A Tiny Homestead

Mary E Lewis
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Semiweekly

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. https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes

  1. 1d ago

    Wildflour Crumb Company

    Today I'm talking with Ashley at Wildflour Crumb Company. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 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 Ashley at Wildflower Crumb Company in Jordan, Minnesota where I used to live. Good morning, Ashley. How are you? Good morning. I'm fantastic. How are you? I'm good. How's Jordan doing this morning? It is slow and sunny  and beautiful. 00:26 Just how I like it. Mm-hmm.  I am half an hour southwest of you in Le Sueur, Minnesota,  and it is sunny and it is not freaking hotter than the Hades this morning, which is really nice. Right. It is beautiful. The windows are open. have my oven on while it's been on the past two days.  But having the cooler weather has really helped my house not get  so hot. 00:52 Yeah, it's been miserable up until yesterday. It's been pretty gross for the second week of June. Yeah, just a little bit. We should not have weather like this this soon in the season. I'm very, very disappointed in Mother Nature this week. Okay, so I, this is going to seem really weird. You are hyper local to me. I used to live in Jordan. I lived there for 20 years. 01:17 And part of the reason that we moved is because we knew that a whole bunch of things were going to be happening. Like 169 was no longer to have the scary stoplight where people get in car accidents all the time. We knew that they were going to put in a bunch of roundabouts and we just knew all this stuff was coming down the pike. How is it any better than it was? 01:42 I mean, the construction sucks.  That's, you know, nine months out of the year, sometimes 11 if we don't have snow. ah But I think that once  the 169 area is done, I think it's going to  be fantastic just because of it's going to reduce  all of the accidents that occur at that stoplight. ah But as far as all of 02:12 the extra roundabouts going on. I'm not a fan of roundabouts, ah only because,  and it might just be because it was Jordan. It's a small town, but for quite a while with the roundabout that was by Radamachers, a lot of ah the older generation were, they were going the wrong way.  Oh no. ah But that, that has stopped for the most part. Now you just have, you know, your typical teenage driving. 02:41 of being crazy, not being safe. But for me personally, I'm not a fan of the ones by the schools, only during school time, just because those two separate times from like 7.45 to 8.15 and then you're all about, again, 2.45 to 3.15 ish, it backs up bad. 03:09 just because of how they have things set up  with pickups, drop-offs. ah The high school, it used to be before the roundabout was there, that if you were coming out of the high school, you were only supposed to take a right,  which that helped dramatically. Just  so you didn't have to worry about kids crossing, ah waiting to turn left,  all that stuff, it made it easier.  But now with the buses, 03:37 The buses get stuck  in all of that traffic because of  the pickup lines that are long for the elementary school and  things like that. So, I mean, I'm not a fan of those during school time,  but summertime  they're just fine as far as there's no backups, things like that.  It does get people to slow down a little bit more than they used to,  not a whole lot. So in terms of speed wise, there wasn't much change. ah 04:07 And one thing that I was furious with by the elementary school,  there used to be a crosswalk that would go from the school side to  a street called Timber Ridge Court. And they took that away.  I had tried talking to the city, know, hey, why did you take this away?  First, they wouldn't respond. And finally, somebody had said because it's a mid cross. 04:35 side cross and I was like well I don't understand because you have lots of other crosswalks throughout the city that go from a mid-block meaning that it's in the middle of  a city block versus having it be end to end  so lots of them from mid-block to  another street and they couldn't respond to that they just said nope just go all the way down to the roundabout and then come back and I'm like well I'm not gonna do that 05:04 There's, know, I'm not,  that's ridiculous. The crosswalk never should have been taken away.  Um, but it all had to do with a little girl got hit,  uh, because somebody wasn't paying attention. And I had asked for, you know, those blinking yellow lights by sidewalks. Yep.  I asked for one of those. said, Nope, city turned it down. It was too expensive.  Um, but then, uh 05:32 But then they spent all the money for the roundabouts. Yes.  So that's the only part that's made me mad. Otherwise, the rest of it will be fine. think 169 is actually going to be a lot better. um But it's just, you know, waiting the three years for all of it to get done. That's the sucky part.  Sure is. And I have I have one thing to say about roundabouts. I grew up in New England. 05:58 Roundabouts are an important part of traffic in New England because there are lots of places where five or six roads will intersect. That's what roundabouts are actually for. And I feel like Minnesota has seen it as a trend, a fashion trend for traffic. uh Yes, I can see that.  And just a PSA for anybody who doesn't understand about roundabouts. Roundabouts 06:27 you come into them slowly, you make sure you're paying attention to the other cars coming into them, and you follow the directions. And I think I remember in the driver's manual for Minnesota for the test, there's a section on roundabouts.  If you have kids going for their driver's licenses and you live in Minnesota, make sure they read that and they learn how to do it.  That's my PSA about roundabouts.  now  after all that, 06:54 I would love to hear about you and what you do. Perfect. So I, let's see, I've been in Minnesota since, oh, let's see, when did I leave Wisconsin? Go Pat, go. I thought I heard some Skonsy in there. Oh yeah, you did. Let's see, since 2006, I came here for school. 07:20 And a funny story with my husband is that I had told one of my really good friends I had told her is like if this date doesn't work out. I'm moving to Texas  I'm gonna be a police officer and that's gonna be it. We're gonna be good Well, apparently the date worked out because I'm still here 20 years later ah But no, it's been it's been great. um I started 07:45 with school. I have always wanted to be a police officer. did the crossing guard in third grade. ah just everything about it screamed. Yes, that's what I want to do. I wanted to help people. wanted to protect people.  And I went to school to try and do that. And then as things went  on, I became more interested in forensic science. 08:09 And I was one of, you know, the few before CSI came out to do their wonderful effect on people. knew you couldn't swipe screens in midair. ah But how cool would it be if you could?  Oh, my God, that fantastic things would go so much faster. Things would be so much smoother.  But I think we're quite a few years away from, you know, having screens in midair like Iron Man and all of that. It'd be great. Oh. 08:39 man, would it be great, even just for life in general. ah But, you I  went to do all of that, started with, you know, security positions that I would do either in the city for an apartment complex. And then I went to work for  the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  And I absolutely loved my job.  I loved  that. 09:06 People  felt comfortable enough to come to me with questions. They wanted advice. I loved being able to  do all of that.  And I had one incident when  I was pregnant and  I wasn't protected by the people I worked for. And I said, nope,  I'm done. I'm not going to put my... 09:31 baby's life in danger anymore and I looked for a new job. I tried to stay with the federal government and I went to do federal background investigations. So anytime somebody who's going to enter the federal workforce, you have to get a background check done of 10 years or your 18th birthday, whichever one is there first. And so I did that for about 10 years. And when we were told that 10:00 Everybody needed to go back to the office five days a week, no more remote unless it was, you know, something came up and you could work a half day, whatever the case may be. And I cried. I got excited. I got scared. All of the emotions going through because I have a son who has type one diabetes and I needed to 10:30 think about him  before  me,  being that he is younger. And I was like, nope, I'm going to take this package that they're offering. I'm going to resign from my position so I can be home.  Because, you know, it's two kids for two grandparents is way too much. It's, you know, it's not their responsibility to raise my kids. That's my job. Right. So  I... 11:00 resigned from my position and I was like, you know what, I'm,  I'm going to do something.  Um, so I took a couple of months, you know, of my quote unquote vacation, uh, to be with my kids, do stuff after school, do things with them on the weekend. felt  grateful that I was able to be able to do that.  And I was like, I'm going to start a bakery. I, you know, have celiac. I've had celiac for 13 years now and. 11:29 What I was finding, whether it was other bakers or stuff in the grocery store, the freezer section,  it was not  anywhere  near what I wanted to eat. Yeah, I've heard that from lots of people. Yep. When I was first diagnosed, the one thing that I remember is the doctor had said to me, know, you are going to waste a lot of money in

