A Tiny Homestead

Wild Roots Nature School

Today I'm talking with Miss Jenny at Wild Roots Nature School.
 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters.  I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  Today I'm talking with Miss Jenny at Wild Roots Nature School in Indiana. Good afternoon, Miss Jenny. How are you? I'm wonderful. Hi, Mary. It's such a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to have you.  The reason I'm calling Miss Jenny Miss Jenny is because I'm sure that's what her little
00:28humans call her at school.  Or Miss Jimmy.  Those that can't quite pronounce Miss Jenny, they'll say Miss Jimmy.  I love it.  love what you're doing because I love  little kids. Teenagers are a whole different ball game, but little kids are adorable. Yes, they are. My little sprouts make every day so much brighter.  But I have a teenager too, so  I'm balancing  both of them.
00:58in life right now. So yeah, and they both have their stellar moments, but  teenagers are hard.  It's really hard to know  what kind of mood they're going to be in,  what kind of reception you're going to get to something you say. It's just a whole different thing. It sure is.  So anyway, what's the weather like in Indiana today? It's absolutely gorgeous. So it's a little bit of a breeze, the sun shining.
01:26The birds are chirping.  It's great. It's not so humid and hot as it has been over the last couple weeks. So I think things are cooling down a bit.  Yeah, the Midwest has gotten its butt kicked in the last couple of weeks with temperatures and humidity.  I'm in Minnesota and  it's still muggy here, but it's not hot today. So that's helping. Yes, it's quite a relief. Yeah.
01:53have said before and I will say it until the day I die. hate high summer. And for me, high summer is mid-July till the end of August because Minnesota is so crazy from in that timeframe. We never know what the weather is going to be. We could have the most beautiful 65 degree day with a breeze or we could have 105 with tropical dew point or we could have a tornado. You never know.
02:21So summer is not my favorite season. Spring and fall are my favorites and I wish that we could just do six months of spring and six months of fall. That would be perfect for me.  And the mosquitoes add a whole new challenge to  being outside all day. Yeah. And the black flies. We don't  have too much trouble with that, but the mosquitoes  run us out of here sometimes.  We have black flies every spring and
02:49my husband will come in and he'll have blood dripping down the side of his neck because they bite him behind his ears. Oh no. Yeah. And they don't, they have, they must have some kind of anesthetic thing in their saliva because he never realizes he's been bitten until I'm like, um, you might want to go get a wet cloth and wipe your neck. And he's like black fly. Oh my goodness.  So yeah, it's, uh,  nature is wonderful. It really is. But there are things that you have to deal with to
03:18get that wonder. So, absolutely. right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. So I am the founder of Wild Roots Nature School, which is a nature-based home school nestled right in my own backyard, right here in Indianapolis. It's a play-based
03:43program where kids are welcome to be wild and free and barefoot and kind of have the freedom to choose how they want to play most days. So it's a emergent type curriculum where I follow the lead of the child in the interest of the children. so if we find
04:13a caterpillar that will lead to discussions on the life cycle of a butterfly or  right now you can probably hear them.  They're very curious about the cicadas  and  lots of lots of cicada shells  in every pocket  that I find.  So  yeah, it's a mixed age group of  kids ages three to six.
04:43And it's just, you know,  I grew up like the barefoot running around with my friends and my sister in the fields making  friendship soup out of weeds and pine cones. And  I think that  not many kids have that opportunity to learn and play outside every day anymore.
05:10Um, there's such a big focus on kindergarten readiness and, um, academics that they just can't play anymore. There's such a, so much pressure to be prepared  for school.  So  we slow it down a bit and focus more on just playing and learning through play and, and  they're learning  all the time.  And it's, it's just beautiful. Lots of giggles and, um,
05:40Yeah, they just have a blast. Lots of light bulb moments too. Oh yeah.  Yep. So we have chickens and kittens and  currently we found three  black swallowtail caterpillars when we were harvesting our carrots in the garden one morning.  So we've put them in an enclosure and we've been able to  observe the life cycle and
06:09Unfortunately, we were on vacation last week, but we came home to three chrysalises.  So we should have some butterflies emerging soon. So that's exciting.  We talk about the life cycle of  lots of animals and plants  quite often. So that's really cool.  I love that. Yeah.  I was outside all the time when I was a kid. My mom in the summer,
06:39Basically, she would be like, go out and play, come back at dinner. Exactly. You'd hear the whistle and you'd have to run home. Yeah. And you could do that back then. And I grew up in a little tiny town in Maine. So  we weren't too worried about us kids getting into trouble when we little. And it's funny because we had a  big old swamp behind our house. It was like,  I don't know, maybe a quarter acre of forest. And then there was a swamp.
07:08And  behind that swamp was more acres of woods and then there was a lake. And as a mom of four grown children,  I don't know that I would have been comfortable sending my five-year-old out the door where there was so much water, but we all survived it and I loved  it.  knew the difference between a red pine cone, I'm sorry, red  oak acorn and a white oak acorn because my grandpa taught me that white oak
07:38Acorns are edible and they actually taste good.  Don't eat a red oak acorn because you will pucker up for a week because of the tannins. Good to know.  Yeah, and you can make flour out of either acorn.  I don't know enough about the red one to tell you, but the white oak acorn makes excellent flour.  And I got to see deer just walking through the woods. I got to see bunnies.
08:07I got to see porcupines, because there's porcupines in the woods in Maine,  and you really don't want to get up close and personal with them, but they're really fun to watch. And it was just a wonderful way to grow up and to learn. And even as a teenager and a young adult, I spent a lot of time outside. So there's something really special about nature.  because you're doing this, do you know any of the scientific backed stuff about
08:36what nature does to kids? definitely  research is showing that being outside and grounding yourself as a child  is  definitely decreasing  obesity  and  depression.  I know when I get out in nature, I'm  always much happier  and
09:04very active. so those are two huge benefits to being outside in nature most days.  And again, the more and more research is coming out regarding all the academic pressure that children have to be prepared for kindergarten. And it's just, it's showing that it's not necessary and their, and their brains really aren't ready to hold a pencil  or to start reading.
09:34or  you have to build those fine motor skills.
09:40in your hands before you can pick up a pencil and write. So  we still, we still  learn the ABCs and one, two, threes.  It's just not heavily focused on in my program. They have so many, many, many years  to be in school and learn. And they learn a lot of that when they go into kindergarten.  um, yeah,  I think there's tons of benefits to a nature-based program.
10:10For sure. So how many hours is, are the kids at school a day with you? You know, when I might, I have a teenage son who's flying the coop here in a couple of weeks, he's, he's going to college, but when he went to preschool, it was so difficult to find a preschool that worked within
10:40the eight to five hours.  I know most of the preschool programs here in Indianapolis, they start at nine and you have to pick up at 3.30. And I'm just like, how in the world do  parents  juggle it all?  And so  I really  designed my program to  cater to the working families, the eight to fives.  So a lot of my students are here all day.
11:09arriving sometimes at 730 and stay until 5, 530. So the days are long  for me, probably not for them,  but  most of them don't want to leave when it's time. yeah,  and I think the parents are  very grateful for  the flexibility and the hours that I provide for them.  So is it just you? It's just me,  yes.
11:37It's me and  it's a micro school. So I typically only have around six children  at a time. And my husband is so supportive. He works outside of the home, but  the work is never done. And so he's always ready and  willing to help wherever he can and  puts up with all my crazy ideas. And  I tend to...
12:07tend to go all out when it comes to birthdays and holidays. it's late nights hanging up  decorations and  all the things. So he's wonderful. I could not do it without him.  OK, number one, that is fabulous. Keep him, husband.  I'm sorry, let's change that. Spouses that support each other are a  miracle.  There are so many people who don't have that blessing.
12:36And number two,  your students must feel so special and so loved if you put that much energy into this. I hope so. And I  think they do.  I have had one student with me for almost four years. So it's kind of bittersweet. Today is her last day.  She's going to public school, kindergarten tomorrow.
13:06And  so she  will be leaving. So it's going to be kind of a sad afternoon to say goodbye. But it's never goodbye forever because they always come back and visit and  on their holiday breaks and such. But yeah, there's so much love and  you can just feel it when you come here. It's just a magical. It's just magical. It's like I said, most kids don't have the opportunity to learn.
13:35and grow up like this. And  the small class size helps  with that close knit community feel and we're like a big family.
13:49That's so awesome. I love it. I love what you're doing. little girl is going to go through so much culture shock in the next week or so. Oh, I know. She's going be like, aren't we going outside? No, not yet. I know. I know. And it really is quite sad that they only get, I don't know how much actual time kindergartners are spending outside, but it's probably not much. Maybe 30 minutes a day.
14:20And even some preschools centers here in town are only allowed an hour, which is just.
14:30Yep,  I have to be really careful about what I say next because I didn't really appreciate the public school system for my kids.  And I have to be careful about what I say because I respect teachers  so much. It is such a hard job  and I think it can be really thankless some days and that's terrible.  But  I also think that
14:58The system put in place to educate our kids from first grade through senior year  is  not correct.  I feel like if a kid is good at something, they should be allowed to pursue that thing, whether it's singing or math or writing  or lawyering or doctoring or whatever.  And our public school system  is
15:27basically trying to churn out people that are sort of, kind of half-assed prepared for life. I don't feel like that really serves anyone. When I was in school, I had the same teacher for freshman and sophomore year for my English class. And she was fabulous. And she knew that I had a talent for writing.
15:54I did not choose to go to college because I was so burnt out on trying to get straight A's  in advanced placement classes. I could not stomach the idea  of rolling right from high school into college. And she caught me in the hallway one day at the end of senior year and she said,  I would be happy to make you or write you a recommendation for Thomas College,  which was a famous college in Maine, still is probably, for people who wanted to pursue writing. And I politely declined.
16:24And she said, why? And I said, because I'm not going to college. And she had tears in her eyes when I told her that.  And she said, why? And I said, because I can't do it. I said, I have been pushed and pushed and pushed and I have done my absolute best to get the best grades I possibly can.  And I am just burnt out. I can't do this another year in a row. And  she said,  I understand.  Still had tears in her eyes.
16:53And I didn't go to college and I don't regret it at all. I'm good.  I learn  so much from books and from people and from the world that I feel like I've gotten three degrees in something, but I just don't have a piece of paper to prove it. So it's, it's hard with my kids.  They were all  very bright people  and I can still remember my youngest. He's a boy.
17:22We went in for a parent teacher conference and his  teacher, he was in third or fourth grade, was like, he is not at  grade level for reading. And I said, that doesn't surprise me.  And he said, why not? And I said, because it takes a special book.  There's a unique book for every kid that hooks them into reading.  And then all of a sudden, all the synapses go,  hey, this is fun. And they start becoming avid readers.
17:52I said, I went through it in first grade. My daughter went through it in first grade. My oldest son went through it in  sixth grade. Oh, wow. I said, I think boys come to reading, loving reading a lot later than girls do. And I they all learn on a different level at a different time. It does eventually click. Yeah. And so the teacher was like, well, we should probably get him on an independent  education program thing.
18:22And I said, absolutely not. And he looked at me like I had lost my marbles.  And I said, I am the mother. This is my child. I said, you need my permission to get that started.  I said, I do not give you my permission. I said, he will probably be reading at grade level by next year. And he said, OK.
18:47He said, I'm just telling you what I'm seeing. And I said, I'm just telling you what I've experienced in raising four kids.  I I appreciate your opinion.  And if I really thought there was a problem, I would be all for this. said, but I don't think there is, and it's not going to hurt him to not  be on an IEP program. And he said, okay. And I said, okay. So the following year, my youngest picked up the book, Aragon.
19:15by Christopher Paolini, I think is his last name.  And he sat down and he opened the book and I said, you're ready? And he's like, why? And I said, this is gonna change your life. And he looked at me like I was not.  And he started reading and he devoured that book. And after he would close the book, after he read some, I would say, tell me about the story. And he would tell me the story. I'd already read it. He was comprehending it.  He was getting it. He was loving it.
19:44and he's been an avid reader ever since.  In the process of him  reading that book, he had chosen that for the thing at school where they get points for something to keep track of their reading level.  Like, book it, I think. Yeah, something like that, yeah. And he ended up getting all of his points for the rest of the year, which was like five months, you know, it was five months left to school.  All of his points for the rest of the year. And at the end of the year, he got a little  certificate.
20:12that said that he was the highest, I don't know, he was the one who had come the furthest in reading that year. And he came home just waving that thing at me. And I said, did you take this to your teacher from last year and show him? said, I sure did mom. Good for him. I said, good. And I called the next day and the teacher happened to be the one from the previous year. And I said, I absolutely am not calling to say I told you so. I said, because that's rude.
20:42I said, what was Cameron's face like when you saw that certificate in his hand? He said he was glowing.  said, sometimes mama intuition is true. He said, that's better than I told you so. I said, yes, it is. that's awesome that you advocated for him.  And  I have a similar experience  with my teenager. He went through public school and had an individual education plan. And yeah, I just.
21:10I'm with you. mean, the teachers are overworked and underpaid and the system  is broken.  And I have a five year old who's in  a student at Wild Roots  and  currently and  going through that with my first born son, I said, not again, you know, we're not doing this again. So he'll be home with me and we'll home school  and  he's excited about it.
21:40Yeah. And like I said, I wanted to be really careful about how I frame that because I  have the utmost respect for people who teach.  is an amazing skill that I don't really have. I mean,  I try, but I'm not set up  to teach a bunch of people at the same time. just not, it's not in my,  it's not in my blood. It's definitely not for everyone. Yeah. It's a hard job and it's a special skill.  again,
22:10utmost respect. I have a problem with the actual education  system. Yes, I have referred to it as state mandated daycare for a long time because that's how it feels to me. Yep.  and yeah, it's so regulated and you don't have the freedom to  follow the child's interests  and  build a curriculum based off what they like or have them choose what they want to read and
22:40Uh, yeah, it's just...
22:44It's unfortunate and hopefully they make changes in the next  couple years to make the system better. until then,  Hudson will be home with mama.  Good. You do what you need to do for your child because that's most important thing.  Also,  what was I going to say? What's the feedback from the parents in your program?
23:14Oh, they're all just  so grateful  to have me and the dedicated. They see me, they appreciate me  and  our communication throughout the day and even  through the evening and on the weekends.  It's very, we talk a lot and,  you know, we talk a lot about the day and what they've done. send lots of pictures and they just, they love that. And the reason why I
23:44started my business 18 years ago is because I didn't want to be away from my child every day. And I just can't imagine how difficult that is to have to trust somebody to raise your child all day.  And so yeah, they're forever grateful for sure.  Do the kids go home and tell mom and dad or mom and mom or dad and dad or just mom or just dad because that's how families are now. Yes. And I'm not being a smart ass. That's how families are now.  Did they go home and tell mom and dad about the
24:14the butterfly chrysalis or the frog that they caught or do you know? You know,  this age is kind of,  you'll ask them what they did today and they'll be like nothing.  But I do think that because I do share so many pictures  with the parents that they can  prompt the conversation with, oh, it looks like you did this. And then that will prompt a conversation about what they did today or  what they learned.  But yeah, they.
24:44I hope they talk about how much fun and how much they learn on a daily, but I haven't really gotten a whole lot of feedback about whether or not they do share with mom and dad or mom and mom. Yeah. Okay. I was just curious because I was one of those kids that I would come home from school or from an outing or whatever. And I would be like, did you guys know? And then tell them the thing I learned. Yeah. And no joke, like five out of 10 times.
25:14my dad, who I consider to be the smartest man I know, would look at me and say,  no, I actually had never heard that before. Tell me more.  And whether he had or hadn't heard it, I don't know, but he  would either feign interest or he would actually be interested and want to know more. And that was really great.  know, I'm  aside with, you know, I'm learning aside with them.  We learned this
25:43stuff, the life cycles and being able to identify trees and we learned that maybe in third, fourth grade, but you forget it, you know, so it's so much fun to relearn all of, I mean, there's so much to learn. There's so much knowledge identifying mushrooms and  trees and  it's just, it's really fun  to learn again. Yeah. And it's funny to hear you say learn again, because I am
26:11Like I always say I have got to know ITIS. Like I have perpetual curiosity. Yeah. And so for me, I'm always, always, always learning. Like there is no, again, it's just a continuous cycle of information in, oh, that's cool. What else is there to know? It's for you. And it's part of the reason I started the podcast because I was like, Hey, if I talk to people who are doing stuff in nature, I'm going to learn all kinds of things I don't know yet. And I'm 55. I want to learn until I die. And an empty nester, right?
26:41Almost. Okay.  Yeah, the youngest,  he doesn't like me to talk about this, but he has a mild form of epilepsy. And so  he cannot be by himself. Yeah.  And so he's still here and I'm okay with that. He's great.  He loves to cook. He earns his keep by helping out on the farm. He's great.  So it's one of those things.  Yeah.
27:09It's so helpful because I'm 55, his dad's 56. And we had a whole bunch of logs brought in to be cut and split for our wood burning boiler for heat in the wintertime. And he's been out there just busting his hump helping dad with the wood. And he gets the eggs from the chickens and he puts them in the farm stand for sale. And he does a whole bunch of chores for us, which is so helpful. Oh, I bet. Yeah, it's exhausting work, especially at 55.
27:39Yeah, and I know it's nice to have that help Yeah, and I mean if I had taken better care of myself in my younger years instead of being down on the floor with four kids playing Are you there? Oh, I'm here Okay,  if I hadn't spent like years raising kids and being down on the floor with them  on my knees playing blocks and Legos and stuff  I probably would be in better shape, but I don't regret doing all that at all. Yeah  So it's just it's great to have an able-bodied kid
28:09who's here all the time and he's a terrific cook. He makes,  makes, what is it? He debones chicken thighs and then he fries them like fried chicken and  I won't do it. I hate working with hot fat. It scares me and I watch and I make sure that I'm there, but he does such a great job and I don't even like chicken thighs, but  he makes them so good that I will eat them.
28:36That is too funny because my oldest who's 18, that's his specialty too. And he just cooked the same thing a couple nights ago for us. And I'm with you. I don't really like handling raw chicken and I'm not, I don't really like to fry things, but when he takes, takes the lead and cooks for us, it's so good. Yeah. And it's so, I don't know. I have such pride that I did it right. Yeah.
29:05Yeah, it's nice to be served every once in a while. Yeah. And the thing is, I invited all of my kids into the kitchen when I used to cook. I'm a little teary.  I  just wanted them...  The rule in my house was that they needed to know how to do their own laundry.  They had to be able to do dishes by hand and get them actually clean.  And they needed to be able to cook at least one meal and one dessert that they would be proud to serve to their friends  before they moved out. I love that.
29:35And all of them can do it. Even my daughter who decided to go vegan for a while,  she can cook a good dinner and a dessert for her friends. That's awesome. We cook, we're in the kitchen quite often and  we  try to use our produce from the gardens. We have an overabundance of  cucumbers and  tomatoes right now. So think everybody's a little tired of the cucumber.
30:03cream cheese sandwiches.  I'm  jealous because all of our cucumber plants died. Oh no, you didn't get any?  Nope, they got the blight because it's been such a weird summer here again in Minnesota. been so bizarre. Yeah, it's been rain for three days and then hot sun and then three days of rain and then hot sun and cucumbers do not do well with that. They get wet and moldy and they blight and they die.
30:31Mine are on their way out, but at least we  a pretty good harvest beforehand. Yep. So I've given my husband notice that if anyone at the farmer's market this weekend when he's there selling our tomatoes  has cucumbers,  to please trade  our tomatoes for cucumbers. Because I have not had a garden fresh cucumber yet this summer. Oh my goodness. We need to change that.  Yeah.  I love cucumbers. I was so looking forward to the first cucumber.
30:59And he came in the other day and he said, we're not getting cucumbers.  I said,  I said a bad word. And then I said, excuse me. And he said, they're dead, honey. He said, they're, they're not going to produce this year. He said, I know you're going to cry.  And I'm proud of myself. I didn't cry.  I didn't slam cabinet doors. I didn't stomp around. didn't act like a toddler.  I just said that that's okay because somebody will have them at the farmer's market. And I love a good trade.
31:29Yeah, he grandies that I'm so proud of you. He said, I knew you were going to be able to handle it. I'm like, yep, that's fine. But it's the second summer in a row with no cucumbers because last year was bad too. I'm like, last year it was bad for us too. So it's a thing and everybody tells me and I tell everybody gardening is a crap shoot. You just don't know what's going to happen. It really is. We started seeds in a greenhouse for the first time this year.
31:58And that was so much fun because you got to kind of get started a little bit earlier and  harvest happened a little bit sooner than if we would have waited. So it  was really fun to be able to watch the kids plant the seeds and then be able to watch it grow and grow.  Yeah, kind of like they are. They're just growing too fast.  Yeah.
32:25I know and it's it's a blink in the eye miss Jenny. It really is. know. I know. I But I have to let them fly. Yeah, it's so hard. I don't want to cry on my podcast today. I'm trying really hard not to. But it's so hard. And when they get married, it's like what? Oh old enough to be married? That's crazy. So and I don't.
32:52This is sound really dumb. have a grandchild, but she is a step-grandchild. Love her like she's just my own biological grandchild, but she's not related to me biologically. And she's 12. I never saw her as a baby because my stepson hadn't met her her mom yet. Yeah. So I haven't gone through any of my  biological children having  babies.  And I don't think I'm going to because the other kids don't want babies.
33:21I'm actually good with this because it hurt enough to let  my  own babies go. I can't imagine what it would be like to have to be like, oh my God, my grandchild is having babies. What?  You know? I don't even want to think about it. It's just not. Time is so weird.  coming back to  little Leonora, who's leaving today after  caring for her for four years,  when any of my preschool kids
33:50leave and we have to say goodbye. There's one of my favorite books. I usually gift them and it's called Miss Maple Seeds. And there's a line in the book that  our conversation reminded me of. And it says, take care, my little ones for the world is big and you are small, but never forget even the grandest of trees  once had to grow up from the smallest of seeds. I love that.
34:18Yeah, I just, really speaks to my heart about just really how much care you have to take with these tiny little seeds, these little kids that you're molding into little humans. And I'm just so proud of each and every one of them when they, when they walk away, it's like, I did that. I helped do that. You know, it's so, it's such a rewarding job.
34:49I love that for you and that is not the snotty, I love that for you. I absolutely love that for you. And I'm so proud of you for what you've chosen to do. It's a beautiful location. Thank you. It's definitely tiring, but very rewarding. And I couldn't imagine doing anything else with my life. And not everybody can say that. So I'm just very grateful.
35:14Yeah, you've found your calling and you are living it and you are helping other people to become  functioning adult good people. Yeah.  So keep doing that because we need more of those.  Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do.  All right. Where can people find you, Miss Jenny?  I am on Facebook. You can look up Wild Roots Nature School and you can check out the magic there.
35:41I'm kind of behind on the times when it comes to social media and such. But I'll get there one day. You're too busy raising little human beings. And every time I touch a computer, it just doesn't cooperate. I've learned what I'm good at and what I'm not good at and stay away from the computer as much as possible. I understand. I am learning. I am learning. Yeah, it took me a long time to figure out things on the computer. And then it made sense and it was OK.
36:11Computers are finicky beasts when they work great. They work great when they don't they really don't and thankfully my very supportive husband who I've already bragged about today is in  IT so  He can help me with all things computers, but For now, I'm gonna stay as far away as possible That is very convenient and very helpful. Yes. All right, as always people can find me at a tiny homestead podcast calm
36:38Ms. Jenny, I appreciate your time today. Thank you. Thank you. It was such an honor to be here. Have a great day. Thanks. You too.
 

