Cluster Cluck Acres

Today I'm talking with Samantha at Cluster Cluck Acres. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.

00:29
share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Samantha at Cluster Cluck Acres and I had to say that really carefully. Good morning, Samantha. How are you? Good morning. How are you?  I'm good. You are where again? You're in Illinois. Is that right? Nope, Monticello, Indiana. Indiana. Sorry. Yep.  Is it gray in Indiana this morning? Cause it is gray and drizzling here in Minnesota. It definitely is. And it is cold, very cold.

00:56
Oh, it's like 45 degrees here this morning. I got up at five and it was warm outside. was like, ooh, spring might be here. I don't call 45 that warm. Well, after the week or so we had back in January when it was minus 20 to 25 at night, I'm good with 45. So tell me about yourself and what you do at Cluster Cluck Acres.

01:25
Well,  I am  the owner. So  it's kind of just a basically a family farm. We  started off with chickens  that were actually kind of given to us. We had a friend that had a bunch of chickens and the rooster had attacked one of our kids.  I had wanted some and I grew up with chickens. So I knew.

01:51
Um, after I got in the farm that I wanted chickens and then we've moved on to,  I was thinking, oh, they had rabbits also. They wanted to get rid of it. So we took two rabbits in  and then, uh, my oldest son had bought a horse  and we have horse stalls. So he wanted somewhere to bring his horse. So we have a horse.  We have, uh, pigs.  had three, we got down to two and then we just got six more.

02:22
Uh, in that chaotic time, we also had a litter of puppies. had 10 golden doodle or 10 doodles. I should say they're a mix of doodles, but they're 10 doodles. So we, we added a little, little more chaos to our, to our lives with puppies.  So yeah, that'll, that'll shake things up a little bit. Just a little. I decided that I will never do a litter again. It's a very emotional process. I didn't realize how emotional it was.

02:54
I would have kept all 10 if I could, but...

02:58
Yeah, that doesn't usually work. That's a lot of dogs to handle.  And not only that, but you get to deal with littermate syndrome too, which is something I've heard about. Yeah. Well, we thought we were coming, we were getting sick.  So we spent a long night with mom delivering babies. So it was a, it was an all day process, but it was, it was a good experience.

03:23
We've had an opportunity to hatch some of our own chickens also. I took the time to get an incubator and so we do some chicken hatching and I just got into doing sourdough. So at the beginning of last week,

03:45
Or actually over the weekend, last weekend, we opened a little farm stand out in front of the house. So I have been  creatively working on different items to put out every day to fill the farm stand.  Your  farm stand has inspired me, ma'am.  We have a farm stand. It's a little red shed. It looks like a little tiny barn.

04:12
Yes. It's red with white trim. I love it. It's my favorite thing here. We had it put in a few years ago.  And we usually just sell eggs and produce out of there in the summer. And  I saw the way you have yours set up and I was like, I have got to get on baked goods and I've got to get them out there this summer and sell them because why wouldn't I? You know,  we have it. So why not do it?  So you have inspired me to get off my ass and make baked goods this summer.

04:39
That's exciting.  I sell sourdough sardar. I have had  what we call Sally now for several months.  I actually did sourdough here at home. then shockingly enough, this is not my only thing that I do. actually a full-time, I have a full-time job. I'm actually an ER nurse.  Wow. So yeah, that's a lot to do on top of what you're doing at home.

05:07
And I actually am also currently training, taking fire classes to train to be a firefighter. Oh my God. Wow. Wow. Lady. That's amazing. Yeah. I've been an ER nurse for 10 years and I took EMT classes last year so that I can kind of cross over to the 911 aspect of emergency medicine.

05:32
And in order to do that in our local town here in Monticello, you also have to be a fire certified. So I  am getting fire certified now. do  you actually want to be like a volunteer firefighter or it's just because you have to do this? You know, honestly, going into it, I wasn't really for sure how I felt about it, but as we're going through the scenarios and learning the skills,  I think it would.

05:59
It would be challenging, but it might be something I would enjoy. Okay. I was just curious.  Um, okay. So let's go back to the sourdough thing just for a minute, only because it's a very homesteadish thing to do.  and I don't, I haven't done it yet. I keep saying I need to, and I keep not doing it and I got to get on that. But  when you started doing it, were you like, I don't know if this is going to work.

06:27
when you put, when you got the starter started or did you get some from someone? So I, I started my own initially and I have very minimal patience for tedious things. So it takes, it takes seven to 14 days in order to get that, to actually ferment like it's supposed to be. So  I, once I didn't have a lot of progress within a few days, I kind of started over again a couple of times to be exact.