    34 min

  2. 4d ago

    Bear Country Blooms & Bakery

    Today I'm talking with Carrie  at Bear Country Blooms & Bakery. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 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 Carrie at Bear Country Blooms and Bakery in Young America, Minnesota.  Good afternoon. Carrie, how are you? I'm great. Thanks for asking. I was like, am I saying Young America right? I hope I am. 00:22 Well, technically it's Norwood, Young America. But since I live on the Young America side, I try not to draw any more attention to our crazy town name than I have to. And so I just  stick with Young America. Oh, I thought Norwood  and  Young America were like just side by side, but it's actually one town. It is.  Back in the  90s, they decided that it would be more fiscally responsible to combine the two towns. But em 00:50 As the story goes, because I didn't live here then, uh the old German  blood did not  allow them to compromise with a new name. So Norwood and Young America combined to become Norwood Young America.  had no idea again. Love my podcast because I learned something new every time I talk to somebody. 01:14 And you might not even see Norwood Young America written because it's too long to fit on most things. So  my driver's license might even say NYA. So  I'm giving it a couple of generations  and will probably just be known as NAYA because  that's what people say when they see NYA and don't know about our town. Wow. 01:41 I have lived here for over 30 years in Minnesota and did not know that about Norwood Young America. I am so glad I got to talk to you today. Yeah, fun facts. I would say how's the weather, but since you're only about an hour north of me, I'm assuming that's been kind of gray and then the sun peeked out and it's kind of gray and the sun peeked out. yep. Humid. 02:01 The humidity has kicked in. um I did learn that a friend that lives  only  two and a half miles from here got significantly less rain than we got. um So that was an interesting fact.  Overnight, she had mentioned that her rain gauge had 0.0 something and mine was 0.8.  Well, Lasur, where I live, in my little tiny 02:28 plot of land in the cornfields and the soybean fields.  Got 1.8 inches of rain yesterday  between 2.30 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon. oh And so yeah, that's it really varies. I mean, we need it. So oh yeah, um I'm really, really thankful that this spring has not been like the past two though.  Yes. Past two, you know, has just been. 02:58 rain all of May and halfway into June. Yes. And you live on the other side of the river. So  I can relate to that.  Yeah, it was. is not fun to cross anyway and throw in a flood and it just got more complicated. Yes. Luckily my husband could get to work,  but we had a terrible growing season last year and the year before, because our garden was so wet. It took so long to get it It was like soup. Yeah. 03:27 Yeah, I heard that a lot. were,  you know, people come to the farmers markets looking for vegetables.  like, sorry, it's too cold. It's too wet. There's you got to wait an extra, I don't know, four or five weeks  for the second set of seeds or whatever the plant was that they were hoping to see fruit from. 03:49 It was bad. It was very, very bad. So we're happy this year with our farm to market garden. Yes, for sure. wasn't soup in May. Thank God. So all right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Well, as you can probably guess, I am a gardener. I call myself a market gardener because I don't know many people that grow 80 tomato plants or 04:17 70 pepper plants just for fun just for themselves  Although if you can or you really like salsa, which is why we grow ours You could just be growing those for yourselves, but we grow to sell at farmers markets We used to grow onions and zucchini um And  as my other side of my business took off I had something had to give  And so some of the vegetables got cut from the list um 04:46 but I also grow flowers. So that's where the bear country blooms comes from. I do cut flowers that thrive here. people have to wait after peony season, they have to wait until about July before we're drowning in flowers. But it is worth the wait to grow flowers that are fresh, long lasting and aren't imported, which I think it's like 70 % of the flowers. 05:16 are imported.  our carbon footprint is a lot smaller  because of that. that's a positive there. um And then my bakery side of my business, um I've been a cottage baker for I think this is my sixth year.  But last summer I started  selling sourdough um and now  a year into selling, um it's gotten to the point where 05:44 My husband wishes I would give up the flowers, but I love it too much to do that.  But it's  pretty much an all-consuming  job in that sourdough doesn't give you a day off. It's got to be fed.  It does not. It needs attention. Yes. Yes. So yeah, we do farmers markets. have a 06:10 bakery trailer that's new for us this season. So we have a, we call her Poppy because our most popular muffin that we sell is a poppy seed muffin. And then we also have poppies in our garden. So Poppy is our bakery trailer that we sell from at markets and events. We average around 45 events in a year or so. We're out a lot. 06:38 Yeah, that's a lot of running around to sell things. Yes, yes. And we do have a farm stand. So  after that crazy season is over, about mid-October, then we dial it back  and people order their bread and they pick it up at the farm stand instead. Or  I do a delivery run  on Fridays as well. So  it's  a nice um way for someone who 07:06 likes to do a variety of things. I'm never bored and I'm never doing the same thing  two days in a row. Sure.  I have a question about your panties this season. Yes.  Did it seem like the panty season was one week? Because that's what it felt like here for our panties.  Sarah Bernhardt's, I think, opened  in maybe 72 hours, every single one of them.  Yeah. I do try to plant mine for the most part. 07:36 um We like to incorporate our perennials into our landscaping.  We do have a few rows of them, but they are contained in our flower beds.  And so I put some in the shade and I put some in the full sun to try to spread that out a little bit. But yeah, I did notice that too, that uh my need to look out the window to see if any peonies are starting to pop.  That window is really short. 08:05 as far as time goes. So  yeah,  I couldn't believe it. Last year our peonies bloomed for like a three week window. This year. This year, I swear to you, it seems like they just started maybe 10 days ago and they're pretty much done. Yeah, I,  I maybe have,  um, so I have two plants that are 08:30 in a different location by themselves. so they're still, they maybe have 10 more blooms, but otherwise everything else has either been  taken to the farmers market or is wrapped in um Saran wrap and in my refrigerator until, and then they'll get doled out into bouquets probably for the next four weeks.  But then that's it.  For anyone who doesn't know the Sarah Bernhardt, Bernhardt? Yeah. um 08:59 peonies are the light, light, light pink. They're like white with a blush of pink. And they're my favorite. I love those. They're wonderful. And for anyone else who does,  and also for some, anyone who doesn't know, that was really bad, sorry. ah What Carrie's talking about with them being in the refrigerator and Saran wrap is that if you pick the  blooms, when the buds feel like a marshmallow, if you gently squeeze them, they feel like a marshmallow. 09:27 you can wrap them, wrap the buds in Saran wrap and put them in your fridge and they will stay good for a while. How long,  do you think they'll stay good? Oh, I've heard people doing it for months, but um I don't have the patience to give up the refrigerator space. Yeah. So,  and then by July,  I have, um I think, 1,200 seedlings  of annual flowers in my yard right now, plus 09:55 you know, 40 by 80 of perennials.  I don't need them after  four weeks. So. Right. Exactly. Cause nothing really blooms  until the end of June versus July around here. Yeah.  Not for focal flowers at least.  No, mean, can use, um, you can use herb flowers. You can use sage and basil. Yes. can grow those, but it's just not the same. Correct. Yep. And I, we have, um, 10:25 uh large plot of flocks that becomes my filler and then as soon as things are  Ready, then we've got  zinnias. I'm not a Dahlia grower I don't think I know a sourdough baker who's also a Dahlia grower Those things are too high maintenance to do together Yes, yes. Yes, you're right. I tried growing Dahlia's two summers ago and they did fine but 10:54 I'm not in love with them. I think there's two kinds of women in the world. There are women who love to grow dahlias  and there are women who don't love to grow dahlias and I'm on the ladder. And I'm with you on that.  just  there is a  the payoff isn't there. I need a I need a two week  vase life before that beautiful bloom that only lasts three days is worth it. Yes. And I grew gladiola is the same year and  again really pretty  lovely. 11:23 Glad I tried it. I'm not growing them again. Yeah, no. No, I'm  by the time the garden is done, I'm ready to put it to bed  and not think about it again until January. So digging up Dahlia tubers is  not on my bingo card. Yes. And then you have to make sure you store them correctly so they don't get all gross. And it's just a thing. And kudos to the people who love to do it, who are obsessed with it

