Heirloom Garden Studio

Today I'm talking with Josie at Heirloom Garden Studio.

A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Home Grown Collective.

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. 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 Josie at Heirloom Garden Studio. Good morning Josie, how are you? Good morning. I'm great. How are you? I'm good. You're in Texas, yes? Yes,  I'm in Houston. Okay, how's the weather?  The weather is great. Spring has sprung here.  It's going to be close to 90 degrees today.

00:56
So we're getting some warm weather, but you know, Texas does this little two-step thing where we kind of stutter into spring and then we'll have some cold weather again and then warm. So it's kind of all over the place for a while until it gets hot. Yeah, we've been going through that in Minnesota. It hit 70 here yesterday. Oh, that's wonderful. That's great. It was kind of really refreshing to step out on my porch.

01:25
and the window was open and I was like, oh, it's beautiful. It's not gonna freeze my face. This is great.  I can't imagine.  I could never live someplace where it gets cold like that.  I love the heat.  Yeah, I love it when people are like, I'm never gonna live somewhere where the air hurts my face. And I'm like, well, you're also missing out on spring, summer and fall here. that's really great. true. And I understand. I can't imagine living somewhere without the season.

01:54
So we're kind  of on opposite ends here, but I do get  it. All right. So tell me about yourself in Heirloom Garden Studio. Okay.  Yeah. So  my name is Josie Haley with Heirloom Garden Studio. As you mentioned,  I design and install kitchen gardens or backyard gardens, whatever you prefer to call them.

02:19
in and around the greater Houston area and I also provide gardening services  and I teach gardening classes and workshops.  Awesome, I love you already.  Great.  We also have a small  urban homestead which is funny to say. I never thought I would hear myself say that but here we are. Well, what do you do on your urban homestead because I'm always trying to make the point that you can homestead anywhere.

02:48
Correct, yes.  we  live very close to downtown, about four miles  in kind of an urban area.  We have about  an 8,000 square foot lot, so not big. And  we have three chickens  right now,  which give us plenty of eggs, but we also have five baby chicks that my kids just love. And we're hoping to introduce them to the flock.

03:16
in a few weeks here and get some more eggs going for this year. And then of course I have my beloved kitchen garden, which is where it all started. So that's what we have here. Nice. What do you plant in your kitchen garden? Do you have herbs or is it just veggies? my. Herbs and veggies, yes.

03:43
Houston actually I know everyone thinks oh my goodness it's so hot here you can't grow much but believe it or not we can grow year-round so I have four raised beds about a little over a hundred square feet of growing space and  I love to pack in as much as I can and right now we're starting to plant all of our  tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and squash  and

04:12
Just everything spring  and  it's just it's probably my favorite time of the year. Anytime I can put a tomato plant in the ground, I'm  as happy as I can be. So  we're also harvesting all of our what we call winter vegetables  here.  Our cool season vegetables like lettuces, snap peas,  brassicas and all of that. So.

04:42
So what you're telling me is that you're never without fresh produce during the year to use in your house.  That is true. And that's what I really love. And I love teaching it to people here locally because, you know, in Houston, it's cyclical, right? Gardening.  You should never have an empty garden bed.  You can be growing something and constantly adding to it and taking things out. So

05:10
You know, even if you just have a few minutes every day to go out and grab a handful of snap peas,  you should do that. And then you should also plant something.  Uh huh. I'm right there with you, sister.  I agree completely. Um,  what I, what I try to tell people when they're like, I want to start a garden, but I don't know how to do it. And I want to start small is I tell them to start with herbs, like chives and thyme, because chives and thyme are really hard to screw up. They really are chives. I would say are a beginner.

05:40
a gateway to gardening for sure. and they're easy and they taste good and you can dry them. So you can use them in sour cream dip things.  Oh yeah.  And they're really pretty when they bloom. You can actually stick them in a  bottle and they look like a bouquet. They're really beautiful. Yes. Yes. I love bringing in fresh herbs into the kitchen and  my husband, he doesn't like  dill.

06:07
But I love a big bouquet of dill whenever it's going to seed and blooming and it just smells so amazing. absolutely. My husband plants the mammoth dill every school. If I go out to the garden, the first place I go is over to the dill and I run my hands through it. And then I can smell my hands for hours afterwards. I'm like, pickles, pickles, yes.

06:29
Pickles, yes, yes, for sure.  and thyme is great here because it will continue to grow through the winter under the snow as long as it's not like minus 30 for days on end. Right, right. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we get  basil here that I can plant now and will grow through the spring and into the fall. And that's like our go-to herb.

