November 8, 2024 • 39 mins
These small business ventures bring the public and its produce closer together – but they started as a way to save crops from going to waste. Anney and Lauren explore the history of u-pick farms.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Saber Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Recent and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Lorn Volga Bum and today we have an episode
for you about you Pick Farms.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yes, and it's a fun one. It's a fun one.
It brought back a lot of memories for me. Oh yeah, yeah.
Was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I associate you Pick farms with the fall season because
of like apple picking and pumpkin patches and stuff like that.
I mean, I know that they are a year round thing,
and my experience with them is, in fact more summer based.
I did have a family reunion that I went to
when I was a young child that was on apple orchard,
(00:52):
so it was like vaguely similar in theme.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
But uh, but yeah, just you know, night you go
to places where there's trees and they're changing colors and
you get fruit. Yeah, it's great, it is great, It
is great. I hadn't before we did this episode. I
don't know that I would have put pumpkins and Christmas
(01:20):
trees into you pick farming, but they are, they certainly are,
and that for me growing up in rural North Georgia,
we were close to a bunch of apple orchards, also
pumpkin patches, and so it is something I also associate
(01:41):
with fall. But I did do like strawberries and blueberries
in the summer. But my school would have field trips.
We would go and we would pick apples. Yeah, and
it just felt as a kid, like the coolest thing.
I can take these home and make something out of them.
(02:07):
But it is, Yeah, it's a nice outing. It's a
nice thing to do, and then you get some food
out of it.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, you know, I mean your enjoyment mileage.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
May vary out of that.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And there is something a tiny bit weird about like,
ooh for a fun day, let's go do this thing
that someone's job, yes, that they don't have fun at
or I mean, I don't know, I don't want to
speak for all harvesters, but yeah, I mean really fresh
fruit is really great, or other types of produce delicious
(02:43):
so nice.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah yeah, And we'll talk about this more in the
history section. But like, for instance, near where I am,
you would make a whole ship out of it.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
You would go.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, it's like an all day thing. Yeah, probably
trying to go to the orchard if you could, and
then you would go to the waterfall. So it was
just like a whole thing and they had a hay
ride and oh yeah yeah, corn mazes and ye yeah,
snacks and oh my goodness, yeah yeah. And I mean
(03:18):
for those of us who are, you know, stuck in
kind of urban or suburban areas that don't have a
lot of that, it is. It is a very it's
it's really nice. You're like, oh, air, this is cool.
I forgot. Yeah, wow, look at these things growing reconnection
to our food supply chain. Cool, right, yeah, yes, well
(03:43):
I guess that our question. Yeah, I mean, I think
that was just the whole episode. We could probably cut
it there, probably, but we won't because there's a lot
of stuff to go over here. There is there is
you pick farms. What are they?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, you pick farms are farms that open their fields
to the public during harvest season whenever that may be,
and let people come pick fresh produce to take home
with them for a fee. These farms are generally like small,
locally owned and operated kind of farms, and the fee
structures can vary. Often buy volume or weight, sometimes with
(04:24):
like an entry fee on top of that. Depending, the
farms might offer varying levels of education and or entertainment
and or other items for sale, maybe like a petting
zoo or picnic. Foods to eat on site, maybe like
jams or craft items to take home. Might have workers
on hand to talk to customers about how the produce
(04:45):
has grown and like the different varieties that they offer
and the history there. Depending on the operation, the experience
can really skew anywhere from like do you want cheap berries?
Please help pick these berries before they go bad. It's
on the honor system. No one is even here, just
takes berries to like a full on agritourism that's more
(05:07):
expensive than buying produce at a store. And also there
is a corn maze and carnival rides and like photo
ops with goats.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yes, by the way, I'm really good at corn mazes.
I believe this about you. I believe that somewhere in
your like horror film training, you have gotten very good
at corn mazes on purpose for reasons. Yeah, I confidently
can tell you good at corn mases. It's good to know.
(05:39):
I was already probably sticking with you in case of
a horror movie. But yeah, in the case of a
horror movie where we have to get through a corn Maise,
I'm here perfect but yes, yes, you pick farms are
away for farmers to make money and get their crop
(06:00):
harvested without paying for labor. And it's a way for
customers to obtain fresh produce and you know, connect with
the growing process a little bit more than usual. It's
an individual, consumer level, local agricultural experience and end product,
like the opposite of industrialized, globalized factory farming. And it
(06:26):
can be you know, whatever you put into or take
away from the experience, you know, hopefully at minimum that
the farmer made money from their crop and the consumer
got out in the fresh air, came away with fresh produce.
It's like a working holiday. Yeah, And there's a lot
of different ways that it can look, which we'll talk about.
(06:47):
But for instance, for me, one of the reasons I
never thought about pumpkin farming going to a pumpkin patch
in this kind of way is that I was just
go and pick it up and then I would leave
Like it wasn't it's not quite as involved exactly, but
it did have a I mean, there were I'm sure
some people if they're from my area, I know exactly
(07:09):
where I'm talking about. But it was a big deal,
But like it just felt like you just picked out
your pumpkin and then left. You didn't want to do
all that other stuff. Yeah, yeah, left with your pumpkins.
You don't need to go on the carnival rides or
exact the hay rides or whatever it is that it is.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I mean, and what's available does
depend on what is grown in your area and what
season it is. You know, produce that's easily harvested and
edible out of hand is perhaps particularly popular, you know, strawberries, blueberries, apples, peaches,
stuff like that in the fall to winter. Right, Seasonal
(07:48):
things like pumpkins and Christmas trees are popular too, and
non edible items, well, mostly non edible items like flowers
are common.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
But yeah, you can.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Find lots of niche produce really just on what people
are growing. And speaking of which, farming is not a monolith,
and there are lots of reasons that individual farms have
opened their gates to the public through you pick business. Similarly,
customers reasons for going are their own, you know, on
both ends of that, it can be about saving money,
(08:20):
it could be about keeping business local, It can be
about agritourism. You know, education and entertainment surrounding are often
invisible agricultural systems. I suspect that for a lot of customers,
it's mostly about like getting out of the city slash
suburbs for a day and letting the kids run themselves tired. Yeah,
(08:44):
nothing wrong with that. Good good Instagram opportunities. You know,
we will get into some like araspecific cultural trends in
the history section, but yeah, if you're looking for one,
there are so many resources online. Pick your own dot
Org all three words spelled out in the normal English
(09:05):
way is a really great website to start with. It
is helpful to call a farm before you go to
like confirm availability, get an idea of what to expect,
you know, like some farms require reservations, some provide their
own containers, and some absolutely do not. So yeah, just
check it out, and you know, when you go, dress
comfortably and safely for the outdoors.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
If you're thinking.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
About starting one, there are also lots of resources online,
especially from like university extension programs. So yeah, I feel
like I'm fully prepared to help someone go into this business.
