Cooper's Knoll Farm

Today I'm talking with Jena at Cooper's Knoll Farm.

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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.

00:27
Today I'm talking with Jena at Cooper's Knoll Farms. Good morning Jena, how are you? Good morning, I'm great, how are you?

00:37
I'm good. You're in Ohio, right?  I am right in central Ohio, right outside of Columbus. How do you pronounce the name of your town? Pataskala.  It's a popular question.  Yeah, I was looking at your Facebook page and your About page and I was like, I have no idea how to say that one.  Pataskala, Ohio. We're about 20 minutes outside of Columbus. Pretty convenient location and...

01:05
Easy to get to wherever you need to go, but still in the country, which is really nice. Yes, yes. 20 minutes to actual stores helps when you really need something.  Is it raining in Ohio? Because it's raining in Minnesota this morning. It is not. We got some storms yesterday, but we're hoping it does rain today because we are in a massive heat wave.  We're a heat index of 100. So everything right now is  how do we keep the animals cool?

01:34
We're trying to work through this heat wave and hoping for a little rain actually. Yeah. How long has it been super hot for you?  This whole week. So, but since  maybe Friday last week. we've got a week straight of hundred degree index,  heat index. So,  and then before that it rained so much, we couldn't get it to stop. And now it's just dry and hot. So  you  can't get a good mix. It's all,  it's one way or the other. That's it.

02:04
You can't win. Yeah, I know.  I feel really bad for complaining about the fact that it was so hot this past weekend in Minnesota because we only had really hot for two days.  a whole week of it, I would have been ripping my hair out by now. So. Well, yesterday was supposed to be the end of the heat index and then they have extended it now through,  through Saturday. So  just doing what we can to stay cool.  am so sorry.  It's no fun.

02:34
Okay, so tell me a little bit about yourself and about your farm because I can't wait to hear this story. Well, I'm Gina and my husband is Richard. We have two boys. They are ages 10 and 11. And then two years ago, we also inherited a daughter, a bonus daughter. She was 20 and

03:01
parents had both passed away in the same weekend. She spent the night with us and never left. we've got we've got a bonus daughter that's going to be 22 as well that that lives with us. And my mother-in-law lives here too. And so we have a little multi generational home and I work full time and my husband works full time too. So he's a data assessment coordinator at at Reynoldsburg schools here in Ohio.

03:31
And I work full time as a regional sales manager for an education software company.  So I manage our entire Northeast territory and all of Canada. I  teach jazzercise on the side when I'm not recovering from ACL surgery as I am now.  Yeah, I was going to ask you about that because it said something about that you didn't realize you would be bottle feeding lamb.  Oh, yeah. When you were down.

03:58
ACL surgery two weeks ago,  delivered a goat on Sunday sitting with my brace on the floor of our barn and then  had creamy twin sheep  and  lost one and have had a house sheep for the last two weeks as well. So farming from my couch friend, farming from my couch.  the animals don't wait unless you're dead. Unless you're dead, you're working. Yeah.

04:25
Exactly. So it has been adventurous here. tell me about how the farm got started because I get the impression that wasn't the original plan.

04:39
No, it was not.  So  when COVID happened,  we were  living in a suburb  where my husband was invincible and it just was not good.  And our kids were stuck in this postage stamp size yard and we just wanted more space for them to run.  And so  we had decided then that we were going to get some land where the boys could go outside and run.

05:08
play. And so we started looking for like two to four acres. And long story short, long story short, we were looking for two to four acres and the day before we went to look at properties, this 10 acre property popped up. And so we went and looked at all the properties and the 10 acre one actually ended up being just as much or less than the others that we were looking at that were smaller. So we we got this one, we built our house.

05:38
And then we decided we were going to try and keep our CAUB taxes or farm taxes.  Didn't realize how in depth that is in Ohio,  but it is. So we got a couple goats  and we were going to have these goats and thought, yes, now we're going to pay for them taxes and everything's good. And then we found out that they actually look at your land and how much you are using for animals.

