I'll put it that way.
22:51Yeah, with any luck, we all marry up. She probably thinks she married up by marrying you too. So only when it comes to talking to people that she doesn't know. That's the one time she's I've got a band to John. I'll talk to anybody and she's like, you take care of that. I will do all the back end stuff. Yeah, my husband does the farmers market. I do not because I am really anxious about people. And yes, I do a podcast, but that's because I don't have to be in front of people.
23:21I'm just sitting in a room by myself talking to people. So do you guys have animals as well or is it just the produce? The animals are more on the egg tourism side that we truly have. We do a rented goat program with Leslie from Silent Rolling Acres, not too far from us in San Juan County here. She gives us a couple of goats that we can use throughout the summer and then she takes care of them in the winter.
23:51Now you're like, what kind of name is that? If you said we bought a lot fast, you get, we bought a lot. Um, which is, which is, it's so funny when you say it, cause once people understand where it comes from, it's, it's, it's one of my favorite name farms in the area, um, they let us have their alpacas here over the summer and fall. And it's been so fun for people to enjoy seeing them and taking pictures of them and feeding them a little bit of food.
24:17They're not quite as friendly as the goats because the goats will be yelling at you across the farm saying, hey, come pet me, come feed me. They'll back as they came up and they would eat if they wanted to and some are like, no, I'm not going to. We got seven chickens. We officially have gotten our first egg. So that's the first for White Pine Berry Farm. Okay. We haven't quite figured out what our winter plan is. If we have a neighbor, maybe take care of them or if we're gonna keep them here, but.
24:45We'll see what we end up deciding on the chicken side. In the wintertime, we are usually around, dad lives here on the farm. I live about 15 minutes away, but have not been set up for winter animals except for the beef, which we have a nice pasture and a lean too for them now. So they just kind of, they can kind of do their own thing and you don't have to worry about predators or anything like that with the beef, with the fence we've got around it.
25:11But those are the main animals we've had on our farm. And then during the Saturdays, we'll have a couple extra animals around the pet. And of course, our farm cat Izzy is always hard at work around the farm. Or he's actually our wedding host. So when we have weddings on our farm, he's the one who greets everybody as they're walking to the barn, because his home is right next to that. And he's very friendly and likes getting a lot of attention from any of our farm guests.
25:40I bet he's exhausted for a week after a wedding because he gets all the loves and pets he can stand. Yep, yep, he'll just kind of do his own thing for a couple days, but when he wants love, he's the cuddliest cat you'll find around. But our main focus on a farm has been the berry picking. We sell about 90 to 95% of our berries that we grow here on the farm. Other main focus would be the egg tourism side,
26:09corn maze, the activities for the kids in our fun zone, which we do in the summer and in the fall, the event days where people are coming out and maybe getting something from a food truck or buying some food out of our kitchen and getting some desserts, having a very cool atmosphere out here. So the animals are definitely more of a complement to what we're doing on the egg tourism side than it truly is we're trying to raise those for profit.
26:39It's something for people to enjoy a farm experience out here to see those. So it's been great to have some farms who can partner up with that. Yeah. And smart too, because then you're not on the hook for feeding the animals all winter. That's a, it's, it's a, it gets to be a lot when you have a lot of animals around in wintertime.
27:04to take care of them. And the chickens are one of the biggest concerns just with predators around, but we haven't done that. I know that could be a big issue there. The goats, it's just, it's a perfect combination that we can use our pasture. We got enough land that they can pasture out here, but in the wintertime we're not feeding them the hay. She's still taking care of them. And she's a goat expert, so she knows how to take care of them while in the wintertime.
27:32Yep, absolutely. I think that when farms work together or businesses work together, everybody wins because you're doing what you're good at, she's doing what she's good at, and they just happen to compliment each other. There is another animal we got that I didn't mention before when you talked about partnerships. We also have over a million bees that help us out in the summer as well. So we partner up with a local beekeeper named Dale Wolf from Wolf Honey Farm. He takes care of the bees, bottles up the honey, we buy it back.
28:02from him and then resell it at our store. So that's, when you talk about partnerships and working with other farms, it's been so great to have partners like that, that we're getting the beneficial side of the pollination from the honey bees. He's getting a place where we grow three acres of flowers, sunflowers, zinnias, plus we have pollinator mix, plus we got strawberries and raspberries, which they do a great job pollinating, a lot of good food sources for the bees. So they do very well here.
28:31And he's got all equipment set up for taking care of the bees. So best of both worlds, great to have partners like that. We also partner up with a local creamery where we sell them berries. And then they we buy back the, you know, we can get ice cream made with our berries from them and they can send a scooper out here and scoop the ice cream here on the weekends and stuff. And then we also partner up with a kombucha company called Manifest Kombucha where we sell her the berries.
29:00she processes them into kombucha. And then we actually had kegs with kombucha made from our berries, but we didn't have to do all the work to do it. And her recipes are amazing. So it was great to compliment our berries into her kombucha. It's been another great partnership we've got. Okay, so I have a question about all the partnerships. Was this a plan or was this just, you were chatting with somebody and they said you should talk to so-and-so?
29:30Um, so the bees, my dad worked that out with Dale. He's been a local beekeeper and it partners up with a couple of different orchards and farms like ours. So like he, he kind of had that from the beginning that that would be a, be a great person to work with the ice, both the ice cream and the kombucha. We got to thank our, thank our friend Jerry from Shane Valley orchard. He's our local honey berry expert here in Western Wisconsin. Um, he.
29:58has a commercial kitchen as well and he rented it out to Manifest Kombucha. When I talked with him about the commercial kitchen one day he's like, oh yeah they're making kombucha. And I'm like, that's awesome. I've been wanting, you know, I've been hearing about this kombucha, I want to learn more about it and possibly sell it at our store. So he's it's a different farmer, Jerry, who connected us up with Manifest Kombucha.
30:22He's also, I saw on Facebook that he was the one who was partnering up with the creamery on his honeyberries. So I was like, who's this? What's this ice cream place that's opened up in Hudson? Let's get them some of our blueberries or strawberries and our raspberries. So another one of our partner farms is Jerry's farm because he's just done, he actually got married on our farm about 10 years ago, but he's just done an awesome job of saying, okay, you guys are experts at blueberries and strawberries.
30:50and raspberries, I'm going to focus on honey berries. And we throw business back and forth and say, hey, check out Jerry's farm. And Jerry says, hey, go, you want strawberries? Go to White Pine. So been really cool to have lots of other farms that we're just able to all share each other's businesses with. And he's done an awesome job of just kind of finding a way that we can be berry farms but not competitive against each other.
31:20It takes a village. I don't care what you're working on. It takes a village of people to figure out how to make it go. Okay, my dog is barking her head off and we're at like 32 minutes. So I'm gonna wrap this up with you, Andrew. I so appreciate your time today. Thank you so much. Yeah, well, thank you for having us on. If people wanna learn more about, check out our Facebook, Instagram, our website is kind of the main places where we're kind of.
31:48out there saying what we're up to. And if they have any questions, they can always reach out. You know, winter time is a great time for us to get in contact with some other businesses or people asking questions to to learn more. You know, we're members of WADA, the Wisconsin Aged Tourism Association. Wisconsin berry growers are actually part of the Minnesota Christmas tree growers. And the networking you can find with people is great. And we just want to be an awesome resource for people. And they're trying to do that. And
32:17Just love opening up our doors and winter time is a great time to catch up with other farmers and learn from each other. Fabulous. Thank you so much, Andrew. Okay. Sounds great. Bye.
 

Grounded In Maine

Today I'm talking with Amy at Grounded In Maine. You can follow on Facebook as well.
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00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 Amy Fagan from Grounded in Maine. How are you, Amy? Again. I'm good. Good. Amy and I talked months ago. I think it was June.
00:29I think. I don't remember. And we recorded an episode and it was released and it was great. But Amy is no longer grounded in Maine. She has uprooted herself to Virginia. So I wanted to have her back and talk about how that's all going. So tell me about what's changed. What hasn't changed? Yes.
00:50No, I will always be grounded in Maine. I spent my first 49 years in Maine, so I will always be grounded in Maine, but I no longer live there. I got divorced in July. I moved to Virginia in August because Maine is way too expensive for a single income. And so I just relocated. And you moved to some land as well as a house on it. Is that right? It's not a lot of land. I'm on a little more than an acre,
01:20It's all me. It's plenty. You can do a lot with an acre honey. Yeah well I mean it's weird because the backyard is this super steep downslope. That's where the chickens are and I need to fix that up but so everything is gonna be in the front yard. All the gardening is gonna be on the front yard and people are gonna hate me here because they are very they love their lawns.
01:49are very meticulous about their lawns and I am not going to be mowing my lawn. I am growing a food forest. Maybe they'll be inspired. Maybe they will. I hope so. He'll be a trendsetter. I am going to be a trendsetter and I'm getting more chicken. So I will be selling my eggs to my neighbors and, um, and if I have a really great, if I have really great crops, I will be feeding them too. So meh.
02:17Nice. Take that about my scruffy lawn. Well, yeah. And you can't eat grass. I say this all the time. You cannot eat grass. Absolutely. Doesn't taste good. It makes it smells good. Doesn't taste good. Yeah. Yeah. It makes me insane when people are like, but I want a nice green lawn. And I'm like, you can have a nice green lawn. You could be growing chamomile and it would smell amazing when you step on it.
02:46But no, it's grass. Or mint or creeping thyme or anything. But yeah. Even Creeping Charlie smells good and it's a low ground cover and people hate the Creeping Charlie, but it's really pretty and it smells good. I don't know Creeping Charlie. I'll have to look that up. But yeah, I mean, I've had three people in the first month offered to mow my lawn. I mean, not for free, but. Well.
03:16One of them did for free. But I said, you know, I don't plan to do this ongoing. So I'm sure if you want to know it now, but it's not gonna last. But the man that lives across the street is super, super sweet. He's a retired policeman, which was, I knew that before I moved here and I was psyched about that. I'm like, so he's gonna look out for me. And he is, but he's also 75. He just lost his wife this year.
03:44He was in the hospital earlier. He can't really get around well, but he can get on his mower. Well, that works. My first time meeting him, he had come over and was mowing my lawn. I was like, oh my gosh, what? Wait, no, I was gonna have someone else mow my lawn. And he was like, I just didn't know how to say hi. Like, you know, I saw that. He can't just like walk up the stairs because he's older.
04:09But he's, you know, he's been in this house across the street for 75 years, his whole life. And his daughter lives on one side of him and his son lives behind with his donkeys and other animals. And his grandson lives next door, which is right across the street from me. But so it's like, it's, it's kind of cool. It's family, it's family area. He owns some land up at the end of the road too. But it's, I'm an agricultural because I brought my chickens. Good.
04:39Hmm. Yeah. So it's good. It's good. I have I mean, I've met a lot of neighbors and I will say my my.
04:50I really like them. I really like my neighbors. People drive like they want to take me out and I'm not sure if they really do or if that's in my head. Nobody walks here except for me and we risk our lives doing it. Yeah, but it's so good for you. So keep doing it. As long as nobody runs you over, it's great for your health, right? Yes. Yeah, it's a nice uphill too. It's
05:19It's so funny to me how many co-incidents you and I share because our neighbor who lives northwest of us, about a quarter mile away, he is a county sheriff. So you have former law enforcement and I have current law enforcement. And actually the county sheriff stopped by a couple weeks ago with his truck. Huh? Oh, hey. How what? Yeah, pulled in and stopped and...
05:48My dog was losing her mind and I thought maybe he was just going to turn around and no, he parked and he was just sitting in his truck. I walked out as he got out of his truck and I said, can I help you? He said, oh, I was just leaving you a note. I said, what's up? He said, our barn cat took a ride with my wife this morning in her vehicle, like underneath her vehicle. She slowed down to make a turn and the cat jumped and ran into the ditch and they couldn't
06:19And I said, Oh no. And he's like, so can I leave my business card with my personal numbers? So that if you see her, you can call me. And I was like, of course. And I said, and if you can't find her, I said, we have like seven barn kittens that we're going to be finding homes for in like four or five weeks. And he said, that's really sweet. He said, but she's a favorite of one of my kids. He said, she's, he said.
06:45He's really upset and the look on his face as a dad, I was like, oh no. So needless to say, we don't know if they found the cat, but he stopped by again that same weekend, like three days later, and my husband was outside. And he had pulled in the driveway, the sheriff, because he'd seen our mama barn cat, who is also a calico, which is the kind that got lost.
