Morning Song Orchard

Today I'm talking with Roy at Morning Song Orchard. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Roy at Morning Song Orchard. Good afternoon, Roy. How are you? Good afternoon. How are you? I'm good. You're in Oklahoma? Yes, ma'am, I am. I'm in Minnesota. It is very, very cold here today. How is it where you are?

00:28
I woke up this morning fed the chickens at two degrees. Oh, well, I've got you beat. I think it's probably still minus 10 here. Well, you can keep it. Yeah, yeah, we're going to keep it for another couple of months. And then as we say in Minnesota, we live in Minnesota and put up with the winter because spring, summer and fall are so beautiful. So let me ask you a question. We just got done watching.

00:56
Fargo wasn't that supposedly filmed up in that area? Yes, supposedly yes. And yes, that's what Minnesotans sound like I'm not from I'm not from Minnesota originally. So I you probably won't hear it from me. Oh, okay. I I've tried really hard to dump the main accent that I had

01:21
grown up with and not adopt the Minnesota accent. I try really hard not to have any accent. Yeah, similarly, that's the same as myself. I'm actually from New York originally. So I've been around Southerners all my life. Yeah, and honestly, the Southern accents are so lovely and so sweet that if you talk with a Southerner, all people are going to be thrilled to listen to you.

01:50
the New England and the Northeast states, not as much. I don't know what it is, but maybe we just sound rude if we live there, I don't know. No, there is an allure with the Southern accent, I have to admit. It's very, very sweet. It's like sweet tea and lemons, it's good. Okay, so tell me about what you do at the orchards. What do you grow?

02:18
Well, we actually started out here growing chestnut trees. And there was a reason behind that. I stopped working in my construction company when we built our house. And I was like, you know, we should actually start doing something here that's totally different than what the mainstream is used to in Oklahoma.

02:48
Excuse me, the nut industry out here is pecans. And I was like, well, why don't we introduce chestnuts and hazelnuts? I did the research. My background is in horticulture academically. And I was like, well, I think we can do it in this particular zone. So we tried it. And we wanted to bring an old culture.

03:16
to an area that's never seen it before because America grew up on this, especially on the East Coast, right, with chestnuts until the blight hit and wiped out the American chestnut. So long story short, we started getting into those. We planted 3000 blackberry plants. So we started getting into that. Just got our hands into a lot of things.

03:44
Now we're doing blackberries, elderberries, chestnuts, hazelnuts, and some grapes. Nice. That's a very eclectic group of things to grow. It is. Yeah, that's great. So do the hazelnuts and the chestnuts do really well? They do excellent down here. Now these are hybrids because...

04:12
We can't grow American chestnuts to this day. Nobody can, not even the American Chestnut Foundation. Okay. We're trying, so we have hybrids, and the ones that I grow on my property are trademarked under the name Dunstan, D-U-N-S-T-A-N, and they do really well, exceptionally well out here. We get some really large nuts,

04:42
Interestingly enough, the deer have never seen a chestnut out here. And chestnuts are probably the healthiest nut for humans and animals that, that there is other than macadamia. Okay.

04:59
Okay, so what other than chestnuts roasting on an open fire from the Christmas song, what are chestnuts used for?

05:10
Good question. I've not really had that question before. The chestnut tree used to be used for lots of things. And, and because it's been out of use for well over a hundred years, um, it's kind of gotten, gotten away and going more towards oak trees. So the, the use.

05:37
of chestnut seeds from an industrial standpoint, I would say there's absolutely nothing unlike hazelnuts where you get Nutella from hazelnuts. But chestnuts are, they're so high in carbohydrates that if it were to become a market again, they'd be excellent crops for feed for pigs, for instance.

06:05
Because the high carbohydrates, they can keep animals warm for the wintertime. The wood itself from the tree is beautiful. If you look at any antique furniture made out of chestnut. But other than that, I really don't think there's a market for the chestnut itself at this point.

06:29
Okay. I was just looking at Google while you were talking and, uh, basically. They'd roasted chestnuts on open fire really for the nuts themselves. That's what I'm saying. And I guess they can be milled into flour. Yes.

06:49
They can be eaten candied, boiled, steamed, deep-fried, grilled, or roasted in sweet or savory recipes. They can be used to stuff vegetables, poultry, fowl, and other edibles. They're available fresh, dried, ground, or canned. So there you go. There's your answer. Well, thank you. Yeah. I love Google. Google makes me so happy. Google knows everything I don't know and everything no one else knows. So we now know what it can be used for. You know what? I've actually been getting into chat GPT.

07:18
Uh-huh. That is interesting. Yeah, I don't trust it yet. I need a little more time. Chat GPT is like the older brother of Google. Okay. Well, I got to try it out some more and see if I like it. Okay, so we've talked about chestnuts and I love hazelnuts. Hazelnuts are one of my favorite, favorite things to snack on.