After doing the reading that I did today, I'm like, oh, yeah, no,
I've got loads of resources for you.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Let's go, let's talk about direct marketing and social media
presence and yes, oh well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Do not eat farms? Nor the business and operational plans thereof.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Okay, there's a haunted Maize Cornfield Maze movie here that
I usually yes, of course, of course I'll think about it. Okay, Okay,
thank you, Yeah, definitely get back to us. That being said,
(10:34):
fresh produce is good for you. We should all eat
more of it. Probably, Yes, well, we do have some
numbers for you, a.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Couple numbers like Okay, it's hard to get generalized numbers
for this phenomenon because it is so local. But for example,
the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services lists one
hundred and forty six statewide. You pick farms, or you
pick farms that exist statewide. I should say I did
(11:04):
read that. Bigger operations, like especially ones that have been
up and running for a decade or two and have
that word of mouth built up, which is a lot
of what these businesses rely on. They can see tens
of thousands of visitors every year. Another example in Kentucky
in twenty seventeen, agrotourism earned farms over seventeen million dollars statewide. However,
(11:34):
over seventy five percent of those farms reported earning less
than ten thousand dollars a year coming from agrotourism. So
in that case, and I suspect in a lot of cases,
it seems like a really widespread side hustle.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah. That same year, agrotourism revenue from around the in
tirety of the United States rose to a nine hundred
and fifty million dollars. So not doing too bad.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
No, no, they are not. And they have a history
that I was not expecting but makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
The history is why I like actually really chose the
topic because I didn't know anything about it. I had
never really thought about it, and I was like, oh,
oh that's cool. So yeah, yeah, we are going to
get into that history. But first we are going to
take a quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
shout out in this episode to Dustin Renwick's article over
at National Geographic, the Surprising History of America's pick your
own Farms, which is really useful for this also has
pictures from all kinds of era pig farms past, So
(13:07):
definitely go check that out if you would like to
learn more. Yeah, this is a really interesting story. Yeah
all right. So, according to some sources I read, there
are arguments to be made that the seed of the
idea of you pick farms goes back to medieval European
sharecropping and later a Victorian era trend where people were
(13:31):
invited to visit farms and pick produce for a meal
like a home cooked meal. That I couldn't find much
to back that up, and I'm not the only one.
I would say it is at the very least safe
to say that this idea has existed in various forms
since we became an agrarian, non nomadic society with farms,
(13:56):
though it probably was not near as popular as what
most of us are thinking about.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, yeah, I mean right, for sure, the phenomenon of
people being like, oh, hey, I need help with this harvest.
Oh do you want some of it?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, is a thing that has probably existed since farming
but exactly yeah, but yes, But modern day you pick
farms emerged in the early twentieth century. One of the
first known instances was an advertisement in nineteen oh seven
from a California farm that read joined the Merry Orange Pickers,
(14:30):
Big crowd Going Today, A novel, fascinating experience, yes, but
that was kind of a outlier. The idea really got
a boost in the nineteen twenties thanks to a couple
of factors. Firstly, more people were able to afford cars. Secondly,
(14:52):
for the first time in American history, a majority of
the population lived in cities, which meant people wanted to
take their cars out of the city for day trips. Yeah.
Some farms, especially those only an hour or so outside
of cities, saw this opportunity, so they started putting out
ads promising Americans a good time as they picked all
(15:17):
kinds of produce. Another part of this was that the
twenties were rough for a good chunk of the United
States farmers included. The demands of World War One had
farmers growing more than ever, along with advances and methods
like pivoting to motorize equipment instead of horses, and understanding
(15:39):
around livestock and crop science increasing. All these things came
together to lead to a national surplus of a lot
of produce. However, as this surplus built up, demand was decreasing,
Europe bounced back post war and no longer needed to
(15:59):
rely on American producers. There weren't as many people being born,
and tougher restrictions kept more immigrants from entering the country,
so farmers had this surplus and less people buying it.
This in turn drove prices down, which was made worse
by debts many farmers had incurred during World War One
(16:20):
and tax on their products that remained unchanged given the circumstances. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, Like, all of this drove prices down so far
that farms the next harvesting season were finding themselves unable
to hire labor for that harvest.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah. And on top of that, the Great Depression exacerbated things,
and by the early thirties, numerous farmers were trying to
get relief from the government farmers and states like Iowa
threatened to strike. But all of this was not going
to keep the produce from growing, just going to grow anyway.
So in nineteen thirty two, when chair carries bloomed on
(17:01):
Lake Michigan in Door County, Wisconsin, they were trying to
come up with something. At the time, canries offered a
set price to can the cherries, but given the current
economic climate, farmers found themselves in it was more financially
sound to let the cherries rot. Well. Yeah, but the
(17:22):
cherries in Door County were something of a tourist attraction
and a lot of farmers obviously didn't want to just
let the cherries go bad, so some of them came
up with the idea of getting consumers to pick them
themselves for a penny a pound, which was a pretty
good deal because yeah, I remember at the time most
Americans were impacted by the Great Depression. Fruit was a
(17:45):
luxury for a lot of people, and the idea was
painted as a nice outing, like a trip you can
go on affordable. So local radio stations ran ads and
people showed up picking over one hundred thousand pounds of
cherries in early July of that year as the season began.
