We became homesteaders three years ago when we moved to our new home on a little over three acres. But, we were learning and practicing homesteading skills long before that. This podcast is about all kinds of homesteaders, and farmers, and bakers - what they do and why they do it. I’ll be interviewing people from all walks of life, different ages and stages, about their passion for doing old fashioned things in a newfangled way.
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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company.
00:28
Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon Farms in Montana. Good afternoon, Morgan. How are you? Good afternoon. I am doing wonderful. I mean, it's 100 degrees here, but we haven't melted quite yet. Well, I'm glad you haven't melted. And in Minnesota, it is, I can tell you exactly what the temperature is because I'm sitting here holding my phone. 77 degrees right now feels like 77. Can I switch you? You come here and I'll go there.
00:56
No, I'm sorry. I can't do that because we had two weeks of dew points that were tropical and temperatures above 90. This break we've had has been beautiful. Yeah, I thought I moved up to Montana for it to not be Arizona weather, but here we are, 100 degree weather. I mean, it literally raises, you know, 10 degrees as you're watching it, you know, the time. So if it's seven o'clock in the morning, it's 70 degrees and outside 80 at eight. It's just wild.
01:25
em I'm shocked. I understand because I don't remember a time in my 30 years of living in Minnesota two weeks of that kind of heat and humidity. It's crazy. We've had high humidity here too, which is out of dorm, know, but it's destroyed crops out here. Hay is astronomical. can't even, I four times as much. I'm just like, all right, well.
01:53
I thought Montana grew a little bit better hay and wheat, we just haven't gotten the moisture. It's been really humid outside, but the rain is like coming later in the year. We normally don't get a lot of rain this month, but we have and it's way hotter than normal. Yeah, I don't like it. I would like things to go back to the night to 19. Honestly, if I'm being real, I'd like things to go back to 1985. You know,
02:21
I have heard that a few times that like the early 1980s to early 90s was like the time to be alive. I wasn't alive until 1994. So I missed that whole fun part. Yeah, I was like 15 or 16 in 1985 and I hated school, but I loved my life in general at that age. So it would be nice to revisit it. Yeah. You know, everyone said I was going to need all that, you know, all that school I was learning and like, well, I needed some of it, honestly.
02:50
wish I would have just started farming sooner. I understand why some kids would just drop out and go farm instead. Yes. And don't get me wrong. I loved my teachers. I loved learning. I didn't like the social aspect of it at all. Yeah, that's right. Because like I'm a social butterfly and over the years I've learned you're kind of a homebody hermit. like to be your space. I have been shy and quiet my whole entire life. I have been an extreme introvert and
03:18
I tell that to people in real life and they're like, no, you're not. And I'm like, you have no idea how hard I have to work to be social. You and my husband are scup from the same cloth. Let me guess your husband's a bubbly extrovert. He is most of the time. Yeah. See, that's funny. Opposites definitely attract. So he does your farmers markets, doesn't he? He's the one that goes and sets them up. Yes, he's very good at it. That's right. He was growing cabbage. How did that go?
03:45
That was our last podcast. talked about the cabbage and lettuce. it was. Yeah, it was cabbage. I think he's sold every single head of the cabbage he's taken so far this summer. See, it was smart of him to up his cabbage amount, but that's because you guys tracked your numbers and you knew what you guys were going to sell. We just started doing farmers markets and I've learned from what you guys told me. Well, you specifically, because I talked to you, not your husband. Well, you talked to him through me, but yes.
04:13
Yeah, of course, you know, and he he had tracked his numbers. So he went three times as many as that. Correct. I think so. Yeah. See, so I track my milk and I've been making goat cheese and I started making goat caramel also. And it's been helping. So this week I had to have like a break because of the extreme heat. get issues with the milk animals in general.
04:40
you know, cows or goats. They just have a really hard time with the heat. It kind of bogs down their immune system. It's also been really wet, which is like typical intestinal worm season. So we've just been kind of working through that and at a later time. So we had to take two weeks off and man, I felt it. I felt it in our wallet. I felt it. You know, I was like, I can't wait until you're back in milk. So I ended up buying a second milk goat just to try and keep up with the demand that were.
05:08
already having our first year at this Red Lodge Farmer's Market. Mm-hmm. So you said you're making caramel? Yes, it's called Kahita and it's a goat caramel. Yeah. It's so good. I sold out in my first 30 minutes when I took it to the first uh Red Lodge Farmer's Market. I was selling pints for 15. I'm going to up them to 20 just because supply and demand. It takes one whole gallon of milk, you know, to make six uh
05:38
I think they're half pints. Sorry, not full pints. They're half pints. it's it renders down really far. But I added in cinnamon sticks to the first half instead of adding an actual ground cinnamon this time. And I like figured out my own recipe. Like, know, you kind of take a base recipe, tweak it a few times. So this was my first time taking it out. And I did free samples and everyone who tried it bought a
06:07
bought a half pint of it. I even had two roommates and they were like, I'll fight you over it. They were going to just split it for their coffee. And they're like, no, I'll fight you over it. They were younger and they were real funny. So they ended up each buying a half pint and they wrote their names on them so they could keep them separate because it was so good. Uh huh. And the thing is not very, I mean, I am ruining this. Sorry. Let me try that again. That thing is Kehita or Kaheda, however you say it. Yeah. Is unusual.
06:35
not a lot of people make it. it is definitely a supply and demand thing. And I would pay $20 for a half pint of that because I'm only going to do it once a year and I'm going to enjoy it. And a lot of the people that go to this Red Lodge Market, it's a tourist town. So a lot of them are traveling. So a lot of the people, it's almost
06:59
I mean, there's a lot of normal farmers markets where they're not in tourist towns that I could go to, but my booth is $15 there. And so it's a very affordable booth and you constantly have a new crowd and every Saturday during the farmers market, they have some type of event that's either going on before it. have Zuma this weekend and a car show, or they're doing like something after like they did Shakespeare in the park last weekend or the weekend before that.
07:29
Like they do this really cool. If you look it up, you'll laugh. It's called the Iron Horse Rodeo out there. And it's a bunch of bikers that are doing the barrel racing and all those types of events, but on their motorcycle. So you get a new crowd every week and they have, they all have different things they're looking for. Or, you know, you're attracting a crowd that's maybe not used to some of the things that you're in the farmer's market doing. So having an item like I have, and also offering Chev.
07:56
um, which is just goat cheese. I didn't know that it's any type of goat cheese. I didn't realize that until after I started making it, um, was one of those things that it's a niche, not a lot of people are doing it. And so I had people showing up, you know, from an hour away just to buy goat cheese from me because it was closer than where I'm at in Laurel. So it's honestly opening up to a whole new
08:22
I guess you could say atmosphere of folks, right? Like I'm getting to see a different market every week. So I feel that tracking my numbers is really important. So I'm able to kind of watch all those different things, you know, because the Iron Horse rodeo, I didn't sell any goat cheese. I didn't have um a lot of the products that I had because my goat was taking a break, but I'm almost glad I didn't because of the fact that, you know, we...
08:50
I wouldn't have sold them. Nobody asked for them. I talked about them, but everyone was like, oh, goat cheese. There's this like weird stigma around Shev, around Kehita, um and goat milk in general. So it's one of those things. I mean, we've talked enough times about it. I'm very passionate about it. I'm very passionate about kind of breaking the stigma because goat milk is going to be something with the way hay prices are going that I think we're going to start seeing a lot more of because it's almost unattainable to raise a dairy cow.
09:20
Yes, I have talked to a few dairy people in the last few weeks and it is becoming impossible to get in to dairy work unless you are part of a dairy family right now. Correct. I've actually been looking at expanding into a dairy cow because I'd like to make my own cream cheese with goat milk, but it doesn't produce enough fat. It doesn't render enough. I actually went to my friend, so I want you to talk to her because it's really cool. She does dairy sheep.
09:51
Yes. The sheep milk is so good. was 40 % cream in it. 40%. Yeah. And it tasted just like goat milk. Like goat milk tastes just like cow milk. People are so shocked when I give them these analogies, but that's the reality of it is that it just tastes like milk, right? But I think we all have these weird stigmas about them. So I'm excited to hear that more people are looking in other ways to provide dairy for the community.
10:20
Because you are right. The fact is, is that if you're not already a part of a dairy family, it's really hard or you have to go buy these young bottle calves and you have to travel states like my friend Hannah Jones, who I encouraged her to talk to you also out here. She drove all the way to Oregon in the beginning of the spring and picked up these dairy calves and she got three heifers. She bought the whole group so she could get the heifers and she paid.
10:48
I don't know, $450 or something. I have no idea. But then she had a bottle feed them. So by the time this is said and done in these heifers or bread, they're going to be worth over, you know, her time alone, probably three or four grand, I would assume, with the way Hayes going before you even can breed them. And if she got them at that lower price, she made out like a bandit because they are so expensive right now. Well, and I think she got them that low because they went through an auction and they were bottle calves.
11:14
They're bottle dairy calves and a lot of people if you don't have dairy cows to feed the babies that you're bottling You know that you're feeding through the bottle. It's really expensive. So like I think since last time we talked did I had I gotten into full-size dairy goats? I Don't remember. I don't think so. don't think so. So I actually sold my whole herd of Nigerian dwarfs by the way Yes, yes all of them except for one princess Diane because she's just gonna live with me forever. She's my
11:43
She was a party goat. just, she's very sweet. I love her. And she's kind of goofy, right? So you always have one.
11:51
Yeah, she's your goat friend. Yeah, she's my goat friend. Like, literally, right? So I kept her around, but I bought bottle babies this year and I could not believe how much milk these little bottle goats drink. I was like, I almost need my own personal dairy cow just to feed these little guys. And it could have been justified because I had three gallons a day of goat milk that are the red cat milk that I was going through every single day.
12:20
gallons for like, I don't know, 10, 12 weeks of that. If you do the math, man, was definitely an eye-opener for bottle babies on goats and the cost of them and what really goes into it. How often do they have to be fed, Morgan? So it depends. You can go from, well, in the beginning, if they're on their dam, it's quite often, but most people will feed them three times a day. But bottle goats...
12:48
can get something called floppy kid syndrome because the ruminant kind of like cows. So you have to let them digest all of their milk. So I'd kind of look at them and see where they were at. Because we called it the milk zone. Like you do not want them to go into the milk zone. Milk zone means death is upon them because they're starting to curdle the milk in their stomach before like it's not emptying fully because they'll curdle it naturally. But they're not able to digest all of it before new milk goes on top of it.
13:15
which then means they're just making large amounts of essentially cheese in their stomach. So you typically feed them in the beginning three times a day unless they're hogs. So like my Lamatra boar crosses, which is a meat and dairy cross, um they eat a ton. And they were the ones that tried to go into the milk zone as we called it, because they're just hungry all the time. Now my other goats...
13:40
Some of them would eat, like my purebred Lomacha, some of them would eat three times a day religiously. Some of them would skip a meal during the day, in the beginning. That's the first like three weeks of their life. Then you wean them twice a day. And then if you're showing them, some people will keep them on a bottle all the way up until they're six months because you don't want going, you do not want them going through what they call the ugly stage where they become gangly, they go through the stress of being weaned, their body grows a bunch more because they're bringing in a different type of nutrition.
14:09
from grains and grasses and weeds. So it kind of just depends on whoever is kind of running their own system and it's going to be highly based off the goats. So kind of a loaded question. It depends on the goats and where they're at in the milk zone. So three times a day, ideally, some of them need it four times a day, smaller meals, but we just try to keep it to a solid three and we would give them cold milk because they won't drink too much cold milk to become in
14:38
like to go into the milk zone. It's so cold that it cools them down and they have to stop drinking it to be able to warm their body up. Therefore they're not going to over consume. So we learned that like two weeks into it to stop warming up their milk and it helped quite a bit. Good. Awesome. So, um, I want to jump in real quick and open up the discussion to, to shopping local for your produce and your meat because
15:06
You've been sick with something, a tummy bug. A of people I've been talking to have been sick with things. And I just heard on the news yesterday that there was a recall on eggs because of salmonella. And so I really want to encourage people to buy locally because a lot of the stuff that's happening is from the bigger producers. And if you're buying locally, you're not likely to run into as many problems.
15:37
Correct. Yeah, absolutely. So I've always been a big supporter of cottage farms, right? And that's something why I got into the Red Lodge Market was because there's a lot of bartering as producers that goes on. Like we bartered, you know, I've bartered for Native American jewelry. I've bartered for, you know, gluten-free bread while I've been there with my cheese products. And when you're shopping locally, even as a producer, because I know a lot of producers are listening to your podcast.
16:06
there's room for bartering, which as most of us know, bartering is the way of life when you're a farmer because we're all poor, we have no money, but we have a lot of items and things and goods and skills, right? And so as a producer, it benefited me to have the barter system that's right there at my fingertips. And when you're shopping locally, you're helping us as a producer to continue to do what we're doing because when your food chain is local to you, instead of it being
16:34
you know, a mass scale one like Walmart, if there's a trucking issue, which we've seen trucking issues, plenty of us, I know in Montana, we see it because of the weather, there's a gap in the community food chains, right? So you're depending on someone that's not local, therefore it's coming in, and it's not as good when it's a large scale also, such as we've seen with the lettuce issue that's going on.
16:56
You don't know your products as well, right? Like you're not hands-on, your family's normally not eating it. If you're a big producer, maybe they are, but I know a lot of those places, have heavy regulations. So a cottage farmer, it is gonna heavily depend on your guys' area and the laws in Montana, the Freedom Food Act made it to where producers could produce a lot of stuff and they just had to pay a fee and then submit their recipes.
17:24
So when you're buying from cottage farming markets specifically, you're able to get in season vegetables and fruits, which is really important because we stopped eating in season. And that's why you run into a lot of these issues. There's seasons where certain parasites flourish on certain products. And typically you're running into somebody that's going to be quality checking their own items. So we drink our own.
17:51
Right. I eat my own cheese. I eat my own caramel. I do all of that. So I'm always quality, you know, quality checking. To give you an example is if you're at a farmer's market, there's typically going to be somebody with milk products. There's a lady at our farmer's market and she always has the biggest line. She grows the best produce and she's able to sell it locally. Now it is going to be a little bit more expensive, but you're paying for a higher quality food that has had somebody.
18:20
that is actually tending to it. They're aware of the inputs and outputs. So there's a lot of strengths when you're going to be buying from a farmer's market. Not only is the money staying in your community directly, because people that are buying from the farmer's market, you're normally within a hundred mile radius. So your money then is gonna stay there because most cottage farmer producers are very...
18:44
I guess we're smart, right? Like in the sense that we're gonna find where can we find our fertilizer locally? Where can we find an alternative? What does it look like during this season for parasites or bugs that are gonna tear apart your lettuce or they're gonna tear apart corn specifically? And when you have that type of quality control, your product is typically going to be fresher. So instead of the tomatoes being shipped to Walmart and they're green,
19:14
and they're not even ripe, you're getting a red fresh tomato that has all the nutrition in it and is not gonna mold as quickly. Like, I don't know about you, but my strawberries, if I get it from a big box store, they mold within two days because there's no nutrition. I don't even buy strawberries from grocery stores anymore. I don't either. I refuse to because of that fact that it started molding. That's when I really started looking outwards because we, I mean, me and my husband are pretty...
19:43
well, educated in organic living soil, how plants are gonna fruit, where the nutrition is in the plant at that time, what is that gonna do for the product that you're getting and vice versa, right? So we've done kind of that. So when I started seeing the strawberries mold right away, because it's my son's favorite fruit, right? So it's something that he'll eat a whole canister of and when sitting, I was like, well, this is a problem because that means there's no nutrition for the mold to, know, for the organisms or the bacteria that's on it.
20:13
to eat that it's just molding right away because there's nothing in it. It's just, it looks like a strawberry, but they don't even taste like strawberries anymore. They just taste kind of fluffy, right? Like air. And so one of the things that I understood from that was that these are unripened strawberries that are being sent to us and it doesn't have the same nutrition value as if it was right on the vine. Yep. Exactly. The other thing is you were saying that uh a lot of the stuff at farmers markets might be a little bit more expensive.
20:43
How many times have you bought stuff at the grocery store and not even bothered to eat it because it wasn't very good and it just gets tossed? Oh, so many times. We just sold my son's pigs because he wants to move to a smaller one. And I'm so bummed because I don't have I don't have anything to help. You know, get rid of this waste. So now the waste is even more on my mind, right? Because I'm like, wow, I.
21:08
can't even really justify it if it goes bad right away. It still is upsetting to me, but I'm like, well, at least the pigs can get it. And then later on, the pigs would have fed us, right? But now there's nothing there. So now I'm even more attentive to this fact. So like I'm meal prepping so that I know what I need to get when I go to the farmer's market. And that's something that I'm encouraging people to do too, is that you have to...
21:32
You have to meal prep. There's more work that goes into buying from our farmers market, but the quality of products that you'll be getting is way higher. and if you're doing that, you're valuing what you're buying and you're going to eat it. Correct. Yeah. So there's a lot of there's a lot of love that goes into that plant. And I believe the energy is not lost despite anyone's religious belief or whatever. I just know the energy is not lost. It's been proven. Right. So if you
22:02
love these plants that you're taking care of the product that comes back from it is a lot better. I love my goat pearl. When I went away for two days, my husband had one hell of a time with her. Let me tell you, she did not want to let down her milk. She won't do all that. My husband loves her, right? That it wasn't a love issue in that it was that it was out of her routine. But when I'm there, she knows that I love her so much that she produces a lot more milk. And it you know, it's not that I'm doing anything different than my husband.
22:32
But I have that feminine touch. I'm going to sing to her. sing about how she's so great and she produces milk, right? And then I stroke her back just the right way because she doesn't like to be scritched with manhand. She wants, you know, gentle touches and stuff like that. And so that's where I believe that even applies with plants. They've done studies on talking negatively to a plant and what it does and talking positively to that plant and what that also does. Right. So.
22:59
At a farmer's market, you're not getting the same type of product. It's not just some worker, maybe even a migrant worker, because they work a lot of them, that is being treated poorly and below human standards because they don't make the same wages and all this stuff, right? Because corporation is about greed and money. Where at a farmer's market, you're dealing with someone's family and their income and typically they're the ones tending to it or their employees are highly valued because they're the backbone of that farm still running.
23:25
So you're just, getting a different quality of product all the way down to the energy that goes into it. Yes. And the other thing about this is that when our tomatoes start coming in, Morgan, please say a prayer or send a smoke signal or something that our tomato plants stay as good as they are right now. Cause we have a hundred and over 190. Wow. the garden and they've all set fruit. have all got tomatoes. That's so awesome. Like, wow.
23:56
when they start reddening up, my husband obviously will be selling them at the farmer's market. But the other, cool thing about this is if he sells out, he will be here on Sundays for people to just come and ask him to pick, you know, however many they need for candy. See, and that's, that's where it's at. Like that, making a community, being
24:23
Involved in your community when you have a community chain. That's really tight like a farmers market There's not months of delay for trucks coming in somebody can just go to the house because hey I don't I sold out on Saturday, but please come and like I think that you pick it is smart I brought that up a few times people are looking for things to do that Kind of get two birds stoned at one time right like they can take the kids there go pick some tomatoes and now they have fresh tomatoes because we all know
24:51
The economy is a little struggling right now. I mean, I'm not really into looking at the news and all that stuff and watching stuff, but I can feel it. Like my dollar doesn't go as far. So if I could go pick some tomatoes with my son, that is such a cool experience. And it's not something you get to do every day. Kind of like, you know, we still do the goat parties and we still do the events. And that's something that is valuable to people. want what they can't.
25:20
have at their own home. So many people are stuck in a rental situation. So if they can go out to your house and pick a tomato, man, that's a different, that's out of their norm, you know what I'm saying? So I find those kind of hands-on items very valuable to our community, almost more valuable than the actual food or item that it produces. Yeah, and I just, I'm so excited that people are going to be able to get a bunch of tomatoes and can them.
25:49
for the coming winter this year from us. Because we didn't have that last year or the year before because our tomato plants didn't do very well. Yeah, I remember that. you're like, we're not even sure if we're going to do them. I think we're going to give them one last crack and look at it. So I'll definitely send all the smoke signals and all the good juju your way on those tomatoes. We actually took the year off from planting just so we could get the milking.
26:14
essentially set up, right? Like I have all these babies for next year. I'm running two milk does this year. We're producing a gallon and a half with kids sharing on one of the goats that we just got. And that's something we didn't have last year. I mean, we had goat milk, but we weren't going to farmers markets. We weren't able to go to farmers markets because I didn't have the product.
26:39
Yup. it's just one of those things, you know, you just sit back. just had a moment where I was sitting back. I'm like, wow, we've actually like completed. mean, when I first talked to you, has it been three seasons now, I think? know, the end of August is the start of the fourth year. So three years in August. So yeah, I talked to you the first year, I think. Yeah. So you got to talk to us like from the ground up, right. And it was one of those things where
27:07
We, that was a goal of ours. So to know that before the five year mark, we've been able to hit every single little thing that we've wanted to do. It just, I mean, it takes in a lot. I don't know if I told you yet, or if you saw online, but we were voted number one and number two with both of the foreign names because Groovy Grazers is more about goats. Culcane and farms is more about farming, right? We're voting number one for kids, entertainer and educator.
27:34
of the year and it was people vote. So it wasn't like, you know, a committee that voted on us. It was the actual community that said we earn that. So it was really cool because that's what we want to be seen as. We want to be the educators. I think that if we can show people that your food chain doesn't have to be 20 links, it can be just two, you and the farmer. Yes, you're going to pay a little bit more. The product is going to be way better than what you're going to get out the big box store and
28:01
you're going to be supporting somebody in your community locally instead of corporate greed. Yes. Congratulations, my friend. Yeah, that was really exciting. Not expected. I just threw my name up there kind of as a joke, like, oh, all right, let's see what happens. And definitely wasn't expecting coal canine farms to be thrown in there. But I mean, it is what it is. was really cool to see my community really supported us and they support what we do. And it's because we're able to educate.
28:30
on what does food, like where does your food come from? What should it look like? And how can you go about getting it? I think a lot of people are really intimidated when they go to a big, go to a farmer's market, they don't know how to ask the right questions or they feel like, I don't know what to do, I'm not gonna go there. I don't know, a lot of people don't even know where the markets are or when they're happening.
28:55
And so I think if more people can start turning to these, I'm going to tell my friend about it. So people in general, when they experience something new, they tell three people about it, good or bad. It doesn't matter. I think I've talked about this with you before. So every person that comes out to your guys' house to come pick tomatoes, good or bad, they're going to tell three people. So that's three more chances you have at somebody coming to you that maybe most likely did not hear about you before.
29:22
Yeah, we had a lot of people three summers ago. Three, four. There were two summers we didn't have any tomatoes. So the summer before that, so it must have been four summers ago, we had people calling and asking if we had tomatoes. And then we did not have tomatoes at the farmer's markets last year and the year before, really. We had a couple, but not many. And people didn't call because they would say, you going to have any at the farm? And my husband would say, unfortunately.
29:51
no because of all the heavy rain we had in May and June. as long as you can get the word out whether you have a surplus or a deficit, it's great because we didn't have a bunch of people calling us last year and the year before and us having to basically want to cry every time we had to say no. because it's dollars that you're not receiving. because we're not helping. Because we're not helping.
30:20
More than money, it's just you're not helping. I mean, it's dollars that aren't helping you or helping them or helping the community because you're going to spend your money locally. So it just it's this huge gap in the community chain. You know, when people call me, hey, do you have milk? Oh, I'm out, you know, and it's like, well, man, that's one less person that's getting goat milk. That's one less, you know, that's three bales of uh small hay that I'm missing out on.
30:49
you know, that could be helping. it's just like, all right, it kind of helps you gauge though, where, what you need to do, right? Like I knew I needed to bring in a second milk dough this year on a whim. I was like, I gotta do it. I just have to do it because even one week down is 120 to $200 worth of milk products, right? And that's painful, but it's also more painful to me is that my community is not getting a product that they're asking for, right?
31:17
That means that they're going to have to go without this product. And even if it's caramel, that may seem a little over dramatic to some people, but some people can't have any cow product. Right. So that's one more person that's going to have to go out with, you know, without a joy of life of having caramel, which that caramel brings a lot of joy in my life and my husband's and anybody that's tried it to be real honest with you, it puts a big smile on somebody's face. And it feels good being on the receiving end of having someone
31:44
get your product and enjoy it and find joy in it, but then also too, being able to buy from other people. I have a lot of joy when I go in and I support other farmers at this farmers market, right? Or if I'm coming up to them and I'm like, I don't have any cash right now that I'm able to, because I got to make my hay bill, but I do for whatever reason have a surplus of this chef, can I trade you X thing? And I'll tell you nine times out of 10, they're excited because
32:13
It's one thing they're not having to spend money on. And if they take that piece of bread home, OK, well, then that's one more piece of bread they're going to consume that they already have. So it's really just an interesting way that money doesn't even play into farmers markets as much as people would think, as much as it just being the gratitude and being able to feed the community. Right. Money is great. Don't get me wrong. It makes the world spin. Sadly, I wish it would go away in some senses, other senses, not so much.
32:43
But it's being able to fill a need in the community directly that I think people need to take away from farmers markets. You're filling the need of the buyer or, you know, of the producer. And then they're feeling the need of you needing an item. So the way that works, it's just this, believe it, what is it called? Osmosis, where it transmutes back and forth equally. Symbiotic. Symbiotic. Thank you. I always say the wrong word for whatever reason, but that symbiotic like relationship.
33:14
is really more beneficial to your community. If your community makes more money, then they're able to do more things in the community. They're shopping more locally. They're going to invest in different projects around there. They're gonna invest in people that are around them. It's been proven that it helps your community. Every dollar you spend, one dollar is like $10 when you're spending it with a small producer. So that's a huge.
33:41
like benefit instead of spending $5 at Walmart and it really only being a dollar that comes back into the community. If I spend it with a local producer, that $5 then turns into 50 essentially with how they're going to use it and spend it and it's directly in my community. I am so glad that you are a proponent and a fan and an ag, ag, ag, can't say it, advocate for all of this because I'm right there with you, sister.
34:10
I know, yeah, it's been so exciting. What a season of growth. mean, we're still doing the damn thing, just like we always do, but it just changes. We just kind of, we see a need and we feel a need in our community. So instead of focusing so much on doing the agri tourism this year, and then gardening ourselves, we found that if we can fill this need with milk, it really is just, it's gonna help us in the long run farther. And that's sometimes hard, right, to give up my passion of gardening for our family.
34:40
to doing milk, I see the need is more with the milk and I'm able to barter the milk for the produce that I would be growing anyways. So I'm just helping out all around. It's a good feeling. And I encourage everyone like Google on Facebook or not Google, do the little search bar, like type in your city, type in farmer's market and see where it's at. I bet you there's a farmer's market, if not four or five that are going on every Saturday. It seems like more people, at least in Montana, are hosting farmer's markets. So I think...
35:09
I want to leave everyone on a challenge note up here, right? Cause I always tell people like your followers like, Hey, try something new. would like, I'd like for you guys to go to a farmer's market in the month of August, because that's when a lot of places are going to have the produce all around from Montana, all the way down to Florida and spend $10. That's all I'm asking. Spend $10 of your money in the community and watch how that producer feels at the end of that transaction. And then, then go home, enjoy your item and see how you feel after that $10 been spent.
35:38
And I would guarantee that it's a more satisfying feeling. And if you really like what you bought, go back next time and thank the person that made it or grew it. Absolutely. Yeah, I have people that come up to me, other producers, and they tell me how much they love my item. And it just makes me feel so good. Like, it's just a very positive atmosphere. So I'm super excited that you guys are doing well with the, you know, the cabbage and you guys have a bunch of tomatoes. So I can't wait to check back in in a few months and see where we're all at.
36:09
I think we're all going to be doing just fine. think the more local we live, the better off we will all be because you can't rely on your state or federal government right now. Rely on your local government and your local resources. Correct. And like uh some horse people will know her, but Trissa all
36:32
Trisha Aldridge, owns Audios Pantaloons, what a name, right? But he's a million plus dollars stud and what her Motivational Monday was is that no one's coming to save you, but also no one's coming to stop you. um
00:00
You'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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company.