06:56
keep saying it, I freaking love basil and basil  loves heat.  When we have a hot summer, our basil does amazing. Right. Exactly. Yes. And people like assume that basil is only good in spaghetti sauce, but it's actually good in salads. It's good in soups.  It's good with fish. We've tried it with fish. Okay. You can use it in a lot of things other than spaghetti sauce. Absolutely. Yes.  So.

07:25
Okay, so now we've raved about all the great things about those.  I also suggest to people that if they want to start small, don't want to do herbs. Do lettuces because lettuces you can put in a bowl of dirt in your kitchen by a sunny window and they will grow and you can eat it and they continue to grow. That is true. Yeah. Lettuce has a shallow root system.  So easy to grow. You know, you bring up a good point. Starting small.

07:55
Actually, in my garden classes, I like to teach people that,  you know, sometimes starting small is not the best way to go.  think  people get discouraged easily.  They'll say, oh, I had a garden last year and I had a couple of this or that. And then  they say, oh, but I didn't get much and it's not worth it. You know, it's not worth it to me. And they get discouraged. So  my goal is really just to

08:23
keep people encouraged and I want people to continue to garden. So I like to  offer raised beds in my packages. And I think, you know, this is a common pitfall for beginners is just to start too small.  And  there's a lot of reasons why you shouldn't do that. And I think, you know, there's nothing like going out to your garden and getting a whole bowl full of cherry tomatoes, you know.

08:52
That's encouraging, that's exciting and fun.  And yummy. Yes, for sure. Yes. And the only reason I said that I tell people when they say they want to start small,  is because it's usually people who have a small apartment and they're like, I don't really have any space.  So I try to find things that they could start on  their table or their windowsill in the sunlight from the window.  Absolutely. And I think herb containers are wonderful.

09:19
But if you have room to put in a raised bed, yes, do that.  Definitely. Okay. So how do people,  this sounds like I'm ending the podcast, but I'm not.  How do people find you to get help from you?  Sure. Well, for right now,  messaging me,  DMing me on Instagram or Facebook.  My handle for both is heirloom garden studio.

09:46
and they can reach out that way.  I have my phone number  on  both  pages  and my email address.  Okay, cool.  Yeah, I noticed you didn't have a website and I'm like,  why does she not have a website?  Well, you know what? I don't have a website yet, but I mean, I'm a millennial, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I feel like a lot of people just use their Instagram account now, right?

10:15
Yes, yes, they do. But if you're like me, who's 55, and if you're like my mom and dad, who are 78 and 81, They want a website. Websites are fun, you know, we get to find out your story or why you're about, you know, and it's just a really fun billboard. I get that. Okay. It's super easy to do. I just went to a different

10:43
website host  for my podcast, my designated podcast page.  And it's,  I can't think of it right now. Webador is the name that I click on to get to it, but that wasn't it. I think it was Weebly,  W-E-E-B-L-Y.  And it's really user friendly. I feel like my mom who's not tech savvy at all.

11:07
would be able to get a free page website in about two hours if she tried it. Okay, well I'll look into that. Yeah, and it's not that expensive. And that's the other thing is websites aren't that expensive these days. You buy the domain name for about 13 bucks, you pay maybe $10 a month for hosting and you're set for a year. I have a domain name actually, but my business is new so I'm still working on a lot of it.

11:37
I feel like you have a really cool story because I was looking at stuff earlier on your Instagram page and your photo. you. There's got to be a story here. There has to be a story. There is a story. Yeah.  So tell me the story. Okay. Well, so I wasn't always a gardener  before I started gardening or getting into it as a hobby.

12:04
You know, I have a degree in architecture from Texas A &M University.  I worked in the high-end kitchen design industry for 10 years before I had children.  And also, I guess  maybe one thing that kind of developed my interest in gardening was that I have some creativity in my blood. My mom...

12:31
is an artist and my dad is a master carpenter and he always taught us like to appreciate quality craftsmanship  and to build something right the first  time.  And then of course my mom taught us how to appreciate beautiful things and arts. And so I kind of feel like gardening is  my canvas to be honest and I enjoy it.

13:00
so much. know,  let's see. Also,  you know, Houston is just a really huge city, as you know, it's chaotic, it's stressful, it's a rat race.  And I feel like I what kind of led me to gardening was that I needed something beautiful in my life. I needed an outlet  for relaxation and peace. And I just found so much fulfillment.