07:12And he thought it was his cat. Oh, and he got out and looked and he said, damn. And my husband's like, what's up? And the guy, I can't remember his name right now. Anyway, he said, I thought that was our cat. And my husband said, you cannot have that cat. She's the mama cat. We're going to have real issues if you take her. Yeah. So super nice man, very comfortable having him as a fairly.
07:39close neighbor and fairly close is relative out here in the country. You know how that goes. Yeah. But funny that you have former law enforcement, isn't that weird? Current law enforcement and on the other coin, Kading's I was talking to Amy on in messaging like three, four weeks ago. And I, Amy had said something on her podcast about going to an indigo girls concert way back.
08:06Was it on my podcast? I couldn't remember. I was like, how did we end up talking about that? I think so. I don't know. I don't know where I found out about it. I was stalking you because you're my favorite person. And I was listening to your podcast. I think that's how I heard about it. And I was like, huh, I wonder when that was. So I messaged you and I was like, when was that? And you told me Amy and I were at the same Indigo Girls concert when I was 20. And I assume you were in your 20s.
08:34I don't think I was still in high school. I'm very concerned. Where are you? I forget
08:41I'm turning 51. Okay. Yeah. So that makes sense. So when I was 20 and you were 17, we were at the same Indigo Girls concert at what used to be the expo, the exposition center, I think in Portland, Maine. And I had just had my daughter like a month or two before it was my first big outing since having my baby girl. And we could have met then. And I was like,
09:11wow it is not a small world it's a minuscule world. Yeah it's really it's really cool I love it and I've I've been to so many Indigo Girls concerts and I've been with so many different people. I think I've been to two I think I went to it went to see them at the Guthrie theater in Minneapolis. Cool. After I moved here I seven or eight times I think. Yeah yeah I've also seen Melissa
09:40Damn awesome. Yeah. So that was fun. But anyway, little tiny world just gets smaller all the time. I know. It's so fun. Podcasting is amazing. It really is. It's freakish how connections get made and then you discover other things. You're like, whoa, really? Okay. So coinking eggs aside, you had a very exciting thing.
10:08happened to your house? You had solar panels put on your house. I did. I mean, literally a week ago today. Yeah. I knew that I needed it because it's really hot here. And I don't do heat well. So I am using my divorce settlement to buy my solar panels. But also, so like everything in this house is electric. So it makes sense.
10:39Like the heat, the air, the water heater, everything is electric. So, um, yeah, I mean, it's exciting because they're like newfangled and they just are much more, um.
10:57the, what's the word that I want to use? The, um, shoot. They are much better. They're much better. Yeah. Efficient is a good word. Robust is the word that I was looking for. Um, then the ones that we had in Maine. Okay.
11:14So I have questions about this because this is a very homesteadish thing to do because I feel like solar is a thing that lots of homesteaders aspire to having. Yeah. I mean, I didn't get the bank thing to hold on to my electricity. I bet that's what you were thinking. Well sure, yes. But I mean, we would love to have a solar put on our house because our house gets direct sun all day long. Yeah. But it's expensive and we're not sure we want to.
11:44We're not sure we want to take on that big a bite of an investment, even though we know it's an investment.
11:52So will you be able to sell any of the energy produced back to your electric company or is it just going to power your house? It's just well, I mean anything excess is just going to go back into the grid. I don't think I'm selling anything per se. Okay. But I should have all that I need except for in the winter months. Okay. I mean unless it's unless it's sunny during the winter.
12:20Yeah. And I mean, that's a crap shoot. It could be, it could not be. It most certainly is. Do you have a generator by any chance? I don't. Okay. All right. But if you have solar power, does that mean that your power will never go out as long as you have solar energy going into the panels? No. Nope. I mean, if I had, if I had the, the, the energy bank, then it would probably last a
12:49to maybe three days, but I don't. It's an extra like $12,000, I think. Okay. Cool. I think that's so neat. We keep talking about it. And I actually just got an email today from some solar company saying, hey, you can have solar panels installed for free. And I'm like, I don't think it's gonna be free. I don't believe that. No, no, no, no. I don't think it'll be free. Nothing is free. Yeah.
13:18So I'm gonna go look them up. I'm never gonna click a link in an email like that, but I'm gonna go look them up and be like, so I just got an email for you that said it would be free. Is it free? Right? I highly agree. What does free mean? Yeah. Yep. We had actually talked to somebody the summer after we moved here. So three, four summers ago about getting solar installed. Oh.
13:47And it was a whole zoom call and the guy was super friendly and informative and kind. And he was like, so we have these two options. This is what it does. So it works. I mean, it's like an hour and a half discussion over zoom. And my husband and I were like, send us, send us the write-ups for what's involved, how much money it's going to cost, all the things. And he did.
14:14And I read through both of them and I was like, neither one of them are affordable. And number two, I'm not sure that this makes sense. Even if it was affordable, I'm not sure it makes sense. And so he did a follow up Zoom call with us. And I said, okay, I'm the one who processes information super fast. And my husband and I talked about this at length. I said, I have like three questions. I wrote them down. And he said, shoot.
14:43And I said, like, throw them at you. And he said, yeah. I said, okay, here's the number one. Here's number two. Here's number three. And his answers were such that we went, yeah, we're not going to do this right now. And the look on his face was so sad. Oh gosh. Don't make me go back and say I failed. I said, please don't cry. He's like, oh, he said, I just, he said, I understand why you're choosing not to do this right now.
15:13He said, but he said, I can tell how much you guys would like to do it. I said, yes. He said, and of course I would like you to do it. And I said, well, yes. He said, but I totally get why you're saying no. He said, and it's fine. He said, he said, no hard feelings. I'm like, okay, good. So it was, it was a thing and we still want to look into it, but it's just, we keep hearing about tax rebates and how there's there's, um,
15:42incentives to do it and I'm like that doesn't help me if it's still going to cost me 10 to 20 thousand dollars. Right well check in to um check and see if there's a lease option. Yeah. Because then you don't you don't have to necessarily pay for the installation at least not right away. Yeah I gotta do some research because it would really help you know I mean in the winter time we have a wood burning furnace.
16:11Boiler whatever they're called and so our electric bills go down Immensely in the wintertime because number one it's a wood Energy thing and yes the blower for the the furnace is still going but it's it's not terrible But in the summertime my god the air conditioning bills are crazy. Yeah So, I don't know you can't win for losing sometimes It's true. I mean we don't there's not really
16:42a great way to get out of it without paying a lot. Yeah, it's expensive to be alive. Who knew? Right. But I mean, the cool thing about solar in the summer is that you have so much sun that you literally won't have a bill. Yeah. And here especially, it is crazy how much direct sunlight our door yard gets. It's just... Yeah. If it's a sunny day, it is...
17:12gorgeous and there's sun everywhere. And it's because of the way that the tree line is situated. It's, it's off to the, I'm still trying to figure out my bearings here. West. It's the west of the house. So, so the sun obviously comes up in the east and so the sun goes across. Basically the sunlight comes toward the front of our house all day long. So having solar would be great.
17:39but we just have to figure out how we can make that happen. Right. So I'm gonna be inspired by you and do some research and see if we can't figure it out because I think it's a fantastic alternative. So speaking of fantastic alternatives, I was listening to your podcast with the attorney that you just put out. And there were a couple things that you guys were talking about. I think it was recycling.
18:08Number one, Virginia doesn't do the deposit return that Maine does on cans. And see, I really listened and there are a couple other things. And I was thinking about doing a podcast episode, either just me, which I haven't done yet, or with somebody talking about ways that you can be like responsibly sustainable.
18:37One of the things I was thinking about is when I was growing up, the nearest real grocery store was like 15 minutes away and we lived on a block and a lot of the neighbors really did know each other, which is really weird these days. Nobody knows anybody. And so if my mom was going to run into town, you know, town 15 minutes away, she'd call a couple of her friends and say, I'm running in to pick up groceries. Do you need anything?
19:06so that they didn't have to make the trip to town. And I was thinking that wouldn't it be cool if you either call a friend and say, somebody who lives fairly close, I'm heading into wherever to get stuff, do you need me to pick you up anything? Because that means that the double drive to and from doesn't happen. Or wouldn't it be cool to be like, hey, let's have a girls day and go shopping for groceries instead of going to the bar for wine?
19:36You know? For sure. I mean, I think everything about that is great. I mean, I think that we should try to condense, you know, if one person is going in one direction, it would be cool if there was some way, I mean, with all the technology, just like paying all the neighbors and be like, hey, I'm bringing my recycling downtown. Do you have anything to add? Or you know, I'm going to the grocery store, the farmer's market tomorrow morning, like do you need me to grab anything? And you know.
20:04Stuff like that I think would be so super cool. I mean, I've met most of my neighbors, but I don't think we're really on that those terms. I'm not opposed to it ever. But like I only go out on the weekends, not during the week. And so it would be cool if, you know, if I was low on milk or something. Yeah, I offered that. Yeah. And my husband and I have had the best times grocery shopping together. It's so silly. Or we'd go to Home Depot when the kids
20:32with the kids before we had our youngest, the kids all went to their respective other parents places every other weekend. And so my husband would be like, let's go get food and let's go to Home Depot because we need this or that because we had a fixer up our house. And so we started calling at Home Depot date night. And then we'd be like, oh, we should probably get groceries while they're gone this weekend because taking all three kids was a pain in the butt. Yeah. And yeah, take advantage of the time away.
21:01We would have the best time grocery shopping. It was just silly. Yeah. So make it, make it a community thing, or at least, you know, helping out your community and then the carbon footprint gets smaller. So that was my, my brain storm for, for that episode that I listened to from you and your, your attorney friend. I don't environmental attorney. Is that what it was? Yeah. Kenya.
21:31Yeah, she's she's cool. Oh my gosh. She's so so creative. Yeah, she and her podcast is actually very cool. Yeah, I just I mean, I'm having so many thoughts since moving here. I mean, part of it is out of convenience for myself, but like, I can't remember if I said on the podcast that I was thinking about opening up a store. Did I say that? I think so. Oh, OK. Yeah, I'm thinking about opening up like a bulk food and refill store.
22:01on your property or in the town that you're in? In the neighboring town probably, which is about 15 minutes away. I mean, it's probably like 12 minutes away, but like you were saying with the grocery store, it's like, you know, 15 minutes. But I mean, I was gonna go to one, there are two refill stores just under an hour from me and neither of them are open during normal person hours. Like they're open during regular business hours, which
22:31people are doing business and working. So they're not gonna get a lot of business and they're gonna end up closing, which just seems silly. But so I was like, shoot, I need to refill some stuff. So I either need to learn to make stuff or acquire stuff somehow. But like one of the things I was just talking to somebody about was like olive oil. Olive oil would be a super cool thing in a refill store.
23:00or in a bulk food store. And, you know, they don't, I should say we, because I'm here now, but we don't recycle glass, which is silly because glass is infinitely recyclable, but they don't recycle glass because it's heavy. But glass also is perfect for a refill store or a bulk food store. So.
23:26That would be a great way to keep that out of the landfill. I know in the refill store in my main store, people could drop off extra spaghetti jars or salsa jars or whatever, and other people can use them if they come in and they're like, oh, I'm a jar short. Something like that would be super cool. Drop off your extras and someone else will use them and then just, we'll just keep them in circulation and stop throwing them in the landfill. Yeah, definitely.
23:56Guys, you and I can't remember her name, the attorney, we're talking. Yeah, Kenya, you and Kenya were talking about the disposable. Yeah. Cutlery. Yep. And I hadn't even thought about that because we rarely actually go out to eat. We may order something in, but we don't go out. Yeah. And we don't ever get. Her idea to just put us, have the restaurant put a sign and say. Yeah.
24:26Right. You never need it, but it's always there. But like have the restaurant make a sign or have it, you know, if you're ordering online, just say, you know, I need cutlery or I don't need cutlery, like just specify and then don't make it automatic that it's put in there. Yeah. And my son actually has a case that has like 12.
24:53reusable straws. I think they're aluminum, I think. And they have the little silicone toppers that go on them so they're soft. And I was like, what do you need straws for? And he was like, sometimes you just got to have a drink with a straw mom. I'm like, okay. So the idea of plastic straws is very weird to me because the only time I actually have them...