06:04
Yeah. And so we were like, well, we need more pastures built and we are going to need some more animals to be able to justify this.  And so I had always loved shingles and cows. Before they were like popular and a thing, I had always loved them.  And so I told my husband, said, let's get a couple of cows and maybe a sheep just to, to, you know, have some things here. And I would love to have a lot of shingles in my backyard.  So.

06:33
Another long story short,  we ended up  in April of 2023, April of 2023, we got 10 sheep and three cows in one day.  I don't do anything slow.  So  we got all of these animals in one day. And then we had a bunch of messages on Facebook of people just saying like, can I come see your cows? Can I come see your cows? Can I come see your cows?

07:01
So I told my husband, said, why don't we just open up every Saturday in May, five spots, we'll charge like $50 an hour and see if anybody will come do a tour to see them. And that'll help offset our cost for the feed. And he was like, yeah, okay, we can try it. So we made a Facebook page and put it out just to our local community, like Pataskala page. That's it. We just were like, hey, this is what we're doing. We had.

07:28
2400 members of our group in 24 hours and sold out every five slot every Saturday in May.  In like a week's time. my god. We were like,  what just happened?  And it's just me and him. And so we started running tours, I do photography on the side. So we offered photography for some of the tours and did that and everybody loved it.

07:56
Later, we had  local artists start asking us about doing classes  at the farm. so we did our first class was a Highland Cow painting class by a local  women owned business artist. And so she came out here and did that. We had 35 ladies show up for that class.  And we painted in our barn that was totally not set up for events at all, but we made it work.

08:21
So we did a painting class and then that just led to another thing and another thing and another thing. And we've had a candle making class here. Now we've had pottery making classes and a rug making class. And so that's one of our unique things besides hosting birthday parties and things like that. So yeah, that's kind of the story of how we just got started and now we have about 130 animals on the farm.

08:50
just built a new chicken coop. have Highlands  micro mini donkeys that we just got literally the night before my surgery. We just had our first calf.  And we are now currently raising meat chickens and we have loppier bunnies and goats  and  yeah, just everything. So wow. You are in deep. Been a wild ride. Yes.  So did you or your husband have any experience with

09:19
farm stuff at all before this? I mean, my husband's uncle was a farmer in Alabama. So whenever he went to visit his family, he would hang out. I did grow up on a farm in Millersburg, Ohio. It was a family farm. And so, but we didn't have a lot of animals. I raised a pig for 4-H. We raised rabbits for a while, but never goats, sheep, donkey, like none of that.

09:47
We had a few Angus cows, but like they were mean. We weren't really allowed near them.  We did mostly corn and hay on our land. So I did grow up on a farm, but listen, I had no intentions whatsoever of being a farmer. That was not in my planning whatsoever.  Well, congratulations, because you are now, honey.  I still am like,  is this real? Am I really?

10:16
I'm literally a farmer. I don't know how this happened.  Well, it's also really interesting that your husband's job and your job have nothing to do with agriculture. No, not at all. Nope. But we love it. And we just we literally have joined a ton of Facebook pages,  the people that we've purchased animals from, we have made sure that they are good mentors to us.

10:42
And so we've been really, really blessed with some amazing people and mentors.  I still remember delivering my first goat and FaceTiming the lady that we got her from and  Amber is her name and freaking out and her walking me through it and then being like, oh, okay. And now I've coached people through birthing animals and  that's kind of cool.  Yeah. The only experience I have with baby anything is my kids  and  kittens.

11:11
We got a female cat showed up here a couple of springs ago and we thought she was a kitten because she was so small and she was actually six months old. She was always a small cat even when she was an adult and she gave us three litters of kittens. Oh my goodness. And I got to see the first litter just after they'd all been born. I didn't actually see them being brought into the world but they were still wet.

11:39
Yep. And the kittens are so tiny. I can't even imagine. Yeah, we haven't had kittens here, but I had them at my old friend's, so itty bitty. Yeah, and they were just soaked and hurt. She was a very long-haired cat, so her tail, it looked like another kitten because it was all wet too. And I was like, oh, I think she had seven. And my husband was like, no, she had six. And I said, but what's, why am I seeing another kitten? And he said, because you're seeing her tail beside the kittens.