    30 min

  3. 6d ago

    The Cottage Foodie Con and A Big Announcement

    Today I'm talking with Matt at The Cottage Foodie. You can also follow on Facebook. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 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 The Cottage Foodie in  Minnesota. I think it's Eden Prairie.  Good morning, Matt. How are you? I'm fantastic, Mary. Fantastic. How are you? I'm good. Are you in Eden Prairie? Yes. Yeah, you got that right. Good. I've talked to a lot of people in Minnesota lately and I was like, I... 00:27 Don't remember where the heck he is. know the conference wasn't even very so.  All right. So Matt's been on the podcast, I think three times already. Might only be two. This might be the third. I'm not sure.  And typically I would ask how the weather is, but I'm guessing you have the same kind of overcast gray, drizzly day we've got going in  Lasur. Yep. Exact same thing.  I think the rain has passed over us and, but yeah, it's, 00:55 It's just kind of a dreary, dreary day so far. So hopefully the sun can break through by this afternoon.  Yeah, we got 1.8 tenths of an inch, 1.8 inches  of rain yesterday between 2.30 and 5 o'clock. Oh wow. That's more than we got here. I  looked at the rain gauge and from uh my front window, I can't see  that anything is in there. So I know I did not get an inch.  Yeah. 01:22 It was sheets of rain coming down yesterday at about 2 40. Um, my husband had gone to have lunch with his dad for his birthday and he drove in just as it started raining sheets of rain. came and he was soaked and we need the rain. You know, I hate to sound like a typical homesteader, but as a homesteader, we need the rain. Yeah, but that's a lot in just a few hours. That is, yeah. 01:51 That is a lot. Luckily, the ground is probably dry enough that it soaked it all up. if that would have been where even the ground was  partially wet, could have been, eh you know, that could cause flooding and things like that. So it's good that we needed it and we got it. Yeah, we have a useless garage and there's a cement pad in front of it. Like we don't use the garage because the doors are broken. It was that way when we moved in  and we were told that it's not even worth fixing it.  And  it's a low spot. 02:21 And every time it rains like that, we say, oh, Lake Lewis is back because that's our last name.  So anyhow, that's the weather report from Minnesota today.  Yes.  And it's going to be super freaking hot tomorrow and Wednesday. So for those of our friends who live in Minnesota, definitely stay hydrated because otherwise you're going to feel like crap tomorrow and Wednesday. 02:49 Yeah. And what are they describing the humidity level? They call it, it's going to be tropical.  So yeah, that with the heat, you're absolutely right.  Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. In the second week of June, it's not supposed to do this until at least the last week of July, as far as I'm concerned. I don't love this at all. This is not my favorite weather. oh So,  um,  you,  I met you because of your Facebook page, Sergeant Shortbread. 03:19 Yes.  Are you still doing shortbread? Yes. Yes, I am. um Sergeant shortbread, much like Matt Rosine, is he's not completely retired like Matt Rosine is. yeah, just slowly.  I don't do a whole lot of posting on my  Sergeant shortbread  social media accounts anymore, a little bit here and there. But uh and I do some uh some some events, farmers markets and things like that here and there. But 03:48 For the most part,  my focus is mainly turned towards um what can I do for the cottage food industry as a whole. So that's kind where my  focus has turned, but I do still take orders. I just did an order  in February, which is my largest order ever.  A company in Chaska, Minnesota ordered 187 dozen cookies and they wanted them  packaged in packs of three cookies per pack. 04:17 Oh my god.  So yeah, that was a big order.  So yep, still doing it, but I think most of the people either know me or they find me through Google now because I just don't do a whole lot on my certain short put  social media like I mentioned. Okay, I gotta know.  187 dozen.  How do you do that? Do  you make a few batches and freeze them and then you'll just keep adding or how do you get that done? 04:48 So  the nice thing with shortbread, course, you can make the dough ahead of time. um You know, they're icebox cookies. So I made the dough the week before  and it just sat in my fridge. And then when it was time to bake,  I  baked, think for three days,  three days straight. It was just nothing but baking and packaging and then delivered them on day four. Cause shortbread cookies,  you know, they stay good for, you know, two, three, four weeks. um 05:17 So yeah, it, yeah, I baked, literally did nothing but baked and packaged for, I think it was two, three days, three days straight, and then delivered them on that fourth day. You must have been so happy to be done with it and have them off your plate. Yes. Yes. And to be honest, one of the worst things, and I've said this from the beginning, one of the worst things that I hate the most about the, I don't want to say, 05:45 you know, doing the shortbread cookies. It's the packaging, putting all the stickers on. You got to put a sticker on the front. You got to put an ingredient label on the back. And so it just seems like it takes forever. And if I was to ever hire somebody, it would be to put the stickers on my packaging and do my dishes. Those would be the two people. So if anybody out there is looking for a job to put stickers on and wash dishes in my home, just let me know. Right there with you. I had to label some soaps last week at the farmers market for this weekend. 06:15 And it was only a few. And the thing that I hate about putting stickers on is I have this thing where I want the stickers to look perfect.  And they're round. They're like  one and a half inch diameter stickers.  And I want them to be centered and I want them to be straight. And it's really hard to do that by hand.  And I was like, nevermind. We are a rustic homestead. They don't have to be perfect.  I agree. 06:42 It sounds like I have the exact same sticker. I think it's a one and a half or between one and a half and two inch round sticker. Oh I gave up on that a long time ago. I'm like, can't. These just have to get on there, make them at least 90 % straight and we're good. Yeah, having OCD with stickering is not a good plan and I don't have it. So that's good. But I do definitely lean toward perfectionism. And if it isn't perfect, it drives me a little nutty. 07:08 So yeah, I get it. Stickering things and not only the process of doing that but the cost of labeling things is just ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I order all my, I order my, my, I do my own ingredient labels. I print those myself, but the, the logo sticker that goes on the front that um I just order that pre-printed and yeah, that, that adds up quickly. 07:33 but you can't not do it because that's how you have marketing right on your product. you've got  to do it. It's so frustrating and so important at the same time. It's just the way it is. okay, now we've got all that.  don't think I ever asked you what prompted your interest in  furthering the cottage food  registration or law. 08:02 thing. Yeah.  So mean, when as I was doing Sergeant Shortbread  and this,  I believe we talked about this last time maybe, but I'll just kind of, this is kind of how part of the whole story, guess, went from Sergeant Shortbread to the directory,  the Cottage Foodie directory, which then of course, led to  Cottage Foodie Con, the conference. um So  the directory, I mean, that's, I thought I saw a need or I found a need. um 08:32 where people were cottage food producers were looking for uh visibility. And so I thought, well, I'm going to create a directory. They can put a profile on there and then I will just do paid Facebook ads for them driving customers to the directory, not necessarily to individual  cottage food producers, but to the directory itself where the consumer could then start shopping for somebody in their local area, for the product that they're looking for and so forth. And so once I 09:01 Once I started that in order to create visibility for myself in front of cottage food producers, I went to Cookie Con in Reno a year ago. So was March of 2025. I went to Cookie Con and had great response at Cookie Con. I had people come up, ranged everywhere from, they came up to me and they're like, I have never heard of you and I have no idea what you do, but tell me what it is that you do. 09:29 I'm interested in  hearing about it. And so I would tell them. And then I had all the way to the other end of the spectrum, people will come up and say, we came here just for you. How do I sign up? And they would sign up right on the spot.  And  so while I was there, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is great. This is just really great visibility, whether they sign up or not. This is just incredible visibility. uh so  then as I was there, I was like, okay, but I need to add, is cookie con is for just decorated sugar cookies. 09:58 And so then I realized, well,  I need to get in front of all of the cottage food producers, regardless of what product. And so that's where I came up with the idea to do the cottage food conference, which  I Googled it and  in-person national in-person cottage food conference had never been done before. The last uh national cottage food conference was a hundred percent virtual and it wa

