A Tiny Homestead

Honey Friend Farm LLC

Today I'm talking with Kristin at Honey Friend Farm LLC.
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00:00This 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 Kristen at Honey Friend Farm LLC. Good morning, Kristen. How are you? Good morning. I'm good. How are you? I'm great. You're in Michigan, yes? I am. Is it beautiful there? Because it's gorgeous here in Minnesota this morning. It is.
00:30Little warm for fall weather, but that's okay. It's gonna cool down soon, I know it is. It's gonna, a promise. Yes, absolutely. All right, so tell me about yourself and what you do. So I am a mom of three kids, and I work at the high school that they go to, but I also run a farm here at the house. We're trying to become more
00:58independent I guess. We've got chickens and turkeys and a garden and I make a lot of our food, our bread. We try to buy from the farmers and not the big stores and that's I mean it's just it's a busy busy life. We just my husband works full-time and obviously so do I and then we do
01:26all of the other things in the evening when we get home. Okay, cool. So it's always interesting to me because when I ask women to tell me about themselves and if they're a mom, almost invariably they say, I'm a mom of however many kids and then the rest of what they are. When I ask men, they tell me what they do, not that they're fathers of six or two or one. Right.
01:56There's the difference. Yeah, it's really interesting how different men and women are. Yeah. You know? And I'm not saying it's a bad thing that the men don't immediately say I'm a dad of, but it's just different. Right. It is. We are built different. Yes, exactly. And that's what makes life really interesting every damn day. Absolutely.
02:25Okay, so are your kids littles or are they teenagers or? I've got an 18-year-old, almost 16-year-old and a 13-year-old. And are they all in on the homesteading stuff you're doing? They resist occasionally when it's hot out, but for the most part, they're pretty good at helping. My youngest loves to help with the baking part. He loves to cook. And then my oldest, he typically does a lot of...
02:55the strenuous work or the heavy lifting, I guess. And then my daughter, she helps with all like the household chores. She makes the house run when we are doing all of the other things. That's a hell of a team there, ma'am. I'm impressed. It is, yep. We, you know, it's rough sometimes, but for the majority of the time, we all figure it out. Awesome, I love that.
03:20We didn't get our homestead till most of our kids had moved out, but I suspect that had we gotten our homestead when they were younger, they all would have been all in. Yes, they love it. Kind of wish we'd been able to do it sooner. Absolutely. So why is it called what it's called, the honey friend? The honey friend, okay. So that is because my husband and I were having an adult night and I usually call him honey as a joke. And then one night...
03:50I just said honey friend and it kind of just stuck and we're like, I don't think there's any other honey friend farm. So that's where the name came from. That's adorable. I love it. Yeah. So it's fantastic. It has nothing to do with honey. It's just what we call each other. Oh, and that's fine. I think that's beautiful. So, okay.
04:16Tell me what an average weekend day is like for you on the farm because I ask people this and they don't usually tell me. So I'm just curious if I'll get an answer on this one. So typically, so we run a roadside stand as well. So typically the weekends are full of picking the garden and loading the stand and baking bread and bagels and cookies and all of the things for the community to come in.
04:45share a part of that. We do a lot of pay what you can events for the community so people can eat healthier and have a healthier option if they're not able to do it themselves or whatever the case may be. So we spend a lot of time in the garden and filling the stand and doing cutting the grass, feeding the animals. That's typically when we do like
05:13clean out for the coupes and refill the food and, you know, just spend a lot of time outside bonfires at night. And we just hang out and just kind of work all day and then relax at night and have family time, dinner together. We like to barbecue a lot, like grill out. So that's typically what we do.
05:44That sounds like a beautiful way to spend a weekend. The bonfire part is the best. That's my favorite part. Yes, absolutely. We have had maybe five since we moved in four years ago because it's been too busy up until this past, this past summer hasn't been as busy, but that's because it rained and rained and rained and our gardens didn't do anything. So we never even pulled out the fire pit or the.
06:10benches or the little table or anything this year because it just kept raining. I know. I know it was a very wet, wet year. Yeah. So not so much on the fire pit thing this year. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and then I guess on Friday nights we have Friday night football. So we do that now in the fall. Do the kids play or do you just go catch the game? Both boys play. So.
06:38The oldest plays Friday nights and then the youngest will start playing on Tuesday nights this coming Tuesday. Okay, so you got a Friday night lights and a Tuesday night lights thing going on there. Yes. Yeah, okay. Awesome. That's wonderful. Okay, so I saw something on your Facebook page about a festival that you're a part of this weekend. Is it something that you throw or is it just that you're gonna be at it? No, we're just gonna be at it.
07:06We're going to be doing jams and sourdough bread and bagels. I've got a bunch that are shaped like pumpkins and pumpkin flavored and apple cinnamon flavored and all kinds of good yummy stuff. Is this an every year thing or is it a new thing? So it's kind of new to us. We just started doing these festivals maybe within the last six months. And we just kind of go and it's...
07:35a great learning experience because you see what other people do and you get to meet a lot of people and it's just it's fun and the kids love it they love to go and they do all of the activities and you know it's just it's a good bonding time I guess family time and we can go and hang out and sell some stuff and make some money to put back into the homestead um and then yeah that's
08:04what we do. We're there and then we have a craft show in November and then that's it besides our roadside stand. We do that every weekend. So do you do crafts too or is it? No. Okay. No, I just, I wish. I don't have time for that. But yeah. I was gonna say I don't know where you would fit in crafting and I was gonna be duly impressed if you were like, oh yeah, I make dishcloths and I make sweaters and you know.
08:34Yeah, no, I wish, but maybe when I retire, we can add that in. Yeah. Um, my husband and I laugh about retiring a lot around here because we're in our mid fifties and so we've got a good 10 years to go and the joke, the running joke has been for about 10 years now that there will be no, um, social security payments by the time we retire. So we're just never going to retire. Right. Exactly. Yep.
09:03That's what my husband said. Yep. He's like, I'm going to die working. I'm like, probably. But, uh-huh. Who knows? I figure anyone, I figure anybody over the age of 35 right now will probably be working until they die. Yes. So. Unless they have good inheritance or something. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yep. I worry about my parents because my parents are still.
09:33with us there, 78 and 81. And my mom gets slightly panicky when there's talk of a government shutdown because she thinks that they're not going to get their social security checks. And I keep telling her that that would be a very rare thing to have happen, but that I understand her panic when things get brought up like this because it's really important for them. Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
10:01when they paid into it for how many years? Mm-hmm, exactly. Yeah. Yep, and then I crack the joke that they're lucky that they get it because Kyle and I will never see Social Security payments and she's like, yes, you will. Like, yeah, I don't think we will, but I don't think so. Yeah. Probably. So anyway, I don't even know what to ask you. I'm not quite with it this morning, sorry. So did you say turkeys?
10:30Yes, we have turkeys that we're growing for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Okay. And are they just for you or do you, do you grow some others to sell?
10:41So it's for us and then a neighbor and then a couple of my cousins. Okay. All right. Then I have questions about turkeys because I have never talked with anybody on the podcast about turkeys yet. Okay. Are they as easy to raise as chickens because we have chickens and they're pretty easy. No, they are not at all. Like we started with 14 and we're down to 8.
11:09Okay, tell me about that. Tell me about raising turkeys. I, you know, I really, I don't know much about it. We just were kind of winging it. This is our first year doing it. And we've got meat turkeys, and we've got a couple of heritage breeds that we're going to keep just to because my youngest wanted a couple turkeys to keep. And so we're just kind of winging it, honestly. They're with the chickens, and they're just
11:38a lot more fragile. The meat ones, the heritage breeds seem to be a little bit more hardy, but the meat birds seem a little bit more fragile, which I guess is the same with meat chickens. I don't know if you've ever done those. No, I have not. They are pretty fragile too, along with quail. We had quail for a little bit. Those were not super great. But the turkeys, I mean, they are easy and they're actually they're
12:08and they run to you and they like come and cuddle with you. And when they like when they do their bird talk or whatever, it almost sounds like they're barking like a dog. But they're really cute and they're really sweet. And we'll see how it goes. Okay, so when you say they're really fragile, have they just killed over and died for no reason or are they? Yeah.
12:37Like, I'll go out and check on them and there'll be one dead. And I'm like, oh, okay. And I don't know what the issue is because, I mean, they obviously have plenty of food, water, shade, whatever. And they get along fine with the chickens. And so I don't really know what the issue is. I guess it's just a learning curve. And I know nothing about turkeys. I was hoping that you would have more to tell me, but that's okay because you're brand new.
13:07I am. I think next year maybe we'll separate them from the chickens. I don't know if maybe that's the issue, but I mean all the research I did said that they could coexist. So that might be the issue. So next year we will probably separate them. They'll have like their own coop to go in instead of coexisting. So we're going to try that next year. We're not going to give up because we love fresh turkey for Thanksgiving. It's delicious.
13:37Yeah, tell me the difference between a fresh turkey that you've raised and a store bought turkey because I have never had a not store bought turkey. So like a farm fresh turkey is they're not typically in cages so they like free range and they they've never been frozen. I mean obviously the one at Christmas time will be frozen but for Thanksgiving they'll be fresh so they'll never be frozen.
14:06They are so much more juicy and tender and they are just delicious. And I would say that the juiciness is the biggest difference. The juiciness and the tenderness, yeah. Like you know how turkey is typically like dry, like, oh, I got to drink something. This you don't. It's just really, really delicious.
14:29I've only had one turkey that I've cooked in my whole life that was dry and it's because I cooked it for too long. Oh Yeah, yeah, but yes, I would imagine that that with them being that fresh. They would be really really good Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna say this my favorite thing about turkey It's the gravy that you make from the drippings from the pan. I don't Oh, yes, I don't love love love turkey, but I love turkey with the turkey gravy. Yes. Yes and on the mashed potatoes
14:58Oh my god. Yes. Mashed potatoes are one of my favorite things on earth at Thanksgiving. Yes. I love any kind of potato anytime of the year. You would have loved the ones my son made last night. He made oven roasted potatoes. And he put, I guess I can use name brands on my podcast. I'm the one that makes it. He used the garlic and herb Mrs. Dash that we buy. Oh, okay.
15:24and I don't know the brand, but it's a smokehouse maple seasoning. And bake them for like half an hour at 400 degrees or 500 degrees. They were so good. They caramelized up. Plus they had all the seasonings on them. I was like, you can make these anytime you want to make these. Right. That sounds delicious. It was really good. And I'm, I'm not really great on oven roasted potatoes, but these were perfect. Good. That sounds delicious.
15:53I love it when the kid cooks. It's nice to know that he was raised by a mom who was like, you will know how to cook before you move out. Yes, and do your laundry. Clean the toilet. And make a dessert that you're proud to share with your friends. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I just mentioned this earlier. I did an interview at 10 o'clock this morning too, and we're talking about butter.
16:19My son had asked me if he could make this recipe, their double chocolate chip cookies. And I was like, he said, do we have everything to make those? And I said, other than butter, I said, you might want to check and see if there's any in the freezer because you don't want to start making it and find out you don't have any butter. Right. And he's going to make chocolate, he's going to make double chocolate chip cookies next week. And I'm just like, oh my God, please make them soon. Right. Can you make them today? So yes, he can do cookies too. Which is...
16:48Yeah, no, I don't want them. I got a lot to get done if I eat them. If I eat them, I will be asleep. So I have to wait till next week. I have too many things to get done this afternoon. Oh yeah, absolutely. But it's amazing when you have plans for your children when they're born about what you hope for them, and you give them the tools and they actually learn and they do the thing you hoped for them. Yes, absolutely. It's wonderful. It's amazing.
17:17It is, it's good. Okay, what else can I ask you? I am, oh, I was gonna ask you how you got into this. I don't really know. It kind of all, I think the chickens were the gateway to all of this. So we used to live in the city and then we moved when COVID happened out to the country where the kids were going to school and doing all the things. And while I would love to homeschool,
17:46I do not have patience for that. It would just not be great. So anyways, we needed to come out somewhere where the kids were back in school. And so we did that. And then I was like, well, we have property now, we're getting chickens. And then the kids love the chickens and I love the chickens and my husband. And then I was like, let's start making our own food. And it kind of just snowballed from there. Like it just, it just kind of happened.
18:15I guess we just started reading labels and looking at things and the way the world is going right now. You never know what's going to happen. So we want to be able to be self-sufficient and know how so we're not caught with our pants down, I guess. So yeah, it's been four years in the making. We're still clearly very new to this.
18:43We're just taking it day by day and learning something new every day and trying to teach the kids better, healthier habits and doing stuff like that. So I have a question. Do your kids have their friends come over and hang out? Yeah. And are these kids that are like-minded or are they kids that are living in the city? Both.
19:13I don't think there are any other friends that homestead, but they, but like we live kind of in a rural area. So a lot of people like hunt and fish and do all of that kind of stuff. But I don't think, and have a little backyard garden or whatever, but I don't think a ton of people make their own foods and buy just from the farm and everything.
19:42But I mean, everybody comes over and they love it. And they get excited about, like all the kids, they love to go play with the chickens and show their friends the chickens. And we hope to get goats in the fall, so we can do goat, or in the spring, so we can do goat milk and stuff. And so they're all really excited to show their friends about that. So I don't know. And honestly, a lot of people around here have chickens too, just for eggs and whatever. But I don't think anybody's like.
20:11makes their own jam and makes their own bread and does all that kind of stuff. But they all love it. They come over and they're like, can you bake us something? Can you bake us something? Cute. And shit. Okay. Well, the reason I asked is because I was just wondering how their friends perceived their lifestyle because it is a different way of living. Oh yeah. It is. It is a completely different way. And I'm sure that if like their friends
20:41from when we lived in the city came over, it'd be a different story. They'd be like, what are you guys doing? Why don't you just go to the store? Why don't you just go out to eat or whatever, you know what I mean? But because I think we live in a more rural area that a lot of people kind of ish homestead in a way, because like I said, a lot of people hunt and fish and do all that stuff out here. So most of their friends.
21:10do all that. Okay and do the boys try to enlist their friends who are boys to help out with the chores? Oh yeah. Yeah. Anytime somebody comes over and we need something done we're like come on let's go we got some big guys here let's go. Yep. We moved to our homestead in 2020 as well. Okay. And my son who still lives with us he's 22 so he's still pretty young.
21:38And there's reasons he still lives here and they're good reasons. He had a couple of good friends who he used to play video games with online and he still does. And they had come to visit, one of them had come to visit when we lived in town, in the small town that we lived in. And he had grown up with my son, so he knew that we made food from scratch and we had a garden and we had backyard chickens. And so when he came to visit the new place, he, you should have seen his face.
22:07His eyes were the size of plates. Aw. He was like, you weren't kidding. This is a farm. Yeah. And my son said, well, it's not a farm because there's no goats or sheep or cows or horses, but we still have chickens. And my son's friend was like, yeah, but look at all space you have. And it's not that big. It's three acres compared to a tenth of an acre. So yes, it seems like a lot.
22:33But his reaction was just priceless. And I've known this kid since he was like eight, I think. And I was like, so what do you think? When he came in, he was like, oh, I'm so happy for you guys. This is what you always wanted. So clearly he'd been paying attention to my to to us as well as my kid. And then the new friend came to visit because the new friend wanted to learn how to shoot a gun because my son is a really good marksman.
23:01And so we have a berm where they're allowed to target practice. And my son's friend had never shot a gun in his life. And this always makes me nervous because there are, I feel like there's two types of people in the world. You give them a gun, you describe what it does, you explain the parts, you show how to use it, you teach them everything for them to be safe. And they sighted it on the thing they're trying to shoot and they shoot it and it makes loud noise and they either drop the gun.
23:32Or they just drop it slightly, hang on to it and go, oh, that's what that's like. Yeah. Yep. It's the drop the gun. It's the drop the gun part that scares me because you never know how that's going to go. Right. Oh, I know. Yes. So my son's friend got put through his paces and was taught how to shoot a gun and he really didn't enjoy it and he hit the target a couple of times. Like, I'm good. Yeah.
23:59My son says, you don't like it, do you? And the guy says, it's really loud. He said, the shotgun kicked my shoulder super hard. And my kid was like, well, yes, that's how that works. And his friend said, I don't want to do it anymore. So that was the end of that. Oh, yep. That's usually how it goes. Yep. And then my husband and my son have been cutting up big old logs and splitting wood for the last.
24:27over the last month for the wood burning boiler. And, and like, he'd keep sending pictures of the, the wood pile getting bigger to these two friends that I'm talking about. And one of them messaging back the other day and said, you need to take it easy. You're going to kill yourself. And, and my son said, um, you have met me, right? You know that I'm really strong, right? The guy was like, yeah, but geez, you've been just busting your hump on this. And he was like, yeah.
24:57I know because we need heat in the wintertime. That's how we heat our house. And it's the first time I've heard either of his friends kind of forget that this isn't for funsies. Yes, this is way of life. So that's my experience with my one child who still lives here as friends. Seeing how we live.
25:24And I haven't had a chance to ask anybody because I hadn't thought of it yet. Yeah. So, yeah, that was a good question. Do you guys have pets along with your critters?
25:37Oh, we have a dog. Yeah, just a dog. Yep, his name's Axel.
25:44What kind of dog is Axel? He is a half pit and half rot. He's a big boy. He weighs like 145 pounds. Wow, that's a big mix. Yeah, he's a big boy. I bet no one comes on your property not looking for permission to be there. Right, yeah. But you know, he sounds mean, but as soon as you say hi, and then he starts wagging his tail and all he wants to do is kill you with kisses.
26:12Yeah, and I wasn't assuming that a pit brought one that's mean, because I don't think any dog is mean unless they're raised to be mean. Yes. But that's a big dog. I love dogs and I would never walk up to that dog without making sure that he was going to be friendly. Yes. Oh, yeah, absolutely. He sounds mean, but he's a nice boy. He's a big baby.
26:42Yeah, we have a little dog. She's 35 pounds. And when she sees people who she's never seen before, she's all teeth and bark. What is she? She is a mini Australian shepherd. Oh, that's what my husband wants next. And so, so people are actually, they back up the minute she's outside and she sees people come in. She's, she's all teeth, but she's never going to bite anybody.
27:12Mm-hmm, and she's really loud if you get one you will know it's a really sharp shrill bark Okay, and that's why we got her we wanted a watchdog and she is excellent at it The problem is people think that she's going to eat them alive even though she's small They don't see the back end where she's wiggling her nubbin her tail nubbin So her face is saying I'm afraid
27:40and I need to defend my property. Her rear end is saying, but I want to be your friend. I have to get through this to be your friend. Yes, absolutely. So that's what you have to look forward to, probably. Yes. The other thing that I will tell you is if you get a puppy, one of these dogs is a puppy, and you want them to be friendly, make sure you take that puppy everywhere you go.
28:08or make sure you have people come over a lot and interact with it. Because we couldn't socialize Maggie because of COVID. Oh yeah. That's why she's so afraid of people. So if you want your dog to not react to what Maggie does, make sure they get socialized. Okay. That's a good tip. Yeah. We wish we had been able to, and it was just impossible. We weren't seeing anybody. We weren't going anywhere we didn't have to go. And we sure as heck weren't spending a lot of time in a store when we did go to a store during COVID.
28:38Right. So exactly. Real hard to socialize a puppy when there's a pandemic going on. No kidding. No kidding. But anyway, so you said turkeys, you have a dog, you have chickens. Is there anything else I forget? Nope. We're hoping to add goats and bees in the spring. Okay. Then you'll actually be honey friend farm. We will.
29:08Are you going to tell a child friend story about the name once you have honey? Oh yeah, maybe. Probably. All I could think of when you told me the story is the Huckleberry. I'll be your Huckleberry and you can be my honeybee song like Shelton does. Yes. Yep. That's funny.
29:37All right. Well, we're not quite at 30 minutes, but I am literally out of questions. Kristin, I'm so glad you took the time to talk with me today. This was really fun. Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Have a great day. Thanks. You too. All right. Bye. All right. Bye-bye.
 

