A Tiny Homestead Podcast Por Mary E Lewis arte de portada

A Tiny Homestead

A Tiny Homestead

De: Mary E Lewis
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We became homesteaders three years ago when we moved to our new home on a little over three acres. But, we were learning and practicing homesteading skills long before that. This podcast is about all kinds of homesteaders, and farmers, and bakers - what they do and why they do it. I’ll be interviewing people from all walks of life, different ages and stages, about their passion for doing old fashioned things in a newfangled way. https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryesCopyright 2023 All rights reserved. Ciencias Sociales Economía Gestión y Liderazgo Liderazgo
Episodios
  • Quirky Quail Acres

    Quirky Quail Acres
    Feb 27 2026
    Today I'm talking with Caitlyn at Quirky Quail Acres. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 If you're a homesteader who wants to get paid for your content without living on social media, check out SteelSpoonFarm.com. Founder Jen Kibler teaches you how to build a real blog or your email list and use Pinterest for sustainable marketing. Inside her coaching group, Content Seeds Collective, you'll get weekly live coaching, a private community, and access to her Root Seller Resource Library full of tutorials and templates. Join today for just $37 a month and start building a business that doesn't depend on the algorithm. 00:26 A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Seals Spoon Farm. 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 Caitlin at Quirky Quail Acres in North Mankato, Minnesota. Good afternoon, Caitlin. How are you? Hi there. I'm well. How are you? I'm good, except I can't get through an introduction without stumbling all over myself today. I don't know what's going on. 00:57 Um, so I would normally ask about the weather because that's the question I ask on every single podcast episode, but you're only half an hour away from me. So I'm guessing it's sunny outside. Yep. Sunny and feeling balmy compared to yesterday. No doubt. Yesterday was terrible. I mean, it was pretty, but it was cold. Yeah, it hurt. It hurt, especially after tank top weather last weekend. Yeah. 01:24 Yeah, that was really nice. And I knew it was fall, spring, but I was like, I will take it. It's a good reprieve. All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. OK, so I again, I'm Caitlin and I am a mom and I work full time and we have our little farm here just outside of North Mankato, Minnesota. We 01:53 He are kind of jack of all trades sort of farm. We raise quail and we raise chickens and we have an orchard and we have a very large garden. Hopefully this year we'll also have a greenhouse. We also tap all of our own maple trees and we make maple syrup. And we also have, we. 02:20 We volunteer at a nearby shelter. So we have three rescue dogs. Um, it's just chaos all the time. It sounds amazing to me. Well, we're right there with you on the big garden and we have 20 apple trees. We have one huge wild plum tree. have some Alden plum trees. We have peach trees. have rhubarb. 02:48 We do have a greenhouse. have chickens, we have a dog and we have five barn cats. So there's a lot of overlap there between you and I. 02:59 I freaking love it. Yeah, no, I wouldn't choose anything different. um I'm so passionate about it. And it's I've never been one to like I don't want to go to the gym to exercise, but I want to be I want to be active all the time. I want to be I want to be moving and working. And I like I like the hard work and I like feeling accomplished at the end of the day. Absolutely. 03:26 So the reason that I asked you to be on the podcast, I have a little tiny ulterior motive and I don't usually. My husband and I have been talking about maybe getting a few quail and seeing how they do. And I'm guessing you know a lot about quail. So can you tell me all about quail today? Yeah, absolutely. So we, we raise Coturnix quail because A, they are the largest variety that 03:56 and that you can own really. um You don't need a special permit like you do for other species of quail because they are considered a domesticated species. uh Whereas for like, bobwhite, you would need a game permit. And also they don't lay as many eggs. um They are smaller birds, so they're not really good meat birds. Generally people raise 04:23 Bob White for dog training and stuff. we're not, again, our dogs are, they're pound dogs there. They'd be useless for that. um Anyway, and Coturnix quail lay about 300 eggs a year. um We don't raise exclusively jumbo because we like to go for a good mix of colors in our birds too, just because it's, you know, it's nice to have a pretty bird that you're raising also. So we 04:53 focus more on um egg and feathering color genetics, but they are highly productive. are their eggs are so nutritious when you compare them side by side with like an equal weight of a chicken egg. The nutritional profile is just phenomenal because they are heavier in the yolk. So then they have all of that additional um 05:22 nutrition to go with that. We find them very, very easy to raise. They were kind of our poultry introductory species. My husband had been wanting to raise birds for some time and I was kind, I ...
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    37 m
  • A Better Yard

