Nana's Kitchen MN

Today I'm talking with Nancy at Nana's Kitchen MN. You can also follow on Facebook.

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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 Nancy at Nana's Kitchen, Minnesota. How are you, Nancy? I'm doing good. How are you doing today? I'm good. The MN is for Minnesota, yes? Very good.

00:24
Okay, good. I never know if people want me to use the word that the letters stand for or just the letters. So, nope, we just had to tag it on there when I got my cottage kitchen because believe it or not, there's other Nana kitchens. Well, there's lots of Nana's in the world. So it doesn't surprise me. Yeah, so we had to distinguish ourselves. Okay. Well, tell me about yourself and what you do at Nana's kitchen. I cottage kitchen and I make gluten-free, basically pastries, pies, cookies,

00:54
I also make some that are dairy free. Been baking gluten free for the last 16 years and just have done it for family and stuff like that. People always say, gosh, you're so good. You ought to try to sell them. It's one of those things to kind of get the nerve up to put your neck out there and do it. Yes, I do. Yep. One of my daughters retired from the military, moved nearby, and she's been pushing me, just do it, mom. Just do it, mom. She's my spokesperson.

01:23
She pushed me into it. But anyhow, I enjoy baking. Gluten-free is something you have to learn to do. It doesn't come easy because there are so many different types of flours and stuff like that. I've worked on a technique that works for me and it comes out pretty darn good. You don't know that they're gluten-free products and that was the whole goal. People don't miss the gluten when they eat the product. Awesome. So when did you start? Okay, two things.

01:53
I can't talk this morning. How did you come into this? Like, why? Yeah. And when did you start the actual business part of it? The business I just started doing this year, like in January, I just kind of started putting stuff out on Facebook. Well, my daughter started putting stuff out on Facebook. She's my social media person, like I said. 2008, my oldest granddaughter was diagnosed with celiac disease and she's autistic. And

02:23
With that time it was, huh, what's celiac disease? I hadn't really thought, heard about it. Her mom had kind of, my oldest daughter, had kind of looked into it because of the autism, this connection sometimes with different things causing autism. But we waited, it was like December 2007, so January 2008 we had her go gluten free and it was, I mean, at that point in time there aren't products on the shelves. Like you can go in the store now and there's Char and Glutino and all kinds of different.

02:50
products you can buy that are gluten free. It was very, very limited. So she wanted like, you know, cookies and the things that she would miss. So I started baking those, looking for cookbooks and recipes. And back then it was a lot of gabaazanbee flour and heavier flours, and it was a product, but it didn't taste the same. And over time, flours have evolved. There's different types and brands you can use. And I'm finding different blends, putting different starches together. Finally, just all worked out that I could bake stuff.

03:20
that was palatable and she enjoyed it. So I went from cookies to cakes, all kinds of different things. But as it turns out, her mother then, my oldest daughter was diagnosed with Celiac of May of that same year, 2008. In July of that year, my daughter's younger son, who was seven, was diagnosed with Celiac's disease. Wow. So now we had three of them, which then, my youngest child, I have three daughters and a son. He at that time was 25.

03:49
And he got tested. Actually, the whole family did blood work tests. He has celiac disease. So if my four children, two have celiac, two don't. I have five grandchildren, three have celiac, because then the daughter has another child with another man, the second husband. He has celiac disease. So all three of her children have celiac disease. So it runs in the family. We did DNA testing on 23andMe. I'm a carrier. I don't have it, but I carry it.

04:19
And the percentages of I have it are the same as my daughter and granddaughter and stuff like that. So I'm gluten free as well. But I suspect my mom had it. She had symptoms years ago that hindsight looking back on it, I think she had celiac disease. So that got me started because I had to cook for the grandchild. Wanted to give her baked goodies that tasted like everybody else's that she could watch her friends at school eating cookies and she couldn't have one. So that's how it kind of evolved.

04:48
to process. So I don't, okay, I talked to a lady a while back who has celiac disease and her baby son has it too. And she told me all about how this all works. And I was so thankful that she did because I had no understanding of how bad it can be.

