Honeycutt Hill Farms

Today I'm talking with Brie at Honeycutt Hill Farms. You can also follow them on Facebook.

00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. Today I'm talking with Brie at Honeycutt Hill Farms. Good morning, Brie. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm great. Tell me about yourself and Honeycutt Hill Farms LLC. Yeah. Well, Honeycutt Hill Farms started in 2022 when we moved across country from Oregon to Tennessee.

00:30
So we kind of moved up into the mountains and had a relative idea of what we wanted to do, what we wanted to provide the community. And we've just been kind of, I guess just moving forward ever since. We do registered kinder goats, poultry and soap. So we make the soap from the goat milk. So that's kind of what our niche has been lately. Nice, what made you go to Tennessee?

00:59
My husband's from North Carolina, so it was a little bit closer to his family and where we were at the time, especially around the 2020, you know, stuff, it was just, it got really expensive, a little, a little crazy at times. And then we didn't really have a lot of family there. So nothing was really holding us there. And actually, my neighbor, we were in the army together and I've known him for about 12 or 13 years.

01:27
He had told me that his neighbor was putting his property up for sale. And so we drove out here, we looked at it, we put in escrow and now we're here. So, um, it was definitely a bit cheaper for us to live and a little bit closer to more family. So it sounds like it was right place, right time. It was. So I think it was definitely, um, what you want to call it, whether it was divine intervention or, um,

01:53
You know, if you manifested it, whatever you want to call it, it was definitely what we needed at the time we needed it. And it just kind of all fell into place. Yeah, we had that happen back in 2020 as well. That's why we now live where we live instead of where we used to live, because we were tired of being in town. So, yeah, like I said, it just kind of got crazy. Like I said, we had moved there. My husband and I met in the army.

02:21
I had gotten out and I was waiting for him to finish his contract and he was trying to finish his bachelor's degree where we were. And that all was fine, but then like I said, once 2020 hit, things just shut down or skyrocketed and we were, you know, starting our family. You know, my son was born in 2016, my daughter in 18, and it just got wild and it just, it wasn't meshing with our way of life anymore.

02:49
Yeah, it's really crazy how COVID changed so many people's lives in so many different ways. Yes, it definitely did. So, you know, whatever side of the fence people were on, I really had no problem with. But it definitely divided people. And, you know, it just really, it was an intense time. And it really, you know, took an emotional toll and a financial toll on a lot of families.

03:17
But it really kind of opened our eyes to say, you know, we really need, you know, more family. We need more community involvement. We need, you know, to be around more like-minded people. And it just wasn't happening where we were. Yeah. And it opened a lot of eyes to the fact that we all needed to be just a little bit more self-sufficient than we were, I think. Yes. Yes, definitely. Yeah. So the first part of the farm was mainly so that we could survive as a family if something happened.

03:46
You know, so I think chickens are the gateway to goats and goats to cows and cows to horses. But first and foremost, it was just making sure that we were self-sufficient enough to survive and help our neighbors and that kind of thing. And so we noticed a need in the community for other things, different types of chickens or meat birds or goat milk soap or a different kind of goat that, we noticed a lot of people moving here as well.

04:15
but they needed something more dual purpose so that they could be self-sufficient. Yeah, so tell, okay, I've talked a lot with a lot of people about goats, but I have not heard about kinder goats yet. So explain to me what kinder goats are. Yeah, so kinder goats happened from a pygmy buck and a Nubian doe. And so when you have a pygmy buck, a registered pygmy buck and a registered Nubian doe, together they make a kinder goat.

04:42
And the kinder is just a dual purpose goat. It is a meat goat and a milk goat. They don't get really tall or really like, you know, overbearing like a boar goat, you know, so they're not really intimidating, but they're good for both. So, you know, if you have a lot of bucks and they're meaty, then you know, you at least you're gonna get something good out of them. But you also, you know, would want enough milk and dairy for at least your family or maybe you and your neighbors. And so they're just a dual purpose goat. They get about...

05:11
I would say no more than maybe 130 140 on the big end and They're easy to manage especially when you're on the farm or you have kids, you know, and They can kind of handle them when they're little and so we found that they're their perfect kind of like homestead goat You know to help you You not go to the grocery store as much or you know know where your meat is coming from or maybe you just want to Eat the brush off your lawn

05:39
So that's all they are. So they're just a dual purpose. So you're not really getting a whole dairy's worth, but you're not just going into, you know, the all goat meat, nothing else business. Okay. I, for some reason, I was thinking kinder implied small, but 130 to 140 pound goat is not small. Thank you. That's a bit, that's a, I would have to say that's, that's pretty big. That's on the big end. Yeah. We have one kinder doe and I swear she is 40 pounds and she's a year, you know, and she's healthy.

