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Open Road Ranch
Today I'm talking with Julie at Open Road Ranch. You can also follow on Facebook.
The Old Farmer's Almanac
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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Julie at Open Road Ranch in Wisconsin. Good morning, Julie. How are you? Good morning, Mary. I'm wonderful. Thank you. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather there? Sunny and beautiful. It's so nice to see the sun. Oh, we had that yesterday and the day before. Right now it is inco...
00:28
incredibly overcast in Minnesota, but it's warm. Yes. It's nice, isn't it? Oh my God. This last two weeks of like living in the Arctic tundra. Yeah. I had forgotten how terrible a more than a couple days stint of those temperatures is. Yes. I woke up on like the 13th day and thought to myself, if this doesn't break soon, I don't know what I'm going to do.
00:56
Yes, we just need like a day of sun to remind us or just a windless day or something just to hang on. Yeah, I grew up on the East Coast and I remember the song, the song Oklahoma, where the wind comes rolling off the prairie. Yeah. And I had no concept of that because my house was surrounded by trees. The wind didn't roll across the prairie because there was no prairie. I moved to Minnesota and I learned real quick about wind rolling off the prairie.
01:25
Oh yeah, I just saw the other day someone said the quote, it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the wind, said every farmer ever. Yeah, absolutely. It's just crazy. And I open every podcast with How's the Weather? Because I just feel like we're all in ag and it's important to talk about the weather. Oh yeah. I used to work office jobs and I worked in a basement office with no windows and weather was just, I'd never even thought about it. It could be light out, could be
01:54
night, could be raining. It just didn't really have any effect on my life whatsoever. Now it's everything. Yeah, absolutely. It literally is everything. okay, I don't do a lot of the outside work. My husband is the outside guy. I do a lot of the cooking and the cleaning inside. And even I pay really close attention to the weather because I'm like, I saw it's going to snow tomorrow. Are you set to plow the driveway?
02:22
Or I saw it's going to be minus 40 windchill three nights from now. Are the chickens going to survive in their coop? And he's like, you never really paid attention to this before we moved to Homestead. I said, no, I didn't because I had no reason to pay attention to it. Yeah, you're so into your lives, you know, your animals. It totally changes your perspective and the way that you live your life. And I kind of love it. Yes.
02:50
All right, so tell me all about yourself and what you do. um I am a first generation farmer. I'm a very new farmer. This is our second year in farming. um So all very new, um very new small business owner. um Just learning as I go. We have a small farm in Greenbush, Wisconsin, um is five rented acres of family land. So Tony's folks live up the road and
03:19
our crop farmers corn, soybeans and wheat and they very generously um are renting us five acres to start our farm here and they're very helpful with their farming knowledge and experience just up the road and so it's because of them that we're able to farm and so we have five acres here and looking at right out the window in our backyard we have pasture raised hogs, uh have uh pasture raised sheep and we have some chickens that aren't doing much of anything right now it's mostly for us m
03:48
but I did get three eggs the other day, so that's exciting. we sell our pasture-raised um pork and lamb. And I also make lard products with lard from our pasture-raised hogs because one of my missions when I first began was uh education and also to use as much of the animal as possible. So I dabbled in trying to tan sheepskin hides that didn't go very far, make dog treats out of the organ meats, just different creative ways because these animals give us such a gift.
04:17
you know I hate to see you go in the trash when especially our ancestors you know would be you know grateful for the whole gift and use as much of it as possible and they needed to use as much of it as possible but I hope to still tap into a little bit of that so ah we use the lard from our pasture raised hogs to create um bombs, dish soap, shampoo bars, things like that because lard is just incredible for us and so I also feel strongly about educating people about the wonder of those
04:46
what are often considered waste products that are so wonderful for us and such a gift. Awesome. Tell me about lard dish soap, because I have not heard those words in the same sentence before. Yeah, me neither until recently. And I had been making lard bombs for about a year and I thought, well, what else can I do with this lard? Because the bombs were going really well and I thought there must be some other things um that our ancestors used lard for that we can use it for. Because it's just full of vitamins and minerals and such healing properties.
05:16
uh You would not think that lard would clean dishes. You're often trying get lard off of your dishes, so I didn't really believe it either. ah We mix the lard with lye and some lemon. That's your degreaser. It's really pure and simple. ah It's just a uh dish soap bar, so it takes some getting used to, but you just use a sponge or a scrub.
05:41
You just get it wet and then you use it like you'd use dish soap and it works wonderfully and it's clean and pure. It's not full of... um One of the reasons I started this is because laundry soap and lotions and shampoo bars and all those things, they're just full of so many chemicals. And I know people, myself included, are looking for clean things to put on their body and use in their homes. And so it's just pure and simple, non-toxic. So that's another reason I started making them.
06:10
Nice. Okay. The reason I was so confused is because I always think of liquid dish soap. I didn't think of a soap bar dish soap. So I didn't know you could use lard for dish soap. I am going to have to look up a recipe and maybe try that. Because we make, we make cold process lye soap here for baths and showers and love it. Like all of our kids grew up using these bars of soap since we started making them 15 years ago. And, uh,
06:39
My youngest asked me the other day, said, can I have like four bars of that soap? I said, yes, you can. Well, they last so long and they're so versatile. And yeah, they're just wonderful. Yeah. I have a daughter and three sons. The daughter is the oldest. The oldest of the boys lives in Nebraska. And he also had asked for some soaps to take home with them a couple of years ago when he visited.
07:05
And he and his wife are now making their own cold processed Lysol. That's wonderful. It's such a good feeling to be able to do that. It's such a skill. So excited that the things that we tried to teach them really did sink in and sunk in enough that they want to do it too. Yeah. It does work. It does work. If you model good things for your kids and you make it fun, they'll probably want to do it too.
07:32
Yes, it's quite different than just telling someone to do something when they see you doing it and enjoying it and what can come from it. Then it's quite different than just telling someone very much so. Yeah. And I always say this when I bring up the soaps. The reason we started making cold process lye soap is because store bought soap makes my skin itch like crazy. And I had bought a beautiful um honey oat bar soap.
08:00
from a lady that has been making them for years. And I just loved it so much, the way it smelled, that I was like, oh, I can't wait to take a shower with this. And I used that entire bar, went back to store, bought soap, and my skin was itchy, but the whole time I used the bar I from her, my skin was really nice. And I said to my husband, I said, can we please try making cold processed lye soap? Because I can't afford to spend $7 a bar.
