My Homesteading Chronicles 2.0

Today I'm talking with Melissa at My Homesteading Chronicles 2.0. 

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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. Today I'm talking with Melissa.

00:27
at My Homesteading Chronicles 2.0, and  we're going to find out why it's 2.0,  in  Ontario, Canada. Good evening, Melissa. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I'm very excited to chat with you. Number one, why is it 2.0? It is 2.0 because  about two years ago, I started My Homesteading Chronicles  and I had about 2,400 followers and the hackers got me.

00:54
Oh no. they hacked my Facebook, they hacked my Facebook page. So I had to start at nobody. So it was June last year that I got hacked.  And  yeah, I've been trying to grow my page back. So it's 2.0. I do not know why people have to suck so much. Yeah. Yeah, I have no idea. They didn't get anything out of me. just,  yeah, they got my followers, I guess.

01:24
I'm sorry. It's so much work to rebuild it too. Oh yeah, it is. It is. But it's doing better than I expected it be. So I'm over 3,000 followers since June last year. So it's about my one year anniversary of 2.0 this week. Well, congratulations. Thank you. This social media thing is so weird. Yes, it is. It is. I've been on social media, but this starting a page is...

01:53
It was new to me. had friends that kept telling me you need to start a page and I kept saying, no, I'm not going to. And well, I did.  Well, I'm thankful that you did because people need to know about this homesteading thing because it's important. So  tell me about yourself and what you do at  my homesteading Chronicles. So I am just a mom.  I have a 13 year old daughter this week and my son will be 18  next month.  I'm married. I have a wonderful supportive husband.

02:23
We live in a  very small town, about 500 people,  just kind of five minutes from the shores of Lake Huron. I work full-time  in corporate finance.  I live in the village, so I don't have a lot of space, but I like to grow everything I can and make as much as I can from scratch. That's about it.  About 10 years ago, I hurt my back and had to change careers.

02:51
and I was off work for about eight months. And that takes a toll on your income of your family.  So I started  to learn how to make things  myself.  So I've kind of over the last 10 years, I've been growing mostly a lot of tomatoes and I learned how to can and I learned how to crochet and I'm very self-taught.

03:19
Very nice. We talk about tomatoes on the podcast a lot. I  am the tomato lady.  Tomatoes and chickens.  bet if I went through and had some computer program count the number of times  chickens and tomatoes have been mentioned, it would be in the probably 50,000 by  now.  I believe it. I don't have any chickens. I'm absolutely terrified of chickens, but I love to buy

03:47
local farm fresh eggs. So I like to look at the eggs from far away and the chickens from far away. But tomatoes is my thing. love tomatoes and my husband has planted over 200 tomato plants this spring in our garden. He's got me beat. I've got 185 plants this year.

04:09
What kinds? Because if we're going to talk tomatoes, let's talk tomatoes. What varieties? Okay, we'll talk tomatoes.  I have 71 varieties of mostly heirloom.  About 20 different kinds of cherry, chocolate cherry,  a lot of the bumblebees.  I'm trying a whole bunch of different paste tomatoes this year, different romas.

04:33
Um, one called OptiMax that I hear is really good, but only one of them survived. So I'm hoping the plant does well.  but  I like, it's funny because I don't eat tomatoes at all  and no one in my house eats tomatoes,  but, I can them all.  um, yeah, yeah. They have a lot of heirloom beef steak type.  Uh, last year, my, my number one was lucid gem.  sounds pretty.

05:02
It is beautiful. It's an orange tomato.  The top is purple and when you slice it, it's red inside.  Nice.  So you say you don't eat tomatoes, but do you eat like tomato sauce or salsa?  I do. make a lot of tomato sauce and a lot of salsa.  About 20 years ago, I ate a bad tomato and I just haven't been able to do it. So I was telling somebody the other day, my goal this year is to eat a toasted tomato sandwich again.

05:32
You should give it a Give it a try. You might be surprised. I OD'd on cherry tomatoes when I was like 10. They were so yummy. My dad was growing them in our garden and I loved them. And I said, can I eat as many as I want? And he was like, well, sure. Cause he thought I was being eaten of them. I ate like 40 cherry tomatoes in one sitting. And then I proceeded to expel them through my face out of my stomach.

