Groovy Grazers - Big Changes

Today I'm talking with Morgan at Groovy Grazers.

A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Homegrowncollective.org.

 

Muck Boots 

Calendars.Com

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

00:00
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.

00:25
Today I'm talking with Morgan at Groovy Grazers in Montana. Good morning, Morgan. How are you? Good morning. It's a wonderful morning. How are you today? I'm really good. It's a wonderful morning in Minnesota too. It's a little nippy for May. I think it's only like 45 degrees out. Wow. You guys are colder than us. We're like in the 60s. It's hot already in the morning.  Yeah. A week or so ago we had some really high temps for May and then it dropped back off.

00:54
And I think the high for today is supposed to be 69, I think. Oh, wow. Yeah,  that's pretty nice. I mean, it's easier to do things when you're able to be outside, you know, so colder almost is a little better, but not for planting season, you know, so it kind of depends on what you're doing here with the heat. It just  it weighs on the animals because we'll we'll get snow and then all of a sudden it'll be, you know, like super hot.

01:24
So  we're bouncing back and forth like a bouncing ball. Yeah, it's been that way here too. And honestly, I'm not, I can't complain about where we're at here because  last summer was terrible with rain for all of May and into June. So we haven't had that this year, thank God, because our gardens are actually planted other than basil. We can't put basil in yet because it hasn't been warm enough overnight to not kill them. Yeah. So this year I actually decided to not do a garden.

01:52
Even though I took my master gardening course, so I did go  to it's called Carbon County as the county I did it in  and I was gonna take the test and it's an open book test which so if anyone's interested in Master Gardening most of them I guess level one is open book.  But I just found out a lot about my soil being too alkaline-y which we kind of knew but it's so hard to amend it that it's not even worth.

02:18
trying to plant in it right away. So I learned so much in master gardening that I was like, whoa, pump the brakes.  I don't want to spend a bunch of money, you know, because it's trial and error for a lot of us.  And the more things we try, the more it costs. So the more failure, you know, so I've learned that sometimes it's better to do a lot of research, almost what seems overkill, such as going to a master gardening class to make sure that I'm able to do. Yeah, so I'm able to do.

02:46
you know, the multiple things that I want to do and not spend the money on it. Yep, absolutely. Okay, so now that we've gotten the weather report out of the way and the gardening report out of the way.  Morgan was a guest on the show back last July and she was gracious enough to come back and visit with me and give me an update because you're doing a lot of new things. So  where is Groovy Grazer is at now?

03:12
Yeah, so thank you for having us again, because I think having an update yearly is really helpful for some people. Because man, has the farm changed in a year? I might get a little emotional. Our first year of farming was really hard. You I came on the episode and I talked about worms. Yep. And that was just the biggest hurdle we had all summer long was trying

03:39
to overcome these worms, which were Barbara pole worms. A lot of farmers that have goats deal with them. Goats, yes, you have goats. Yes. Worms with goats, yes. Yep, worms with goats. So we have goats and sheep. We added sheep in and sheep kind of have the same cycle too. And I did buy a horse. Horses  don't get Barbara pole worms. So we end up  using land of Havala. I might be saying that wrong.

04:06
Um, but she's a master herbalist. has dairy goats also, and she creates her own blend of herbs. So we were doing like a worm tea.  And this year I had 10 babies in one week. So I had three does drop triplets a piece.  So nine babies in 48 hours. And what that talks to is like that we were able to get their health in control and they were able to  produce. We had a lot of miscarriages last fall. I only had one baby.

04:35
born or not one baby one doe that gave three babies but like you know one birth last fall so we were kind of behind track so I kind of fell down you know and I was like man  the worms are really kind of kicking our butt we got to figure it out so we made a lot of changes I changed feed we went to a locally  like milled feed  owned by a woman also which is awesome  and then we  added in oregano oil to their water

05:04
And that's something that seemed to really help. So we just made a lot of different changes. So the goats, they gave birth right this morning before I came to talk to you, I milked my goats.  And it's really,  that is the cycle that makes it worth it for me, right? So I have one goat, Honeybee, which you go and look on Facebook or, know, grooviegrazers.com or website, I'll be posting photos of her. But even with triplets, she produced three cups of milk. Awesome.