07:49
They're spendy, but they're worth it. Yeah, yeah. The American hazelnuts are a lot smaller than the ones that you see out in retail or in the market. The ones you see out there are like Barcelona's. They're probably twice the size of American hazelnuts. OK. We tried planting a couple hazelnut trees here. And

08:15
I think it was three summers ago or three falls ago and they have done nothing. So I don't think they're ever going to grow. And I don't know what we're doing wrong. It may just be that our soil isn't correct or our temperatures or our water levels or whatever but they're just not doing anything. What variety do you remember? I have no idea. I do not know.

08:42
Yeah, I've had some challenges with them. They don't like wet feet at all. So they have to be planted somewhere a little bit higher than they seem to be. They grow better if they're on like a hill of some sort with some slight decline, sandy loamy soil. That might be the problem considering that our lot is flat and we have very dense, clay-ish.

09:10
soil so that might be why they're not happy. Yes, they do not like that. Okay, well maybe we don't try to grow hazelnut trees here then because I don't really want to try to put a hill in where it's all flat. We live in flatlands right now. We live in the land with corn fields and soybeans. So there you go. So if we want to grow corn or soybeans we're good but everyone has that covered around here so we're just going to keep growing our our farm-to-market garden and call it good.

09:40
How many acres of blackberries do you grow? Three acres. That's a lot of blackberries. It is. It's an awful lot of blackberries. And these are thornless blackberries. So it makes it easier. Nice. Do you sell them to stores? Do you sell them to people in the area? How do you move them? So I think we're going to get into a part of the conversation that

10:09
Um, you're probably unaware of, or maybe you are. When we started doing blackberries was when, um, I, I lost both of my sisters to cancer, um, within the last five years. And my first sister, Lynette, who passed away, that's when we started planting the blackberries and we were doing farmers markets out here.

10:33
And we would take our plants, we would take the berries, and we would do farmers markets and all that. But in the interim, as my other sister became more ill, she was diagnosed with multiple cancers. We started to transition a little bit and I started to sell herbal teas at the farmers market.

11:03
Um, we were doing so well with our herbal teas that Morning Song Orchard and Nursery, uh, we retained the same name and transitioned, uh, into an herbal store. Oh, neat. Okay. Yeah. So we sell now, um, we still sell these products, the, the farm products we sell at our store, we're just bringing, uh, sourdough bread into the store. We sell the eggs, that type thing.

11:33
Um, but our herbal products do the pet do the best. So we sell about 200 different herbal products. Um, I blend about 85 teas. Wow. Yeah, it's, it's quite amazing. And it's, it's just such a cool journey because, um, I've met a lot of neat people that, um, unfortunately a lot of them are ill and, um,

12:01
like stage four prostate cancer or something of that nature. And it's just, it's a really great feeling for instance, having somebody come in and give you a testimonial of how they've are no longer diabetic because they used the Jimnema Silvestri and they've lost 15 pounds and they feel happier and you can just see the smile on their face. So anyway.

12:28
We have morphed since the blackberries. I don't know if you were aware of that or not. I didn't know if you were doing both. Yes, yes, we are doing both. If I were to break it down into a percentage, I would say that my herbal business is probably 85% of our business now. Okay, so did you always want to get into doing what you're doing or was this just a pivot?

12:58
It was a, it was a come to Jesus pivot, if you will, because I put both my sisters into hospice and I got to see a side of the medical industry that I hadn't seen before. And when you're real up close and personal with it, you can see that there is some deception in there and it just really started to make me

13:28
reflect on how things are and look at the reality of our pharmaceutical system. So I just went head first into herbals and that's where we're at now. In fact, this Saturday I'm teaching a class at Indian Capital Technology Center on how to make tinctures. That's fantastic. You took two very sad tragedy moments.

13:57
and turned it into inspiration. Yeah, yeah. Good job, Roy. Good job, because that had to have been really, really hard. And I'm sorry you lost your sisters. Well, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. You're welcome. I haven't lost any siblings. They are still around, but I can't imagine how that went. And the pain that comes from losing people either puts you into a hole of depression or

14:24
it wakes you up to the fact that life is short and you should probably do something with your own. Yeah, and I experienced both and the latter was the more get up and fight situation, you know.

14:42
Well, I'm glad. I'm glad it went that way because you are helping so many people now. That's my goal. Awesome. So do you do like regular basic herbal teas like raspberry leaf or anything like that? Or are they all very, um, I don't know what the word is. Not simple. Yeah, yeah. So I do have simple, simple teas.