    35 min

  4. Jun 5

    Catching Up With Christi At Tee's Kitchen

    Today I'm talking with Christi at Tee’s Kitchen. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 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 Christi at Tee's Kitchen in...  Oh no, I forget. Where are you Christi?  I am in South Louisiana. So I live just south of Lafayette. Yeah. was thinking for some reason, Missouri popped in. like, no, she's not that close to me. I know she's not.  If you were, would come see you.  I know, right? 00:29 Yeah, Christi's been a guest on the podcast twice already and I absolutely love her voice and her accent. She is just the sweetest sounding woman I've ever heard. So welcome, Christi. How are you? Thank you so much. I'm doing great. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Louisiana? The weather is hot. It's getting hot. it's like the heat index is like 85, I believe. 00:57 This week we're getting a lot of rain, but it doesn't really cool everything off. It just kind of steams things, if you know what I mean. I do. Minnesota has been very, very hot for, well, it's now June 2nd or 3rd. June 3rd. Something like that. Close enough. But the last two weeks of May were kind of a little warmer than we would like it to be. It's supposed to be 84 for the high today. Oh, really? But we don't have the humidity. 01:27 Building yet. Thank God right right. It's the humidity that makes everything so  So gross yeah, so gross. Yeah, I don't even know so gross  Yeah, when you step outside and it feels like you're walking through a mist it's not a great feeling  No,  it's not Now if you're in Maine at the ocean and you get up in the morning with your warm cup of coffee and step outside And the air feels like mist  it's because it's mist coming off the ocean 01:54 And that's a beautiful feeling, but that's a great thing. Sticky grossness is not okay.  Um, it is sunny here. My panties are blooming like crazy. My whole driveway, the edge of the side of my driveway looks just beautiful right now with all the pinks and corals  and burgundies and whites. It's my favorite time of year. How gorgeous. Oh, I'm going to have to go check out some pictures on that.  It is beautiful. I've posted a few. 02:22 I will post I'm going to have to check that out. Oh, I bet it's so pretty. We have our summer garden going and like I'm friends with some people, you know, through TikTok and all that. And they'll message me and say, I cannot believe you already have cucumbers and tomatoes. And yeah, we've been in full swing for a while. So that's always nice. Those summer gardens, know? Yes. Yes. And you get them so much. You get produce so much earlier than we do up here in the North. Yeah. 02:49 So when did you plant your tomatoes and cucumbers for this year, this season? Well, I say we. I am more like the supervisor. Yeah, me too. I'm a brown duck. So my husband planted, gosh, it pretty early March, I believe. We usually plant around Mardi Gras, but we planted a little later this year because for some reason it stayed cooler. 03:16 a little bit longer. So I think it was March, maybe late March that he planted. Um, and yeah, that's his thing. I just reap the benefits from it. Yeah. My husband is the gardener too. And I never take credit for actually anything that's the gardening.  I take credit for cooking the things that he brings in from the garden.  Exactly.  And we are,  yeah, we're about two months behind you. My husband started planting, I think, 03:44 the first weekend in May.  And our tomato plants are looking real sad. They've got the early blight. It's the first time this has ever happened to us.  Oh.  So he's trying to figure out what to do to  cure them. And  he hasn't quite figured it out yet. And I'm afraid that by the time he does figure out how to save them, there won't be anything safe or saving. I don't know yet. 04:08 Oh, my no, my husband went and picked  a few tomatoes from the garden and he picked them early because they had holes in some of them.  So we just put them on the window sill. That's all you can do. And it's better than, you know, them just sitting there and  rotting, you know. Yes.  Yes. And we're used to the blight that comes at the end of the season. That's fine. Yeah. But we've never had early blight before. And the saddest part is that there's over 100 tomato plants in the garden that are sick with this. Yeah. 04:38 So we don't know how that's going to go. Luckily he still had some plants in the greenhouse, so he planted those and he made sure that the bottom leaves were off of them, so not touching the ground. that's nice. So maybe we'll have some to eat. I hope so. Yeah, this gardening thing is a crapshoot. It is literally gambling. It is. Last year I feel like his garden didn't do as well and then this year it seems to be doing great, but 05:07 Here it only lasts for a little while and then the bugs just completely take over, you know? Yeah. Gardening is like, it's so good for your soul, but when things don't go right, it's painful. Yeah. All that hard work and I really feel bad.  I feel for him, you know, because he puts so much work into it. 05:31 But he did downsize a little bit.  Normally we do a much bigger garden and this year he was like, I'm only gonna plant.  I'm  not gonna do so much this year.  And it's working out good so far. Good, I am very happy for you and I'm very envious that you get to pick tomatoes and cucumbers right now. I  would  love some tomatoes mixed with garlic, some mozzarella cheese, and some basil, and some olive oil, and some... 06:00 balsamic vinegar or toasted bread.  That would be lovely. I actually had that this morning, like right before we  came on. I fixed avocado toast and then I sliced some of those tomatoes on top and did, um like I put some garlic butter seasoning and what else did I put? Oh, I did a little salt and pepper and then I love hot honey. I'm into hot honey. And then I also put a little drizzle of balsamic glaze and man, it was so good. 06:28 Yeah, I have to acquire some things to make the thing I just explained and I can't think of name of that this morning either. Bruschetta.  I'm getting to the point where I haven't had it in probably four or five months and I'm like, know, bruschetta sounds really good.  I posted a...  We always have an abundance of basil, so I make basil oil, which is, you know, most people comment and they say, that's pesto. It's really not because it doesn't have... 06:58 pine nuts and it doesn't have the Parmesan cheese, but I make a basil oil and we just, I'll make homemade bread and we dip that in there, but I'll also make,  I use it for my caprese salad. So I'll do the fresh uh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and then that basil oil. then if I, sometimes I put balsamic vinegar and sometimes I don't, but I just did a video on it and made myself hungry again for it. 07:24 When you make the basil oil, it olive oil and basil leaves or how do do it? Yeah, it's olive oil, basil leaves, you put a little bit of  garlic, a small amount of water. It's pretty simple, you know.  Do you crush the basil leaves so the oils come out? Yeah, I blend it all up. Okay. That sounds fabulous. We might have to do that. We have some really nice basil growing this year, so we're going to have enough to do some fun things with it. 07:53 Yeah, always uh one year I gave it as like a gift and I made  homemade bread and I with a  little jar of the basil oil and  I gave it to some teacher friends and  they still request it, you know. Yeah, that's the danger of sharing your creations with people because  you think you're making it for them once and then they come back and they're like, do have any more of that? oh That's when you turn into a business. Yeah. 08:20 Well, fun fact, I used to do that. used to run a little small bakery out of my home. Oh, okay. Yeah, but it just, got to be too much, you know, because we have a camp in Pecan Island and so people would request cakes and things on the weekends and I wanted to go to the camp. So we just cut that out, but maybe one day I'll get back into it again. You just reminded me, I was supposed to do this a week ago. I need to renew my 08:50 cottage food registration because I live in Minnesota and uh I wanted to make granola for the farmers markets this year and I can't sell it without that registration.  Oh,  I need to get that done. I need to go look that up today because I forgot all about it completely because the world is a crazy place right now and it's really easy to get distracted. It's true.  Man, I love a good farmers market.  Yeah, the first one is this Saturday. 09:20 And I don't go because I am really shy and I really hate sitting in the sun.  I do not love being hot. So my husband actually loves being social. He loves  selling stuff. So he'll be going on Saturdays to downtown Lesor, city of  six, seven thousand people maybe. Well, that works out that you can get him to do it. Yeah. He loves it. It just fills his cup so much and he's made such good friends. 09:48 With the vendors that are there. It's so fun for him.  Oh nice,  but we should have some  Lettices for sale we'll have of lip balms and some candles and some  cold processed lye soap that we make  and  Maybe some peony blooms that that's all  for sale. So  I just I just love a good farmers market. That sounds fun 10:18 I love a good farmer's market where they have food, but they also have things.  There's a guy at our farmer's market that makes jewelry  and he makes the most unusual things. And looking at them, I