05:32
Yeah, and it's super exciting because  the direction of the farm. So last year we were doing potentially grazing. We ended up doing parties, right? So we're still doing the goat petting zoo parties, which me personally, I would like to encourage farmers find different  ways for revenue to come in. Yes. So go to a petting zoo. If you have questions, please contact me. I want other people to do this because

06:00
The joy that it brings to the children and even the retirement homes that we go to is worth it for a farmer. It makes you feel good because there are lots of highs and lows when you're breeding and you're milking and you're bringing new animals in and trying to learn, right? So my biggest thing with  kind of our business and how we're moving as a farm, because it is a business at the end of the day, is we're going to cut back on doing some of the parties.  We're not gardening this season.

06:30
because Andy's bringing in pack goats. So that's like our big thing this year is we went from doing all dairy to  realizing that in Montana, because it's so rugged out here, that if you go hunting, it's really beneficial to have pack goats. And goats are cheaper to feed than horses. I have never heard of a pack goat. Explain this haven't? No. Oh man, then we're about to have so much fun. Okay. Okay.

06:56
So pack goats, my husband's obsessed with it. This is kind of his thing. So the pack goats are Nubian boar crosses that we have coming in,  a Lamacha full-sized  and  two Nubian females. And we're using Nubian and some people don't like using them. They use alpines. There's a bunch of different breeds,  but we're just starting out and Andy kind of picked what he wanted to start with based off of his research.

07:23
So packgoating is huge up north over here by Montana. So what they do is they take out a string of packgoats. You can have like five, 10, however many you think you can handle  as their, you know, I guess leader essentially, right? You're their herd master. So they'll take them out hunting and goats don't shy away from you. So like when guns go off because you shoot an elk or you shoot, you know, a deer, they run towards you where a horse runs away. Oh yeah.

07:53
And they can go without water for four days, I guess. So  it makes it really an essential piece for people that are elk hunting, because elks you have to quarter out, you know, and multiple people have to carry it while out here, some of the hunters will each get their own elk and then they spend three days back and forth with the meat trying to get it home. Yeah.

08:15
You know, so you have goats instead, they can hold up to 30 % of their body weight. 30 to 50 % was what we were reading. It depends on the goat and what their ability is. So if you have a 100 plus plus pound goat, know, 150 pound  Nubian boar cross, it can hold up to 30 to 50 pounds. What a great idea. I didn't even know this was something people did. Yeah, you know, and it's so big up here. Everyone is obsessed with pack goats like

08:41
seriously obsessed with it, but I don't think it's a very common thing that's talked about outside of like a Montana or very wilderness experience. The other thing you can use them for is camping.  if you want to go camping or like, you know, very like far out, hard to reach spot, which we all want to, I don't know about you, but I want to, when I to get away from society, I want to go as far away as I can go. Right. And so for me,

09:10
If I can have goats carry me out 30 miles, not carry me, I wish they could, a horse could, but you know, if I can go out 30 miles and then have somebody drop off all my gear,  leave and come back a week later when we're ready to leave, that would be more convenient for me because I can't carry enough supplies for a week 30 miles in.  but if you have five goats with you, you sure can. You sure can. And what if a goat's a milk? Think about getting fresh milk every single day on your camping trip.