06:57
And then I have a really good friend that I worked with at the hospital who did sourdough. And so she gave me a portion of her starter and I've kind of just grown it from there.  Yeah. See that's, I think that's why I keep putting it off. Cause I'm like, with my luck, it won't even do what it's supposed to do. But I think I know somebody who has some, so maybe I will just be smart and get some from her. Maybe honestly you're supposed to waste it every day. So waste the waste that someone gets rid of every day is what you

07:27
what people can give as a starter. Yeah. Yep. I'm gonna,  I'm going to go make sure she's doing it and be like, can I get some of your discard? Cause I really don't want to screw around with trying to start it. Cause I will be so sad when it doesn't work.  It is.  well, and I, so honestly, when I started, I, I really thought I had the groove of sourdough. It's, it's definitely an art.  And then for my birthday this year, I got a  sourdough book.

07:56
that is extremely,  it's extremely intense on making sourdough and it has changed how I felt about my first loaves of bread.

08:09
So it's kind of exciting to see where I where they were in the beginning and then where they are now is there's a there's a big difference Well, yes, because it's a learning process and  I'm  I'm gonna say this again I'm a mom so I I love telling people I'm proud of them because I have four kids I spend a lot of time telling my kids I was proud of them  But I'm so proud of you and everyone else who starts something like sourdough  because you're right in the beginning it's

08:38
It's bread like when you take the loaf out. You're like, okay. Yeah, that's bread But as you keep going there's so much you can do with it. So stick with it. I'm proud of you  and The other thing that I want to say is it's not just sourdough breads. My husband is  the yeast bread maker in our house He does it really well. I don't need to put my hands in in the mix  and He used to make these  Italian herbed breads

09:05
So like the Italian herbs dried that you get at the store. Yes. He would put that in the dough and  they were good. They were bread-like. They were fine. They were edible. I liked them. And he made two loaves, three loaves, two loaves and four little, um, like hamburger bun sized circles  two weekends ago. And he did it when I was headed to bed. decided that he got a

09:31
wild hare and decided he wanted me breath. And I got up in the morning and I am not kidding, there were two just  gorgeous, perfect bread loaf, bread loaves sitting on the island in bread bags with the bread ties looking beautiful. I said, how did you get them to look like actual  loaves of bread? He says,

09:55
I just keep getting better every time I do it. And he was just smiling huge. And I think that's exactly how you're feeling about yours. You're learning, you're getting better. Yes. And my favorite part is to,  once they're all cooled off and ready to put them in a bag and then stick our little sticker on it. And it just, it, it's so satisfying. It's, it's the beauty. It's all in the art.  Yes. And isn't it fun when you have your stickers? Like  when I made the labels for my granola,

10:25
I, the first bag of granola that I put a label on and it said a tiny homestead and the ingredients and the,  the cottage food registration number and our name.  was like,  I freaking love this. This is so great.  is. It's, it's so pretty.  I, I went from the, I have a fancy label that I had made initially, which has the cute little chicken and the little like wheat flowers on each side of it and says our name and stuff. But then I decided with our name, you know,

10:54
cluster clock acres that we  maybe couldn't go quite so formal. It seemed a little out of space, out of place to be the name with formal. So I actually drew  what our logo is now and then what I want to use for our  egg cartons as well as like all of our breads and stuff.  Yep. Yeah.  We...

11:21
When I saw the name of your place, I was like, have to be really careful when I introduced this because I want to make sure that my enunciation is  perfect.  Because I call our chickens the little cluckers all the time.  And I said it one time and it was very,  I don't know what I was doing, but it did not sound like cluckers enough that people wouldn't mistake it for the other word.

11:47
I never used the F word on the podcast. have done over 250 episodes and not  once has the F word left my lips because I won't do it. Yeah. And I swear like a pirate in real life. Like I love that word so much because you can say it in so many ways,  so many inflections. It means all the things. And I said to my husband, I said, I have got

12:11
to not ever say that word on the podcast when I started this. And he's like, good luck with that. It's your favorite word. so, um, yeah, I, I love that your place is, is called what it's called because it's so funny. And there, don't think there's a chicken owner alive who hasn't called their chickens cluckers. I, when I had, so I had the signs made for our roadside stand to stick out, um, by the road.