08:29
uh It's a stretch for the budget back then. And he said, let's look up how to make it. And we did, and he made a batch and it was unscented and we loved it. And we gave a couple bars to people to try to see what they thought. And they were like, can you make a lemon scented one? Can you make a lavender scented one? And then we got into the essential oils and it was just, it was so fun.
08:53
to learn all the things and all the properties and why lavender is so good, why lemon is so good. And we still do it now. So I just, always rave about the cold process Lysol because yes, it has some things to be careful of, but once you've made a couple of batches and you know your process, it's one of the simplest ways to improve your life. Yes. You get so many out of a batch.
09:22
You get like eight or 10 bars and so much more cost effective. And um yeah, you have to be careful with the lie, but like anything, it's a skill that you learn. then, you you use safety and you get the hang of it. And then, you know, you get this cost effective product that, you know, saves you money. You can share with family and friends. It's really wonderful. And it's satisfying, you know, you.
09:46
You make that soap, you use that soap, and I don't know about you, but I just get this bubble of happiness in my chest that we can do this, that we did this, that we use it, that it's good for us. Yeah, my first bar of soap, I couldn't believe it. There was no soap there, and then I made soap. It's something that you think you can only get in stores, and I made it. It's such a neat thing to know that you can do those kinds of things. There's such a sense of...
10:13
Accomplishment and pride when you create something with your own hands and it has like a different feel to it Because you had a hand in it and you created it and it's just yeah Really nice. Humans are really skilled really special creatures. We are very good once we set our minds to things. Yes. Yeah Okay, so uh I'm gonna bring up the fact that your place is called open road ranch not open road farm. Oh,
10:40
I have been told by a few people that typically a ranch is a property to the west of the Mississippi and a farm uh is a place to the east of the Mississippi. So is there a reason that you named it ranch? We like alliteration. Okay. So it just sounded nice. And actually we looked up ranch versus farm just to make sure we were being technically accurate because I didn't quite know the difference either. And I actually had not heard that.
11:09
ah But my understanding was that a ranch was primarily livestock based uh and a farm could be produce or uh livestock. So a farm could be a ranch, but a ranch couldn't be a farm kind of thing. And I don't know if that's right. This is probably just on Google. uh But we are livestock only and it sounded nice.
11:36
Yes, we went with ranch, but I often call us a farm too. feel like in a lot of ways they're interchangeable and in a lot of ways I'm sure they're quite different. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I don't have an opinion on this at all, but my thought before a couple of people told me about the West versus East of the Mississippi thing, my thought has always been if it's a farm, it's more produce. If it's a ranch, it's more livestock. So I'm in the same boat as you. Yeah. Interesting.
12:05
So do you have lots of pigs? I wish I had more. um Well, it's always changing as some go to the butcher and then we get new piglets. last couple of weeks ago, we took five of our big pigs in and so now we have five um left. So usually I do batches of about 10 at a time. um And then once the littles start getting big, then we'll get some more littles in so we can kind of.
12:32
face it out so we're quite a small farm um and so we're still growing our avenues for selling and we're still getting freezers and things like that so that felt like a really manageable uh amount to be able to have enough to sell um without gaps and to be able to manage here from our little farm and our little farm store um but we do hope to grow and I've just absolutely fallen in love with pigs so I love tons of pigs and um
13:02
The sheep we rotationally graze as well, so that takes some thought with how many acres we have and how many can rotationally graze on the pasture and have enough to eat and have that be beneficial for the land and the soil um to not stretch that. uh And so it's just kind of working out um between the sheep and the pigs what's best for the animals and the land and how much we can feed and how we can grow.
13:29
So right now we have five um red wattle Berkshire crosses for hogs and we have seven sheep. Some are south down and some are heritage breed called Jacobs. I'm 19 Langhans. I just kind of hang out. Are the sheep the hair sheep or are they the wool sheep? They are wool sheep. Okay. I don't know the names of the breeds well enough to go, oh yeah, that's a hair sheep or oh yeah, that's a wool sheep. I'm not up to date on my.
13:59
My shape breeds. We have 18 or 19 chickens. Last I was told we have 19, but there may have been one that decided to on alive itself. I'm not sure. Oh no. Are you getting eggs? Are they layers or? Yeah. They're the ISA brown breed. Yep. And we have a light in their coop. So they lay during the winter. Oh good. There's nothing like a farm fresh egg.
14:26
So I missed them during their sabbatical. Yeah, we're actually swimming in eggs right now because the weather's been so cold. People haven't been making the journey out to our place to pick up eggs from the farm stand. And I'm glad we're talking about this because after I'm done talking with you, I need to post on Facebook and be like, there's eggs and it's warming up outside. Please come buy eggs. Please. Yeah. We need you to take our eggs. Yeah, exactly.
14:53
um My husband brought in, think, eight dozen from the farm stand a week or so ago because they were getting to the point where we need to get them eaten up. And I was so excited because as anyone who raises chickens for laying eggs knows, you can't really, well, you can hard boil a fresh egg, but it doesn't peel very easily. You lose about a quarter of the egg white.
15:19
And he brought in all these eggs and I was like, yes, I can make egg salad again. Yeah. Oh yum, that sounds good. We made that in a while. Yeah. So I've had, I've had egg salad like three times in last two weeks. I'm probably going to do it again today because I really like egg salad. And I hadn't had an egg salad sandwich in a year because people were just buying the eggs before there was any time for them to be over two weeks old. Yeah. Yep. Eggs are like gold.
15:47
Yep. I love having chickens mostly because I feel like we're helping our community. sell our eggs for $5 a dozen. I don't know what eggs cost at the store now because I haven't bought eggs at the store in almost a year, but there for a while eggs were really freaking expensive and we were still selling our eggs at $5 a dozen. So we were trying to help and I'm a big believer in help where you can. Uh, yeah.
