Misty Mountain Homestead - Catch Up

Today I'm talking with Kelsey at Misty Mountain Homestead. This a follow up chat about what Kelsey has been up to since November of 2023.

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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 Kelsey at Misty Mountain Homestead. Good morning Kelsey. How are you? Good morning Mary. I'm doing great. Good. I almost called you Misty. I was, I almost said I'm talking with Misty at Misty Mountain Homestead.  That's where my brain's at  this morning. That happens to me  very, very often actually.  Yup. My brain not functioning, words not working. We'll get it together eventually.

00:57
Where are you in Minnesota? told me before, but I forgot. We live in South Haven, Minnesota, but we're actually closer to Fairhaven, but Fairhaven doesn't have a post office, so it's a South Haven address. Okay, so what's the nearest big city to you? We're about 20 miles south of St. Cloud. Okay, yep, that helps. Thank you. Is it gray? Is it gray up there today?

01:26
Oh, yes, very foggy, very gray. huh. Yeah, I was all excited because Wednesday was supposed to be the official real swinging into warm weather spring.  And the last couple of days have been kind of bleh. Yep, that's true.  I'm waiting for the pretty sunny days where the crocuses start to pop up and that hasn't happened yet.  Okay, so Kelsey came back to visit and do a catch up episode with me.

01:55
And I looked and the first episode Kelsey and I did was back in November of 2023. And I started the podcast in August of 2023. So it's been a minute since we've chatted. tell me what's happening since then.

02:14
Um, well, we've really added to our meat rabbit colony. Um, we have probably close to, um, 60 rabbits right now. Um, I would say 15 of them are our breeders. Okay. And, um, we have been selling and butchering those ourselves and that's been, um, a really good adventure. Um, lots of.

02:42
teaching moments for us and the kids both.  And we're starting to learn how to tan their hides as well.  A long-term goal, I would love to learn how to like make hats.  Cause  their hides are just so beautiful and I really don't like seeing them to go to waste.  And we've also started using,  you know, every part of the animal, their ears, their legs,  feet  as dog treats.

03:12
And you just dehydrate them and they turn into chips.  Okay. Um, yeah.  And,  um, that's been  really, really fun. And of course the dogs enjoy it as well.  So,  and we also have cooney cooney pigs now. Okay.  Um, we're going to start breeding those,  um, and the selling the piglets and then of course,  um, having some meat for ourselves.

03:40
CUNY CUNY pigs are extremely high quality pork. Their meat looks more like beef and it actually has marbling in it. And then once you eat like CUNY CUNY or Mangleesa is also another high quality pork, it's really hard to go back to like more of a normal pig like a Yorkshire. But yeah.

04:09
So I have a question. have a question about that real quick.  so if it looks more like beef, does it have the same kind of texture and flavor or does it still taste like pork? Well, I think it has the same texture as pork, but it definitely has a very  rich flavor.  Um, I would say more even so than beef does.  but yeah.  Okay, cool. I just, I've never had either.

04:38
kind so I thought I should ask. Okay and I told you before I hit record I've been looking at your Facebook pages because I wanted to see what you've been up to and you make some of the most beautiful breads ma'am. Oh thank you very much. And other things. It's been quite the process. So you've really gotten into baking since we talked last I think so tell me about that too.

05:05
You know, it's been  a little bit surprising. Um, and I'm kind of just along for the ride  and,  I have had wonderful customers  and farmers and,  Just people show up out of the woodwork.  Uh, and I'm kind of just doing things that I would do for my family. And then I, you know, increased it by scale.  Um, which

05:34
was really easy for me actually.  And, um, I started with a little KitchenAid mixer and I burnt through a couple of those motors. Uh, and I have a, now I have a 15 quart like professional mixer. And I remember being really nervous about buying that.  And my husband's like,  Oh, it's only, you know, 50 loaves of bread. He, he likes to encourage me.