00:28
Today I'm talking with Ronel at Zebulon Heritage Farm in Tennessee. Good morning. Ronel, how are you? Good morning. Doing well. How about you? I'm good. Is it hotter than Hades in Tennessee this morning? It just about is. Yeah, I looked at the map that was on the news yesterday and the whole country was red. I was like, that doesn't happen very often. Mother Nature, what?
00:56
What got up your butt and irritated you? Because you're hot. There's something wrong. Right. It's been a hot month for sure. It's been hot month. It's been terrible. And like I said to my co-host on my other podcast, I have two. The other one is Grit and Grace in the Heartland. um I said to her the other day, I said, I'm trying to keep a really good attitude about this.
00:00
I'm 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 Cody at Ryan's Yak Farm in New York. Good morning, Cody. How are you? Good morning. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Where in New York are you and how is the weather? Are you part of the heat bubble that's going on? We are definitely part of the heat bubble. We are in Oxford, New York.
00:00
You'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.
00:11
Today I'm talking with Dawn at Homesteading-ish in West Virginia. Good afternoon, Dawn. How are you? Great. It's nice to be here. Oh, thank you for being here. I appreciate it. So you are not the, I don't know, founder of Homesteading-ish. You are part of Homesteading-ish. So tell me what Homesteading-ish is. uh
00:39
um So I'm actually one of the organizers for the event. There are a couple of us that got together and decided that we wanted to bring something different to our community and trying to help people establish a homestead, know what to do, kind of help them build those foundational skills that they need in order to live off the land or be more sustainable, to work on things that they would like to do to help support their family, providing
01:08
food or um whatever other things they might need in order to make their homestead work. So we put our heads together and kind of decided that we would go this route by bringing some non-traditional resources to the table and bringing people from not just the talking head and university world but from real life experience to the table that could have an influence over how people view homesteading and small farm life. um So
Clear Creek Ranch Mom - Why Beef Is So Expensive, and Some Temporary Workarounds
Episode 353
Wednesday, August 27, 2025 • Duration 46:28
Today I'm talking with Leah at Clear Creek Ranch Mom about why beef is astronomically expensive right now, and some alternatives to get you through.
00:00
You'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 Leah at Clear Creek Ranch Mom in Nebraska. I was gonna say Arizona, I don't know why. And Leah's been a guest a couple of times on the podcast and she's here today to talk to us about the cost of beef right now. So good morning, Leah, how are you?
00:27
Good morning, Mary. Always good to visit with you. Thank you for having me. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for coming back. I love talking with you because you are. My dad would call you a no bullshit lady. You are. You are very, very forward and straightforward. And I almost blunt. Almost. I hate the word blunt because people tell me I'm blunt all the time. And I'm like, that's so mean. But you're very, very shoot from the hip. And I love that about you.
00:55
And if Maggie barks in the background, I'm sorry, we've got the farm stand open, we've got tomatoes in there and people keep pulling in for tomatoes. So. And it's International Dog Day, so she should have her moment. It is. Yeah, I didn't post on Facebook about Maggie for International Dog Day or whatever it is because I forgot that that's what it was. Yeah, I did too. I'll have to do it later. Be like, my dog's the best dog. I will die on that hill.
Music On The Homestead - Kerry Adams at Lagoon Records
Episode 352
Monday, August 25, 2025 • Duration 30:22
Today I'm talking with Kerry Adams about music, and why it's important on the homestead.
00:00
You'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 Kerry Adams at Lagoon Records. think it is in Michigan. Good morning, Kerry. How are you? Good morning. I'm fabulous. How are you, Mary? I'm good. So again, it's going to seem weird that I asked somebody who's into music to be on the podcast about homesteading, but music is a craft.
00:28
And music is a big part, has been a big part of Homesteaders for a long, long time. So tell me about yourself because people then understand why I asked you to be on the show. Wow. That's a big question. Well, yes. I've been doing this for about 50 years. So I started back in the Jurassic era and it's, I'm a guitarist or producer. I used to be on tour.
00:55
I managed a couple of different artists when we were on tour and I'd be their guitarist. um I've owned three recording studios. I still have one now. um And to me, the music is not a whole lot different than eh cooking the vegetables that you grow or being a painting artist or whatever. It's all art and it all kind of comes from the same place. So I love to play and I love to cook. So it comes from the same side of the brain, I guess.
00:00
You'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 Matt at Matt the Garden Guy in Wisconsin. Good morning, Matt. How are you? Hey, good. How you been? I'm good. Is the weather any improved in Wisconsin today? I mean, it's been raining like crazy. Fortunately, all that rain that hit Milwaukee and that flooding missed me, but
00:28
We've been getting rain like crazy every day and you know the bugs are destroying everything but I think the rain is holding off now. I woke up this morning and the sun was actually out and I was like, oh hello! Nice of you to stop in! It's not here yet, it's still cloudy and 70, I'm just still waiting for it to rain again but yeah we need the sun badly. Yeah, my husband dumped out the uh...
00:56
the rain gauge last night and he came in and he said, we got six and a half inches of rain from Saturday until yesterday. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. It's been terrible. I don't want to engage. Sorry. My range actually broke, so I got to try to fix it. So I'm like getting no nothing coming in, but yeah, you don't have any empirical data to work with.
If you use my link, https://amzn.to/4lDqg06, to buy the book, My Family Tree, Food & Stories: Your Personal Journal of Favorite and Memorable Foods, Recipes, and Stories to Remember and Share, I will receive a small commission.
00:01
Today I'm talking with Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely. What a wonderful last name. Thank you. Family Tree Food and Stories. Sylvia is in Kentucky. Kentucky, you got it. Nancy is in Florida. There you go. So good morning ladies. How are you? Good morning to you and so good to be with you. I love your voice. Thank Doing good. Yeah. Thank you.
00:28
I always feel weird when people say that because I don't hear it the way other people hear it, but that is totally fine. And what a lovely compliment. Thank you. Sure. All right. So what's the weather like in Florida, Nancy? It is warm and a little sticky. It's August, but that said, we have lovely air conditioning inside. So the weather inside is beautiful. It's sunny outside. And what's the weather like in Kentucky, Sylvia?
00:00
You'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 to Mark at the Raised Bed and Container Gardening with Mark. And Mark is in North Carolina. Good afternoon, Mark. How are you? Good afternoon, Mary. It's good to be with you. It's good to have you. I love talking to people in North Carolina because you guys have the sweetest Southern drawl.
00:28
Well, sometimes I, my kids tell me I talk pretty country sometimes. It's really sweet and it's very easy to understand. Sometimes the drawl is so thick that I'm like, excuse me, what did you say? So it's great when I get somebody who sounds like sweet tea and a rocking chair on a front porch. makes me very happy. You said the weather has been raining there. Yeah, we've had a good bit of rain. We've had.
00:56
We had a really hot stretch during the summer and then some rains came in and it's kind of been cool for the last couple of weeks. as my grandfather would say, we had a zizzly zazzly this morning. It was, you could hear the rain just sizzling as it hit the ground. yes. I remember being a kid in Maine and we had a dirt road for a while and then they tarred it.
00:00
You'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 Erika at Taste the Local Difference. Good morning, Erika. How are you? Good morning. I am doing great. How are you? I'm good. Where are you located? I am in Michigan, just south of Ann Arbor. Okay.
00:26
Awesome. I'm going to be talking to an old friend on Monday morning for the podcast who lives right near Ann Arbor. So that's kind of funny. That's great. Yeah. What a small world. Yeah. He, he's a musician and he's, uh, older than me. I'm, I'm 55 and I know he's at least 10 years old than I am. So he remembers when, um, music was something you got on records and eight tracks and it should be really fun. Wow. That's cool. Very cool. Yeah. It'll be really fun. I'm excited.
00:56
Um, so what's the weather like in Michigan this morning? Thankfully, it is actually pretty beautiful. It has been quite hot and humid lately, so it's, it was nice. took a nice little walk this morning around my neighborhood and it was, it does seem to be getting a little bit cooler, but you know, what are you going to do? It's August. It's pretty normal for this time of year. Oh, for sure. And it's coming.
01:24
it's getting exceedingly more difficult with every day that the dew point is over 70 in Minnesota. That doesn't happen. Right. Cause that's a little different than here in the East where we have a lot of anyway. Yeah, absolutely. Minnesota is, is yes, close to a great lake, Lake Superior. It's right next to it. But last I knew great lakes weren't the same as ocean.
01:49
I grew up in Maine, so we had a lot of humidity in the summer in Maine. But you would not expect it to be this sticky. Well, I guess it is mid-July now, but usually we get the sticky in August. So it's been a bit much to swallow, Ronel. Let's just put it that way. I totally get it. I totally get it. Yes. So I would love for you to tell me a little bit about yourself and about what you do at Zebulon Heritage Farm.
02:19
Sure, sure. I guess, well, it's kind of a long story. mean, going back, I guess as a kid, I grew up on a homestead where we would bring you some bottle calves back then you could buy them for $5 from a dairy. And we milked some goats as a kid. I was never so fond of the goat milk though. So I guess later we got a family cow, I guess I was about 12. And my dad's like, here's a cow, milk her, take care of her, I want butter.
02:49
And then I milked the family cow for a lot of years. And I guess about 12 years ago, I decided at that point, I already had my own family. I decided I want to start a herd share. Some herd shares have been legal in Tennessee for quite a few years. So I added a second cow and then a third cow. And I guess over the past 12 years, it's just gradually grown and become
03:19
Well, full-time business. Very nice. So I know what A2A2 milk is. Is that what it's called? Right? Sure. Yes. But not all of my listeners will know. Can you explain what's special about A2A2 milk? Okay. So I guess there's a lot of different opinions, but I guess the short answer is it is the betacassin, which is the protein in the milk.
03:48
but I guess it's dependent on the cow's genetics. there are a lot of different variants. And I guess most people don't know that. Most people assume it's either A1 or A2, but there's actually a lot of different variants. And A2, A2, which is both markers are A2, is the desirable one. It is believed to be more digestible, associated with better health. And I do believe there's merit in that because I have more than one
04:18
hard to share member that has told me they had raw milk. mean, most of the time if people can't drink store milk, they can drink raw milk, right? Because it's more digestible, it's less processed. But I have a couple of share members who have told me that they reacted badly to raw milk that wasn't A2A2 and they are able to drink my A2A2 milk. So there is definitely something to it and it is definitely something that a lot of people
04:47
or after because it's associated with better digestion and better health. Thank you for explaining that because if I had attempted to explain that, I would have butchered it. It would not have been good. I was looking at your Facebook page and your website. Is it just jerseys that you milk or is it another breed as well?
05:08
Yes, we have only jerseys. I mean, we do have a beef herd too that we raise grass-red beef. But as for milking, we only have herded registered A2 jerseys. So it didn't start out that way. I just had some random jersey, you know, that I had no idea, you know, anything about her really, as far as this A2 registration goes. But I gradually, um I guess, built up to the registered herd. So I bought like one registered cow and then bred her and tested. I bred only two A2 bulls.
05:39
And the calves I tested and I got lucky in the sense that even though if I had 50 % chance, I ended up getting mostly A2 cuffers. So my herd became fully A2 very quickly. And then I just continued breeding to A2. So from there, we just went off with A2 cows. Okay. I'm going to say this for me. I would get nothing done if I had a herd of jerseys because I love their faces.
06:07
And all I want to do is hang out with them and kiss their noses and stroke their ears. They are so pretty. Sure. I'm biased too. mean, know every breed has their perks and they definitely have their place, but I'm biased too. mean, the jerseys are just super pretty and they're just so curious. mean, they just have personality and they can be different too. mean, some are definitely nicer than others, but generally speaking, they're just so like part of the family kind of temperament, know.
06:37
They always look like they're going to be really sweet. I'm not saying that every single Jersey cow is sweet, but they look like they're going to be very sweet critters. And they are. I mean, I think I've had ones with my kids were a little, it's like before I could stop them, you know, they would call them on the cow or crawl under the cow. I was like, Oh my goodness, you know, you shouldn't be doing this to a cow, but you know, this particular half-puff, she didn't care. Yeah. It's just that, um, you know, some of them are just really gentle. Some of them not so much. mean, most, most of ours are really.
07:06
well-behaved. I don't keep cows that aren't, but some are really friendly and they will be like upping your business. Yeah, yeah. I would love to meet your cows. I think that it's so fun. I don't have any cows. We don't have room. If we had room and I was about 20 years younger, we probably would have cows. Right. And I will say this to people starting out, cows are a digger.
07:33
You know, I never had any intention of having the amount of cows I have right now. It just kind of like every time a pepper was born, was like, I cannot sell her. You know, I have to keep her. And then I end up with, you know, 40 something calves. I'm going, okay, I got a problem. Well, if you're that smitten with the Jersey breed, you must be just absolutely beside yourself in love with the babies every time there's babies. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. They're just so cute. But I mean, they just look like a little deer. Yeah, I
08:02
I have a hard time every time I need to make a decision to keep one or not keep one, know. Yeah. Yep. And I can't believe that you remember when you could get a calf for $5. Do you know how much a calf is going for right now? Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I just sold one this morning. I mean, it's just a jersey bull. This one I sold, so they're not bringing as much, but the beef couch right now. Oh my goodness. They're, yeah, it's crazy what they're bringing right now.
08:28
Yeah, just a couple of years ago, I think you could still get a beef calf for like 50 bucks. Right. Right now. I heard the other day over a thousand dollars. Right. Nope. That's basically the heifers are going for a thousand and upwards. That's a hell of an investment. Right. Right. And I mean, haven't, you just a few years ago in the time that I was running a herd chair, if I sold an adult cow that was like
08:58
kind of a, you could say a call, you know, maybe when she wasn't breeding or whatever, but she was a nice, fat, healthy, otherwise cow. When you sold her, you would be getting like $200. I mean, I sold more than one that I got $200 for. And I'm like, those days are so gone. Yeah. And I'm really afraid that the days of owning cows and steers or bulls is coming to an end because I keep reading about how the
09:26
I'm going to say bovines. The bovine herds across the United States are shrinking because farmers can't afford to keep them. Right. Right. And that is a concern because it's so, mean, buying replacements. mean, initially it was like, you know, if a cow, if you didn't want a particular cow or there's something wrong with her, you just bought another, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't a big deal. But right now it's like, you have to, you know, you have to like take out a loan to buy. You know, they're so expensive, especially if you're trying to buy a nice one.
09:56
Yeah, it's hard to get started in the business right now if you don't already have cows because they're so expensive to get. Yeah, if you're not part of a family that is raising steers or dairy cows, trying to get in at 20 years old is almost impossible. Right, and I feel really bad because there are some people who want so badly to get into the business, but you know, it's so expensive to get started and then we're not even talking about everything else, farm regulating that.
10:25
farm related that is so expensive to get started. It's really tough. It's really it is. And it's really sad. like I said, my co-host and I talk about this all the time because she's a rancher in Nebraska. they raise steers for beef. They don't eat dairy. And she loves you dairy people. I swear she hugs every dairy farmer she meets. She loves you guys so much.
10:53
Well, we appreciate the beef farmers too. Like I said, I do have a beef herd too and it's been the same way with them. The prices are just crazy. Yep, and it's a lot of work and a lot of heart to put into it. So, um I know what a herd share is, but not all of my listeners do. And I want to preface this whole next line of conversation with the fact that Minnesota allows raw milk sales, but only on the farm.
11:22
Okay. They don't sell raw milk in stores here. It's illegal. So can you explain what a herd share is? Okay. So in 2009, herd shares became legal in Tennessee. So a herd share is basically um potential customers, you could say, or potential share members. um If they wanted to acquire raw milk, they needed to like buy a share of the herd or even the cows. So you can get a cow share too. So
11:52
they had to like put a deposit down or put like a payment down and buy the share of a cow. And that would like, um, allow them or entitle them to a portion of the milk. So I guess what it's basically comes down to is they're getting milk from their own cow, a cow that they own in part. And that way it's not like, I'm not selling raw milk. Um, I'm selling shares of herd and then people can get raw milk by buying shares of the herd. then they can get.
12:22
um a portion of milk that way. I hope that makes sense. Yeah, it does. It's kind of on the same idea as a time share, only you get better results. Yes, yes. And a lot of people do the shares because I think it helps the customers be a little more uh committed because they feel like they have a part in the herd. So it's not like... um
12:47
It's not like you're just buying milk this week and then not next week or whatever. You know, most of the share members, they um are committed to getting the milk on a consistent basis. Good, good, good. So, so I think I missed it when you're explaining this. Is, is raw milk illegal to buy in Tennessee unless you do it through a herd share? Um, yes and no. So I guess there's two ways that you can acquire raw milk in Tennessee, either through a herd share, which is what I do.
13:16
or you have to be licensed as a pet food seller. And then you have to get like a license through the state and then you can sell it labeled as pet food. mean, a lot of people do that even though it's not really their pets, you know, drinking it. I am my own. I am my own pet. I will drink the milk. Yes. Right. Which is a perfectly great way to, you know, sell raw milk too. But I personally chose the herd share model. Yeah. I found out last time we were in Maine.
13:44
or I grew up that raw milk is not illegal at all. The little general store down the road from where my parents live now, they sell raw milk in their coolers. oh And I was just like, wow, Maine is so progressive. Yay. Right. Right. And that is nice. Some states are definitely being much more um lenient than others. So that's really nice.
14:13
Yeah, I was surprised. I actually asked the cashier, I was like, how long ago did it become legal to sell raw milk at grocery stores? And she looked at me and the first question out of her mouth was, where are you from? said, well, technically Maine, I grew up here, but I live in Minnesota. And you should have seen her face grin from ear to ear. She was like, one of my friends is from Minnesota. She said,
14:40
I thought I picked up just the tiniest little cadence of Minnesota in your voice. was just so excited. She it up. That's fun. Yeah. And I said, I'm so confused that you picked that up because I try really hard not to sound like I'm from anywhere. She said, well, you don't sound like you're from Maine anymore. So check that off the list. I was like, uh-huh. Okay. Thank you. That's funny. So we had a whole long discussion about raw milk and that everybody loves it.
15:09
and that it's better for your stomach than pasteurized milk. It was a very interesting 15 minute conversation at the counter. That's great. That's great. So I want to hear a little bit about your beef cattle and then I want to hear about your class or whatever it was I read on your website. So tell me about your beef cattle. So I guess we have a small herd. I actually have a few of the last beef cows. have, Gary has.
15:38
Um, mostly Angus, Geltbee, um, the mixture of both, um, most people know Angus, but Geltbee is definitely a less, um, common breed. Um, if I had to sum up Geltbee, it would be like Angus, but it's a little bit bigger, um, than it looks a little different. So, um, the mix between the two seems to be a good combination. They are a little bit bigger. They grow fast like the Angus do, but they're a little bit more sized. And, uh
16:05
The mama cows have a lot of milk. So it seems to be a pretty good breed adapted for our area here. So we have heard of those and they just raise their calves. And we uh usually process the steers between like, you could say 20 to 24 months old um for grass-fed beef. And we have a customer base that we sell all that to. Either by the calf, the steer or whole steer.
16:35
Very nice. Thank you for doing that. That is, I feel like that's, I don't want to say harder than dairy, but it is right up there with dairy because there are so many regulations that go with beef. Right. mean, the day to day work is a lot less. Um, I feel like when there's an issue, it's harder to deal with. It's like, you know, a beef cow, you can't just walk up to her and say, okay, let's pick up your feet. Let me see what's going on with it. know?
17:04
You'd have to get her in the chute and she's fighting you. It's a little different. There's definitely more calving problems with the beef cows than with the jerseys. Jerseys tend to have no problems calving if you're breeding into a jersey. But the beef cows, especially the heifers, there's definitely more of struggle there. Sometimes they need help calving. So yeah, it's a different ballgame for sure. Yeah, I'm so impressed with everybody who raises the large animals.
17:32
We have chickens and we tried raising rabbits for a year that did not go well. Not every rabbit understands that they are supposed to screw like rabbits. Right. My daughter had rabbits at one point and there's definitely something to making them have babies for sure. Receptive, yeah. Uh-huh. Yes. Yes. And it's like the female, if she doesn't like the male, it's not happening. No, she has all the say as she should.
18:01
um But yeah, we have chickens, they're super easy as long as you have a coop and you have a source of food for them and a source of water for them. They do great. Rabbits are kind of touchy, finicky, fragile. And that's pretty much the only thing we've tried. And that's mostly because we don't have any land for big animals to graze. We have three acres, it would not work. uh
18:28
Well, chickens are a good start. mean, where we are chickens, the worst part of, or the worst struggle, I guess, with having chickens are the raccoons because we have a lot of raccoons. But besides that, chickens are, like they say, the gateway animal. You're getting with the chickens and then next thing you know, you want this and you want that too. Where's the goat? Where's the sheep? Where's the cow? Yeah, we have barn cats. We have a dog. We have chickens. I think we're full up on critters for where we can handle it. That's good.
18:57
But again, I have so much respect for people who raise large animals because you've got to be brave, I think. You've got to do a lot of research. You've got to be healthy and strong because just because those jerseys love you doesn't mean that they're going to move when you want them to move. So you got to kind of nudge them, right? Right. It's physically demanding. mean, there's definitely that. And there's, mean, it can be dangerous. I have not had the cow hold the jerseys hurt me.
19:27
not on purpose anyway. I sometimes they like, you know, knock it over by accident or whatever, but yeah, if you're dealing with large animals, some of you might get charged by the bull bull and that has happened. Ironically, it was my beak bull, not even my jersey bull, yeah, these things happen and they're hard to keep in. know, if they get out and you know, if a bull bull figures out he can walk through the fence, he's walking through the fence every time. So there's definitely challenges to it. There's definitely challenges and where we live, also have...
19:55
you know, a way out the boondocks. So finding a veterinarian to come out can also be a challenge. So that, guess that eventually just forced me to learn to do a lot of things myself. Which is probably good because then you don't have to pay the vet bills if you are skilled enough to do it yourself. True, Yes, yes. I mean, initially my hands were shaking, you know, if I needed to like set an ITV or something, because I had no idea what I was doing. But you know, after so many times you figure it out and you just know that, you know, this is you have to do because that's not available.
20:24
You know, a lot of times they're just not available. Yep. And sometimes, I've actually heard a couple stories like this, sometimes you may know something that the doesn't know because you learned it from somebody who learned it from their grandpa or their great grandpa a long time ago. Right. And that is another thing because I have a couple vets, but the one I have, I literally um felt that he had no experience with dairy cows. So if that had a problem, there was no
20:52
There was no use asking him because he didn't know. And it's not like I'm not shaming the vet, but he just had no experience with the dairy cows. He just had no idea. Absolutely. And that's kind of, this is going to sound funny. It's kind of fun that you have the skills to handle some of the things yourself. You must feel a great sense of pride in that. Well, it's taken blood, and tears in a lot of years, but I do, I do. And which is why I guess, um
21:22
I like to share that, you know, knowledge because I like to, I feel like it took me a lot of trouble and pain to learn it. And I would like to make that available to other people who want to learn so they don't have to learn the hard way and know the way I did. Which leads me to the last part of my question for you. I see on your Facebook description. says we also offer mentoring to family cow owners on school, S-K-O-O-L, at Homestead Family Cow. So tell me about that.
21:51
Sure, that's actually a little more recent. The school platform is actually a more recent venture. I've been mentoring, kind of like, cow people for, well, a lot of years. I guess for a lot of years. just like on Facebook groups or whatever, I would give advice if I could. But more recently, I started the platform on school. So that way, felt like if I'm making educational content, I can keep it all neatly in one spot.
22:20
so it's not like spread out over the internet. So that way I can make educational videos and put them all on the platform. And then if people want to join the platform, they can read through or listen through the videos and the educational material on there. And they can also ask questions and hopefully we will eventually be able to do like Q &A sessions to help people learning about family cows.
22:45
I guess back in the day, grandma and grandpa's, you a of people's grandparents knew these things, it's kind of disappeared for a while. But now there's a whole group of people or a whole bunch of people who is trying to get back into the family cow thing, but they're starting from scratch. So I think it would be great for them to have access to a lot of material where they can learn how to do it. Yes. And the school platform is fairly new, right? It's only been out for a year or so.
23:16
It's been a few years, I think. yes, it's not that old at all. Like I said, my group or my community school is pretty recent too. I just wanted something where I can put all my educational content in one spot and keep it easy to maintain. Well, thank you for doing that as well, because not everybody has the patience to teach. I don't. I'm terrible at it. I have a hard time with it.
23:41
That's why I chose to do a podcast because I know a little bit. I like talking about what I know. like talking with you guys about what you know. And then people just learn from the conversation. Right. Right. So if I wanted to find Homestead Family Cow on school, do I just go to school.com and type in Homestead Family Right. If you search it in the search bar, it should show right up. If you put in Homestead Family Cow, it should show right up in the search bar. And there's a picture with a banner. I guess it's my face with a cow.
24:10
So it should pop right up. Okay, I'll put the link in the show notes if I find it. If I can't find it for some reason, would you message it to me? Sure, sure. can definitely do that. I appreciate that. Oh yeah, I want to make it easy for people to find you because I know there's a lot of young people coming up or stepping into the role that their parents that have aged out or the grandparents that have aged out had.
24:40
and they're new. mean, if it's a family business, they may know a little bit, but I'm sure they don't know everything. Right. And most of the people that I have mentored over the year uh who are not coming out of a family business, they were coming in first generation, know, trying to get in and starting from scratch. Yeah. And it's so much easier when you have a mentor or a friend
25:07
Or I don't know, a complete stranger you met at the county fair. Sure. got talking and they were like, I can help. Right. I totally agree. mean, back when I started out, the internet didn't exist. You know, and I was like, we're getting books from the library and I made a lot of mistakes along the way. And I was also quite young, but I made a lot of mistakes along the way. like, I like to help people not, you know, make those mistakes. If I, if I had this information at, you know, at my fingertips, I would have changed a lot of things.
25:38
I always joke that if I had had access to the internet when I was 15, I would probably rule the world by now because I was a bookworm and a word nerd. Sure. Sure. And I spent a lot of time with my nose in books. Can you imagine me at 15 with access to Google? I would have been the biggest knowledge sponge on earth. I imagine that. Yeah, I look at my kids, my oldest daughter, I mean, my oldest kids are adults, but
26:07
I look at them and I'm like, oh my goodness, know, they just have a head start on knowledge, you know, and just this information that I had, you know, from an encyclopedia. Oh, yes. And I'm going to step out on a limb here that I don't know if I'm supposed to step out on, but I'm going to do it anyway. I was talking to my daughter the other day. She's 36. She's married and her husband is into guns and he likes to go to the range and target practice. And he's very curious about all the different kinds of guns.
26:38
And she has learned to shoot with him. And she called me, she called me the other day and she said, I got a question. And I said, what is it? And she said, what do you think of this idea? And she said, you know how women aren't necessarily brought up to handle firearms? And I said, well, they didn't used to be. I said there, there are more now. And she said, well, she said, I've been learning a lot over the last couple of years. And I said, yes. She said,
27:08
I have a TikTok account and I was like, yes. She said, I think I want to do some, some TikToks about gun safety and gun culture and gun stuff as it were. Sure. And, and my daughter is gorgeous. She's five foot nine. She has the most beautiful face and she just is so passionate about helping people. Sure. So, so she said,
27:34
She said, do you think that people would want to watch these TikTok videos if I do them? I said, well, you'll probably know within five TikTok posts, whether people are interested or not. So she's talking about doing that. And that's, you know, it's a little aside. Yeah. think it's great. I think that's great. It's a little aside from my topic on my podcast here, but
28:01
I think that women especially these days have so many avenues open to them to either teach or have a career that they love that they can just throw their whole selves into compared to how it used to be. Sure. And I think that's great that we have these opportunities, you know, and it's that's her passion and teaching people about, you know, gun safety. think that's great because
28:27
For a lot of people, they don't know anything about safety and that just makes it more dangerous than it should be. And if that's her passion and she can teach about it, I think that's great. think sharing our passion is really, I mean, that gives meaning to the life, right? And I guess that's why I do what I do. I not only love my dairy cows and I love milking, but I also love sharing about them and teaching about them. Yes, absolutely.
