More Than A Mile

Nick Carter
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  • FOOD
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

More Than A Mile is hosted by Nick Carter, an Indiana farmer, and the CEO/co-founder of Market Wagon, an online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets.

  1. 01/10/2023

    Ditto Foods: Where a pair of hydroponic farmers persevered through 25 rejections before being able to start their own urban farm and invest in the place they call home

    Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:00): Thanks for joining us. I think you're going to find this first episode of 2023 as fascinating as I did. It's about a pair of farmers named Derek and Brad, who grow about three acres worth of produce in just 320 square feet. They're using hydroponics to, as Derek put it, replicate Mother Nature at its finest. And for an old dirt farmer like me, it was really fun to talk with them about the science behind this technology. But in between all of the talk about soil science and chemistry and light spectrums, I hope you don't miss the story of endurance and entrepreneurship, perseverance, and above all, the meaningfulness of investing in the place you call home. Enjoy. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:45): Welcome to More Than a Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than a Mile, and thank you for buying local food. That's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. All right, well, I'm really excited. My guests today are Derek Drake and Brad Schiever of Ditto Foods. Really excited to have you guys. Thanks for joining. Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (01:32): Thanks for having us. Brad Schiever (Ditto Foods) (01:33): Yes, thank you. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:33): You know, some people farm just because they have to, some people get to choose to farm because they want to. And a few people farm because they want to change the world or their corner of the world. And I've been looking forward to this conversation because that describes, I think both you and I, Derek. But our farms look very different. . Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (01:56): Oh yeah. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:58): So how big's your farm? Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (01:59): It is a 40 foot shipping container, so 320 square feet. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:04): And where is it sitting right now? Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:06): It's in our driveway in the back of our house Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:10): In the south suburb of Chicago. Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:12): In the south suburbs of Chicago. Yes. On our property. So we take up a very small footprint. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:17): How many cows can you get in that shipping container? I'm just kidding. Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:20): Oh, probably about five. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:25): Ok Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:25): They won't be able to move around, but Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:27): Not a whole lot of grazing inside there, Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:29): . Ok. No, Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:30): This is a fascinating journey. I want to start from the beginning. So 2020, Covid happens. You are senior staff at Kellogg, Northwestern University mm-hmm. . And that comes to an end with a furlough related to Covid. Tell me what happens from there. Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (02:47): Well, I've always been one of those folks that goes to, all right, what's the next right move for me. In grad school, I've created a business plan for a food truck concept. And it was kind of marrying food truck meets tiny home. And after the furlough, I was like, okay, I want to see if I can do something with this. And started down this long rabbit hole of looking for developers, manufacturers of food trucks and tiny homes and seeing what we can do. And went to Brad and said, all right, I'd like to go down this route. And so I started the search and found this company out of Boston called Freight Farms that manufactures these shipping container farms, and went to Brad and said, I think I wanna be a farmer. I think this is the next right move. And he thought I was crazy. And we started the journey. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (03:52): And today you're a farmer, Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (03:54): And today I'm a farmer in a shipping container. Yes. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (03:57): Take that Brad New Speaker (03:59): . Brad Schiever (Ditto Foods) (04:00): Right, Right? It was interesting. It was interesting to say the least for Derek to say, we're gonna grow three acres of farm and three acres of crops in 320 square feet. It took a lot of, a lot of convincing and a lot of research and understanding of what exactly that meant to be a farmer, especially without soil. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (04:21): Well, I, I want to dive into that for sure. Because I'm a farmer with soil and a lot of it. And and this whole concept is fascinating to me. I think it'll be fascinating to our listeners too. But before we get there, I just wanna, there's a part of this story that I wanna make sure is told because Derek, you are an experienced leader and an executive with an MBA. But you couldn't get bankers to believe that this was a legit business, could you? Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (04:52): No. Well, you have to, you know, there are a lot of intersectionality going on in that conversation because a.) Trying to first teach them and educate them on what the hell hydroponics was in the first place, and then talk to them about growing in the back of a truck, essentially. And then they were also dealing with the pandemic. So they had PPP loans, and so they weren't sure of what was happening. And then we were telling them, our customers are restaurants, and every restaurant was shut down, . So they were like, so who are you gonna actually sell this stuff to? So we had to shift and pivot our business model. And yeah, it was a challenge. It was a challenge. And then you have to throw on the fact that we couldn't actually go in there and talk to them. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (05:40): So do you know how many banks said no? Like how many, how many no's did you have to take? Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (05:47): Wow. And those are the ones that actually got back to us that we actually talked to. Cause there were, there were several that never even returned an email or a call. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (05:57): But the 26th one decided to bet on you, huh? Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (06:01): Yeah. Yeah. The one yes, that we got, actually, ironically enough came from our second No. After they gave us a no, he reached out to us about three or four months later and was like, you know, I, I really think you guys got something good here. I like what you're trying to do. I have a colleague of mine at another bank, they're a little bit more lenient to lending to startups. Do you mind if I send your information to him? I was like, send whatever you need. What does he need? I'll, I'll send it myself. . And that was the one yes that we got. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (06:34): Did you ever give up hope? Derek Drake (Ditto Foods) (06:36): I did. Yeah, I did. But I knew what we were trying to accomplish. I knew that it was something good and I knew that if we had it, if we got it, it was gonna be something that was a.) Change our lives and our kids' lives, but also be impactful for the community that I wanted to impact, which is where I grew up in my hometown of Fort Heights. And so that was really what kind of kept us going. But absolutely, after you get No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's really hard to stay going. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (07:13): So, New Year's Eve, 2021, your farm arrives , which just sounds so funny for me to say. Your farm arrives. How long did it take before your farm was producing food? Brad Schiever (Ditto Foods) (07:27): So we had it delivered December 31st, 2021. And it sat unattended, essentially. Because of the length of this process, we really did not, you know, we anticipated putting the first farm in Ford Heights, and because of how long it took to get financing, multiple changes had taken place with Ford Heights, with the mayor and the board, et cetera. And so when we got approved for the loan and the loan came through in October, we then called Freight Farms and said, you know, we're ready to make payment on the farm. And they said, okay, we can have it to you in a month and a half . And so at this time we're, we're living in a townhouse in Bolingbrook, definitely not a place to drop a 40 foot shipping container. And so we were able to very quickly looking through Zillow one morning, found a house pop up. Brad Schiever (Ditto Foods) (08:25): We didn't plan on moving until summer of '22. And we found this house pop up that had been on the market over a year. And we'd been on Zillow multiple times, never came up until this came up. And Derek's like, look at this. Let's go check it out. So the next day we went and checked it out and as the realtor and I are in the house, we have no idea where Derek's at. And here's Derek in the backyard playing with the neighbor's chickens that decided to come running over. And so we looked at the agent and said, okay, you have a month to make this happen cause we have a farm to drop here. And so it was dropped on New Year's Eve and we were able to get into it finally mid-February. And the first seed was planted March 1st of '22. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (09:14): When most people say they want a farm and they have to move to farm, they're moving to a place, you know, that is a farm. . You had to move to a place that you could deliver your farm to. Brad Schiever (Ditto Foods) (09:31): Exactly. We had to make sure we could have a farm delivered to where we were living. You know, the

    30 min

  2. 12/06/2022

    The Homestead: Where a busy working mom reinvigorated her downtown, all because she didn't want to miss out on the fun when loved ones came to visit. Now her recipes can be found on tables all across the state.

    Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Thank you for tuning into our holiday episode. Today you are going to hear a great story of Jody. It's an entrepreneurial success story in small town America. Jody is a farmer's wife. Her family wanted to reinvigorate the dying downtown of a small Indiana community. So they started a small homey business and they called it The Homestead and it's just grown from there. They're in two locations now. They have a blossoming eCommerce business. But the origin story is due to this farmer's wife being a busy mom—they had 5 girls in 6 years—and she didn't want to be stuck in the kitchen any time they had friends or family over. So she learned some tricks about how to have frozen meals ready to pull out and heat up and today she's sharing those with you. As CEO and chief cook of The Homestead, she's going to talk about some of her tricks. We're going to talk about one of my favorites, the Indiana state pie, a delicacy called the sugar cream pie, so listen in for that. She's going to have some inspiring advice for would-be entrepreneurs and letting you know why it's important to know where your food comes from. Thanks for tuning in. Enjoy. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Welcome to More Than a Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than a Mile, and thank you for buying local food. It's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. My guest today is Jody Bahler, the CEO, founder and chief cook at The Homestead. Jody, thanks for joining us. Jody Bahler (The Homestead): Hi Nick. How are you? Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): I'm doing great. Good. So we are doing this recording virtually, but we could have gotten together. You are just an hour away from where I'm at in Indianapolis, up in Remington, Indiana. Right? Yep. I know that you've got a background in farming. Do you and your husband still farm? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): Yes, absolutely. That's Mike. And Mike farms with his two brothers. so it's a hundred year farm here in Indiana and that's where we've lived since we've been married and raised our five girls. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): That is so cool. Jody Bahler (The Homestead): I grew up on a dairy farm and married a hog farmer, so I got an ag background myself, . Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): So you grew up on a dairy farm where at? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): I grew up in Kansas, little town of Lamont, Kansas. Teeny tiny town near Emporia State University, Kansas State University. So that was where I began. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): So I grew up on a dairy farm too. Not really heavy in production because we had gotten rid of the milking equipment. So I just bred. What did you raise? What, do you know what breed? Holsteins, of course. Jody Bahler (The Homestead): Yep. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Yeah. Very cool. So you were no stranger to the farm life when your husband, Mike decided to whisk you off to the farm life in Indiana? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): Nope. Absolutely not. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): How'd the two of you meet? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): We actually met through our church. We did a lot of traveling and back and forth with our church network across the United States, and we had met through that. And so that was, that was, yeah, that was primarily how we met and got acquainted. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Oh, that's neat. So moved Indiana, how many daughters did you say? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): We have five girls. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Five girls. Are they, are any of 'em still in the house or have they moved on? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): Our oldest is still home. Um, she's 26, and then we have twin girls that are 25. Then we have, we had two girls after that. So youngest is, is 20, they range anywhere from 20 to 26. And the oldest is the only one single and living at home still. She's an RN and works in Lafayette, Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): So she's a nurse. So she took that on after you as well. I'm understanding you're a nurse. Jody Bahler (The Homestead): She did, she did. She followed in my footsteps. . Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Cool. So tell me a little bit about what it's like to raise five girls on a farm in rural Indiana. Jody Bahler (The Homestead): Well, it's been a good life. I wouldn't trade it. We love the country life. We love, we loved being able to raise our girls on the farm and to know what hard work means. It's all I've known, it's all my husband Mike and I have ever known. So it was, it's a life that we love and cherish and we're thankful that we were able to raise our girls on the farm. So it's a lot of hard work. It's not a nine to five job, but it's, it's hard work and there's a lot of, of variety and diversity. Um, and so yeah, it was, you know, they weren't necessarily involved with the, the farming operation and neither was I. I was actually working as a nurse at the time that the girls that we were raising our family, um, stayed home with them for a few years, but then I went into school nursing once they started into school, but however, they weren't, um, specifically involved. They, they did some, some things but not a lot. Because my husband actually farms with two other brothers and there was, you know, it's, it's a large operation, so there was not a lot that they really helped with, but they were definitely involved with the day-to-day activities that were going on. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): It's an extended family farm, it sounds like. Jody Bahler (The Homestead): Yep. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Got a lot of nieces and nephews involved in the operation? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): There's some nephews that are, that are involved now that they're a little bit older. Yes. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Got it. Now, as you, um, you were a, a working mom, your husband is working hard on the farm, your kids are in school, but I understand that kind of a background here behind The Homestead as a business is just this desire to have good family dinners, right? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): It is, and that is something that's always been important to me, raising my girls. I love to cook and bake and the years that I did spend at home, because we had five girls in six years, I was a very busy mom at home for several years before I went back into nursing. But I would spend my days preparing quantity food and freezing them to be pulled out and used for later date when I had an extra busy day when there was harvest and there was meal, you know, late meals and whatnot. It was the way I kept myself organized and it was nice to just know that I had food prepared in the freezer to pull out for those specific things or, you know, if there were guests that dropped by, I was prepared. So I also did some catering for various friends around the area and it was an interest of mine. I just really liked to do that. Those ideas were kind of the first beginning baby steps. Little did we know at the time, but that was really the, the reason that was really the, the way we founded Homestead was kind of that beginning. How can this help other families do the same thing that we did? Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Where did you learn to cook Jody? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): I learned to cook from my mother, of course, yeah, my grandmother. Both my grandmothers were very good cooks as well as my mom. We're not gourmet cooks, we're just good, you know, Midwestern down home cooks. But I definitely learned from my mom. I also self taught a lot of things as I was married and moved away from home. And it's interesting because I collect cookbooks, which of course is probably to be expected, but I read a cookbook like a novel, and I just, I just, I enjoy it and I feel like I learn something every day and I, you know, especially my early years of marriage when I was really learning, I would sit down when Mike was out late, I would read these cookbooks and I would meal plan and prep, and I really learned a lot about organization that way. I learned how to kind of mix and match recipes to kind of create my own and so, you know, it just kind of became a real hobby almost. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): Now, some of the recipes I'm sure that you had passed down that you learned from mom and grandma were designed to come straight out of the oven onto the table. Was there, was there a lot of learning and adaptation to take a recipe that would go from the kitchen into the freezer, out of the freezer, into the oven to the table? Jody Bahler (The Homestead): Not necessarily. There are some that you, that just aren't really adaptable to that, but a lot of recipes, and people would be surprised by this, because there are just a lot of, most things that you can freeze and be successful with. My mom did a lot of that as well. So I guess, you know, she kind of taught me those, the foundation, the basics of doing that and you know, how to be organized in that way. And then, it just grew from there. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO): So it sounds like the idea was preparedness. You, you wanted to be able, when you had a busy day or you said, when guests show up, right, to just be able to say, Hey, stay for dinner. Jody Bahler (The Homestead): Right. Or, you know, we host a lot of company, we have a lot of friends that come in, family come from out of town

    37 min

  3. 11/09/2022

    Classic City Gourmet Mushroom: Honoring our Veterans with Dr. Sara Skinner and hear from her about the journey from the Army to mushroom farmer and professor of social work at the University of Georgia.

    Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:00): Hello, and thanks for joining the podcast. My guest today is Dr. Sara Skinner. She's the owner of Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms. And with Veterans Day on Friday, it just seemed appropriate to share her journey to becoming a mushroom farmer because it's directly connected the time that she spent in the Army. And she may have left the Army 12 years ago, but she's never really stopped advocating for veterans. She's now a professor of social work at the University of Georgia. She's even designed courses that help other clinicians working with veterans and military families. And as you're about to hear, while she has no desire to be the mushroom queen, farming itself has really become an important part of her healing process because of the hope that's found in growing things and investing in the future. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:46): Welcome to More Than a Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmer's market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than a Mile, and thank you for buying local food. It's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. Well, my guest today is Sara. Sara, thanks for joining us. Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (01:28): Yeah, no problem. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:29): I love your story. At time of recording, we are coming up on Veterans Day. So it's a time of year everybody acknowledges, you know, the sacrifices veterans have made throughout the generations in our country. Seems like every day's Veteran's Day for you though, right? This is a lived reality. Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (01:48): That is true. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:49): So we're gonna talk about your service and how that's brought us around to growing mushrooms. I just want to start at the beginning and first of all, say thank you for serving our country to you and your husband. Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (02:02): Thank you for your support. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:04): Of course. How did you get, you know, today you're a mushroom farmer. You started in the Army. How did you get, how did you decide to join the army right out of high school? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (02:14): . So I didn't actually, So I grew up as a military brat. My dad was a, um, lifelong Army soldier. Growing up I was very adamant of like, I'm never gonna go in the army. No way. Then after high school, I did one semester in college and it didn't go very great . Uh, and so I was like, Hm, Army's not looking so bad now. So, yeah, after I did one semester of college and then I joined the Army mostly to kind of help me get back to college, but it turns out I loved it. And, uh, I really had a wonderful experience. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:55): I really love that because I grew up son of a farmer and swore I'm never going to be a farmer. Then I dropped out of college and now I farm. So we have a lot of things in common except I didn't join the military. So you grew up in a military family. You met your husband in the military, right? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (03:15): That's correct, Yeah. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (03:17): At West Point? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (03:18): That's right. Yeah. So after I was in the Army for a couple years, so I enlisted originally, and so I was enlisted for a couple of years. And then I was given the opportunity to apply to West Point and I was accepted. And so while I was there, I did meet my husband and we've been married for 20 years now. We just did our 20th reunion this past weekend. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (03:44): Congratulations. Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (03:45): Yeah. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (03:46): And your husband also was in the Army? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (03:48): Yep. Yep. It's a requirement after graduating. So we both graduated and our senior year was when 9/11 happened. So our senior year of college was 2001-2002. We graduated 2002 and pretty much we were both, you know, immediately deployed to Iraq. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (04:08): So you're newlyweds on deployment. Is that hard? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (04:13): Um, the hard part was most, most of the time we were separated. Yeah. But there was a brief point where we were both deployed to Baghdad at the same time. So I was on one side of the river, he was on the other side of the river. And so there were a few times we were able to actually visit. I have this distinct memory of like, you know, sitting on top of a security point with my husband at night watching the tracers, , you know, in the sky overhead. And, and it's something that we kind of go back to in our marriage, you know, when things are going rough or the kids were crazy or whatever, we say, Well, nobody's shooting at us. We're okay. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (04:53): Yeah. It could be worse. Could be worse. A lot of people say that and you guys really have lived it. Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (04:58): Yeah, yeah. Like literally nobody's shooting at us. We're okay. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (05:02): Yeah. Wow. So I want to talk about how this military journey brings you into providing food for your local community. So speaking of things being difficult, you, you also gardened while in the Army? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (05:19): Yes. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (05:21): Now I have family in the Army. And you even talked about being a military brat, which indicates, you know, you moved around a lot. Mm-hmm. gardens are usually like, literally putting down roots. Is is that hard to do? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (05:34): Um, yes. Yeah. But it was, it was a very important part of my upbringing. So yes, I was a military brat. I grew up moving around. But even so both sets of my grandparents were farmers in Michigan. And so every summer I would go and stay with them and help them on the farm, you know, hoeing beans or whatever else, you know, we had to do. And so my mother, when we were growing up, wherever we were stationed, she would always make sure she had a garden. And so I'd help her plant. And so it was a natural thing wherever I was, if it was a house plant was all I could manage. I would do that. If I had some space I would, you know, plant some flowers or some tomatoes or whatever. So I've, I've been doing that forever wherever I went. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (06:25): Uh, so on, on bases all across the US there's a, a garden in the backyard of some housing unit there that you started. Do you think people kept it up after you left? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (06:36): Germany... I don't wanna know. . Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (06:39): You don't wanna know. Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (06:40): That's the one thing about moving. I've gone back before, you know, to a place I lived and seen that the new tenants have razed my garden and it makes me very sad. So I'd rather just not know and believe that they're enjoying what I left. But yeah. Yeah. So not just the United States. Also in Germany. Even on my first deployment, my mom sent me flower seeds while I was in Iraq. They didn't take, and that was probably a good thing, . Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (07:12): Yeah, there's, yeah, there's a large body of literature about not sending seeds across to different continents. . Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (07:18): Yeah. That was probably not a good idea, but it was just such a natural thing for her to do. Oh, sure. Um, yeah. So I appreciated the thought, Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (07:27): . So when did you decide to leave the Army and how did that take place? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (07:32): So I left the Army in 2007. I did two deployments to Iraq. I was injured on my second deployment, so we made a decision as a family after that to get out of the military. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (07:50): So in 2007, you make the decision as a family to get out of the military. Did you have kids at that, did you say as a family? So did you have kids? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (07:58): Yes. Yeah. So I just had my oldest son. He was eight months old when we got out, so he was a baby. And my husband and I made a decision at that point because, you know, like I said, I did two deployments. He did two deployments. So our first five years of marriage, we had only been together in the same place for four months consecutively. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (08:25): Wait, cumulatively? Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (08:27): No, consecutive. Four months consecutive. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (08:28): The longest consecutive time together Dr. Sara Skinner (Classic City Gourmet Mushrooms) (08:31): Exactly was four months. And so we knew that if we stayed in, we were going to be separated again. And now we had a baby in the mix. So we decided on top of everything else that we were gonna try our hand at civilian life. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (08:48): Okay. So you said your first semester at college didn't go all that wel

    26 min

  4. 10/26/2022

    New Horizon Farms: where a 16-year-old's question saves her family's farm and Jackie Bickel and daughter Maggie explain crafting their product and even trash talk some cow breeds

