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Cultinary Family Farms

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Inhoud geleverd door Mary E Lewis. Alle podcastinhoud, inclusief afleveringen, afbeeldingen en podcastbeschrijvingen, wordt rechtstreeks geüpload en geleverd door Mary E Lewis of hun podcastplatformpartner. Als u denkt dat iemand uw auteursrechtelijk beschermde werk zonder uw toestemming gebruikt, kunt u het hier beschreven proces https://nl.player.fm/legal volgen.

Today I'm talking with Eric at Cultinary Family Farms. You can also follow on Facebook.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Eric at Cultinary Family Farms. Good morning, Eric. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing great. And you? I'm good. You're in New Jersey? Yeah. While we're in Jersey, we have to say South Jersey, Central Jersey, or North Jersey. So we are in South Jersey, right by Philly.

00:30
Okay, cool. I'm in Minnesota, if you didn't know, so I'm not going to sound like you and you're not going to sound like me and that's what makes the world go round. And I'm from Montreal, so I have a double accent. I'm not hearing a lot of the Montreal, I'm hearing more of the New Jersey, but either way it's all good with me. All right. So, tell me about yourself and what you guys do at the farm. Well, it all started in Quebec when we lived there. I have a passion with...

00:56
garlic so I started garlic you know I said you know I'll try farming garlic for fun I started really small and I failed miserably and then that got me like a kick just to try again and and then you know I rented a little lot and then we started planning and it went really well so it got me you know what I'll do it bigger so we sold where we were we bought a little land with a house and we started

01:25
farming there, starting getting animals and everything. So starting to do in like, you know, people would come to the house and buy her honey, buy her, you know, garlic, eggs and everything. And then when I moved here, since I was a brand new immigrant, it took me about 16 months to get my green card. So I didn't want to wait, you know, because it was, so I opened up my farm again here in Morristown.

01:51
So I knocked on everybody's door. I was looking for vacant lot for farmland and everything. I got turned down for like six months and then someone answered one of our ads and said, hey, you know, I have a land. It's not ready, but hey, if you wanna rent it, go ahead. So I started with smaller tools. I pulled out all the tree. There was about 10,000 trees on it. So I started by myself and I removed all the trees, all the rocks, got a beat up tractor. We have a.

02:19
hashtag that's called curse tractor because everything happens right now. I'm working on my tractor as we speak. And, uh, so we started with that, you know, so it's like a second year. We're heading into our third year. So we, last year we harvested about 45,000 cloves that I planted by hand. And, uh, you know, we do a fast farmers market, we do food expos, we do a few things and now we started a home delivery. So it's the farmers market delivered to your door.

02:48
So that's what we're trying to do. And that's where we at today. If you put that in like a, in a ballpark real quick, that's pretty much what we do. That's awesome. And the more you talk, the more I'm hearing the French accent. You have a beautiful speaking voice. Thanks. Okay, so I had a couple of questions that are specific and then we can just kind of go from there. I saw that you sell black garlic. I freaking love black garlic. I had never tried it until a few years back. And...

03:17
I tried making it and it was an epic fail. I tried making it in a rice cooker and it did not work. So is there a trick to, well, number one, tell people what it is and then number two, is there a trick to making it at home? Well, yeah, the black garlic is a fermented regular garlic. So what you do is you really in a slow heat, you slowly cook your garlic to, depending on

03:47
what you use to cook it in. So it's you people try rice cooker, slow cooker, you can put it in your oven, you can bury it in the ground with you know, it's depending on where you at, you know, like so, so it becomes like a gummy bear in a way kind of like texture. And we actually cook it a little bit so it's harder and it's a bit drier so people can handle it with their hands and it's not sticky and you know, so that's what we do.

04:16
And it becomes like, it's crazy, the antioxidant and everything, it's the benefits for your health and the flavor. It's like it becomes that umami flavor.

04:33
I think it's like candy. Yeah, well, it's like a brain kind of tease in a way because you go through five steps. Well, the one we have, the one we make, I tried a few other ones that, you know, like we go to a store and it's really like watery and it's like mushy. It doesn't give you the same, but ours give you like five flavor steps. So it's kind of like for 10 seconds when you put the gummy in your, in your mouth, it becomes like a, like a brain teaser. Cause you go to like balsamic glaze flavoring.

05:03
It changes into caramelized onion. Then it'll go to a smoky, barbequey flavor. Then it'll go back to being really bitter and then garlicky. So all that within the, like the first 10 seconds of chewing the gummy. So that's, you know, that's what the fun about it is you see people's faces and everybody goes like, wow, exactly what you described. That's what my brain went through. And, and so you see, you tell people, you know what, hey, try it in a sandwich. Try it. I saw it in mine.

05:32
with my onions and I make cheese stick with them, you know, so it makes the cheese stick sweeter. But again, people put it in whatever they want, you know? So it's fun, you know, you see people, they come back. It's more expensive, but it takes so long to do it that, you know, it's kind of worth it. You know, it's a delicacy. It's like caviar, you know, so.

05:52
Yes, and I feel like people are in two camps with black garlic. They either love it or they won't ever try it again. It's hit or miss. See, people like or people don't. And there's people that don't like garlic to begin with. So you can't please everyone. But if people don't like garlic, they'll most likely probably like that because it doesn't have that big garlic taste and you don't have the after bread also. So it's a special candy.

06:21
Yeah, and it's really the way I used it was I made some well my husband makes french bread and so he made the the long baguette french breads and we put some actual fresh garlic on and some butter and then we smoosh some of the black garlic on top of that when it's warm and it was really yummy. Yeah it's good. So but if you don't want to give away the secrets on how to make it at home you don't have to but maybe you could tell me more.

06:48
You can, like I said, I failed miserably about like 50 times because it's, it's a, you know, you ha if you, if you're using like a regular rice cooker, if you're, if you're using like a slow roast cooker, you have to put water in it in a bowl. You have to keep it like hydrated because the humidity won't leave the same way. So you have to kind of keep some humidity in it. So it's, it's more like you will, you'll have to hit or miss until you find your perfect.

07:17
like a place to put it in. Because even if I tell you, well, I use this and that, you have to use your right temperature because it doesn't cook the same way as a rice cooker. You can try, a rice cooker works. I've succeeded with rice cookers, but it's, you know, you'll have to make sure you check every day, but then you can't open it every day. So you'll have to scrap a lot of garlic to see, you know, like the first day you see how it changed and then you keep it the next time you batch, you try for two days.