06:06
And on our biggest, our biggest one, I would say she's about 110. Um, so depending on, yeah. So depending on, you know, how they grow or how they, you know, fill out, I think it's kind of a wide range, uh, they shouldn't be, you know, very tall. They're more stocky. And then, um, you know, they, they do produce a lot of milk and they have a good butterfat content in their milk. If you wanted to make cheeses or, or caramels or things like that, or just have milk. Um.

06:33
Yeah, so they're just not as big like a we had Kiko's before and I swear that Kiko she was you know, 300 pounds She was way bigger She was a big girl. She was she was a small cow is what she was She was gorgeous and I actually still miss her We had to give them to a neighbor's farm when we moved out here But yeah, so those are really big and my children at the time would not have been able to handle her

06:58
and I want my children to be able to be involved. And so we just kind of went with a smaller side. So that's where those pygmies come in. They have a lot of pygmy jeans. They're shorter. We have one full-blooded pygmy buck and he's four years old and 40 pounds. And I swear, I think he's like 18 inches tall, 20 inches maybe at the withers. And so they're much easier for our kids to handle. Yeah. Yep, that makes sense. Cause if you're gonna have them, you wanna make sure that the kids know how to be around them and how to handle them. So yeah. Yeah, so that's what they are.

07:28
People will move on to a bigger goat as their kids get older. But yeah. Okay. I was looking at your Facebook page and the first post I saw was your shampoo bars and oh my god, they're so pretty. How did you get that design on the bar? Oh, they're just, you just put them in the mold and then I just swirled them around with a long skewer. So yeah, so we, my grandma used to make soap. She had a craft store in Nevada.

07:57
And she would do that a lot. So a lot of that stuff kind of, you know, passed on from her and what she liked to do. And then my husband had eczema a lot, especially out of the army. And so we switched to goat milk soap early on to help with those kind of inflammations of the skin. And so we've been kind of dabbling with shampoo bars. People, it's a little harder for people because they're not sure how to use them. But...

08:24
Yeah, it's just yeah. So our shampoo bars we put in a mold. We just put a swirl on them so I can tell them apart sometimes. Um Yeah, so it's been it's been fun. It's been fun making those and then trying to teach people You know, like there's an alternative way to use this, you know, you can uh, they'll last a long time You don't have to buy a bunch of you know, head and shoulders from the store, you know, so on so forth Yeah, um back when my second son was

08:52
still living with us and he was dating a girl. She was the loveliest girl and so beautiful, but she was very, very uncomfortable because she had acne on her face and it made her really insecure. And we made cold process Lysol and I knew that our soap was pretty good at helping out with acne and I'm not supposed to say that because the FDA says you're not supposed to say things like that.

09:20
in my experience using it and my kids experience using it, it really helped with acne. It does, I think. Yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, she, um, she, I don't remember how it came up, but she said something about something. And it was about her face, but it wasn't directly about the acne. And I said, honey, I said, I said, are you insecure because of your acne? And she's like, yeah. She was like 16, 17 at the time.

09:50
And I said, I have this unscented cold process Lysol that we make. I said, and the kids use it and it helps. I said, do you want a bar of it? Try it. And she was like, anything, anything at this point. I was like, okay. So I gave her a couple of bars. She took them home. She came back a week later and her face was half cleared up. Took a week. Yeah. I think it's, I think it's very important. People don't realize, you know, your skin is a big.

10:18
part of your body, you know, and what you put on it soaks in immediately. It gets, you know, sucked in and the, any toxins or any chemicals or whatever, you know, it automatically gets seeped into your skin, especially, you know, your face and through your scalp. In those products from stores, even though they, you know, they say they're going to do those things, they're going to help you with this or clear this up. They're full of preservatives. They're full of chemicals.

10:45
So there may be a temporary solution, but it's not fixing the root cause. Yeah, and when she came back, she was like, look at my face, and she was smiling so big. Her smile reached ear to ear. And I was like, that's amazing. I'm so glad. She said, can I get one more bar just in case I wanted to keep using it? I was like, yeah, here, take five. So it is...

11:12
I don't want to say this because I'm afraid the FDA is going to come down on me and I don't want that. But the point is that homemade soaps and shampoos and lotions and things actually do the job you need them to do. Yeah, I think once you can, you know, it's just like when you go to the store, if you can read the ingredients in the label, you know, then you're ahead of the game.