    Season 2 - Episode 1 Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:00): Today we're gonna have a conversation with a farmer and her teenage daughter, who are two key parts of the family owned New Horizon Farm and Dairy, as well as Happy Cows Creamery. They're in southwest Ohio, located about halfway between Cincinnati and Columbus. And as they so eloquently put it, the milk you get from them today was just grass two days ago. But it almost didn't happen. If not for a business plan that was drawn up by a 16-year-old girl, the farm would've likely suffered the same fate as the dozen other dairy farms around him, which have gone out of business in the past 10 years. Welcome back for the second season of the podcast. I am so excited to share the Bickel story with you today. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (00:40): Welcome to More Than a Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than a Mile, and thank you for buying local food. That's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. I am really excited today to be joined by Jackie Bickel and Maggie Mathews. We are gonna be talking about what turns out to be a story of kind of how a teenager's question and ambitious business plan, breathe new life, and another generation into a family farm. With now the expectation that it becomes a third generation farm. So welcome to the podcast, Jackie, More than a mile, New Horizon farm. Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (01:43): Yes. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:43): Yeah. So this was started by your father-in-law, right? Almost 60 years ago? Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (01:48): Yes, it'll be 60 years next year. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (01:51): Okay. And while for over half a century he operated the farm under normal business conditions, it sounds like in the last decade or so, things really, really changed. Right? Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (02:04): They did. For decades, my father-in-law, my husband and his two brothers operated essentially a commercial dairy farm where we shipped our milk through a co-op. They came and picked it up by the semi-load every other day. We received pay based on the hundred pound weight, which was established by, you know, federal order. And about 10 years ago, the milk industry went upside down for a variety of reasons. Consumer demand declines, commercial dairies kept getting bigger, family farms kept getting smaller. And with the economy the way that it was, we, at one point we were receiving payment for our milk t hat was the same payment my father-in-law was receiving back in the 1980s. So Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (02:57): Wow. That's not how that's supposed to go Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (02:57): . Right, exactly. Yeah. And we knew the demand was there. We just, we couldn't understand it. And my husband was just, he was getting very frustrated and we were talking about an exit strategy, not something that my father-in-law wanted to see happen. Wow. But, you know, putting pen pencil to paper, it just was not, it was not working. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (03:22): Now the whole, was the whole family aware? Was this a family affair and family conversations around what could happen with the farm? Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (03:29): Well, in 2015, my father-in-law retired and he passed the operation down to my husband. So we rent the land off of the family partnership and we still operate the dairy. 2015 prices were great. It was shortly after that where it started the downturn and we did have conversations with my father-in-law. He didn't wanna see it happen. We were looking for other alternatives. We downsized the herd. We started renting out part of our tillable ground to other area farms to farm themselves to keep our expenses down. And it just, it wasn't gonna work. And Maggie came home from an FFA field trip one day. She was on the dairy judging team, and she's like, I have an idea. And of course, we were not interested because we were very focused on what we were going to do. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (04:29): And she was 16 years old at the time, right? Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (04:33): Yep. Just turned 16. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (04:34): Yeah. Was, was there an aspect of let the adults in the room figure this out? Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (04:41): You know, my husband is very hardheaded and I can publicly say that because he's very proud of his hardheadedness. And you know, all he's ever known is milking cows, you know, twice a day. This is how we've done it, this is how my father's done it. And getting outside of that box and looking at other alternatives I know is very scary for him. We've only been married for 10 years. I bring a little bit more outside experience, but he's only worked on the farm. That's all he knows. So it was it was a tough sell at first Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (05:16): Maggie. So 16 years old, you go to your parents with a new business idea. Where, where did this inspiration come from? How did you come up with the idea? Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (05:24): So, as she said, I was on our dairy judging team, which included going out to multiple farms during the season, judging other people's cows off of a point system basically. So I just kind of like, I liked the idea. The family was also local and was related to my science teacher as well. And we were doing business plans in ag class one day, and my group partners didn't do their half. So I ended up doing the entire project by myself, . Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (05:57): And so I used to love group projects. I was the other one. Same ? Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (06:02): No, I was always the one that did all of the work, which I was fine with it cuz then it, like I got to control how it was done. But I kind of just like fooled around and made a little business plan, like just for the school project after going on the FFA trip. And I was like, Yeah, this actually could be a real thing. Like this could be legit if we put the, put the time and the statistics and everything else into it. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (06:27): So Maggie, you've gotta convince your dad to change the way that he's been farming. Was that easy to do? Maggie Mathews (New Horizon Dairy) (06:35): It was definitely a challenge because not only was it just this silly little business plan I made in FFA class, but I'm also a young woman in the industry who doesn't have nearly as much experience as he does. So it was nagging at him more so than anything else. Just continuously bringing it up and putting the, planting the seed in his mind of there is another option that isn't getting rid of what you've worked your entire life towards. So it was hard, but it was worth it. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (07:06): When do you think that turning point was? What do you think finally flipped a switch for him to say, Let's give this a shot. Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (07:13): I was a phone call, Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (07:15): It was a phone call. Jackie was a phone jumps in. It sounds like you remember where you were when this took place. Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (07:21): , I was with him and the owner of the dairy farm that Maggie went on the field trip with, decided he was going to go out of business and he was going to sell his bottling operation. And he called to see if Donald would be interested because he had heard through the grapevine that we were looking at that avenue. So my husband spent several months shadowing him, learning the business, deciding how we were going to purchase the equipment, transition things. And it was gonna happen at the first of the year in 2018. And at Christmas the farmer put a little note on his milk shed letting his customers know that he was done and to stay tuned for new ownership and new opportunities. And the media got ahold of it. And needless to say, within a day we received a phone call and he had changed his mind. Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (08:20): He was going to keep bottling. And that just set my husband back to square one and I'm like, No, no, no, no, no. We've got a plan. We know what we have to do. We know what we have to buy, let, we're gonna keep on going. And it took us a few more months to source the different equipment from another producer and to get where we needed to be cuz we were going back to square one. I told him that, don't let the roadblock stop us. You know, we just need to go around it and keep moving forward. So it took us a little longer than what we had anticipated, but we did find other equipment and we were ready to start rolling right in the middle of the pandemic, Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (09:06): Right in the middle of the pandemic. So you find the equipment, you raise the money to be able to buy this equipment. So on a farm that's already struggling to make money, you raise more money to invest in something new. Was that hard? How did you do that? Jackie Bickel (New Horizon Dairy) (09:22): Well, the the producer was bottling milk and making ice cream in Indiana. He heard about our story, I shared with him our struggles and he said, You know what, I will give you this equipment through a milk assignment, which meant that each month when we shipped our milk, a portion of our check was going to him. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon CEO) (0

    32 min

  5. 06/21/2022

    Bowerman Blueberries' family-run farm and market hand-pick their bushes to ensure quality and flavor. Andrew VanTil, co-owner, joins Nick to talk blueberries (including wine), diversifying business, and connecting with customers through Market Wagon.

