KayLeo Urban Farm

Today I'm talking with Scott and Marilyn at KayLeo Urban Farm. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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

00:29
share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Scott and Marilyn at KayLeo Urban Farm in Indiana. Good morning guys. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good.  What's your weather like? Cause ours is gray and it's raining. It's gray, but not raining. It's to rain the rest of the week though.  Yeah. I'm in, I'm in Minnesota. We got like an inch of really wet, fluffy, gross snow last night. got up this morning. I was like, what? No.

01:00
No more. It really nice weather until this week basically. Yeah, this spring or what amounts to spring, it's been spring for two weeks really, has been really chaotic here. Like last Friday it was 80 degrees here and then was 35 on Saturday. I'm like, what are you doing? Yes, that is chaotic. So yeah. You guys have the tornadoes as well.

01:29
You have? Well, not here. We're at our place, but in Indiana. Yup. I think it's going to be another crazy growing season. And I was really crossing everything I have that it was going to be a moderate season.  Oh, no guys. It's going to be interesting to see how the summer goes.  Okay. So.

01:50
I am so excited to have you as guests because you guys are doing something really important in Indiana and you're actually in Indianapolis or near Indianapolis. Yeah, we're right in the city  on the northwest side of the city. Okay. Tell me about what you're doing. Cause I looked at your website and I was like, Oh my God, you guys are special. Like you're really, really doing something good.  Well, thank you. So we are a nonprofit urban farm.

02:17
We bought the property about 10 years ago and have been a nonprofit for the last five years. We kind of focus on three areas. So growing  healthy food for people.  And then we get that food to people through, we started a farmer's market. This will be our fourth season starting  later this,  well, in June we'll start that. And we also do a matching donation  to either local food pantry or specific families.

02:47
as well. We  try to do education related to growing the environment,  how to be sustainable. We do that through field trips,  working with different groups, classes, opening our farm to people,  and we focus on environmental stewardship. So growing in ways that are going to benefit the environment and leave this place better than we found it, and then helping people learn how to do that as well. Fantastic. Scott, do you have anything to add? Because I have lots of questions.

03:17
I mean, she said it well, that's pretty much it. All right. So how did you guys get into this? How did this start?  Well, like Marilyn said, we bought the property about 10 years ago. We've been kind of wanting some property for a while.  We talked about  options of living out in the country and  looking for more property out there. But Marilyn really felt called to stay in this within the city limits here.

03:45
And that kind of limits it a little bit, but we've happened to find this place, is nine acres within the city limits. I don't know if you're familiar with Indianapolis. It's fairly spread out. There's actually, you can find three to five, maybe even 10 acres of places here and there in the city. Less and less, of course, as time goes by, but it's kind of rare, not totally unheard of, but it's rare to find a this big, especially in our part of town where we are. It's pretty developed.

04:14
This had been a farm for a decade before this, then this place, we're the third owners of this place. But we found this place and got it in June of 2015. And then we weren't sure what we wanted to do with it exactly. We knew we wanted some property and some more as a space, and then talked about doing some sort of animal rescue here, kind of a...

04:40
sanctuary for animals and we do that a little bit still sort of. But then we kind of started getting just into growing. So we had some raised beds and some things and kind of just started enjoying that. And we're fairly near to some food deserts. Not exactly one, but kind of around us. And even in our area specifically, we saw some of the grocery stores closing and.

05:06
people have to walk a lot or go places to go to Walmart and that kind of thing. So we started thinking more about food, how we could provide food for people. over the course of the years, the years we just kind of kept growing more and more and getting bigger and bigger in that sense. And that's kind of our main thing we do on the property here now. Nice. Okay. So my next question is, food has been getting more and more expensive over the last two years, as we all know.

05:35
So with what you're doing, are you seeing people who need food now that didn't need it two years ago? You know, I think we saw our first year as a nonprofit was actually 2020. So the year of the pandemic and that year  we just gave like 98 % of the food away. We worked with a food pantry at the local high school. They were seeing like a dramatic increase in the number of people visiting that food pantry.

06:02
I'm also a teacher and I work in that district as well. So  I was staying connected with them. And then  what we have seen  is people more interested, I would say, in finding things locally.  And I think as food prices increase,  local food is becoming more affordable as well. think people have an interest in where their food comes from, what the process is and how it's being grown. And so we have a lot of people who are

06:31
specifically looking for things that are local  and also wanting to know how to grow  some things in their own backyard, even if they can't produce all that they need, but  they have a desire to just grow a little bit at their home as well. Okay.  And do you get to interact with the people that come to your place or at  the pantry or wherever you're at?  Do you get stories from people? So this

06:58
You know, we interact all the time with people at the farmers market and our farmers market accepts  like some assistance, SNAP  and some of those assistive programs that are specifically helping people who are  financially insecure buy fresh produce.  And so we interact regularly with those customers.  Last year we worked with another nonprofit in the city  called MyGross Indie.