13:29
through growing my own produce and realizing just how incredible it tastes and how the stuff from the store just doesn't even compare. And I just really want to share that with my clients. Nice. I usually jump onto the food from the store doesn't taste the same as stuff from the garden. Yeah. I'm going to go a different direction today. Okay, great. Carrots. Carrots are so

13:58
good when you grow them in your own garden. It's true. The carrots at the store taste like cardboard to me.  Yes. carrots in our garden are so sweet. Yes.  My kids love  harvesting any root vegetable really, but carrots, I don't know why. They just love pulling them out of the ground and seeing how much is grown underneath.  And my daughter will eat them just like crazy. She loves carrots and the ones from your garden. It's true.

14:28
They are so much better. Yeah. And the other thing is celery.  Celery is supposed to have like  a peppery bite. I never get that from the celery store, but my God, I cut all the tops off my celery two summers ago when we had it  and I dried it.  And if you put that in a soup or a soup,  oh sweet Jesus.

14:54
The leaf celery grows really well here. And I actually have some of that right now. Yeah. You can just use the leaves to create that flavor. So, yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah. But I think tomatoes, that was like my aha moment.  My neighbor across the street,  he, he's since passed, but maybe about eight years ago,  maybe 10 years ago, he brought us some big slicer tomatoes. There were probably like  a

15:22
beef steak, if I'm guessing, but he brought us some one day and I tried it and I just thought, you know, what have I been eating from the grocery store my whole life? This does not make any sense. And how can I recreate this? Like that was my light bulb went off.  Just like, what am I eating  in the grocery store? So.  Yeah, we actually went through that with eggs for the last four months too.  Just got chickens. I don't want to go too far because

15:53
Eggs are a  big subject right now everywhere. That's for sure. So I don't want four people,  but we were buying eggs from the store and they were not great. And our chickens just started laying there 24 weeks old. Oh yeah. Yay. That's fun. Oh my God. I had  scrambled eggs with three other little eggs the other day. The baby ones. Yes. And I was like, I'm not crazy. These are, these are fantastic. They do taste different. They actually taste like something. And

16:22
the texture of these eggs was like creamy and the Sorobot eggs not so much. Yes, and it's true. And you can really see that in the yolk color.  You know, if you have like that rich dark yolk from your backyard chickens, it's just, it's incredible.  Yeah. And I mean, I hate to keep riding the subject, but you eat first with your eyeballs.  So if the food looks appealing,

16:49
It tricks your brain into thinking it's going to be yummy.  And usually it is.  It's true.  mean, um, anything where you know the source  of your food supply,  I think makes it taste better. Yes. The more you know, the more you infer, the more you enjoy it. Right. Right. Yep. Yep.  Okay. You were saying that you designed kitchens before.

17:14
Were these like restaurant kitchens or were they home kitchens? yes.  So residential, worked  actually in the, excuse me,  high end kitchens. know, multi-million dollar homes.  We designed these dream kitchens.  so  kitchens are really important to me. And I, you know, learned a lot about the functionality of a kitchen.

17:42
So I mean, I think in also design,  so  that's kind of has inspired me and led me to incorporate the garden, your backyard garden or your kitchen garden into your everyday life.  It should be as functional as your refrigerator or your pantry. Yep.  OK. Well, I want to get back to the gardening stuff, but I also want to talk about kitchens for a minute. OK, go ahead. When?

18:13
There are so many people who do not cook these days, okay?  When you design these kitchens, were they designed for actually cooking or were they designed for entertaining?  That's a good question. I would say it was about 50-50.  We get a lot of people that would  come in to our office and they had personal chefs basically most of the time or...

18:39
They didn't cook. Yes, that was a common denominator.  But then they have these beautiful appliances and beautiful cabinetry. But some people did say, oh, I love to cook.  So we saw about half and half. Yeah. It's a minor bone of contention with me because I love to cook. really do.

19:04
Yes. I only learned in my  20s. It's not like I grew up cooking with my mom. I think I've watched what she did and I took it in my head, but I didn't really cook. the kitchen in the old house that we had, that my husband and I had, had a galley style kitchen. And I swear to you, everything was within arm's reach in that kitchen other than the refrigerator.  And I made some of the most fabulous food in that kitchen.

19:31
Yeah. And then we moved to our new house a little over four years ago and it has a huge kitchen. I have to walk steps to get to the sink from the stove or the refrigerator from the stove or whatever. My triangle is very big. Okay. And I find myself frustrated sometimes because that little galley style kitchen was so convenient. Right. Yeah.