    Episode 14 Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (00:01): Today, we're gonna have a conversation with Andrew VanTil of Bowerman Blueberry Farm and Farm Market. They're in West Michigan and if you have tasted blueberries that you bought from Walmart or Kroger, you probably tasted their blueberries at one point or another. So how does a farm who has national distribution in some of the largest retailers in the country, find the value in connecting directly with you on Market Wagon so that you can know their farm, their name, and chat with them so that you can know where your food came from. Happy 4th of July and enjoy the episode. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (00:35): Welcome to More Than A Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon, focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. And I look forward to crafting a generational quilt of farmer stories and experiences, the victories and challenges of individuals, families, and teams doing their part to help democratize food in America. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than A Mile, and thank you for buying local food. It's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:26): Well, my guest today is Andrew VanTil from Bowerman Blueberries in Michigan. And welcome to the show, Andrew. Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (01:34): Good morning, Nick. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:35): Great to have you here. Thanks for joining. So this is our 4th of July episode. We're coming up on the middle of the summer. Is that holiday, does that have a big spike for you guys or what kind of impact does that have on your farm? Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (01:48): Oh man. 4Th of July. It's really the start of the season for us. You know, we start harvesting blueberries about a week after the 4th of July. But I think it--I think it really signifies the start of summer for a lot of people. You know, it, here in Michigan, it's, you know, cherries become available right around the 4th of July. We start harvesting blueberries about a week after everybody's out of school, everybody's in summer mode and, you know, for us, it really, it kicks off the summer of amazing Michigan produce. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (02:21): Awesome. And blueberries are your main thing. Is there anything else you guys grow? Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (02:26): So we have dabbled in a lot of things. We have grown strawberries here on the farm. We've grown raspberries on the farm, we've grown pumpkins, you know, it's all been a matter of you know, figuring out how to bring customers in, not only during this time during the 4th of July when things are really busy, but you know, kind of extending that experience out into other parts of the summer. So, you know, we used to grow asparagus to kick things off really early. That was--that was hard. I'm not gonna lie . And like I said, we then moved into, we did some strawberries, we've done some raspberries, you know, we've tried a lot of different things. And what we found is that, you know, everything that you grow, everything that you do on the farm, it requires a lot of passion, you know, and for us, our passion is definitely it's definitely in blueberries. So while we have done a lot of different things and we've allocated a lot of different space on the farm for different fruits right now we're back to what we started with, and that is blueberries. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (03:27): Sticking with the core. Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (03:28): That's right. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (03:29): Okay. And one of the things I've heard you say, I wanna get a little bit into your family farming background, and I've heard you say farming is family. Tell me about that phrase, how that works into your colloquial. Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (03:43): Yeah. So we know that better than anyone here at Bowerman's, you know we are truly your quintessential family farm. I--right now Bowerman is run by me, my sister-in-law and my brother-in-law. Mom and dad still live here on the farm. They're pushing their mid seventies and, you know, they're honestly still the hardest workers on the farm. And I, I don't think they're ever they're ever gonna quit which is great because we absolutely love having them around. But it, as, you know, as we've grown, we've taken in even more you know, more family members. So now I have another brother-in-law, who's working here at the farm. We're starting to see our nieces and nephews get to the age where they're working at our farmer's markets. They're working at our restaurants, you know all the way from from doing dishes at the restaurant to helping on the back of the harvester here on the farm. You know, it's, it really is a, a family effort. And as it's been harder to get you know, employees and good, good people on the farm sometimes, you know, families who you have to rely on. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (04:47): Yeah, for sure. Very reliable. And I wanna get into, you've mentioned restaurants and farmer's markets and I wanna get into how you've diversified your business, but for a second, I kind of wanna just lean in on the farm side. So we've talked about all the different things you've grown in the past. Talk to me a little bit about blueberries. This is a permaculture, right? These are bushes. How long do they last? How long do you--how long before you have to replace the plant? What's that process look like on your farm? Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (05:19): Yeah, so blueberries are a little bit different than a lot of other fruits and trees and that kind of stuff. So our farm was actually started in 1954. The first bushes were planted back in 1954, and some of those bushes are still here today. So...Yeah. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (05:37): Really? Okay. It's more like an orchard then? Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (05:38): It, it is. Yeah. And it's you know, it's one of the longest standing industries in Michigan in terms of farming. And there are bushes that are here in Michigan that have been alive and been harvested for the last 80 years. You know, it's, as far as we know, as long as you keep up on, you know, proper nutrition on trimming the bushes and you know, harvesting 'em and that kind of stuff. As far as we know blueberry plants will continue to produce for as long as you take care of 'em, it's not like some other crops where, you know, after 10 or 15 years, you have to rip the plant out and kind of redo it. So definitely a permaculture here. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (06:16): Fascinating, fascinating. And you know, I've got a small farm in Indy. We've tried to diversify a lot of different things. One of the things we've tried and not done very well with here has been berries. More--we tried blueberries, the deer got all of them. We've tried raspberries and blackberries and we get some, but I think there's a difference between our climate and yours. Can you talk about why Michigan just produces so much in the berry crop and so much better produce? Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (06:45): ? Yeah. Well, and of course I'm gonna be a little bit biased. I'm gonna say the best blueberries definitely come from West Michigan. But there's a lot, there's a lot of different factors that, that go into that. You know, I think the reason why the industry was kind of started here blueberries are--blueberries have an affinity to sandy acidic soil. And so when you're on the lake shore of West Michigan that's what we have here. We have sandy acidic soil. And so blueberries naturally thrive in the soil here. And then on top of that, we have the climate, you know, so blueberries take a lot of chill hours during the winter. So there are some varieties that are grown in Mexico and Peru, and that kind of stuff that are kind of an all season crop. They can grow them and they can harvest them at any time. Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (07:30): But the reason that they've been so successful in Michigan is because the blueberry plant naturally needs to go into a dormancy period. It needs to hibernate for a little bit. And so in Michigan we get those chill hours. We get that winter and then it really needs an even climate. So one of the things that the lake does for us is it helps to moderate that climate a little bit, you know, instead of the big temperature swings if it's really hot out, generally, the lake is a little bit cooler and we're getting a nice full breeze, you know, off the lake. It also delays our crop a little bit. So, you know, here in Michigan when you're closer to the lake shore you're growing degree days and the things that that make your bush ready and mature are a little bit pushed back the closer you are to the lake. And we really are a mile and a half off the lake shore. We're in this perfect storm of climate and amazing soil. And then--and you know, bush blueberries are natural here in the Northern Michigan. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (08:32): Yeah. I'll keep trying to get berries to grow on our little Central Indiana farm here mainly for our own kids to have to go out and pick through some thorns. It builds character--but I'm still gonna be buying berries from you guys for sure. Because we can't get the blueberries to grow here and there's just a difference in quality--it is appreciable. Andrew VanTil (Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market) (08:54): Well, an

    34 min

  6. 05/23/2022

    Christina Deyo launched Cook N Craft Academy after learning to cook and bake initially from her parents—and then after an Emmy Award-winning producer career learning from Martha Stewart and other amazing food professionals.