    A Better Yard
    Feb 23 2026
    Today I'm talking with Brad at A Better Yard. You can also follow on Facebook. If you use the code atinyhome, you'll get a discount on the price for the first month. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 If you're a homesteader who wants to get paid for your content without living on social media, check out SteelSpoonFarm.com. Founder Jen Kibler teaches you how to build a real blog or your email list and use Pinterest for sustainable marketing. Inside her coaching group, Content Seeds Collective, you'll get weekly live coaching, a private community, and access to her Root Seller Resource Library full of tutorials and templates. 00:21 Join today for just $37 a month and start building a business that doesn't depend on the algorithm. A tiny homestead podcast is sponsored by Seals Spoon Farm. 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 Brad Tabke, the founder of A Better Yard in Shakopee, I think, Minnesota. Good morning, Brad. How are you? 00:49 Good morning. I am happy to be coming to you from Shakopee. OK. And I forgot to mention that he's also a Minnesota state representative for Shakopee. So ah how is your day? I would ask you about the weather, but since you're only about half an hour, an hour away from me, I know that it's sunny and warm. Warm. Warm is good. It is. It felt so nice. Like I was out this morning already. I had bird feeders to fill and do all that kind of stuff. And so I was out this morning and it was 01:19 gorgeous and I hear we're supposed to get some snow later this week. So that would actually be kind of nice to give some more moisture. That would help a lot. Yes. ah My husband actually cut down an ash tree last weekend and he was out there cutting it up this weekend in a t-shirt and like khaki pants and sneakers. But it's a goofy February. Goofy is the weather's goofy all the time right now. We'll see what happens with that. it yeah it was a gorgeous gorgeous weekend. 01:50 It really was and I was like, why am I warm? And I looked up at the thermostat in the house, it was 75 degrees and the furnace was not on. I was like, oh, duh, when it's warm outside, it's gonna get warmer in the house. Go fig. Exactly. It's a good ambient heating there. Yeah, we've got lots of windows and so the sun was just pouring in the living room and I was like, why am I hot? And I'm like, oh, duh, I know I'm hot. It's not. 02:17 It's February, but it's not February according to the weather. Okay, so you had a group called Minnesota Gardening and you changed the name to a better yard in January. So tell me the history on this. Yeah, so during COVID, it feels like all the stories now start with during COVID XYZ happened. 02:44 We during COVID, I had a bunch of friends who were asking me they wanted to start doing planting vegetables and flowers and those kinds of things and wanted something to do. And so they knew that I was I have a horticulture degree from Iowa State and have been in the landscape industry since I graduated from college. Actually, since I was in middle school working in a greenhouse. And so I have been 03:10 started that out helping just friends. they're like, Brad, we want to pay you to do this. And how do we do that? And I was like, I don't know. I'm not sure oh how we can do all this and make it make sense. And so we were just helping folks. And uh then we set up what we called Minnesota Gardening to grow that and stretch that to be helping with landscapes and helping make sure people knew how to reduce their chemical use and just fundamental things like that, along with 03:38 fruits and vegetables and making sure to grow those kinds of things. And so we started that and was very Minnesota centric. It was very much here in our thing that we wanted to be doing. But then it continued to grow from there. And so it was the focus shifted through COVID and after COVID to focusing on environmental landscape and making sure that people knew how to eliminate chemicals, how to feed pollinators, how important it was. 04:05 that we have a diversity of native and helpful plants in our yards and making sure that those kinds of things, saving water, storing carbon that are important for our future, that those kinds of things are happening. And so we grew beyond just Minnesota and just gardening into focusing on making sure that we're helping to do, you know, little things like helping to reduce the risk of cancer from chemical use and those kinds of things. And so 04:33 We switched to...
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    34 m
  • Steel Spoon Farm