05:14
Her situation is if she even walks into the bakery section of a grocery store, she reacts to the flour in the air. Yeah, I never heard of that. My children, well, what's funny with my children, because I'm an old hippie mom, got married in 74 and my children were born late 70s, early 80s. Everything was whole wheat and wholesome homemade. I made all the bread and everything. Whole wheat, whole wheat, whole wheat, whole wheat. And yet...

05:41
Two of these children now have celiac disease. Is there a correlation there? I don't think so, I think because of the family genetics is why they have celiac disease. But as a child, there was no reaction, there was nothing. I mean, they grew up on it, they were fine. Only as adults, which is really weird that it took effect and exhibited itself as an adult with them. My granddaughter, it was tummy aches and things like that. The grandson had...

06:10
And she was always constipated. Grandson, the same thing. Those are really typical symptoms because the intestines are just not moving. Don't care how much water you give the child. But once they all became gluten free, if they eat gluten, the boys will throw up, like there's no tomorrow. I mean, hours on end throwing up and then their stomach and intestines are sore for days.

06:39
my daughter and granddaughter, it goes the other way. They don't throw up. It goes the other way. But the same thing, it'll go on for hours and then their intestines are just ripped apart for days. But it's funny because nobody reacted to we, proceeding going gluten-free, then once they did and it got out of their system and it came back, wow, do they really feel it? Yeah, it can affect everybody differently and some people can actually go into shock with it. It just depends if you're allergic to it or not.

07:08
You don't need to have a shock going on. Yeah. Okay, so is your gluten free is a very specific term. Yes, it is. I've been told by many, many people that if you're going to say that your food is gluten free, you basically need to not have any kind of gluten in your kitchen. Correct. So is that how you do it? Yes, there's no gluten in my house.

07:33
My husband is not celiac, he's not gluten-free, but he eats gluten-free. Unless we go out somewhere, then he'll order a regular hamburger bun or something like that. But there's no gluten in the house. I don't bake with it, and it's not in the house. He just eats gluten-free because everybody else does around him. I could say I'm a dedicated kitchen. I can't say I'm certified gluten-free because the state has to come in and they're not going to come into your home and certify you gluten-free. Yeah.

08:00
So was it hard for your husband to switch over or was it a fairly simple transition? No, he's fine with it because the products that I make, I mean, you're talking regular meals are not a big deal. Pastas are all gluten-free pasta, not a big deal. He eats it, not a problem. Hamburger buns, I make hamburger buns, he's fine with them. No, it's not a big deal. The baking, I've perfected it such that like cakes and treats and things like that, you can't tell the difference.

08:30
In fact, one of my customers had a birthday cake she wanted me to make for her. I think she posted a review on my website. She was telling me recently, we did an event and she was there and she said, it was either her brother, her brother-in-law, I don't recall now, was a professional cook. He kept tasting the cake and going, this is not gluten-free. Then he would look at the ingredients and go, no, it's not gluten-free. Which is flattering because that's the whole premise. I don't want you to know it's gluten-free. We had someone at an event.

08:59
we offered him cookies and he took a bite of a chocolate chip cookie and he goes, hmm, not bad for a gluten-free cookie and walks off. Well, he's not gluten-free and they taste fine. You wouldn't know they're gluten-free. It was just kind of a catty thing to say, I thought. But you know. There's always one. I know. I know. Always. Always. Somebody's got to ruin it. And this is nobody who even eats it, you know, so why are you taking this cookie sample? Whatever dude. Uh-huh.

09:26
But no, my husband has no problem with it. He knows that the kids can't have it and the grandkids. So no, he's a sport about it. Like I said, if we go out somewhere, then he eats regular. It doesn't phase him, but no, not a problem with it. Awesome. Yeah, good. Good. Okay, so I looked at your website of all your goodies for sale. I should not have looked at it at six o'clock this morning because all I wanted was cake and whoopie pies and stuff.

09:53
And I don't even really have a sweet tooth, but when I see beautiful treats, I can taste them in my head if that makes sense. And I'm just looking at your site going, oh my God, I need to go find her right now. But I didn't. That's far from you. Yeah, I know. You're a new preg. Yep, yep. But I decided that really it was okay. I didn't have to drive to new preg at 6 a.m. and wake you up and be like, hi, I need all the things now. However.