11:37
But if there's things in there that are hard to pronounce, then you're not sure what it is, and I probably wouldn't be using it, you know, if you can help it or putting it on your body. Because like I said, when you're younger, you know, you can kind of get away with things, but it all catches up to you in the end. Yeah, and one of the things that I was just thinking about while you were saying that is, you know how they have the oils and the little capsules that you can put in your hair to moisturize your hair?

12:07
that you can buy. Coconut oil does exactly the same thing. If you take coconut oil, rub it on your hands, rub it through your hair, it does exactly the same thing as the stuff you buy at the store. And coconut oil is less expensive too, which helps. Yeah, it's definitely one of the easier oils to find. It's right there with olive oil. You know, and it has a very, you know, massive amount of benefits for you. So we use coconut oil, I would have to say...

12:36
in 95% of the recipe here. And so, you know, we've done sals, we've done tinctures. And like I said, we'll do it in the soap and it's, it creates a nice hard bar, but then it has so many benefits. And it's not hard, it's not too hard to find for people, you know, it's not such a crazy oil, even oil pulling in your mouth, things like that. So we use it a lot. Yeah.

13:03
I wanted to give my mom some of our soaps and she was like, I can't use lye soap because it dries out my skin. And also I think the reason that she thought that is because her mom made lye soap way back when. Yeah. Way back when lye soap was a much harsher soap than what we make now.

13:25
Yes, back then they used ashes, like potash and ashes from the fire and it was not as easily calculated as it is today. Yeah, and she still hasn't tried it. She probably never will. Yeah, so actually lye, I get that a lot about people with lye because I know when they see lye they see it like, oh, it's a drain cleaner. But all soap has lye. So whether you're...

13:52
wherever you're buying it from, it's gonna have lye. It may not say lye on it, but there's lye. So it'll say sodium hydroxide on there. All soap needs lye or it's not soap. And so when the soap cures, the lye dissipates. What happens with like, so back then when they made soap, they probably had one ingredient. So let's say you just had coconut oil, that's all you had. And you just had coconut oil and lye in water. That's an extremely hard bar and it will be extremely drying.

14:20
And so some of those soaps have so much hard oils to keep them preserved so they're not soft, they're easy to ship, they're not, that's why they're drying on your skin, but they will all have lye. Yeah, and what we put in ours is coconut oil, olive oil, I'm trying to think, I think that's it. Yeah, so olive oil is a soft oil, so it softens the bar. It's a little more nourishing for people, yeah. Yeah, this is one of those things like,

14:49
We like so we do a lot of markets in the community and we're in a couple stores And it's one of the most common questions is about lie and I'm glad people ask it because yeah If I saw lie and I didn't know what it was, but I've seen it to clean drains You know, why am I gonna put on my skin and it has a warning label on it, you know all that stuff You know, why would you put that on your skin? But once it becomes with the oil, you know, it becomes soap and then once all our soap is cold process So it takes you know

15:15
four to six weeks to cure, that lye is no longer there. It is now a new molecule, it's a new formation. Right, exactly. So that's why I wanted to talk about it because a lot of people like, I don't want to use lye soap because it'll dry my skin out, but that's not true. Right, that's not what it's doing. Yeah, no, we first did, we did an all-tallow soap and we did an all-coconut oil soap and just three ingredients and they were both very hard, but they're drying.

15:45
They don't wash away as fast, but you will end up using a moisturizer or a lotion because it's dry. It's only got one hard oil. And so you need a soft oil to have the nourishing bar or the smooth, silky feeling, those kind of things. And people, I don't know, like I said, maybe people are just new to the idea, but yeah, the lie thing. We get it all the time and I understand.

16:14
But if not, it will just be a bowl of oil, trying to put it on your body. Which you could do. That's not gonna work. You're gonna slide all over the shower. It's bad. It is not gonna work. It is definitely a chemical reaction that has to occur. It has to form. But I'm glad, I'm glad people kind of, take the time to look at those things now. Whereas, growing up, we never looked at the label. We just looked at the front.

16:44
And that's just what it was. And so, you know, part of me is glad. I'm glad people kind of wake up to it and try to research what ingredients are in things and what are they going to put on their body and to make that choice, whether they want to do it or not. Yeah, exactly. And I'm not saying everybody should use cold processed lye soap. They don't have to, if they don't want to. They want to buy a bar of dial soap at the store, have at it. You know, and the funny thing is, you know, my dad, he's still, you know,

17:13
He uses like the soaps we make, but he uses them more for like hands. And then he'll still use, you know, Irish Spring in the tub, uh, until this day. And, you know, I don't know if that's just, you know, set in your ways or that's just what works for you. And that's, you know, that's fine. Um, he knows we've told them all about it. So he's made a decision and he's an adult and that's just what it is.