Bean's Bounty

Today I'm talking with Maggie at Bean's Bounty. Buy Maggie's cookbook, The Reluctant Cook. All proceeds go to two different dog charities!
If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee -
https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes
00:00This 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 Maggie at Bean's Bounty. Good morning, Maggie. How are you? I'm good. Good morning to you, Mary. How are things in Georgia this morning? Actually a lot cooler right now, but I hear the heat's coming back, so.
00:28Is this hurricane that's approaching Texas gonna bother you guys at all in the next couple of days? It doesn't seem like it, but if anything, we might get a little rain from it, which I'll accept. Yes, definitely. So let's start this off with, I did not name my dog after the Maggie I am talking to. It just so happens they share the same name. And that's awesome because I love the name Maggie, always have and always will.
00:58So tell me about yourself and what you do at Bean's Bounty. Well, I don't know what to say about myself. I'm not originally from Georgia, but I moved here in 2007, and I started gardening in 2008. And once I tasted what a fresh tomato tastes like, I think I was hooked. So my husband and I garden together.
01:27for about four years maybe and I mean we rarely went to the grocery store. I still rarely go I've been doing the garden myself since then and What we don't get here will get from local farmers and then What I can't get from them then I'll go to the grocery store and that's just for incidentals like toilet paper paper towels things like that
01:58but I love gardening, I love eating what we grow. And then of course, Beans Bounty is also where I bake. So I'll make homemade desserts for people, but they're not like all these fancy cakes and stuff you see there from very old recipes. We have over 300 cookbooks and they date back to the Civil War. So if you wanna know what an old fashion recipe tasted like, then that's me.
02:28Wow. I made some kind of cookies years ago from an old, old, old cookbook. And I think there were only three or four ingredients and the main ingredient was egg. And it was like eating a crepe cookie. That's awesome. Really? Yeah. They weren't that great, but I suppose back in the very old days, anything that was a treat or a sweet.
02:55was probably really special. Exactly. It really was. They couldn't afford much, you know. So whatever had any kind of sweetness in it, that's what was popular. Yeah. So you and I talked many years ago. I don't remember why. Why? I like a lot of it. You know, they're not really sweet. They're not, I don't know. They're just, I like a lot of it. Yeah.
03:25You and I had talked many years ago, I don't remember why, we talked on the phone, and you said that you were in suburban, whatever your town is or your city is, and that you had a garden, and we talked about that for a little bit. So tell me how that's changed, how that's expanded. Well, we are in, we're in one of the suburbs north of Atlanta. So I have an acre and a half.
03:53So the garden took up quite a bit of space. I mean, you don't normally find an acre and a half in Roswell, Georgia, but this is a very old home. It was built back in the 70s. So the only way it has changed is that as I have aged, I've had to cut back on the gardening. Before it was huge. And now I brought it up closer to the house and
04:22take care of it from there. So I just have little sections all around my house that are growing different things. And it's easier for me because I'm getting up there. Yeah, we're all aging. As we get older, we're all aging, obviously, but we're all meeting new milestones in our lives every year. Yes, ma'am. And I understand, because ma'am, 20 years ago,
04:48I would have been out in the garden with my husband every day of the spring, summer, and fall, and now it's his baby because I don't want to do it anymore. Yeah. Well, my husband is the same way. Well, he works a full-time job, so that's why he had to stop. So now I take care of it. Yep. The podcast is My Baby, the Garden is My Husband's Baby, and this is about the only time they meet is when I'm talking about him doing the gardening.
05:15So what do you grow? Do you grow the usual suspects or is there stuff that's special that you grow? Whatever we eat, I try to grow. So I do potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, sweet and hot, squash, zucchini, well I guess that's a squash, pumpkins for the fall, lettuces, onions, I do onions and garlic. So whatever we use the most of.
05:44And then we also eat seasonally. So whatever is growing in the garden is what we eat. So like we're done eating tomatoes until next year. And it's kind of sad, but you know, if you've ever tasted any from the grocery store, it just doesn't even match up close. Doesn't even come close. So, and I think it's healthier to do that. I know that sounds crazy, but that's how
06:13People used to eat, you know, they didn't have everything available like we do a grocery store. So whatever was growing is what they ate. And I like it that way. Like in the fall, I'm making or I'm growing garden stuff again, the lettuce, garden stuff, spring stuff again. So there's lettuces growing out there, the straggling of the tomatoes, the hot peppers are still coming in. And then, you know, now we're getting
06:42the pumpkin and the watermelons. And I like it that way. You just revolve our dishes around what's growing. Yes, and it's funny. I read a book under the Tuscan sun years ago, and it's about a lady who buys a villa, basically sight unseen, in Italy. Oh, nice. And she has never been to Italy. And everyone eats seasonally.
07:08in Italy throughout the whole book. And there are little recipes, I think, added into the book. And I enjoyed the hell out of reading that book because Italy sounds like a beautiful place to live. But I also enjoyed it because it was so fun to read about people eating directly out of their gardens. Yeah. Yeah. And it's an experience. It took me a while to get us used to it. But...
07:34It's an experience because you're not always going to have everything. Now our meat comes from local farmers as well. So we get all our meats from them. But so you'll always have a meat because I get it from them, but you know, what you're using as your side or as your carbs or whatever is coming in. Sometimes you don't have any carbs. So you're eating just vegetables or, um, you know, different, different things like that. You're, you come creative with the sides that you do when you have the same things growing out of the garden.
08:04Oh, for sure. Yes. Yes. And I'm telling you, I am at the point where I don't want to eat carbs anymore. Every time I eat carbs, all I want to do is take a nap. It does get you lazy. But some are good for you. Some are good for you. And they're filling. In the wintertime, you know, sometimes that's all we have, you know, like we have the turnips growing and beets growing. So sometimes
08:31potatoes. So a lot of the things coming out of the garden, you know, they're all healthy. They're not bad. I think the misnomer people get into is that certain things are bad for you and that may be true, but moderation is the key. As long as you don't overload yourself on what you're eating, that's the key to having a balanced diet.
09:00I'm making pasta alfredo tonight because my husband really likes it and we happen to have all the ingredients on hand today. And I have some broccoli in the freezer that I'm going to warm up and have with my alfredo because otherwise I will be sound asleep five minutes after I eat it. Yeah, yeah, it's true. It's true. You just have to, you know, I love pasta. Pasta and bread, I'm addicted to both of those. But I just had to learn not to eat so much of it.
09:30I just had to learn, you know, if I love it that much, then maybe one meal a week was enough, or one meal every other week is enough of that. It depends on what your body can tolerate, but you just don't go nuts. And you definitely don't go to fast food places for food. That's just going to kill you in the long run. Yeah, although once in a while, that craving gets to be unbearable. And you're like, I really want a dive bar burger.
09:57Maybe so, and I used to get those Mary, I swear to you. I used to have to go like once a month just to remember what it tasted like, but I can't tell you the last time we went. And it goes away, the feeling goes away I guess because once you're eating things that are good for you and you're moderating your diets, something like that just weighs really heavy on you and you don't feel well. Once you get your body used to not having it.
10:27At least that's been my experience. Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. So, I saw something about apples and cherries. Do you grow fruits too? I have, I do. I have cherry bushes and I have three apple trees. We also have two pear trees, two plum trees, two peach trees, an almond tree, an apricot tree, mulberry trees because it keeps...
10:55the birds away from my elderberry bush. I think that's it. Oh, and walnuts, oh, not walnuts. What are those things that they grow, they warm up in the wintertime up in New York? I don't know. Oh, chestnuts? Yes, we have two chestnut trees. Yeah, I was thinking hazelnuts, but that wasn't it. No, that wasn't it. I couldn't think of it for the second bit. Okay, awesome.
11:23So let's talk about the cookbook that you just got copies of, because I love books and I love cooking. So this was going to happen. This was going to come up. Well, it started two years ago. A friend of mine, I put all the things that I make for my husband on our private page. And my friends started asking me for advice on how to make those recipes. But they were friends who don't cook.
11:53So they had trouble with it. So I started sending them pictures as I was working in the kitchen and, or little videos of how I was doing something. And because of those friends, particularly one, Lisa from Michigan, she got me into the idea of the cookbook. So, and it's called the Reluctant Cooks Cookbook.
12:20because I was reluctant at first as well, and my husband taught me how to cook. So I thought I could teach other people or have simple recipes. It's not so much teaching as it is, they're simple and you can make them with, most of them within 30 minutes. So you could come home from work, whip it up real quick. I know that's the last thing people wanna do because I worked since I was 11 years old and I know how that feels.
12:48So I know it's the last thing you want to do, but once you start tasting the stuff that you cook and you start realizing how little it costs to cook at home as opposed to stopping by and getting something from a fast food place or stopping by a restaurant and getting it, which now is the price is outrageous. And once you start that and then you feel proud when you put the food on the table once it's done.
13:18I think 30 minutes, I mean, think about it. You have to place the order, then you have to go to the restaurant, pick it up. I don't know how far that is out of your way from home, but then, you drive home and I think the 30 minutes is included in all that you have to do to get it from a restaurant or a fast food place. I think it's gonna take you 30 minutes anyway. So I think it's a good trade. And...
13:45You know, and then the more I can get people to buy from farmers, the happier I'll be. So, and that's in the introduction of the cookbook. I just want people to start cooking at home more. We used to, you know, we didn't always have fast food restaurants. And I know they think that there are progress, but I don't think fast food places and restaurants are progress. I think they took us away from a healthy environment and a healthy diet and a healthy home.
14:15Yes. Um, I did a deep dive a couple of years ago into how people used to eat in the bad old days. And basically I found out that in like the UK area, back, back 200, 250 years ago, if not more, people didn't cook their own food. They had to go find food that someone else cooked and buy it from them. Yeah. And the only people that, that had food.
14:44readily available, cooked and ready to eat for them were royalty. It's amazing, isn't it? Yeah. And when you went to buy food, it was basically meat pies because people could buy them at like a street cart and eat it walking away. Right. And I was like, man, the things, more things change, the more they stay the same. You know? That's true. It's true. There's really nothing new.
15:12I firmly believe that. I think we just regurgitate things that happened in our past, excuse me, and try to change it. You know, maybe saying it's new and improved or whatever. But most things have happened already. And the food carts, yeah, those have been around forever. Yeah. Forever. Yep. Yeah, I was so curious. I think I was more, I think the search started because I was thinking about how people don't really cook in their fancy kitchens anymore.
15:42And I was like, how were kitchens back in the bad old days? And there weren't really kitchens. There was a hearth. That was it. Yeah, and a table. Sometimes just a very small table. So yeah, there really wasn't a kitchen. They would have shelves on the wall where you could have your incidentals for cooking. But that was it. Yeah. Yep, it's really interesting. I love history. So anytime I'm like, how did that work back when? I go digging, because I got to know.
16:12I like it too. So did you self-publish the book, the cookbook? I did. I did because it's for charity. So the less money I spend, the better it's going to be in the long run because I'd like to do another. And so if I can recoup the cost of the cover and the printing and stuff and then give the rest to charity, I'm happy about it. We've been blessed with a pretty good life. And
16:39I just haven't had enough to give to the charities that, and they're puppy charities, they're dog charities. Yay, good. Yeah. So if I'm able to help them out, which I've always wanted to do, then I'm the better for it, really. It just makes me a better person to myself, just in my eyes. Sure, absolutely. Yeah, so. So is, is, is, bleh, can't talk. I hate it when I do that.
17:08Is it available as an ebook as well or is it just hard copy or just back print? And, uh, I do have a place to purchase it. It's called the reluctant cook dot big cartel.com. Uh, so big cartel is B I G C A R T E L and then reluctant people have trouble, uh, with that word. So.
17:36but it's the Relu Okay, and how much is it? It's $19.99, of course, plus shipping and tax. Okay, awesome. What kind of recipes are in it? What simple recipes did you put in there? Oh, a very old recipe of sloppy joes, which I love sloppy joes, and it tastes so good. Easy, a couple of easy pasta dishes.
18:06One of my favorites is shrimp scampi. So you can make that in 30 minutes and it's wonderful. Another one is macaroni and cheese. It's a Southern recipe. There's one in there to smoke a brisket in your oven. Now that is a longer recipe, but great for the weekend because you can just pop it in the oven and then three hours later it's ready and it doesn't take much prep work at all. So.
18:35another, what's another famous one? Oh, my tuna casserole. I don't know why that has become so popular, but it doesn't use the canned soups that you buy at the grocery store. It's actually just made with cream and butter and it is so good. But I didn't think that would be the one that would be the most popular. That's kind of weird. But we love tuna casserole here.
19:04by using an older recipe and just adding a little more spice and a little more taste to it. Okay. So those are the things, those are the things I think that, but there's not plenty, but it's just, it'll get you through a couple of months of cooking meals and you'd be the better for it because it doesn't take long, they're gonna taste great, they're gonna be better than anything you can buy. And it's a beginning.
19:33It's a beginning to moving to the more, I don't wanna say gourmet, more difficult recipes. Yeah, so if you wanna move after that to something more complicating or start, you know, putting your own spices into it, you know, changing it so that it's something that you like. I just think I'd like to get more people who don't cook now to cook.
19:55Sure. Tuna casserole. I grew up with a mom who made tuna casserole. Tuna. And I didn't like tuna at all, but I liked the actual rest of the casserole. And it's funny because I now live in Minnesota, but I grew up in Maine. And on the East Coast, it's a casserole. But in Minnesota, it's a hot dish. That's true. If you call a hot dish a casserole in Minnesota, people immediately know you're not from Minnesota.
20:25So the thing is, my husband and my son that still lives with us, they don't like hot dishes or casseroles. And so I rarely ever make them because I'm the only one who's going to eat them and I'm not going to eat them for a week straight. That's true. I'm trying to figure out how to make a small, a small casserole, you know, just for me. And it's just, it's not worth my time. Well you can.
20:55You could actually just take a recipe as like this tuna casserole and cut it in half. You know, don't, don't make that much. Just take the recipe and use half of everything it says there. But I did have a, a woman who, uh, put a comment on our private page, which is David Maggie Bean, um, on Facebook. And she said her husband hated tuna casseroles and he ate this one.
21:23Yeah. For some reason, it's just, it tastes better than, well, I mean, I know why it tastes better. It doesn't have those canned soups in it. So you're not tasting, you can still taste the tuna kind of through, even with the soups. And in this one, you don't even know it's tuna. That's the cool thing. Yep. I was a very picky child and my mother used to say, I hope you have a kid just like you someday.
21:53Cause it drove her crazy. And my husband is the kid that, that she wished upon me because he's terribly picky. And I got so sick of not eating the things that I wanted to eat that I would make things and I would be like, just give it an honest try. If you hate it, you can eat something else. And he has decided that he actually likes about nine out of 10 things that I make from scratch that he used to hate eating. Well, you know, people's tastes change as we grow older.
22:22You know, things I hated as a child, I kind of really like now. So I think we just change. I mean, things I ate in college, I don't even eat anymore. So you know, it's just weird. I don't know why we change, but as the years go on, our tastes change. Well, I have a minor answer for you on that. When you are a child, you actually have more taste buds in your mouth than you will ever have in your whole life.
22:51So I didn't know that. Yep, so anything that's an intense flavor, either you're gonna love it or you're gonna hate it because it's such a big flavor that you're tasting. Wow. And as you get older, you lose taste buds. And so things start to taste more bland and so that's why we crave more salt or more sugar in our food. That's interesting. Yeah, I did not know that. Yep, I read it.
23:17I don't know, a while ago, and I was like, well, that makes all the sense in the world. No wonder I hated everything. Well, my mother was from Central America, so we had a lot of beans and rice, but she did make tuna casserole and other things, spaghetti, things like that. But, but it was mostly Latin American food. Yup. And was it spicy? She made.
23:45spicy for my father and not spicy for the rest of us. So she was, and there were six of us. So she had her work cut out for her. Yes, it's really hard to balance things when you have more than a couple of kids. I raised four. Oh yeah, I had two. Yep, and trying to balance it so that everybody
24:15at least once a week was a trick. Absolutely, absolutely. So I just put it on the table, they could eat it or starve. So that's why I looked at it with my children. Well, because I was working too. I mean, I worked a lot, a lot of hours. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, I made food and if they didn't like it, they didn't eat it. But I tried every week to make something that I knew one of the four kids really loved.
24:43Yeah, because I think that was the best I could do I didn't have four but I did the same thing
24:50And birthdays, every birthday, I was like, what would you like for your birthday dinner? And I made sure that I had everything on hand to make it. And I asked them what they wanted for dessert. They want cake, they want cookies, they want brownies for their birthday. So that's what we did. No, that's good. That's what we did. So that was perfect. Yep. And they always loved it. And to this day, if...
25:15I think the last time I asked one of the kids what they wanted for their birthday, which was the youngest who still lives with us, he said, I don't want anything. He said, I pretty much get stuff all year that I want. I don't need anything special. And I was like, yes, I'm doing it right. Yes, ma'am. That's true. And I talked to my son. He has similar sentiments. So I think I did my job okay. Yeah.
25:40Being a mom, I've said it before, is the most thankless and most wonderful job on earth. Yep, it surely is. It surely is. Yep, I can't. I had real fear about when my kids moved out that that was going to be it. They weren't going to need me anymore. They call me all the time. They're like, hey, I'm thinking about this. What do you think? Or I'm having a bad day. Can I talk it through with you? It's nice. It's nice to still feel needed. Do you have advice? And I'm like...
26:10Yeah, I'm like, do you really want my advice or just want me to listen? And they will tell me, they're either like, I just need to vent or I need your advice. So yeah, it's nice. It's nice. It's really great. So how many, I don't know if this makes any sense. Do you have many copies of your cookbook to sell or just have a first run first print? I have many. But even if I needed them.
26:40I think it printed and shipped to me within a week. So, so I don't anticipate ever running out of them. And I will be going around town. I'm not going to market it. Um, on the internet and on Amazon, like most people do, because I decided to take a. More old fashioned marketing route. So.
27:06I already have four people that I've talked to for businesses that will allow me to come sell them at their establishments during some of their events or whatever I can sit there and sell them. And because it's for charity, I'm not really getting many no's. So if I can continue that, I know that sounds nuts, but if you're on Amazon, most of the feedback I get from authors is they have...
27:34these trickling sales, well, that's not going to help me with my charities. I want to give them lots of money. So selling it on the internet is, is difficult. I don't know how to say it other than there's a lot you have to go through and a lot I have to learn and I'm in my sixties. So I don't want to learn all that. And I don't want to phase people out. Like on.
28:03On Instagram, I'm told if you use hashtags that are popular, that you'll get tons of people to look at it. Well, I don't want tons of people to look at it. I want tons of people to buy it. So that's not gonna help me. And Facebook is really the same, other than I have quite a few followers on Facebook, for me anyway, I have about 1,500.
28:29You know, the amount of them that had purchased them in the last two days have made me extremely happy. So, I mean, I'll be able to send out my first check next week, and that makes me happy. That's awesome. Yeah. So if I can continue that by going around town, and I live in the Atlanta area. There are millions of people that live around here. So if I can continue that and start giving them out or selling them out from different businesses,
28:58I think it'll be a success and I'll get the money I want for the charities that I support. So great, great. Well I'm gonna, I'm gonna promote you on the podcast here. I think that if you want to support charities that Maggie supports, you should buy her book. And you said it was for it was for dogs charity. Yes, it's for two charities. One is the Trio Foundation in Chicago. And the other one is Frankie and Andy's place.
29:28here in Georgia and they take care of senior dogs. So senior dogs that are no longer wanted or very ill or have been abandoned or abused, they take them in. They have this huge property in different cabins for different dogs. It's a beautiful idea. Absolutely. So like I said, if you wanna support Maggie and her support of these two charities, go check out her book. It'll be in the show notes. You can go right to the link and click it.
29:57Thank you so much, Mary. Yeah, for sure. I have a dog I love beyond measure, so I am all for what you're doing. Oh, thank you so much. And she shares your name. Go Fig. Yeah. It's destined. Yeah, she's behaved admirably today. We are expecting a package that actually has her dog food in the mail. And the mail hasn't come yet today, so she hasn't barked in the background. Yay. Good job. Yay. Yeah, that's right.
30:25All right, Maggie, it is 30 minutes and 16 seconds, I'm sorry, 18 seconds in, and I try to keep these to half an hour, so I'm gonna let you go. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, Mary, very much. Have a great day. You too. Bye. Bye-bye.
 

Misfits Homegrown LLC

Today I'm talking with Amy at Misfits Homegrown LLC. You can also follow on Facebook.
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00:00This 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 Amy at Misfits, I'm sorry, hang on Amy. Misfits Homegrown LLC. It's already been a Monday and it's barely Monday, so. Yes, I agree. Our barn cat had kittens last night, so.
00:30I got a photo from my husband this morning and I was like, yay, more kittens. Woo. Yay, just what you need, right? Yeah, there's six. We'll find homes for them. It will be fine. There you go. And they're very sweet. They're adorable. So it's been the Mondayest of Mondays in the best way possible. That's a good thing. So tell me about what you do, Amy.
00:59Misfits Homegrown, we raise our own beef, pork and chicken and farm fresh eggs. We raise them from start to finish. Nice. So how did you get into it? Well, my partner and I, we've been in the, excuse me, the agricultural industry forever. He's managing a 2,500 cow dairy over...
01:26And then I'm going to say Reedsville, Wisconsin. And then I was herdsman on a farm out in Valdez for years. That's how we've actually met. And, uh, we moved in together and we started out with three beef animals, just three steers we had. And as a word got out that we were raising beef, people started buying quarters and haves from us. And.
01:54That was back in 2017. We established the farm in 2018. And with that, um, I had met some people who didn't have freezer space for a quarter or half steer. So I started doing individual cuts and I got a license through our county to sell individual cuts of meat. So now our clientele base has just grown. So when people need two pounds of ground beef and a roast, they can get two pounds of ground beef in a roast.
02:23Awesome. Yeah. You guys are, how do you pronounce it? Manitowoc? Is that how it's pronounced? Yes. Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Yes. Yes. Okay. I interviewed a lady months ago from that area and I can't remember which business was hers, but she said that it's beautiful there. It is. It is. I actually left Wisconsin for about five years and came right back. So you get, you get a little bit of four seasons all in one day.
02:52And sometimes you actually get months of each season, which is a blessing. So.
03:00Uh-huh. Yeah, Minnesota's like that too. So yeah. Yep. We're neighbors. So, uh-huh. Hey, neighbor. So, so I saw on your Facebook page that you guys have a building now on your property. Yes. And you can, it's basically a store. Yes, we built. So basically what happened in the past, oh gosh, since 2018 and during the pandemic in 2020, people really realized
03:30where their food came from and they wanted to know more. And that's where our clientele had tripled. So with that, I started doing the local farmers markets and I started, you know, advertising more. And we are now to the point where we built a small country store on our property and we're selling our meat and our farm fresh eggs. And then I have other local vendors in the neighboring area.
03:58who does honey and maple syrup and produce. And we're pretty much trying to make this a central hub or a country farmers market. Well, congratulations on that. That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a challenge. It's been a long year and a half since we started everything, but we're very blessed. We're actually opening the doors this Saturday, the 14th for a soft opening. And the 28th is our grand opening.
04:28fantastic I love country stores my parents live in Maine and there is a there is a basically a country store down the road from them and we were back to visit we were back to visit in 2014 I think and we stopped by that store and it's stocked with the stuff that the people that own it grow and stocked with local producers yes things and
04:57You walk in there and it's so cute. Yeah. The thing I don't like about grocery stores these days is they're very slick. They're very shiny. They're very colorful. They're very loud. Yes. There's always a radio station or whatever playing and I walk in and I'm like, I forgot what I came in here for because my brain is overloaded with, with what I'm seeing and hearing and smelling and country stores. You walk in and it doesn't do that to me. It's just like.
05:27Oh, this is really calm and nice. Yeah. So I love country stores. We actually, so when Bryce bought this property in 2017, it was his great uncle's farm. So he actually, it's a family farm. And when he purchased it and when I moved in, we had a lot of repairs to do. The barns were falling down and it, you know, it was neglected for years. So we've put a lot of heart and soul into this place. And we originally,
05:57wanted to have a little store in the greenery that was in the middle of the property. And I didn't want to lose that. So when we decided to do this, we literally picked the greenery up, we moved it, poured a foundation and put it back on. So when you walk into the store, you are walking into the greenery from 1910.
06:17Awesome. And we stripped all the barn boards off of that grain room. We used them on the walls of the store. So it's all incorporated. Yeah. We're really excited. I love that. That's so fun. Yeah, it is. And, you know, so we have his family history here and then some of the shelving that we built, um, we took from my grandparents old house and we built shelving with my family history. So
06:47nice country store. It really means a lot to us.
06:53Yeah, I imagine it does. And I'm sure at the end of the day on the 22nd, you said, for the real grand opening. 28th. At the end of the day on the 28th, you're going to go home or walk from the store to your home, walk in the door, sit down, and be like, yes, we did it. Yeah, I know we're getting excited, but I don't think the reality is setting in yet. Because we're both just kind of like, OK, we're just trying to make sure that all of our eyes are dotted and our T's are crossed right now.
07:23Uh-huh. You know, and I think once we actually can sit back and take a look at everything, we're going to be like, holy man, we did it. Yeah. Yeah, and don't be disappointed if it's not quite as climactic as you think it will be. Right. I'm going to tell you, it's so weird. The older I get, the less impact things have in that huge emotional way.
07:53We bought our place four years ago in August, and I was very excited about this. We had been living in a small house in town for 20 years, and we bought our new place, which is over three acres and has a really nice house on it, and it's in the middle of nowhere, and we are so in love with it. But I really thought that I would have that crazy high that you used to get when you were young when things happened. Yes.
08:22Yes, I agree with you. And I didn't. I was just like, okay, so we did it. Now what? Now what is always the thing I think after we accomplish something. Yeah. Okay, what's the next thing we can challenge ourselves to do? Yeah. And I don't know. I just, I don't know if I'm just too old to have the energy to get that high anymore from when things happen or if I'm just like, well, we've done other things before. So of course we made this thing happen too. I don't know.
08:52It is weird. And I kind of feel that way too, because I have so many, like some of my friends and my, you know, my sisters are like, well, aren't you excited? And I'm like, yeah, but I'm not like bouncing off the walls excited. You know? Yeah. I don't know how to explain it. I think people expect me to be more, all right, we're doing this. And I just, yeah, it's been a long journey and we just want to open the doors and give back to the community that supported us while we're doing this.
09:20Yes, exactly. Yeah. Okay. So, so what are you going to be selling? You're going to be selling chicken and pork? Yep. And we, um, I, well, um, I have steers and pigs going in every month. I do chickens seasonally. I usually don't do it in the dead of winter because it's too hard to raise baby chicks. Um, too cold and I won't. So my season, my last batch of chickens goes in October.
09:49So that'll be my last group of chickens until next spring. But yeah, we do have pigs and steers going in every month. And then along with that, my eggs, and we have our neighbor who does maple syrup. We have, it's in the wood sugar bush. They're supporting, they're putting maple syrup in here. We have another family that does raw honey. I don't know if you've heard of Debbie, or Otto's pumpkin patch.
10:18I think I have heard of it, but I haven't talked to them yet. Yeah, she does like, she does all of her own produce and she does like a big pumpkin patch for the kids to come out and pick your own pumpkins and all that. So I'm getting some of her produce and some of her pumpkins and gourds for fall. I have another lady growing mums and succulents, you know, and these are all our neighbors that
10:45We really didn't know what we were doing. You know, none of us really knew each other until now. So it's kind of a neat way to keep it close to home. That is fabulous. I love that. And then this winter, because I've been active in the summer markets and the winter markets, but because I have the store opening, I'm actually helping alleviate the stress for the city of Manson. They do an indoor farmers market in the winter.
11:13And we can't always fit all those vendors in that space. So I'm going to take some here for the winter. So we'll do like two Saturdays a month where I'll have vendors come in and sell their product throughout the winter. Oh my God, that is so great. Yeah. So like I said, we're just, it's, we're one big community. And until you really start doing this and get to know each other, there's so many neat, amazing farmers out there. And
11:42It's really a cool thing that we're doing. So, yeah. Yes. Yes, it's stellar. I don't get to use that word very often, but it's a stellar thing. We are, not we, my husband sells at the farmers market here in Lesor. And they're looking for a place to have a winter market. It got brought up a couple weekends ago. And it sounds like they're having a little bit of trouble finding a place to do it. Yes.
12:11And I suggested one of the churches because they could do it on Saturday. And my husband was like, yeah, but what if there's a wedding on Saturday? I was like, oh yeah, I didn't think of that. Yeah. See, we used to do it. I don't know if you've heard of Grow It Forward out of Manitowoc? I have not, but I will put it on the list. Grow It Forward is a, it's a food pantry and they were donated a church when they first started to start their pantry up. And we used to have the indoor market in there.
12:41But with the way they're growing and the needs for their pantry, they don't have the space for the vendors now. So it's been put downtown, man, it's walk into a cafe and you can only have four to five vendors per Saturday. And there's like 10 to 15 that wanna do it. So I talked to Amber from Grow It Forward and I asked her, I said, would you mind? And she's like, no, go for it. So I'm like, okay. Nice. This way, you know.
13:09Some people can sell out here, some people can sell in downtown. It'll work. Yeah. It's just, yeah, everything you're, everything you're telling me makes it sound like this was one of those meant to be things for you. It feels like everything is coming together for you. It is. And this is where I, I, I take my faith into a court and I'm, I am so grateful and I'm so thankful every day. It just.
13:38This has always been my dream to have my own store. I used to just want a coffee shop. And then when you can incorporate your passion of life, which is farming and coffee in the store, it's kind of a neat thing. It's really exciting. Well, coffee is my passion in life. So I got one half of that covered. Yep, so I am gonna have like a coffee and donut bar. Not that I can sell it, but I can have it there for customers to come in and then just leave a donation.
14:08because I do not have that conditional use permit. Because that's a whole nother ball of wax. Yeah, that leads me to my next.
14:18Yeah, I was going to say that leads me to my next question. How hard was it with the regulations and stuff to get this to happen? Oh, Lord, it was. So originally, we were just going to put up a country store. And basically what we're doing now was our main idea. But then as people start talking to us, they're like, well, why don't you do this? And why don't you do that? So we actually inquired of how we could make it more of a commercial store.
14:46And it went into zoning and planning and they wanted to change our zoning. And we said no, because they wanted us to go residential or commercial. But you can't have livestock. I said, that is the whole business. That is why we are here today. So no, thank you. Yeah. It's been, it's been a challenge, but we've gotten through it. So this Wednesday, we actually go to our town meeting.
15:12and present, you know, that we're opening this Saturday and hand out flyers for the grand opening. And if there's any concerns, because we want to make sure that our community is okay with this, you know, because it is going to increase traffic and bring more people out here. So we just want to address any concerns that there might be and, you know, keep it as a local community. Just make sure we're all open and honest with each other. Yes, because that's the only way it's going to fly. Right.
15:42And I don't mean fly like fly under the radar. I mean fly like fly like an eagle and be successful. Right. And that's why we're trying to incorporate our township as much as possible for our grand opening. Actually, our local fire department is going to be frying out our burgers and brats and serving beverages for our grand opening. So trying to incorporate everybody.
16:06I am smiling huge. Like I am literally sitting here, my face is broken open with a smile. That's great. Yeah. I'm excited for you. Thank you. I'll tell you a little bit more. So my daughter is a high school teacher at Keele and she's the egg teacher. She, you know, she does dairy science and runs the FFA program. And actually her FFA students and some of another community's FFA students are gonna be out here that day running the petting zoo.
16:35and the bouncy houses for the kids. So we're trying to incorporate those, you know, we're trying to take in our local kids and, you know, give them some experience in this crazy world we call farming. I could not be any happier for you. Like, I say this all the time, my heart gets too big for my chest when people tell me their stories. I'm right there again, this is awesome. So you-
17:04You had mentioned the pandemic back in the beginning of this. Yes. I keep wondering when I'm going to get to the point where every other interview doesn't mention COVID or the pandemic, because a lot of things were born out of the pandemic. Yes. So I wonder if it's going to be like another three years before it's not every other interview where somebody's like, yeah, it was a COVID baby. Right.
17:30And I, you know, I don't really have any issue with the COVID babies. I think a lot of COVID babies are really starting to find their feet now. They're toddlers. Yep. And yeah. And I think, I mean, just going through that whole, where we didn't have food in the grocery stores, you couldn't get it in and people were looking and actually realizing, oh, there are local farmers out here raising this stuff. Oh, maybe that's where I'll get my food. And then it took, that took off for a lot of people.
18:01So as horrible as the pandemic was, it was a blessing for some of us. Yes, exactly. I keep saying it was a double-edged sword. It was absolutely a tragedy for a lot of people, but it was also a huge opportunity for people to figure out what they wanted to do. And it gave them an open door to step through. Yes, absolutely.
18:27When we went through it, we moved in the summer of 2020. And first thing we did was get a half beef in our freezers because we knew that supply chains were starting to get screwy. Yep. And we happened to have the fundage to be able to do it. Right. And we had always, I've talked about this before, we had always shopped like for a month at a time on
18:56staples like toilet paper and paper towels and I don't know butter we'd throw it in the freezer and we always had three gallons of milk in the fridge because we always drink milk we have our coffee we I make cream based soups from scratch you need milk for those and so our way of living and shopping was already kind of set yeah and so when the supply chain started to get iffy
19:24We really did have a stockpile, not because we went and bought out a store, but because that's how we had shopped all along. Right. So I think I've mentioned this the other day. The only thing that frustrated me was that I could not get the dish soap that I really, really like for a year. And I had to use all these dish soaps that I did not love. Like they didn't, they didn't work, number one, and they smelled awful to me.
19:54And every time I go to do dishes, I'm like, oh my God, I can't wait until that dawn green apple soap is back. Cause this is driving me insane. And it was, it was the stupidest thing. Like it was the least major issue of COVID ever to be talked about. But it was the thing that I really noticed. Right. And it's the thing that you really liked and you use and you depended on. Yeah. Yep. And.
20:19we were really lucky because we made our own soap, we made our own lip balms. I know how to make hand balm, you know, for dry skin. So, I wasn't, we weren't in trouble on a lot of things because we already were making it and had it. And so that's why I'm so grateful that we had already been, I don't know, practicing homesteading skills because it really saved us on a lot of the supply chain stuff. Right, I'll see even to...
20:48Even now, when I take a trip to town, I make sure that I go and I get everything I'm gonna need. Mm-hmm. Because I don't want to have to drive to town every other day. No. And that's how we are too, like our staples especially. Everything that we grow, whether it's because I have many gardens, I don't have giant gardens, but like tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers and onions and this is stuff we use every day in our food. Yeah.
21:18I don't know, I just, I totally understand that we, when we go to town, we make a trip. We don't make several. It's a trip. Yeah. And I don't know if you're like, we used to be, but when we lived at the old house, we knew which, which stores had the better deals on things. Yes. So we would sit down and go through the, the flyers that you get in your local paper and see who had the best deals on what. And we would make like a loop.
21:47We'd start at home, go to wherever was closest for the thing we needed that was the cheapest, and then just keep going and we'd make a loop and then come home and not have spent as much money.
22:01Right, right. And that's, and the money, the expense of everything right now is just insane. It just, you know, you wonder how, so you wonder how a single mom can raise three kids on her own. Look at the cost of living right now. It's insane. I do not know how anyone under the age of 30 right now is surviving. I don't know how they're doing it. Let's see, my, so I have three children. My oldest lives here in Wisconsin. My other two
22:30moved to North Carolina. And the cost of living there is horrendous compared to here. And they're still there, but they struggle and they have good paying jobs. And they're like, mom, I can't believe how expensive my rent is. And my house payments this and groceries are this. I'm like, yeah, you got to learn to budget. Yeah, it's definitely a different world than when I was their age. Yeah.
22:59I don't want to date myself, but you know, a couple decades ago. Oh, I'll just date, I'll date myself and then you can feel free to. I'm 54. So I figure we're probably close. Yep. I'm 50. Yep. Yeah. And honestly, my husband has a nice job. He's got a decent job. And we were really counting on selling our produce at the farmer's market this year to kind of supplement his income.
23:28Our gardens did terrible this year. So, so there's not a whole lot of supplemental income this year. No, I have raised garden beds and that has been a blessing. We're, we're definitely thinking about that for next year. Yeah. My brother actually made these for me, but I was like, thank you. He saved my back on weeding and I just put fertilizer in there and compost and it grows beautifully and my fertilizer is chicken poop.
23:58So yes, we have, we have chicken. That's amazing. And we're going to, we're going to, oh my God, chicken poop is the best fertilizer. Our friends have goats, our friends have goats. So we're going to pick up some goat manure sometime the next two weeks as well. Let that, that works great too. So that is something we're adding to the misfits family. I have four pig meat goats coming next week. So nice. And
24:27They're not for butchered, they're gonna be my pets. I'm sorry, they're just cute and I want goats. You're getting dogs with messed up feet and broken barks. Right, right. Yes. And I have black labs so they can become best friends, it's great. And they will, they will become best friends. So one quick thing about the inflation stuff. Yes. With the way that food is just.
24:56I mean, some of it's come down, but it still seems like everything is just exorbitantly expensive. We have been doing a lot of cooking from scratch at home because to buy anything that's already made, it's not worth it. It's so much more worth me spending my time than our money right now. Yep. And like, we don't eat out, rarely we eat out because well, we'd have to drive into town. Yep.
25:26everything we do here too is from scratch. Homemade chicken soups and chilies. When I can tomatoes, I use all the juice and you know, I have that throughout the year. That's how I make my spaghetti sauce and chili and lasagna. Yeah. Yep. I made French onion soup the other night for the first time since last fall. And I always forget how much I love it until I'm eating it. And I was just like, I don't know why I don't make this more often.
25:55Right. And my husband was like, because there's nothing to it. He said, he said, the thing that makes French onion soup great is the bread that we eat with it. And I was like, liar. I like the soup. You like the bread. But yes, making soups is amazing. I, we make soup all winter long. Yeah. I'm looking, okay, that sounds terrible. Cause I know we don't get much summer here, but I'm looking forward to fall. Now it's been a really hot summer. As the summer has
26:27I think I just talked over you. I'm sorry. It's okay. As there's a lag happening and so it cuts out and I can't tell if you're still talking, but it comes back and I'm like, oh, I just talked over her. Oops. As sucky as this summer has been, I am so excited. We're rolling into fall. Me too. Me too. I am. And so are my animals like just the cool nights now, just the relief and the calves and yeah.
26:56It's just a big difference and it's good for everyone. It just kind of clears, it's fresh air now. It's not stale and sticky. Gross. Gross is the word I've used all summer. Oh yeah. I don't know if you guys are going to get this, but we're supposed to have a week of hot this week. Yep. That's what they said. You'll get it first and then it'll head this way. Yeah. And of course the cat had kittens last night when it's going to be hot all week. I'm like, great. That's awesome.
27:25Well, you know what that means. You'll have to spend extra time with them. Well, they're in the barn and they're in some hay bales. That's where she has her babies. OK, OK. And it's all shady and they and the kittens know, like even when they're only a day old, they know to move away from each other if they're too hot. So I think it'll be OK.
27:49better than minus 20 because they probably wouldn't survive it.
27:55Chickens too just right now. They're comfortable now, but This hot week is going to be a stress around them, too Mm-hmm. But yeah, that's what we do when we farm Uh-huh. It's all the seasons Yeah, I think the worst thing about this week is my dog has been loving this cooler weather She's a mini Australian Shepherd. She weighs like 35 pounds and she loves to go outside when it's cold
28:25or cool. Right. And she goes out and she just rolls in the grass, just rolls herself over six times, throws herself around, scratches her back. You can just see her being like, oh, this is so much better than all the heat we've had. And so she's been just wanting to go outside all day long. And today is supposed to be okay. I guess Wednesday is supposed to be 90. Yeah.
28:48She's gonna be one unhappy pupper all day Wednesday. Yes, and my labs too, they love playing ball. Everything is ball, ball, ball. And when it's hot, hot, they won't even go outside. They'll stay in the house. Yeah, Maggie is frisbee. She loves frisbee. See? I just, all my kids grew up and moved away and I got another puppy, so. Yes. Yes, that's what we did too.
29:16We call Maggie our fifth baby. Yeah, yeah. And actually my kids always say, you love her more than me. Well, she does not talk back. It's kind of nice. So you know, as we get, how is that saying? As we get older, our parents get smarter. I think that's, yeah. So I'm waiting for that day to happen.
29:41Yes, I have had all of my children come to me at one point or another since they hit 20 years old and say, you know, I remember when I did this thing. I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Yeah. My oldest is doing that now, but the other two, not yet. So I know it's coming. Yeah. Um, my stepson back years ago, we, we had a rough and rocky relationship for a while. And.
30:11He was a hard kid. He was a good kid, but he was a difficult kid. And he joined the Marines, and he went into the Marines, and he came back to visit for leave about a year or so after he joined the Marines. And he purposely came back to visit before the other kids got home from school and before dad got home from work because he wanted to talk to me. And I was like, okay.
30:39And so he got dropped off at the house and he came in and gave me a big hug. And he said, before you say anything. And I was like, Oh, he says, he says, I love you. I'm sorry. Oh, I said, sorry for what? He said, for being such a pain in the ass. I was like, Oh, okay. Well, yep. That's what kids do. And I love you anyway. And then we just sat down and talked. It was beautiful. Yeah. Those are.
31:08beautiful moments actually. Bryce has four children so that's why we got the name Misfits. I was gonna ask. We have seven kids between the two of us. All about the same age and you try and mesh them. We just started calling ourselves Misfits and that's how we got the farm name. It's stunning. It was a joke that's stuck. So it's kind of...
31:32Yeah, I was going to ask you before we got done talking. And so I'm glad that you brought it up. Yeah. Everyone asked me, I say we're a modern day Brady bunch. Yep. And so were we. Um, none of our kids have the same last name. Oh, wow. Four kids. Cause I had one from my first marriage or one from my second marriage. Husband had one from a previous relationship and then husband and I had the youngest who still lives with us. So.
32:01So they all have different last names, but it's Cassandra, Cody, Cameron, and Ken. So they all have the same C at the beginning of their first names. Wow. And that was not planned. Well, it was meant to be then. Okay, so Bryce has an older boy. He lives in Texas, older girl who lives here in, I'm gonna say Kelnarsville.
32:28And then he has two younger ones actually, 12 and 11 from his second marriage. So, yeah. Yep. So it's, yeah, that's why we got the name Misfits because we were just a modern day Brady bunch and there was no other way to explain us. Yeah. And you shouldn't have to, well, I don't mind the term explain, but I always feel, I always felt like I had to defend the fact that our kids had different last names.
32:57And I finally realized when they got older that I didn't have to defend it. It didn't matter. No, it doesn't matter. And family doesn't always have to be blood. It's what you make. Family is created with the people around you. Yeah, exactly. Cause we all have that black sheep in our family, you know? I think I'm the black sheep of three kids. I think I am. Yeah. I'm good with black. I wear black all the time.
33:26Me too, black and gray. Those are my favorites. Wow. Yeah, I'm getting more fond of rich, deep brown as I get older, but I still like black. Yeah, me too. So, but anyway, I feel like- Yeah, now we're getting sidetracked. I was gonna say, I feel like the last few interviews I've done, it started off about the homestead and then it ends up being about raising kids or pets or favorite things.
33:55and that's totally fine, but we're at like 33 minutes and I try to keep this to half an hour. So we're good. All right, well, yeah, no, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, I'm so excited for you. I can't wait to see photos on Facebook about the grand opening. Yeah, it's coming, it's coming. I got all my mums out. I have to get them in planters now, so I'm excited. Yes, thank you so much for your time, Amy. I appreciate it. You have a wonderful day.
34:24You too. All right. Bye.
 

