Winfield Farms LLC

Today I'm talking with Nita at Winfield Farms LLC. 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 Nita at Winfield Farms, I think is the name of your place. Good morning, Nita. How are you? Good morning. Good morning, Mary. I'm starting to get confused because I've talked to so many people with so many names that I'm like, I know the name of the place when I sit down and when I start to introduce it, I'm like...

00:29
What was the name of the place again? So what do you do at Winfield Farms? So Winfield Farms has been around since like 1890s. So it's been traditionally a row crop farm. And after my mother was no longer able to manage it, my sister and I took it over and we now own it. And so we're moving from row crops to more agritourism.

01:00
and we're looking, we partnered with an organization that helps us get our food out to food deserts in the city. So we're taking a different approach. We're bringing the soil back up to where it needs to be, but we're also focusing on agritourism and food deserts. Awesome, I love that. Tell me about the history of the farms. I was looking at your website and it's really interesting. So tell me about it.

01:29
So our family has a really long, long history in Surry County as free blacks as early as 1804. But this was that's on my grandmother's side, but the wind fields are my grandfather's side. And so the first property was purchased by my great grandfather on a land contract in 1890. And that's where my grandfather was born in 1892. And then my grandfather, then the second track.

01:56
we have, which is the one that my grandfather purchased in 1923. So we have a total of three tracks. One was later purchased by my uncle and we've consolidated all of those. But the family has a very diverse history. My grandmother, it's funny, and you ask me this and it won't take long talking about it, but people look at me and they say, well, how old are you if your great grandfather was in the Civil War? And so.

02:24
That's more like great, great, great grandfather, right? But my grandmother's father was a Civil War veteran. And she was born in 1892. My grandfather was born in 1890. She was born in 1897. Grandfather was born in 1892. Okay. And my mother was the youngest. So we have long generations. My mother was born in 1930. And so to end up with a great grandfather in the Civil War, he married twice.

02:50
And my grandmother was the youngest of his second marriage, his first wife passed. So that's how I end up with that long span in terms of generational gap for us. So we have a lot of history in this story. That's called longevity and that's amazing. It is. Okay, so one of the things I try really hard not to do on the podcast is talk about religion or politics because they're very divisive topics.

03:21
However, the fact that your family was free blacks who owned land and made it go is really, really interesting. And I say that as a very, very white woman. I have been called whiter than the queen. And so it's always interesting to me because I actually, I think I have been told, I don't have it verified.

03:48
that one of my ancestors was an Abenaki Native American woman in Maine. And so I always feel real divided because I know what happened with the Native Americans. So if I have Native American blood in me, I am very, very conflicted a lot of the time about the things that happened. So I don't, like I don't want to make this a story about how terribly people who weren't white and privileged.

04:18
We're treated because I don't really want to get into it because we all know that that's true. But like, it's amazing to me that your family with probably a lot of odds stacked against them managed to do what they did. And now you're doing something that benefits your community. Right.

04:40
I'll tell you what, I think you see on our website, and at least we're a part of the Surrey Cultural Trail because of our family's history, we brought together a diverse group of experiences for African Americans because there were African Americans, and yes, slavery was bad. It was terrible. My grandfather's father was the son of his slave owner.

05:07
My grandmother's side of the family, they were free in 1804, property owners. And my grandmother's maternal grandfather escaped through the Underground Railroad and went to Canada. And so my great grandmother was Canadian and came down and married this guy who was free. So when you look at our family, it is, I think we have captured about every, well, close to every single kind of experience African Americans had in the 1800s in the US.

05:35
from being free property owners, going through the Underground Railroad, being a child of the slave owner, having land, not having land. So it's diverse. And I think that people always focus on just one aspect of the African-American experience. But for us, it was very broad. My ancestors were educated on one side. Helped to fight.

06:04
to establish Virginia State University. On the other side, they were not, you know, so it's broad. And so I can see where there's both camps. My family was in the Civil War as free blacks in the Civil War. And then went on to become the first group in the House of Delegates that were black for the state of Virginia. But then we had others, you know, the haves and the have nots are all there in our family. So.