    42 min

  5. May 29

    Front Forty Farm

    Today I'm talking with Mary at Front Forty Farm. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 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 a fellow Mary at Front Forty Farm in Missouri. Good morning, Mary. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I don't talk to Mary's very often. I always think it's a very common name. Yes. think you're the second Mary I've talked to in over two and a half years on this podcast. Oh, really? I've always thought it's like a very boring square name. 00:30 Yeah, I honestly, I was nicknamed Lynn when I was a couple weeks old because I'm named after both my grandmother's Mary Evelyn.  And my parents had a disagreement about which name should have come first. So they decided to nickname me Lynn.  And when I went to kindergarten, they did the roll call  and they were asked, you know, they were calling my given name. 00:57 And I didn't know my name was Mary. I thought my name was Lynn. Oh, wow. And the teacher called my mom and she said, there's a girl in our class  and we don't know who she is. We think she's Mary. And my mom was like, uh okay, this is really weird.  And my mom's okay, describe the girl. And they described what I've been, what I was wearing and my hair color and that I was this tall, whatever.  And my mom said, well, yeah, that's Mary.  And 01:26 They said she doesn't respond to Mary. And my mom laughed and she said,  of course she doesn't because she's never been called Mary. She's been called Lynn.  So there was a very big mix up the first day of kindergarten. then in high school, I switched back to Mary because I was like, it's my real name. I should use it.  my close friends for a long time would call me Lynn, but no one except my husband calls me Lynn now. 01:55 Oh really? Interesting. Yeah, so names are crazy. Yeah. Okay, so the reason that I asked you to be on the podcast is because of your farm name Front 40. I'm assuming that is the opposite of Back 40. Exactly. My husband came up with it because he's like, well, you know, people are always saying out to the Back 40 or, know, whatever. And in the assessment plot, we are the front 02:24 east 40 of the whole section. so there you go. Well, 47 actually, but yeah. Well, it got my attention. So I'm glad you called it front 40 arm. And it's three F's in a row. So that's cool too. So when did you, when did you start the farm? We moved out here in November of 22. 02:51 Okay. And were you city folk or do you have? Oh yeah.  Um, yeah, we got married in October. He's a widower and I've been divorced for a very long time and we got married in October, bought the house in November and we lived in Independence, Missouri, which is, um, a suburb of Kansas city and the urban sprawl and all the crime and everything. So it wasn't a great place  and we wanted to be more self-sufficient. Yeah. 03:21 I think COVID woke a lot of people up  and yeah,  so we did it. He sold his house, I sold my house  and me came out here. Did you guys have any farming or homesteading background before that? Not really. He was raised on more of like a farm.  They  had a milk cow and they butchered rabbits and things like that. And I grew up on Lake Michigan. uh 03:50 So no, not really. had my first husband had to farm horses and  a few cattle. So I do a little bit  from that.  And we just kind of wing it.  We do a lot of praying for wisdom. Well, that's good because even when you've  been brought up in a homesteading or farming family,  you can't know everything. Rice can't.  So it's good that it's a learning process all the way through.  Yes. So you guys have highland cattle, you have sheep. 04:20 You have chickens? They're angora goats.  Sorry, angora goats. They look like sheep. Oops. do.  You have chickens? Chickens and guineas and one turkey at the moment.  And am I missing an animal?  Dogs, cats, bees.  Bees, okay. Cool.  I think that's it.  Okay. I want to talk about the angora goats and your 04:46 Your minis, but I said I wasn't going to ask about this, but I am going to ask about this because I'm a sucker.  Your dog,  dogs, both dogs?  have four altogether. Are two of the dogs the Wolfhound Australian Shepherd Crosses? Yes, they're a brother and sister. Okay. We were breeding Aussies and it was too  questionable how they would turn out, whether they would kill our 05:14 chickens and we had two goats killed and  then we were like, okay, we're done with Aussies. They sold well, but it's like, yeah, we're not taking that chance anymore. we had one, it's hard to find a group of dogs that work well together, get along  and don't try to like chase the cattle or kill the chickens. And we had one. 05:40 We had two Aussies and the one got hit by a car which only left one. So then I found on Frexlist the  Australian Shepherd slash Wolfhound cross, drove four hours over into Kansas  and got the female.  She's gray and white with blue eyes. And a week later went back and got her brother. Okay. The thing that I didn't ask you before we started recording about this  is was the cross 06:09 an oopsie for the people that had them or did they breed them on purpose that way?  was an oops. Okay. That's probably why I've never heard of it before. Because I was like, that seems like a really interesting cross. Yeah, they're great dogs.  Yeah. They're big.  Like their head is twice the size of our Aussie just about. And the thing is, I have no idea what wolfhounds are like because I've never met one. 06:36 I've seen pictures, but I've never actually been in contact with one. Are they, are they lovey?  they really good temperament? Oh yeah. They're  very lovable and have a great temperament. They're sight hunters  and you know, originally bred to fight wolves.  And so  we do have coyotes around, although we haven't really had any issues with them coming on our property,  but we thought it would be helpful to have  the great big dogs for that reason.  And, um, 07:07 So yeah, they're pretty mellow, really. They're protective. We've had the female is more aggressive towards strangers than the male is. And so we have to be a little careful about that.  Yeah. And the other question I have is, this breed that you find yourself with,  are they as people focused as Aussies usually are? Because our Aussie is like,  she can't lay down without touching one of us. 07:34 Yeah, they're not quite that bad.  If we do have an Aussie that's like that also, he's very needy.  but they are very,  um, yeah, people focused, I guess is the right phrase to use. They're happiest when they're with somebody. So if we're working out in the yard, they want to be where we are. If we're working in the barn, they want to be where we are. Yeah. Um, my husband was out cutting down ash trees yesterday in our tree line. Cause we got the emerald  ash borer bug. 08:04 Oh, He cut down, I think, nine trees yesterday. Wow. And Maggie was outside and she was laying in the grass at the far end, as far as her lead could reach, laying in the grass, flat with her head on her front paws, just looking where he was. Like, I wish I could be over there with you. Right. Yeah. It's it's amazing to me how how much she wants to be with her 08:34 people, her people. So and they all take a person like our female  Wolf on Ossie. My husband is her person. The male,  I'm his person.  Maggie's persons are whoever is home.  I have I've spent the majority of the time with her because I'm not I don't have an outside the house job. Oh, okay. 08:59 So she doesn't listen to me as well as she listens to my husband because he's not here all the time. Right. It's typical kid behavior.  I think of her as like a three year old  kid. Right. And she's actually going to be six in August. So. But I said I wasn't going to bring this up because I would talk about Maggie the whole half an hour. I am not going to do that.  So tell me about the Angora goats first, please. Well, we were working on Fence Line. 09:29 And we have a ton of poison ivy. And I was like, all right. And I am I'm horribly allergic to it.  And the cows eat some of it, but, you know, not all of it because they're fenced in and they can't get their heads through to to get the stuff. And I was like, all right, we got to do something about it. And we didn't want to spray with chemicals because of um floating in the air and getting the bees or we just try to be as chemical free on the farm as possible, no matter what animal we're talking about, including ourselves. 09:58 Amen.  And uh they're like, OK, we can get sheep or goats, but they have to have a purpose besides just eating the poison ivy. And so we first got some Nubians that were given to us  and uh some Nigerian dwarves. And they were constantly getting their heads stuck in the fence, constantly getting their heads stuck, getting on stuff. And we were like, 10:28 This is not,  these are not the goats for us.  So we sold those and then we're like, we saw a picture of Angora  and I've always been interested in learning to spin and weave and all of that kind of stuff. And so it's like, all right, well, let's, let's try Angora's. So we got them. I think we're down, we're down to five now. We were up to like 13 and we sold several this year. Um, and they're just very mellow. 10:58 They're not like Nubians or Nigerian dwarfs. They don't get their head stuck. They're more like sheep. Their temperament and everything is more like a sheep. Yeah. And apparently they look like sheep because that's what I thought th