06:02
how many loaves I'd have to sell for something I need to buy.  But anyway, so I've had that for a couple years now and now it's too small.  Wow. Okay. So I'm probably going to have to look at getting a 30 quart mixer, which could make 20 loaves at one time.  So it's been nuts.

06:28
I probably make a hundred to 120 loaves of sourdough a week. Um, I also do pizza dough and sourdough buns and pies. So many pies. think for Thanksgiving and Christmas this last year, I made like 90 pies. you do cookies too, Cookies, scones.

06:58
Yeah, dipping oil.  Yeah, I do quite a bit,  I guess. Okay, I have two questions. I have a KitchenAid mixer and I think it's a six quart one. It's a bigger one.  And we haven't burned through it yet. We just bought it like a year and a half ago and we have not used it much really. I I thought when I bought this big one, we'd use it a lot and  been busy with other stuff like a podcast that I didn't know I was going to be doing when I bought the mixer.

07:28
But we have burned through two KitchenAid mixers in the 20 something years that we've owned KitchenAid mixers. And it's so sad when they die. You're like, no, you're supposed to live forever. No. And so they're a great, they're a great brand. I love them, but I am so envious of the fact that you have that huge mixer because I really want one. I just have no room for it in my kitchen. I have very little counter space. So.

07:58
So the question I have is how much bigger than a five and a half quart KitchenAid mixer is the one you have now that's a 15 quart? Well, I think a normal size KitchenAid mixer is like 15 pounds maybe. The one that I have that's a 15 quart, this thing weighs 200 pounds. Wow. It sits on the ground.

08:29
So,  um, it doesn't need any special outlet, which is really nice.  Um, it's got  tons of safety features, but,  uh, it's, it's a workhorse. It's, um, I've been really pleased with it.  Is it, is it loud?  Uh, I mean, it's  my kids will be sleeping at 4am and they,  a couple of them sleep downstairs  and I can obviously hear the mixer going, but they don't ever wake up.  Okay.

08:59
So I don't think it's terribly loud.  I asked because our dog hates the vacuum cleaner. Like goes to the door and sits there and whines because she hates the vacuum cleaner so much she wants to go outside.  And she hasn't reacted to the KitchenAid mixer, but I suspect that if the motor was louder, she probably would want to go outside then too. Okay. Yeah.  Yep. So I don't know. She's a big afraidy cat with the vacuum and I

09:28
I cannot figure out why no one has ever  bothered her with it. She hates it. does she, um, is she afraid of storms too?  No, no.  it last summer we got a really close lightning strike. So, you know, you, you could hear the thump when it hit the ground  or the tree  and she just was like, woof. And she was fine.

09:53
Oh my goodness. Yeah, she's not. She's not afraid of storms, but that vacuum cleaner is the devil itself, she thinks. That's me. I don't know. She's crazy. Um, okay. I had another question on the other stuff you told me and then I got focused on the mixer and I forgot what I was going to ask you because my brain is not great this morning. Um, so how much time are you putting into baking? Cause I know that making a dozen cookies,

10:22
to put it together, to put the ingredients together and have it ready to go in the oven is no different than making the recipe for 12 dozen. But once you get into the big, big numbers,  is it a lot more time and effort?

10:41
Uh, well, partially with the, with the big mixer, like, uh, two days ago, I made like 25 pounds  of chocolate chip cookies in that mixer.  And  the, part that takes the longest obviously  is baking it all.  Um, I, I do, I have one standard, you know, wall oven that I bake my bread in, but then now I have a convection oven, um, that I do,  you know, the pies and the cookies in that. Um, so that's.

11:10
been pretty nice.  I am kind of at the point where  we are debating about putting in a second oven.  Because that's my biggest hookup is  how long it takes me to bake stuff.  But I guess daily. I'm at the point where it's probably I'm probably working on the farm business for maybe four to six hours a day.

11:40
Um, while being home with the kids and we're homeschooling and you know, we're pretty involved in church and of course there's animals that need to be fed and,  um, cleaning,  you know, so I,  it feels like a full-time job to me. I've been a stay at home mom is, um, it's a, it's a good, very good responsibility. feel. Yeah. And I, I, I've said it before and say it again, I love that you are able to do your, your business.