FarmRaise

Today I'm talking with Isabelle at FarmRaise. You can also follow on Facebook.
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00:00This 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 Isabelle at FarmRaise. Hello, Isabelle, how are you? Good, how are you, Mary? I'm good. You said you're in Missouri? Yes, I am. Okay, well I'm in Minnesota. I don't know if it's a pretty day there, but it's really pretty here.
00:29Oh my gosh, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous these past few days. Yeah, I always start the podcast interviews with talking about the weather because our weather is always crazy. It's either strikingly gorgeous or it's terrible and it feels like there's no in between this year. So it really, it really is like that. And I know that a lot of people think that talking about the weather.
00:59is kind of shallow or small talk, but in agriculture, I think it's a form of kind of like a love language or like showing that you care about somebody because the weather just really impacts our ability to do what we do. And so the weather is just a vital part of our lives. And so I think that
01:26In other industries, it may just be small talk, but in agriculture, we love to talk about it. We love to talk about it. We love to predict it. We love to complain about it, but it's a real thing. It's a really integral part of agriculture. Yes, it really is. It is. But we could definitely use a shot of rain where I'm at, but we'll probably...
01:53A lot of people will start harvest here in the next few weeks that are in the traditional line of agriculture, but I mean, I have zucchini coming out my ears. So if I get any more rain, I don't know what I'm going to do with it all. So yeah, we don't have anything coming. Well, we have tomatoes coming in finally.
02:18but it's been a terrible growing season for us. And I don't want to talk about it at all because I've talked about ad nauseum on the podcast and in real life and I just give up. It's a wash to next year is gonna be better. Yeah, I've heard that from quite a few people. I was talking to my cousin on the phone the other day and she said that, you know, she had a horrible year for sweet corn and peppers. And so she was really glad
02:49they had an overabundance from last year, still in the freezer and still canned from last year because they just had a horrible year. Sorry, what was that? I was going to say it's been rough all the way around. Yeah, this was my first year kind of doing a really, really large garden by myself.
03:16in Missouri. I grew up in Nebraska and I did some small stuff after my husband and I first got married. So I was just thinking it was just me, but turns out it wasn't. It was kind of a rough year for everybody. So that made me feel a little bit better, but next year will definitely be better for everybody. Keeping my fingers crossed.
03:45Okay, so tell me about Farm Raise. Yes. So Farm Raise was started by three people who were at Stanford University and they saw a need for farmers to kind of simplify the FSA records process. And then that moved into simplifying the grant application process.
04:14and then moved into, well, actually what farmers, homesteaders, ranchers really need is the ability to track their records. And so with FarmRays, we have a farm accounting software that helps you to track your records for your schedule F, track your inventory.
04:40and on the app and then create invoices to be able to send to your customers. And then prepare to apply for loans or grant programs. So we have a really great software that can really help you to see where am I spending money on my farm? And maybe where can I cut back on some of my spending?
05:08That's not making me as much money. And then another piece of what FarmRays does is we have some B2B software. So we host applications for climate smart farming programs. So we currently host the application for...
05:35the Mizzou Climate Smart Regenerative Crops and Livestock, and then one for blue diamond growers as well. So we help create applications and then reporting features so that it's easier for farmers to apply for those programs, get the money dispersed to them, and then report the sustainable practices that they are doing back.
06:03to the organizations to get that USDA funding. So Farm Raise has a lot of different software solutions, not only for farmers, but for businesses who are hosting grant applications for farmers as well. Okay, what does FSA stand for?
06:30Yeah, so FSA is the Farm Service Agency and they are a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture. So they're in the umbrella under the USDA. And so they are the ones who have different microloan programs, they have different emergency
06:56assistance programs, as well as disaster programs that farmers can apply for in times of needs, as well as underserved farmers, such as farmers of color, veteran farmers, and beginning farmers to get their farm off the ground, to purchase a farm, or...
07:21to get started. So FarmRais is currently a cooperator of the USDA and we host the FSA educational hub. So we have a ton of resources where you can come learn about the FSA and learn about how you can potentially start your funding journey with the FSA, apply for loans, apply for different disaster programs.
07:49So say all of your honeybee hives got taken out this year by variromites or through some different type of disease. There's funding out there through the FSA and through the USDA to help you get back on your feet. Awesome. So Farm Raise is a national thing. It's not just Missouri. Yeah. So Farm Raise, we are a completely remote team. And so there is 12.
08:19of us. We have three of us on the farmer success team, and then we have four software engineers, and then some people on the design team, and then our leadership team. So there's 12 of us, and we're all throughout the country, but we help farmers in every single state manage their finances. So we
08:47are so thrilled to be able to do that here. I feel like farm raise takes the pain out of bookkeeping and paperwork if you're in ag. Yes.
09:02Yes, it really does. It really does. One of the awesome things that our engineering team is, is one of the best because not only do they know what they're talking about when it comes to computer science, but they have experience with agriculture. One of them has a farm and they have all
09:30done farm tours. Every year, our team, we go out and we visit farmers to be able to see what it's like. And we do tons of farmer interviews every year to see what farmers are needing. And so we make our features to serve farmers. And so our engineering team this year has really done a lot to improve.
09:59our reporting features to make it super easy for you to export your transactions or to get a custom report of your data, of, you know, find out what, which of my products is making me the most money. How can I spend less in this category?
10:26And it's really awesome to be able to see how far we've come in that. And then also, you know, being able to send an invoice directly from the app and have it connected to your inventory. It is really cool to be able to help you not only manage your, your inventory bookkeeping, but also manage all of your invoices in one place.
10:56and kind of be able to take a deep breath and be like, oh my gosh, this is so easy and painless. Because, you know, bookkeeping can sometimes be the hardest part when you're running numbers and crunching numbers. So making it really easy to be able to track it all.
11:25Quicken and he uses spreadsheets to keep track of our inventory and our expenses and our income and we are a tiny little homestead. We want hence a tiny homestead, but we have a farm to market garden that we sell produce from at the farmer's market and at a farm stand on our property. When we have produce to sell? This year not so much. The last three years, yes.
11:54He is really good with numbers. He actually was a bookkeeper for a few years in his younger years. And he doesn't mind doing it. But I'm telling you, if anything happened to him, I would have to take it over. And I hate math. I'm good at it, but I hate math and I hate spreadsheets. So a program like yours would help me a lot. The question is, is the FarmRays program
12:23that you guys do. Is it for even little tiny people like us?
12:29Yes, yes, of course. We have, we have farmers, we have homesteaders, we have ranchers, we have people who have all the way down from 800 square feet that they are farming all the way up to over 25,000 acres. Wow, we have so many different types of farmers as well.
12:57We have people who are raising oysters. We have traditional crop farmers, vegetable farmers. We have people who raise honeybees. We have all sorts of different farmers. And so one of the questions that we get a lot is, is farm raise right for me? And...
13:26Or is it a right fit for blank operation? And my response is always yes. If you file a schedule F to report farm earnings or farm expenses, then yes, you can definitely use farm raise tracks. And the best part of it is, I hear that a lot Mary is that,
13:54Oh, we're coming to Farm Raise tracks because our bookkeeper passed away or our accountant isn't helping farmers anymore unless they do, unless they start using a software program or something like that. And the great thing about Farm Raise is that if you categorize your expenses to the Schedule F categories throughout the year.
14:20It'll calculate your line by line totals when it comes to tax season. And then all that has to be done is it has to be plugged into your schedule F PDF form. Um, and so it is just so simplified and it is, it is so, so easy, um, come to tax time or creating a balance sheet if you need to apply for a loan or a grant.
14:50Um, so it gets, it doesn't have to be difficult. And that's one of the things that, that we want to do is we want to help farmers save time so that they can focus on what, on what they do best, um, is farming. And then secondly, you know, spending time with their family. Um, cause because we know that's important to them as well.
15:18Yep, it sure is. So you sound like you love what you're doing. Like I can hear it coming through your voice. Yes, yes. I grew up on a farm in Nebraska. And after graduating college, I worked in higher education for a little bit.
15:47before my husband and I got married. And, you know, then we decided to move back to his family's farm. And so I've been with FarmRays about a year now. And I, you know, I was applying for jobs trying to figure out, you know, how am I ever going to find a job that I love? And I just kept waiting and applying and interviewing and just nothing. And, you know, after college, I had
16:16I had applied for so many jobs and interviewed for so many jobs and I had like 10 job offers. And then just three years later, I had applied for 100 jobs, interviewed for 10 and had no offers. And so I was like, this is just, I was beginning to lose hope. And I...
16:41then applied for the job with Farm Raise and I had my first interview with them and I realized how passionate I was about the work that they were doing. Because not only do they care about helping farmers become, you know, more better at tracking their finances, but they also wanna help farmers
17:08you know, become more sustainable, be able to find sustainable practices that work for their farm as well. Um, and so, yes, I love my job. Um, I'm very passionate, um, about agriculture and, um, farm raises values really align with mine. You know, building farmer trust is our number one, one value. And, um, you know, that, that was really important to me.
17:37And being authentic is one of our values, or, you know, building authenticity and executing. And those were all very important things to me. And so when I started here at FarmRays, it just felt like a great fit right away because of the value alignment. And so.
18:00Being able to help farmers with their finances this last year has just been so rewarding. And I can't speak highly enough about our CEO, Jace Hafner, and our COO, Sammy Teletun. They have done a wonderful job building the culture here at FarmRays and making sure that we stay true to the mission and vision of supporting farmers.
18:31Super. I'm going to share a little thing about how important it is to be able to get behind your job. When I got one of my first jobs, I think I was 17, I worked at a bookstore. And I love books. I am a lifelong avid reader, have been since first grade. And I applied for this job as a cashier at a bookstore in a town that was like,
18:58two or three towns from where I lived, so a good half an hour, 40 minutes drive. And, uh, I applied because it was a bookstore. I wanted to go to go to every bookstore on earth at that point. And I didn't think I'd get the job because I was only 17. And I went in for the interview and the guy interviewed me and he was like, you are really well read for 17 years old. And I laughed and said, yes, because books are my best friends. And.
19:27He was like, great. He said, and clearly you can read. He said, you wouldn't be in here if you couldn't read. And he was just laughing. And he said, can you file? And I said, I know the alphabet. I'm pretty sure I can file. And he laughed again. And he basically sent me on my way and said, I'll give you a call in a couple of days. He had called my house before I even got home and talked to my mom and said, don't tell her.
19:55but I want her to work for me. I wanna tell her. And my mom, of course, told me. So I called him back and I said, "'Say you want me to work for you, huh?' He said, "'Your mom wasn't supposed to tell you.'" I said, "'Well, she couldn't hide her excitement.'" So I worked there for like a year and a half and I loved that job beyond recognition. We were allowed to take home any book and read it as long as we didn't damage it. I had my own
20:24personal library of new releases for a year and a half. It was amazing. Wow. Yes, so if you're lucky enough to find a job that involves something that you truly love, go for it because it'll be the best thing you ever do.
20:45Yeah, it is. It truly is amazing. I think I can count on one hand the number of bad days I've had at work this past year and two weeks that I've worked for Farm Raised, which is such a blessing to love your job that much. And really being able to meet.
21:13the farmers that we get to help, get to hear about their operations, get to see their families, getting to hear about their wins and about their losses too. It really is cool to be able to build a relationship with some of them. And you know, these are farmers that
21:40frankly, I don't know what they look like. I've heard their voice over the phone before. But really cool to be able to help them organize their finances and to be able to help them. We have one farmer who, she said that the membership paid itself off because she saw how much she was spending in places that she.
22:08She didn't need to be spending. And so she adjusted her spending habits. We had a farmer whose accountant won't take any farmers except for her because her taxes are so organized because of farm raise. It's so cool to be able to see those success stories.
22:37through the work. And also, I'm also a really big reader too. We're remodeling a house right now, so I don't read as much as I would like, probably only like 30 minutes to an hour a day. But have you read, what's the latest book that you read? I have no idea.
23:05I read every night before I go to sleep to stop my brain from spinning. And I just basically read mysteries because I know who did it by the second chapter. And then I just read it to figure out who did it. I mean, how they explain who did it. So I don't really know what the name of the book that I'm reading is right now. And I have a hard time with the digital versions because there's no real book cover.
23:34to memorize anymore. So I can't tell you what I'm reading right now. I just can tell you that I read every night before I go to bed. If I'm going to read something I need to remember, I read it during the day, because otherwise I will forget if I read it at night. Yes, yes. So I have a book in my dresser drawer right now that is basically a gardening guide that I got as a review copy a year ago.
24:04And I looked through that. I should actually get up and get it. Hang on one second. I'm going to grab it so I can tell you the name of it. Okay. Oh, awesome. Hang on. I had to walk across my room to get it. I will edit out all that silence. Um, no, you're fine. It's called the backyard homestead guide to growing organic food. And it's by Tanya Dinkla Cobb. D E N C K L A. And it is one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen.
24:33for helping people grow a garden in their backyard basically. It is so, it's laid out so well. It has an appendix, it has an index, and it's all the usual suspects you would grow. And I interviewed her months ago, and that's why I got the book. And she's so smart. Like, I was talking away with her, and I'm like, I am learning so much just from this podcast. Yay. So that's the last one.
25:03That's the last one I really got my hands on that's a real book. Oh, awesome. Yeah. My, I, once I filled up both of my bookshelves, I made the rule this year that I couldn't buy any more physical books. Um, and that I could only buy on the Kindle because I had too many books.
25:29on my shelves that I needed to read first. So I need to get all the books on my shelf read first. But this one looks great. I'm definitely gonna have to check this one out. And honestly, the gardening and homestead books, and I have a bunch of cover crop books and soil books.
25:55I think that those ones are great to have hard copies of just so that you can take them out to the garden with you if you need to compare one of the pests or something or one of the diseases, one of the pictures in there to outside in your garden. So I think those are always great to have physical copies of. Yeah.
26:20When I started the podcast, I didn't even think about interviewing authors because writers are not gardeners, I assumed. But some writers are gardeners and some writers write about homesteading and things like that. Who knew? I'm dense. I hadn't even thought about interviewing authors. And then I got approached by somebody who is an author who raises chickens to interview her and that got the ball rolling.
26:48I'm going to actually approach some more authors who write about the things I talk about because I really love books and when I got this one I was like, oh, I could be getting review copies for free because I want to read the book before I talk to the author. Duh, this is a great plan. Yes, that is a great plan. So yeah, it just never clicked until this lady approached me and I was like, I could be doing two things I love. I could be doing the podcast and I can be reading books by the people that I...
27:18that I talk to. That would be great. I have not written a book yet, but if I write a book someday, I don't know what to think. We'll talk again. Yes, we'll have to talk again. I don't know what I'll write about. I have all sorts of things I could write about up my sleeve. I'm actually interviewing a lady on Friday this week who wrote a book about sheep's milk because she raises sheep. And she's very, very into the nutrition.
27:48um, part of the sheep's milk. And I interviewed her a couple weeks ago and we talked about her sheep and we talked about other stuff. We never actually talked about her book and the nutritional parts. Oh my gosh. I did not even consider her. So she's coming. She's coming back. She's coming back Friday to talk about the thing we're supposed to talk about weeks ago.
28:13Oh my gosh, I never even considered sheep's milk, but I mean, we have cow's milk, goat's milk. I mean, they have camel's milk in the Middle East. Why wouldn't we have sheep's milk too? Yup. So that'll be out next week, so I can always send you the link to the interview.
28:42You know, even people just getting started, if they want to track their expenses, you know, if they are selling at a farmer's market, track that revenue. Because you know, for some grants, you have to be able to show the profits that you have made. Even if it's minute, you do have to have you do have to show the profits that you've made. If people do want to apply for grants someday.
29:09you know, whether that is to put in shelter belts or to start regenerative grazing with their goats or, you know, the livestock or their chickens that they have. You know, tracking those finances no matter how large your homestead or your farm is, is really important when it does come to applying for.
29:37for financing or grant programs even. And so, you know, we can get you, Mary, a referral link with a code for 20% off for your listeners. Yes, please send that along. And would love to be able to help some of your listeners to be able to.
30:05get started on their tracking journey, especially if they are filing a schedule F for their taxes because, you know, different states have different rules. But if you, in some states, even if you have as little as five acres, you can be counted as a farm. So in some states, they don't have any acreage requirements.
30:35notation to know when you're a homesteader and filing taxes. So. Yes. And on the grant subject, we were going to apply for a grant like a month ago. And I read through the application and everything. And I said to my husband, I said, I'm going to need these numbers from you. And he said, oh, okay. And he looked through the stuff about what they needed for information. And he was like,
31:04I don't even know what that means. I don't know what they're looking for on that one. And so we basically decided not to apply for that grant because we thought we were in over our heads. You know, it was beyond the scope of what we're doing. And so I'm assuming that maybe Farm Raise would be able to explain what that number was supposed to be if we were part of it. Yeah. And so we have...
31:33We have a huge farm funding library. And while, you know, farm funding isn't our focus anymore, you know, if we do have an equip application, like equip streamlined application for our premium members, if you have not yet set up FSA records, we do have a streamlined FSA records.
32:01application on our website as well for our premium members. And if you want to find out if you can qualify for some of the value added processing grant or the Equip grant, we have some surveys that can help you find out if you're even eligible to apply. So you don't even have to do the hard work to figure out.
32:30Hey, I don't even know if I should apply for this. Well, we can tell you if you should with some of the resources that we have for our premium members. So, I can kind of help you figure out how to find a grant writer too, if you weren't comfortable writing it yourself.
32:53We've got a ton of resources too and we will help out our premium members. We do not write grants, but we can point you in the direction of some people who do. I was going to ask you that. Good. Awesome. Thank you. So how many tiers are there for the cost for this? Currently we have one tier, well, I guess two tiers. So we have a free membership.
33:22So that is just gives you kind of a basic access of the tracking app on your phone and then the funding library on the web browser. And then we have our premium which is $40 a month.
33:51or $432 a year, but we are going to get Mary a 20% off code, which customers can keep for the lifetime of their membership. So that's not just a one-time thing. You got to keep that forever once you get it. So
34:15But then that includes schedule F generation, balance sheets, inventory tracking, invoicing. And then if anybody actually does have, you can also track your personal expenses on it as well. Or if you have another business, you can track another business on there as well with our custom categories as well. So, and then you also do get access
34:44to tracks on your laptop with our premium access. So lots of different options and really cool new features coming out here soon for our inventory. And we did just release a payroll pilot for anybody who does have employees. Awesome.
35:12I love what you're doing. I mean, it probably seems like I'm sitting here doing a commercial for your business, but I'm not because I know how hard it is to do this when you're first starting out. How do I do the books for my business? And if you've never done it before, it's a lot. It's a lot to figure out. Yes, it is. It is. And that was, you know, when...
35:38when you're a small business or a small farm, it can be really daunting that first year of how do I categorize this for taxes? Or how do I know where this goes? Or how do I know how to track my different products? Or should I even track this? And those are things that we can kind of help you figure out.
36:08and get started. And that's also another thing is, you know, we're a small company and we're farmers, we're farmers kids, and we all love agriculture. And we also have a customer service team that is based here in the United States. And you can call, text, chat, email us.
36:38And you're always going to get a real person. We're not switching over to AI. No matter how big we get, we always want to make sure that you get a real person. And you don't get that with some of the other accounting softwares, even if you're just tracking your personal expenses. So one small business to another.
37:06Let's help each other. So yeah, I love it. I'm so glad that I reached out to you because this is really, this is very interesting to me on my geek side because it's all numbers and magic. And I like it when numbers and magic come together because numbers don't lie. And the magic is that it's not going to make you crazy trying to figure out your bottom line. Yes, exactly. Exactly.
37:34And I will say when I ran our balance sheet for the first time, it was kind of like, oof, I didn't realize that that's how much debt that we had. And now, you know, my husband and I have been able to look to be like, okay, how can we pay off some of this debt faster to reach our goals faster?
38:01And so some of those reporting features have really been a help to us personally too and helping us start our farm. So we're really excited about that as well. Yeah. I feel like farm raises a win-win. As long as you can afford the cost of using the program, it's a win-win. Yes. So.
38:28All right, Isabel. Well, I tried to keep you to half an hour. 38 minutes.
38:36Say it again. So sorry about that. No, that's okay. What were you going to say? I was going to say we do have a seven-day free trial to help to see if it's right for your operation too. Okay, awesome. Okay, I'm going to try it again. Thank you so much for your time today, Isabelle. I appreciate it. Yes, thank you for having me. Absolutely. Have a great afternoon.
 