07:25
And they work with the refugee and  immigrant population. so instead of  working directly with the food pantry last season, we had specific families that we would create kind of like a CSA box for, and we would deliver  that to  those families. So we did have more interaction last year with families than we did, we have in the past. A lot of times at the food pantries, it was more just dropping it off.  And then the people who worked at the food pantry would distribute it.

07:56
Okay. So do you have any like, I don't know, adorable stories or tragic stories or just stories from the people that you have talked to who you're helping?  I would say, you know,  we've been working specifically at one apartment complex and it's almost a hundred percent immigrants and refugees that live there. And they are so excited to have fresh food.  A lot of those communities have not grown up with processed food. And so having fresh food to cook is

08:26
It's very joyful to hand those boxes of fresh produce off. We  have some other farms that we work with who also donate  or we provide  their like chicken and those kinds of things in there as well. So it's just been a joy to meet people who  are excited to cook.  Sometimes getting all the produce and food that they need is not accessible  because of the expense. And so it's nice to be able to  see people who really enjoy and want to use the food.

08:55
Yeah, I'm guessing when you guys show up, there's some really big smiles on people's faces. There are even from the kids, they're excited about it. Sometimes a little confusion. Sometimes there's a language barrier. We figured out pretty quick how to just basically let them know we're here to help them when I provide food for them and they get to just have it pretty quick. Okay, so you guys grow a lot of the food, I'm guessing. so how...

09:23
I know it's really hard to quantify produce, but do you know on average how much food you are growing and supplying? Oh, gosh. You know, we used to weigh everything. The first couple of years, we wanted to keep really strict records and we weighed everything we sold and everything we donated. And what we just found was that taking the time to do that just really slowed things down. We know it's thousands and thousands of pounds every year. We don't know exactly how much though. We can't really say anymore.

09:50
We have, we grow an overall about the size of almost an acre, I'd three quarters of an acre to an acre, which doesn't sound like a whole lot, but he actually, can grow quite a bit in small space. We have two and soon to be three high tunnels or hoop houses, whatever you want to call them. We have raised beds all over the place. We have some fruit trees and other things. it's, but it's hard to wait. We're not keeping super specific records of that anymore, just cause it's taken up lot of our time. Yeah.

10:20
but thousands of pounds is  fantastic.  So is it just you two running it or do you have help? So it is mostly us.  Over the summer, we typically hire a summer farm person to help out. And then we have  a friend who also grows  cup seasonal flowers on our property. And so she does the flower gardening part, but also will help out. And we also have volunteers.

10:49
different groups that come in and help individual people that come in and help. And it's Scott's full-time job. So he does this full-time. Okay. That's what's that. That was going to be my next question was, um, how are you doing anything else but this? And I'm a teacher, so I have the summers off. I'm June and July. And I'm pretty much here as well. You guys must be the happiest, healthiest people in Indianapolis. I mean, we, we are very fortunate to live here. feels like.

11:18
And to do this, feels like a blessing on most days. You know, there are some days when it's 95 degrees and very humid that we're like, what are we doing again? But most days we feel very happy to be able to do this. Full disclosure though, I'm not that world's healthiest eater. You think having so many vegetables around I would eat better, but I try. makes me eat more than I want to. Good, keep doing that, Marilyn. We need Scott to stay in the world with us here.

11:49
Okay.  Um, what else? Oh,  you have a bed and breakfast, well, not bed and breakfast, but you have a farm stay situation at your place too. Can you talk about that? Yeah, we have a, an attached, what is now anyway, an attached apartment on our house.  Uh, we're not exactly sure what it was used for by the previous owners, but it has its own entrance, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room. Um,  and when we first moved in, we had a friend live there for about first three years we were here just.

12:19
monthly printer.  And then she got married and we thought, let's try the Airbnb route. So we have done that. It's been pretty interesting. We meet a lot of interesting people from all over the world, like China, Germany,  Portugal, mean, all kinds of places.  And of course, lot of local people as well.  come in for you wouldn't think Indianapolis would have that many  visitors all year round, but we have a lot of conventions.

12:47
our convention center downtown, lot of sports events and  things. it's fairly busy. We actually had to dial it back a little bit because we were so busy doing that, especially in the summer, but it's pretty consistently booked.  Okay. So the people that come to stay with you, did they have free rein to explore the property and  check things out? Within reason.