16:17
Yeah, yeah. That little touch point, that little access to food, even if it's just a dozen eggs, well, you know, connect someone to the farm and the farmer and kind of open doors, I hope. Yes. And the other thing that's interesting, and I don't mean to make the interview about me, but we're talking about stuff I actually know about. Usually I'm talking to people and they're like, we're raising horses. And I'm like, I don't know anything about horses. Let me ask you a ton of questions. In the spring and summer and fall,
16:46
when people come by to get eggs and they've never been here before. I watch them get out of their vehicle and they're kind of tight in the shoulders when they step out of the vehicle. And then they kind of stop and look around and I watch their shoulders just relax. And I'm like, oh my God, our property, just being on the property helps people. And it just makes me so happy. Yeah. A lot of people don't have access to, of course, like
17:13
you know, being around pigs or sheep or chickens or anything like that. I just, or just even out, you know, in the quiet and the fresh air and green grass and all that stuff. So it's just, it's a really nice, I absolutely know what you mean. Yeah. It's really fun when you get to observe people quietly, like they don't know what you're noticing. Because if I said to them, did you have a rough day? They would look at me like I was crazy. Yeah.
17:42
But you can see on someone that they've had a very stressful day and you can just watch it kind of melt from their shoulders down to their fingertips when they are able to take that long deep breath of fresh air. Yes. I try not to take that for granted. because I grew up in the city and I've only been living out in the country and on the farm for a little bit. I mean, when I see the sunrise or sunset or, you know, the pigs are running around as God intended and...
18:07
all of that, like I just try to pause and think like what a gift it is to be able to see pigs out our window and you know, sheep and these sunrises and sunsets and you know, this fresh air and all these things that like some people might not be able to have every day and how much that, how good that might feel and yeah. So what, what pushed you to do this because you said you're, you're not, this is two years in.
18:35
So what made you decide to do this? I read a lot of Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin and was just really moved by their works. I think it was just a curiosity about where my food came from, which can, you know, uh results in all sorts of things like either just, you know, buying organic or going to a farmer's market. And for me, it manifested in becoming a farmer. ah
19:05
I just, yeah, I started to really think about and care about where my food came from. I was a vegetarian for 20 years and a vegan for three years. And now I raise animals and take them to the butcher. And so it's quite the leap, but I feel like there's a lot of fear of propaganda when it comes to veganisms and a lot of food choices. And I think it's because we are so disconnected from our food.
19:34
today that when you hear things or see these videos or see these things on social media, um if you don't have experience with it yourself, it's easy to believe those things or to not understand. so I think it just sometimes it takes, it's maybe over simplistic, but it's a simple act of like knowing your farmer or coming onto the farm and seeing how their animals are raised um to make that connection back. um
20:01
And with vegetarianism and veganism a lot, uh it's fear-based. um And I had gone the route of, I don't want anything to do with this. And so I just cut it out of my diet and out of my life. But then it was a little bit later on in life when I started reading Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin.
20:21
that I started to see that there's a different way. Like you can have meat and it can be ethical and responsible and actually good for you and good for the earth. And I feel like a lot of times that wasn't always portrayed, at least in what I was seeing uh with that sort of diet and lifestyle choice. so, yeah, I feel like if people only knew that or were able to have access to their farm or to their food, they could see that there's a different way um
20:50
to eat meat and ethically and good for the land and good for the animals and good for us. And so part of why I love to do this is the education around that. I invite people come to our farm, see how we raise our animals, see the good lives that they live. And that makes me feel good about eating our meat is because I know how it was raised. know the life it had. And I feel very proud of being a part of that. And I hope to educate people about that and share that with people. I love it. I love it, Julie. oh
21:20
Are you a reader of the Old Farmer's Almanac? Oh, I have one. found it in the thrift store and I have not read it. Okay, well, it's not an it. It's a publication and they come out every year. Yes. And there was a rumor going around that the Old Farmer's Almanac was going out of print. It is not the Farmer's Almanac. There are two different Almanacs. The Farmer's Almanac went out of print with this year's
21:50
last one. The old farmer's almanac is still alive and kicking and doing really well. And if you want to, you will learn a whole lot of things about farming and ranching and growing produce and growing animals. It's only like $10 to buy a copy and it's for the entire year. Like it's one little publication for the entire year. And the thing that I love about it is that
22:21
It has like days for everything like this is a good day to wean calves or this is a good day to plant seedlings and It will take you all year to get through it. It's over 100 pages
22:36
But anyway, I was just curious if you were a devotee, because a lot of the people I talk to, they're like, oh yeah, I read the farmer's almanac every spring and I mark down what the days are for the things I'm going to be doing, blah, blah, blah. OK, it sounds like I would love it. I am going to open it up. Yeah, it's very fun. I can't remember the name of the website. I think it's just farmer's almanac, but I would have to look it up. It'll be in the show notes.
23:05
Hi, what else can I ask you? You said that your pigs are red wattle and what? Berkshire crosses. So those are both heritage breeds. A red wattle is a lard breed, which I'm still learning about. um But I believe it just has that really good fatty marbling and really good taste. Yeah, and they're like furry, right?
23:34
Oh yes, so our hogs have actually been sleeping outside. If it's above 10 degrees, I would say, and you know, windless night, I'll come out in the morning and we have a big brown hay bale out there for them to grab hay from and they can stuff their huts or they can hang out there. And they'll just be laying outside under the, you know, under the moonlight in their hay pile all night. They're very tough because they you know, raised outside and they have thick fur. So yeah.
24:04
Yeah, people think that pigs don't have fur, but a lot of them do. Yes. And it's interesting to depend on the breed we've had, like durochs and yorks and, all different kinds. And the Berkshire breeds will have, yeah, quite a lot of hair and it does help them, you know, be pasture animals. Yeah. I know just a little bit about the red waddles because I knew people who had them and they're, aren't they kind of friendly? Aren't they pretty nicely demeanored as it were?
24:34
Yes, they are. mean, and I think that's too, most of the pigs we've had have been really friendly demeanor just because we have so much contact with them. You know, we're out there two, three times a day. Um, you know, they have that one-on-one interaction and, and I sit and talk to them and, know, I'm friendly with them. So I think you get out of them, what you put into them. And so I think like the more contact you have with them, um, they'll, they'll be friendly, but all the breeds we've had, we've had durochs and Yorks and a hundred percent Berkshires. We've had a ham.
25:02
Hampshire and they've all been, you know, so friendly. em Yeah, I think pigs are just very quite social and curious and friendly creatures um in general. yeah. And the sheep, are they, I don't know anything about sheep. Are sheep friendly or they just kind of aloof? uh Not compared to the pigs. They're quite aloof. So they're just more skittish around. And again, it's what you put into them. So, um you know, we've had sheep
25:29
where, you know, we're out there, they do need less, um I would say, day-to-day care than the pigs, especially in the summer. ah You know, you're not feeding them like you are twice a day with the hogs, and they're just rotating on the pastures, and you just need to make sure they have water. So there's a little bit less contact there, but we have had sheep.