28:56
I am so glad that you do and I'm going to die on this hill. Without people like you, the industry might die and we don't want the industry to die if we like drinking milk and we like eating burgers and steaks. Right, right. And I'm grateful for the people I learned from, you know, because we all need someone to teach us some things. And I am grateful for the people I learned from and I hope to pass that forward.
29:25
Good. Please keep doing it and do me a favor. Smooch those cows for me because I don't know anybody with jerseys right now. Most certainly I will. All right. So where can people find you? um As in online or as... Okay. So I mean, besides for my Facebook page, which is Zebulon Heritage Farm, I also have a website, which is EvalonHeritageFarm.com.
29:55
I guess my farm is listed on multiple raw milk, I guess databases or places where you find raw milk. So the farm is listed in multiple places there too. And then like I said, my school uh community, which is Homestead Family Cow, that is for learning about family cows that is on the school platform. Fantastic. Ronel, I so appreciate your time.
30:24
And I say this to everybody who takes the time to talk to me. I know you guys are busy. You are being productive. You are helping in the world. So thank you for sharing your time with me and my audience. Sure, no problem. Thank you so much for having me here. I enjoyed talking to you. Good. As always, people can find me at AtinyHomesteadPodcast.com. Ronel, I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you. You too,
00:29
upstate New York.
00:34
It's a hot, hot, hot day, a hot week. Yeah. Yup. It sure is. um Upstate New York is all the way across New York. what are you, are you West or middle or East upstate? I'm going to say like East. Okay. I'm not really good with demographics. So that's okay. Don't worry about it.
01:02
My parents live in Maine, my husband and I have made the road trip from Minnesota to Maine a couple of times in 20 years we've been together. And we always drive the Northern route in New York and then we drop down to get down to Albany. And it is so beautiful. The grape arbors and I don't even know what else.
01:32
all the rivers that go along the highway and oh my God, coming into Albany, you go basically up a slight incline and then you get to the top of that incline and the whole valley drops out underneath you and all you can see is mountains and trees. So pretty, isn't it? Oh my God. The first time I took my youngest, we took our youngest with us to visit my parents. We came up over that, that hill and the valley dropped out.
02:01
And he's looking from the back seat and I hear this big gasp and he says, he says, mom, can I say a swear word? And I was like, yes. And he said, holy shit, it's so beautiful. How funny. And I'm crying. hadn't been home in years. It is so pretty out here though. Yeah. And he was like, why are you crying? And I was like, you know how you felt like you needed to say a big word you're not allowed to say? He says, yeah. And I said,
02:30
These are the big feelings that I feel like I'm not allowed to feel anymore. uh
02:38
Maine's so pretty too. Oh, it is. It's beautiful. Basically, basically we would hit Pennsylvania and I would be like, ah, I'm back in the land of trees. Yes. You know, cause I mean, Minnesota has trees, but it's very much Northern Minnesota that is like Maine. And so for me to feel like I'm quote unquote home ish. Yeah. I have to drive like five hours to get far enough North to be like, Oh, pine trees, many, many pine trees again. So it's.
03:08
It's hard, but I also love Minnesota. I've been here for over 30 years. I always have to say that because when I first moved here, I moved here kicking and screaming. Oh, really? Did not want to leave Maine. Yeah. And then after about 15, 20 years in Minnesota, I was like, you know, it really is nice here, too. I kind of love it. so I always have to reiterate that I love where I live. I have had the chance twice to move back and I have chosen to not leave. So I do love it here.
03:37
I love Minnesota. It is my second favorite home. So anyway, can you please tell me a little bit about what you do and a little bit about yourself? So I am a teacher during the day. I teach a barbering program at DCMO Boces. It's a career and technical school. It's not part of the cosmetology program. It's totally different.
04:06
the barber side of things. um I also work at a barbershop after I leave school. I go to the barbershop until like seven o'clock at night and then I'm finally able to come home for the farm. And then I'm on weekends. My family does a lot during the week for the farm while I'm not here. Weekends are my time to...
04:33
do everything I want to get done on the farm, spend time with the animals. I didn't grow up on a farm. I married into a farm, here 17 years. We've always had beef. This was my husband's dairy farm. Their family has owned this farm since 1906 and then my husband bought into it.
04:59
There was originally over 428 acres, but it got eventually sold off. And then my husband bought the farm. So, um, I've got three children, 16 year old, 14 year old, and a 12 year old. And we live here on the farm and now, now we're yak farmers. I am so excited to find out about yaks, Cody. I haven't talked about haven't.
05:27
talked to anyone about yaks yet in over two and a half years of doing this podcast. So, they're so good. They're so awesome. Yes. So tell me the different animals you have and then we'll narrow it down to my questions about yaks. What else do you have besides yaks? I have three baby Dalshi, four goats. They're like mixed mixed goats. I've got a Gnubian and Oberhalsi and some Nigerian Dwarfs. um
05:58
I've got, I think.
06:03
13 cooney cooney pegs. Okay. I have a mule and a horse um I Think that's it we did have these but I lost the hive over the wintertime. So I didn't get bees this year. I was too late That happens. Mm-hmm It's it's a very rewarding job to keep bees, but oh definitely It's also heartbreaking when you lose a hive because it takes a lot to get that
06:33
Worked up. Yes, and they're so expensive. Yeah, so to lose that My first year was that was that was rough, but I do plan on getting back into it. But good good I hope that you do because you already have this setup you might yes and the thing that's expensive about keeping bees is the beginning year as you discovered yes Definitely getting all this stuff that you need is definitely expensive
07:01
Yeah, all the supplies. I it's going to sound terrible, but I'm going to say it anyway. If you are someone who is buying more than an acre of land to get into homesteading and you think you need to make a choice between bees and chickens, chickens are actually cheaper to get. Oh, 100%. Yes. But if you're obsessed with honeybees and you really want to do the work and you want to lay the money out so you can have go for it because it's just as rewarding.
07:30
It is and it's so delicious. Oh my goodness. Yeah. We, um, we have not been doing a lot of honey lately because honey is very expensive at the store or through someone who is raising bees. Right. miss it. I really miss honey. Oh, it is so good. I don't, I've never liked honey either. And then I got my own bees and started doing it and started like separating the honey from the honeycomb and all that. And
08:00
got on my fingers and then I tasted it. was like, holy moly, this is so good. It's so different. m And we were getting our honey from Sam's Club. Okay. And we know someone who has bees and we haven't been up to see him in a couple of years. He has an apple orchard and of course has bees. Yep. And he sells his honey every fall and we haven't gotten honey from him in a couple of years. The difference between his honey and the
08:30
the real honey at Sam's Club, the difference in taste is, I would say, half again is good. His is half again is good. And we were lucky enough to get some of the honey he got one year from his bees. They had found a patch of wild mint. So the honey had a minty taste. It was fabulous. I bet it was. Oh, was so good.
08:58
I don't think he's had that kind since. They haven't gone back to the mint patch. ah I love that though, the mint patch. Yeah, I teased him. said, you should charge double for this mint. Yeah. Like I can't do that. That's not, I can't do that just because we locked into mint. I said, of course you can. You're the one that sets your prices. He's like, Mary, I'm not going to do that. I'm like, okay.
09:26
We're all going to benefit from your smart bees." And he was just laughing. I said, if you can find, I don't know, a tree that makes a strawberry flavor besides strawberries, strawberries that flavored honey would be really Oh, yeah. He said, you know that's not how it works, right? And I was like, yes, I know that's not how it works. Yes, I do. But it would be good. Yeah, strawberries, honey, that would be amazing.
09:55
Okay, so I didn't know that you had kept bees. I hope that you get back into it. Sounds like you really enjoyed it. So tell me about yaks. The thing in my head about yaks is that they are from Siberia or somewhere really cold and that the natives would milk them so that they had a source of milk. That's all I Yes, they did do that. They were from the Tibetan mountains, Himalayas.
10:25
They're just magnificent animals. They're big. I mean, they've got a lot of power on their backs, their necks. They use their horns over in the mountains to move rocks out of their way. But other than that, I'm still learning about yaks. This wasn't anything that we...
10:48
research before getting it just kind of fell in our lap and then I'm still researching so I know how to
10:59
Keep everyone happy, everyone healthy. I'm still in that process of learning because we just got yaks last year.
11:08
Oh, so this is new. Oh, this is so new. very new. OK, then let me ask you some specific questions because it would probably be easier for you. How many do you have? I have 12. And have you had have you had any baby yaks? Yes, we have had two yaks born on here at the farm. This year we lost one of the baby yaks. That was a really tough time.
11:37
We've tried everything to help her and save her, but she had some kind of a rumen issue in her stomach and she just wasn't growing and it was awful. But we have another little baby yak. Hopefully four more are born this year. ah So we have little Ivy. She's so sweet.
12:03
So yeah. So do you have like more than one male Yak or do you have males? Nope, we have a couple of males. um We have Jack. So Jack is who started all of this. um
12:20
Nothing. I didn't know anything about Yaks. Nothing. I didn't even know what a Yak was. And my husband went over to his uncle's farm who was housing Jack.
12:36
He was housing him because there was a case going on, an animal abuse case. And Jack was one of those animal victims that needed a spot to go. And my husband said, for the love of God, don't tell Cody that there's a yak that needs a home. Don't say anything to her. And then my husband comes home and he walks through the door and he looks at me, he's like, you want a yak? And I'm like, what is a yak? I don't even know what a yak is.
13:04
And I'm Googling it and looking it up and I saw a picture of him and I smiled at my husband. I'm like, yeah, I want to yak. So that's how we got Jack is we adopted him through the SPCA. ASA SPCA. adopted him. And then when I was doing research, he was previously left with cows. So he's.
13:32
We had cows here, but we kept them separate. But doing some research, they're herd animals. we got...
13:42
Um, I gotta think how many more we got since Jack.
13:52
Nine. We bought more Yaks. So this all started in March of last year. So not, not long ago. no. All right. I pulled up, I typed in Yak in Google cause I wanted to see a picture of one. And what it's, and what I, what I saw in my head here is that it looks like a cross between a
14:21
beef cattle animal and a buffalo. And it's funny because the taxonomy it says, it says belonging to the genus boss, BOS, yaks are related to cattle and bison. Yes. Go fig. They're part of the bovine. Yep. And the one they're showing is a dark one with the horns that curl up and he has like a heart shaped white spot between the horns.
14:49
kind of like what Jack looks like. He's black and has like a white patch and Ivy has the same markings as her dad. Nice. Okay, so in looking at this picture, they have very long hair or are there short haired? So Jack is, his upper body is short haired.
15:13
And then he's got a long skirt. The skirt and the Himalayas would protect the underneath during the super, super cold weather. I've got some woolies, so they're very shaggy and...
15:28
Alls I can think of is like a perm. You know, like my one bowl has a very curly top on his head. But they do come in a little bit of both. Okay. So does this, can the skirt hair be used for clothing? Like light sheep bowl is used for clothing? I don't, not a hundred percent sure, but I don't think so only because that's more of like a hair, their fiber.
15:59
We get the Ariaks fiber from their top half, like underneath their regular hair. Like it's, I don't know if I'm explaining that right, but it's so soft, so, so soft. I want to say it's probably just as soft, if not more than alpaca. So like an undercoat, like a dog? Okay. Yep.
16:23
And how is a yak's temperament? I mean, I'm assuming it depends on the animal. It depends on the owner, but... depends on the animal. general? I am currently yaks four, Cody zero. Oh, no. Yeah, it's not like they're trying to hurt me. I get in their space and they just move their head and I happen to be in that pathway. Jack is the sweetest yak that we got.
16:53
You could go in there, pet him, do whatever you want. He loves treats. em Some of them they want, they'll come up to you and take a treat, but they don't want to be pet.
17:04
Which is fine, but they're not aggressive animals by any means. Like I said, even though I'm four and zero, it's not out of aggressiveness that they're getting me. It's because I'm just being careless in their area. I'm too comfortable in their area, which I shouldn't be because they are intact bulls. They are a huge animal. I should always have my guard up, but I'm like, oh, they're so sweet. And I just love them. And I just want to be in there and pet them.
17:33
give them all the treats and there's times they don't want that. Please be careful, Cody. would like you to survive your love of Jack's. They are amazing. I do love them so much, especially Jack. He's just to know what he's been through. And I say this all the time on our page. I don't think we rescued Jack. We might have helped him, but
18:03
in a way like he saved us, he rescued us. I didn't realize that we needed to have the farm open. um We're open to the public and I never thought I wanted people at my place. I'm kind of private person, but now having Jack in our Yak page and open to the public, mean, everyone comes here and is able to brush Jack.
18:32
See all the other animals that we have and I absolutely love I didn't know I needed that in my life Yeah, it's funny how animals come into your life and you just your heart just bursts open you had No clue that number one you needed them and number two that you would love them as much as you do. Yep Yeah, we have a dog like that and I'm not gonna spend 20 minutes on her. I swear to God
19:00
She's my favorite pet I've ever had. Her name is Maggie. She's an Australian Shepherd. She's going to be six, the first of August. And I have fallen so far over the love cliff with this dog. It's ridiculous. And I said to my husband the other day, I said, don't think I want another dog after Maggie is no longer with us. And he said, why? And I said, because I don't think I can do it again. I don't think I have.
19:27
the capacity to fall in love like that again and watch the animal live out of life and I'm still alive when it dies. I can do it. Now that is one of definitely the hardest parts is losing a dog or anything, Cattle. mean, we lost Ivy or we lost Hazel and I was devastated. Yeah, it's.
19:52
I keep saying that grief is not about regret about the death. It's about regret over the potential of the thing that died. It seems like you're grieving the life they lived, but you're actually grieving the life they didn't get to continue to live. And I didn't realize that until a few years ago and my whole perspective shifted. And I was like,
20:23
Oh, duh. If I'm grieving the life that they didn't get to continue, maybe we make the life we're living better while we're here. Right. And that's probably what you think about the acts. probably have to make your life so much richer. Oh, definitely. I I love teaching to begin with. So when people come here and we can educate them with what knowledge that we do have and what we're still learning.
20:49
Just seeing people interact with the yaks or any of the animals we have here, I just love it. I think it's amazing to see Craig go, my husband Craig go up in the pasture with the yaks with a bucket and just have them all follow him and then see people's expressions when you see these massive animals either running behind him or walking behind him in a single line.
21:18
people's reactions is priceless. love it. I think there's so magnificent that people need to see them. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So how big do they get? I mean, how tall are they at the shoulder? Jack is
21:42
How tall are you? I'm 5'4". So, I mean, Jack's head comes up to my head. Okay. So their shoulders probably about five foot, maybe four foot 10. Maybe. Okay. So they're not super tall. No, not at all. Not super tall, just beefy um and powerful. Yeah. How much do they weigh, eh
22:13
Maybe 1200 to 1500 pounds. Yeah. So about the size of a cow. Yeah. Yep.
22:22
But short, but a short cow. But shorter, their legs are shorter, they've got that skirt, they've got the massive horns. um
22:34
Yeah, mean, just the muscle mass that they have is crazy. The power that they used in the Himalayas to move things and tread through all that snow is mind blowing. Yes, they're super amazingly strong and powerful animals. um I'm sure you don't want to eat your yaks, but I'm guessing that people eat yak meat like they eat beef. They do. They do. So that's one of the things that
23:04
We do plan on doing with our, if we get too many bulls when we start calving, that's probably gonna be some of the pathway that we lead to is just ethical breeding, but making sure that we utilize all of our animal. My one bull that I have, he's about three years old and he's supposed to be processed.
23:29
but I can't find anybody in this area that will butcher a yak because of the horns. Really? Yeah. They can't fit in the squeeze chute that they need, I guess, to be USDA. I can't. And I made sure that we bought some from the people that we got yaks from. They had some meat there and we bought some and it was delicious. It's so lean. It's so good for you. Yeah. Higher in the omega fats.
23:59
It's just, it was amazing. You just gotta eat it a little bit.
24:04
Rare, not rare, but.
24:08
medium rare, just so it's still juicy. But um that was our plan, but we still have Danny and he was originally our first yak to process and I can't find anybody that doesn't want to cut the horns off first. And I'm not doing that. I'm not, that's not anything that I'm interested in is putting my animal through any kind of stress before that because
24:37
I love them and I value them and I appreciate his time here and his purpose for us, but I'm not putting my animal through any kind of stress like that. Yeah. And I'm assuming that New York has laws just like Minnesota has laws, just like every state has laws. Yep. That you can't dispatch him on your property and then take him to the budget. No, and not to do USDA so we could sell. Yeah.
25:06
So, no. Huh. Well, that's an interesting problem. And I've called everybody. And as soon as they're like, yack, nope. Like, oh my goodness. I'm so confused because there's longhorn cat. Yeah, I even called a longhorn butcher. And I said, will you butcher a yak? He goes, nope. I'm like, why? Just won't do it. That is so weird.
25:35
guess it's meant to happen. know, Danny's meant to be here. So sure. But do the female cats have horns too? Yep. Well, the boys just have thicker. There's are a lot thicker, um longer. I think Danny's probably three and a half to four feet across with his horns. um The girls aren't as big, but they do have them.
26:06
The reason for not doing the females was to grow our herd. Oh, yes, of course. But I was just thinking that. definitely. For sure. We could. Yeah. As the females get older and aren't going to produce babies anymore. And it takes a long time to grow them too. Yeah. About three years to grow a yak to be from what we were told from the people that we got them from to be butcher size. OK. Because they grow slower.
26:36
Yeah. And it takes about two years for a cow. So that doesn't surprise me that it takes a little bit longer for a They're mostly grass fed. just it's more lean, but we do do a little bit of grain. Yeah. And now it's off of pellets. I'm just astounded that they won't butcher. They won't dispatch and butcher a yak. Yeah, no. I can't find anybody.
27:03
I was willing to travel to PA. I was willing to travel wherever just so we could start our meat production here. That's what we got the cooney cooney pigs for is meat production and breeding.
27:18
They also take a really long time to grow. my first one goes on the 28th of this month. I'm kind of really sad. They're so sweet. Yeah. Friends of ours got a couple of pigs a couple of, two years ago, I think, and they butchered at least one of them last fall.
27:42
She was concerned that she would be really sad too and she hasn't said anything about being really sad about it. No. I think it went okay. I think this pig will do okay because I knew his purpose this whole time but the babies, we just got seven more on Monday. And there's two that I have, one that looks like Chewbacca and just one that was a runt that we bought. I don't think I could let those two go.
28:12
They're going to be friends for life. They're going to be friends forever. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're just so sweet. Um, well, I'm still puzzling over the whole not butchering yaks. So if anybody is listening and knows anyone who does butcher yaks, please let me know or let Cody know. can email me and you can, assume I'll, I can, I'll put your Facebook page link. Yeah.
28:41
in the show notes when this comes out so people can get a hold of you. Definitely let me know, especially if you're in upstate New York. Yeah, or I'm trying to think. I don't know if I don't know how this works. What happens if somebody in Canada will do it and you drive your yak to Canada to be butchered and then it comes back? I have no idea. I don't know. Do I have to cross customs?
29:08
I don't know. think so. I wonder if that's a thing probably. I bet it would cost a ton of money. So maybe that's not even possible. But I'm trying to think of what's before New York because I'm looking at the map in my head and it's a little hazy. What is the state west of New York? Ohio? Yeah, it's down a little bit. But yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe Ohio.
29:33
Maybe Illinois, maybe freaking Kentucky. I don't know. even reached out to the, um, we follow this group on Facebook, um, the bearded butchers. They're in Ohio. I absolutely love them. And then I even reached out to them, but I didn't hear anything back. That would have been amazing. This is craziness. Yeah. I'm so sorry that you're having such a hard time with them. Oh, that's okay. I mean, just.
30:01
longer that we get to have Danny here and people get to see how amazing he is and how beautiful he is. Well, I love that you guys are doing this because yaks and reindeer are two of the animals that most people don't think of when they think of people who have farms or homesteads and ranches. And my other podcast, Grit and Grace in the Heartland with my co-host Leah, she's a cattle rancher.
30:29
And I interviewed a lady who raises reindeer with her dad. And Leah had her cattleman husband listen to that episode. And her cattleman husband said, $20,000 for a reindeer? One? That was what stuck out to him from the interview. That's too funny. Yeah. So how much does a yak usually cost, It depends on their temperament.
30:57
The place that we went to, there was a couple, but I think they did this price, there was $18,000. And I think they set it that high because they don't want to get rid of it. But I would say typically between three to $5,000 is normal. Especially with temperament, if they're super sweet, you can get more money because instead of like a wild one.
31:27
um We just got some, just got two new Yaks, Aspen and Ridge on Saturday.
31:39
They're the sweetest things. So sweet. So we have the vet coming out today to do a health check on them and then the babies to get them ready because we got invited to go to the Schenango County Fair this year. Oh, fun. Yeah. Not to be in with the dairy, the bee for anything. Like we won't be in their exhibits, but we'll have our own little tent and set up for our yaks. I think I'm going to bring three or four of them.
32:09
So the vet comes up today and we do checks and.
32:15
Get everyone all ready for the fair in August and it should be a good time. That's exciting. And the fact that they're not putting them with the other cloven-hoved animals leads me to think that they think that they are, there's a word and I had it before I started talking about it, exotic. Yes. Oh, for sure. For sure. Your special, Koda, you have exotic animals. Yes.
32:44
So exotic that insurance. Let me tell you, it was rough getting insurance because of the exotic animals. Yeah. So do you have to have like a special permit to own them? No. No permit. Okay. Cool. Which is weird. That's good though, because permitting can be really expensive too. Yep. No permits. Just have them here.
33:13
And I know this is new for you, but are there a lot of people in the United States that have yaks or is it a very unusual animal? There's a few in New York that I know of that I've gotten mine from. um I probably can think of four yaks.
33:38
Yak Farms. In New York alone. In New York. Yep. And people have been reaching out about buying some and I just, I don't have.
33:51
the amount yet to be able to grow our herd and we'll see with how many babies we have. Yeah. So. Oh, that's another question. With cows, if they have twins and they're male, female twins, the female typically isn't capable of reproducing. Right. She's called a free Martin. Do yaks have the same issue? That I'm not sure. You might want to check into it.
34:18
I do think that having twins is very rare for them, but they do have them. that part I don't know yet. Well, I'm glad I had the chance to talk to you so I could bring it up because now that we're Leah goes through that sometimes. Does she? They don't know whether the female is going to be able to have babies or not in that situation. And so she usually goes to auction and becomes hamburger or whatever because they can't
34:47
keep an animal that isn't earning its keep. Right, exactly. Yeah. So put it on the list, ma'am, to check and see about the free Martin situation with the eggs. Definitely. Try to help every chance I can, because I know just enough to be dangerous. And when I actually think that might be important, I'm like, hey, have you thought about this yet? No, that's good to think about. I try to keep these to half an hour. We're at 35 minutes, Cody.
35:14
Thank you so much for having me. Where can people find you? At Ryan's Yak Farm on Facebook. And if you go to the website, it's Ryan's Yak Farms with an S at the end of farms.com. Awesome. Thank you so much. No, thank you. I really appreciate it. As always, people can find me at Atty. Homestead podcast.com. Cody, thank you again. Love you. Thank you.
35:42
And I learned so many cool things today about an animal that I knew like two things about. So it was awesome. Have a great day. Thank you. You too.
01:37
That's how it was kind of born. uh it last year was our first year. It was a fantastic event. We had a great turnout. And one of the things we love the most is that we really wanted to bring a more intimate environment. Um, we were able to really bring people together, let them talk with one another, meet one-on-one, actually have real life conversations in real time with people that are living a lifestyle that they are seeking to be better at. So we were able to do that.
02:08
oh This year, I hope we're going to be able to bring that same kind of intimate atmosphere, the same kind of energy, the same kind of feeling to the table where people are really going to get to get into the bones of what they're doing and why they want to do it and how they can accomplish all of their goals. Awesome. And when you're referring to last year, last year was the inaugural conference for Homosteading-ish.
02:33
It was, it was our very first one. So we were excited that it was so well received to be able to bring it back again a second year. Okay. So when I, when I interviewed Troy last year, cause Troy is the one that, that kind of kicked this all off from what I've been told. He was just getting ready for the first conference and he was very, very, very excited and a little bit nervous. I am not sure that.
03:01
I'm not sure that he really knew what he got himself into, number one, and how it was going to go, number two. That's kind of what was coming through. And so how did last year go? it, was it well received? Were there a lot of attendees, that kind of thing? So we were all a little bit nervous last year, not really knowing what we were going to get ourselves into and what people were going to think or how the event was going to go. But honestly, um there was
03:31
It almost was, I hate to even say it, but it was almost flawless. It went so well. We had a lot of people that came from all across the country, people from as far away as California down to Florida. um I think at one point we had at least a dozen states that were represented at the conference. A lot of people were really hungry to receive the information that we were trying to invest in them.
03:57
people came and they loved it. They were screaming to come back and hoped that we would do it a second time. Again, it goes back to that kind of we brought people to a place where it felt like home, where they were comfortable and they could ask the hard questions and get the hard answers and dig a little deeper into topics that they were interested in and actually get to speak with our presenters one-on-one. In some instances, we had a lot of opportunity for them to be able to mingle with each other and really
04:26
You know, talk to people that were like minded be able to just make connections with people around here. The chairman of our board says that more gets done before and after the meeting than during the actual meeting. And so people were able to make meaningful connections with one another and then have those conversations even before or after the conference in order to follow up on topics that they were interested in or get more.
04:53
connected with someone that knew more than they did about something that they were working on. So was really, really great. We had a great turnout. People were really very interested in hearing from a different perspective. uh One of the things that we tried to do was to bridge some gaps in between, you know, the local community and then finding resources of help for them. So if you
05:23
catch the ish part of our home setting ish. That's the in search of help part where we're saying we want to help you because this is like, you're working on the home setting part. We're kind of in the ish part where we're here to assist you and help you. And so we wanted to be able to provide those services and bridge gaps between maybe some.
05:44
federal or state level government or whether it's a local partner or connection or another community partner or even just people in the communities that wanted to connect with one another to find better resources to help be more sustainable with their funding or with their product or just know more about what it was they needed to do next on their homestead. Everything from
06:07
how do you even locate the property that you want all the way through to, know, now that I have my property, I want to have a high tunnel or I want to have a, you know, work on getting things to farmers market, or I want to find finances and funding for my farm, or, you know, I want to raise livestock. Just a lot of, a lot of things that were able to be talked about and discussed and brought to light. Resources and opportunities available on all sides.
06:36
Okay, so I know that you have the second one coming up, the second year conference. And before we get into what's going to be new at that one, I have a question for you. During the year when you aren't doing the conferences, can people still reach out to you guys for information? Yeah, so one of the things that we're building for this year is just a network of community people where we can actually
07:04
um address some questions and kind of they can reach out to us and find us and we can help with resources. um For me personally, I work directly for the Conservation District here in our local area. So we are always available. know, every day we're here in the office working with people in our local community, with NRCS and with the Conservation Districts and opportunities for them to get technical assistance
07:34
to help fund financial assistance. um So we're always available and that's one of the great things about bridging some of these gaps is helping people understand what resources are available to them. We provide services for free to the public and to the community. We also provide financial assistance um in a form of reimbursement grants. So there's a lot of resources that are available and people can reach out to us. uh
08:01
anytime that they have questions and we'll try to hook them up with the correct resources. Fabulous. Minnesota's Department of Agriculture is really, really good. I'm in Minnesota. I don't know if you know that, but I'm in Minnesota. Minnesota's Department of Agriculture is super helpful. Every time I've had a question, I try to email people first because they can get back to me on their own time instead of having to answer questions on the phone.
08:30
And every time I've had a question, I have just emailed whoever is in charge of who would handle my question. And they get back to me within 24 hours usually. And it's so amazing to me that these state departments are so quickly helpful. Yeah. I mean, we have the same thing here. Our department of Ag is great to work with. They have, you know, a wealth of resources.
08:55
We also work with two local universities. So we work with WVU extension and we work with WVSU, which is Western U State University extension. they have extension agents there that were also working as partners along with our federal and state level partners that can answer questions or get into topics. And all of our presenters are very approachable as well. So if you are interested in a specific topic or you have a specific presenter or someone that you met,
09:24
They're all very, very approachable and very willing to answer any questions you have and get back to you just as quickly as they can, which is a great networking tool for all of the things involved. Yeah. One of the things that's wonderful about people who are in ag or in homesteading or farming or whatever, they all tend to be very helpful and very giving souls. And it's part of the reason I love my podcast so much because I reach out to people. I'm like,
09:51
I do this thing, would you come talk to me?" And they're like, of course. And I just love it because everyone is so willing to share what they know or dig into it and try to find answers for me if I don't know. Yeah, I mean, we're always happy to assist. em I think sometimes it's just important to us as it is to the other person that's asking because sometimes we want to know too. you know, one of the reasons why we...