Cookies In A Bag by Danette

Today I'm talking with Danette at Cookies in a bag by Danette. You can follow on Facebook as well.
 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.
00:11Today I'm talking with Danette,  well Danette,  at Cookies in a Bag by Danette  in Kentucky. Good morning, Danette. How are you?  I am fantastic. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. And it is Danette. It's not Donette, right?  My mother actually  born and raised Danette, because I was going to be Dan if I was a guy, but I'm not. So I was Danette. But I actually am kind of.
00:36I a bit when I was about 18. I went off to college and I changed it from Danette to Dinette. So just the same name but just slightly pronounced different. yeah, so, Dinette. Cookies in a bag by Dinette. I just hate it when I pronounce people's names wrong because I have very Oh, you're so fun. I have very easy names. I have Mary, I have Evelyn for my middle name, and I have Lynn for a nickname. And those are all really easy.
01:04That is. Okay. So what's the weather like in Kentucky this morning? Fantastic. Absolutely beautiful. It poured and rained all evening yesterday. Um, but it's fine. It was in the evening and that means I don't have to water plants today. Um, but I love the rain in the evening and at night because it just makes everything green and lush and beautiful. And we've had a great week here in Paducah, Kentucky. So no complaints from me. Good. Cause I know it's been really hot.
01:33everywhere and I'm in Minnesota. It is a lovely day outside. is sunny. It is cool. There's not even a breeze. don't think. Great. That's awesome. I'm happy. for us. gardening. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So I really wanted to talk to you because you do cookies in a bag. It is a really simple concept. It really is. But I had never thought of putting it in a bag.
02:03I had heard about the jars, but I hadn't thought about a bag. So tell me about yourself and what you do. Well, if you look at my bags, they're actually shaped like mason jars. So this really is sort of what you said. This is a very simple concept, but hopefully done well. And it has just surpassed my wildest expectations. went into business. Well, actually about 2004, I was like a big
02:33PTO president at my children's elementary school and we had this fundraiser called shop till you drop. It was brand new and you know the first year for anything is the hardest.  And so we were trying to get vendors to come into our gymnasium  and pay $50 for a table.  And  you know, like we had  the local Pampered chef lady and then we actually had businesses. We'd reach out to like a local  gardening center and have her bring her stuff in. And so, you know, I was.
03:00just using my very best persuasive skills and  it was going pretty good but we had a few empty spots and several of my friends said, oh my gosh, Jeanette, why don't you set up a table? You're a fantastic baker. And this was in between Christmas  and Thanksgiving. So like a week after Thanksgiving. So three weeks until Christmas. And they're like, why don't you sell your cookies and cakes? And I was like, well,  I appreciate the fact that you think I'm good enough to do that, number one, but nobody wants.
03:29cookies three weeks before Christmas, you know?  They want them at Christmas.  And so I was like, gosh, how can I give people what they want,  but when they want it? And I'd always seen those little glass jars, you know, like the, I want to say they used to sell them in our farmers market.  There was this Amish lady there who always sold baked goods.
03:52And so I was like, oh, that's cute. I could kind of do something like that, but I really don't want to deal with glass jars or anything. That seems like a pain and things could break. And I was like, how can I do this in a more simpler manner? And so I came up with these little cute clear plastic. Actually, my colors are all red and white with polka dot and stripe. And so I came up with these cute little plastic bags, not the ones I have now, but they were just like a cellophane bag.
04:21with a flat bottom and I filled them with my contents.  Like these are my homemade recipes. Like literally I created or came up with or my mother handed down to me every single recipe that I sell.  And so I just had four or five recipes and then I would put the chips on top. So I mixed everything in. It wasn't like the layers like the, that used to be in the glass jars. I mixed everything together and then I put.
04:47the chips or the toppings or whatever on top. So it would kind of look cute. And then I had this adorable little red bow and I set up, I don't know, I made a hundred or something and I was like, oh my gosh, how's this going to go? My kids were all in elementary school. They kind of helped me at the sale and it went great. They sold everything out and I was like, oh my gosh. I think at the time they were like $5. This is like 2004.
05:15people after it was over with I was like, okay, well that was fun. And then people started calling and they're like, I loved those. Can we get a Miss Teacher gifts? know, and anyway, so it's sort of, we sold  several hundred that season and I was just kind of like, wow.  And so we  came back and we did it again the next year and I did that for about five or six years while my kids were at Clark Elementary.
05:38And honestly, was a real business. I had a business license, but it was very part-time. It was just seasonal and it paid for Christmas. And, you know, cause I was stay-at-home mom at the time and my kids, you know, it was just kind of fun little thing to do. But it sort of started picking up and it was kind of taking away from a little bit the joy of the holiday. Like I was making cookies and setting up mixes late at night, quite a bit after a couple of years. And so when my kids,
06:08I finished elementary school, I went back to work and I was like, okay,  cookies are done.  We put it to bed and I went back. a teacher, I still am actually,  full-time educator. I just kind of put it to bed and I was like, well, that was fun. That was a little entrepreneurship thing I had for a while  and I went on with my career and things went great. All of a sudden, about three years ago, a lady downtown,  I'm sorry if this story is really long.
06:38So there's a lady downtown in Paducah, Kentucky. name's Susie Koiner, sort of a mentor of mine.  She owns a fantastic, unique,  everything you didn't know you need. It's called Barbecue and More. It's a spin-off of the barbecue festival that she started here in Paducah, Kentucky that's kind of turned into this big, enormous event.  But anyway, she has a store called Barbecue and More on Third and Broadway downtown. And she was like, Dinette, you need to bring your cookies back. Now, mind you, I'm now...
07:08you know, at the time, 52 years old, very well established in my career, trying to become an administrator and my kids are gone. You know, I've sort of found the freedom and the fun of an empty nest and I'm like, what? Oh, you're cute. Like, thanks, but you know, I'm good. Like I'm very busy and fulfilled with my career. And she just, every time I would be in her store for like a year, she's like, Danette, you need to bring your cookies back. Nobody had cookie mixes like you did. She said, I've been looking for them.
07:38For different things that would be equitable and she said it just doesn't exist and I was like, huh?  Ah,  know,  okay. Well, thanks. I just took it as a compliment and a couple months later another friend of mine who had kind of been on the Who had been one of the vendors of very long time ago in 2004 her name is Christie Brinkley She owns the silver chicks also real close to me lives in my neighborhood  She is in Paducah and she was like you need to sell those cookies again. They were so
08:07And I was like, that's so weird.  But I was like,  you guys, you're sweet. And I just kind of blew it off. And so then the third, the straw that broke the camel's back,  who a girl named Brooke Grace Riley, she's out of Mayfield. She owns an online boutique, but she's also a business coach.  And I'd been following her just a tiny bit online. And she sent this email that I felt like she was sending just to me. You know, she said,
08:37God  has given you  a gift  and you are meant  to pursue the gifts that he has given you. He wouldn't give you something that is not purposeful and of value. It's like sort of stop running away from it, stop fighting it, but like go for it. know, like you only live one  fabulous, wonderful life.  And I was like,  oh my gosh. I was like, why is this happening to me?  I'm living this.
09:06Fabulous fun life and my husband and I are you know We had three great kids but they were grown and you know now we could Travel and do whatever the heck we wanted to and I was very invested in my career and all this just kept you know popping his head up and I was like What is God trying to talk to me about? Why would he want me to make cookies in a bag again? But anyway, so I clicked on her link and I was like, oh should I join her class and I didn't I was like
09:33I'm just gonna, she said,  I only accept people every six months. And I just was like, oh, I'm just not ready. And so I clicked the six months and it's ridiculous how long it took me. But anyway,  the next six months came, the email came and I was like, I'd been thinking about it and people had still been talking to me about it. And so when she popped up again, I'm accepting people.  I was like, oh,  okay, I don't understand this. I really don't understand this. What is the...
10:00purpose. Like, God placing this on my heart? Is he placing people in my life to keep telling me about this? I don't understand, but I'm just going to move forward in faith and we're going to do this.  It's just cookies.  So  it's just cookies. What could possibly go wrong?  And so I started,  I'm a different person, you know, like I'm
10:21I'm grown, like it's 20 years ago since I had this little cookie thing and I was like, I'm just a more mature person.  I'm gonna go on social media. I really need to not rebrand, but sort of. Like it was much more professional and serious and it was my product was going to go into a store, not just me selling it out of my kitchen.  And so, and I had to get  a commercial kitchen.  mean, I have  the state came in and actually,
10:50I'm considered a manufacturer, so I had to have people come from  the State Department and inspect my kitchen and all this stuff. This took three months of paperwork. I designed my product. I found those cute little adorable bags that I just love, and they're a resealable Ziploc bag, which I'll talk about in just a second.  I  love those bags. They're so cute. I love them.  And so  I  came back with my traditional, my triple chocolate chip cookie that I'd always have.
11:19I had my oatmeal cookie, this time we turned it into an oatmeal caramel crunch. And then I had developed a new recipe, my double chocolate espresso, which I think is the hidden gem in my business. It's the most fantastic cookie. I absolutely love it. It's my son's favorite. And I started with those three and I had to buy a box of, this was in April, two years ago. So I'm a little over two years old and I had to buy a box of those bags and there were 1200 of them in that bag.
11:47And at the time I was like,  oh,  sweet, Jesus, please be with me on this venture. was like,  the lady who, Susie wanted three dozen in her store, which was very gracious of her.  And I was like, wow, it's gonna take me two or three years to sell this box  of bags and use them all up. I have 1200 of them.  And so we put them in the store. I jumped on social media.  I listened to my business coach. I post four times a day.  use
12:16Facebook, Instagram, I had a little bit of TikTok, but I really don't mess with TikTok much. Anyway,  and I just started posting about my three little cookie mixes and talking to people and showing them  all you have the entire batch of cookies is in the bag. I use great ingredients. I use Ghirardelli chocolate and just quality, know, Dutch cocoa, just good stuff the way I would want to eat. Like these are the cookies I feed my family. And all you have to do is add a stick of butter and an egg.
12:46That's it. You dump it into your mixer. literally takes two minutes and you have cookie dough. And then you can do whatever you want with it. Make little ones, big ones, pan of cookies, whatever. And so it's the simplicity of the product, but they actually are quite delicious. And so we put them in her store. I jumped on social media and I will tell you within two months that box of 1200 were gone. That is amazing.
13:16Mind-blowing and I was like no way and people started coming out like people who used to buy it in 2004 they were like, oh my gosh, tonight you're doing cookies again I loved them and I was like no way I couldn't believe people remembered first of all, I was so it was so humbling but I was just honored I was like, wow, I never thought it would be and I was like, that's cool. That's great So, you know, we'll have a little paducah cookie business
13:45And I would go down to hand out samples and people just kept buying them. And then all of sudden other businesses in town were like, we love those. Can we carry them? I was like, okay, I guess so. Take my, give me your money, please. Yes. And so then towns around and then all of sudden, like a lady out of Alabama wanted them and a lady from Vermont wanted them. And I was like, where did you see my stuff? And they're like, Facebook. was like, wow. And it's free. Facebook is free.
14:14You know, like people complain about sometimes,  oh, the algorithm and, you know, doesn't show me what I want and all that stuff. But for me, it has been the greatest success.  I have been very consistent. I try to put information out there that people want to see and hear.  It's a little difficult. You have to be brave to get on there and do lives. But you know what? Like, so what? Like, just do it. People.
14:41You know, we just love authentic people and whatever, you know, and people have been so gracious and kind to me. And I have gone from zero followers to 75,000. Wow. In the last just a little over two years, I've had a few reels like take off and just do really well and you you pick things up, but oh my goodness, like I cannot, it's just astonishing really. And I feel so blessed and my product is in
15:11probably 30 stores, primarily in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois,  my area-ish.  But it is in, like I shipped some off yesterday to Vermont,  a home garden center in Vermont  that had heard about them from Montgomery Gardens right here in Paducah. They're just friends and they talk and I'm just like,  this is wild.  And from that  first year, I started in March or April. By the time we finished Christmas, I had sold 7,000.
15:39of those little cookie mixes.  And the reason why you and I love that little bag, I love how it looks, but also the mix is in there. You just add a stick of butter and an egg, dump it into your mixer,  and then  I actually make my dough into dough balls and I put them right back inside of the bag. The bag is a resealable Ziploc bag and I throw it in the fridge  and I love to use chilled cookie dough because
16:03So many wonderful things happen to chilled cookie dough. It gives your butter a chance to set back up. It also soaks up your sugars and your flour.  that sort of makes for just a very mellow,  even textured cookie.  And it just kind of develops the caramelization flavors. And it's just, love a good chilled cookie. I just let it sit there in the refrigerator for a few days before I bake them.  And so that bag is actually useful.  It's cute and it's useful.
16:33Yeah, baby. That's my story.  And  I love that you just talked nonstop for about, oh, I would say 12 minutes  because it shows how passionate and excited you are. And  here's what I want to tell people about your product. I haven't tried it.  I've never met you before,  but basically what your product is, like the box cake mixes at the store.
16:59You know, you buy a box of cake mix, you throw an egg and some veggie oil or whatever in it, and you make a cake. The difference is that you don't have a whole bunch of preservatives and flavors and stuff that's not good for you. And I love that because there's so much crap in manufactured It's a clean product, very plant-based, honestly. I use the best ingredients that I can find.
17:28But the chocolate makes a difference as well. And then I always whisper to people,  use salted butter. I'm a huge advocate.  I know like all these fancy bakers will, you know, use unsalted butter because you can control your salt.  But gosh, I love salt in my sweet.  I like flake sea salt on top of stuff too. I love it. So I use salted butter in all of my cookies. I tell people that when I'm giving them samples.
17:55you're tasting what you're tasting is made with salted butter. You can do whatever you want. But you know, most people have salted butter in their house  and this, my product is delicious. It is easy. It is the cleanest. think no, you know, the chocolate chips are not old. There are no oils in this. There's no preservatives in it,  but  you're getting  sort of like, you're just getting a clean product, but it's just, it's simple. And so people already have salted butter. So that sort of
18:25blends in with the simplicity of the entire thing. You have to go buy anything special.  And the other thing that I love about this  is you don't have to deal with a glass jar  when you want to make, if somebody has grandkids and they want to make cookies with your ingredients,  you don't have to worry about a glass jar on the counter. Yes,  you're exactly right.  And nobody wants to deal with that later. So yeah. And this is the perfect
18:54like stocking stuff or gift at Christmas time  because you know that you're going to have your grandkids on spring break or your kids even. And you get this at Christmas time. It's good for a long time until you open it. is. have a shelf life of a year. They have a shelf life of a year. All of them. I'm going to send you some. You're going to send me your address and you can try this.  I would, I would be happy to try that stuff and actually do a podcast about it with you again. All right.
19:24But point being, was going somewhere with this. Oh,  not all schools have spring break in the same month. I know when I was growing up, we had February break and we had April break. And so if you give these to people at Christmas time as a stocking stuffer, or you give them like eight of them in a box  and wrap it up as a present, you've got a variety of things that you can do with the kids when they're on break and you're not...
19:50having to spend the time measuring all the ingredients out and making a huge mess. And that is a bonus. That's true.  And I have, I do have a website. It's just cookiesinabag.com.  And people, ship all over the United States actually.  So you can order them and I will ship them straight to your door and you can  give them a try as well.
20:14I am typing in your website right now because I want to see it. www.cookiesinthebag.com and now we started out with three and then we've added several cookie mixes since then because my original store, Susie was like, we got to keep spicing it up and we added one at Christmas. So my originals are triple chocolate chip, which just means it has three different kinds of chocolate in it. My oatmeal caramel crunch, which I love. It's my best raw cookie dough. I don't know if people are...
20:44reject eating raw cookie dough but I love it.  And then my third one is double chocolate espresso and then since then,  we've added a peppermint crunch. It's a chocolate cookie with Andy's peppermint crunch in it that was for Christmas.  After that, the next spring, we added a sugar sprinkle lemonade. It's like a  – it's a it's a lemon sugar cookie with sprinkles in it. So cute. That's the one I want. I love lemon cookie.
21:12And then recently we added strawberries and cream and it has real freeze dried strawberries in it with white chocolate chunks. Fantastic. Just a whole different vibe. And then I do have one brownie mix. It is called a chocolate fudge brownie. It's made with sweet Ghirardelli cocoa. It's excellent. You melt your stick of butter with an egg and I, there you go. So I have six cookies and one brownie. And I'm working on working on two right now.
21:40to maybe roll out at the holidays.  you know, just always a little something, but it's cookie fun. Yeah,  absolutely. And  what I love about this  so much, Danette, is that this is  so  simple.  I I know it takes time. I'm not saying that you're making tons of money doing nothing because you are absolutely not doing nothing,  but it's a simple concept. actually helps people.
22:09It gets kids in the kitchen with their parents and grandparents to learn how to cook.  I mean, it is very simple cooking, but it is definitely teaching them about the chemistry of cooking.  is because they get to unwrap the stick of butter, they get to crack the egg, and they get to dump the ingredients. And that's really all we really want to do, isn't it? Yeah. Like you want to just crack the egg with butter, and then you don't have to measure out the baking soda and the baking powder and...
22:37You know, it's all there done for you and that they get that's the best part about it The stories that make me smile  are when people come in and they say I gave this as a gift and or I received it as a gift and I absolutely loved these  but though the ones I really love are the ones where the kids bake with mom or grandma and families are spending time together in the kitchen  creating good memories  Like I had when I was growing up and like I got to experience with my own kids. So that's
23:08That's what I love, love, love about it. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sitting here being like, why did I not think of this? And I could still do the same thing. We sell stuff at the farmers market. I don't think I could ship it because I don't think we can ship anything from Minnesota until 2027. I think they finally changed it.
23:34But I could do this and I wouldn't be any competition for you. Our local people would be thrilled. They'd love it. So it's something to consider amongst my podcast and my cleaning the kitchen and cooking dinner for the family and keeping clean clothes happening.  You know, I have things I got to do, but it's certainly something that I would consider doing. But point being is that this is an excellent gift for anything. I mean, you could do this for  a young
24:04couple who are getting married.  could  gift  it as birthday present, anniversary present, don't know, Easter, anything. Anything that requires a small, fairly inexpensive gift. This is perfect.  absolutely. And Susie Coyner, Barbecue and More, downtown, she does individualized
24:26Baskets that she puts together for people you come in you're like, I have a friend who loves strawberries and then you get a little Strawberry tea towel to go with it and you she wraps everything up and  she does exactly what you were talking about but yeah sky's the limit like if you love cookies and  You know, I these are all my recipes. They're my original recipes. I'm going through the process of getting my my company's being trademarked  Yeah, you know just doing all the things here but sure this is not
24:56I did not invent cookie mixes, the concept of a cookie mix. I just made them my way with my recipes  and it has just been the most phenomenal blessing and people have been so gracious and it has just been  just a  really fun little experience with entrepreneurship and being a little local business and women supporting other women.  Just met a lot of really great people through this.
25:25And it's been a lot of fun. I'm just  following what I feel like I've been called to do. So.  Well,  huge congratulations on this, because  it sounds like you were mildly reluctant to take the step, but it's a good thing you did.  The other thing that I want to say is that cooking is not just a women thing. Men cook too. Boys cook too.  And I say grandmas and moms.
25:54but it could be grandpas and dads too. Yeah. So my son can make his own cookies, you know? Yeah, absolutely. With this. Yeah. And honestly, can do all the things men can do if they want to. I think the only thing that men can't do that women can do is actually give birth to babies. Yes. This world has become so much more
26:23big and open to everybody being able to try everything and it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
26:31I agree and I appreciate you doing what you're doing and bringing light to some of us little business people out there. So I'm so happy to talk to you and meet you.  I am really happy to meet you and talk to you too. And thank you for saying that because  I started the podcast partly because I needed a project.  My youngest was going to be moving out youngest of four and I was like, I can't go through empty nest syndrome without a project. I can't.
26:59But I also really wanted to give people like you and homesteaders and crafters a floor, a stage to be able to tell about what they do and why they do it. And it has been the joy of my life for over 300 episodes to be able to talk to people about what they do. Nice.  I love it. Yes.  Be brave. Love it. Be brave. You get one wonderful, beautiful life. Just go for it.
27:28Go for the friendships. Go for the experience. Take the trip. Eat the cookie, I say. You  love the outfit, do it.  If you wanna go try something, go on a trip. Do bungee jumping. Be brave. Whatever it is you feel called to do, you really have one shot to do it.  when my mother passed away several years ago  of cancer, and so we had her.
27:57four intentional months with her when she was passing. And I remember she was really happy with some of her life and then she had many regrets. And I didn't do this and I didn't do this and I took her on a couple trips when she was sick and she had a little scooter and everything, but we did it. And I just thought that was seven years ago. And I was like, I don't wanna be that person when I have lived a full
28:28blessed life and hopefully helped a lot of people and  just, you know,  enjoyed myself and had purpose and done what, you know, God has called me to do. And I thought,  I don't want to, I don't want to, when I'm passing, like, I don't want to have that conversation that my mother had, like, I wish, I wish I had.  I was like, you know what, you just, you do have to be brave. And like on social media,  I mean, I am, my face is on there. I'm talking to people, I'm talking to.
28:56Thousands and thousands of people and I don't know them. I don't know how they'll react and you know what  but I'm not doing anything wrong I'm trying to be kind  and share  and you just kind of had to go for it and people are generally so kind and gracious  and You know, that's just what you just got it. Do it Be brave if you're listening to this and you're on the fence do it.  Yeah, do it  Absolutely. Try it. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. But it does work. It might work big
29:26With the whole eat the cookie thing, I'm going to make a suggestion. Eat the cookie, yes. Do not eat 100 cookies at once because what happens is you get sick and you will never want to eat that cookie again. Well, and you might get FAT, which is not really fun. I'm far more concerned about being sick on a food that I liked because I've done it twice and it took me years to try those foods again.
29:53Don't OB on your favorite thing because you won't want it again for a long time. I'm going to take a second because we're talking about cookies. My husband brought me home some lemon cookies from the farmer's market two weekends ago. And I keep meaning to mention this on the podcast and I keep forgetting, so I'm going do it now. Our local farmer's market is fantastic. The lady that he got the cookies from, her business is called Spare Time Baker, think.
30:22He brought me home these little tiny lemon cookies. There were six of them. And he knows that I love lemon, everything lemon. And I was like, okay, they better be good. Because if it's not good lemon, I'm going be very sad. And he just laughed because I say this about everything that has lemon in it. Because sometimes it's good lemon and sometimes it's chemical lemon. that's gross. Right. Yes, yes. And so I bit into one of them and he watched me and I smiled around the bite. And he's like, oh.
30:49I take it she's good at lemon cookies. said, yeah, I bet she's good at all cookies. So for the record, everybody who's local to me who listens to the podcast, if you have the chance to get cookies  from Spare Time Baker at the Lowest Sore Farmer's Market,  do it. It'll be worth it.  Nice.  I actually found,  took a long time developing my lemon recipe, but it's actually dried ground lemon in mine  that has the lemon flavor because I agree there's
31:18This  fake lemon is not good. It always smells like it's going to be good, but you taste it you're like, this is not real. Yeah. It's gross. No. Yep. You're right.  So I just wanted to give her a shout out because I was so excited to have lemon cookies because I don't eat cookies very often, partly because  I don't make them very often because they'll be gone. My husband and my son will eat them  and I don't buy cookies because cookies at the store.
31:47are never very good and they're always way more expensive than they should be. are. Really, it's the quality of the ingredients though that concern me the most. Yeah, yeah. yeah, I understand. And I have one more question before I  let you go. How many cookies, like average size cookies, does one of your bags make? Great question. Get that all the time. Each bag makes a batch of cookies, but I say about 14.
32:17large bakery style cookies that you would go to a bakery and get, you know, like five, four to five inches in diameter, four inches, so about 14, 15 of those.  Now you can make little teaspoon cookies and I can get like 70 little party cookies out of one batch.  If you make those  great big gourmet, thick, huge seven ounce, you know, six ounce cookies, you're only gonna get like six out of a bag.  So it just depends on what you have going on.
32:46Okay. The reason I ask is because I know how much your bags of cookie ingredients costs. you  willing to share that? Because I want to say something about it.  While they sell on my website for 10.95. I  think so. Yeah. 10.99, something like that. Yes. The reason I want to make the point here is that that is a really  reasonable price for a batch of cookies. Like really reasonable. Because you're paying less than  a dollar a cookie.
33:15Yes. if you go to a bakery, yeah, you're not gonna, you're gonna pay a more than that,  You absolutely are. And you don't know what they put in it. With this, I'm pretty sure you have a label that says exactly what the ingredients in that bag are. That is true. So it's all good. Everything here is good, Dinette. I love it. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right. So tell me where everybody can find you.
33:42Well, I am on Facebook and Instagram and just type in cookies in a bag by Danette. That's me. So just the whole thing. No spaces, no dashes, cookies in a bag by Danette. You can come follow along and I share recipes.  I love to share old recipes that are about cookies that I don't make,  but I share techniques, fun things you can do with my cookie mixes. Like you can turn them into,  you know.
34:09bar cookies or you can turn them in. you sometimes I'll make a peach cobbler and I'll take my oatmeal caramel crunch cookie dough and put it on top of the peach cobbler  or of the peaches and turn it into a cobbler. Like I just  give you fun tips about what you can do with my mixes or how to make cookies, even just how to use how to chill cookies or just, you know, what the best pans are like just anything to do with cookies. I just have all kinds of fun  information if you are interested in baking.
34:39It's all there on Instagram and Facebook. And then my website is cookies in a bag dot com.  And you can order any of my mixes and we will ship them directly to you. I just got to order this morning from a company in Louisville, Illinois, called Glamour Farms.  And she runs a boutique, an online boutique. And she picked up my mixes about a year ago and
35:04They're doing fantastic with her. So when people are buying clothes, they're buying cookie mixes, too  So we're shipping out a couple hundred to her pretty soon So there you go cookies in a bag by Danette try it Yeah, this was such a joy You  are so bubbly and and the love that you have for what you're doing is just coming through so strongly I have  I have loved this conversation
35:34I'm a teacher so you know we always have to kind of keep it keep it  keep it pumping for the sweet little children so they're always interested.  Oh yeah but if you didn't love it it wouldn't be ringing like it is so I'm so happy for you. Well thank you.  As always people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Donette thank you again for your time. Thank you. Thank you for listening I appreciate it  and everybody have a great day.
36:03Yes, happy baking. All right, bye. Bye.
 