09:40
Man, this is brilliant. I love this. Yeah. And more people should do it. Seriously. Cause then the goats are in these wilderness areas and they're going to groom it naturally. Goats don't go for grass first. Everyone thinks they'll eat tin cans and stuff. Mine won't. You know, they're really even picky about treats, but they will eat the weed. So if we take them out into a very wilderness location,

10:06
And we say, sweet, we're going to drop you guys off. We'll leave these three goats here because they're in milk. You want milk or you know,  you, might want to have goats take you around while you're exploring. If they're foraging for like mushrooms or,  um, you know, really anything you're foraging for in the wilderness, you can take the goats and they can help you carry it back and forth. Rock hounders. This whole conversation started with our friend that rock hounds in Missoula. Okay.

10:33
He was like, man, cause Andy wants to go, my husband wants to go  and rock hound with him.  And  he's like, yeah, man, the only crappy thing is, is sometimes we have to carry 30, 40 pounds of rocks out 20 miles by hand.  And that's really hard cause you're carrying axes in. So they're carrying big old metal axes and all this stuff. So it's not like  they're just going in with one item. They're already packed down.  And he was joking around about how like,

11:03
could my goats carry it? My husband was like, yeah, actually that's a thing. And then this is how it all kind of evolved. So we have six pack goats coming to us in four weeks. So we're gonna be super busy with that on top of milk season.  Exciting. Yeah, it's super is exciting and it kind of changes the direction of the farm. So what I found is like,

11:27
I mean, some people can, I can't, but I can't write down like a solid plan of what the farmer is going to be and then say like, okay, in a year, this is exactly what it's going to do. We hit a lot of those big milestones that we want on there, you know, for the farm, but then we find something new that adds value.  I mean, talking about packing, I saw a video of little tiny mules packing yesterday,  like tiny dwarf mules, right?  Packing along and I was like, can we just...

11:56
buy those also, you know, right? So it changes so often for us, but the main goal for us is always just milk, meat providing. I have to shear my sheep. I've never sheared sheep. So that'll be fun. I ordered my shears. coming in.  And then  I was able to explore at another farm. And it's so important that us farmers talk to each other and like interact and try different things. So I would have never thought that I could spin.

12:26
wool, right? But I went to a farm that spins wool and we're big fans of them and they're big fans of us. They do sheep only and we essentially kind of do go only even though I have a few sheep. So their daughter was like, hey, jump on this wheel, try it out. And she was like, wow, you're naturally really good at this. And I was like, all right,  never did I think I was going to want to spin wool, but I crochet and I'm going to get into knitting the boys like wool, my husband and son, they're wool fanatics, right?

12:55
And so if I can knit and do stuff with my own wool, then it's just more the farm brings in, but then I can also sell yarn. So when I talk about different incomes and streams of revenue, it's really important for farms to not just focus on one thing, because then you're able to maximize and grow. Because most farms, I mean, we've got 50 projects we want to do and $20 on the bank account after we pay our feed bill. Uh-huh. Yes. Yes.

13:24
And I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to take this a step off from what you're saying. We can't keep eggs in our farm stand right now. We have a dozen chickens and they give us 12 eggs a day, you know, on a good day. And we have been putting them in the farm stand for $5 a dozen because here it's like eight to $10 a dozen at store. And we can't keep them in stock. So we did spend the money and we bought 14 more laying hens and they won't actually be laying.

13:54
until probably the second week in June, because they're young. Yeah. And I said to my husband the other day, said, you know, I said,  if we could make enough money at the first farmers market, we could get some more chickens.  Yeah. That way we would have some eggs for ourselves too, because we're literally not keeping any eggs for ourselves right now. They're going directly to the community. And he was like, I have to think about this.

14:20
And then my friend Tracy, Tracy listens to podcasts all the time. So I have to say, hi Tracy, brought me some sourdough starter. I had not wanted to actually get into this because I didn't think that it was worth my time. I'm a bad homesteader. I should have been doing sourdough a long time ago and I'm keeping it alive. And I started my own cause I was like, Oh, I can do this. I can do this. And so right now I have the starter. She brought me, I have to feed it when I get done talking with you.

