A Tiny Homestead

Wholesome Meadow Farms

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Today I'm talking with Mimi at Wholesome Meadow Farms.

 

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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 Mimi at Wholesome Meadow Farms in Florida. Good morning, Mimi. How are you? Good morning. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Florida? It's nice. It's fall weather  and it's  not hot. It's really nice and cool.

00:27

So we're really excited about the  new weather right now.  I'm in Minnesota and it is as gray as it can possibly be and it is cold and they're saying rain today. Well, it is still sunshine in Florida.  It's really nice at the farm with the nice cool weather coming in. It makes it much easier to work on the farm for sure. Oh, it always does. We love cool days in Minnesota in the summer because in the summer,

00:57

It can get as hot as it gets in Florida and it can be just as muggy as it gets in Florida. So I understand what you're saying. um So when you say it's cool, like how cool is it there? 70,  65 to 70 right now. Okay. Well, we have had frost every morning for the last three mornings. So my definition of cool is a little bit colder than yours. Yes.  Yes.

01:23

But I'm not mad about it. Fall is my favorite season. So I am tickled that we in mid fall. It's been beautiful.  All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and wholesome whatever the heck it is. I forget the name because I've been sick. I'm sorry. Tell me about your place.  No problem.  started the place. I grew up in a farm back home and I really wanted to go back into the farm. We started uh a little homestead.

01:52

but the region in Vernon and it's about 11 acres  and we have a few animals. have goats, we have a lot of chickens and we do have  some pigs and we're growing, you know, steadily growing  our flock and we're excited about it because it's pretty flat uh area. It has different, um we kind of parsing in our four  areas region so we can move our flock.

02:22

around ah and then we also putting  on a putting on one of the lot a house there so we're excited about that to be permanently at the farm and  operating so  it's uh that's overall uh the farm we also building a pond  so that we can have our ducks  and  other you know animals being able to enjoy a pond as well.

02:50

Very nice. So what made you want to get into this? Because I grew up on a farm, I wanted to always go back to that root and being able to raise my own animals and being able to grow vegetables or food source in a natural way like it used to be, know, non-GMO, pasture-raised animals so that

03:19

we have that wholesomeness and then being able to have more of um a source of food that  we love raising and being able to. uh

03:36

offer that same type of uh experience to other people too and enjoy a natural made food source. oh so  I'm glad that you mentioned that because not everyone who has a homestead or a farm sells their products that they produce from the farm. But is that was that the plan when you started this?  Yes and no. We also have uh some of our people, the people I know in community

04:06

They also expressed the want to have naturally, you know,  a  reliable food. So we started  selling  our uh products to some friends and family and then expanding now to the other market. So that's how it falls from,  you know,  being able to share the things that we oh

04:35

we raise  and then trying to expand it to  a bigger market right now.  Okay. So that leads me to my next question. Do people come to your place to buy your produce and your other products or do you sell it like a farmer's market or are you looking to get into grocery stores?  Some people do come at the farm to pick up the  items. I also bring them to some farm swap.

05:03

and we're trying to also  get them to farmers market. Okay, awesome.  Awesome. So how long have you been doing it? About a year now.  We've been  doing the farm.  We're  in our  second year going in. Okay, do you love it? Yes. Yes.

05:29

It's  like, you know, it brings me back to my childhood where, you know, we do chores, we attend the land and we attend to the animals. So it's basically bringing back to our childhood. Yeah. And you're not the first person to tell me that. And the thing that comes up a lot on this podcast  is memories and childhood and play. And  I am not saying that homesteading is just playing.

05:59

because it's not, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work, it's a lot of work. But the reward is to be able to say, I pour my, you know,  all my energy into this and I'm able to have a food that I know where it came from. uh That's the reward. And then being able to just have something to do and enjoy uh building, enjoy attending to the animals, all that is part of the experience.

06:28

It's not easy. It's a lot of work, but it's rewarding.  it's  okay. The way that I think about it is when we were kids, my sister and my brother and I,  my dad had a garden and we would go out and help weed and we would help harvest the food. And my mom would try to make it a game, you know, so we felt like we were playing. She'd be like, whoever picks the most green beans  gets a happy meal at McDonald's the next time we go shopping or something. And.

06:58

I'm 56, so most people know that memory who are over 50.  And uh the other thing about the play part is that when we were little, we used to pretend to raise animals. We used to have the little play school farm with the little horse and the little cow.  And I feel like a lot of us who are older, because you're not, you're not as old as I am, but a lot of us over 40, we have taken the things that we were playing at when we were little and we have turned them into our life.

07:28

Yes.  So that's where the play part comes in because you can have a job where it feels like you're playing. Corporate jobs don't allow for that, but homesteading sure does. Yes, it does. And that's the reason really is to, you know, carrying into retirement and have that mindset of you grew up in a farm and then you end up at the farm at the end of your life. So that's a really good circle, oh know, circle back to your childhood.