10:19
get into the lines of work that we get into is because we do want to assist people. We do want to be available to help them, to make them, um you know, have the resources that they need so that they can move forward on their projects, whatever that might be. Yes, and you don't, okay, I was always afraid to reach out and ask a question because I wasn't ready to do the thing. I was doing research.
10:43
And I felt like I might be wasting someone's time if I asked a question, got the answer and then was like, no, I'm not doing that. That's what you guys are there for, right? You're there to help us figure out what the next step is. Absolutely. Yeah. mean that we, found that a lot of people have an idea, right? Just like you said, they have an idea there. They might be interested, but they don't really know what to do yet.
11:07
And then sometimes they get into it and they get in over their head or, you know, that's more than they thought it would be, or maybe they just don't have enough resources. And so we kind of want to be able to help assist them through those processes in order to not be overwhelmed and not just throw them the towel and decide they're going to quit, right? We want you to be successful. We want you to be able to do what you've set out to accomplish. And so we want to provide all the right tools to help, to assist you in that.
11:36
Well, let me say thank you because it's people like you that make things go, you know, we need that. mean, yeah, absolutely. For sure. We need people to start growing their own food or their own livestock or whatever right now. It's so important. And if you have the room, start something growing. mean, if you live in a Northern tier state right now, it's getting late in the season and you know, you could do cold weather crops, but
12:05
What I'm saying is if you have the means to start something growing that you can eat, probably ought to look into it. I think that's what I'm going to say for today. We just had that conversation actually. em And we had a committee meeting this morning for the upcoming conference and we just had that same conversation. Everybody can do something no matter how big or how small, like everyone can start somewhere. And I think that's the important part. oh
12:30
You may not be ready to tackle the big things, but you can certainly tackle the small things. Have a small backyard garden, maybe just a few herbs, or maybe you want to start with a couple of chickens, or maybe you want to start with something small and you can build your way up. I think that's the great part about the community of homesteaders and small farm operators is that we're always willing to help one another and we learn from each other. mean, we learn new things every single day.
12:56
I think helping people to understand what the expectations are, helping them to manage their expectations and understand what the balance is between where you start and where you see people are when they've been doing it for five or six or 10 years. There's a big difference in getting those resources available to fill in the gaps, I think is really important, but everyone can certainly start somewhere em and do something in order to make their journey better, right? Yeah.
13:26
I always tell people that when you start growing produce or you start raising animals, not only are you growing produce or animals, you're growing yourself. For sure. Absolutely. We learn something new every single day. um It's an amazing opportunity to really just get back to the way nature has intended things to be. um Growing your own food and providing for your family.
13:55
There's something special that happens in that circle um that doesn't come from the grocery store and that doesn't come from, you know, other places. comes directly from you and your connection to nature or you and your connection to the community folks around you that are doing those things. And I think there's something really special about that. is really special. And I have, I have such a hard time with the word special because people have overused it so much that they become
14:24
It's become trite, but in the truest sense of the word special, it is special when you grow your own food. um So I wanna, we've got 15 minutes and I wanna know, I have questions about last year's conference so that we can compare it to what's coming up for this year's conference. So how many um presenters did you guys end up having last year? So last year we had a little under 30, I think we had about
14:53
27. This year we actually have 31 total presenters. We have 36 different sessions that people can choose from to attend and that's over six different tracks. So you kind of have six different subjects and you can pick one of those subjects and stay with that whole track for the full two days or you can bounce around and pick and choose whatever session you feel like is going to best suit like your need or your information or your lifestyle or whatever.
15:23
it is that you'd like. So em I'm really excited about the lineup for this year. The schedule is fuller this year than it was last year. And there's really a lot of great information and really amazing presenters that are coming to the table. em I really think this year's going to be better than last year. And last year was going to be hard to top. I was going to say it's always better the second year because you guys were just getting your feet wet last year. Yeah, for sure.
15:51
For sure. You you learn from the first one. You figure out how to make it better. And so I think hopefully that's what we've done. We've um added some things this year, but we've also continued to keep that same kind of feeling of intimacy and that same kind of feeling of community that we wanted to continue to bring to the table. Okay. So I'm trying to, I'm trying to do a comparison thing here, but I'm failing at it. Last year.
16:21
Last year, what were the tracks that you guys kind of had in place for people? So last year, what we had on the table, we talked about land preparations and management. We had a homesteading uh Appalachian skills track where you could learn about different types of Appalachian skills. We had an Appalachian specific track. So things that were only specific to the Appalachian region, we had
16:50
talked about financial food and security or how about security like financially and like food security. We kind of put those together. We had a track on organic and then we talked about having an urban homestead. so this year, do you want me to talk about this year? Yes. So this year we kind of changed that up a little bit and I think we
17:15
Took all the things that people had from last year that they loved and then the things that they wanted to learn about. And we came up with six new tracks. So, um, we're going to have a farm and land management. Nice. Um, we're going to have an Appalachian homestead skills. So again, we're going to be bringing some skill to the table. Um, growing on farmstead. So are we talking about, uh, growing your gardens and maybe growing a market, um, those kinds of things.
17:44
And then we have a whole series on small livestock and remnants. So we're gonna be talking lot about small livestock. We're gonna be talking a lot about animals and their care and their maintenance on your homestead or small farm. We're gonna talk about building sustainability on your farms. That's gonna bring a lot of different topics to the table as well. um Funding and opportunities to find support. How do we make our farms sustainable? How do we continue to do this year after year?
18:12
And then we're going to talk about adding value to your homestead. So what are the things that you can do that are going to add additional value to your homestead or to your small farm? Whether that's through a value-added product, whether that's through an agritourism tract, or just things that you want to add that give your property value. So I think there's going to be a lot of really interesting things that we're going to cover on these new tracts. Awesome. I have a question about the small animal tract.
18:40
I'm assuming in that small animal track, you're talking about chickens, quail, goats, sheep, that kind of thing. Yeah. So we actually have a couple of tracks on sheep, a couple of tracks on quail, chickens, goats, pigs, all of them. We're going to cover all of them. Are rabbits included in there? So we did not include rabbits this year. It was on the um discussion table, but ultimately we need to find someone who can really speak.
19:10
clearly to that community. with all of the other ones that we already had on the table, there just wasn't enough room to add that. But it is something we hope to add next year. OK, cool. So I have a big question for you and it's something I don't know if you guys have floated it yet or not. next, like the third time you guys do this, any chance you would be willing to do an online version of it while it's going on?
19:36
Well, so we've kind of discussed that even last year, even as the first year into this year. Right now we don't have capacity to be able to stream or to be able to video record all of our sessions. But it is something that we're hopeful that we'll be able to do maybe going into next year or into the future if we can um secure funding that would support uh live streaming or that would support the opportunity for oh
20:06
You know people to view our sessions afterwards the the the caveat to all that really is that we're trying to build this community and when you do things online you don't necessarily get the same sense of community that happens when you're there in person and meeting people and having conversations with people and you know we have opportunity in between each of our sessions for people to you know get a little deeper in conversation so you miss out on a lot of that when you start going to the lot.
20:35
or to the live or an online platform. However, that being said, our real goal here is to make sure that we're bringing quality education to the community wherever that is. And so if we have an opportunity to do that and we can still provide educational resources and opportunities for people to learn things that are important to them, learn new skill sets and so on, we want to still be able to do that. So we're looking at that.
21:00
trying to figure out if that's an option that we can do for next year because I know that not everyone can travel to West Virginia, not everyone that might be interested in hearing what is being said has the opportunity to be available. So um I really wish that we had had the opportunity to record all of our sessions from last year and then to record them all again from this year because there was so much valuable information.
21:24
And if you weren't present, we hate that we missed it, you know, we hate that you missed it. So that is something we hope to be able to do. Cause I am not coming to West Virginia. I can't. I would love to, but I just, I don't have the fundage right now to do that. But I absolutely would sit down and listen to a presentation from
21:53
home setting issues conference. Well, that was a really weird way to say that. We do hope to provide that. I can't confirm anything just yet, but there are a couple of sessions from this year that I'm hoping we will be able to record and then those hopefully will be available um after the conference. So we're working on uh a small portion that may be available for the public to see if that's something that people will be more interested in. think there's what we've selected would be
22:23
Um, really great opportunity, um, for people to hear from more than one person, um, on the topics that matter most. Super awesome. hope that works out. Um, okay. So it's two questions. One is about price and days for this thing. And the other question is about, mentioned Appalachian skills, Appalachian skills, Apple Appalachia. What exactly is the region for that?
22:52
So um we live right in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains and the Appalachian region. So it stretches all over the East Coast. uh It actually starts in the southern part of the United States and Georgia and Alabama and reaches all the way up through way beyond us into the Northeastern states. So it's just the mountain trail. And a lot of people know it as the
23:18
you know, from the actual trail, the avalachian trail that runs, you know, over 2000 miles up and down our coast. And so um we really wanted to focus on the things that are important to this region and this area because it is so different from other areas of our country. If you are here in West Virginia, you're pretty much probably living on a mountainside or a hillside somewhere. And so you don't have a lot of flat land like you would in Minnesota to be able to
23:46
really have wide open spaces and wide open farms. So last year, know, for example, we had a track that Troy did that was pigs on slope. Like how are you going to raise pigs on a slope? Like what does that look like in our area as compared to someone who has a flat river bottom somewhere or somewhere where they would be able to be more expansive. So we really tried to bring some things that are specific to what happens in our mountainous region.
24:14
em in order to make it applicable em for the people that live here. I hope that makes sense. does, but I didn't know how far south the Appalachian Trail went because I grew up in Maine. read about the Appalachian Trail a lot, but I wasn't sure how far south it went, but I guess it's Georgia.
24:40
It does. Yeah, it goes all the way south to Georgia and Alabama is like the trailhead. And then of course it runs all the way up through the northeastern states. And so, I mean, it's a wide, broad range of area, but we're kind of right in the heart of it all. And so that's kind of where we wanted to start with that. And as far as the skill part of it, you know, it goes back to, you know, what I mentioned about the types of the terrain. And then there's things that are just kind of specific to
25:09
Um, you know, our culture that's here, um, you know, the Appalachian people have, um, sometimes have specific cultures in various different areas. And so I remember not too long ago having a workshop on heritage seeds. so there was a family there that was trying to figure out about a particular seed that that had been passed down through their family. And so there's a lot of things that happen and seeds that, you know, kind of.
25:38
become part of a culture. And so we were trying to help them trace like that seed back to where it came from. And it was an interesting path because it wasn't quite as straight and narrow as you would have thought. It was a little windy because, you know, grandma had grandma's beans and she called it one thing, but it's really part of this other bean family. That's like kind of a broader range. And so we just want to bring some, um, something.
26:04
to our culture and something to our people, something to the region that would be powerful and meaningful to them specifically. That is so fabulous. I love that. That's great. uh So what are the dates for this year's conference? So we are going to stick with until further notice, it will always be the second weekend in September. So this year it's going to be September 12th and 13th, which is Friday and Saturday. It'll be right uh
26:33
Just outside of the Charleston, West Virginia area, it'll be at the same location we were at last year, which is a beautiful location at Bible Center Church. It's like being in a camp cabin somewhere. It's just a gorgeous facility. And so it brings a lot to the culture or the atmosphere that we're trying to culture. Awesome. And how much does it cost for tickets?
26:58
So tickets right now, if you get your tickets early next year, tickets are $55. Tickets right now are $75. But because I kind of like you, I'll share my code. We do have a code right now that you can get, buy one, get one on tickets. So buy one ticket, get a ticket for a friend at half price. And so you can use code B-O-G-O-BOGO50. So B-O-G-O-5-0.
27:25
And that'll get you a one and a half tickets um for the conference. So that's a, that's a great deal, especially this late into the season. Is the B O G O all capital letters? Yeah. B O G O five zero. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. I like you too, Dawn. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, we're having a really good time. had a great meeting this morning, trying to wrap up all of our details and we're super excited.
27:53
Little nervous again, because I think there's always, you know, that the nerve not knowing what to expect. But I mean, we have a full slate with 36 different sessions. And one thing I'm really excited about this time that we did not have last year is we have each day we have two things that are going to kind of be a little different. One is a demonstration. So we're going have demonstrations live on the grounds. And then we're going to have a roundtable discussion both days also. So two days worth of
28:22
classes and two days worth of demonstrations and two days with uh really great roundtable discussions on topics that are going to be super important and valuable, I think, going forward. What are the hours each day? So on Friday, registration opens at 10 a.m. We start at noon and we'll end around 7 after the evening roundtable discussion and then on
28:47
Saturday morning registration will open at 730. We'll start at 8 and we'll end about 415 on Saturday afternoon. Okay, awesome. And where can people buy tickets? Can you buy them online? So you can find us on Facebook and Instagram and at our website. So the website is homesteading-ishish.com um and you can get your tickets there. Okay, cool. uh
29:16
want people who are in your area who can afford to go to go to the home studying is conference for 2025. But what I also want people to know is that there are conferences like this all over the United States all year long. So if you can't get to the one in West Virginia that Dawn is part of, find one in your area that you can go to because she's right. Dawn is absolutely right. The community that you find at these conferences.
29:44
where you can talk with people who are in the same place as you are with your journey or talking with the presenters or talking with people who are a little bit ahead of you can only benefit you. Absolutely. I agree. 100%. So, all right, Dawn, thank you so much. As always, people can find me at tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Thank you so much, Mary. It was great to be here with you. All right. Thank you.
01:23
So, um Leah, you are a cattle rancher, right? Yes, ma'am. And you're in Nebraska, and you know as well as I do that beef prices have become astronomically expensive. And since you're a cattle rancher, I thought maybe you could give us all a little insight on what is going on with that. Yeah. Well,
01:48
It's a long and complicated story. Like many things that go on within our food chain. And even in 2025, the story in Nebraska has been a bit complicated. So when we had our cattle branding the first Saturday in May, I always call that our celebration, our first big celebration of the year. We brand those calves and get ready to turn the cows and calves out to grass.
02:17
But that day was anything but celebration. We were in a terrible drought in early May. And I have a couple of photos that I took that morning. One of the photos my daughter took of me. And I look at that picture of myself. I don't like it because the somberness was all over my face on what would typically be a joyful occasion. And it was me really evaluating the pasture conditions. we have been in drought.
02:46
on and off, some pretty significant drought really, since 2019, which was the last year of overabundant rainfall. If you want to back up even further across the Great Plains to 2012, we had what was called a flash drought across the Great Plains. What we saw then was the beginning of many ranchers starting to cut down on their herd inventory.
03:16
So 2012 was that drought. It was terrible in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. And Nebraska was plenty bad as well. And we included had to make some very difficult decisions that year as late summer came evaluating our pasture conditions and our feed and stock to see if we had cattle.
03:39
feed that would provide for those cattle and thankfully we did, but we knew if 2013 didn't improve, we were going to have to start selling down to manage our pastures well. Thankfully that turned the corner here, but that persistent drought did not get better in many places. And as fluctuations in inputs continued to plague ranchers, what we really saw as 2013 and beyond to the
04:09
it's really been the last 10 years, ranchers tightening those inventories. Couple that with the fact that ranchers continue to age and land transition plans have not been great. Ranchers don't have a child to pass that operation to and kids inherit and sell off and not necessarily not selling it into production for future ranching.
04:38
So the resulting effect is smaller numbers because of drought, shrinking numbers of ranches, which translates into shrinking numbers of cattle, cows in particular, which are the pipeline, if you will, for what becomes the beef in the stores, they're the mamas, make this all happen. And we won't even really get into the challenges of imports and tariffs and unrest.
05:08
and uh consumers making different choices about what they want to eat as far as their protein choices and those challenges, but the perfect storm of conditions. So here we are in 2025. Cattle inventory continues to shrink. We are historically at the lowest number in a very long time in the United States. That includes cows, the pipeline.
05:37
as well as the cattle in the finishing operations to be butchered to go to the grocery stores, historically low numbers, and the resulting effect is higher prices. Now- because when there's a lack of supply but the demand remains the same, prices go up. Yep. that demand has pretty much remained steady.
06:03
Our border is currently closed with Mexico because of the concern of the New World's screw worm. And if you haven't read up on the New World's screw worm, it is a real concern. I have read about it. I know enough from my grandparents era that when it was last here in Nebraska, it was bad and it was real bad. We do not want the New World's screw worm in the United States for a whole bunch of reasons.
06:32
But so we understand why the border is closed. We can have a whole conversation some other time about the need to import or not. I am a big fan of supporting American beef producers, if at all possible. I understand that people should be given choice. I'm a big fan of transparent labeling. But the bottom line is American ranchers also are really good at what they do. They raise high quality beef.
06:59
and consumers like choice, which means they want to be able to purchase the McDonald's dollar value, dollar, whatever they call their value meals. And that beef is generally not the quality raised in the United States. We raise better beef than that. Good, better, and different. That's the way it is. um So that's why we talk about importing beef of lesser quality. So we raise really great beef. The other part that doesn't enter into the conversation is
07:29
the cost of inputs for ranchers is also really, really expensive to raise this beef that you enjoy. And so while it looks like ranchers are making big money right now because your beef is expensive, it doesn't translate into us lining our pockets. That is simply not the reality for us. am so glad you said that because I was going to get to that. So that helps. um
07:55
That leads me to something I was thinking about last night and I was going to ask later about last now. um Once you sell your beef, your animals, and they're no longer your property, whatever people do with the meat that's produced from that sale doesn't impact your bottom line at all. Once you've sold the meat, that's it. Correct. That's absolutely correct.
08:23
One of the things that I want to tell people is if you go out and buy, if all you can afford is ground beef right now, and ground beef is even expensive, if you go out and buy in bulk and you actually package that up and put it in your freezer when it's on sale, you're going to help your bottom line. And I would highly suggest that people do that because we do a lot of burger-based meals in our house, unfortunately. um
08:52
Again, I am kind of burguered out. I'm over it, but my husband and my son are not. And so when we buy ground beef, we buy it in bulk, we package it up in Ziploc bags, we seal them, we stick them in the freezer when it's on sale. And that way we can continue to eat. you're talking and I don't know entirely who your audience is, but what you just shared, Mary, is what you and I consider normal practice.
09:22
starting with the fact that you're eating your meals at home. Yes. That doesn't resonate with a lot of people anymore. it needs to. It needs to. And I had this conversation with my 17-year-old last night on our way home from the college visit when we talked about this interview about where is it appropriate to go when talking about
09:47
the bigger picture here on the values of the American consumer. She said, well, I don't know how you think you can share something that may impact the value system of an American consumer. I suppose you can share your thoughts or ideas and they might be intrigued or make them question some of their thoughts or choices and do their own research, but you can't tell people what their values ought to be.
10:15
You can suggest it, especially if you're concerned about their health, the health of their family and the health of their bottom line. But are Americans really in a place today where they want to have someone suggest ideas to them? If they wanted to, they would. We talked about the Mel Robbins, let them kind of theory. I think it's a really interesting topic because the things that I do,
10:42
were the things that I saw growing up and the things my mom and dad saw before them. And making conscious decisions that were within our budget, for instance, or to be a healthy choice, that was always at the forefront of family living. And a lot of that has gone away now in our hustle and bustle. And then in some cases, it's because people are so busy working to try to make ends meet. What they sacrifice is
11:11
They don't have time to be home prepping a meal. And then it becomes this vicious circle where they are even saying, I don't even have time to look at the local grocery store ad for the week and choose the cuts of beef that are on sale because I don't have time to menu plan and I don't have time to prep my meals at home or I don't have time to eat as a family. Well, then we're just kicking the can further down the road. And so again, speaks to a bigger uh concern I have here.
11:40
Yeah, the costs of beef are really, really high. Beyond that, um can we adjust to living this way if we're willing to step back and say, there things we can do differently in our lives to make beef or whatever protein you love still be a really important part of our family living and be okay financially?
12:10
I think we can. I think it can be done with thoughtful, caring, devoted people who are willing to come alongside consumers and children. This kind of curriculum used to be a main staple in home economics, instance, 4-H programming. And then it was just what you did at home. it was modeled and you knew it and you took it with you when you were out on your own. we've lost so much of that.
12:40
and it really does have me concerned. what you do is what I do. It's normal for us. The question is, how can we help others normalize such behaviors? By talking about it on my podcast and hopefully people listen and go, how do you do that? Isn't it something that, mean, our grandmothers probably would be rolling their eyes and saying like, can't believe that you're having to even
13:09
suggest this, I do want to say I have friends um whose children have studied the meat science program at the university and something really cool they still do is they go to the grocery store on the weekends and they set up a table. And when people come down the meat aisle, they offer to help you talk about what you can do with different cuts of beef, especially the ones that are on sale. Their whole motivational
13:34
efforts of being there is to help encourage people to purchase, not just beef, they do the same with the poultry and the fish and even the unique uh cuts of pork and sheep and goat, lamb, that is to help inspire people to be unafraid to buy this cut of beef, knowing that you can take it home and do something manageable that is tasty and a good option to feed your family. And I think that's a win.
14:01
The thing that makes me a little crazy, Leah, is that humans are smart. I mean, there are people who don't have a high IQ. I get that. Not everyone is smart, smart, but humans are smart. If they can go to work and do their job, they can cook. it just, makes me crazy. And the other thing I was gonna say back five minutes ago is that you don't have to have meat at every single dinner.
14:29
You can always do a meatless dinner two nights a week if you want to not have to spend money on meat. It will not kill you to skip meat two nights a week. That's right. You can find lots of healthy protein sources that you do need protein. It's essential to live. But I learned from my mother in the very, very thin times in the 1980s how to stretch a meal. And again, you can learn how to cook.
14:56
And you can make black beans not taste like black beans. I saw my mother do it. And that could be quite delicious. And it's not hard and it's not scary once you get over your apprehension or your willingness to say, I'm going to put my phone down or I'm going to stop my distractions and focus on what really matters. We all have to eat like of all of the things you have to do in a day. Eating is one of them. It just requires that.
15:25
devotion to finding a way. That's why I'm so passionate about humans being involved in their own food security. It really does matter and it doesn't have to be in some huge big way. It's in small ways, like I said, just learning to be invested in feeding your own family because there may be a time that comes where you're going to have to pull yourself up. You're going to have to do it and boy, wouldn't you rather
15:53
find yourself in that position because you were equipped to do it rather than having to do it. yeah. Learning to cook when you don't have to is far better than trying to cook when you have to and you don't know how. You were saying something about black beans. um I fought the red beans and rice trend for a long time. People were telling me I should make red beans and rice and I was like, eh I'm really not into it.
16:23
And then a couple of years ago, I was like, I'm going to try making red beans and rice. I'm to look up a couple of recipes and see how you do it. And it's super easy. You make beans, you make the rice, you season it the way you want to. And tada, you have food. And I ended up making it with cumin and granulated garlic and some fresh onion and some sweet peppers and I don't know, stuff. And cooked it up. And it's basically like, like rice aromani, only way, way better for you.
16:53
And to this day when I bring it up, I say, hey, we should probably look at making that taco beans and rice thing again this winter, because we try to do it once a winter. It's not our favorite thing to make, but it's good. so I stopped calling it red beans and rice because we actually use black beans. And it's taco beans and rice is what we call it because of the cumin. Good stuff.
17:19
Yeah. And I don't know why I fought it for so long, except that I really wasn't a fan of beans. But then I was like, well, I like black beans and chili, so maybe I would like it in this. And it worked out fine. So. Sweet potatoes are another favorite here. make sweet potato chili in the wintertime. Yes. Sweet potato. Amazing. My daughter is a Taylor Swift fan. And the other comment she made last night was she's on social media just a little bit.
17:48
It's funny how teenagers have kind of moved away from it. She said it's interesting how, and she works in retail for her summer or for her job after school, how people are very happy to get online and complain about the cost of groceries. And I'll give it to you, they are very expensive. It's crazy. But she said Taylor Swift has a new album coming out in October and we'll have a concert lineup after that. And I don't think you're going to see people complaining about what they're going to shell out to get one of those concert tickets.
18:19
I just had the same conversation with my husband only about the Minnesota State Fair. Is it? The Minnesota State Fair is going on right now and they have opened up the city streets around the fair so that people can park and you pay $25 for the day. A full price ticket to get into the fair is $20. So you're looking at $45 just to get into the fair if you're looking at parking and getting in.
18:47
That doesn't count anything else. And I looked at my husband and I said, you know, there are people who can't afford to buy groceries, but 137,000 people were at the opening day of the state fair. It's just crazy to me. it's an interesting sociological evaluation in our country. And I'd be so fascinated to speak.
19:13
to people from other countries about this conversation in 2025 about our values systems. mean, Americans, thank you technology, but we have definitely become a nation of we want what we want when we want it. Our patience is thin. I mean, I had a friend talk about in the airport last week watching someone be late for their flight. It was their fault and they threw their water bottle at the flight attendant. And it was their fault.
19:43
Our patience is thin. I understand why. We're uh definitely a restless nation right now every day. It's like, what fresh garbage are we going to have to hear about today? um We're restless. Our patience is thin. We want what we want when we want it. And where are our priorities? What are the things that matter most to us? And I think most, if you had conversation, it's, want to be able to provide for my family. I want us to be safe.
20:12
I want us to have access to clean drinking water and good food. But let's be very, very honest, Americans value expensive entertainment. We want multiple cars and TVs and we want satellite uh channel packages of $200 and we want new cell phones and we want to be entertained and go to concerts and have all of these things and we don't talk a lot about that.
20:41
but we are sure ready to go on the attack about what we're paying for our groceries. Yes, absolutely. And I hope that you didn't take my question to you and messages about the cost of beef as an attack. just want to- Nope, I've been getting a lot of questions about it, like an explanation or a breakdown. people have actually, I've been very grateful to hear, please tell me that-
21:06
I'm paying whatever for this roast in the grocery store that some of this is getting back to you because I know during the very bad years, y'all were losing money every year. And I thought how interesting that you noticed. Historically, Mary, we only make money one out of every seven years as cattle ranchers. How many Americans do you think the grocery store worth are thinking?
21:34
those other years when they're getting a great deal. Huh, I hope the ranchers are okay. You know, I actually do think about that and have since I was about 15 because my grandpa's friends had a dairy farm and I ended up talking with Bea. She was, I used to think of her as aunt Bea, but she wasn't actually related to us. And I asked her one time, said, so if, if we're buying milk at the store for whatever it was, two and a half bucks a gallon.
22:03
back then. I said, what are you making? She just laughed. Just laughed. And I said, I'm not being stupid. I'm genuinely curious how this works. And she said, oh honey, she said, I love you. She said, just nobody thinks about this. It would be you who would ask me this. And I laughed and I said, well, seriously. And she said, we make about 50 cents a gallon.
22:34
the most grotesque story of how a group of American farmers have been marginalized historically, repeatedly. is what has happened to the dairy farmers of this country. It's sickening. It's just sickening. I said to Aunt B, as I called her in my head, I said, so how can you afford to do this? And she said, well, we really can't.
23:03
And I said, why are you doing it? And she said, because we love it. And the word love was so full. just, I had no other questions. I couldn't even think of any, because she was just like, we love it. Yep. I feel the same way. And so what most people do is diversify their risk. So we have row crops, which is a whole other conversation and how bad that is right now. And we have cattle and we have off the farm jobs. And that is the story of most of us.
23:33
And again, we look through our lens and forget about the lens of others like the cranberry farmers, the potato farmers, the wheat farmers, the almond farmers, every one of us going through our own seasons of awful times and then okay times and wrestling with the same struggles collectively. It's feast and then famine and then famine and then famine and then feast and then famine and famine. And you're hoping
24:02
that you can just hold on through all of those lean years, being hopeful for that one really good year or maybe two good years in a row. The challenge is we have such little control over our costs and that is getting to be harder and harder and harder. And that is why we're seeing people leave agriculture altogether because of those forces that we can't do anything about like skyrocketing property taxes.