19:57
Yeah, it has to be designed correctly and functional to make you want to use it. Yeah. the one thing that saves me is that in the middle of our kitchen, there's a big island. And underneath that island is storage for pans and bowls and stuff, which is fantastic. But the island is situated so that I just bring everything out and put it on the island, measure everything out, put stuff away, and then I'm set to just do the thing. That's nice. And so that's really great.

20:27
And the other thing that's really great is that my husband and my son, who my son's 23, he still lives here. Um, we all love to cook together. And so when we all want to really cook, that island is great because we can all stand on one side of it, you know, one on one end, one on the other and one on the middle. And we're just chopping veggies and talking and there's music on and we're throwing stuff in a bowl or a pan. And it's just so fun. That's nice. That sounds wonderful.

20:55
So the reason I even asked about the kitchen design is because for me, kitchens are made for cooking. They're also made for getting other people involved in the cooking. Yes.  Yes,  I agree with that 100%. I love the idea of having a big island with no  appliances or sink in it and where you can just have like a complete work surface to just chop and  nothing's in your way.

21:24
Yeah, it's great. And the other thing that's great about it is I have a friend that comes over about once a month for coffee and we get caught up. And there's two bar stools that go underneath the side where you sit, you can put the island. And when she comes over, I heat up the kettle because she does tea. And we sit down and she's got the pot, the tea kettle pot, and I've got my coffee. And we're just sitting there in my pretty kitchen talking. That's wonderful.

21:52
And there was no place in the old house to do that. So  I love the fact that my kitchen is so  livable. Does that make sense? Of course. Absolutely. Yes.  I'm so I'm a huge fan of kitchens, but I'm not a huge fan of kitchens that no one cooks in. Cause I think that it's sad when nobody cooks in the kitchen. It is sad. I,  um,  I kind of, um, swiped an appliance from our showroom years ago when we remodeled our house and I have a

22:22
48 inch  range top,  a wolf  with a big griddle in the middle. And I tell you what,  if I ever move, I think I'm gonna like take it, take it with me, because I love it so much.  And of course with the garden,  it comes in super handy. I love being able, my garden is actually right outside. I have these two big glass  doors in my kitchen and my garden is right outside.

22:51
I can literally step out barefoot and grab some herbs or whatever I need to cook with and bring it into my kitchen and get to work. is so awesome. I love to cook also. Yep. I do. And I get full on the smells from cooking. I sit down to eat and I eat three bites and I'm like, I'm done. I'm already full because I smell like the whole time we're cooking. I end up snacking while I'm cooking, just tasting everything, you know? Oh yeah.

23:20
Yeah, you got to taste it because you won't know if it's any good if you don't. Right, exactly. Yeah. And I'm so jealous of your kitchen garden because our garden is like a good 200 feet away from our house. I think that's also a big misconception. I hear people say, oh, I want to put my kitchen garden behind my garage or in this space on the side of my house. And I almost start shaking my head immediately. No, no, don't do that. You want it to be

23:48
right outside your kitchen window or as close as you can get maybe alongside your driveway when you pull up, you can  see everything that needs to be harvested and it's a reminder.  just again, being so close that it's almost like a pantry is pretty fantastic. kitchen gardens,  they're meant to be beautiful.  And I think it's wonderful to see it from your  house.

24:16
Oh, I can see the garden from my living room windows, but it's 100 feet by 150 feet. Okay.  It's a big old garden. Okay. That's incredible.  Yep. And I keep trying to figure out how to put an herb garden near my house because that's what I would go out and grab is herbs. Yeah, absolutely. We have the most wonderful dog named Maggie  and her lead.

24:42
you know,  she's on, so she can't run wild on our property because  the road out front is way busy with semi trucks and I'm scared to death she'll get hit.  Sure. And that would ruin my life, not just my day.  So her lead, she can get to everywhere around the house except the front of the house.  And there's no door to the front of the house. We have one door in and out of our house. That's it.  So we're not set up to have a kitchen garden at all.

25:11
unless we don't have the dog and I am not giving up my dog. love  her. So if we didn't have the dog, I have a perfect spot for a kitchen garden right outside my kitchen window above my sink  and I would do that. But we have the dog. Yeah.  And in Houston, you know, everyone, it's so urban.  know,  I think part of the challenge is trying to figure out where the garden should go. And that's enjoyable for me.