13:12
We don't want them to go into our barn, but they can go walk to the gardens and the property in the woods and visit the goats and chickens.  yeah, we want them to enjoy the experience of being on our little small farm here as well.  Yeah. And as it says on your website listing or your website information about this,  Indianapolis has a lot of things to offer and you're not far. So people can come have this  bucolic, beautiful

13:41
farms day experience, but they can also go catch a game or go see a show or whatever they want to do. That's the comment we get a lot is that people, feels isolated because we are, our property is surrounded by woods as well. I mean, we have condos right next to us, to the north, and then a housing addition right behind our property. But you, don't feel that way, especially when everything's in bloom, because we're surrounded by probably four acres of woods as well.

14:12
It sounds so pretty. I just, love what you guys are doing. So you were saying that you are, are you teaching people too? We have, so we have open farm nights during the summer. Sometimes we've extended it a little bit other months as well. But so every, I think it's the second and fourth Tuesday, Tuesday from six to eight, we have sort of just events on the farm. And it could be like how to build everybody's bed.

14:42
chickens 101 or how to, you know, trans, how to pot up tomatoes. So we do things like that. And, we've had some other things like yoga. We have some yoga classes going on and it's free for most of our people to come and just participate and just learn how to do different things. Um, we think, you know, our, we like our place to be used not just for us, but for other people, our community is well, um, so we offer some, guess we call them educational opportunities. Fantastic.

15:11
I can't say it enough, I love what you're doing.  So I don't want to be nosy. I always feel weird asking questions about funding.  how are you funding this place? Because if everything is basically for free, how  are you making it go?  So we have  donations.  We try to raise money  and get donors.  We have a partnership with a local church that helps.

15:40
Do our funding we've gotten some grants as well and then  the farmers selling at the farmers market  Not only our produce but also the flowers  the flowers are a big moneymaker. They help  fund a lot of what we do Okay, so  that's not necessarily though our farmer our flower farmers mission is to bring beauty to the world  and so It's important that the part of the flowers on the farm are gorgeous

16:06
I mean, they really add to the atmosphere here, but they also are a great way to fund some of the other things we're doing. And we do,  we've done, we do fundraisers, different fundraising things throughout the year. We've had dinners,  we've had concerts on our porch, know, different things like that.  We have some  field trips and some schools, depending on their financial ability, they will pay to come as well.  Some schools,  the schools closest to us can't really afford to do.

16:35
pay field trip. So we try to offer some of those for free as well.  Nice. Okay.  And like I said, I always feel really weird asking about money because I was brought up that you don't talk about money and I get really weird about it. So I try to very gently ask. It's hard. We've gotten grants as well. One of our high tunnels, we had an equip grant  through the USDA, the NRCS. and they've, we've gotten grants through them for cover cropping and mulching and

17:05
native prairie areas. So we've tried to work with some of that funding as well.  Nice.  Grants are great. The problem is right now, a lot of grants are dead stopped through the government. We don't have any of those right now, though. We have a friend who runs a farm on the north side and they are out of funding, basically. So  yeah, they're great, but there's a problematic time right now.

17:32
It sure is. So I'm going to say this again. I've said it a few times in the last month and a half. If you're looking for grants,  go small, you know, to the local level or the regional level, not federal level, because if you're looking for grants from the federal government right now,  may not be there.  Yeah, we've done some grants from some larger,  one of our board members is on it works for a larger company in the in the city. And so we've gotten

18:00
grants from them a couple of times as well. They their like policies that if their employees are volunteering with an organization, you can apply for grants. So that's been really helpful as well.  Awesome. Good.  Cause  I want you guys to keep doing what you're doing. You are,  you are helping  so many people on so many levels that it's really important that you keep up your enthusiasm for this. We're trying.  Yeah.

18:30
I just, I really,  I'm a mom of four, okay? They're all adults and they're all doing fine. But I just, as a mom, I worry about all these young people who are going to be graduating college in the next  month or so, if they haven't already. And they're like 22 years old  and everything is crazy right now.  And things are expensive and rent is expensive.

18:58
car prices are going to be going up, thank you to the tariffs.  it's just, I can't imagine if my kids were that age having to step into this world right now as,  you know, fully fledged quote unquote adults trying to make a go of it. Yeah, we were just talking about this this morning about we have,  yeah, it's just, it's a funny time because growing up we were basically, made the assumption you'd be able to afford a house and a car and get a good job.