06:31
I feel like you might have a book in you. I think we do. I think we have a series. Sounds like a Netflix series to me. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if you're a writer, but maybe there's a writer in your family who would be happy to write your story because I would buy that. I would read that. I love books and I love books about history. So okay. So um, so.

06:58
What exactly do you do at your place? You said that you provide food for the food deserts around you. So it's what we did. We started out when we took over the property, you know, with row crops, they do not necessarily, farmers don't necessarily when they're renting your land, take care of your land. And so the land had been rented for a while. And so we found that it was not, you know, the pH wasn't being managed properly, the soil wasn't being managed. So we took that back and we have about 100 acres.

07:28
And so we put part of it, we've gotten a lot of grants to take part of it back into trees, so what we can manage. Because we're really environmentalists at heart, so to speak. And in order to get the soil back up, we started planning just cover crops, working with the USDA so we could get the grant funding. And we said, okay, the first year we're gonna put in sunflower seeds, because it was the cheapest seed we could get, right? And then we could plan our cover crop where we would get the reimbursement. So many people stopped for the sunflowers.

07:58
My sister and I looked at each other and we said, this might be a business. So we had our second annual, we planted them three years now. This year we just had our second annual sunflower festival. People are coming from everywhere. We just let them, we sell them a vase and it's all you can pick some flowers. So that's what we've done in tourism. And it's amazing how many people come to just pick some flowers over.

08:26
We have about 40 acres planted and we just cut ass through where people forage for flowers for the... So that's what we do in the fall because we're still trying to rebuild our barn. And so we have to use the weather to work with us in terms of storage. We plant fall crops, brassicas, and from our broccoli to our collards, we have sweet potatoes as well. And so those are the ones.

08:55
We work with the Black Church Food Security Network and we're also GAP certified. We got GAP certified last year. And we provide those to 4P, but with the Black Church Food Security Network, we provide food to churches. And that's a plan for this year. They've also invested in a half acre of blueberries, knowing that it will take about three years to get those to market. And we've planted blackberries.

09:23
They're fruiting this year, but again, you know, they are more floricane as opposed to primocane. So we only have a few blackberries, but again, all of those we will use to support the Black Church Food Security Network. Okay, what is GAP certified? I haven't heard about this yet. GAP is good agricultural practices. So it's a USDA certification that allows you, that says you practice safe agricultural

09:51
methods for harvesting, for growing, you track what animals come in your field. If they make a deposit in your field, then you isolate that area, you have good hand washing procedures, you have procedures for your workers. So we obtained our GAP certification last year, which is really good, and you renew it every year. That allows you to sell to K-12.

10:17
to universities. Restaurants don't necessarily have to have it, but people want to know that you have good agricultural practices in terms of hygiene, how you handle your pesticides or pesticides or whatever. So we now have achieved that level of safety in our production process. Very nice. Tell me again what state you're in. We're in Virginia. We're in the eastern part of Virginia, yes. Okay.

10:45
I don't know if Minnesota has that GAP certification thing. I've never heard of it. They probably do. I just haven't heard of it. Well, it's through the USDA. So it's a national program. And the USDA subcontracts with the Virginia Department of Agriculture to come out and audit your facilities. And then the paperwork is sent to the USDA. So I'm sure it's a national program.

11:13
And for small farmers, they reimburse you for it as well. Okay, I have no idea. Maybe it's for like bigger operations than your usual farm to market kind of little place like we have. I'm gonna look into it though, cause now I'm curious. See, this is what happens. I talk to you guys, you tell me stuff and I'm like, gotta add it to the look it up list. I have a look it up list. So.

11:40
Sunflowers. I have talked to a couple people on the podcast about sunflowers. We grow sunflowers, but we grow them because they're pretty and we don't grow very many. To me, sunflowers are the most wonderful thing on earth to grow because they will grow anywhere. And they're beautiful. Ours just started blooming a couple weeks ago.

12:06
And I looked out my living room window in the morning when some was coming up and I could see one and I'm like, Oh, it's back. I love this. It makes me so happy. They're just, they're the happiest weed-ish flower I've ever seen. So how many, how many acres did you say you have? We planted this year, we planted just about 30 acres. Do you have?

