Small-Scale Homesteading

So excited to have Stephanie Thurow and Michele Bruhn on the Minnesota Gardening Podcast today!

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Brad Tabke 0:08

Hello and welcome my friend to the Minnesota Gardening Podcast. It is my honor to have you here with us today. My name is Brad Tabkey, the host of the podcast for minnesotagardening. com. And today we have an awesome, awesome treat for you. We have. Two guests, it's our first time having a two guest podcast, and it's the author of a wonderful, wonderful book called Small Scale Homesetting. Two greats on Instagram, Stephanie Theroux and Michelle Broon are here with us today. And so if you could, please... Subscribe to the podcast if you love it as much as I love making it. So please subscribe to the podcast. Give us a review and a rating. We'll help other folks find us. And here is our interview all about the book Small Scale Homesteading and Stephanie and Michelle. All right, hello and welcome to the Minnesota Gardening Podcast. It is so awesome. This is our first time having two guests at one time. So we have Michelle and Stephanie who wrote just an awesome book called Small Scale Homesteading. And it's an honor to have Stephanie Thurow and Michelle Broon here with us today to talk about their book and fall activities in the garden and gift giving is also another exciting piece that we are going to talk about today. So Michelle and Stephanie, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having us. Thanks, Brad. So let me try and do a little traffic control and make sure that we're not all talking over each other the whole time. So we'll just start out with Stephanie. Will you talk a little bit, just give an intro to the book and just how awesome you guys are and what, why you felt the need to write this book and how it can help people? Yeah, sure. So Michelle and I met on Instagram years ago, and we bonded over the fact that we kind of do the same things from our suburban homes. We both garden, we have backyard chickens, we tap our maple tree, and make tons of delicious maple syrup just from one tree is all I have. We have silver maple trees. And we Preserve food and do a bunch of DIY healthy home projects. And so we, we were doing all these things for years and became friends and we met a couple times and decided to put all of this information in one book. And that's that's small scale homesteading. So everything in there is the, the things we do day to day throughout the year and how we do it. And yeah, so that's what the book's all about. Yeah, and it is so really, really well done with tons of great pictures. You can tell that both of you are stars on Instagram and how you'll, you photo everything and you do that. I, I try and create a lot of content, but I cannot get myself into the mode of taking really pretty pictures of everything. And you guys rock at that. So it is fun to, to follow both of you on Instagram. So Michelle, will you talk a little bit about a, why you. Also helped work together to write the book and why it's important to have this partnership and the differences of perspectives and, and making sure that people are able to understand and grow well. Yeah. Really good question. I think. Having two different perspectives and this idea of community right from the beginning of the book when we're writing the book We really believe that you know as small scale homesteaders, which means we're kind of urban and suburban We don't have 40 acres so we wanted this to be welcoming to a wider variety of people and Being able to do this in community is really important to I think really making it a sustainable Sustainable lifestyle sustainability means a lot of different things to different people at different times and so keeping this lifestyle sustainable. So doing the gardening you know, maybe you don't have the sunniest yard and you want to grow all the veggies. Your neighbor has a really sunny spot, but you have a maple tree and they want to tap maples or whatever because we're living closer together. to each other. There's just so much more opportunity to share some of our resources. And I mean, we definitely believe that knowledge is a resource as well. And so there are some amazing. Older generation gardeners who know so much that are willing to help as, as neighbors as well. So, the, the community aspect, I think is really important. Just always having at least two ways to show how to do it because we are constantly learning as gardeners. There's always another way to do it. And there's so much that you cover in this book. It's one of the most wide ranging books. You guys do a great job of taking care of introducing topics to people in that. But let's talk about sustainability a little bit. Michelle, you talked, you use the word sustainable. You talk about it a lot all throughout the book. What does that mean? to you and how that, that moves forward and why is it important to have that sustainable aspect? Well, I think so many of, especially the new gardeners in the last couple years came to it because they realized that like our whole food system is really broken. So this is a way to be sustainable in growing your own food. If you wanna take the leap and, and, you know, raise chickens, backyard hens, we've got you covered there too. But then also sustainable in knowing when to say enough is enough. We are not expecting anybody to do it all. That's no fun for anybody either to feel that pressure. So I think it's really important to lean on our farmers. We've got amazing local farmers here in Minnesota and with their help and, you know, being able to have meat and cheese, dairy products and grains that, you know, they can grow on just a whole different scale than we can we really can eat locally. Year round. And then we're supporting farmers who are taking care of the soil in such a different way than a lot of the large corporate farms are. So that is going to be so much more