07:44
And then you try until you do that for about seven to 15 days, depending on how your cooker like, cause it's, it has to be on a keep warm. You can't cook it, you know? So it has to like the keep warm button. If you have that, if you don't have that, I suggest not trying it. And then for about 10 to 15 days, you try until you see what you like about it. And you also, if you're using a conventional like slow cooker rice cooker, you have to put water in a little cup to make sure it keeps high or else.

08:13
it'll become, you can make like black garlic powder because it's gonna burn it. So you won't have the sweetness to it, but you'll have the smoky barbecue flavor to it. So it's like to get the perfect ratio on it, it's really hard. So there's like different methods and then you can buy like really, really expensive tools to make it easier. But if you wanna do it at home, you can definitely do it. You can also put in your oven, but again, it's a lot of electricity.

08:44
and then you're gonna put your oven on hold for almost two weeks. So like I said, in the small rice cooker that has a keep warm on it, try to have something that's bigger so you can put a couple more and a little bit of cup of water with aluminum foil on it. You put some little holes just so it doesn't dry out. And like I said, it's hit or miss until you succeed. So like I said, I don't know.

09:08
all the brands of rice cookers, you know, like I bought maybe 17 just to try and then I found one that had that was cold enough. And then, you know, midway you can flip them all up and then you add some more water, you put it back, seal down, you put some towels on it so that it still breeds. So like I said, it's a you know, like it's not that I don't want to give the recipe that's it's just like I said, it's hit or miss just like planting garlic. Some people succeed every year, some people fail. And it's just put in the ground, you know, it's it's

09:38
simple as that. Okay, so the easiest way to get really good black garlic is to order it from your website. That's what I'm going to do because I'm not spending 14 days screwing around with this. We ship with US coast anywhere you want United States and like I said, it's way easier that way. Yeah, it takes me a long time anyway myself still so like it's because I sell it all peeled and I don't sell it as bulbs, you know, so I check.

10:05
every single last one of them, I peel every little last one of them just to make sure you have like when you open it up you don't have to work again. So what you do is you just you just eat it you know so it's all peeled it's already peeled for you and already put in the bag with our logos on it and we also sell pound bags for like usually restaurants and either that or four ounce bags. Okay cool.

10:30
Well, if I get a hankering for black garlic, I know where I'm going to and it's not the grocery store. So I just, I tried it with a small rice cooker and it just didn't work and I, I let it go. I didn't know about the water trick. So it all ended up in the trash, but boy, it smelled really good. Yeah, it does smell awesome. Because it released the, I don't know what the word is in English, but like ice and it releases it and it's really, really strong. But if you like garlic, it's, it's a pleasure.

11:00
to walk in the house to smell that. But not everybody likes that, but I love that. To me, when it smells that, it's like, wow, you know, it's success, you know? Oh yeah, I love walking into a house where people have been cooking. I just, it doesn't matter what it is they're cooking. It could be something I don't even like to eat, but the smell of people cooking from scratch is amazing. It's one of my favorite things on earth. Okay, so you said that you bought land and you grow garlic. What else do you use your land for?

11:29
Well, we have chickens, we have two goats, we had about 300 chickens last month but some predator came and sadly we lost everything but now I have another 60 something 70 chickens at the farm. So we sell eggs, we sell some duck eggs, we don't do anything with the goats, they're supposed to be protecting the chickens which they're not really.

11:51
But we grow watermelons, pumpkins, we have tomatoes, we have cherry tomatoes, we have a lot of different hot peppers, regular peppers. We also have some hybrid peppers that we tried this year. It's a brand new breed that doesn't exist. So a guy that I know in Pennsylvania is breeding new species. So they look like hot peppers. They look like they're going to throw you off your seat when you bite into them.

12:17
and they'll have that little taste of when you bite into a ghost pepper but without the heat. So it's kind of like crazy it tastes like sweet like perfume so it's you know we're trying new stuff people ask us to grow stuff and we grow it for them and like I said we also have uh we we did some onions we did some uh zucchini we we do like I said we do pretty much every every vegetable we

12:47
a lot of basil and some herbs. So that's pretty much it, decorative corn. We don't do edible corn. It's way too costly for a small farm like that to be able to succeed with that because you need a lot of electric fences, shotgun noises, and people like a lot of spray. So we don't use any spray or stuff like that. We grow organically

13:18
organic like sticker on it. So we try to keep it clean, try to keep it without pesticides and anything. So we haven't used any of that. So if you want to grow regular corn, it's really hard. Yeah. And it's not worth the bang for the buck because the buck never comes if you're small. Yeah. And then again, like I said, it's going to be eaten like that. Raccoons know exactly they say, I don't know if it's the smell or if it's the look at it, but they won't touch decorative corn.

13:47
but they will jump on the edible corn as soon as it starts growing. So like I said, deers, raccoons, rabbits, they know right away. So that's why if you don't have like trick fences and noises and, you know, like either pesticides or something that repels them, they won't last until they. So that's, that's what's really hard about it, you know? So, and then we don't want to start, you know, doing the sprays and stuff like that. So we, you know, we, we team up with Hunter Swarm and Cinnamon Sin and we

14:17
the people with their corn, which is the best white Jersey corn ever. So you've learned that the networking situation helps. Yeah, like I said, yeah, we team up with other businesses for our farmers market and our delivery form that we do. So we also have ratios as a barbecue sauce, award winning sauces from Jersey. We have hot honey. We have

14:42
some hot sauce rubs and we work with companies. We're going to be selling pork roll next week. Also, we're going to have some meat starting. We will be having pork roll hot dogs, pork roll kibalski and polished sausages. So, you know, people want to team up with us. You know, they, you know, we like to help out other small businesses and I think there's still enough room for everybody to grow.

15:09
and we try not to put anybody behind us. We try to put them beside us so we can all go forward together. Yes, cross promotion for businesses is amazing because it makes everybody look good and it makes everybody win. You said hot honey. Does that mean spicy honey? It's kind of like spicy, but not crazy. So it's got a kick, you know, like a bit of a hot sauce, but mixed with honey. So you got the sweet and spicy taste to it. So

15:39
Whatever you like, if you would just eat it like that on a toast, I don't think that would be anybody's personal best. But you put that on a pizza, you put that on a sandwich, you put that on a grilled cheese, it makes the food like better. Like it turns it into something that is like, wow, you know, like you have the sweetness, you have the hotness and the right balance into it with whatever you put it in, you know? So it's good, you know, like pepperoni pizza.