25:50
where we're around them often and they get to know us. But even still, even when they know us quite well and we spend a lot of time with them, they're just generally tend to be a little bit more skittish. And the pigs, they're just so curious. They'll run out to the road when people walk by or a tractor goes by. They're just very, very curious and social animals. So I'm very smart. Okay, cool. So what would you say if you made a new friend at
26:19
the feed mill or the library or some place where people actually talk to each other. And that new friend said, I really would like to buy a couple acres. How should I start my homestead or my little tiny farm? What would you say to them? Oh boy, that's a million dollar question. It sure is. It almost reminds me of that joke. If you're a farmer, how do you get a million dollars start with 2 million? Yes. It's because I
26:49
I uh there can be oftentimes this romantic idea, which absolutely, this is like incredibly romantic way of living, but there's also hard realities too, especially, I feel like there's not a lot of conversations around maybe finance all the times and how much it costs uh to start a farm, to run a farm. um And uh there's those realities. uh
27:12
And I would say too that you don't need to own land to start a farm because I was looking to buy land for quite a while before I had this opportunity to rent land here. And so I know a lot of successful farms that start small and you can just rent land and kind of get your feet wet. I would also say that farmers are by far the friendliest, most um sharing folks with their knowledge and with their time.
27:39
So before I began farming, I spent a couple of years just emailing and reaching out to farmers coming out to their farm and they would stop their busy days and take time to walk me around and answer my questions. And I would happily do that for anyone now. So if you're curious about farming, reach out to someone who is uh already doing it and ask them questions. And I'm sure there'll be an open book and farmers wanna help other farmers and...
28:06
Um, because they know how important it is for farms to keep going and how important it is for people to have access to real fresh food. Um, so I would say talk to a farmer for sure. Yeah, me too. I, I would, I really kind of wished before we moved here in 2020 that I had had someone who knew more than I did about what we were doing. I love what we're doing. are a 3.1 acre property.
28:36
And we have our big old garden and we have our chickens and we have our barn cats and we have our dog. That is, that is it. But I didn't, I don't know why I didn't think of it, but I didn't realize we were going to have to buy a small tractor because our driveway is long. at the least we needed to be able to plow our driveway. Didn't, didn't think about that. That a new tractor is not inexpensive.
29:03
And it took us three and a half years to pay it off. So we didn't know that we would need that. And we didn't realize that we had, I mean, we realized we were buying a place with a humongous pole barn, but we didn't think about the fact that there might be something wrong with something in the pole barn. there is, there is one support beam, but it's not on in the ceiling. It's along the wall that is starting to buckle.
29:32
And we're going to have to have somebody come in and help us fix that because if that barn goes down, that takes out all of our vehicles, our tractor. My husband's as we call it workshop, but really it's a bench with a bunch of tools on it. We can't have the pole barn buckle because of the pole barn buckles, we lose a lot of important things. So there are, there are all kinds of small things, but they're humongous things if they go wrong. Yeah.
30:02
that you don't know to ask about or think about because you don't know. Yes, exactly. There's so many things in a day that you are responsible for, like that you can't possibly, you know, imagine like an animal gets sick or something happens with your fencing or, you know, your trailer pops a tire, things like that, you know, that you're all responsible for and that all adds up and it's all.
30:29
needs to be working for the farm to work. And so you have to be role with those things. And yeah, is an everyday education for at least the first five years. Oh, yeah. That's one of my favorite things about farming is I always say like, feel like I learned something new or multiple things. Like every single day. I'm just and I love learning. And so I just there and I feel like it will be endless my whole life. I feel like I will be learning something new every day. Well,
30:57
The dumbest thing I've learned so far in the last 15 years because we were actually growing food on the city lot we lived on before we moved here is Brussels sprout plants are very finicky. If you throw them, if you throw the seeds somewhere and basically forget about them, you might actually get really good Brussels sprouts. But if you throw Brussels sprout seeds in a spot and baby them and tend to them and nurture them, you don't get any Brussels sprouts.
31:26
I have been trying to grow Brussels sprouts for oh, 15, 20 years now. And the one year that we just kind of threw a couple of seeds down and forgot where we put them, we had the most beautiful, huge Brussels sprouts for eating. Since then cannot grow Brussels sprouts to save my life. So the dumbest things can be the most impactful on you because I really like roasted Brussels sprouts, but I only like the ones I grew. So that has been.
31:54
That has been terribly frustrating for me. And my husband asked me the other day, he do you want me to throw in some Brussels sprouts plants? And I was like, no. No, I do not because I don't want to be disappointed in August when there's no Brussels sprouts to eat, but there's some really pretty leaves on it. Yes. You have to have a lot of grace with yourself. You know, it's easy to focus on the things that you messed up or you did wrong. um Cause it's also important, but then it's, it's nice to remember the things that just.
32:22
worked out that you didn't think would or the things that you did right and the things you are learning. Yeah. Like I said, dumbest thing ever. Cause it's no skin off my nose that we can't seem to grow a good Brussels sprout here. I don't know why I have looked up all the things and I'm like, I don't know what we're doing wrong, but I give up. no big deal. As long as the chickens survive the winter and we have eggs, am all good. right, Julie, this was so much fun. And I feel like I talked a lot, but
32:51
It was really fun to actually talk about this place too. I don't do it very often. Where can people find you? uh They can find us at our website is um www.openroadranch.com. And I'm actually working um on a little revamp right now of our website. So that'll change one day. And then um also we have Facebook and Instagram, but this is relationship I really struggle with and, and, uh
33:19
but I'm trying to be present on social media and see it for the good. uh So we're at Open Road Ranch um on Facebook and Instagram. And then, yeah, we're in Greenbush, so if anyone is local, they are welcome to stop by our farm store or just call or email if they wanna come get anything from us, and we're here. Fabulous. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.
33:48
And if you like this podcast, you should go listen to grit and grace and the heartland women in agriculture. Cause that's my second podcast. started a little over a month ago with a cohost Leah. She's clear Creek ranch mom on Facebook. And we are having such a good time with the fact that 2026 is the year, the international year of the woman farmer. thank you again, Julie. I appreciate your time so much.
34:18
Thank you, I really enjoyed talking to you and I appreciate your time as well. Have a great day. You too, thank you.