Hillside Harvest Farms

Today I'm talking with Brittany at Hillside Harvest Farms. You can follow on Facebook as well.
 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.
00:10Today I'm talking with Brittany at Hillside Harvest Farms in California.  Good afternoon, Brittany. How are you?  Good. How are you doing? I'm good. I had to think about whether it was morning or afternoon because you're in California. Yes. They're an hour behind us, so it's afternoon now.  We're actually two hours. And I was so nervous. I was not going to figure out the time change.  But it's 11 o'clock, so we're still morning here.
00:36Okay, well good morning to you and good afternoon to me. How's that? Thank you. Perfect. How's the weather in California today? We have actually had like a  fairly mild summer. So it makes me a little nervous what our August and September is going to be like into October, because we'll be like 110 into October. So I'm a little nervous, but the summer has been great so far. Awesome. My daughter used to live in LA. lived there for
01:06like over three years.  then she made a lateral move to Florida. Oh my gosh.  I'm like, okay, that's interesting. Well,  you'll still have oranges and lemons. That's good news. Uh huh.  Oh yes.  It is  kind of a gray day here in Minnesota. It's overcast and  it's not really muggy, but it's not really not muggy if that makes any sense. Uh huh. Uh huh. And it's not hotter than hell. So that helps.
01:35That's always nice.  Yes. After the week we put in last week, I'm very happy to have it be cooled down.  Yes.  Okay. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Well,  we live in  Paso Robles, California. We moved here about  three years ago. My husband and my two boys.
01:57We're, my husband and I are both from California, but we went to school in Utah and lived there for quite a few years. And then we're able to move back here to California, which we were really excited about.  Um, we don't live in typical California. We're very rural.  Um, and  just, it's, it's so beautiful out here. about an hour from the coast in central California and wine country.  And  just love being out here. We're on about three acres and.
02:26have goats and chickens and pigs and ducks and about an  acre garden and a little farm stand down at the bottom of the driveway. And we just have so much fun doing all that.  Very nice. And California is an odd state because  you've got high fashion, you've got Silicon Valley, you've got  the, assume the wine industry is pretty big. You've got.
02:54citrus fruits that are pretty big.  And then you've got all the agriculture. Yes.  So there's so much agriculture. I love it. We actually just went to  Tahoe over the weekend. It's about a six hour drive.  And besides just the quick drive through  Sacramento, we were just driving through orchards and vineyards and  just it was almost completely agriculture and it was  such a fun drive and I love it so much.
03:24I forgot a big one. have movie production out there too. Yes, we do. Uh-huh. I know. It's so, I love how diverse the state is.  And it's really cool. I love being in a small town. It's about three hours to our closest international airport. It was really funny when we moved from Utah to California, everybody was like, what are you doing?
03:47Like it's just, you're just going to be moving to the city. And I'm like, I don't think you understand where we're moving to  in California. Like it's so much smaller than where we're living now. I don't, I don't think you quite understand where we're going. Yeah. And I'm,  I don't necessarily want to make the podcast all about Mary today, but Minnesota is,  is odd like that too. When you hear Minnesota, when anyone hears Minnesota.
04:16They make Minneapolis St. Paul, which are the two biggest cities in the state.  And they're right next to each other. But southern Minnesota is cornfields, soybean fields, and alfalfa fields.  And northern Minnesota is pine trees and the boundary waters and cabins. so it's funny to me when people immediately assume big city when they hear Minnesota. like, no, there's...
04:43There's very little acreage that is big city in Minnesota. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. It's so funny. Yeah, but it's great. We love it here. Last year, we opened our farm stand for our first year, and that was so much fun. And it was just a little trailer last year. And this year, we built a greenhouse and a little shed. So that's been a lot of fun.
05:10I do a lot of canning and preserving and we grow a lot of our own meat  and  my husband's family, have a 40 acre avocado ranch in  a little town called Cayucas that they have, they raise steer.  So we have our own meat, our beef  cows that we raise. so it's,  it's a lot of fun.  do you have access to avocados whenever you want them?
05:38Yes, and it's glorious  because where we're at in Paso, it freezes and  during the winter not a ton, but we do get into those freezing temperatures every so often. So we can't grow avocados here,  but when we go down to the beach, we will snag avocados every chance we get.  am so jealous. It's amazing.  I haven't bought an avocado in probably a year because they're expensive. Oh my gosh, I know.
06:07I might have to add that to the grocery list for the weekend because now that thinking about it, it would be really nice to have some avocado and salad. That would be great. I know. It's so fun. I'll just grab a grocery bag and just fill it and then give it to all my neighbors when they come back. It's like paradise out here. I love it. I'm so glad. I love it when people love where they live because for the longest time, I did not love where I lived. I lived in town, in a small town.
06:34right off of Main Street, and I've said it before, it was noisy, it was dusty, and it was busy. And I'm one those people who really loves quiet and peace.  So when we moved, we moved to  a three acre acreage, four miles outside of  a town half an hour away. And yes, we have big semis that go by during the day because we're on a main stretch between two towns. And right now everybody's getting ready for corn harvest. Oh yes.
07:04But that's different noise than  ambulances and church bells and the train going through town.  Oh yeah, for sure. We've lived all over. My husband's in construction and so we've lived  in Las Vegas and we lived in Salt Lake City and we've lived in lots of different cities and  I do not like it at all.  My dream has always been to
07:32live on a farm. grew up working on my uncle's dairy farm in Idaho and  always begged my parents to have some sort of garden. And I was an FFA and  just always dreamed of having some sort of farm that I was able to live on. And it's  just something I always dreamed of. It was funny when we  moved to our first house in Utah, we were on a little half acre.
07:59and I was so excited to finally have my dream garden and we moved in December of 2019 and I'd been planning for this for years and that spring of 2020 when I could finally get my garden in was of course when COVID hit and I had to make sure everybody knew that I was not doing this because of COVID. I was not jumping on the bandwagon. I had been planning on doing this for so long. So it wasn't just because of COVID that I was doing it.
08:28And so it was  quite the experience. Well, even if you were jumping on the bandwagon, it's not a bad bandwagon to jump on. It really isn't. you've been, sounds like you've been an agriculture girl from the get-go. So good for you. Yeah. It's been so fun.  So what do you grow?  I grow just about everything.
08:55I go through all the seed catalogs and I just want  one of everything.  I initially when I started was only interested in growing  vegetables and fruits.  And then my sister wanted, she lives in Utah. So when I was planning out my garden, she really wanted to get into it with me as well, but she wasn't as interested in the vegetables. She  really wanted to do flowers. So she and I started doing flowers as well.
09:25would do  cell bouquets. And so she really got me into flowers. So I also do  flowers as well. And I sell bouquets and  centerpieces. And  so she kind of got me into doing that. So I really just have an assortment of everything out in my garden, which is, I just love it. Do you grow  wild flowers or do you grow like,  tall cutting flowers?  A little bit of
09:54everything and I  really just let everything I'm really my big thing is I let everything go to seed. really just like everything going crazy. So there's wild flowers and  cut flowers  and just a surprise and so there's things that you know they pollinate and I just  don't ever know what's gonna come up and what it's gonna look like. So every year it's just  kind of a surprise.
10:24And,  but then of course I plant, I'll start plants from seed in my garage. then, so I have things that I know that I'm going to get. And then I also have all my surprises because I just let everything go to seed. Because I'd rather have those plants coming up than weeds coming up  in the garden. For sure.  Yes.  Oh my God. We have been fighting weeds like you wouldn't believe this. Oh my gosh. It's  ridiculous.
10:53Yeah, they killed our cucumbers  between the constant, well, I don't want to say constant rain because it's way better than it was last year.  But we've had like two or three days of sun and then two or three days of off and on rain and then two or three days of sun. the cucumbers really hate that kind of weather.  We will have no cucumbers to sell this year. I'm so sad. However, the tomatoes are doing fantastic. We're going to be swimming in tomatoes in about a week.
11:20We're just starting to get ours. I just got my first big harvest of tomatoes and I'm so excited. We keep getting people asking for when are the tomatoes gonna be ready? So I'm excited to get those out in the farm stand today probably actually. You will probably relate to this story then. I have been waiting as patiently as I am capable of for the first six tomatoes to come in from the garden.
11:49that I could make the first batch of bruschetta this summer. my gosh. Yes. We had that for dinner last night and my husband happened to pick up a watermelon when he was shopping. Oh my gosh. had bruschetta and then watermelon for dessert last night and I am not kidding you. My heart was so big. I was like this is is living. are rich. It's heaven. There's nothing better. Yep. And I think
12:18I think that it's wonderful that you grow produce, but you also grow flowers because  produce feeds the body, but flowers feed the soul. yeah,  most definitely.  Nothing makes me happier than just coming in with,  know, you have your food, but then just the beauty of the flowers just makes you so happy  and  seeing all the different colors and  the varieties and it just
12:48It feeds your soul. Like you said, it makes you so happy.  actually have a weird question. don't know.  I don't know what California is like when it comes to perennial flowers. Here,  we start out with tulips and daffodils and the little short iris varieties, they come first.  And then those kind of die off and the peonies start to bloom. And they have like, I don't know, we had a month.
13:16of bloom time this year because of the different varieties we have in. then the  lilies start to bloom after the peonies are done.  And then the hostas start to bloom around  mid-August. And that's about a three week bloom. And then we're into fall. Does California have that kind of progression or can you grow pretty much anything anytime?  So what's crazy about California  is you pretty much
13:45have every single zone in California.  so the zone, I am in zone nine.  And  I'm still I were in our  third season of growing here and I'm still learning.  I came from zone seven in Utah and I'm still trying to learn it's crazy. So I have plants that I thought were annuals that are here are perennials like my snapdragons  and
14:15um, stock  and  just a whole bunch of flowers that were annuals in Utah here are perennials and they will just grow all winter long.  And  so it's, it's been such a learning experience  to figure out. So I will get it barely have, I barely have enough chill hours for tulips. Sometimes like this last winter we didn't get as many freezes. So my tulips didn't do as well because they didn't get enough  freeze time.
14:45But we will get  some winters, we'll get enough freeze time for tulips. My daffodils, I did get some daffodils, which was awesome. Like I said, I'm still learning  in this area,  but it's so funny because you just go 40 minutes  towards the ocean and it's like zone 10. And so it's just  so all over the place here that even  within our county, there's like four different zones.
15:14So  it's  just  such a learning.  Even  where I'm at in Paso Robles is so different than where in the city of Paso Robles. It's just so different. So it's just a learning. You just have to learn where you're at. So I'm still learning, even though we're in our third season, I'm still learning for exactly where my house is, how everything grows.
15:43And so, and it just depends on  the year too. So hopefully this year will get a little bit colder of a winter so I can get more tulips.  Because tulips are some of my, just my favorite flowers. And that's one of the things I do miss from Utah are the tulips.  So I'm really hoping I can get some good tulips this next season.  Like I said, the daffodils did pretty good.  The summer, my zinnias do amazing.
16:11The Zinnias just love it because we do get really hot summers all the way into October. Like we generally don't get our first freeze until the end of October. Yep. And so the Zinnias do really well, Dahlias do really well all the way through the middle of October. And yeah, I just lost my train of thought. Hopefully that answered your question. I'm not sure if it did. I just kind of started rambling.
16:40No, that's  fine because I didn't, I mean, I know that California has some really diverse climate situations going on, but I didn't know to the extent that you just told me. So that's awesome. learned something new today. Also, our zinnias did not come back this year. We had a bunch last year and they didn't come back. And I think it may be that it was too wet.  I don't think, I mean, we've had a few,
17:10heat wave streaks like three to five days where it's been really hot.  But I don't think  they like Minnesota as much as I wanted to think they like Minnesota. I it stays hot enough long enough. Yeah, the Zinnias definitely like dry weather and where we are at, we basically don't get any rain from  April until October, which is one reason the grapes do really well here.
17:37So, because  when it rains real heavily, the grapes will split. So the grapes do really well here because  we basically don't see any rain from, like I said, April until October. Which is crazy to think about. think that the good news on that is if you need to water, you can.  Two springs ago, know, so 2024.
18:06It rained and rained and rained all of May and two weeks into June here. my gosh.  And they keep saying you cannot pull the water out of the ground, but you can water when there's no water. Yeah. So our garden was just  a terrible fail last year. I am so excited to be able to have tomatoes for our community this year because we had  not nearly enough.
18:32last year. can't even imagine having to, yeah, it's so nice being able to regulate the water  and just water when it's needed and then just turn it off.  It's quite nice.  It's a gift. And honestly, I've said this so many times in the last year since all that rain fell, but our garden was  soup for about a month.  You couldn't
19:01You could not go out there and put your foot into the actual garden because you would go up to your ankles.  my gosh. It was disgusting. And we were very mad. We were very, very mad about it.  Oh, I bet that's awful. Yup. And this year my husband has been, he's the gardener. I always give him all the credit because he's the one does all the work in the garden. I help him plan it, but I don't do the work.  He has been just  happy as a pig in mud.
19:31this year because there hasn't been a whole lot of mud. Uh huh.  Oh, perfect. So yeah, it was, it was a very, very long,  miserable summer last year. can't even imagine.  Yup. And he, we still had stuff to sell at the farmer's market because we make things too. And people would be like, are you going to have tomatoes for canning this year? Cause the year before we were selling hundreds of pounds of tomatoes and he had to tell them, no,
20:01And every time you told them no, he said it's the same face every time, honey. He they just look at me like,  ah, nobody else has them either.  You know, it's so sad. And it's just something about those tomatoes. That's just what  everybody, they just want those tomatoes, man. Like there's something about those garden fresh tomatoes that everybody looks forward to every year. Well, they taste good.  I know they there's nothing like them.
20:31That's for sure. The other thing about tomatoes is that they're so versatile. mean, you can make salsa, you can make tomato sauce, you can make tomato paste,  you can make spaghetti sauce and can it so that all you have to do is warm it up. Yes.  We have struggled. My youngest, he has really struggled with eating. He's very
21:00He gets very nervous about trying new foods, but he loves  my canned spaghetti sauce. And so that has been a lifesaver of  one of his quote unquote safe foods that he will eat is the canned spaghetti sauce. Funnily enough, he will eat most things that come out of the garden, which has been  just amazing seeing him get excited about like, are the peas coming up?
21:25He gets excited about the carrots and he loves going out and picking the strawberries. And so that has been  so fun watching that because he just gets,  it's been so hard  with him getting so nervous about trying new foods, but he does get so excited about the jams that we make and he loves helping out with that. And I don't know  where we would be with his eating if it weren't for the garden and his excitement with.
21:54with seeing it grow and the process that it takes to make these things. It's just been,  like I said, I don't know where we would be without it. It's been a huge blessing is what it's been. yeah. Oh yes. And  that is phenomenal. And he likes your homemade spaghetti sauce because mom's love is put in there too. Yes.  That's for sure. Blood, sweat and tears,  Yeah. People joke about
22:22love being the secret ingredient.  it's not a joke. It's for real.  It really is. The passion and the  time and the love that people put into making things from scratch is a real thing.  It  really is. And I will die on that hill. I promise you. Yes.
22:46I can't stand the spaghetti sauce that you buy at the store.  will never eat it again.  I know.  I couldn't get to canning last year. had a death in the family and so we  just ran out of it and we had to get some from the store. I like,  can't do this.  We're just going to have to wait until I can make some more.  We're not having spaghetti for the rest. Until the tomatoes come again.
23:15I cannot do it. How old is your son, the one who's hard about eating? He's seven. he's been getting better. We've gone to a few different therapists, but it's been really difficult. But yeah, he's seven now and it's been a very difficult journey. Is it a texture thing that gets him?
23:45No, it's funny because there's no rhyme or reason to it. think just what it is, is he has a desire, he wants to eat and try new foods. But when it comes down to it, he just is just terrified to try it. Like he just gets scared. And it's almost heartbreaking because I am such a food is just life for me. just food is everything. And so it's been so hard.
24:15watching it  and not knowing how to help him because  it's really just all fear-based because he'll talk about it and  things he wants to try and then just when it comes down he'll have the spoon in his hand and ready to try it and he just  is just  it's just a mind like he just gets scared to try it  but luckily he likes  pretty much something in every food group
24:44So he's,  he hasn't had any like growth, like impairments or anything like that. So  he's been fine there. But like I said, it's just,  it's  just like a mind.  Oh, just a mind scared. So it's just really trying to work through that is, is where we've, what we've been working on. the good news is that he will probably outgrow it at some point.
25:14I don't know if you've tried this, it's something I learned with my fourth kid when he was, you know, a year or so old.  The rule with that one, because  I hadn't thought to try this with the other three, was that he had to give it a fair shot of a new food.  And if he genuinely did not like it and could not swallow it, he could politely spit it into a napkin. Or if we were at home, he could just get up from the table, go to the trash can and spit it in the trash. And he was the most
25:43Venturous eater now. Oh my gosh. That is awesome.  I know we've tried. I'll have to try that Yeah, because if he felt like he didn't have to actually swallow it he was okay with it Yeah, but if we were like no you have to swallow it. He wouldn't do it It's to the point that he would to the point that he would throw up. Yeah, I'm like this is dumb This  does not have to be a battle like it's it's been quite we've tried so many things we we haven't tried that
26:12He'll have his drink that he can have.  So he's gotten real good about just taking his drink. Like I said, we're making progress, but it's been such a journey.  Well, if you can handle letting him have that  choice. I know. That's a good idea.
26:35being able to get it out of his face the minute he realizes that this is really not for him.  It might make him less afraid and it sounds like it's a fear thing. it really is. And like I said, it's just been so hard to watch. never thought, because neither my husband or I are picky eaters at all. And I was like, our kids won't have any problems with that. But. Uh-huh. That's  not how it always works. Same as last words.  Has he had a chance to try pesto yet?
27:04hasn't  and I've made it. I need to try it this year because our basil looks so great right now. So I need to pick some and try it.  But we'll  yeah, I need to we'll try some basil pesto. That's a good idea. We'll have to try some of that. That's one of those pasta dishes that you have like once in a great while.  And because it's such an unusual taste, it's really good.
27:31like once every six months, you wouldn't want to it every day. That's a great idea. He's so funny with pastas because he likes spaghetti. We're really trying to get through like pasta in different shapes. It's the same thing in just different shapes, but he hasn't gotten past like he'll eat spaghetti, but he won't eat bow type like any other shape. It's just spaghetti. Like that's the only shape he'll eat. So we'll have to try that.
28:00pesto with just the spaghetti.  I'm going to tell you a secret. I'm 55 years old  and  I don't like the thick spaghetti. I like the angel hair spaghetti better. So funny.  So I mean, I'll eat thick spaghetti, I don't love it. I really like the angel hair and part of it is because it cooks quickly,  but it's also just a lighter feeling in your stomach when you eat it. That's true. So
28:28And I'm so thankful that I get to talk to people on the podcast about their kids because I have a granddaughter, she's 12,  and she lives in Nebraska and I don't get to see her very often.  And my son grew up with all my tricks. So I don't really need to teach him any of the secrets that I tried on them because he knows them. So it's always nice when I get to share something. I love learning. I always am trying  just any tricks.  just, mean...
28:57all the tips and tricks.  So that's awesome.  feel like I'm the fairy grandmother to a bunch of kids I've never met. It's perfect. I love it. It's kind of great.  It's kind of great because I don't have to change diapers  and  I don't have to cook for the kids, but I can at least help the parents.  It's kind of a win-win right there.  I really do love it. I'm kind of poking fun, but it's always nice when something I learn can help somebody else. That's great.
29:26All right, Brittany, I didn't realize we're going to get into a food discussion. I know it's It's perfect.  It's totally fine because it's about produce and it's about making things. So we're on track.  Where can people find you?  I'm on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube  and TikTok. We're trying to get a website put together.  but yeah, right now I'm on  those social medias  and yeah.  Alrighty.
29:56And  I meant to ask 15 minutes ago when you're talking about the flowers,  I scrolled down into your Facebook feed a little bit, but I don't remember seeing pictures of your flowers. Do you have pictures of your flowers? Yeah, there should be pictures on the,  I know we posted some of like the zinnias and some of the bouquets  on that should be on that Facebook and Instagram page.  So people, people want to see your flowers. can just go find them. Okay. Cool.  All right.
30:24fantastic as always people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com and that's probably going to be changing by next week because I'm trying to revamp our tinyhomestead.com website so I don't have to have two separate ones. So for now you can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com but starting a week from now it might just be a tinyhomestead.com. We'll see how much I get done. Thank you so much for your time Brittany I really appreciate it. for having me.
30:54Have a great day. You too. Bye.
 

Apocalypse Acres

Today I'm talking with Jess at Apocalypse Acres.
 
Muck Boots 
Calendars.Com
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters.  I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Jess at Apocalypse Acres in Florida, and you can hear the birds singing in the background. How gorgeous is that? Good morning, Jess. How are you? Good morning. I'm great. Thank you so much.  How's the weather, Jess?  Right now, it's beautiful. It's the perfect temperature to go outside and get stuff done, but that doesn't last very long.
00:27probably have like another half an hour before it's almost unbearable to be outside. you're killing that half hour with me. I'm so sorry. Oh, no. That's okay. It's worth it. Okay, good. Um, I'm in Minnesota and it is cool and sunny and like a tiny little breeze happening. So that's kind of a welcome relief. Nice. We always have a breeze because we have, we have a big like 40 or 50 acre
00:54pasture next door to us and it just happens to be that the wind is always blowing across that. So even when it's not really windy elsewhere, we always have a breeze. And so even when it's really hot, it still feels pretty good here.  must be nice. It's been real sticky hot in Minnesota up until yesterday. Yesterday was gorgeous and today's  looking to be pretty nice too.  Okay. So why is it called Apocalypse Acres? Well,  when I first moved here,
01:22And I've been here for five years now.  I was travel nursing up in Wisconsin actually, and I lost my travel nursing contract because of COVID. So when I moved in here, it was about two, not even two or three months after the COVID lockdown started and happened and all of that was going on.  And it felt very like post-apocalyptic kind of at that point, or like things seemed really crazy.  people still weren't going out in public and people were still really focusing on like trying to
01:52try to homestead for a purpose  of not, know, because the shelves were empty in the stores and things like that. So  Apocalypse Acres just ended up kind of making sense. And the reason we chose that type of a name is because growing up, my grandparents had a 10 acre farm called Pickery Acres. And so we kind of just put a spin on that.  Okay, um, on the whole COVID thing.
02:17I was talking with a friend like six to eight months into it after lockdown started in March of 2020.  I said that it was the quietest apocalypse ever. I had no idea the first apocalypse I experienced was going to be so quiet.  In a good way. It was nice, wasn't it?  Yes. And I've said this a few times on the podcast, but I'm going to say it again.
02:46COVID was a  horrible thing to have happen, but there are so many amazing things that came out of it. And I hear about them all the time from people on the podcast. Yeah, things have changed for sure. It was like a weird tipping point for everybody. Hold on one second. I'm so sorry. Alexa, stop. And I hear about things all the time and there's negative things too, like some stores and pharmacies and things like that not being open 24 hours and not planning to ever open 24 hours again.
03:16Um, but I think that there are quite a few positives too, that kind of outweigh, you know, some of those negatives. Yeah, it was the craziest time and I'm glad that we're mostly through it. I actually had COVID diagnosed for the first time in January of this year. That was not fun.  And, uh,  I slept like 18 hours a day for four days in a row, and then I was fine. So  I got the very pale version of COVID.
03:45Yeah, for sure. I had the bad one, but then I had it most more recently too. And I also had it when I was pregnant, which was really scary.  Oh, not good. Yeah,  but back to kind of the apocalypse thing, I think.  We, my wife and I, we go to Wasteland Weekend, which is out in California every year or every other year as we can. And it's a five day it's kind of like Burning Man, but it's post apocalyptic.
04:13Costumes are required. It's fully immersive. No one's really on their phones and you go camp, primitive camping in the desert with like 1500 other people and it's fully like Mad Max, Furiosa, like, you know, a dystopian society. And so we want our farm to be kind of like that. So we've actually filmed a couple of movies here on our property  and we've, we actually won an award for like set design and production for a movie that we filmed here called Hinders.
04:44That is so fun.  You're very talented. And  I had no idea that you did that. That's amazing.  I would love to talk about filmmaking. And if I was a filmmaking podcast that I would have you back, but I'm not.  what,  so what do you do at your homestead? Well,  our main crop, I guess, is super hot peppers. So we grow super hot peppers, and then we make hot pepper jelly. And then we make spicy fruit
05:13jelly also.  like peach Carolina Reaper, we have one called the hateful eight, which is eight different super hot like Carolina Reaper style, like super high Scoville rating, I have to cook it with a respirator on or I'll have an asthma attack, kind of super hot peppers. So we grow those, we have a bunch of them, we have a  growing clientele that likes to come get them from us.  But we also have like a co-op in town that wants to carry them as well.
05:42And so we're trying to branch out into some more like mid-level heat that are tolerable for most people because the super hots are tolerable for like 1 % of people.  And then we also have chickens for eggs and we're growing some other vegetables and things like that too. And then we also have some rescue animals like our wild boar who  we've had for almost five years now, but we got him when he was about two days old. So  we're just, we kind of have our hands in.
06:11a few different pots over here, but the peppers is the main thing. Okay. Regarding the hot peppers, my son would love your jellies. I would die if I ate them because hot peppers make my throat close up and I can't breathe.  Yes, I have asthma and they really bother me too. I can eat up to a certain spice level, but the super hots, I don't even taste my jelly. I have people that do that for me.
06:41Yeah.  Yeah, a couple of years ago,  I  was eating something with just  fairly mild jalapenos in it. And  I felt really weird, like my lips got cold and then they went numb. And then I felt like I couldn't breathe and I had no idea what was going on. So I just kind of put my head down, tried to breathe and I was fine. I came out of it. And then a week later,  my son had made something I didn't know, but he had put, um,
07:11ancho pepper powder in it  and same reaction and I was like oh my god I've developed anaphylactic shock reaction to hot peppers this is not great and so I went about a year and a half without eating even barbecue sauce because I didn't know what was gonna cause it to happen again  and about six months ago I tried barbecue sauce again and I could eat it and I was fine so I think I may be
07:39getting through whatever that is. But it is really disconcerting as an adult to find out that, I now have another thing on the list I cannot eat or I will die. Yeah, that's really scary, especially like you said, having something that you don't even know has that in there or not even knowing for sure what it even is. I mean, it could be like the actual capsaicin oil, which would be interesting, but I've not ever heard of that happening. That's so, so weird.
08:07Yeah, I was not impressed. And I remember the second time it happened,  my husband was sitting across from me and I was like, I feel like I can't breathe. And he's like, you're talking. And I said, yeah, but  I feel like I'm hitching in my chest. And he was like, stop eating that right now.  And I did. And he said, put your head down like you did before. And I did. And he said, just try to breathe in as much as you can. And then.
08:36blow it out and I was like, okay.  And that one scared the hell out of me because I actually for a moment or two could not get my breath back in and I was like, okay, is this really how I'm going to go out?  Wow. Yeah, that's something I'll have to ask around and see if anyone else has that experience with. Yeah. And I've had weird things happen all my life like that after my second child was born.
09:04I developed an allergy to strawberries of all things. Could not eat strawberries for like two years. That stinks. So I don't know what is with me, but I have very strange biological makeup apparently. Yeah, that's frustrating. It's very frustrating and thank God I'm not allergic to dogs or cats because that would be the saddest thing ever and I am not. So if I have to be allergic to food, there are workarounds, but I can't imagine not having my dog.
09:32Yeah. Okay, sorry. didn't mean to make that all about me, but yeah, allergies can come on even when you're 53, which is what I was when the pepper one happened. So do you sell your jellies? Is that what you said? Yeah. So we used to do a lot of farmers markets in the area. And for a while I was doing like contract nursing because I'm a full-time hospice nurse.
10:00And so for a while I was doing contract nursing and working part time and then doing a lot of farmers markets and things like that. And it was going really well.  Um,  and  I don't want to like be depressing or anything like that, but about a year and a half after moving into onto apocalypse acres, my husband died.  Um, he was 34. was 37 at the time and he actually took his own life. So  that kind of threw a wrench in things in a really big way for me.
10:29because we've rented this place for five years. And so the plan was to move on to it during COVID and buy it as quickly as possible and tear down the house that was on here and build a new one. Well, we got the appraisal on this place probably three weeks before he died.  And then after that, I was like, oh my gosh, I don't even know what to do anymore. So him and I made a lot of the pepper jelly together  and recipes and hot sauces and  things like that. And then I just had to take a break after he died.
10:58Understandably.  Um, so within the last year and a half or so, I've been trying to get back into it, but it's kind of slow going. So we started out with spicy honey, which is another thing that we do with the peppers.  Um,  and, but I started working full time, so I don't have as much time now. I wish I did.  Um, yes. And so  on to  a better topic. Um, I'm really trying to kind of.
11:27ramp up our pepper production and get back to making pepper jelly because it really did really well. We had an Etsy page, we sold a lot online, we shipped a lot out, but then we kind of lost our momentum when that happened. Well, yes,  I'm sure that that was  hell for you to go through and I am so sorry for your loss. And honestly,  I hate that statement. I like the Jewish blessing of may his memory be a blessing. Yeah.
11:56I like that. So yeah, I really like that one and I'm not even Jewish, but I heard it and I was like, that's beautiful. I like that one much better.  Um, okay. So  I'm trying to think of things.  You're in Florida and I know you guys have  alligators or crocodiles. One of them. We have alligators. Yes. And we have water on our property. So we have a creek that runs through our property pretty much right through the very center of it. And then at the front of our property, we have like a little retention pond area that looks like a green swamp.
12:26Um,  we, our property is actually in the green swamp, which is the main Florida aquifer that free that feeds the Everglades. So the aquifer is here. And then when the water comes out here, it flows south to south Florida and fills up the Everglades.  So we live in that swamp. And so we've had some crazy stuff happen.  Um, like during hurricane Milton, our property flooded somewhat bad. Like when we got home, we couldn't get up to the house. We had to kayak.
12:53the animals that we had taken with us on the kayak back to the house.  And there was fish swimming in our yard.  But thankfully the part of our property with our house on it and all of our animals stayed dry, it's up by the creek that floods a little bit.  But yeah, there's alligators and otters and a lot of snakes.  We haven't seen too many venomous ones, but we've seen coral snakes and water moccasins.  But the alligators are a very  regular occurrence.
13:23So do you just get used to having them around? Because if I had an alligator go in my yard, I would freak out. Well, I love it. So prior  to this and prior to nursing, I was actually a vet tech and a zookeeper. So I used to work at Gatorland in Orlando as a zookeeper and I learned how to wrestle alligators and care for venomous snakes.  so being out here in the country where that stuff literally lives on my property is like the coolest thing in the world to me.
13:54And so I get like the best of all of these worlds, like all kind of wrapped into one.  And I know I mentioned earlier that we rented this place for five years, but it was a five year struggle to buy it. So we actually just closed on it in June and it is now ours and we don't have to go anywhere.  Congratulations. I know how that feels. Um, we're coming up, well,  July  31st, five years ago, we closed on our place that we live at now. And I actually posted about it on Facebook.
14:24because it was a big deal. We worked and saved and scrimped and planned and manifested for like 15 years to finally find our place. And we've been here for five years and we love it. So I understand how you feel. Yeah, it was really, really hard. We literally, it took us a year from the time that we first got our pre-approval till the time that we closed. It took us 11 months.
14:49And it was the biggest nightmare. was so scary. And we thought for most of that time that we were going to have to leave and try to figure out how to take our whole homestead with us when there is nothing else available here to rent or buy. Like it's just, it's not out there. This is the perfect spot. I'm like, I want to spend the rest of my life on this land. I do not want to sell it. So I mean, buy it. I don't want to leave. I don't want to go. I want to stay here. And so we ended up being able to finally make it happen.
15:18Two years ago, I married my wife and  she so my husband died by suicide and her partner died by suicide and her and I have known each other for like 12 years. So one thing led to the other and things have been perfect since and now we have a 16 month old son  and our little family because I have a 16 year old from before. yeah, so everything's good and now we own this and we don't have to go anywhere. you know,
15:47Gosh, it's been  quite the adventure getting here.  I am sending you the biggest hug from Minnesota to Florida.  Thank you so much.  So you said, did you grow up in Wisconsin? Yeah. Yep.  I'm Ojibwa. And so I grew up in Wisconsin, but my family all lives on an Indian reservation in Northern Minnesota, actually, in Duluth. OK. OK, actually.
16:13So my sister and my mom just moved there last week and I'm kind of jealous because I wish I was up there a little bit,  but only at this time of year when it's nice because  I don't want to go back to the sun. So I to the snow. So I moved to Florida when I was like 19 or 20 and I just never looked back. I love it. The hot, I love the tropical. I love the snakes and gators and the fact that there's lizards and tree frogs everywhere. I think all that's great.
16:39You've ended up exactly where you were meant to be. I'm so excited for you.  The whole alligator and snakes thing.  Do you lose your chickens to the alligators or do you have them fairly well locked up so they don't have any chance to get hurt? The creek is probably a hundred yards from  the animals.  And so my water buffalo goes and swims in the creek, but the gators are smaller than him, so they don't bother him.
17:07and they don't come up by the chickens, thankfully. We do have a bobcat here and there once in a while, so we do have to be really careful about the chickens, but I've never ever lost a chicken to a gator or a snake. But I do have snakes that go in my coops because, and they eat the eggs once in a while, and I just call it my egg tax because they keep the rodents away. So we don't have any rats, we don't have any mice, but we have snakes. So that's totally fine with me, it's just not fine with most people.
17:37Mm-hmm.  Well, I'm kind of impressed because we have, well, for the first time ever in five years, we had a mama raccoon with three babies show up a couple weeks ago. they ate four of our chickens. Raccoons are terrible. Raccoons. Chickens, yeah. They're brutal. So raccoons  ate our chickens, but you have not lost a chicken to an alligator. So how dumb is that?  Well, we did just lose a chicken and a duck to a raccoon not long ago, which
18:07was really irritating, but  it happens. Yeah, I had heard of it happening, but I didn't believe it. Another crazy thing was that we have silky chickens and silkies are just really known for being dumb. chickens are dumb in general, but silky chickens are even dumber and they were free ranging. And now we can't let our silky's free range anymore because the vultures were picking them off. And I didn't know vultures ever ate live prey. I thought they just ate dead stuff.
18:37No, I think they actually fall under raptor definition. think I didn't know that until they ate a couple of our silkies and I was like, where are our silkies going? And then my daughter caught the vulture actually sitting right over by the coops, like waiting for them to come out. So that was a surprise. But the chickens are all much safer now. Now that we know. Good. We have we have ospreys we have
19:07bald eagles, have hawks, we have  turkey vultures. I don't think we have just regular old vultures. We have turkey vultures here.  And we had a litter of like seven barn kittens born a couple summers ago. And then there were five and then there were four  and we couldn't find these kittens.  And we think that probably one of the raptors picked them off because they were little and they had just started coming out of the barn. Oh, that's so bad.
19:38Yeah, so raptors will go after the most,  I don't know, convenient, easiest food source that's in front of them. Yeah, and silkies can't see above them. So they just  don't have many survival mechanisms.  And so now they stay in their  run and coop all the time. Yeah. And  are silkies the ones that have the feathers on their legs? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we don't have those fancy ones. We just have the ISA brown.
20:07laying hens. Oh, they're good layers though. They are. They're really good layers. My son went out and got the eggs yesterday and he came in and he was like, one of our chickens laid a golf ball and the egg looked completely round.  He says, he says, how does this happen? I said, I don't know. Mother nature is crazy. I don't know everything. Well, that's what keeps it interesting.  Sure does.  Um, so is your 16 year old part of the homestead? Yeah, she,  uh,
20:37chose to take care of all the chickens as her main chore. So I was talking to someone earlier this morning and they're like, yeah, our teenagers like to try to make the chickens like them more. And that's what she does. She'll buy them treats with her own money and she'll go sit in and take a chair in the run with the chickens and just sit in there with them and let them eat out of her hand.  She loves the pig. He's like 450 pounds, wild boar, big old tusks. And she goes and plays with him and you know,
21:05She was in his mud puddle with him the other day. I'm not even joking. There's like a whole photo shoot of it.  But yeah, she likes it here  most of the time.
21:17Okay, cool. Um, I always ask because kids aren't necessarily as into it as their parents are. And we didn't get our place until my youngest was in 19, I think. And so, um, the older three never have lived here on the property with us and they've come to visit and they're like, it's really pretty. And my
21:44my,  I always stumble over this. He's my stepson, but he might as well be my son. He and his wife just moved to Nebraska two winters ago and they now have their own one acre place that they're quote unquote homesteading. And this is the first summer he's been able to start a big garden and he's so tickled with it. That's great. And then you guys have more stuff in common. you, do you talk more or talk about it?
22:10I swear he calls his dad like two or three times a day. gosh. love that. That's great though.  Yeah. And I, it's funny because I will, I will  interject into the conversation after I ask if I can hijack it for a minute because he's on speaker.  Oh my gosh. And, they're like, yeah. And I ask him questions or I tell him something about here and he's like, that's so cool, mom, blah, blah. And then I'm like, okay, I'm out. Keep going.  And they will talk for an hour and a half at a shop.
22:38Oh my gosh, that's awesome for them. Yup, and considering that that particular child of the four was  difficult, it's the nicest word I can use, he had some things going on and it made him  more difficult and he knows that. He came to me and apologized when he was an adult because he was kind of a pain in the butt. I hope my daughter does someday. I'm holding a pope.
23:06Yeah, but it just, made it hard to be close back then in teenage years. And so I'm so  thrilled that my husband and his son have this  really tight, really close relationship. It's so good for them. I love it. So they're bonding now more than they did then, but hey, better late than never.  Oh, absolutely. If you can bond with your parents at any point in your life before they're gone,  do it. It's really important.  Um,
23:35Okay, so what's the nearest big city in Florida near you? Oh, Orlando.  We're actually, we're really in a really nice location. So Tampa is almost exactly an hour and Orlando is 45 minutes. So we're really centrally located to go to either of those places. And then Gainesville is about an hour north of us. So I love where we live.  We're in Orlando pretty regularly and we're in Tampa pretty regularly. Okay, awesome. So you're not
24:05It's not like you're off-grid stranded in the middle of nowhere. And  for the people who enjoy that lifestyle, good. But I worry a little bit about people who are  way, way out because if something happens,  if that's bad, it's going to go real bad. That's true. I'm grateful that we're not. My wife is just born and raised in the city in Orlando, so I don't know that she could handle that.  This was a perfect compromise.
24:33So I've lived here for five years, but she moved in two years ago just after we got married. And it's been like a whole culture shock for her, but she loves it. And most of the chickens are actually hers.  But yeah, so we're, have like a gas station about two mile, two and a half miles away. So we're not out out, but it really feels like it where we are. Like from  our house, we can barely see another house.
24:59Which is nice because we only have five acres so we don't have another property right next to us. Yeah, we can only see one house from our property, but our nearest neighbor is actually a quarter mile away.  The reason we can't see more than one house is we're surrounded by a 10 foot tall cornfield right now. Oh my gosh.  That's cool.  Yeah. And it's funny because the corn has never grown this tall in the five years that we've been here and they just started planting corn three years. It was alfalfa.
25:28And the corn has done exceedingly well this year in this field. And I wonder if they tried a new variety because this is craziness. My husband was over by the apple trees  and that corn is a good three feet taller than he is and he's five eight. That's nuts. Cause I grew up next to corn fields too. We don't have corn down here. It's really weird.
25:54Having grown up in I think it's weird. It's too hot. I've tried planting corn and it just shrivels up and dies every time I try, no matter what I do to it. I was gonna guess it's too wet, but yeah, the heat makes sense, because it doesn't really know. Yeah. hot heat, yeah. And when I've tried growing corn in the past, it's actually gotten dry, just because even though it's wet,
26:16It's so hot during the day and then it'll downpour in the afternoon. But like the heat during the day and the beating sun just like shrivels everything up. All of our tomatoes died this year and I was talking to some other farmers in the area and they're like, no one has tomatoes. I don't know why it was just too hot, too dry for too long. I wish you live closer because I could give you tomatoes every day until mid September at this point.  It's my husband planted over two months.
26:43My husband planted over 250 tomato plants this year. That is insane.  Drowning in We're going to be  swimming in them here in about a week and a  half. we have people who want to buy pounds and pounds for canning. So it's all going to work out. But last year our tomatoes did terribly because of the weather here in the Midwest. It's a crab shoot. Yeah.  It's such a weird gamble. Yeah, it really is.
27:15But either way, it's a worthy gamble because I am so excited that I get to have my first batch of bruschetta probably tomorrow.  Nice.  Yeah, that's exciting. With our own basil and our own tomatoes, and that is always the best kind. Yeah, for sure. I don't have basil. I'm not really great at growing herbs, but  I know people who are, so that's fine.
27:41We have a really nice community set up here with people that try to barter as much as possible. And  we're trying to intentionally just build community, the whole apocalypse acres thing. Like, I do think that in our lifetime, the crap is going to hit the fan  and things are going to get crazier. And so I have people that actually have directions to our house printed out in case they can't use their GPS  that are planning to come here if they have to. you know, we're not
28:09preppers by any means, but the option's always there. Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with being a prepper. I, I have such a hard time with this because preppers are people who prepare and that can mean preparing for a snowstorm in the middle of winter in Minnesota and not being able to get out your driveway for a week, or it can mean going much, much further and prepping for an apocalypse.
28:39And I think that everyone has to come to their own  definition and their own way of prepping. So  it's okay if you're a prepper. Jess, it's fine. Be a prepper. I love it.  That's a good way to put it. We  don't let it control our lives.  But obviously we have hurricanes here and the last hurricane last October, Milton, hit us really hard. We're still cleaning up from it.
29:08So we know what it's like to not be able to even get to our property because the power lines were laying over the front of it like we couldn't get home at all. So yeah, there's definitely a little bit of what if we know we need to be able to survive for about a week  on our own out here with no power and no water because our well pump doesn't work when the power is off.
29:28Yes, my daughter lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. Oh, and when the hurricanes, yeah, when the hurricanes came through last summer, last summer, right? Last fall. Last fall. Yeah. The second one or the first one, she called me and she was like, so just so you know, we're probably going to get hit by the hurricane. And I was like, yes, are you ready? And she's like, oh yeah, it'll be fine. And I said,
29:57I would say her name but she doesn't like it when I do that.  I said, daughter of mine, I said, you were raised in Minnesota with blizzards and ice storms and terrible thunderstorms. I said,  what do you think maybe you should be doing right now? And she said, probably going to the grocery store and stocking up on things that we can cook without heat or without power. And I said, yes.  And she said, and probably  getting some bottled water in the house. And I said,  yes.
30:26And she said, probably some other stuff too. said, yes. Do you want to go do that? She was like, yes, I will talk to the husband right now. We'll go stock up. said, that would be good.  Make your mother's heart stop racing. Please go do the things you know you're supposed to do in case of emergency. And she was like, I will. I said, OK. And she's 35, Jess. She knows this.  Oh, yeah. But you don't want to have to go to the store. You know it's when you guys are getting a blizzard. You don't want to have to go to the store when everyone else is panic buying everything too. It's awful.
30:56Yeah, and the worst experience I've ever had with that, and I've told this story too, but whatever. they did the, I swear it was March 30th of 2020 that our governor said, hey, really don't go anywhere if you don't have to. And if you do wear a mask and wash your hands and blah, blah, blah. And we shop every other weekend and stock up because it's Minnesota. You don't know what's gonna happen with the weather and you don't know if you're gonna be stuck in your house for a week.
31:25And so we were very used to that and we went to Sam's Club  and I'm telling you the panic and the anxiety  all through people's bodies at that store that day.  It was just, I don't even have a word. It was unnerving. That's the closest I can get. And you could hear people talking amongst themselves, you know, their shopping groups  saying, what do we do? What do we buy?
31:54if we're going to not be able to be shopping the way we  usually do. And I looked at my husband and I said, I think we should probably just get our stuff and get out of here.  And he said, he said, me too. We got out to the car, looked at each other and I was like, we are one step away from people rioting. This is really scary. And it didn't happen,  but people were  so upset and didn't know what to do with themselves. It was awful.
32:24Yeah, I think it was a really eye opening moment to realize how precariously our society in the United States is balanced. And how  one thing, even if it's not a big thing, could throw everything off to the point where people do start wiring or doing who knows whatever else. So it was eye opening for us. And so that's, yeah, kind of how this all started. Yeah, and there's
32:51Okay, I want to reiterate there's nothing wrong with being prepared for things that you can't see coming.  And  there are things coming that we don't know about. That's how the world works.  And  if you're smart in this day and age, you will know your local growers and producers and be able to buy  within a five to 10 mile radius of yourself.  If the supply chain goes down, that's those are the things that I really want to hammer on for today.  Yeah, that's a really
33:21concise way to kind of put it and so we had  yesterday we had a farmer over at our house who's starting a community exchange in a CSA who wants us to have our peppers and things in the CSA and pepper jelly.  Who is trying to do that within five to 10 miles I think is pretty close to his radius that he wants to do.  Just starting more community and being more intentional about actually seeing people in person and not just interacting on social media.
33:51because we've gotten really complacent.
33:56Yeah,  absolutely.  So  where can people find you Jess online? Yeah, we're doing mostly everything right now on Facebook.  So apocalypse acres on Facebook, our logo is a little calf in a gas mask.  And  we also have a TikTok account which went crazy viral with a spider video that I hope I never have to see again because I've seen it like 200,000 times it's been viewed by like 18 million people and it's been shown on like
34:24other podcasts and things and I'm so sick of hearing it.  But our TikTok, if you search Apocalypse Acres on TikTok, we're on there too. We also have an Instagram, but we don't use that quite as much.  And we're trying to figure out like where best to put our pepper jelly online because  Etsy is not the greatest spot for something like that. So we're figuring it out, but it'll be on one of those places.  Oh, awesome. So you'll be able to ship it. Awesome. Great.
34:51All right, as always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  thank you for taking the time to talk with me this morning. And I,  you work nights, so I was very excited that you said yes. Yes, it was perfect. I drank lots of caffeine and I'm still up. actually made bread after I finished working at eight o'clock this morning. So I'm about to go in and have some fresh bread that's hot, still out of the oven. And it was a pleasure and I really appreciate you asking me. This is really fun.
35:21All right, have a great sleep, Jess. Enjoy your sleep today. Thank you so much.  Have a good day. All right, bye. Bye-bye.
 