(18:07):
It was a huge success, which of course got the
attention of other competing orchards. All types of creative advertising
methods followed, like moving billboards on trucks that read something
like follow me. Are roller skaters with signs on their backs,
People handing out flyers with directions to their orchards are
(18:29):
standing at intersections waving flags. Newspapers reported on it. It
was this big thing. One orchard saw upwards of ten
thousand tourists from one hundred and thirty different towns in
the first few weeks, and it was a success financially too,
drumming up about half a million dollars in today's money.
(18:52):
So now people knew there's money to be made here,
so they got to work formulating a blueprint for the
following season so it would be more organized. Because this
was a surprise, I didn't think it was gonna take off,
like yeah, they were just like, oh oh really, huh
oh okay, all right, put a sign on this rollers
(19:14):
Pater's back. Meanwhile, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, passed in nineteen
thirty three, aimed at increasing farmers pay while decreasing the
surplus of their crops and production. It instituted federal quotas,
including around how many cherries could be canned Intoor county,
(19:36):
and that number was half of the expected crop. So
based on that, three hundred farmers came together to come
up with a standard price for the remaining cherries for
this U pick idea, and then came the advertising promising
a fun outing and affordable vacation. This was also when
(19:56):
a lot of the roads were getting share, so it
was easier to get to Yeah. But this act also
disenfranchised thousands and thousands of black farmers who rented land,
particularly in the South. Soon there were calls for strikes
in Alabama. Many black farmers faced discrimination, threats, and violence
(20:19):
in the seventies and eighties. Black horticulturist Booker T. Wattley
interviewed a whole host of people for his nineteen eighty
seven guidebook that included tips for how small black owned
family farms could strategically capitalize on the renewed interest of
you pick farms. And the tips range from being located
(20:41):
within forty miles of a city or an urban area,
setting up on a hard surfaced road or New York
heard service road, and that the atmosphere was as important
as the crop. So it was you're getting away for
this experience. Yeah, yeah, Okay, stepping back a bit, there
(21:04):
was another practice that helped grow the upick industry called cleaning. Essentially,
after their main harvest, farmers would charge a fee for
visitors to pick any excess to glean. The gleaners could
get a lot of produce for a low price. However,
fears around pesticide in the sixties put a dent in interest,
(21:29):
so that was something else that was going on. But yeah,
interest in you pick, farms picked up again in the
eighties and nineties when people started to become concerned about
their reliance on overly process foods which were now abundant,
and lack of access to fresh food. And in more
(21:49):
recent years some farms have also leaned into agrotourism. My
hometown specifically, when you go in from Atlanta, it's about
an hour away. Yep, there's a sign that says like
agritourism stops. It says agritourism, and it's pointing all these
(22:11):
different ways. So people started to lean into that, which, yes,
agricultural tourism, and some of these farms did start offering
things like mazes and games and food or hay rides,
all of those things, often near other tourist attractions like
a waterfall. With the rise of a focus on clean
(22:34):
eating or getting back to the land, this type of
farm has endured and become somewhat the butt of a
joke of a specific type of date if you know,
you know. Some have also pointed out the irony that
in yeah, some cases it's become incredibly expensive for the tourist.
(22:55):
So you are paying more for the produce.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, but you're paying for the experience you happen to
be getting produce.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
But right, yeah, yes, And going back to something you
mentioned earlier, Lauren, I kind of think there's an element
of cosplaying a farmer or someone who lives off the
land in this for some people without it all acknowledging
all of the work that goes into that, Like you're
(23:23):
taking a day to do it or just half a
day to do it, and not considering the you know,
entire season of labor that has gone into Yes, I
mean it's I mean, you know, like we were joking
earlier about like the fruit is going to show up
either way. It's not always. I mean, like it will
if you have already put in the effort to make
(23:44):
it occur. And so yeah, which I don't especially if
the farmers are making money off of it. I don't
think that's bad necessarily, but I think we should be
more appreciative of yourself too, seriously that you picked apples
rap oh yeah. Yeah, and just don't don't don't take
(24:06):
things for granted. I mean in general, Yeah, try try
to try to consider. Try to consider the food that
you're eating and the people who have made it possible
exactly exactly, because it can be lovely. I do have
really fond memories, especially pumpkins, but I have a really
good memory of blueberries, and that that was an instance
(24:29):
where the farmer was just like, have at it. I
trust you. It was like, you know, like whipped cream,
like old whipped cream tubs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I
I how to really get experience with that, but just
to appreciate the work that goes into it. Yeah, the
(24:49):
experience even oh.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Sure, yeah, I mean even even growing up with family
members who had pretty extensive gardens that I, you know,
helped out with and had a little bit of a
concept of of how much work it was to grow
food and right and having like a family reunion on
an apple orchard and stuff like that. But but even
even then, you know, it's not a part of my
(25:13):
daily life. And so there's there there really is something
magical about being in the place where the food is
being grown and you know, smelling the scent of the
leaves on the trees and uh and the cider being
made in the building next door, and you know, just
(25:35):
and and just the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
It's it's nice.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
It's nice.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
It is nice, And I do like, I like the
experiences I've had where you do go when you pick
the apples, but then like the family is there and
they're selling cider and they're selling apple donuts or they're
it's just.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And they're really excited about one variety of apples that
they're growing, and they want to tell you about it,
and I'm.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Like, heck, yes, please, it's so cool. Yeah, it's nice,
it is it is well. As Lauren also mentioned, you
can resources abound if you're interested in starting a you
pick farm, including social media strategies. But I would love
(26:23):
to hear from any listeners if you have experience with these,
if you've worked on one. Yeah, oh yeah, oh goodness,
yeah again yeah. Shout shout out to the National Geographic article,
shout out to pick your Own dot org both really
both really good resources, and yeah, I would love.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
To hear from you all. And also, certainly this is
not only an American phenomenon from a from a very
brief googling there, there do indeed seem to be similar
practices set up kind of all over the world.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
So yes, so right in about that mm hmm as well.