06:02
And I hated cherry tomatoes for a very long time after that. And about probably 10 years ago, somebody had a different variety and said they were really sweet. Yeah. tomatoes. And I was like, what's the worst thing that happens? One is not going to ruin me. And I cut it in half so I could just take a half. Yeah. And I bit into it I was like, oh my God, I can eat them again. Yay. Now the dumbest thing about that whole story is that like when I was 15,

06:32
friend of mine gave me a package of Andy's candies, Andy's mints or what the hell they're called, the mint chocolate candies.  And  I did it again.  I ate almost that whole package over the course of four hours and ended up being sick again. I'm like, am I ever going to learn not to overeat the things I like? And have you ate them since?  No, but I do like mint chocolate chip ice cream. So it didn't ruin me forever. Well, that's good.

06:58
Yeah, if listeners don't overeat on anything you really love because you'll end up hating it

07:07
I cherry tomatoes for very long time.

07:11
So you said you're  like Roma style tomato growing them.  Yeah. Are you doing,  have you tried the Amish paste tomatoes yet? I do. I have about four of them in the garden now. So. Okay. And have you heard of the health kick variety?  I have not.  Okay. It's a, I think it's a hybrid. I don't think it's genetically messed with cause I don't really appreciate that.

07:40
But it's like a Roma tomato, but it's supposed to be higher in antioxidants than the rest of the Roma style tomatoes. And  they're really, really good for sauce. I'll have to look them up. Yeah.  Probably the only place you'll be able to find them is online. You'll have to order them if you want to see. We've grown those for quite a few years and we really like them. They're great for saucing. They're great for slicing for like on a hamburger because they're small.

08:10
They're maybe a little bit bigger than a quarter in diameter. Yeah. And they're just, they have a really nice flavor. So I will have to look into them. Yeah. I process a lot of tomatoes and last year I had planned to try and make enchilada sauce, but I never got around to it. So that's on my list for this year.  Okay.  Well, we're not as fancy as you are. We're not growing. I think we may be growing to heirloom varieties. think mostly we're growing  beef steak.

08:40
early girl, some kind of cherry tomato  and San Marzano's because we did that last year and they did really, really well. Yeah. have  three San Marzano's this year.  they didn't do well last year. So I thought I'll try them again and we'll see. Last year was a strange year for the tomatoes.  Yeah. And when I say the San Marzano's did really, really well.

09:04
There's a caveat on that. We had a lot of rain here last year. My husband had to plant tomatoes three different times to get anything to grow.  Oh, wow. So relatively speaking, the San Marzano's that grew did really well. I think there were only six plants. Wow, that's all right.  So yeah, but the summer before that, we were swimming in them. We had tons.

09:28
Well, I had more  the year before last I had planted 120 plants  and last year I planted 175 and  I think my yield for 175 was less than the 120 from the year before.  Yeah, last year was a terrible growing season for almost everybody. For us here this year it's not going so well.  It's beautiful today but we just got our  I got my tomatoes in the garden

09:57
about a week and a half ago. Because it's just, it's been real cold and wet.  And yeah, the temperatures have been fluctuating a lot.  And your growing season is shorter up there, right? It is.  It is, yes. Where usually I try to get to the beginning of October,  but  I  actually got a greenhouse from my husband for Christmas this year.

10:24
I'm hoping to move some of the peppers into there to see if I can prolong their life a little bit.  Yep. We just put in a greenhouse last May, like two years, not two years ago, two Mays ago. a little year ago. And that thing has come in so handy because that's why we have tomatoes that are blooming right now because of that freaking greenhouse. That's perfect. I'm hoping to do an experiment and try and  winter sow them in the greenhouse.  I don't know if it's going to work, but

10:53
It doesn't hurt to try.  Winter, so like in  the milk jugs or?  Yeah. So I'm hoping I was going to actually maybe try and just put them in cups and put them kind of like in a clear tote in the greenhouse.  With a lid on it?  Yeah. Yeah.  Like that can air out, but I'm going to, I don't know. I don't know if it'll work, but  I have all kinds of volunteer plants that have survived the winter. So why, I don't know, maybe it'll work.

11:23
And what's the worst that happens? You learn a lesson and don't do it again. Exactly. And I save tomato seeds, so I have more than enough for the rest of my life.  yeah, yeah, absolutely.  So, um, how  I've talked to like three people in the last month and a half in Canada, but one of them raises many horses  and one of them, I can't remember. They grow things, but I don't think they try greenhouse stuff.  Um, so.