12:33
photos of it on your page, your Facebook page? Yes, we're probably going to, on my Facebook page, I should, I have a lot of ads. We have photos for this year, we have photos for last year. I can email them to you as well. I'm getting ready to update our page, but in some of our videos I have. Yeah, do you guys have a drone? No, we do not.

13:02
Do you know anybody who does? It would take aerial photos of your 30 acres of sunflowers? I probably could find someone. And they're on the downside now. I have some other photos I could send you that are not drones. But you know, that's a good idea I never thought about. Yeah, I bought my husband a drone for his birthday. I think the second year we were here. We're coming up on four years next month. And he was like, why did you buy me a drone? He said, thank you. But what?

13:32
is this about?" And I said, we have three acres. I thought you might want to be able to take aerial footage of your three acres as things are growing. And he went, oh, yes. So the thing I would suggest to anybody who has anything going on like you do is pick up an inexpensive drone. They're not that expensive and get video of your property because we did it and we were so glad that we did.

14:00
trying to build infrastructure or rebuild infrastructure. You don't think about things like this. But yes, it's a good idea. That's a good idea. I do have photos from the ground. And this year we really struggled. We thought we were gonna have crop failure because we went for three and a half weeks with no rain. And even though sunflowers are super, super, super hardy, they did not get a lot of hype to them. But guess what? They bloomed like crazy.

14:30
after the rain. They're short little jokers, right? You know? But after we started getting rain they started shooting up. But we really were concerned we were going to lose the crop this year because we went through a terrible drought. The corn farmers are suffering. They are going to have much of a corn crop this year. I know where all your rain went. It went here. Right!

14:55
Now we're getting rain and rained on the day of our sunflower festival in the morning. We were thinking, where were you a month ago? Yeah, you guys had exactly the opposite weather from us. Our cucumber plants are already showing blight because of all the wet. And I freaking love cucumbers. And my plan every January.

15:22
is to talk to my husband about how many cucumber plants we're going to grow because I want a cucumber every day from the end of June until they die. And I have had one so far and it was wonderful. My son just brought me in another one this morning and that will be gone by tomorrow. And it's going to be a really sad year for us for cucumbers. So

15:45
I understand what you're saying and I don't want to bitch too much about the weather because it actually been okay the last week or so and I would like it to continue to be okay.

15:57
But you bring up a really important point. People who grow anything are at the mercy of Mother Nature. And some years, she is really kind to us and we get wonderful produce. Other years, she has a being her monnet and she's not kind and you don't know what you're gonna get. That is absolutely correct. And all you can do is

16:25
decide how am I going to mitigate the risk at the beginning of the year. And we did not do that well this year, but next year we will have patches of sunflowers where we know we can keep water on them and keep them irrigated. And because I'll tell you trying to irrigate 30 acres is like giving a whale a tick tick. It does not work. You just can't do it.

16:51
So we're going to try to mitigate that risk. So we have larger sunflowers. It was disappointing that the size of them weren't great. We had some that we were able to keep water on and they were beautiful, but yeah, it was sad to see. Yeah. So when you say we, who's involved in the farm? It's you, your sister?

17:14
Right, my sister and I and my family. My sister, my family, I have cousins. We all, they all participate. Not necessarily to the extent that I do, but I am not going to discount any help that I get. It's all good. Everybody works full-time and, you know, to a lesser degree I'm the only one that has children or a child out of the house. Everyone else has kids

17:43
So they're still participating and contributing in a lot of ways. So we're making this a family effort and the goal is to bring all of the parcels back together and put them in the trust for the benefit of the family. I love that. I'm so glad you're trying to keep it so that it is a legacy. Great, great. You can't throw away property that's been in the family since 1890. And we are just determined not to let...

18:13
one generation just decide, oh, well, we'll sell it. We wanna avoid that. Yes. And I'm guessing that if it's a trust and if none of the younger generation at some point wants to do anything with it anymore, is there a clause that says that if someone wants to take it and do what you're doing with it, continue it, is that doable?

18:43
Okay, I don't know. No because what we've done, our strategy is to have enough of a long-term resource where the funds go into the trust and maintain the property. And a part of what we're doing is we're bringing the younger kids in so that they have an attachment to it like we all did. You know my older cousins and I.