And I feel like a lot of topics we've done
have touched on this idea. It's just this is a
very specific commercializing I guess. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, let
us know. I think that's what we have to say
(27:18):
about you pick farms for now. It is.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
We do already have some listener mill for you, though,
and we're going to get into that as soon as
we get back from one more quick break for a
word from our sponsors.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
They we're back, Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with this snooz.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Annie definitely did a jump scare at me at the
end there. Just just have one because that's how the
corn maze works. You know what this is gonna be
my hubris is I get in a corn maize and
I'm so like I've got this and then the curse
(28:18):
will be I can never get out. Yeah, well, sorry about.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
It, Andrew, please edit out any instance of me bragging
about my my competences.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So friend of the show, Rose wrote us a long
letter about white tailed deer, so we're gonna split it up.
You know, we love long letters, so keep them coming. Yeah. Yes,
Rose wrote when I was growing up, hunting was a
very big deal for my parents. My parents cherish the
value of eating food they had provided for themselves and
(29:00):
spending time in nature. For them, hunting was the most
respectful way to take an animal's life if someone chose
to eat meat. The way they explained it to me
growing up is that the animal can live a free
and natural life, not locked up in stockyard. They can
eat a natural, healthy diet instead of industrial animal feed.
Then one day suddenly, out of the blue, they are
(29:22):
munching on some grass or an apple or whatever one moment,
and then the next thing they know, they are dead
from a gunshot. No pain, no fear, just lights up.
My parents mostly hunted whitetail deer. They did try elk
and bear two, but never with any success. Now, look,
hunting season might be in the fall, but preparing to
(29:45):
hunt whitetail deer was a year round process that had
no beginning or end. We also hunted in Washington State, Idaho,
and Montana. As soon as the season ended, we compiled
notes on where we had seen deer successfully, got where
other hunters in our area had gotten deer, and also
contacted our friends in other states to see who was
(30:07):
successful and where. Weekdays after school were spent at the
gun range or driving up in the foothills of Mountaineer
for target practice. Hours on end shooting at targets in
different positions. It was often cold, boring, loud, and most
of all grueling weekends were spent on long road trips,
(30:28):
sticking out next year's hunting grounds, counting deer, tracking migrations,
talking to farmers and ranchers, hopefully scoring permission to hunt
on private land the following season. Endless visits to every
single gun shop in all three states, talking to locals
about the local deer population, and of course we would
bring along our rifles and practice. So this is my life.
(30:52):
As an only child. I was not only dragged along
for all this, I was expected to carry the mantle
and become part of the next generation of hunters. Being
a girl made it all the more special. Higher pressure
and my rifle skills were always something my parents loved
to brag about. I was good. I was the only
(31:13):
girl in my age group, and I was always the
top mark stross. When I turned thirteen, as a kind
of rite of passage, it was decided I would go
on my first deer hunt. I was not thrilled hunting.
Hunting starts at dawn and goes until sunset. We were
(31:34):
hunting in eastern Washington, near Lake Chilan, oh No, close
to a tiny town called In Yet, eastern Washington is
nothing like western Washington. Breaking through the Cascade Mountains, there
is a sudden shift in landscape and green, lush forest
suddenly breaks away, revealing rolling foothills covered in apple orchards.
(31:58):
In the shields of green and hops a white tail
deer's paradise. We chose this area because earlier that year
a forest fire had come through and destroyed a lot
of the winter grounds. The deer stayed on there was
a good chance deer We're going to die of starvation,
so extra permits were given out.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Continuing, I was good at rifle craft, but I had
never killed anything more than a bug, and even with that,
I would feel bad.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
So we're out.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Driving through the burnt out terrain along winding, logging roads
that fold back on themselves. These are foothills, so the
space between each hill is a deep ravine. It is
dusty and dirty, and as we slowly drive up and
down these roads, we carefully work our truck around other
trucks doing the same, ensuring that as we pass, the
truck on the ravine side doesn't tumble off on accident,
(32:51):
killing everyone inside. I'm in the back seat. No one
is talking. We are scanning the sides of the hills,
looking for any signs of a deer. Then I see it,
the flick of an ear. It catches my eye and
I follow it. Sure enough, I see a sandy brown
horizontal line out of place among the black burnt lines
of dead trees. Then my eyes focus and there she
(33:14):
is a white tail dough I silently yelled to my
dad to stop. I spotted something. He hit the brakes.
We're only going about five miles an hour, and in
an instant we slipped out of the truck, get in position,
confirmed that it is indeed a white tail deer, and then,
without thinking, I take the shot. I could see her
through the scope of my rifle, head up, alert, munching
(33:35):
on something, standing sideways, but head pointed in our direction.
More curious than anything. Then in an instant she jumps
up in the air and runs off. I definitely shot her,
and she ran away. This was the cardinal sin of
a hunter. This is the one thing you are not
supposed to do. Do not maim an animal and let
it run away and die a slow, terrible death in
(33:57):
the woods. I was in a complete panic. I dropped
my rifle in the dirt and started to cry. Of course,
she was on the other side of one of those
deep gaps between the hills, and there was no road
access over there. I got myself together and we started
walking over there. It was actually a lot further away
than any of us had realized, and it took us
nearly an hour through dense steep terrain to reach the
(34:18):
site where she had been standing. If we had realized
just how far away she was, I would not have
taken the shot. It was too risky and didn't assure
a good shot. Thankfully, though we found her, she had
died instantly due to how steep that side of the
hill was. She had lost her footing and fallen. I
was relieved, but also sad. I thanked her for her life,
(34:39):
and that was the last time I ever hunted. She
was very tasty, fat from eating apples, wheat, barley, and
rye from nearby farms and orchards. Honestly, the deer that
eat farm crops are the best not too gamy. Deer
that have to fend more for themselves end up having
an overpowering gaminess to them. A farm raised deer, though,
(35:00):
while the meat is pretty like wild deer, Lauren, if
it has no flavor at all, you might as well
just buy beef and save the money. My favorite way
of eating venison was often as stroken off yeager schnitzel,
or as a German style gulash, not that weird thing
people call gulash in the United States. I also loved
(35:20):
doing a roast with red wine and gingerbread sauce for
the holidays. Organ meat and scraps were always excellent a sausage,
especially summer sausage. I am happy to share recipes if
you like, and you can substitute beef or wild mushrooms
for venison. Next time you do a deer episode or
wild game episode, I will tell you how it is.
