Natural Living Fair

Today I'm talking with Amy at the Natural Living Fair.

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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. Today's Homestead Holler is a shout out to the Grounded in Maine podcast. Amy Fagan is the host, and she focuses on the many ways to live a sustainable life. You can find Grounded in Maine on Instagram or at groundedinmaine.com. 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 Amy.

00:29
at the Natural Living Fair. Good afternoon. I get so confused because I record at 10am and 1pm, typically, and the light is pouring through the window in my room where my desk is and it looks very morningish right now. So good afternoon. Sorry about that. Good afternoon. I don't know where you are, but we have a ton of snow on the ground and so everything is so bright today.

00:55
Yeah, I'm in Minnesota and we have maybe a dusting on the ground. And I saw that you guys down in the South were getting pounded with snow. And I was like, you know, we've gotten maybe eight inches all winter and they're getting more than we've gotten all winter right now. It's insane. Isn't it? It's not right. I don't love it. And especially up here, we need the snow for insulation for the plants to, to do their thing in the winter time. They need time to rest.

01:25
And we had hardly any snow last year either. So this is getting to be a problem. I'm very concerned about what our gardens are going to do this year. Yeah, you know, for us, we get worried in the summer, because it's so hot and dry now. It's not like it used to be. And we're dealing with mid-summer drought after drought after drought. Yeah, I guess we're just going to have to see if Mother Nature adjusts to the new weather patterns, because this is. OK.

01:54
I can't worry about it anymore than I already do, or I will just call it. Sure. All right. So Amy, I want to know about your Natural Living Fair because I was reading the article that was linked on your Facebook page and it says you've been doing this since 2015. So tell me about yourself and the Natural Living Fair. Yeah. So I have a farm in South Clarksville. It's called the Sunday Morning Flower Farm. And I...

02:23
grow primarily flowers for summer CSA, which stands for community supported agriculture. So when you think CSA, often you think, you know, like a bushel of vegetables that you pick up from a farmer in the summer. And we kind of do that with bouquets. You can pick them up at our farm or we deliver them. And so that's the main thing that we do with our farm. And then in the spring...

02:50
I throw the Natural Living Fair, and you're right, it's since 2015. This is the eighth one that we're going to be doing. We took kind of a pause during when COVID first started. And we just feature farmers and artisans and any type of craftsperson, small businesses that kind of deal with the more natural living genre. And we just all meet up.

03:18
one weekend. It's the last weekend of April every year. And we just bring the community out and we sell tons of plants and all kinds of fun stuff. It reminds me of the Common Ground Fair that Maine holds every year, except the Common Ground Fair has been around for a long, long time. And it's huge. And I don't know that you guys are huge yet. No, we're not huge.

03:47
The location that we have, I think we could be bigger if we wanted to, but I really like the size that we are. We're kind of perfect just serving our community. We have between 50 and, really between 40 and 70 vendors every year.

04:05
And really the location that we have it at is gorgeous. It's at the Tanglewood House in Clarksville. And we have, it's like, it's an old historic building and the grounds are beautiful.

04:20
keep it. I'm sorry. Are we still here? Yeah, we're good. Okay, I got a phone call. I'm so sorry. It's important to me that we keep it there because the ambiance is so perfect and I want people to come away from the fair with just a peaceful feeling, you know, that they just left something good. Yeah, that's Clarksville, Tennessee, right? Yes. Okay, is that the same Clarksville in the song? The last train to Clarksville?

04:49
I think that's Clarksville, Indiana. Okay. I don't know. It's been running through my head all day when I saw where you were and I'm like, I don't think that's the right place. I think that's everyone's first thoughts. Yeah. Great song. Fun song. I love music. So anything, any word can trigger a song that will just haunt me all day. It's insane. Okay. So when you say natural living fair,

05:14
I'm assuming that a lot of your vendors sell herbs, they sell soaps, they sell lotions, they sell balms. What else do they sell? Yeah. We also have, like I said, a lot of farmers selling produce, flowers, plant starts. And then I really define the term natural as just kind of working in harmony with what's always been here.

05:42
And so we have a lot of artisans, we have woodworkers and metal smiths, we have beekeepers. I'm part of the master gardeners here in Clarksville and we have a lot of gardeners. We have some local food trucks and we have live music. We give free booth space to children, maybe if you know a young entrepreneur. And then...