14:50
And I have the one I started, which I need to feed.  And  I have been finding all kinds of recipes for things that aren't just sourdough bread. You can make sourdough chocolate chip cookies. You can make sourdough doughnuts if you want to.  And I was like, you know, if I can get my starter really good too, I will have more than enough to make goodies to put in the farm stand and to sell at the farmer's market. And that might make the money for the new chickens to keep us in eggs.  So

15:19
Why I'm telling these stories is because there are so many ways to diversify your farm business. There's a lady who I'm going to try to get hold of. I haven't gotten her booked yet.  And she does weddings at her farm. And I think that's it. don't think she has any,  I don't think she has animals and I don't think she grows anything. I think she just uses her farm as a wedding venue. So you don't even have to do animals or produce.  You can offer it as an event center.

15:48
Yep. Offer space, you know, and it's funny you talk about sourdough. So I'm gluten free.  And I don't have an oven. Well, I do have an oven now, but we live in a very unconventional house. So we had to get my friend over who's an electrician to put in the socket for it  on the side that we need the oven. Cause my husband, when he built this, just was air fryer status. Right? Sure.  And so, excuse me, the weather is so bad here with the pine. They're blowing all their pollen.

16:18
So with the stove, I was like, okay, once we get the house clean, because we've been doing a lot of construction,  I want to get a shed, but I'm practicing all my sourdough items. So I've focaccia, I've made pizza dough, I've made cookies, I've made cake, all sorts of stuff with a gluten-free sourdough starter. And your idea of a stand, Andy and I have been talking about doing a stand, not with a goat milk so much because I'm very

16:48
um, like retentive about how the milk is handled from having a milk machine and everything. So that's where one of those were like,  I want to deliver it straight to the person and talk to them. And if they haven't, you know, but we have a few chickens. So we, we talked about doing the eggs, like you're, you're doing in the sand too. We also talked about doing frozen,  um, like goodies, like once I'm able frozen and baked,  excuse me, I'm sorry.

17:17
No,  I'm just having a lot of coughing issues today. We can do the goodies that are frozen also. So you could make ready  to bake frozen cookie dough from your sourdough starter. So it doesn't just have to be baked. You could essentially make it a frozen item and then just have one of those little, saw one where they had a split mini fridge or they put dry ice in  a metal like bin essentially.

17:43
and then had a cooler sitting in it so it stayed cold. So there were a bunch of ideas I saw, but the idea of selling baked goods is definitely something I would recommend. I don't know about your guys' laws. Every state has different laws. Like SB 199 is the cottage laws. It's the freedom food act for Montana. It states what you can and cannot sell under a cottage law and how it has to be labeled. So doing those farm stands are smart.

18:12
and to fund your chickens is even smarter, right? Because everything should work for each other. So like, you know, the goats, their hay money comes from selling babies.  And then the compost, we sell compost even, that money goes back into feed for them or goes into vet care  or extending the herd. Like as I milk, I realize who is taking up too much of the feed bill that doesn't. So also sometimes sitting back in like,

18:41
assessing because the world changes so quickly economically here that every six months you should kind of reevaluate because you might find  six months down the road that it's way too expensive to feed your hens compared to what you're getting for eggs. Right. Yep. So then you just cut back on some hens, right? You know, you cut back on the ones that maybe are older, don't lay as much, have more issues, right? Like they molt worse or they're having mites or they get

19:10
the bubble foot, you know, like some of that can be genetic with just not being a hardy bird. So it's really important having the different revenues. Like you're saying like the sourdough starter, I encourage you to do that. But also go walk your local cottage, like your farmer's market, the cottage farmer's market  and see what people are selling. Because I was shocked that people sell shampoo bars. I mean, we all know that, but shampoo bars.

19:40
Whoa, wait. There's so many things and  I love your idea about the frozen stuff in a cooler in the farm stand. We are unfortunately not allowed to do that in Minnesota. Okay. So you're guys at Sea Look, the laws, Montana versus Minnesota. Montana, as long as it doesn't have meat, I can. Yep. Nope. Here, nope. That would never fly. We would get,  I don't know what we'd get.