19:26
that is really necessarily the deal anymore. can't just assume that for everybody anymore. My youngest is 23  and he still lives with us. He helps out on our homestead  and his friends are just struggling right now. The ones who are around his age, not all of them, but a good percentage of them because they just  don't have the resources to live a  comfortable is the wrong word.

19:56
reasonably comfortable life right now. You know, the one thing I've noticed is that this place draws people, I would say, of that age to it. They want to be here. They want to like learn how to do the things that maybe their families never did or they heard that their grandparents did. So the person who's going to work for us this summer, she's 23. She's

20:23
You know, she has another job, what she sees her future as growing things and incorporating that into her lifestyle. And so, you know, she wants to learn how to do it. Uh, so it's exciting to see people of like, I think that's one thing about farming,  um, gardening. kind of draws people from  all age groups, all lifestyles.  Uh, they, they want to learn how to do it and be a part of that community.  Yes. As I'm, I'm sure you guys know the trades are suffering.

20:53
for people to come up into them too.  And  honestly, a lot of ag is trade,  is a trade job. And the more young people you get to come into what you're doing and experience it, the more likely they are to pursue it. So even that's great that you're doing this. It's pretty great. Our local high school, which is a huge urban high school has an ag department. Nice. And so  we, one of the,

21:22
one of the teachers in the Ag department has his own small farm and he is part of our farmers market as well, but he teaches animal husbandry classes. So they're like hatching ducks and chicks and quail and they have rabbit and they're learning to grow. So there are kids in this urban population that are learning those  Ag skills that they could then take on to,  you know, maybe not a  major or maybe not a career, but at least have those skills for themselves. Yeah, exactly.  I

21:52
I wish we had had ag classes in my high school when I was growing up in Maine. We didn't have them. They didn't offer them. Yeah. And I lived in a  country-ish setting and we still didn't have those options. You either, your family was farmers or you just, if you didn't grow up in that, you didn't learn how to do it.  Yeah. I mean, there was 4-H,  but that wasn't through the school. So, and  I- It's unfortunate that the circumstances are leading to it, but one of the benefits, I think,

22:22
or silver linings of the current situation in the world and country is that people are have to learn how to grow their own food and how to fix things and how to weld  and fix cars and  do things like that. Trades that we didn't necessarily, weren't passed on to us that hadn't been passed on, we're have to kind of relearn. So hopefully we can,  one benefit of all these things going on is that we can learn the stuff again. Yeah, and the good news on that is that a lot of the trades

22:51
are being able to use your hands, directions, and try doing the thing. Other than maybe car repair, the newest cars, that's going to be tricky for people. Especially newer cars because there's so many electronics and stuff. Yeah, but I I've told the story once on the podcast, so I can tell it again. I've been doing this podcast for 18 months.

23:18
My husband, I really wanted some cabinets for my laundry room in the old house. We've lived in the new house for four and a half years now. And the laundry room was really small. So we had to make cabinets ourselves because there were no stock cabinets that would fit. And he put this off for like six months. And I said, honey, why, why are we not building cabinets? And he was like, because I'm afraid I'm not going to do it right. And I said, okay.

23:47
I said, do you have the instructions? And he's like, yes. I said, have you read through them? He said, yes. I said, you pretty much know how to do this. He said, yes. I said, all right, I'm going to help you. How can I help?  And he said, I just need you to like hold the corners so that I get them square.  was like, I can do that. That's no big deal.  He made the most beautiful small cabinets. They were all completely square. Got them hung in the room. I loved them.

24:17
I just stood there with him and I was like, gaze upon your success.  And it wasn't, it wasn't hard. That's a lot of what growing is. It's a lot of trying something out. And then if there's a mistake, you learn from that, but sometimes it goes well. So, you know, neither one of us grew up in farms. We grew up in farming communities, but you know, we've learned a lot. took classes through Purdue and then.

24:45
You know, have just learned along the way things that work and things that don't work and just trying it out. Like you're saying you just try it. even things that aren't necessarily growing food, you know, just owning a farm. You learn how to build things and you learn how to fix things and you just, you know, we can't hire somebody to it. It's about a chicken coop or to fix a fence or we have to just do it ourselves. And so you like neither one of us was very handy when you first moved in here, but we're much handier now than we used to be just to experience and trial and error.

25:15
Yeah, I think it's one of the beautiful things about farming and homesteading and all that because you really do have to be a certain kind of person  to be willing to even attempt it. And that certain kind of person is someone who's curious and not afraid to try things. And that's the joy of life, I think.  The other thing I've said a lot on the podcast is that you really have to be a person who can feel your feelings and then move through them.