06:11
Just anything that's for, you know, most people can't start a factory on their own. They can't open a giant business. But what most people can do is learn time-honored skills and traditions. And we want to support the people that are doing that. Okay. So did you? Tell me, tell me more about...

06:36
why you started this? Because I don't know that you got real in depth on that at the beginning. I think it was just a passion. I really love anything to do with natural living and farming, and I love getting my community together. That's very important to me to build community with the people around you, because I think that we've gotten so far from that. And that was it.

07:03
I just, you know, I was with one of my friends and I thought we could, we can do this. We can do this. And we did. And here we are. And you're saving. Sure. So, yeah. So, do you mind telling me how you did it? Because I feel like it would be really cool if every fairly large town or city did something like this. And if somebody wanted to take up a mantle in their area, how would they go about starting something like this?

07:34
It was completely grassroots for us. I had a friend who knew something about this, and they said, well, maybe we have it at Tanglewood now, which is a beautiful venue. The first one that we ever did was at a church, and we donated the proceeds to a school that was opening. So it's come a long way, but really it was just me and a few of my friends getting together, and someone…

08:03
We just we reached out to the community and we called small businesses and and we all just Brainstormed for days and got a little got a little event together and then it's just grown slowly from there So it's it's not it's not um Rocket science or anything you don't have to be Fancy or super smart or I don't know connected to set something like this up

08:33
No, no, I mean it helps to have connections of course, but if there's a will there's a way and all you need is the desire to get it off the ground. Awesome, okay. Well I think that maybe some listeners might be inspired to try doing this in their area. Well I hope so. That would be awesome if they did. I am not inspired to do it

09:03
people and I really don't want to be at anything like this. It would freak me out. I would be just buzzing and just like talking. But I'm sure that somebody out there is very people oriented and very service oriented and would want to try setting something like this up. So I'm hoping that they do. Okay. So how many people do you think attend this?

09:29
So it really just kind of depends on the weather every year. We've seen fairs with horrible weather where we've only gotten about 300 people. And then when the weather is great, we might have up to 1500. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Quite different. Yeah. But 1500 people is nothing to sneeze at. That's, that's a good number. And so I assume it costs money to attend this. It is free. Oh, is it free?

09:57
Yeah, it's free. So we, the venue that I'm working with now is wonderful and they really share my vision and they want community to come out. And so they, they give me a very affordable price. And then the only money that comes in is from that what the vendors pay for their booths. Wow. Yeah, we really don't make a lot of money doing it. It's just important to us to keep it going.

10:24
Yeah, no, that's fine. I just was assuming there would be some kind of admission fee, but that's great because that means anybody can attend. And I assume that people come with their kids and their kids learn a lot while they're there. Yeah. You know, a lot of the booths have activities for kids. I have a booth myself for my farm and we always let kids start seeds or pot up little tiny plants for free. You know, we do things. Last year we had a...

10:53
portion of our booth it was called rejuice reuse recycle and we let kids plant in old juice boxes So it's fun. It was kind of a way to you know, get a second life out of them and teach kids about recycling You are so cool When you said that you wouldn't want to be there because of the crowds I completely understand we have the

11:21
The property has historic cabins on it, and the owners let us use it. And one of the cabins we reserve is a quiet space. So I tell people, you know, if you're a nursing mom, or maybe you have a kiddo with autism, or a sensory needs of your own, that's a place where you can just go.

11:43
fair. Nice. I'm kind of going to go off track here for a minute, but it's something that was interesting and it ties into what you're saying. The airport here in Minneapolis, I think that they now have a sensory room that they built, they set up in the airport for people. Wonderful. And it was on the news and they had a lady who was talking to whoever

12:13
and they had the video in the room. And it is so pretty. Like it's all blues and greens and it's quiet and it has like sound absorbing stuff. So it's very quiet. And I thought, what a great idea. Even if you're not on the autism spectrum. I know lots of people who are very anxious about flying and that room would probably help before they had to get on the plane. So I loggered.