    Christina shares her stories of growing up in a multi-cultural food home and what she learned and was inspired by before working in TV with Martha Stewart and other food lifestyle titans.  Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (00:01): I think you're gonna love listening in to this conversation I had with Christina Deyo. She was my guest on this next episode of More Than A Mile. Christina is an Emmy award-winning producer of cooking shows and segments for Martha Stewart, Rosie O'Donnell, Emerald Lagasse and more. She now runs Cook n Craft Academy near Knoxville. And this is a great opportunity for me and you to learn from her amazing food experiences and about her love of supporting local food. Enjoy listening in to the conversation. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (00:31): Welcome to More Than A Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon, focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. And I look forward to crafting a generational quilt of farmer stories and experiences, the victories and challenges of individuals, families, and teams doing their part to help democratize food in America. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than A Mile, and thank you for buying local food. It's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (01:21): My guest today is Christina Deyo and I'm excited to talk about her business Cook n Craft Academy down near Knoxville. And guess some stories sounds like we're gonna get a lot of good stories of about the background that led up to this. So I'm looking forward to this welcome, Christina. Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (01:40): Well, hello, Nick. Thank you so much for having me. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (01:43): You're an Emmy award winner--eight time. You teach kids and adults how to cook but now we can also buy your food on Market Wagon. So there's a lot of ground to cover and I'm gonna start all the way from the beginning though. You're--can you tell me a little bit more about your family background? Where did your cooking come from? Is that is that from history? Family? Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (02:07): Yes. Mom and dad both cook. So my dad is Italian and he learned cooking from his mom. And so every Sunday I would be sitting with my dad watching him make homemade pasta, homemade sauce, meatballs you name it. It's great. I always say like, I've had the best of all worlds because yeah, you know, I've got the great delicious Italian food and then my mom is Slovak. So I've got the stuffed cabbage, the pierogi and the thing I love about you know, their recipes and how they've taught them to me is I feel like it has kind of linked me to relatives in the past that I've never even met. You know, it's a generational thing. It's a link to our history is, you know, those recipes just as like, what's your favorite dish that you had growing up? Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:05): Me? Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:06): Yes. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:06): Something called hamburger rice casserole, which I've learned as an adult--it's one of those Campbell's soup can dump recipe, things that was basically made up and invented by the Campbell Soup Company in the fifties to try and sell their stuff. Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:22): Wow, and sometimes those are the best ones, right? Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:24): Oh, it's just loaded with fat and sodium and it's just fantastic. Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:29): There you go! Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:29): There's a lot of people that grew up in, you know, Midwest America, that those seem like the good old family recipes, like green bean casserole, a classic one. And they're inventions of our industrial food, you know, they don't have, they're not really rooted in the history like what you're talking about--coming across from the old world. Traditions passed down from generation to generation. So... Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:54): But now that recipe that you love and you maybe make now for dinner, I'm sure it's something your children will love or do love and you know, years from now, when they have maybe kids of their own, they're going to make it and share it with their kids and so on and so on. Yeah. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (04:13): Yeah. For all levels allow them to, sure. Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (04:16): Yeah. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (04:17): So I I'd have to ask my mom where she even got that recipe. I should do that. Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (04:20): Yes, definitely. Especially, you know, we, we celebrate moms this month. I say celebrate them all all month long. But you know, it's interesting. I remember seeing a coffee table book that came out, I guess it was years ago and it's called "My Last Supper," and they got together 50 chefs and they asked them if you had one last meal, what would it be? And almost all of them referred to something in their childhood that mom made. Some delicious dish that mom made. And that's, that's what I take from, you know, my parents, I I'm so grateful for all the great recipes, even recipes that maybe gave me an idea. And then I made it my own and I added this. Yeah. Or that, and, and twisted it around a little bit. I mean, that's the beauty of cooking. And I always encourage, even in our classes or people I just meet on the street--take a recipe, make it your own, add your favorite ingredients. If it's a cheese recipe and you don't like cheddar, add a smoked gouda instead, whatever you like, make it your own. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (05:26): But that's a level of creative exploration that I think a lot of people are terrified to do. Do you think that you learned that--I know that this is an Italian cooking. I don't know much about Slovak cooking, but in Italian, you, there is a there's--you're not measuring out the garlic. Right. You're smelling the sauce and you're sprinkling it in. You are working without the constraints of it is one and one eighth tablespoon of garlic clove, right? How do you think people who maybe didn't grow up watching their father cook Italian--from scratch every Sunday in the kitchen, how do they gain that freedom to experiment? Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (06:06): Well, I think it comes with the confidence of cooking all the time or cooking on a regular basis. The more you cook, the more you feel a little bit more confident. I know my sister--now we're in the same family, my sister and I--but she was a little bit more book smart and you know, she's a neonatologist today, so I guess it paid off, but she does not cook. Now we have the same dad teaching us Italian and the same mom teaching us Slovak. But, you know, she doesn't cook because she just doesn't have the time for it. But I'm always telling her, you know, it's as simple as you could take a roast chicken, add a little salt and pepper and roast it slowly, and it's delicious. And it's not, you know, this involved recipe with sauces and things like that starts slow if you have to. But the one key thing which I love that Market Wagon stands for is really taking ingredients that are local to you, especially that are seasonal to you. And when you can buy organic, I mean it, you know. I worked for Martha Stewart for many years and I worked in her kitchen which she had a chef on her show every single day. And the one common denominator that they all really promoted was just cooking with seasonal ingredients. You know, buy what's in season, buy fresh. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (07:30): Because that constraint actually forces you to be creative. Right? If it's the winter time and all you can get is butternut squash, you have to figure out how to make butternut squash delicious. As opposed to just buying in-- the stuff that you can get from overseas, that is no longer seasonable. Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (07:45): Absolutely. And you know, if you, if you are, can attend a local farmer's market or, you know, you can, you're lucky to buy on Market Wagon. You can buy now. And there's many things you can freeze for the winter, you know, or the months that are, they're not going to be in season take advantage of that. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (08:03): So you asked me--you put me on the spot--and I told you about our deliciously awful hamburger rice casserole, which I'm happy to share with the rest of you. Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (08:09): It sounds delicious. It really does. Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (08:11): It really is. It's so good. there's not an ounce of nutritional value in it at all. What's your, what, what about you? What about your favorite, Christina? You, is there something that you watched dad make or mom making what's yours? Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (08:25): You know, it's funny because when that book came out about your last supper, I thought, 'what would my last supper be?' And without a doubt, my mom's stuffed cabbage. It is just, I love it. And it's like, I have six kids and two of my children say that that is their all time favorite dish. And it's not even so much the like, you know, the deliciousness of it, the stuffed, you know, ground beef in the cabbage. I think when I eat it, it brings me back to my childhood and I can remember sitting at the table rolling cabbage leaves with my mom and her telling me about stories from her childhood. Oh my girlfriend and I did this, we ran into the neighbors, farmers backy

    32 min

  7. 05/11/2022

    The Beghtel family is raising asparagus and their children with the opportunity to teach life lessons of rewarding hard-work in a loving environment on their family farm. - Joy Beghtel, Fields of Joy's story