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By Mary E LewisToday I'm talking with Julie at Open Road Ranch. You can also follow on Facebook.
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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Julie at Open Road Ranch in Wisconsin. Good morning, Julie. How are you? Good morning, Mary. I'm wonderful. Thank you. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather there? Sunny and beautiful. It's so nice to see the sun. Oh, we had that yesterday and the day before. Right now it is inco...
00:28
incredibly overcast in Minnesota, but it's warm. Yes. It's nice, isn't it? Oh my God. This last two weeks of like living in the Arctic tundra. Yeah. I had forgotten how terrible a more than a couple days stint of those temperatures is. Yes. I woke up on like the 13th day and thought to myself, if this doesn't break soon, I don't know what I'm going to do.
00:56
Yes, we just need like a day of sun to remind us or just a windless day or something just to hang on. Yeah, I grew up on the East Coast and I remember the song, the song Oklahoma, where the wind comes rolling off the prairie. Yeah. And I had no concept of that because my house was surrounded by trees. The wind didn't roll across the prairie because there was no prairie. I moved to Minnesota and I learned real quick about wind rolling off the prairie.
01:25
Oh yeah, I just saw the other day someone said the quote, it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the wind, said every farmer ever. Yeah, absolutely. It's just crazy. And I open every podcast with How's the Weather? Because I just feel like we're all in ag and it's important to talk about the weather. Oh yeah. I used to work office jobs and I worked in a basement office with no windows and weather was just, I'd never even thought about it. It could be light out, could be
01:54
night, could be raining. It just didn't really have any effect on my life whatsoever. Now it's everything. Yeah, absolutely. It literally is everything. okay, I don't do a lot of the outside work. My husband is the outside guy. I do a lot of the cooking and the cleaning inside. And even I pay really close attention to the weather because I'm like, I saw it's going to snow tomorrow. Are you set to plow the driveway?
02:22
Or I saw it's going to be minus 40 windchill three nights from now. Are the chickens going to survive in their coop? And he's like, you never really paid attention to this before we moved to Homestead. I said, no, I didn't because I had no reason to pay attention to it. Yeah, you're so into your lives, you know, your animals. It totally changes your perspective and the way that you live your life. And I kind of love it. Yes.
02:50
All right, so tell me all about yourself and what you do. um I am a first generation farmer. I'm a very new farmer. This is our second year in farming. um So all very new, um very new small business owner. um Just learning as I go. We have a small farm in Greenbush, Wisconsin, um is five rented acres of family land. So Tony's folks live up the road and
03:19
our crop farmers corn, soybeans and wheat and they very generously um are renting us five acres to start our farm here and they're very helpful with their farming knowledge and experience just up the road and so it's because of them that we're able to farm and so we have five acres here and looking at right out the window in our backyard we have pasture raised hogs, uh have uh pasture raised sheep and we have some chickens that aren't doing much of anything right now it's mostly for us m
03:48
but I did get three eggs the other day, so that's exciting. we sell our pasture-raised um pork and lamb. And I also make lard products with lard from our pasture-raised hogs because one of my missions when I first began was uh education and also to use as much of the animal as possible. So I dabbled in trying to tan sheepskin hides that didn't go very far, make dog treats out of the organ meats, just different creative ways because these animals give us such a gift.
04:17
you know I hate to see you go in the trash when especially our ancestors you know would be you know grateful for the whole gift and use as much of it as possible and they needed to use as much of it as possible but I hope to still tap into a little bit of that so ah we use the lard from our pasture raised hogs to create um bombs, dish soap, shampoo bars, things like that because lard is just incredible for us and so I also feel strongly about educating people about the wonder of those
04:46
what are often considered waste products that are so wonderful for us and such a gift. Awesome. Tell me about lard dish soap, because I have not heard those words in the same sentence before. Yeah, me neither until recently. And I had been making lard bombs for about a year and I thought, well, what else can I do with this lard? Because the bombs were going really well and I thought there must be some other things um that our ancestors used lard for that we can use it for. Because it's just full of vitamins and minerals and such healing properties.
05:16
uh You would not think that lard would clean dishes. You're often trying get lard off of your dishes, so I didn't really believe it either. ah We mix the lard with lye and some lemon. That's your degreaser. It's really pure and simple. ah It's just a uh dish soap bar, so it takes some getting used to, but you just use a sponge or a scrub.
05:41
You just get it wet and then you use it like you'd use dish soap and it works wonderfully and it's clean and pure. It's not full of... um One of the reasons I started this is because laundry soap and lotions and shampoo bars and all those things, they're just full of so many chemicals. And I know people, myself included, are looking for clean things to put on their body and use in their homes. And so it's just pure and simple, non-toxic. So that's another reason I started making them.
06:10
Nice. Okay. The reason I was so confused is because I always think of liquid dish soap. I didn't think of a soap bar dish soap. So I didn't know you could use lard for dish soap. I am going to have to look up a recipe and maybe try that. Because we make, we make cold process lye soap here for baths and showers and love it. Like all of our kids grew up using these bars of soap since we started making them 15 years ago. And, uh,
06:39
My youngest asked me the other day, said, can I have like four bars of that soap? I said, yes, you can. Well, they last so long and they're so versatile. And yeah, they're just wonderful. Yeah. I have a daughter and three sons. The daughter is the oldest. The oldest of the boys lives in Nebraska. And he also had asked for some soaps to take home with them a couple of years ago when he visited.
07:05
And he and his wife are now making their own cold processed Lysol. That's wonderful. It's such a good feeling to be able to do that. It's such a skill. So excited that the things that we tried to teach them really did sink in and sunk in enough that they want to do it too. Yeah. It does work. It does work. If you model good things for your kids and you make it fun, they'll probably want to do it too.
07:32
Yes, it's quite different than just telling someone to do something when they see you doing it and enjoying it and what can come from it. Then it's quite different than just telling someone very much so. Yeah. And I always say this when I bring up the soaps. The reason we started making cold process lye soap is because store bought soap makes my skin itch like crazy. And I had bought a beautiful um honey oat bar soap.
08:00
from a lady that has been making them for years. And I just loved it so much, the way it smelled, that I was like, oh, I can't wait to take a shower with this. And I used that entire bar, went back to store, bought soap, and my skin was itchy, but the whole time I used the bar I from her, my skin was really nice. And I said to my husband, I said, can we please try making cold processed lye soap? Because I can't afford to spend $7 a bar.