10:21
The photos of your stuff are beautiful. Do you take them or do you have someone take the photos? No, I take them or my daughter takes them. Gorgeous. Just take them here in the house here. Yep. Yeah, we've, you know, iPhones have come a long way. I have a regular Nikon camera that hardly gets out of the cupboard anymore. Everything's on an iPhone, you know? Yeah, it's easier. Yeah, oh, absolutely. And you can look at it right away and mean that it's a digital camera too, but this is so much easier. You can post from it and you know.

10:51
Makes it really easy for you. Yeah, you're very good at your photos. Well, thank you. But I enjoy the baking and I, part of when I started doing this too is I don't want to make the prices crazy expensive for people because you know, as a young mom, I remember taking the kids to events or something and they all want a cookie or they want this and you look at prices sometimes at events because they're always higher it seems like. And it's like we were on such a limited budget. They couldn't always get something or we would.

11:19
So when I started baking this stuff, you know, I've had people tell me, you know, it's gluten free, you can ask for more, you can ask for more. And even at that, the prices that I sell it for, I kind of go, pff, just seems like a lot. But I know that it's not, because I see what other people are pricing out there, you know, but I wanted to make it affordable so people could buy stuff for their kids, the treats and things, you know, and not feel like, well, I can't afford $7 for a cookie or a donut or something, you know. Yeah, pricing- So I tried to price them more reasonably, sorry. Pricing anything, anything that you do,

11:48
is one of the hardest things on earth to do. I actually have a sponsor interested in sponsoring the podcast and I'm trying to figure out what the reasonable price for sponsoring my podcast is. And I went and did a whole bunch of research and I'm like, I have no idea. Didn't help you, did it? Not especially. So I went with what I thought and I'm waiting on the email back and I'm very excited about this. Yeah.

12:16
Even when we started selling our candles and soaps and lip balms and stuff, I was like, I don't know what is reasonable here. Yeah, I know. It's so difficult because you don't want to price yourself out of the market. Nope. You don't want to just be like, well, the market will bear $20 for a bar of soap. So that's what I'm in charge because that's ridiculous. I just, it's so crazy to me, all the pieces and parts of running a business that you have to learn on the fly as you go along.

12:45
Absolutely. Yep. I agree. Yep. Pricing is hard. I mean, I go through what my products cost me, my ingredients, putting it together, you know, and then I know there's formulas you can use for your time and this and that. It's like, well, if I do that, I'm never going to sell anything that's really affordable. No. I'm not doing that. I'm just going by, okay, this is what it cost me to make it. Okay, this is fair to sell it. Forget my time. I'm not worried about it, you know. Yeah. And I also

13:15
which I think you do. Yeah, I do. Your time is a joy. Yeah. The time you put into it is a gift to yourself. It is. And I'm not saying you shouldn't charge for your time because that's part of it, but it's easier to maybe knock some of that down when you enjoy what you're doing. Hold that and you get positive feedback from what you've done.

13:41
Oh my god, those are great. You know, I'm so glad they got to buy it, you know, so the feedback is good, too I don't you know, that's okay Yeah You make two of my favorite things on earth. I love anything pretzels. So your pretzel bites look amazing Oh, thank you and your whoopie pies. I grew up on the East Coast So I know what a whoopie pie is and I know the absolute bliss of biting into one And yours look fantastic

14:11
Well, thank you. And it's funny because I'm from California and whoopie pies are kind of like, well, what's a whoopie pie? And we thought adding it to the menu and I saw their East coast pretty much. I saw a lot of them from Vermont, things like that places, you know, you hear whoopie pies up that way. So we offered them some, I thought people in Minnesota knew what whoopie pies were and surprisingly a majority of them when we've had them in an event kind of go, what's a whoopie pie? Seriously?

14:38
Thought you guys knew what whoopie pies were. So we are selling them at the events. I was just surprised that not more people knew what they were. They do now. But we're going to do different fillings in them. I've got peanut butter and then Irish cream and mint, different fillings that we're going to do seasonal with them. Awesome. Feel free to order them any time you want, Mary. Yeah, I just have to get over and pick them up. I'll meet you halfway. How's that?