Wildflower & Bone Co.

Today I'm talking with Lauren at Wildflower & Bone Company.
 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters.  I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Lauren at Wildflower and Bone Company in Oklahoma. Is that right, Lauren? Yes, it is.  Okay.  Good afternoon, Lauren. How are you? I am great. How are you?  I'm good. What's the weather like there? We are actually extremely hot right now.  think we've...
00:30for the last five days.
00:34I am so sorry to hear that. Today is the first day in probably five days that it hasn't been unbearably muggy in Minnesota.  Oh my. So I'm taking a big deep breath of  much less wet air today. Yes.  Yes. We, my boys want to go outside all the time and  I hate having to tell them not right now.  Yeah. Unfortunately tomorrow we're going to be under a, a wildfire smoke.
01:04thing again from  the Canada fires. Oh no.  Yup. So you you can't win for losing, but I guess you take  the gifts you're given.  If that's a gift, yes.  Well, today is. Today is really beautiful  and not hot. And I don't have to have the AC running in my room right now  where I'm recording. And that's a good thing because otherwise you would just hear the hum from the air conditioner.
01:34Right now our air conditioner cannot keep up. Yeah, we had a day like that a couple weeks ago where it was set for 72 and the house got to 78. Yep. It's ridiculous. I think I have it at 70 right now and it's 75. Yeah. I'm not gonna lie. I love spring and I love fall. And if we could just stay, you know, have six months of spring and six months of fall, I would be thrilled.
02:04I agree with that.  So  I'm, I'm very much looking forward to September. I just have to get through August  to get there. That's all. Yes.  Okay. So you're a crafter. Tell me about yourself and what you do. Okay. So  I am 29 years old.  Um,  I taught  elementary school for about six years,  um, resigned. And then I'm currently going back to school.
02:32to be a speech pathologist. So about 10 years ago, I picked up my first skull. We own a ranch or partial owners of a ranch. And I painted one and then just put it to the side. probably five years ago, I had someone reach out to me asking me to paint something for a silent auction.
03:00for a cancer patient.  And  so for the last five years, I've done that. And then I had so many people reach out after this last silent auction  that I decided, let's go out and make it a business.  So I'm going to school full time,  a stay at home mom of two  and  starting a business. an artist who's starting a business. Yes.  Very nice.
03:30I have a quick question about your speech pathologist thing. a speech pathologist someone who does speech therapy with people or what did you do or what do you do? Yes, it is for speech therapy. Okay. And is it,  I don't know how to ask the right questions about this. Is it for people who have hearing loss? Is it for kids that have tongue ties? How does it work?
03:58It kind depends on the area you specialize in.  Generally, a speech pathologist will work with all sorts of patients. So elderly with hearing loss,  children who are born deaf,  tongue ties are very common.
04:17The audiologist side, which is a whole nother degree, are the ones who really work on the hearing.  A speech pathologist  basically makes it just so they can communicate in everyday life, whether that be  AAC, which is assistive devices,  or teaching them how to speak.
04:45Okay, well, as someone who started a podcast almost two years ago and is highly entertained  by the way that people talk and how they pronounce things,  the minute you said speech pathologists, I was like, ooh, what an interesting job.  Okay. So,  um, a podcast that's only audio is terrible for, um, talking with crafters because crafters want to show
05:14the things that they make.  But if people would like to see your work, they can go to your Facebook page and I would highly recommend that because the skulls that you paint are beautiful. Oh, thank you very much. I do have an Instagram as well, but it's also wildflowerandboneco.  I do post there quite a bit as well.  Yeah, the photos that you have posted on both Facebook and Instagram are just stunning.
05:44I  saw the name of your business on Facebook, that's how I found you. And I was like, wow, Flora and Bone, what's that? And I scrolled down and I was like,  oh my God, I wanna talk to her.  Okay, so  what,  like I'm terrible about these crafter interviews because I'm not an artist.  I used to draw, I used to paint when I was a kid, but I haven't done it in forever.
06:13What kind of designs do you do?  I will honestly do absolutely anything.  One of my favorite pieces that I've ever done  was for  a friend's  late grandfather. And it was one of his pictures  that I pasted onto an Aztec skull.  I have created an Oklahoma State University. I just finished up with
06:42an OU one. I do a lot of floral,  pretty much anything.
06:50Okay,  um,  I, when I saw them,  I thought that a day of the dead,  um, steer skull would be really cool. Cool.
07:03That would be really cool. Because they're so colorful. Yeah. And it is the skull of a dead seer. So mean, Day of the Dead would be appropriate. Yes. So maybe you'll get a  request for that sometime.  I would be happy to.  Have you always had a talent for painting?
07:26Painting started in college.  I've drawn  since I was really little. have an aunt who is insanely talented and she actually got me into it.  So I've drawn for a very long time.  And then I started painting in college for fun.
07:51Okay.  Um, I have a little tiny aside story I would like to share with you. My dad  used to draw and he used to do charcoal drawings.  Oh my gosh.  And he's,  I don't think he's done it in years. He's 82 tomorrow and he did this absolutely gorgeous drawing of a hawk and
08:16You know what a hawk looks like. There's all the gradations in their feathers of different colors, the beige and the brown and the black. Yes. And he did it in charcoal. And I swear to you, your brain would tell you that it was all the gradations of color, even though it was only charcoal. That is amazing. Yeah. My dad is so talented. It is ridiculous.  It's like when God created him, when his mom and dad
08:45managed to conceive him, God said, let's give him every good thing possible. Oh, I love that. He sings, he plays guitar, he's an artist, he  used to tie fishing flies and they were beautiful. I mean, this man has had more artistic outlets than probably anybody I know  and  never really  went anywhere with them. He just did them because he loved them.  Oh my gosh.
09:14Yeah. And his job was entirely technical. He was a biomedical technician,  which is someone who basically works on the machines that keep people alive at the hospital. Yes. That was his job. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So,  um, engineering and artistry go hand in hand in the brain. And so I feel like if you have any artistic talent, you're probably good at engineering.  And if you are good at engineering, you probably have artistic talent.
09:44could see that. I've noticed it with a lot of people in my life.  I had a friend who was a lawyer and lawyering is not engineering, but it is word engineering.  And he played guitar beautifully. I have another friend who used to work for Ford Motor Company.  Again, fantastic guitarist. Oh, wow. So yeah, there's something in the wiring of the brain.
10:12where those two things go hand in hand a lot of the time.  It sounds like there's some sort of connection there. Yeah, it's,  I mean, I don't, I can't say scientifically that it's there, but in my  lived experience, it's something that I've really noticed.
10:31So, but anyway, I think that  artistry and crafting are just beautiful things to be blessed with. Had  I had the chance to be taught by someone in art beyond high school, I think that I might have pursued that a lot more.  I'm one of those people who can draw anything once.
10:59But if I try to do it again, I can't do it again. But there's a thing for that. You're one of the kinds. Mm-hmm. Yep. So instead, I started a podcast because it's a lot easier and a lot less expensive.
11:17It does sound like a fun job though. It is fun. It's really fun. I really love talking with you guys.  Okay. So  I don't want to ask a rude question and I always feel like I'm being rude when I ask certain things.  Does this business support itself or are you still in the red?  I am currently  still in the red,  which this
11:46didn't fully take off until I'd say March  around there. okay. So it's fairly new.  I'm still very new.  And I made a big purchase  on the Longhorns,  which  I'm still trying to recover from.
12:09Yeah,  um, again, I don't want to ask a rude question,  but what does one longhorn skull cost you? They range.  So if I were to go buy a single skull today, depending on their horn length, so their tip to tip length, you're looking anywhere between five and  a thousand dollars.  Wow.  I purchased  nine of them.
12:40So I, and I cheat myself for sure on the price of my Longhorns specifically. So right now I just finished up this OU custom and it is, I believe it was 60 inches tip to tip and it is $600. Wow. Okay. And, and for anybody who's bad at math, 60 inches is five feet.
13:08It's my longest that I own right now  is 81 inches tip to tip. Wow. Wow. Are they heavy? They are very heavy.  So we actually take. OK, so on skulls, the horns you see on the outside are called horn caps, so those are just a protective cover  inside their horn  bone.
13:37is generally as long,  maybe a few inches shy  of their horn cap. So to cut out weight, we do cut their horn cores  just to make them a little bit lighter. And then you have the sanding and polishing, which  on  a long horn set takes somewhere between four and five hours just to get them pretty.
14:07Uh huh. And then  the painting time and...
14:13There's a lot that goes into it.  Well, yes, it wouldn't be called artistry if it was easy. I am blessed with a husband who does help me a lot.  He's actually the one that does the horns.
14:30He's been the biggest help.  That's a good one. Keep him.  Yes.  Okay. I had a thought and oh,  if someone had, okay, I grew up with hunters. Both my parents hunt deer  and I'm married to a hunter who hunts deer. And I have a kid who's the youngest who hunts deer.  If someone had  a  deer skull,
14:55with antlers that they wanted you to paint. Is that something that you would do? Yes, absolutely. So. So it's a commission kind of thing, right? I mean, they bring you they bring you the skull and they're like, I would love to have you do this. And then you quote them a price. Is that how it works? Yes. So I've done I've actually only done one deer and it was a floral piece. But it was the gentleman's own skull and he brought it to me.
15:26and I think I had a three day turnaround on it.
15:32Three days, that's all? Three days,  yes. Wow.
15:37Like how many hours a day of those three days did you do?  Collectively, that one probably took me four to five hours. And I mean, I have a two and a four year old running around. So my work is very spread out. Uh huh. Yep. That's what happens when you have kids.  But what a great outlet for you. Yes.
16:03because I remember when I had a 12-year-old, a 10-year-old, a 4.5-year-old, and a newborn, and I didn't really have an outlet. And my outlet was basically crawling into bed and trying to get to sleep and reading a book to drop off. Yep. That was what I had back then. They're all grown now, so I sleep a lot better. I can't say I'm not looking forward to those days.
16:28Yes, and I'm going to tell you the same thing. I tell everyone who has little ones, enjoy every minute of it. I know it's really hard being in the trenches,  but you'll never get this time back.  just, just try even to suck up the not so great moments because you will miss them. four year old actually starts school in August and  I can't say it doesn't make me hurt a little bit.  Yeah, it's amazing how
16:57fast it goes. So weird question, is the four-year-old curious about what you're doing when you're doing your work? Oh, yes.  Will actually, he goes with me  to,  we call it skull hunting,  and  he'll go with me to go through our pastures and stuff.  And honestly, he'll sit next to me with his little watercolor palette and paint alongside me. So.
17:24He's definitely interested in the art side of things.  I love that. That is so sweet. And obviously the reason I ask is because kids want to model what their parents do, what they see their parents doing. Yes. Good job, mama.  He actually told me the other day, he's like, well, mom, you sell the skulls so I could paint the leg bones and the jaws.
17:55And I said, you do what you want to do, Bubby. Bubby, I love it. Bubby. I miss my kids when they were little. Like, I'm glad I don't have to be up in the middle of the night for two hours keeping a seven month old entertained because he won't sleep. I don't miss that at all. But I miss the funny things that they say and they do.
18:20He came up to me, I was painting horseshoes yesterday and he came up to me and he goes, oh mom, these are the best ones you've done yet. Cute. And he means every word of it. Oh yeah, he's told me that he doesn't like, there was a skull that I did. He's like, yeah, I don't like that one.  Uh huh. I said, they're honest. it doesn't stay here, so.
18:47Yeah, kids are so honest. It's like you want them to gain a filter, but before five years old, you're like, huh, maybe you don't need a filter right now.
18:59Once they hit their teen years though, you know, it's good if they have a filter. Yeah.  Yeah. I had to work on that a lot with myself  and with my daughter. For some reason, we girls tend to think in words, many more words than boys do. Yes. And I think we have a harder time  tamping them  or,  um, as a word I want.  Honing them to the point where they're not quite so  sharp.
19:29I guess dulling them, actually. Dulling them so the words aren't so sharp. Yes. I was terrible. I had such a sharp tongue when I was a teenager. I should not have said half the things that came out of my face when I was 15 to 18. I tell my mom all the time how sorry I am. Oh, I do too. I do too.
19:55There have been so many times that I have called her out of the blue and been like, I was thinking about this thing that I did when I was 16. I'm really sorry. And she's like, I have completely forgotten it. I don't remember it. Yes. Say, I think every kid says that at some point, but the first time my four year old told me that he hated me was like, so that's how that feels. And yeah, it called my mom and I was like, I'm so sorry.
20:24Yeah, I had to explain to one of the kids that  basically when you say you hate someone, it means that you wish that they weren't alive, that they had never been born.  Yep. And they didn't understand what they were saying when they were saying it. And the minute I explained it that way, it never came out of their face again. I mean, you try that one.  Right now he tells me that I'm not his best mommy anymore. Uh-huh.
20:52Which is the equivalent of saying, I'm disappointed in you, mom. I'm like, that's fine.  At least I'm doing something right. Yeah. Yep. Being a mom is the most wonderful, thankless job on the planet. Yes. And I loved every minute of it and I still do. And I probably will until the day that I die. So  we're gluttons for punishment, I think sometimes.
21:19But I love that he is interested in what you're doing and that he's trying to be like you, because you're setting a great example for him with your artistry. Oh, well, thank you. Yeah, and you're giving him as much of an outlet as you get out of it. Yes. And kids need something creative. They really, really do. Yes, they do. I feel like, well, just in teaching experience.
21:46Kids don't have any imagination anymore. They've all been lost in the technology and.
21:56They can't just sit and play anymore.
22:03Yeah, and it's the same thing with the grownups too. Oh yeah. I mean, yeah, go ahead.
22:14Go ahead Lauren. Oh, it's instant gratification. mean everything is at our fingertips now and we can't just be in a moment. Yeah, I mean my husband is the gardener here at the homestead and I am so thankful for the 100 foot by 150 foot garden that we have because otherwise he would be watching YouTube videos 24 hours a day.
22:43And when I watch him work in the garden,  I see his body relax. I see his shoulders come down. And he takes a moment when he's done doing whatever he's doing and stands back and just gazes over the garden.  I'm so thankful for that because that's so good for him. Yes, it is.
23:10And  YouTube is great and podcasts are great and movies and books are great. Yes.  But not if you are constantly bombarding your brain with it. I agree with that. And I don't want to bash technology. I am sitting here in front of my computer talking with you in Oklahoma and I'm in Minnesota. Technology is amazing. Yes. But I don't think that we should overdose on it.
23:39100%. So, and I know what it's like to create. I used to crochet. I used to make scarves for my kids. I used to do cross stitch  and cross stitch is so  Zen.  Just,  that repetitive motion  and seeing a picture come to life from string and a piece of cloth is amazing. Yes. I have a niece that is
24:08into those  sorts of things and  she brings it to church with her even and just sitting there watching her it's amazing.  and the thing that's funny about cross stitch is it's great until you screw it up. Oh. And then you have to pick all those stitches back out to get back to where you were and that is not fun. But nope. I don't have the patience believe it or not for
24:38those kinds of things.  Well, I didn't think I did either, but funnily enough cross stitch and crochet  are very quiet  activities and raising four kids, my house was always really noisy. Yes. So if I had an hour where I was still awake after they were all in bed, it was really nice to just sit down and do something quietly with my hands.  Oh yeah.
25:08And anybody who's listened to the podcast knows that I really do love peace and quiet because I also grew up with two siblings. And so anything that gives me a chance to breathe and have quiet is always welcome. I'm missing the days where I can go to bed with the quiet reading a book. Right now I'm  until  midnight or after on homework. So.
25:34Yeah, and like I said, enjoy every second of it because it's gone so fast. I mean, I don't want  to pound on that too hard, but I'm telling you, you will miss it. I swear to you. It feels like I blinked and my baby's turning five in a month and going to school.
25:53Yeah, it's crazy how fast time goes. Now on the flip side of that, you have a beautiful outlet for a business.  when your kids hit teenage years and they're off doing their own things,  you will have a thriving already grown business, because you're growing your business while you're growing your kids.  That is the hope.  Oh, I think you will.
26:21That is definitely the goal.  Yeah, because I feel like art never goes out of style. mean, the style of the art may go out of style, but people always want something pretty or beautiful in their home. Yes. So your job probably won't go anywhere. And I don't think AI  can paint a seer skull  the way that you can.  I...
26:50Some of these AI images are getting little scary.
26:56Yes, but it will never have the heart that you put into it.
27:02Say the blisters from cleaning, cuts. Yeah, and AI doesn't feel. There's no love in AI. Yes. So people who bake things, there's a certain magic in really good baked goods, and it's the love that the baker puts into it. And the same thing with art. I agree with that, yes.
27:31So you have set yourself up so that when your kids start leaving home, and I don't want to make you cry, you won't hurt quite as bad with the empty nest syndrome because you will have grown another baby that is staying with you and it's your art.
27:48I like You know? Yes. So keep doing the thing and keep putting your beauty into the world because it's really important. Yes.  And we are at 30 minutes. Lauren, where can people find you online?  You can find me on Facebook at Wildflower and Bone Co.  and Instagram also Wildflower and Bone Co. OK.  Thank you so much for talking with me about how
28:17you do this and why you do this  because I was looking at the pictures and I'm like, how in hell does she do this? And now I have the secrets. Now I know how you do it.  as always, people can find me at a tiny homestead podcast.com  Lauren. hope you have a beautiful day. again, thank you for your time. Thank you for having me. All right. Bye.
 