07:57

It's a fantastic through line. Yes, it is.  Okay. So did I see that you guys do 3D printing too? Yes, we do 3D printing as well.  We're venturing in that we're  excited about it to be able to offer  trinkets for the kids and also little parts. You know, there's a lot of things on the farm that breaks  and it's really hard to get part replacements. So we're also trying to make sure that we can  make

08:27

those items um and then other and then share it with others. So there are 3D printing um venture. It's both for being able to offer to kids and  little trinkets and have little farm animal. We're printing little farm animals right now and then uh at the same time being able to print little  parts for that you can use and replace in the farm and the different equipment.

08:55

So you are doing something very old fashioned with your homestead and something very newfangled with your 3D printing business. Yes,  yes. Old fashioned mixed with the,  you know, new age technology. Do you find yourself just baffled by that sometimes?

09:14

Yes. Yes, it is exciting to be able to do that.  yeah,  we like the mix. Yeah, it's like my husband is the gardener. um am not the gardener. I used to be. I don't love it as much as he does. So he's the gardener.  I'm the one that does the podcasts and the marketing, which is all computer-based stuff. And I said to him one time, said, isn't it amazing how we're using all this  new,  quote unquote, technology?

09:44

to promote the old fashioned thing that we love to do.  And he said, well, that's how it's always been. And I said, I don't think it's ever been quite as stark a contrast as it is right now. And be able to, I mean, use technology and then you reach a lot more people as well. So  we're in Florida, in Vernon, a small town with Facebook and these media,  we're able to share what we're doing in a bigger uh

10:13

you know,  forum and more people can enjoy what we  are doing. And that's where technology is really helpful to mix it with the old fashioned stuff. Yeah, for sure. And it's so much fun to see how it all knits together. I love it. I think it's great. um OK, so you said, tell me again what animals you have and then I will have questions. OK, we have boar goats.  We have

10:42

some cuny cuny pigs  and a variety of chickens.  We also have  guineas and quail. So goats, pigs, guineas, quail and chickens. So let's start with the goats.  Do you raise the goats for meat? Do you raise them for milk? What do you use them for? uh Raise for uh meat. Okay.

11:09

And is that just for your family or is there a demand for that where you live? There's a demand for that. uh It's both for us  and to be able to sell uh in our area or outside of our area. It depends on the distance of  where the people are coming to purchase the goat from us. Okay. And then my other question is I've never had goat meat. I've had venison, know, deer meat.  Is goat meat like venison or is it different?

11:40

It's a bit different. Oh, well, I've never had venison, so I cannot compare it, right? Okay. But goat meat, it's like uh similar to lamb. I don't know if you had lamb. I love lamb,  Okay, awesome. Because I keep telling my husband we should find somebody who sells goat meat here in Minnesota.  And it's not as common as you would think it would be because we could raise a whole lot of goats if we had more land, but we don't.  So um I'm on the look-

12:09

out for goat meat. And my friends raise goats, but they raise dairy goats. they love them. I mean, once we have, because we're starting to raise the flock, once we have, we process them, we definitely can touch base with you and you can buy some goat meat from us.

12:32

Can you ship it from Florida to here? I have to double check that. We haven't reached that part of our journey yet. Okay. So we'll definitely look into it. Okay. Well, I was going to say my friend loves her goats as much as I love my dog. So the idea of being like,  Hey, could we buy some goat meat from you? Would not fly very well. I don't think. um Okay. And then you have pigs  and same thing just for meat. Yes.

13:01

Yeah, and you sell that too? Yes, that's the plan. Right now the pigs are small.  We're raising  three of them  and  we're going to breed them and their babies are we're going to harvest. And how long from baby to harvest? I have to double check that. I don't remember.  I'll have to get back to you on that one.

13:28

Okay,  I'm thinking it's at least a summer and a fall, but it might be a whole year. can't remember either. And then your  chickens, I'm assuming you're selling eggs? Yes, lots of eggs. And  we're trying to do  a  variety of egg colors, which is really fun to do the variety of egg colors. So  that's why we have uh quite a bit of different chicken breed in order to do uh

13:58

the fun colors for our customers. The rainbow doesn't.  Yes.  Yes.  And do you sell eggs for hatching for people or not? Yes, we do that as well. You can buy hatching eggs  or, uh you know, regular eggs to consume.  Nice. So you've got the, the, the ladies are working hard for you is what you're telling me. Yes, they are. Yes, they are.

14:24

Good. Our chickens  are still laying only because we put a  light in our coop for the winter because otherwise they would be on vacation until April.  Yeah, I understand that. And we have a lot of uh like  the biggest flock we have is Bart Rock. They lay really good eggs.  And then we have some some other variety with brown eggs laying and we're working on the other colors as well.