    35 min

  6. May 27

    Outlaw Farm Alpacas, LLC

    Today I'm talking with Steve and Jennifer at Outlaw Farm Alpacas, LLC. You can also follow on Facebook. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 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 Steve and Jennifer at Outlaw Farm, Alpacas, LLC in Ohio. Good morning, you guys. How are you? Good morning, everybody. Doing well.  I love that. No one has ever said good morning, everybody,  on any episode of my podcast so far. Thank you for doing that. I'm glad I'm the first. 00:29 Uh, were you in radio by any chance? I'm a performer and I own a production company, so I'm pretty familiar with this kind of stuff. Yeah. I figured you had to have something in your background because most people would never have thought to have said that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So the first thing I always ask is how is the weather where you are and you're in Ohio. So how's the weather in Ohio this morning? Well, it's a little overcast today. It says it's 60, but it certainly doesn't feel like it. 00:58 It is raining here in Minnesota this morning and it has been overcast for the whole week. I am praying that we get some sunshine tomorrow because  I am a, I'm a sunshine girlie. I really do like it when the sunshine is pouring in the windows. And this week I've gotten up every day and watch the sun come up, what little sun there was, and then it's been gray. So I am ready for it not be gray for a little bit. think we have a couple days of rain in store for us here then before we hit some sunshine again. 01:28 Yes,  I this spring has been so weird and I don't dare to complain about it  because the last two springs here all it's done is rain all of May and into the first half of June and it really ruined our farm to market garden  So I'm not complaining I'm just saying it would be nice to see the Sun peek out a little bit this weekend. That's all I'm saying  Okay, so you guys how did you get your name number one? 01:57 Well, let me tell you, um we bought this place um about eight years ago  and it's located on Law Road in Grafton, Ohio. um we were  brainstorming for a name and we're thinking of crazy different names we could name an alpaca farm. And I said, what about outlaw farm? And she says, what do mean? We're not outlaws. And I said, you know, but we're on Law Road. So that made a lot of sense and it stuck. we ran with it. 02:25 And again, it's attention grabbing. of the reason I love this so much is because part of the way I find people to talk to is by you guys' names. And I saw Outlaw Farm, Alpacas, and went, oh yes, I must find out about them. Okay, so when did you get into this? Well, we got into it around 2018. We bought this place and... 02:52 It was, it was really in need of some work. So we cleaned up the old barn, which was built in like, I say the late 1800s, a lot of cleanup. We cleaned it up, made it look nice. And we thought, yeah, let's get a couple of animals because it's such a nice barn. We could use some more pets because we have the land now. Well, my wife has a cousin that has alpacas as pets. So  she mentioned alpacas. She contacted her cousin and they said, you know, we'll sell you a couple. 03:22 So we bought four pets,  two males, two females,  and  it just went from there. um She started researching alpacas and the fiber and the showing and  the breeding. And she just wanted to make it a business because  she was set to retire in a couple of years and she wanted something to do. So that's, that's basically how it started.  minor midlife crisis situation.  Small one. 03:50 I just did the same thing almost three years ago because my youngest was going to be moving out,  youngest of four,  and I didn't want to face emptiness syndrome without a project. So I started this podcast. So I'm right there with you. Awesome.  I get it. It's really hard when your life changes in a big way and women tend to find projects and I won't say what men tend to find. And that would be a very terrible thing to say. 04:18 I don't think that men necessarily find projects. I think that men find distractions. I'd have to disagree because I have a lot of projects. Because of the farm, he has a lot of  I mean the men who are enlightened. You're enlightened, Steve. We'll give you that today. You are an enlightened soul. Awesome. Thank you. So uh do you guys, I want to talk about the alpacas because I haven't really talked in depth with anybody about them.  But do you have other animals as well? 04:47 Yes, we right now we're at 34 alpacas and we are expecting nine creas, which are the babies. Anytime I have our first one actually do now and they'll birth all the way through probably the end of September. But we also have five goats, just pets, all males, weathers and then 30. Oh, let me see where we at. We're at about 40 chickens, I think, and six ducks. 05:15 aside from numerous dogs and barn cats and the like. Whatever else shows up on the property, know.  Yeah, I saw you have barn kittens right now.  Yes, we seem to have. had a mama kitty that kind of hung around and now her kids came seem to come here and live and.  Add more barn kittens to our farm, so I think we just have two. Those are the only two I have seen so far. 05:44 But there could be more.  For everybody listening, if you want to see some really cute kittens, go to Alpaca's Farm,  the Facebook page, because there's a couple photos and they are very sweet. um I am a sucker for a barn kitten. We have two females right now who I suspect are pregnant.  And if they are, they're probably due at the very end of June versus July. And I am so looking forward to barn kittens again, because we haven't had any in a couple of years. 06:14 They're lot of fun. They're cute. It's fun to watch them grow up. They keep the mice population down too.  Oh my God.  Yes.  When we bought this place back in 2020, it was August  and the big old pole barn that was on the property was empty except for all these little packets that were ripped open on the ground in the pole barn. And come to find out it was  rat poison basically because 06:44 We had a pretty good mouse issue going on in that pole barn that we didn't know about.  And so  my husband was out puttering around in the fall and he had opened up one of the drawers on the old workbench in the pole barn. And he came in and he said, do you have a minute? And I said, yes, what? And he said, come with me. So I walk out to the pole barn and he's like, be quiet and just look, just look. And he opens this little drawer in the workbench. 07:11 and there's four little tiny field mice babies all curled up sleeping in the drawer.  He says, uh we need to get some cats. He said, cause where there's that many babies, there's lots more mice.  So, okay. So we ended up getting like three cats and then we had a stray show up. She was a female. She had babies.  I think she had three or four litters in a couple of years. And one of her daughters had a litter and 07:39 The thing with barn cats is that barn cats flake off or they get killed by cars. And so  every year we lose a couple. So I'm very excited that we have kittens coming, I hope.  We don't keep tons of cats, but  when there's new babies, it's fun  and everybody likes a kitten. So we usually find homes for them pretty easily. 08:03 Yeah, we try to do. I mean, there's some people interested in the kitties and when they're old enough, I'm sure we can  we can get them some good homes. Yeah, I just I get real antsy when I talk about the barn cats because the big thing is they and neuter your pets and I agree completely stay and neuter your pets unless you intend to breed them as a business. But when it comes to barn cats, barn cats have a job. Yeah, yeah, it is not the same premise is not the same thing so. 08:33 I try to walk a fine line between, yes, have millions of animals on your property that you can't afford  and that aren't being treated well. Don't do that. That's not a good plan. Have a plan.  So anyway, ah what kind of dogs do you have on the property? Well, we have four German Shepherds and we have a Dalmatian, which is the oddball.  Is it a girl or a boy? Girl.  What's her name? You'll never guess. Purdy? 09:02 Yep. I love it. I have never seen a Dalmatian puppy in person. Wish I could say that I had because I bet they are freaking adorable as the They are the most adorable little puppies. As the spots start to pop out. Yeah. Yeah. Because Dalmatian puppies are white when they're born, right? Right. Yes. Yeah. And then their spots come in slowly. 09:29 Right, about two, three weeks in, they start getting their spots. Yeah.  See, I'm such a freaking encyclopedia of worthless information.  I know that about Dalmatian dogs, never actually met a Dalmatian dog in person,  but I know nothing about alpacas. So, go fig. So tell me all about alpacas. Start from the beginning. Well,  I guess the main thing to know is they are actually quite 09:59 shy but curious. They're not an animal that you can just always walk up to on pet unless they really get to know you and really trust you. But once they do, they are a super, super sweet, calming animal. um That's the one thing that I find attracts a lot of people to them is their calming nature. Just they're very gentle, they're very curious. um you know, once you get to once they get your trust, you know, 10:29 They come up to you and approach you.  A lot of people use them, um obviously, for their fiber. Their  fiber is much  warmer, actually, than woo