25:20is if we pick up something from like a fast food place, that's it. Right. Right. So yeah, I mean, I have from my real food store in Maine, I bought like a little canvas case that has a bamboo fork, spoon and knife in it. And I think it had chopsticks as well, which I took out because I will never eat chopsticks in the car. I mean, I'll never eat Chinese food in the car. But like those, I just have them in my car in case there's a need.
25:50They also sell at places like Fleet Farm and I don't know if Fleet Farm exists in Virginia. I know it doesn't in Maine. But at like, what's the word I want? Maybe even Home Depot. I don't know. But there are places that you can get these. They're like a Swiss Army knife, except that they have a spoon or a spork. So they're like all attached? And a little knife. Yeah. And they just fold into the
26:20I don't know what it's called the handle thing and You just throw that in your bag and you have a way to eat that is you can just wipe it off with a napkin Take it home wash it. Yep. Very cool. So there's so many things that that are Imminently require plastic. Yeah imminently reusable forever yeah, and the other thing that makes me laugh is people talk about silverware and
26:49Nothing is silverware anymore. It's cutlery. They don't really make Cutlery out of silver anymore, right? It's silver plated or yeah, it's too expensive Right, and I'm quite sure that there are people who who want actual Silverware and can afford to buy it and they have the beautiful box with the beautiful filigree stems On their silverware and I applaud them. I think it's gorgeous, but
27:17I would be afraid I would ruin it by using it. Well, that was what I was thinking as you were talking about it too. It's so pretty. If you use it, it's going to get all tarnished and then you have to polish it and stupid stuff. But the box is pretty because it's always velvety, right, on the inside? Oh yeah. My mom had the most beautiful silverware set that I think she got as a wedding present. And I don't think she still has it. I don't know what happened to it. I haven't seen it in years.
27:47You don't think they pondered. I don't know what happened to it. I have no idea. I should ask her. Or maybe I'm thinking of it from when I was little. I remember it from when I was little. It might have been my grandmother's. I don't know. But I haven't seen it in, I can't remember the last time I saw it. So anyway, interesting stuff, but we're getting way far afield from what I wanted to talk about.
28:14So are you going to leave your podcast called grounded in Maine or are you thinking about changing it? I plan to keep it at least for now. Like I have it. It's you know, too many changes. So at least I'm planning to keep it for now. I may change things in the future, but not yet. Okay. And for anybody that didn't hear the original episode that we did, Amy's podcast is called grounded in Maine.
28:43And Amy, what is it about? Because you say it so much better than I can.
28:48Oh, it's about sustainability. So it is encouraging people to be creative about being sustainable because we just don't all have money for solar panels and huge farms and stuff like that. But so just to so that we can all feel part of the solution. And climate change. And it's beautiful. I love your podcast. I, after I...
29:17found out about you, I started listening. I was going backwards because I didn't want to go all the way to the first one and listen through to the front, if that makes sense. And I had listened to like 12 of them from most recent back. And this morning I was like, this is silly. It's going to take me forever. So I actually went back to the beginning and started listening to it from the beginning because that made more sense now.
29:47It does. I mean, if you start at the beginning, it will just like, then you can, I don't ever recommend binging my podcast. They're long episodes, but there's no order to it. But I mean, if you start at the beginning, it will like play the next one once that one's done, I think. I think so too. Generally. Yeah. And the thing is, ever since I started my podcast, I've been listening to other people's podcasts and you know what podcasts are great for? They're great to keep you entertained.
30:16and informed while you're doing dishes or folding laundry. Or making jam. Mm-hmm, yeah. And I actually bought earbuds that have the little things that hook over your ears, over and behind, because I had the little button ones. Yeah, they fall out. Yeah, one fell out into my bowl of granola, into the milk. I had to wait four days for it to come back to life. Oh, goodness. So I was like...
30:43I can't do this if this falls in the sink. This can't keep happening. No, no, this will not stand. So I went out to Amazon, God forbid, and found earbuds that are pearlescent pink colored. So I can find them. Oh yeah, you did, Mary. I did. And now I can find them because everything in my house is either dark brown or black or cream. So I couldn't go with any of those colors because the cases always blend in with everything.
31:12can't find them. Yeah, like a pearlescent pink case would be great because I'll be able to see it. And it will be safe from all the boys. Yes. Well, my husband and my son don't care. They're like pink. Pink's just as manly as black. It's fine. So anyway, got these earbuds over my ears and I have not dropped them anywhere. So it's been great because I can listen to your podcast. I don't even know they're my ears.
31:43Do you wear glasses? I do. And you can wear those too. That's what would make me hesitate. Like too many layers over my ears. Yeah, no, I was afraid of that and I put them in and I forgot I had them in. That's awesome. Or on how we say it. So yeah, they're great. But I listen to your podcast, I listen to Charlotte Smith's podcast, she.
32:11She is a coach, a farming coach. Cool. Yeah, she's really cool. And I listen to Best to the Nest. It's a podcast that Elizabeth Reese and Marjorie Punnett do. Elizabeth Reese is a personality in the Twin Cities. She's a co-host on a talk show in the afternoon. And she's big into homesteading. And she and her dear friend Marjorie
32:41started this podcast a while ago and it's about making your nest a safe place to come home to. Like how you decorate, how you take care of it, how you cook in it, how you raise your kids in it. It's just, it's a gorgeous thing. I love it. And I didn't like podcasts until I started my own. So weird. That's fun. I, there's
33:10nothing like it. Yup, I love love love love this format now. I had no idea that I would. I know. I mean I was on a podcast called Podcast Junkies and I was like I totally
33:28It's very me. Because I listen to so many podcasts and I listen to them all day long while I'm working and I listen to them when I'm doing things and I listen to them when I'm driving. Unless I get super tired and then I put on the eighties, but otherwise it's podcasts. Yep. That makes sense. Okay. So I don't want to keep you.
33:55because I try to keep my episodes to 30 minutes and we're already over that and I knew we would be. But what's the plan? You said you have your chickens, you're trying to get a food forest started, you got solar panels and you're thinking about opening a refill store? Is that what it's called? Refill and bulk food, yeah. But I mean, my job is ending in February because I moved, which is a super bummer.
34:24So I'm just thinking about what I can do. I'm going to have to find a job because, and I'm thinking about the, the refill and, and, um, bulk food, I'm thinking of starting really small and doing it like out of my car in the beginning to see if there's a need for it and to see if it's really popular and if it's really popular, then I'll get a storefront. But like, I'm thinking I'll do that on the weekends when things are busier and, uh,
34:51And most things, oh my gosh, here, most things are closed on Saturday and Sunday, which is so weird. Oh. I mean, the box stores are open. Sure. I mean, the farmers market on Saturdays, but like, most things, a lot of restaurants are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Most restaurants are, a lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays. Some are open on Saturdays, but it's kind of hit or miss. Where are you in Virginia? You're not.
35:20You're not near a coast or anything, right? I am, no, I'm close to the Blue Ridge Mountains. I'm about 20 minutes from North Carolina. And I'm like three and a half hours, three and a half, four and a half hours from the cities in Virginia. So Virginia is not, it's not a tourist state like Maine is, right? Or is it? Not where I am.
35:49But on the coast side, there's Virginia Beach, and then the cities near Virginia Beach are all close to Washington, DC. So they're very close to there. So it's very congested in that area. And I'm very far from there. Yeah, I was always under the impression that Virginia was very much farming country, but maybe it's not. I am.
36:17was under the impression of that as well. I think there is a lot of farming country. I think I don't know where it is though. Okay. Well, I was going to say there's a lady that I interviewed months ago, and she is
36:44with insurance companies and helps the customer find the best insurance company for them. Sure. Okay. She's like a farmer broker. She helps people get connected with different farms to get products from the farmers. And she also, I think she does like a drop spot so that people can just go to a place where the farmer has brought their stuff to. Oh, what?
37:13Yeah, it's super cool. I will try to get you. I'll try to introduce you to her because she's on Facebook too. Yeah, I think her name is Suzanne. But anyway, You could look into that too because it's worked out really well for her and her community. Yeah, like maybe I could do like a um, What do you call? franchise or something Yeah, I I don't know what it's I don't know what it's called in this case, but
37:42But I see it as she's a farmer broker, like an insurance broker. She doesn't grow any of this stuff, but she gets everybody connected so they can buy from each other. That's cool. I mean, I... Yeah, it's a really neat situation. I was part of Farm Drop in Maine, which sounds sort of similar, that everyone would bring what they had. You can order everything on a website. And...
38:09you know, on a weekly basis and then everything is dropped off in one area and you just help pick up your stuff. But, um, and I just joined a co-op in North Carolina, but they're like an hour and a half away from me. So it's not going to be something I can just do all the time. It's going to require planning and coordination. Yeah. And I feel like I would need to spend a lot of money to make it worth the trip. Yeah. Which I don't really have. But I
38:38I didn't tell you. Well, I think I you might have seen my post just the other day about Gracie the cow. I almost bought a cow a couple of weeks ago. Yes, you said somebody needed to adopt her. Yeah, there is another one that was so super cute. Her name was Flossie and I was very tempted but I was I messaged a lot of people and I was like, can you please talk me out of this?
39:07She's only going to be like three feet tall. Like I could totally like, could she live in the house? Could I get diapers for a cow? I was trying to work it out in my head and I was just like, somebody needs to talk sense into me because I'm just going to go for this. But like, I don't have a place for her to sleep. Talk me off the cowlust. Exactly. I mean, I've wanted a cow for at least 20 years and a miniature cow would be so much easier and.
39:37I just, you know, I don't have a place for her. I don't have hay, but I was like, maybe she'd get along with the chickens. And then I was like, the man that lives across the street, his son lives behind him. He's got donkeys. Like maybe she could hang out with the donkeys and I can clean their barn for like boarding and stuff. But at that point I was like, I don't even know these people. But.
40:02And she's three and a half hours away. So it's just a super long trip. And I just I don't know. Would she fit in my car? Maybe. Doubtful. I mean, she probably would if she's she's four months old and she's her name is Flossie. Oh, my gosh. I'll have to send you a picture if I still have it. But oh, yeah. You know, you could get a couple goats. Your property would probably handle goats. I don't want goats. Why? Um.
40:31I just said they're just not cows. What about sheep? Nah. No. Bah. No, I just I really have one. I mean a cow and a donkey maybe, but I just I don't I don't want a whole I don't have that much room for a farm. But I was like, like I'm in the process of getting a new chicken coop and then I'm gonna get more chickens. But maybe my eventually my cow can live in the old chicken coop.
41:02But right now the chickens are in the chicken coop, so I don't have a place for a cow. Well there will be a perfect cow for you someday. I know it. Yes there will. And on that note, I'm going to let you go, at least for the podcast recording, because I am, we're at like 41 minutes now. So anyway, I am so glad that you're settling in and you're making friends and you have been on my mind and I'm glad you had a chance to come talk to me tonight. Absolutely. Any old time. All right.
41:32Take care, Amy. Thank you. Bye.
 

Serenity Farm and Stables

Today I'm talking with Teena at Serenity Farm and Stables about equine therapy and the grounding power of nature. You can follow on Facebook, as well.
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00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead. The podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 Teena, and of course I just shut the Facebook page, so I can't read your business name. Tell me your business name again. All right, well my company is Serenity Farm and Stables. We're at a water town, Minnesota.
00:29We are a facility that specializes in programs that support mental health, healing, and so predominantly working not riding horses, but groundwork, a lot of group therapeutic experiences, individual couples and families. So how did this come about? Because I know that you are educated in all of this. So how did you get to where you are?
00:56That's a great question. I would say in terms of the equine piece, I have children that were more or less born with a passion for horses. And so that's what got us into the equine world. As my children have now moved on into college, we still had these three amazing mayors and I desired to continue to work with them in a capacity. And that included as an equine therapist. My background was oncology nursing.
01:25with a component of marriage and family counseling around oncology and family and cancer survivorship, which then led to holistic healing and homeopathics and other things. Ultimately, all of them tied together, though, so beautifully with equine therapy, which is really amazing for trauma release. And so much of our physical experience of suffering comes from suppressed emotions. So.