17:34
Yep, exactly. It's a losing battle right there. Don't even bother. You can lead them to water, but I can't make them drink. So that's okay. And that's fine. People have different things and that works for them. So this farm thing is fairly new. Were you guys doing any of this before you moved to Tennessee? Some things, like I said, we had chickens. We've always had chickens. And my husband, he...

18:02
He had a lot of pigs and a lot of turkeys and things like that. Back where we were, we had two goats and then we were mainly to eat some of the blackberry brush that was going on. And I now realize that two was not enough for the amount of field I had them in. But so we, you know, we weren't farming on the scale that we are now, but we've always kind of had our hand in either farming or gardening or creating something or making something.

18:31
And so now I just feel very blessed to be able to kind of do it more full-time, even though my husband works off-farm, to be able to put more into it to get more out. Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Okay, so you... Okay, I just got stuck on questions again. 20 minutes in and I'm stuck. How has it been?

18:56
been? Has it been everything you expected or has it been harder or easier or what's it? How has it been? It's not for the faint of heart. It's definitely hard. And anybody who says farming is easy is lying or, you know, they're not farming. You know, you can look on Pinterest all day and it looks beautiful and it looks gorgeous and, you know, all that jazz. But when it comes down to it, it is hard.

19:23
It is very rewarding, but there are hard times. So things that you couldn't imagine happening are just very heartbreaking. They're going to happen. And you have to be prepared for that and know whether you can stick with it and keep going or if it's just not for you. So there are things that have happened that I didn't realize that were very hard, but we got through them. And thank God we did. And we prayed. And we were able to push forward. And it makes you stronger.

19:53
Lots of things have gone differently, but lots of things have gone differently in a good way that I wouldn't have expected either. Do you guys grow plants or veggies or anything too? Here we live on Clinch Mountain and it's very, just like it sounds, it's a mountain. A lot of the properties are hills or they're rocky or they're full of limestone.

20:21
We don't have the, you know, set up to grow vegetables and plants on a mass scale, like to produce, you know, onions and tomatoes and corn for people. I would love to. So we do plant starts. So we'll start the plants here and then, you know, we can sell them to you and you can grow, you know, in your garden bed. So we do do that. But given our current area, like I said, it's just we wouldn't be able to compete on that level. It's just not the right property here.

20:50
And knowing what your property can give you is very important because it will be tiresome and expensive if you try to make it, you know, something it just can't do. So we do. So we'll have plants, you know, in the beginning of spring. So we'll do our starts. And then anything extra that was just, you know, a really good crop or something that we tried differently, you know, we have no problems, you know, whether, you know, giving it away or selling it to people or things like that, but also being so new to the area. There's been a lot of trial and error.

21:19
the growing part is much different than when we were before. And so we're still trying to figure out the best method to grow something on a bigger scale, like let's say pumpkins and zucchini. They're not a problem really on the West Coast, but here there's a lot of vine borers. And so that just ruins a whole crop. And that wasn't something we expected. And so now it's just a challenge that we have to kind of get through here. So yeah, so we, and long story short, we do, but it's just not the most.

21:48
I guess either profitable or easy to do here, given our land up on a hill. Yeah, you got to work with the nature that you're provided, I guess. Yes. So we have a lot of foraging capabilities, a lot of... It's on the hillside, but kind of like grassy areas. So having goats, even if you want larger animals later on, they can kind of take care of those areas for us better.

22:18
It's more geared toward our goats and more of our poultry. We have a lot of like black walnut trees and so we harvest those. So we're just kind of work with what we have and, you know, not rape the land so hard to force it to be something it's not. That's a great plan. I love that because you're letting the land do what the land's supposed to do. That's great. Right. So we moved here because we, you know, fell in love with it. So we're trying not to.

22:48
changes so much that it's not what it's intended to be. So I find that if you kind of work with nature as much as you can, it's easier on you and it's easier on everything else around. You're not pouring so much time trying to take care of a problem that you created really. It wasn't a problem before because it wasn't happening, but you've made it one.

23:14
I always joke that humans are the only species that will work their asses off to make something easier. It's true. I feel like sometimes we spend so much time reinventing the wheel and then realizing we never had to do it. So. Right. I think you come to the point where, you know, what is your time worth? What is your labor worth?