    30 min

  7. May 22

    Rusted Gates Farm

    Today I'm talking with Connie at Rusted Gates Farm. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 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 Connie at Rusted Gates,  uh, farm? Farm? think it's farm.  Yeah. Pennsylvania. Good afternoon, Connie. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing well. Good. How's the weather there? Rainy, but we need it. I think almost everybody in the United States needs some rain right now. 00:30 Yep, they sure do. Other than us, we've had we had half an inch two days ago and it's been cloudy for the last three days. And I'm like, you know, sunshine, you could come back out any time now. There's baby plants in the garden that need you.  Yes, there are.  It's so cute. look out my living room window and there's a big old garden right out the window across the driveway and it's all good, rich, black dirt. 01:00 And then there's these little green baby plants in there and I'm like, oh man, this is my favorite part. Watching everything just in finally after a long winter. Yep. When you finally, everything starts finally waking up.  Trees have their leaves and all the plants are flowering. It's a pretty time of year.  I freaking love spring. I love fall more than I love spring because fall  is the, uh 01:28 the reaping of what we planted in the spring. So I like fall because we're eating squashes and the last of the tomatoes  and um pumpkin pie and all those good things that we associate with fall.  Okay. So your last name is Gates. So is that why it's rusted Gates farm? Yes,  it is. And why rusted Gates?  Well, ah 01:56 We had a daughter and her nickname was Rusty. Cute. I love that. Yeah. So, yeah, so that's why we name it Rusty. Sweet. Very sweet. Okay. So your main thing that you do at Rusty Gates Farm is fainting goats. And I want to hear all about that. Yeah, about 15 years ago, I got started in it. 02:20 Yeah, but what else is there anything else that you do on the farm as well as the goats?  We have an assortment of animals. To run down the list, we started with silky chickens. We got a couple of ceramas, chickens, couple of Polish chickens, a couple of golden phoenixes. We got ducks. We got bunnies.  We got a  we got a sepastra bull goose  and  a hubby. 02:50 Sterling, we named him Sterling and uh and Hope is the other one and Hope's a little famous.  She  is used in this uh photographers  as a prop  and a lot of the kids put up pictures. So she's been a prop in a couple of uh the photo shoots. Hope is a goose? Yep, Hope is a goose. Okay. 03:18 And she's almost 13 years old. So I'm not sure how long she's going to be around, but she's 13 now. So she's getting up there in age. That sounds like a very long life for poultry. Yeah, it is.  We have a couple of turkeys.  We have a zebu cow that originated over in Africa. How did you get that? 03:41 Um, there was a breeder in Bedford County that we did. I wanted Highlands and I couldn't afford a Highland. I really wanted a miniature Highland, but like I said, that, was a no go for the price tag.  So  we settled on the Zeeboot because it was a much more reasonable price range for someone that's on social security.  Yeah. The Zeeboos are the ones with the hump. 04:06 in their backs. Yes. They look like almost like the Brahmans, except they don't have the long ears and their hump's not quite as big and their miniature size.  Nice. All right.  And his name is Seb. We have two ponies, Louie  and Chunky Charlie.  And Louie I use for pony rides for his birthday parties. And we have a little donkey and he's kind of famous in our community too, because 04:34 He goes to church with us quite a bit.  His name is Festus. um Festus has been in a couple Christmas plays at Celebration Community Church.  And then at Easter time, went and he was in,  they had a special program for the kids about, and they took each day of Jesus' life in the last week of him being on earth.  And they had a different station for that. 05:02 Festus was of course the first one because Jesus rode on in on the back of a donkey into Jerusalem and kids lay pumped down and  pumps down in front of him and he walked over him.  Have fun.  Yeah, and an interesting fact about donkeys while we're on donkeys  is  Festus has a cross on his back. He has a dark stripe down his back and a dark stripe over his shoulders.  So it makes a 05:32 cross. So that was kind of a blessing from Jesus for carrying him  on Palm Sunday. And pretty much all Mediterranean donkeys have that cross.  I was gonna say not all donkey breeds have that, but that specific breed does. the Mediterranean donkey stew. Funny.  So yes, so that's his claim to fame. And then we have all kinds of pigeons, all different breeds. um 06:00 And I think that's about it. So why do you have pigeons?  That's my husband's hobby. OK. That's something that he's always been fascinated with. And  so that's what we have. We have homers and we have some that are called Birmingham rollers.  They're really cool because when they catch an airdrift that goes up, they roll in the sky. 06:26 and then they catch another drift and they go way high and then they roll. It's really fun to watch them. Yeah, birds are so interesting. Like, I don't want one in my house. I never want a pet bird. And we have chickens and I really don't enjoy touching the chickens, but I absolutely enjoy having the eggs from the chickens. Of course, they're good and fresh that way. 06:53 Yeah, I think that birds belong outside. I really enjoy watching them. I don't want to be up close. are kind of messy and dirty. Yeah, I don't want to be up close But not as dirty as ducks. Ducks are the worst.  So I hear. I don't have ducks. My friend does. And she's actually selling her duck eggs in our farm stand again this year for the second year. Oh, well, they're very good for you. Yeah. And I just, I'm like, I don't want ducks. I'm good. Chickens is more than enough. 07:23 Well, you get more chickens for eggs.  Chickens lay eggs for a longer period of time than ducks do. Ducks have a very short laying cycle. They do.  And it was funny because her ducks stopped back last fall and we had a few people asking where the duck eggs were. And I was like, you clearly don't know anything about ducks. And I didn't say that because that would be rude.  And I was like, they don't lay past. 07:50 Yeah, end of September 1st of October when the daylight gets short, they don't hmm. So and now they're back and everybody's like, yay, duck eggs are back. I'm like, yeah, because the sunlight is now back. Yeah, because all of agriculture is influenced by weather and daylight. That's right. We need to get people back into this. I swear, it's part of the reason I do this podcast and my other one, because people need to know. 08:19 how the cycles work and how nature works and that eggs don't come from the store, they come from chicken butt.  Yes, yes,  it's interesting.  We're so far removed and it's so sad and it  took such a short amount of time.  One generation, it's all it took. Yeah, it's nuts.  I refuse to be removed.  I  will not be removed from where my food comes from. 08:48 because I was raised by, well, I wasn't raised by grandparents, but I had grandparents who had gardens  and my parents had a big garden and my parents hunted. They heated their house with wood, with a wood stove. So I know a lot about gardening and I know a lot about hauling wood. And I refuse to let people remain in their little bubbles of the grocery store is where food originates and that's where we get it. 09:15 Or you turn on the switch and you have heat.  That too. Yeah. Yeah. So what's still is a little bit more work.  Yes. If you do it right, your wood should warm you four times.  The saying is three, but it's actually four because you got to cut the tree when you sweat, when you cut a tree, you have to cut up the fallen tree.  You have to. You have to split the wood and then you have to move the wood to wherever it's going to be stored. So that's four times. 09:45 Yep. then it heats you when you need it in your wood stove in the winter. Correct. So I guess it's five times. It might even be more than that. Who knows?  All right. So let's get down to fainting goats because I have not talked with anybody about fainting goats.  Why do they faint? It actually started out as a genetic mutation. So and of course, things that are interesting. 10:15 man perpetuates.  So they started with the,  they're called MGRs or short hair  goats in Tennessee.  And  the 10:30 they have a fading gene. And what happens with that is their muscles lock and it's from their neck down  and it's only about 15 seconds, but  the goat is fully awake, fully aware and is aware of its surroundings. It just can't move. It's just been  startled or scared and it just freezes. 11:00 Sometimes they fall over and our goats, once they get about four weeks old, the babies start fainting, which is, and they completely fall over. But as they get older, around six months or so, they start to learn how to control that faint so that they just freeze in place for 10, 15 seconds. 11:27 And then as they get older, it's just their back legs  that they can't move. So they can still move their front legs,  which is, they kind of look like the walking zombie at that point.  And that's pretty much what they do. But they took the  Tennessee uh fainting goat and mixed it with  a Nigerian dwarf. And that's how they came up with the mini silky. 11:53 And the idea i