24:32
um And a great reckoning is coming in this country because consumers are also being
24:44
illuminated by um seeing how other countries can use their pipelines to bring us food cheaper for a whole bunch of reasons that are maybe not as ethical when we talk about what they're paying their labor for. And they don't have some of those other challenges. We have our own set of problems in this country too numerous to list when it labor challenges, taxes, um water.
25:12
issues, water access. ah I mean, a great reckoning is coming and that is, again, going back to the value system. Americans, what role do you want to play in how you feed yourself? Do you care? Do you want this country to provide for you? Do you care where your food comes from? Do you want to be a part of it? And if so, if you decide so,
25:43
striking the right balance so that people who are doing the producing can make an honest living at it because by golly, it is really hard um without gouging the consumer.
25:56
It's a very, very fine balance. I have never met a farmer or rancher who said, I'm not willing to pay my fair share. But those who are actually the ones they'd like to make an example of saying, you know, they live high on the hog and get new equipment all the time and new houses and have XYZ, they're so few and far between. And they talk about, well, they're the ones, you know, getting subsidized and getting all this extra.
26:22
I I worked for the USDA and I have a lot of neighbors and friends and I work for a nonprofit that visits with people all the time. And I don't know who these people are. I'm sure there's some that exist, but by and large, most of the producers that I know, they're just getting by. And most of the time it's because they're, like I said, working off the farm as well. It is really not for the faint of heart and it's getting more difficult by the year.
26:51
Yes, and that actually leads me into another question about this whole beef situation. If the, let's call it inventory of cattle, at historically dangerous, I think it's dangerous, low, and it takes, it takes what, a year and a half to three years for a steer to be ready to be sold and butchered? Depending on what you do, but
27:17
18 to 24 months is probably considered more commonplace, depending on how aggressively you can push them. So if things don't improve, could we be looking at a cattle list United States in the next 10 years?
27:39
I've heard a lot of conspiracy talk over the last couple of years about what's the end game here. And honestly, I don't know, Mary. I can only speak about what's going on in my backyard. um And ranchers depend on the renewable resource, which is rainfall, to grow the grass that the cattle need. So our inventory is down here.
28:07
And that's because, as I said, we had to deplete some numbers because of drought. Our moisture has replenished those pasture conditions. So we're in a position where this fall, the females um will be evaluated and the best ones kept. And the hope is to keep more than usual so we can start replenishing those numbers. What that means for the consumer is those ones that would normally be called feeder calves will not be going on.
28:37
to be finished as beef. So we will keep more to start rebuilding our pipeline, which means in two years, three years, we'll start to do our part to try to send more towards that finishing point. But for the next two to three years, we're actually going to continue to shrink our contributions to what goes to be finished. There is talk about
29:06
And again, I say ranchers are real smart and very ingenious in their breeding programs. They are raising animals that feed more efficiently. They finish faster. They are growing cattle uh not so big, but appropriate to their frame size. So they finish faster, which means they're ready to go to be harvested sooner, which gets them to the grocery store sooner.
29:36
but that doesn't solve all of our problems. um The American rancher is one of the most resilient people types I have ever met. They will not go down without a However, they will need people to join the fight with them because there's not enough of them. Yeah, that's what I thought your answer was going to be.
30:06
In the meantime, for people listening, maybe we could all give the ranchers time to rebuild their inventory by maybe finding other protein sources and a really good protein source couple. Number one, fish. Fish is a really good protein source and you know, it only costs like 20 bucks for a fishing license and there's a thing called a limit.
30:35
And when you go fishing, you're allowed to catch a certain number of a certain kind of fish and you bring them home and you freeze them and you stick them in your freezer. And it's a per day limit, I think, or a possession limit, like total possession limit. And the other thing that is really dying in the United States is hunting for deer. My dad is an avid hunter. He just turned 83 and he went hunting last year. He did not get a deer, but he still hunts.
31:05
And venison is a really, really good alternative to beef if you can't get beef. so, and my point is, is that the kids coming up today are not deer hunting. has a plethora of extra deer in the state. So the point that there are places that are overrun.
31:30
Like they have special hunts in the fall so that people can take more than one deer to get the population down. So if you can learn to fish or you can learn to hunt, maybe that would be a way to give you guys a chance to build your stuff back up because we're not like screaming for beef every time. I think there are many creative solutions to our challenges. also wanted to mention our friends who raise poultry.
32:01
poultry numbers have also been annihilated because of the required um
32:08
um amount of animals that had to be destroyed because of bird flu. In many cases, whole flocks wiped, right? So you'll notice poultry prices are up as well. And I think that is a contributing factor to why those prices are up. But realistically, we need to support all of our protein producers. I have a dear friend who raises sheep. um I am not a huge fan of eating.
32:38
uh lamb chops, but I do eat them to support her. We have them for sale in our grocery store. I have another friend who raises meat goats and she actually has very, very high demand. And not just from our Hispanic population who enjoys using that meat in a lot of their dishes, but from others who are being more adventurous. There's game birds, the hunting and fishing, as you mentioned. I don't want to forget about our friends who raise pork.
33:08
There are so many viable options for us. And I also don't want to count out the opportunities do exist for people to buy a share or participate in a co-op where you can help raise and purchase directly from a producer. You just have to do your own research. And I have this conversation often. We again, we've become this.
33:33
this country of people like convenience. don't want to plan ahead. I don't want to make a list. want to wander around Walmart and just buy whatever I think I need. But if you want to be intentional and stretch your dollars and use a budget, you can plan for these things and stock your freezer, shop the sales, and you'll be all right. It just requires
33:56
shutting away those distractions that we all struggle with, myself included, and being really intentional in your decision making. And that is what we're all going to have to do to weather the storms that we're in and what we know we have ahead of us. absolutely. And that's part of the reason I wanted to talk to you because I knew stuff would come up like how to get around some of this pain point of how expensive things are.
34:24
I've told the story a couple of times already on the podcast, tell it in because it's true. We weren't going to get new chickens until this past May. We ended up getting them in March because I didn't want to pay for eggs at the grocery store that were yucky, that didn't taste right to me. And so we ended up getting chickens and we've been selling, we can't keep eggs in the farm stand this summer. We put two dozen eggs out there a day at $5 a dozen and they're gone by the end of the day.
34:52
that makes my heart so happy because that means others are recognizing the value of what you have in supporting you. it makes my heart happy too, because I would be swimming in eggs right now if people weren't buying them. But I just, could not look at another store bought egg. I was just like, there's nothing to them. They are actually lighter in your hand than the ones we were getting from our chickens last fall. And so if you have room,
35:22
And if your city allows it, or if you're out in the suburbs, most suburbs will let you get away with a few chickens. You can be having your own eggs from your own chickens if you want to. if we had room, we would probably have a dairy cow and a steer we're raising up for butcher, but we don't have room. So you can DIY this, you can buy into a herd share, you can buy
35:51
beef from the local farmer who has it in their cooler because that's how they do it. There are so many ways to get around this insanity about inflation on everything. It's not just beef or chicken, it's everything right now. you got to go look, you've got to do the research, you've got to find out how to get around it. And that's why I do the podcast so that can tell people things like that. uh
36:20
I'm a big fan of history and I'm a big fan of the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Me too. Her writings apparently now are not without some controversy and I'll set that aside and focus on the positive. One of my favorite books, I don't know for what reasons, has always been The Long Winter because it's truly a depressing story. I always like to refer to what Laura wrote of her mother.
36:49
In the long winter, by all historical actual actual historical accounts, people starved and they did die. But Laura lovingly referred to the efforts her mother made to keep feeding them through the very leanest of times. And her mother absolutely decided, I will not let my family starve. Now.
37:19
If you walk around in this country, at least to my eyes, I'm not seeing anyone starving. Do we have people who are food insecure? Oh yeah. Do we have real problems with what kind of food is available? Yes, that's a whole other conversation. But the message conveyed was she decided she found a way. And that is the message for all of us.
37:49
We have to decide.
37:54
what matters. Yep. And we have to decide what we're going to do about it. Yes, you're darn right. And it takes all of us to be intentionally committed to figuring it out. We are no longer given the luxury of, I'm going to sit on the sidelines and I don't have anything to add of value. I have nothing to say, I have nothing to contribute. We all
38:22
have the means to contribute something meaningful to figuring this out. Absolutely, we do. I just hope other people jump on board because we need everybody. We sure do. Well, I want to end this by saying that I think that people don't understand that once they are buying stuff at the grocery store,
38:46
The farmer has already been paid for whatever it is that they produce. So if you buy stuff on sale, you are not hurting the farmer. Don't worry about that. If you need to buy a burger on sale, buy it on sale so you can feed your family. The middle man is doing just fine. In fact, I have some concerns, some transparency issues, but we got to be real honest about that.
39:11
For every action, there is an equal reaction. what we are seeing is, even in my own local grocery store in Nebraska, we are on a surge, we're catching up with the push to raise the minimum wage. Again, a whole nother conversation, but you can't complain about the price of groceries when you're also saying we've got to increase wages. It's just the natural course of things. But you're right. The middle people, they're getting compensated just fine.
39:40
And whatever you're paying in the grocery store has nothing to do with what the farmer or rancher is receiving. I say this all the time, but I'm going to say it again. You guys learn to cook from scratch. You will save yourself so much money and you will eat better. 100%.
40:03
oh it's not hard, you just got to learn how to do it. Once you learn how to do it, you've got it. It's like riding a bike. You never forget how to cook once you learn how to cook. Yup. uh I love, I adore Jennifer Garner and she has a show on Facebook called her Pretend Cooking Show. I don't know if you've seen it. I have not. Her recipes are a little fancy for me. Sometimes her ingredients are things that I wouldn't say, quote, everyday people have access to and all.
40:31
But she is so relatable. She's so fun. She's pulling out old cookbooks that were her grandmother's, et cetera. And I adore it. And she is doing that. She's a Hollywood type. She could have a home chef. She doesn't. She is in the kitchen preparing her food from scratch and feeding her family. If she can do it, others can do it. So more of that. That's what we need to see.
40:59
Yes, and even if the thing that you cook doesn't turn out perfect, but it's edible, you can still eat it. made a loaf of, I tried to make a loaf of sourdough. Today's Tuesday, Sunday, and I'm not good at this yet. I've only made one. This is the second loaf I've made. And I followed the recipe with my active sourdough starter and it was not rising the way it was supposed to.
41:24
And I was like, you know what, I'm just going to bake it anyway. If it's a brick, it'll go to the chickens. And if it's not a brick and it's edible, I will eat it. And it was edible. It was underproofed because it didn't want to rise. And I ate some of it and it's fine. There's nothing wrong with it. When in doubt, bakers can always blame the weather, blame the humidity, blame the fog, blame the wind.
41:48
Well, I think what went wrong is it was only 70 degrees in my house because it was cold outside on Sunday. It only got to 67 degrees here on Sunday. think winter is coming early. I'm just having this feeling. We're about due for a hard winter and I don't want to be a worry ward, but I certainly want to make my plans accordingly. We always plan for it to be a bad winter and that way if it's a good winter, we're good. And if it's a bad winter, we're ready. 100%. Smart lady.
42:19
All right, Leah, thank you so much for coming to chat with me about this because I just, needed to talk to somebody who's actually in the business who could be honest with me. I appreciate it. Anytime. Well, I'm passionate about it. I'm not as informed on the actual statistics day by day of where things are and how they're going. I can tell you because I am a person who has to write a big check to pay the property taxes that at least here in Nebraska, as I said,
42:47
There is a great reckoning coming because while we have these really high dollars for cattle being sold at market, our inputs continue to skyrocket. And what I think we're actually seeing is the devalue of the dollar itself. m people aren't gaining ground. And we need to because one day the numbers are going to tumble, but the inputs are not going to. And then where will that leave us? And it breaks my heart to think that I couldn't.
43:17
positively sell this dream to another young person because it won't be possible. I mean, I just can't bear the thought that that optimism would have to leave me. So it's coming. ah It may be upon us already. um There are young people who are really intrigued and interested in this and
43:45
And being okay with the hard work used to be the biggest part of the battle. But now it is the capital outlay. Being able to manage the risk financially um has outpaced the worry about being able to get the work done. Yep, absolutely. All right, Leah, where can people find you?
44:10
You can find me on Facebook because I'm old fashioned at Clear Creek Ranch Moms. don't think Facebook is old fashioned. I just think the young kids want us older folk to feel old. That's what I think. I did hear. So we've been serving our students this summer and our students are between 18 and 30 years of age. They all say they get on Facebook as a source of reliable information. They just don't interact. They do get on there to find
44:39
credible information, which is interesting that that's the way they put it, but they just don't post, they don't share, they don't do that kind of stuff. But they still like to go online on Facebook to look for credible information. That really scares me. I don't like that at all. And maybe they were referring to posts made by about workshops and educational opportunities, which is where we share a lot of our things on Facebook about upcoming events and things. But yeah, I was chuckling.
45:08
for sure. Those kids have no idea what it's going to be like in 25 years for them. sake. I'm very concerned and I appreciate being able to have a real conversation with you because it is getting harder and harder for people to discern fact from fiction when they read what is created by chat GPT or an AI voice knowing are you even looking at something that is real or not. Yeah, it's another.
45:38
conversation for another day. Yeah, for sure. We should just like schedule a call every five, every week for five weeks to hit the five things we didn't talk about today. Anytime, anytime. All right. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Leah, thank you so much for your insight and your wisdom. And I know you said you're not an expert, but you are wise about this stuff. Thank you. You are a wonderful place for people together and to
46:08
and find community and support one another. Keep up the good work. I'm trying every day. And my podcast is two years old tomorrow. Can you believe that? anniversary. Thank you. All right. I'm going to catch you, You have a great day. You do the same. Thank you, Mary. Bye.
01:23
Um, so yeah, I've been doing this since I was a kid. My dad was an amateur guitarist. Um, my sister was a published, uh, pencil and ink artist. So I guess it's kind of in the family a bit. Um, so that's my thing. That's what I know how to do uh and cook. know how to cook seven days a week for my family. And we try to do shopping locally and, and
01:51
I don't have enough property to grow enough vegetables and stuff to feed my family. So we do a lot of shopping locally and farmers markets and things like that. And to me, it's all kind of the same thing. And I've seen a number of your podcasts and I think they're very cool. So I'm honored to be here today. Thank you. Well, thank you for saying my podcast is very cool. I love it, too. uh So you said that you think it's something to do with the brain that actually leads me to it's something that I believe, too.
02:21
My dad was a bio med tech for years and he just turned, he just turned 83 in July and he's been retired for quite a while. And I know that you worked for Ford as an engineer and I feel like engineering or wrenching on machines is something that goes with music.
02:47
See, that's, uh, you know, we, I don't know that people know this, but we've kind of known each other for awhile. Um, you're one of the few people, there were old engineers that used to tell me, well, you know, if you're an engineer and musician, that's two different sides of your brain and they'll never connect. You can't do both well. Um, I believe engineering is artistic. Um, it's creative. Like any of those things. Um, if you look at engineering and you say, okay, I got, I either have some new widget I want to design or I have some problem to solve.
03:17
Yes, there's mathematics, there's trusted formulas, things you do. But before you even do that, you have to look at a problem and go, okay, what would be the best way to handle this? And so the artistic part is being creative before you even start a project. I think it all, even engineering comes from the same place and the same side of the brain. But having done that for 35 years and being a musician for 50, I think they're actually more similar than they are different.
03:47
Yeah, my dad played guitar for a long time and he is a natural tenor singing voice and his voice is beautiful. I don't know if you heard him sing a long time, but when I did hear him sing, it was gorgeous. So I think that music and engineering are tied together and I will die on that hill. Well, thank you. There's not a lot of people ascribed to that, but it's true, I believe. Yeah, I've known enough people who who wrench on machines, whether it's cars or
04:17
radios or copiers or whatever that have some musical talent that I really think there's a tie in there. So anyway, em I am assuming that back many, many, many years ago when people were starting farms that guitars were not exactly easy to come by. And that's why there's something called the flat top box. Yep.
04:45
Yes. Um, some of those instruments actually, speaking of being artistic and creative, some of those, uh, if you look at some of the early stuff from the twenties and thirties down in the Delta, which is where a lot of this music came from, um, it, you will see everything from, uh, a, a wash bucket with a stick and a single string. And mean, all those kinds of sort of cliche looking things, um, a lot of this stuff, and there was three string guitars and four string guitars. mean, people.
05:14
A lot of times built whatever they needed to do to make sounds, make music. So it's not like you walked into your guitar center and bought a really nice Gibson guitar, right? You had to kind of create something because a lot there, wasn't people making this stuff. So a lot of homesteaders, a lot of people down in the twenties and thirties in the Delta were buying old pieces of guitars or beat up guitars, or if they couldn't afford it, a lot of more making their own guitars. So.
05:43
And the same thing is true of basses and fiddles and everything else. There was a whole sort of underground thing where people had to build instruments if you wanted to play music because you couldn't just go down to the music store and buy one. So that's kind of where it all started, is people built these things. Yeah. And were the strings made out of like animal sinew or what were the strings back then? you know? Usually cat gut. That's...
06:13
But like violins and stuff and violas for years and years and years were cat gut strings, which is basically just cat gut and it's spun until it's really tight and that's what you use. I think guitar, the most part, were steel strings to a degree. There weren't many cat guts, but that long ago there wasn't steel strings. Somebody was making steel strings, so had to use something. Yeah. So cat gut as in intestines, is that what we're talking about? Yeah. Yeah.
06:42
And to make the bass string, it was just a thicker piece. Is that how that worked? Yes, bass strings are, and you're exactly right. Bass strings tend to be larger diameter and they vibrate at a lower frequency, which is where the bass is. So you would just make bigger strings and a longer neck because the longer a string is, the lower its frequency, even if it's the same diameter. So if I take a string with a given diameter, it's on a guitar and I made it another foot longer and put it on a longer instrument, wouldn't
07:11
create a lower tone. This is why I wanted to talk to you because you know stuff I don't know. I know just enough to be dangerous. Okay and also the reason that guitars and fiddles or violins were popular on homesteads is because they are eminently portable instruments. yes it's really hard to go around on Saturday night to the barn with a grand piano. It's just not easy to do.
07:38
Yeah, and pianos were expensive to have. Only the rich had pianos. Correct. Correct. So even if you could only afford a five dollar flat top box guitar, you could go down to Saturday night, you know, and have a campfire and hang out in the barn and play some music and everybody could sing along. that same thing is still true today. You know, there's
08:04
There are a few other options, like they have little mini keyboards that you could have speakers in them. You can kind of sit on your on your couch and play, which is a fun thing to do. But guitars still to this day are historically portable and relatively easy to play and work in almost any environment. So yes, they're it's just a pretty handy instrument overall. OK, can you explain for my listeners how a guitar works, how it makes sound?
08:35
Well, are we talking about an acoustic guitar? An acoustic guitar is just basically there's bracing and stuff inside which changes some of the tuning, but basically it's just an empty box. um And there's actually some guys who build to even to this day called cigar box guitars. So if you think about a box of wood, a box of wood has basically a kind of a fundamental sound. If you were to cut a hole in a box and yell into it, you would hear your voice come back.
09:03
If I take that box and I put a neck on it with some frets and I string some strings over it and I hit those strings where they vibrate, that wood box is going to amplify that sound out the sound hole, which is what you see on front of most acoustic guitars is a round hole in the front. That's where the majority of the sound comes out. So the box itself has some resonant frequencies, but inside of it, based on the volume, how big the guitar is, and there's different sizes guitars. um When you hit those strings.
09:30
that vibration goes into the box and comes back out the hole, but it's amplified when it comes back out the hole because it went through that box and it vibrated and that's how it gets boosted. So that's basically how an acoustic guitar makes it sound, which is not a whole lot different than violins and violas. You'll see what's called the F holes, which is the F shape cutouts in a violin. The sound comes out of those the same way because it's not a solid box. It's an empty box. So that's how the sound gets amplified and comes out. Cool, because
10:00
I know how it works, but I don't know how to explain it to make other people understand it. and so the other thing I wanted to ask you is when I was little, my mom says that I was singing before I taught and that didn't go anywhere. Cause then I got told, up a lot. But, uh, but if someone has a kid that is showing some, some interests or talent for music,
10:27
Should they? Should they encourage that? Should they give them all the tools or should they just let them figure it out? I would say give them the tools and here's what I and I've been. I'll I'll give you the example that I tell most parents of kids who are either showing a propensity or not showing a propensity for this. A lot of parents want to put their kids in a music class, right? Little Johnny should go learn how to play a guitar or a horn or something.
10:57
And what I do is when they used to come to me when I was teaching and they would say, Hey, I want my kids to learn how to play. let's just use a guitar, for example, because that's what I play. I want learn how to play guitar. Okay. So we go get him an inexpensive guitar. And then he would come to me and we'd start out with lessons and I would do that. And then, okay, I'll see you next week. And I'd give him some stuff to do. And he would come back next week and either know it or not know it very well. And I would look at mom and go, okay, what's going on? She said, well, I had to like.
11:26
lean on him all week long to practice. And he would rather go do whatever he wants to do, play sports, all this kind of thing. I really had to kind of beat on to practice the guitar before he came back this week for to go through the lesson. And if you go through that a couple of times, I would look at the parents and say, I'm going to be honest with you. If little Johnny would rather go play sports or your little daughter wants to go play hockey, whatever she wants to do, I don't care. Invest in that. Because if you have to force the kid
11:55
to play an instrument, to practice, to rehearse. It's not their thing. Um, when I was a kid, I was only eight or nine years old. My dad had a guitar and as soon as I picked it up, I had no idea what I was doing and I would just sit there and pick on one spring, just making that kind of sound. I'm sure I drove my parents nuts sitting in the den doing that, but I would fall asleep every night. My dad would have to take his guitar off me and carry me into bed. I would never put the thing down. I just never did.
12:21
And I'm not saying I was a musician. I'm just saying for some reason I was enamored with that instrument. um And if you have a kid that's showing that kind of propensity for that just can't put the guitar or the piano or whatever it is. um And they would rather do that than go hang out outside with their buddies three days a week. Then you invest in that child. Then it's worthwhile. You don't have to ask. You'll know. You can, you'll be able to tell. Yeah. If you can afford it. I are the reason.
12:50
Part of the reason that I never learned to play an instrument is because I was very interested in piano. And uh we didn't have the money for a piano. We didn't have the money for any kind of piano like instrument. guitar, I loved listening to my dad play, but the actual fingering positions and things for that, I just couldn't figure it out. And I asked him to teach me and he tried and I failed.
13:20
So that wasn't my thing. And so if any of my kids had had any interest in an instrument, I would have moved heaven and earth to get them an opportunity to go learn it, to have their hands on it. But none of them did. They all loved to sing. And two of them are pretty good and two of them are not. And I'm not saying which ones. Because they all love it.
13:46
Well, yeah. And the thing is, is nobody actually has to go up and try to be a professional. They just love to sing and every once in they get to sing in the bathroom or they show up at a karaoke contest or they're hanging out with their friends singing. Who cares? But, know, I just believe that, you know, and because I'm a musician, people can say, oh yeah, well, he's going to say that. I believe that music and the arts in school is dramatically important because I think it affects brain development as opposed to not doing it. So.
14:14
Yeah. And unfortunately, a lot of those programs have gone by the wayside. Unfortunately. Yes. Unfortunately. True. Some are coming back, but it's difficult. And I understand why they cut it, you know, but m there's plenty of studies that have shown the differences in development of kids who were exposed to arts versus those who have not. m So it's a pretty well documented thing at this point. So I would like to see it stay around. Obviously I'm biased.
14:44
Um, cause I think, uh, if you're involved in the arts, whether it's music or painting or cooking or I don't care what it, you know, whatever it is, but being involved in the arts, some metal shop, woodshop, build something, whatever you, like you said, use your hands. Um, I really think that the whole thing about, know, go get a master's degree at college. I think you really need to learn how to do something, you know, having some skills matters, think.
15:10
Well, the thing that that makes me crazy is the school that my kids went to. They well, Minnesota in general requires kids to take pre-calculus and trigonometry for their senior year. they but a lot of schools don't have music classes anymore. And I'm like, people, music and math go hand in hand. Why? get rid of music? Well, see, and you understand that because, again, as an engineer, I make that connection.
15:40
Music is math and vice versa, right? mean, music is rhythmic. So there's math to that and music is melodies and tones and harmonies and harmonics and there's math to that. So yeah, it's much more integrated than people think. But, but if you don't expose people to one without the other, I think you only got half the picture. So. Yeah. And from my listeners who don't know what harmonics are.
16:10
I could try to explain it and I would fail miserably. I know what it is because I hear them all the time in everything. But can you explain harmonics? Well, if you play a fundamental note, that note, let's say we'll use a guitar string that guitar string is vibrating at some frequencies and you hear it and you pluck the note and it goes and it plays some note. That note is not just simply that note at that frequency.
16:39
um That string also has other vibrations that are occurring inside of that note, which are creating even in odd order, what's called harmonic notes above that. And so what sounds like a simple single note isn't necessarily a simple single note, but it's an enriched note that has harmonic content to it, which is if you've ever heard a really good, really good band or uh Motown singers or whatever.
17:08
and they start seeing harmony, right? And so you have somebody singing the root, somebody singing the third and the fifth and all this kind of thing. You hear this beautiful harmony. Most notes on most instruments, even on a piano, when you press a key, it's not a single string. Most pianos, every key, there's three strings to that note. So it's creating harmonics, which creates a richness to the tone. And when they all stack up, like on an instrument, like a guitar, you got six strings, you strum a full six string chord.
17:37
There's not just six individual notes playing. There's hundreds of harmonies and harmonics that are going on, which is where all that rich tonality comes from. And which is why I love guitar music. other thing with harmonics is you people hear harmonics in everything everywhere. We have a Tulane highway out in front of our house and it's a long straightaway. So people tear through here like motorcycles love our road.
18:07
Yeah. And the things that I pick up on, my husband will never hear because his ears aren't good and he's not attuned this way. But I hear a certain kind of semi coming down the road and I'm like, oh, that's that one that works for whoever they have their name on the door. And he's like, how do you know that? And I'm like, because I can hear it. I know what it is. And ceiling fans have harmonics. Oh, it's us fans. I can't.
18:37
I can't be in a room with an exhaust fan and not hear stuff that no one else is hearing and they think I'm crazy. And you're not. And what you're hearing is if a simple fan is running in the room, let's say a ceiling fan, those blades are whipping around and they're making a little like a paddle noise. That's what that is. But because that air is being whipped and it rolls over the edges of the fan tips, that creates a different fundamental tone than the fan's blade itself.
19:04
So you're hearing the combination of all that stuff, which is what creates the sound of the fan. That's why it's almost like fingerprints. That's why when that truck's coming down a road or a car comes down the road and you just know, hey, I've heard that car yesterday. It's a Mustang. I just know what it is. That's why it's not because it makes a single tone. Even the tires rolling down the road aren't a single tone. It's a if you listen to the hiss of tires coming down the road, it's a combination of harmonics.
19:31
that creates sort of a fingerprint sound and some people aren't tuned into it, but your brain definitely is. So that's why you hear that. And that's why you go, oh, I know what the truck is. You have critical hearing and it matters. It's fascinating. And it's also incredibly irritating because when I say, you hear that half the people I say it to go, what? There's no sound here. And I'm like, ha, you're wrong.
19:57
Yeah, and so the best thing to do is not even argue the point. Just enjoy the fact that you can hear that. Oh, I. I wish I had sort of a half off switch for my ears because trying to filter sound sometimes is almost impossible for me. um And then harmonies themselves, like when two people sing together. Yeah, a lot of people don't know that when they sing together, there's a third voice that's the third third.