23:41
you know, is it worth your time trying to do all this? Because you could have just done it the same way and we would have been done already. And it would have probably been cheaper, you know. It might have taken maybe a day or two longer, but we'd be there already instead of, yeah, like either having to go buy a new brand new thing or make a new thing. I'm all for invention. I'm all for, you know, the, you know, necessity is the mother of invention, but sometimes it is,

24:09
quite frankly, just a pain in the ass. And you just do it the way that they've been doing. There's a reason it's been done 100 years this way because that's why it's just the way to do it. Yeah, exactly. And as I sit here and talk with you about this, I'm chuckling in my head because we had supplies delivered on Thursday to build a winter greenhouse, a heated greenhouse. And that's because we live in Minnesota. And...

24:37
our growing season stops when we get the first heavy frost. And we wanted to be able to get our seed starts out into the greenhouse earlier so that we can start them in our house sooner. And we also want to extend the growing season out into November. And we can't do that here without some heated greenhouse. And of course it snowed on Thursday and it didn't snow on Friday, but it was cold. And then, no, it did snow on Friday. Sorry.

25:06
Um, and then Saturday was clear and then yesterday it snowed all day and today it is raining cats and dogs That's the kind of winter we've had in Minnesota And I looked outside and I saw the plastic sheet covered Mason block thingies for the foundation sitting outside and I was like Yeah, we jinxed it. We had had like no snow for months and as soon as that stuff came now, it's all gross again It knew I'm like

25:33
I'm like, yeah, we're crazy. Yeah. I think, like you said, I think nature and they know like when something's about to happen, we raised guineas. And so my husband, he was down on a beekeeper's meeting and this gal came up to him and they got to talking and she wanted a guinea. She had one guinea and her was lonely and she wanted another one. And so we had one that we wanted, you know, to...

25:59
to sell, it was just kind of being pushed out of our pack. And so it would still do better with another farm. And so the day that we knew we could catch it, because it was always crazy, it was always running around, was the day that it just went right back in and came part of the flock. And you couldn't even tell it apart. So it knew any other day we could tell it apart because it was always off by its own. But the day we went to sell the guinea.

26:27
You know, we couldn't tell it apart because it had become part of the flock again. So they know it's, I don't know, it's some law, some Murphy's law. I don't know. I think when you make plans, God laughs. That's what I think. Yeah, it does. Yes. And then he says, Hey, nature, get on them, make them do something they didn't think they were going to do. Yeah. Yep. And so like I said, I still don't know if it's the one that we wanted to sell. I know, like I said, she wanted male or female and that was fine, but

26:56
He's probably still out there because he knew something was up. I'm like, hmm, all right. Maybe he thought he was going to the butcher, not a new home. Yeah. Like, oh, it was hard to say, you know, and I get, yeah, it was just, it's always the way it happens. We, you know, um, we bought, uh, one of our goats last year from a farm and we had, you know, we're going to pick it up this weekend, we're going to pick it up this weekend, and then the farmer calls me and said, oh, you know, I did their fecals.

27:22
And she's kind of got some running poop, you know, so you're gonna have to wait till next weekend so we can clear it up. And so you can make plans all day. But in reality, you know, God's in control and you better simmer down and it'll happen when it happens. And so we've just learned to like, okay, that's what we have to roll with. And you know, I'm not gonna fight it. I'm gonna simmer down and when it happens, it happens. Yep. And I've got one more example. I had found one of the bakeries that is...

27:50
another town over had bought a display case for their donuts and it was too big for their space. And I was like, oh, we're looking for a thermostat controlled display case. And they wanted like $100 for this thing. And I talked to my husband and I was like, it's five feet long, three and a half feet tall and power deep. And he was like, oh yeah, that should fit the farm standard. And then I looked at the measurements again and I was like, you might want to go make sure.

28:18
I said, because that shed is only 10 by 14, and that's going to take up some real estate in there. So he went and looked and he said, it's too big. It's just too big, just slightly too big. And I said, okay, I will message them and let them know that it's too big. We can't use it. And I was kind of sad because it was perfect for keeping the leafy greens not wilting and the eggs in the shed.

28:48
I was kind of mad about it. And then I woke up the next morning and I was like, you know what? It's okay. We will get the right display case when we find it. It'll be okay. I guess it is not meant to be. Yeah. It was the first thing since we've moved in here three and a half years ago, where I was, I was actually kind of bent about it and I couldn't figure out why I was so bent and I think it was because I thought I had solved a minor.

29:16
dilemma that we've been having with having the leafy greens in the farm stand. But I didn't solve it, so we're still going to have to work on it. Yeah, I do that a lot. And I think, like I said, whoever you want to call it, but he has his own plan and asking you shall receive, you just might not get it in the way you thought you would. Or when. Or you might not. Yeah, or when. I remember...