11:52
If you're going to, if you're,  you have a greenhouse or you're, putting it together this year?  have, I have it. We put it together, um, about, uh, two months ago.  Okay. So could you,  it's expensive to heat a greenhouse, number one. Yes. But, could you, could you put like a space heater in there? I could, could. Yes. Yes. I have a lot of experimenting to do.

12:18
Yeah, because tomatoes are real finicky about changes in temperature. You know this. Yes.  So if you could get, you know, a small space heater and maybe put up plastics that you're only working with a smaller space to heat inside the greenhouse in the winter. Yeah.  Yeah. That might help. We put one in ours this year  in  March and March, 1st of April, because we had put our little tomato seedlings that we started on the kitchen table in the house.

12:46
out in the greenhouse and the temps just weren't coming up fast enough.  so,  and we had like a couple of weeks of cloudy days. So it wasn't even getting hot from the greenhouse.  And I think that that was the problem here.  I had started the seedlings in the house, but I had moved them to the greenhouse, but the temperatures just,  you know,  we're Celsius here. So I'm not really good with Fahrenheit, but  it would be like, well, it would be below freezing a lot.

13:16
Yeah.  So,  yeah, they just,  they didn't grow very fast and they turned purple and, but I'm happy to say they're all in the garden now and they're all green. So.  Fantastic. I  have such high hopes for this season for everybody, including us. Yep. Last year was just so heartbreaking. We lost money last summer because of it. Yeah. Yeah. It happened. ones. So. No.

13:45
No. Okay. So do you have any animals on your roomstead? I  do not know. I have no animals.  No cats, no dogs either?  No cats, no dogs. My husband is allergic to animals and well, my kids have allergies as well.  So yeah, I grew up on a dairy farm. So I had a lot of animals in my life and I am an animal lover,  except for chickens.

14:13
Yeah.  Or yeah, any birds that fly near me.  I'm not a fan, but  I do love animals. I love other people's animals, but I don't personally have any.  I'm sorry that you don't have any because  my dog is the love of my life.  I almost love her more than I love my husband. Do not tell him this.  I do have  four niece and nephew dogs that I love very much. So I get to spend time with them.

14:42
So get your  I do get to have my puppy fix. Good, good. Yes,  I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to rave about Maggie. I'm going to mention Maggie. She has  been a really good girl lately. She hasn't really barked in the background, so that's been great.  But  she's a mini Australian, Australian, talk, shepherd. She's going to be five in August and I love her almost more than life itself. And I had no idea that I would love her this much.

15:12
Nice.  We had a lot of dogs on the farm as  a kid and we were definitely very close to them.  Yeah, she's like a little human in a dog body. It's ridiculous. If anyone had told me,  oh my goodness, five and a half years ago that I would lose my heart to this crazy dog, I would have laughed at them. So  there you go.  Yeah.  Okay. So you said that you learned to make things on your own from scratch. So I assume that you cook.

15:42
I do. Do you love to cook? I do. Good. What's your favorite thing that you make? I love to make lasagna from scratch as possible. I haven't made the mozzarella cheese yet, but that's coming. But I like to make lasagna noodles and I like to make the sauce. yeah, I think lasagna is my number one. I love lasagna twice a year.

16:11
I will make it twice a year.  will eat like three pieces of it and I'm good for six months. Yep. It's a of work. It's a lot of work when you're making it from scratch.  It's a lot of work when you're not making it from scratch. Like I make my sauce from scratch. Yeah. But I buy the noodles and cook them and I buy the mozzarella cheese and the other, the other stuff, the ricotta and  all that. But I do make it with our own eggs and the ricotta mix. So.

16:39
So it's partially from scratch and partially not. Yep. The hardest part with lasagna is  if you're trying to make it all at once, like from beginning to end, what I do is I make the sauce the day before and put it in the fridge. And that way all I have to do is cook the noodles and make the ricotta filling stuff and pull the sauce out and I just assemble it and bake it. So it's just easier for me to do it that way. Yep.

17:09
Yeah, we don't have it that often, but I would say maybe once every two months I make a good lasagna on a Sunday.  Nice.  What's your favorite dessert to make? you dessert? I am not,  I'm  baking  is not my  number one thing.  My favorite dessert to make, my daughter who's 13, she's a much better baker than I am.  I  don't know.