15:06
That's a great idea. The Apple Barn in Jordan has whoopie pies that they order from the place in Maine that makes them. Do they really? Okay. Yeah. And those are the ones that I was introduced to as a kid because I grew up in Maine. And when we went there, we lived like five minutes from there. Oh, wow. Four years ago. So we went there and I discovered they had them and they have...

15:32
the different kinds. They have the chocolate with the chocolate filling, they have chocolate with the vanilla filling, they have a whole bunch of different kinds. And I was like, okay, once, just once, I'm going to buy one of each flavor. And we're going to try them. We had three people living in the house at the time. And so we would pick one a day and we cut it into four pieces and I would get half. So I got two quarters. And my husband and my son would try the other quarters. And we decided that the classic whoopie pie, the

16:02
the chocolate cookie with the vanilla filling is the best one. That's what we decided in our house. Yep. Isn't that funny? Yeah. The very basic one, huh? Yup. Yeah. And the thing that I love about Whoopie pies is that the cake, cookies, whatever they are, they're like smooth on the outside cause they're usually wrapped in plastic wrap. So they get that smooth, like sticky coating on them. And then they're like a

16:29
the cakey cookie in between the top and the flat part of the cookie. Yep. Yep. So you get that silky thing on your tongue and then you get the cakey cookie and then you get the filling. And the reason they're called a whoopee pie is because you think whoopee when you eat them, I swear. They do make sticky fingers, I'll tell you that. Well, they're messy. They're messy. They are messy. They are messy. And what's good about when I make them, they're also dairy free as well as gluten free. So anybody can eat them has issues with that.

16:58
Yep. And that's awesome. I have made whoopie pies from scratch once and I probably won't do it again anytime soon. It was probably at least 15 years ago. And it's work. It's a lot of work to make whoopie pies because it's a bunch of steps. Yeah, there's a couple steps to it. You got to make them and then, yep, got to make the filling, put them together. Yeah, yeah. Not horrible, but it's a few steps.

17:22
Yeah, but I was real proud of myself because I did everything and I wrapped them individually in plastic and put them in the fridge so they would do that silky thing that they do. I handed my husband one and said, try this because I need to know if I did it right. He bit into it and he was like, tastes just like the ones we get in Maine. I was like, yes, I did it. Great. There you go. A true labor of love. Yeah. Oh yeah. If I'm going to do something like that, it's because I want to.

17:50
and I want to prove to myself that I can do it. And you did it once. Good, check that off, right? I sure did it. And I think there were 14 of them in the batch when they were done. I think I ate probably eight of them. Oh my. Uh-huh. Well, they were lip smacking good, then it sounds like. Good god, they were amazing, yes. And honestly, I couldn't get whoopie pies at that point. There wasn't anywhere near us 15 years ago to get them. They didn't carry them at the Apple Barn then, I don't think.

18:21
So I was just really craving a whoopie pie and I went out to Google and found a recipe and I was like, I can do this. I can do this, it will curb the craving. It'll be good. So it worked out great. I'll have to go to the Apple Bar and check those out just to compare it by one and then bring it home and compare, you know? Oh yeah, yeah, that would be great. And then your pretzel bites. What kind of flour are you using for the pretzel bites? Well, the flours that I use is my own blend that I figured out and put together.

18:48
And so it's a white rice flour with some starches and stuff. And then there's psyllium in it. There's whey. There's some different things like that in it. And the pretzel bites are great warm. They really need to be warmed up. If you let them sit around like any pretzel bite, they're not as tasty sometimes, you know? So I always, when I sell them to somebody, hey, pop them in the oven, 350 oven for about four or five minutes just to kind of perk them up again, you know? But they're tasty. No, they're a very tasty treat dipped in like, you know, nachos type of sauce, cheese sauce, you know?