25:41
Yeah,  I love that you do what you do because people do have a hard time envisioning a place for growing things.  And that's an innate talent for you. So they're like,  this is my property. Where do I put a raised bed? And you're like, right there.  Exactly. Most of the time I go in and I automatically know exactly where to put it. I just have to listen to the client first.  Yep, exactly.

26:10
I just, I've talked to a couple of people who do stuff like you're doing.  And  it's always amazing to me because  I talked to a couple, like they're married to each other  and they do, they help people set up raised bed systems and gardens and stuff. And they're just so into it. They're so excited. Right. And the husband said that  they actually help people for free at first.

26:40
that it was frustrating because he would run into the person that he helped and he'd be like, how are the gardens going? And they would be like, eh, we didn't do it. Oh no. But a minute they made it a business and started charging for their services,  then the people that are paying for the services have skin in the game. Right. Absolutely. And they actually do it.  Yes. I've never thought about it that way. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I think  I got a lot of

27:09
You know, over the years, people know you as you know, that's your hobby, your gardening. Yeah. And they ask you tons of questions. But then when you ask them to pay for advice, well, then they, you know, they they take it more seriously for sure. So, yeah, it was just funny the way he said it, because he sounded he was trying really hard not to sound mad, but he definitely was frustrated with the fact that he had spent all his time trying to help. then, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

27:38
And he was, he sounded very,  I don't know, amused and excited at the same time that when they started charging, people would actually do the thing. Yes. Yeah. They take you seriously for sure. Yeah. And  I love people like you because I am not a good teacher. I do not have the patience  and I talk too fast when I'm trying to teach somebody something, cause I know the thing. Yes.

28:05
And so when I meet people who teach and who are good at it and who enjoy it, I'm just like,  I bow down to you. You have skills I do not possess.  Well, I think teaching is really the big picture. The whole point is  setting your customer up for success.  I don't want them  to give up like I mentioned earlier. I want them to have all the tools. I want them to learn from

28:33
my mistakes.  And I think that's important because  as a gardener, especially in the beginning, you really, you don't know what you're doing.  And it's all one giant experiment, right, that you're learning from. It's trial and error. And I think having them  skip that part and me leading them and guiding them is important to their success.  It is. It absolutely is.

29:02
And I just love that there are people in the world who can do that for other people.  Because I had some fabulous teachers when I was in high school.  they were friends. Most high school students don't consider their teachers to be their friends.  But if I was after school for something, not because I got in trouble because I had to stay after for something, help or a volunteer thing or whatever.  I saw one of my teachers in the hallway. I would be like, hi, mister or missus, whatever.

29:31
And they would come over and be like, how are you? didn't get a chance to talk to you in class today. What have you been up to at home with your folks? And it was so great knowing that I had adult friends at school who were supportive of me almost to the same point that my parents were supportive of me. That's great. That's wonderful. Yeah, I have a mentor actually in the neighborhood that lives across the street.

29:59
She's amazing. She grows everything, landscape, vegetables, flowers, everything. And I'm constantly like, as soon as I see her out, I'm like, hey, I have a question for you. So she's great. She loves it. But she's helped me a lot. So. Yeah. And when I think about that, if someone calls me or messages me or is here and sees something I'm doing and says, how does that work or how do do that?

30:29
I'm real good at being like, oh, this is how you do it. But I don't consider that teaching. I consider that sharing my information.  I think of teaching as  more hands on sitting down with someone and trying to show them how to do something. Right, right, right. Yeah.  Well, yeah, you know,  that's true. Sometimes I have to back up.

30:58
and explain it like I'm explaining something to my kids. Like, oh, they don't know any of this.  And I know it, so I have to  sort of start at the beginning.  Yeah, I have reeled off my recipe for bruschetta a bunch of times on the podcast episode.  And when I do,  it's to someone who knows how to cook, so they kind of get it.  And I realize after I do it that just because I say, oh, you just chop up these things,

31:27
You put it in a bowl, you add some olive oil and some balsamic vinegar, and then you toast up some bread and you put stuff  on top of the toast and you eat it. That's  not all there is to it, clearly. And  I keep forgetting that if you've never cooked in your life, there's a whole lot of questions that come from that description. Exactly. Yes, yes, for sure.  So it's funny to me. And I remember not knowing how to cook. I remember not knowing how to...