    Joy Beghtel and her husband Greg wanted more for their family so they bought a strawberry farm that they've transitioned to a larger asparagus operation. Enjoy the story and deep-dive into all things asparagus! Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (00:00): Joy Beghtel joins me today to discuss hand snapping an acre and a quarter of asparagus spears with her family on their farm, Fields of Joy, in Anderson, Indiana. Enjoy this conversation as we dive deep into all things farming with this perennial crop and their transition away from strawberries. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (00:22): Welcome to More Than A Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon, focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. And I look forward to crafting a generational quilt of farmer stories and experiences, the victories and challenges of individuals, families, and teams doing their part to help democratize food in America. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than A Mile, and thank you for buying local food. It's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:11): My guest today is Joy Beghtel from Anderson, Indiana. Not very far from Indy, just a few miles up the road from where we farm and where the Market Wagon headquarters is at. Joy, thanks for being with us today. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (01:22): Yeah. Thanks for having us, Nick. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:24): So you grow one edible crop--and one only that I know of, right? Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (01:31): Yes. . Well, one only that we sell on Market Wagon. Yeah. We do grow other things, but primarily just for our farm stand the rest of the year. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:38): So you've got a farm stand where you grow some other produce for, but what do you sell on Market Wagon? Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (01:43): We sell a lot of asparagus. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:46): How much, how many acres? Is it measured in acres or row feed? How much asparagus do you have over there. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (01:51): It is measured in acres. We actually grow that much. So I always laugh and say, isn't it every little girl's dream to grow up and own an asparagus farm. We right now have about an acre and a quarter of asparagus. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (02:06): Wow. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (02:07): Yeah, that's a lot. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (02:09): Okay. That's a lot of asparagus and this is--for our listeners who don't know--this is a permaculture, right? So it's perennial. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (02:18): Correct. It has a 15 to 25 year lifespan on it. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (02:22): Oh, wow. That long. Okay. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (02:23): Yeah. It just depends on the variety and I think kind of the weather and that sort of things, but we should get at least 15 years, we're hoping for somewhere around 20 on the plants that we put in. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (02:35): And so when did you start this farm? Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (02:37): Yeah, so we actually bought the farm in 2013. When we purchased it, it was a U-Pick strawberry farm. We kind of just stumbled onto it--kind of a long story. I grew up on a, what would probably be considered a small hobby farm. Probably not far from where you grew up, Nick. I grew up in Northern Grant County, so... Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (02:58): Yeah, I actually showed dairy calves in Grant County. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (03:02): Okay. I thought you said on one of your podcasts, that you were a Howard County boy and I was like... Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (03:05): I'm a Howard County boy, but there was no other dairy farms in all of Howard County so I got special permission to drive to the next county over and show my Four-H dairy calves. Yep. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (03:15): Very fun. Very fun. Yeah. So I grew up in Northern Grant County. We had probably what would be considered a hobby farm. You know, we did like a third of an acre of garden and had goats and chickens and rabbits and all of that kind of stuff. And so I didn't think much about it. I really had just an idyllic childhood looking back on it. It was all of that good stuff that you get living out in the country. And then I grew up and went to college, got a couple degrees in social work and Greg and I got married and started living the good life... Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (03:46): Two degrees. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (03:46): Two degrees in social work. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (03:47): Because if you're gonna get one degree in social work, you may as well get multiple. Right? Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (03:51): I mean, you might as well. And then end up growing asparagus. Right? I mean, why not? Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (03:54): So it's a great application of that. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (03:56): Yeah, perfect. My parents were thrilled. No, my parents actually are thrilled. I should say that they love what we are doing and how we're living our lives. So yeah, so Greg and I were just really happy living in Fishers, had a couple of girls and adopted our son from Ethiopia. And then as you do, when you have kids, I think probably Nick, you realize you get that itch to give your kids what you had growing up. And... Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (04:19): That is exactly why we started our farm. I mean like, verbatim. I can't, I know that you can grow up to be a functioning adult without growing up as a farm kid, but I don't know how to make it happen because it hasn't happened to me. So... Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (04:34): I don't know either. And I kind of, I told Greg I was getting panicked because I thought they don't, they don't have animals. Like cats and dogs to me aren't animals. I'm like goats, chickens. We have alpacas. We have, you know, I was just getting real nervous that the kids were not having the experience that I had growing up. So we started looking for a small farm and spent a couple years with a realtor, trying to nail something down when somebody at church casually mentioned like, 'Hey, I picked strawberries up at this strawberry farm in Anderson. And the guy said, he's putting his farm up for sale.' So I literally that day got in my van, loaded my kids up and drove up here. And I remember calling Greg from the field and just saying, I think I have found our spot. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (05:19): Pack your bags, hubby, we're moving. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (05:21): Yeah. We threw our house on the market. It was sold in two weeks. We closed on this place and we told ourselves, I remember my dad saying, 'you know, strawberries are not an easy crop to grow.' We grew them as kids. Right. You know, everybody grows a patch of strawberries, but this was... Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (05:36): So you promptly ripped them out of the ground and went to asparagus. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (05:40): No, I let myself suffer for three solid years. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (05:43): Three solid years. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (05:44): Oh yeah. Well we promised ourselves, you know, it was a business that we were purchasing. Not only was it a house that was as large as our house in Fishers, but we got five acres with it and it had a functioning business. So we didn't wanna just toss that out. You know, we're like I remember saying, we'll give this three years and see what happens. And I think what we didn't realize is when you grow large scale, I mean, three acres of strawberries is large scale. When you do that in central Indiana, where there's a lot of water, a lot of late frost, it's a real risky product and it's extremely weather sensitive. And it requires a fairly significant amount of chemicals that we didn't realize we were getting into. And so after three seasons where every season we had a four and a half to five inch rain--in a day--during that season. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (06:37): I remember literally the third year walking into the house and saying to Greg, 'I don't care what you do, but I'm not growing strawberries anymore.' Like I'm done with this crop. And we had a real serious conversation after that season and really had to pivot and say what works for our family? What is not going to cause us a lot of stress and anxiety weather-wise what will still produce a good income and not consume our whole summer. And I remember laying in bed talking about this one night and Greg said, 'I think we go for asparagus.' Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (07:17): How did he--had he ever grown asparagus before? Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (07:19): So the farm when we bought it, in addition to the three acres of strawberries, had just kind of a lot of little stuff. Like there was about 300 feet of established asparagus. There was 40 fruit trees. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (07:30): So you were also growing asparagus in addition to the nightmare of the strawberries. Joy Beghtel (Fields of Joy) (07:35): Right. 300 feet. It wasn't a huge amount. I mean, I grew up with this asparagus patch as a kid. I remember it was the worst place to get chiggers in the whole world. You know, it, it was what it was. And so he said, 'I really think it's a perennial crop. It requires no chemicals. And asparagus is such a smart crop--when it is cold, it stays underground. When it is hot and sunny, it comes up. So you kind of--you're at the mercy of the crop and the weather, but it does not ruin yo

    26 min

  8. 04/26/2022

    Running a mission-based ghost kitchen with great local food and foundation & community building for people of all abilities--Mandy Anderson, Lake Effect Kitchen's story.