20:26
level it's created or three people sing together it's like six it's it's exponential right yes and again that's that harmonic structure we talked about where a single note isn't necessarily a single note so if i'm singing a note or you're singing a note there's other harmonies in there i don't mean sung harmonies like two people singing together but harmonic structure that note as your vocal cords vibrate they're not just creating a single note but there's
20:54
higher pitches and lower pitches involved in that note. So now your voice is maybe creating a half dozen different harmonics, which is called majors and minors or thirds and fifths all this kind of thing. Now you get two people singing together. So you've just basically doubled the whole thing. So you put three singers together. Now you got what 18 different sounds that are coming out of three people, which doesn't initially sound like all that. But when you go, why does that sound so rich? That's why it's, it's all that sort of
21:22
Because the harmonics that are in voices or guitar strings or a piano note when you hit it are basically subtle. They're not as loud as the primary, the fundamental note. So it's underneath. And so what happens is you get three people singing together. You know, they're singing a simple three-part harmony, but all that harmonic structure and all three of those voices and all those vocal chords is creating this really big rich tone. And that's where when you hear a band that I don't care whether you're Motown, Country, whatever,
21:52
When you hear people that are singing like that, that really know how to sing harmonies, that's when you go, oh my God, it just sounds amazing. And that's fine. Yeah. And harmonics are the thing that make people feel something when they listen to it. Absolutely. Yes. And a lot of people can't define what it is. just go, God, did you hear those guys singing? It was amazing. Yeah. Well, that's where it comes from.
22:17
Yeah, and that brings us back to the music on the homestead because a lot of farmers who have cows will have a radio playing in the barn all the time because it calms the cows down. Absolutely. And so there's a good reason to have music on the homestead. um Music is entertainment. You know, you have a couple of friends over, you got a fire going outside, you sit down around the fire, somebody brings a guitar and everybody has fun singing or listening. Yeah.
22:48
And even people that don't know how to sing love to do it. So you know what? Don't, don't criticize it. If they can't sing on key, who cares? Let them have fun. Um, that's the thing about it. There's no wrong. Just, just sing louder than they do and then you can't hear them. Right. Yes. Very true. ah Uh, it is a pretty amazing thing. Um, uh, not just music for music say, but when you look at the
23:18
sort of the mechanics behind all of it. It starts to make sense and you understand it because you can hear it. um And so that's a lot of what creates the sort of unexplainable stuff that people wonder about music. Why does it sound like that? How come it, how can it even, even tempos? m You'll notice that some people, and this has been studied even in animals um have what I call
23:46
an intrinsic or an inherent tempo. Some people like ballads, some people like a little bit faster songs. They don't know why. They personally don't know why. But that's why you'll see a lot of pop music is done right at 90 beats per minute, because that tends to be the sweet spot for people listen to pop music. Personally, I like people laugh at me because I'm 70 years old, but I still like hard rock and heavy metal music because it rips, it tears. As a guitarist, it's kind of a
24:15
default for me, but and I like up tempo blues and things like that. And some people listen to that go, oh my God, that's horrible. How can you listen to that? I would rather listen to something calming and relaxing. If I listen to a slow ballad after about the third one, I'm ready to like get my car and go 100 miles an hour down the freeway. I'm going nuts. So everybody has even an intrinsic or an inherent tempo and groove and feel. And they've proved this even with animals. Elephants sway to exactly one half their heart rate.
24:45
when they want to relax. I mean, it's all connected. People don't think about that, but there's sort of science behind all of this stuff. And so some people like more melancholy songs. Some people like faster songs and slower songs. They don't necessarily know why, but it's really kind of in your DNA and in your biology, why that stuff works. Yeah. I also think it's what you're exposed to as a child, as a young child.
25:14
Because I really did like very old country songs like Appalachian old because my dad would play guitar and he would sing songs like Tom Dooley and songs like that. Hang down your head Tom Dooley. And that's that's very, very old Appalachian ish country music. And and then every time we would go somewhere, he would have the local country radio station on. And this was in the.
25:43
late 70s, early 80s, because that's when I started really remembering music, you know, paying attention. And I didn't like that particular time frame for country music. And I would be like, can't we listen to pop? he'd be like, when you have your driver's license, you get to choose radio station. Like, oh, fine. So for me, country music was really fun in the 90s. I really liked what was coming out in the 90s. Now I listen to a country station for half an hour the other day in the car.
26:13
And I was like, what is this crap? This is not music. What is going on? eh Well, yeah, it's see, know, and people that actually listen and pay attention or hear these things. And like back when Shania Twain came out, Mutt Lang, producer and all this kind of stuff, you know, it kind of became rock and roll with a fiddle or steel guitar. And that's OK. I mean, I like that kind of stuff, too, because again.
26:37
it, most of it's up tempo and groove. And so I like it up tempo, whatever. Okay. People like, Oh, that's just pop with a fiddle. Okay. Maybe it is, but I still, it's, it still moves me when I'm driving down the road in the car, as opposed to listening to some really grindy old ballad. Um, but now there's a big movement of foot. Um, and it's a subtle kind of thing, but there are many, and this includes Jen's ears, believe it or not. So there's still hope for the world. Welcome. We can't hear.
27:06
classic country because it's this sure isn't it. So now there's this big movement of foot around the 18 to 25 year olds that are going. You know what? What happened to that Clint Black stuff and and that you know all that sort of famous artists that they're listening to. um And so now there's a big movement of foot and I've got. I've got a new client in my studio right now. Who was in Nashville for 20 years and he took a break.
27:33
And now he's just coming back and kind of starting his career over again. He's 40 years old. He is hardcore redneck old school country. So I developed a couple of music tracks for him for some lyrics he had written. And I sent him to him and he goes, that's a bit too rock and roll. Because that's, that's my DNA. So I had to sit down and try to come up with some really sort of classic hardcore country music tracks for us to put these songs together. And he fell in love with
28:04
Now here's a guy, four years old. He's been around this business for a while. He doesn't want to play all that pop country stuff. wants to that. Like you're talking about that really old school, what we call gut bucket country. That's what he likes. Right. And that's what he wants to do. And that's how he's promoting himself on his website is old school, Johnny little, you know, a classic country. Okay. That's cool. There's a big movement of foot now for people to say, we miss that music. We'd like to hear more of it. So it's kind of cool. Yeah.
28:33
Awesome. I can't wait to see something on your Facebook page about it. um So we have like eight minutes left. Where can people find you if they want to if they want to get in contact? Well, yeah, probably on my Facebook page is just Carrie Adams. K.E.R.Y. um I used to have a website. I took it down because I have more than enough work as a retired guy now. I don't need any more artists. That sounds terrible, but I have plenty of work in my studio.
29:00
Um, so that's good. basically on Facebook page, which cracks me up. keep threatening to quit Facebook every year, but the problem is, I, there's so much, um, so there's so many artists that have found me through there that, that if I could get rid of it tomorrow, I probably would, but there's people still find me on there. So I just leave it up. Um, and like I said, I got rid of my, my, uh, webpage and all that stuff for my studio simply because I had enough work and I didn't need to sort of be throwing the net out there anymore.
29:29
So again, Carrie Adams on Facebook, um, you'll see posts on there. put stuff up there about the artists I'm working with. And a lot of times I, if I'm bored, I come down here in the studio and I come up with a little two minute, uh, instrumental track and I throw it up on there just for people to listen to for free. So, my dad would call that noodling on the guitar. Yeah. So noodling is fun. If you can noodle and I've got.
29:56
literally hundreds of noodling tracks. So yeah, it's what I do in my life now and I enjoy it. Awesome. Kerry, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me about music because I don't think people know as much as they think they might know about it. And there were things that I didn't know either until I started looking into it. So thank you for your time. Thank you very much and have a day. You too. Bye.
01:22
I know. I'm kind of like, need to know how much rain I got, but it's a lot. That's all I got to say. Yeah. Last summer we had a terrible, horrible, no good growing season. this year it started out pretty good, but with all the rain and it's been so hot that we haven't been able to keep on. Our garden is slowly giving up the ghost. And I'm like, second year in a row, next year better.
01:50
We kind of, we kind of started out the same way. um, we, we, planted everything, but then we got some weird cold weather and then some really hot weather. like, I planted a bunch of beets and carrots and all of that and it came up, but then didn't do anything. but then like it started to, sorry, reseeded and then it started exploding. like I try to get.
02:18
I tried to do at least three harvests a year. So I started early as possible and, know, cover it up with frost blankets or things like that. And this year we're only going to get probably two. So, but that's okay. Um, my husband planted over 250 tomato plants. Whoa. And we thought we were going to be rolling in, in tomatoes by now, but because of all the rain and because it's so hot, we're starting to get the blight already.
02:47
And once that happens, we're screwed. so, and so, um, yeah, our hopes for raking in some money on tomato sales this year are now kind of down the tubes too. And I'm like, are you sure we're in the right gardening thing? You know, it's funny you say tomatoes. So like my wife looked at me, I think earlier, I know we were at our friend's house over the weekend and she's like, yeah, we don't have a lot of tomatoes. said, um,
03:13
We cut down our crop by half. So last year we had 10 plants. only got, well, we got six this year. She's like, Oh, that makes sense. Because like our, our like, I don't know, my, my, my dream or whatever last couple of years is really, you know, know, canning my stuff and then going downstairs and getting it. like that's been consuming all of our.
03:37
tomatoes and all that. But I also want to sell stuff too, but we're not able to do that because we just don't have enough plants outside right now. yeah, it was funny when you say that, you you guys have that many and I'm like, yeah, we had the same conversation, but it was the opposite. We didn't plant as many as we normally do. And then my wife is like, well, how can we not have any tomatoes? Well, because I cut it in half almost because you asked me to. It's really hard gardening with your spouse.
04:07
And I use the term gardening loosely because I'm not the gardener. husband. But I help him. I help him plan and I help him with, you know, he'll say, I'm thinking about getting this variety. I look it up and find out what's required. And I tell him, and then we make a decision together. he's the, he's the boots on the ground guy and I'm the logistical planning part. So she does all of our harvesting.
04:36
because so I'm, I'm colorblind. So for me, it's hard to really tell when those tomatoes are really ready to pull. I just, I just gave up. she does all the harvesting, but she lets, you know, the planning, the planting, the, know, I've been trying to take on the role of helping like store the stuff or do something with it. Cause a lot of times she was just cutting them up and freezing it. like, we got to look at other ways, but yeah, I like how
05:05
I like how spouses and that do get involved. For the most part, my wife likes gardening, but she can care less. She just wants to reap the benefits of the garden, I guess I would say. It's like I told my husband when we bought this place five years ago. I said, I am not going to be the one out there on my hands and knees with gardening gloves on doing the stuff. That's not my jam. And he said, that's fine. And I said, but I will cook or help preserve anything you bring in. And he was like, deal.
05:35
So we kind of jumped into the middle of this. Tell me how you got into gardening. Wow, man. Well, I started gardening probably about when I was 13, maybe 12, I don't know. So way back then, grandma lived with us and she'd always garden and I like, I want to try this. you know, I started doing that and then...
06:01
When I lived with my parents, I always had a small garden outside and then it just…
06:11
It just evolved to where it is now. So I I started at a young age. And I have two daughters and I try to instill that into them too. Like right now, my daughter, my oldest daughter, she's eight, goes on nine in January, but she grabbed some beans and she sprouted them and she's like, I want to plant these in the garden.
06:39
But yeah, I started, you know, early teenager and just always had a garden and then, um, just expanded and expanded to where is right now. It's taken up about half of my backyard right now. um, you know, we, we always had people, you know, ask me, how do you garden or what do you do with everything? um, you know, that's really what made me start Matt, the garden guy as well. Like,
07:09
We had some, we had some friends come over and they're like, Oh, I want to have a garden. How do I do this? Blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, well, let me, let me, let me help you out. And it just evolved from there. That's how a lot of things evolve with the people I talked to on the podcast. They basically it's this, it's the thing from the robots movie. think it was seeing or Raleigh maybe it's seeing need villainy. Yeah. Yeah.
07:34
Yeah, that's what I get a lot of with the people I talk to and it's fantastic. I love that people are so generous and willing to give of their time and their knowledge. It's really great because the world is kind of a topsy-turvy place right now. So it's great that I get to talk to people who are so positive. I also really like gardening too because to be honest, I am not a fan of what
08:05
the world is doing with our food. And, you know, where I live, can't have, I can't have livestock. I'd have to move to have livestock. And I would love to have livestock, but I'm not moving. My house is already halfway paid off. I don't owe that much on it. So I'm not moving. So I'm sticking with, you know, fruits and vegetables and we grow a lot. So, you know, the biggest thing, again, my driving factor too around
08:33
This is, you know, teaching people how to grow the food that they eat so that they don't have to consume food full of chemicals. that, that, that's a, that might be a touchy subject for some people, but that's what I stand by. you know, there's other ways to handle it. Now it's a lot of work, but, but yeah, that's just, that's another reason why we have a very large garden because we want to
09:02
consume the food that we're growing and we know what's in it end of the day. Yes, the only ingredient in a tomato should be a tomato. Exactly. Like we don't need to learn the other plastic or whatever junk they put on top of it to preserve it. Right. Yep. Absolutely. And, as for livestock, um, my husband said to me this morning, as I'm drinking my coffee and waking up, he's already had a
09:32
cups into him. says, remember I mentioned that I might want to look into getting meat chickens and like, yes. And he said, I've been doing some research and I was like, uh-huh. And he said, it'll cost us between two and $5 per chick. It takes eight weeks for them to be ready for butcher. And I was like, okay. And he's telling me all the things that he found out. And I said, here's my only issue.
10:02
And he said, I said, are we going to actually be able to sell the butcher's? Because once you get through, my friend calls it tic-tac-titioning, know, the book work, the numbers, the math on the cost. said, we're probably looking at $20 a bird at least. I said, do you think people will pay that? And he was like, well, if they want really good help.
10:32
chicken, then yes. My did that. She grew chickens and she was trying to sell them. And it's just in our area, nobody's going to spend 20 bucks at chicken. Yeah. No. So, you know, that whole chicken conversation to my buddy, he lived outside of town and he's got about an acre and he's like, well, I'm going to, I'm thinking about growing some chickens. said, well, can I do it with you? So maybe there's a
11:01
future of chicken growing, not in my house, but on my buddy's lot. going in together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we're purely doing it just, I'm not in it. I'm not in this to sell things. I'm just in it to, put stuff in my body that I'm consuming or what I'm, you know, that I'm growing. Yes. Yes, absolutely. And we would keep some of the chickens for our freezers clearly, but
11:28
But he's talking about getting at least a hundred chicks. And I'm like, um, we don't have room for eight, for a hundred chickens in our freezers right now. And also, I mean, there are people in our area who probably would pay that kind of money for a chicken that was raised ethically and fed on good things and is going to be good for them to eat. But I am very hesitant to spend the money to not make it back.
11:58
And so, and so, um, I think that could go ahead. Sorry. So for anybody local who's listening local to me, um, email me or message me or whatever, and let me know if you would be interested in that price point, because then I might have some, some data to give back to the husband on this idea. I think ultimately that's what we need is data because like, you know, you probably could, somebody might buy one, you know, here or there, but you need people that are going to buy them, you know,
12:28
every couple weeks. yeah. Maybe you're right. Maybe the market is out there and we're just kind of shooting from the hip. No, this ain't gonna work, but maybe it will work. Yeah, gotta collect some data. Well, I've been hearing an awful lot about people buying chicken at the grocery stores and the chicken is gross. Like, it's stringy and it looks weird and it doesn't look like chicken is supposed to look and then it doesn't taste right. And if that's true,
12:56
And I don't even know what chicken is going for right now at the grocery store. But if that's true, they might be willing to pay a little more for chicken that's actually chicken. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. Good idea. But anyway, you're not doing livestock. No, but I'll follow along and listen to you. If you ever get that route, let me know because I am interested in understanding more about livestock. I can't do it here, but my buddy wants to do it. So.
13:23
Yeah. And the thing is it's not hard to do, but it's an investment just like anything is. Yeah. And I don't want to throw good money after bad. that the right phrase? It is. I'm okay with it. Yeah. So, but anyway, so do you teach gardening? What do mean teach gardening? Like, one-on-one or what do you mean teach gardening? I know, I know you have the YouTube channel and you have videos there.
13:53
So, so my, the math, the gardening guy, the whole purpose of math, the garden guy is to help people grow the food that they eat. And that's my mission. Um, and the only way to do that is yes, to teach people. I have, I have YouTube. know, I have Facebook, Instagram and do a little bit on tick tock, but not a lot. Um, I do have a website, Matthew garden guy. And my, my, my hope is to build that out where I have courses. Um, so.
14:23
Like some courses that I'm actively working on is, you know, preserving and putting it more towards around like canning. I know canning, some people are scared to do it or just don't know what to do. And that's how I was a couple of years ago. So, you know, I'm just going to take my knowledge and put it into some courses and post them on my website.
14:48
Another thing that I do a lot in the wintertime. So obviously I'm in Wisconsin. I think you're in Minnesota, right? Yes. Okay. So we get the cold. So how do you grow all year long? That's my, that's my, that's my plan right now. So, um, I did that last year. I grew stuff downstairs. Um, the thing that I grew a lot was bok choy and some greens like that. So, so teaching people, um, one of my, one of my,
15:18
you know, past this year, winter time is going to be, you know, creating some courses on how to do indoor gardening. So I think all of my videos are geared around teaching people, you know, how do you do things? And I focus on one specific area in all of my videos. so, and it kind of goes in like,
15:44
spurts of what I'm actively doing. So right now, again, there's a lot of canning going on. I'm showing people in, you know, quick videos on how to can, but the goal is to have these on my website and have things in like a blog format where you can read it and then you can watch the same video that's attached to the content that you're reading. So that's kind of the structure that I'm doing when I'm creating these videos and stuff like that.
16:13
So that's fabulous. love it. Um, you, the thing with growing stuff inside, we, we start our seedlings inside every year at the end of February because most things that we're going to put in the garden require eight to 10 weeks before we can put them outside anyway. They're not ready for transplant. But, uh, the thing that we've learned is that, um, radishes don't need bugs to produce radishes. They don't need to be pollinated. Nope.
16:42
And lettuces don't and chard doesn't and spinach doesn't. And those are the kinds of things that you want in the wintertime. You want fresh greens. Correct. And we just put seedling trays on our kitchen table and we have grow light, a long grow light that we hang from our light fixture above our kitchen table. And so if we wanted to, we could grow radishes, we could grow carrots if we had a deep enough container.
17:08
We've grown lettuces anytime during the year because they just love being inside because they're protected. Yeah. You know, you can grow a lot of things inside. know, one of the things that we're talking about, you know, indoor gardening and that, I experimented with dwarf cherries over this last winter. Yeah. Sorry, cherry tomatoes.
17:37
You know, they're about a foot tall and they produce tomatoes. So you can, you know, even tomatoes, can grow those inside. You just might have to self pollinate them or just, you know, tap the flowers a little bit. yeah, there's a lot of things you can grow inside. Now it's just how big of an area or investment do you want to do? know, but yeah, all the greens. Yeah, no problem. Like I said, I grew bok choy inside.
18:06
in the basement or the winter time. And we were pulling bok choy and eating it in our ramen soup or, you know, stir fries all winter long. Yep. And it's such a pretty little plant. I mean, it's so nice to have a thing that's green. That's a new growing in the middle of winter. And that's really, that's my biggest focus this winter time. If I'm talking about garden is, you know, I'm going to grow the things that I know can grow, but I'm going to experiment with other things and I'm going to document it and I'm going to teach people and
18:36
You know, I'm going to throw that out on my website, you know, Matt, the garden guy dot com and put them out there. Like I have a section just for indoor gardening and all of my stuff, all of my courses, everything is free. I'm not really into this to make a buck. My whole deal is helping people grow the food that they eat. So, know, you go on my website, there'll be, you know, there'll be, there'll be the content out there. Um, you know, one thing with my website too, I don't bombard you with a bunch of ad pop-ups and all of that.
19:06
Like I know, um, you know, kind of switching gears a little bit, no, we do a lot of things. We do a lot of cooking with our food. And one thing that always annoyed me is when I'd go to a website and look for a recipe and I'd scroll halfway down and I'd get this pop up in my face and I couldn't read the recipe and I ended up just abandoning it and just, you know, got rid of it. Um, we decided not to do that when we, when we made our website. So, you know, there might be a couple of things on the side, but nothing will pop up in your face to say, Hey, do this.
19:36
or, look at this ad. um, well, yeah, the, the, um, indoor gardening, sorry, jumping back to that. apologize. I jump around all the, all the time, but I live with one like that. Indoor gardening. A lot of, a lot of people are interested about it. Hey, what is this? What can we do? So yeah, I'm really going to focus on indoor gardening, like training and teaching more people. There's a lot of things that you used to talk about grow lights. Well,
20:06
There are specific grow lights and the height above the plants and all of that. There is a science and if people want to put time into it, will, I'm willing to put the time and effort into teaching people. Um, the other thing that a lot of people don't know when you, when you grow inside is that you need to have a small fan that can grow across plants because if you don't, they get leggy and they fall over and they die because they have any, any reason to support themselves.
20:35
100%. And you know, I had a, I had another issue. like when I'm growing downstairs, like my basement is colder. So it's like, you know, mid sixties. I have them growing in, you know, the those indoor greenhouses. So I got the fan, but then I also have an issue with a massive amount of humidity. So I'm dealing with humidity and all of that too. So I really got to, I don't know. I might build an area downstairs. That's kind of.
21:04
blocked off and that has some, you know, ways to get the humidity out. But yeah, there's a lot of different things for indoor gardening and people might just be, Hey, you're nuts. That's way too much work. First of all, yes, I am nuts. And second of all, it's a winter time. What else am I going to do? Yeah, exactly. The winters in the Northern tier States are long and you will go insane if you don't have something to do. A hundred percent. People are like, well, get outside. Well, sometimes you can't when it's negative 50 and
21:34
Burn your face off. Yeah. Like that week in January we had last Wednesday. was real fun. I was going to say we actually put up a quote unquote heated greenhouse two Mays ago. Nice. And the reason I say quote unquote is because it's not exactly heated. we have the, I don't know what the hell they're called. The containers that people ship liquid in, the
22:05
Oh, there's a name for them. Five gallon or 50 gallon drum or no, they're like a they're like a cube and they're they're in. no idea. They're in a metal cage and I forget this name all the time. But anyway, we put water in them and the sun heats them up and then they disperse the heat. All right. right. And that did pretty well until we got below zero temps. That's the problem. Yeah. So like I have have a I have a house outside. So
22:34
Right. It's a, my hoop house is, um, eight feet, eight feet wide and 14 feet long. And it's just got plastic over it. So it's great until the sun goes away. The sun goes away. It, you know, it gets really cold in there. It's, it's the same temperature as it is outside as it is inside. Yeah. But it does, but you don't get those wind chills in there. So, you know,
23:02
You got a 12 mile an hour wind, you're not going to get that temperature inside. yeah, they're, they're. Heated stuff, right? I've always been trying to find different things to eat it. That water drum thing you're talking about might work. It does, but it doesn't work when it's, when it's a really long stretch. the other issue is, is if we have three or four days where it's not sunny.
23:31
that water doesn't stay warm. It doesn't absorb the heat from the sun. So we call it the heated greenhouse because it extends our growing season into December. And we have a place now for the baby plants to go out to sooner in the spring because it's warm enough in March instead of April. Same thing I do with the hoop house. I grow into it as long as I can.
23:59
And I start as early as I can. you know, if we get a couple extra weeks, perfect. And for us, the big deal is that we can have a place to put all of our seedlings in the spring because otherwise we would have seedlings on our kitchen table for three months. And sometimes I actually do like to use my kitchen table for other things. Well, when you grow 200 tomato plants, that's a lot. That's crazy. That's awesome. I love it.
24:28
Yeah. And the reason he planted so many tomato plants is because last year he planted three times. And I think we maybe can 30 pints of tomato sauce out of the tomatoes we did manage to get last year. So he over planted this year. Makes sense to me. I probably would done the same thing. Yeah. And we're starting to learn that no matter what we do, something is going to go right and something is going to go wrong in the same season. Exactly. You just got to get over that and just expect it.
24:58
And you got to pivot and, this isn't going to work this year, you know, and, and deal with, or, you know, work with what you got right now. But yeah, I think that's what gardening is. just gotta, you gotta be able to adapt. A lot of people say, well, it's supposed to be a stress relief. What is just don't let it get to you. Just, you know, that's how I de-stress. I go outside and work in my garden. Gardening is God's way of teaching you acceptance and patience. 100%.
25:27
Second thing is having kids, in my opinion. Oh, same thing. Raising kids is gardening. 100%. You're just gardening a human, that's all. Yep, yep, yep. Okay, we've got like four minutes left. Where can people find you, Matt? Yeah, mattthegardenguy.com. Matt the gardening guy, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Don't do a lot of TikTok, but I'm out there. You know, yeah, pretty much all those platforms.
25:57
where you can get me. if people have questions, can they just like DM you or email you? Yep. DM me. You can email me. It's mattthegardenguy at outlook.com. Best thing is just to go, you go on my website, you can send me a message or just go on social media and send me a message. I encourage people to message me. I love helping people. So don't be afraid. Shoot me a message. Awesome. I love that you are such a giving heart. And again,
26:25
People on my podcast do this all the time and I'm just so thankful that you guys come and talk to me and share your knowledge. Yeah. Happy to do that. Happy to be on this podcast. I'm really interested in, you know, seeing how those chickens work out for you. So let me know when you get something out there. If they work out. Yeah. If we do it. All right. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.
26:53
Matt, thank you for your time. hope you have a great day. And to my listeners, thanks for listening. Keep coming back for more.
00:54
I might say a big ditto. It's about 95. It's very hot. The weather's supposed to break. I wish I was in Minnesota where my son lives in Duluth. It'd be a little cooler. He says it's cooler up there. But it's coming our way. So that's good news. Yes. Fall is definitely coming. I heard geese honking the other day and our trees are just starting. The maples are just starting to change. Wow. That's early.
01:20
And it's been cooler at night. mean, the last couple of nights it's been warm because we've had rain and thunderstorms, but it's coming. And I'm not sad to see the summer go. It has been so hot and so muggy here. That's what Ross says too, up in Duluth. But you're around the Minneapolis St. Paul area. Is that where you are? I am an hour southwest of Minneapolis. Okay. All right.
01:44
Yep. I am where the Jolly Green Giant started out. yeah, that's right. how cool. That's right. We did some work on that, didn't we, Nancy? It's been several episodes ago. And frozen foods for sure. Yeah, exactly. ho ho, Green Giant. Well, you just gave me a perfect opening. Tell me about yourselves and what you guys do. All right, Nancy, you want to go first? Sure. So I'm Nancy May and I'm the co-host of
02:13
Family Tree Food and Stories podcast. And we are also the co-author of a book called My Family Tree Food and Stories, which is a book that shows you how to take all your family recipes or the recipes that you love, whether it's family or not, and write the stories related to the recipes. Some are good, some are like, yeah, you know, those flops actually make good stories and good fodder for future conversations too. And there's always a way to fix a recipe and a meal. But let me see.
02:42
I am not the best cook in the world, but I keep trying and that's half the fun. But food is an outlet to be creative and bring family and friends together at the table. In fact, we just had a nice gathering of some friends at our home the other night and somebody said, oh, well, I don't cook at home for friends. Why not? Because I much rather do that than meet somebody at a restaurant because that way you actually know who they are as people in your home and whether you want to invite them back or not.
03:11
So that's kind of our, we like them or do we not like them? And let me piggyback onto that. I'll tell how we came together, Nancy. That could be an interesting thing. How did Florida marry Kentucky? We came together because of a local podcaster here.
03:31
in Lexington, Kentucky, which is where I am based. And he introduced us in the rest of his history. We just started clicking together. I mean, I guess that's kind of the best word for it. We compliment each other beautifully. I don't cook. I so admire, I own a restaurant, Azura Restaurant and Patio here in Lexington. It's high-end restaurant, lots of seafood, steak, and that kind of thing serves the local racetrack. And that's where
03:59
My husband and I love the community of the restaurant. That's why we got into it. The stories that come in a restaurant and come together are just amazing. So I've enjoyed my journey with Nancy. We are coming up on a year, I guess, of our podcast. And our book has been out there for a little more than a year. So yeah, real exciting. I love it. Congratulations on almost a year. And what's the book? What's the name of the book? It's called My Family, Tree Food and Stories.
04:26
And it's on Amazon and it's a journal slash memory book really of being able to look at your family history in your trees. And really how do you pair those stories around meals that you had with grandma or grandpa or mom or dad or your sister or brother or even just friends who have become part of your family. And you put your history together in the book from appetizers on through to desserts and
04:55
even the scoops along the way. I actually teach storytelling for the Carnegie Center. I'm kind of a weird person. I'm a lawyer by profession. am a storyteller teacher and I own a restaurant. you know, I'm the master of miscellany, I guess. But anyway, the stories and we actually feature several tiny stories in the book because we want to show people and give them instructions on how to put a story together.