12:08
He said, she is drenched. said her whole back end, that water breaking must have been epic.  There's definitely a lot of goo involved in brooding animals.  One of our best ones this year was one of our goats was supposed to have triplets  and  she actually went into labor during one of our tours. And so I was like, Hey guys, sorry, tours over or this is going to be your tour. And we obviously told them they could come back.

12:37
So my mom happened to be here visiting and so she and my husband came out and helped. And so we delivered baby one, baby two, baby three. And then we were just kind of waiting on the placenta.  And so I said, all right, well, looks like, wow, it looks like she's gonna push the placenta out. I've never had anyone do that before.  And then I said,  guys, the placenta has nose and legs.  I don't think this one's a placenta. So she actually ended up having quadruplets, which was  crazy  and super fun.

13:06
Nice. How did she do? Did you have to take some in? great. She did great.  The little baby girl, there was one girl and three boys.  The baby girl actually went as a bottle baby  because  we had a family that was experienced with bottle babies that wanted one and we just knew it would make things easier on mom. honestly, she was doing just fine. So,  but she raised the boys just fine. And the little girl actually just won first place at her local fair.

13:35
And so it's really fun to Oh, so you have an award winning goat that you have to broaden the world. That's amazing. We do. do ADGA registered Nigerian dwarf goats.  And  we've really invested heavily into that program and into our Scottish Highlands.  And so that's what we're really  mainly focused on, even though we have a little bit of everything. Well, if you're going to have a petting zoo, it's good to have a variety.

14:04
Right? Exactly. Exactly. We  really pride ourselves that our animals, almost every single animal on this farm, we have purchased as a baby or a weanling  and  raised to them here because we're very, very picky about our personalities. I mean, they can be award winning, but they also have to be nice.  So  it's pretty fun, Yeah, that's a good plan to have because  mean animals are  no fun.

14:33
No, and  they can pass that to their kids.  A lot of people, I don't think, realize that the personality of the parents really matters.  It's a question that we always tell people, even if you're not going to buy from us, make sure you ask our mom and dad on site. What are their personalities like of the parents? Those kinds of things. So we try to do a lot of education.

14:55
Because there are so many scammers, there are so many farms out there that are buying animals at auction and reselling them for what they're not supposed to be. And  so we try to do a ton of education for people when purchasing an animal, especially like a Scottish male and mini donkey. There are just so many not real people out, scammers, flat out scammers, then,  you know, farms that maybe, maybe haven't done things the right way. And so we try to educate on just what questions to ask, what, what things to ask.

15:24
If you're buying it online, make sure you FaceTime them, get videos of them. I used to have people send me a code word. You need to make a video of the animal and use the code word jump or something, you know? They think I'm crazy and I'm like, hey, I need to make sure you're a real person and not just sending me a random video of an animal. So, um. Yeah. And I would suggest that no one ever send money to anyone for an animal ever because I've read stories of people trying to get puppies.

15:54
And the person selling the puppy is like, okay, so I need a deposit for this, you know, for the first half of the cost, and then you can pay me the rest when you pick up the puppy. And then  there's no puppy.

16:09
Yep. Yep. We've seen that happen a lot.  We do deposits, but we always make sure that they have videoed us.  They have seen the puppy, you know, like if you're doing that kind of thing, you can make sure that it's a real person come out to our farm, visit us, come see them, touch them, feel them, you know, all that kind of stuff. So,  but yeah, it's, it's a scary world out there. the internet is a double, double edged sword.

16:39
I was going to say double bladed something and I was like, no, that's not it.  Didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Double edge sword because it makes things  so easy and so convenient and so wonderful. mean, I am having a chat with you in my bedroom in front of my computer in Minnesota  and you're in Ohio. It's amazing.  I love it, but it also makes it really easy for people to fool you. And that is so terrible. hate that part.

17:08
I do too. And that's why we try to educate people. Like not everybody's bad. You know, we're real people that have real animals. And just try to educate people on what questions asked to make sure that they don't fall into that. I mean, I've had some pretty good ones. I've looked into a couple of animals where you're having a conversation and it seems legit. And I'm pretty cautious. And I've had two almost get me because at the end they say, you know,

17:36
you need to send this much money and then they get really pushy about it. And  that's when you know, like, oh, dang, I almost fell for that one. So  they've gotten pretty creative.  like you said,  our three of our Highlands, our original Highlands are from  Taylor Blake out of Florida.  She's got, she's kind of famous on YouTube and TikTok and all the things with her hilarious animal videos  got connected with her. She's been a great mentor friend.