16:08
Hot honey is like the best combo in the world. I like also chicken cutlet, you know, like when you wanna dip your nuggets or whatever, you put a hot honey. It's, you know, it's a brand new thing. It's crazy on the market right now. So it's fun, you know, it's fun to see that. That's the best thing about foods because everybody's been making food since humans began. And if someone comes up with something new, everybody wants to try it because we've been eating the same flavors for

16:38
thousands of years. Yeah. The thing, the market is changing now and people, they want to try new things. They want to savor new stuff. It's fun. It's fun to see. I tried Caviar last year for the first time in my life and I was like, I never really got interested in trying because I figured I'm not a big fish person. And wow, I fell in love. I was like, damn, I missed out all my life.

17:05
So today I'm gonna try everything that I can, even if it's something that I don't like, I will try it, you know, just to see and to be able to try everything that I can. So I was really happy that I tried it. I was sad that I'd never tried it before. So yes, and on that note, I was a very picky eater as a child. Like I didn't like anything. I was really skinny until I got to be about 19, like terribly skinny. And

17:34
Part of the issue with not liking foods as a kid, I don't know if you know this, is that when you're little, you have way more taste buds in your mouth than you do when you're an adult. You actually lose taste buds as you grow up. And so the flavors of things are more intense when you're little, because you have so many more taste buds to taste with. And so what I would tell people is if you didn't like something as a kid, try it again as an adult, because you might actually like it now.

18:05
Like I'm pretty sure we both gonna agree to that is when you're a kid, most of the kids hate mushroom and as adults you can't get enough of, you know, so it's, it's like probably the best example of, you know, not liking the food when you're a kid. And then when you start cooking mushroom and different mushroom as an adult, and you put that in sandwiches and your burgers and it's like, Oh my God, I missed out. You know? Yeah.

18:32
And the other thing is that when you're little, sometimes you will OD on a food. My thing was cherry tomatoes. We grew cherry tomatoes in the garden. My parents did. And I loved them. I was like 10. And I ate way too many of them and I ended up being sick on them and hated cherry tomatoes for years because I had gotten myself sick from eating too many. And about maybe, I don't know, that was when I was 10.

19:02
So when I was 30, there were cherry tomatoes in a salad that was given to me at a restaurant. And I was like, God, I don't like cherry tomatoes. And I bit into one and I was like, oh, oh, I do like them. So, so you can't just assume with foods that you still don't like something. So I would encourage everybody who has a particular food that they think they cannot stand to try it again. The worst thing that happens is you find out you still don't like it. Yeah.

19:29
Yeah, like I said, it's it's you know, food is there enjoy, you know, like, I also understand if people have food restriction and or they don't want to eat food for personal reason. But you know, if it's because they think it's yucky and they haven't tried it, I would suggest to try it, you know. Yeah, exactly. Because all it is is an experience. Yeah, food is supposed to be an experience is supposed to be an event, I think. Yeah. Like I said, I respect the people are vegetarians.

19:58
people decide not to eat this or that, like I respect that if it's for their own, you know, personal choice or reason. And it sucks if you can't get to try stuff. But you know, like I was a vegan, I was a vegetarian for many, many, many years. And you know, I started eating meat again, and I don't have the guilt as much, you know, I understand. And I only eat renewable meat.

20:28
I don't eat meat that doesn't renew itself. So to me, I made my peace with stuff that I don't eat, which is delicious, but I'd rather make sure the species can survive because they don't make it. So we'll have pork, beef, chicken for the next thousands of years because we can remake it. So, you know, Panda probably tastes really good, but I'd rather people save them.

20:56
It's just a personal thing with me. Some species I just refuse to tag along with that. Yeah. And you live in New Jersey, so I bet you can get fresh seafood pretty much whenever you want it. Yeah. Well, the crab game here is outstanding. People eat crab with the shell, without the shell. There's soft shell, blue shell. I still have to get more into the game.

21:22
And I try I travel a lot from Jersey to Montreal and that's like alongside the 91 in Vermont and then right by New Hampshire and I stopped by Boston in the North Shore a lot. So I kind of go and get my lobster roll fix like quite a few times during a year and it's outstanding. It's so good. You know like and depending like lobster is just lobster but once you start mixing it up with the

21:52
You know, I don't, it's crazy. And crab, crab meat, I love scallops, I love shrimps. I, you know, it's, it's, I love everything. So it's, it's, it's delicious. I, in Jersey, the, the seafood restaurant, it's like, it's a competition here. It's not just like the pizza, the hot dogs, the seafood here in Jersey. It's like people go nuts fighting to be the best. So you don't have like,

22:21
regular just basic food. It's everything stands out when you eat here. It's crazy when you go down the shore It's it's nuts like there you won't go to a restaurant and be like, you know It wasn't like they're all fighting to be the best so it's nuts, you know So you'll have the best experience every time you go out here Is New Jersey a tourist state like Maine and New England are well, I would say way more in a way for

22:52
like I guess mixed tourists because you have the shore, you have New York close by, people will travel around like when you go to Maine when you go it's specifically more to see the nature and like the lobster like the seafood game. So I would say here it's more of like a like a mixed tourist because you have the shore, you have the boardwalks, the amusement parks and and then you you get to go to Washington DC right by.

23:21
It's more like, uh, I wouldn't say it's the same kind of tourists. Like if you go to Montreal or Quebec, you know, they're looking for something specific, I think here is more like a resort. Okay. You know what, you know what I mean? Cause you can stay in Jersey here and then go see Washington DC and come back in the same day, you can stay in Jersey and then go to New York, visit New York, come back the same day and then end up going to the beach the same day. So it's more like a big giant resort. Where, you know,

23:51
Staying in New York City tonight might be like wow for a whole family. It's crazy, you know, so it's kind of like I don't know if you get what i'm saying. You know, like if you go to maine It's usually you stay in maine you get in bed and breakfast or you stay like in a cabin and you stay But in jersey you you get to go wherever you want you go to go see philly You get to go see baltimore you get to you know, you you go everywhere you want you go You can want to go visit the amish You want to go even you can go to boston. It's not that far

24:20
So it's kind of like a resort, you know. So Jersey's like the hub on a bicycle wheel. I would say that because like, and you have like the Bennees, like there's got to have name for everybody, the tourists that comes here from the North Jersey goes to that beach, the Montreal people go to that beach, and then people from there, they go everywhere to go visit. So it's like, you know, if you want to go travel the Europe,

24:49
you go like right in the middle and then you travel everywhere around so you can get to see so I guess Jersey is kind of that kind of state you know so you you get to go everywhere you want within you know from north to south Jersey it's like two hours yeah it's a little bitty state yeah it's a tiny state there's 10 million people which is populated but if you want to go to New York from my house it's an hour and a half

25:15
You want to go to Washington, D.C. it's two hours. You want to go to Philly, it's 20 minutes. You want to go. So it's like you can go everywhere. You want to go to the shore, it's not even an hour. So you get to go everywhere you want and you get to see the ocean. And then you get turn around, you get to go see Philly, you get to go see New York. So it's kind of like, wow, you know, it's like the best of both worlds, you know? Okay, well the reason I asked, because clearly we're not talking homesteading if we're talking traveling, but.