    34 min

  8. May 18

    H&H Homestead

    Today I'm talking with Ashley at H&H Homestead. You can also follow on Facebook. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 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 Ashley at H &H Homestead in Texas. Good morning, Ashley. How are you? Good. How are you?  I'm good. I haven't actually recorded an episode for A Tiny Homestead  in over a week because people have been busy.  Oh, it is that time, especially down here. And we're planting everything. 00:28 We've had some stuff going for weeks, so I can imagine everybody's kind of  really getting into it right now. Yeah, it's that time of year and I go through the same thing in the fall when everybody's harvesting  and I go through the same thing at Christmas and New Year's because everybody's busy with family. Oh, for sure. So I'm very happy you had time to talk with me today. Yeah, absolutely. How is the weather in Texas this morning? 00:53 It is so sunny and nice. I went out and watered everything as early as I possibly could because I know we're supposed to get to 100 today. So I wanted to make sure, you know, I was out there before it got super hot. Oh, I was cringing at the fact that we're supposed to have like 84 for a high on Friday. 100 would kill me right now. See, you're in Minnesota, right? Yes. Yeah, I just I feel you just you just acclimate to where you are because I used to. 01:20 I mean, I've been to Minnesota several times. I used to live in Alaska and I am such a warm weather person now. I just, I really don't like being cold. So it's like, you just get used to where you're at and then,  you know, go to somewhere opposite and it really throws you. Uh-huh. I would rather,  this is going to sound really stupid because I do not enjoy deep winter, but I would rather deal with cold because I can throw on more layers of clothes.  If it's hot, I can't get any more naked than naked. 01:50 Just extra fans, extra fans. I have her, like not even just the cold. I have not had to shovel snow in years and I love that. Yep. One of the things I used to do when I was a kid, cause I grew up in Maine and Maine is very, very, very humid in July and August. And I would get, I would get headaches when it was hot. And so I would, I would literally come in the house,  go on the bathroom, strip down, get in a cold, cold, cold shower. Yeah. So that my hair was wet. 02:19 And then I would dry my hair just enough so that it wasn't dripping. And that cold hair on my neck would keep me cooler. Yeah. Yeah, that's smart. But I just, hate being hot. Hot is my least favorite state of being. Well, see, there has to be, you know, opposites in people. Otherwise we'd all be in Minnesota or we'd all be in Texas. So it's a good thing that there's a mix. It would be a very boring world if everybody was the same. Yes. And my podcast would put people to sleep. 02:49 So,  all right, so why is it H and H Homestead? Well, so our last name is Huff.  so  there's two of us, me my husband, but then our boys names are also both start with H. So either way you look at it, there's just H's all around. So we went with H and H. Oh, I love it. That's amazing. That's great. And like way to be original, mom.  Well, you know, I had to keep with the, you know, I don't know,  R being our last name. 03:18 Hough or, you know, Hank and Hogan Hough. And then they have the same middle initial as well. So everyone's got the same, you know, just that way everything stays the same. You don't get one thing personalized. Technically it goes for everybody, you know. Fabulous. That's really great.  So what do you do at H &H Homestead? A little bit of everything. So we're kind of new to this. So 03:40 And I blame my oldest son for getting us started in this because he brought home the chickens from his first grade class. And this is kind of what started the whole thing is, um, his first grade class hatched these chickens for, you know, studying the, life cycle of animals. Right. And they had these seven adorable little chickens and then summer rolled around and nobody necessarily wanted to take them. So of course I volunteered. So we started with chickens and then from there. 04:08 I was like, well, my chickens need some neighbors out there. They look a little, they look a little sad. then, then we got quail and then I did a greenhouse and now I have dozens of raised garden beds and now we have bunnies and we just got chukkers.  And so I'll probably like everyone else's. Um, you're just always adding something and always doing the next thing on your homestead.  Yeah. It's one of the best things about it. I don't know what a chukker is. They're a little, little game birds. They're called chukker partridge. They're a little bit bigger than a quail.  Um, 04:37 brown, they've got a little black ring around their neck.  My husband used to hunt them um growing up and now we're just going have an easier way to do that because we'll just walk out to the backyard.  Don't have to hunt, just have to acquire. Exactly.  So chicken math quickly led to homosteading math is what you're telling me. Yes it did. With of course a side of sourdough because that has to come with it too. Yeah  I wasn't going to talk about sourdough today but you brought it up. 05:06 I have sourdough  starter in my fridge. It's been in my fridge for a month  because I made it and it was doing great and I was like, I'm not  going to make bread right now. So I stocked the jar in my fridge and I really haven't looked at it since. And because you said it, now when I go downstairs, I'm going to have to take it out and make sure it's not dead. I have never put mine in the fridge. I know people do that. I've just never...  I've always been afraid that that's going to kill it. 05:36 So I probably, you know, I make as many discard recipes that I do actual bread, just because I'm like, I gotta do something to keep it going. Yeah. My husband, part of the reason I got stuck in the fridge is because my husband makes yeast breads and he's really good at it. Yeah. And therefore three or four weekends in a row, he had made four loaves of yeast bread every weekend. So we had bread that was already made in the freezer and I was like, eh. 06:03 I'm not even going to attempt to make the third loaf of my life of sourdough right now.  So I put it in the fridge and I guess as long as it doesn't have orange or pink mold on it, it's still viable. think so. I think it just gets that layer of stuff on top and you pour it off and then... Yep. And just add some more stuff to it.  So I got to check that today  and I honestly don't want to because that means that... I didn't mean to just add to your to-do list. 06:31 My to-do list today is basically the podcast recording with you, but  I really should check. really should. uh So do you have land or are you an urban homesteader? We have about an acre, just a little over an acre. And I mean, technically we're within city limits, here we're very, I mean, we could walk and we're outside of it. We're so close to the edge. So like we don't have a ton of space, but eh I feel like really maximize. 07:00 the area that we have. have everything kind of right next to each other, not super spread out. Definitely still have room for more animals. I've been telling my husband I want goats or I want pigs or I want something else. And so far he is not super on board yet. Doesn't seem to have a problem if I add any type of birds that I want. But as soon as it has four legs, then it's more of a discussion. Is it because he's afraid he'll get more invested in a four-legged critter because they don't have feathers? 07:28 Maybe I mean, he grew up with this kind of stuff, right? He, you know, showed pigs he had all this kind of stuff. So it's not as new to him as it is to me and the boys. So I think he's just, you know, maybe not as excited about doing it again, per se.  He did say that about the bunnies when we first got the bunnies, because we were given them as meat rabbits. em We have since kind of transitioned more into pet bunnies because they happen to be just so adorable. em But it's like, I get it. I mean, I think if we bought 07:57 a pig knowing that we're going to raise it for consumption, then it's different than if we buy a pet and then, you know, keep it as a pet.  Yeah. Yep. Absolutely.  So, um,  when you decided you wanted to get into this,  did you talk to your friends about it? 08:19 Well, not necessarily, maybe a little, but we don't necessarily have people who were super close with that are doing the exact same thing. We have friends who have had chickens or have had ducks who coincidentally no longer have chickens or ducks, but that didn't deter me. So I was determined to do it regardless. Okay. The reason I ask is because when my husband and I had the chance to start looking for a homestead, 08:46 like land as we lived on a 10th of an acre lot for over 20 years.  When we made the offer on the place that we've lived at for six years in August now,  we waited until we knew the offer was accepted to tell people.  the reaction on all the people that we told faces, this terrible grammar, sorry,  was the same.  It was shock.  It was denial. And then it was like, what the hell? 09:16 Why? What is it? I mean, maybe it's just not as common. Where you because I feel like even in  our little neighborhood, we're kind of a little afterthought. And I wouldn't even call it subdivision. em I mean, in the morning, I hear probably seven other roosters like everybody has so

    33 min
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About

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. https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes

Information

  • Creator
    Mary E Lewis
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    438
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2023 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    A Tiny Homestead

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