Farm Fresh Wife

Today I'm talking with Julia at Farm Fresh Wife.
 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Julia at Farm Fresh Wife in Pennsylvania. Good afternoon, Julia. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. What's the weather like in Pennsylvania? Is it hot? Oh my goodness. It is think around 90 some degrees, but the humidity has been around 95 to 99%. So it is
00:29kind of gross.  I'm so sorry. The good news is it has finally broken here in the upper Midwest in Minnesota. So  maybe in a couple of days it'll be bearable in Pennsylvania. Uh, it says next week it's supposed to be around 70, like upper seventies and a little bit of rain hopefully tomorrow. So I'm looking forward to that. I think the whole freaking country is ready for it to not be so hot and sticky.
00:55Yeah, my kids have been spending more time inside. They go from the pool to the house.  That's about it.  Yeah. And let's just start this off with congratulations on the newest baby. Well, thank you.
01:09I saw pictures on your Facebook page and he is adorable. He is really good. I can't complain. All of my kids have been really good sleepers and babies and so far he's been really well behaved for us so I can't complain.  You are so  lucky. My youngest kid, I birthed three and I have a stepson.  My youngest baby that I birthed did not sleep through the night solid until he hit kindergarten.
01:39Oh my goodness. My little brother was like that. He was  the worst baby. And of course, my room was next to my parents' room at the time and he would wake up like every half an hour. So I dreaded that when I wanted to have kids, but I can't say much  now. Like I know I'm lucky. Yeah, you really are. And I mean, we're all lucky to be privileged to be moms, but  if you get a baby that sleeps through the night, you are very blessed.  Absolutely. Okay. So.
02:07Tell me a little bit about yourself and Farm Fresh Wife. So  I am 29.  My husband and I have known each other for 13 years. We've been married for five years as of July  11th.  We have a farm out in Jonestown, Pennsylvania. We raise beef cows.  I have obviously the dairy goats.  But actually before I started my business, I worked in healthcare.
02:38After we had our second child, I was working full-time nights  and I just kind of got tired of it.  I came home one day and I said, I'm buying Dairy Goats.  He goes, do you have a plan? I said, no, not really. I said, but I found two on Craigslist and I'm going to go pick them up next week. He said, okay.  Then I started making soap in our garage  and I watched a lot of YouTube. I talked to a lot of people. I even took a couple classes.
03:07That's just kind of how it started. was really just on a whim that I was like, I want to do something for myself. I grew up in a family of business people. My mom used to have a garden center and she does gourd crafts and she's been doing that for 20 some odd years. And my dad has done construction and landscaping for a very long time since he was like 16. So having a business or like
03:36being business oriented has always kind of been a part of me. I  worked for both my parents growing up.  So it just, kind of was more appealing to me than having to wake up every day and work for somebody else and leave my kids at home. And, you know, it was kind of like, it turned into like a vicious cycle where everyone was tired and, you know, they needed mom and mom wasn't home. I was working 12 hour shifts.
04:02And then it was like, hi bye to my husband. You know, we weren't going to bed at the same time or we weren't waking up at the same time because we worked opposite shifts. So it was kind of just like taking a leap. know, at this point I'm three, almost four years into it. And now I'm referred to as like the goat soap lady and I love it.  It like, tickles me pink that people actually know who I am and they come looking for me at craft shows and stuff now.  And it's actually, it's helped.
04:31you know, cover a couple extra costs here and there. And I get to be home with my kids and do extra stuff here on the farm too.  That is amazing. And the entrepreneurial, that's a hard word to say for anybody, is strong in you because of your parents. And that's great.  Um, when you said that you've been making soap for four years, almost everybody I talked to on the podcast  makes some
04:59form of skincare or soap in, you know, whether they do it to sell it or whether they just do it because they like to do it.  I'm astounded that Procter and Gamble is still in business. Yeah, I,  it was funny though, cause COVID was, you know, that was kind of the turning point. That's when my oldest son was born.  And like I said, it was just, I worked in healthcare for a long time. I started in the nursing home, went to the hospital, but it just, really took a change.
05:28and a turn for me because I  did  nursing classes in college and I was just about done.  And then I decided I was like, just, I don't love it like I used to. And I needed something that kind of gave me that spark back.  I mean, I love being around people. I love helping people. I actually had a gentleman come and find me at a show recently and I do make other products. I make tallow because we have the beef cows and that was kind of  just a spin off of my other
05:58stuff that I was already doing, but this gentleman came up to find me and  he had a skin issue that developed from taking medication and he said he was like, I just love this stuff. He goes, buy every other week from the lady that sells your stuff at the market and I just had to meet you face to face.  it just, it really made my day. And it's kind of funny because the things that have happened in the last year, mostly has been such a blessing.
06:28I couldn't have asked it to happen any other way. I've met so many incredible people just through craft shows and even my neighbors. We have a couple people that work bees out at our farm  and I've just become really good friends with him and his wife. And I use a lot of her beeswax and her honey and some of my products and she takes stuff to market for me because they go around and they sell all over the place. But I've grown to be really close with them.
06:57And then funny story,  she was actually at a market  and unloading some of my stuff and she dropped a whole case of tallow that she had bought from me.  And she had messaged me that night. She was like, I'm so sorry. Do you have like extra lids? Do you have extra labels? And I'm like, I'm really sorry. Like I can replace the labels and you know, but I can't really do anything else because  I didn't have extra stuff that day. And about a week or two later, I got a very random message.
07:27And this lady just so happens to live like three minutes down the road from me. But she messaged me and she said, Hey, she said, very random. She goes, but I found a jar of your tallow next to my van at church this past Sunday.  And she said, if someone comes and tells you that they're missing one, please tell them I'll reimburse them because I've used all of it. And I'd love to buy another one.  So, and she actually just opened a farm stand. she has.
07:52you know, since then has reached out to me and she has put some of my soap in her farm stand. So it's just when I say that I couldn't have asked for a better outcome this past year, I truly, truly mean that. And I mean, I thank God every day that things have happened the way that they have because it, it really has changed the dynamic of my home. And with my kids, my kids get to see that I work really hard every day and I, try to put my best foot forward and it's.
08:21a lot of it's for them, but a lot of it's also for me because it makes me feel good. So if mom feels good, everybody feels good, right? Yeah, happy wife, happy life is  kind of the same thing.  I'm really glad that you shared that story because the world is so stressed out right now and so chaotic  and everything seems like it's upside down. So you just gave an illustration of the fact that there are still really good people in the world.  Oh, absolutely.  I mean, it
08:50It baffles me a lot of the times,  you know, when you have an off day that it seems that somebody manages to step in at sometimes the worst, but the best times.  And again, like I, I just, can't stress it enough. mean, I, put a lot of my faith into God and I, truly believe that he's always listening. So a lot of these things could never have happened without that.  Yep. Absolutely.  Um,
09:18So what other, you said you have beef cows. What else do you have?  So we do raise chickens.  I have a donkey. We have a pony.  Mostly we started with just the beef cows and doing hay. My husband actually grew up on our farm. So he's been here his entire life.  About three years ago though, we switched gears a little bit because we had a lot of older cows and we used to raise primarily Angus, but we went to Semitols.
09:47Um, this last time when we bought,  um,  and we really, mean, I, I like them, their temperament has been great.  Uh, they calve fairly easily and we've had the last three years of  having the herd that we have, they've worked out pretty well for us. So we're, hoping that we can grow, you know, more for the community  and for family and friends and be able to.
10:15get to a point where we can butcher some more and provide meat in our area.
10:21I love that. I really stress on the podcast very, very often, probably too often,  that people who grow things need to, I mean, I don't want people who grow things to give them away. But if you grow a garden or you grow animals and you have extra, selling it to the local community is the best possible thing you can do because that gives the community  a chance to find out about you.
10:49and it gives them a chance to support you. And it's a symbiotic relationship that really needs to happen. Oh, absolutely. I'm a very big believer in small business, supporting other small business.  And  that's what makes the world go round. And you think about it, like back in the day, was so many mom and pop shops. And you had to rely on your neighbor  to get through. And I wish it was more like that today.
11:16And I'm hoping from what I see anyway, our community around here has been fantastic. Like I said, the people that have bees out here, they're great people. They're super nice. They also work super hard. it's,  they have that understanding of, you know, what it's like to be working day in and day out. And same with the lady down the road. She makes sourdough bread, but she works  very hard as well. I mean, she's  working night and day and she also has four little kids. So I.
11:45I can totally relate with her on that. But it's funny because we all found each other kind of on a whim.  And it's just the relationship that has blossomed over the last couple of years and even the last month or so that I've known her name's Bethany who lives down the road here.  It's just,  can't stress that it's been really good for me and for my kids to meet these people that also work.
12:15very hard or do similar things  because I want my kids to grow up also knowing that things aren't handed to you.  That it's,  you definitely have to work for, for things  that you want. And it makes you a good person to know that.  Well, yeah. And it,  it's more than just being a good person. It's, it's knowing that you're capable  and having a giving spirit or heart or however you want to say it.
12:45that's really important for self-esteem. Oh yeah, absolutely. I agree with that 100%.  And shout out to Bethany from a tiny homestead podcast and Mary and Julia, thank you Bethany for being awesome.  Um, hopefully she'll listen. That would be fun.  Uh, you mentioned that you sell your soaps in a local store.  I  actually have never looked into that for the stuff that we make here.
13:12Are there laws in Pennsylvania that you have to abide by to sell in a store or do you just have to do a contract with the store? So I know there's, it's kind of touch and go. Like you have to stay up to date with things. I know when I started initially, like the labeling requirements were different. You have to have certain things on your label to be considered, like able to sell.
13:41The one store that I sell in, it's a farm store.  But as long as I follow the guidelines for the labeling and there is no  set in stone FDA guidelines,  then it's okay. But  we are looking into possibly getting into our local grocery store, because it's a very small family-owned store. So that is something else that I'm looking into.
14:07But like I said, it's kind of touch and go because  since I've started, I know a lot of things have changed as far as the labeling and  the handling. Like you have to make sure obviously like you're in a clean area and the sanitizing and  I know it's different all over the place.  Like when I was started too, I looked into just laws all over the world because I was curious  and like in England, they have to have every recipe tested and approved before they're able to sell out of their home.
14:38So it's kind of funny how it varies from place to place.  But it's fairly, I would say, like an easy, simple process as long as you are following. You you get on every couple months and you're like, okay, maybe I need to change this or maybe this is out to date. I can update that. It hasn't been very hard.  Yeah. We have...
15:03We have a really robust farmers market every Saturday starting in June and I think they're running through October this year.  And so we sell our stuff at the farmers market and out of our farm stand on our property. And we're almost out. Like my husband just made two batches of unscented cold process lye soap two weekends ago because he was like,  we have sold almost all of our soaps. I was like,  Oh God, no, because that takes four to six weeks to cure. Yep.
15:32He said, yeah, I'm going to be making soaps over the next couple of weekends. I said, I'm okay with that. And I said, are you going to make the coffee scented one? He said, not, no. He said, making the unscented first. said, cause I haven't made any in over a year and I'm out of practice. So he made unscented and I'm sitting here looking at them on the drying rack as we speak. love that. I made soap today, this morning actually.
15:58I'm trying to,  I have some shows coming up, but they're fairly  close together in the next couple months. So I figured when the baby naps  and the other baby naps, I can try to get some of my work stuff done in between being out in this heat and little kids cooperating. So  I try to squeeze that in when I can.  Do you just have the two? No, have four. There's,  yep.  My oldest just turned six and then  the second one just turned four.
16:28And then the other one is one and a half. And then our youngest  is going to be two weeks tomorrow.  You are unbelievably busy. I can't believe you're awake enough to put a sentence together.  Lots of coffee.  Lots of coffee.  Yep. I survived on coffee,  um, with my kids after I stopped nursing them.  Um, I don't know what the, I don't know what the doctors say  now,  but
16:57they told me that like one six ounce cup of coffee a morning was fine if I was nursing, but anything above that was not good. Yeah, they change that all the time, but I drank coffee throughout my pregnancy, which I know a lot of people are like, I would never, but I didn't overdo it. It was like one cup of coffee and I started drinking coffee. I think when I was 15, 14, actually, I used to.
17:25I worked on a dairy farm, but our milking time was 3.30 in the morning. So I needed something and that was before energy drinks and  all that stuff. But I rather drink a cup of coffee than the other stuff that they have out there.  Well, coffee doesn't have all kinds of chemicals. You can't pronounce in it.  That is true.  I  really, okay, I'm going to make a very strong statement here.
17:54hate energy drinks.  To me, they smell like a compost pile smells.  And my sons, all three of them  love them. And they crack those things open and all I can smell is compost pile. I'm like, take it out side and drink it. Yeah, they have page done a lot. I can't stand it. I'm like, why can't you just make lemonade or iced tea? And they're like, because it's not the same. And I'm like, no, it's better.
18:25That is true. Yeah, I don't know. My husband likes those Celsius drinks, but I've been on him about that too, because I'm like, you know, you're not a spring chicken anymore and you shouldn't be drinking all this. But yeah, no, spring chickens probably shouldn't drink them either. But I get on with it now. I was like, we're a little older and we have kids and you know, I don't, that stuff always worries me though too, especially
18:50working in the hospital. We had some fluke situations where people have heart palpitations because they're drinking energy drinks and it's 100 degrees outside and they didn't drink water that day either. So they're pumping themselves full of caffeine and then they fall over in their yard and yeah, I get on him. He says that my cure for everything is drink water, drink water. I said yes,  I know. I tell you that for everything, but it does help  most things.
19:17You tell him that because it's true. Yes. And I have a story about energy drinks that I will share. My daughter was like 14 or 15. She's 35 now. And she had had, she drank like three or four energy drinks in one day. Oh wow. And she, she ended up in the emergency room for six hours because of what was in those energy drinks. She got herself
19:45She got herself dehydrated. I don't know how that worked with energy drinks, but there was something  in the energy drinks that she reacted badly to and because she drank so many of them, she was passing out. Oh, wow. Scared the living hell out of me. I thought she was going to die. Yeah, that is scary. But I've seen that more times than not working in the hospital and these young kids,  especially young kids, because they don't know.
20:14the risk factors with this stuff.  And  it's just, it's crazy. That's like the, the vaping thing that was,  that was scary too. We've had  numerous patients come in because they can't breathe because they get so much moisture in their lungs because they're vaping. And it's just, it's crazy. I mean, these things that they put out there for young kids to be having access to it baffles me.  And I think sometimes I
20:43I try to remind myself not to be a helicopter parent, but I also like to use  caution. And if there are things I can talk to my, especially my six year old, like she's at that age too, where she has questions about everything.  Like for example, we, my  husband's grandfather  used to smoke. So she was like, what is that? You know?  And it was more so like, okay, well we stand outside when he's doing that and  it's not really good for you, but.
21:11Um, it was, you know, you can't tell  an 80 some year old man to stop smoking after he's been smoking since he was 14 or 15 years old.  but yeah, telling him he's going to kill him is probably not going to hold much weight.  No, he, he told us during COVID cause he ended up very, very sick. He told us that whiskey and a cigarette was the cure for all.  So  very stubborn old military man. I said, well,  if I  said, if I end up with COVID, I'll
21:40I'll take that into consideration, but I don't think that's going to work for me. So yeah, yeah, I kind of take a live and let live approach with people like that. And I'm sure that he has redeeming qualities and he is a decent human being. But for me, I would be like, yep, I will take that under consideration. And that would probably be the end of that discussion. Um, okay. So.
22:04So really quick, because we're already off track, but we'll just stay off track for another minute. Your 29, was DARE, the DARE program, was that still in school when you were in school? Yes, it was. OK, so I remember it being a big deal. We had a little unit on it in health class when I was, I don't know, 15, 16. And it was all about don't do drugs. And really, I wonder if maybe the DARE program should now have
22:34don't vape and don't overdo on energy drinks included in the DARE program.  Probably. I feel like they should add in some things back to school.  just I have younger brothers, they're 10 and 13 years younger than me.  And just some of the stuff that they tell me at school, like they kind of, they went off track with a lot of that stuff too. Like they, some of their courses, I feel like don't even pertain to real life.  I really wish that.
23:01They would do more in school, even as far as like agricultural stuff. When I went to high school, our school didn't offer like the 4-H and stuff like that. So actually when I got started into my animal stuff,  I had to go to Lancaster, which is  45 minutes from where I grew up. And I was actually a part of the fiber arts 4-H and I used to do the sheep to shawl at the farm show.
23:28And I went to sheep shearing school and I did a lot of different things, but like my parents always had at least chickens or like a random pig that we would raise for a couple months and then we'd butcher it. But we weren't really big into ag, but I always  really liked it, which is why I've started milking.  I used to walk to the farm up the road and I milked for them because I couldn't drive. So it was  about two, three miles up the road. I'd walk up there or the other boy that I milked with, used to pick me up, but
23:58My mom actually, she wanted Angora goats in the worst way. So  one of my 4-H leaders,  actually, she had Angora goats and she had Angora rabbits. So she went away for a week or weekend and asked me to feed for her. And I said, okay. I said, well, don't pay me. said, do you have any goats for sale? And she was like, yeah, I have like one or two. And I said, listen, I will feed for you. And if this weekend's not enough, I'll feed for you another week or weekend.
24:28I'd really just like to get these goats for my mom.  And  she was like, okay, you know, that's, that's cool.  So I worked for her and I  got my mom, her first goat,  she got freedom. And then the other one was star because they were born around like fourth of July.  But  I started my mom off with her first two goats.  And then  about a year or two later when I could drive and we had a trailer.
24:55I found a cow and a calf pair, a Jersey cow,  and  I went bought my mom a milk cow. And now  she has  three Jersey cows that just had three calves  and she has, let's just say a handful of the Angora goats. Because girl math, you buy one, you end up with 10.  Yeah. So I kind of got her started on her stuff too, but it's funny because
25:24We just, we relate on a lot of different levels. Obviously she does like the fiber and I do the milk goats, but it's, it's fun because we compare notes a lot of the times and it's something else that we've been able to bond over  the last couple of years.  I mean, she has a small farmstead and well, I say small, but my mom works really hard and her garden is a hundred feet by a hundred feet.
25:49that woman would be out there on her hands and knees covered in dirt all day every day because she loves it.  But I guess I can get it legally because she's hard-headed and  works very hard and I think I get it from her.  You come by it honestly. I do.  I was just talking with my dad this morning and they have five chickens right now.  And  he said a couple of them are getting old.
26:16And I said, oh, well, you're going to get some more laying hens. And he said, I think I'm over it. He said, I'm 82. He said, getting down the hill to feed them when it's icy is getting to be dangerous. I was like, really? You're going to get out of them. You're over it. He said, I think so. He said, I think when they're done, I'm done. He said, I will just get eggs from the neighbor. And that was hard to hear. Yeah. You know? what?
26:45Yeah, I completely get that. My husband's grandmother is actually going to be 87 tomorrow. you know, she cracks me up though, because I feel like our kids keep her young. She literally lives right across the yard from us. So they go over and see grandma and she rides around in her golf cart. And that woman, mean, now, again, like I said, she'll be 87 tomorrow, but the heat gets to her.
27:12So like before the kids go over and bug her, I'm like, maybe we should call her first and make sure she's not napping. But kind of the same thing as my husband and I,  were like, you know, she kind of did slow down in the last year and  it's, hard to see that.  Um, especially cause she has all like, since I've known my husband, I've always just known her one type of way. And that's just like, she's been cruising around, doing her thing, gardening. Um, she loves her flower beds. She loves flowers in general.
27:42She has the greenest thumb in the entire world. That lady was like literally stick a stick in the ground and a tree will grow. I'm like, Oh, okay. You know, but yes, I love the older generation and especially talking about things that have to do with farming. we have a lot of people around us. Like I said, the community here is great, but we have a lot of older farmer friends that are just fantastic. And it's just funny.
28:11to hear their stories or to hear how they think about things or how you should do certain things. And I always have to tell my husband too, though, I said, you you have to sometimes keep up with the times. Like sometimes it's okay to let that old tractor go because it doesn't quite run like it used to. And sometimes it's okay to change the way things are. And, you know, you have to do what you have to do. But some of the old school ways, I mean, they still hold true. So I do respect that, but it's.
28:40It's just  funny to see how different things are from then till now.
28:47Absolutely, and one of the taglines that I play with all the time is  doing old-fashioned things in newfangled ways. And I think that's what you're doing and what I'm doing.  And my dad is still doing old-fashioned things in old-fashioned ways, and I'm really proud of him for that.  So I try to keep these to half an hour, but I have a couple more questions if you have time. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, okay. I don't want your husband to be...
29:12saddled with the babies for too long. God bless him for giving you time to talk with me.  What do you sell for products? Because I would like people to know what they can get from you. mostly is the soap,  the goat's milk soap, then the tallow. I make chapsticks, bath soaks,  and some odds and ends things. I started making some beeswax melts this year too. And sometimes I make bath bombs. They're not my favorite.
29:42They're not my favorite either. I  started with those  and I really like them and then it was kind of like,  don't love them, so why am I still making them? And I  think that also kind of  changed my direction with some things too because you don't want to do things that you don't like because then you won't want to do them.
30:04And that's kind of where I got to like, it's okay to say no,  I do have people that are like, can we get bath bombs or, you know, can you make this and sometimes as a business person,  you do have to say no.  I mean, there's times where you can save no for a better day, but I've just learned to that when you do work for yourself, in order  to keep it where you like to work for yourself, and you like to make the products that you make, it is okay to kind of change things up a little bit.
30:34I also  make  sugar scrubs.  So I try to keep a variety of things just because I know that you're not going to want to buy 10 bars of soap at the same time unless you're stocking up for something or Christmas. I know that's a big thing where people want to buy some stocking stuffers.  So I tried to keep that in mind too when I started making extra products.  But primarily, like I said, it is the soap.
31:03And I really enjoy that. So. Okay. I got a couple of things based on your answers.  Bath bombs are a pain in the ass to make. They either turn out exactly right or they fall apart. Yes, absolutely. That's, uh, yeah. I tried, I tried twice making them just for the hell of it. And  I  was like, absolutely not. This is not something I want to screw around with because the,  the,
31:30Return on investment is just not good enough. No, and it's hit or miss. I've had days where I have made 80 and they all turn out great. And then I have days where I'll make five or 10 because it's something I wanted to whip up quick and then they all blow up, like you said. Or I had an issue where they actually got so dry and I don't know why, but they got so dry from sitting that they just like crumpled. And I was like, oh, yeah, OK.
31:59And then that's all product that you have to throw away. And it's terrible. It's kind of like when I first started making soap, though, like  I would cry after every batch until I finally got it. Like it's one of those things that you do have to practice. And it's like science. It's a lot of fun. But  when I kept screwing up over and over and over again, like I knew it wasn't going to come the first time. But like it was like every time I tried, I'm like,  I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  And
32:27But it's funny because I look back now and I look at when I first started and I'm like, oh my gosh, my soap was horrific. It looked terrible. But I thank my friends that bought stuff from me to support me because I don't know that I would have continued if it wasn't for them. But it looks a lot better now. So that's,  that's all the practice and the crying, I guess that got me over that hump and I figured it out.  the stick to itiveness and the  determination to get it right. Yes.
32:56Oh, I don't like to be wrong. That is one thing that I mean, I can admit when I'm wrong, but when I want to be good at something, I will keep trying and trying and trying until I'm really good at it. Yeah, I understand. Okay. And then the tallow is the tallow tallow lotion or is it more like a sap? So I do a tallow balm and a whip tallow.  Primarily the whip tallow. So it's more of like a lotion.
33:25But that has, I started with the tallow balm. I really liked it, but it seemed to be more of like a fad and a request for the whipped tallow. And actually the more that I've made it, the more I've also fallen in love with it. But it also helped with like my collaboration with the community as well, because I started adding the honey in it from the bee people here. So it's kind of,
33:55It's cool that we can support each other that way. And I found more ways to do it. I also use her beeswax and her honey and some of the chapsticks,  uh, as well as, uh, like the sugar scrubs. And I make a soap with their honey in it as well.  Nice.  Awesome.  Can people,  will you ship if people want to buy it from you? Oh yeah, absolutely. And you're on Etsy?  Yes. It's paused till  August 1st. So.
34:23two days from now,  but yes, I have Etsy as well. Okay, I'll make sure I link that in  the show notes or the show description, whichever one makes more sense to people listening.  I heard the other day when I was learning about podcasting, because I've been doing this for almost two years and I'm like, I still don't know enough,  is that people get confused about show notes versus show description and they're the same thing. So I will make sure that it's linked to your Etsy shop. Thank you.
34:51Yep. And where can people find you online?  So I do have Facebook. don't really, I don't use Instagram all that often, but it's Facebook or Etsy.  Um, and we are working on a website, but that is not currently in the works right now.  All right.  This was fabulous, Julia. And again, congratulations on the baby and the fact that he sleeps really well for you. I'm so jealous  and,  having three other kids and
35:21staying a sane human, sane question mark human.  And as always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. I hope you have a great day, Thank you. Thank you too. Bye.
 