25:44
I was born in New Jersey. My parents moved to Maine when I was six months old. And so for me, New Jersey is technically my home state because it's where I was born, but I don't have any working memory or knowledge of the state because I was gone when I was six months old to Maine. So since you're from Jersey, I thought I would ask. Okay. So we have like six, well, four more minutes left to go here before we hit 30 minutes.

26:11
What's the plan? Because I'm assuming that you are not in your 20s. I'm in my 40s. Yeah. So are you going to keep growing the business or do you have a plan for what you're going to do with it? Well, we have seven kids. So the plan is to at some point have all the kids working with the farm and have like a farmer's market on the road and people like next year, we're going to open up to the public, the farm too.

26:38
So that's the plan is all the kids working with us and you know, we're going to have greenhouses next year and everything. So all the kids be working. I have my oldest son drives tractors and like he helps me out, but the plan is to get all the way down to the two year old twins to work with us at the farm and have a family business that they can have when they're older. And you know, if it's not their path, at least they'll know how to work land and they'll work with their hands and then they can do whatever they want. But that that's the goal.

27:06
That's awesome. I love it. I love it when people plan for family farms because there aren't that many left. No. A lot of people are aging out and none of the kids in that family want to take it over.

27:21
No, it's not fun to see everybody's trying to sell everything now for like real estate and quick money. And it hasn't been passed down to generations. So like parents owns farms or grandparents and it's been passed down to the next generation and they don't want nothing of it. They just want a quick buck and sell it. And you know, it's sad. You know, I understand it's their choices, but you know, I wish...

27:48
government made something easier for people to want to keep doing that and keep it, you know? Yeah, I think there's a lot of people wishing that government would do things. Whatever those things are would do them differently right now. And I'm not talking about the election. I'm just talking about in general, the government doesn't, I don't know, encourage or support people doing things the way they used to be done. No, they don't.

28:16
No, they don't. It's big businesses. Like I said, either party doesn't matter. It's the same thing at the end of the day. It's all about profits and big business. And farm lands for them, they see that as money wasted when they can make more money from real estate. It's not profitable for them. So they're not going to spend their time making plans for that. At least there's some part of the government that are still trying. But

28:45
the big head of the offices, I don't think they really care about that. It's not taxes to be charged for income for people. It's just a big land that doesn't cost that much on taxes. Yes. And I also feel like, and I could be totally wrong. I'm going to admit that right now. I feel like people in government maybe don't quite understand the importance of farmers and people who grow things and raise animals. They don't quite get it.

29:15
Well, I'm guessing they're being told that it's cheaper in a different country to import and then it makes them look good because they're trading with different countries. And that's awesome until there's a dock worker strike like there was a month or so ago and we can't get anything in. And then they should just be resourced from the inside. But like I said, again, it makes them look good to have the open button.

29:43
boundaries of every country pitching in but It doesn't pay the other country to have their employees work for ten cents an hour to do stuff And then people think that's what fresh vegetables look like which they have been important. They have been you know Sprayed they have been they know everything is you know, there's nothing better than homegrown locally sourced farming To your and on your plate, you know, so It's a bad hole that we're trying to fight

30:13
which not many people care, but I'm gonna still fight that battle for the rest of my life, you know. We're gonna die on that hill saying that homegrown food is better. Yes. Yep. Yep. We We had to buy tomatoes this year because our garden didn't do great. We had some really terrible weather. It was one of the worst year for gardening. Yeah, no rain. You know it rained last night for the first time since August 3rd that we could collect water and today was not even the day to collect water because we rely on water at the farm.

30:42
We collect water from the rain, we don't have a well. So it was one of the worst for honey also. The plants didn't produce nectar, not the flowers did. So the honey was big, you know, it was really bad. So you know, we're hoping for next year to be better. That's why we want greenhouses so we can perfect the art. Yes, we just put in a greenhouse this spring and we're trying to figure out the best way to heat it in the wintertime so we can actually grow some stuff in the wintertime too.

31:12
Yeah, it was just a terrible growing season across the country and some people lucked out huge. I've talked to a few people where the weather wasn't bad where they were. I don't know how they got to be so special, but it was okay. So yeah, it was rough and we're really looking forward to next spring. Really looking forward to this winter to kind of get a break from everything and reset because

31:37
We walked around in July and August just down in the mouth because it was just so terrible. My husband is the one who grows the garden and I said, are you going to like blow a gasket in September when it's over? He was like, no. He said, honey. When he says honey, I know he's serious. He says, honey, this is part of growing things. When you're reliant on nature to do her thing, whatever that is, you're either going to have really good food or you're going to have no food. I'm like, great. That's awesome.

32:08
So yeah, it's been tough, but there's always next year. Yeah, like I said, we're not gonna rely on Monsanto to do our stuff. We're gonna get the nature to do it itself. And, you know, that's why we believe in, you know, still real agriculture and not like made up Franken food. So. Yeah, that scares me. I keep seeing stuff about the, I don't know what the word is. GMO. The meat that isn't meat they're trying to develop.

32:37
and the modified crops and I'm just like I don't want fake food. I want real food. Yeah well you know they changed the game you know you had 27-30% like production before when you were planning and now you have up to 97% success with the fake seeds. You know who's going to go back to losing 70% of their crops you know if they're paying for that company and now it's you're not allowed to buy any other way than that one so

33:07
It's kind of like, it's sad that the government didn't stop it here compared to Europe where it's illegal. But in America, people are the guinea pigs of the corporations. So we can't do much about it. Yep. And it's a bummer and I hate ending the episodes on a bummer. So what I'm going to say to flip it, because it's what I do when I think it's going to end on a bummer.

33:31
is that there's people like you and people like me and people like I've talked to for the last year or so on the podcast who are trying to do it the old fashioned way and grow really good, healthy food. So yay us. Yep. All right, Eric, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today. It was a pleasure. Like I said, anytime you want to talk again, I know we haven't got all the subjects we wanted to talk about.