12:42
And when I called the guy to make the signs, he said, excuse me, you want what on your sign? And I said, I said it again and he was like on a sign and he clearly thought I kept saying the other word.  it was quite, it was quite funny. I still don't think that he  necessarily believed me when I first called that it was an actual business because he very questionably, we hung up, said,

13:12
Well, send me your email or  tell me what email is. And I told him cluster clock acres. Yeah. And he was like, okay.  And then the conversation was over and I said, I'm not for sure this guy believes that I really exist.  I think he thinks somebody's playing a break on him. Yeah.  It wouldn't surprise me because  most people don't get farm humor unless they're farmers. So, right.

13:38
I was also gonna tell you there's a place in Minnesota called Locally Laid Egg Company and someone that I know is, she and her husband are the owners,  and  they actually sell in stores in Minnesota now. They're eggs.  And their whole shtick  is all the jokes around locally laid  eggs.  Like locally laid chicks are better, ha ha ha. That whole thing.

14:07
And every time they come up with something new and I see it, I just giggle like I'm five years old.  And  it's so fun when you can add  real silly humor into your business because you know, and I know that when you're trying to run a business,  it can be really stressful.  so  when there's some levity and you think of a new thing, that's funny that you can add into your marketing, it takes some of that pressure away.

14:34
Well, I don't know if you zoomed in on my stand at all when you looked at the pictures. No, I did not. So in the in the right hand corner, I made a sign which I thought about for a really long time because I needed to incorporate chickens in it. it says self serve. Don't be a pecker. Yes, I did see that. Yes, I laughed. Yes. And that's what I laughed hysterically. And my little girl who's 12 was like, what are you laughing at?

15:04
And I would tell her and she was like, oh, you're so annoying. Because chicken jokes are one of my favorite. So she hears them often. It's like dad jokes, only it's chicken jokes. Yes. I think most people that I'm close to usually, usually wind up with a chicken joker too a day. Yeah. My husband is so big into dad jokes. It's his default.

15:32
I'm not as amused by them, I've heard them all. And my son, who still lives with us, he's the youngest of four, he's 23, he thinks that dad jokes are funny to this day. And my husband will come up with a fairly new one that the kid hasn't heard before. And there's a specific laugh that he does when his dad does the dad joke. And I'm like, he must have just told another dad joke. And I won't even have heard it, you know? So it's fun.

16:01
Okay, so what else do you sell in your farm stand besides your sourdough bread?  So far I have put out pretzel bites.  Ooh yum.

16:16
cinnamon rolls,  scones, bagels.

16:23
I had some of our stickers made that you can put on like a water bottle or whatever. The sourdough starter.

16:35
I haven't, and then the eggs, obviously, I haven't incorporated a whole lot into it yet. Our sand is only like 32 by 32 because I have a fear of everything in life when it comes to failure. So I told myself if this was going to fail, I wasn't going to invest a large amount of money in it. So I actually, my mom lives not too far from me and is the collector of all things in life. And she has some old barns and stuff. And so I went out there and found most of what my farm sand is made of.

17:06
So my boyfriend wanted to expand much larger to begin with, but I couldn't commit to large. So we stick with what we are now. So I don't have a lot of room to put stuff, but I learned very quickly that this, will outgrow this by the summer. Okay. I think it's really cute and cozy, but if you're going to run a room, definitely you're to need to make it bigger. Well, we live, so I like,

17:36
I live in a very traffic like on a corner that's got a lot of traffic. And I don't know if you know what Indiana Beach is or have heard of Indiana Beach. So it's a little amusement park here in the town that we live in. And it gets pretty busy in the summertime. And we're pretty close to the lake where our house is now. And so there's a lot of people that come up and visit and stuff for the summer.

18:04
So I  think this summer it's gonna be pretty busy. And then of course we're  doing a huge garden. So we'll have some produce out there too. So I'll need some more space for those kinds of items. Yeah, I think you're probably gonna be more successful than you know. I really do. Okay, so you have a garden. What do you grow?  So this, I've actually only been at this house for, June will be a year. So this is my first year of actually,

18:33
having a big garden.  so far we have started tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, peppers,  zucchini, lettuce, beans.

18:50
jalapenos,  squash, melons,  and

19:04
Um, I'm sure they get that sit.

19:08
That might be it so far. So when you say started, do you mean outside or do you mean inside? Inside. We have lots of plants inside. Yeah, because mean, Indiana is further south than I am, but I can't imagine that it's time yet to be putting seedlings in the ground or seeds in the ground yet for you. No, no, no, no, no, No, they're inside.  We have them, you know, all the girl lights on them and do the wind  with the fan.