In Germany we have employed hunters and you can buy
(35:41):
fresh killed game meat at grocery stores, plus much more
like the origin of yaegermeister ps. Could you do an
episode on gulash please? Why is the American nothing like
Hungarian goulash?
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Well, yes, one, I have a Hungarian gulash recipe and
it is very specific and distick from American gulage. I
don't know the answer, but yeah, we could do an
episode on Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Been on the list for a very long time and
I yeah, and I don't know why we haven't done
it yet, but here we go. I spoiler alert, this
might be a spoiler even for Annie. But we do
have a Stroganoff episode coming up.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
So oooh. I learned things along with you listeners sometimes.
I also Stroganoff does have a different it's got like
an americanized version as well. Absolutely. Yeah, well, thank you
so much Rose for sharing this, and yes, send recipes
(36:49):
always welcome.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Oh yeah, oh please, Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yes, that's that's a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I feel like I would similarly have a lot of emotions,
especially at the age of thirteen, about being like good
to go slightly before sunrise and being out all day
and just the entire thing right feels very I mean,
you know, like what a beautiful story it makes, like
(37:20):
what a formative experience. But yeah, I'm I don't know,
I don't know how upset I would be about it.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, yeah, I feel like I mentioned in passing all
the time, and perhaps I should explain better. But the
neighbor I often call the survivalist, he hunted deer and
he had like rubber like fake deer all around, and
he would do he had bow and arrow, and that
(37:51):
was how he, oh wow, hunted, and that was how
he taught his family. I kind of like came in
as a friend of his daughters. So I learned from him,
but very little. But it was like one of those
things where I think I was enchanted by the idea
until I considered it fully realities of it. Yes, yeah,
(38:16):
I was enchantit of the idea of knowing how to
use a bone arrow. Oh sure, living off the woods maybe,
but yeah, yeah, those adventure books that you read when
you're a kid exactly. Yeah. But everything after that, no, no, no,
no, no no. But yeah, I'm glad the deer, the single
(38:40):
deer that you hunted in this case, Yeah, it was good.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Yeah, I'm glad that she was delicious, and I'm glad
that she did not suffer.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Both.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yes, both excellent things.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Both excellent things. Well. Thanks as always to Listener Rose
for writing in. If you would like to write to us,
you can You can email us at Hello, atsavorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver Pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Savere is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
(39:26):
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Saber Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Recent and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Lorn Volga Bum and today we have an episode
for you about you Pick Farms.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yes, and it's a fun one. It's a fun one.
It brought back a lot of memories for me. Oh yeah, yeah.
Was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I associate you Pick farms with the fall season because
of like apple picking and pumpkin patches and stuff like that.
I mean, I know that they are a year round thing,
and my experience with them is, in fact more summer based.
I did have a family reunion that I went to
when I was a young child that was on apple orchard,
(00:52):
so it was like vaguely similar in theme.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
But uh, but yeah, just you know, night you go
to places where there's trees and they're changing colors and
you get fruit. Yeah, it's great, it is great, It
is great. I hadn't before we did this episode. I
don't know that I would have put pumpkins and Christmas
(01:20):
trees into you pick farming, but they are, they certainly are,
and that for me growing up in rural North Georgia,
we were close to a bunch of apple orchards, also
pumpkin patches, and so it is something I also associate
(01:41):
with fall. But I did do like strawberries and blueberries
in the summer. But my school would have field trips.
We would go and we would pick apples. Yeah, and
it just felt as a kid, like the coolest thing.
I can take these home and make something out of them.
(02:07):
But it is, Yeah, it's a nice outing. It's a
nice thing to do, and then you get some food
out of it.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, you know, I mean your enjoyment mileage.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
May vary out of that.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And there is something a tiny bit weird about like,
ooh for a fun day, let's go do this thing
that someone's job, yes, that they don't have fun at
or I mean, I don't know, I don't want to
speak for all harvesters, but yeah, I mean really fresh
fruit is really great, or other types of produce delicious
(02:43):
so nice.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah yeah, And we'll talk about this more in the
history section. But like, for instance, near where I am,
you would make a whole ship out of it.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
You would go.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, it's like an all day thing. Yeah, probably
trying to go to the orchard if you could, and
then you would go to the waterfall. So it was
just like a whole thing and they had a hay
ride and oh yeah yeah, corn mazes and ye yeah,
snacks and oh my goodness, yeah yeah. And I mean
(03:18):
for those of us who are, you know, stuck in
kind of urban or suburban areas that don't have a
lot of that, it is. It is a very it's
it's really nice. You're like, oh, air, this is cool.
I forgot. Yeah, wow, look at these things growing reconnection
to our food supply chain. Cool, right, yeah, yes, well
(03:43):
I guess that our question. Yeah, I mean, I think
that was just the whole episode. We could probably cut
it there, probably, but we won't because there's a lot
of stuff to go over here. There is there is
you pick farms. What are they?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, you pick farms are farms that open their fields
to the public during harvest season whenever that may be,
and let people come pick fresh produce to take home
with them for a fee. These farms are generally like small,
locally owned and operated kind of farms, and the fee
structures can vary. Often buy volume or weight, sometimes with
(04:24):
like an entry fee on top of that. Depending, the
farms might offer varying levels of education and or entertainment
and or other items for sale, maybe like a petting
zoo or picnic. Foods to eat on site, maybe like
jams or craft items to take home. Might have workers
on hand to talk to customers about how the produce
(04:45):
has grown and like the different varieties that they offer
and the history there. Depending on the operation, the experience
can really skew anywhere from like do you want cheap berries?
Please help pick these berries before they go bad. It's
on the honor system. No one is even here, just
takes berries to like a full on agritourism that's more
(05:07):
expensive than buying produce at a store. And also there
is a corn maze and carnival rides and like photo
ops with goats.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yes, by the way, I'm really good at corn mazes.
I believe this about you. I believe that somewhere in
your like horror film training, you have gotten very good
at corn mazes on purpose for reasons. Yeah, I confidently
can tell you good at corn mases. It's good to know.