33:58
But like I said, anytime you want, you know, we can do that again and be more than happy to talk again. That would be super fun and maybe we can make a list next time. Yeah, of course. I'm sorry for that. It's my fault. No, that's okay. This is a very organic conversation structure and I never know what we're actually going to talk about when I talk to someone on the episode, so it's fine. You have a fantastic day, Eric. Thank you so much. All right.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Eric at Cultinary Family Farms. Good morning, Eric. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing great. And you? I'm good. You're in New Jersey? Yeah. While we're in Jersey, we have to say South Jersey, Central Jersey, or North Jersey. So we are in South Jersey, right by Philly.

00:30
Okay, cool. I'm in Minnesota, if you didn't know, so I'm not going to sound like you and you're not going to sound like me and that's what makes the world go round. And I'm from Montreal, so I have a double accent. I'm not hearing a lot of the Montreal, I'm hearing more of the New Jersey, but either way it's all good with me. All right. So, tell me about yourself and what you guys do at the farm. Well, it all started in Quebec when we lived there. I have a passion with...

00:56
garlic so I started garlic you know I said you know I'll try farming garlic for fun I started really small and I failed miserably and then that got me like a kick just to try again and and then you know I rented a little lot and then we started planning and it went really well so it got me you know what I'll do it bigger so we sold where we were we bought a little land with a house and we started

01:25
farming there, starting getting animals and everything. So starting to do in like, you know, people would come to the house and buy her honey, buy her, you know, garlic, eggs and everything. And then when I moved here, since I was a brand new immigrant, it took me about 16 months to get my green card. So I didn't want to wait, you know, because it was, so I opened up my farm again here in Morristown.

01:51
So I knocked on everybody's door. I was looking for vacant lot for farmland and everything. I got turned down for like six months and then someone answered one of our ads and said, hey, you know, I have a land. It's not ready, but hey, if you wanna rent it, go ahead. So I started with smaller tools. I pulled out all the tree. There was about 10,000 trees on it. So I started by myself and I removed all the trees, all the rocks, got a beat up tractor. We have a.

02:19
hashtag that's called curse tractor because everything happens right now. I'm working on my tractor as we speak. And, uh, so we started with that, you know, so it's like a second year. We're heading into our third year. So we, last year we harvested about 45,000 cloves that I planted by hand. And, uh, you know, we do a fast farmers market, we do food expos, we do a few things and now we started a home delivery. So it's the farmers market delivered to your door.

02:48
So that's what we're trying to do. And that's where we at today. If you put that in like a, in a ballpark real quick, that's pretty much what we do. That's awesome. And the more you talk, the more I'm hearing the French accent. You have a beautiful speaking voice. Thanks. Okay, so I had a couple of questions that are specific and then we can just kind of go from there. I saw that you sell black garlic. I freaking love black garlic. I had never tried it until a few years back. And...

03:17
I tried making it and it was an epic fail. I tried making it in a rice cooker and it did not work. So is there a trick to, well, number one, tell people what it is and then number two, is there a trick to making it at home? Well, yeah, the black garlic is a fermented regular garlic. So what you do is you really in a slow heat, you slowly cook your garlic to, depending on

03:47
what you use to cook it in. So it's you people try rice cooker, slow cooker, you can put it in your oven, you can bury it in the ground with you know, it's depending on where you at, you know, like so, so it becomes like a gummy bear in a way kind of like texture. And we actually cook it a little bit so it's harder and it's a bit drier so people can handle it with their hands and it's not sticky and you know, so that's what we do.

04:16
And it becomes like, it's crazy, the antioxidant and everything, it's the benefits for your health and the flavor. It's like it becomes that umami flavor.

04:33
I think it's like candy. Yeah, well, it's like a brain kind of tease in a way because you go through five steps. Well, the one we have, the one we make, I tried a few other ones that, you know, like we go to a store and it's really like watery and it's like mushy. It doesn't give you the same, but ours give you like five flavor steps. So it's kind of like for 10 seconds when you put the gummy in your, in your mouth, it becomes like a, like a brain teaser. Cause you go to like balsamic glaze flavoring.

05:03
It changes into caramelized onion. Then it'll go to a smoky, barbequey flavor. Then it'll go back to being really bitter and then garlicky. So all that within the, like the first 10 seconds of chewing the gummy. So that's, you know, that's what the fun about it is you see people's faces and everybody goes like, wow, exactly what you described. That's what my brain went through. And, and so you see, you tell people, you know what, hey, try it in a sandwich. Try it. I saw it in mine.

05:32
with my onions and I make cheese stick with them, you know, so it makes the cheese stick sweeter. But again, people put it in whatever they want, you know? So it's fun, you know, you see people, they come back. It's more expensive, but it takes so long to do it that, you know, it's kind of worth it. You know, it's a delicacy. It's like caviar, you know, so.

05:52
Yes, and I feel like people are in two camps with black garlic. They either love it or they won't ever try it again. It's hit or miss. See, people like or people don't. And there's people that don't like garlic to begin with. So you can't please everyone. But if people don't like garlic, they'll most likely probably like that because it doesn't have that big garlic taste and you don't have the after bread also. So it's a special candy.

06:21
Yeah, and it's really the way I used it was I made some well my husband makes french bread and so he made the the long baguette french breads and we put some actual fresh garlic on and some butter and then we smoosh some of the black garlic on top of that when it's warm and it was really yummy. Yeah it's good. So but if you don't want to give away the secrets on how to make it at home you don't have to but maybe you could tell me more.

06:48
You can, like I said, I failed miserably about like 50 times because it's, it's a, you know, you ha if you, if you're using like a regular rice cooker, if you're, if you're using like a slow roast cooker, you have to put water in it in a bowl. You have to keep it like hydrated because the humidity won't leave the same way. So you have to kind of keep some humidity in it. So it's, it's more like you will, you'll have to hit or miss until you find your perfect.

07:17
like a place to put it in. Because even if I tell you, well, I use this and that, you have to use your right temperature because it doesn't cook the same way as a rice cooker. You can try, a rice cooker works. I've succeeded with rice cookers, but it's, you know, you'll have to make sure you check every day, but then you can't open it every day. So you'll have to scrap a lot of garlic to see, you know, like the first day you see how it changed and then you keep it the next time you batch, you try for two days.

07:44
And then you try until you do that for about seven to 15 days, depending on how your cooker like, cause it's, it has to be on a keep warm. You can't cook it, you know? So it has to like the keep warm button. If you have that, if you don't have that, I suggest not trying it. And then for about 10 to 15 days, you try until you see what you like about it. And you also, if you're using a conventional like slow cooker rice cooker, you have to put water in a little cup to make sure it keeps high or else.