14:54

Yes, and  I would bet you're probably getting the same response that we get. People love our eggs because they actually taste like eggs.  People come to buy eggs for most because they actually feel like they're eating eggs, not something that is very bland that they got at the grocery store. Yeah, we get the same feedback,  especially when they find a double yolk egg.  You know, some of our customers get really excited and they share that.

15:20

And the brightness of the egg color, the yolk is so much,  you know,  the yellow color, the brightness,  they're really excited about that. So the  ones in the supermarket, they're a little bit more pale. So definitely the customers are excited about having the bright yellow eggs.  Yes,  I understand completely. We went without em our own chicken eggs all last winter.

15:51

And I finally, we were going to get chickens in May and I finally looked at my husband in February. said, can we please get chickens again sooner? said, I can't handle this. store bought eggs are gross.  He  was like, you're so spoiled. And I was like, honey,  I said, I'm not spoiled. It's just that I know that the nutritional content of our chickens eggs has got to be better than what we're buying at the store. And he was like, yes, we can get chickens again. Yes. oh I totally agree. The taste is different as well.

16:21

Yeah, and the texture too. It's so weird.  Okay, and then the guineas. Do you have the guineas to...  I know people use guineas to kind of keep predators at bay because they're really loud, but why do you have guineas? For that, it  keeps the predators at bay and  we call them the tick patrol.

16:48

making sure that they keep the land all nice and neat for us. We also harvest them. Like I personally love meat uh to eat them. I know it's not really popular uh to do that, but we do harvest them for their meat. Is the meat like a dark meat or is it what's it like? It's a dark meat. It's more of a gamey  meat, but it tastes really good. Okay.

17:17

Yeah, we do have some customers in Florida because a lot of people from Florida are from the island, you know, uh so they are used to eating guineas and  that's,  you know, the customer base. Awesome. So you already had a, you already had a demand for it, which is fantastic. um And what about Guinea eggs? I don't know anything about guineas. they lay an egg a day in the summertime too, or how does that work? Yes, they do lay eggs. uh Similar to

17:46

The chickens, yes. You can also eat the Guinea eggs. Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask. I mean, the only eggs I've ever eaten are chicken eggs. I've had the opportunity to duck eggs and they keep saying I'm gonna do it and I don't. Is the texture on eggs from birds like guineas and ducks and chickens, is it kind of just the same thing or are they different? They're similar, but the duck eggs are more creamy.

18:16

texture. Okay. It's a little bit more thick than the chicken. That's what my experience is. We do have some ducks as well. I forgot to mention that. Oh, that's okay. That's okay. So that's for the, you know, you did mention it because you said you're going to have a pond. You're putting in a pond. Yes, the pond is there and then we have some of the ducks. love it because we had a big rain event and now the pond, the water

18:46

uh raised up. So the ducks are really enjoying the pond right now. Happy ducks is a good thing. Okay, so I was looking at your Facebook page and you said that you're having a house put on that land in December, is that right? Yes. Okay, so what happens to where you're living now?  Oh, it's still gonna be there. I just going back and forth. uh

19:12

And we have a more permanent place to spend the weekend and spend more time at the farm. oh All right. So  is it, I don't want to be nosy, but I'm always curious. My parents put in a pre-fabricated home  on land that my dad had wanted forever in Maine.  And  it's a family lot of land. So he had first dibs and he was like, why yes, yes, I do want that.  And

19:41

You would never know that this was a prefabricated house. mean, it came in in two halves and the people that brought it put it together. It is adorable. I love their house. So  how you're doing it, or is it going to be like a mobile home style or how are you doing it? No, like, like you just described,  you will not know if it's a,  it's a cute, it's a cute model. uh We're excited  to have it on the farm. I'm coming up soon.

20:12

I bet in Florida you can do things like that in December. If we tried to do something like that here in Minnesota,  no one knows whether anyone's going to be able to drive a vehicle  in December on a road with a humongous half a house on it. Yeah. We don't have that problem in Florida. No,  no.  I can't even imagine. My parents had it brought in,  I think it was April and they were a little nervous about it because

20:40

It was all scheduled and they were ready. They were ready to have it put together and get things moved into it.  And my mom said to me about two weeks beforehand, she says,  pray it doesn't snow.

20:54

And it didn't  and they love it so much.  is, my dad is 83 and my mom is 80 and they've been living there for about 12 years and they love it so  much. Like every time my mom talks about her voice just rings. It's so fun.  That's fun.  So what do you have on your farm?

21:19

We have chickens  and  a watchdog and two barn cats right now. But in the summertime, we have a 100 foot by 150 foot  farm to market garden. Okay. That's great. So we're more about produce than we are about animals.  And, that may change. We're, we're flirting with the idea and that's about as far as it's gone  of getting uh more chickens and, getting the, the dual.