20:06
I don't know what the punishments are because it's not a license here. It's a registration. I think it's a ticket. I think that they would just be like, no, you cannot do that. Don't do that anymore. I think you get a warning and then a ticket in most states. I have no idea. Well, I mean, I'm not trying to get in trouble. So I try to read, right? You know, the laws and make sure I follow them, especially with raw milk. Yes. Um,

20:34
you know, that's something and in Montana you can sell it cause SB 199 gave that power back to us, but you have to have recommended, there's recommended testing, which means like you should do, you hear tuberculosis from goat milk. Yeah, you,  you can get really sick if you don't do the things you're supposed to do. And  again,  I've said this a bunch of times on the podcast, Morgan, I'm going say it again.

21:03
We have government and laws for a reason.  Sometimes government makes us trip over our feet more than we need to, but sometimes it's actually really important. Correct, yes. like that's the biggest thing is like,  you're, okay, so everyone, I sell raw milk for 30 a gallon or 30 a quart.  That's expensive  compared to a lot of people,  or sorry, 30 a gallon, I apologize.

21:31
I sell a quart typically of my milk at a time. won't sell a gallon because it's 4.5 % or higher milk fat with the Nigerian dwarfs. So most of the time people are like, oh, I don't go through this milk as quick as the other people I get from. And I'm like, well, they probably have Nubians. So one thing I also encourage is to like, if in your state you're allowed to buy raw milk, you should ask the person, can you visit their farm? Because if they tell you no, you do not want to buy raw milk from them.

22:01
Absolutely not. right. Like, please come out. Look at what we do. Look at the facility we have. Look at the goats. Look at everything. Like, I also want to stress, I'm a cottage farmer. And when people tell me I'm a small dairy, I say, no, my law states. So read your law. Mine is 10 does lactating. That doesn't mean I can't have more than 10 does. It just means only 10 can be lactating for milk.  For my usage.

22:29
And so that's one of the things, like I encourage people to come out and see how the goats are kept. Look at my milk practices. Look at my cleanliness and stuff, because that also builds reputation.  So when we talk about being a farmer, it is definitely still the good old boy reputation club. Like who has a good reputation? You must have a really good reputation if your eggs are constantly being sold out.  I am so  like from last year to now, both of our farms have changed a lot and I'm really proud of you.

22:58
for doing the farm stand because it's working out really well and you're doing the  ads for people.  You're pulling in revenue from different streams. I know we talked about this last year, different revenues. So that's always my biggest thing that I like to talk about and you're doing it. You're making me cry, Morgan, thank you. Thank you for saying you're proud of me. I appreciate that. We all need to say that to other farmers because like...

23:24
I'm not gonna lie, had a doe die last year because she had a baby stuck in her.  Oh no.  And we couldn't save her. And she was my, I'm gonna cry a little bit, she was my favorite goat. Yep. And it's so hard as a farmer. You put your life into this and when somebody else that does this looks at you and says, I'm proud of you, you're doing really well. It just hits a little different, right?  Uh, yeah.

23:52
Very different because the minute you said it, my eyes filled up with tears. Yeah, because we're struggling, right? We're not just doing this to make money. I've been called a backyard breeder by people that I, you know, my neighbors aren't as happy. They listen to the podcast too. They're not as happy when I'm on the show. They don't like the goats, right? Cause  it's not what they want. So you get a lot of hate sometimes as being a farmer because people around you are judging what you do. Right.  And so there is backlash sometimes as being a farmer.

24:22
But then when another farmer says, I'm proud of you or somebody else says, I'm proud of you, it reinforces that you're doing the right thing because we're going against the grain. I did career day and I could cry because you ask these kids how many of you guys want to be a farmer.  You're lucky if one kid raises their hand. Oh, yeah. And you're like, where I the next question I asked them, said, guys, where's our food going to come from?  they all look at me.