17:37
We attempted a pumpkin pie that was pretty good. Yeah.  Um, with homegrown pumpkins last year, and I had never done that before.  So that was pretty good, but I would say cheesecakes the best.  Oh yeah.  Cheesecakes number one.  Yeah. I haven't had a piece of cheesecake in like two years. I may have to go find some in a week or two.  Yeah. I'm not, I'm not going to make it because if I make it, my husband will eat half of it. My son will eat a quarter of it and I might get a sliver. So.

18:07
Yeah. Don't waste your money. Just get a slice. would be. Yeah. And then I'll know that I'll know that it tastes the way it should too. Cause cheesecake's not hard, but you can really screw it up if you're not paying attention. Yes. So I've made like three of them in my lifetime and they all came out really good. Like the first one I made, I thought I'd screwed it up. I thought I cooked it too long. It said to look for the wobble.

18:35
when you moved the pan  and I went to pull it out of the oven, there wasn't a whole lot of wobble. I'm like, oh no, I ruined it.  I let it cool and I bit into it. was like, oh no, this is fine. I made cheesecake for the first time. It was really good.

18:51
But yeah, there's a wobble you're supposed to look for. I'm like, okay, that's an interesting way to say it. The same thing with the pumpkin pie. The pies have to wobble. Yeah. My least favorite thing to make, but the whole family's  most favorite thing to eat is a recipe called Outrageous Brownies.  found it online.  Ina Garten, I think is her name, the lady on TV. Yep. She's a little kind of round lady with dark hair.

19:21
It's her recipe and it has like six eggs in it. It's got baker's chocolate. It's got chocolate chips. It's got cocoa.  It's oh my God, they are amazing. And I only make them for birthdays because they're so incredibly fattening and decadent that I don't want them in my house at any other time. That's one thing I have never mastered the brownie. So I'll have to look up that recipe and see if maybe we can.

19:47
We can try it, my daughter and I, sometime. I need her as my sidekick because she just is better at it.  Well, the one thing that I will tell you is when you get the batter together,  when all the ingredients are mixed together in the bowl,  it will look like chocolate silk.  Oh, okay. It's got that same glisten that silk does when you move silk. Yep. So if it doesn't look like that, there's something not quite right.  Yep. But yeah, and the magic of cooking.

20:17
I don't want to sit here and rave about this too much because I talk about cooking a lot, but  there is just something inherently  magical when you take all these ingredients,  put them together in the right way, and you come out with something fabulous. Yeah. And it's amazing what you can do with what little you have sometimes too.  Yup. I'm going to talk about sourdough again. I've brought it up four times in the last four interviews.  Just made my first sourdough loaf last weekend.

20:47
and I

20:50
I am not a master. It was the first one I ever did and it was underproofed.  The thing is,  it's got like a bagel chew to it and I love bagels. So I made bagel sourdough bread.  Oh, yum.  Yep. That's what it tastes like. And I'm so tickled with it. And I'm like, how could I do this again? I have no idea how I underproofed it. So I'm probably going to overproof it next time. Yeah.

21:17
But proud of myself, I have avoided sourdough bread for years because I didn't think I liked sourdough bread because I don't like the tang of it.  Yeah. Come to find out there's a way to not have it be so tangy and I got that right.

21:32
Yeah, you don't have to let the  sourdough.

21:39
Sorry, I just got interrupted there. Yeah, you have to let the,  when you feed your starter, don't let it go too long.  Yep. That way doesn't get that acidic, tangy thing to it that I don't like.  Yeah.  People are like, you don't like sour rubber? I'm like, no, cause it tastes sour. Like really sour to me. I don't love it.  And they're like, but you love pickles. And I'm like, it is not the same sour.

22:07
It is different.  I like to make sourdough bagels. That's my number one favorite.  But I don't get around to it a whole lot because it does take a lot of time,  but it's a good skill to have.  It's the waiting. It's the waiting time that kills me. Sometimes I just have to add yeast.  Yeah, I did a shortcut sandwich loaf recipe.  I typed in shortcut sourdough bread  and it gave me that recipe. It still took me from

22:36
from putting the  sourdough starter, the flour and everything together in the bowl and getting the dough ready,  still didn't have a loaf of bread until five hours later. I was like, oh my God, do I have the patience for this?  Yeah.  Yeah. I only make sourdough when I have enough time over a whole weekend.  And I make a lot of things at once.  Yeah. And the good news is that if you're doing it like I am, I had other things I could do in that half an hour  between the stretch and pull time. Yeah. Yep.