21:48

purpose chickens, the layers and the meat chickens,  and starting to focus a little bit more on that on top of the produce because it's been terrible growing weather here for the last two summers.  And we really do need to have a way to have this place kind of halfway support itself. So we've been  flirting real hard with chickens.

22:12

Well, we do a lot. mean, we do meat chickens. We really enjoy doing the meat chicken. My partner and I, we raised like 30 to 60 at a time last year. But this coming year, he has a big chart of all the raising we're going to do in the harvesting of the meat chicken. So it's really nice plan put together for next year. And then we have

22:41

There are two batches of turkeys as well planned for next year for harvesting. So meat, chicken and turkey we're going to be processing. We're targeting about a hundred meat, chickens and 50 turkeys for next year. So he has put a really nice plan together for us to be able to it next year. So we're excited.

23:08

I'm excited for you. That is, that is awesome. And the other reason we're talking about chickens and I don't know how many yet we haven't gotten up far  is this whole situation with the government being shut down and snap benefits not being um available starting tomorrow.  We've been doing a lot of talking here about this because  that's really scary.  I  really worry for the people who depend on.

23:38

those benefits. I  I was on WIC when my daughter was born back in 1989.  And  the peanut butter and the milk really helped because I was a nursing mom. And  nursing moms don't want to be making four course meals. They want to eat something quick and nurse their baby.  And  it's just, it's so concerning. And  I wish we had

24:06

extra to give to people right now and we don't.  And if we were raising chickens and we had a good garden at least we could help more you know. Yes I understand yeah definitely I mean it is  it is it's not hard to do  if you want to do uh the meat chicken but you have to be very uh regimented and on a really good schedule.  Yeah because they can't wait.

24:33

That's right.  They take about eight weeks to  grow  until harvest time. And if past that,  you're going to get in trouble. Some of them will die, but you have to be very attentive with them. Yeah. And the reason they'll die is because they grow so fast, they get too heavy and their feet can't support them. Isn't that right? That is correct.  Chunky chickens.  Chunky chickens. grow three times, eight weeks each and then you harvest.

25:03

We did buy  some equipment to help us  with our harvest  to make it much easier. We have a really nice plucker now that can uh we can plug about five chickens at the time. And we have a scalder that can keep the temperature uh consistent throughout the. Throughout the slaughtering period, so uh this is going to make it much easier for us to.

25:32

to harvest our chickens next year. Yeah, my dad used to say, if you take care of your tools, your tools will take care of you.  And then  he would put on the addendum that it's nice to have those tools to start with.  That's why we invested in  the upgrade to help us be more efficient.

25:57

Yeah, because time is literally money. You know, when I was growing up, I would hear time is money and I didn't quite  understand it the way that I do now. um But it is the less time you spend working on something, the more money you make. Yes. And that's where technology helps, right? We had the discussion earlier about how we, how we get technology into our old school approach. So that's how we're mixing it up. Yup. But.

26:27

The other thing that's really nice about this lifestyle is if you want to go out and just watch your chickens be chickens and enjoy it and listen to them talk to each other, that's a really good use of your time. While you drink a cup of coffee and walking the pasture, And planning next year's chicken business. Yeah, that's exciting, yeah.

26:51

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the first crappy weather weekend we get here because we've had really nice weekends this fall.  And if it is nice outside, my husband is outside. So I'm looking forward to the first really bitter cold,  maybe flurrying, maybe sleeting weekend where he really needs to be inside so we can sit down and start writing down plans because that's my favorite part of fall is that first terrible weekend.

27:18

where it's nice and cozy in the house and you've got a loaf of bread baking and you're sitting there smelling the bread baking and drinking coffee. You got a notebook at the island and you're writing down plans.  And that's what my partner did. Literally when it's raining outside, he's starting to put the plan together for next year. So those are the bad weather days is to do planning.  Yeah, that's what winter is for in Minnesota. I swear. Make some good soup, have some good bread and dream.

27:48

Yes, because when it's good outside and nice, you want to be outside and taking care of the animals and taking care of the land. Yes, and making sure the tomatoes are pruned so they don't get blight and they don't die. That's one of the things we have to do here. Okay, so Mimi, where can people find you online? Well, at our Wholesome Meadow Farm Facebook page.

28:13

We're working on our website, but it's not there yet. As soon as it's available, we'll post it on our Facebook page so we can  have people  enjoy the farm even more through our website. Yes,  absolutely. Websites are so important for small businesses. So keep working on that and get that ready  and I'll be excited to see it. um As always, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com and please check out my Patreon, patreon.com.

28:43

slash a tiny homestead. I'm so original. Everything is a tiny homestead.  All right, Mimi, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. was really,  the conversation was really great. I appreciate it.  Have a great rest of your day. You too. Bye. Bye.

 

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A Tiny HomesteadBy Mary E Lewis