24:53
and they look around at each other  and then it hits them. And then I ask them, how many of you guys come from a farm, especially in Montana, right? And a lot of them raised their hands and I said, I get it. You don't like feeding the cows in the morning. You don't like going out in the winter. We had four feet of basically from January to the beginning of February constantly. We just had snow everywhere. And I was like, I get it guys. It sucks, but where's your food gonna come from?

25:21
And I think that's what people don't realize is you and I and the other farmers, we're all going against the grain in the world. Everyone else just, you know, goes to their daily job and that's all they do. They go home and they disconnect from the world and they just rely on the government. We've all made this stand that we're not going to rely on the government and we're going to provide for ourselves. And that's hard and expensive. Well, for ourselves and for the community around us with any luck.  Yes.

25:51
And that's part of it too. We have so much overage that we're able to share with people like today I get to go talk we're doing pet sitting right because I love the parties Don't get me wrong, but it is so it takes a lot of spoons, right? Yeah, when you own a farm and you work too, right? Don't you have a full-time job?  I do not but my husband does That's right. I remember one of you guys did so you guys were like us Andy quit his job

26:20
Andy works on the farm and freelance works for everyone too because it was that much work and we were making enough money for that to happen, right? On the farm, we do the parties, but there's a lot of spoons that get taken away when you're doing that a lot of hours off the farm. So we want to be on the farm more. So we're doing, um, pet sitting with a local lady and it helps out her company. Well, I'm going to go see her today. She had twins and she's also going to get some goat milk from me. She  was testing it and helping us last year.

26:48
And so it's really cool to see how these farm connections work because we're making friends with our community. So you talk about feeding them, you feed the community, they also will feed you. Yep. giving you work and helping you.  we're able to do the pet sitting so we can expand the farm.  Yeah, it should be a circle. It should be a symbiotic relationship between the community and the people  that grow food or raise animals or whatever the farming thing is.

27:18
Correct. Yes, exactly. And like we all have to remember that. So remember farmers.  Remember cottage farmers. Remember city folk, whoever's listening to this podcast. Go find your local cottage farmer, support them, buy a few items from them. I promise you, your strawberries from that local farmer aren't gonna mold the same day. You put them in your fridge.  No,  no they are not.

27:45
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. We actually had strawberries over winter in our heated greenhouse this year Oh my goodness, heated greenhouse. You have so much expansion that we haven't even talked about you and I are gonna have to talk after the podcast about all the expansions Yeah, tell me about the strawberries. Did you sell them? No, we didn't have enough. We had we had like five baskets hanging baskets in there Yeah, yeah and come to find out pollinator bugs actually survived the winter in the heated greenhouse, too

28:15
So my son brought in like a small bowl of red strawberries three weeks ago and it was still April.  So it have been four weeks ago. And he's like, I have something for you. And he pulled it up behind his back and showed me. And I was like, oh my God.  He said, you have to try one. He said, they are so good. These are hot house strawberries, really.

28:40
I grabbed one and I rinsed it off. He's like, you probably didn't even need to wash it. I said, I know, have it. I rinsed it off and I just picked, I held it by the  hull and just bit into it.  Oh my sweet everlovin'. Jesus, it was  wonderful to have a homegrown strawberry in April. Yeah. So we had a lady that brought terries, cause my son's homeschooled. so Friday we had, it's called Barefoot Academy. They do it all over the world. Please support them. They're nonprofit. It helps out homeschoolers.

29:09
that learn forestry stuff. So I gotta give them a shout out because they taught my son a lot. So he learned about cherries from cherry trees.  And he goes, mom, that's the best cherry I've ever had.  But people don't know that. They're scared to try items like what you're doing, like a hot house. A lot of people can make a hot house. My goal is to eventually teach people how to urban farm on their patios and stuff. Like that's my goal. Cause I lived in an apartment for a long time.