29:46
being out west and then, you know, we know we needed a change, but we weren't sure quite sure. And so it was like, well, you know, we could, you know, live in the camper and travel around with our kids because we homescore our kids. And so I'm like, yeah, that sounds so great. Like, yeah, we could travel the country, you know, in a year. And we had thought about that. And, you know, obviously that didn't quite happen the way we thought. But when we moved here,

30:12
You know, we had to live in a camper for a year before we set up our home up here on the pad. And you know, I was like, you know what, we got exactly what we asked for. It was just not in the way we thought. We did travel across the country to get here and we did live in a camper for a full year. Just it wasn't traveling in the camper, you know. So we did get those things. We did ask for those things, just not in the way that we thought we were going to get them. Yeah, it was a roundabout.

30:41
cross-country camper trip. So in the hindsight after living in the camper for a year, and I'm like, I don't think I could have done that. There's only so many times you want to enter or exit or get rid of the gray tank, you know, it's no longer fun. But yeah, so you kind of got what you asked for eventually in a way that, you know, was I guess more fitting for you and you just didn't realize it. Yeah, it's funny how life just kind of

31:09
does what it does and you just go with it. Yeah, I don't like I said, I would love to do all the things here, like you see online and oh, a milk cow and a this and horses and that. And then, you're like, well, if it's meant to happen, it will happen when it does. But in the meantime, I'm not gonna force it to happen. I'm just gonna work with what I have and just try to slowly make those small steps better.

31:37
And in the meantime, you know, if we can help the community make their small steps better, because I'm sure they have the same kind of similar plan, you know, then that, you know, that is fulfilling enough. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um, so, uh, we got slightly off topic just as I always do, but that's what makes it fun. Um, so you, do you sell it like markets, your, your soaps and your, your stuff? We do. So we first started selling at a trading post, um, about.

32:06
I would say 10 miles from here, were friends with the local meat processors. They're called Overhome Meat Processing and Treadway or Thornhill. And so they started doing a market, a trading post, and they wanted to bring community together. But not just buy things, but if you wanted to barter, if you wanted to learn something new. And so that kind of got us into markets.

32:31
And we were selling more of our salves and more of our kind of farm goods at that time. And then we had some soap. But then as the time went on, you know, it just became what people wanted the most. And so we just tried to fill that need. And so we started there and then we actually are in an antique store down in Rogersville. So we have a booth down there. And then so we've kind of expanded into some brick and mortar stores. So we're in three stores where we have our booth.

33:00
And then we're actually in a bakery called Clinch Mountain Bakery. And then our last one, we're actually in a wellness center called the Holistic Wellness Center. And so we've kind of branched out a bit. So we still do like the doing the markets, but currently, you know, the farm still has to run. And I don't know if anyone knows that markets take a lot of energy and a lot of time for setup, you know, to do them. And then you're very, you know.

33:26
the weather could be bad or, you know, there could be 10 other events going on on the same day. You know, all of those are big factors. And so I guess we're kind of pushing more toward, you know, doing events, you know, that we can prepare for way well in advance, but then also kind of putting our products in stores where people can, you know, get them at any time instead of just waiting for a market that may or may not have good weather or, you know, maybe we're too far up the mountain for some people and they, you know, they can't travel that far.

33:56
So yeah, but I'm very excited. Like I said, we've gotten into three stores and you know, that's such a blessing. I had put that on a business plan earlier in the year and then next thing you know, you know, it kind of happened, so. Yeah, diversity in your business model is really important. So, yes, having those, having all those options, all those fingers out into the different places is great.

34:23
Yeah, I think for yeah for anybody, you know, like I said, we just have to work with where we're at. So someone else might have, you know, more traffic, you know, or a flatter area, you know, they get more road coverage. So, you know, having a smaller stand outside your house might be the best option. Or, you know, you know, you just might like to do markets and you do really well. And, you know, you have a product like, let's say, you know, the bakery item that's limited and you work off scarcity. So people come to you because they know there's not a lot of it.

34:53
So I think, yeah, I think it's just depending on, you know, where are you? Where are you in life? You know, what do you have time for? And what's going to be the best model for you? And also so that you don't get burnt out, you know, that you're just becoming another kind of drone, that you're still, you know, passionate about what you're making and then delivering it to people. Yeah, because when you're the one making it, you're putting yourself into whatever you're making.

35:22
And the minute that good energy isn't there anymore when you're making it, it changes what you made. And I don't know why it does that, but it does. It does, it probably does. And so if you're just trying to whip out a bunch of product, whatever it is, as fast as you can to make the most money, I guess you might as well be Walmart or some product on their shelf. And then two, not everybody is your customer. Why is the person told me that the last market?