18:05
And I never would have had that without the internet. You know, our other cows are from Tennessee, Michigan, Kentucky. So some really amazing people out there too. Yeah. I actually found myself thinking the other day,  how in hell did we meet people before the internet?  That's a really good question.  And being able to stay in touch with people you meet in person, you know, is, is really fun too.  Yeah, absolutely. mean,

18:35
I tend to keep up with everyone that I talk to for the podcast because you guys become in my head friends. And so I have like a list of people I check every morning to make sure everything is okay at their place, even in Oh, So yeah, it's funny how your brain connects whether you actually meet someone in person or not. 1000%. I mean, my real job is all Zoom meetings.

19:04
We work with school districts all over the Northeast and Canada,  and 90 % of our work is over the internet.  We do go to visit in person sometimes our larger districts, but you can't get to everybody. So  living in Ohio and not actually living in any of the states  that I work in,  I get there in person once in a while, but  all of those relationships are internet. Yep. It's so hard though, because  like,

19:32
I have a little heart spot for everyone I talk to on this thing, on this podcast. And when I see videos of my new quote unquote friends going through hell with losing an animal or they have a house fire or a barn fire, I literally cry. Like I can't stop myself because I feel so connected to you guys. Oh, absolutely. I feel you there. Like we have people we've never met before that go through things.

20:01
done fundraisers for them, all kinds of stuff for people we've never even met but have been good, you know, buddies and mentors and sounding boards for animals. I mean, we had we lost one of our baby sheep that was born as a preemie two weeks ago.  So we had our brother as a house sheep and  the outpouring of love from people just so sad about this sheep for instance was just amazing and 90 % of them we've never met. So  but it was great still to have the support.

20:31
Yeah, absolutely.  anyone who's in farming or homesteading knows that if you have livestock, you're going to have dead stock. It is just a fact. Yeah. And you get to a point with it where, yes, your heart hurts, but  my knee jerk now  is shit happens. You know, there's just no avoiding it.  That  will not be my response when my dog dies. I love my dog more than

20:59
life itself. She's amazing. I've talked to her to the point of sickening on the podcast since I started it. That one's gonna hurt. But now one of our barn cats didn't show up the other morning. He's fine. He's back. But my immediate thought was, okay, now we're down to one barn cat. It's time to get a couple new ones. It wasn't, oh no, he's dead. I'm gonna be sold. Well, I'll tell you this morning, I texted my husband and said,

21:28
So  the bottle baby sheep we sent to his new home today.  He's actually going to be at one of the exhibits at the Ohio State Fair.  They have like a bottle baby and babies and mamas display that they do  with goats and sheep and things.  He was just too much for me to keep up with recovering from my ACL surgery and he's been inside.  My oldest son and I are kind of the simps of the family.

21:54
We just bawled and bawled together on the couch for a while. And I told my husband, said, leaving me and Noah home  as the two when this, when Latte left was not a great idea.  So,  but we'll be okay, but we do miss him already.  It's,  it's hard. mean, it's, it's very bittersweet. You put time and love into that baby  and now he's going to go live somewhere else and I'm sure he'll be fine, but it hurts.

22:24
So I understand.

22:30
Yep.  So,  um, I saw something about a summer class you're doing for kids in July. Is that right? Say that again.  I saw something about a summer class you're doing for kids in July. We  are, um, we're very excited.  Um, this is brand new for us. We've never done it before.  Um, and so July 7th through the  11th, we're going to be running our first kids camp.  Um, and so.

22:58
For ages six to 16, we hired just a couple months ago. We finally were to the point where we hired a farm manager because we just can't keep up with this ourselves. It has been too much. And so she's amazing. And she had a little farm of her own and because of circumstances had to shut down her farm. And so she's helping us and she has an eight year old son.