12:10
and be there with your kids because you are giving them such a gift in being there with them. Yeah, and it's a gift for me too. You know, and  when we first thought about  homeschooling, I remember us being nervous about it. You know,  we would always be together. There's never any break. And I wasn't sure, you know, as someone that, you know, did the normal, you know, public school stuff that was

12:37
That was so like unnerving to me, but now that we've been doing it for five years,  we would never go back.  You know, they, the kids are amazing. They're mature and their faith is strong. And, um, they're just, they each have farm chores every day and,  you get to really spend time with your kids that way and you know what they're learning.  Um, so it's been a, huge blessing. so, you know, I, they also like, they see me working.

13:07
but they also see me playing,  you know, I, I think there's a good, it needs to be a good balance of both, you know? And if it becomes too overwhelming, I just back off a little bit. And then usually within, uh, you know, uh, a couple of weeks I'm ready to go at it again, you know? So you kind of just take it in seasons. Yeah.  Yep. Absolutely.  Um,

13:31
One of the tricks that I used with my kids from the time they were little until well now they're adults and I still use it when they're stressed or whatever  is humor. I'm always the first one to crack the joke so that they can laugh and take a big deep breath  because laughing forces you to take a big deep breath  and that's how you kind of bring stress down is that big inhale and exhale. So for anybody out there who's got kids that are stressing, just crack something.

14:01
crack a joke that will make them take a big deep breath in a big deep breath out and get that bubble in their belly of happy. it'll, it'll, it'll break the tension a little bit. Yeah. I, I'm going to be real honest. I, I am a very serious person. I, I don't, uh, jokes are not something that come naturally to me. If somebody tells me a joke, um, it's usually I don't get it. Uh, and I'm very much more, uh, you know,

14:32
just get stuff done, I'm doing this right now, but my husband is the exact opposite.  He is constantly cracking jokes  and he'll just be like, he'll make funny noises or  poke jokes at me.  it's really good that he's like that because, or else we would just all be serious all the time. Yeah. yeah, it's my husband's like that too. He is the king of dad jokes. I just talked about this with somebody else yesterday.

15:01
And I am, I'm not a fan. I like really,  I like really clever humor. Like, like the stuff where you, you,  there's a split second of what and then you get it  because it's smart. It's a smart joke. And dad jokes are not like that. And my son that still lives with us, he really does appreciate a dad joke. So my husband does them to me and I'm like, it's not funny.

15:27
He's like, well, Karen thinks it's funny. And I'm like, yes, because he's 23 years old and male. Of course he thinks it's funny. yeah, I'm more like you than I am like my husband in what I do. But I also learned really early on that if I could just get the kids to giggle, it made things easier. So I would find something I knew would make them giggle and then we'd be okay.

15:56
I used it as a tool at work.  still use it.  My daughter called me months ago and  she was all bent out of shape about something. She's 35 years old. And  I said, okay, do you need a giggle? And she's like, kind of need a giggle. And I found something, I don't know what it was.  And she did. She giggled like she was five. And she's like, thank you. Now I can tell you what I need to tell you because this thing is driving me insane. And it just gave her that room to not be sobbing.

16:25
not be crying in her frustration with the thing that was driving her crazy.  Anyway,  when we talked last, there was some  conversation going on about you having a farm store. Did that ever happen?

16:44
Well, we are definitely getting closer.  We don't have the story yet, but we're actually, you know, in the active thought process of paying for the shed.  Um,  so that's been pretty exciting.  Um, I actually designed the shed online a few weeks ago.  Uh, so it's, it's, it's in the works.  Um, and we're planning, you know, how we're going to run electricity out there. So I.

17:12
I'm pretty excited about that. That didn't really feel like it was attainable,  but now it obviously is. Cool. Good. And are you going to have  produce and eggs and baked goods in it or  what's the plan? What are you going to be selling out of it? Produce,  eggs.  We're also going to be, there will be a freezer in there.  We'll have  no corn, no soy chicken and no corn, no soy rabbit.