01:53They are amazing facilitators for that. Yes, and what you just said about all of our misery coming from suppressed emotion. Folks, let it out. That's the thing I want to say about this, because you cannot suppress everything and manage to thrive. No, they cannot cohabitate, for sure. And a lot of times, which is why the horses are also the most amazing facilitators, because a lot of times, the suppressed emotion we have
02:23might not even be on the conscious level. And they have the ability to meet us at both conscious and unconscious levels, which is why they do such beautiful and amazing healing work with clients, perhaps on the spectrum, who might not have the words to express their experience. The horses don't communicate on that language level. They communicate on an energetic level. And so they have the ability to understand.
02:51and transmutate energetic experiences and emotional experiences in ways as humans will never comprehend. Yes, and so this is gonna get real deep if you keep talking that the way that you're talking because most people do not understand how this works. So can you, I don't know, in layman's terms, tell me how the horses help? Okay, so I'll try to...
03:20You're right, this is deep work and it's what I'm submerged in, so it's kind of how I live day to day. But so how the horses work in a herd scenario is they rely on one another because they're prey animals. And so they can communicate in very, very subtle ways through energy. Just the slight movement of an ear or flip of their tail or the angle of their body could indicate there's a predator to be unaware that they should be in awareness of.
03:50And so when you take that very strong sensitivity to their environment and you bring it into, for instance, an arena with clients, often when we come in with clients, the clients might have a lot of anxiety or a depressive state or high stress kind of personality. And as such, their heart rate might be very elevated, the respiratory rate might be elevated. And so the gift of the herd is as we enter into their herd,
04:20meaning like our relationship as a human to them as a horse, often it will help bring down our heart rate, it will slow down our respiratory rate. So that's what we call co-regulation when there's a sort of a movement towards something that is more stable. And so we can apply that to the physical sensations of stress, which I just shared, like the respiratory heart rate.
04:48But then also our emotional state can come down from a place of trauma and stress to a one of more of a harmonized state. Does that feel more simple? Yes. And I would have been happy to keep listening to the big words because I love words and ones I don't know. I would have been like, what does that one mean? But it makes it really hard for people who are listening because they'll be like, I'm lost and I don't have time to look up the word, you know?
05:18All that is important is that we understand that we harbor and hold so much emotion in our bodies that show up as a physical expression that might look like illness or pain and that the horses do a really beautiful job at helping us to express at an like whether it's conscious expression through words or energetic expression.
05:46They help us to bring that to the surface so that it can move and so that we can feel better both emotionally and physically. Okay. So say someone who is on the autism spectrum comes to you for help and wants help, wants the equine part of this. Do they, does the person like...
06:11sit on the horse, stand with the horse and touch the horse? How does it come into play with the horse? Well, that's a great question because it's all the above. You might have some children on the spectrum that have an obsession with horses and to touch a horse and pet a horse and groom a horse would be their favorite thing in the whole world. And you might have another child who has strong sensory issues where they can't even handle the smell of the barn.
06:40every child or adult on the spectrum or any client for that matter is completely adaptable to their circumstances. So it can look different every single time. So often what we might have is start in our viewing room, which is a window looking into the arena where we might have the horses who naturally are drawn and curious might come to the window and we'll talk about the horses, you know, and then the next session might be
07:09an experience where the horses are in the round pen and we look at them through the round pen and then the next session might be grooming and touching. Whereas there might be a kid that first session, we just say hello in the viewing room and then jump right into doing like obstacle courses where the client is leading the little minis or perhaps the quarter horses.
07:33through some kind of obstacles and just building on their self-confidence, their self-awareness skills, their communication skills, their being in the moment, being a major part of our plan and goal. And that's kind of, so that would be a typical experience, an interaction.
07:57Okay, so is, okay, I don't know how to ask this correctly. Is your business on your property? Technically, yes. So my daughter lives on the property. We live off-site, that's a long story as to how it came to be. But my passion around really having a submersive experience with animals and nature required us to purchase a
08:26a land where we could do those things. And so the land that we have our farm on is predominantly all, we have 12 horses on the property. And then we have a beautiful path that kind of is the surrounding of our property. And so we do a lot of retreats around community and incorporating both animals and nature. That's really our mission, creating community.
08:54in the environment with animals and nature being number one. Okay. The reason I ask is because my podcast is conversations with homesteaders and cottage food producers and crafters. And when I asked you to be a guest, I was like, horses are very much a part of homesteading for a lot of people. So there's a tie in here. And I was just really curious about what you do because
09:23Not everyone is like, hey, horses are amazing and magical and for the most part, pretty calm. This might help people. Yes. And this is like something, this is what is so interesting to me. My horses, I've had them for over 10 years, but they've always been in a boarding scenario. So this is my first year and a half where we spend so much time together because we own the property.
09:51And most people don't understand that horses do this all the time. They don't have to be trained to do this work. It's in them. And so there's so many amazing horse owners that don't know that they have this gift. I'm sure many of your listeners do know, but many do not. And so people could just, you know, plant their chair next to a horse and have these amazing healing opportunities right in their backyards. Yes. And the other thing I want to throw in here is that
10:21I feel like it's an honor when any animal decides that they want to know you, even if it's just a cat or a dog, because animals were not around people back, way back in time. And the fact that somebody was like, oh, there's a baby whatever canine over there.
10:47and it's hurt and it needs food and needs water, I'm gonna reach out and see if I can help it. And that first canine became friends with the first human. It just astounds me that that even happened. What an honor, you know? Yes, yes. And that they desire such a relationship and they desire such connection with us is very humbling. Yeah, cause they don't need us. Humans could disappear tomorrow and nature would just keep on doing her thing.
11:16Yes, you're right. Absolutely. So it's just astounding to me. And the other thing is that lots of animals can do the things that the horses do. Not exactly the same way, but there's a reason we have emotional support dogs. And there's a reason we keep cats in our homes because petting a cat and brushing a cat calms you down and makes you feel better. And if they're purring in your lap, all the better. Absolutely.
11:46Because we all have frequencies of healings. That's why therapeutic touch or hand massage, all of these pieces are so therapeutic. But absolutely the frequency of purring and the joy that petting our dogs or dogs licking us, it is profound healing pieces. I believe that wholeheartedly because I haven't actually had a...
12:12real bad day in over four years because we bought our place over four years ago and we love it. So I'm pretty good on most days here at our new home. And we have a dog. And there's been a couple of days where some bad things have happened and I've been sad and the dog has come and sat by me and put her head in my lap and looked at me like, do you need a hug? Yeah, well, my little puppy's sitting next to me right as we speak, so I get it.
12:42So it doesn't surprise me that horse therapy or equine therapy is an actual thing. Um, I have a friend who has horses and I have never been terribly comfortable around horses. They're, they're very big and, and they make me a little nervous cause I was not raised around them. And I didn't have friends that had horses and we were standing in the field a couple summers ago.
13:07And her horse walked up behind me and I didn't hear it because we were talking. We were animatively talking. And her horse walked up behind me. I didn't know she was there and she bumped my elbow with her nose. And I was like, hi, how are you? And she just looked at me like, hey, how you doing? And I was just so surprised that I didn't hear her, number one, because usually you hear at least a thump when their feet hit the ground, because they're big. Yeah.
13:36And it was like she just wanted to come up and join the conversation. It was very funny. She absolutely wanted to join the conversation. And then if you were reading into some of the behaviors, I'd be curious about which elbow it was, right-sided versus left-sided. And yeah, that's how they do a lot of, I know this is a big word too, but attunement. Like how do they plug into you and support you? That's where they might select to place their face on your body or the.
14:04how they interact with us is all very intentional and where they place their bodies in respect to where ours is is also very intentional. Yeah, I think she came up on my right. So I think she nudged my right elbow. I can't remember. It was too long ago. Yeah, which is your giving side, right? So I suppose you wanted to support your giving side because I suspect you are a giver. As often as I can be, yes. So
14:32I know just enough about horses to be dangerous. I know that if they have their ears back flat, they're probably not very happy. Something is wrong. That's accurate. I know if they have a loose bottom lip, they're relaxed. Yep, true. I swear something about if they are showing the whites of their eyes, they're afraid. That's accurate. Can be, yeah.
15:00Okay, and that's about all I know. And if they're running and their tails are up, they're usually really excited to be running. Yes, and different breeds will show differently with that too. But you're right. So with horse behaviors, that's the first thing we would do when we would do an individual or group experiences, explain what you just did. How do we understand a horse's behavior so we know for safe in our interactions? But with the horses that we work with, predominantly you'll see them...
15:26We know when their head is down, that that's a really relaxed state because they're not in a state of wanting to flight. And the same with the soft eyes versus like the white in their eyes showing. We can see often a communication of their ears being pinned when someone is entering their boundary space, which is where we start looking at the great work one can do with establishing and learning how to have boundaries with humans. It's transferable to humans, but we can learn that.
15:55with horses. And then of course, the flicking of their tail, you know, of course, there's the situation where it's fly season. And then there's the warning tail flicks. So we teach that to all of our, our clients to be sure that they can recognize those behaviors as like give them some space and step away. But our horses are so sort of plugged into this work. It's not uncommon for them to just lay down around us. Like we could be in a group
16:25three horses laying around us like big dogs, because they're so familiar with the state of being in the present, which is our job, to teach people to do that, to be in their bodies in the moment. And so, yeah, you're not gonna, it'd be very rare that you'd see those aggressive type behaviors in a therapeutic experience. That's more or less when you might see them in the herd, where they're with other horses and they're sort of establishing
16:55their order where you'll see more of that. Yeah. I love horses, okay? I love them. I think that they are absolutely beautiful. And had I been brought up as a horse girl, I probably would still be a horse girl because I would read, you know, all teenage girls get into books about girls that raise horses. I don't know why, but they do.
17:23Yeah. And I read four or five of them and I was like, oh, that would be so fun. And looked at where I lived at the time and I had a sister and a brother who were younger than me and two parents who were taking very good care of us, but we were not wealthy and we did not live on acreage and we had no place to have a horse. And I mentioned to my mom, I said, wouldn't it be cool to have a foal? And she said,
17:47It would be very cool to have a full, she said, but we are not in a position to buy any place big enough to have horses. And that was the end of it. And I was okay with that. I understood completely. It's probably a really good thing that we weren't in that position because I think that I would probably have a ranch at this point. That's how much I really love them. But I'm because I wasn't around them when I am around them. I'm like, wow, that's a big animal.
18:17That's a very big animal. Well, and there's also minis. You know, we do have a couple of minis that we do, chariot rides and things like that. But I think like I think that's most people's experience. I wasn't able to even have a dog when I was a kid because my parents were not interested. But I would say that how wonderful that now as adults, we get to choose how we want our life to look. And many people that could never have an animal or a horse
18:45would go and work at like horsing barns to help with chores and things like that. So I love those that got creative when I was a child. I don't think we even had horse people near us. So that wasn't an option. And to be honest, when I was little, I was like a terrified person of horses. I was sort of taught that they, you know, their primary goal was to bite or kick. So, you know, it took a lot for me to be desensitized and only through the, you know, desire of my children did I even want to do that.
19:15But I've come a long way for sure. And I do think that most people have that calling and desire to have the presence of a horse in their life in some capacity, whether that's a trail ride or just feeding them a carrot or, but I would encourage you, should you ever have the opportunity to come and have a tour of our farm and let me introduce you to some of these horses and you'll be able to remember, recognize that they are such spiritual healing beings and that will feel so
19:45good to your soul? Oh, yes, absolutely. I just, I give them a lot of respect. Like when I found out that my friend had two horses, when I was introduced to them, I let them come up to me. She had some treats that they love, and she said, do you know how to feed a horse a treat? And I said, yep, flat hand. And she said, okay. And so she put the treat in my hand, and I put my hand out, and one of them came over.
20:13and sniffed and said hello and took the treat out of my hand and didn't do anything scary. And she was like, they're actually super nice. And I was like, I know, I'm not, I'm not afraid. I just don't want to do anything wrong. And she said, she said, you're not going to do anything wrong. She said, she said, you said you love horses. I said, I do. She said, and you're very careful with them. And I said, I am. And she said, that's all they need. I was like, oh, okay, good.
20:39And they can read your heart so easily so they can sense, you know, people always say like they can sense your fear and the truth is they can sense all of our emotions. And what they don't love is when we're incongruent. So let's say you have the person who says, oh, I'm not afraid of horses and they come into the space and the heart is racing and the horse can tell that they have fear. That's the part that feels uncomfortable for them because they're saying things with their words that don't match their physical state.