Sow The Land

Today I'm talking with Jason at Sow The Land. You can follow on Instagram as well.
 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters.  I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Jason at Sow The Land in North Carolina. Good morning, Jason. How are you? Good morning. Doing well. Thank you for having Good. Thank you for being here. I know that you all are very busy people and I really appreciate the fact that you take time to talk with me.  How's the weather in North Carolina this morning?
00:29This morning  early this morning.  It was very nice  Before the Sun comes up, know or right before it's about to come up. It's really nice But like right now  we've had a pretty good heat wave here this week  You know, I think  high of 95 which that's pretty hot for us because I'm we're kind of more in the mountains  And humidity is there  still
00:55But other than that, know, it's sunny. We got a little bit of rain, maybe five minutes of rain yesterday, which we needed. But other than that, it hasn't rained here in a good week or two. Okay. Well, I'm in Minnesota and it's been very hot here and we've gotten over five inches of rain in the last four days. Which I mean, it's better than last year because last year it was a drought by now. We had hardly any rain. Yes.
01:23That was us too, I believe. Yes, that was us too. We had quite a bit of rain in the beginning of this summer, which was nice. I think that was kind of like normal.  But yeah, I remember last year we had a good drought. Yeah, and the thing is the rain has been fabulous for our over 250 tomato plants. I just ate the first tomato yesterday and they are so sweet. They are fantastic. Yeah, nice. But...
01:48but all the off and on rain pretty much did in our cucumbers and we have  no viable cucumber plants this year. I'm so sad. Oh man, I know. Yeah, it's always sad times.  So I begged my husband the next time he's at the farmer's market, because we sell our stuff at the farmer's market. I said, next time you're there, trade tomatoes for cucumbers, please. And he said he would. So we're good.  And it is the first day in
02:15Oh, a week or so that it hasn't been sweaty, sticky hot at 5 a.m. So I'm counting my blessings. Yeah, that's wonderful. It really is. I record in my upstairs bedroom and I can't have the air conditioner on when I'm recording because you would hear the hum. Oh, yeah. And the last few interviews I've done, I've been like, oh my God, it's so hot upstairs without the AC. So thankful that it's cooled down finally, because it's been gross.
02:45Yeah. Okay. So tell me about yourself and about Sow The Land. Yeah. So we have a homestead farm in Western North Carolina. We as in me, my wife and my daughter, she's now a We've been doing this since 2016. We first started when we first moved out in North Carolina, we started at one and a half acres and then
03:15lived there for six years and now we're on 14, which we've been here about three years now  and  where we grow  a lot of our food, not all of it, but  you know, currently we have  a 72 foot high tunnel that we grow in plus  a 1200 square foot outside garden and then  some raised beds.  We also have raised pigs,  cooney cooney pigs,  which
03:45If you're not familiar with them, they are probably the cutest pigs that you'll ever see.  And they're very easy going.  If you're new to pigs, they're a great pig to start off with.  And they're very gentle on the land.  hear they're sort of friendly too. Oh, they are. You could train these pigs  easily to follow you around.  You know,  we butcher them for meat.  I mean, that's a little hard because they are cute.
04:15You know,  but we breed them here too. And  we've had them since we lived here. So  I guess in three years, we have a breeder pair and we breed them. then  we also had two,  we raised  two steers here.  do, geez, this year, think we've  almost 300 meat chickens this year that we're raising.
04:43You know, we have 40 egg layers  and we move everybody around  on pasture, in the woods,  constantly moving  these little pig and chicken structures everywhere.  And we also have our own YouTube channel and the whole time  while doing all of this, we film  what we're doing.  it's kind of been, you know, as we're learning this lifestyle,
05:13kind of sharing what we're learning  and just documenting that for folks who want to watch what we're doing.  Well, good on you because trying to video the things that you're doing takes time and patience and skill. So I'm really proud of you for sharing it. It definitely does.  It's a whole other aspect that some people, know, when you're watching us doing something, you kind of don't realize that that's what we're  You know, and it's just so, you know,
05:42Editing videos, it takes time, filming, a camera around. It's definitely not easy, but I've grown to love it.  It's just another aspect of what we do. Yes, I feel like once you get the system down and it becomes second nature to you, it's a lot easier. But what I want people to know is that being a content creator and
06:09trying to do that around homesteading or farming is a whole different ballgame. There's so many pieces that people do not know, number one, about homesteading and farming,  and number two, about content creation  and the skills that it takes to do both. Oh yeah, you gotta be  the one-stop shop pretty much.  I film myself, I edit the videos, I still do that.
06:39the actual raising the animals, moving the animals, growing the food,  building the things that need to be built and fixing things and filming yourself doing it.  And then figuring out like, you know,  platforms to use and figuring all that side of things and how often do you post and  what do people want to see? And, you know, it's just,  it's like, I'm the marketer also, you know.  You have three full-time jobs. Yes.
07:08I have a quick question about the content creation stuff and then I want to get back to your story of how you got here. What's the shortest video you've done on YouTube that you've posted? Well, they have YouTube shorts now, so it's like a minute long if you count those. I remember when we first started, I was doing YouTube shorts before there was shorts. I was kind of treating YouTube as kind of Instagram stories. I would just go around.
07:37you know, really quick with my phone and just a little clip of something like me moving a chicken tractor, which is like 30 seconds or 50 seconds or something.  And I would just post that.  I would say those earlier videos are probably the shortest ones I've done and I still have them up on my channel.  Other than that, would be the YouTube shorts that I do every now and then. Okay. Well, let me ask the opposite question. How long is the longest video you've done?
08:06Longest video I believe is almost two hours. So what I've been doing for the last few years, well more than that, probably like last five years or so, I'll do like kind of like a, I guess a best of like catching people up at the end of the year of like what we did throughout the whole year. I'm kind of in one big giant like movie. And I'll do that at the end of the year and those videos
08:35do really well for me.  And it's just kind of taking all the footage that I've done throughout the year and footage that I've already posted in a video or  and some of it I have not. I just never made it to a video.  And so I would just put it all together and like I think last year was almost two hours long  that you're just making like one giant movie.  I like doing but it's just
09:03It's like I start editing it in October and I have it out by January 1st. That's how long it takes me. I was going to say an end of year recap is a perfect example because I was going to ask you how many hours it takes to get that finished two hour video. Oh yeah, start in October and I'll have it done by like end of December. You know, I'm not working on it 24 seven, you know, it's just kind of off and on. can try to get to it.
09:31It just, takes much longer than the two hours that people see is what I'm trying to get at. yeah, like a typical video, like on a, just a regular video, it'll take me maybe four to six hours to edit that one, like what, 20 minute video? So. Yes, exactly. It is a skill and it is work and it is time and it is passion. And I want, I want listeners to know that this is not just fun. It is fun.
10:00But it's work, it's real work. know, if everything, yeah, I say like I've said this before, like it's the most hardest and the most rewarding thing I've ever done.  Exactly. Yeah. And I'm not going to sit here and lie to you. When I do the podcast, I do very little editing because it's just a conversation. Unless someone says something  inflammatory or  uses one of the bad swear words.  I don't have to do a whole lot of editing.
10:28My time is involved in finding people to talk to.  that takes time. It really does because everyone is living very full, very busy lives. And  I feel honored when people say yes, because I'm nobody. I'm just me. If you want to spend 30 minutes yapping with me  about what you do, I'm thrilled to have you. That's great.  OK, so  now we've talked about all that. How did you get here?
10:56How did you get to where you are? Because I know your backstory, but not everyone does.  Um, so me and my wife, my wife and I were originally from Southern California, which is just outside of LA. And we lived there our whole lives. And we met in high school.  Um, it never lived anywhere else. That's where all of our families from and still live. And, um,  it was,  I had just turned 30 years old, which is now she's
11:26I it's like 15 years now. I had just turned 30 and I think it was in 2010 and I got diagnosed with cancer and that was the reason that what started all of this, where we're at today. And I don't think if it wasn't for cancer, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing now. I don't think we would even know that this whole other life would exist for us.
11:55And that kind of like changed our mindset of like, how do we want to live, you know, after getting a diagnosis like that, you know, I did  six months of chemo, lost my hair and everything. And  after that, I was in remission ever since.  And, you know, no  crazy surgeries or anything. And that was just so totally unexpected.  It was during that time is when we
12:26started talking about nutrition and, man, should we be eating differently and all these things? prior to that, we just kind of had the, you know, grew up the standard American diet, you know, just regular folks, not just doing our own thing. And, you know, I worked in an office job. I was a computer drafter. So I draw up blueprints for a company and my wife, she worked in the fashion industry. And so it was during that time. And then
12:56You know, when I was going through chemo, we just started looking at just different things of what we should be doing better. And I remember the last oncology appointment is when I had my last final CAT scan to determine like, you're officially on remission, you no more chemo. So I asked the doctor, I was like, okay, so what now? You know, it was such an emotional roller coaster time.
13:25Cause you just don't know what's, you know, very question. You don't know what's going on. You're just kind of following whatever the doctor's saying. This is what we got to do. And so much emotion that at that time. And so I always thought like, that's it. You know, am I supposed to be taking, I don't know, vitamins or follow a nutrition plan or something. And the doctor just looked at me and was like, no, you don't gotta do anything. You know, just go. She said, go back to your normal life.
13:54It'll be like never happened. And it was almost like, I looking back at it now, it was almost, I felt like we were, we wanted a doctor to tell us how to live, you know, like how to, I want that doctor to tell me how I should be eating. after she said that, it just didn't make sense to us. Like, there's no way, like, just go back.
14:23Like it never happened.  so that's when we started to kind of figure it out for ourselves of what we should be eating and not eating and cutting out of our diets and,  you know, we should be more active.  And that kind of snowballed into wanting to grow our own food because we never had done that before.  Didn't even know anybody who did that. Honestly, I don't think we've had friends or family that had any kind of garden.
14:50Definitely no kind of farm animals, no chickens or anything like that. So we just figured if the only way we're going to really know what's in our food, if we start growing it ourselves. we had a backyard and we had a of a couple of raised beds and there was some, know, bought some plants, tarts and started growing our own food. you know, growing that first tomato plant was like amazing. It was so empowering. And, know, and then when you
15:16have it when you eat it, you're like, oh my gosh, this tastes nothing like the grocery store. It was amazing and we fell in love with that and we just kept on trying to learn and figuring it out like how to grow food and growing cucumbers and growing kale, know, and just stuff like that. Then we had our daughter right after that and you know, we would kind of joke around. I remember joking around like, you know, we had like six raised garden beds and
15:45We ended up getting two chickens  for eggs.  And we is pretty cool. Like raising a couple of chickens, we have a little garden.  And then we started joking around with like,  wouldn't it be cool to have more land? You know, we're like, yeah, maybe we could, I don't know, raise a couple of cows or something. I don't know. And it was like, kind of like a joke that we would say because, you know, we're in kind of LA and it like, there's no land around here.
16:15During all that time of questioning our food, we were kind of questioning our jobs. What we wanted to do, like, was this job, this is it? I went to school and I got a job because I went to school and my wife was in the fashion industry and she eventually quit to be a stay-at-home mom. And so she was already at home and
16:42And me, I wanted out of my office job. I was there for 17 years of doing the same exact thing, sitting down in front of a computer,  in the office, in a cubicle. And that was kind of eating away at me.  And slowly, I didn't want to be sitting down anymore. I wanted to be  working with my hands  in the soil or building something.  And so  slowly,
17:09Probably a good six years after from 2010 to 2016, we started getting rid of our stuff. Like we collected a lot of things and we weren't living very minimally. But as we started to talk about this, hey, we might get land somewhere. I don't know where or if that would ever happen. Because also our family lived, we all lived like 30 minutes at least from each other, right? Like there was no way we're going to move away from them.
17:39That's why it became kind of like a funny joke, but  slowly we started to get rid of stuff because it's just stuff didn't matter anymore.  What mattered is our health and us being healthy and happy as a family. so we started getting rid of stuff.  We had bedrooms of furniture that we never went in. We got rid of furniture. We got rid of things on the walls,  collections that we had.  And next thing you know,  we
18:09pretty much just had maybe a couch and a kitchen table. And when we got rid of lamps, we got rid of everything in our house. we said, okay, I think we're pretty serious about possibly moving somewhere for some land. Because we also went down to one car, we were trying to live more minimally, try to get out of some debts that we had. And we're like, all right, let's sell this kitchen table.
18:39And so we did and then shortly thereafter, we sold our home.  And that was the first home that we bought together after we got married. And we're like, okay, we're going to, the plan was we're going to go, because my mom lives like kind of on the next street over. So we're going to live with mom for a year  and  we're going to continue to save and figure out where we want to be as far as.
19:06We knew we wanted a little bit of land, even just an acre we're looking for. And we're going to go look and see what we find. And that took a big step because, you know, I didn't want to move back in with mom, right? I feel like we were taking a step backwards after all this, you know, this college and having careers and stuff. And so that's what we did. We sold that house and we paid off some debts.
19:34with that money that we had saved and we had  money saved and  lived with mom for a year. And during that time, we kind of like looked around. We wanted to stay in California because that's where all our family and friends were. And that's really what we knew.  And then we started venturing out. We'd take a little vacation throughout the year,  know, New Mexico, Arizona, just kind of just looking around.  And, you know, we came to realize California is super expensive.  There is no way we
20:04we could have  afforded anything.  And at the same time,  I wanted out of my office job  and I didn't know how to do that. Cause I wanted to, the plan was I wanted to be at home,  like kind of working on our own business. don't know what that was, what that would be like at that time. And  we kind of wanted to work for ourselves and be at home. Cause my wife, also wanted to  homeschool our daughter.
20:33Okay. Can I, can I stop you for just a second? When you were living with your mom, was your daughter already alive? Yes. She was, uh, three and we left when she was four. So she got a whole year spending time with grandma. Very nice. Oh yeah. Yeah. That was hard too. Like when we left California and we're taking the granddaughter away too. So that has been difficult. Yeah.
21:01But  the memories that were made are so special, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, my mom, she she loved us having been there, you know, like she was like, stay longer.  So after,  I don't know, it was, mean, that whole process was like, of getting rid of stuff, you know, after, after chemo to sell in her house and then looking for a place is like about six years. then around 20, end of 2015, we knew,
21:31family that moved out to the Asheville, North Carolina area to kind of do  what we wanted to do was like grow food, have a little farm.  And we had never been past New Mexico, you know, like we've never been  on the East Coast at all. And so they would tell us about this area and we're like, oh, we have to go visit. So we went to go visit on vacation for like a week  and we didn't look at even  look at properties. We just went to just go see
22:00what was going on in North Carolina. We had no idea what the weather was like or what.  So we went to go visit and  we just fell in love with the area.  Even the short times we were there, the people that we had met and  just the community that was there. mean, a lot of people doing what we wanted to do and  a of little small farms.  I think it was just so much different than California as far as weather.  There was water everywhere. There was no droughts.
22:30You know, super green.  And so,  we came back home in California and  I think six months went by and we're just still not sure what to do.  We did not want to move that far away because we'd be that's like the furthest you could possibly go of moving away from family and we didn't want to move away.  But you know, was, we felt like we were just drawn to  move out here.  And so, another, you
23:00my job's like, okay, what am I gonna do with my job? Like I gotta work, like when am I just gonna quit?  And so,  you I looked for places or do little jobs out here while I was in California and I couldn't find anything.  Nothing was coming up and it was just kind of frustrating at that time. And so I thought, you know what? I'm just gonna quit. I'm just gonna quit. Like I could do that. I'm an adult.  I can make these decisions,  right?
23:29And so that took a lot of  just man, I guess guts  to trust in the process.  so I eventually quit the job  and  with the very little stuff that we had,  well, I should go back to that. All these are like happening on all these steps that had to happen.  So before I quit,
23:58I told my wife, I was like, okay, we're never gonna really know if we're gonna even find anything over there in North Carolina. So, I'm just gonna go for the weekend and go look at properties. So, she trusts me enough to go by myself. Like on a weekend, I saw like 15 properties and I saw one that was one and a half acres. It kind of checked everything off the box that we were looking for, you know, it was affordable.
24:27The only thing it had a single wide mobile home on it, which,  it was  abandoned, know, it needed a ton of work.  And, but it was  kind of everything else was,  was what we wanted. And so we eventually  bought that and then came back, quit my job, put in my two weeks.  And with this little stuff that we had, we,  moved  all three of us, we moved out here and.
24:57The plan was just we'll figure it out.  If it's meant to be, it's meant to be.  At that time, like YouTube, like filming ourselves wasn't even in my radar. Like I didn't even think that was a thing.  All I knew is  we wanted to work from home somehow and I didn't know how to do that. And so  I maybe I'd do, I liked woodworking,  like making things and  you know, that might be a thing.
25:27that I do  and it has been.  And so,  eventually I thought, well, know, eventually the reality is I'm gonna have to go find a job somewhere.  So,  we had about  six months  of savings  where I knew like if I didn't work for six months, we would be fine. And so, I think about three months went by, you know,  after coming from a job that you got paid every single Friday and you had, you know, paid vacations,
25:57paid sick leave, paid insurance and all this stuff and all of a sudden that was gone. And three months went by and I did not not got paid. Trying not to freak out. And so I went to go look for place, our job and you just can't find anything really. So it was during that time, our family was super supportive of us moving out here.
26:27But also at the same time, I felt like they really didn't understand why.  And so, I would take these little  videos with my phone and like email mom, email grandma, hey, this is our garden or here's our daughter. Like she's  starting her own little garden, you know.  Just kind of what we're doing for the day.  And then that kind of got old after a while. And so,  I thought, how about I just put it up on a YouTube channel? I'll just put these little short clips or whatever I video and...
26:57that'll be, they could watch it whenever, know, mom, here's our YouTube channel, go ahead and watch whatever, you know, stuff I post.  And then it just kind of grew from there. Like other people started watching us, which was wild.  Um,  and I think we started the YouTube channel maybe a year after we moved here.  Um, and that kind of grew to what it is today. And then,  um, yeah, we just sharing  what we're doing  and, and we,
27:26The plan was we didn't want to, I didn't want to work for somebody else.  We wanted to work from home and work for ourselves and  we wanted to grow as much food as possible and  just be healthy. And we've been doing that ever since.  Okay. So  you ended up moving to 14 acres after that.  And are you selling what you're growing? Yeah. Last year was the first year we started selling
27:55like a pastured poultry or chicken meat. And then we started selling pork too. So at the end of last year, we started doing that, just growing, you know, just raising some extra than what we're doing for ourselves. And then this year, we started, you know, we're starting getting more into selling chicken and also turkeys. So pork, chicken, pork and turkeys right now, we started growing a little extra. Now we're not going...
28:23I'm not going super crazy and doing thousands of chickens or anything like that. It's just, you know, maybe a hundred or two extra a year and just try to sell that and see where that goes and see how that works and, you know, see if we even like doing it. Mm hmm. You are the first person I think I've talked to, Jason, who basically jumped off the cliff praying there was a river underneath of it. That's what if I for a long time,
28:53It felt like I was  drowning  where I'm like lost at sea and there's nothing around and I'm just like trying to tread water here. I'm just trying to float and then just grabbing onto things that go by and seeing if that's the thing I'm supposed to be doing.  And it was really just  I said yes to a lot of things like everything that came my way I'd be like yes, I'll do that.
29:21you know, or just like spread the word around.  Cause we didn't know anybody out here.  We didn't have family out here.  So just trying to  latch onto something to help us  grow, you know, to help us figure out what am I supposed to be doing here? Like what am I going do for work? Like that's, you know, reality is yes, I have to, we have to pay bills. Like we have, we have those things.  So it's just trying to say yes to everything and  just seeing what works and
29:50It's still kind of like that. mean, I'm  saying less yes to things, but  I'm still saying yes to a lot of things.
30:00keep saying yes because that's where the beauty is. Yeah, I think it was within those yeses that  kind of you understand or for me I understood like what I like doing, what I don't like doing, what's working, what's not working and I'm still saying yes to things  and just trying to figure that out because I also feel like it took a lot of effort, right? Like it took a lot of effort to move out here.
30:26Selling all our stuff and just quitting our careers and just leaving. That took so much emotion and physical effort. Then once we got here, it was I felt like what now? Uh-huh. Like is this it? We did it? Like okay, we could just live happily ever after? Like  I feel like no, that can't be it. Like we still need to live and figure this part out.
30:55And  I still kind of feel that way. Like I'm still trying to figure it out. Like is there something else I should be doing out here? Like the reason why we move or is doing these videos,  is that the thing? Is that the reason? Yeah.  Yeah. And you made a huge  leap and I can completely relate to the we did it. Is this it? Yeah.
31:22Because almost five years ago, we left a home that we lived in for 20 years to move out in the middle of the cornfields and soybean fields. and the day that we actually were officially moved in, I went outside and looked around at our 3.1 acre property and went, Oh my God, we did it. What now? It was that big, weird, hollow chest thing of
31:52Holy crap. Yeah, we did the thing.  What now? I know it's such a wild feeling. I mean even for the longest time to a few years after we moved out here.  I felt like I did something wrong.  You know, like I felt like almost I had this feeling that someone was going to drive up on my driveway in the yellow and tell me like how dare you do that? How dare you just leave?
32:17you know, that's so irresponsible of you. Why would you move your four-year-old daughter out here and not know anybody or family? Like, I had those thoughts in my brain  and  slowly,  you know, I just, you know what? There's just, why are we here? We're here to grow food. Like that's initially why we're here.  And so I  think just the act of just  living our day and just  not forgetting the why.
32:47has helped me get through that. I don't think that way anymore, but I think that helped me get through that part of it. It was like doubt, right? It was doubt telling me, no, you can't do this. How dare you? Yeah, I went through a feeling of being selfish because  part of the reason that we moved is because we lived right in town, in a small town. We were a block and a half off of the main street in a small town. And it was
33:16noisy and it was dirty and it was busy and I am not that person. I need quiet. need peace. So 20 years of my life, I lived in a place that I really didn't want to live in,  but it was really great for raising kids because everything was within walking distance and the schools were good and we had four kids.  And so when we decided to move, I was like, it has to be outside of town. I cannot be a townie anymore.
33:46And we had really good friends in that town and we still do. And some of them come visit us. And when they first came, they were like, Oh my God, it's so  pretty.  And it is pretty,  but I don't really care that it's pretty. I care that it's quiet.  And so I had, I had a good four or five months of feeling really selfish and  privileged because we were in a position to get the thing that I
34:16really needed. Oh yeah, I understand that. I know, it's such a weird feeling to you.  Yeah, I think after a while, you know, our family, they visit us now. Now they're like, I think the first couple visits, they're like, okay, I get it. You know,  after the good food that we have, that we've raised and they eat that and it's like, oh my gosh, this is it. You know?  But it took a little while to get there.
34:42of uncertainty when we first moved out here of like, this going to work? I don't know. But you know, slowly we're just, you know, you just got to keep at it, keep moving forward. And I also can relate to your family starting to get it because they ate the food that you grow. My husband talked to his dad this past weekend and one of the first questions his dad asked was,
35:07How are the tomatoes coming along? Because my father-in-law loves bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwiches. Nice.  Yeah. So he is ready for the first two tomatoes that we can spare. Right.  I know. One time we're cooking a half a hog that we processed here ourselves. And we raised this pig ourselves. And  my dad was like, are you going to cook that half a hog? He's like, he lives in Arizona.
35:33I'm like, yeah, we're gonna do it on this date. He's like, all right, I'm flying over just for that weekend. He was literally here for like two days just to eat this half a hog. And he flew back and it was kind of fun but it was cool. That's adorable. I love that.  Okay, so Jason,  I try to keep these to half an hour and I knew this would probably run long because you have a big story behind your life  and I wanted to hear it.
36:04So here's the thing, cancer is a big,  scary,  awful thing to go through.  But I feel like in your case, it was a beautiful wake up call. Yes, it was. And like I said, I mean, I don't think we would be living this lifestyle at all if we didn't get it. And so I thank God  for cancer every day.  But at the time, know, at the time it was very uncertain and very scary.
36:33It was just  trying to keep moving forward really and just figuring it out. Yeah, it has led us to beautiful things in what we're doing today.  I am  so happy for you and I'm so glad you're still in the world to share your gifts with your community  and your family  and especially your daughter who is what? 17, 18 now? No, she's about to turn 14. Oh,  okay. Well, either way, good.
37:02Good luck with the teenage years with a girl. It's not as hard as you think it might be. Yeah, it's been fun raising her completely different environment than what me and my wife were raised, you know. But it's been fun and she loves it. mean, this is all she knows now. yeah, she's grown up with the chickens. I think that's gorgeous. I think that is a wonderful thing. All right, Jason, where can people find you?
37:32You can find us on sowtheland.com. We're on Sowtheland on all the things.  YouTube, Facebook,  Instagram.  Yeah, and our own website, sowtheland.com.  I also  have our own podcast.  I do with two other  guys and it's called Homestead Shop Talk.  Oh, okay. I'm going to have to go find it. Yeah.
38:01Awesome.  All right.  As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  And Jason, thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it. Thanks for having me. It was fun. All right. Have a great day.
 