17:39
There will be pizza dough and sourdough and candles. And I'm also wanting to do other people's products as well. Like if somebody has honey or somebody has maple syrup, just kind of supporting the community as a whole,  if I can in that way.  Fantastic.  Since we last talked, we have put in a farm stand. been up for two summers now, I think.

18:08
And it looks like a little red barn. It's red with white trim. love this little building. And we put an old, um, a small refrigerator from a camper trailer in there and we run a, extension cord to it from the pole barn. And, uh, okay. And we have tables like folding tables that we put our stuff on to sell. And my husband says to me three weeks ago, he said, um, a couple of weekends in April, we're going to

18:37
Cameron and I are going to be busy out there. And I was like, um, why? said, we're going to tape and mud the drywall and we're going to paint and we're going to put in some shelves on the walls and make it look nice. I was like, Oh, okay. I said, do you want any thing from me on that? And he was like, no. He said, I think we're just going to paint it off white because then it'll reflect the sun that comes in. And I was like, okay, that's fine.

19:04
He makes beautiful shelves. Like I have a couple shelves from the old house that we brought to the new house that we've put up and  I end up finishing them. I'm the one that polyurethanes them, but he just does really beautiful, simple carpentry.  So I'm very excited to see what the inside of our farm stand is going to look like in June when we're ready to put produce and baked goods and stuff in it.

19:29
Yeah, you'll have to share that on Facebook.  I will, cause that's, that's what I do.  I don't know if you've looked at my page lately, but I took,  he sent me photos of  the steps when he was done with each step when he built the greenhouse last year.  And  I would just throw pictures up every time he sent them to me because I'm like, this is so exciting. It's almost done. Yay.  So, so yeah, so we've put up a hard side of greenhouse since I talked to you last and that has been  a godsend.

19:59
Because we extended our growing season by two months in the fall and two months in the spring.  I love it. I love it. It's packed full of seedlings right now.  Yup. mean, it's funny because you had all kinds of things that you were talking about and planning for and  we had all kinds of things we were talking about and planning for with the first episode with you.

20:28
I think you were like the  11th or 12th episode I released to the podcast. And my husband was kind of listening to it a little bit when I was playing it back to get it ready  to go out. He said, I think they're kind of where we are in their journey with this. I said, I think so too. He said, you have got to talk to her again, like a year or two from now and see where they're at.  So he brought that up the other day. said, have you talked to anybody you talked to at the beginning? I said, a couple. said,

20:56
What about that lady said, I can't think of her name, da da. And I went back through the episodes and I ran off the list and he said,  the Misty Mountain one. said, I remember because she was a Lord of the Rings fan or something. And I said, yeah. He said, you should, you should ask her. I was like, thank you for your input. will get hold of it right away.  So you made an impression on my husband anyway. Well, that's sweet.  But the reason I say all that is this is a journey.

21:25
you know, what you're doing, what we're doing, what most homesteaders are doing  is a journey. It's not a destination, you know? Right. And it's so fun and it's so  frustrating some days because you're like, I want to do this thing. And then you get into it you're like, it's not working. How do I get this to work? And  big, big deep breath and sigh and figure it out.

21:52
Yep. They're usually, the lessons are usually  very, very hard.  They're either really, really good or really, really bad.  yep. And we've had our share of both.  Oh yeah. Us too. And I don't want to say really, really bad. mean, nobody's been maimed or killed that's human here. So that's, that's good news. That does happen, but it doesn't happen here.  But we've lost barn cats and that was sad. We've lost.

22:20
baby bunnies, that was sad.  We had  the motor go out on our furnace. That was bad.  was financially bad. And that was when it was so hot last summer.  And the furnace is actually the blower for the AC. So that was a few days of really miserable heat in my house.  But the good things that have happened is we had

22:48
We've grown enough food to donate to our food shelf and that's been  wonderful. And we've  grown enough food to sell at the local farmers market and that just makes my husband thrilled. He's very, I don't have enough berries. He's very times a hundred social and I am not. the  farmers market is really good for him. He really loves going on Saturday morning and getting caught up with all the people he knows.