15:08
Um, I call them our, our fun teas. Those are, um, the ones that are, you know, one, two ingredient type things that are great hot or cold. Um, but most of my teas are medicinally based. So the focus on doing blends is to assist in, uh, an ailment, whether it's cholesterol, bone pain.

15:35
PCOS, we do a lot of women's health teas here that are very popular. And the whole, the whole premise of this is so people can take a homeopathic approach to their healthcare. Yes. There are so many people out there that have been, I don't know, for lack of better words, disillusioned since, since the COVID epidemic, they've

16:05
have a broader knowledge of the way that our healthcare system is. I'll put it that way. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, it's, it's, I understand what you're saying and I'm sure the listeners understand what you're saying and you're being very good about not being a jerk about what you're saying. So let me ask you a question. How, I don't know how to ask this correctly.

16:31
How are you marketing this? Because here in Minnesota, we're not really allowed to say, like if I decided to make an herb blend tea that helped with, I don't know, joint pain, we would not be allowed to put that on the label. Because- Yeah, absolutely. You can't say that. So how do you get around that? Right, so you are allowed to say,

17:00
that it may aid in the assistance of, you know, those type of words. You can't, like you said, you can't sit there and say, this will help with this or that type thing. Because then, yes, you will find yourself in a liable issue, but more so with the FDA because there are guidelines associated with it. So...

17:28
But you can market your product as a tea that may assist in doing this type of function. So that's totally legal. Okay. So there are very specific ways to word it so that you don't have the FDA come down on you. Correct. Okay, good. I make essential oil blends. Like I do a...

17:57
lemon grass, lavender, peppermint in sweet almond oil. And I use it from my migraines because those three herbs really, really help. If you can smell that blend, it takes the edge off of a migraine. Absolutely. And we sell it at the farmer's market and we cannot say anything about what it does.

18:24
Unless somebody asks us and we have to tell them verbally because I can't I Cannot figure out a way to word it without it getting me in trouble Even though even though I know damn well that it really does help So it's very frustrating to me that that a doctor would be like take two Tylenol and take a nap But I'm not allowed to say lavender peppermint and lemon actually do

18:50
kick things in the way that your brain works and makes your headache less painful. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. We've recently formulated a powder that can potentially help people that have ADD, ADHD. But I cannot say that on the product label.

19:20
You know, I can say those type of actions with it, but I can't be specific. But yeah, I totally empathize with you in regards to that. Um, we just started getting into, um, essential oils. I bought a still last summer, um, that we're going to start doing. One of my employees is currently going through classes. She's going to be our essential oils guru.

19:50
much fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah it really is. That's awesome. How do you keep all this straight, Roy? You've got a lot going on there. I do and honest to God, I told my wife two days ago that I think I'm going into information overload. Uh-huh. You know and I don't know there's a respiratory virus going around and

20:18
I don't know if that was part of it. I did get it. However, I decided to take a homeopathic approach to combating it. No, you? You chose that? Right? So, I had to try my own tinctures and all that. And they were very successful. But I think with that particular ailment, I didn't know if I had...

20:45
receive COVID again or what it was. The symptoms I had were very similar to COVID back in 2020. But anyway, so I don't know if my sensory overload, my memory overload is because of that illness or if it's just because of all the information. We do, we carry almost 500 inventory items. Wow.

21:16
Wow, and do you have them all stored in like a warehouse or how does that work? They're here at the store. Wow. Um, so it gets exceptionally difficult when, uh, for instance, we have a show coming up in March in prior Oklahoma and that's going to be an extremely populated event, so we have to get all of our product ready at the same time, having enough product for.

21:46
our web sales as well as our store sales. So it's just such a, it's like today, today's my day off. I'm here at work. So, you know, it is what it is. At least I'm giving you in half an hour to just talk about what you do. No, this is great. Yep.

22:08
Okay, like I have been saying in the last three episodes I've recorded because I get to 20 minutes and my brain goes flat because I've been sick the last two weeks too. Sorry about that. No problem. What? Is this what you're going to be doing for the next 20 years? Do you love this enough to keep it going? So 20 years, I don't know because that would put me well into my 80s. Okay.

22:35
I'm considerably older than my wife, so I'm waiting on her to retire. So I guess this is like our retirement gig. And when she's ready to give up the corporate lifestyle, then we'll both do this. And hopefully sales will be good enough that we can go and spend our summers in Maine and our winters in Florida. That's a great plan.

23:04
Yeah, summers in Maine are beautiful. And I don't know about Florida. I haven't been to Florida. So I can't, I can't attest to Florida, but I can attest to summers in Maine. They're beautiful. Yeah, Maine is fantastic. Yeah. If I hadn't, uh, married somebody who wanted to move to Minnesota a long time ago, I would probably still be in Maine, but instead I'm still in Minnesota with a third husband who I actually loved to pieces and he doesn't want to leave Minnesota, so we're staying in Minnesota. There you go.