35:52
And I asked her for some business advice. And I said, you know, some of these places already have, you know, soap. And she's like, don't worry, still try, because not everybody is your customer. So just because, you know, these persons are here, these people, doesn't mean that every customer wants to go there. And you need to realize that you cannot market to every single person in the world. You know, you are not Walmart. And so we put a hundred percent effort into what we make because I want people to enjoy them and know that, you know, when you shop with us or you come to our farm

36:21
you do whatever that we're 100% committed into everything we do. Um, that's what makes the, you know, the handmade product handmade. That's what makes the farm, you know, what it is. You know, I'm not some, we're definitely not some giant, you know, Hillshire farm. Um, you know, but we're your neighbors, we're your part of your community. So you can come to me for whatever, if you want help with anything. And I want people to, you know, realize that, uh, when they see our stuff. Yeah.

36:50
And people are interesting because when my husband was selling at the farmers market last year, he had tomatoes, I think before anybody else did, we were really lucky with our crop last year. And then like a week or so later, somebody else came as a vendor and they had tomatoes. And he came home and he was like, it was so funny. He said, because I had tomatoes, they had tomatoes. He said, I sold more tomatoes and I don't know why.

37:21
And I just said, honey, I don't know, it's subjective. People are going to look at two of the same thing and have to make a choice. And they may just flip a coin in their head or they may find something they really like about yours or something they really like about the other person's, who knows? But choice is always subjective. It is. If you're trying to gather every single person, I think you'll be shooting yourself from the foot. The right audience will find you.

37:50
You just have to be available. Yeah, and you have to be open to them. You have to, if they want a question answered before they make a choice, you need to be approachable and friendly and answer them so that they know what they're getting. Yeah, it's definitely, like I said, if anyone should know the most about your product, it's you.

38:13
And to constantly kind of be researching, I get a lot of questions of like, well, what are like kinder goats just like you? Like, what are kinder goats? And so if I don't know, if I just say, oh, they're just goats, I'm not going to get very far. They're not going to get their question answered and they're probably not going to come back. They're not going to, well, she doesn't know. I'm just going to go back to Google. And so you really need to be knowledgeable in what you're presenting. And so we definitely try to.

38:43
To do that, I don't know the answer to everybody's problem or every question, but I'll be honest, I'll just say I don't know. But to have enough to present someone and then I've given you all the information I possibly can, now it's up to you to make a choice. Do you want farmer A's tomato or farmer B tomato? This is how we make our tomatoes, this is how they make their tomatoes. You need to make a choice.

39:07
Yeah, I was going to say honesty is a big part of it too. If you don't know the answer to their question, be honest. I mean, I've had people ask me about stuff and I'm like, I am going to be honest. I don't know, but give me a day and let me research it and I will have an answer for you. And then I email them or call them or when I see them next, I go, that thing you asked about, this is why. Yes. So. There's a big stigma about like.

39:36
you not knowing and I don't know why like people don't want to say I don't know because maybe they think it makes them seem, you know, illiterate or dumb. But I think it takes a lot of gusto to say, you know, I'm not sure. I don't know. And that's definitely a challenge for me because if someone says, you know, this and I say, I don't know, you can bet I will research this till the end of time so that I know and you know and the next person who asked me this, I will know.

40:02
And so that's how you, that's how you find new things out. You know, you have to have that person come up to you and give you a question you don't know, and then you never have that problem again.

40:13
Because you know it. Yeah, exactly. And you'll never forget it ever. No, you won't. Yes. And I'm sure there's a bunch of questions still out there that haven't been presented to me yet that I don't know. But for anyone, if you want to ask me them, then we'll know. Yeah, my husband will ask me something once in a while and I'm like, I do not know the answer. I do not have the time to find out right now. And he doesn't either. And I'm like, okay, I'll look into it when I have time.

40:43
And inevitably that same night at 2 a.m., I wake up at 2 a.m. and I'm like, I need to know. I need to know what that is that he asked me about. And I will open up my phone, Google it, get a basic answer so I can tell him in the morning. And it's relieving. Yeah, about the fifth time I did it, he said, I was gonna ask you how you were figuring this out. He said, are you waking up and looking it up? I said, yep. He said, you are.

41:11
He said, you're crazy. I said, yeah, I know. I am absolutely insane with this because you asked me something I didn't know and I needed to know. It's definitely great. I love Google. Yeah. It's definitely, uh, it's the age of information and, uh, there's a lot of information and it's, it's good and it's bad. A lot of it can be very overwhelming and some, just then too, you have to make a choice whether you're going to believe this or you're not going to believe it. Um, and so.