31:54
put dirt in a container and plant seeds and do things to make seeds grow. remember. Yeah, it's so true. And you know,  people come to me all the time and they say, well, I try to grow tomatoes and, you know,  I always hear this like the same. It's a pattern. People have an interest and a passion, but they don't  know how to do something and they make a common mistake like growing tomatoes in like a 10 gallon container.

32:23
And  I think just giving them the tools they need and  giving them the knowledge, I think it's just so encouraging.  Absolutely. And again, really glad that you are in the world to encourage people to grow things because right now I think everybody should be growing food.  Oh, yes,  I agree.

32:51
I'm really into organic gardening and that's important to me and I think that's becoming more important to a lot of people and just  knowing what kind of soil was  my vegetable grown in or what kind of  pesticides or hopefully lack of pesticides were used in this produce.  think it's  really important. People should know how to grow their own food because they're really missing out if they don't know how to grow their own food.

33:21
Yes, and we're going to get done here in a minute because I tried to keep this half an hour more past that. But the other thing that I would suggest people try growing because it's quick, it's a quick turnaround and it's really yummy is radishes. For sure. Radishes. I love growing those. Again, my kids love to pull them out of the ground, maybe too early. But yeah, there certain vegetables that you can grow with a quick turnaround and it's a lot of fun.

33:51
It's a lot of fun for sure. Yes. And there are people in the world who don't like radishes. I'm not one of them. I don't like beets, but I love radishes. I love beets. I love beets. Can't do it Josie. They taste like dirt to me. My mom gets so frustrated with me. She'd harvest the beets and she'd be like, I'm going to slice some of these up. Do you want a slice? And I'm like, no, no. Yeah, they're so good. And they're so pretty. But radishes are beautiful too. And I like them raw, but

34:20
I started roasting them. Have you done that? They're great. have not, but I have pickled radishes.  Okay. have with dinner. That sounds good. That's lovely. And it takes like 10 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Pickling thing.  I'm not a pickler. My husband is the chemist  in the family. He loves anything like that. So  he always does the pickling. Yep. Well, I call it a pickle, but it's really more like a marinade.

34:49
Right, with some vinegar.  Yeah, vinegar and whatever oil you want to use, whatever oil choice you like to have.  And some honey. Okay. Oh, that sounds good. And I think it takes mirin, which is an ingredient most people don't know about. It's  like an alcoholic  cooking wine, but it's called mirin. And you just kind of put a little bit of on the sliced up radishes and you let it sit in a bowl for about 10-15  minutes.

35:17
And it's like a pickle, but it isn't a canned pickle. Do you ever add any lemon juice or anything like that to it? No, you could. OK. You could, but I don't. Sounds good. The vinegar has enough acid in it to do the thing. Yeah. Sounds yummy. But radishes, literally from planting the seed to pulling them out and eating them is like four weeks. Yes. It really is cool to watch them grow so fast. Yeah. And the quick turnaround is great because you can

35:47
You can start them in February in your house if you wanted to because they don't need to be pollinated. They don't need any bees to do the job. Absolutely.  The funny thing is this year,  since we have chickens, this is our first year to have them.  I had to figure out how to keep them out of the garden  and then also let pollinators in. But  all of the cool season vegetables are brassicas, leafy lettuce, radishes,  root vegetables.

36:17
I can grow those under ag fabric and  I have just like tinted my raised beds, which is great. And the chickens can't get in there to destroy  everything. So  that's been really great. Yes. And I  was just going to add, it has kept the caterpillars out. So I'm getting like the most wonderful harvest this year. Good.  Yes. And chickens will decimate a garden.

36:45
They will completely destroy it. do. And even if they're not eating whatever it is that's growing, they just get in there and they scratch and they kick stuff around and they destroy your seedlings. so yeah, you have to keep them out. Yeah. We have chickens right now and they are going to be not free-ranged when my husband puts the garden in. Right now they're allowed to run of the property, but they won't be in May. That's smart. Very smart.

37:14
We learned the hard way the first summer we were here, they ate some of the seedlings he put in and he came in from the garden and said, where my seedlings disappeared. And I said, um, were the chickens out? no. I I made that same mistake. had some corn. I had started some corn seedlings and I was going to plant them a few days ago and I forgot I had left them out and I went out there. Of course they had like.

37:42
knocked all of the pots over and taken them all out and now I have to start over.  Yep, there's lots of good to be said about chickens, but if you give them free reign, they're going to take it.  For sure.  All right, Josie, thank you so much for your time this morning. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Mary. This was a wonderful opportunity. It was really fun. Thank you. Have a good day. Okay, thank you.  Bye.