    Steel Spoon Farm
    Feb 20 2026
    Today I'm talking with Jen at Steel Spoon Farm. You can also follow on Facebook. Content Seeds Collective https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 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 Jen Kibler at Steel Spoon Farm in Ohio. And good morning, Jen. How are you? Good morning. Good. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Ohio this morning? Oh, it is beautiful. I think we're on fake spring round two already. It's going to go back to winter again this weekend, but I'll take it. 00:29 Yeah, they were saying this weekend on the news that we would be getting snow this week, but I'm looking at the forecast and I'm like, I think LaSore, Minnesota is going to get rain. I don't think we're going to get snow. Yeah. We had 16 inches dump on us about three weeks ago now. So I'm glad to see the snow piles gone. We actually have grass again. So that's nice, but now it's mud season straight into mud season. So yeah, God love mud season. We have a, we have a dog and 00:59 She freaking loves spring because she can go out and roll in the grass again. But she has these cute little feet and the cute little feet leave cute little dirty footprints all over my floor downstairs. And I'm just like, you know what? I'm not mopping the floor until the weekend. I'm going to it all at once. And then she's going to come in and walk on it again and I'll do it the following weekend because I am not mopping that floor every two hours. We have four. 01:25 and two of them are great Pyrenees, then the other two are black labs. And the Pyrenees, of course, are like horse size. And they just clobbed in so much mud into the kitchen this morning to eat breakfast. Oh my gosh. Yeah, Maggie's a 35 pound, well, maybe pushing 40 pound um Australian shepherd. So she's got these adorable little footprints, but they're not adorable when they're mud on my floor. tell me what tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Steel Spoon Farm. 01:55 So we have kind of everything here. I've had horses my whole life. So I've got my three big old horses that are all retired now. And then we have two little feral mini mules. And I say feral because I've literally never touched the one in the two years she's been here. We'll just take her time. She knickers at me now. She does her little mule money. So we're making progress, but mules and everything has to be on their time. And then we have a little mini pony too named Apple for my daughter. So she's so sweet. 02:24 So we've got them and we have Angora goats and then a bunch of just miscellaneous Nigerian dwarf goats too that are just, you know, they're pets. to sell some of the mohair off the Angoras. Haven't had time to even process it lately because I've been so busy with all my other business things. ah But I do really love spinning when I have the time. I've spun my own yarn, did a bunch of crochet with it. Actually made the shawl that I wore in like our maternity pictures with 02:54 hand spun mohair from our own goats. So that was really neat. um That's a needle felting with it, all kinds of stuff. I've sold it to all kinds of different people online on Etsy and then on my own site too. Everything from fly lure creators, they use the mohair for their fly lures, which was really odd. um To of course the reborn dolls, which is amazing to see how realistic those are, but they've used mohair for those. 03:22 mask makers for theater mass in New York City, all kinds of stuff. So it's amazing to see how far that can stretch just from my little farm to all across the world. is one of the reasons I love this podcast so much because I hadn't even considered the fact that that mohair would be used on the dolls. Yeah, they use it. It was a local lady actually, and she literally plucks one single hair at a time into these silicone doll. 03:51 It's the patience I do not have for that, but she does. And if they have really fine hair, like if she's doing a memorial doll, she actually paints the hair on and uses a paintbrush that's one hair width and paints these tiny little baby hairs on these dolls. It's incredible. And then the mask maker in New York City. This is a crazy crossover, but my husband is a lifetime wrestling fan and 04:19 this guy actually made the masks for mankind, for Mick Foley, mankind, and Undertaker, which are two of his favorites. And here he is buying mohair from my goats to make these theater masks. I thought, what a crazy small world that is. That's not small, that's miniscule world. Yeah, that was very niche. that was super ...
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    40 m
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