08:13
it'll become, you can make like black garlic powder because it's gonna burn it. So you won't have the sweetness to it, but you'll have the smoky barbecue flavor to it. So it's like to get the perfect ratio on it, it's really hard. So there's like different methods and then you can buy like really, really expensive tools to make it easier. But if you wanna do it at home, you can definitely do it. You can also put in your oven, but again, it's a lot of electricity.

08:44
and then you're gonna put your oven on hold for almost two weeks. So like I said, in the small rice cooker that has a keep warm on it, try to have something that's bigger so you can put a couple more and a little bit of cup of water with aluminum foil on it. You put some little holes just so it doesn't dry out. And like I said, it's hit or miss until you succeed. So like I said, I don't know.

09:08
all the brands of rice cookers, you know, like I bought maybe 17 just to try and then I found one that had that was cold enough. And then, you know, midway you can flip them all up and then you add some more water, you put it back, seal down, you put some towels on it so that it still breeds. So like I said, it's a you know, like it's not that I don't want to give the recipe that's it's just like I said, it's hit or miss just like planting garlic. Some people succeed every year, some people fail. And it's just put in the ground, you know, it's it's

09:38
simple as that. Okay, so the easiest way to get really good black garlic is to order it from your website. That's what I'm going to do because I'm not spending 14 days screwing around with this. We ship with US coast anywhere you want United States and like I said, it's way easier that way. Yeah, it takes me a long time anyway myself still so like it's because I sell it all peeled and I don't sell it as bulbs, you know, so I check.

10:05
every single last one of them, I peel every little last one of them just to make sure you have like when you open it up you don't have to work again. So what you do is you just you just eat it you know so it's all peeled it's already peeled for you and already put in the bag with our logos on it and we also sell pound bags for like usually restaurants and either that or four ounce bags. Okay cool.

10:30
Well, if I get a hankering for black garlic, I know where I'm going to and it's not the grocery store. So I just, I tried it with a small rice cooker and it just didn't work and I, I let it go. I didn't know about the water trick. So it all ended up in the trash, but boy, it smelled really good. Yeah, it does smell awesome. Because it released the, I don't know what the word is in English, but like ice and it releases it and it's really, really strong. But if you like garlic, it's, it's a pleasure.

11:00
to walk in the house to smell that. But not everybody likes that, but I love that. To me, when it smells that, it's like, wow, you know, it's success, you know? Oh yeah, I love walking into a house where people have been cooking. I just, it doesn't matter what it is they're cooking. It could be something I don't even like to eat, but the smell of people cooking from scratch is amazing. It's one of my favorite things on earth. Okay, so you said that you bought land and you grow garlic. What else do you use your land for?

11:29
Well, we have chickens, we have two goats, we had about 300 chickens last month but some predator came and sadly we lost everything but now I have another 60 something 70 chickens at the farm. So we sell eggs, we sell some duck eggs, we don't do anything with the goats, they're supposed to be protecting the chickens which they're not really.

11:51
But we grow watermelons, pumpkins, we have tomatoes, we have cherry tomatoes, we have a lot of different hot peppers, regular peppers. We also have some hybrid peppers that we tried this year. It's a brand new breed that doesn't exist. So a guy that I know in Pennsylvania is breeding new species. So they look like hot peppers. They look like they're going to throw you off your seat when you bite into them.

12:17
and they'll have that little taste of when you bite into a ghost pepper but without the heat. So it's kind of like crazy it tastes like sweet like perfume so it's you know we're trying new stuff people ask us to grow stuff and we grow it for them and like I said we also have uh we we did some onions we did some uh zucchini we we do like I said we do pretty much every every vegetable we

12:47
a lot of basil and some herbs. So that's pretty much it, decorative corn. We don't do edible corn. It's way too costly for a small farm like that to be able to succeed with that because you need a lot of electric fences, shotgun noises, and people like a lot of spray. So we don't use any spray or stuff like that. We grow organically

13:18
organic like sticker on it. So we try to keep it clean, try to keep it without pesticides and anything. So we haven't used any of that. So if you want to grow regular corn, it's really hard. Yeah. And it's not worth the bang for the buck because the buck never comes if you're small. Yeah. And then again, like I said, it's going to be eaten like that. Raccoons know exactly they say, I don't know if it's the smell or if it's the look at it, but they won't touch decorative corn.

13:47
but they will jump on the edible corn as soon as it starts growing. So like I said, deers, raccoons, rabbits, they know right away. So that's why if you don't have like trick fences and noises and, you know, like either pesticides or something that repels them, they won't last until they. So that's, that's what's really hard about it, you know? So, and then we don't want to start, you know, doing the sprays and stuff like that. So we, you know, we, we team up with Hunter Swarm and Cinnamon Sin and we

14:17
the people with their corn, which is the best white Jersey corn ever. So you've learned that the networking situation helps. Yeah, like I said, yeah, we team up with other businesses for our farmers market and our delivery form that we do. So we also have ratios as a barbecue sauce, award winning sauces from Jersey. We have hot honey. We have

14:42
some hot sauce rubs and we work with companies. We're going to be selling pork roll next week. Also, we're going to have some meat starting. We will be having pork roll hot dogs, pork roll kibalski and polished sausages. So, you know, people want to team up with us. You know, they, you know, we like to help out other small businesses and I think there's still enough room for everybody to grow.

15:09
and we try not to put anybody behind us. We try to put them beside us so we can all go forward together. Yes, cross promotion for businesses is amazing because it makes everybody look good and it makes everybody win. You said hot honey. Does that mean spicy honey? It's kind of like spicy, but not crazy. So it's got a kick, you know, like a bit of a hot sauce, but mixed with honey. So you got the sweet and spicy taste to it. So

15:39
Whatever you like, if you would just eat it like that on a toast, I don't think that would be anybody's personal best. But you put that on a pizza, you put that on a sandwich, you put that on a grilled cheese, it makes the food like better. Like it turns it into something that is like, wow, you know, like you have the sweetness, you have the hotness and the right balance into it with whatever you put it in, you know? So it's good, you know, like pepperoni pizza.

16:08
Hot honey is like the best combo in the world. I like also chicken cutlet, you know, like when you wanna dip your nuggets or whatever, you put a hot honey. It's, you know, it's a brand new thing. It's crazy on the market right now. So it's fun, you know, it's fun to see that. That's the best thing about foods because everybody's been making food since humans began. And if someone comes up with something new, everybody wants to try it because we've been eating the same flavors for

16:38
thousands of years. Yeah. The thing, the market is changing now and people, they want to try new things. They want to savor new stuff. It's fun. It's fun to see. I tried Caviar last year for the first time in my life and I was like, I never really got interested in trying because I figured I'm not a big fish person. And wow, I fell in love. I was like, damn, I missed out all my life.