29:39
But having a hot house is really smart and you can peppers. Let's talk about hot peppers real quick. Cause you have a hot house people there's like  a niche for different types of rare peppers, right? And you can get a lot of seeds. Like the peach Carolina Reaper is very common now that used to be rare, right?  If you cut those bushes like an inch above the soil, just completely down your pepper plants, you can put them in the hot house.

30:06
And they'll winter all winter and next year when you grow them, can grow them just in the same pot and they produce peppers way quicker and way more. So hot peppers can be wintered. A lot of people don't know that. I didn't know that actually until I came to Montana and a farmer told me.  Yeah. And the other thing that I'll throw in here is that you've been told your whole life, certain things like,  um, I don't know, Rosemary can't overwinter in Minnesota. Yeah.

30:34
Rosemary can't winter over in Minnesota outside because it's too cold. But we had one winter over in the heated greenhouse. Yeah.  I didn't think it would make it because we're not talking a hot house, Morgan. We're talking  it maintained about 30 degrees at the coldest this winter in the greenhouse. That's pretty good though. But see, like listeners can hear 30 degrees, guys.

30:59
That's not very hot. You can put a mr. Buddy propane heater in there and heat that bad boy up to 30 degrees We did it with the goat bar, you know exactly so so you  I am I am a big proponent for trying things out even if it goes against what you've been told  If it doesn't if it isn't gonna kill you make you sick or maim you  try it. See what happens We call that the no. you bite in our house

31:29
The no thank you bite. I'm like, you can take a no thank you bite, but you have to try it, you know, and,  um, raw milk, right?  I, you'll laugh. I milked my goats for like three weeks and my son and husband drank it, but I just wouldn't drink the milk. I'm not a milk drinker anyways. Like to be completely honest, I drink, my son calls it whooping cream. It's whipping cream, but he calls it whooping cream just because he did. And we all laughed about it, you know? And so he's like, all right, I'm to make the whooping cream coffee.

31:58
So I didn't drink a lot of cream. didn't drink a lot of milk before just because I'm not a milk drinker. And when I finally tried the goat milk, it was so weird because in my brain, I was like, this is gonna make me sick and taste awful, right? Because I had learned raw milk was bad growing up.  Only pasteurized, like,  know, nobody would buy raw milk. I had never had raw milk until I milked my own goats at 30.  And so I tried it and I was like, holy smokes, this

32:25
better than the store bought milk. So my friend Kayla, she'll listen. Hey, Kayla.  She listened to this podcast episode because she tried it. And she was like, I don't like milk normally. And this milk is good. And she was very hesitant to try goat milk. And she was like, I don't know why it was so hard for me to try it. It took her like four months of everyone drinking it but her. And she was like, fine, I'll try it. And she tried a little glass just a little like

32:54
shot of it and then she was like, I have a full glass of that? And I was like, yeah, absolutely you can, gave her a full glass. And like, she's a picky eater, won't even have like, she's, she's in meat on her tacos. Like that's the type of person she is.  so she's a very picky person. So I think like talking about that is you should try things. Like if it makes you nervous and it's not gonna kill you, right? And it's within reason, like try it because you may find something you actually really like.

33:22
Yeah. And it can be food. can be beverage. It can be projects. can be if you want to try raising a certain animal, whatever it is. So yeah,  I,  I am so glad I got a chance to talk with you today, Morgan.  really am.  I'm so glad that we met up after a year, right? Or almost a year. think it's been like a little shy of a year, but the changes, right? Good job to you on expansion. I'm proud of you.  I'm proud of you too. Yeah, we've, we've been kicking butt.

33:51
doing the damn thing as I like to say. And whatever that is, so whatever you're doing, just do the damn thing.  I'm gonna do the damn sourdough thing for a little bit so I can actually get good at it because  I am reading all kinds of things because this is the new thing, you know how that goes. And I'm saying you don't have to be really nitpicky with it, oh you have to be really nitpicky with it, and I'm like there's gotta be a balance here somewhere.