19:12
You know, we all grew up with granddaddy, we know, but the younger ones, they don't know. So that's the other thing. We're trying to bring the younger ones in, but we have a long range investment strategy. We have, you know, the loblolly pines, but we've planted hardwoods. We're putting up the barn so that infrastructure can be rented in, not just the land. And then the trees can be harvested over 20 years, 40 years, 50 years. All of that goes into the trust, the mineral rights, everything goes into the trust.

19:41
so that it isn't a financial burden for any future generation, that it is self-sufficient. Okay, that makes more sense, thank you. I don't know enough about all of this to speak to any of it, so I'm really glad that you're explaining it to me, thank you. And I'm still learning about the trust too, but the biggest piece that we found to be most challenging for a lot of families is the financial burden that a farm brings with it. Because...

20:10
renting the land and getting row crop money for it isn't enough these days to cover the taxes. It used to be, but not anymore. Yep, taxes. Taxes suck. Doesn't matter what is being taxed, it just sucks. And I get it. I get why we have them. I get that taxes are used for things. I understand it. I just don't like it. But that's okay. I don't have to. I just have to pay them.

20:39
So, do you guys have any animals or is it all just produce? It's all just produce and orchards. We have a small orchard now. We're building it up of Japanese persimmons, which are pretty popular and they grow well in this area. And the blueberries and we're growing the blackberries, but we don't want animals. That's just a little bit too much. There are too many rules now for what they eat, how to take them to market.

21:08
you know, it's just, it's more complicated than, than we want to deal with. Yes. And plants don't eat grain or hay. Um, one of the things that I keep hearing is how expensive it is to have livestock. And we do not have any livestock here. We have, well, we have chickens, but they don't, they don't cost too much to feed because we only have like 11 chickens now, so we're not feeding them too much. Um,

21:36
and we have like three cats and a dog. So we don't really have livestock. And the reason for that is that it is expensive to feed livestock if you don't have acres for them to graze and we do not. Correct, correct. And I'll tell you what, even chickens, some of the insurance companies here do not want you to have roosters on your property. Really? I know.

22:01
I know one of the farmers who's been mentoring us was just contacted by his insurance company and they said, oh, you have roosters. You know, they did an inspection and they said, well, you got to get rid of the roosters or we're going to drop you because roosters are ugly creatures and they're not friendly. So now roosters are. Yeah, that's all I got to say on that. He's looking for another insurance company.

22:30
You've got to be kidding me. That's nuts. Did you not? Huh. Well, I'm going to tell you right now, our neighbors have a rooster and he sings every morning and he is at least a quarter mile away. And that is one of my favorite sounds here. So I am offended for your friend. I know. I love the sound of rooster. I love it. That's how you know you're in the country. Mm hmm. I love it.

22:57
Yes, the same neighbor also has or had, I don't know if they still have him. They had a donkey and we could hear him braying too. And that was really fun. Obnoxious, but fun. They also have at least one cow. I assume they have more than one cow. And I think one of them is for milk and she lows in the morning. She does that, that low like moaning noise.

23:25
I hear that and I'm like we live in the country. I love this. This is great I know we grew up with animals on the farm and so I do miss them. But right now it's just it's just too expensive Uh-huh Everything is too expensive right now I Again, I don't want to get into politics, but I'm really really really really hoping that by this time next year maybe food

23:54
will come down to almost reasonably priced again? I know it and there's no reason for it. The farmers are not getting the benefit of these high prices in the grocery stores. People still want to buy cheap and resell it expensively. I mean even the wholesale prices are not reflective of what it's being sold for in the grocery stores. No, no it's not and it's offensive and I'm going to say this, I've been saying offended and offensive for the last two weeks. I just...

24:24
everything is crazy right now. And I wake up in the morning and I'm like, Oh, we're still here. Okay. That's good news. Cause I go to bed at night thinking, is the world going to actually blow up while I'm sleeping? You know, it's scary times, you know, scary times. And I think, you know, not just, you know, politically or whatever, but

24:51
because there's so much construction, so much of our farmland is now being developed. Animals are moving closer in, they're not away. We have more bears in our area, so that scares me. I'm looking at just, growing up, I never would see bears close by the farm, or a lot of wild turkeys. Most we had to deal with were deer. But now we even have coyotes in Virginia.