41:41
Yeah. So we'll do the same thing. Like I'll go on there. I need to know. I got to know what this is. I'll try my best. And sometimes I walk away, you know, totally triumphant and like, all right, I totally know. And then other times I'm very defeated and overwhelmed because the answers are so left and right. Yep. And whenever I Google something, I try to find five reputable sources that say the same thing before I tell anyone what I found out.

42:08
Because I hate it when I think I know and then I talk to somebody who's smarter than I am and they go I'm really sorry, but that's not correct. I'm like, oh You're so sure there's what? Yeah, there's a lot of hubris in that answer and the next thing you know, you're kind of shot down Yeah, so I don't know like I said that for people, you know starting out or whatever they plan to do In reality, you can really plan so much

42:37
It only takes so many conflicting ideas and information. And sometimes you just got to get your feet wet. And then, you know, you can narrow your search on what you're looking for. Um, inevitably, like you were just going to, you're going to cost money one way or the other, but, um, like I said, like the information is definitely one side or the other, so you need to pick one and, and shoot, you know, and go. Yeah. Um.

43:04
We thought we were going to be raising rabbits for me and for the manure. And we got rabbits like two summers ago. And all my life, people had been using the phrase, I can't say the word, like bunnies. You know, bunnies make babies. That's it. That's what they do. Yep. Um, our rabbits did not really make babies. They did not get the memo that they were supposed to not say that. I'm not going to say the word like bunnies.

43:34
And we kept them for a year. We bred them, I think, four times in that year and no babies. And they were absolutely the correct sex to be making babies. There was a buck and a doe. They just did not take. And after a year of feeding these guys, I was like, I don't want to do this. I don't know. Maybe we're just bad at rabbits, but I don't want to do this anymore. And so we stopped and we spent.

44:03
probably three or 400 bucks total on that project. And we learned that we're not good at raising rabbits and I'm okay with that. That's fine. So sometimes you try to do something that seems like a good idea and you give it your all and you try to do all the research and do the right things and it just doesn't work out and that's okay. Yeah, I definitely think that, you know, that's how you find out. So, you know, sometimes you have to fall on your face.

44:32
um, to find out and that's perfectly acceptable and that's perfectly okay. Because if you did it, you'd just be sitting there still wanting to do it, but never doing it. You never get past it, you know, so you, it would still be in the back of your mind. You would never move on to the next thing because you're either too afraid to try it or, you know, and you don't do it or, or you want to research it more and more and more. So half the time, you know, you just need to go in there and do it. Um, and that's.

45:01
is just part of life. So, you know, we have a lot of, you know, Americana chickens that we breed, and we're part of the Americana Alliance. And, you know, we try to breed to standard for this Americana. And, you know, our whole premise was, you know, show worthy birds, you know, all the standard birds, these colors, you know, these kind of breedings, these things happen. And

45:23
But then as we moved on, we realized like, well, our area doesn't really care about show birds. They care about meat birds. They care about eggs. And so, and if you're not shipping your birds and you're not going to all these shows and why are you doing that? And so we kind of had to take a step back and reevaluate. You're like, okay, now we know. And we still have them. I still love the breed. It's a perfect breed for here.

45:52
But now they just have, you know, a different purpose than what we originally intended. And I never would have known that unless we got them, we did it, we know we're trying, and then we, you know, see, you know, if people are interested or not. So yeah, I think the themes for this particular episode are homesteading is not for the faint of heart, it's rewarding, and you've got to be willing to try new things and no one to stop when it doesn't work. Those are the themes for today.

46:20
Yes. You know, yeah. You got to know when to quit. Sometimes you got to know when to quit. And like I said, I'm like, all right, you know, we got to quit with, you know, trying to force these people, you know, the people around us to want to do the same thing we want to do and realize like it's not working. So let's try something new. And that's okay. You know, like that's fine. You know, my husband, he's been taking beekeeping classes to do bees and, you know,

46:50
It's either gonna work out well or it's not. But I think it takes a lot and it takes a lot of courage and confidence to just go out there and try something new and know you may or may not fail. You know, like that is awesome for people to try to do and I think they should do it. The hard part is because it costs money. And you know it costs a lot of money and you don't wanna screw it up and you don't wanna get an F on your test. You know, you don't wanna fail. But you learn a lot with failure.

47:20
Yes, absolutely. You really do. And sometimes it's painful. Well, usually it's painful, but, but I really feel like, I feel like mistakes aren't failure. I feel like if you don't try, you, you don't ever get anywhere. So mistakes are learning opportunities. Okay. So Brie, it's been like 47 minutes and I didn't mean to make this go so long. I'm sorry. I appreciate your time and you have, you have a fantastic day.

47:49
You too. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Yep. Bye. Bye.