19:36
every day for a couple hours so that they grow their strength. we started, I started tomato plants back in  the end of February, beginning of March. So we've got some pretty big sized ones and then we just started some more. I will have probably close to 200 when we get done. Nice.  Nice.  You started yours about the time my husband started hours on our kitchen table with grow lights. Yep. And

20:06
My whole kitchen table right now is basil seedlings and some of them are maybe an inch tall because they're in the little cells and they're stunted and we need to get them transplanted soon. But some of them are in actual five inch pots and those we could actually pull a couple leaves off of each one and have enough to have a batch of bruschetta. Oh wow. So yeah, love, I love, love, love this time of year April.

20:33
April may be my favorite spring month because we've already got stuff started and we're getting close to being able to put stuff in on May 15th. So our greenhouse is packed full of baby plants right now. To the point that my husband said, I can't do any more until we get some of this moved to the high tunnel for sale.  I was like, that's fine. He said, I'm, said every night I'm going to be out there watering. He said, cause I want these things to grow. And I said, yeah, no,  I get it.

21:03
And the high tunnel is set up. It  just needs plastic on it this weekend to get that ready to go.

21:15
Yeah, we, I just had all of mine inside so far. I think I will probably wind up investing in a greenhouse, but I like to start small, see where things go and then grow from there. I can't just jump into everything because it, everything is scary for failure. So, I'm kind of like you. call it hedging my bets. Yeah. Well, I do. I even went as cheap as my plastic for around the plants on my metal

21:45
shelving the metal shelf that you put in a garage  is like a $1.89 painter's tarp. That's okay.  And I was like, we're going to make this super cheap.  Part of all of this is being resourceful. Yes.  That's one of things that I love about homesteaders and farmers and people who are getting into this  because  the bottom of our

22:13
wood shed and you will laugh when I explain this I haven't told anybody this story yet  my husband put  um pallet walls along the sides and Embrace them so pallets that you get for free wherever people are giving away wooden pallets That's the walls and then he put um cattle panels arched over the top of those and then he put  a tarp over that Tied it down and I swear to you it looks like he built an ark

22:43
for our woodshed. That's awesome.  It didn't cost us anything because we had all the stuff to do it.  people pull in and they're like, what is that? Because they're just glancing. And my husband says, that's our woodshed. And they're like, it looks like a boat.  every time they say it, I'm just dying inside. Because that's what I said. I said, it looks like you built an ark to protect the wood.

23:11
when you can be resourceful and when you can find stuff for free or inexpensively. I think that's brilliant. So  that's not if you're a failure, that's hope for success. Yes. How's that? I flipped that on. did nice. You did. You did.  It's a whole different way of looking at it.  Exactly. And I don't think anyone should like go broke  to pursue their dreams. You know, that doesn't...

23:40
That's not the point.  but anyway, let me think. What else can I tell you? Or you can tell me both probably.  This is the first year that we will be selling bedding plants. And that's why our greenhouse is so full because we want people to be able to buy stuff so they can start their own backyard gardens. Cause right now anyone in America would be smart to have a small background backyard garden.

24:09
Yes. Well, and I actually looked at plants at, uh, I think it was Meyer the other day and the tomato plants were like $5. So that's why we, we got some more going cause we kind of had the same idea that if we were able to offer some for a little bit cheaper and people were able to start gardens for cheaper than what it is to buy it from the store, then it would be, I,

24:37
I'm lucky  in this part or this aspect of it because this isn't my full-time job. It is my full-time job, but it's not my full-time job, if that makes sense. And so I don't  have to be at the top in order to be successful. I can be at the bottom  and  help people who can't afford the top. Right. Yep, exactly.

25:05
With everything being so chaotic right now, anyone who can do it needs to be growing something because  I am,  oh man,  I was doing something on my phone for the podcast yesterday, looked up at the screen on TV, because I keep the news on because our dog doesn't like the house quiet. We've always had  noise since we got her since she was a puppy.  And so if it's very quiet, she gets all.

25:31
anxious and she barks at everything because she hears everything and thinks it's something bad.  And looked up at the screen and it said that  President Trump had decided to do a 90 day stay on the terror stuff. And I don't know all the details, but either way.  And my first thought was, are you kidding me? We could have avoided everything over last two days if you'd just done this in the first place. And I don't want to get into politics. I mean, it could have been any president doing this, but

26:00
The up and down chaos right now  is  really, really hard. And if you can just take control of your own situation in your own place and grow food you can eat or make bread, make bread like Samantha and my husband do,  at least you feel like you have a little bit of control to curb some of the anxiety that the circumstances outside of your control are causing.  Yes. Well, that was a lot of words. Sorry about that.