25:21
you know, there's so many bears out. So it's just, things are changing in a not so good way. I think we're just over developing, you know? Yeah, things are out of balance and it's not great. You mentioned coyotes. We actually have coyotes around us and we live in the middle of cornfields right now. And every spring, the coyotes have puppies. They have their babies.

25:48
And if you are up in the middle of the night, like I sometimes am, because I can't sleep because my husband snores, don't tell anybody. I will sit out on the porch and listen. And in the springtime, you can hear the puppies, the coyote puppies yipping just like regular old puppies. And I feel like all I'm talking about is the sounds that I hear around here. But it's adorable. And then I think, oh, those puppies are going to grow into adult coyotes. That's probably not good.

26:18
But I relish in the sound when they're puppies and then when they're grown, I pray that they just stay not on our property because we have a dog that I would not like to see get attacked by coyotes. Right. So it's a double edged sword when you live in the country. It's wonderful. I love it, I do. But you are at the mercy of what is naturally occurring around you.

26:47
And so far we've been fine and I am not going to lie. The first time I heard coyote pups, yep, I was tickled. I giggled. I thought it was amazing. But when I heard the howl that the grownups do when they make a kill, I was like, Oh, I don't like that part. That's not good. But like I said, everything seems to be very out of balance right now.

27:13
And that makes everybody feel on edge and that makes everybody testy. And so if I had anything to say to the listeners is, is take a breath, do what you can do to make the world a better place and just hope that everything turns out okay, because that's what I'm trying to do. Take care of my little piece of the world. Do what I think is right. And then hopefully everybody does the same.

27:42
Yeah, and regarding the grocery prices, we were so excited back in February when we were planning our garden. Planning, not planting, because we had great plans to grow a whole bunch of really good produce and donate like half of it to the food shelf so that there would be really good food for our community. We're not going to have nearly enough to do that. We will donate probably...

28:09
if we're lucky, 20 pounds of tomatoes to the food shelf this year. And we donated hundreds of pounds last year. So, so yeah, it's hard. All of this, this year is hard and I'm having a hard time with it. I'm not going to lie. I, my husband told me yesterday, they were out working in the greenhouse in the garden, my husband and my son. And he came in and he said, well, he said,

28:37
We've got 200 tomato seedlings to put in." And I said, what? He said, there's 200 tomato seedlings in the greenhouse that we're going to be planting over the week. I said, when did you plant 200 tomato seeds? He said, like a month ago when it was raining. I said, oh. He said, honey. He said, I knew we were going to have to replant. He said, so I just went all out. I said, good. I said, when will those come in?

29:06
This is probably end of August.

29:10
I said, okay, well the food shop's gonna get a whole lot of tomatoes at the end of August!

29:18
Well now, do you all do all the work around your farm? Because that's one of the challenges we have, is just finding people to work. Yeah, honestly, it's my husband and my son. My husband loves gardening beyond all measure. And he has a real job, he has a jobby job that he does Monday through Friday. And his way of de-stressing is gardening. And...

29:45
Our garden is like 100 feet by 150 feet. So it's not huge by any stretch, but it produces a lot when the weather is good. So my husband does it because he loves it. He enlists my son to help him because he needs help now and then. And I basically market what we're doing and I cook whatever he brings in for us to cook and we do a lot of canning. So it's us three, that's what we're doing.

30:15
Well, I'll tell you, when we obtained the GAP certification, we realized we were moving from large gardeners to small farming. Yes. And we needed more automation for planting as well as for weeding, for cultivating, and that we could no longer manage our garden.

30:40
And the size and the volume that we needed because I'll be honest with you when we obtained gap certification There was so much demand for our produce that we literally sold out the first You know, we thought we had enough produce for like, you know two months We literally sold out after our first delivery on all of our broccoli We were just shocked and so this year and that was last year. So

31:10
Both organizations that we work with are like, well, Nita, what can we have? I told them, I said, we have to grow our infrastructure in order to be able to meet your need. This year, we're actually trying to invest in cultivators and vacuum seeders because we have to reduce our cost of production by reducing our labor and

31:37
cost of buying seedlings. We have to plant seeds. And then we need the barn. Our barn fell down. It was over 100 years old. So we're trying to build a new barn. But I don't even have anywhere to store all the produce that everyone wants. You know, again, I was telling them, I said, look, our winters are warmer now. I can't just leave your broccoli outside overnight before I deliver it in the morning. It's still going to cook. And so that's one of the growing pains that we've had to contend with. And that's

32:06
slowing down and not taking so many orders because the demand is there.