08:29
uh It's a stretch for the budget back then. And he said, let's look up how to make it. And we did, and he made a batch and it was unscented and we loved it. And we gave a couple bars to people to try to see what they thought. And they were like, can you make a lemon scented one? Can you make a lavender scented one? And then we got into the essential oils and it was just, it was so fun.
08:53
to learn all the things and all the properties and why lavender is so good, why lemon is so good. And we still do it now. So I just, always rave about the cold process Lysol because yes, it has some things to be careful of, but once you've made a couple of batches and you know your process, it's one of the simplest ways to improve your life. Yes. You get so many out of a batch.
09:22
You get like eight or 10 bars and so much more cost effective. And um yeah, you have to be careful with the lie, but like anything, it's a skill that you learn. then, you you use safety and you get the hang of it. And then, you know, you get this cost effective product that, you know, saves you money. You can share with family and friends. It's really wonderful. And it's satisfying, you know, you.
09:46
You make that soap, you use that soap, and I don't know about you, but I just get this bubble of happiness in my chest that we can do this, that we did this, that we use it, that it's good for us. Yeah, my first bar of soap, I couldn't believe it. There was no soap there, and then I made soap. It's something that you think you can only get in stores, and I made it. It's such a neat thing to know that you can do those kinds of things. There's such a sense of...
10:13
Accomplishment and pride when you create something with your own hands and it has like a different feel to it Because you had a hand in it and you created it and it's just yeah Really nice. Humans are really skilled really special creatures. We are very good once we set our minds to things. Yes. Yeah Okay, so uh I'm gonna bring up the fact that your place is called open road ranch not open road farm. Oh,
10:40
I have been told by a few people that typically a ranch is a property to the west of the Mississippi and a farm uh is a place to the east of the Mississippi. So is there a reason that you named it ranch? We like alliteration. Okay. So it just sounded nice. And actually we looked up ranch versus farm just to make sure we were being technically accurate because I didn't quite know the difference either. And I actually had not heard that.
11:09
ah But my understanding was that a ranch was primarily livestock based uh and a farm could be produce or uh livestock. So a farm could be a ranch, but a ranch couldn't be a farm kind of thing. And I don't know if that's right. This is probably just on Google. uh But we are livestock only and it sounded nice.
11:36
Yes, we went with ranch, but I often call us a farm too. feel like in a lot of ways they're interchangeable and in a lot of ways I'm sure they're quite different. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I don't have an opinion on this at all, but my thought before a couple of people told me about the West versus East of the Mississippi thing, my thought has always been if it's a farm, it's more produce. If it's a ranch, it's more livestock. So I'm in the same boat as you. Yeah. Interesting.
12:05
So do you have lots of pigs? I wish I had more. um Well, it's always changing as some go to the butcher and then we get new piglets. last couple of weeks ago, we took five of our big pigs in and so now we have five um left. So usually I do batches of about 10 at a time. um And then once the littles start getting big, then we'll get some more littles in so we can kind of.
12:32
face it out so we're quite a small farm um and so we're still growing our avenues for selling and we're still getting freezers and things like that so that felt like a really manageable uh amount to be able to have enough to sell um without gaps and to be able to manage here from our little farm and our little farm store um but we do hope to grow and I've just absolutely fallen in love with pigs so I love tons of pigs and um
13:02
The sheep we rotationally graze as well, so that takes some thought with how many acres we have and how many can rotationally graze on the pasture and have enough to eat and have that be beneficial for the land and the soil um to not stretch that. uh And so it's just kind of working out um between the sheep and the pigs what's best for the animals and the land and how much we can feed and how we can grow.
13:29
So right now we have five um red wattle Berkshire crosses for hogs and we have seven sheep. Some are south down and some are heritage breed called Jacobs. I'm 19 Langhans. I just kind of hang out. Are the sheep the hair sheep or are they the wool sheep? They are wool sheep. Okay. I don't know the names of the breeds well enough to go, oh yeah, that's a hair sheep or oh yeah, that's a wool sheep. I'm not up to date on my.
13:59
My shape breeds. We have 18 or 19 chickens. Last I was told we have 19, but there may have been one that decided to on alive itself. I'm not sure. Oh no. Are you getting eggs? Are they layers or? Yeah. They're the ISA brown breed. Yep. And we have a light in their coop. So they lay during the winter. Oh good. There's nothing like a farm fresh egg.
14:26
So I missed them during their sabbatical. Yeah, we're actually swimming in eggs right now because the weather's been so cold. People haven't been making the journey out to our place to pick up eggs from the farm stand. And I'm glad we're talking about this because after I'm done talking with you, I need to post on Facebook and be like, there's eggs and it's warming up outside. Please come buy eggs. Please. Yeah. We need you to take our eggs. Yeah, exactly.
14:53
um My husband brought in, think, eight dozen from the farm stand a week or so ago because they were getting to the point where we need to get them eaten up. And I was so excited because as anyone who raises chickens for laying eggs knows, you can't really, well, you can hard boil a fresh egg, but it doesn't peel very easily. You lose about a quarter of the egg white.
15:19
And he brought in all these eggs and I was like, yes, I can make egg salad again. Yeah. Oh yum, that sounds good. We made that in a while. Yeah. So I've had, I've had egg salad like three times in last two weeks. I'm probably going to do it again today because I really like egg salad. And I hadn't had an egg salad sandwich in a year because people were just buying the eggs before there was any time for them to be over two weeks old. Yeah. Yep. Eggs are like gold.
15:47
Yep. I love having chickens mostly because I feel like we're helping our community. sell our eggs for $5 a dozen. I don't know what eggs cost at the store now because I haven't bought eggs at the store in almost a year, but there for a while eggs were really freaking expensive and we were still selling our eggs at $5 a dozen. So we were trying to help and I'm a big believer in help where you can. Uh, yeah.