21:08So if you came into that same pen and said, like, I'm really afraid of horses, but I really want to learn to be comfortable around them, they immediately would drop into that space of peacefulness because your words match your physical state. So those horses could read that your heart was so loving and open and that's where they wanted to join you guys right out of the gate. So that's where I'm like, if I had a friend with two horses like you have, I'd go plant my two chairs wherever they are in the pasture.
21:38deep conversation with your friend before you know it, all of them would be surrounding you, just so curious and desiring to be part of that authentic communication that you're sharing. Yes. And that's the other thing about horses. They're really curious, like crazy curious. They want to know everything. Yeah. Well, they want to be part of things that feel meaningful. So absolutely, they want to be part of everything. Yup. Okay. So.
22:08I don't know what else to ask you because this is all very interesting and I'm sure there's like a hundred thousand things I want to know but I don't know which one to pick. There is scientific studies backing all of this, right? Correct. With the equine therapy? Yeah, like the weeds. Go ahead. When did that start? When did people get into figuring this out with scientific backing?
22:37That's a great question. I know that this work was sort of becoming, we'll say, more trendy in the last 20 some years, I'd say up to 30, but predominantly in the last 20 years, but really has really grown in the last, I'd say, five to 10 years, five being even more so. But actual studies being done, that's been in the last, like actual blind studies, I'd say it was been in the last five years or so.
23:05The schooling that I did, which is Touched by a Horse, they recently did a study and I do an informal one where I do an intake with all my clients and a post experience. And what my observations and the feedback I'm getting is, so for instance, if you have a client, typically our Friday group is a mental health group and they might come in with their stress levels being at a seven or eight, they're in depression at a five or six and their anxiety at a five or six.
23:35I would say on average we see a 50% improvement in their symptoms within an hour and a half session. So if they came in with a depression at a six, they'd leave at a three. They came in with anxiety at a five, they'd leave at a two, somewhere in there. So I hope that there'll be more research done as we move forward because it is such a great modality when people have exhausted, we'll say, the typical Western medicine world of...
24:03medication and counseling if they're still looking for relief of those types of symptoms. It's a wonderful modality that's not really well known yet, but is promising for the future. So I don't know if that answers your question, but... So it's a fairly new study, a field of study. Yes. But, I mean, I'm 54. I don't know how old you are, but I'm 54.
24:32I've known since I was probably six that nature in all its forms, other than maybe a tornado or a hurricane barreling down on your house, is good for you. I know I grew up in Maine and we lived on an acre of land and a half acre of that was woods like pine trees and poplar trees and maple trees.
24:58We had a really beautiful dirt road that was about two and a half miles long that connected our, our avenue to the next major road going, I don't know, the opposite direction of the road that came to our house. I can't think of what direction it was. And we used to go, I used to go by myself just for bike rides and hikes out on that road and go hiking on the deer trails. And
25:24Nothing made me happier than being out in the woods and hearing the wind blow through the trees. And it just, I was a very anxious, very sad, very angry kid. There was a lot going on. Don't want to get into it, but I was just not a happy child. And I would go out in the woods and just breathe, you know? I'd be like, okay, I'm done with whatever it is that's driving me crazy. I'm going for a hike or I'm going for a bike ride.
25:52and I would head directly to the woods. And if there was water, there was a lake and there was a brook in opposite directions. And if there was water, that made it even better. So nature has a way of bringing you back into yourself and grounding you. Absolutely. Animals are nature. So it makes all the sense in the world that animals help.
26:18And back in the day, I love that that was your childhood first, because I had a similar one where our days were making forts in the forest. That was like what we did for fun and swimming in the lake and canoeing. But that is the true grounding. Like that is the reset for our bodies. And so with horses who have four feet constantly on the ground, we get the grounding from them and touching them. I'd say we would get the grounding ourselves if we walked around barefoot, but we don't because we live in Minnesota.
26:47But that is the joy. And I love that kids intuitively know that. I bet when you're a kid, you could walk on gravel, no problem. Now we're so desensitized and tender-footed that we can't do that. But that is the thing. If we could be in nature, breathe in nature's fresh air, especially in the forest with the pines which you had and then the barefoot on the earth, it's so powerfully healing. There's many...
27:15Most recently, I just watched a documentary and a guy who was able to work through some cancer symptoms just spending a certain amount of time in the forest daily. That was part of his healing protocol. And apparently there's physicians in Japan that that's what they put in their prescriptions is spending 15 minutes in the forest, known as forest bathing. But you're right, nature is the beginning of the healing journey and throwing animals then you just amplify that experience. Yeah, exactly.
27:44And I don't mean to keep redirecting this to things other than horses, but I feel like it's all a big, I don't know, sphere of healing and help.
27:58Absolutely. Wow. Could have been circle. Yeah. Circle or sphere. Both good. But that is the thing. There's not one way to healing. There's multiple paths that lead us, and all of us have a very unique and different path to finding that healing. But I do believe that nature and animals are really easy, important pieces that should be included in whichever direction we choose for our emotional and physical healing health. So, I'm going to go ahead and start with you, and then we'll go to the next question. So, I'm going to start with you, and then we'll go to the next question.
28:28And I love that you intuitively from such a young age was, you know, plugged into those pieces. Oh, it was my escape. It was my favorite thing to do other than be in my house with the chaos that was going on in my house a lot. So, okay. So if someone wants to, I don't know, make an appointment with you or get help from you, do they just...
28:57go to your website or how does that work? Thank you. The best ways if you go to the web or the email address info at sere That would be a great access point if you want to go to our website and learn more about our farm. That's sere in Watertown, Minnesota. There's also a Serenity
29:27We have a retreat house on our property, so we often will do half-day or full-day or weekend or onward retreats there so people can stay on site for more acute family healing. And that would be the best way. If you want to follow us on social media, that's great. We have an Instagram and a Facebook page and we're pretty new, so we're just learning this world.
29:56I mean, I'm new to the farm. I've always, like I said, boarded horses. So we have a high learning curve as we develop this program and this model of healing. So I think that it will shift a lot in the next year or two. Well, that's called growth and growth is good. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure you're in the midst of growth too. It's like following our passions. We just go where the road takes us. Oh, when you stop growing, you're dead.
30:26I refuse to be dead yet. I still have at least 50 years to go. Easily 50. All right, Teena, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Yes, thank you for this opportunity and I wish you the best. I wish you the best too. And give those, boop those horse snoots for me. I kind of miss being around horses. Well, come and visit. I think you'll love them. All right, thank you. All right, take care. Bye. Bye-bye.
 

Francis Farm of Londonderry

Today I'm talking with Amy at Francis Farm of Londonderry.
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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00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 Amy at Francis Farm of Londonderry. Good morning, Amy. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm great. I'm really excited to chat with you about what you do. So let's just go for it. What do you do? Tell me about yourself.
00:28So I have an educational and rescue farm here in Chilacothe, well, London dairy, but it's Chilacothe, Ohio. Um, we do events with, um, with children. We have 4-H and FFA kids. We finally got alpacas into the Ross County fair, um, as an approved project. And so we have students that will lease our alpacas and they come here and they learn how to take care of them. And we have.
00:56students that purchase our goats for their projects. We have FFA kids come, any student that's interested in animal science, they can come on our special herd health days and learn how to take care of animals and learn about things like needle safety, which is a big, big thing for me, how to properly restrain an animal to give vaccinations, the importance of knowing everything about an animal before you bring it home.
01:24the type of enclosure that it needs, to the type of food that it needs, to the type of grass that it eats, the vaccinations or any emergency medications you need, all of that. Excuse me, we have field trips here on the farm and so students can come and we do special STEM projects with the students. We do things like we use the alpaca fiber and I show them by adding hot and cold.
01:52how they can make fleece or, I'm sorry, make felt. We do a hatching project, so they'll rent out our incubator and we give them some fertilized eggs to do the project. We have the shell dissolving stem project, and then my favorite one, which is kind of funny, it really only works on the little kids, but eggs can be pink, blue, green.
02:21several shades of brown, white, and we have all of that. And so I asked the kids which egg they think tastes better. And of course the little girl is always like pink and the boys are like blue. So then while they're on their break, I make the eggs and I label the bottom of the plates and they taste the eggs and they have to guess which one they ate. And the moral of it is they all taste the same. So we do different training for people that would like to get started.
02:49on with a farm and don't really know where to start. We give that training and education before they bring animals onto their farm. We have a few adult day centers that come once a month for animal therapy or they volunteer. So the program pays them and then they can do things like, you know, whatever their ability is, whether it's sweeping the barn or just sitting with the animals.
03:18So we do that. We raise chickens and sell them as first year layers for people that don't want to have, go through the thing of having a brooder and warming them and waiting four months to have them. And so those are a couple of the things that we do. Wow, that's a lot. So I have to know, is this nonprofit or do you get paid for what you do? Well, it is nonprofit. We do things. Yeah, we do things that help.
03:48pay for things that we need. So with a nonprofit, you can make a certain amount per year. But all of the proceeds that we get from events that we do, we do trunk retreats and we do different village events and vacation Bible schools. We do things off the farm and on the farm. But those things go back into the farm to do things like adding fencing or adding another shelter house.
04:18big thing that we have to do is we added a watering system out back. We are needing to put a couple lean-tos on the side of our barn because we get so many calls between February and maybe March to take babies, you know, bottle babies because the mother is rejecting them or something happened to the mother. And so I get a lot of phone calls at that time to take.
04:46orphans or babies that are rejected. So we need to place or rescues. And like when something comes in as a rescue, for example, we had four alpacas that we were asked to come and look at. They were in an area that didn't have any grass and they were giving them half cup a grain a day, which was fine, but they weren't really getting the hay that they needed. So they were about 40 to 60 pounds underweight.
05:16Well, in the summer, that's fine. But in the winter, you know, you either need to have a coat on them or they need to be in the barn. And so we need to add some lean to's on the barn. Um, so the things that we do, it all goes back into trying to help make sure that we have what we need for the animals that come in. Okay. So I have like lots of questions running from everything you've told me so far. So I'm going to try to hit on the ones that are right in the front.
05:45Okay, first one is are all the animals that you have rescues? Not all of them. No, we we actually when we started it was just for us and they kind of turned into the rescue park because people knew that we had them. And, you know, I went through six months of education before I brought my alpacas home. And we we were going to get when we bought our house, it was actually an Amish built house. And.
06:14it, I'm not Amish, so we had to have things like HVAC and electric and things like that. There was a pasture area that was fenced in and we didn't want to spend the money to bush hog it every couple months. So we talked about getting sheep and I talked to a wonderful woman who has become one of my very good friends and her husband who is a vet for the sheep, which that helps.
06:43We got our first herd from them. We got a hair sheep. And I don't know if you know the difference between hair sheep and wool sheep. I do, but go ahead and explain it because not everybody listening will necessarily know the difference. Okay, so wool sheep have lanolin in their fleece, which when people are allergic to wool, they're not necessarily allergic to the fiber itself. They're allergic to the lanolin and it's a very thick waxy feeling on their fleece.
07:10and that is absorbed into their skin. And so wool sheep tend to taste a little bit more gamey, where hair sheep, their fleece grows and then automatically falls out and we look like we have a cotton field in the spring. Their fleece does not have lanolin and it's a much more mild meat. And so we raise sheep and process them. And then we got our alpacas and kind of just went on from there. But once
07:39people knew what we had and then they would call us. And when we were offering education, then they're calling us like, do you have room for this? Do you have room for that? I had one, my actual doctor, she was, her and her husband, they were at the point where they were not able to care for their goats anymore. And she knew that I had a farm and she asked me if they could come.
08:04if I'd pick them up and take care of them and they could come here and live. So I went and got her goats. So it just kind of ends up that way. You know, sometimes animals aren't necessarily rescued because they're in a bad situation. Sometimes it's where the individual that has them loves them and they just aren't physically able to take care of them anymore.
08:33I have a question about you said finally getting the alpacas into the fair, but before we get to that one, how did you get into this to begin with? Well, I always grew up loving animals. My first job was when I was 15 years old at a pet store. And I reminded my husband when he told me no, that I couldn't have a goat and I couldn't have a baby donkey, that my first job was at a pet store. And I didn't always ask permission when I brought animals home. So
09:03Don't be surprised if I just come home with it. And so I kind of put him on warning and, and he knows. So, um, we started out with, um, when we bought the house, we know, we knew we had something needed to do something with the pasture. So that's when we had started getting the sheep. We had a barn already ordered and delivered before we even moved in. Um, there was another barn here.