Shady Hill

Today I'm talking with Ashley at Shady Hill. You can also follow on Facebook.
If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee -
https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes
00:00This 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 Ashley at Shady Hill. Good afternoon, Ashley. How are you? I'm doing great. It's about low 70 degrees here in Virginia, so it's feeling really good here.
00:26It's a little warmer than that in Minnesota where I am. I think it's probably 75, but it's also overcast. So I'm hoping it does not get hot today. That would be great. All right, so tell me about yourself and Shady Hill. Yeah, so Shady Hill is very new for us. My husband and I, you know, I just turned 26 this year. I feel like I'm getting up there in age now, but I'm 26.
00:54My husband is 25, so we're considered young farmers in our area. Um, but we always wanted to farm, but didn't grow up on farms. So after we studied agriculture at Virginia Tech and kind of grew up throughout FFA, which is an agriculture organization for youth, we were like, okay, now what, like, how do we start farming? You know, we got the education. We've kind of been a part of community groups that have tried to help us and encourage us to start farming. But.
01:24It wasn't that easy. Um, I started off teaching as an ag teacher. He started off working at a community bank as an ag, uh, loan officer, portfolio manager. So we were still really plugged into the agriculture community, but we didn't have any money to just buy a farm. Um, where we ended up living and moving is where I grew up. And so around here, most of what it looks like to farm is cropland and minimum of like a hundred acres of it.
01:54Small farms around here are probably about 50 to 60 acres big. So it just wasn't feasible realistic for us. So that's really where Shady Hill came about was, you know, after I left teaching, I worked in marketing for a little bit and then I had a baby and stayed home. And with that extra time and just getting tired of making excuses for not being able to buy a farm, we found ourselves, you know, we lived on one and a half acres, so why not just start where we are. And so.
02:23Shady Hill was born because we live on a hill with a bunch of shade trees. Um, and we mostly do everything on one acre, but that's Shady Hill and a little bit about us. You can do a lot on an acre and a half, just so you know. And it's a lot, and it's a lot better to start farming young than it is to start farming old. I can tell you that from experience. Well, we had the most of the encouragement we got from older farmers was to start small.
02:52and to start because we kept saying, you know, oh, we can't afford, you know, especially now. I mean, I remember when I graduated college, we were seeing an acre of land for about $6,000 to $7,000 an acre. Now you see, you know, if someone has a nice house sitting on 10 to 15 acres, you're paying nearly a million dollars just for that. So we always just had this dollar value on farming and homesteading and we thought we just couldn't afford to
03:22do it. But then we realized homesteading anyways isn't even about making money. It's about just being more self-reliant. We didn't have to take out any big loans for this and we're learning a lot now. So kind of the advice from those farmers that we got about starting small that we used to get annoyed by, because the world is not set up for farmers to start small to be honest, was actually some of the best advice because now in the future, depending on...
03:50where this takes us and what opportunities come up with land, we now have experience for some loans or depending on what that even looks like. Because before we didn't have any experience to prove that we would be able to farm the land that we were going to buy. So we just didn't look good on paper to begin with. So it's been a blessing to learn and get the experience now, but it's by far not the easiest thing we've ever done.
04:18Yeah, and honestly, it probably wouldn't have been the easiest thing you've ever done, no matter when you started it, because it's all learning and experience and trying new things and failing and then trying again. I have been where you are and it's so much fun. The beginning is so much fun, but it's really scary too. Yeah. Yeah, we have so much of, should we keep doing it? Should we not? And I think too, I forgot to mention what we do at Shady Hill is...
04:46We grow cut flowers. And everyone thinks I've got these acres of flowers. You know, at a farmer's market, they're like, oh, how many acres of flowers do you have? And I tell them like, you know, our beds are 50 feet long, four feet wide. I've got four of those. And we pasture raise chicken for meat, and we butcher and package it all ourselves. And we sell it direct to consumer. And we sell out of chicken before we even get the chicks here. Like people, the demand is so high.
05:16that we don't even have any to take to farmers markets when we go. We just have to ask people to pre-order. So doing all of that, the very first time we butchered chickens, my husband injured himself really bad. And we ended up going to the ER after we were 40 minutes in, like starting the whole process. And that was a big, should we even be doing this? Like this is, this could happen again. You know, it was kind of a freak accident. It wasn't
05:46our fault. And so just, that was the first time that we had this, ooh, is this worth it? And we just started, but we just, we take these lessons in strides and we don't take it as a sign from God saying, don't do this. We're like, no, this is like a lesson to learn so we can keep doing it. So a lot of like these humbling moments keep coming up. Cause there's this.
06:12I always come across these memes on social media for stay at home moms, now that that's kind of my life, that says when you were working, you just wanted to stay at home and figure out how to homestead and make more money only to realize that staying at home and homesteading costs you more money and you've worked harder than you ever have before. So that's kind of like where we're at right now of just all these trials and very intensive labor for us.
06:41but it's been great for our daughter to grow up around that. And she's, we've seen that come out in her. She's one and a half just with how advanced she is and how independent she is because of the type of work that we do together.
06:56That's awesome. I love that. And I love that she's a little girl and she is independent and advanced at one and a half. Oh yeah. She's a little woman really is what she is. One and a half going on 40. Yeah exactly. She's more mature than me some days I feel like. Uh huh. Yeah. Until she throws a tantrum and then you're like, I don't get to throw tantrums. Damn it. I know. No, I think about all the time.
07:25how acceptable it is for toddlers to do literally anything and how adults, we have the same needs. Like we need naps when we get cranky. You know, like when we're upset or cranky, we either need a nap, water, or we're hungry. Right? And for a kid, it's very acceptable for them to have a tantrum about it. Adults not so much. So I know that I'll get to enter that space again when I'm very elderly, but right now I'm not allowed to have tantrums.
07:56No, I always try to remember the acronym HALT, H-A-L-T, hungry, angry, lonely, tired. Because I live in a two bedroom, one bathroom house with my husband and our youngest son who is 22. The house is like over 1400 square feet, but it's not laid out well. And so it feels like we're always kind of in each other's space. And if
08:24Somebody in the house is acting like they might need a nap or like something's wrong. I always try to remember the hungry, angry, lonely, tired thing. And I will literally ask them, are you hungry? No. Are you angry? No. Are you lonely? No. Are you tired? Yes. And I'm like, good, go take a nap. That's like, I need to remember that. Yeah, the HALT acronym, I heard it a long time ago when my kids were little.
08:54Because as a mom, you know that the first thing you do if your baby is crying is you check to see if the new diaper changed. You try to feed them. If those don't work, you rock them because they're probably too overtired. Same thing with grownups. Yeah, we live in the overtired space a lot. And I have to remind myself too that she needs to play because it's so we have so much to do around here.
09:23the farm tasks that she just follows along and does things with us. Like I'll cut flowers for her that don't look awesome. Or sometimes she picks the awesome ones herself and I just lose those. Uh, and she will be okay for a little bit playing with the flowers, but then she needs like to play with me as her mom. And so I have a lot of moments where I have to slow down and remember that. Things are just going to take a lot longer or not be as.
09:50pretty or perfect because, you know, it's the farm is not at the expense of how our family grows. It's more for it to be the thing that helps our family. So there's been some moments where we've had a pause and realize like, oh, it's kind of coming at the expense of our family, whether that be the stress or the time versus the thing that's actually the reason why we started. So she's been able to help us slow down and
10:19Um, remember that our family is more important than what's at stake with farming, but I'm glad that she's around to kind of teach us these lessons now. Yeah, it's amazing what you learn from your kids. I had four in my house at one point in time and I learned so much from my kids. The other thing that I will say is that farming is not a perfect endeavor. You know, people see all these pictures on Facebook or Pinterest or
10:49All the other ones, I can't even list them off today, I'm too tired. I'm tired too. And you see all these beautiful pictures and it all looks so lovely and so perfect. But if you actually go to a working farm, probably the first thing you're going to smell when you get out is cow shit. And you're going to see a bunch of animals all muddy and dirty because they've been rolling in the mud and it's not perfect. So there's no reason to expect.
11:18that your life on your farm should be perfect. Your life with your husband and your child should be wonderful.
11:29Yeah, we've heard of people, because homesteading is kind of a movement right now. People move in from the city, you know, Biden the little rancher, and just you think you could do all your stuff. But then the second thing that's trending that I saw after this on social media was people leaving homesteading or they're hiring people to work on their homesteads. Because
11:55they don't realize how much work or even death for that matter that happens on your homestead like with animals. There's just a lot of upsetting or tragic things that happen that's out of your control as a farmer or producer. We've had chicks that just, we don't know why, but survival of the fittest, don't make it. Or we spend eight weeks pouring into a flock and then...
12:22something on butcher day doesn't go like as planned with like partying that like after the process of Butcher, you know, like when we're plucking the feathers off if something perfect doesn't happen. We're like, okay. Well now we can't sell that chicken Um, so there's a lot of things that's happened along the way. It's like you work so hard, but it's still not at our will of what really what's the final product that we get from that and a lot of what why we started homesteading was to
12:51get us a more, just to know more about our food and what's going into it and have better products and just be more self-reliant in that way. And so on not a lot of land, chicken was the answer for me, for us. And so we get upset when we mess something up or if it doesn't look perfect for a consumer, but we're like, well, it's really for us and we don't need it to be perfect. So.
13:17There's been the, we have to remind ourselves to slow down and not sell all of our stuff. Because one time we sold all of our chicken and we didn't have any for our family. And we were like, oh, like we got so excited on the business side of things and how it was growing that we didn't remember to check and make sure that we had what we needed. So we've had to adjust a lot of things because even though we started small and there's so much potential to grow and more people are asking and businesses are asking about our products,
13:48have that scale right now. Like we just can't do it. And that's been so disheartening to have like say that but it's like we're not really turning us like a salary off of this, you know, and we're also still very new and very fresh. But I think that's a big frustration that people have with farming and starting out. It's like you realize, oh, it's not profitable to do it for myself only. So now I need to like do this for consumers. But then...
14:16you start scaling up and now you have this whole business that you've scaled up and you can't go back. We've seen that a lot, kind of where we're at of people getting too big, too fast. Mm-hmm. Yep. Drowning in their success. Yeah. So it's kind of, it's like frustrating for us, but we're also like, there's no way we could have taken on more right now. We just don't have time. Yeah.
14:43And it's true of everybody. You have only a certain amount of numbers or hours in the day. You have only a certain amount of energy. And when you run out of both, you're done. That's it for the day. Yeah. So I think it's amazing what you're doing. And I'm gonna, I'm going to tell a secret that I haven't mentioned on the podcast ever when we bought our place four years ago, one of the things that we made sure of is that it didn't have to be a homestead.
15:12It could just be a home. Because my husband and I, well, I will be 55 in November. My husband turned 55 in June and we're not getting younger. We don't have the energy of 20 year olds or 25 year olds or even 30 year olds at this point. And so when we looked for a place, we made sure that we found a place we didn't have to remodel. Number one, cause neither one of us want to do that again for a while.
15:40because we had a house that needed to be repaired all the time for 20 years and it was awful. And we found a place where we have a huge pole barn. So if we wanted to, we don't have to do a garden, we don't have to sell eggs, we don't have to have animals. We could literally rent out the pole barn for people to store their boats and their trailers in for the winter. So we tried to find a place that would work on many levels when we looked for it.
16:10So we have done the gardens, we have done chickens, we have sold stuff, and I'm telling you, I think we're probably gonna be scaling, or not scaling, pivoting in the next five years to other things because I don't know that we're gonna be able to keep up with a 100 foot by 150 foot garden in five years. Who knows? So home studying is...
16:35a lifestyle. It is not about a land. It's not about whether you're selling stuff. It's about how you're living your life.
16:45Yeah, I 100% agree.
16:49So, you grow flowers and sell flowers, you have chickens and you sell chickens. What else do you do? We have Christmas greenery. So that was kind of the first thing that I ever started. I was still working at the time, but we have evergreen trees on our property. So I was throwing together some Christmas wreaths and I did probably only 20 my first year. Well, last year.
17:19was year two. And I said yes to doing a fundraiser for a school. And then everyone else wanted Reeves and I never changed my prices because I didn't know better. And I was up till like 2 a.m. for about two weeks just making Reeves because our daughter was six months old at the time. And we were mostly still breastfeeding as well. And you know, I couldn't get work done until she went to bed at night.
17:47So we were up so late just cutting greenery in the dark, bringing it down to our garage. Everything happens in our garage, by the way. We have a half garage so we can't park a car in it so we create everything in our garage. But we sold over a hundred last year. So I went from experienced, in quotes, saying, oh, I can make all these wreaths. Yeah, it's great. And then we sold over a hundred and made over a hundred. I think it was like a hundred and eighteen maybe.
18:16Um, and so now this year we're trying to plan ahead, but it's tough because you can't really separate your time when you're doing something like greenery, uh, for the holidays, because the holidays, it's a calendar event. Like it, it doesn't go longer or shorter. Like people want it all at the same time. So you have to just power through and do it. And we're not at a place where we're paying employees to help us. And even if we have friends that we trusted to help create something like Reeds with us. Um.
18:46It's like, well, then how do you value their time? Because it is a lot of work. So we just, we're like, we're not at the place to do that. So we do it all ourselves and we just kind of say, you know, we have a week or two out of the winter where we know we're going to be a little tired and power through. And a lot of others who see everything we're doing or who actually know how hard we're working and they question like, Oh, how do you do all of this? Like you shouldn't be.
19:14doing it all. One of our family members says, we're human beings, not human doings. But when my husband and I look back at this and we're like, yes, we're really tired, but we enjoy this. And kind of to your point of like, you guys are going to start scaling back because you're getting older and that's just something you want to do. It's like...
19:35We're not 20 year olds going out to clubs and partying in the city. We're the 20 year olds that are spending all of our time and energy kind of being crazy doing things like this instead. So it's almost like we're the, you either get this type of 20 year old or you get that one and we're the, the ones that are just kind of overspending our time and energy right now on, on learning and just doing all of this business stuff. So yes, it's exhausting, but it's not, doesn't last forever. Um,
20:03And the older our daughter gets, the more kind of helpful she gets too. And it's a little more independent and doesn't need as much of our attention. But, um, that's been one of my favorite things of our homestead is the greenery, just cause that was the very first thing we ever started. The chickens came out of, because I used to work for a chicken company when I was in marketing, but it was a commercial company. Um, so I learned a lot from that. And then the flowers, I worked in a flower shop in high school and it was my project in FFA. So I learned a lot.
20:32from my boss there and I was her first and only employee. And then now I actually, she reopened her shop in my hometown and I'll go in and see her and tell her some of the stuff we're doing. And she bought flowers from our farm a couple of times. So it kind of just all stays full circle, but we're really involved in the community even outside of our homestead too. So we spend our time.
21:02canning portion of our homestead where this year I just kind of had women coming over who wanted to learn how to can foods. And I just taught them how like we, they paid for their produce and jars and they just came over to the house and took notes and canned with us. And I think there's more potential for that to be more of like a workshop in a commercial kitchen next year. But for now, it was just personally me testing waters on how something like that would go.
21:31But we're always brainstorming for the next big thing that we're going to be doing.
21:38Yeah, absolutely, because you're growing. You're growing your home state. You're growing your business. You mentioned FFA. You were part of FFA when you were in high school. Oh, yeah. So my FFA has about a million members nationally now. When I was in FFA in high school, there was about 600,000 members. So on a national scale, it's grown so much in just such a short amount of time. But
22:03I was blessed to have a middle school chapter. So there's not a lot of middle schools that have FFA and mine did. So I was in FFA starting in sixth grade and didn't grow up on a farm but heard that I can make friends and have a lot of food at meetings if I joined this club so I did. And my teacher like still today is a friend of mine now but became such great mentors from middle school through high school. I was a state officer.
22:31with FFA and so was my husband and that's how we met. So we were like leaders for our state here in Virginia. I moved on and tried to run for national office and didn't get it but stayed plugged in after that. And now I actually train other state officers with national FFA. So we're FFA nerds. We're trying to already plan how our daughter is going to be in FFA when she's in middle school. But it's really big around here. So we help out a lot with the chapters as much as we can.
23:00so that we can kind of try to pour back into those teachers because I know it's hard being a teacher for FFA and Ag and those students still need community support so that those programs stay strong. We're also involved in Farm Bureau too here locally. So we just try to stay plugged in because really if it wasn't for us staying involved with these Ag organizations, we would not have had the support that we needed to start this business.
23:30because we had never farmed before. So you can't just come out of water with no network and just sell to your community. It just doesn't work that way. Yeah, you're absolutely right. It does not. We tried that. We failed the first year. We finally figured out that if we didn't meet the people in our area, we weren't going to sell anything. So the reason I asked about FFA is because I interviewed a lady from FFA.
23:58for the podcast months ago. And she was fantastic. She was great. She told me all about Future Farmers of America and how it's not just Future Farmers now, it's the science of farming and all kinds of stuff. It was just a great informational chat. And I haven't really talked to anybody. Yeah, as I say, yeah, it started in Virginia. And so it started with just six,
24:27six men at Virginia Tech here who wanted to start an organization for farm boys. So the only people who were allowed in FFA when it started in 1926, technically 1925 on this, like it was called Future Farmers of Virginia. So you had to go to Virginia Tech and you had to be interested, and to get into Virginia Tech, you had to be interested in the military and agriculture mechanics.
24:52So you had this really small group of folks who were even allowed to be in it. And over time, like in the 60s, women were allowed in the FFA. We merged with New Farmers of America, which was an ag organization for African-Americans. So a lot of changes that happened, honestly, really late in our history as an organization. But yeah, now it's, I mean, in the 80s, they changed it to where it wasn't Future Farmers of America anymore,
25:21turning away people who weren't farmers, but were really great for the agriculture industry. So yeah, I mean, I hope you nerded out over that because it's really cool about how it's changed over time and all of the things that it's doing still now for students. It's crazy. Oh, yeah. I asked her every question I could think of because I was not part of FFA when I was growing up because there were no classes at the school that I went to.
25:48But what I was going to say is I haven't talked to anybody who has actually been in FFA in school. So I'm really glad that you brought it up. Yeah, I took, when you start out, you take these really introduction classes that teach you about animals, plants, and mechanics. But when you get a little deeper into high school, like after you take those intro classes, you get to pick.
26:17like if you really like mechanics, then you run with the mechanics class. If you really like plants, then you run with like the natural resource classes. So I ended up taking a mechanics class, which I ended up not pursuing that. I was terrible at it. Um, and then I took some more plant science classes and my project was with floor culture. So it ended up paying off like what I had learned back then to right now. Um, and now I have, like, there are students that are in these ag classes.
26:46that can do so much with small engines that I'll never know how to do. You know, and they're in high school. So that helps them learn more about careers they're gonna be interested in, whether it's college or not. So once they're gone, they're gonna be a productive human that knows about food, knows about the environment. You know, like I said, I did not grow up on a farm, but after my FAA experience, I was on like a national team that judged soils.
27:11I sit on the national team that for Envirothon is what's called for the environment. So it's just like these contests and incentives that happen that reward you for just knowing more about the world that we live in. So it's definitely worth it to be an organization to invest back into whether that's time or money. If anyone ever comes about FFA, it's ultimately making good humans that will live around us. So.
27:40We hope that our daughter chooses to be an FFA. We won't force her to do it, but I think naturally it will just be something she's interested in because of how she's gonna be growing up. Yeah, my granddaughter, who is, I think, 12, it's hard for me to keep track of her age because they live in Nebraska and we live in Minnesota and we don't actually see her a lot. So she is in...
28:06The very last year of elementary school, or she's in the first part of middle school, I can't remember right now. And her school is tiny. And she just got involved in 4-H. And my son called. And he was like, yeah, she's going to join 4-H. And I was like, yes. And I almost said, do they have FFA? And then I was like, they probably don't have it for elementary school, because that's not where it starts. But if they do, I suspect she'll be in that too.
28:35Her classroom size is 10 kids. Wow. Yeah, you know, my high school was about 700 people. My graduating class was about 150. So when I went to college and I learned that some people had a graduating class of 1,000, and then some had a graduating class of 10. And I was just like, OK, I don't know if I'm in the middle or what, but I just never knew such things existed.
29:04of having such a small group of people that you are going to grow up with. But we've been considering homeschooling our daughter. So that's the only downfall about FAAs. There's no FAA for homeschoolers. But just, you know, I was a teacher only for a year and only for a year for a reason. And I just am like, I don't know. I don't know if I want her to sit inside a school all year, not going outside other than for 30 minutes of recess.
29:33But you know, my husband and I went through public school and we turned out fine. So I know it's not the end of the world, but we're just trying to figure out what we value more with school and kind of the lifestyle that we're trying to, to live here on what we're going to do. But we've, we have a little bit of time, a little bit of time, just like one and half, so we don't have to pick anything right now. Don't stress yet, mom. Don't borrow trouble yet. You've got lots of time. Yes, we do. Yep. Um, my kids went to.
30:02a small town, elementary school, middle school, and high school. And then a couple of my kids actually did homeschooling for the last four years of their education, you know, the high school. And I don't know which is better. I honestly don't. The fact that they were home with me the last four years of high school made me feel better because I didn't have to worry about their school being shot up because they weren't there if something happened.
30:29that they were not at that building if something happened and that made me feel better. But they also are very antisocial and I don't know if that's from them being home schooled through 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grade or if they just get it genetically because I'm terribly non-people too. I'm not terribly social. That's not my husband. My husband is like that.
30:57Yeah, so I don't know. My husband is-
31:04Oh, sorry, go ahead. I was interrupting you. My, my husband is very antisocial and I am not so much. Um, but what I've learned from working with students, like through FFA now, um, but even this college age group is that just typically this generation coming up is being called the pandemic generation because of COVID and just how that's affected them like now developmentally. And just a lot of.
31:33this younger generation is very anti-social or has a lot of imposter syndrome, mostly because of technology, are very good at putting on a face in public, but then behind, like when they're behind closed doors, they're like really down on themselves. And so that's really hard to hear when, cause we get trained on this so that we have more just situational basic awareness of this population that we're working with primarily. And that's not the case for everyone.
32:03Um, but, you know, unfortunately, especially I was in doing public school, um, during the pandemic. When school was mostly virtual and we saw some students who just switched to homeschool and they were doing really well. And then some who just didn't have that choice and family members were still working while they were having to get, like be responsible for themselves to get on the computer, to go to class. Um, and these are middle schoolers, elementary schoolers.
32:31uh, that are having to have this responsibility really early on and just not doing well with learning. So I, I, I feel like it took four years to get back into the routine of normal school quote unquote normal school. But then you have this group of children who had three or four years of not normal socialization, not normal education, trying to figure out what new normal is, is very dangerous territory.
33:01organizations like FFA or families who are more plugged into their community through farmers markets, through organizations like Farm Bureau, you know, you just don't see that. You just don't see people caring about where they live or what they eat or who they know anymore. And I think that makes me very worried about my daughter going to school in the future and the people she's going to be interacting with. So it's unfortunate when people say the world's not the way it used to be and it's really not.
33:31So that's where it's like, I don't know why we just don't take matters into our own hands and work to create this like home that we want to create and this community we want to create. It's not like you have to change the world by any means. Um, I just don't know why we don't care anymore. So yeah, that's kind of a big reason why we try to switch some of our mindset to kind of be more independent, but still be plugged into our community, you know? Um.
33:57So we'll figure out what we'll do with school, but I think it's just a generational thing that we have antisocial kids, you know? I think that's very normal now.
34:07Yeah, and I'm going to tell you when I was growing up and when I was in school, I got teased and bullied a lot and school was not fun for me. I loved learning. I loved my teachers, but I did not love the social aspect of school. And I think that's where my, I'm not really comfy around a lot of people started. And so now I get to curate my life, which means I get to have people who I really appreciate being around.
34:37around me. It is such a beautiful thing that when I say, Hey, would you like to come over and have coffee with me? It's because I genuinely appreciate the person that I'm inviting into my home. So I'm not, I'm not anti people. I'm just anti. I don't like people that don't act like human beings who are good. Yeah. Does that make sense? And it's so, yeah. And it's so hard, you know, cause like you want to tell like,
35:03a kid that or a student in high school is a little easier to grab on to because they're going to graduate soon. But you want to be able to tell students who have a hard time that it gets better because when you're an adult, it's not like this. But at the same time, you have to be able to process the trauma you went through as a student. A big reason why I left teaching was because it was emotionally taxing for me. I would have been able to do
35:30come home exhausted from the emotions I was carrying for my students because of just what they were dealing with at home. It was a lot. It's like I couldn't just, I couldn't be a teacher. I first was usually like counselor mode, which I'm not trained in to do. And I like, it's just being a teacher is a lot more than teaching content, which I already knew that, but just the issues of the world today really got to me.
35:59And I had students who were bullying me as a teacher, just the disrespect that was happening in the classroom. And so, you know, I hope that over time, the world tends to shake out when you become an adult and you, like what you're saying, like you have more control over what you wanna do and I'm still learning that as an adult now. But.
36:21It's kind of sad to see what students have to go through. So yeah, that's where I've seen these, I have homeschool groups in our community where I've got to see how they're taking their kids through homeschool or these smaller schools. Like we have a private school across the road that's pretty small. And just seeing the hearing from those parents, the positive things that are coming from their students' experiences there. And I'm like, I think that's more of the route that I would want my daughter to grow in instead of feeling a little more limited.
36:51Um, but I just, you know, I say, Oh, we turned out fine. We went to public school, but it's like, well, public school is different now. So, yes, yes, it is. Absolutely. But like I said, you have lots of time and you get to watch your daughters grow and become who she's going to be because the, the one and a half year old that she is right now is not the five year old. She's going to be. Yeah. That's sad to think about.
37:21She's going to grow up. Yeah, she is. She's going to grow up and she's going to become a fabulous young woman. And you're going to be like, wow, the days are long, but the years are short. And thank God I did all the things I did for her because she's an amazing human being. That's what's going to happen. My daughter is 34 and she's brilliant. And she entertains me every time I talk to her. So you have wonderful things to look forward to.
37:51Yes. Yes. 34 and your youngest is 22? Yep. Do you only have two kids? No, I have four. I have four. That's right. That's right. You say you have four. Yeah. My daughter is 34. My stepson is 33. I think he just turned 33. And my son after that of my body is 27. And then the youngest is 22. And that's a boy too. So my daughter is the only one out of the four.
38:21as a girl. Wow. Yeah, we don't know what will happen next for us with kids, but we hope to have at least one boy, but we don't really get to pick. So yeah, the thing that's funny is everybody when I talked to them, they're like, how many kids do you have? And I say four and they say, how many girls? And I say one and they say, where does she fall? And I'm like, she was the oldest or is the oldest. And they're like, oh my God, she must have been hell as a teenager. And honestly, she was the easiest one of the four.
38:51and she was the girl. The boys were harder for me. So, yeah. He just assumes that- Our girl is so sweet right now. Yep.
39:04Yes, baby girls are adorable. I really wanted my last baby to be a girl and then I found out at the ultrasound that he was a boy and I cried for five hours straight. Oh my goodness. Yep, sobbed. And then he was born and I locked eyes with him and I went, oh, you're all right. This is okay, I can handle another boy, it'll be fine.
39:30So, I cried for five hours for no reason, because he's a wonderful young man, and I love him just as much as I love the other three. It worked out great.
39:39Yeah. So, anyway, we got way off homesteading stuff, but we definitely talked about choices that wrap around homesteading lifestyles like homeschooling. So that worked out fine. Ashley, I tried to keep these to half an hour. We're at 39 minutes and 45 seconds. I'm going to let you go. Thank you so much for your time today. Yeah. And, um...
40:03We encourage people to follow along with us on social media. We're Shady Hill VA for Virginia. And so we post kind of everything we're doing. We've built most of our equipment and things that hold our flowers and chicken. So we have a lot of folks like ask us questions about where we buy things. We're like, well, we built it. So we try to share that experience on social media and on our website so people can follow along there if they're ever interested in pasture raising chickens or growing their own flowers.
40:32Yes. And your Facebook page is beautiful. It is loaded with so many gorgeous photos. Yes. I worked in marketing. So I've got the, what do we need to do to actually show up and be a brand online? And so we've invested a lot first there with marketing. And it pays off when you have your products looking great and tell your story the way you want it to be consistent.
40:59So really that's kept sales going for us is just being present online. Like all of our sales have been online. Um, so it's definitely worth the investment. So check us out on social media. Cause from time to time too, I give tips, um, from my, when I used to be a social media manager on like how to kind of be better about the little things you can do on building your brand online. Awesome. All right. Well, I will put the links in your, in the show notes for this. And thank you so much for chatting with me. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much.
41:28All right. Have a great day. Ashley. Bye.
 