    Mandy Anderson, co-founder of Lake Effect Kitchen in Grand Haven, Mich., talks about the ghost kitchen she and her partner started that was inspired by their children with autism and continues to provide learning and professional opportunities for differently abled individuals.    Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (00:00): Welcome to More Than A Mile. Today, you're going to hear from Mandy Anderson, she co-founded Lake Effect Kitchen in Michigan. It's a catering company specifically designed to employ young adults with different abilities like her own son. Listen on to hear how it's going. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (00:17): Welcome to More Than A Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. And I look forward to crafting a generational quilt of farmer stories and experiences, the victories and challenges of individuals, families, and teams doing their part to help democratize food in America. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than A Mile, and thank you for buying local food. It's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:09): Well, my guest today is Mandy Anderson from Lake Effect Kitchen. And I'm looking forward to hearing your story, Mandy. Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (01:17): Thanks for having me. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:17): Thanks for joining me. So, Lake Effect Kitchen--you're from the beach side of Michigan. Grand Haven, is that correct? Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (01:26): Yep. Sunny Grand Haven. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:28): Okay. Are you from there originally? Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (01:30): No, I'm originally from the Metro Detroit area. I moved over to Grand Haven in 2000. My spouse had gotten a job over here in this area and I had actually fallen in love with West Michigan when I was a college student at Hope College a few years prior to that. The beach is beautiful, people are friendly and welcoming, and it's just a nice kind of relaxing sort of vibe. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (01:54): Do you think it's yeah, easier or better to start a small business in a smaller town? Or no? Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (02:00): I think there's challenges either way. A bigger city might have more customers for opportunity, but a smaller town--they reach out more, I think, and really try to support small businesses because we know more people, we're more connected since there's--since it's a small town kind of feel. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (02:19): Easier to be connected in the community and have the community support you? Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (02:23): That's right. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (02:24): Yeah. I'm a small town kid and now I live in a big city, so I'm always curious. So what sparked you and Aaron to start Lake Effect Kitchen? Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (02:33): So Aaron and I each have a child on the autism spectrum. We served for five or six years together on the Board of Autism Society of West Shore, which is now called Autism Support of West Shore, our local autism advocacy organization. So we worked together to provide support for parents living with--and people living with autism. We were working together on all kinds of like family activities, but also trying to focus on the transition age student. So your older teenage student exiting the school system or just exiting high school and needing some kind of next steps: job skills, training, paid employment. A lot of them aren't working when they're still in high school, which isn't ideal. We need to get them out into the workforce and give them those solid job opportunities. So we started looking around for what, how we could support them and what we could do personally to, you know, bring that to life. And we stumbled on a catering business for sale. We thought we'd take the plunge and just kind of go for it. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (03:43): So Lake Effect Kitchen began with buying an existing catering business? Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (03:49): Yeah. We bought a facility that had been renovated into a kitchen and so it was in 2017 that we got started. And so the, the business that was here was doing meal prep and catering much like we're doing now. And we just sort of changed the focus a bit to be hiring and training people that have intellectual disabilities, including autism and other types of disabilities. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (04:16): So that's a clear focus in a direction for your company is being able to teach job skills to people who are differently abled. Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (04:24): Yes. And employment equity too. We don't pay a sub-minimum wage, which is also called deviated wage. We pay a full wage to all of our employees, no matter what their disability or not disability. And we want to get them out into the community, doing our catering events, delivering food to schools or locations so that people can see that people with disabilities are able to work. They want to work. They make great employees. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (04:55): They make great food. Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (04:56): They make great food. So, yeah, and that's a, you know, a great important point. This is the food is excellent and the people that we are employing are doing a great job learning as they go building those confidence skills and getting their first job. For most of them, this is their first job opportunity, their first job experience. Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (05:19): Some of them are working on getting their driver's licenses or moving out of their parents' home for the first time. And they might be in their mid-to-late twenties and there's, you know, but we're helping them work toward those goals as well. Work provides that--that dignity, that opportunity to earn and support yourself. And it's also a good social opportunity that we spend a lot of hours at work. And we make friends there and then that can turn into, you know, more social opportunities that they don't always find on their own, especially once they exit the school system. There isn't a lot of opportunity for that if they're not working. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (05:54): Yeah. So you're a for-profit company, is that correct? For-profit business with a mission. That is a challenge. I know because Market Wagon is a for-profit business. We have a mission to enable food producers to thrive, and I know we constantly are coming up against situations where it might seem like it could make us more money to do something that's off mission. Do you ever come across scenarios like that where you have to make the decision to take mission over profit? Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (06:26): Definitely because some of our employees need more support and not just learning the job, but to maintain their level of job performance, just retraining and someone to come alongside them. There's a lot of situations where I could just have one non-disabled person doing the job, but I end up paying for two or three people to do that job so that we can create those opportunities for people with disabilities. So there is an additional cost involved in some of this, but I tell people--you know, I went to journalism school. My goal in life was not to be a caterer but--so, you know, the food isn't the reason for this. The mission of employment equity is the reason for that. So we try to focus on keeping our employees in their jobs and supporting that, even though it ends up more costly and hits the bottom line, Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (07:20): The impact is the important part. And the food happens to be a means for you to be able to create that impact. Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (07:26): Correct. Yep. Nick Carter - Host (Market Wagon) (07:28): Well, that's, that's wonderful. Thanks for sharing that. And so we've talked about the for-profit side of your business Lake Effect Kitchen, that you and Aaron created. Now, there's also a nonprofit arm, is that right? Eat Well, Do Good. And that's a nonprofit. Tell me about that. Mandy Anderson (Lake Effect Kitchen) (07:43): Correct. We were hitting kind of some of those numbers that weren't looking as good as we'd hoped. So we tried to find how we could bring in more revenue to be able to continue to support these employees and, and bring more jobs. So we decided to start a nonprofit. We had been asked a number of times by a number of different people, why we weren't a nonprofit to begin with. And switching over was gonna be too cumbersome. So we just decided to open a new LLC. I had been using Eat Well, Do Good as sort of our hashtag tagline at Lake Effect Kitchen. So we decided to go with that for the name of the nonprofit. We got our IRS certification last summer. And so now we have the website and socials up and running. The idea behind that is to raise money, to support the mission, not just for Lake Effect Kitchen, but to hopefully be able to provide money for other small businesses in the area who might want to take a chance on hiring some of the young adults in the area with intellectual disabilities. And that way they don't have to put their own money in. We can maybe support them with three or six months worth of wages to give them a chance. And then if it's a good match and everything's working well, then they can take them onto their own payroll. And it'll be a good longer term relationship for the emp

    21 min
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4.9
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

More Than A Mile is hosted by Nick Carter, an Indiana farmer, and the CEO/co-founder of Market Wagon, an online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets.

Information

  • Creator
    Nick Carter
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2023
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Market Wagon, Inc.
  • Show Website
    More Than A Mile