Thrifty Homesteader

Today I'm talking with Deborah Niemann at the Thrifty Homesteader. You can follow on Facebook as well.
 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Debra Neimann at the Thrifty Homesteader in Illinois. Good mor- well, it's noon.  Good day, Debra. How are you? I'm great. Thanks for having me. Ah, thank you for being here.  Um, what's the weather like in Illinois today? Insanely hot.
00:26Um, we actually have this really horrendous thing  called evapotranspiration.  Um, Illinois is actually more humid this time of year than the Gulf coast because of corn sweat.  Um,  all of these billions of acres of corn and soybean are drying out in the fields, releasing their moisture into the air. So, um, we have a heat advisory today, even though it's only like, um, only supposed to be 90 degrees.
00:55But the heat index gets dangerously high because of the high humidity.  Yeah, we're here in Minnesota, where we live, around my house. It's all corn fields and  there's a soybean field across the road from us.  And  I can remember my dad and my mom mentioning corn sweat when I was a kid and being like, that's gross. I don't want to know about that. That sounds terrible.
01:22Yeah, I swear to you it is hotter on our property than it is in town, which is four and a half miles away when it's like this because of that trans evaporation or whatever it's called. Yeah. Evapotranspiration. Yep. Crazy. Yep. But it's summer in the Midwest. So there you go. Yep. It's pretty brutal.  Yeah. Somebody told me that
01:49When I moved to Minnesota, they were like, oh, you live in the Midwest now. And I thought, you know, I don't think Minnesota is Midwest. And I had to look it up and it's upper Midwest.  So I learned something because somebody was like, oh, you're a Midwestern or now you're a flatlander. I was like, um,  okay. Cause I grew up in Maine.  Oh yeah. And my dad called people in,  in the Midwest flatlanders.
02:17and goat ropers. And I was like, you know, that seems really mean. I  don't think that you should call people names who live in other states  just because you're so in love with yours. And my mom would laugh and say,  he's right. It is pretty flat in Illinois. I'm like, oh, okay.  All right. Well, the weather here is  not as miserable as it was yesterday, but not as lovely as it's going to be tomorrow.
02:44Nice. Hopefully you're sending in the nicer weather our way. Supposedly it's going to cool down toward the end of the week, but I'm not sure I trust it just yet. Yeah. Cause you know, weather, who knows what it's going to do. Exactly. All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Well, uh, we moved to the country in 2002 to grow our own food organically because
03:14I  wanted my family to eat healthier  and  get natural exercise. When I was growing up, I ate lots of fast food and convenience food and I was sick all the time. And when I got pregnant the first time was when I learned about the connection between your diet and your health. And that was such a  wildly revolutionary idea to me. Like, oh my gosh, so like, if my kids have a healthier diet, maybe they won't be sick all the time like I was.
03:43And so  that was where it started, you know, and we were originally shopping at health food stores all the time, spending a lot of food on money  because I had started reading labels.  And  finally,  in the early  2000s, we started looking for a place in the country because I realized the only way I was going to be able to get the kind of food I really wanted to feed my family was for us to grow it ourselves. And so we did.
04:09Um, we ultimately found 32 acres on a Creek in the middle of nowhere, about a hundred miles Southwest of Chicago.  Um, I always say we're an hour from everything.  Um, but anyway, we started, we were so clueless. I had this crazy idea that people have been growing their foods since the dawn of agriculture. So how hard could it be? Right.  Um, cause everybody would ask me like, Oh, did you grow up on a farm? And I say, no.
04:38And they're like, well, how do you know what to do? And I was like, oh, it's not that hard. Like, I seriously thought you just plant some seeds in the ground, come back a few months later and harvest dinner and that any  mammal, every mammal lactates and they're all just gonna let you stand there and take their milk.  it was  so  unbelievably naive when we got started.
05:04Okay, so  I don't want people to think that it's extremely hard to do this though, because it's not.  But  you do need to do a little bit of learning and research and hopefully make a friend with a farmer who can tell you the secrets. Yeah, and read books and stuff. I was very adamant. I knew just enough to be dangerous, honestly. I  was very adamant that our chickens were going to be free-range.
05:34which is a great goal. But if your chickens are free range, then you need a fence around your garden.  And I didn't realize the first year, I couldn't understand why we weren't getting any tomatoes because all I ever saw were green tomatoes. And I'm like, why aren't the tomatoes ripening? They're always green.  We had had a garden in town and we did get some red tomatoes. So I thought I knew how to grow tomatoes.
06:01And it actually wasn't until the second year that I saw chickens eating the tomatoes. And that's when I realized like, oh my goodness, we should put a fence around our garden so that the chickens can't eat the tomatoes and so that the geese don't eat all of the lettuce and  all that kind of stuff. there was,  was,  it was interesting. If I had done more research before I got started, it would have been a lot easier.
06:30Well, I think that can be true of almost everything.  And  for the listener who doesn't know, chickens are very drawn to anything  red. And  once they get a taste for tomatoes, they will destroy your tomato crop.  Oh, yeah.  Chickens are great. I love them. We have 21 of them right now and they give us  wonderful eggs, but they are in a run. They do not rearrange because they would eat our garden because our garden does not have a fence around it.
07:00Yeah. Yeah. So you need to have a fence somewhere between the chickens in the garden.  Yep.  Absolutely. You do, or you will not have a garden. They also really love lettuce. Yeah. Just, just a heads up to anybody who thinks about doing that. Cause they do. They love lettuce almost as much as I do. Yeah. Okay. So the reason I was so excited to have you come talk to me is because you've written like three books about homesteading.  Um, six. Six. Okay.
07:30But tell me about that. Well, I got started. My first book was called Homegrown and Handmade and it was a little bit about everything. I called it a, I would tell people, oh, it's kind of a DIY book on steroids. Like I don't just tell you, I don't just give you a recipe for pizza.  I tell you how to grow the tomatoes,  make the pizza sauce, can the pizza sauce, how to raise the goats and milk the goats and make the mozzarella and how to.
08:00raise the pigs to  make the sausage for your pizza and then how to grow all the other stuff in the garden to put on your pizza.  Like basically how to really make pizza from scratch, you know,  from the very beginning  or anything else that you want to do. You know, I'm always, I always want to be really clear that you do not have to do everything.  And I thought I did. And so that's why in the beginning,
08:26Um, we did try to do everything and that is exhausting and we never could have done it if there had not been five of us. So once our kids left home,  we started cutting back on a lot of what we did because we realized that we not only could we not do it all with only two people, but we didn't need to do it all. And so we cut way back on that.  Um, I it's funny, I say I accidentally became a goat expert because my goats were dying and nobody could tell me why.
08:55And this was back in the early  2000s. And weirdly enough, back then,  even veterinarians thought that goats and sheep were pretty much the same, that they had the same nutritional needs, that their drug dosages were the same,  that they handled parasites the same.  And so there really had not been much research done on goats because the number of sheep in this country had been a lot more. Like the number of sheep in this country started to go down.
09:2450 years ago, but prior to that, we had millions of sheep in this country and we've never really had very many goats.  And the reason for that is because if you try to raise goats like sheep, they're going to die.  Um, and what I learned in the early  2000s, because what I ultimately wound up having to do after going to a lot of different vets, including a university vet school and everybody going, I don't know why your goats aren't, are dying. I don't know why they're not getting pregnant.
09:52Um, I eventually figured out by  diving into the research that was like just being done at that time that, um, goats actually had a really high need for copper. And back then none of the goat minerals had enough copper in them.  The goat feeds didn't have enough copper in them. And on top of that, we had sulfur in our well water  and it smelled so bad. Um, we had an apprentice about 10 years ago who called it fart water. Uh huh.
10:20like really bad sulfur and sulfur is a copper antagonist. So our goats had both primary and secondary copper deficiency. Primary copper deficiency means they weren't consuming enough because the minerals in the goat feeds back then didn't have enough. And the secondary copper deficiency means that you've got an antagonist that is making it impossible for the goats to absorb enough. they were double whammy for them.
10:49So we started supplementing them with copper. They stopped dying. They started getting pregnant, having lots of babies.  And  by the time I figured out what I needed to know to keep my goats alive, I had enough information to write a book over 300 pages on how to raise goats. Wow. So  you wrote one. Yeah. So I did.  Nice. So OK. So what are the other four books?
11:17Homegrown and Handmade was  expanded and revised about six years after the original one. So in the second one, I expanded it to include pigs, which I felt I did not feel I was qualified to include pigs in the first version because I still found pigs really challenging, even though we'd had them, you know, like for the whole time almost.  We still struggled with them a lot. And so I didn't feel qualified in the first book. By the time I did that one again,
11:47we did, we were being very successful with the pigs. So in addition to updating everything in the first book, I also added chapters on pigs and maple syrup and lard and homegrown businesses because we'd also started our own goat milk soap business and egg business. sell eggs at a grocery store now. So we added all of that or I added all of that. I've written them all by myself.
12:17And then Raising Goats Naturally was published in,  originally published in 2013.  And there is  always so much research being done about goats.  And so within five years, I told my publisher, I really want to update this because there is so much more stuff that needs to be included.  And there are recommendations that have been changed in the last five years because of new research.
12:45So this is why when people contact me and they're like, your website says this, but this website says this. I look at the website that they're referencing and I page down and I look at the bottom and I'm like, yes, this website is from 2003. And that's what everybody believed in 2003, but we now know that is incorrect because unfortunately nothing online ever dies. you think like,
13:10You find something at Purdue University's website and you're like, oh, this is, this has got to be good. It's from a university website. Well, look at the references. Like every university is going to have references.  And if you look at the references, sometimes there's still stuff up there that has ref the references are from the nineties.  Um,  and so that's not up to date. There's a lot of dangerously outdated information on the web. And if, if you don't know that and you're not checking the publication date.
13:40then  you could be using the same kind of information I was back in 2002 when I got started.  So  that was why I wanted to update the second book and then,  or the goat book. And then I also wrote a book called the Eco Thrifty, which was basically my attempt to help people like, okay, so you don't have 32 acres on a Creek in the middle of nowhere. Here is how you can live a greener lifestyle. Even if you're in a
14:08condo, like it doesn't matter where you are.  it's all about a third of that book is actually about food, about how you can eat a more natural diet  simply, you know, by cooking from scratch more and avoiding processed foods and stuff. And then a lot of it is just on replacing common chemical  products, you know, like  one of the
14:35favorite things I used to talk about when I did like the morning shows promoting that book was, did you know that baking soda makes a fantastic facial scrub? Like is 100 % natural. It costs you next to nothing  and it leaves your face feeling  like as soft as baby skin, you know? And it doesn't smell yucky. Yeah. So I love that book. That book is out of print now. It was published in 2012.
15:02I just love that book so much because it was like super simple things that anybody could do regardless of where they lived.  And even like how to have like a salsa garden  in a very small space, you know, like in a four by eight raised bed. then my last book is called Goats Giving Birth.  And I actually started out as a blogger.  Remember back in the early  2000s when everybody was like living their life online on blogs.
15:30I was. Yeah.  I did that for 10 years from 2006 to 2016. I  kept a farm blog where I wrote about almost every single birth that we had on our farm. So there are hundreds of birth stories on there. And obviously  after,  you know, 10, 20 years, you look back at some of those stories and go, Oh man, I wish I wouldn't have done that. Um, or wow.
15:59that was rough,  was nothing I could have done to  get a better outcome there. And so what I did in Goats Giving Birth was  I went through and I read all those birth stories and I pulled out the ones that I thought would help people  get the most secondhand experience about goat birthing.  so I talk about,  so they've got the original blog post completely unedited.
16:26Even though I had to argue on that one, my editor's like, we gotta change that. like, no, it isn't. I want these original blog posts to be completely unedited so that people know exactly what I said when it happened. And then after every one, then you've got my reflections from the time I wrote it now. Here I am now, 10, 15 years later, looking at this and saying, okay, this is why this happened.
16:53Um, this is what I should have done differently. These are the things that wouldn't have made a difference and all that kind of stuff. And it's got tons of photos, color photos in it. So it's very graphic.  So people can really see things  because a lot of times people get really worried about they, like they see a bubble. looks like two bubbles and they get really worried. Like I've seen three or four bubbles coming out at the same time. Like I think the, the goat amnion is the most.
17:21fascinating thing. It's just got layers and layers in there  and pockets of fluid get pushed out in various bubbles. Yes, it is possible to have two kids trying.  It is possible for two kids trying to be born at the same time. However, that's really rare. We're up to like around 775 births now.  It's probably only happened two or three times.
17:48So usually when you see multiple bubbles, doesn't mean anything worrisome. It's just a little extra piece of the amnion that's coming out with some fluid. So. Yeah. It's just a little bit of extra. That's all. Yeah. That's all. Yeah. And honestly, biology is so incredibly fascinating. It doesn't matter whether it's humans or animals.
18:16thought about being a doctor when I was a kid. And my dad actually worked on the machines that keep people alive at hospitals. That was his job. Oh, cool. was was a biomed tech and he would come home and tell us stories of things that he had heard and seen at work. And he never said names because, you know,  HIPAA wasn't a thing then, but it certainly was his take that people's privacy was very important. And he would tell us stories about people.
18:45dying, know, doctor had done everything they could and the person died. And after those stories, I was just like, I can't be a doctor. I will feel so terrible every time a patient dies that I will not be able to continue.  So I'm fascinated by it, but I would not have made a good doctor.  Yeah. Yeah. That is one of the hardest things for people to deal with is death  anywhere on the homestead and at any time really.  most of us in our modern world are very insulated from death.
19:15We, most of us have never seen a human die.  Most of us have never,  maybe we've seen, you know, a pet dog or a pet cat die.  Um,  by the time we started our homestead, um, we had had  one cat and one dog that,  um, we had asked the vet to put down because they had cancer  and there was no hope. You know, they were very, very sick and suffering.  Um, and that was it, you know, like.
19:44In my whole life, I was 39 years old when we moved to the country. And in that whole 39 years, I had only ever seen two living creatures lives and in front of my eyes.  Um,  and when you, when you're not familiar with something, it gets really, it's just really scary.  Um,  and  so there was a lot of stuff that, that you don't understand and you, and a lot of times people think it's going to happen when it's not.
20:13Like that's one of the biggest things is a lot of people think that, you know, oh my gosh, it's going to die. And it's not like, no, what you're seeing is completely normal. Like  it's fine. It's all fine.  yeah, I think the hardest part about death  is the people that are left behind alive.  The person or the creature that dies, that's it. They don't, they don't have any future in this realm.
20:43to look forward to. I really feel like the experience we have as humans with death is the  end of the potential of the life that was supposed to go on.  And so  it's hard for us humans because we spend our lives planning for the future. When there's no future left, it's like, what? Yeah. So, but yeah.
21:10another philosophical statement from Mary on a, on a Monday morning. Yeah.  Well, it's interesting. You wind up confronting a lot of things on the farm that you did not experience when you lived in a cozy little suburb or, you know, condo in the city or whatever.  Um,  and you've, and also with farm animals, it's very different than it is with pets and especially with goats because they just,
21:40don't, it's getting there, we're getting there. It is so much better now than it was 23 years ago.  But there was so little research on goats, you know? Like I shed so many tears  and I had so many goats die because in addition to the copper deficiency, we also had a problem with complete dewormer resistance because this was back in the day before they knew about dewormer resistance and it was like, oh, give your goats a dewormer on a schedule and
22:10The first thing, the first time people started talking about pasture rotation, they said, deworm everybody and move them to a clean pasture. Well, now we know that is really terrible advice because now you're taking a hundred percent of the worms you are taking to that new pasture are resistant to the drug you just used. So you're going to accelerate dewormer resistance if you do that.  But that was the information I had. That's the information everybody had when I got started.
22:39And thank goodness we are doing more research now, but it's so hard to get that information out there. Um, and that's one of the things that, that sets me apart is one of the things that makes me different from a lot of people who talk about goats online. Cause a lot of people are just talking about like, Oh, this is what I'm doing with my goats. Kind of like what I used to do with my old blog from, you know, 2006 to 2016. Um, and what saved my goats was.
23:08digging into the science and going,  oh, this is why this happened.  And  that's why that happened.  And we need to understand the why behind what's happening because otherwise then you get somebody out in Arizona in the middle of the desert who says,  oh my God, I have never lost a goat to parasites. I give them a dewormer every month.  This is how you keep them alive.
23:37And it's like, well, no, actually, if you're in the desert, you're wasting your money on the warmers because you don't have you don't have grass  to get. where the worms get where the goats get infected with the worm larvae.
23:57So it's,  sorry.  No, that's okay.  I was going to say it's interesting because back in medieval times, humans used to be bled as a form of medical treatment. You know,  we'll just bleed them and they'll be better. And we now know that that's a terrible thing to do.  So why would animal science be any different? It changes. Right. Yeah.
24:25Exactly. more we know, the more we know, the more we learn, the more we know, the more we do differently. Yeah, exactly. I know. I always tell people, would you like to go to a doctor who graduated in 2000 and never did any continuing education on the human body? No. Because that's, unfortunately, that's where some vets are. They just, they graduated from vet school back then and yeah, they have to get continuing education. But if, know, 75 % of their practice is dogs and cats,
24:54That's where they're going to get most of their continuing education. then another 15 % is cows. Now that's going to have priority too. You know, if they only see a dozen goats a year, they're probably, they're like, Oh, it's the same thing as cows. You know, it's the same thing as sheep. I don't, I don't need to update my information on goats. Uh-huh. Wrong. Wrong answer. Exactly. Well, the other thing is, is that people are funny about things because
25:24We have barn cats here and there are people who think that it's terrible that we have cats that don't come in the house.  These cats get fed, they get loved on, they're friendly, they come up, they visit, they purr.  And this morning my husband came in with his cell phone and said that one of the cats did his job last night and showed me a picture. it was my  husband's foot on the grass  and a
25:52creature that looked suspiciously like a mouse, was way too big to be a mouse,  dead next to his sneaker.  And I said, that's not a mouse. He said, no, that is a rat.  I didn't, we have not actually, I have not actually seen any rats on our property ever since we moved here almost five years ago. I've seen lots of field mice  and  I said, why did they not eat the rat? Cause they will usually eat anything that they kill. And he said,
26:21I don't know, maybe it was just  too much of a snack. You know, they eat the mice because the mice are little and I was like, yeah, true.  But the point of the story is that the cats have a job. They keep the mice and the rats and the snakes and the frogs down. So they're not in, in,  um, where I want it. Can't think of it right now.  They're not eating the chicken food or the scratch grains or the cat food that we need to feed our critters. Right. Yeah.
26:51Yeah. So livestock is very different than pets. You're right.  Yeah. And that's an interesting adjustment that people have to make in their minds.  You know, a lot of times, and I was the same way. I went out and I bought the first three goats that I found because like I said, I thought if  it was a mammal, it could make milk and it would let me have its milk.  You know?  And so I went out and bought the first three goats that I found. knew nothing.
27:19about what makes a good milk goat or anything. And of those first three goats, I ultimately sold two of them. In fact, I keep saying one of these days I'm gonna sit down and see if I can count up the number of goats that we bought in the first three years. Because from 2002 to 2005 is when we were building our herd. And I'm sure I sold at least half of the does that I bought. I wound up selling them because either they were not good milkers, they were drying up by the time they were six months post-kidding.
27:49or  because they were impossible to milk. Like they just didn't have the personality and we were not very experienced and we were, you know,  fighting with them. And so we ultimately gave up  and  we only kept the goats that had, you know, so we wound up keeping the goats that had good milk production that would stand quietly on the milk stand and let us milk them.  also to mother nature called our herd. So we wound up with goats also that were
28:17very naturally parasite resistant because the dewormers quit working. But a lot of people think, because with dogs and cats, we always talk about the forever home because they're becoming a part of our family. But on a homestead, they're your employees. They're not your family. You may love them. You may have an employee that you really, really love. But they're not.
28:44going to be part of your family just because you bought them. so sometimes, you know, so if you're not buying goats that have like a great lactation history behind them, there you don't know what their mother produced or their grandmother produced or their sire's mother produced.  They may not be a great candidate for  a milk goat  because they may not give you a lot of milk. They may not be agreeable. They're
29:10Teats and udder may be difficult to get the milk out of.  There's so many variables. I could just go on and on about that. But the bottom line is that if you had an employee that wasn't doing their job, you would not keep them.  And if you've got a goat that can't do their job or any other animal, know, cows or whatever, then you may not want to keep them either. you may  sell them to some, they may, you may send them to another home.
29:40I'm always super honest with people because,  know,  I, you know, if I had a goat that we couldn't milk, I would tell people like, okay, well, we're selling her because we can't milk her.  Um, and we would either sell her to someone who had a lot more confidence and experience that we did, or somebody who was just like raising goats for pets and wasn't planning to milk the goat.  Um,  you know, cause I always feel like every animal has their ideal home out there somewhere.
30:08And we need to be really honest and tell people why we're selling them  so that they go to  the right home.  Absolutely.  All right, Deborah, we've been talking for 30 minutes. That was really fast.  I have  one last question and it's probably a big one. When  you  bought your 34 or 36, 34 acres,  you had basically no experience and you said that you were really naive.
30:38Do you  love what you're doing now with your homestead? Oh my goodness, yes. I have loved it from day one, even through all of the challenges and tragedies and everything. Like our friends in the suburbs thought we had lost our minds when we told them what we were doing. And I think they all expected us  to be turning around and coming back to the suburbs within two or three years. And  over and over again, through the years, the early years, we would hear people saying, man, I can't believe you're still there.
31:07That's amazing. Like you're, you're doing this stuff and you're having these challenges and you're not giving up.  Um, and the bottom line is it all goes back to the fact that we absolutely love the lifestyle. We love living in the country. We love living as lightly on the earth as possible because we really care about the earth and we don't want having, we don't want a bunch of chemicals dumped on the earth to feed us.
31:34We don't want to have animals living in abusive situations to feed us. And  so  if I'm not  growing it myself, I'm buying it from a farmer that I know,  who I know like, yeah, they're not dumping tons of chemicals on the earth. They're not mistreating their animals  so that I can feel good about  what we are consuming from other sources.  But you know what?
32:01It all goes back to loving it, know, like just loving all of it, loving the natural exercise and loving the animals and  loving how it all comes together.
32:13I figured that was probably going to be your answer, but I wanted  to hear your answer.  Where can people find you online, Debra? You can find me all over the place at thriftyhomesteader, thriftyhomesteader.com, Facebook, thriftyhomesteader,  Pinterest, thriftyhomesteader, Instagram, thriftyhomesteader. And then I also have a podcast and YouTube channel called For the Love of Goats, which is all about the goat stuff. I interview vet professors and researchers so we can stay.
32:42stay on the cutting edge of this and like go right to the people who are actually doing the research. And then I also talk to successful goat business owners because most of us get to the point if we really love our goats, we're gonna wanna buy more and more. And then we're like, hmm, you guys are gonna have to start helping to pay for the feed bill. How can I do that?  So for the love of goats and thrifty homesteader.
33:05Fantastic.  Deborah, this was a joy.  I love talking with people like you because you started from zero  and you have surpassed a hundred. I can hear it in your voice.  And it's so great to talk to someone who started out from very beginning, is living it and continues to live it and love it. So thank you so much. You're welcome. It's always fun talking about this. It was great talking with you today, Mary.  Well, thank you.
33:34always people can find me at at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Have a great day Deborah, thank you. Thank you. Bye.
 