sustainable for our entire ecosystem and just the future of the planet. I mean, we're, we're kind of at a tipping point, it feels like. So every little thing that we do matters and everything counts. So I think that that's a really fun way to bring this into perspective. It's just, Do something new and like try something. And if you don't like it, you don't have to stick with it. Right, exactly. And Stephanie, with that, as we talk about keeping working sustainably and things like that, it, this, your book covers. A huge span of time, starting from maple tree tapping in the spring, all the way to lots and lots of things to do in the fall and late fall. How do you think people should approach something like that? Like, should people just try and dabble in a lot of things at one time? Or what is the best way if you really want to... Become more sustainable and produce more of your own food and products and those kinds of things. Like, how should somebody just get into it without getting burnt out? Sure. Yeah. I mean, the book we wrote are things we learned over decades. I mean, we did not jump into it and do it all at once. So I would say Look through the book and see what stands out to you and give it a try. Maybe that's maple tapping. And like I said, we each just tap one tree. So it doesn't have to be this large scale thing. I thought we would need many trees to make it worthwhile. No, that's not the case. So just give it a try. And if you don't enjoy the process. Move on. There are so many different projects and different parts of this book, and you will find things that you identify with and truly enjoy, and those are the things that we think people should stick with. Don't feel like you have to do everything, and don't feel the pressure to do everything, because that takes the joy out of it, you know. And so that, we really encourage that. And just to start, I mean, especially with the food preservation, I hear all the time, mostly from my friends, that they don't have time to, you know, ferment food. And it's like, if you knew how simple it was, you could always make time. You know, it's very simple. And so are so many of the things in here. So just Just start and then see what, oops, see what you enjoy and go from there. So where would you when it comes to, we're in the middle of October right now is when we're recording this. This time of year, everything is, is winding down, and we're, we're in full fall mode here in Minnesota, and so where, if somebody wanted to do something right now, like say say today, where should somebody, where would somebody start, and what kinds of, we'll stick with the gardening related tasks right now, what kinds of things should be should people be doing? That is really important to have done right now that they may not really be thinking about. Well, oh my gosh, there's so much gardening still to do at this time of year. So right seed saving is still going on and still going strong, especially for any flowers, beans that you still haven't taken down and all that. And then as far as garden clean up for the fall, I love practicing no dig gardening techniques, and so in the fall, when we're clearing out the garden, for me, what that looks like is cutting roots, or cutting the stems of plants at the soil level, and leaving the roots in the ground for pretty much every kind of plant, except for tomatoes, and like melons, cucumbers, those cucurbits so any Anything else stays in the ground unless it's got some kind of disease, you know, obviously then we want to get it out of the get it out of there, but it's a great way to build soil and again, an easy way to increase the sustainability in your gardens because then you're not bringing in more nutrients especially beans, they fix a ton of nitrogen. So if you're leaving that nitrogen in the soil, you won't have to bring in nitrogen fertilizer. Thank you, sir. the next year as much. So it's very bioavailable in the root nodules that collect the nitrogen in those. And then things like leaving marigolds in the ground, the, the roots systems in the ground they actually release chemicals that prevent some pests from coming around. So there's a lot of good, and then just the, the bio available nutrients, the organic matter that you're adding in by leaving those roots. So there's that. It's kind of past the time for cover cropping. In most of Minnesota, maybe the far south could still throw in some oats to, to cover crop. And then also we're still looking at planting garlic in the fall and a little bit here. And then you kind of want to plan out if you're going to try and get a jump on spring at all. You can definitely figure out where you're going to be putting up your low tunnels. And pound in the rebar and get the the PVC like arches up, you know, don't put the plastic up until we're done with all the crazy snow, because otherwise you'll just have bent PVC and ripped plastic, but I learned the hard way on that. But yeah, there, so I think those are some of the, some of the basics for what we're still doing in the garden to keep it, you know, be, be smart about what, how you garden. And then. Leave the leaves, you know, leave all the perennials that you possibly can, because there's so much wildlife that, you know, co evolved with that. And they need, they need their spaces for the winter too. Right, exactly. And this is a good time to throw a pitch in for this is, Michelle's our first. Two time guest on the podcast and she has another great episode where we talk all about Extending the seasons and how people can take advantage of the late fall and early spring seasons in growing gardening So make sure you go to minnesota gardening comm and find that episode as well So Stephanie, do you have any other like pieces you want to make sure to identify that? People should be thinking about or could be thinking about in the fall for gardening You know, by this time of year, I am pretty much just putting everything to bed. I do