32:22
That's okay. Yeah, so that's been the challenge. Yeah, and I'm glad that you said all that because there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes that most people don't know about. Right, right, there's a lot, there's a lot. Especially when you're a bigger production situation. Here in Minnesota, we...

32:50
don't have a whole lot of restrictions on growing produce. Basically, we here at our place, we don't use any insecticides, we don't use any herbicides, we don't use any manmade fertilizers, we make our own compost the way you're supposed to with dirt and coffee grounds and stuff, you know, not stuff.

33:19
from the garden. Like if we need greens for the compost pile, we're going to pull some lettuce and the rhubarb and throw it in the compost. So we're not at the mercy of a whole bunch of regulations as long as we're doing what we know to be right. And that's what we know to be right. But I hear from other people that there's a lot of different restrictions and a lot of different states on what you're allowed to do to be able to sell.

33:48
to other people. So we're really lucky here. And I'm glad that we are because if it was a lot of restrictions, our life plan might have been a little different.

34:04
Right. With the GAP certification, you do have a lot of restrictions with organic. So, we have to be very mindful of what we do with GAP and with how we handle it. Yes, we do. So, you're right. I think a lot of people don't understand what it takes to farm, what it takes to deliver produce commercially versus just out the garden. It's a big difference.

34:33
a big difference. It is and it's a huge difference in regulations, it's a huge difference in manpower, it's a huge difference in time. I mean if we were doing the entire property as as produced we would have to hire people there's no way that we would be able to keep up and that's just three acres. So...

35:00
Right, that's right. And we limited our produce that we're growing commercially to about an acre and a half. The agritourism part covers the rest of the acreage and then we're putting in trees. So, no. And you can't find labor. So you have to mechanize as much of your process as you can. And then you have the labor for harvesting and packing. Because people are not working for minimum wage.

35:30
They're not because even your migrant laborers, they're making $20 an hour and then you have to provide housing. Yep, it's a different world. It's completely different. So what kind of fruit are you growing? You said blackberries and what else? Right, we have blackberries, we have blueberries, and we have the Japanese persimmon, not the Native American, but it's called a Fuyu persimmon.

35:58
And it is super sweet. It's not astringent like the Native American persimmon. So when you bite into that, the Native American one just seems to take your adenoids and suck them out of your mouth. Right. You know, just so dry. But the Japanese persimmon is super sweet and you can eat it just like a peach, you know, and it's firm and nice. And that's a tree? It's a tree. It's a tree. It's a tree. It's a tree.

36:27
it has a wonderful, wonderful and expensive fruit too. So is it, I don't know anything about persimmons. In the spring, is it blooms and then they turn into the fruits once they're pollinated? Yes, yes, they do. Do you guys have wicked winds in Virginia? We do have wicked winds and we have those trees staked.

36:58
Yes. Okay. The reason I ask is we have apple trees and we got apples last fall for the first time since we moved in almost four years ago. And this spring, all of our trees were loaded with beautiful, beautiful apple blooms. And we had a terrible windstorm come through, took almost every single blossom off the trees. And we have like eight apples out of 20 trees.

37:24
So that's the other thing that is tough if you're dealing with fruit trees is that again, the weather really does affect how things happen. I was so excited to finally get Harrelson and Regent apples this fall and there is one red apple on those two trees. One. Oh wow.

37:48
Yeah, our winds are not that bad. Our trees are about three years old, so I would not allow them to fruit this year. And I went through and picked off most of them. I got most of them. There were a few. But they were really full of small fruit. I waited too long before trying to get the blooms off of them. But I got the fruit off. And they seem to do pretty good. We are going to have to stake them. And we might use an espalier method, you know, where we just put the wires in and...

38:18
and you know drape the leaves kind of attach the branches to the wire but um but no so far the winds are not that bad they're not too too bad. Yeah it pretty much destroyed our apples and I'm starting to understand why when people start apple orchards they do like rows and rows and rows next to each other because the outside rows protect the inside trees. Great.