(05:39):
I was already probably sticking with you in case of
a horror movie. But yeah, in the case of a
horror movie where we have to get through a corn Maise,
I'm here perfect but yes, yes, you pick farms are
away for farmers to make money and get their crop
(06:00):
harvested without paying for labor. And it's a way for
customers to obtain fresh produce and you know, connect with
the growing process a little bit more than usual. It's
an individual, consumer level, local agricultural experience and end product,
like the opposite of industrialized, globalized factory farming. And it
(06:26):
can be you know, whatever you put into or take
away from the experience, you know, hopefully at minimum that
the farmer made money from their crop and the consumer
got out in the fresh air, came away with fresh produce.
It's like a working holiday. Yeah, And there's a lot
of different ways that it can look, which we'll talk about.
(06:47):
But for instance, for me, one of the reasons I
never thought about pumpkin farming going to a pumpkin patch
in this kind of way is that I was just
go and pick it up and then I would leave
Like it wasn't it's not quite as involved exactly, but
it did have a I mean, there were I'm sure
some people if they're from my area, I know exactly
(07:09):
where I'm talking about. But it was a big deal,
But like it just felt like you just picked out
your pumpkin and then left. You didn't want to do
all that other stuff. Yeah, yeah, left with your pumpkins.
You don't need to go on the carnival rides or
exact the hay rides or whatever it is that it is.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I mean, and what's available does
depend on what is grown in your area and what
season it is. You know, produce that's easily harvested and
edible out of hand is perhaps particularly popular, you know, strawberries, blueberries, apples, peaches,
stuff like that in the fall to winter. Right, Seasonal
(07:48):
things like pumpkins and Christmas trees are popular too, and
non edible items, well, mostly non edible items like flowers
are common.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
But yeah, you can.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Find lots of niche produce really just on what people
are growing. And speaking of which, farming is not a monolith,
and there are lots of reasons that individual farms have
opened their gates to the public through you pick business. Similarly,
customers reasons for going are their own, you know, on
both ends of that, it can be about saving money,
(08:20):
it could be about keeping business local, It can be
about agritourism. You know, education and entertainment surrounding are often
invisible agricultural systems. I suspect that for a lot of customers,
it's mostly about like getting out of the city slash
suburbs for a day and letting the kids run themselves tired. Yeah,
(08:44):
nothing wrong with that. Good good Instagram opportunities. You know,
we will get into some like araspecific cultural trends in
the history section, but yeah, if you're looking for one,
there are so many resources online. Pick your own dot
Org all three words spelled out in the normal English
(09:05):
way is a really great website to start with. It
is helpful to call a farm before you go to
like confirm availability, get an idea of what to expect,
you know, like some farms require reservations, some provide their
own containers, and some absolutely do not. So yeah, just
check it out, and you know, when you go, dress
comfortably and safely for the outdoors.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
If you're thinking.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
About starting one, there are also lots of resources online,
especially from like university extension programs. So yeah, I feel
like I'm fully prepared to help someone go into this business.
After doing the reading that I did today, I'm like, oh, yeah, no,
I've got loads of resources for you.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Let's go, let's talk about direct marketing and social media
presence and yes, oh well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Do not eat farms? Nor the business and operational plans thereof.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Okay, there's a haunted Maize Cornfield Maze movie here that
I usually yes, of course, of course I'll think about it. Okay, Okay,
thank you, Yeah, definitely get back to us. That being said,
(10:34):
fresh produce is good for you. We should all eat
more of it. Probably, Yes, well, we do have some
numbers for you, a.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Couple numbers like Okay, it's hard to get generalized numbers
for this phenomenon because it is so local. But for example,
the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services lists one
hundred and forty six statewide. You pick farms, or you
pick farms that exist statewide. I should say I did
(11:04):
read that. Bigger operations, like especially ones that have been
up and running for a decade or two and have
that word of mouth built up, which is a lot
of what these businesses rely on. They can see tens
of thousands of visitors every year. Another example in Kentucky
in twenty seventeen, agrotourism earned farms over seventeen million dollars statewide. However,
(11:34):
over seventy five percent of those farms reported earning less
than ten thousand dollars a year coming from agrotourism. So
in that case, and I suspect in a lot of cases,
it seems like a really widespread side hustle.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah. That same year, agrotourism revenue from around the in
tirety of the United States rose to a nine hundred
and fifty million dollars. So not doing too bad.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
No, no, they are not. And they have a history
that I was not expecting but makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
The history is why I like actually really chose the
topic because I didn't know anything about it. I had
never really thought about it, and I was like, oh,
oh that's cool. So yeah, yeah, we are going to
get into that history. But first we are going to
take a quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
shout out in this episode to Dustin Renwick's article over
at National Geographic, the Surprising History of America's pick your
own Farms, which is really useful for this also has
pictures from all kinds of era pig farms past, So
(13:07):
definitely go check that out if you would like to
learn more. Yeah, this is a really interesting story. Yeah
all right. So, according to some sources I read, there
are arguments to be made that the seed of the
idea of you pick farms goes back to medieval European
sharecropping and later a Victorian era trend where people were
(13:31):
invited to visit farms and pick produce for a meal
like a home cooked meal. That I couldn't find much
to back that up, and I'm not the only one.
I would say it is at the very least safe
to say that this idea has existed in various forms
since we became an agrarian, non nomadic society with farms,
(13:56):
though it probably was not near as popular as what
most of us are thinking about.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, yeah, I mean right, for sure, the phenomenon of
people being like, oh, hey, I need help with this harvest.
Oh do you want some of it?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, is a thing that has probably existed since farming
but exactly yeah, but yes, But modern day you pick
farms emerged in the early twentieth century. One of the
first known instances was an advertisement in nineteen oh seven
from a California farm that read joined the Merry Orange Pickers,
(14:30):
Big crowd Going Today, A novel, fascinating experience, yes, but
that was kind of a outlier. The idea really got
a boost in the nineteen twenties thanks to a couple
of factors. Firstly, more people were able to afford cars. Secondly,
(14:52):
for the first time in American history, a majority of
the population lived in cities, which meant people wanted to
take their cars out of the city for day trips. Yeah.