plant garlic, but I really shift over to the kitchen to start preserving everything. And so that's what I do. I don't get into the season extension and, and all that, that Michelle does. That's, that's on my list to get to, but I. I am not there yet. Everyone is always learning and growing. So it's a beautiful thing. So let's shift a little now and talk about, there's a really cool chapter in your book. And as we're getting into the beginning of the holiday season type world, now is the time to be working on those kinds of things for homemade gifts and making sure that people are using They're produce to help share the love and that kind of thing. So you've got a really cool chapter, chapter six called healthy home projects. And it's a lot of different things that I wouldn't have really thought about. And I don't know if it's just because I'm a guy and I don't necessarily think about those kinds of things all the time, but there are some very cool projects in here that people can be doing with what they've been growing this year and that kind of thing. So do you Stephanie want to talk about maybe a let's just start around your favorite. project that you have in here for your Healthy Home Projects chapter. Okay, well, I have two. I can't stick to one. My, my favorites are the candle making and the lotion making and the lotion making came out of necessity because my husband has psoriasis and my daughter had eczema when she was young and this recipe that I share in here is, is the only thing that really nourished their skin. And we tried everything from the co op. And so I love the homemade lotion and I love making homemade candles. It's, it's a great gift. And it's just a special tradition that we've come to do over the past four or five years now. As it gets cold, we make candles and you can add scent to them or you can leave them scent free and, and yeah. So, I love those too, but then Michelle also has how to infuse salve and make salve, make body butter. And she also does hot press soap. Hot process soap and soap making is something that I've not gotten into. So this is a great chapter that we, you know, brought both of our favorite skills into and yeah, these are some of our favorite projects. So Stephanie, when you talk about that you can infuse different sorts of scents and flowers and things. What kinds of, what kinds of garden flowers are good for doing that kind of work? Well, Michelle puts in here how you can infuse calendula. into oil and then use that infused oil to make the salve. But you can do that with almost any dried flower or herb that you wanted to infuse into the oil and incorporate into these lotions, soaps, and salves. Sage, lavender is a really popular one, rose petals, stuff like that. And I even use the dried flowers in the candle making. So, and you could use it with the soap making as well. Are you successful at growing lavender in Minnesota? I've always screwed it up and I just never have lavender plants that do, that do well. Have you have you been successful with that? I have, and I had two come back the past two years, which was a really big deal, because I put them in a raised garden bed last year, and I was like convinced that they were never going to come back, and I almost pulled them out, and I didn't, and I saw a little bit of life. So, yes, I have been successful. That is good to know, because yeah, I have not been able to, I've been able to get them to grow a little bit, but I haven't been able to get. big enough to really do anything with them and they definitely haven't made it into the next year. So maybe that's just my shock of the weather that's messing it up. So, Michelle, what are your favorite projects? Oh well, I'm kind of excited because I am bound and determined to actually try to make candles this, this fall or this winter because of Stephanie's enjoyment of it for sure. So that is something I'm still looking forward to. And that's. Again, why are we joined to write this book? We all have different, like, you know, strengths and stuff. But I really, I love infusing the oils to make salves. I think it's a really fun way to bring the garden, like, into winter. And it's just a different way to nourish your body rather than eating them. I'm a big fan of comfrey as well for, for infusing the oils. And then I think that, so the, the salves, you know, that you use the infused oil and then really salve is. It's pretty simple. It's like mixing it with some harder things like beeswax and some different oils and figuring out What consistency you like it and that's the other great thing about this chapter is that we give you the specifics And then you get to make it your own you get to like you want to make a lip balm instead of a salve You just add more beeswax, right and then you like this scent instead of that scent so you you get to kind of make it your own just like when we're preserving food or Cooking with our own veggies or whatever, it's, it's just another way to make some projects and some, some gifts to other people really special to beautiful. Good. Well, thank you for sharing those. I appreciate that. And another thing I wanted to talk about with your book is it is very clear that collaboration and community and working together with folks is really important to the both of you and you do. of highlighting other growers and other farmers in, in the region and in the state for What they do and so how why did you guys choose to go that direction and why did you choose to do that? And so Stephanie if you want to start with that one well just because there are so many Neat things that people are doing out there like the Black Radish CSA. They're in South Minneapolis and they're turning other people's front yards, their neighbors front yards into growing spaces that otherwise would be just grass. And then once the neighbor commits to that, they get the free CSA as well, but they're selling shares and it's just a great way to feed their community. And