Fostich Farms

Today I'm talking with Elisabeth at Fostich Farms.
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00:00This 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 Elisabeth at Foss Stitch Farms. Good morning, Elisabeth. How are you today? Good morning. I'm wonderful. Thank you. Good. And you were saying you're where? We are located in central Missouri. So that would be where...
00:29Our very small town is called Edwards, but it's the Ozark area in Missouri. Okay. So I've heard a lot about the Ozarks. I watched the series on Netflix or whatever it was with What's His Face and What's Her Face and all the crime and stuff. I'm sure that that is not true. So tell me about the Ozarks because I keep talking to people from the Ozarks or that area, but I don't actually ask about it. What...
00:58What is special about the Ozarks? Well, a lot is special. It's a beautiful, beautiful area, gently rolling hills. There's lots of beautiful rivers, bluffs. It, contrary to that episode, or that series, the Ozarks, I think a lot of that is fabricated. Oh yeah. But it absolutely is a beautiful area. And we love it down here. We have...
01:28We actually lived in this area for about four years and we moved down here from, we had a farm in Oryk, Missouri, which was like about two hours north. So we do, we love it down here. And also there's like the Ozarks. Okay, I was just curious, I've never been anywhere near it. It's very beautiful. Yeah. I've never been in that area at all. And I keep saying to my husband, if we take a road trip, we should head that way sometime.
01:58Yes, so of course my parents always want us to take the road trip to Maine to see them So that takes precedence every time and that's totally fine with me because Maine is beautiful, too Okay, so tell me about yourself and about Fossage Farms, okay So we my husband and I both grew up on farms. We'd be considered like second or third generation farmers but we're
02:24first generation using regenerative practices, which is what we kind of have focused in on our own farms. So after I left home, I continued farming on a small scale. I went to college, I'm an RN in the ER since 2002. My husband and I got married, realized that conventional way of farming really wasn't for us. It wasn't long-term.
02:51what is healthiest for the land or our livestock. So we started researching alternative ways to raise our livestock. And so we started with cow-calf pairs and then we started with small scale meat production, just like word of mouth, things like that. And then, you know, as mentioned earlier, like we grew up on a conventional farm. So we used, our families use conventional methods.
03:21And both of our families had small ruminants, so sheep and goats. And then also we had, my family had a dairy farm, Jersey cows. And then my husband's had Angus for the most part, cows. So okay. I love Jersey cows. I don't love them because of the milk that they give. I love them because their faces are so sweet. They are adorable.
03:47love them. Every time somebody says Jersey cow, I'm like, aww. Okay. So did I see something about hair sheep on your Facebook page? Or was that somebody else? Yes. No, we love our sheep. So what we got into after we kind of moved toward the regenerative
04:16are bred specifically for meat, so we do not shear them. So we pride ourselves on like excellent genetics. We have Sancroix, which is a breed that is parasite resistant. We have Catodin, which are excellent mothers. They have a beautiful, good hair coat that sheds really well. And then our rams are Lewis White Dorper genetics, and they actually are out of Oregon.
04:45But this combination of genetics, which we've kind of fine-tuned, I guess, over the last several years, end up being really good mothers, no hoof issues, they're parasite resistant, and then when we wean them, they have excellent weight. Their weight is really healthy and good. So that's kind of the direction we went to. We also have...
05:12Angus cattle and so what we do is we do rotational grazing. So our livestock, our sheep are moved behind the cows. Sometimes they're moved together, it just depends. About every three to five days and then it allows the lamb that they were on to rest and kind of return to its, helps the biological ecosystem kind of return to normal, helps microbial growth and then it...
05:42Basically, we don't use any pharmacological interventions because we have animals that are never in the same area for any length of time. They're constantly moving. So that's what we focus on. We basically, like I mentioned earlier, conventional farming is fertilizers. I'm kind of letting the animals and livestock roam freely throughout your property and supplementing with grains.
06:11finishing with grain and we don't do that. We are grass-fed from birth. They're grass-finished. If you want to call it finished, we don't really change their diet. We use rotational grazing system. Like I said, giving pasture time to rest, regenerate soil health. And so what we have seen over the years is that our
06:39The land has really come back to life and our livestock are so healthy. We have return of life, beautiful native grasses, pheasants, quail, we are with plenty of deer. And then this allowed us to have what we call stockpile. So we have extra areas to graze, especially through the drought years that we've had.
07:08our sheep have literally come out unscathed when we were in drought years, so. Fantastic. Every time lately I hear regenerative farming, the thing that pops into my brain is back to basics farming.
07:27Because it feels like it feels like everybody's going. Yeah, it feels like everybody's going back to the way it was done over a hundred years ago and, and it's the best thing for the earth and for the animals and for growing things. So, so I keep thinking back to basics every time I hear it and I'm like, it's not basic, but that's how it, how it translates to my head. Yes.
07:55You know, it really is. It's going more of a natural direction where you aren't, you know, feeding your animals grains and things like that. And they have, like I said, they have more of a natural diet and they are able, we do supplement with minerals, of course, and we work very closely with...
08:22vet out of Bolliver, Missouri, which is he's like about an hour away from us, but he's specializing in small ruminants and He is you know, we make sure our animals are healthy and they have what they need based off our Geographical area as far as minerals go but over time, you know That will even improve as we continue to rotate and the ground gets healthier so Okay
08:50So I have questions about hair sheep. I think I talked to somebody a few months ago about them, but I didn't ask this. Is it H-A-R-E or H-A-I-R? Well, for H-A-I-Rs, I think the way you spell hair. Okay, I didn't know what you were. I'm not a great speller, but I'm pretty sure that's, that would be it. Well, I'm sure if somebody types it in either way, it's gonna end and has sheep after it, it'll probably bring up what you're looking for.
09:19Probably. So I know that their fur, hair or whatever isn't technically wool. You don't use it the same way that you would use wool from the curly haired sheep. Right. But can you use their hair to like, I don't know, stuff a blanket or a pillow? Does that work? I have heard people have different uses for when they shed their coats. And
09:48Some breeds have a heavier coat than others as far as hair goes. And so you'll kind of see, you'll literally see a coat of hair in the pasture where they have shed. I have heard people, you know, place it on the ground in between their garden rows to help with, you know, weeds and things like that. I haven't heard of uses like
10:16stuffing a pillow because it truly is a hair coat. And what we have found with really good genetics, we don't have a lot of, we don't even see them shed. It's just like, I don't know if you've been around horses, they're, you know, once a year they might, you brush them and they get real thick on the curry comb or whatever, and they shed their coat and it's, you wouldn't, you couldn't peel it off. You wouldn't even know. So, and so they're very, very different than
10:45wool sheep in that sense because wool sheep it truly is wool and you shear it off and you have a big coat of wool that you can utilize for shearing. But these hair sheep, they're specifically bred for me and ours we want them to shed without any issues. We don't want them to have a big leftover coat on there. Okay. Yeah. And then the other question I have.
11:13And I've said this a billion times on the podcast already because I, I talk about the same things all the time. Um, we love lamb as a, as a food source and we don't have it very often because it's expensive at the stores and we don't happen to know anybody raising sheep right now. But have you, have you compared your hair sheep breeds meet with, um, the other wool sheep breeds?
11:41for the taste or the texture or whatever of the meat? So I have not. I have compared breeds of hair sheep, but I have stayed away from wool sheep as far as meat goes. I'm sure you could try it. I'm sure you could, you know. However, we have done white dorper, which are kind of the angus of the...
12:11sheep world, if you want to call it that, and they are fabulous. That's half of the rams that we process are half white dorper. And the cod has also a very wonderful flavor. However, the sandcroy are a leaner breed, so they grow a little slower and they don't have as much meat
12:40very good as well. So I've compared hair breeds but not wool versus hair. Okay, I was just curious if there's any real big difference in the meat itself. Yeah, I don't know. I know that as far as hair sheep, they are specifically bred for meat. So we look at, especially wean weights, we look at how much they weigh and how they're growing on grass.
13:10not all breeds and not all genetics are equal, obviously, and you can have very poor genetics will not produce, you know, high wean weights and sheep that grow well and maintain their body weight on just grass. So we do look at that because we want healthy sheep on grass.
13:39So, okay, so do you sell to sell your meat or do you just do it for yourselves? No. So what we have done and it started through word of mouth. I was working in Kansas City for a long time and I started, you know, we started with grass finished beef and then basically through word of mouth is how we've developed our customer base. We
14:09We like to have a relationship with the customers who buy our product. We love that. Um, as a matter of fact, some of them come down to our farm and, um, see the farm and how the sheep are raised and how the beef is raised. Um, and so, uh, it's mostly word of mouth. Um, I have a Facebook page, the Fostage Farm Facebook page, but I do very minimal advertising. Um, I re I wish I could stay ahead of orders, but
14:39Basically we lamb in the spring and I fulfill orders in the October timeframe typically and we also try to have a reserve throughout the year for individual cuts. We do use a USDA inspected butcher for our orders, especially when people want individual cuts and not a whole lamb.
15:04And we sell all throughout Missouri, Kansas. We've done sales in Arkansas. My son, he actually kind of delivers our orders when they're large enough. But a lot of times we have just individual orders. Somebody wants lamb chops, and we're just thrilled that we can provide that to people. And so we're super thankful for our new and returning customers, and a lot of them are
15:34our current and former coworkers and colleagues that both my husband and myself. Okay, cool. So tell me about a day, a weekend day on your farm because I ask people this all the time. They're like, eh, and they don't really tell me anything. So what can you tell me about a typical Saturday on your farm? Okay.
16:04We have, I make a plan for the day. We will either be building our next area for rotation, which is we use poly wire and stakes. And so we kind of estimate how much we need to fence in. So we build our enclosure and then we will move the sheep or the cows, whichever we're moving. And that.
16:32takes time, obviously. Water's a huge deal. We always make sure they have clean water. And if it's pretty far away from the house or from a well, we do have to haul water. So that's time consuming. But basically we are always planning for the next rotation. Even today, we're planning for the next rotation. Yeah. And then we...
17:00It's kind of a, we have three kids, it's kind of a joint effort. We build our next rotational area. Sometimes we build two or three enclosures ahead of time. So we're, which is really nice because then all we do is just move them. But we'll move the livestock. We'll make sure they have fresh, clean water and mineral. I always check the health of the animals. That includes the.
17:29cows as well because we've started calving actually now and then we lamb in the spring. And so we always check the health of the animals, make sure they're all you know looking good, their body score, and then so obviously that takes time. And then we have another area with our rams that are being, well we call them just they're just being grass-fed, finished, whatever you want to call it, but basically that's a separate area so we
17:59have to move those as well and we always check their health and how they're doing as well. So it's a lot of fence checking, especially if for some reason that our voltage on our polywire is not the greatest. We have a lot of wildlife, so occasionally the polywire will get hung up on a barbed wire fence or a stick or something or a tree or fall. So there's a lot of fence checking, a lot of moving of livestock.
18:27And then we have maintenance things like making sure we're head on, then roll and fixing the tractors and trucks. My that's basically what my husband does, but there's a, I focus on the animal health side of things and, um, that consumes quite a bit of our tour time. So, um, like I said, we don't do grain. Um, but if, if for some reason we have to
18:55We see something that needs treated, which is pretty rare. We'll actually take like four, like a gated little corral thing and do it wherever the animals are at so we don't have to move them up. They are bucket trained. I mean, we could put gravel in a bucket and shake it and they'll come. So they're bucket trained, but they're not getting grain. So.
19:23But as far as like their temperaments and stuff, they're super chill. And they know, I love sheep because they know they're shepherd or shepherdess in this case. So they're very, you know, good with familiar faces and stuff like that. So, like I said, it's just mostly building fences and moving and checking. And we also have other animals. We have horses and chickens.
19:53I have milk goats and you know, cause we would like to be as self-reliant as we can. We like to grow our own food. We love to garden and things like that. It's a good plan right now. It's a great plan. So do you guys have herding dogs to help or is it just you guys pushing the cattle and the sheep? We have livestock guard dogs, which are a big Antolian Shepherd.
20:22Pyrenees and acbash actually, that's their breeding. I will tell you that we would be dead in the water without them. They protect that flock and do not leave the sheep. We have several of those dogs that are with each herd of sheep. Then I call them my fancy breeding rams. They're actually up here close to our house.
20:52because I don't have an extra dog to put with them. So we kind of rotate them around the pastures close to our house so that we can keep an eye on them. But we, because of wildlife and, you know, just coyotes and different predators, sheep have, you know, pretty much three issues, be your predators, your parasites, and your parameter, your fencing.
21:19And if you can get that, if you can master that, you've pretty much, like my vet says, if you can master those things, you've won the war. And we worked really hard. And I feel like, you know, that we have a good system in place. I'm not going to say we've mastered anything because as far as like predators, especially, there could, but again, we have wonderful livestock dogs and we could not serve.
21:48We could not have sheep without them, period. And they have significantly minimized our losses even with the cattle with calving, because we're pretty far out here. And there is black bear out here in Missouri and there's lots of coyotes and stuff, but we just don't have predator issues anymore thanks to those dogs.
22:12They're doing their jobs. I love it. Right. And we also, I will say we do have a blue healer, but he only works with the cows. We don't stress those sheep at all. They are very gently handled. We went and did a beef quality assurance cow-calf certification on our farm, and we just try to handle everything as gently as possible. And like I said, if for some reason we can't, you know, this...
22:40our blue healer needs to get in there and help with a cow being naughty. Then we'll use them. But we try to do everything just by walking and hurting them that way. They're very cooperative. I will tell you when cows and sheep are trained this way, they move themselves. They know it's time to go. So they just follow along. It's pretty amazing.
23:11Well, you know, it's very, it's almost intuitive. I've been doing this my entire life. As a matter of fact, my very first degree, I was a vet tech and then I went and got my nursing degree. But I think it's experience, you know, you anticipate what can go wrong. And if you don't love it, you're not gonna get in tune with it. And I think, you know, I love it and there's nothing else I would rather do. And I'm.
23:40I'm thrilled that to speak with you and to have customers that want our product, it's just exciting to me. But as far as skills, that's from experience and messing up. And it's very, very intuitive, I think. And like the animals know you and the livestock know you when you're out there and you spend time with them. They get your routine. They
24:06They have a routine. They know when it's time to move. They, you know, it's pretty amazing. And it's also amazing to watch those livestock guard dogs take care of those sheep that that is incredible. So it really is. I, I have seen videos of livestock guardian dogs doing their jobs and it is beautiful to watch them just know that that's, that's their charge.
24:35that they have to take care of the animals that they have been given to watch over. And they just do it. Yeah. And what's amazing is when we move them, when we move the sheep to a new pasture, they, one is in front, one is in the back. As soon as they get in, one stays with the sheep, one runs the perimeter. And it's like they clear the area.
25:00And so, yeah, it's incredible. We've found very interesting things that they've, you know, taken care of or killed over the years. So, yeah. We don't really have a whole lot of scary predators here where we live in, I guess, southwest Minnesota. I know up north there's bears, but we have never seen a bear down here. We have coyotes who tend to hang out.
25:28probably a good quarter mile away. They don't come on our property. Partly because we have a dog and she's, she's around all the time. So she's always using the bathroom outside. She's always yipping. She's always playing. So her scent is everywhere. And I think that's part of why the coyotes don't come on our property. And there, there are foxes in the area, but I've never seen one on our property.
25:55I will tell you it was not about eight weeks ago, my daughter and I were up in a pasture pretty far away from the house and we couldn't believe what we were seeing. We saw a couple black bears and the two, one of the big, big livestock guardian dogs just took off after them. We've never seen them since. And I don't think, I think it was just a fluke. They're not in our, on our properties.
26:25often there's no dens here or anything that I'm aware of. But it was pretty amazing that for the distance that they were, they sensed that and it was just amazing how he just bolted and they took off. We've never seen them since. I love your dogs. I do love your dogs. I'm glad they take care of your animals and they take care of you. Yes. We have...
26:54It's interesting, we have skunks in our area. Oh, yeah. And in the spring, they amble out of wherever they're hibernating and they make sure that we know they're around because they stink. And then this time of year, they start kind of showing up again in the area because they're eating everything they can to get ready for hibernating again. And
27:18I woke up at one o'clock in the morning the other night and our window was open. I was like, oh yeah, because somebody either hit a skunk or one walked through the yard and said hello. And so my idea of predator is not something that's going to kill my dog. It's something that's going to spray my dog. Make him smell for a couple of weeks. Yeah, I really don't want that to happen when she asked to go out at five o'clock in the morning. It was still dark. I was like, do you really need to go out or can you wait until it's light out?
27:47And she looked at me and I opened the door to our porch. She stuck her nose in the doorway, sniffed, and she was like, nah, I'll wait. She walked right back in the house and laid down. I was like, oh, so we do know what a skunk is. Okay, that's good news. But we don't have any livestock. We have chickens and we're going to be dispatching chickens this weekend because they're old.
28:13and they're getting lazy and we're feeding like a dozen chickens and we're getting two eggs a day. Oh no. So it's time for them to meet their demise and become chicken stock. There you go. And then we're going to get more chickens in the spring so we can restart our egg supply. It's going to be very weird buying eggs at the store. We have not bought eggs at the store in over five years. Oh wow. Yeah, you're going to have a, you'll have to get used to that.
28:39Yeah, I mean, I don't eat a lot of eggs, so it's totally fine. But it's just going to be weird to be handing money to a cashier for a dozen eggs, because we have done that forever. Yep. So take it that your kids love being part of the farm. They enjoy what they're doing too. Yes, I think they do. I hope they do.
29:03They know nothing else, honestly. They have been born and raised on the farm. So when my son turned 16, we kind of told him he's an official employee and he's been extremely helpful. So, and our kids are definitely heavily involved with from, you know, FFA to, I would say, I'm very proud of them, but.
29:33They know a lot more about livestock than probably most of the kids these days. Yeah, and FFA is Future Farmers of America, right? Yes, it is. Yes. I interviewed a lady from FFA. She was great. Oh, great. Yes. It's such a wealth of knowledge they learn and opportunities for leadership and agriculture and things like that. And we have it through the high school the kids go to.
30:02So both of them are involved with that. My daughter more so than our oldest son, he's a huge runner. So he does track and cross country, stuff like that. But she loves the animals, our middle child. So absolutely loves it. She actually helped with the state fair, took some of our sheep up there so that people could see them. And so it was a fun opportunity for her.
30:33So very nice, very nice. So what what I'm hearing from you, what I'm inferring from everything that you're telling me and how it sounds and how you how it feels when you talk is that you have built yourself a beautiful life that requires some hard work. Definitely. It's very hard work. It's very labor intensive, but it is so rewarding.
31:03Like I said, we absolutely, there's no greater joy than when people buy our meat and love it as much as we do and we know they're getting an exceptional product because it's, you know, there's probably nothing quite healthier, you know, honestly. And we don't, and we raise it in a way that the animals are cared for, it's affordable. You know, we're not, we don't have to, you know.
31:32Mark up the price crazy. They're born here. We know how they're raised and it's it's just we love it. So and we do I think my favorite part. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I think my favorite part of having sheep if I had sheep would be lambing season like the rest of the year. I would not care but lambing season. I would be like, oh my god, babies. It is my favorite time of year. It is amazing.
32:00that all our sheep are born outside in beautiful clean pastures with no assistance. We have twins. Our new mamas have singles sometimes. Sometimes they have twins. We have triplets. We've had quadruplets in the past, but it is absolutely amazing. And it's like popcorn because I put the rams in in November and then in the springtime around April.
32:29we'd start lambing and it's just, there's babies everywhere. And it's incredible. That's why I say it's like popcorn, because they just keep popping out. They're just everywhere. And they're so healthy and strong. And that's what we've worked so hard for as far as the genetic side of things, is they're so healthy, so strong, and so vibrant and get right up and suck and the mamas accept them and it's just, it's incredible.
32:57Yeah, and I'm sure that you have had moments where things haven't gone right and that has broken your heart. But I think that you have worked really hard so that things don't go wrong. Right, right. And you know, it's just, it's a, we know that that's life. And it happens. And I will tell you, you know, just even a little situation that happened this spring.
33:23We had one mama that had triples, so she already had two babies, and I didn't see the third one because her placenta had landed on the third one, and the baby couldn't get up. So it did pass. And so it was sad, but I was like, you know, she still has two beautiful babies, and she's feeding the babies. And it's such a rare thing that that happens.
33:52long as you are out there and kind of you know what to watch for you know when to intervene if Necessary but as far as helping them lamb pulling lambs, that's extremely rare Maybe afterwards just assisting with you know them latching on again extremely rare but we Went the more you do it the more you know what to look for I guess and when you have a pretty big volume you do have to be on it you have to be on top of things be out there, but
34:22It's probably, like I said, my favorite time of year, but extremely rewarding to see all the babies. We worked hard just to kind of identify what could go wrong, and that's what we look for. Yeah, I saw a picture of one of the lambs. I think it was 12 days old on your Facebook page.
34:47He has, he or she has the smushiest face. I just want to like lean in and kiss it through the screen. So that baby was actually 12 hours old when I took it. Sorry, 12 hours old. That's right, yeah. And so they are amazing because when you do, if there's any intervention, so this year we had a very minimal, we've had bottle lambs in the past, of course. They're your best friend forever. I mean,
35:16The lambs always remember the shepherd or the shepherdess's face and smell. And they're the most affectionate animals. And people don't realize that. They think they're a dumb sheep. But they're so affectionate and so sweet. And especially with the kids and my husband. Yeah, they know who takes care of them. We have a group that were bottle fed over.
35:44years that are probably some of the sweetest sheep. And it really is amazing because a lot of animals, if they are bottle fed, you know, they always kind of show a little bit of a deficit here or there, but not with sheep. They still grow very well, very nicely. They still catch up with the group. They're still able to be bred. So they're pretty remarkable animals.
36:13I lied. I misspoke earlier. We have friends that do raise sheep. We were over at their place for something a couple years ago. They have seven kids. One of their younger boys was going to go get mom or dad. I think we went over to get chickens. He had walked up the road from where the cattle pasture is to see who had pulled in.
36:40We had gotten out of the vehicle and right behind him trotting along was this probably three day old lamb going, going baa baa at him like it was barking at him. And I said, I said, that's a really interesting looking dog. And he said, it's not a dog, it's a lamb. And I was like, yes, I know it's a lamb. I was being silly. And he said, oh, he said, I thought you didn't know it was a lamb.
37:09I said, no, honey, I know what a lamb is compared to a dog. I said, apparently my humor doesn't go over well on the farm. And as I'm saying it, my friend had walked up behind me for the whole thing and didn't, I didn't know she was there. And she tapped me on the shoulder. And she's like, yeah, she said farm humor is different than not farm humor. I was like, well, I tried and she's like, I thought it was funny. So, but it was his best friend that whole summer. Oh yeah. There.
37:40It's pretty amazing. Love it. Yup, they're really fun. I would love to have sheep. I think that would be really fun. But as I've said a billion times already, we don't have any pasture for them to graze. So it's not going to happen where we live. But I love living vicariously through you and everybody else I talk to because I get to hear all the fun stories. Oh yeah.
38:05And so does everybody else and everybody else is like, we have pasture, we could get livestock, that would be great. Yeah, it is wonderful. There's nothing better in my opinion. Yeah. All right, Elizabeth, we've been talking for 38 minutes and 13 seconds and I try to keep you to half an hour. So I'm gonna let you go, but thank you so very much for taking the time to talk with me this morning. Oh.
38:31Thank you for letting me be a guest on your podcast, Mary. I appreciate it so much. Absolutely. I need all the people and all the stories I can get, or I don't have a podcast. So thank you so much. Have a great day, Elisabeth. You too. Thank you. Bye.
 