19:18
Very good. Yep, they're tasty. Yeah, I love pretzels. I don't know why I love pretzels. I think it's just the salt. Yeah, there's definitely salt on them. Yep, the zisto so it rises and everything. But yeah, they're a tasty little critter. My grandkids love them. I just made some a couple weeks ago with some grandkids that were visiting from California. They got devoured pretty quick. Gone. Yeah, they're gone like a shot. Yep, you make a batch and they're gone. Yep, absolutely.

19:46
Okay, so you mentioned yeast. So you do use yeast in the flour that you work with? In the pretzels. Yes. The pretzels are a yeast and cinnamon rolls are a yeast. Anything that's a bread type of product like that. Yeah. I use yeast in it. It's, it's risen in the, and then kneaded down and it's a different, yeah, go ahead. So yeast does work with all these different flours. Yeah. Yeah, it does. Again, it's just a matter of kind of figuring out which one liquid measurements differ. I take a lot of recipes that are just a regular one and I adapt it.

20:16
But sometimes you have to adapt how much fluid, liquids going in there because starches absorb more than regular wheat flour would. So, most of them that I adapt come out pretty good. Now and again, I'll get one that go, mm, okay, I need to work on that one. But yeah, the yeast flour, the yeast that I use in all the raised type of stuff, pretzels and cinnamon rolls, hamburger buns, all that type of stuff is yeast dough.

20:43
Okay, I didn't know you could use yeast in anything but just regular old wheat flour, so that's good to know. No. Thank you. You can use it with a gluten-free blend. Yep, you can do it. It works out okay. Again, it's not like somebody couldn't take a bag of one-to-one ratio like King Arthur or something unless they do have a bread flour mix, I know, but if you took just a regular all-purpose and tried to use it in place in a recipe you're trying to adapt, it's not going to work. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

21:11
So you are a cottage food producer, you don't have a commercial license, right? Correct. That's correct. Okay, so you are not allowed to ship your stuff just like any other cottage food producer in Minnesota? Kind of sucks, huh? Yes. Uh-huh. Yeah, I know. I know. They keep trying to get it pushed through and the government in Minnesota keeps saying no. Which is interesting because I believe you can mail dog treats through the mail. Yes, you can. Yeah, you can do dog treats to Cottage Kitsch and send them in the mail. So they may change it eventually, you know.

21:40
But then again, some of the stuff I question, like, what I really could ship them would survive it. Like the cupcakes, I can't, not gonna mail a cupcake. You know, I could mail donuts, I could mail cookies, I could mail coffee cake, you know, stuff like that. But not the cupcakes, the icing just not gonna make it. No, and you know they're gonna get shaken and they're gonna get beat up and it's just not gonna work. But cookies, my God, why we can't ship cookies is beyond me.

22:06
It's kind of silly. Well, they change the rules every year, so maybe they'll adapt it. I'm hoping that'd be nice. Yeah, I have talked to a couple of people who are part of the getting the rules submitted to the legislature regarding cottage foods. And they're working so hard to get it through and it just keeps getting shot down. Why? Don't know.

22:32
And I get so frustrated for them because last year they thought that it was going to go through and nope. Yeah, you have to wonder what the snag on it is, why they wouldn't want people to be able to sail through the mail because they can't make money off of it. I don't know. I have no idea what the hangup is. And it also makes me, I don't know, in this very sarcastic way giggle that we can send pet treats through the mail.

23:01
Currently the government doesn't care if our pets die. Right. How nice of them. And I have a dog. I have a dog who is the love of my life and I am really careful about what we give her. So, I mean, I haven't even bothered to try making pet treats for her because she has such a sensitive stomach anyway that I don't want her to get sick because of a treat I tried to make for her.

23:29
Yeah, let alone by one that's coming through the mail right from someone's kitchen. You don't know what they did Yeah, yeah this dog. I swear she loves cheese So anytime we open the shredded cheese bag. Oh, yeah pizza or whatever. She's right under my feet smiling at me Oh, yeah, I have some please that sounds like ours So she gets a pinch of cheese because it would give her more than that She's sick for three weeks three days because her stomach is so screwy. Yeah, and she Absolutely loves whipped cream. Oh

24:00
So if we have any kind of whipped cream in the house, I will spray a little bit on my finger from the can and let her lick it. And she looks at me, wags her tail nubbin because she doesn't have a long tail. She was docked when she was a baby. Okay. And she goes and lays down perfectly happy. What type of dog is she? She's a mini Australian shepherd. Oh, okay. Those are cute. High energy. We were really lucky. She's very.