09:30And so we kind of utilized both of those and kind of just tried to decide what we wanted to do with it. A friend that he works with had mentioned alpacas and he asked me about it and never really thought about them. And so I kind of looked into them and I went to visit an alpaca farm, set up an appointment and the woman that helped me was amazing. She
09:59kind of took me on to mentor me and help train me and gave me the Ohio State University camelid education and trained me for about six months before we brought our herd home. But at that time we had already had our sheep and we had chickens and ducks and turkeys and all of that and rabbits. And it kind of grew from there. So we got our goats.
10:29Then, you know, I was trying to think of a way to have a little bit of income to take care of the extra things that we needed to do with maybe sectioning off other parts of the pasture to give them an individual area or adding barn stalls or additional shelter houses or, you know, putting a well out in the pasture area. So that's where these other events kind of came to.
10:56I'm like, well, we have the animals, let's do something with them. We started the mobile petting zoo. We have events here on the farm. If we have a rescue, someone is able to sponsor that rescue. A lot of people ask me, the rescues that we have come in, for example, the alpacas, we had treated them for meningio worms. I actually got the paperwork from the woman I got them from.
11:27and tracked back where they originally came from. And we picked them up in August. And when I contacted the alpaca farm they came from, it was actually in Maryland. And they had left her farm in January of that same year. And a woman had purchased them. And then between January and when I got them, someone else had purchased them. And then it was me.
11:52And so they had traded hands that many times they were down. And I, that's how I knew that they were 40 and 60 pounds underweight. Cause I got her medical records when they left the farm. And so, you know, they asked, well, are you going to read them? One of them. Yeah. So they, I don't read home them. So I, they're here to stay.
12:17Okay. Wow. That's a lot, ma'am. Oh, sorry. You have a lot going on. Do you ever sleep? No, not really. I mean, I go to bed sometimes at two and I wake up at six. So, uh huh. Yeah. I mean, you are so, I can hear it. I can hear how energetic and energized and excited and, and committed to this. You are just in what you're telling me and through the sound of your voice. Um, so you were saying back,
12:4710 minutes ago, I think, eight minutes ago, whatever it was, that you finally were able to have the alpacas be at the county fair?
12:59Right. So Alpaca is a 4-H project that is available in a lot of counties, but it has to be approved through the fair board. And so we had the stipulation was I had to have six students that were willing to actually take the project. And so then it became a, it was a project year, but it was a
13:26display so they were actually at the Ross County Fair this year, but it was just for display. Next year the students will be able to actually do the projects where they can dress up the there's a there's one where they can choose a theme and dress up the alpaca or the llama and themselves and um so they can get some type of award for that. They do PR. There's um things that they can do with the fiber so.
13:54this year they'll actually be able to do those fun projects. Okay, I just didn't know why it was a finally kind of thing. And then you said that you rent your alpacas to the kids to take care of for the season? Yeah, so that's that way they don't have to have a farm to do that. Yeah, it's a lease option that 4-H provides for students that they can lease the animal, which means.
14:21that is their animal, nobody else can use that animal for their project, it's specifically and only for their project. They come to the farm, they take care of it, they learn how to lead and feed and clean up and parasite prevention and control and all of those things. And they get to really know the animal. And then I take them to the fair and then it's their responsibility to clean the pens and make sure they have food and water and.
14:50and that they're taking care of them during the week of the fair. Cool. So they don't have to have the animal at their house so that they can actually do this. Right. That's fantastic. I didn't even know people did things like that. That's great. It's a good opportunity for them. You are a good soul, lady.
15:17It's all for the benefit of the animals and the people around you. It's really great. Yeah. And I especially love, you know, we have, like I said, those two adult day centers that come and it hit me when we were at the, we were at an event and I had my Matilda, who was my favorite donkey, she's a Mediterranean miniature. And this, this older woman, she just.
15:45was just loving all over her and she was almost crying and she was telling me the story of her and her husband had a donkey and the donkey was around 25 years old and her husband had died and so she wasn't able to keep and take care of the animals anymore so she had to get rid of her donkey and that was like her, you know, the second saddest day of her life was getting rid of her donkey. And so I have, I had three benches made and we are.
16:14The first four years has been kind of getting the pasture where we want it and shelter houses and stalls and all of that. And this year is more like a beautification, so making things pretty. And so I had these benches made and I'm putting them around the barn and the pasture area so that people like her can come and they can just sit with the animals and walk around or just sit and watch them. Just sitting and watching them is therapeutic.
16:42But the adult day centers, some of them have trouble if they have a wheelchair or a walker, you know, getting through some of the gravel areas. And so I set up a pen in the front and told their leader, like, you know, even if they just come here and sit in this area and we'll bring some animals, even if they're just sitting, they're doing something because they're providing companionship to the animal.
17:08So when you see people smile and that type of thing makes them happy, that makes me happy. It's such a beautiful thing. Yes, exactly. I love what you're doing. I'm sitting here, I'm all glowy. I'm like, oh, this lady's fantastic. So I can't remember, I was looking at your Facebook page this morning, because that's what I do when I'm going to interview somebody. I go look at their, I Facebook stalk them and look at pictures and see what you're up to. Did I see that you had?
17:36puppies this year? Yep, we had a litter of Great Pyrenees puppies, which came at a day where we had lost one of our alpacas unexpectedly, which was a very sad day for me. So the puppies kind of helped bring me a little bit of happiness. And then I also have hobby breed Shih Tzu puppies, which are...
18:05don't shed and they're hypoallergenic. So we kind of do that also. We've done that for, I've done that for 10 years. I took genetics in school. And so that was just kind of a fun thing for me. Cool. So did the puppies find homes? The, the, the great Pyrenees puppies find homes? They did. They all, I made sure that they all went to farms.
18:29that had livestock and made sure they weren't going to just throw the puppy out with the animals, you know, make sure that they knew that there was an appropriate way to do that. We kept one of them, but they were all named, given Indian names, because my daughter was in the outdoor drama Tecumseh this year, so they all had Indian Indian themed names. But they all are currently on working farms. Very nice.
18:56Anytime I see puppies on someone's page that I'm going to interview, I'm like, yay, finally another excuse to talk about my dog because I love talking about Maggie, my dog. And the last three or four interviews, I haven't even talked about her because there hasn't been a segue and I haven't even thought about it. When I saw the puppies, the pictures on your page, I was like, oh, puppies. I freaking love puppies. I love kittens. I love baby anything.
19:24And right now we have barn cats, barn kittens in the pole barn. And I have to find homes for three of them because three of them are girls and two of them are boys, we're keeping the boys because we need mousers. Right. And, and so right, this whole last month and a half has been baby kittens, you know, basically every day, baby cats. And Maggie, the dog is four.
19:51and she loves the kittens. Like she acts like she's their mama. And so when they come out of the pole barn, she sits and she waits and she wags her nub in. She doesn't have a tail, she has a nub. And she waits and they come up to her and introduce themselves and she has to sniff them and lick them and put her paw on their head and be like, hello, I'm your auntie, how are you? It's very cute. So yeah, puppies and kittens. Oh my goodness. They are amazing.
20:19Did you see that we had a new baby alpaca? Yes, and you named it Maverick? Yes, Maverick. And he has, well, his dad is Gunner, his Top Gun is his dad's name, so he's Maverick, of course. And we have one, my gender snap, she is due any day now. So we should have another one. And then we started our breeding for next year. This week, they're pregnant for...
20:4811 and a half to 12 months. So this kind of will put them being due around the National Alpaca weekend, which is the last weekend of September. Oh, fun. Fun. That's awesome. Um, you mentioned the Top Gun theme. Right. I've never told this story before. I'm going to make it quick. One of the very first movies I ever saw was Top Gun. And I think I was 15, 16.
21:18I can't remember. And my friend who was older than me, she's 10 years older than me, took my sister and my friend and me to see the movie with her. And there was no one in the theater except us. We had a private showing of Top Gun. It was really funny because I had not really been to a movie like that ever.
21:46You know, that was a fairly grown up movie. And I'd been to drive-in theaters with my parents and saw Benji and I don't know, there was a movie that had a Volkswagen Beetle in it, I can't think of the name of it right now, and saw those, but I was a little kid. And so to walk into an empty movie theater to see my first quote unquote grown up movie being Top Gun with my favorite adult besides my parents.
22:14and my sister and our friend. It was just this, it was like an event just made for us. It was really cool. That's fun. Yeah, it was. It was really neat. And we, because we were the only ones there, one of the usher people, because movie theaters used to have actual ushers, came up to us and said, do you guys want popcorn? And I was like, I don't have any money, because I didn't, you know, I was a kid.
22:41And my friend that had brought us, she was like, no, we're good. And he actually went out and got a great big tub of popcorn and just brought it to us and was like, it's on the house. Have a party. Enjoy. Aw. So yeah, it was, it was really fun. And I had forgotten all about it until you mentioned Top Gun. So thank you for that memory. You're welcome. Yeah. Um, okay. So when you take the animals to events, how does that go? Do you have help?
23:09Do you have a specific vehicle? Does the vehicle have signage on it so that people know who you are and what you're bringing? How does it work? Yeah, we do. I have a, we have a livestock trailer. We have a magnet sticker on our truck that has a QR code. So even if it's in the parking lot somewhere, somebody can scan the QR code and it takes them to our Facebook page. And I try to share as many events as I can.
23:37on there that we have, you know, like Christmas on the farm. And then we have a crochet making like a education day where I have somebody that's going to be teaching kids or adults that don't know how to and would like to know how to crochet. She'll be teaching that day. And so I try to share those. But yeah, we we have our livestock trailer, we load them up. I have my husband and my son and
24:07well oiled engine at this point. So, you know, with what we have to grab and what order we put things in. We just did an event this past weekend. That was a pretty big event where we took our products too. So we have to load the truck another specific way if we're taking tables with our products. And then we put the, we load the corrals on top and then harness the animals. And we have
24:35an area that we kind of run them into to be able to harness them and then load them up and take them. And they're kind of used to it by now. There's a couple of them. My bottle baby, Lam Jovi, she doesn't even need to be harnessed. She just walks and I tell her to get up there and she just gets up in the trailer and she doesn't have to have a lead. We were in an event where there was a dog trainer and they were actually laughing because she just followed me everywhere, did not leave my side, wasn't on a harness.
25:05wasn't on a lead and they were like, wow, she just does that. They're like dog trainers, you know, where they're trying to get dogs to just stay in one area or follow them. So yeah, we've done it enough that we just kind of all work together and know what to do and know what to grab. And we have a list, a checklist of things that we know we have to have and that's about it. Okay. Well, you just gave me two more questions. You're really good at this interview thing. I'm so impressed.
25:35Um, are the animals tired at the end of an event? Like, did you bring them home and they just crashed? They're like, I'm going to take a nap now. They're, they're usually pretty excited to get home. Um, when we have events where it's going to be caught outside, we don't want to leave them in the heat, obviously, and have sun beating down on them. So we'll take a pop-up tent and we'll cover a part of the area so that they have some type of shade to go to. Um.
26:03But I am very careful on which animals I take to which events because I have a few that just in watching them, they get a little bit more overstimulated with a lot of people than if it's a smaller event. And so I'm particular with which animals I take. I do want them all exposed to that, but I don't want to stress them out. And we also try to make it so that
26:31At least one side of the, I try to make it so that at least one side or two sides of the corral area is not really accessible to people so that they don't feel like they're surrounded, you know. But they are just happy to get snacks and treats and we make it so that they're not overfed during these events with treats. And I mean, they are excited to get home, but they're excited to have the treats. So
27:02I have a few that are very much treat hogs. Uh huh. Yes. I think every single animal on the planet loves treats. We got in trouble with our vet two weeks ago because we took our dog to the vet. She was like, she's in great health except she's fat. Yeah. We'll have that. I said, how fat? She said, oh, she's 39 pounds and she really should be around 29 or 30 pounds. And I was like, oh, Maggie, you're going on a diet.
27:32And she's actually down three pounds in the last two weeks. So cutting her back to what she should be eating is working. Well, I actually will cut up green peppers or red bell peppers and I put them in the freezer. And I give my dogs love peppers, they love green beans, berries. So that could also be a treat for her that's not necessarily like a dog treat. Yep.