12:42
I love it when organizations or businesses set things up like that for people. It's great. Yeah. So I have to stay off topic for just a second. I have three neurodivergent kids and so we often need a lot of quiet space. I was working with the... Clarksville has a downtown farmers market that runs through the summer and I helped set up a sensory booth.

13:09
at the downtown market too. And I'm really hoping that, you know, with the right.

13:15
I guess marketing, we could get all of Clarksville to just implement some more of those because the neurodivergent population is growing so fast. And even if you're not neurodivergent, it's a busy world. There's a lot going on all the time and I just love advocating for that. Everyone just needs a little more peace, you know? Yeah, absolutely. And my quiet space is where we live.

13:45
My house is typically pretty quiet and we live on three acres and we're surrounded by cornfields. So it's very nature soundish outside. And I'm beaten on the subject a lot lately, but we just got chickens again. So in the mornings we'll hear the chickens talking to each other again. Isn't it great? I love it. I do. I did not really care that we got rid of our chickens back in the fall because they're not my favorite animal.

14:12
But I really did notice that first month or so after we got rid of them that I wasn't hearing them cluck and murmur to each other in the mornings. I missed it. I really did. So they've been stuck in the chicken coop all week because it's been freaking cold here. So they're going to get to come out into the run this weekend and then they're going to be able to free range starting next week. It's going to be warm again. So I'm going to hear my chickens talking to each other again. I'm very excited about this.

14:42
We also have chickens and they are very calming. I love their little noises. Yeah, it's so funny because the last time we got chickens, I went over with my husband where we get them from and they were in their little bins in the back of the SUV on the way back. I didn't even turn the radio on because I wanted to hear them talking to each other in the bins and my husband was like, what are you doing?

15:08
I said, listen. This is me time. I said, they're having a conversation back there. You're missing out on all the gossip. And he just laughed at me. But it may sound really weird that I really enjoy the noises they make, but they're just, they're very calming as long as they're not squawking. The egg laying squawk is a little disconcerting that, you know, it's like, oh, that was definitely an egg laying sound. Okay. Yeah, that's a loud song they have. Thank you.

15:35
But when they're just murmuring to each other, it is just, it's almost like a babbling brook kind of relaxation sound. Oh yeah, I can see that. So got off on neurodivergent stuff. And honestly, I have no idea. I assume I am neurodivergent on all kinds of levels. I've never been diagnosed. But every time I talk with friends who are, they're like, you must be, because you don't like crowds. You don't like loud noises.

16:03
you refuse to fly, you have all these key things that would make you on the spectrum, but you've never been diagnosed. I'm like, no, I have just coped my whole life with things that make me not comfortable. Yeah. I'm in the process now of getting all those things diagnosed. And I will say that information is key. I think that the more you know, the easier your life can be.

16:33
So, you know, a diagnosis doesn't matter for a lot of people, but I have come to find that it matters for me. So that's what I like to tell people, you know. Info is everything. Oh, yes. I think forewarned is forearmed is forewarned or however that saying goes. Yeah. The more you know, the more you know. And the more you know, the more you can learn about what you don't know yet.

17:03
I love education. Good way to put it. Yeah, I love education. Part of the reason, I mean, I have a lot of reasons I started the podcast, but a big reason is because I wanted to learn from other people about what they're doing because then I can implement some of those things I learned into what we do here. And it has worked like a charm, I'm telling you. So I'm sure you get to talk with, you know, so many different people and you just get

17:30
the very best info they give you in a short amount of time? Yes, exactly. And it's so funny because people tell me things that I would never have even thought to ask about, let alone know about. And there's times where people are like, I tried this thing and it didn't work. And I'm like, I can tell you why. Because I know, because I tried it. So it's this very nice give and take of information and education. I really do enjoy it. Yeah.

17:59
biggest issue I have with the podcast is scheduling and we had a little glitch today. I thought you were on the East Coast because I thought Tennessee was Eastern time. Well, half of it is. And half of it is, but you're not on that side. And back months ago, I interviewed a lady in Australia and then I interviewed a lady in New Zealand. And trying to figure out the time zones, you know, what time is it there versus what time is it here? We all had to look it up. We didn't know.