24:26
She's very go, go, go when she's outside. But if she's in the house, she's pretty good about just wanting to be petted. And then she goes in her crate and takes a nap. And then she asks for things and pets and wants to lick your hand. She's very calm in the house. Well, that's good, good. We lucked out huge. But point being is I clearly talk to people who make things all the time on the podcast. And there's a lady who makes the little bandanas that you put on the dog's collars.

24:57
and she also makes dog treats. And she was talking to me about how she's really excited because now she can ship her dog treats. And I was like, that is awesome. Really, really happy for you. I'll be even happier when we can ship our baked goods too. She was like, yeah, me too. She said, because I do this thing where I make a treat for the human and I make a treat that goes with that treat for the pet. So it's like a set. Yeah.

25:27
And she can't ship the human stuff, but she can ship the pet stuff. Yeah. It's just kind of nuts. Isn't it? Hopefully they do get that straightened out and say, yeah, you know, folks, go ahead. I'm sure there'll be safety procedures that have to be followed, followed to do it. You know, that that's fine. You know, I just wish that somebody in the powers that be would, would say why they keep saying no, because then I might be able to understand why they keep saying no.

25:54
Yeah, it's, yeah, I don't even know who we'd go to to encourage them to it. You know, what, you know, our congressperson or something, you know? Probably our representatives. That's what I'm thinking. Like Angie Craig is ours. I wonder if we went to her and said, hey, can you fight for us on this? You know, I should email her later today and be like, hi, you don't know me from EU.

26:22
This is what I do and these are the people I talk to and could you please maybe share with me why? Yeah Why yeah, I don't know what she'll answer to me, but I could try it. Yeah, I'm hurt. Can it? You know my sort of movement be like we talk about this all the time on my podcast Do you want to come on and chat with me about why there you go and fight her and I like her actually So I do too. I do too. I like Angie Craig very much. She's for the working class guy, you know No, I like her. Yep

26:52
I don't usually get into politics. I don't usually say who I like or don't like, but I do like her. I think I do like her. I'm a neat woman. So there you go. Reach out. Maybe you get some response from her. You know, she seems to be responsive to people. Yeah. And I've never talked to a representative or a Senator on my podcast. That would be a brand new thing for me. There you go. Might be fun. Who knows? It might also be very uncomfortable. I don't know.

27:18
Anyway, we got very far afield there for a minute. I'm sorry. No, that's okay. So what's the reaction? I mean, you said that people really like your positive because it doesn't, it doesn't taste like gluten free. And I don't know what gluten free is supposed to taste like. Well, a lot of the times it's very gritty because if you use a regular rice flour, there's a lot of grit to it. I use a super fine so it's milled really, really.

27:44
almost like regular flour, so the texture when you eat something, you don't get that gritty taste in it. And when products were first being manufactured, the gluten-free cookies that came out, and I remember Glutino made some mock type Oreo, my granddaughter was just ecstatic when we found those, they didn't taste exactly like an Oreo. You could taste the gritty rice flour in it. However, today's gluten-free Oreos that you can buy, you can't tell the difference if you have an Oreo and you have one of the gluten-free ones.

28:11
They've come so far with manufacturing the rice and the products are much better that they use now. So a lot of times, it just depends on the product where you're buying it. Sometimes they still have that grainy taste to them, but not always. It just depends on the company and what they're using. But that's the big thing is like tasting gluten-free, you're going to taste the grit. It just is, there was a grit, regular gluten-free not using a good flour is gritty tasting. Okay. Yeah. All right. So...

28:39
Do you love this? Do you love what you're doing? I do. I've always loved baking. I like seeing people pleased like after they eat it and they go, wow, that was really good. You know, it's like, okay, great, I did it, you know? So no, I enjoy what I do. I've done it for so many years. I've been married for 50 years. So it's a long time to cook and bake birthday cakes and all that kind of stuff, you know. Last 16 years is definitely different than making a regular birthday cake because it transitioned to all the gluten-free stuff. But...