Some farms, especially those only an hour or so outside
of cities, saw this opportunity, so they started putting out
ads promising Americans a good time as they picked all
(15:17):
kinds of produce. Another part of this was that the
twenties were rough for a good chunk of the United
States farmers included. The demands of World War One had
farmers growing more than ever, along with advances and methods
like pivoting to motorize equipment instead of horses, and understanding
(15:39):
around livestock and crop science increasing. All these things came
together to lead to a national surplus of a lot
of produce. However, as this surplus built up, demand was decreasing,
Europe bounced back post war and no longer needed to
(15:59):
rely on American producers. There weren't as many people being born,
and tougher restrictions kept more immigrants from entering the country,
so farmers had this surplus and less people buying it.
This in turn drove prices down, which was made worse
by debts many farmers had incurred during World War One
(16:20):
and tax on their products that remained unchanged given the circumstances. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, Like, all of this drove prices down so far
that farms the next harvesting season were finding themselves unable
to hire labor for that harvest.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah. And on top of that, the Great Depression exacerbated things,
and by the early thirties, numerous farmers were trying to
get relief from the government farmers and states like Iowa
threatened to strike. But all of this was not going
to keep the produce from growing, just going to grow anyway.
So in nineteen thirty two, when chair carries bloomed on
(17:01):
Lake Michigan in Door County, Wisconsin, they were trying to
come up with something. At the time, canries offered a
set price to can the cherries, but given the current
economic climate, farmers found themselves in it was more financially
sound to let the cherries rot. Well. Yeah, but the
(17:22):
cherries in Door County were something of a tourist attraction
and a lot of farmers obviously didn't want to just
let the cherries go bad, so some of them came
up with the idea of getting consumers to pick them
themselves for a penny a pound, which was a pretty
good deal because yeah, I remember at the time most
Americans were impacted by the Great Depression. Fruit was a
(17:45):
luxury for a lot of people, and the idea was
painted as a nice outing, like a trip you can
go on affordable. So local radio stations ran ads and
people showed up picking over one hundred thousand pounds of
cherries in early July of that year as the season began.
(18:07):
It was a huge success, which of course got the
attention of other competing orchards. All types of creative advertising
methods followed, like moving billboards on trucks that read something
like follow me. Are roller skaters with signs on their backs,
People handing out flyers with directions to their orchards are
(18:29):
standing at intersections waving flags. Newspapers reported on it. It
was this big thing. One orchard saw upwards of ten
thousand tourists from one hundred and thirty different towns in
the first few weeks, and it was a success financially too,
drumming up about half a million dollars in today's money.
(18:52):
So now people knew there's money to be made here,
so they got to work formulating a blueprint for the
following season so it would be more organized. Because this
was a surprise, I didn't think it was gonna take off,
like yeah, they were just like, oh oh really, huh
oh okay, all right, put a sign on this rollers
(19:14):
Pater's back. Meanwhile, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, passed in nineteen
thirty three, aimed at increasing farmers pay while decreasing the
surplus of their crops and production. It instituted federal quotas,
including around how many cherries could be canned Intoor county,
(19:36):
and that number was half of the expected crop. So
based on that, three hundred farmers came together to come
up with a standard price for the remaining cherries for
this U pick idea, and then came the advertising promising
a fun outing and affordable vacation. This was also when
(19:56):
a lot of the roads were getting share, so it
was easier to get to Yeah. But this act also
disenfranchised thousands and thousands of black farmers who rented land,
particularly in the South. Soon there were calls for strikes
in Alabama. Many black farmers faced discrimination, threats, and violence
(20:19):
in the seventies and eighties. Black horticulturist Booker T. Wattley
interviewed a whole host of people for his nineteen eighty
seven guidebook that included tips for how small black owned
family farms could strategically capitalize on the renewed interest of
you pick farms. And the tips range from being located
(20:41):
within forty miles of a city or an urban area,
setting up on a hard surfaced road or New York
heard service road, and that the atmosphere was as important
as the crop. So it was you're getting away for
this experience. Yeah, yeah, Okay, stepping back a bit, there
(21:04):
was another practice that helped grow the upick industry called cleaning. Essentially,
after their main harvest, farmers would charge a fee for
visitors to pick any excess to glean. The gleaners could
get a lot of produce for a low price. However,
fears around pesticide in the sixties put a dent in interest,
(21:29):
so that was something else that was going on. But yeah,
interest in you pick, farms picked up again in the
eighties and nineties when people started to become concerned about
their reliance on overly process foods which were now abundant,
and lack of access to fresh food. And in more
(21:49):
recent years some farms have also leaned into agrotourism. My
hometown specifically, when you go in from Atlanta, it's about
an hour away. Yep, there's a sign that says like
agritourism stops. It says agritourism, and it's pointing all these
(22:11):
different ways. So people started to lean into that, which, yes,
agricultural tourism, and some of these farms did start offering
things like mazes and games and food or hay rides,
all of those things, often near other tourist attractions like
a waterfall. With the rise of a focus on clean
(22:34):
eating or getting back to the land, this type of
farm has endured and become somewhat the butt of a
joke of a specific type of date if you know,
you know. Some have also pointed out the irony that
in yeah, some cases it's become incredibly expensive for the tourist.