18:29
So yeah, it's happened a bunch of times and the worst thing that happens is somebody doesn't show up and I go, where were you? And they say, but I'm this time zone. And I'm like, oh, well, that makes sense. So I usually try to say, are you available at this time, central time? And that way they realize I'm central time. And then we figure out. So it's always interesting. But.

18:53
This natural living fair thing sounds like just a ball. And 20 years ago, when I wasn't quite as bothered by crowds, I would have been there with bells on. I think it sounds like a lot of fun. Well, I really am really proud of it. I have a lot of fun. You should be. That was a huge undertaking for you, I feel like. And it sounds like it's been a really big success. So good job. I had a really good community when I started. And I think that was a big part of it.

19:22
Yeah, and you had people to help, I assume. Yeah, in the first few years, I had some help. And then I just kind of took it over. It becomes habit. It's not as difficult anymore. And you've already made so many connections. And you've been there. You've done that. So I do it mostly alone now. But most of my time is actually taken up with my farm.

19:52
I'm lucky that I've had so many seasons under my belt now. It's second nature. Nice. So, I have one more question about the fair and then I would like to talk to you about your farm for a few minutes. So when, it's in April, so I'm assuming the weather in Tennessee is usually lovely in April if it's not pouring. Right. Okay. So people get to come to this thing and the weather's nice.

20:22
and they get to bring their kids and they get to buy things, they get to learn things, they get to eat things, I would guess. Yes. And so they must just be walking around smiling the entire day. It's hard to have a terrible time. Yeah. I mean, weather permitting, it's fun. It's all shaded. Everything outside is shaded. The grounds are kept up beautifully. They have a restaurant on site called the Mad Herbalist. It's a tea bar where you can get...

20:50
you know, seasonal food and it's in central Clarksville. It's just, it's so accessible and peaceful. Yeah, it's hard to leave. For me anyway, it's hard to leave having a bad time. Okay, well I think anybody in your area who's into plants or natural stuff or food ought to go visit your fair because I think that that would be really fun.

21:20
Okay, so tell me about your farm, because I didn't realize you have a farm. I do. So in 2019, we moved from the city to the very, very south Clarksville, and we got just under six acres. And we started that year, we had, we fenced off a little part of our yard. It was about 4,500 square feet, and we just said, this is going to be our garden. And it went really well.

21:50
And in 2021, we built a greenhouse for seedlings. And I realized that I can grow enough for us, but I can grow it enough for a lot of people. And so we thought, why not just till up part of this yard over here and plant a little flower patch? And so then we had the garden, and we had a little patch in the field.

22:18
And then last year we got approved for a grant from the NRCS, which is the natural resource and I think it's conservation service. And so now we have a very long greenhouse. We have our seed starting greenhouse. We have the garden. We have the field in which we plant in. And we just have a lot more space than we did when we started out. And so we started a CSA bouquet.

22:45
Like I said earlier, it stands for community supported agriculture. So in the winter and the spring, people buy into that. They'll say, I want X amount of flowers, X amount of weeks, and then they pay for that. So let's say you want 10 weeks of flowers throughout the summer. You either come pick them up on Sunday mornings at our farm or you have them delivered.

23:14
sometime throughout the week and I just I take them all over Clarksville. And this year I think we're planning on adding vegetables. So we'll be serving you know our little part of the community with the stuff that we grow here and you know we're we're not certified organic but we don't spray we don't spray any of our stuff and we have bees that pollinate it all and

23:42
I don't know, it's just our little slice of piece here. Yep, I understand, we have one here too. Yeah. So the great thing about the CSA model is that people subscribe in late winter, early spring. That means that the person that is supplying the flowers or the produce or whatever it is has the money that they need to buy the stuff they need to grow the things that they're going to be giving back.

24:11
people who subscribe. And I'm not, the only reason I'm saying this out loud is because I'm not quite sure that people understand why it's a subscription service. And that's really the point of it is that say we wanted to do our CSA again, we did it for two years, we're not doing it anymore. My husband has a job that takes up too much time and he would rather sell the farmers market. But when we did the CSA, we would take the money that

24:40
for the subscriptions in the spring and we would buy our seeds. And whatever we could start in February, March, April in the house on the table, grow lights, again we're doing that this year. That's what those seeds would be going into is the little pots on the table. And then if we didn't have, if we didn't want to do the starts from seeds, some of that CSA money would go to getting seedlings from a nursery.