23:18
So it's all kinds of really fun things that have happened since we moved here. And I love all of it. And even the hard things  are lessons I needed to learn.  what are the hard things that have happened for you? Well, I'm going to be real honest. guess one of the hardest things we had to go through was we  lost almost our entire rabbit colony last summer.

23:48
Um, and we couldn't figure out why they were dying.  Um,  and my husband actually had a job change, but he was working road construction. So I was home most of the time by myself trying to, you know, deal with everything. Yeah.  And I would walk outside and they were just be bodies.  Oh no. You know,  and I, no matter what we thought it was, no matter what we gave them, it wasn't.

24:17
stopping like them dying. But long story short, we ended up finding out that,  uh, they had bad hay.  Oh yeah. Uh, the hay was contaminated  and as soon as we figured that out and we removed all the, know, we moved, we didn't give them the hay. We burned that hay and then we like  really cleaned out,  um, their enclosures.

24:46
And then they stopped dying,  but we, we lost probably like 55 rabbits for that.  Um, and I remember just crying about it because it just felt like, why are we even doing this? You know, I was,  um, felt,  obviously I felt terrible too,  you know, because we, do care about the animals and we try our best to take care of them, you know, for as long as we have them. And that was.

25:16
That was pretty intense.  uh,  yeah.  Yup. But now, now, you know, now, you know that if something's wrong, check the food source too. Right.  And we've also realized that a rabbit is very similar to a horse,  uh, in regards to the quality of hay that they require. Um, it either needs to be like fresh picked  greens.

25:44
or it needs to be like  straight alfalfa. So we started feeding them, uh, Timothy and alfalfa cubes.  Uh, and they're, that's actually really good for their teeth too. And then this way we know that the hay is clean.  yep. Alfalfa is,  Alfalfa is wonderful.  Um, I'm sad because we used to be surrounded by alfalfa fields and then the guys decided they were going to grow corn.

26:12
So it's been corn the last two summers. And I don't know if you know this, but fresh alfalfa, like when it's growing in the field, blooms.  It has like little lavender and white flowers on it. And when we had our rabbits, we would go and kife a couple pieces of alfalfa off the corner of our lot, because the  farmer actually rounds the corner. So it's on our property.  And we would bring them sprigs of alfalfa and they loved it. Yes.

26:41
So yeah, it's really good for them.  And our bunnies were fed Timothy Hay. We only had rabbits for a little over a year because they were not making babies.  Oh, yeah.  Yeah. Not impressed with that. They weren't earning their keep.  And six months after we culled our rabbits and put them in the freezer for food,  I was reading up on rabbits again.  And Timothy Hay can actually make them too fat.

27:11
And if the female rabbits are fat, they don't conceive as easily. And I was like, well, there's my answer.  Now I know.  So we're not doing rabbits anymore. decided that  we were bad at it. So we're not doing rabbits anymore. And that's okay.  Yeah. But we have chickens because chickens are easier than rabbits. Yes. Yep.  So.

27:39
But I'm sorry that you had to lose all those bunnies to find out it was their food, but I'm glad you found out it was their food, because then you could fix it. At first we thought it was some kind of weird parasite. And that was overwhelming, because it's really hard to know what it is. But so when we did realize that it was the hay, it was almost a relief in some way.

28:07
because you can deal with the problem a lot easier as well.  Certainly. Yes,  absolutely. Okay, so I want to switch back to your baking really quick because we're almost a half an hour, but I have a couple of questions.  Are you still doing the baking as a cottage food producer or did you switch to commercial?  I am still a cottage food producer  and I did have to bump up.