05:24
Because some people are just so like, I can't do that. I don't know. And yet, you know they know. You know that they know how to have a conversation. All we have to do, Nancy and I have to do with a guest is just mention food and they'll take off on a story. Most people think writing a story is some unique thing that not any mere mortal can do. And yet we want to show them that they can. So we did that in several small vignette stories in the book. Nice. That is awesome.
05:54
Nancy mentioned the litmus test for having people over to see if you want to have them over again. The litmus test in my house growing up is we had a cat and I think his name, oh, it's escaping me. We had two cats in a row that were almost the same color. The first one was Casper, but I can't remember the second. Jeff, Jeffy was the second one. J-E-F-F-Y. And Jeffy, if he didn't like somebody who came in the house, would
06:24
would howl at them, kiss at them, and run back to my parents' bedroom and not come back. And it was typically someone that he had not met before that we didn't know very well. I kid you not, those people he reacted that way to did not come back to our house. It might be a handy cat to keep around. Yeah, he died quite a while ago. He was old. Yeah, he actually died sleeping.
06:52
Yeah, he died sleeping in front of my parents wood stove in the mall. Oh, I think he was like 15 years old. Wow. Cats go a long time. I've got a 14 year old that's going strong. yeah, they're, they're good. barn cat by the name of Wonder Woman. Uh huh. My dad actually called just Puss Puss like dad. She's got a name. Nope, Puss Puss. And that cat would ride along in his shoulders outside.
07:18
Sweet. Yeah, cats live outside. lovers. Mary, we're animal lovers, you can tell. We are too. And I don't want to go too far down the rabbit hole on cat names. But the two barn cats we have right now, the males, one is named Satan because he is pure black and he was pure spite. And then the second one we have, his name is Fluffy, but he will be a year old in September. is like a...
07:46
He's a golden beige and he was very long haired. And then he blew his coat this spring and he almost naked. yeah, of course he's fluffy, still fluffy, but is now ironic. We did an episode on Don Food a few episodes ago. then Nancy and I, as horrible coincidence would happen, we both lost our dogs about the same time, Nancy. Oh, I mean, it was horrible. We were both like.
08:15
lost at sea. It was awful. But we've since gotten new dogs. Nice. Yeah. Replacements just in addition. Just in additions. Yes, absolutely. You can't replace a dog. can only add a new one. We have a dog here. She'll be five. Well, she's turned five on August 3rd. I keep thinking it's July. It's August. And she's five. And I can't believe she's five.
08:42
I keep thinking she's a puppy and she's not. She's a fully fledged adult dog now. I know it. You just get so attached to them. Can I ask what kind? I'm sorry. I don't want to take us down that hole either. No, it's okay. She is a, well, she was told she was sold to us as a mini Australian shepherd, but I have spoken to people who raise Australian shepherds on my podcast. They're like, there's no such thing. She's just a small Australian shepherd. She weighs about 36 pounds. Perfect size.
09:11
Yeah, perfect. And she's not crazy. She's very, very go, go, go outside, but when she comes in, she just is calm. She's fine. She just wants peace. we picked the right dog. We got her when she was a day shy of eight weeks old. Oh, perfect. She was basically, if I put my two hands together flat, know, pinkies together, she was that big in my palms. Oh, sweet, sweet. I she was five pounds.
09:41
And I'll miss that puppy. I don't miss the craziness that comes with puppies, but oh. No, I'm. We're puppies. Both Nancy and I are in the throes of that. Yeah. Bibi of Brooksville, where we're deciding, is she really a Bibi or is she like dirt ball? Three months. Yeah. Four months. She'll be four months in the, on Wednesday. Oh, you are.
10:09
Yeah, I made it. I'm eight months with Ellie who's a Bernie doodle, but you know, I like the doodles because they don't shed You guys are brave women because I don't want another puppy when Maggie goes I want to get I want to adopt a dog because I don't want to go through the velociraptor stage where they chew on it Oh, absolutely, and they all have their own diet mine loves paper. She chews up paper
10:36
So far no shoes, but I just said that and that means she'll get shoes on it next but they have interesting diets when they're puppies Yes, they do and they will destroy anything within their reach even something that might kill them. So that's I don't want puppy. the older dog right now. Yeah Yeah, I don't want a puppy again. It was really fun. I'm glad I had the experience but I'm I'm good on puppies Okay, so we went way down the rabbit hole on animals. That's okay. I love animals, too
11:06
But you were also saying about family traditions and memories that food brings back. And I've shared a couple of times on the podcast about certain things that I really think of when I think of cooking with my grandma. And she used to make these amazing mincemeat pies with real venison, like from the deer that my grandpa or my dad shot. And when she got done, she would always have extra pie dough left.
11:33
and she made really nice preserves. And so she would let my sister and I work with her after she got the pies put together and she'd roll out the dough and she'd give us a hunk, you know, a ball. she'd say, she'd say, put your thumb right in the middle of it on the pan and press down. Uh One of my favorites. she put like extra sugar in her dough. I don't know why, but her pie crust was always sweet. Oh, yummy.
12:01
And so it was this very sweet pie crust and she'd have like blackberry preserves or strawberry or whatever. And she had these special little spoons. I don't know why they were small. I don't know what they were, but they were special. And she would let us use those to scoop the preserves into the pie dough thumbprint. And then they'd bake in the oven for however long, come out and cool down. Cause you do not want to those things right out of the oven. can burn your tongue for a month.
12:28
Yeah. Sugar and butter seem to go with grandmothers and cooking. Oh yeah, absolutely. Do you still have those spoons? No, I do not. I don't know who has those spoons. Don't you regret some of the things that like that iron skill that my dad would make cornbread in? Yeah. I wish I'd saved it. Never even thought about saving it. know, George Bernard Shaw was right. Youth is wasted on the young.
12:52
Yeah, You don't know that you want to save things and then by the time you realize you'd like to have them, they're already gone. I'm a saver. I'm a pack rat. And that's the hard part. When we moved from Connecticut down to Florida, we had to get rid of so much stuff because they were going to charge us by the pound to move everything. So I told Bob and his brother that they had to get a U-Haul and all the good stuff that I wanted was going in the U-Haul.
13:21
And all the stuff that maybe somebody else could break would be, you know, elsewhere. But still, like his anvil that he wants to, cause he does blacksmithing. Nope. We're not paying by the pound for that thing. But the other day as we were, I was sort of prepping and thinking about what to make for these guests. I ran across all the napkin rings.
13:42
that had been passed down through the generations of our family that we used as kids. And there was one that was always my sister's, there was one that was mine, there was one that was mom's, there was one that was dad's. We had extras for over the generations. But I said, oh my God, we haven't used napkin rings forever. We have to start using them and cloth napkins always. I'm still like a stick, paper napkins, no, not good.
14:07
But those napkin rings always told you where to sit and whose place it was. And you always felt odd sitting someplace else. Yeah. Yeah. You know, going back to grandmothers and memories, I remember the first thing, West Liberty, Kentucky is where my family was in tiny place in the middle of nowhere. And we'd get there from Ohio. We were so excited. And the first place we'd go was the cellar where for some reason my grandmother had put up, as they put it in the country, had put up grape juice.
14:37
in jars, had just stacks of jars of grape juice. And I understood later that they grew grapes kind of wild in the hills of Eastern Kentucky. It interesting to me that it would have happened that way, but it was so good. You know, you're just immediately headed for the cellar. I remember in college in Virginia, in the springtime, they had the wild grapes that were growing on the side of the road. And if you drove by with the windows rolled down,
15:07
you could smell those grapes. It was just amazing. I in the fall, not the springtime, in the fall when the grapes, but they were so rich. So there is a thing. There is a thing then. See, that's what they told me about in the hills that that's how they found the grapes. yeah, yeah, really good. Yeah, it smells like Walters grape juice. Oh, sweet. My other memory is, is the book, the story I have in the book, each Nancy and I each contributed our own story.
15:35
to the book again as an illustration, but my grandmother was a teetotaler from Eastern Kentucky. And at Christmas time, made a, we pulled a big trick on her. made a rum cake, didn't tell her what it was and enticed her to take a big slice and she ate every bit of it and said how much she loved it. And we were doubled over in another room laughing our rear end off. Yeah. Cake caper. Cake caper. Yes.
16:04
My grandmother was not a teetotaler. My grandmother made the rhubarb wine that we had for a while and was always brought out for special occasions, births, wedding announcements, whatever. And the last bit of rhubarb wine, my dad, yep, my dad, it was a giant cardboard. My dad brought it out of this cellar and it was my dad, my mom, my uncle Ken, which was my mom's brother, Bob and I.
16:32
We sort of announced, you know, we were getting married and my uncle Ken had said, look, do you two kids want to get married? He offered to give us his wife's ring. She had passed a number of years earlier and Bob and I had just been out shopping and he pulls out of his pocket under the table and says to my uncle Ken, it look like this? And he's like, oh my God. And my dad's like, what's going on? Well, out came the rhubarb wine and we drank the last.
16:59
batch of rhubarb wine. Oh, that's South Central. Wow. Hey, while we're on the subject of drinking, can I tell my drinking story? Sure. Okay. I was in Duluth visiting with my son and he insisted on going to the local bar in Duluth, Minnesota to watch the wild play. Now as a Minnesotan, you know what the wild is? Uh huh. That's the hockey team.
17:25
And so I was like, oh honey, it's like 10 o'clock at night. The thing starts and I'm, you know, I go to sleep. No, mom, please go. So we went, I had my one glass of wine. It's all I ever drink is one glass of wine. And I fell asleep. And suddenly I feel my son, mom, mom, wake up. They're kicking us out because they say you're drunk.
17:47
Oh no. mom got drunk in Duluth, Minnesota. It's a great story for my friends. They love it because I'm about as boring as you get, 70 something that I am. I drink the same glass for you. Oh my goodness. Anyway, I was starting out at a bar in Duluth, Minnesota. I'm kind of proud of that. kind neat. I would wear that as badge of honor.
18:13
The other story that I've told on the podcast is that my other grandma who lived in Illinois used to make Christmas candies from scratch. we always called them Christmas candies because she made them at Christmas time and would send us a box in Maine where I grew up. And she would make divinity, she would make potato stick candy, she would make buckeye candy, peanut Potato stick candy? I haven't heard of that.
18:42
It's, you know, the butterscotch chips that you can get that are like chocolate chips? Yeah. It's that and potato sticks and peanuts and I don't know. Just a mixture. Yeah. It's of like a Chex Mix kind of thing. Yeah, Chex Mix. But the butterscotch chips are melted so it's all over so it's a melted thing. that sounds good. Yeah. I'm coming to your house. That's where grandma's house. So she used to make those and oh my goodness, what else?
19:12
I can't remember. Oh, the coconut nougat chocolate covered bonbon candies. yeah, sure. Yeah, my mother loved those. She would make these from scratch and she would send like a 30 pound box of this to us in end of November, 1st of December for Christmas. Wow. Oh, that sounds good. I look for Nancy to try to make that potato stick thing.
19:37
Yes, it's super easy. I had a recipe, I would get it to you, but I don't have it. bet my mom has it. I will see if I can get it from her. anyway, like, God, I don't even remember what year it was. My grandma was staying with my parents because she had what they called dementia, but I think it was probably Alzheimer's. I don't know if dementia and Alzheimer's are different things. But anyway, she was staying with them and my parents were in their 50s, I think, and she was in her
20:06
70s, I think. I can't remember. But I got a bee in my bonnet that I wanted to make some of the candy and send it to my folks while grandma was still around to try it. Yeah. And I'm going to cry because it was a big deal. I made, I didn't make divinity because divinity is a pain in the butt to make. Yeah. And it's very temperature sensitive and it's very hot sugar. And I was just like, I don't want to burn myself doing this, but I made
20:35
Peanut brittle, made potato stick candy, I made the buckeyes and the coconut bonbon thingies. probably a couple other things. Fudge, mean chocolate fudge was a recipe I found. And I sent my parents a 40 pound piece of candy. Oh, that's so neat. And they got it. And my mom called and she's like, we can't.
21:02
Possibly eat all this candy. said I know give it to the neighbors give it to the people at Dad Works with Share it and So I said did grandma try it and she said yes She tried one of the Buckeyes and I saw and she said she didn't say anything but the look on her face was joy Was this joy? Was she able to help you at that point to tell you know I was in Minnesota and they were in Maine so I see I see
21:29
Because I have a similar story when my mother in her final illness I had forgotten that I had not learned from her how to make her prize-winning fried chicken Yeah, and I'm like, oh my gosh, it was November 19th. I remember it well It was her birthday. She died a month later and I went in and she was asleep on the bed I said mamma which was her preferred pronoun at that point. I said because of her she has two grandchildren that my boys
21:56
Can you come help me make fried chicken so I can learn how? Oh, she get up, she goes into the kitchen, she puts it on the first stage. And I looked up and I looked in the kitchen and she wasn't there. And I went back to her bedroom and she had gone back to bed. She had totally forgotten what she was doing. And so I never learned to make fried chicken. And that's a big regret because she had such a knack.
22:18
with fried chicken. You don't cook anyway, so you've got a restaurant. Maybe that's what happened. At that day I said, no more. I'm going to own a restaurant instead. don't know what it is with grandma's and fried chicken. The same grandma that made the Christmas candy, she used to make fried chicken, but she would use maple syrup in her batter. So it was a maple syrup fried chicken. And oh my God, we would go out and visit her.
22:47
and she would have it cooking because we'd in about the time it was dinner time. And we'd walk in the house and all you could smell was this maple syrup smell and chicken skin smell. oh my God, every time I smell something like that now I'm like, wow, that's grandma's kitchen. Yeah, brings it back. See, my grandmother was too ill when I was a kid. She passed away when I think it was probably just the end second grade.
23:15
But so I remember my grandmother in a wheelchair, yet taking her out to restaurants, my dad bringing the wheelchair up the stairs. This was before like ADA stuff and just the experience of remembering. can picture it like it was yesterday. Her sitting there and worried about the guys, you know, bringing her up the stairs, whether she was too heavy or not. Well, you know, didn't matter, right? know, they were, they were big guys. And, um,
23:41
Christmas time and I think was predominantly Christmas time and then my dad's birthday. She would send cases of tomato aspect and vichyssoise to my dad because he loved it. Wow. I remember the Campbell's, one was I think Campbell's and the other was sort of some other kind of brand. But to this day, I don't think I could eat any of that stuff, but he loved it. The cans of those stuff.
24:06
coming, dad in underwear. Underwear, good. And just seeing her smiling at the end of the dining room table when she was at our house for dinner. those are the stories that I remember my grandmother as far as food related stuff. Yeah. And these are the kind of stories that need to go in the book that people buy from you guys. Yes. That's what we want. We think this actually is a movement across the country. And you're kind of part of that too.
24:36
You know, looking at kind of, you know, they say we live in the age of loneliness, epidemic loneliness. And we think, and there's so many movements out there moving in this direction of cooking. I'm reading the biography of Jacques Pepin right now, because it's his 90th birthday, right, in December. And it's fascinating story, Nancy. I told you I had gotten the book and was reading it on vacation. And he later in life, after his accident, near fatal accident,
25:05
uh, actually founded a foundation that works with incarcerated people to teach them to cook because there's something about putting that food together and sitting around the table and conjuring up the stories. There's, again, people don't think they have those stories, but you scratch the surface and they'll start telling you stories about that time I was in an RBNB and Airbnb and the pan fell apart with a lasagna and we didn't know the pan was substandard. know, I mean, there's just.
25:33
all those things that we wish people would like capture and to enjoy food. Not necessarily even if you're not a cook. You know, we had a person on a young woman, Meredith, on our show in an early episode that had, this is a typical story too of 40 year old in today's world. She got married, mother put together the recipe book and her handwriting gave it to her as a wedding gift. That was Meredith's dream. She got it. She said, as she put it in our show, she said the,
26:03
The cookbook still exists or the recipe book still exists. The marriage ended in a year. So she's now a divorced 40 year old and was, bought the book and was filling it out with her own recipes. Then she called me the other day and said, okay, it's 2.0 now. She said, I'm having my mother write those recipes in my book, in the Family Tree Food and Stories book. And then I'll tell, I told her I would fill in the stories on the other side. So it's like this partnership.
26:31
between this 40 year old single, she has no children, single, and not in a typical situation in today's world. And she's got the book and she's cherishing the book. She's catching on and knows she wants, again, her mother's partnership on this. It's really beautiful. It is beautiful. That's, oh, my heart. You know, Mary, stories don't need to be food related stories, don't need to be always shared with family. A number of back, a group of
27:01
women that I knew, business women, we all decided to rent an Airbnb together and do sort of a business mastermind. And at dinner, what we ended up doing was everybody was charged with making a meal at some point in the course of our stay together of their family or something that was important to them. And one of them came from a Lebanese background and she talked about how you made the meat, this particular rose water and went on.
27:31
So we were able to actually learn more about one another through sharing of the food and the relationships that we had with our families, again, with one another. And we learned so much about the history and the background of each other in such a personal way. And yeah, a bottle of wine here or there doesn't help her either still. And so we were all in the same house. We were working together, but it was really fun to, to, you know, be charged with what's my job if I'm going to make Lebanese food. I don't know.
28:00
So we learned a lot about each other that weekend. I love potlucks. love it when people get together and bring something to share. Yeah, that is, that's what we're doing that this Saturday with our staff of the restaurant. Just let everybody bring something and not, you know, we'll buy the main course and let everybody come and kind of off the clock, have that opportunity to just have a great time.
28:30
one of our customers is going to donate his house and pool. Yay. That helps, right? But, you know, and the whole history of food is so interesting to us because we want to be tied always to tradition. But our traditions date back as we find out, you know, Ireland is full of traditions and mystical kinds of things. The story of salmon and all the kind of
28:57
lead into all the foods that we taste today. And I find myself, Nancy, I don't think I'd shared this with you, but I was always kind of interjecting, maybe I was being obnoxious, something that we had learned in the course of our work on the podcast. You know, like maybe it was a meal at a restaurant that was a Michelin one star restaurant. And we did that in La Jolla. And I was able to explain that because we did an episode on it. you know, it's just
29:26
It's interesting because it is, it does fill in some blanks on our traditions and how they've evolved over the years. And people, think, would find that to be interesting and how new traditions are evolving. Yes. And it can't be a tradition if you don't start it somewhere. Maybe you can start tomorrow. It doesn't need to start today. It can be just something you came and said, I want to do this. You know, my husband and I have this now a tradition where
29:54
we started, I think it was probably about 20 years ago, we figured we'd do a Christmas party. We'd never done a Christmas party in our house before. And we said we wanted to do a gift to friends where they didn't have to cook. So we did the party, an open house. It was the Friday before Christmas Eve. So whatever Christmas Eve fell on, I said, our gift to you is that you don't have to cook. Come to our house, it's a meal, we're opening our house. And that's what we did. We did this huge spread.
30:23
And so people would say, are we invited next year? They left that year before. like, you know, kind of like the other couple, I mean, we liked everybody who came last weekend, but there were some people who were like not invited back for good reasons. not in our house, right? Jeffy would have sniffed them out. Oh, Jeffy, right. Well, my stepson and his wife called my husband, the other, well,
30:53
last year in September and said, Hey, we're thinking about coming up for Thanksgiving. And they're in Nebraska. And I was like, okay. My husband relays the information to me and I'm like, okay, so what am I cooking? And my husband says, that's the beautiful part. What, do you want to cook for dessert? Because that's all you need to do. They're going to cook. Oh, That's great. So.
31:22
Um, my, my husband and his son, who basically is my son. just didn't carry him. He's the child of my heart, not my body. did, they, uh, did the whole turkey in the, the thingy outside with the oil. Oh, like the fried turkey. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yes. They did that. And, um, has my, my son's wife brought, she cooks stuff ahead, which is smart. You can do that.
31:51
She brought some fabulous garlic butter mashed potatoes from scratch. Yummers. And stuffing and I think it was green bean casserole that didn't really survive. kind of, it kind of didn't handle the weather on the drive up. So it got mushy, but it was good. And she does not get to cook like this very often because she has a big family and everybody else cooks. Oh, so she cherished it. Yeah. And she loves to cook and she doesn't get to.
32:20
And I understand that because I went through the same thing when I was her age. So it was this wonderful thing that they did for us. And I made squash pie and I think I did an apple pie. remember. Oh, you'll have to try the Z-apple. Is that what you call Right. I made what's called a Zapple pie this weekend, which was on one of our shows. it basically, instead of apples, you use zucchini. I didn't really follow the recipe 100%.
32:50
That's okay. I didn't even look at, oh, you got to peel it. My husband's like, you're supposed to peel the zucchini. So people don't know it's zucchini. He's like, well, it's just green apples, but it tastes pretty much like apples, believe it or not. like we just recorded an episode with one of our guests said, man, you've got balls to serve this to people. But it was good. I told Nancy that was among her many talents, balls.
33:19
Last Thanksgiving, I made a plan. I went to Duluth to join my son. He's a cook and he does such a great job and he has eight kids and six of them were there. And we cooked and we had the best time over the turkey. And then he's one of these people, he cooks his own broth and, uh, you know, all of it. I mean, he's just like a back to earth or kind of thing when it comes to cooking, but we did this magnificent dinner.
33:47
and we slaved all morning and we put it on the table. He has five kids under the age of eight at the time and not one of them would touch it. We could have killed them. But anyway, we enjoyed eating it and he froze a bunch of it, which he's very good at. So anyway, sometimes there are mishaps too. yeah, absolutely. But the reason I wanted to share the story about my daughter-in-law doing most of the cooking for Thanksgiving is that when you're the mom,
34:16
You guys know, you think that you're the one who's going to have to do all the cooking forever. And you got to make room for the other people behind you to do their thing too. That's what Ross and Ross is a very good cook. So I'm very proud of him. don't know where he picked it up. Too much micromanagement in the kitchen doesn't make everybody feel like they're welcome.
34:42
Even when we have guests, people say, can I help with anything? I'm like, mm, yes, you can. Here, unpack this one. Cut this, cut that. Right. So I love, I love volunteer sous chefs. Yeah. Right. Volunteer sous chefs. love that. I'm never on time with everything. So it's, it's okay. We're looking for a sous chef. So if either of you are interested.
35:03
No, yeah, everybody be waiting for a meal for a long time waiting for music. Two hours later, you have an extra that you'd be making all the money on the wine and the liquor at your restaurant with me. They say people are drinking less, you know, and we've seen the ordering of mocktails just explode. That's fine. And people want the mocktails now. And the beer.
35:29
And even a wine, I told them that if they served me that wine, just don't tell me it's not alcoholic. Cause I'll just like not like it from the get go, but I wouldn't mind trying it. It's more of a sparkling wine that doesn't have alcohol in it. we the no alcoholic beer or low alcohol beer. We've got one that's like 29 calories. so Bob ordered, offered it to one of our guests and she said, that's beer flavored seltzer.
35:57
Well, see, that's kind of the way I would be. I don't want to know if because I don't drink a lot but when I do, I want the real thing. I don't drink because the last time I drank, I thought I was being smart and I drank water in between each drink because I am prone to migraines and I really didn't want migraine the next day. guess what?
36:23
freaking hangover of my life. haven't really had any drink in 10, 15 years now. Oh, really? have a solution for some of that. If you ever decide to go back. had friends over the years who, as they were going through the early stages of menopause, they said, yep, it was the sulfates that they found out that was causing the migraines. So they discovered that you could drink champagne, which doesn't have the sulfates.
36:51
So that's how they got around it and they didn't get the migraines. if you decide to... I love champagne. I can't afford it. Oh, go to Sam's Club or Costco. can afford it. Maybe you're better off just doing a mocktail. But the thing about mocktails is they contain a lot of sugar. I'm trying to stay away from that. So I just drink water with lemon in it or something like that on the days. is hard when you own a restaurant not to drink.
37:18
and not to drink the wine. could come up with an excuse every day. Oh, I've had a terrible day. I need a glass of wine. Oh, I've had a wonderful day. I need a glass of wine. It doesn't solve the problems or it doesn't make the day better. But it tastes pretty good. It does. Anyway, that's the thing you grapple with now is, you know, what's too much of something and what's, whatever. Uh-huh. Absolutely. All right, ladies, I try to keep this to half an hour. We're at 37 minutes. So I am going to cut you loose. Where can people find you?
37:49
They can find us at podcast.familytreefoodandstories. uh, or just podcast.familytreefoodandstories. And if you look for my family tree, food and stories in Amazon, we're there as well. And you're on Facebook and Instagram. Is that right? are on Facebook and Instagram. found us on Instagram. Absolutely. Yes. All right. Awesome. Great. Thank you. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.
38:15
I hope you lovely ladies have a great rest of your week. And remember, every meal has a story and every story is a feast. Yay. All right. Thanks.
01:22
The first time it rained after they tired it in like August, it was so hot. I could hear it steam. I could hear that noise you're talking about, but I never heard it called a Zizzle Zazzle before. That's great. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Well, I am a, I'm a newspaper editor is my day job. I'm a sportscaster, which is one of the things I do for fun. And I, I'm a gardener pretty much, I guess it's in, it's kind of in the blood and
01:52
I particularly enjoy growing tomatoes. That's my big thing. My favorite food in the world is tomatoes. So a good tomato right off the vine is just the best thing in the world. So I stay really busy. Okay. How's your tomato season been? We had a really good season, but it came all at once and it was just...
02:20
Within two weeks and everything was done. don't recall having a season like that in the last few years, but it just, everything produced. They all ripened almost at the same time. We had some smaller like black cherry tomatoes that they lasted a little bit longer, but when the rains hit, it kind of ruined them. whatever was left there, they were done. Just got too much rain at one time. you know, sometimes those little tomatoes will
02:50
If they're near full grown, they'll pop open if you get too much rain. split. Yeah. Yeah. Our tomato season just really kicked in about two weeks ago and my husband planted over 250 tomato plants in the spring. So we are going to be swimming in tomatoes in a week. Oh yeah. That's awesome. Now what kind of tomatoes do you like to grow? He grows. Of course you asked me this and usually I can reel them off top of my head and now I'm like, what does he grow?
03:19
He grows early girls. grows, he tries to get sweet one million cherry tomatoes, but I think he just got sweet 100s this year. And the San Marzano tomatoes. I love San Marzano's. I have trouble though. I don't ever get any size on them. I wind up with a lot of kind of maybe they'll grow in two and a half, three inches long.
03:48
and be almost hollow inside. And I'm not really sure what's happening with mine on those. They taste great. They cook up well, but there's just not a lot of it. I'm not the gardener, but what I can tell you that I've observed with ours is that if it rains moderately and it's sunny reasonably, it seems to help them have more flesh on the inside. Okay. Because they need the water, but they need the heat too.
04:16
Yeah. The, uh, mean, San Marzano probably is my favorite tomato. It's such a good cooking tomato too, but it's got such a good taste because you just got all that flesh too. It's a, it's a good fleshy tomato. It makes something new. Go ahead. I'm sorry. It makes a killer sauce. Oh, it does. It does. Absolutely. Absolutely. I tried a new tomato this year. It was, I just out of curiosity. It's,
04:46
It was an Amish paste tomato and I bought the plants at the farmer's market and I paid a lot more than I wanted to for them, but I wanted to try them and they turned out really well. I'm saving seeds, so I'm hoping to have those next year, but they were a big thick plum tomato and it was about twice the size of the San Marzano, but really, really thick. we used to grow, or my
05:16
My father-in-law would grow something, he called it a hot dog tomato. And it was longer than a San Marzano and just there, you know how you got a little bit of a globe at the bottom of the San Marzano, not a completely straight tomato. This hot dog tomato was just completely straight and really fleshy. And I was hoping maybe that that Amish paste was, that's what it was going to turn out to be, but it didn't. I keep looking for that. And if I ever find that I'm going to grab some seeds because they
05:44
They're really productive. They're really thick and a good tomato. They're very, I would say they're similar to the San Marzano, but they're a little bit bigger. We've grown the Amish paste ones. They're really good tomato. If you want to grow something like a San Marzano, but you can't get it. Yeah. So, okay. So your place is called Ray's Bed something. So tell me how that started. Well,
06:14
I started looking at, I've always wanted to write a book. So I took this online class with thingspublishing.com. But one of the things that they suggested doing was starting a website to help you with promoting your book. So I have written a book called A to Z Beginner's Guide to Raise Bed and Container Gardening.