17:05
So today I'm gonna try everything that I can, even if it's something that I don't like, I will try it, you know, just to see and to be able to try everything that I can. So I was really happy that I tried it. I was sad that I'd never tried it before. So yes, and on that note, I was a very picky eater as a child. Like I didn't like anything. I was really skinny until I got to be about 19, like terribly skinny. And

17:34
Part of the issue with not liking foods as a kid, I don't know if you know this, is that when you're little, you have way more taste buds in your mouth than you do when you're an adult. You actually lose taste buds as you grow up. And so the flavors of things are more intense when you're little, because you have so many more taste buds to taste with. And so what I would tell people is if you didn't like something as a kid, try it again as an adult, because you might actually like it now.

18:05
Like I'm pretty sure we both gonna agree to that is when you're a kid, most of the kids hate mushroom and as adults you can't get enough of, you know, so it's, it's like probably the best example of, you know, not liking the food when you're a kid. And then when you start cooking mushroom and different mushroom as an adult, and you put that in sandwiches and your burgers and it's like, Oh my God, I missed out. You know? Yeah.

18:32
And the other thing is that when you're little, sometimes you will OD on a food. My thing was cherry tomatoes. We grew cherry tomatoes in the garden. My parents did. And I loved them. I was like 10. And I ate way too many of them and I ended up being sick on them and hated cherry tomatoes for years because I had gotten myself sick from eating too many. And about maybe, I don't know, that was when I was 10.

19:02
So when I was 30, there were cherry tomatoes in a salad that was given to me at a restaurant. And I was like, God, I don't like cherry tomatoes. And I bit into one and I was like, oh, oh, I do like them. So, so you can't just assume with foods that you still don't like something. So I would encourage everybody who has a particular food that they think they cannot stand to try it again. The worst thing that happens is you find out you still don't like it. Yeah.

19:29
Yeah, like I said, it's it's you know, food is there enjoy, you know, like, I also understand if people have food restriction and or they don't want to eat food for personal reason. But you know, if it's because they think it's yucky and they haven't tried it, I would suggest to try it, you know. Yeah, exactly. Because all it is is an experience. Yeah, food is supposed to be an experience is supposed to be an event, I think. Yeah. Like I said, I respect the people are vegetarians.

19:58
people decide not to eat this or that, like I respect that if it's for their own, you know, personal choice or reason. And it sucks if you can't get to try stuff. But you know, like I was a vegan, I was a vegetarian for many, many, many years. And you know, I started eating meat again, and I don't have the guilt as much, you know, I understand. And I only eat renewable meat.

20:28
I don't eat meat that doesn't renew itself. So to me, I made my peace with stuff that I don't eat, which is delicious, but I'd rather make sure the species can survive because they don't make it. So we'll have pork, beef, chicken for the next thousands of years because we can remake it. So, you know, Panda probably tastes really good, but I'd rather people save them.

20:56
It's just a personal thing with me. Some species I just refuse to tag along with that. Yeah. And you live in New Jersey, so I bet you can get fresh seafood pretty much whenever you want it. Yeah. Well, the crab game here is outstanding. People eat crab with the shell, without the shell. There's soft shell, blue shell. I still have to get more into the game.

21:22
And I try I travel a lot from Jersey to Montreal and that's like alongside the 91 in Vermont and then right by New Hampshire and I stopped by Boston in the North Shore a lot. So I kind of go and get my lobster roll fix like quite a few times during a year and it's outstanding. It's so good. You know like and depending like lobster is just lobster but once you start mixing it up with the

21:52
You know, I don't, it's crazy. And crab, crab meat, I love scallops, I love shrimps. I, you know, it's, it's, I love everything. So it's, it's, it's delicious. I, in Jersey, the, the seafood restaurant, it's like, it's a competition here. It's not just like the pizza, the hot dogs, the seafood here in Jersey. It's like people go nuts fighting to be the best. So you don't have like,

22:21
regular just basic food. It's everything stands out when you eat here. It's crazy when you go down the shore It's it's nuts like there you won't go to a restaurant and be like, you know It wasn't like they're all fighting to be the best so it's nuts, you know So you'll have the best experience every time you go out here Is New Jersey a tourist state like Maine and New England are well, I would say way more in a way for

22:52
like I guess mixed tourists because you have the shore, you have New York close by, people will travel around like when you go to Maine when you go it's specifically more to see the nature and like the lobster like the seafood game. So I would say here it's more of like a like a mixed tourist because you have the shore, you have the boardwalks, the amusement parks and and then you you get to go to Washington DC right by.

23:21
It's more like, uh, I wouldn't say it's the same kind of tourists. Like if you go to Montreal or Quebec, you know, they're looking for something specific, I think here is more like a resort. Okay. You know what, you know what I mean? Cause you can stay in Jersey here and then go see Washington DC and come back in the same day, you can stay in Jersey and then go to New York, visit New York, come back the same day and then end up going to the beach the same day. So it's more like a big giant resort. Where, you know,

23:51
Staying in New York City tonight might be like wow for a whole family. It's crazy, you know, so it's kind of like I don't know if you get what i'm saying. You know, like if you go to maine It's usually you stay in maine you get in bed and breakfast or you stay like in a cabin and you stay But in jersey you you get to go wherever you want you go to go see philly You get to go see baltimore you get to you know, you you go everywhere you want you go You can want to go visit the amish You want to go even you can go to boston. It's not that far

24:20
So it's kind of like a resort, you know. So Jersey's like the hub on a bicycle wheel. I would say that because like, and you have like the Bennees, like there's got to have name for everybody, the tourists that comes here from the North Jersey goes to that beach, the Montreal people go to that beach, and then people from there, they go everywhere to go visit. So it's like, you know, if you want to go travel the Europe,

24:49
you go like right in the middle and then you travel everywhere around so you can get to see so I guess Jersey is kind of that kind of state you know so you you get to go everywhere you want within you know from north to south Jersey it's like two hours yeah it's a little bitty state yeah it's a tiny state there's 10 million people which is populated but if you want to go to New York from my house it's an hour and a half

25:15
You want to go to Washington, D.C. it's two hours. You want to go to Philly, it's 20 minutes. You want to go. So it's like you can go everywhere. You want to go to the shore, it's not even an hour. So you get to go everywhere you want and you get to see the ocean. And then you get turn around, you get to go see Philly, you get to go see New York. So it's kind of like, wow, you know, it's like the best of both worlds, you know? Okay, well the reason I asked, because clearly we're not talking homesteading if we're talking traveling, but.