26:29
Um,  so yeah,  uh, what else we've got like four more minutes. have no idea what you're talking about, but you know why? Because I zero outside contact with I don't watch news. I actually didn't have social media. I had it for a long period of time and then I,  uh, I deleted it for about seven years only because I just, the,  just had to get

26:56
out of that world and then I just got it back in order to have the business pays on on Facebook and stuff. And so I am usually oblivious to anything that is going on inside the world or out, you know, around the world,  mainly because I try to focus on what's here and now. And  I think my little girl comes home from school and tells me more,  more world things that are going on than I, you know, know, or

27:24
somebody will mention something at work and I'm like, what are you talking about?  Yeah, I got hooked on being a news hound back during COVID because my husband  worked for a big corporate company and he was outsourced to work on  the printers and fax machines at hospitals and clinics.  And  I really felt like I needed to know what was going on with

27:49
the news about COVID because he was literally exposed every day.  And it made me so nervous. Like I love him so much. And I was just like, please don't let him catch something that's going to kill him.  And so I just, got used to flipping the news on in the morning, local news on in the morning and then  national news during the day, partly to keep my ear to the ground.

28:17
and partly because the dog needed noise and there was nothing else that I really needed to have on. So I became a news addict and now I have it on, but I'm not listening to it. I'm actually listening to podcasts about doing podcasts because that's my new thing.  Or I'm listening to the recordings that I've done with you guys  or I'm editing or whatever.  So.

28:42
I happen to look up, catch the little ticker tape at the bottom and be like, what now? You know? Yeah. No, no, I get it. I get it. Like I said, sometimes it works. They'll be talking about stuff, but unfortunately I lived COVID. So  that was, uh, that was not news that I wanted to see when I came home and I,  I actually lost my dad to COVID. So it was not a,  uh,  not a wonderful time. No, no.  And

29:08
You're probably the last person I should say this to because I've said it on the podcast before. COVID was  really,  really terrible for a lot of people and you're one of them.  COVID also woke us up a little bit. And I think it  kind of drove some of this people moving out of the cities and pursuing the homesteading stuff.  So I think it's one of those double edged sword things where people lost people they love and I'm so sorry for that. And it's tragic.

29:38
but I also feel like we needed some kind of wake up call to get our heads out of our asses regarding how we live. So I'm really sorry that your dad  was taken from you. That's terrible. There are a lot of people that lost family members, but I was, we were fortunate that we were at a time where we were able to visit the hospital and of course I worked there. So yeah, good. It, I, the crazy story I watched them.

30:04
movie, I think it's Contagion or Contingent or something like that. Contagion maybe? Is that what it is?  Right before COVID. Yeah.  And it was, it was just crazy that we were living  that, that whole movie.  It was insane. Yeah. And it's, I'm glad you said that because I think it's

30:33
It's weird that humans like dream up all these things that might happen or could happen and they write books about it or they produce movies about it. My boys, I have a daughter and then three sons and the boys were always coming up with who's your team if there's a zombie apocalypse and who would you need on your team? Like would you need someone who could cook? Would you need someone who could kill animals? Would you need someone who could butcher? Da da da. And I'm like, guys,

31:01
You don't really want to think about this because God forbid that ever happens.  Right. And there are so many zombie movies and they loved them. My kids are grown. The youngest still lives with us. He's 23. The other three are out of the house. Obviously they're, they're grown adults, but,  I haven't seen a zombie based movie in forever and I really don't care if I ever see one again. Yeah, let's not live that. Let's not do that. Yeah, no, I'm good. I watched,  I watched,

31:32
God, I can't remember the names of them, but  all the zombie things that came out in the late 90s, early  2000s, and then the  2010s. And I really haven't seen anything in the last eight years. And I'm so glad I haven't because I'm good on zombie  We don't need it. No, I really don't.  It was fun. It was fun. The boys thought it was fun.  you know, when you're a mom, you want to have your kids be happy.

32:01
And I didn't see anything wrong with them having a plan, but I'm like, you're planning for the wrong thing, guys. Right, right. So, all right. So it's been 31 minutes and 45 seconds now, and I try to keep these to half an hour. So Samantha, thank you for sharing with me today. That was awesome. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for your time. Yeah. Have a great day. You too. All right, bye. Bye.