23:27
They have just been incredible.  And so  she is a former educator  and  I have my master's in administration and in music education. And my husband was a high school band director and a high school principal for a very long time too. And so we're all in education.  And so  it's kind of great to be able to have people with that kind of background to be able to put a camp together. So we have  two local artists coming out. We have a...

23:56
pottery class,  pottery project on Tuesday of camp. And  we have a local author coming out who's also a bison farmer and he's gonna read his book  and come out and visit the kids and talk to them about bison.  And then we have a candle making class that is one of the ladies is gonna come out. And so we've developed this tight knit group with other, they just happen to be women owned local businesses as well.  And we work with a bakery,

24:25
And  we work with another lady that does just all kinds of craft projects from like chunky blankets and things like that. And so  those two are  participating in our camp and then the local author. And  we're really excited about it.  I think it's going to be a really good time.  That's amazing. I love it.  And yay, girl power. mean, yeah, it's taken a long time for women to become the amazing

24:55
gender that they are. Let's put it that way.  Yep, absolutely.  so the three of us, it's Caitlin from Create Joy DIY Studio  and Tabitha from Common Sense Wax Company. And they've done a couple classes out here and then we said, you know what, let's start meeting once a month just to keep each other accountable.  We'll bring our computers, do our social media stuff together,  brainstorm ideas, run things past each other. And so we started meeting for coffee once a month.

25:24
And now we have Lori from Lori's Bake Shop, who's a local baker. She has also joined us. And so we're kind of in the process of developing this local, there's tons of business groups, but there's not groups for just women owned local businesses. And so we're kind of in this process of developing this local women owned business group,  just support for each other.  And it's been just a blast to get to know these amazing women who have had great advice for me.

25:54
We're currently working on a pass program where you could purchase a pass that would get you like an activity of each of our businesses  to see if that would fly too. So lots of different ideas and things and they're just amazing humans.  And so I've been really blessed to connect with them.  love it. I love it. I knew this was going to be a great conversation. I  knew it.  I think I'm still processing that I'm a business owner.

26:22
that still is like, oh yeah, I literally am running a business, which is kind of crazy. Yes, I can relate. I was interviewed on a podcast by a friend  last week and she was like, so Mary is and she was like, she has a small farm, she this, she that. Oh, and she's a podcast host.  And the thing that stuck out to me the most was

26:47
Oh, and she's a podcast host. was like, I never refer to myself as a podcast host. That's so weird. That's, that's what you are.  Believe it or  not. Yeah. I,  I have had this real weird disconnect with it because when I started it, I started it as a lark. I was like, I need a project. I'm going to try this. It'll probably fall apart in the first seven episodes and that'll be it.

27:13
Almost two years later, it is going strong, it's growing and I love it. And because I love it, I don't see it as a job. when she said, she's a podcast host, my gears in my brain locked up. I was like, I'm a what? Okay. Right. Say what? Same thing here. We're like, we just have a farm that people come visit and it's kind of cool. And I'm like, oh yeah, it's not a business that makes money right now. Maybe someday.

27:42
Yeah, the podcast is starting to make a little bit, but I am definitely not swimming in dollar bills right now.  Social media and getting things out there, that's probably one of our biggest challenges is we do so much  work outside on the farm.  And I know that monetizing like YouTube or something, like we have plenty of videos that would go viral on YouTube, but

28:11
finding the time to sit there and make a reel,  put it online and like I never sit down as it is.  Well, I do now with my ACL but you know, I just don't  I don't have the time. I never wanted to be a social media marketer. That was not the job I wanted to do. And being a farmer is just so interesting because you have to be caretaker, you have to be veterinarian, you have to be  you know,

28:40
social media marketer, have  to be 10 different jobs in order to farm in this day and age if you want to be profitable. That's one of our biggest challenges is just coming up with the time  to do the social media and to get things out there. How do you get enough followers? Where do you post? What time is most effective?  That's one of our hardest things to get through, I think, that we're still

29:09
Figuring out.