23:33
I've only been to Minnesota once for a meeting and it was in the dead of January and it happened to be extremely cold. It must have been around the year 2000. And everyone's like, let's go to the Mall of America. Is that even still open? Yep. Isn't it really? Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. Yeah. It was cold and icy. That's what I remember. Have you been to Maine though, in the summer? Yes.

24:02
Okay, Minnesota is not a whole lot different than Maine when it comes to weather. It's just that Maine has the ocean and the mountains and Minnesota does not have the ocean and mountains. Oh, really? So, so Minnesota is flatland. Yeah, it kind of depends on where you are, but, but there are no mountains in Minnesota. There are hills and there's no glacial at one time. Yes. And there's no ocean, but there's tons of rivers.

24:31
and lakes. So we have lots of water. There's not oceans. Sure. Yeah. It's really pretty. And it makes it easier for me to live here instead of where I grew up. So you're not old. Oklahoma is very similar in the sense that in Oklahoma City where we used to live, it was very flat. The dirt is red. Um, and it's just, yeah, summer is well into the hundreds. Uh, but where we're at now.

25:01
is considered green country. So we're in the foothills of the Ozarks. So we have the rolling hills, we have the weather and precipitation differential, and it's just night and day compared to central Oklahoma. It's beautiful. Wow. Okay. Actually, I have a better answer for your question about whether it's flat or not. If you're toward the river valley of any

25:30
It's rolling hills down River Valley. Once you get out of the River Valley, it's kind of flat. So does that help? Yeah, absolutely. It's really beautiful. More, more farmland, like, uh, like you were saying previously with the, uh, uh, cornfields. Yes. Yeah. We literally are surrounded by cornfields, um, for the last two summers, our property.

25:59
And it's a great privacy fence, but if you have allergies to corn pollen, it is terrible for about three weeks. I bet it is. But it's lovely. But I think that summers in Maine and winters in Florida sounds like an excellent way to retire. I think that would be lovely. But don't retire too soon because you're helping so many people. We want you to keep doing that for a while. Well, thank you. I want to keep doing it for a while as well. Every day is a learning experience.

26:29
And people can order stuff from you on your website, is that right? Yes, yes. It's www. Okay. And why did you name it Morning Song? Because my wife wanted to. Oh, okay. Do you know what her story is about that? She grew up on the property where we currently are at. And it was just...

26:58
something she remembers so distinctly, the cardinals that were out there every morning, especially the male cardinals. That's why the male cardinal is on our logo. And she would just hear the birds out there singing. So I figured it might be something like that. Did you know that the birds sing in the morning for no other reason than to say I'm here? Oh, really?

27:25
That's what scientists have discovered supposedly. They sing in the morning because they wake up and they're like, oh, I'm here. And they all do some variation of call that says, I'm here. Well, you know, it's interesting because we have bluebirds. And I think it's the bluebirds that mimic other birds. I'm not sure. Somebody out there listening could probably correct me. But the.

27:53
The bluebirds that we have now have imitated a hawk and all of our chickens are free range. Oh no. Yeah, so they scare the garbage out of the chickens and they all run for cover every time these bluebirds are out there doing this hawk interpretation or imitation. Oh, that's so funny. Huh.

28:19
I didn't know bluebirds did that. We have bluebirds in Minnesota, but I don't see them very often. Yeah, it's quite interesting. Yeah, I know we have a cow bird or a cat bird here that will mimic other birds calls, and it will mimic other people's noises. My son does a whistle to get the dog to come in, and there's a bird that has learned his whistle. Ha ha ha ha. Oh, the poor dog.

28:49
And she doesn't care. She doesn't listen anyway. That's awesome. But my son was outside last summer and he heard that whistle. And my son's dad, my husband does that too. Does the same whistle and he was like, did dad just whistle? And I said, dad's in the house. He's like, I heard the whistle. And we listened and we heard it again. And I said, that's that stupid bird that mimics everything. He's like, a bird copied my whistle. Apparently. Oh Lord.

29:19
So yeah, there are birds that copy whistles and clearly parrots repeat what people say and I think macaws do and I think there's another one I can't think of it right now. So birds are very capable of reiterating sounds. Very intelligent. Yep, it's kind of great. All right, Roy. Well, it's been really interesting talking with you and I appreciate your time and we're almost a half an hour so I am going to let you go.

29:47
All right. Well, thank you so much for having us on there. Sorry Rachel couldn't make it, but she was just promoted and she had a Monday morning call. That's fine. It was lovely talking with you Roy and if you Rachel want to come talk again, let me know. All right. Well, thank you so much. All right. You have a great day. You too. Bye.