16:17
Yeah, yeah. That little touch point, that little access to food, even if it's just a dozen eggs, well, you know, connect someone to the farm and the farmer and kind of open doors, I hope. Yes. And the other thing that's interesting, and I don't mean to make the interview about me, but we're talking about stuff I actually know about. Usually I'm talking to people and they're like, we're raising horses. And I'm like, I don't know anything about horses. Let me ask you a ton of questions. In the spring and summer and fall,
16:46
when people come by to get eggs and they've never been here before. I watch them get out of their vehicle and they're kind of tight in the shoulders when they step out of the vehicle. And then they kind of stop and look around and I watch their shoulders just relax. And I'm like, oh my God, our property, just being on the property helps people. And it just makes me so happy. Yeah. A lot of people don't have access to, of course, like
17:13
you know, being around pigs or sheep or chickens or anything like that. I just, or just even out, you know, in the quiet and the fresh air and green grass and all that stuff. So it's just, it's a really nice, I absolutely know what you mean. Yeah. It's really fun when you get to observe people quietly, like they don't know what you're noticing. Because if I said to them, did you have a rough day? They would look at me like I was crazy. Yeah.
17:42
But you can see on someone that they've had a very stressful day and you can just watch it kind of melt from their shoulders down to their fingertips when they are able to take that long deep breath of fresh air. Yes. I try not to take that for granted. because I grew up in the city and I've only been living out in the country and on the farm for a little bit. I mean, when I see the sunrise or sunset or, you know, the pigs are running around as God intended and...
18:07
all of that, like I just try to pause and think like what a gift it is to be able to see pigs out our window and you know, sheep and these sunrises and sunsets and you know, this fresh air and all these things that like some people might not be able to have every day and how much that, how good that might feel and yeah. So what, what pushed you to do this because you said you're, you're not, this is two years in.
18:35
So what made you decide to do this? I read a lot of Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin and was just really moved by their works. I think it was just a curiosity about where my food came from, which can, you know, uh results in all sorts of things like either just, you know, buying organic or going to a farmer's market. And for me, it manifested in becoming a farmer. ah
19:05
I just, yeah, I started to really think about and care about where my food came from. I was a vegetarian for 20 years and a vegan for three years. And now I raise animals and take them to the butcher. And so it's quite the leap, but I feel like there's a lot of fear of propaganda when it comes to veganisms and a lot of food choices. And I think it's because we are so disconnected from our food.
19:34
today that when you hear things or see these videos or see these things on social media, um if you don't have experience with it yourself, it's easy to believe those things or to not understand. so I think it just sometimes it takes, it's maybe over simplistic, but it's a simple act of like knowing your farmer or coming onto the farm and seeing how their animals are raised um to make that connection back. um
20:01
And with vegetarianism and veganism a lot, uh it's fear-based. um And I had gone the route of, I don't want anything to do with this. And so I just cut it out of my diet and out of my life. But then it was a little bit later on in life when I started reading Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin.
20:21
that I started to see that there's a different way. Like you can have meat and it can be ethical and responsible and actually good for you and good for the earth. And I feel like a lot of times that wasn't always portrayed, at least in what I was seeing uh with that sort of diet and lifestyle choice. so, yeah, I feel like if people only knew that or were able to have access to their farm or to their food, they could see that there's a different way um
20:50
to eat meat and ethically and good for the land and good for the animals and good for us. And so part of why I love to do this is the education around that. I invite people come to our farm, see how we raise our animals, see the good lives that they live. And that makes me feel good about eating our meat is because I know how it was raised. know the life it had. And I feel very proud of being a part of that. And I hope to educate people about that and share that with people. I love it. I love it, Julie. oh
21:20
Are you a reader of the Old Farmer's Almanac? Oh, I have one. found it in the thrift store and I have not read it. Okay, well, it's not an it. It's a publication and they come out every year. Yes. And there was a rumor going around that the Old Farmer's Almanac was going out of print. It is not the Farmer's Almanac. There are two different Almanacs. The Farmer's Almanac went out of print with this year's
21:50
last one. The old farmer's almanac is still alive and kicking and doing really well. And if you want to, you will learn a whole lot of things about farming and ranching and growing produce and growing animals. It's only like $10 to buy a copy and it's for the entire year. Like it's one little publication for the entire year. And the thing that I love about it is that
22:21
It has like days for everything like this is a good day to wean calves or this is a good day to plant seedlings and It will take you all year to get through it. It's over 100 pages
22:36
But anyway, I was just curious if you were a devotee, because a lot of the people I talk to, they're like, oh yeah, I read the farmer's almanac every spring and I mark down what the days are for the things I'm going to be doing, blah, blah, blah. OK, it sounds like I would love it. I am going to open it up. Yeah, it's very fun. I can't remember the name of the website. I think it's just farmer's almanac, but I would have to look it up. It'll be in the show notes.
23:05
Hi, what else can I ask you? You said that your pigs are red wattle and what? Berkshire crosses. So those are both heritage breeds. A red wattle is a lard breed, which I'm still learning about. um But I believe it just has that really good fatty marbling and really good taste. Yeah, and they're like furry, right?
23:34
Oh yes, so our hogs have actually been sleeping outside. If it's above 10 degrees, I would say, and you know, windless night, I'll come out in the morning and we have a big brown hay bale out there for them to grab hay from and they can stuff their huts or they can hang out there. And they'll just be laying outside under the, you know, under the moonlight in their hay pile all night. They're very tough because they you know, raised outside and they have thick fur. So yeah.
24:04
Yeah, people think that pigs don't have fur, but a lot of them do. Yes. And it's interesting to depend on the breed we've had, like durochs and yorks and, all different kinds. And the Berkshire breeds will have, yeah, quite a lot of hair and it does help them, you know, be pasture animals. Yeah. I know just a little bit about the red waddles because I knew people who had them and they're, aren't they kind of friendly? Aren't they pretty nicely demeanored as it were?
24:34
Yes, they are. mean, and I think that's too, most of the pigs we've had have been really friendly demeanor just because we have so much contact with them. You know, we're out there two, three times a day. Um, you know, they have that one-on-one interaction and, and I sit and talk to them and, know, I'm friendly with them. So I think you get out of them, what you put into them. And so I think like the more contact you have with them, um, they'll, they'll be friendly, but all the breeds we've had, we've had durochs and Yorks and a hundred percent Berkshires. We've had a ham.
25:02
Hampshire and they've all been, you know, so friendly. em Yeah, I think pigs are just very quite social and curious and friendly creatures um in general. yeah. And the sheep, are they, I don't know anything about sheep. Are sheep friendly or they just kind of aloof? uh Not compared to the pigs. They're quite aloof. So they're just more skittish around. And again, it's what you put into them. So, um you know, we've had sheep
25:29
where, you know, we're out there, they do need less, um I would say, day-to-day care than the pigs, especially in the summer. ah You know, you're not feeding them like you are twice a day with the hogs, and they're just rotating on the pastures, and you just need to make sure they have water. So there's a little bit less contact there, but we have had sheep.