34:17
Yeah, and let me know and like keep us updated. I'm definitely going to start listening more to the podcast because I've been getting away from watching TV all together and been like plugging into podcasts more because the TV is just a mind numbing machine and podcasts have information  and I can't wait to talk to you again. Like I  am just so excited and I encourage everyone to reach out if you want to do a mini like petting zoo.

34:45
You could even do it with ducks. could do it with a bearded dragon like I have one that's a reptile. You can do it with a lot of things. Just please reach out to me because if we can all help each other, then that makes this farming thing worth it. So if I can teach other people how to bring revenue in by doing parties, then I would love to speak to you about it. If you have questions about milk or farming or you want to just chit chat and have a farming buddy that you can like cry over the lows and then tear on the highs like

35:13
That's what this is about is growing a community and I'm glad that you're a part of my community. You are here for it, Morgan. Yes. Um, where can people find you? Groovy Grazers on Facebook? Yeah. So there's two pages. It's a little confusing right now. Facebook made me a profile. Don't make a profile guys. Make a page if you're a business owner, because then it can plug into like Wix, your websites. So you can find me Groovy Grazers on Facebook.

35:40
Instagram is Groovy Grazers and you can find us. own our domain now  www.groovygrazors.com.  Yay. Congratulations. I knew you were working on that. So good job. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll talk to you, I guess in another year then on this show and we'll see all the new changes, huh? Maybe this fall actually. Maybe we'll do six months. Yeah. Let's do a six month checkup. I think that would be really cool if you started doing that with some of the other

36:07
people you've interviewed so then we can all see progression. But thank you so much for giving me a place to speak, giving me your time, and most of all, interacting with us again, because it does help the farm out. We appreciate you giving us a platform last year and  letting the word out. I actually have a follower from Florida that ended up getting goats because she listened to your podcast. Oh my god, really? Yeah, yeah, it was really cool. I hope she listens to this one. I know her farm name. It's just kind of blanking me right now.

36:36
But yeah, I had two followers from  different parts of the country reach out to me because they wanted to do the farming thing. So just know that like, guys, when you speak on this platform, you're getting to speak to people you wouldn't normally speak to. And that can connect some dots and help you guys out. So Mary, you're doing the damn thing for us farmers and us cottage farmers and helping us get our platforms out there, giving us a place to speak. So we appreciate you and you have a wonderful weekend.  now I'm seriously tearing up. Thank you, Morgan.

37:05
Yeah, mean, seriously, just know that like, last year, you gave us such a good platform and it helped me get on other podcasts that were local and stuff. so like, people,  it is, it is worth it to make 3040 minutes for Mary to talk to you, because it's going to change your farm in ways that you never expected and podcasts are good. Like other people are going to listen to your, your lows and highs. You know, last year was really vulnerable and talked about worms.

37:34
and how it was like destroying my farm literally and I was trying to get a hold on of it. You know, and I did get some backlash. Oh, well, you have worms. Yeah, but not really not worms that can transfer to humans. That's why I don't worry about when I was going to the parties, you know, but  it is that platform that you're giving. So just know that like from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate what you do and this helps and I've connected with people. So I hope this year I connect with more farmers like I do. I hope from this podcast.

38:01
people reach out again because that's what it's about. Because one of the ladies taught me a lot about horses I didn't know about.  And that's something that's really valuable. So yeah, I will totally talk to you in the fall. I'll have more babies then, we'll have the pack goats going, the horse will be saddled and ridden by then. We'll have a lot to talk about. Hopefully the glass blowing studio, I know we talked about that last time, it's still in the works. That's why we're doing the extra things to fund that, like you're funding your chickens. So it will all come out in the wash as they say,

38:31
in Louisiana. It all come out.  Yup.  All right, Morgan. Thank you so much. And as always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Thanks so much for your time. Thank you. Bye.