Winkleman Family Homestead

Today I'm talking with Anna at Winkleman Family Homestead. You can also follow on Facebook.
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00:00This 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 Anna at the Winkleman Family Homestead. Good evening, Anna, how are you? Good evening, I'm good, how are you? I'm good, I don't usually do recordings in the evening, but I had to talk to you, so this was the only time that worked. I had, I get to talk to you.
00:29Oh, thank you. Very honored. Yeah, I have a hard time at night because I tend to go to bed early. So I want to drink all the coffee in the world in the afternoon if I'm going to be up past like eight. And I was like, I can't drink coffee all afternoon because I'll be awake all night. So this is what we get people. We get a sleepy Mary talking to a very pretty Anna. It'll work out great.
00:56All right, so Anna, tell me about the Winkleman family homestead. So I have a husband and three small children. My children range in ages of three months to four years. And I grew up in St. Louis city in Missouri, so not homestead at all. It was very urban. And honestly, like the little house in the prairie vibe, I always kind of liked.
01:25but it just seemed like something that wasn't attainable. So yeah, I think my why started with COVID. When I saw those grocery store shelves empty, I was like, wow, maybe our systems aren't as, are more fragile than I think they are. Maybe I should do something about this and prepare myself more.
01:52Yep. And that's, I think that's why the homesteading movement really picked up steam in 2021. I was going to say, you probably have had several interviews like this. Um, there's been a lot of talk of COVID babies and I don't mean human babies. I mean, new ideas, new projects, new focuses, COVID babies is what I call them. And the one thing that got me with the supply chain issues.
02:19is I really like using Dawn dish soap, the green apple scented kind. Could not find it for a year. I was so mad because all the other dish soaps to me smell terrible. And I'm the one that does the most dishes. And I was like, I want my green apple Dawn dish soap back. Yes. But there were worse things than that. I mean, there were medications you couldn't get. There were just all kinds of things that you could not get.
02:50And like we're through it. I think we're okay now for a while until the next thing hits. But yes. I had a formula fed baby during that time during the formula shortage. It was pretty rough. Yeah. Yeah. That's the other stuff that really scares me because I nursed all three of the babies that I birthed until they were...
03:15I think my daughter was six months. I think my son was about six, seven months, and the last boy was eight months. And I can't imagine not being able to find formula for my babies if I wasn't nursing them. Just, it makes me choke up now just thinking about it. So yeah, that's terrible. So what did you do? How did you handle that? Well, we went to our pediatrician and...
03:42We're like, well, what do we do? It's just not there. It's not on the shelves. And she's like, well, there's not really a substitute for formula. And I'm like, well, formula is a substitute. There has to be something. I know that our grandmothers made things. And she was basically like, you can't really do that. It's unsafe. Your baby will get sick. And so essentially what my husband and I did is we prayed before going to the store.
04:12And just hoping that it would be there when we needed it and it was Every time that we went so I Just prayed Yeah, yep. And the fact is if it's a choice between your baby dying of starvation Right or trying something that might not be safe, but won't kill baby. I think that the thing that's not Not defined as safe might be better than it starving to death. So
04:40Right. And the nice one of the good things that came out of COVID is that the European formulas are much more accessible in the US. So that has been great. And they're, they're healthier, they're better. If the US formulas, most of them, the first ingredient is corn syrup. But whenever you look at the ones from Europe, the first ingredient is milk, which is great. Yep.
05:09Okay, so now I know your why. So what's the what? What's the how? What are you doing at your place? So we live, we're still pretty urban at the moment. We don't really have a whole lot in the way of land. We have like maybe a fifth of an acre. And we have a small house on top of that, 768 square feet. I know exactly how big it is because I have to use every inch of it. So.
05:38Yeah, it just started with like preservation with just different skills sourdough baking Gardening I don't have chickens yet But that's on my list for it was on my list for last year And then I found out I was pregnant and I was like I don't think I can keep chickens and the baby and the garden alive, so Gonna have to pick something So chickens are next year and then probably the biggest thing that I've been doing though is
06:08Just making, building relationships with those around me. A lot of farmers in the area. I know where to go to get raw milk now. I know where to go to get beef. And that's been such a blessing and I've met so many wonderful people through that. Yes, resources is a big part of homesteading for sure. We were in the same boat as you.
06:34for 20 years. We lived in a house that was 850 square feet of living space. It had three bedrooms and it was my husband and I and our four kids on a tenth of an acre lot. So I have literally been in your shoes and you can do it. I mean, we grew a really nice garden on that tenth of an acre and it wasn't a very big garden, but it was productive.
07:02And there was a huge patch of rhubarb that had been there for years. Like when my husband bought the house, like I think it was a 12 by 12 patch of rhubarb. And my neighbor said that the rhubarb was probably at least 50 years old, the roots because she's, she knows about plants. So we had, we had lovely rhubarb. We would share it with everybody because, because we're the only ones on our block that had rhubarb.
07:31Mm-hmm. And so, and so I was like, anybody need rhubarb? Because I have it coming out of my ears right now. Come take some. And if you want some of the roots, take those too. And we grew peonies and we grew little roses bushes and we grew climbing roses on the trellis in the back. And it was just this lovely urban garden thing. And we gave the neighbors produce every summer. It was, it was just really fun.
08:02And then we moved because we were tired of being in town. So now we're on a 3.1 acre lot. But you can do it and you can do things like, um, you can get raw beeswax from the hive that the bees have made honey in and you can melt that wax down like seven times in boiling water, let it cool down, all the wax rises to the top, all the yuck falls to the bottom.
08:31and you have beautiful beeswax to make candles with or lip balms or soaps or whatever. There's so many fun things that you can try just because you can do, just because you can, that are homesteading skills. Absolutely, yeah. And that's something that I've been really encouraging a lot of my friends to do and just people around me that even those who live in apartments, you can have a few tomato plants on your patio, you can have a little herb garden.
09:01and you can learn how to can. And actually when I started canning, I didn't have any equipment. My husband isn't really 100% on board. He's kind of supportive, but he's like, I'll call him frugal, but he's kind of cheap. So I was trying to find ways to make it really frugal. And I managed to do a bunch of canning without actual canning equipment.
09:30I kept some canning rings on the bottom of a stock pot just so that the cans didn't or the jars didn't hit the bottom. Yeah. And just using things I had around and it worked.
09:44Yeah, I wouldn't, I'm not recommending anybody do this. Do not do this without looking into it and learning about it. My husband's grandma used to make tomato sauce by just hot canning, not actually water bath canning or pressure canning, but just making sure the jars were sterilized and then putting the hot tomato sauce in the jar, wiping the lid with vinegar. The, the
10:13rim with vinegar and putting the clean lid on. And my husband was like, I think we should try it. And I'm like, I think we're going to die. And he was like, we're not going to die. Nobody died in my family from eating her tomato sauce. And I'm like, okay, we can try it. I said, but if I see anything in that, that tomato sauce, when I open it, it's going to the trash. And he was like, okay. So he did that one time and it made me so nervous. I mean, we ate the tomato sauce, nobody died, but I don't ever want to do it again.
10:43So the point of me telling the story is that I would not recommend that. There are things that our ancestors did that might not be as safe now as they were considered to be then. So, but, but yeah, I literally, every time I open one of those jars, I put like a little star on the lid. So I knew which ones were done that way. Every time I opened a jar, I'm like, don't let us die. If we eat this, please, I don't want to die of botulism. It seems like a terrible way to go.
11:14So yeah, there are risks that I'm willing to take and some that I'm not, and that one was very, very iffy. Yes, I probably would also not take that risk. Yeah, yep, I was like, I don't know, babe, this seems like a really, really iffy kind of thing to do. And he was like, it's fine. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna trust you, but if I die, I'm coming back to haunt you. And he's like, okay.
11:43The Amish do it. They have practiced that for a really long time, but yeah, I'm not sure I would do it. I don't want to do it again. I really don't. Next time he's like, I'm going to do it that way. I'm going to be like, well, you're going to be eating them by yourself. I don't want to do it.
12:06Speaking of the Amish, I was actually another... I have a couple other things. That's not exactly my why. Yeah, go ahead. Yes. No, go ahead. I was just going to say... Oh, sorry. So part of my why was for health... is currently for health reasons because I've done a lot of research on just how this way of life is just healthier. Being outside is healthy and canning your own stuff from your own garden organically is healthy.
12:34And I started researching how the Amish have very, very low cancer rates and very, very just from, I don't want to get into a vaccine debate, but they don't vaccinate and they also grow their own food and preserve their own food and they just live really healthy lives. And I don't know, I just think there's something to that.
13:02Yeah. And also, I don't think I could be wrong. There may be an Amish man who's in his 50s sitting on a rocker on a porch right now smoking a pipe. But I don't think the Amish smoke, I don't think they drink alcohol. You know, all the vices, I don't think they have as many vices as the average American does. It's all it's all a crap shoot. There's so many bad things that we do that all pile on that.
13:30make us not as healthy as we could be. Right. And whatever you can do to mitigate some of that, do it. We eat tomatoes all the time because they have antioxidant properties in them. Antioxidants are very good for your body. It helps you. So anything you can do to improve your health, I am all for it.
13:54So I was gonna say, while we're talking about the things you can do if you don't have room to grow your own stuff, is you can do a thing that we used to do. We were lucky enough to live near an apple orchard where the owner would sell his seconds, the apples that weren't very pretty. He would sell half a bushel for like 12 bucks, half a bushel of apples. And that's a lot of apples.
14:24Oh, two months worth of apples for a family of six. Nice. Yep. So we would go up every fall and we would buy a bag and I, we would make apple sauce because real apple sauce from apples cooked down with just a little bit of sugar in it. So good. And we would make things like apple pies, but we wouldn't bake them. We would put them in the freezer and bake them in the wintertime.
14:51So we had like an almost fresh apple pie in January. And we would do- That's so nice. I do something similar. We did like an apple butter. Yeah. All right, you do something similar. We do something similar. We go to a farmer's and get, so my first year gardening was a crap shoot. It was awful. I failed miserably.
15:20I failed a few times since too, but it was pretty bad. So I actually went to a local farmer and just, he gave me, well, didn't give me, he sold at a pretty reasonable discount. I think it was like $20 for a huge box of tomatoes. So I canned our own salsa that way. I made some bread and butter pickles. He sold me a bunch of pickling cucumbers. Yeah, it was good. It's so, like it's work. It's work to do this.
15:50But I'm telling you, there is nothing better than going into your closet or your cabinets or your pantry and grabbing a pint jar of applesauce that you cooked down and you put in the jars and you water bathed and you put away and opening that up and tasting it because it tastes exactly like the moment you cut into the apple that you're eating.
16:18It tastes better, I'm convinced. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's some real pride and satisfaction in all this stuff. And I, anyone who's never done it, I don't think they have any concept of it.
16:33Yeah, I agree. And you can tell I'm like steadfast in this because every time I talk about this with somebody who gets it, my voice gets really ringy. I can feel it in my jaws and my head. But yeah, it's just, I don't know, I love it. And I'm at the point where there are certain things that I really, really love to do that are homesteading skills.
17:01The stuff that's a homesteading skill that I don't really love to do, I'm at the point where I don't really do it anymore. I used to love to do cross-stitch things or gifts for people. I don't do it anymore, because it makes my hands hurt. And I don't crochet as often, because it makes my hands hurt, because I'm getting older and my joints hurt a little bit. So, when you're younger, so many things you can try. And things that you can try just for the hell of it,
17:31just because I think I want to learn how to do that. I don't really have a purpose for it, but it looks fun.
17:38I'm assuming you've tried that. Oh yeah. There's a few things, like making my own cleaning supplies, just different things that I've learned how to do just to say I could do it. I don't necessarily want to keep doing it, but I want to have the skill. Like cheese making and yogurt making, I've done both of those things. I just don't do them all the time. Yeah.
18:05A skill that I tried doing just because I could is lock picking. My youngest son wanted to learn how to be a locksmith like five, six years ago, maybe more. And he ended up getting a locksmithing tools kit. And it has the little picks that you use. And he was all excited because he had an old padlock and he got it to unlock with the picks.
18:34And he was like, watch mom. He showed me how to do it. And he locked it again. He said, you try it. I was like, I don't wanna pick a lock. He said, I just showed you, you try it. And I did it on the first try. He's like, you are no fun. He said, you have such beginner's luck. And I was like, well, you told me to do it. So I did it. So I sort of understand the mechanics of picking a lock. Not that I will ever do it for nefarious purposes, cause it's not who I am. But that was one of those things that I learned how to do just because somebody said, do it. And I tried it.
19:05So that's what I meant. There are things that I've learned to do that I will never use. I will have no use for it ever in my life. Right. But anyway, so you said you're in Missouri, is that right? In Missouri, yep. Yeah. How's your garden done this year? Well, the weather, I just can't decide what it wants to do. And we had record rainfall in July.
19:35It's been, I've gotten some cucumbers done pretty decently. Of course, every year my garden, it's kind of a battle between me and the squirrels. So I got a decent crop of tomatoes, I got cucumbers, some of it is just, it's just gone. Yeah, it's been a rough year for a lot of people across the entire US because Mother Nature can't decide what she's doing.
20:06Our garden's a mess. Our garden's a disaster. It's, it's, I don't even want to talk about it. It's such a disaster. No, I think that, I don't think that's great. I'm sorry. I think it's, I think it's great to talk about because I feel like we have this fear of failure a lot of times. And whenever somebody wants to pick up a skill and they don't do well with it at first, they just want to throw up their hands. But yeah, it's, it's hard. And just
20:34Yeah, my first year gardening, I didn't do any research and I planted a broccoli plant in the middle of June or something. And it was just a bad, it was, so the following year I actually read a little bit about that and learned I shouldn't do that. And I had a little better second year, but yeah, I think it's good that we share how things aren't going well.
21:04encourages others. Yeah, let me just tell you a little bit about broccoli for a minute. Broccoli is a cold weather crop and even if you plant it at the right time, it's still probably not gonna work out great because they don't get big enough to pick until it's hot out. And then they bolt and they're no good. They flower out and they're gross.
21:25So broccoli is a pain in the butt to grow and we did it for a couple of years and gave up. I don't, we don't grow broccoli anymore or cauliflower because it just is too hot in June. And we plant them as soon as we can get them in the ground in Minnesota, which is usually not till May 15th. So there's not enough cool, long-term cool, like there's not enough months of cool weather for it to do well. So I understand your pain on that one.
21:55And the reason I said I want to talk about my garden is because the last three summers it's been beautiful, just lush produced tons. I mean, not tons, but but many, many pounds of produce for us and to sell at the farmer's market and to share with people. And I've had people messaging me and calling me and saying, you guys have tomatoes this year for canning. And I'm like, I'm so sorry. No, we do not have to.
22:22And everybody's like, you seem so sad. And I'm like, I am. I expected to have panning tomatoes for us and everybody else this year, but nope. Nope, it's been awful. And my husband is the gardener and he's been, I've said this a couple of times, he's been so great. He has been so reasonable in his disappointment with his garden this year. I thought he was just gonna be grumpin'. And.
22:47He's like, there's always next year. We've gotten some tomatoes to eat. We've been some cucumbers. It's all good. I'm like, okay. I'm waiting for him to blow up about it. I'll figure about the end of September when he puts the garden. This summer socked. I'm like, yep, sure did. Hun, you're not wrong. So it's been rough on everybody. And I'm, I'm very concerned about how much produce is going to cost in the grocery stores this winter, because it's been rough for the.
23:18the bigger producers too. Mm-hmm. So I'm a little worried about that, considering I don't have anything to can from myself. I'm gonna be relying on the canned stuff from the store. Uh-oh. Right. So that supply chain thing might become an issue here in two or three months, I don't know. We'll see what happens. I don't know. I'm crossing my fingers. It's all gonna be okay. So anyway, you have little ones, yes?
23:47I do. Okay. Two little girls, four and three months, and then a little boy who's three. You have a three month old? I do. Yes. Oh, cute. Cute. I love babies. I've said this a bunch of times. I love babies. I really do. I'm glad I'm not in a position to be having any more babies, but I love babies. They are so sweet and they're so much fun.
24:16Mm-hmm. I always say I'm going to be done having kids and then I'm like, I miss the babies. Uh-huh. Yeah, it's an addiction. They're delicious. I love babies. Babies are wonderful. So are the older two into helping out with what you're doing? A little bit. The older one had her own little garden bed this year.
24:43Did it do great, but we're learning about... Okay, what did she grow? About how she grew zucchini and pumpkins. That's what she chose. Okay, and will she actually eat them? She does pretty well actually with vegetables. So yeah, she will eat them. We've gotten a couple of zucchini and maybe one pumpkin.
25:11The issue has been her, she likes to be in control. So when I'm trying to give her direction, she's like, mom, I got this. And then she like plants the seeds too close to each other. So we're learning. Uh-huh. Mom, I got this. And you're thinking, no, you don't got this, honey. Yep. Our kids were not really into the gardening when they were small. They loved going out and picking.
25:41the green beans and the peas and just eating them out of the garden. And they loved picking the cucumbers and eating the cucumbers out of the garden. They just were not into the actual gardening part.
25:55So, I don't know. Our kids were crazy. They were into theater and reading and school. I mean, I can't fault them for that. Those were all good things to be into. But gardening was not a thing. They didn't love it.
26:12We were bad parents. We ruined them. No, you don't have to garden. It's only the way we eat, but no, you don't have to garden. It's fine. But they're all, they're all good now. And my daughter is actually, um, taking care of her mother-in-law's plants right now, cause they're staying at her mother-in-law's house and they have, they're in Florida, so they have citrus plants and they have a pomegranate tree. I guess a tree.
26:41and they have avocado plants. So she's been doing some gardening. Wow. And then the stepson is also doing his own gardens this year because they now have a place to actually garden in. So he's been sending us photos of his gardens and they're doing great. So apparently they learned to garden and they just didn't want to be part of gardening when they were little. Right.
27:06So, and I don't, it doesn't matter to me if they wanted to buy everything at the store, that's up to them. So did you say that your husband did garden or he wasn't really a gardener either? He wasn't in his home? Not really. It's interesting, husband actually, so we both grew up like, I don't know, in kind of in the city, really urban. But his first job was actually working for a farmer.
27:36He sold the produce at a farmer's market and he would go out and work the farm. So he's done that kind of thing before, but whenever it came to me homesteading, he thought it was just me having another fad, another thing I wanted to be a part of. He thought it was a passing phase, but it stuck around for a good four years. Yeah, it's amazing how the passing phases build up to become a life.
28:06because that's what happened with us.
28:11So, have you gotten into any of the crafting stuff that goes along with homesteading, like crocheting or sewing or anything like that? I actually learned to crochet when I was a kid. My mom taught me, and I guess it is a homesteading skill. I didn't realize I had one, but I've had one all this time. Yeah, so I've crocheted. I'm not a very crafty person. I'd much rather be in the garden.
28:41My husband's a carpenter. That helps a lot. He's able to build me things, because that's a skill that I also do not have. I've tried. He asks me not to. It ends poorly sometimes.
29:00Yeah. Um, the reason I asked about sewing and crocheting and stuff is a lot of the home studying skills start out as little hobbies. You know, things that our grandparents or great grandparents did and we find out about it and we're like, I should try that. That sounds like fun. And it's a little hobby, but all those little hobbies and things that you learn just compound and add up to
29:26the things that you end up doing as a part of your everyday life. Absolutely. Yeah. And I for a long time. So I learned to crochet when I was a kid. And then I just didn't pick it up for years and years. And I saw some yarn and a crochet hook when I was cleaning up. I was helping my parents clean out their house. And I was like, Mom, can I take this yarn? And and I got back to it. I was like, this is I don't realize how much I miss this.
29:55Yeah, it's very zen. It's very relaxing. I haven't done it in a while. I've talked about it a few times in the last few months. I'm like, I need to find my yarn stash and my crochet hooks and do some of that this winter. I think that what I would tell people, if they were like, how do I get into homesteading? I would be like, you need to go to a Joanne's Fabric store or a Michael's store, walk in and look around and see what grabs you. Because if it's the fake flowers that grab you,
30:25You should be doing flowers. If it's the textiles, the materials, you should be doing sewing. If it's the yarn, you should be doing crocheting or knitting. Because really, I think that's where the little pieces start. And I know it's where it started for me, because I was like, I love Joanne's fabrics. I love the yarn. And then I was like, I hate knitting, but I could probably try crocheting. And that's where that bug got me, was just walking down the aisles of Joanne's fabrics, where the yarn is.
30:56So, I mean, you can go to a farm and watch farmers milk cows or muck stalls or, I don't know, castrate steers. But I don't think that's the same thing for people just starting out. I think that's a much bigger scope. Right. No, I think that's great advice. Yeah. Whatever you're drawn to at the craft store, go for it. Yeah. It's like the Marie Kondo thing about whatever doesn't bring you joy, get rid of it.
31:24Whatever does bring you joy, bring it into your life. And I just, I love cooking. I love crocheting. I love eating the food that my husband brings me out of the garden when the garden actually survives. It's, it's all just a lifestyle. And I've said this, I have said, it's just a lifestyle. Homesteading is a lifestyle choice in every interview I've done this week. And I've done four now.
31:53It's a choice. It's a lifestyle choice. It's not about land. It's not about animals. It's not about gardening. It's about what you want to do that makes you happy and what makes you self-sustainable and feeling like you're doing the things that are good for you. Absolutely. OK, good. I think I finally nailed it. I finally got it down pat. Yes.
32:16All right. I can't think of anything to ask you. I told you this was going to be silly because I'm sleepy, but it's okay. I try to keep these to half an hour, so we're at 32 minutes and 17 seconds. Thank you, Anna, for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you. It was wonderful talking to you. All right. Have a great night. You too.
 

Weaver Meadow Farm

Today I'm talking with Megan at Weaver Meadow Farm. You can also follow on Facebook.
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00:00This 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 Megan and a couple other people at Weaver Meadow Farm, and Megan can tell me the other two people's names. We are here with Rye, my office administrator, and Bree, my sales rep. Oh my.
00:29You got the business end happening with you today. Yes, we've got all three of us here. Good. That's awesome. All right. So tell me about your farm. So I am Megan Weaver of Weaver Meadow Farm. We primarily raise a rare breed of pig called mason. They originated in China and they've only been available in the US since 2016.
00:57And I am one of the largest breeders here in the U S with registered stock. And then we also, uh, raise sheep as well. Okay. I literally not even our, an hour ago got done interviewing with a lady who raises hair sheep, so I would much rather talk about this special pig than sheep for another half an hour. So can we talk about the special sheep? I mean, special pig, sorry. Yeah.
01:24Not a problem. I love my sheep, but I really adore my pigs. Okay, good. So is it is it kind of like the wagyu beef that people are so fond of? Is that the same kind of level of special for the pig? Yeah, quite similar. We're still restructuring our grain program to create that similar marbling that the wagyu has. We are getting close to that and it is a red
01:53deep red pork that is super flavorful. The fat has a lower melting temperature and so a lot of it will melt during the cooking process and reabsorb into the meat, just creating something wonderful to eat.
02:11Oh, you're, you're, you're barking up the right tree here because I'm not really a fan of pork, but that sounds wonderful. That's pretty delicious actually. Yeah. Uh, Brie here has been, uh, taking photos and playing with recipes in ways that you don't traditionally see pork being used. And she's come up with some really creative recipes. Nice. Are they on your website? They're getting there. Okay. Good. Yes.
02:40Good because no one's going to cook with the the mason pork. But right now we're just taking photos and then trying dishes and posting them on the Facebook page for people to view. Awesome, because no one's going to know how to cook this to the best of their ability without recipes. Believe it or not, this pork is actually really quick to cook. It's not, you don't take your time. It'll dry out. It's very fast.
03:10Easy meat to cook.
03:13Awesome. So how did you get into this? Um, when I wanted to get into farming after I was a farm sitter, I didn't want to just get traditional breeds. I wanted something more unique. And so I was doing a lot of research. Um, and I finally came across the Mason pig, but at the time there was only roughly 200 registered in the whole U S and they weren't cheap.
03:42So I decided to go with a mixed breed, half mason and half herford, because it was a lot more budget friendly at the time to give it a try, see if the meat was any different. And even with it being a crossbreed like that, it was a big difference to any other pork that I've ever had. And so then we took the dive and we actually moved to a different location that was more suited for farms. And we
04:11delved into the sheep and the registered mason. And that took a little bit of time to grow them and then breed. And it just took off from there. I think I was a couple of litters in and I was number 300 on the registry. Peg registered number 300 for the whole registry there.
04:36And so that was pretty exciting and now the breed has really taken off. So it's just been fun because I love this breed. The look of them is like crossing Eeyore with a Shar-Pei. I think they're super adorable. Other people say they're an ugly cute. But they're just they're very docile breed. They're very easy to be around. They're not.
05:05aggressive or dangerous. I've had little kids supervised around my boars. There's just certain ones that capture your heart here on the farm that are just like well mannered little puppy dogs. They follow you around. They just want, you know, to be scratched on. And so they've been a lot of fun. And the piglets when they're born, their ears are really big, but they're flat against their neck and they look like miniature elephants.
05:35It's the cutest thing ever. That sounds adorable. How big did the the male pigs get? Um, unfortunately, my scale is for sheep and my pigs are a little too long for it. Okay. I would say they're around three to 400 pounds. And I think my biggest style that I have and she's really big for this breed. She's probably around 500 pounds. Try it for me. Yeah.
06:04But a sweetheart. Okay, so they're not small pigs. Nope. They're considered a medium size in the pig world. But if you really haven't been around pigs very much, they appear to be very large. Yep. So how hard is it? Like I want to know how hard is it to raise pigs? Like what do you need?
06:34to have to acquire a piglet and raise it to butcher? This breed is a little different because they are more lazy than your typical pig. So they just need a basic shelter to get out the wind and the rain. If you're in a very snowy area, then they need extra hay in their shelter to kind of burrow into. My pigs, they stay contained in a two-foot.
07:03mesh fencing. They're just very easy about that. So, you know, obviously the more room you can give them the better. This pig does like to graze and they do minimal rooting. So they're more of a surface rooter. So you may see some dirt patches where they've, you know, messed with the ground a bit, but come next season after the rain, it'll actually regrow grass in that spot because they don't damage the roots of your plant.
07:33Yeah. Um, and so some people who want to get into pigs for the meat side also want a pig that can rotate for the garden area. Um, this pig is not ideal for that. They are more ideal for a pasture rotation program. Um, unless you just have a lot of room, you don't have to rotate them, but they do find in a smaller area too, if you just want to raise them for meat. Um, they are going to take on
08:03some flavors of what you feed them. So you don't want to just feed them garbage because then you're just going to make a garbage meat. But if you eat them clean food, even some of your scraps and stuff is fine. But your basic grains, they do really well in that. They do love some alfalfa. Didn't you once tell me they're picky? They can be picky. And that's back when I used to get these massive amounts of fresh produce from Costco.
08:33And so they were so used to getting good produce that they would turn their noses up at spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage. They're just like, no, we don't want that. But they do love a lot of veggies. And then, I mean, if you really push these pigs on their feed, you can butcher at eight months. But I feel
09:01I mean, at six months you can, but I feel 10 to 12 months is the best, best time to wait until butchering.
09:13Alright, cool. So I don't want specifics because I don't want to be nosy and rude. But on average, how much does it cost you to raise a pig? Unfortunately, we, my grain supplier went out of business and so we have had to restructure our grain program. But you're, you're about,
09:43up to one ton of feed if you're going to butcher at 12 months without a pasture program. And so here that can cost anywhere from $530 to $700 depending on your feed and what you're feeding them. But with the pasture program, you can cut that down by half. Nice. Okay.
10:10So you're looking anywhere from 500 bucks to 1200 bucks in food to feed a pig from piglet through to butcher. Yeah, and that again just depends on your goal for your pig, you know, but it should not cost 1200 for this pig. Probably roughly $300 to $500. Okay.
10:36Mm-hmm. Yeah, I always I always overestimate because we have chickens and you would not believe how much feed these little crappers Eat. Oh my god My husband feels fills their their container with food every night and by morning It's three quarters gone. I'm like don't feed them at night feed them in the morning That way they get some and then they go out and eat the bugs and stuff. He's like, yeah, but they're hungry night I'm like no feed them in the morning, please
11:06It's crazy. Chickens do not know how to self-regulate. It's terrible. It's awful. I hate it. It's a meat chicken. Yeah, so. We'll be getting meat and egg layers. Yep. And milk and pot. Uh-huh. Yeah. It's... If you can't let them free range, be prepared to be feeding them lots of feed. Yeah. It's ridiculous. I wish...
11:34I wish that I didn't love having eggs at my disposal any time of the day, because we just wouldn't have eggs. We wouldn't have chickens, period. So yeah, we're looking at getting the 50 egg layers mill this month and then each year getting 50 more and keeping a proper rotation with the layers. And we'll actually be providing eggs to the pigs in their diet.
12:04Yeah, that makes sense. Are you going to sell any eggs to your community at all? Um, probably not, but we will be supplying it to like the employees and stuff like that. Cool. Good. Okay. So that's awesome about the pigs. I'm really excited for you that you have some different kind of breed that is not common. That's, that's unusual. So that's really fun. I saw that you guys have Anatolian Shepherds. Yes.
12:33Yes, we do. Um, yes, you're my favorite kind of people. I am.
12:44I was going to say I'm madly in love with my dog. So anytime people are raising dogs, all I want to do is talk about that too. And don't blame me there. We got some puppies on the farm that are learning the trade. Quite entertaining. So how many litters do you let your female dogs have a year?
13:06We've only just recently gotten to the breeding side of it. And so we've only had one litter so far, but we only plan to do one litter per female a year. And only probably two litters out of that female. So we have another breeding pair that we'll have coming up here soon. She is a brindle.
13:33And he is three quarter Anatolian and one quarter Akvash, but he is big, gorgeous and takes his job very seriously. Um, with people, he's like a giant puppy and he has become the farm favorite for the dogs. Everybody loves Milo.
13:57Okay. So how many pups do they have? Like, do they have eight? Do they have 12? Does it just depend? Yeah, it's going to depend on the dogs and their genetics. Zaya, for her first lawyer, she had 12. Was pretty large. How do they handle that? Because they only have eight teats. How do they handle feeding 12 puppies?
14:27Um, you know, they just kind of rotate. She was such a good mom. She would lay there and let the pups figure it out. So when, you know, one got its fill and started to fall asleep, a pup would come and shove it off and take its place. Um, she was an excellent mother, just an excellent mother.
14:47And that's kind of similar with the pigs too, because I do try to breed for lots of teats with my pigs, but sometimes they have more piglets than they have teats, and it's the exact same thing. Piglets will fall asleep while nursing, and so another piglet just comes in and shoves them off. Yeah, just like human babies, they fall asleep while they're nursing. I can remember having to like poke my daughter's cheek to get her to wake up to continue eating.
15:16I can't imagine feeding that many kids. I have no idea. No, me either. But she would just, her head would fall back and she'd be asleep. And I'm like, um, you're not done yet. I felt the same way. I know you're not done yet. Wake up. Okay. So, I had more questions about the dogs. So the Anatolian Shepherds.
15:42I know a little bit about the Great Pyrenees dogs. Are Anatolian Shepherds sort of the same kind of dog? Are they a whole different animal? Their purpose is the same. It's to live out with your stock and protect them. Some of the differences are the coat. That's a big one. The Anatolians have a shorter coat. They don't get mats and burrs and stuff come out a lot easier than the Great Pyrenees.
16:12I also find that the great Pyrenees bark more than the Anatolians. My Anatolians only bark if there's a reason to. A lot of times I won't even see a predator out there at night, but some is out there and they know it. During the day, it's very quiet on the farm. They're like, okay, there's people out and about. They've got this. I can go and sleep now.
16:40you don't really hear the dogs unless it's for a reason, like a predator or a new person coming onto the farm. But at night, I can tell when we have predators around because all the guardian dogs will be upset. And then there'll be nights where I don't hear a peep out of them. So they're not out there barking just to bark.
17:04Well, that's good because sleep is important for you guys. Um, our dog is a mini Australian shepherd and she just got house privileges like a couple months ago, like at night. Now she can just be in the house. She's not stuck in our room with us because we were afraid she was going to eat the house if we let her have the run of the house at night. And, uh, she's, she's been, she's kind of had the run of the house for a few months now and, um, one night, like three, four weeks ago.
17:33At two in the morning, I woke up to her barking her head off. And I was like, um, that's not good. Cause there's no reason for her to bark in the middle of the night. And I poked my husband because that's what we do. We poke our husbands if we have one. And I said, Maggie's barking. And he was like, what? And I said, Maggie's barking. He's like, Oh, he got up and grabbed his robe, went downstairs. And he said, what's up, Maggie. And she just looked at him and stopped barking.
18:00So he looked outside and stepped outside and nothing. And he said the only thing he could think of is that a big truck rolled by startled her awake and she was dreaming about something and was barking. So even our little house pet who's 35 pounds is a really good protector and watchdog for the house. So pets can be that too. Absolutely, yes. Zaya, the mom to the puppies.
18:27During the day when people are coming and going, she's quiet. But once everybody leaves for the day and goes home, if a vehicle pulls up the driveway, she alerts just to let me know, hey, somebody's coming up the driveway. And it's really nice, because I do have Belgian Malinois and they're gray alert dogs, but sometimes they're in the house with me. And so they're kind of my comfort in my house while my Anatolians are my comfort outside.
18:56It makes me feel a lot more comfortable to be out on my farm with them around because we do have coyotes, bobcats, cougars, and possibly bears out here too. Where are you guys again? Brownsville, Oregon. Yeah, okay. I didn't think that that got said at the beginning and I was like, I don't know where she is. We have 177 acres and it backs up to forest land. Wow.
19:25So we're kind of out here. Yeah, we have 3.1 acres and the only reason we have a dog is because we wanted to know when somebody rolled into the driveway who wasn't supposed to be here. And I mean, obviously we love her. She's great. We got her when she was eight weeks old and fell in love immediately. But the main reason we have a dog is because we wanted to have a watchdog. That was her only job and she does it way too well sometimes.
19:55The Belgian Malinois, really hard to say. They look like a German Shepherd, but they're a bigger dog, right? They don't have the same markings as the German Shepherds. They're generally a tan body with the black face markings and some black on their legs, but they can go out to darker colors in their body. But they don't have that same pattern that you think of when you think German Shepherd.
20:24Yeah, they have the long nose and they have the pointy sticky up ears, right? Yes. Sticky up ears. They do. And they are very intense, intelligent, high-energy dog. Yeah. And they're gorgeous. Yes. I've got one of the lighter ones and a darker one. My five-year-old, she actually is a great herding dog and personal protection, property protection.
20:53Rodent control. I mean, she kind of does it all. So we recently moved sheep and she hadn't worked in that field yet. And I wanted them to go in an area that was very difficult. Well, she basically put them away all by herself. I didn't have to do anything. We just kind of stood back and watched. That's impressive. That's really impressive. She's never done it before.
21:21Oh no, she's done the herding. I've worked with her since she was six months old on it. She just hadn't worked in that big field yet. And so it's, you know, a hundred acre field and we were trying to get them into this little pen. Okay. Yeah. And she got them all into that little pen by herself. Is that breed a herding dog? Uh, originally they were bred for herding. Um, but.
21:48You know, it was just noticed how well they did at protection. And so anymore that's traditionally what they're bred for is personal protection or police work. Okay. Yeah. I didn't know they had been bred originally for herding. I learned something new today. I love this podcast. I learned something new every single episode. It makes me so incredibly happy. Every day you got to learn something new.
22:18Oh, I don't have any choice. I am a lifelong reader and learner and I am so curious about everything. So every day I learn something new, but sometimes I learn something that I didn't even know that I wanted to learn. Does that make sense? Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. So, okay, since you have your business team there, how's business? How is this going for you?
22:47I enjoy working on the farm and working with my animals and I hate doing office work. So when Rye stepped in and started working on the farm, it just made such a big difference for me. It took a lot of stress off of me and a lot of tasks off my plate so I could focus more on my animals and the development of the farm.
23:12And then recently, Brie has come on and she has just been doing amazing work with her photos and putting up the flyers, like making our pamphlets and information sheets. We're finally getting our nice proper farm sign put up now that we have an official logo that she has worked with and created and she has gotten us into another store.
23:42Yeah, production is getting up there and now we're starting to branch off and meet other needs. Hopefully by next year we'll be able to do Saturday markets in Lane and hopefully Marion County. Crossing fingers, trying to branch, get people into the Maison community. So before I only had two little stores and
24:11Bri has made the connection to get us into a big grocery store here nearby, which is really, really exciting. And now that we have transitioned to a new package company, we are going to be able to sell jerky and meat sticks and summer sausage. And some of that will actually be shelf stable that we can ship and put on Amazon. Nice. So you're growing. You're growing a lot.
24:41bigger than you probably thought you would be. Yes, so it's very, very exciting. And then we also have a new product, because we have a connection over from India, and we are now selling coconut peat. Oh, yeah. Okay. It's not as easy to sell as it is meat, by the way, if you're wondering. Is that because people don't know what it is? That and it's end of season for gardening and
25:11Even though it could be used for other sources, like I use it for my reptile. I have a bearded dragon and he loves to nestle in it. It's, it's, it's just unknown. People don't know much about it. So trying to educate the community and the public about it, and then trying to sell it for the price that we have is not always the easiest. I really think the biggest difference will be here soon. It's going to be on Amazon.
25:40Uh-huh. And a lot of people assume that it's coconut core because that's what you see for sale. Is coconut core? Well, it's actually completely different. Coconut core is more of the long strands off the coconut and it's not absorbent. It's great for aeration in the root system, but it really doesn't add to anything. There's no absorption of moisture to it. With the coconut peat, however...
26:10It's a much finer ground and it's a different part off the coconut and it has huge absorption rate for water without choking out the root system of your plants. It makes it the perfect medium for starting seeds in or to reduce your water needs in your plants. Because I was having to water my sunchokes morning and night and after just even adding a layer to the top of it.
26:40I was only having to water every other day. Nice. So, is this available anywhere besides you or is this another unique thing to your business? It's pretty unique. I personally haven't been able to find it online like on Amazon or anywhere here of coconut peat. It's always coconut core or it's a mix of the core and the peat.
27:09you're impossible to find just the pure peat alone. Okay. So is your farm your only job? Yep. This is all I do. Very nice. And how long have you been doing this again? It's been about five years now. Five or six. I think we're going on six now. Wow. So...
27:35It's not like you've been doing this for 20 years. I mean, I'm not, I'm assuming you're not even 30, so.
27:43just over 30. Yeah. Yeah, you've accomplished a ton in a very short time. Yeah, when you add it all up, it is actually a lot. But all I see is, you know, how much more I can still do, you know, and how much further we can go. You have the heart of an entrepreneur and the energy of someone who's not 40 yet. So
28:12Ride that wave as long as you can. Unfortunately, my body feels like it's 70 though. Oh honey, you tell me. Tell me about that. I understand completely. I'm going to be 55 in November and I wake up every morning and I'm like, thank God I do a podcast because if I actually had to go do anything that required bodily work, I would just go back to sleep.
28:37Roll over, not today. Yeah, not happening. I'm going back to sleep. I'm more comfortable in my bed than I am in the world. We're good. But I chose podcasting because it's something that I can do no matter what kind of day I'm having because it always makes me feel good and I don't have to look a certain way and I don't have to be a certain way. I just have to show up and ask questions. It's fantastic. That sounds amazing. It is. And then I get to talk to people like you.
29:05who are doing things that no one else is doing. And I'm like, oh my God, how cool is that? So how did you find us? Cause at first we've been getting so many random scams lately and I think a lot of other places are. And so Bri's like, oh my gosh, somebody wants to interview us. And I was like, well, first make sure they're legit before you message her back. Make sure it's not a bot. Yeah. Yep. No, I think I saw you on Facebook
29:35thing that Facebook is really good for is feeding me more of the things that I'm interested in. And right now I'm interested in homesteaders and farmers and people who cook or bake and people who make things. So as long as I keep looking at that stuff, Facebook sends me people like you through my feed all the time. Nice. Yeah, and that's fine because I need an easy way to connect.
30:03with people who are doing the things that I want to ask them about. I feel the same way. It's great.
30:11I have an unending stream of people who are like, oh, this is what we do. And I go, oh, there's more to that story. I need to talk to them. Yeah, I'm thankful I've got, you know, Rai and Bree because I do not like technology. It was a chore to keep up with the Facebook and I just didn't even do that very well.
30:36Now with rerunning that show primarily, it's just, it's been awesome. We've got so much more views going now and it just, it feels a lot, a lot nicer to be able to post, you know, what's going on on the farm and have people. Enjoy it. Yeah. And it's always better to have someone who likes the job do the job. You know, if she.
31:03If Brie likes doing that and she's good at that, fantastic. If you don't like doing it, you have Brie to do it. I like taking pictures. Yeah. I'm a picture person. Yep, my husband takes beautiful photos and he has always got his phone on him and he'll see something that I don't even think about and he's got his phone out to take a photo and I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, look at this, it's beautiful. I'm like, oh yeah, cameras.
31:33Huh, weird, because it's not the first thing I think of. I'm so in the moment that I don't think that, oh, we should take a photo so we can remember this 10 years from now. I'm the exact same way. I see so much happen on my farm that I just, I sit there and I enjoy watching it and I'm like, dang it. I should have had my camera out. But again, it's not the first thing I think of. Yeah. Yep, and I used to, like years ago, I had a camera.
32:03like a camera, a digital camera, that I would take places with me. And I was always pulling out of my pocket and taking photos because it was super easy. And now I'm like, my phone's in the house. Usually if I step outside, my phone's in the house. So I'm going to miss the moment because I had to go back in and get my phone. So I don't take photos, but his is always on him. So he's always taking photos. And we had barn kittens this spring.
32:29And he got some of the most adorable photos of barn kittens for about six weeks. And he would send me these adorable pictures of barn kittens. And after about the second week, I was like, yes, they're cute. You don't have to send me anymore. It's okay. And yeah, and we have a new batch coming here sometime in the next two weeks. So, uh, I'm going to be deluged with another round of kitten pictures again. So prepare yourself. Yeah. And.
32:59They're super cute. The problem is that barn kittens don't always survive being barn kittens. So I have to remind myself that it's, it's right now. Like there's this moment with them because there may not be the next moment with them. So it's a mindset thing. And the first batch, Oh my God, we lost. I think we lost two right off the bat. I think they were like two weeks old. Gone just disappeared. And.
33:27I was so sad. I was like, where'd those babies go? Yeah. Yeah, I can relate because with the pigs, you know, things happen. You know, they're such a big pig and the babies are so tiny when they're born that, you know, you do sometimes have them get squished. And so it was really hard at first when I started breeding pigs, you know, and come into the barn and you see, you know, a dead piglet.
33:56Mm-hmm. Um, you know, and it's still not pleasant at all to find them, but it does happen. And so those moms though that have, you know, 12 to 19 piglets and they don't squish a single one, those are very, very good mothers that I want to keep in my breeding program, you know, and focus on that.
34:21Yep, I feel like loss is the cost of doing business if you're going to be raising any living creature. Yep, absolutely. And we don't sell the barn cats. I mean, we let mama have a couple of litters a year because like I said, they don't all survive and the adult cats don't always survive either and they're barn cats, they're not pets. So.
34:46We don't mind if she has a couple of litters a year because we keep a couple, we have friends that take them and have them for their barns and it's fine. And sometimes I feel real bad about this because we really should get her fixed because, you know, the world doesn't need more kittens. But I also don't want to be spending $50 on barn cats four times a year because we've lost one. So it's just...
35:15I think it takes a real specific kind of person to live a farming or home setting life. You really have to be able to manage your feelings and your emotions about your life.
35:33Yeah. Yeah. And so as bad as it sounds, like, you know, I do raise animals for me, you know. And so those from a young age, if I know they're going to be for me, like I take very good care of them. I make sure that they have clean, fresh water, drink, proper shelter, food, but I don't socialize with them. Yes. You know, because each one of these pigs has a personality. Each one of my sheep has a personality.
36:02I don't want to get attached when I have to take them to the butcher. Now with my breeding stock, I make those my pets. Yes. Yeah. And you can't get attached to the ones that are going to be food because it hurts to let them go. Yep. But the breeding stock, you don't have to let go so you can love them as much as you want to. Yes. And it makes handling them so much easier when you need to, you know, move them around or...
36:28they have the piglets, you have a better bond. You know, some of these sows are more protective of their babies. And so you want at least a bond to be able to go in there and still clean the stall and, you know, give water and food without her coming after you. And then I have some of my sows where you can just cuddle with them while they're giving birth and hold the piglets, you know, anytime and just be in the nest with her.
36:56You know, she has no problems with it. And then there's some who are just like, you know what, you can be in here. Just don't touch the babies. Yep. My dad would call that a good mom. I would call that a pain in the butt mom. I would have to concur with that. Yep. So anyway, um, we're at 37 minutes and 10 seconds, and I try to keep these 30 minutes, so I'm going to let you guys go. Thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it.
37:26Yeah, and feel free, you know, to find us on Facebook or the website and get on our newsletter. All right. I will put the links to all that in the show notes. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you, Megan. Have a great day. It was a pleasure.
 