23:05
But if I had nothing to do, it would drive me insane waiting that half an hour every time. Yeah, I do highly recommend you should try English muffins though.  don't know English muffins are the best.  Yeah, I have the little  circle thingies, whatever they are, the little circles that you make the  mold for the  English muffin.

23:29
I don't know what they're called. I just ordered them because I was like, I want to make English ovens. And I saw the recipe for the sourdough English oven recipe. I was like,  have all the things to make that. That's next. Yeah.  It's so exciting. It's so silly. Like I probably sound like a kid at Christmas, discovering new ways to do things just really lights something in my brain. Yeah.  So I don't know.

23:55
I may just be crazy. knows? I don't think you're crazy at all. I was talking to my mom about the sourdough thing and she said, you know, she said, I got some friendship bread starter years ago. Yeah. And I said, yes, I remember you named it Herman. And she's like, oh, I did. I said, yeah, I was Herman. I said, as I remember, Herman got fed a couple of times, stuck in the fridge and basically was a hermit in the fridge for a year or two. then you threw him out.

24:25
She said I was too busy.  I remember that my mom used to make friendship bread, that Amish friendship bread when I was a kid.  I  can still remember her pouring milk into the Ziploc bag and letting it sit on the counter.  Uh huh. Yeah. And she said, she said, I was busy raising you and your sister and your brother. I did not have time for that. And I'm like, no, I'm just teasing you. It's fine.  Yeah.  Raising kids is a lot of work. I understand. I did four or so.  Yep.

24:56
Okay, so  what brought you to the homesteading thing? Did you tell me at the beginning or not?  I can't remember now.  So about 10 years ago,  I  hurt my back and I wasn't able to work in it. I was working in a  nursing home at the time and I decided that I needed to save money and so I...

25:22
When  I was first with my husband, I had planted a garden, but I honestly can't tell you what I grew in it  because the weeds were  100 % in charge.  But that summer I was like, okay, well, we need  to figure something out.  So I grew a smallish garden and I thought,  I'm going to learn how to can. I remember my grandma canning when I was a kid,  but I thought I want to do that. So I  learned and I...

25:51
taught myself and I watched YouTube videos and back then there wasn't as many people that were into canning.  So I would say,  well, that was 10 years ago.  But yeah, people are definitely starting. There's like a new generation of canners coming. Yeah, I'm part of it. We didn't start canning until three years ago.  Yeah. Yeah. I'm hoping to like,  one of the reasons why I started my page was just to kind of inspire the younger generation.

26:19
Let them know the world isn't that great right now and money isn't really great right now. There's a lot of people struggling, but with a few things you can actually, you can make a lot. You can make your own spaghetti sauce for pennies if you grow your own tomatoes. so yeah, I just wanted to show people that you can do it. Anyone can do it, even if you have a small space. People think I have acres of gardens, I don't.

26:49
I don't at all. grow my tomatoes vertically. I  grow everything as tall as I can and  as close together as possible.  And yeah, I can make a lot of food for  pretty cheap.  Yeah, it's amazing how that happens. And  I'm really glad that your grandma kind of planted the seed with you because  there's a lot of people I talk to and they're like, I didn't have a homesteading bone in my body. I didn't know what I was doing. I just saw it and went, I want to try that.

27:19
Or the other side of the coin is that people are like, oh yeah, my grandparents grew gardens. My grandma can, my grandma baked. My grandpa did this. My grandma did that.  thank God for grandparents and great grandparents who spent time with their grandkids and great grandkids and showed them these things. Yeah. My grandma,  I remember her specifically canning beans. She had like a French slicer where she would like slice the beans  and she canned them in her all American canner.

27:49
And a few years ago, she gave her canner to me that she used to use when I was a kid. And  I use it now  when I do some pressure canning.

28:02
That's awesome. Yeah, it definitely meant a lot. Yeah. And it gets, it gets well used. It gets, it gets well used and it's pretty amazing how something, you know, that's so old still works just as well as it did, you know, 30 years ago. Yeah. We didn't luck out like that. We had to buy a pressure canner and we had to buy the canning tools and that's okay because we'll probably end up handing it off to somebody eventually.  Yeah.