28:01Green beans, we have a whole bag of apples that are going soft and she still loves them. So she's been getting pieces of apple. They're very soft, so they're very sweet. They're overly ripe, but she loves them. Okay, that leads me to my probably last question. You mentioned products. You make things too? I do. I make things and I also buy them. So we have our alpacas.
28:30They are shorn once a year and that's usually the second or third weekend of May. And then we take the, I take the fiber. I have a fiber mill in Dayton, so it's a little bit of a drive, but I take it and it takes a year to process. And so typically I'm picking up last years and dropping off this year's and I let her know what I want done with it. Whether I just want her to wash it.
28:59and then I just pick up the raw fiber or she will, I have her turn it into yarn or rug yarn and felt sheets, like large felt sheets. And so I am getting ready to attempt to make a rug on my own with the felt backing and the rug yarn. I do make dryer balls. I make felt sheets that you can put in shoes because alpaca is
29:28hypoallergenic, it doesn't hold odor, and it's naturally water resistant, like water kind of beads off of it, and it's actually naturally flame resistant. So they do make good shoe inserts. And so I do make things like that. I make homemade laundry soap. I make apple pie filling from our trees. And then other things, goat milk soap, things like that. But I also have a few vendors that I,
29:57purchase things from like alpaca blankets and alpaca made scarves, hats, gloves, things like that, blankets, comforters. And I have one in particular that I really love supporting. They have goat milk type soap. It's called Sassy Alpaca. And they actually, if I'm remembering the story correctly.
30:24It was a family that they have autistic children and they wanted to help support that. And so it's an autistic supported company. And so I try to purchase things from them for resale as much as I can. They have a lot of great things. I love elderberry. And so they do have this elderberry syrup, I guess.
30:54Um, it's in the dropper. Uh huh. Tincture? For coughs and whatever. Yeah.
31:04So, yeah, so we have all of that. Well, I didn't see anything that says you have a website. Do you have a website? My husband is actually in the process of doing that. I'm between the other projects that I have for him. So he's in the process of trying to get one together. I have some pictures of things on our Facebook page, and then I have, you know, open farm days and things like that. But he's, yeah, that's, that's in the works.
31:35Will you be having a storefront on your website where people can buy the things that you make? We will. Okay, so people, I can't, I don't know how to get the word out to people after this goes out, this episode gets released, but if you're interested in the stuff that Amy is gonna be selling on their future website, go to their Facebook page. Do you have an Instagram page? We do, it's Francis Farms of London Dairy. And I'm sure you'll promote it on there too, so. All right.
32:02That's it, Amy. We got past 30 minutes. We're at 31 minutes and 58 seconds. Thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Oh, absolutely. And good luck with everything you're doing. It's fantastic. Thank you. All right. Bye. Bye.
 

Dandylion Farms LLC

Today I'm talking with Christina and Seth at Dandylion Farms LLC.
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
00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. 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 Christina and Seth at Dandelion Farms LLC. Good evening, guys. Good evening. Hey. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. You guys are in Ohio? Yes. Okay. I'm in Minnesota if you didn't know.
00:30Um, so tell me, tell me about yourselves and what you do. Well, uh, we're just kind of some average people who, uh, kind of started going down the whole homesteading trail, um, quite a few years ago. And, uh, you know, we, we kind of do a lot of, a lot of things, but
00:58Our business right now primarily makes natural healthcare products like lotions, shampoos, soaps, salves, stuff like that. All the good things, yes. Yes, yeah. Yep, we make things like that here too. And Christina was kind enough to send me a lip balm and a shampoo bar.
01:28And I'm probably, I don't know if I'm supposed to say that or not, cause it's a new thing, but I, I tried the lip balm today and it's a wonderful, I think you sent me the mocha kind. Yes. That one is her favorite. So I was like, Oh, let her try that one out. And then yeah, the shampoo bar, we haven't released them yet, but I've been giving them out to like a couple of people to try out and let me know what they think about them before we really put them out there.
01:54Well, I have questions. I haven't used it yet because I wash my hair once a week and I had just washed my hair when the bar came in and I was like, um, I'm going to wait. So my question about the shampoo bars is how exactly do you use them? Do you use them like a bar of soap on your hair or do you lather them up in your hand and put the lather in your hair or how do I use it? So you could do either.
02:20but I just put the soap bar under the water for a second and then obviously make sure your hair is good and wet. And then I just lather and it literally feels like there's a huge cloud sitting on my head. It lathers up so well. Yeah, I just scrubbed down. Okay. Like using a bar of soap. Okay, cool. And it looks like there's a lot of moisturizing oils in the ingredients and I am tickled about this because my hair tends toward dry and.
02:48We have a cold front moving into Minnesota as we speak. Today it was 72, tomorrow it's supposed to be 55 for the high. And it doesn't look like it's gonna get hot, hot again until spring. Thank you, Jesus, I'm ready for this bouncing to be done. But my hair tends to get real dry in the wintertime because the humidity drops. So I'm very excited to see how the oils in it work. Yes, so I naturally have,
03:18Like my hair will get, if I wash it too much, which when you said you only wash your hair once a week, I only wash mine twice a week. So it's much better for like the oil production. But I understand completely about your hair being dry because mine is as well. And that's why I packed it full of so many hydrating oils because I always feel like I had that issue. And that was one of the biggest things as to why I was like, we're making shampoo bars because one, all of the terrible ingredients that are in all the store-bought ones, you know, they,
03:47can cause all kinds of issues. But also I was like, no matter what I purchase, my hair is still dry. So I was like, I'm just gonna make my own. So yeah, I made sure to put a bunch of nourishing and hydrating and moisturizing oils into it. So I'm excited to hear what you think about it when you try it. Well, it's probably gonna be tomorrow. So as soon as it dries, I will message you and tell you what it did. I also heard that I read, cause I looked up about shampoo bars, cause I keep meaning to get one and I never do.
04:16And then one showed up magically in my mailbox and I was like, I don't know what to do with this. I don't know how it works. And I looked it up. And from what I read from three reputable sources, because that's how I decide whether I believe what I'm reading, people's hair goes through an adjustment period and you shift from shampoo to a shampoo bar. Yes, absolutely. So we'll see. Right now.
04:44Right now I wash my hair and I let it dry and my hair is long. It's like mid back and I'm also 54 and my hair is about, I would say two thirds white and a third dark. Cause I started going gray really early. I have my first gray hairs at 14. And I have been saying for the last 10 years, I wish that it would just go white because this is driving me insane, but I don't want to color it cause it'll take forever to grow it back out again.
05:15Point being is that no one tells you when your hair is beautiful and dark when you're in your 20s That when it goes gray those gray hairs are coarser than your your normal Hair is when you're younger. Yeah, and so not only does my hair tend toward dry, but now I have coarse white hairs and They frizz because of the dry
05:39So I'm really, really hoping that this shampoo bar does wonderful things that I would love to have it do. Aw. Well, like I said, we're excited to hear what you think about it. I'm excited. I kept saying, I've been saying for like five years that we should try making shampoo bars because we make cold process lye soap. It can't be that hard to make a shampoo bar. And my husband was like, well.
06:05He said, you're the only one's really going to use it. So can we wait? And I'm like, yeah, I can keep using shampoo. It's fine. And if this works, we're going to have to make a batch for me because I probably can't afford to buy them from you. I would love to, but I don't think I can afford it right now, but we probably have all the ingredients to make shampoo bars because we have all the ingredients to make soap. So. Yeah. It's a, it's.
06:36Pretty much the identical product. OK, awesome. And just whatever oils you think work for your hair, I guess? Yep, absolutely. Just make sure that it's, since you make the cold press, just make sure it's even, you know, your even amounts with lye to your oils so it doesn't end up too, like, crunchy, like your bar is getting crunchy. Or gooey, yeah. Yes, so yeah, as long as you keep that ratio with the oils to lye, yeah, you can tweak it with any oils you'd like.
07:05Fantastic. We have accidentally super-fatted, I think is what it's called, two batches of soap out of probably hundreds of batches of soap that we've made. And they end up being what we call the gardener's soap because they're still great for washing dirt and resins off your hands. But you don't want to use a super-fatted soap in the shower because you will fall on your butt in the shower. That's how slippery it'll get.
07:35So yeah, it's not a good thing to have too many oils in your soap. Okay, so how did you guys come to this? Because not like I keep saying, not everybody's like, hey, let's become homesteaders on a whim. Well, so we've always kind of been sort of outdoorsy people. We both grew up on some acreage.
08:04And it just kind of seemed like the life we wanted. But probably about 10 years ago, I decided to take a course in permaculture design, which I'm not sure if you're familiar with, but there's lots of great resources for it online. And so as I was starting to do that, Christy here started to
08:34of get into herbs and herbalism and crafting and figuring out what she can do with those things. And then our first kid was born and we're like, hey, we don't really want all these chemicals like on our kid. And I had really bad eczema growing up and
09:04throughout my adult years and all three of our children ended up with eczema. And as soon as we switched to natural soap, none of us had their skin issues anymore. And so that just kind of solidified things for us and motivated us to keep going. And, and it's always kind of, we are always the test subject.
09:32And since we have such sensitive skin, if we react to it, somebody else probably will too. And so it's been a lot of trial and error figuring out what works and what doesn't. And, you know, a lot of it was like, here, friends, try this, tell us what you think. And that's kind of how it all started. People started asking for it. And so we've just been...
10:02slowly progressing with it. Okay. That was one of the things that I was going to say about the lip balm and the shampoo bar that you sent me. I could pronounce every single ingredient on the label. I was very impressed. Yeah. I was just talking with my mom about that earlier. She was showing me one of her like high dollar name brand shampoos and she was like, oh, do you think this is good or whatever? And I was looking at the back of it and I told her, I said, if you can't pronounce the ingredients,
10:32you shouldn't be using it. It was pretty much every single ingredient on the back. And I was like, well, that one irritates your lungs. That one is bad for your organs. That one can cause cancer. So she was like, okay, I'm switching. Yeah, for sure. I don't know what all the bad ingredients do. I just know that if I can't pronounce the ingredient and it isn't a word that.
10:57is pretty common in everyday language. I probably don't want it on my skin. Absolutely. I mean, that's exactly what we think too. Like they should be simple ingredients that everybody knows or something that you could easily look up and be like, okay, that's for moisturizing your skin. Yeah. No big words that you are like, what in the world is that? So yeah, we are very simple and to the point, what is in it is on the label and nothing more.
11:27Um, I don't know what the regulations are like in Ohio, but in Minnesota, we have to put every single ingredient, including water and whatever the scientific word is for lye. I mean, we put, we put lye on the label. We say lye, but we're supposed to put, um, high something. What is the, what's the scientific name for lye? I can't think of it right now. Something hydroxide? Correct. Uh, sodium hydroxide. Thank you.
11:56But sodium hydroxide takes up a lot of space on a tiny label, so we just put lye and water. Yes, we do the same. So as far as the labeling here in Ohio, I know that they want you to put everything that's in the product and you need to start with what there is the most of and work your way down your list. So pretty much exactly the same. Yeah. And the reason I bring it up is because not every state has the same.
12:25requirements or regulations. In Minnesota, I keep talking about this, but it's the best example I can think of. We have the cottage food laws here. And it's not a license. You have to have a registration number. So you have to take a little test so that you can prove that you know the food safety practices. And then once you get that registration number, you can make things in your kitchen and sell them.
12:53But there's a ton of things that you can't do. Like you're not supposed to buttercream because quote unquote buttercream is supposed to be refrigerated. Well, I've put buttercream on a cake and had it on my counter in a covered dish for three days and it's been fine. But because it's made with heavy cream or half and half or milk, they want it to be refrigerated. So you can't sell it. Anything that's gotta be refrigerated.
13:21or heated you cannot sell from your home cottage kitchen in Minnesota. Yeah, it's pretty similar this way. Yup. So I got my registration. I still have it. I renewed it this year. And I haven't sold anything because I just, I feel like it's not worth the time that I put into it right now to sell it.
13:47because I already feel bad enough that people are spending so much money at the grocery store for stuff at the grocery store. And to make it worth my time and my while, I would have to charge so much money for four cookies that nobody's going to buy them from me. Right. Yeah. That's something that we sort of discuss quite often. And our whole kind of...