06:43
And so I, you know, the, the, uh, the Facebook page is basically, I use that to promote and I like to interact with people. And I'll be honest with you. I've learned as much from the people I've come in contact with who's kind of in the gardening field as I ever would have thought. I mean, I see somebody called a naked gardener and I'm, I'm just out of curiosity. I started following that person and they have.
07:13
All kinds of great and there's nothing naked about it. It's just, it's just nothing but tomatoes and cucumbers and you know, all good stuff like that. So I try to, I try to post. My goal is always to post maybe five times a week, just some, some little tidbit of information that I can get. I've not done a good job of that recently. We went on vacation, but I like to share things that I find out. And the other thing that I've found.
07:42
is I learn as much by kind of doing the research as I share. I like to learn, I like to find out more information and that's kind of what this has turned out to be. you know, got the book launched about a month ago. I'm still looking for people to review the book. So, and I've got some discount prices on Amazon right now. So the price is pretty low. If someone wants to go out and look at the Kindle and
08:11
I'd love to get some honest feedback and reviews on those. Well, I'll have to add it to my reading list. Yeah, I appreciate that. yeah, I guess one thing that I would tell you is my mother used to do a lot of genealogy research. And the one thing that I thought was kind of funny, 95 % of all Plemons, that's my last name,
08:41
our farmers and up until probably the 1960s or 1970s, it was almost a hundred percent farmers in our family. So as I say, the dirt and soil is kind of in my blood and that's kind of where we came from there. I can remember growing up being out in the field during the summertime, know, 5.30 in the morning, hoeing.
09:09
hoeing corn or hoeing beans or hoeing tobacco or whatever on the farm. you know, it starts getting, either the day we're already back at the house, time for us kids to play. but, so I guess the dirt's kind of in my blood. Yeah, absolutely. I saw your video of your unboxing of your, your, your paperback copies. How did that feel, Mark? It was, it was pretty awesome. I, I had,
09:39
I'd seen a proof copy of it prior to getting it, but you know, just to actually get it in your hand, you know, it's, kind of fun. It's not a big book. It's like 120 pages, but it's the second book I've written. wrote a short book about sports casting back in December. And it's really funny. Friends and family say, I want to, I want to autograph copies. So I've actually autographed a few copies.
10:07
which is kind of funny to me that someone would want my autograph. yeah, like say, I've learned as much from writing the book as, you know, as I'm I'm giving out. I've got a long list of references in the back of the book, which I would encourage people, particularly on individual issues, if they would...
10:34
If they have more depth to go and find out more because in them 120 pages in the amount of ground I tried to cover, you know, you just can't get into everything. uh, and the one thing that I've always known and I've from growing up on the farm is, you know, there, there are people who know more than what you know, and don't be afraid to lean on those people. Master gardeners in different areas.
11:04
the Cooperative Extension Service. I'm not sure if they call it that in Minnesota or wherever you may be, in North Carolina, every county has got a Cooperative Extension Service. And it runs through NC State University here. And so, you know, if you want new soil samples or if you need to, if you have questions about plants or you got something funny going on in your garden or, know, you can call up an agent there and they can kind of, you know, give you a good run now. Yeah, we have
11:34
We have Master Gardeners here and we have the Extension Services through the University of Minnesota. they will help you contact somebody who can answer questions. As a side note, son has a doctorate from University of Minnesota. Oh. He's got a, he did, I think it's, he's a chemical engineer, research scientist. he got a...
12:02
PhD in I think material science. you know which city he went to college at? He was in Minneapolis. I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah, he was Minneapolis. We've been up there a few times. And in fact, I think he went back this summer to visit with some friends up there. But we loved Minnesota when we were there. It's very, very pretty. Yeah. Well, we were there in summer times and
12:31
Well, spring and summer, we weren't there during the wintertime. So we didn't see the snow or anything. Yeah. We're particularly happy that fall is coming because our air conditioner died yesterday. Like it is dead dead. It needs to be replaced. So the humidity will get you up there too, doesn't it? Oh yeah, absolutely. So we're going to, it's central air. And so we're going to put in a small window air conditioner downstairs and that should handle it for the rest of the summer.
13:01
Real thankful that didn't die back in July when we had six days of 95 degree plus weather and the humidity was tropical. That would have been really bad. It's miserable when that humidity gets high. We had some days here that the heat index was 110. I think the air temperature was 100, no, not 100, but it was 97, 98, something like that.
13:30
Yeah, it's, there's been some real hot days this year. I don't love it. I don't love summer. Never have. I love the growing season, but I just wish that it wouldn't have to get so hot to get those great tomatoes. Yeah. Yeah. I know exactly. One of the things I learned when I did my book and I probably should have known this, but it makes sense. We have a pretty long growing season here in North Carolina. Yeah. And one of the things I found in the research is.
14:00
You could plant multiple plantings. probably, here could probably do two plantings of tomatoes. I haven't done that this year. I may try that next year, but things like squash, beans, the cucumbers, things of that nature that have a little bit quicker lifespan or harvest time. Yeah. You know, can, you can back one right after another. And the key on that typically is.
14:30
Just replenishing the soil and, know, and knowing when to let go of a plant that's just this kind of barely hanging on. I have a tendency to, particularly with my tomatoes, I treat them like they're people, the plants, and I kind of feel bad about cutting a limb off of one of them or a branch or pulling them up. But I figured, I've kind of figured this out. You pull them up when they're not productive.
15:00
put something else in the ground and you can go from there. Yeah, it's like a working document. Anyone who's written a book like you have, you know that you start the document either in a notebook or in Word and you start writing it. It's a first draft and then you go back and read what you wrote and you're like, eh, that can get out and that can stay and I just need to improve this. It's the same thing with garden. Oh, absolutely. like I I'm
15:29
My daughter gives me a hard time about this because I want to let them go as long as I can. And realistically, I'd be better off, pull them up, replenish the soil, get another plant in the ground and get something going. realistically here, I've got a growing season until mid-October here. We're in the Piedmont. If I were up in the mountains, then of course we would have a
15:58
maybe a couple weeks less on both ends of the growing season. But, you know, realistically I could get two, two runs of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, something like that. I could probably get two to three and peppers, depending upon what kind of peppers you've got, you can probably get three different harvests off those. could probably do two here in the north. we put our, we put our, it really depends on, you know,
16:25
what ability you have to cover something up, how quickly you can get something started, or keep it going at the end. Yeah, our growing season is typically Mother's Day. That's when we tend to get our seedlings in. Through at worst, end of August, first of September. At best, we've gone into the end of October, twice. Oh yeah. Well here, it's...
16:56
It's hot through September here. Yeah. And by hot, mean, you know, in the 80s, October cools off really, really pretty quick. the, you know, the cold overnight temperatures is what you have to watch out for if you've got still some, you know, crops in the field. But it's, you know, it's really neat that you get what you can do if you you listen to people who know what they're talking about and
17:24
Follow their instruction and don't be hard headed like I want to be sometimes. But yeah, no one is ever a master gardener from the get go. Well, and you you're going to have ups and downs. Sometimes the weather doesn't treat you right. Sometimes, you know, the bugs don't treat you right. There's a lot of things that can happen.
17:52
Yeah, you just have to learn from it and move on. and it's the learning from it part that's hard because I'm going to say something not so great. I'm going to get myself in trouble. My husband is hardheaded and he's the gardener and he's got to do something screwy like three times in a row before he remembers that he shouldn't do it that way the fourth time in the garden. And so
18:18
There have been years where we've had really successful gardens and there have been years where we have had really terrible gardens. And I have started keeping notes in my head about what worked and what didn't. So that when he starts talking to me in January for the plans for the next year, I'm like, this happened when you did that last time. You want to do that again? And he goes, oh, I forgot. I won't do that. So I try really hard to help. Your notebook's a great idea. And when I researched my book,
18:49
I had not been keeping notes. I'm a runner and I keep notes for my running, but I had not done anything with gardening or anything like that. And one of the things I kept seeing in my research was take notes, just keep it kind of journal along with it and you can kind of follow along and you really can pick up a lot that way. Yeah. And then you don't do things like put
19:16
leaves and branches in your garden that have seeds from the tree still on them. And you end up with little trees in your garden, which is what happened to us one year. put, we have these sweet gums in our sweet gum trees in our yard and they're, they're just the devil. little, little, the little balls that come on, you step on them at a bare foot, you'll, you feel like, you know, you've got a knife stuck through your foot. I put those in the bottom and they will sprout sometimes.
19:46
But most of the time I could just pull those out. not, it doesn't come up to, you know, it's not to the point where you can't really, you know, you can't really work around those. it's just a thing, but I tried to, I tried so hard to explain to him, he didn't want to put ash tree leaves and sticks in the garden for compost because they still had the seeds on them and ash trees grow really quick.
20:12
And he was like, they'll be fine. They'll compost. And I was like, no, they won't. You're going to have baby trees in your garden. And he did it anyway. And we had like a hundred baby trees coming up in our garden. And I was just like, are we going to do this again? He said, no, we're not. said, good, let's not do this again. We all learned differently, I think. Yeah, I think so.
20:40
I do a good bit of composting and I think that's been one of the things that's helped my gardens more than anything is the composting. I figured out, you you figure out there's certain things that you can't put in there because it'll just cause you problems. You got to be careful about things that, we have raccoons here. So, raccoons want to get, they'll get in anything. They'll get in your trash can, they'll get into anything.
21:08
You got to make sure that you don't have anything in the compost that a raccoon might like. And I learned that the hard way. And the first composting ever did, I kind of dug a little pit underneath a tree and I was just throwing everything in it and covering it up with black plastic. And it worked really well until the one day I was turning it with a fork and it was turning it.
21:36
And there's a big black snake crawls out of there. I said, we're not going to compost on the ground anymore. But know, big five foot black snake came crawling out and he didn't like seeing me and I didn't like seeing him. And he slithered off down in the woods. Yeah, that's not a fun surprise. I keep waiting for my husband to come in the house with bee stings because we have great big compost vials.
22:03
I keep expecting him to come in because sometimes he'll throw like apples out there. And bees and yellow jackets love apples. And so far he's been safe, but I keep expecting every fall for him to come in after he throws some apples in the compost pile and be like, I got stung a hundred times. Okay, great. So, and it hasn't happened, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.
22:30
I usually don't have too much apples left over because I love apples. I'll throw a core or something in, but whole apples generally don't make it But you're right about the yellow jackets. Yellow jackets are nasty. Yeah, we put in like 20 apple trees here when we moved in. And we have only had two crops come in. This is second year we'll have apples to actually pick and eat in five years.
22:58
And when we put the apple trees in, I was like, are we going to have yellow jackets all over the place? And my husband was like, I don't think so because there aren't any other orchards around. It's all cornfield and soybean fields. He said, and yellow jackets don't really love. Jesus can't think. Cornfields and alfalfa fields, they don't care. There's nothing there for them. And I was like, okay. And we haven't had any, any bad bugs here ever in five years.
23:28
So that's good. So I'm real happy to have apple trees for the first time in our life. That's been wonderful. We have three honey gold variety apple trees that are producing right now. We'll be picking them in a month or so because they're ready to be picked in at the end of September 1st of October. So that's going to be awesome. Make some apple crisp. Well, you know, what is there some the University of Minnesota actually
23:55
developed, I think it's honey crisp. Yes. That was actually a product of University of Minnesota Agriculture Department. Uh-huh. We have two trees, but they haven't actually produced anything yet because they're babies. Well, when they come in, you'll have something really good because that's a really, really good tomato, or really good, I started saying tomato, really good apple. Yeah, we've tried them and they're very sweet.
24:23
They're very sweet and they get really big too. Yeah. We bought a variety called a wolf river apple and those get, I have big hands for a girl. My palm is probably a good four and a half inches across. I can't even get my fingers all the way around these wolf river apples. They're humongous and they take a while to get established. Well, I live in the middle of it.
24:51
I live in the middle of town and we've got a guy down the street that's got, he planted a little small orchard in his backyard. I mean, he has maybe four tenths of an acre and he's got his apple trees are hanging full with fruit right now. And they're almost to the point of breaking the tree down. Yep. Apple trees are fantastic. It just takes forever for them to get established. I think he's on year.
25:20
three, maybe year four on those trees. takes a while, but once they get going there, they do great. Yeah. So Mark, I try to keep these to half an hour. We're at almost 28 minutes. Where can people find you? I'm on, like I say, I'm on Facebook with the raised bed and container gardening with Mark. You can find me on, I'm on Twitter at Mark Clemens.
25:49
Let's see, my book is on Amazon. So it's A to Z guide to raised bed and container gardening. if you Google my name, you're bound to find me. I'm out there. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much for your time. I really love talking tomatoes with somebody who loves tomatoes. That was fun. That's my favorite food in the world. All right. As usual, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com.
26:17
Mark, I hope you have a fantastic day. Thank you again. Thanks, Maris. Good to be with you. Bye.
01:21
fall is coming. heard geese calling the other day. Some of our maple trees are starting to turn and that could just be the weather stress, but I really think we might be looking at an earlier fall. So that would be welcome after this very hot summer we've had. I'm in Minnesota, so it's been hot here too. Yeah, definitely. When I got up this morning, my husband had opened the kitchen window and the living room windows because our AC is broken.
01:50
Oh goodness. was awake at like 4.30 this morning because I get up early and I got my coffee and I was sitting in my living room, sipping my coffee and scrolling Facebook as I do. Everybody does these days. And I could hear the crickets chirping because the windows were open. It was just such a lovely way to start my day. Yeah, that sounds great. It really was because usually the windows are closed because the AC is running and you don't want to let the mugginess in.
02:18
when you're running an AC. So there's a blessing to our AC being out. I'm okay with it. It's true. Okay. So tell me a little bit about yourself and your role with Taste the Local Difference and what Taste the Local Difference is and what you guys do. Yeah. So I am the Director of Impact here. Which I love. I love that title.
02:41
Thanks. love it too. And, uh, so what we do is we do marketing for farms and local food and beverage businesses. And that also encompasses things like agritourism, farmers markets, restaurants, food trucks, et cetera, know, distilleries, craft beverage, anything along those lines. And, um, this is our 21st year. So.
03:09
We started in Michigan, but we work with businesses nationwide. We also have Michigan's food and farm directory, which is really cool. And we are just big believers in local food and local food systems, local food economies, and really uplifting the people who grow and make food and beverage for other folks to.
03:36
enjoy. And so we really like to be able to help them with marketing education and primarily marketing services. So folks can come to us for their websites, their e-commerce, you know, to do full branding, like if they need, you know, a logo and a brand kit, we do marketing strategy, email marketing setup, social media, pretty much the whole gamut if it's under marketing and
04:05
Then what my role overseas is, um, I do a lot of the marketing education here as well. So I just was teaching a webinar last night for one of our partners. And, uh, we also do what are called food systems impact partnerships. And so I will work with folks that are from like nonprofits.
04:30
governmental organizations, economic development agencies, universities, et cetera. And we partner with them to help support the folks that they work with. So a lot of times these are organizations that are supporting farmers or small food producers. And they will work with us to help either like subsidize marketing.
04:57
what is called in the industry, like technical assistance, which is basically marketing services and or marketing education. So that's what I do. So like right after this, I have a call with somebody who is in Vermont at a nonprofit that helps farmers and they have a farmer education program. So that call will be all about seeing, you know, if there's a way that we can partner together to help support the folks that they work with.
05:24
Okay, since you mentioned that, how much time do you have? Because I don't want to go over. Until about the half hour mark. Okay, cool. All right. Minnesota has a website that they use to promote local produce growers and some makers, actually, people who make baked goods or like soaps or things like that. It's called Minnesota Grown and it is through the state.
05:53
So is your thing with Michigan, is it for the state, is under the state umbrella? It is actually not. It is ours and we've had it for, you know, I don't know how many years now. I know many, many, many years that we have been doing it. We have also put out a local food guide for
06:17
a very long time. For most of our existence, we put out an annual local food guide. This year is the first year it is all completely digital. And that really goes hand in hand also with our directory. But the nice thing about our directory is it's entirely free to join, to set up an account. no, we run it, we manage it, and we actually have licensees in
06:46
currently in three other states and we are always looking to expand on that as well. Okay. So is your organization nonprofit? So interestingly, we started as a nonprofit. So we were born out of a nonprofit that still exists that we work with on a lot of different projects that are food systems related still.
07:12
And then about, I think it was about six or seven years ago now, for a few reasons, it just made the most sense to form, like to basically move away from that nonprofit formally and become an LLC because, you know, moving into the world of doing marketing services and a few other things.
07:40
We wanted to be really like nimble and agile to be able to, you know, flex with the market so that we could serve our clients hell really quickly with what they needed. And so, yeah, so we are now technically an LLC, but for most of our existence, we were a nonprofit. Okay, cool.
08:03
All right. So if someone wants to avail themselves of your services for marketing and all the other things that you mentioned, I need to know if it's affordable for someone to get help from you or if it's not, because a lot of people who are starting small businesses are not flush with cash as you know. Yeah, that's a great question. So one of the things that we really try to prioritize
08:31
is affordability of our services. So we, when we look through our service offerings and we price them, we price them as affordably as we can in order to be able to, you know, metaphorically, as they say, keep the lights on for ourselves. Uh, and so, yeah, so we really do keep that in mind because we know the folks that we're working with, most of the, like a lot of the people who
09:00
are on our team have either farmed themselves or been very adjacent to the world of farming or worked in small food industry and things like that. So we definitely get it. We understand. we keep our services as affordable as possible. Obviously, affordability is a spectrum. So one of the things that we also have a resource
09:30
for on the site is there is a, one of our like blog posts is a resource that is about grant funding. And so one of the things that we encourage folks to do, and we do this a lot is whether it's grants or other alternative forms of funding, such as like micro lending and things like that is if, you know, if there are resources near you that you can
10:00
look into, whether it's through your chamber of commerce or economic development agencies, things of that nature is see if there are programs that you can tap into that meet, might be able to help to subsidize some or all of what you need. So like I said, we partner with a lot of organizations where let's say like a small food producer,
10:28
is going through their business bootcamp. And then as like a incentive for completing all of that programming, that person gets a stipend to come spend with us. And, you know, lot of those comp or a lot of those organizations feel comfortable partnering with us because we understand and we are trusted, you know, with, um, like local food specific.
10:57
marketing, right? So we get it. We have a proven track record within the industry. And so they know they can trust their investment in partnering with us if they give us a stipend on behalf of one of their program participants. that is one option. Another option is if you are applying for a grant or some kind of other business award.
11:24
You could always, folks can always come to us, talk about services. We can get you a proposal and then you can use that proposal in your grant because having a very specific list of services that you are going to use the grant on and the price point and everything helps whoever is doing the grant, fulfilling the grant, helps them feel more confident that you
11:51
have actually looked into it and are taking it seriously rather than just giving some arbitrary number of what you plan to spend on marketing. Okay. Phenomenal. I love that. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but- No, no, no, no. We love to talk about it. It's not something that we shy away from because we absolutely get it and we totally understand. And one other thing we have because we know that
12:20
You know, for some it's just, that is still not going to be a possibility or while they are, you know, waiting to hear on funding, there's still things that, you know, they need to do in the meantime, or they're going to want to do, um, or, and, or, you know, some folks just really want to DIY or they, they really want to have a better understanding of their own marketing. we have a couple of things. So we have one that.
12:48
thing that is a really low cost, but super high quality digital course called Local Food Marketing Academy that folks can go through on their own. you register and you can go through it, you know, from your own home on your own schedule. has templates, has worksheets, it has a lot of things that are going to walk you through the fundamentals of
13:16
marketing your food business. And then, and that is going to be something, you you can go through it again and again and again, and really feel comfortable and confident in doing your own marketing on your own. And then another thing that we have that is completely free is we have tons and tons and tons of high quality free resources. So on our website, so localfoodmarketing.com forward slash resources, we have
13:45
a lot of articles, we have downloadable guides and we also have all of our past webinars, the recordings, and then any upcoming webinars we have that you can register for. so that is something that we are always adding to and there's tons of good stuff already there. even if you're like, okay, yes.
14:10
You know, what you have is affordable in terms of services, but you're still not there yet. We, we also have alternatives as well so that you're not stuck waiting in the interim. I love that you are making it so that people can get started. And it's so hard to get started when you have this thing, this dream. Um, our dream, our dream was to have a farm to market garden, a big one.
14:39
And we have that now. And it is, I don't even have words, Erica, for when I look out my living room window and see this beautiful, thriving garden that has managed to support a few people in our community the last three years because we sell at the farmer's market and we sell from our farm stand on our property. And I didn't have somebody like you.
15:06
So we had to figure it out ourselves. Luckily, I have some marketing in my background because I worked for a friend who had a marketing and PR company. So I kind of knew how to do it, but a lot of people don't and they find marketing really scary. so, so since we're, I'm talking to you.
15:27
I have like three things that I would say you should do if you're starting a small business to get people to know about it. What are three things you would say right off the top of your head? Yeah, so I would say that it is really, really, really good to, you know, when you're thinking about all of the places like that you could, you know, show up.
15:55
digitally, right? So I was just teaching on this last night, actually. When you are thinking about your social media platforms, because a lot of times people will set those up first because it's a bit of a lower barrier than trying to figure out how to set up a website. We are huge believers in having websites, but I know people usually will first go to setting up a Facebook business page and Instagram and things like that.
16:24
Um, make sure that in your bio that it's that you use all of that space to be very clear about, know, uh, like what it is that you sell, where are you located? Um, any other info that a potential customer might need, don't just assume that people will know. Right. So.
16:49
Um, take advantage of that and any like links of places they might be able to find you shop from you, contact info, whatever the case may be, take advantage of that. The other thing is, is I would say, um, you know, let your network know already, right? Don't assume that your friends and the people in your community know. I would.
17:16
go around and let people know. Let your friends, let people... If you're in clubs or other groups and things, know. Tell them about your products. Tell them what you're selling. Give them little samples or whatever it is that have your contact info or website or ordering info, whatever that might be, so that you can start getting the word out in a really grassroots way.
17:45
And then think about ways that you can partner or collaborate with other people or businesses where your target market is already showing up. So rather than having to do a lot of that heavy marketing lift yourself is kind of go where your people already are and try to get in front of them first.
18:12
As a bonus to that, would really recommend if you're getting set up with an email marketing platform, there are some free ones that you can get, if you're below a certain amount of people on your list or very low cost when it's below a certain amount of people. Already getting a newsletter sign up going with some welcome emails and that way when you're
18:40
when you're out and about, when you're doing different things and people can get signed up, they can maybe like get a coupon and then you can already start capturing that info so that you can re market to them again and again. Fabulous. I was, I was not actually going to touch on any of those three. I was thinking more low key for my things. So here's my things. Are you ready? Sure. Number one, don't forget that you are always the
19:08
face of your brand. When you are out in public or if you are on say a podcast like I am, always remember that your attitude and your energy about your business is what people are going to react to. Yes. you cannot be a jerk in public and expect people to want to work with you through your business. Totally. That's my first one. You are the representative of your brand.
19:37
The second thing is, yes, tell your friends that you're doing this because people who love you want to tell other people what you're doing if it's Always, always talk to your friends. someone said, if you meet somebody new and they say, what do you do? I always say, well, if I, if I had a jobby job, I don't have a jobby job, but if I had a jobby job, I would say I work at from my day job, but.
20:06
what my passion is, what I love to do is, and this is what I love doing and I explain it to them. Like I love my podcast. I could talk for hours about my podcast and people would probably fall asleep. So always, always, always when somebody says, what do you do? Talk about your baby. Talk about your business. And there was a third one. was it? Um, Oh,
20:33
always label your stuff with your business name. Get some pre-made stickers with the name of your business name and your website or your phone number or however you want people to get contact with you and slap that sticker on everything that goes out the door that somebody takes with them. Because if someone happens to see it, they might have it stick in their brain and they might be a future customer.
20:59
Definitely. I would agree with all of those. And I feel like, I feel like ours really overlap because I feel like it's the same, like why even thought, you know, with social media is like, honestly, you know, if it, if it's like stresses you out, like it's one of those things, like it's not even
21:20
It's not even like necessarily mandatory. It's just, it's the thing that I always think to mention only because it's the thing that people always think about and get really stressed out about. um, but it's, it's also the thing of like, you know, kind of like you said with the labeling, it's the same thing as like using all the digital real estate of the bio, right? It's like, you want people to be able to like attach, uh,
21:48
all of the info about you and your product together, right? Wherever they are experiencing you and or your product, like you want them to make that connection so that they can buy it again, right? Or that if they see something and they're like, that looks interesting that they know where they can find it, that kind of a thing. Yep, exactly. So if you blend what you said and what I say or I said,
22:14
you've got a pretty good marketing plan right there. It's just a matter of knowing how to do it. Definitely, definitely. And I know we have a really cool, I don't know exactly what date, you know, this episode is going to go live, but in about a month from the day that you were recording this, so on September 17th, we have a totally free webinar.
22:39
that is essentials for an effective holiday season. And honestly, even though the focus on this is going to be holiday, this is going to help you year round. Q4 tends to be a really, I don't want to say easy selling time for food businesses. It's not necessarily easy on the entrepreneur. It's very busy on the entrepreneur.
23:08
But it's typically an easier time to get people to buy because people are anticipating spending money anyways. So we want to really make sure that folks are set up for success. And so it's entirely free. It's on localfoodmarketing.com forward slash webinars. You can register there and in case you're listening to this.
23:36
after that date and it's already passed. Again, all of our recorded past webinars are on localfoodmarketing.com forward slash resources and then just scroll down to the webinar section and it will be there. Do you happen to know how many webinars are listed there? You know, I could look, let's see. it's, I know we have,
24:07
Actually, you know what, goes to, uh, pops over to our YouTube channel as well. So if you are somebody that likes to hang on YouTube, um, that is where they all populate to as well. Um, if you just look up taste the local difference on YouTube, they'll be there, but yeah, we have like, um, agri, uh, we have one on agri tourism. That was, uh, one that we did, um,
24:37
And that was recent. That was really great. One that is farmers market focused, building a website, branding, AI marketing. We have a lot. There are quite a lot. And that doesn't even include our downloadable guides and then just our other blog post type articles that we've written.
25:05
plenty, plenty, of good stuff. It's really a priority for us to have high quality, free resources for folks too. love that, Erica. If you are a small business looking for information on how to market your business, you need to go to Taste the Local Difference and check out all the free resources. And then if you need more help, you can always hire them to help you further. Erica,
25:33
I don't want to keep you too long and we're at like 25 minutes. tell me the places that people can find you the easiest online. mean, you've said it, but say it again, please. Yeah. So truly the best place is if you go to localfoodmarketing.com, that is going to have everything there. It's going to have the resources. It's going to have a list of some of our services, uh, like a few examples of our past work. It's going to have more info on our.
26:03
impact partnerships that worked at my role overseas. And then it also has a place on there to fill out a marketing inquiry form. what that is, is you just put in a little bit of info and then it sends an email to our team. And then one of us, know, within a few business days, we will get in touch with you and we can set up a phone call or a video meeting and we can talk.
26:31
about your business, your goals, services that might be helpful. We can put together a proposal for you. There are no strings attached. It's totally free to chat with one of us about some services and to just get a no obligation quote. And we would love to chat with you. Erica, thank you so much for your time today. You and your business are an invaluable service to people like me.
26:58
and my neighbor who has goats and a garden and duck eggs for sale and Hi Tracy, she listens to all the time. And I just, love what you're doing. And I know that it's not free, but you are providing a service that a lot of people need and they don't even realize that it's out there for them. So thank you so much. I appreciate it.
27:22
Yeah. Thank you for having me. We, we love doing it. Like I said, our, our primary goal is, you know, uplifting local farms and food producers. And it's, it's why we do what we do. And we absolutely love being able to do it. Great. All right. As always, people can find me at a tiny homestead podcast.com Erica. I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope your webinar gets filled up really big. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye.
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