28:31
I wanted to ask you, because I was looking at your Facebook post about introducing yourself.  And in it, you mentioned that you're the canning committee chair and you're also on the board of directors for your local agricultural society. Is that still accurate? That is true. Yes.  So tell me about that. Like, what does that involve? What do you do in those positions?  So  on the board of directors, we  organize, we have one of the biggest fairs in the area.

29:01
the Ripley Fall Fair. We also have one of the largest  homecraft exhibits.  And so I'm involved more in that sort of thing.  We arrange  a lot of programs in the community. So specifically myself,  I have kind of brought  Master Canner to come to our town and teach people how to can.

29:29
He's a master food preserver, which I should give you his information because I think you'll want to talk to him.  Yes, please.  I will give you his information.  He's been to our town a few times. he's actually was just in town doing a sourdough or two or it was two sourdough classes. And then last fall he came to do two canning courses and we're hoping to have him back again  this fall.  Just, you know, promote agriculture in our community and

29:58
Yeah, teach people all these old skills and  yeah. And then the canning, so the commanding committee chair,  we have a really large exhibit for our area. We have about 300 entries  just in canning,  which is a lot for this area.  We're hoping to have more next year,  but yeah, so we organize that part of the Homecraft exhibit.  Awesome.  Awesome.

30:26
So not only are you walking the walk and talking the talk,  you're sharing the information too.  Yes. Fantastic.  See, it's people like you that are going to save the world. swear.  Things are so hard right now. You alluded to it like five minutes ago. And  I know that you're in Canada and I'm in America, but things are,  things are a little nutty here too.  Yeah.

30:56
And my son,  my son and my husband ran to the local grocery store, know, the small town grocery store on Saturday or Sunday. And they got back, my son's 23. And he says, mom, he said, would you believe that a regular sized bag of Doritos chips is $9? Wow. I said, I'm glad you didn't want any. said, I'm not paying $9 for Doritos. Are you out of your freaking mind?

31:26
I was like, I raised you right. I'm very proud of myself. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I know it's crazy going to the grocery store these days and seeing the inflated prices. And I think it's, you know, not just in America or Canada, it's all over the world. I'm so thankful that I learned to cook from scratch. Yeah. If we were trying to buy stuff that's already made, we would be starving to death because we wouldn't be able to afford it. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's so important to learn how to make things.

31:54
And  it's not hard.  People think it's so complicated and it really isn't because there's so many, like I said, there's so many things you can do with so few ingredients. You just have to find some creativity.  I keep saying that learning to cook is time and intention. Yes.  And if you don't make the time and you don't intend to do it, it's never gonna happen. Yeah.

32:22
But if you can eke out the time and you really want to try, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. For sure. For sure. I've mentioned this before. I made a roux, you know, flour and butter thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

32:48
Timing. Timing is everything. Yeah. And if I had tried that at 20, I would have been angry. I never would have tried it again. Age gives you more patience. I swear to God, it really does. And I was like, okay, I knew that one was going to burn and I did not let it burn to the point that I ruined the pan, but it was not edible. So I scraped the pan out. I washed the pan. I did something else for a couple of hours and I tried again.

33:14
That time  I managed to make a gravy that thickened up the way it was supposed to. And I did not brown the roux as dark as it said to. And I was kind of glad because I don't like my gravy's dark from a roux.  Yeah.  But I did it and I learned how. And now I use that skill all the time. Yeah. And it's not hard. It's just  learning the steps.  Yeah. Yeah. Like there's a lot of things you can learn.  It's like dancing.

33:44
Cooking is like dancing.

33:48
You  have to learn the first steps and then you build on those steps and you continue to build until you feel accomplished. I think it's a wonderful thing. for sure.  All right, Melissa, I am going to have to extend these to an hour. I'm going to have to warn people from now on  that we're going to try for an hour instead of half an hour because I feel like half an hour is never enough.  Lies, bye. But I'm going keep this one to half an hour.  So thank you for your time.  How can people find you?

34:17
They can find me on Facebook at myhomesteadingchronicles2.0. Okay,  and are you on  Instagram or do you have a website or anything?  I am not yet,  no. And I know I don't have a website yet. I'm still pretty new to this.  You will figure it out because you are determined. I can hear it.

34:40
All right. Thank you so much for your time, Melissa. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com  and I hope you have a lovely night.  You as well.  All right. Thanks. Bye.