MeanderingCottage Homestead

Today I'm talking with Deb at the MeanderingCottage Homestead. You can follow on Facebook as well.
 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Deb at Meandering Cottage Homestead in Michigan. Good morning, Deb. How are you? I am fantastic. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Michigan?  It  is entirely too warm and very muggy.  Same in Minnesota.
00:28literally under a heat warning,  excessive heat warning for the whole day today.  Yeah,  you know, you live in a northern state, you don't expect it to get this hot. This is just not right.
00:42You would think that it would not happen, but global warming apparently is an actual thing, climate change. So  we're experiencing that.  guess that's what it is. My dad says that there are seasons and cycles to weather,  and he's not sure that we're actually suffering through anything new or different. It's just the seasons and cycles. But I have no idea because I am not a climate scientist.
01:10Tell me about yourself and about Meandering Cottage Homestead.  Well, geez, I don't really know where to start.  My parents moved up to Northern Michigan from like the Ann Arbor area when I was 14 years old. And  I watched them build their own house. They saw their own lumber and everything off their property.
01:38built their homestead from nothing. And I was  so intrigued and impressed and just all the things with that.  yeah,  it just kind of happened from there. I mean, after I graduated, I thought maybe I might want to go back to the city. So I went back to Ypsilanti.  That lasted about, I don't know,  maybe six months.  And I came back home.
02:07I just, didn't want to be in the city anymore and here we are. Okay. Why is it called meandering a cottage?  Well, the little house that I have,  it's  a, I'm sorry, my cat wants to play right this moment.  It's the little house that I got. It's,  it reminds me of a little cottage. I used to go camping  and,
02:35do little cabins and things like that with my parents when I was younger, the whole family did it. And I don't know, I just thought it was always so neat being in a  small little space just always felt so comfortable and cozy.  And I also like the idea of like little paths  around  your property. You just have all these cool little nooks and
03:01just neat little places tucked away and out of the way places on your property. I thought, you know,  meandering cottage just sounds like where I want to be.  I love that. And I know exactly what you're talking about. When I was growing up in Maine, people had homes on lakes and here in Minnesota, it's a big deal to go up to the cabin up north.  And a lot of those.
03:28going up to the cabin spaces are actually big homes.  They're not cabins.  And when I was growing up, these were actually little lake cabins and it felt like being in a dollhouse. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of, I mean, I decorated my place. It's, it's, um, you know, it's not your typical little cabin looking place.  I don't know. just.
03:56In my mind, I just wanted something that was very, I like being hugged when I come home.  So,  you know, I just, I guess I wanted to do that and make that the vibe.
04:11Very nice.  I'm thrilled that you are embracing the cozy  theme because cozy is so nice. And especially on a day like today when it's so hot,  our house feels, our house is pretty big. It's over 1400 square feet on the inside, but  it's warm and it's welcoming and it's cozy and it's comfortable.  as long as I don't actually go outside, I can pretend that it's not 150,000 degrees outside.
04:39Oh, absolutely. Watch a Christmas movie.  Yeah, I made them. I made tortellini salad yesterday because I knew it was going to be super hot today.  tortellini salad is basically a cold pasta salad.  And it is waiting for me at about 11 o'clock this morning to dive into. I'm a little bit jealous.
05:02It's super easy to make and that's part of reason I make it. takes like the time it takes to boil the water, cook the tortellinis and then,  can't talk,  slice up an onion  and of sweet bell pepper and dump a can of quartered artichoke hearts in it and some zesty Italian dressing, some balsamic vinegar  and whatever seasonings you like to put in your cold salads. That's pretty much it.  Oh yeah, that's easy peasy, isn't it?
05:32Yup. I, when I was making it, I was like, it's hot today. I don't want to be cooking today either. This was yesterday. I thought, I thought when I went to bed last night, I thought I'm going to be so grateful that I did it today, which was yesterday instead of this morning when it's already hot outside. So, Oh yeah. Yeah. It hit 71 here by, geez, I think it was seven o'clock this morning. It was already 71 degrees out and like, Oh, come on. This is crazy.
06:02So yeah, I'm not cooking today either.
06:08Yeah, it's supposed to be cooler on Tuesday. The temps are supposed to drop, so I'm  just holding on till Tuesday.  So what do you do at your place?
06:22Um, as far as like, like business. Do you grow a garden? Yes. So my property  is on a hillside where I have my little house sitting.  So it was  the soil here is super sandy. So I built Hugu culture beds. I'm not for anybody who's not familiar with that. It's.
06:50basically building a forest floor. So you're adding like, like let's say a fallen tree. And then on top of that, you have the bigger branches and the smaller branches and then the leafs and then any other little fodder that happens to fall. So you're building that to build up your soil. So you're not actually depleting your soil. You're adding to it. So I built my gardens in something like that.
07:17I skipped a couple of stuffs. You  also add like compost and things like that on top of it to help your plants grow.  But you're not taking anything away from the soil. So with that,  also, since my property's on a hillside, I needed a way to stop the water from washing everything away. Cause when I did landscaping, my property was vacant. So when I did landscaping  where my house is sitting,
07:46It was completely sandy. was nothing  here and I had had to dig into the hillside. So yeah, it was like Lake Dub going on out here.  I did the hugo culture beds  and built them up enough to where I've kind of got. It's a kind of like the Aztec thing. So it like steps down my hillside. So I grow my gardens in that. So I have  some vegetables,  but I'm.
08:14mostly at this point focusing  on fruit. So I've been putting in like pears and plums and peaches and apples and all the fruit things. So that's really what I'm doing at the moment  as far as gardens go. And then with my animals,  I have bunnies  and with them I use  their little poopy presence  for fertilizer in my garden.  And
08:43then I only have two of them. And then I have chickens and  they  give me eggs and I sell those at a farmer's market to help feed them. I have a small herd  of Nigerian dwarf goats.  I have  four  does.  Well, I have two dollings, two does  and a buckling at the moment.  And I make goat's milk soap that I sell at the market to help feed them.
09:13And  I make cheese and stuff like that with their milk. So you're, are you running it as a business?  I'm  trying to,  I'm just getting started. I just bought my property four years ago. we,  know, the first year was completely focused on the house and the barn and getting all that stuff set up. And then the last three years has been about,  you know, the gardens and all of that stuff.  And  during that time.
09:43My mom got sick with cancer and I lost her and then her boyfriend got sick with cancer and I helped him through that and he's fine now. But it's been a serious roller coaster the last four years so I'm trying to get on my feet and get a business going. So  I'm hoping that's the end goal.
10:04Okay, awesome. I'm sorry about the loss of your mom. That's terrible. Yeah. I'm glad that her boyfriend survived and it sounds like you like him. So that's good. He's such an amazing guy. He honestly is. I have to tell this little story because it's kind of cool.  He has an old sawmill. It's like this huge old thing. It's amazing this thing even runs. But he had a bunch of lumber sitting out in his  yard that he had cut with it.
10:34And it had all the saw marks and everything in it, which I personally think is just fascinating.  And I was trying to build my house as frugally as I could. And he told me that I could have it all to burn or whatever I wanted to do with it. And I was like, well, I'm to put it up on my ceiling, Alan. And  he says, oh, you can't put it up there. That just looks so terrible.  And he like poo-pooed the whole idea.  And  I did it anyways, of course.
11:04So when he came over and he actually saw it up there, he  just, he was so shocked at how it looked. He just could not believe that I had taken just lumber that had been sitting outside  and  refurbished it, which I did very little to it. I just bleached it out and gave it a light sanding. Cause I didn't want to lose all of the sob marks, you know?  I mean, he's like in his late eighties at this point and things like that don't last forever, you know?  So.
11:34I just thought it was a cool kind of story.  absolutely. And you are cementing something that I say all the time.  Homesteaders are  absolutely ingenious at taking things that nobody else wants and turning it into something beautiful. Oh, girl, my whole house.  I host so many things from  like Habitat for Humanity. did a shower, like the back wall in my shower.
11:59I couldn't find enough tile to do the whole thing, so I just busted up a bunch of tile and did a mosaic.  So,  you know, you got to work with what you have.  That's  just the best way to do it. You're not,  you know, don't know, catering to the big corporate.
12:18Yeah, and it becomes a one of a kind. It makes it unique and special. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I there. I mean, of course, I'm probably biased because this is my place and I love it so much, but there will never be another place like me in Dern Cottage ever. And and I'm so excited about that. And it's all still so new. I'm I keep telling my daughter all the time. I'm like, man, I can't wait to see this place in 10 years. If it's this far in four.
12:4710 is just, it's gonna blow my mind. I'm excited. I can attest to that. We bought our place in August of 2020, so it'll be five years coming up here real quick. And basically there was nothing here except a big old ugly pole barn and our home and three acres. And it was a blank slate. And in that almost five years we have put in
13:16a 100 foot by 150 foot garden. Oh wow. Which we grow, we grow produce in obviously. there's like three or four other little small gardens because we're like, oh, we need to put something in over here. Oh, we need to put something in over there.  And we've also put up  a heated greenhouse.  We have put up a cute little barn red farm stand. Oh cute.
13:44three years ago, three and a years ago. And best thing we've  ever done with about $3,000  because  people come and  buy our produce and our eggs and they visit and they love it. And  it's so funny because we moved from in town to outside of town because it felt like living in a fishbowl when we lived in town. Oh, absolutely.
14:10And my husband is the social one of us. We,  I am not, I do not like being out with people. It makes me anxious.  Right. And he's the one, he's the one that goes to the farmer's market. And he tells me all the time about how people say,  Oh yeah, I drive by your place all the time.  I see you guys working on stuff all the time. And it doesn't feel like a fish bowl because they're driving by. They're not literally in the yard next door.  Right. Yeah.
14:40Yeah, I, when I got this place,  um, so I divorced like 11 years ago  and I moved into,  used to own a store in the town that I live in. So I had to move into that cause I didn't really have anywhere else to go. So that's where we went anyways, me and my daughter and I lived there for,  you know, until four years ago when I bought this place and
15:06I was right on the main drag and I'm not kidding you. Oh, hey, I saw you out in your yard doing this. And the only thing that ever went through my mind is, you know, you could have stopped and helped.  know, that would have been cool of you. But I know the fishbowl thing is ridiculous. And when I bought my property, I wanted as far off the road as I could get  without condemning myself to getting stranded all the time, you know, because I just, don't.
15:35I love my privacy. And it's so hard to get these days because everybody,  people are just so nosy.  But then when you get to like your farmers market and stuff like that, it's like a whole different scene because now  you're excited to share your life and you want everybody to know about your things and it's all great and everything like that. But my home, my home is like my serenity. And yeah.
16:03I could not do the town thing.  I agree with you on that 100%. I hated it. Yes. And the thing is with my husband, he is so social that it really does his heart good to have people comment on what they see him doing and they're  smiling and it's, it's like such approval for him. And I love that because it matters.
16:33Oh, it makes you feel good when you can. mean, not only are you doing something that's good for your soul, but you're helping other people be,  you know, healthier in their lifestyle.  That's just  and if they see you doing things, maybe it's encouraging them to do something to instead of sitting down. They see other people moving forward. It helps them move forward. It's, you know, it's hopefully a cycle.
17:02Hopefully.  I really hope so because we need that cycle to grow  right now and  forever, but really right now.  You mentioned  that you've been putting in fruit trees.  The best thing about fruit trees is that they bless you twice. When they bloom, they're beautiful and they smell good.  And then in the fall, they put out whatever it is they put out, you get to eat it.  know. I know.  I'm so excited to.
17:32So in my hugo cultures, along with the garden, gardening thing, I'm trying to do a food forest. So I'm planting the fruit trees and then beneath the fruit trees, I'm doing berries and my berries are starting to produce now. So I'm kind of, I'm getting to kind of walk around. And so the goal is to live my life like an old bear and just kind of walk around my yard and graze. that's, that's like my life goal is to.
18:02Ultimately be an old bear and just roam around my yard and eat food  That's a fabulous goal what kind of berries do you have  I have blueberries  three varieties of blackberries  black raspberries red raspberries golden raspberries  Goji berries mulberries  Did I say blueberries yes, okay
18:30strawberries. I have three varieties of strawberries.  And currants  and  wild autumn olive.
18:45What is that? Bottom olive? It's actually, an invasive species.  It's horrible here, but I love it because it brings in all kinds of birds and wildlife and stuff. But the berries,  I want to say it came over. I don't even want to say that it came over from China, but I think that it did.  But  it gets little berries on it and it's like, they're almost like a silvery. They get like a  silvery
19:17speckle on them. And if you wait until after a frost, they're actually sweeter and better. It's like a little red berry and then the later it gets into the season, they start getting like a little silver speckle on them. But they're definitely worth looking into because especially if you're in a northern state, they're probably growing wild around you.
19:39Autumn olive, I've never heard of it. I'm going to have to Google it. Yeah. And you can mix it with  like the wild blackberries and stuff makes really great jam. It does have a seed. It's  okay. I'm going to look it up later when I'm not quite as enamored with the idea of eating when I get done talking.  how big are the berries?  Oh, they're tiny. They're maybe...
20:08maybe the size of like a pencil eraser.  And they do have a small pit in them as well. So you'll have to  more like a jelly berry than a jam because you know, it'd be pretty crunchy.  Yeah, let's let's not have crunchy jam. That would be gross. Yeah, right. I can I can do raspberry jam with seeds in it, but I still don't love the fact that it crunches. It bothers me.  Oh, yeah.
20:38So  we're working on building our food forest here too.  And we have two elderberry trees that I still have not managed to keep the birds from getting to before I do. And I just talked about somebody  about this on the podcast the other day. We're going to get some of the bird netting and put it over the trees in the spring. And maybe that will keep the birds from getting to the berries before we do.  We have wild plum. We have
21:08black raspberries and then the stuff that we put in, have strawberries, have honey berry, we have apple trees, we have peach trees, we have cherry trees  and we have rhubarb and we have asparagus, which isn't a fruit, but it's something that takes care of itself, which is kind of the goal  with the food forest is to have it just,  you just start it and then it kind of takes care of itself. Yeah, I have.
21:34I have the asparagus, which I forgot. I have four different varieties of grapes. I also have elderberries. And then I have pear trees, plum, peach, a couple different varieties of apple.
21:55trying to think.  I have a kiwi.
22:00Oh, nice. Yeah.  I'm trying to think of everything I have because I just  it's  this last four years has just been such a whirlwind. It's like I'm finally and finally at a point to where life is starting to kind of calm down. The barn's done. The animals are set. You know, I can start doing the farmers market. And it's almost like, you know, as I'm talking to you, it's like, wow, yeah, OK, I have that, too. I forgot about that.  But I've also put in a lot of different herbs and stuff, too. So I probably have
22:31over I know I have at least over 40 different kinds of herbs planted here too.
22:39Okay, I don't know if you mentioned this in the beginning, how big is your property?  I have 10 acres.  I homestead. And how much of that is growable?
22:57Geez, I am gonna have to say I may be doing what I'm doing on...
23:07I would have to say maybe a quarter of an acre. Maybe. Wow. Okay. But  I also am planting things like.
23:19or not necessarily planting things, but I also wild forage a lot too. I  didn't wanna,  I'm trying to keep my property as natural as possible. So I didn't wanna encroach on,  I'm gonna say maybe seven acres of my land is hardwoods. And then maybe a half acre to three quarters of an acre of that might also be pine trees. So I have all these different kind of diverse little systems going on my property.
23:49and where I'm at is kind of at the front of the property, but I'm only growing.  I don't have a huge vegetable garden because I, I,  in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, if I grow fruit, fruit, can barter that for any vegetables that I need. I'm just one person. I don't need to, I don't need a huge stockpile. And I only have my daughter and she's  like 28 years old. So she's not.
24:18You know, we don't have a big family, so I don't have to grow these huge gardens. And when you put in one zucchini plant, you can feed an army  with it. So I guess in my mind, I'm thinking, OK, I'm just going to take up this small space. I'm going to use it for fruit. I'll grow a little bit of vegetables because I like my fresh stuff here and there. But like to have a big corn patch and a vegetable garden just didn't really make sense to me.
24:47to have to weed it and upkeep it and do all the things. When if I can just grow really awesome fruit and barter that out, it'll work itself out.  Absolutely. And did I see on your eBay page description that you live in a tiny house? I do. Yes.  Can you tell me about the tiny house? Sure.  My house  is  finished  less than, well, let's see, it's probably
25:18I'm trying to remember the exact square footage. think it's 233.  Oh  my goodness.  233 square foot finished. Nice. Yes.  And that does your daughter, does your daughter live with you or does she live somewhere else? No,  I inherited my mom's place  and she is living in that. And that's another acre. I'm, I want to turn that into a whole other.
25:45fruit property, but that's a whole other story. Well, that's okay. I need all the stories I can get. So I want to say this about tiny houses. When my husband and I were talking about our future, and this was a good 15 years ago, he was very interested in a tiny home because we lived in a house that was only about 850 square feet anyway with four children. Oh.
26:13And so we were used to making small spaces work with six people in 850 square feet.  And the more I looked into tiny houses, I was like, think a tiny house is a thing for a single person or for a young couple who really, really just wants to see each other naked all the time.  and  I said to my husband, I said, this is not a good plan for us. And he said, why? I said, because I said, you.
26:43like your space and so do I. I said, do you understand that we're gonna be basically on top of each other in a tiny house in our  late  40s and early  50s if we do this? And he went,  oh,  I hadn't even thought of that. And I said, yeah, no, we can't do a tiny house. So I love the idea of a tiny house, but I think that in practicality for us, we would probably be divorced by now.  Well, I guess I...
27:12You know, going back to when I was little and doing all the little cabins and stuff with my family.  I knew  also going into doing all of this that I really wasn't going to be in my house  a whole lot, except in the wintertime. So I do have little outdoor spaces. And I,  I don't I guess I don't I do spend time inside, but  also it's just me.
27:42But...
27:45And  having a family and doing a tiny house, there's  absolutely no way I would have done. No, I would not have done a tiny house. Not something this small. Absolutely not. I have seen some that,  I mean, they do set them up really nice  and all that kind of stuff. But if, mean, if you live in a nice climate and your family can be outside a majority of the time, that's cool. But living in a Northern climate where you're indoors four to six months out of the year.
28:15I'm with you. Yeah, I really, I mean, I don't want to belabor this too much, but I really did have to pull the two yeses are a yes and one no is a no card on him. was just like, I don't want to live in a tiny house. I have lived in what I consider to be a very small house for 20 something years. I would really like more than 850 square feet in the next home.
28:45And he said, but it's only going to be you, me and the youngest kid. And I'm like, I know I cannot live in a tiny house. This is a deal breaker.  And he was like, Oh, and I said, yeah, I said, I have very few deal breakers with you, but this is one of them. And so we compromised. And when we looked for our place that we bought almost five years ago,  the, the rule was that it had to be bigger than a thousand square feet on the inside. It had to not be a fixer upper.
29:13You know, if it needed a couple things fixed, that was fine. But not a fixer-upper. And it had to have a place for a garden. And all of those things came true. Deb, I'm so thrilled with where we live. cannot tell you. Yay!
29:28So  we have a couple more minutes and I have a couple more questions. Well, at least one more question.  You said that you make goat milk soap, is that right? Yes. OK, how did you decide to do that? Because normal people, and I use that term loosely, don't just go, hey, I'm going to learn how to make soap.
29:51So story time.  My dad,  when my dad was alive and I was younger and they were doing their whole home studying thing,  he taught me how to use like all the old hand tools and all that kind of stuff.  I don't know, I guess from just a young age, I've just always been intrigued by just the old ways, I guess,  say.  And  I wanted to learn how to make my own lie from
30:19the rainwater with the straw and the ash and all that, which I have not done yet, but it's on the agenda.  But  I just, I wanted to make all of the things. I don't want to have to go to a store and buy everything.  And  one of the biggest things that you use in your home  is  something to clean with.  And if I could figure out how to make goat's milk soap,
30:49or  any kind of soap, lye soap, anything like that, that I'd be able to do my dishes, do my laundry, shower, do all the things.  And that would be one less thing or several things that I could take away from having to purchase from a store. Well, then I started doing research because  when I was younger,  I wanted,  or my dad was into dairy cattle. So that was where
31:20I started getting into the whole idea of dairy and then goat's milk. So started getting into the mainstream. So I started looking into that. And at the time that it started going mainstream, I was just not in a position to be able to make it myself. But I always wanted goats and I always wanted to be able to  be as self-sustaining as I possibly could. And it just kind of went hand in hand. So it was just
31:50one of those things that.
31:53just kind of came with the territory, I guess.  Okay, that is a great answer. And the reason that I asked is because I'm sitting here in my room  in front of my computer talking to you staring at the rack where we have our unscented,  um, cold process, lye soap drying on a rack.  And honestly,  it's, I think that people think that making soap is  hard. Baking bread,
32:23is hard. Growing  a garden is hard. It's not hard. It's time and intent. It is. It takes it takes time. Yeah.  And that's the thing is that's that's what happened  is society just decided that, OK, I'm I'm  I'm just going to go work this eight hour job for somebody else. Eight to 10 to 12 hour job for someone else.
32:52And then I'm just going to go buy my bread and I'm going to go buy this and whatever. And then there's  the other kind of people  who do not want to work that eight to 12 hour job and slave for somebody else and wants to  make their life as self-sustaining as possible. And that's the category that I think me and you fall under.  I don't want to live that  get up in the morning and go.
33:20hate my life and even if you do love your job, which I've had jobs that I love that are 9 to 5, but it's not this. It's not
33:30the animals  and the  air and the sunshine and it's not the soul that you get from being here.
33:42Agreed. And what I will say, and pretty much this is it for the podcast today,  is that when you work a nine to five for a corporate company, you don't get to see what you create from beginning to end. You don't see what your part in it  is from beginning to end. And I think the joy of homesteading or farming is that you see it from beginning to end. I agree. So.
34:10Deb, this has been a lovely conversation. Thank you for brightening my Sunday morning. I appreciate it. Where can people find you? They can find me on Facebook at the Meandering Cottage Homestead. And I am also on TikTok and once in a while I do stupid stuff on there. and I'm in the Meandering Cottage on there as well. And people can order things from you on eBay. Is that right? Yes.
34:36meandering cottage on eBay as well. have a small store. It helps me get money to feed my little animals here.
34:44And do you sell your soaps on eBay? do, yes. Yep. And I'm going to be coming out with a few more here within the next couple of weeks. There'll be new, I don't want to call them fragrances because I don't use any fragrances or dyes or anything like that in my soaps, but there'll be new scents coming out. Let's put that way. New formulations? Yes. Yes. Within the next few weeks.
35:10All right, awesome. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Deb, I hope you enjoyed the very end of your weekend, because it is Sunday. Yay, thank you. You too. Thank you. Bye. Bye.
 

Stonehedge Farm Produce

Today I'm talking with Adrienne at Stonehedge Farm Produce. You can follow on Facebook as well.
 
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00:00You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters.  I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Adrienne at Stonehedge Farm and her three little kittens in the background. Good morning, Adrienne. How are you? I'm doing just fine.  Awesome. You're in Kentucky? I am. Okay. How's the weather? Hot and humid. Here too in Minnesota. It is disgusting. Yeah.
00:29Yep. You walk outside and immediately start sweating.  Yeah. And, uh, I got a double whammy going on because our corn is, is tasseling and putting out the  silk on the ears. So I have an allergy to that. And so I am just a disaster this morning. My head hurts.  My head hurts. My nose is stuffed up. like, Oh, I'm going to sound amazing on the podcast. It's going to be great.  Okay. So tell me about what you do at Stonehedge farm.
00:58Well,  in a nutshell, we raise vegetables. Nice. What do you raise?  A little bit of everything. start our markets generally in April with like lettuces and green onions and spring turnips and radishes and  peas and that sort of thing. And then we continue through the summer with squashes and eggplant and peppers. And that's where we are now. And then we pick up the
01:26winter squashes like the acorn and butternut and spaghetti squash. do them a little earlier in the season  because they're so good  as a cold soup  or on the grill  and so I like to have them available in the summer. yeah,  absolutely.  So why is it called Stonehedge Farm?
01:50My  late father-in-law named it because it is bordered on three sides by the old stone fences. Nice. So it is a play on Stonehenge, but it's Stonehedge.  Yes. Great. It sure is. So  this is a family farm? My late
02:13in-laws bought it in the mid-90s. So it's been, you know, it's been in my husband's family since then.  But,
02:24So it's not really a family farm. I do come from family farming though. Okay, tell me about that.  My  mom married my stepdad when I was six. My stepdad's dream was to be  a  cattle and tobacco farmer. So at six years old, I was plopped on a tobacco setter and  taught how to set tobacco. And I was tied to more calves than I can remember.
02:54you know, taming them  to be able to be walked on lead.  And  grew up with a huge vegetable garden and then tobacco went out of fashion. So my dad  took the tobacco buyout and we started raising vegetables together.
03:14Awesome.  So you're a country girl. Yes, I am. I am an old farm girl. Nice. OK.  So do  you grow your produce just for you or do you sell it at farmers markets or to  restaurants?  We sell  directly to some restaurants. And then  our main outlet is the Lexington Farmers Market in Lexington, Kentucky.
03:40We sell there four of the five days of the week that it's open. The guys, know, some of my employees do the weekday markets and instead of paying them by the hour or, you know, per market, you know, a lump sum fee, they get half of the sales because I feel like that incentivizes staying on your feet and engaging with potential customers and, you know, the more
04:09The more  the farm makes, the more they make. So.  I think that's more than reasonable. That's a great marketing plan. Yep.  And it seems to work. But  and then with our leftover vegetables, we have a table at our farm gate that we call the pay what you can table.
04:33There's a little drop box there you come and you get you know, you get your peppers in your eggplant and  or your bag of lettuce or whatever and then you drop whatever your budget allows in  to the cash box and then that gets that gets given to the crew Fantastic. So you're helping the community and the crew gets paid. Yep Love that. That's great.  So I have a question about
05:02the produce that you sell to restaurants. I don't know what the regulations are here in Minnesota, so maybe I'll look it up later because we don't do that with our stuff.  Are there certain things you have to do to sell to restaurants?  Not really.  Be eye-catching.  That's about all I can  come up with is to catch the chef's eye because the chefs come to the farmers market.
05:32I have some chefs that have been buying from me for years,  you know, through multiple restaurants  or through beginning as, you know, as a, as a line cook  coming along with the head chef to now they're the head chef, but there's really no state or local regulations. It's good to have your produce safety.
06:03your FSMA training done,  but it is not a requirement.
06:11Okay,  I still have to look into what they are here because we're gonna have metric but tons of tomatoes coming in in about two weeks. My husband planted over 250 tomato plants this year. That's  a lot of tomatoes.  Uh-huh,  and I don't wanna have to throw out a quarter of them, so  I'm gonna look into it and see what's required to see if restaurants want them, because they're going to be amazing.
06:40And I don't want to throw them out. So maybe some restaurants in the area need to start running the caprese salad. Yeah, absolutely. Or bruschetta. Bruschetta is amazing too. Yes. I'm dying. I can't wait for our first tomatoes to come in because with our first tomatoes, we always make a batch of bruschetta. it's like...
07:06It's like cold food. mean, yes, you toast the bread to put the stuff on. No, but it's cold food  when it's 9 million degrees outside. Yeah. And it's like, it's like in  May when the first rhubarb comes in,  I get strawberries and I make a strawberry rhubarb compote to put over ice cream.  And then when tomatoes come in, the first thing that I eat with tomatoes is bruschetta. Like these are traditions that are long held in our place.  That's wonderful.
07:36I wish my husband would eat a vegetable.  Uh huh.  I wish my husband would eat more vegetables. I don't know what it is about men and not wanting to eat vegetables. I don't get it. I don't understand. Now right now my grandson will eat vegetables. If we're eating them,  if mama and Gigi are eating them, he'll eat them.
07:59So, he's so cute though. So you're Gigi, not grandma? I am Gigi. I love that. have not had any grand babies. I have a grand stepdaughter who I met when she was six. So I haven't had any grand babies. I've got a grand kid. Yeah. So nobody's named me yet. My nickname is Lynn.
08:27And that's what family knows me as. So she calls me Lynn. So I'm not even grandma Lynn. I'm just Lynn. Just Lynn. Yeah. I can live with that. That's okay. Yeah. Okay. So are you the gardener or are you the director of the gardens or how does that work? I am a little bit of both. I have some things like the eggplant that I just picked though. I'm going to be out of town for
08:54almost a week, so I'm going to have to teach somebody how to pick eggplant. But I have on any given day between five and eight employees. Okay. I have a couple that I can call in clutch. So that have worked for me for a year. Well, one of them is my daughter. She's worked in a garden since she was four. So.
09:21You know, I can call her in to help if we have a particularly big harvest day or if some of my regular employees are out of town. See, I employ two sets of brothers. So  when something in the family goes on, I lose both.
09:40Yep. How big is the farm, Adrienne? The farm is 198 acres. And is that, how much of that do you grow on? We run cattle on the majority of it. Some of it is wooded, know, kind of as a nature preserve that we've left it wooded and we've cut out the invasive honeysuckle and the other invasive plants and left, you know, planted.
10:10native plants instead, you know, planted golden rod and cone  flowers and butterfly weed  and  native plants. So we've left it natural except for that. And then  about three acres is garden. Okay, cool.  So it's not like you have 40 acres of crop fields. You have a garden. No. Okay.
10:36We intensive garden about three acres. Very nice. That's a lot of work. It is. A lot of  hand work. Yeah. Especially since our tractor has been down or in the shop since  late May.  So we got the garden in before the clutch went out and  now it's been in the shop for two months.
11:06Oh no, that's not great.  No.  Okay. So you said you run cattle. Are they your cattle?  No, they are. We lease a lot of the property to  two 30 something guys. They also rent a house from us, but we lease some property and they run steers.  They bring in feeder steers when they're just weaned or just a little bit older.
11:36and raise them until they're ready  to go out west to feed lots and slaughter lots. Okay, so you're diversifying your sources of income from your land. you  have to. Yeah, I was going to say I would recommend that to anyone who has more than 10 acres. There's a lot you can do  that you don't have to do the work for. My parents have 14 acres  and they have
12:04two fields, one in front of their house and one behind their house. And  they don't actually rent out the land, but there's a guy who comes and cuts the hay on both fields.  he barters with them. He either gives them beef or venison every fall. So there are lot of ways to make your land work for you.  Yes, there are. There are more ways than you can think of on your own.
12:34Yep. We're trying to figure out a way to hire a couple of teenagers next summer or actually the summer after this coming summer. Maybe not, but the two summers from now  to help us pick black raspberries because we have black raspberries growing wild in our tree line and inevitably it is really hot and gross when they're ready. And my husband has a full time job and  I don't pick black raspberries. I'm not going out there. It's not my job.
13:03And I told him, said,  I said, I have things that I am doing, but could we maybe figure out a way to barter produce or pay a couple of teenagers from the high school to pick black raspberries in the mornings  when it's cool? And he was like, that's a good idea. Let's look into that this fall. said, okay.  So maybe we can find some, some, uh, enterprising young people to come do some of the work.  My suggestion is the FFA chapter at the high school.
13:33Uh huh. Yup. And then he can teach them a little bit about gardening when  they pick berries. Almost all of my employees  have started work either while they were still in high school. I have one that's,  that's just about to turn 16  and, or just after high school, the summer after high school.
14:01Yup. it's so, this is going to sound really self-serving. It is not the way that I mean it. It is so good for kids to be exposed to this stuff in their teens because I like it plants seeds in their heads about what they might want to do when they get to be a grownup. Yes. Yes. I made a Facebook post about, you know, us not just raising vegetables, but raising young men of women too.
14:31Uh huh. Because they have, I have watched them  mature.
14:38much faster than their peers just by the sheer amount of hard work that they're putting in. comparing their take-home pay to their friends' take-home pay at McDonald's, my crew is doing just a little bit better. Good. Because I pay them adult wages. They're doing adult work, so they get adult wages.
15:08Good, and I worked at a McDonald's when I was 18, 19 years old.  I would much rather work outside than working at a McDonald's any day. Me too.  That constant grease smell about killed me. Yeah, worked in,  well,  while my kids were little, you know, I was trying to raise three kids on my own.
15:35I worked as a bartender or as a server. I ended up at an Italian restaurant. The smell of garlic still turns my stomach.
15:48That is so sad because garlic is God's gift. It's not fair.  No, it is not fair.  I still use it and I still eat it. It still tastes fine. It's just the smell of it. Like when I'm cooking, you know, and I have to put the garlic with something else. I cannot just saute garlic by itself.
16:11It's so strange.  It's a food aversion and it happens.  It took me 20 years to decide that I liked cherry tomatoes because I ate too many of them when I was little and got sick to my stomach on them.  took me 20 years to finally try one again. So yeah, it's a thing. It's definitely a thing.
16:34stuff imprints on you. It's amazing.  The weirdest things  will make you think of other things.  So, okay. So do you sell your produce at your property too? Or you said you have the pay what you can table? Just pay what you can table.  We do bags of produce on Monday and Saturday. So that's the way a lot of local folks
17:02that don't want to come to Lexington to the market will get produce from us. It's just  a surprise bag.  On Mondays it's $10 and  it's a bag full of groceries and then on Saturday for Saturday it's 25  because it's fresh from the field. The Monday bag is the things that are left from the market.
17:30from the Saturday and Sunday markets. That's phenomenal. How far are you from? Is it Lexington that's the next biggest city to you? Yes,  we're only about 25 minutes,  but traffic and parking  for the farmers market can be a pain. So a lot of folks just go to the  Woodford County market, which we don't participate in because I don't have the
17:59I don't have the folks that want to do market consistently available.  Understand. We're really lucky here because we live in a very small town. Well, we live outside of a very small town  and where the farmer's market is, it backs up to a parking lot that is huge and it's usually pretty empty. So if people want to drive to the farmer's market, there is a parking lot right there. We're so, so blessed on that one.
18:29Very, very blessed.
18:32And it's a really thriving farmers market. It didn't used to be, but over the last four or five years, the people that run it have brought in a whole bunch of interesting dynamics. had, I think they had a painting thing for kids this past weekend at the farmers market. Fun. Yeah. And I know they brought in master gardeners.
19:00back in June, I think, so they could answer questions for people.  So they've been trying to be really creative  on  having something to draw people to the market besides just produce and  meat and flowers.  People want to make the farmers market an event. Yeah. And  that's perfectly fine. That's wonderful if it brings them out and gets them shopping local.
19:28Yeah. And the other thing is, that it's, it's basically right in town and it's right across the way from the grocery store, which I think is funny because we're basically competition for the grocery store. But if people are coming in town to get bread and milk and they want produce, they, go to the store and then they go to the farmer's market after. Yep. Um, on Sunday where we have our farmer's market, it is in the same parking lot as a butcher shop.
19:58You know, it's a grocery store, but mainly it's a butcher shop. It's in the same parking lot. And then just across the street is the grocery co-op. So everybody comes and  gets their produce, gets their meats and gets the rest of their groceries just all right there on the same corner.  Exactly. It's a one stop shop. Awesome. Great.
20:27Do you have any animals  on your property other than the cows?  than the cows?  We had a barn cat who is now an office cat with her kittens. Yeah.
20:43I have a pet pigeon.  I used to raise quail. I have one remaining quail rooster. He's very lonely. His buddy died about two weeks ago. Oh no. Yeah.  And a fish tank.  No chickens, huh? No chickens because we have a red-tailed hawk who nests right in the middle of the farm.
21:13who would love to eat chickens.  Yup, that's a good reason to not have chickens. I want chickens so  badly. I love chickens.
21:28Yep, but it won't do any good to get them if the hawks gonna pick them off. Yeah, I'll just pick them off because she's a very good huntress. And how great is it that you have a hawk that you can watch? have a hawk, have foxes, we have coyotes, lots of raccoons, unfortunately. Lots of snapping turtles in the pond.
21:58Yep, just an update for anybody who's been listening lately.  We think that our raccoons have vacated the premises on their own. We had a mama and three babies show up a week or so ago. Oh no.  And we got rid of the  sources that we thought they might try to get into and we  shored up our chicken run and chicken coop  and we have not seen the raccoons for at least five mornings now. So I think maybe they moved on to better sources of food. I'm hoping. Hopefully, yes.
22:28Those babies, oh my god,  so  cute and such  little mischief makers. Yes.  I personally do not like raccoons  because they're destructive just to be destructive.  They'll kill chickens and not eat them.
22:52Yep. We lost four chickens to these guys, so that's why  I'm doing the update and why I'm thrilled that I think that they have moved because I didn't really want to have to shoot these guys because they were really cute.  Okay, so the mama cat that you have. she a pet or is she an outdoor cat? Well, kind of a combination of both. If you're sitting out on  the patio,  she'll come over and jump in your lap and want some attention.
23:22But my husband is violently allergic to cats, so she can't be an indoor cat.
23:30Okay, and I'm assuming that I'm assuming the litter was a surprise.  Yes, very much so.  aren't they sweet though? They're adorable.  How old are they?  About five weeks.  Oh, so they'll be ready for homes here in about three weeks. Yep. I've started posting pictures of them on my Facebook.  Yeah, I wish you luck because I don't know what kind of kitten season Kentucky's having. Oh.
23:59I have seen so many posts of people having kittens since May that are ready to go. Yup. Yup. It's been like that here too. Yup. And we were going to get some kittens from a friend, but they can't catch them because they're, they're barn cats. Yeah.  And then they had a line on three from a guy whose cat or his barn cat had kittens. And then they decided they wanted to try to find people who would  take them in as actual house cat pets.
24:27And I was like, no, I'm not looking for a house cat pet.  have two outdoor cats and I want at least two more.  And I said to my husband yesterday, said, you know, maybe we just stick with the two male cats we have this year and we look at kittens next year.  He was like, that's okay. They're keeping up with the mice. I said, okay, we're just going to stick with the two. We're going to stick with the two guys.  Yep. One of them we got at the Humane Society four years ago.
24:55And they told us that he was feral, he was  mean,  and no one would ever be able to touch him. And he's my son's best friend.  And then the other one is almost a year old. He's from the last litter we got from the mama cat that disappeared last year. Yeah.  And his name is Fluffy Butt because when he was a baby, he was exceptionally long-haired. And he blew his coat this spring and he looked naked.
25:24And he's super friendly too, so we're good on cats, right?  They may be my favorite thing outside. We have a dog too, who is my favorite creature that lives inside. She's a pet. She's a watchdog. Yeah. But the cats, I just, love watching them play. They just, they eat the hell out of each other and then they curl up and take a nap. Yep.
25:53Yep, the kittens  are  at that stage where they'll,  you know, they'll bite hard enough that they'll make the other one squeal.  And, but yeah, they're, they just  absolutely beat the heck out of each other. then,  you know, curl up a nap, curl up the side mama.  All in a ball. Yeah. It's crazy.  Okay. Well,
26:20Other than that, I can't think of any more questions, partly because my nose is driving me crazy and my head hurts. I'm sorry.  Where can people find you, Adrienne? They can find me on Facebook, Stonehenge Farm Produce, or Instagram  at S.S. Produce. Okay.  Or they can find me at the Lexington Farmers Market. Awesome.
26:47Thank you for your time today. really appreciate it. No problem. as always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Thanks again, Adrienne. Thank you. Have a great day. You too. Bye. Bye.