25:45
and step out of them.  that's true.  You know, when we first bought this place,  the home wasn't livable.  So we had to do a lot of work and then  the land had been overgrown. So we had to you know, clear a bunch of stuff.  it was really hard, especially the first four years. And a lot of times we were like, what did we do? You know, why would we have done this?

26:14
And so it was a lot of like regret, sometimes regret or just being very unsure about what was happening. feeling in over our heads. Yes. Feeling in over our heads a lot. We've gotten through, I mean, there's still moments of course, but it's not like one thing after another so much anymore. But it's funny just the things that would have upset us back then, you know, when something breaks or we can't figure something else out, you know, now when that happens, like, well, it'll work itself out. That'd be fine. People figure it out eventually.

26:44
you learn to rely on the fact that you'll get there. If it needs to be done, you'll get it taken care of. I agree because  I used to, when we first moved here, get really upset about things.  And now,  four and a half years later, I'm like, oh, that thing broke. I guess we either fix it. If we can't fix it, we find somebody to fix it. And if they can't fix it, then we have to buy a new one.  Or you just realize, I don't need to live with this and just not worry about Yes, absolutely.

27:12
And I am a firm believer in the primal scream or the good cry. Even things with like our chickens, our animals, if a chicken would have, when our first chicken died, we were sad, we were broke about it. And we're not, not that we don't care now, but it's just like, that's part of why chickens die, or crops fail, or things you build fall apart. it's part of the deal.

27:41
dealing with it and learning how to handle it in a mature way is part of the whole process. I love it. It's a beautiful thing to learn that. And that's the other part here is that with you guys having younger people come in, they're learning some of these coping skills ahead of time. I hope so. And that's really important, I think. I had one more thing I was going to say about all of this.

28:09
I think it's gone. hate it when I do this. Oh, well, it doesn't matter. It was just one of my things that I'm like, and. So what's the future look like for you guys? Well, I mean, we're not planning on going anywhere. We kind of figured when we bought this place, we're tied to Indianapolis for as long as we can. I always joked with own that I wanted to

28:36
bury me up in front of our yard under the magnolia tree there. But, you know, just as like we've been talking about a little bit, things are kind of crazy right now on the road. And I just see places like this, you know, people growing and their own food and doing their own thing, home setting, if you will, or farming as more and more necessary. And I think we're just going keep doing this and keep providing for our community and teaching others to do the same as much as we can. Awesome.

29:06
I feel like your place is an oasis of  beauty and good things.  mean, people have definitely said that we feel like that for sure.  We live, the farm is off a pretty significantly busy road,  but  it's got a long driveway. So, and there's a bridge that goes over a creek and it feels like you're in a different space once you cross that bridge.  You know, it just feels, it's quieter.

29:33
And open openness, know, in cities, there's not a lot of open spaces. Uh, and so, um, that openness is something is one reason we don't grow on every inch  of our property. Um, just so that there is some openness. feels sort of like,  uh, space to breathe.  would say. Uh-huh. Yes, absolutely. Um,  my last, my last question for you guys is we're rolling into 30 minutes here. Um,

30:02
Do you still, if you leave, like if you have to go somewhere to get something and when you're driving back, do you get within like sight of your property and still have that moment of, can't believe that's home? Yes. Yeah. All the time. Apparently regularly. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, there's times where in the winter when it's a little, you know, Indianapolis is kind of bleak in the winter. You know, it's this cold. It can be pretty even when the snow is, but especially in the spring and summer and even in the fall.

30:32
because partially because all the trees around us, it's just you pull in and you're like, I can't believe I get to live here. You know, it's such a privilege. And especially for me, I had some kind of terrible little apartments I used to live in, you know, in four areas and it was kind of a rough feeling. But this is just, yeah, it's just, it's so nice to come home to this. Yeah, I, the reason I ask is I get that feeling every single time and we've been here four and a half years. And I

31:01
I really wish that everybody would have the chance to experience that feeling of real homecoming.  For sure.  But not everybody does. I think it's sad.  But I'm glad you guys get to experience it because I mention it to people all the time and they're like, you've been there over like almost five years.  You're still madly in love with it. Like the money moving phase is never going to end. I love that place so much. Yeah. And it goes quick, doesn't it? Yeah.

31:30
Yeah, I can't believe we'll have been here five years on August  7th. think it is. Yeah, it goes fast. It does because we're so busy living it that you turn around and a month's gone by and then six months have gone by and then five years have gone by. You're like, what happened here? Yeah.  So, all right, guys, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today and

31:58
Keep doing the good work. I mean, you are so important to your community. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Oh, for sure. This was great. Thank you. Have a good day.