25:44
I was born in New Jersey. My parents moved to Maine when I was six months old. And so for me, New Jersey is technically my home state because it's where I was born, but I don't have any working memory or knowledge of the state because I was gone when I was six months old to Maine. So since you're from Jersey, I thought I would ask. Okay. So we have like six, well, four more minutes left to go here before we hit 30 minutes.

26:11
What's the plan? Because I'm assuming that you are not in your 20s. I'm in my 40s. Yeah. So are you going to keep growing the business or do you have a plan for what you're going to do with it? Well, we have seven kids. So the plan is to at some point have all the kids working with the farm and have like a farmer's market on the road and people like next year, we're going to open up to the public, the farm too.

26:38
So that's the plan is all the kids working with us and you know, we're going to have greenhouses next year and everything. So all the kids be working. I have my oldest son drives tractors and like he helps me out, but the plan is to get all the way down to the two year old twins to work with us at the farm and have a family business that they can have when they're older. And you know, if it's not their path, at least they'll know how to work land and they'll work with their hands and then they can do whatever they want. But that that's the goal.

27:06
That's awesome. I love it. I love it when people plan for family farms because there aren't that many left. No. A lot of people are aging out and none of the kids in that family want to take it over.

27:21
No, it's not fun to see everybody's trying to sell everything now for like real estate and quick money. And it hasn't been passed down to generations. So like parents owns farms or grandparents and it's been passed down to the next generation and they don't want nothing of it. They just want a quick buck and sell it. And you know, it's sad. You know, I understand it's their choices, but you know, I wish...

27:48
government made something easier for people to want to keep doing that and keep it, you know? Yeah, I think there's a lot of people wishing that government would do things. Whatever those things are would do them differently right now. And I'm not talking about the election. I'm just talking about in general, the government doesn't, I don't know, encourage or support people doing things the way they used to be done. No, they don't.

28:16
No, they don't. It's big businesses. Like I said, either party doesn't matter. It's the same thing at the end of the day. It's all about profits and big business. And farm lands for them, they see that as money wasted when they can make more money from real estate. It's not profitable for them. So they're not going to spend their time making plans for that. At least there's some part of the government that are still trying. But

28:45
the big head of the offices, I don't think they really care about that. It's not taxes to be charged for income for people. It's just a big land that doesn't cost that much on taxes. Yes. And I also feel like, and I could be totally wrong. I'm going to admit that right now. I feel like people in government maybe don't quite understand the importance of farmers and people who grow things and raise animals. They don't quite get it.

29:15
Well, I'm guessing they're being told that it's cheaper in a different country to import and then it makes them look good because they're trading with different countries. And that's awesome until there's a dock worker strike like there was a month or so ago and we can't get anything in. And then they should just be resourced from the inside. But like I said, again, it makes them look good to have the open button.

29:43
boundaries of every country pitching in but It doesn't pay the other country to have their employees work for ten cents an hour to do stuff And then people think that's what fresh vegetables look like which they have been important. They have been you know Sprayed they have been they know everything is you know, there's nothing better than homegrown locally sourced farming To your and on your plate, you know, so It's a bad hole that we're trying to fight

30:13
which not many people care, but I'm gonna still fight that battle for the rest of my life, you know. We're gonna die on that hill saying that homegrown food is better. Yes. Yep. Yep. We We had to buy tomatoes this year because our garden didn't do great. We had some really terrible weather. It was one of the worst year for gardening. Yeah, no rain. You know it rained last night for the first time since August 3rd that we could collect water and today was not even the day to collect water because we rely on water at the farm.

30:42
We collect water from the rain, we don't have a well. So it was one of the worst for honey also. The plants didn't produce nectar, not the flowers did. So the honey was big, you know, it was really bad. So you know, we're hoping for next year to be better. That's why we want greenhouses so we can perfect the art. Yes, we just put in a greenhouse this spring and we're trying to figure out the best way to heat it in the wintertime so we can actually grow some stuff in the wintertime too.

31:12
Yeah, it was just a terrible growing season across the country and some people lucked out huge. I've talked to a few people where the weather wasn't bad where they were. I don't know how they got to be so special, but it was okay. So yeah, it was rough and we're really looking forward to next spring. Really looking forward to this winter to kind of get a break from everything and reset because

31:37
We walked around in July and August just down in the mouth because it was just so terrible. My husband is the one who grows the garden and I said, are you going to like blow a gasket in September when it's over? He was like, no. He said, honey. When he says honey, I know he's serious. He says, honey, this is part of growing things. When you're reliant on nature to do her thing, whatever that is, you're either going to have really good food or you're going to have no food. I'm like, great. That's awesome.

32:08
So yeah, it's been tough, but there's always next year. Yeah, like I said, we're not gonna rely on Monsanto to do our stuff. We're gonna get the nature to do it itself. And, you know, that's why we believe in, you know, still real agriculture and not like made up Franken food. So. Yeah, that scares me. I keep seeing stuff about the, I don't know what the word is. GMO. The meat that isn't meat they're trying to develop.

32:37
and the modified crops and I'm just like I don't want fake food. I want real food. Yeah well you know they changed the game you know you had 27-30% like production before when you were planning and now you have up to 97% success with the fake seeds. You know who's going to go back to losing 70% of their crops you know if they're paying for that company and now it's you're not allowed to buy any other way than that one so

33:07
It's kind of like, it's sad that the government didn't stop it here compared to Europe where it's illegal. But in America, people are the guinea pigs of the corporations. So we can't do much about it. Yep. And it's a bummer and I hate ending the episodes on a bummer. So what I'm going to say to flip it, because it's what I do when I think it's going to end on a bummer.

33:31
is that there's people like you and people like me and people like I've talked to for the last year or so on the podcast who are trying to do it the old fashioned way and grow really good, healthy food. So yay us. Yep. All right, Eric, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today. It was a pleasure. Like I said, anytime you want to talk again, I know we haven't got all the subjects we wanted to talk about.

33:58
But like I said, anytime you want, you know, we can do that again and be more than happy to talk again. That would be super fun and maybe we can make a list next time. Yeah, of course. I'm sorry for that. It's my fault. No, that's okay. This is a very organic conversation structure and I never know what we're actually going to talk about when I talk to someone on the episode, so it's fine. You have a fantastic day, Eric. Thank you so much. All right.

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