38:44
So we're gonna have to figure out a way to acquire some more trees and do rows. Because we have a row on one side of our property and a row on the other side, and that's not really working well. So we have to figure this out. Great. We have four rows and we're probably going to put up a windbreak as well. So that helps us out. Yes. And honestly, we live in the land of...

39:13
flat corn fields. So figuring out a plan for apple trees is probably a good idea because otherwise if the wind picks up when the blooms are blooming, we're screwed. And I would really love to have apples. You know, part of our dream when we looked for a place was to be able to have room enough to have apple trees. Well, we have apple trees. It'd be nice if they actually produced apples. That would be great.

39:39
You'll get them. It sounds like you have a plan forthcoming. We have plans for everything. It's just a matter of whether the plan actually works. And then implementing, there's always something to do. You know, you're never finished. You are never finished on a farm. Never. No, and there's always, always some new technique that you didn't know about. And you're like, why in the hell did I not think of that?

40:09
I know, I know, I know. But, you know, and then, you know, you have people say, well, you should be taking notes. And you're thinking, all right, you know, if it would be really good if I had time to write all this down. And so you try to dictate it. I try to take a few notes, but that's easier said than done. You know, you need an assistant to take all the notes and jot everything down for you. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Or you just need to hit the record app on your phone.

40:38
Right. And record it, go back and read it later, type it in later somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. It's really, I don't want to say it's really hard. I say it's really hard all the time about stuff. It is a lot of things to keep track of and remember and do. And you're one person. And if you're like everybody else, sleep is a commodity.

41:03
So if you're lucky, you get maybe four to six hours of good solid rest a night, if you're lucky. So it's a wonderful life. However, it is a lot of things to do in the time that you have to do it. That's correct. And you have to love it. You have to love it. People who say, oh, I want to farm and they don't love it, they're in and out in three years.

41:32
because it really does take three to five years before, you know, not for a tomato to grow, I'm not saying that, but if you are really wanting to make farming a career, it is not a slow process, it is not slow, and it is not inexpensive either, you know? So, and I think today now, you almost have to inherit the land, the cost of land is so expensive, I don't even know how new farmers, young farmers are able to get into the business.

42:01
unless they've inherited the FAR. I don't see how you can break through. Well, having done this podcast for almost a year now, you're absolutely right. It does tend to be that they get into it through family land.

42:19
I think that's the only way, the cost of land. And then if you are a big row crop farmer, the equipment is out of this world. That was the reason why we said, no, we don't have enough land to do row crops. Even though it's a hundred acres or so, you can't even afford the combine to, you'll never make your money back on a hundred acres. If you're not farming 500 to a thousand acres, it's not even worth your time. You can't even pay the lease on the equipment. Yes, and.

42:48
It's not just the the outlay for the new equipment It's the the money to keep those that equipment repaired and up-to-date right So host of seed and fertilizer and lime Yeah, it never ends I know I was so worried about our friends that well not our friends our neighbors We don't really know them our neighbors who owned the cornfield around us Because the cornfields were just flooded out this spring

43:18
And I was like, what are they going to do? And my husband said, they got it implanted before it started raining so much. He said, probably they will have a crop. And until about the middle of June, they had little baby short corn plants out there. Right now, some of those plants in the middle of the field are eight feet tall. What? So they know what they're doing. And, and there was a.

43:47
There was a news story on a couple mornings ago with some of the farmers here in Minnesota. And one of the guys was a corn farmer. And he was talking about that they really lucked out because they had some parts of their fields that flooded out and the seed rotted. But a lot of their corn survived. And he said, just thank God it wasn't hail, because hail would have destroyed the plants. What? Mm-hmm.

44:17
So there's a bright side for you. Right. You have to be thankful. You can find that silver lining and no matter, no matter what, you know, you do find it. So, absolutely. All right, Nita. And on that upshot, I'm going to let you go because we've been talking for almost 45 minutes. And I'm so glad we have been. Thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it. All right. And thank you for the invitation. I enjoyed.

44:43
I enjoyed chatting with you. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you so much for your interest in the forum. Of course. Have a great day, Nita. All right. You too. Take care. Bye.