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.

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00:00
This 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?

00:29
It'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

00:57
You 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.

01:27
So 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.

01:56
But 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.

02:24
And 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.

02:50
So 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.

03:15
So 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.

03:38
The 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.

04:08
And 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.

04:38
Okay, 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...

05:08
potty 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.

05:34
or 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.

06:03
Right, 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.

06:27
Really 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...

06:55
getting 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.

07:22
And 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...

07:51
same 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.

08:20
Yep. 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.

08:49
Yeah, 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.

09:18
I 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.

09:47
which 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.

10:17
So 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

10:45
doing 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.

11:12
Yeah, 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...

11:41
the 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.

12:10
Honestly, 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.

12:40
This 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,

13:10
I 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.

13:37
The 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.

14:06
So 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.

14:31
I 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.

15:01
And 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.

15:31
If 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.

15:57
No, 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...

16:27
As 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.

16:57
I 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.

17:25
So 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?

17:56
Yeah. 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?

18:26
Oh, 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

18:54
We 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.

19:24
I 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.

19:51
And 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.

20:06
Okay, 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.

20:35
Yeah, 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.

21:03
That'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.

21:32
I 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.

22:02
Yeah, 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.

22:32
Mm 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

23:01
it 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.

23:30
So 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?

23:59
They'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.

24:27
It'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,

24:57
got 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.

25:26
So, 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.

25:55
Okay, 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.

26:25
Bye.