29:06
hey, it works out okay. They come out tasty and yummy and nobody knows the difference. So have you made a birthday cake for someone outside of the family and sold it to them? Yes. The lady that I was mentioning that she said it was either her brother or her brother-in-law. Oh yeah. And she brought it to the party. She was the only one that was gluten-free. And she took it to the party and she also brought cupcakes and she messaged me and she said, oh my God.

29:35
you know, that she couldn't believe how good they were. And her brother, or whoever it was, the person with her, just couldn't believe that this was a gluten-free birthday cake. He just kept looking at the ingredients and going, no. And then eating the cake again. So that to me is validation that, hey, it's pretty darn good, you know? Yeah, because if you're gonna make a birthday cake and have someone buy it from you for a party, as the person who made the cake, you really want it to be good. Well, yeah. Yeah.

30:06
Yeah, because I don't like making things like that to sell. I mean, I make granola and we sell it at the farmers market because granola is granola, whatever. Yeah, right. I like it and other people like it, they buy it. But I don't, I do not have what it takes to make a birthday cake and ask money for it and have it served to a bunch of strangers. I would freak out.

30:29
It's intimidating. Yes, it is. So I was really glad when I got the feedback from her that she liked it and that everybody there liked it. Okay, validation good. It was great. That was good. So cupcakes are easier to make, you know, as far as making stuff and birthday cakes aren't that much harder to make. But yeah, it's putting yourself out there a little bit to do it and hoping that you're not going to get judged negatively on it, you know? Yeah, exactly. And I'm going to step

30:58
thing for a minute. It's so hard when you're a female in this world because you're taught to on one hand don't give a crap about what people think about you and on the other hand worry about what people think about you and that transfers to whatever you make or do or think. Yep. And grow a thick skin but be nice.

31:26
It's like the whole Barbie monologue thing that that America Ferrer or whatever her name is did in the movie last year. It was cute. Yes. It was beautiful. Yeah, it was cute. Yeah, but it's so frustrating because on the one hand, I don't give a whatever I don't give a rip about what people think. But then again, I'm doing this podcast and I want people to listen and enjoy it and think well of it. There you go.

31:54
Is there a middle ground somewhere on anything in this world regarding people's opinions? You know? I know. Yep, absolutely. It's so hard. And every time I do the podcast, every single episode, I say it's so hard about something in the podcast episode. Life is hard, people. Deal with it. It is. Yep. You suck it up and you do it, you know? Yeah. And life is also beautiful.

32:24
So again, we're in that extremes, you know, from one extreme to the other. And I wake up every morning and I'm like, who am I talking to today? Oh, I'm talking to Nancy at Nana's kitchen. And I'm like, I wonder if Nancy's going to be chatty. I wonder if Nancy's going to be in a good mood. I wonder if it's going to be hard getting conversation out of Nancy. And whoever's I'm talking to. Yes. Invariably.

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I get done talking to whoever I'm talking to and I'm like, that was great. I'm so glad I did that. My day is made. I can compare that to when we started doing farmer market venues and the prep going into it and oh my God, is it going to be worth it? And the stress then when it's over, it's like, okay, it came out okay and I made some money. So I understand what you're saying. Yes. Yeah. It's. Yes.

33:16
crazy the things that we do because we need to solve a problem. And then other people find out we're doing it and they're like, I have that problem too. Can I buy the thing you made to fix the problem I have too? And then you feel satisfied that you've provided something to someone. Yeah, exactly. It's a beautiful cycle of help. And it makes me really happy.

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And it's all about me being happy. Obviously, the whole world revolves around me. Well, of course, around each of us has our world revolving around us, right? Mm-hmm, yep. So anyway, thank you, Nancy, for your time today. Well, you are welcome. And your thoughts. It's a joy talking to you. Your thoughts and your words and everything. Yeah, Mary, it was wonderful talking to you. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, thank you. Have a great day. Okay, bye-bye.