25:09
so that they could just go right in the ground. So I just, I want people to understand why you pay for it ahead of the season. Yeah, yeah. So I always tell people that farmers really don't have a winter income. Right. And so it's hard to put money into something when there's no money coming in. So.

25:34
Yeah, that's why I say that people are basically kind of buying into our farm for the year. You're supplying the startup that is going to allow me to grow the flowers that I then return to you. So it's very harmonious and it seems very intentional. I really like just how basic it is. You give me money, I grow your things. Yeah, basically we're doing the growing work and they get to just come get it. It's very...

26:03
It's like a convenience store except that the food is so much better for you or the flowers are so much nicer. Exactly. People don't realize the carbon footprint on grocery store flowers. They all come from South America. They're flown in on jets. By the time they get to you, they might already be a week old. That's why they're only lasting three or four days versus a locally grown...

26:30
you know, bouquet of dahlias you might get two full weeks out of. Yep. And often they're, I mean, we don't undercut the competition, but we are often a little cheaper than the grocery store for the quality. So. Yeah. Um, my husband used to get me a bouquet or two of flowers for Valentine's Day. And I asked him this year, I said, can, can you not get me flowers? And he looked at me like I had sprouted another head out of.

26:59
And he said, why? And I said, because I said, the last couple of years, you've bought me flowers at the grocery store because you're on your way home. I said, and half of them are just yucky. The minute I put them in there, try to take them out of the plastic, they're gross. I said, it has nothing to do with you. It's not your fault, but I don't want you spending money and having to throw away half of the stems. And honestly, I'm going to have

27:29
So I don't need flowers in February. It's fine. I said I would rather just have like some food from somewhere that I didn't have to cook. Yeah, exactly. And he was like, oh, okay, cool. I said, and it's going to be cheaper for fast food because once in a while we splurge on fast food. We're homesteaders. We still now and then want to have a gross burger. Yeah. And I don't mean gross. I mean, I mean dive bar burger. I know what you mean.

27:54
And he was like, oh, so we're gonna spend like 25 bucks instead of the 50 on flowers. I was like, yes, that would be nice. And you know, when you think about like a local farm, what you can get, how many flowers you can get for $25 that are gonna last you two weeks that are, a lot of them, you know, a lot of the stuff that we plant, even our cut flowers, we plant because native pollinators love them. And so you're not just supporting.

28:23
your farmer, you're supporting your entire ecosystem that is then going to in turn give back to you in another way. There are so many good things about farming and homesteading if you're doing it the way that we're doing it. We did sunflowers, started growing sunflowers three years ago and not like for sale, but just because they're pretty. And we're so smitten with them that we're probably going to grow like a whole...

28:53
couple of rows this year because they're so pretty. You can bring in a sunflower and put it in a vase as long as you get it before it's like you know twice the size of a dinner plate. Yeah. And they're really pretty. And the other thing that we've done is cut the basil when it's blooming and put that in in our flowers too. So that's a thing that we do too. All of our bouquets have fresh herbs in them.

29:19
Whether it be a form of basil, you know, we grow a lot of like cinnamon basil and lemon and lime basil for that purpose Even Thai basil just smells great in a bouquet or we have chamomile or oregano something, you know A lot of people I think don't realize that a lot of cut flowers don't have a smell. Yeah, you know because What usually smells also has a lot of pollen that's gonna drop on your table. Mm-hmm

29:47
And so by putting those fresh herbs in a bouquet, when people just naturally bring it to their nose to smell it, they still get a really pleasant experience. Absolutely. And since you said Thai basil and cinnamon basil, I keep thinking that Thai and cinnamon basil are the same thing. I know they're not, but they smell so much alike that they could be the same. They are very similar. They don't taste that similar though. Yeah.

30:15
Yeah, we grow cinnamon basil and I love it. The Thai basil, I don't know. I don't love it as much as the cinnamon to cook with it. So, but anyway, I try to keep these to half an hour and my voice is going, I don't know why. So I'm gonna let you go, but thank you so much for your time today, Amy, I really appreciate it. Absolutely, it was great to meet you. You too, have a great afternoon. Thanks. All right, thanks. Bye.