14:16goal is to keep things as affordable as possible. And so like our most expensive product is somewhere right around the $15 range. And even then, you know, you get people who are like, boy, that's kind of a lot of money for that. And it's like, well, it's handcrafted. It's natural. You know, I mean, we...
14:43We milk the goats ourselves, you know, like we're not going out and buying all of these ingredients. I mean, some, yeah, we do purchase, but the main stuff, it's not made in a laboratory. It's made on a farm, you know? And so we do kind of run into that issue sometimes, but we do try to keep things as
15:13be able to use it. It's not so much about us making a profit as it is just doing the right thing.
15:24Yes. And with what you're doing, that makes a lot of sense. You're trying to help people and give them a better alternative to something they're going to put on their skin. With baked goods, it doesn't feel the same to me, if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. So, and we try to sell our soaps and our lip balms and our candles and stuff that we make. We try to keep it within reason.
15:54Um, my husband was telling me that he was at a farmer's market or a craft show or something last summer, and somebody was selling a 10 ounce candle for like $30. Because, because that's what it costs them to make it. And I looked into it and technically we should be selling ours for about 25. And we're not, we're selling them for, I think 12 bucks, I think. Right.
16:21And I still feel like that's exorbitant for a candle, but I also know what it costs us to make it and the time involved. So it's really hard when you try to explain this to someone who doesn't make the things. They don't understand why it's so expensive. And with all the things that have gone up in price in the last year and a half, two years, people are already swallowing a very bitter pill just to get groceries. So it's really...
16:50hard to sell anything that feels like a luxury right now. Right, yeah, for sure. And I hate it, I hate everything about it. It makes me so offended. It's the best word I can find, offended at how much just basic everyday food costs right now. It's insanity. Yep. We are down to the last of our half beef that we bought.
17:19a year or so ago, probably a year and a half ago. And my husband wanted to know if we wanted to do a quarter this time. And I said, let me go see how much that's gonna cost from a farmer and a butcher, because you're not only paying for the meat, you're paying for the processing too. And found out that Sam's Club is selling ground beef in our area right now for.
17:48$4.58 a pound ground beef and found out that it was going to cost us almost $7 a pound for beef from the place we got it from last time. So I'm a butcher by trade. And it is the I mean, the prices of everything ever since COVID have, you know, gone through the roof.
18:16uh, somewhere around $6 a pound for ground beef right now. Yeah. But like, if you, if you ordered from us, you're paying for something a pound. Um, but we, we raised the beef that we slaughter so we can control those prices a little bit better. But if you're going out to the farmer and buying his beef and then coming to us and processing, you're going to have more money in it. Yeah. But.
18:46in all reality, you have to understand the trade-off where you're paying $4 a pound for your rib-eyes, whereas if you went to Walmart or somewhere else, you're paying $16 to $18 a pound for rib-eye. So you're paying a little bit more for certain things, but significantly less for others.
19:16And in the long run, it's still a lot cheaper than going to the grocery store every other week or whatever and buying meat. But it is, it's a hard pill to swallow paying all that money up front for beef. That's where I was going to go with this is that I would love to do it, but we don't have the extra money to lay out ahead of time, as it were.
19:44Because for anyone who doesn't know who is listening to the podcast, if you buy a quarter beef or a half beef or a whole beef, how it works is you put in your order with the farmer or the butcher, depending on how they do it, and you pay for all of that beef up front.
20:11farmers and butchers will require a deposit, some won't. And then once you get your beef, you write them a check or you give them cash or you pay for it with a card. And the last place that we got our half beef from, I think it was $1,600 a year and a half ago. And that was pretty good. That was a really good price. Right now it's at least $1,000 more, if not $2,000 more.
20:40And it's not so much the cost of the beef, it's the cost of the processing in this case. Yeah, I mean, where in our area of Ohio, you're looking at probably for a half a beef somewhere around $1,600, I would guess. I mean, there are a lot of variables there, but.
21:08One thing that a lot of the butcher shops in our area are doing now, because nobody can afford to buy a half a beef or even a quarter beef, not a lot of people can. They do bundles where it's like a 50 pound bundle or a hundred pound bundle and it's a set price. That way you're still getting a decent amount of meat for significantly less money.
21:40Yeah, exactly. And the other thing that's putting me off of it, it's not only the price, it's a personal preference. Because it's just my husband and my son and I who live here, we have been eating a lot of beef because a half a beef is a lot of meat. And I am so over it. Like, man, I don't want to see another hamburger for a year. I'm just so over it. It has pretty much turned me into wanting to be a vegetarian.
22:10You can only eat so much of one kind of meat and not get sick of it. Yep. Yeah. Well, so like with, with us, we eat more chicken than beef. And one, it's a lot easier and a lot more cost effective to raise chickens and process them ourselves. Oh, for sure. Yeah. But, but two, it's, you know, our kids are still.
22:39Fairly young. So it's like we just, when we have beef, it's typically ground beef. Yeah. You know, we, we saved the stakes for a special occasion. Um, but I'm not going to go pay top dollar for some beef to get 90% of it ground, you know, like, um, when I can just go to Aldi and buy a couple pounds here and there, um, right. Exactly.
23:08But yeah, we eat a lot of chicken and we're hoping in the next year or so to start raising hogs as well, which I'll process on the farm, so to speak, for our own consumption. And that was actually kind of, it all sort of ties back into the homesteading thing where I was like, hey, I want to know how to...
23:38harvest these animals, if we're going to raise them, I want to know how to do it from start to finish. One thing led to another, and I've been butchering for like 10 years now. It really gives us sort of peace of mind because I know that if anything were to happen with the economy or whatever, I can go out to the backyard and harvest all the meat we're going to need.
24:09Yeah, absolutely. Yes. You know, I mean, it's about being self-sufficient and not needing to rely on...
24:26things that are out of our control. Right, exactly, yeah. So, I have a weird question. If, I have to look into this in Minnesota, but I don't know what it's like in Ohio. If somebody came to you and said, I want a quarter of beef, but I wanna butcher it myself, like I just want you to give me whatever section that is, and I will take it home and cut it up myself, is that legal or can people not do that?
24:57I suppose you could get away with it, but to the best of my knowledge off the top of my head, the animal has to be sold while it's still alive. And also, they, that person would probably have to be there during.
25:25the the time of harvest. Okay. And there there are some gray areas that if the inspectors heard me talking would probably disagree with me. But like, in Ohio, you can legally process 1000 chickens a year for other people without being inspected.
25:55Okay. Yeah. Um, and I have brought that up to our inspectors and they said, yeah, technically, but we're still going to come knocking. Um, so it's like, you just kind of have to make sure that you're keeping good records and, and, you know, it's kind of always best, I guess, if you find yourself in that situation to call the department of agriculture and see what they say.
26:22Yeah, and be like, how does this work? Am I going to get in trouble if I do this thing? Yeah. Yep. I know that we have butchered a hat. We've butchered a pig. We, we bought, we bought a pig. It was basically, um, slaughtered on the farmer's property. It was gutted and cut in half. So we brought the body home into halves.
26:47And then a friend of ours came over and helped us butcher one half and he took that half home because he paid for that. And we butchered the other half and it went in our freezer. We have butchered a lamb that was brought to us basically no skin, no hooves, no head, no tail. It was wrapped in paper and we butchered it on our kitchen table. And my husband hunts, so obviously we've butchered deer before. So
27:16So butchering is, I mean, we are not artists at it by any stretch and I think that a good butcher is an artist. I think that if you're good at it, it is artistry. We're not there. We just wanna be able to cook the meat so we cut it the way we want it. Well, I mean, at the end of the day, all that really matters, if you're doing it for yourself, is that you get something to eat. Yes. You know, I mean, if the world were to end,
27:46right? You're not going to care how nice those steaks look. You're just going to be thankful you don't meet, you know? Yep. Yep, exactly. But if you were going to turn around and try and sell it, then yeah, you want it to look good and you want to know what you're doing.
28:03Yes. And I just, I want to, I want to make the distinction that, that there's a big difference between us cutting up a lamb and you know, it's for us to eat. No one's going to see it. We don't have to care about what the cuts look like. And you as a butcher doing what you do, I'm sure that you take pride in the skills that you have cultivated in your, your butchering career. Absolutely. Yeah. And, but
28:32Also, I've gotten unfair advantage because I've got all the equipment to do it. You know, like, um, when, when you're doing it on your kitchen table, it's a lot different it's let's get this done and in the freezer, you know, like, um, and, but, but yeah, it's, if you don't take pride in what you're doing, you shouldn't be doing it, you know,
28:54Yes, exactly. And when we, when we cut up that lamb, oh my God, my kitchen counters look like someone had been murdered. I was like, okay, now that we're done and all the food is put away, who's going to help me clean off the counter and mop the floor? My husband's like, I will. I'm like, good, thank you. And what works really, really well? Windex works really, really well for getting blood off of floors and off of countertops. Interesting.
29:23It's stinky and it's not good for you, but it works.
29:28So yeah, it just, it cuts all the, the yuck. And I was very happy to have two bottles under the kitchen sink. I was like, we're going to have our neighbor who is a police officer stop in just to visit and he's going to be like, who died? Who did you kill? We didn't look in the freezer. See it. It says lamb chops, lamb leg, lamb roast. So yeah.
29:56Okay, well I didn't know I was going to turn a discussion about butchering and I think it's great because I don't usually talk about this and I had just looked up somebody to buy beef from last night and saw the prices and went, we are not ready to buy a half right now or a quarter or an eighth. We're just going to buy what we need every couple weeks and call it good until we're in a better financial position to drop thousands of dollars on a freezer full of beef.
30:24So yeah. Okay, so you said you have goats and do you have steers? Do you have cows? So we are sort of crashing with my wife's parents right now. We recently sold our home and we are building a new home.
30:52And so we're, we're crashing here and my wife's father has had beef since the dawn of time. Okay. So he's got a, a small herd right now of dexter's, um, which are a sort of smaller breed of beef. They max out at like six to 700 pounds. And they are probably the smartest.
31:21cows I've ever seen. And so he's kind of in his retirement playing around with this herd of dexters and eventually one or two of them will end up in the freezer, I'm sure. Okay. So if you were building a house, does that mean that you bought land?
31:51will be the new headquarters of our homestead here hopefully very soon. That's exciting. Congratulations. I know how that feels. Awesome. How many kids do you guys have? We have three boys. Oh my, you're busy. Oh yeah. Yeah. My wife is a superstar. That's for sure.
32:20I'm really glad you said that because my wife, my wife, homeschool the children and does the business and takes care of all of the stuff at home. I mean, she's the unsung hero here. Seth, I love you. Thank you for saying that. It is so important that the partners talk up their partners. And I'm saying partners because not everybody's married.
32:49You know, people don't necessarily just get married anymore. They just, they just live together and they're partnered. They're not married, but, but spouses need to encourage and support their spouses. And it's really nice to hear the male support the female because I feel like females support the males a lot. And most men are really weird about saying, my wife is awesome. I'm so proud of her. She does all these things. My husband says it about me all the time. I don't do anything anymore. I used to,
33:19bust my everlovin' ass, but my kids are now grown. I don't have to work quite as hard or crazy as I used to. Yeah, well, we're right in the thick of it. So thank you for saying that about your wife. Yeah, yeah, no, she is fantastic. I mean, the business wouldn't exist without her and neither would our homestead. Good job, Christina, I'm proud of you. Well, thank you.
33:46Woman to woman, I am very proud of you. You keep kicking ass. Okay, guys, I like to keep these to half an hour. I would love to talk to you for another half an hour, but I'm not going to do it because I'm sure you have things to do. Well, it was really nice chatting with you. Can I ask you how you found out about us? I think I found you on Facebook, just like I find almost everybody. Okay.
34:15Yeah, the best thing about Facebook is that the algorithm feeds you more of what you're interested in. So the minute I started looking at people's homestead and farm pages, it just keeps feeding me people. And I'm like, Tandelion Farms, LLC sounds like an interesting place. Let me get ahold of them. Yeah. I mean, we just try to keep it real and keep it simple. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, me too. That's why the podcast is basically yapping about homesteading and farming.
34:44and baking and crafting because I'm like, it needs to be easy. I don't have the bandwidth for a huge learning curve right now. So it's just a chat with people about what they're doing because I think it's really interesting and apparently other people think it's interesting too. So all right guys, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, thank you so much. Have a good night. You too. Bye.