28:33
um, to a second tier license. And I did take the, the, the college classes  that I needed,  um, also, and I passed all that.  Um, but yep, I'm still underneath the cottage license. Okay.  And you're selling your goods at a local store. Is that right?  Um,  I do  a lot of farmers markets.  Um, also like the community has really picked up, you know,

29:03
having lots of events.  Like different stores will have pop-ups and  I really think that's a really neat thing.  And people learn more about  different options for  food that farmers around the community have.  I do a lot of that, a lot of those.  Okay.  And do you,  I'm trying to get to this in a way that isn't rude.

29:31
I always feel like I'm asking really noisy questions.  You're fine. With  the pop-ups, with the cottage food producer thing, the person that makes the food has to be at the point of sale to the customer. So does that mean that you have to be at the  pop-up sale? Yep. I have to be there.  the commercial license, you don't have to be there.

29:59
And it means that you can ship and it means that you can sell in grocery stores if they wanted to carry your product. Is that right? That is right.  Um, actually I've been watching very closely, um, in the Minnesota legislature right now, uh, they are thinking about allowing cottage food bakers to  ship  their product.  And I was like, no way, you know, cause that would, that would open up a huge door.

30:28
for everybody that has a cottage license.  So  it certainly would. And I have my registration and there was a lady that emailed me or messaged me and said, can you ship your granola? And I said,  no, how far away are you? And she said like four hours north of Lasur. And I said, you don't want to drive four hours from my granola.  And she said, no. And I said, I can't afford to drive four hours to bring it to you. And she said, I would never expect you to.

30:58
She said, how come you can't ship? Because she didn't know about  the rules.  And I explained it to her. And she said, please keep me in your contacts.  if and when they finally allow you guys to ship,  I still want to buy it. And I thought that was so sweet that she didn't put a time limit on it. Now, the other thing that  I got the email that mentioned this thing that you're talking about, I got the email that  had it in it the other day.

31:26
And I went out to the Facebook page for the Minnesota Cottage Food Producers Association thing. And there was a comment about if it goes through, we'll only be allowed to ship in Minnesota.  Oh, interesting. And I don't know if that's correct. So I'm hoping that  maybe it is incorrect and maybe we actually will be able to ship nationwide or worldwide or whatever. don't know. So I'm very excited to watch how this turns out because

31:55
It's been floated a few times over the last couple of years about allowing cottage food producers to ship and it just hasn't gotten passed. So  I'm hoping this is the year Kelsey really am.  Yeah, that would be pretty awesome. Yep. And what makes me so frustrated with it all is my daughter made cookies last Christmas for me specifically and shipped them to me. But

32:23
It's not a big deal if it's like family who's just shipping you a treat. Right. That's fine. there's no rules.  And my mom asked me if I could ship her something.

32:36
And I said, of course I can make those and ship them to you. That's fine. I'll throw them in the overnight mail. No big deal. And then she called me just before I was getting ready to make whatever it was. I don't remember what it was now.  And she said, by the way, she said, don't make those. And I said, why? And she said, because someone just brought us  a tray of cookies. It's my dad and my mom.  She said, and there's lots. we don't have, we don't need anything else right now. And I was like, oh, okay, well, just let me know.

33:04
But I could have shipped her the thing I was making. No problem. it's very frustrating. And I always get real tight in my voice when I talk about it, because it's,  it's so frustrating to me that we can't do this yet. Right.  Right. So fingers crossed that this is the year that cottage food producers in Minnesota get to ship their stuff, at least in Minnesota. We're going to hope for that. Yeah. That would be a step. Wouldn't that be helpful? Wouldn't that be great?

33:35
And there's the tightness and the sarcasm bleeding through, I'm sorry.  So anyway, we're at 33 minutes and 15 seconds. Kelsey, thank you for coming back to visit with me and I'm so excited for all the new things you're doing. Well, thank you very much for having me.  Yeah, this was really fun.  Keep  doing the good things for your community because you're really important to the world, Kelsey.  Oh,  thanks.

34:04
All right. Have a great day. Yep. You too. Bye. Bye.