MN River Valley Homestead

Today I'm talking with Holly at MN River Valley Homestead.
If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee -
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00:00This 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 Holly at the Minnesota River Valley Homestead. Good morning, Holly. How are you? I am good. How are you? I'm great. What a beautiful morning we have in LaSore, Minnesota today. It is wonderful outside.
00:29Yeah, it's a little allergy inducing, but other than that, it's great. Yes, I agree. So, um, Holly is an acquaintance and sort of friend. She lives not far from me. And the way that I met Holly is because she sells her lovely baked goods at the farmer's market. And I had asked her months ago if she wanted to be a guest on the podcast, but there was stuff going on. So.
00:55I finally get to ask you all kinds of questions today. So tell me about yourself, Holly. Well, I have been a stay at home mom for, let's see, gollish, it's been so many years, I don't think I even know, almost 20 years, mainly because I can't work because I'm epileptic, but I have all seven kids that I have raised and.
01:23One is gone and now I just sit and keep track of the other six. And right now it's nice and calm because there's only two left at home because the other are at school. Yay. Today, first day today? Um, no, it's actually, um, they started their second week today. They started last week, so they were excited.
01:48Yeah, I feel like kids are in one of two camps. They're either tickled pink to go back or they don't want to go back. Yeah, my two older ones were not very happy and the two younger ones were very, very excited. So. So how old are the kids that are still living at home? They are 345715.
02:1716 Okay, so you got teenagers and little still at home. Yep Okay. All right. So what do you what do you do at your your? Minnesota River Valley homestead when I'm at home which is all the time obviously I Work on a lot of my yarn crafting I do a lot of crocheting I make blankets and
02:46I make dishcloths and handbags and hats. Pretty much you name it, I can make it. Otherwise I make jams and jellies and then there's the other part of it that my husband is a really big part of. We make a lot of sourdough and bagels and other sandwich breads.
03:14and we're now starting to get into dessert breads.
03:19So yeah, we, yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I guess that's, that's, that's the big part. Otherwise I get into making a lot of oils for different purposes, not, not scent, you know, not essential oils, but healing oils, things like that. So I'm a lot, I'm really big with herbal things. So always.
03:47So you're a typical homesteader. You've got your hands in almost everything. Yeah, pretty much. Nice. Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna toot your horn for you. Your bagels are amazing. Kyle brought some home Saturday and they were the Osceaga ones. Oh my god. So yummy. Yeah. And you're, uh, He said he's been eyeing those for a while, so he decided to get some.
04:16Yep. And your raisin ones are really good too. Oh, I'm glad you like those. Yeah. We love bagels. We don't love store-bought bagels, but we love your bagels. So, Oh, I'm glad. I was going to ask, um, the Italian bread that he brought home. Um, I didn't get any. Cameron and Kyle ate all of it before I could get to it. Oh my gosh. But they loved it. I didn't get a chance to try it.
04:46Oh, well, just let me know and I'll make you some. Okay. Yeah. I was going to grab some and I was like, where'd the bag go? And Cameron was like, we ate it. And then Kyle made honey oat bread and, and, uh, herbed bread yesterday that he makes, so I was like, okay, well maybe I'll get some of those maybe. Yeah. Food doesn't last very long in this house if it's, if it's really yummy. So it must have been really yummy, Holly. I will find out eventually.
05:16Well, that's good. We make sure we have fresh herbs growing outside on our deck so I can grab them and we use those. So yeah, fresh herbs are the best thing. And if you can't have fresh herbs, dried herbs work just as well. So it works out great. Thank you.
05:39I'm very excited you're going to get in dessert, two dessert breads. I cannot talk this morning. I feel like I'm not separating anything out and I'm not pronouncing my consonants. I don't know what's wrong with me. Your dessert breads are an exciting new thing. What kind of dessert breads are you guys doing? Oh, um, well, Chris has been making, um, one of them is a, gow, what does he call it? It's a cinnamon.
06:08uh, cinnamon or not cinnamon chocolate, twist, I guess is what he calls it. But it's, um, he rolls it out flat and then he puts Nutella all over the whole thing and then he rolls it up and twists it and turns it into a circle. And then after it's done baking, it's covered in a caramel sauce and, oh, it's, it's just really good.
06:35And then last night with our daughter, he made a raspberry, a raspberry twist that has chocolate chips in it. And that one is just super good. And then he made, oh, he made a sticky bun kind of thing. And they have a really light glaze on top of them. And they're just to die for. He's he's so good with
07:04baking stuff. I mean, I like baking, but he goes beyond. Yeah. I've told this story before a bunch of times on the podcast. I'll mention it again. Kyle is the bread maker in our family because I kill the yeast every time I try to make it, try to use it. And so I have been saying that I want to try making some and he's like,
07:30Now that I'm busy with my job, because he got the new job back last year, he said, if you want to try making bread, he said, have at it. He said, if you kill a beast, he said, he said, just keep track of what you're doing. And I will try to help you so that you figure out how not to kill it. I was like, okay, that would be great. But yeah, it's wonderful when our husbands, when our husbands do some of the baking too. Yes. I really like the fact that he does it and he got into doing sourdough. I.
07:59six years ago, seven years ago, somewhere around there. And it's just really flourished since then. And he's just so into it. And I just come up with new ideas on what to do with them. And I'll, he'll make the dough and then I'll put everything in it and put it together and bake it. But as far as the dough is concerned, he's, he's got that. I can't do it.
08:29Yeah, but you're a team. So that's amazing. I love that. I think when married folks can work together, even if you're doing separate parts that come together, it's fantastic. Yeah. Oh, I had a question. Oh, the farmers market. I keep meaning to ask other people who are part of it because Kyle's really the only one I talk to about it. It seems like
09:00in the last three years? Do you feel like it is too? Well, the first year, excuse me, I had my zapper go off. The first year went really slow. And then the next year, last year was a lot better. And that's when Kyle came and started and it got a
09:30amazing with how many people, vendors have showed up. And it's just, it's really flourished. It's been great. I really like it. I think that it's really nice. There's a lot of new people coming to shop. And I just, I couldn't have asked for anything better.
09:58big a deal. Like people showed up, they sold stuff, they went home. And when Kyle started going last summer, he was like, it's really robust. It's really good. And I was like, well, maybe you were the magic charm. Maybe they just needed you to show up. Yeah. Well, last year he was a really big part of it because it was a good year with the tomatoes and all the other produce that he brought.
10:27Because not very many people were bringing things like that. And so, you know, he was a big deal With it and it it's a bummer that it was so bad this year Because I was actually looking forward to more tomatoes because all of our tomatoes went they just drowned Well, if it makes you feel any better, there are 50 tomato plants in the garden right now that he put in like end of June
10:56when he could finally get in the garden and they're growing. So as long as they don't get frosted anytime soon, we might be able to help you out with some tomatoes in like mid September, maybe. Don't hold your breath, but if we have enough, we will make sure you get some. Oh, that would be wonderful. I still have a couple bags of what I got last year that I need to get turned into something.
11:25but I need a couple more because I want to make some more sauce and just some more canned tomatoes overall because we ran out really quick. It doesn't last very long in our house at all. Yeah, all of our tomato sauce is gone from the last two years. We've used everything we can in the last two years. So I understand completely. Now I have a funny story to tell you that Kyle probably will never tell you, but I'm going to tell you it.
11:53He was talking last winter about making some breads and selling them at the farmers market. And he's made bagels before and he loves doing it. He was like, I can make bagels and sell them at the farmers market. I said, excuse me, sir. And he looked at me like, what? I said, our friends sell bread and bagels and stuff at the farmers market. I said, do you really want to be in competition with Holly and her husband?
12:22You're going to lose. Their stuff is better." And he was just laughing. He was like, I completely forgot that we would be in competition with them. I said, yeah, don't do that. I said, if you want to make something, make your cinnamon rolls, because I don't think they make cinnamon rolls and yours are really yummy, make those. Oh yeah. He was like, oh yeah, I have things I can make that won't be in competition. I said, no, they won't. And that would be good.
12:49And he just, he completely wasn't thinking about it as he was saying it. I'm just inside, I'm just dying, giggling my head off in my brain. So I saved you guys from some minor competition by reminding him that that's a bad plan. Don't do that. Thank you. I, I am very grateful for that. I mean, there's, you know, two other people, um, vendors that go that sell bagels
13:20Um, and sourdough and one of them, I mean, she's nice and her husband's nice. And, but I mean, I, and I hate sounding like I hate her because I don't hate her. It's terrible to say that, but every time we come out with something new for a flavor or, or the other vendor, they come out with something new with a flavor. They come out the next week with the exact same thing. And it's.
13:49Just, it's horrible. It's like, oh my goodness, can you just think of something your own? It's terrible. It's frustrating. And, and competition is good, but, but, uh, direct copying, maybe not so good. Uh-huh. I know what you're saying. And I'm sure that you don't hate her. You're too nice of a person to hate anyone.
14:15But I'm also positive that it is very frustrating for you because you're like, we've been here, we've been doing the work and now somebody else is just like doing the same thing all of a sudden. It's very disheartening. Yeah. It would be like us trying to bring out candles and he sits there with that whole table full of candles and free smells. I love it. It's great. We were right next to him last weekend.
14:45I laugh every time he says it to somebody. It just cracks me up every time. But I wouldn't want to do that to him with candles on my table. I felt bad when I started doing granola. And last year he brought granola, but he didn't have it this year. So I decided to start making granola. That's because I haven't been making it. That's the thing that I make. Okay.
15:12And the granola has been being eaten here for breakfast. So we just haven't had any extra to sell. Ah, and I haven't had time to make it because I've been doing the podcast. Okay. Well, that makes sense. Yep. Most of the time I do a recording at 10 and then I go downstairs and I eat a bowl of granola for breakfast because I don't like to eat food before I record because it gets in my teeth and I'm licking my teeth through the hole.
15:42conversation is just gross. I don't want to do that. I actually felt weird about the granola last year because I know how I make it. It is a very simple thing to make. I know how much it costs per bag. It cost me to make it. I was like, how much should we sell the bags for? Kyle was like, I don't know. Whatever we sold it for, 10, 12 bucks last year. I don't remember.
16:12Yeah. And it's not that big a bag. And I'm like, I feel really weird about this because people are paying for it. But it seems like it's a lot of money. And yeah, I looked at the same size bag at the store, you know, people who are selling it at the store. And granola is freaking expensive at the store. Oh my gosh, it is.
16:35And I was like, I am taking the time to do this right to make sure they know what's in it. And it doesn't have any preservatives or colorants or anything in it. Now I know why people are buying it. Uh huh. Exactly. And I found that, um, we were selling it at $10 a bag and I think they're 15 ounces and, um, they weren't really selling very much.
17:05So I lowered it to eight and now it sells constantly. We went to those who were fair the other, you know, a couple of weeks ago and I sold out. I was like, what? I mean, it was crazy. I didn't- But that's fabulous. Oh, it was. I was like, I didn't realize I needed to make more granola before we go to the market next week. I think the thing with granola
17:35is that people like it, but they don't want to eat it every day. And so if they find it at a fair or a farmer's market, they're reminded that they like it and it's a small bag. And they're like, yeah, I can eat this before it goes stale. And they'll buy it. But no one's going to go buy a humongous five pound bag of granola because they're never going to eat it. Right. Yeah, I don't eat it every day. I eat it.
18:04maybe every other day or every few days. But I mean, it's just, it was kind of crazy how much it sold. I was really astonished. It really floored me. I am applauding you. I'm not, I'm not going to sit here and clap in front of the mic, but in my, in my head, I'm applauding you because that's fantastic. Good job. I don't know how you make your granola. I will tell you how I make mine and it's why I felt weird about selling it.
18:34I basically dump a bag of oatmeal into our roasting pan. You know, we spray the roasting pan with nonstick stuff. And then I flatten it out with a spoon. And then I pour in like a cup and a quarter of veggie oil, a cup and a quarter of honey, stir it all up, add in some cinnamon and a couple splashes of vanilla, stir it up.
19:00Bake it at 350 for 15 minutes, stir it, shut the oven off, leave it in there for another 15 minutes, and it's done. That's how simple my granola recipe is. Yeah, that's pretty simple. I put them in a bowl, in a big bowl, and I use maple syrup that we get from the gas station downtown. And I use that unless it's... I have four different flavors that I do.
19:29and one of them has honey, but the other ones, all the other ones have maple syrup. And then I'll put any nuts, usually pecans and cinnamon. And a lot of them have, I use pepitas and sunflowers, sunflower seeds. And I'll mix it all up and put it in the oven for 15 minutes, stir it 15 more minutes.
19:59and then I pull it out and I let it cool. And then I'll add craisins or raisins. And then when it's all cooled, then I just bag it up. So yeah, it's still pretty simple. Yeah, it really is. And if you don't like granola, no one's gonna make it themselves. It's not even worth making it. But.
20:27I feel like people don't realize how simple it is to make it. And that's probably to our advantage. Um, the other thing I will say about granola, I tried to make granola bars years ago for the kids. And I didn't know that you were supposed to not put the dried fruit or chocolate chips or whatever in it before you baked it. Oh yeah, I did that a couple times. God, the chocolate, like it didn't burn burn, but, but it burned. And so the entire batch tasted like.
20:56charred chocolate. It all went in the trash. I was so sad. There was no saving it. So if you're ever going to make granola, anyone listening, do not put anything with sugar, like dried fruit or chocolate or Nutella or anything like that in the granola bowl or you put it in the oven because it will burn and you will ruin it. Oh yeah. And also if you do put any dried fruit or anything, if it doesn't burn, you
21:26It'll just get really, really hard, and you'll probably break a tooth. Yeah, it does. It gets really hard and it's gross. It's just not good. Add that stuff in after it's cooled off and then it's great. So there's a lesson on making granola for the day. Um, I do have another question for you. It has nothing to do with granola or the farmer's market or anything else. How did you and your husband get into the homesteading stuff?
21:56How did we get into the homesteading? The home, the homesteading. Yeah. Um, we have been wanting to do it, um, for a long time and, um, we've moved from a lot of different places that were, you know, small and we went from a trailer to a house, um, in Arlington, which is really small.
22:25And I mean, it had a bigger yard. We had a big garden there, but it wasn't, you know, big enough to really do much with. And then we found our house here and we have a nice big yard where we can grow stuff. And we finally decided that we should actually do something and actually make an actual homestead with it. We've been wanting to get an actual farm
22:55get some goats and, you know, just kind of expand a little more. But right now we're, we're pretty good with what we have. And, um, we've been, that's, that's what we've been wanting to do. Just kind of expand a little bit more with what we have and we use what we have. We're making an orchard in the yard with a whole bunch of different fruits and we've got berry bushes and all kinds of stuff. So.
23:25It's just Chris grew up on a farm, on a dairy farm. So he's always loved farming and I grew up in the city. And I've always liked being outside and working in a garden with my grandpa and stuff like that. So I didn't like being in the city and we just, we like being out in the country. So that's kind of what we do.
23:55Us too. We're right there with you. Um, speaking of fruit trees, we just, I just made our first apple crisp with our apples last night. First, we've been able to actually have from our trees that we put in, in the fall of 2020 and it was delicious and it was more delicious because it was our apples. They were honey gold variety apples.
24:25No, we got, we have, we started with one apple tree that was here when we moved here and we don't know what kind of apple tree it is, but the apples are huge. And if the deer don't get them first, we get some. And last year I finally got some in the freezer and that's what I made my apple pie sourdough with last week. And it is amazing. I use my apple pie filling.
24:53that I got from my grandma and I put that in my sourdough and it is really good. Those apples are wonderful. You gonna have any this weekend coming up? Probably. Okay, I'll put in my request with Kyle Lainley of Saturday Morning. Yeah, I've been trying to do a new fruit sourdough every weekend. So it's been challenging because I'm trying to.
25:23do fruit that are in season. So apples are definitely one of them. I am so happy it's September. I, anyone who knows me knows that basically the very last week of August, I start to get high because I know fall is a week away. Yep. I love fall. I love apples. I love, I love winter squash. I love all the
25:50the things that come rolling in starting in September. So I am, I'm feeling the best I have felt since, oh, probably this time last year, because winter was weird, as you know, and spring all it did was rain, and our garden, as you know from Kyle's stories, has been a disaster. I mean, he has made it go as much as he can, but it's just been an impossible year for having a really good garden.
26:18And it's so sad because the first three gardens we put in here did great. And this year, no. So I'm much more bright and shiny and happy today than I have been since this time last year. Well, that's really good. I am right there with you. I mean, this time last year, I was not in a good place. I was getting over the surgery that I had and I was going in
26:48In a couple days, I was going back in to get one of the wires fixed that they had put in and it was a mess. This whole last year was terrible for me. But now that everything is taken care of and they took out what they put in in June, so I'm just, I'm back to myself. I feel good. And now that it's turning fall, which is my favorite, all that stuff that you like, I am right there with you. I love all of it.
27:18Uh-huh. It's just, it's wonderful. I love it. The only, I think the only part that I, I like it a lot, but it gets really overwhelming is that I have two boys that have birthdays in September and it gets a little bit much. Uh-huh. I, I understand. Um, my, my routine back when I had the kids all at home when they were younger was that we had a birthday in August.
27:47and then we had Labor Day, and then we had the kids going back to school, and then we had Halloween, and then we had my birthday and my daughter's birthday, and then Thanksgiving, and then Christmas and New Year's. So basically from August 21st through New Year's Day, there was planning for all kinds of things that entire stretch, so I get it, it's crazy. Yeah, we go from my birthday,
28:17in April, two weeks later, it's Chris's birthday. And then two weeks after that, it's our oldest daughter's birthday. Two weeks after that, it's our 15 year old's birthday. And then we go a month into July, it's another birthday. And we get another month in, and then it's September with two birthdays. So it's like, holy cow, there's our summer.
28:44There's always something to celebrate in your home though. Yes. And we get a good rest, I guess, break, after September in fall and beginning of winter and after Christmas. And then all of a sudden, February comes and it's like, oh, two more birthdays. But it's crazy. I love it. I really do.
29:13It's wonderful. It is. You must make a lot of cakes in your household for birthdays. Actually, I don't make any of the cakes in my house. Oh, does Chris? My daughter makes most of them. Oh, okay. Chris makes some of them, he used to, but now our oldest daughter likes to make them. So she usually makes the cakes. And I am very happy about that
29:43of a baker as I am, I do not like baking cakes at all. Unless it's a cheesecake. Yeah, I love cheesecake. I keep saying I should make one and I don't do it because I get busy and I forget. I don't mind making cakes. What I mind is having to do a two-tier cake and decorate it. If it's just a cake in a cake pan, I am all over that because I love cake batter more than I love the finished cake.
30:14No joke, I will make a cake just to lick the bowl. Yeah I kind of agree with you on that one too. I like that too. I really have to stay away from all that though. Oh my word I do. Well that's why I only make a cake about once a year. And I only make outrageous brownies once a year because I don't know if you heard that story yet from Kyle but I make these brownies and they are...
30:43My god, I think the pan probably weighs six pounds when it's cooked. And it's butter and chocolate and all the good things. And the batter on this stuff is so rich and so beautiful. It looks like silk when you're stirring it. Like it's so pretty. I want to take a bath in it. And it's so smooth. It's so smooth that all you want to do is eat it like pudding. And you can't do that. Cannot do that. You will be sick.
31:13But when I make them, I get like one brownie. That's all I can handle. They're so rich. So I only bake those things once in a great while because otherwise I would be 500 pounds and I cannot do that to myself. Yeah, I'm in the same boat. So I have to stay away from a lot of that stuff just because of the extra weight that I ended up gaining this past year.
31:42because I was on antibiotics all year and I ended up gaining so much weight with it. It was terrible. So I had to stay away from all of that. Oh, I'm so sorry. It's no fun. Yeah, it's terrible, but I manage and it's going good because I'm finally able to get up and move. So it's good. I have to stay away from the cookies that I made for the...
32:12fair. There is so many cookies in our freezer and the triple chocolate ones are just, it's really hard to stay out of them. But yeah, it's, it's a temptation that you don't need, but you needed to make them for the fair. I understand. Yeah. I'm, I'm just glad that they're out in the freezer in the garage instead of in the house. So, but yeah, I don't know.
32:41That's about all I can say. Yeah, no, I understand. I really do. I have finally gotten to the point where I have a handle on my weight, totally, for the first time since I was probably 20 years old. I used to be a string bean until I got pregnant with my daughter when I was 19. She was born like 10 days after I turned 20. And I put on some weight.
33:10with that pregnancy. And it's been kind of a yo-yo thing for years. And in the last three years, I have maintained a reasonable weight for my height and I feel really good. So it can be done. But yeah, it's a habit thing a lot for me. Like, if I get in the habit of choosing certain behaviors, then I just continue to choose those behaviors. So for me, that's what works.
33:40but it doesn't necessarily work for everybody. So anyway, we're at like 33 minutes and I try to keep this to half an hour, but I do wanna say that you have been real honest with me about your epilepsy issues and journey. And you have managed to build a beautiful life and a business with your husband, with all the things that you have been going through with the epilepsy. Number one, really proud of you. Number two,
34:09you are living proof that you can do this, even if you have an issue. Yeah. I, I, I try. I mean, I've been trying really hard and I try to make it so people like me can do it. So, I mean, it's, it's somebody has to be there, you know, to show other people that they can do it. So, Yeah.
34:38Exactly. So I'm really glad that you're doing it and I'm really glad you wanted to come on the podcast to talk to me because this has been really fun. Yeah. Thank you so much for your time, Holly. I appreciate it. Yeah, it was fun. I was looking forward to it a lot. Good. Then then objective met for the day on that particular topic. Yes, ma'am. All right, you have a good one, Holly. Thank you. You too, Mary. Bye.
 