29:13
Yeah, I am a half-assed social media person. Like, I am not gonna go out of my way to make something. I don't know  what would be defined as fabulous. I  don't. just, my husband will send me a video of the cat that was cute and I will post it and people are like, oh, that's cool. And I get like, you know, a few followers out of it. I don't care.  I want to share stuff. I want people to come listen to the podcast. I want people to know that we have eggs for sale.  Other than that.

29:42
I just share what I share. And if people like it, cool. And if they don't, they can go somewhere else. It's fine. Yeah. I think with the Petting Zoo farm, it's like trying to bring it in that business,  market our tours, get spots filled, that kind of thing. Like the camp,  we really focused on birthday parties in January, February, and we filled up really, really well for spring.  And now it's like,  oh crap, our camp is in two weeks and we have two kids signed up.  We probably should push this.

30:09
So last night we got a couple different posts and posted to a bunch of different groups and we had three registrations this morning already. And it's like, just whatever you're focusing on is, what's going to do well, but there's a hundred thousand things we want to focus on. So  it's just kind of narrowing it in and figuring out the seasons, you know, as we go.  And it's interesting year to year as well, because our first year, our classes did really, really well.  Last year was a really tough year for everything. Nothing did well last year.

30:38
I think just being an election year, think people were scared about what was going to happen and nobody did anything. And then this year, our classes didn't do very well, but our animal stuff has done well. So we have now like  a VIP tour where you can meet everybody.  We have donkey dates  where you can  have a smaller group that gets to come walk the donkeys, brush the donkeys and learn just about them. We have highland hangouts.  And so we've been able to expand our tour options.

31:07
And it's just kind of experiment, learn and fail and try again. Right. So that's, we're still in that. I beating myself up because we're not doing this or that or the other thing. And everybody's like, dude, you've been in business for two years.  Yeah.  You're doing pretty good for two years then. And it's like, yeah, we've built,  um, this was literally a soybean field when we bought it. And so we've developed this completely from scratch. There was no infrastructure here.

31:36
No water run to barns, nothing run anywhere. And we've built so far three pastures  and one, two, three, four, five barns.  And we just bought the 14 acres next to us as well, which is like, well, now we have that.  But we need money to be able to do something with it. So it's this constant battle of.

32:02
much we want to do versus how much we can do financially, physically, all of that.  Yeah, this past year has been really rough. And  I think it's because of inflation. think it's because grocery prices have gone up so  much.  And people are really, really watching their pennies. We are.  My husband has a good job. And we're still like, okay, where's the least expensive place to get this thing where it's still edible?

32:32
You know,  and we have a huge garden. mean, we are so excited that we're going to probably have our first zucchinis in this weekend.  Because we are not going to buy produce at the store when we can grow it. That would be silly. That was on our list this year.  But it kind of fell by the wayside with  in January, my husband actually tore his quad muscle.  Got his foot stuck in the mud, literally just went to pull it out.

33:00
and  snap his quad completely detached from his knee.  So he couldn't drive or walk for three months. So now that he's recovering, then I had ACL surgery and it was just like that  garden  did not make it this year, but we're hoping to next year.  I have a black thumb too, so I'm a little worried about killing everything I put in the garden.  Animals, I can keep those alive. Plants, that's a whole other story.

33:30
Uh-huh. Yeah. No, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try.  Patience and grace will help out a lot in your situation because you do have a lot going on.  We do.  But we love it.  All right, Gina. I try to keep you to half an hour. We're there. Thank you so much for your time and the great stories.  And don't leave me when I stop recording because I need your file to upload from your side too, okay?

33:57
That sounds great. Thank you so much.  So great talking to you today. All right. Have a fantastic day. Thank you.  Oh, and I'm sorry. Where can people find you, Gina?  Oh, yes. So on Facebook and Instagram, we're Coopers, C-O-O-P-E-R-S, K-N-O-L-L,  And then our website is www.coopersnullfarm.com.

34:22
Okay, because I want people to go and  do things with you so that you can get that  next 14 acres developed.  We would love that. We have a YouTube channel too that's also Cooper's Knoll Farm. So if you want to follow us there, I think we have six subscribers so far. So there you go. Maybe we'll get some more.  That would be great.  As always, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com and I made that name way too long.  All right. Thank you, Gina. Have a great day. Thanks, Mary. Bye.