it's so cool. And so everybody that we highlighted throughout the book are just, you know, rock stars in our eyes and we wanted to bring them in front of other people. Yeah. Awesome. And I just to think that they just had a couple of really awesome Instagram posts and stories just this week, I think it was, maybe it was last week, but on how they're handling jumping worms and how jumping worms are. More prevalent in their neighborhood and how they're handling it. So if anybody wants to learn more about jumping worms and see what a local example is, Black Radish has some really good how they're working to combat jumping worms and that kind of stuff. We've also got a podcast episode on that as well. But Michelle, how about you with the collaboration and choosing to highlight? Because it's not very often that books highlight a lot of other folks that are doing awesome work in the area. So that was something I thought was impressive and different. Yeah, I really, I mean we wanted to really like walk the walk in like Giving a lot of credit to other people who have like helped us along the journey inspired us and keep us motivated, I think. And so some of the farmers like Amanda, we highlight she's a microgreen farmer and I just, she started from, from zero, right? And she's like now teaching classes all over the place and she's got wholesale accounts and her willingness to still teach at like our winter farmers markets. So it just brings everyone so much joy and she's just so passionate about what she's doing. So I think that that passion from some of these women that we share their stories, it's like, it's just inspiring. It really is. And we couldn't do what we do without our farmers because we don't have the ability to, you know, have a milk cow in our backyard and suburbia. So that that's just, we just needed to. Yeah, pay our respects, I think, because they're a big part of the, our life here. Yeah. Awesome. That's wonderful. So we're getting toward the end time here on the podcast episode today. So. I just want to thank you both for being here and sharing what you've learned and sharing about your book. Michelle, do you have we'll do two things here is where can people find your book? Like where should people go to get it? And then secondly, what is the number one takeaway that you want someone to take from getting, from reading through your book? Oh, yeah. Well, so you can find it anywhere books are sold online and then a lot of local stores do carry it as well. It's pretty fun. And if you're going online, you know, Amazon is fine. It makes a lot of sense, but also bookshop. org helps local bookstores. And we really do believe that local economy is, is an awesome thing. So bookshop. org is another great spot. And then you can find a lot more information about it on my website too, forksinthedirt. com. And as far as what, like a big takeaway or a little takeaway, the overall, yeah, like the overarching takeaway is to, you know, be aware of how much you really can do in a small space. You know, think back to like the victory gardens when everybody did a little bit, it really made a big difference. And I think that that mindset is really helpful for today too. Perfect. And Stephanie? You know, it's pretty much the same. We just want people to understand that it's possible to do more than they think with whatever space they have or don't have. And then, like I already said, that most things are easier than they expect. You know, we grow hundreds of pounds of produce in our, in our suburban homes. And I'm in Richfield with the 50's Rambler cookie cutter. You know, we've put gardens in the front yard and gardens in the back. And there's, there's just so much. So we want. We want to get that through to people so that they, they take that step to give it a try. And we think our book is the perfect fit for helping them get started. I couldn't agree more. So thank you so much for being here. The book is Small Scale Homesitting. We'll put the link the bookshop link, cause that's what I use as well, Michelle, for the book in the show notes at minnesotagardening. com where everybody can find this here. And Stephanie has a couple of other. Great books that I use all the time around canning and preserving. Do you just want to mention what those are, Stephanie? Sure. It's can it and ferment it, and then WECC small batch preserving and WECC home preserving, and I have tons of recipes for water bath canning, fermenting fruits and vegetables, and then also made from scratch recipes and infusions and so much more. Awesome. Well, thank you so, so much. We'll put the contact information for everybody in the show notes for this as well. So you can make sure to follow both of them on Instagram and go out and buy the book because it is awesome. And I guarantee you'll learn a lot of stuff. So thank you so much, both of you for being here and thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you again next week. Thanks, Brad. Thank you. See what I mean. They were so much fun to talk with and to get some good ideas out of the book. So it's just a wide ranging book and I highly encourage you to grab it and learn from it yourself. You can get that at the show notes. Just go to minnesotagardening. com and search for small scale homesteading and you will find it there. And when you're at small, not small scale homesteading, when you're at Minnesota Gardening Dot com, please join as a member of the Minnesota Gardening Club. It's 10 bucks a month, and you can just click on Minnesota Gardening Club at the top left and or go to Minnesota gardening club.com and you'll get weekly updates from me as to what needs to be going on in your garden, your landscape every single week to keep you on top of things so you don't mix out on anything. And it supports the podcast, and it really helps us to get a lot of great things done. So Minnesota Gardening club.com. Would love to have you there, and I'll see you next week. Yeah. Yeah.