Minnesota Half-Assed Homesteaders

Today I'm talking with El at Minnesota Half-Assed Homesteaders.
A Tiny Homestead Podcast thanks Chelsea Green Publishing for their support.
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00:00This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead. The podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. Today I'm talking with El, Minnesota half-assed homesteaders. Good morning, El, how are you? Good morning, I'm wonderful, how are you? I'm great, it is a glorious day in Minnesota this morning. It's beautiful, I always love it when I can go out and do chores in the morning with a sweatshirt on and you have that perfect, like, cool weather. It just...
00:29It starts the day off perfect. Yeah, it's almost feeling like back to school day, used to feel when I would go back to school every year in Maine. So yeah, it's cool outside, but it's so sunny and everything's bright and shiny. It's lovely here. You are in Pine City? Pine River. Pine River, sorry. Nope, that's not it. And that's north of the cities, right? Yeah, we're in the Brainerd Lakes area.
00:55Oh, so you're up there. You're in the really pretty area of Minnesota. Yes. It's beautiful up here. Awesome. Okay. So two things, El and I were talking before I started recording. El's real name is Elspeth. And I was saying that that's one of the most beautiful names I've ever heard. And I thought she might be named after a family member, but no, she's named after a person in a book. So do you want to tell me about that? Yeah, absolutely. I don't ever remember the name of the book.
01:25But when my mom was pregnant with me, she was reading a book that had a good witch who was a steward of the earth and she would go around planting flowers and bringing life back to dead areas on earth. And her name was Elspeth. And my mom fell in love with the name.
01:52They were going to name me Rowena after my great grandma. Um, but once mom found that name, she really liked it. And my dad liked it because I'm the youngest of four kids and the last girl. Um, and he thought it sounded like a princess name. So he was okay with that. And then gave me the middle name of Prairie.
02:19Um, because he wanted to name me Prairie Rose. So they both kind of got to pick and ended up with Elspeth Prairie. I, like I said before, I think it's absolutely beautiful and how appropriate considering what you're doing with your life that you are named after, uh, a princess or whatever that, that basically stewards the earth. I, it's come to full.
02:46come to full fruition for me. And it's one of those things that now, especially since my mom has passed on, and I'm kind of keeping her legacy alive too in homesteading and foraging, natural medicine, things like that, that I realized that maybe she was, she was getting to something and kind of determining my fate before I even knew it. So.
03:13I feel like this podcast episode is going to be magical. That's how it feels from the start. Okay. So, and another thing, I love Minnesota half-assed homesteaders for a name. That is fantastic. We, you know, a lot of people who end up joining say, I joined because of the name. My husband and I started it about two years ago.
03:38kind of just as a way for us to document what we're doing on our homestead. Our successes, our failures, our challenges. And it kind of grew into this community. It was originally strictly for people who were in Minnesota. But then we found, you know, we had people who had growing or similar growing seasons that we have.
04:08and had similar interests and we wanted to have that diversity to be able to compare and contrast. So we started getting people from all over the United States and now we have
04:215,000 people, 5,400 I think in two years. So it's kind of grown into this fun little community of people who are like-minded. And our whole purpose for the name of the group is that we're not fancy. We don't necessarily, especially when we started, we didn't have a lot of money to put into.
04:49our homestead, but we knew that we wanted to make our own food, provide for ourselves and be as self-sufficient as we could. And I was joking one day saying, well, I guess we're just doing it the half-assed way. And that is how Minnesota Half-Assed Homesteaders came about because we do what we can with where we are and what we have.
05:19using plastic grow bags on the deck because we have horrible soil and we didn't know what our you know sun exposure was we didn't know where our best places to grow were and most of our yard was too shady for gardening anyway so over the last couple of years we've cut down trees and kind of expanded and built our way up.
05:47to having raised beds and chickens and ducks, and we're just gonna keep seeing where things go. But that's kind of how we started, was just working with what we have and just wanting to kind of build this dream for our future of being able to be self-sufficient in as many ways as we can be with the limited land and resources that we have.
06:17Yep, absolutely. I'm always saying do what you can with what you have where you are. Yep. And it's better to be half-assed than no-assed. So you're doing a good job. You know, exactly. And the other thing I like about it is that it implies that there's, you know, some amount of work that goes into homesteading. Some people think that homesteading is just, oh, I have this little vegetable garden and I just kind of putz. And
06:47Homesteading is hard work and it is a labor of love. It's a lot of dedication. It's a lot of heartbreak, but there's also a lot of joy that comes with it. And we wanted that to kind of be one of our messages too, of it's not for the faint of heart, but anybody can do it. And I get a lot of people that I talk to who say,
07:14Oh, I would love to have a homestead, but I don't have any land. I live in town and I want a garden. And, you know, I always point out, like we started with buckets on our deck. Um, and you don't even need buckets. You can use, you know, empty coffee containers and, you know, like empty food containers to get started. It's not something where you really have to put a big investment in right away.
07:44And once you figure out what works for you, then you can expand. Um, but that's kind of always been where, you know, I guess kind of the soul of our group and of our homestead has been with.
08:03being half-assed, but also, you know, it's a lot of hard work and there's a lot of failure. But at the end of the day, it is very fulfilling looking at our...
08:18cabinets looking at our pantry and knowing that we grew that, that we preserved that. Absolutely and my definition of failure is not doing anything. My take on my mistakes, which people would call failures, is that they're learning experiences.
08:42Exactly. And, you know, there's stuff that we've done that just has not worked out. But very rarely have we ever went, well, I guess we're done with that. We're never going to do it again. It's okay. Here's how we can do this better next time.
09:01Yeah, and the other thing is that sometimes things that you try, you can't make go because you don't have the conditions to make it go. Correct. So you can't count that as a failure because it's nothing that's beyond your control. Right. So, you said you started out small. Where are you now? How are you doing now? Now we have... Oh...
09:28Can I talk? You can talk. Hubby's here. My husband, Eric. Welcome, Eric. The other part of Half-Assed Homestead. Hi. He knows better on where we're at because he does all the building. I just help with procurement. Okay, sure. Chime on in, Eric. All right. Right now we're growing in about 70, 5-gallon buckets still. We have 22 raised beds that are around a 5-foot diameter.
09:57and 70 foot hugelkultur mound that's doing very mediocre. Okay. I also have just a shelter logic, 20 foot greenhouse with a few various greens and some starts in it. Awesome. Can you, can you do me a favor and explain what a hugelkultur mound is, how you, how you did that? Because I keep hearing about it. I keep reading about it, but I don't know how to explain it.
10:26Simply, it's just a compost hill you grow on. It's a fancy compost hill in simplest terms. Ours, I didn't do full horticulture because I didn't have the time to do it. I laid out just fresh cut and some forest fall trees we had in the yard in a long line. Put a little bit of dirt on it, let it sit for about two weeks to compress some, and then just pile dirt and straw on it. Okay.
10:54It so it ain't fully composting it has some hot spots where he just kills everything because some of the stuff is composting a little too well. I figured in five years, it'll be a good mound to grow crap on. And the whole kind of concept of a Hugo culture is that you basically create a self feeding self sustaining environment for whatever you're planting in there. So the
11:22tree fall and whatever you're putting underneath the soil ends up composting, which feeds your plants. And then because you have all of the extra wood and it's in essentially a stack or a mound, as it rains, that wood absorbs the water. So theoretically, you should never have to touch your hugelkultur. You shouldn't have to water it. You shouldn't have to fertilize it.
11:53this microclimate for whatever's growing on there. So right now we use that for our potatoes and then our squashes. So we did squash all along the top so that as they grow, they'll go down the mound so that they're easier to harvest. And then I also have my blueberry and my raspberries in the end of the mound. And then we just have wildflowers all over.
12:21I bet that's gorgeous right now, because this is the end of the season for wildflowers. It's mostly our zinnias and some of our nasturtiums. It was really pretty when all of our potatoes were blooming, because then we had the purple flowers all over the mound. We do still have quite a few squash blooms, but next year we're going to start over and really put down a lot of tack mulch.
12:49because the hardest part about maintaining it because it's kind of this, you know, natural microclimate is there is a lot of weeds. Yeah. So we're gonna do tack mulch at the beginning of the year so that we can kind of use that for some weed control to make it a little easier on ourselves so we're not spending an entire day weeding. Yes, because weeding is terrible.
13:17I hate weeding. I hate it. I don't want to do it and I don't do it because I'm not the gardener my husband is but I remember weeding with my mom in her garden and I despised every second of it. When I'm growing up with my mom in her garden, I also I hate weeding. I don't like it. I never have.
13:40And I, but I always wanted all of the goodies that came out of the garden. I wanted the fresh tomatoes and the fresh peas. And so my mom would be like, you didn't pay the weed tax, so you don't get any. You don't work, if you don't work, you don't eat. Yeah. If you don't work, you don't eat. And so I would go out to the garden and I would be more than happy to help pick stuff. But when it came to the weeding, I was like, I don't want to do it. And so my mom would.
14:04finally get to the point where, you know, she'd come in with these gorgeous peas and I'd want to eat them and she's like, you didn't come out to help weeds so you don't get any. Oh, that's, that's mean. I mean, I know it's tough love, but it's mean. Tough love and it teaches you that, you know, you need to work for what you want. And if you want it bad enough, you'll do the things you don't like. Yes. Yes, you will, because that's how it works.
14:31So how did you guys do with rainfall this summer of never ending rain in southern Minnesota? Because I don't know what it's been like for you. You know, we were pretty... Obviously, it was a pretty mild winter, so we didn't have the snowfall to start out the season with adequate moisture. But we did have a lot of rainfall. And...
14:58For us, in some cases, that's been nice because one of our biggest challenges with expanding the homestead and the gardening has been water sources. So last year we ended up putting in a well at the other end of the yard that's run off of our solar generator so that we can water everything at that end of the yard because that's our direct sun. It's, you know, it gets Northeast sun.
15:28Um, and that was our biggest obstacle. Uh, we, we didn't have a lot of success the year before last down there because we just, we were running hoses and our well that we have here wasn't enough to support it. So we're thankful this year that we have it, but we've had to use it very rarely because of
15:57the rainfall. Now, the other way that we designed our beds is it's a raised bed, but then in the middle of the bed is a five gallon bucket that has holes drilled into it in the bottom. And the purpose for us doing that is that when it rains, we can take the cover off and let it catch rain. So it'll help to water, kind of disperse the water throughout from
16:28the middle of the bed. But then we also, when we are weeding, or if we have, you know, a tomato that's gone bad, we put our compost into the middle of the bucket so that it can put the nutrients back into the soil so that we don't have to do as much soil amendments. That's brilliant. We also have started a couple of colonies of worms that we've kept going of red wigglers.
16:57And so each spring, we'll get a pretty healthy batch of worms going over the winter. And then we can just put a handful of compost and worms in the bucket in the spring. And then they help to aerate and spread the nutrients out, eat the compost. So that has helped having that set up so that it's not as
17:26you know, these solid beds that have to be watered. Um, that really has been beneficial for us too, even with the rain and having that, I think also helps with some of the drainage because we haven't really had overwatered stuff. We haven't had anything that's really drowned because of too much water. And I think that that's because of how we designed our raised beds. That whole.
17:56story of what you've done with that bucket and how you're using it sounds really simple, but it's also ingenious. It's really smart. It's, it is in the spirit of half-assed homesteaders. We try a bunch of different things and see if they work. And if they work, we ramp them up. So one of the other things that we did this year is we were gifted from somebody in our group.
18:24a water catchment system that had four large barrels. We decided it doesn't really work with our setup and we're going to do a water catchment system in the future. But we ended up taking one of those barrels and while I was at work one day, Hubby went and drilled holes and
18:53from the top to the bottom, I think we have six rows. The top was cut off and then we used a heat gun and actually a wine bottle to heat up the slits and then push the wine bottle in to kind of make it a cup. Yeah. To turn it into a planter for herbs and it's kind of my like salad planter. So I have chives and tomatoes in the top.
19:20Um, and then all of our herbs and lettuces around the side, but we did the same concept that we did with the five gallon buckets in that with using a four inch PVC pipe. So there's actually a four inch PVC that runs from the bottom all the way up to the top that has a cap on it so that when I need to water, just because, you know, it's a little closer together, it's a little bit harder to water all the way to the bottom.
19:50I just stick the hose in the middle and I let it fill up until it starts spouting water out the top. And I think I've probably only had to water that thing three times this summer. But then we can do the same thing with the compost too. So we just, you know, put a leaf matter or any weeds, anything like that down into the hole and between the water and the...
20:18the compost and the worms, it's been really, really healthy with all the plants. So we're hoping to do another one or two of those for next year. But we looked at it and it was just stuff that we had laying around. Most people have a chunk of PVC pipe and an old tub or something around to do it, but it really helps, we've noticed.
20:47you know, retaining moisture, being able to water easier, but also with our soil health. The ones where we kind of had bad soil to start with because we were using what we had. After two seasons of using the bucket with the compost and the worms, the soil is beautiful, and it is healthy. It's balanced, and we haven't really had a whole lot of issues with
21:17either because we do a lot of companion planting. So I think that all of that, we've kind of hit a sweet spot, so to speak, knock on wood. I hate to say that because I feel like we're deeming ourselves for disaster next year. But it's been a good year. And despite the lack of water in the spring, and then the constant rain all summer.
21:45I think our setup is kind of the perfect system for that. I am so glad that you have had a good growing season. We have not had a good growing season here in Lesor, Minnesota. No, Minnesota is rough. Yeah, I've talked about it a lot on the podcast already, so I don't want to get too far into it. But the one thing that it did teach us that we didn't know is that you don't have to
22:15to stake your tomato plants. We couldn't go stake our baby tomato plants this spring because it was a soupy mess in the garden. Could not get out there without sinking up to our ankles. And the tomato plants didn't die, they just stalled out. And we're pulling in tomatoes off those plants and they are literally laying on top of straw because we had to put straw in so that the fruits that were on the ground wouldn't rot. So you know.
22:44Our tomatoes are that are in our raised beds, the ones that are in the buckets we stayed up. Um, but our raised bed ones, we did not stake and they are, you know, taking over, they're laying on top of other stuff. They're hanging off the side. They're, you know, growing, laying on the ground and they are coming in like mad. Um, we had no idea that you didn't actually have to stake them.
23:14You don't. Generally when people recommend staking your tomatoes, it is so that you can get the appropriate airflow so that your, your vegetables, your tomatoes don't end up rotting, but you know, if you think about commercial tomato fields, they don't stake theirs, they don't trellis theirs, they don't do anything. They literally just.
23:42put them in the ground and they grow like bushes. Yeah, yep. So it hasn't been a total loss that we thought it was going to be this year. That's good. We have some, we have 50 young tomato plants that my husband Jess put in the actual garden, like a month ago. Oh wow. Cause we had them growing in the greenhouse. We put up a greenhouse in May.
24:08a hard side of greenhouse and my husband was smart and planted 50 more tomato plants from seed back in mid-June because he knew that we were going to have issues with the plants that were in the garden already. And those tomato plants look gorgeous. I looked out the other day and I was like, oh my God, look at that beautiful row of tomato plants. You know, and it's funny that you mentioned that because our tomatoes that we actually put in the bucket.
24:38did not, granted the sunlight that they get is a little bit different than the ones that are down in our actual raised beds. But the ones that we put in the buckets did not do well. Our plants didn't do very well, but they were the...
24:59the little, kind of the more, so we learned a big lesson this year that the soil that you use for your seedlings is vital to the health and abundance of your plant. Oh, yes. We had a bunch that we had used some compost mix that we had gotten from the store and it wasn't composted enough. So we ended up...
25:28burning all of our seedlings because they got too hot. So we started just doing our own mix of taking a big giant tub and doing a third potting soil, a third compost and a third perlite. Yep. And those ones, when we did our second start, our second set, because we saw that our first ones weren't doing very well.
25:54those ones did amazing and they're continuing. Those are the ones that are producing. I mean, the plants are so full. I don't know how I'm gonna get all the tomatoes out of them. But the ones that were in the first set that were in the less nutritious soil just did not do well. And so I'm glad that we went and we did do the second round of starting with new soil
26:25everything that we started with that first set just didn't do very well when we, you know, planted it with a hope and a prayer. But even the same tomatoes, the same kind from the same pack of seeds, the ones that were in the soil that got too hot were having a lot of issues with blossom end rot and with cracking.
26:49But the exact same ones that were started in the better soil, we haven't had any of those issues with. So it really is kind of amazing how you can just make one change, you know, with seed starting in a couple of different batches and really see the difference that that change makes either positive or negative. Absolutely. I can't agree more. And
27:18I end up talking about tomatoes a lot on this podcast because I happen to love tomatoes. I love spaghetti sauce. I love bruschetta. I love just a cucumber and a tomato cut up with some dressing on it. I love tomatoes. So if it seems like I talk about tomatoes on this podcast a lot, I do because I love tomatoes. Not everybody loves tomatoes. So I'm sure that I've had people like...
27:46leave because they're like, I can't listen to tomatoes anymore. Funny because I adore fresh tomatoes. I always have. Eric does not like them. So a lot of people who know that they're like, why do you guys grow so many tomatoes when he doesn't like tomatoes? So we grew one cherry tomato plant this year for me for like fresh tomatoes to have in salads or just to eat, however. Yeah. But we use a lot of tomato products as well.
28:15Um, and we love making last year. We did catch up. We did pizza sauce. We did pasta sauce. Um, we did our own barbecue sauce last year and you know, it's the stuff that we use on a daily basis and a lot of it is condiments, but you know, we're Minnesotans and it gets cold here in the winter and sometimes you just want to have, you know, spaghetti once a week. Um.
28:41So yeah, we talk about our tomatoes a lot as well, just because that's, I think, what we grow the most of, but it's because it's what we use the most of. Yeah, exactly. That's us too. And I would talk about cucumbers a lot, but cucumbers are not easily preserved. You basically preserve cucumbers by making pickles. That's pretty much it, because you can't freeze them, because they go to mush. And you can't just can a pickle. I mean, a tomato. I can't even talk. A cucumber.
29:11because it doesn't taste like anything if you just can a cucumber, you have to make them into something. So I love cucumbers, but I don't talk about them a lot because I don't use them in a lot. I eat them in season and that's pretty much it. So I was going to say about tomatoes, the other reason tomatoes are important is because they are a huge source of antioxidants and that's really important for your body. So that's the other reason that I eat a lot of them.
29:40I talk about tomatoes more than I talk about Maggie my dog. So I guess that's okay. Just change her name to tomato and then people- No, no. I can't do it. She's been Maggie since before we picked her up. So I can't change her name now. Yeah, we're known around town as the dog people and the garden people because that's-
30:06That's pretty much what we talk about. That's pretty much our lives is our dogs and our gardens. What kind of dogs do you have? We have three. So we have Bert. He is a King Corso Mastiff. So he's our big boy. Oh, yeah. Loves just this morning we were out in the garden. He loves fresh vegetables. And so his favorite thing is garden snacks. And even this morning, he was.
30:33sticking his head in the bean plant, pulling beans off of our bean bush. Oh, he even picks them himself. Oh, he will help himself to those and cucumbers. And he's not a huge fan of tomatoes, but his beans, cucumbers, he will help himself. He thinks that it's the greatest thing that mom and dad built him and all you can eat buffet. Okay. And then the other two dogs? The other two we have Sally. She's our golden doodle. She's our little...
31:00our little rescue we found actually Burt found her running down the middle of the road by us. Oh my. And went to save her. And then we have their not planned baby that we call our canoodle because she's a cane corso and a doodle cross. And Abby's so she's kind of the the best and the worst of both of us. Your canoodle I love that. That is so cute. Okay. All right.
31:29Well, if it makes you feel any better, Maggie loves winter squash. She loves slices of zucchini. She loves slices of cucumber. She loves watermelon, more than anything in the world. Our dogs are melon fans. I kind of thought that they would be. My other dog, Emmett, that I used to have, he loved melon, but Bert never really liked it and I think it's a texture thing. Yeah.
31:59We can't eat watermelon without Maggie sitting at our feet, being very, very well behaved and just staring at us like, can I please have a piece? And she doesn't, she's not a begging dog. Like we trained her not to beg. So her version of begging is just sitting politely beside you and waiting for a piece to be offered to her. Bert doesn't beg, but in the true nature of a mastiff, he will just sit there and drool. Yeah.
32:28two laces down the side of his face until you give him some. So that's his way of begging for food. Yeah. Maggie's way is being very pretty. She's a mini Australian shepherd and she's the classic black tri. So she has the gold beauty marks above her eyes. And she's beautiful. And she knows the face to put on to be like, I'm just waiting patiently. I'm being good until you give me some. Right.
32:57So she doesn't beg, she doesn't whine, she doesn't try to get your food, but she definitely makes herself available. They'll get someone when you're done. Yeah, and she just loves watermelon. If we cut a watermelon open on the counter, she hears the snap when it comes apart, and she comes running from wherever she is in the house and sits down and she's like, I'm ready and I'm pretty. Cool, good, we'll get to you when we get to you.
33:27So yeah, I try not to talk about Maggie too much anymore because I really talked about her the first six months of the podcast. So I'm like, it's gotta be relevant. So- Well, we talk about the things we love and the things that are important. And honestly, our dogs are a central part of our homestead. So it's kind of, we don't have kids, we've never had kids, don't ever wanna have kids.
33:56So it's, you know, our dogs are our babies, and then we have our chickens and our ducks, and they take up our time, so. Oh yeah, yep. We have four adult kids, and the youngest one still lives with us. He's 22. He'll be 23 in December, oh my God. And I don't talk about the kids much, mostly because they all, one lives in Florida, one lives in Nebraska,
34:26Minnesota not with us and then the youngest lives with us and the youngest doesn't want me to talk about him on the podcast. He's like, it's your podcast, don't talk about me. I'm like, okay, that's fine. So I don't really have little kids to talk about. I don't have medium kids to talk about and the grown kids don't want me to talk about them. Well, and that's why you have Maggie. I do. She's the kid that doesn't tell me not to talk about her.
34:55Usually she barks in the background. She's been real good this morning. I haven't heard her yip yet. So anyway, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me, Elle. It's been a pleasure. I apologize that it's taken us so long to connect. This ended up working out. I took a couple of days off from work to do the fall stuff. We're working on stew and soup this weekend. Hubby planted leeks.
35:25Yum. And they're doing amazing. So we are doing our beef stew that we put up. We are gonna try freeze drying that this year too. And then it's soup weekend. So we have chicken wild rice soup that we're gonna be making and potato leeks. So. I am so looking forward to fall soup season. I just mentioned this to my husband yesterday.
35:55I was like first cold weekend, I am making French onion soup. I am making chicken, wal-braise soup. I am making bacon potato soup. And if Cameron doesn't want it, he's our son, you and I are gonna eat it and I'm gonna freeze the rest of it. Because we didn't really do a lot of soups last winter. I don't know why, but we didn't. And I have just been craving soups. So as soon as it gets cold, it's gonna be like three weekends of soups going on. I am.
36:23eternally and will always be a soup girl. I used to say that I could live off of soup. Oh, me too. Eric is not a soup fan. He's not a chili fan. He likes everything that goes into them separately. Yeah. But he likes stew. He'll do that. But I am the soup person. So I know how you feel there. I did. Actually, we just pulled him out of the freeze dryer the other day.
36:51because last winter I made ham and bean soup and I made chicken enchilada soup for me for lunches for work. And I just, I made too many, you know, starts getting hot and you don't wanna eat soup. So we freeze dried them so that we can take them out on the ice this winter when we go ice fishing. So that'll be a new adventure for us too with our first actual like freeze dried meals. So we're really looking forward to doing that this winter.
37:20That's so fun. You're gonna have to message me and let me know how it was. I'm really, really hoping we have some winter squash growing out in the garden. I haven't dared to ask because I'm afraid that they didn't make it. But I love making squash soup too. So that's gonna be on list for like January, if we have any, I will roast it and freeze it. I'm looking forward to that too. And just fresh squash. Luckily, ours is doing okay.
37:48Emerald pumpkins are taking over everything. So we're going to definitely have a lot of pumpkin, but I'll have to figure out what to do with all that. Yep. And we're going to have to, the husband and I are going to have to get up to the apple place in Jordan and get some apples so that we can do some apple crust here in the next couple of weeks. Cause that is like the, the thing for September. Cause I make a killer apple crust. Where you're talking about and their apples are divine. Mm hmm.
38:17Yep. Um, I'm not talking about the, the apple barn though. I'm not talking about Minnesota's biggest candy store place. I'm talking about the one further up 169. And I'm not talking about Sponsles either. Uh, maybe that's one that I'm thinking of. But they do. Sponsles has great apples as well. They actually sold an apple called Minnesota 1666 about eight years ago. And they ended up renaming it, whoever developed it.
38:45renamed it the Renaissance Apple, which I thought was so funny. And it's an early apple. It's really hard to find because they aren't, there's not a lot of supply yet because it's a brand new variety. It is so good. It's great to eat. It's great to bake with. It's great to dry for like, you know, fruit leather or apple wedges that are just dried that just eat. Yeah. It's fantastic. Crack some of those down. Yeah. I love them.
39:14We won't get any this year. They're probably sold out by now because they're they're really early apple Okay, but anyway, we've been talking for almost 40 minutes. I try to keep these to half an hour So i'm gonna i'm gonna cut you loose. I'm sure you got stuff to do Yep, we gotta run to town and do some errands. So All right. Well again, it was an absolute pleasure talking with you l I appreciate it. Thank you so much You too. Thank you. And if you ever want to do this again
39:43would be more than happy. All right we'll have to set it up for spring so I can find out how your winter went. Yeah that's a great idea. All right cool thank you. You're welcome. Bye. Bye.