25:50
where we're around them often and they get to know us. But even still, even when they know us quite well and we spend a lot of time with them, they're just generally tend to be a little bit more skittish. And the pigs, they're just so curious. They'll run out to the road when people walk by or a tractor goes by. They're just very, very curious and social animals. So I'm very smart. Okay, cool. So what would you say if you made a new friend at
26:19
the feed mill or the library or some place where people actually talk to each other. And that new friend said, I really would like to buy a couple acres. How should I start my homestead or my little tiny farm? What would you say to them? Oh boy, that's a million dollar question. It sure is. It almost reminds me of that joke. If you're a farmer, how do you get a million dollars start with 2 million? Yes. It's because I
26:49
I uh there can be oftentimes this romantic idea, which absolutely, this is like incredibly romantic way of living, but there's also hard realities too, especially, I feel like there's not a lot of conversations around maybe finance all the times and how much it costs uh to start a farm, to run a farm. um And uh there's those realities. uh
27:12
And I would say too that you don't need to own land to start a farm because I was looking to buy land for quite a while before I had this opportunity to rent land here. And so I know a lot of successful farms that start small and you can just rent land and kind of get your feet wet. I would also say that farmers are by far the friendliest, most um sharing folks with their knowledge and with their time.
27:39
So before I began farming, I spent a couple of years just emailing and reaching out to farmers coming out to their farm and they would stop their busy days and take time to walk me around and answer my questions. And I would happily do that for anyone now. So if you're curious about farming, reach out to someone who is uh already doing it and ask them questions. And I'm sure there'll be an open book and farmers wanna help other farmers and...
28:06
Um, because they know how important it is for farms to keep going and how important it is for people to have access to real fresh food. Um, so I would say talk to a farmer for sure. Yeah, me too. I, I would, I really kind of wished before we moved here in 2020 that I had had someone who knew more than I did about what we were doing. I love what we're doing. are a 3.1 acre property.
28:36
And we have our big old garden and we have our chickens and we have our barn cats and we have our dog. That is, that is it. But I didn't, I don't know why I didn't think of it, but I didn't realize we were going to have to buy a small tractor because our driveway is long. at the least we needed to be able to plow our driveway. Didn't, didn't think about that. That a new tractor is not inexpensive.
29:03
And it took us three and a half years to pay it off. So we didn't know that we would need that. And we didn't realize that we had, I mean, we realized we were buying a place with a humongous pole barn, but we didn't think about the fact that there might be something wrong with something in the pole barn. there is, there is one support beam, but it's not on in the ceiling. It's along the wall that is starting to buckle.
29:32
And we're going to have to have somebody come in and help us fix that because if that barn goes down, that takes out all of our vehicles, our tractor. My husband's as we call it workshop, but really it's a bench with a bunch of tools on it. We can't have the pole barn buckle because of the pole barn buckles, we lose a lot of important things. So there are, there are all kinds of small things, but they're humongous things if they go wrong. Yeah.
30:02
that you don't know to ask about or think about because you don't know. Yes, exactly. There's so many things in a day that you are responsible for, like that you can't possibly, you know, imagine like an animal gets sick or something happens with your fencing or, you know, your trailer pops a tire, things like that, you know, that you're all responsible for and that all adds up and it's all.
30:29
needs to be working for the farm to work. And so you have to be role with those things. And yeah, is an everyday education for at least the first five years. Oh, yeah. That's one of my favorite things about farming is I always say like, feel like I learned something new or multiple things. Like every single day. I'm just and I love learning. And so I just there and I feel like it will be endless my whole life. I feel like I will be learning something new every day. Well,
30:57
The dumbest thing I've learned so far in the last 15 years because we were actually growing food on the city lot we lived on before we moved here is Brussels sprout plants are very finicky. If you throw them, if you throw the seeds somewhere and basically forget about them, you might actually get really good Brussels sprouts. But if you throw Brussels sprout seeds in a spot and baby them and tend to them and nurture them, you don't get any Brussels sprouts.
31:26
I have been trying to grow Brussels sprouts for oh, 15, 20 years now. And the one year that we just kind of threw a couple of seeds down and forgot where we put them, we had the most beautiful, huge Brussels sprouts for eating. Since then cannot grow Brussels sprouts to save my life. So the dumbest things can be the most impactful on you because I really like roasted Brussels sprouts, but I only like the ones I grew. So that has been.
31:54
That has been terribly frustrating for me. And my husband asked me the other day, he do you want me to throw in some Brussels sprouts plants? And I was like, no. No, I do not because I don't want to be disappointed in August when there's no Brussels sprouts to eat, but there's some really pretty leaves on it. Yes. You have to have a lot of grace with yourself. You know, it's easy to focus on the things that you messed up or you did wrong. um Cause it's also important, but then it's, it's nice to remember the things that just.
32:22
worked out that you didn't think would or the things that you did right and the things you are learning. Yeah. Like I said, dumbest thing ever. Cause it's no skin off my nose that we can't seem to grow a good Brussels sprout here. I don't know why I have looked up all the things and I'm like, I don't know what we're doing wrong, but I give up. no big deal. As long as the chickens survive the winter and we have eggs, am all good. right, Julie, this was so much fun. And I feel like I talked a lot, but
32:51
It was really fun to actually talk about this place too. I don't do it very often. Where can people find you? uh They can find us at our website is um www.openroadranch.com. And I'm actually working um on a little revamp right now of our website. So that'll change one day. And then um also we have Facebook and Instagram, but this is relationship I really struggle with and, and, uh
33:19
but I'm trying to be present on social media and see it for the good. uh So we're at Open Road Ranch um on Facebook and Instagram. And then, yeah, we're in Greenbush, so if anyone is local, they are welcome to stop by our farm store or just call or email if they wanna come get anything from us, and we're here. Fabulous. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.
33:48
And if you like this podcast, you should go listen to grit and grace and the heartland women in agriculture. Cause that's my second podcast. started a little over a month ago with a cohost Leah. She's clear Creek ranch mom on Facebook. And we are having such a good time with the fact that 2026 is the year, the international year of the woman farmer. thank you again, Julie. I appreciate your time so much.
34:18
Thank you, I really enjoyed talking to you and I appreciate your time as well. Have a great day. You too, thank you.