(22:55):
So you are paying more for the produce.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah, but you're paying for the experience you happen to
be getting produce.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
But right, yeah, yes, And going back to something you
mentioned earlier, Lauren, I kind of think there's an element
of cosplaying a farmer or someone who lives off the
land in this for some people without it all acknowledging
all of the work that goes into that, Like you're
(23:23):
taking a day to do it or just half a
day to do it, and not considering the you know,
entire season of labor that has gone into Yes, I
mean it's I mean, you know, like we were joking
earlier about like the fruit is going to show up
either way. It's not always. I mean, like it will
if you have already put in the effort to make
(23:44):
it occur. And so yeah, which I don't especially if
the farmers are making money off of it. I don't
think that's bad necessarily, but I think we should be
more appreciative of yourself too, seriously that you picked apples
rap oh yeah. Yeah, and just don't don't don't take
(24:06):
things for granted. I mean in general, Yeah, try try
to try to consider. Try to consider the food that
you're eating and the people who have made it possible
exactly exactly, because it can be lovely. I do have
really fond memories, especially pumpkins, but I have a really
good memory of blueberries, and that that was an instance
(24:29):
where the farmer was just like, have at it. I
trust you. It was like, you know, like whipped cream,
like old whipped cream tubs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I
I how to really get experience with that, but just
to appreciate the work that goes into it. Yeah, the
(24:49):
experience even oh.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Sure, yeah, I mean even even growing up with family
members who had pretty extensive gardens that I, you know,
helped out with and had a little bit of a
concept of of how much work it was to grow
food and right and having like a family reunion on
an apple orchard and stuff like that. But but even
even then, you know, it's not a part of my
(25:13):
daily life. And so there's there there really is something
magical about being in the place where the food is
being grown and you know, smelling the scent of the
leaves on the trees and uh and the cider being
made in the building next door, and you know, just
(25:35):
and and just the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
It's it's nice.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
It's nice.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
It is nice, And I do like, I like the
experiences I've had where you do go when you pick
the apples, but then like the family is there and
they're selling cider and they're selling apple donuts or they're
it's just.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And they're really excited about one variety of apples that
they're growing, and they want to tell you about it,
and I'm.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Like, heck, yes, please, it's so cool. Yeah, it's nice,
it is it is well. As Lauren also mentioned, you
can resources abound if you're interested in starting a you
pick farm, including social media strategies. But I would love
(26:23):
to hear from any listeners if you have experience with these,
if you've worked on one. Yeah, oh yeah, oh goodness,
yeah again yeah. Shout shout out to the National Geographic article,
shout out to pick your Own dot org both really
both really good resources, and yeah, I would love.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
To hear from you all. And also, certainly this is
not only an American phenomenon from a from a very
brief googling there, there do indeed seem to be similar
practices set up kind of all over the world.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
So yes, so right in about that mm hmm as well.
And I feel like a lot of topics we've done
have touched on this idea. It's just this is a
very specific commercializing I guess. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, let
us know. I think that's what we have to say
(27:18):
about you pick farms for now. It is.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
We do already have some listener mill for you, though,
and we're going to get into that as soon as
we get back from one more quick break for a
word from our sponsors.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
They we're back, Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with this snooz.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Annie definitely did a jump scare at me at the
end there. Just just have one because that's how the
corn maze works. You know what this is gonna be
my hubris is I get in a corn maize and
I'm so like I've got this and then the curse
(28:18):
will be I can never get out. Yeah, well, sorry about.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
It, Andrew, please edit out any instance of me bragging
about my my competences.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So friend of the show, Rose wrote us a long
letter about white tailed deer, so we're gonna split it up.
You know, we love long letters, so keep them coming. Yeah. Yes,
Rose wrote when I was growing up, hunting was a
very big deal for my parents. My parents cherish the
value of eating food they had provided for themselves and
(29:00):
spending time in nature. For them, hunting was the most
respectful way to take an animal's life if someone chose
to eat meat. The way they explained it to me
growing up is that the animal can live a free
and natural life, not locked up in stockyard. They can
eat a natural, healthy diet instead of industrial animal feed.
Then one day suddenly, out of the blue, they are
(29:22):
munching on some grass or an apple or whatever one moment,
and then the next thing they know, they are dead
from a gunshot. No pain, no fear, just lights up.
My parents mostly hunted whitetail deer. They did try elk
and bear two, but never with any success. Now, look,
hunting season might be in the fall, but preparing to
(29:45):
hunt whitetail deer was a year round process that had
no beginning or end. We also hunted in Washington State, Idaho,
and Montana. As soon as the season ended, we compiled
notes on where we had seen deer successfully, got where
other hunters in our area had gotten deer, and also
contacted our friends in other states to see who was
(30:07):
successful and where. Weekdays after school were spent at the
gun range or driving up in the foothills of Mountaineer
for target practice. Hours on end shooting at targets in
different positions. It was often cold, boring, loud, and most
of all grueling weekends were spent on long road trips,
(30:28):
sticking out next year's hunting grounds, counting deer, tracking migrations,
talking to farmers and ranchers, hopefully scoring permission to hunt
on private land the following season. Endless visits to every
single gun shop in all three states, talking to locals
about the local deer population, and of course we would
bring along our rifles and practice. So this is my life.
(30:52):
As an only child. I was not only dragged along
for all this, I was expected to carry the mantle
and become part of the next generation of hunters. Being
a girl made it all the more special. Higher pressure
and my rifle skills were always something my parents loved
to brag about. I was good. I was the only
(31:13):
girl in my age group, and I was always the
top mark stross. When I turned thirteen, as a kind
of rite of passage, it was decided I would go
on my first deer hunt. I was not thrilled hunting.
Hunting starts at dawn and goes until sunset. We were
(31:34):
hunting in eastern Washington, near Lake Chilan, oh No, close
to a tiny town called In Yet, eastern Washington is
nothing like western Washington. Breaking through the Cascade Mountains, there
is a sudden shift in landscape and green, lush forest
suddenly breaks away, revealing rolling foothills covered in apple orchards.
(31:58):
In the shields of green and hops a white tail
deer's paradise. We chose this area because earlier that year
a forest fire had come through and destroyed a lot
of the winter grounds. The deer stayed on there was
a good chance deer We're going to die of starvation,
so extra permits were given out.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Continuing, I was good at rifle craft, but I had
never killed anything more than a bug, and even with that,
I would feel bad.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
So we're out.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Driving through the burnt out terrain along winding, logging roads
that fold back on themselves. These are foothills, so the
space between each hill is a deep ravine. It is
dusty and dirty, and as we slowly drive up and
down these roads, we carefully work our truck around other
trucks doing the same, ensuring that as we pass, the
truck on the ravine side doesn't tumble off on accident,
(32:51):
killing everyone inside. I'm in the back seat. No one
is talking. We are scanning the sides of the hills,
looking for any signs of a deer. Then I see it,
the flick of an ear. It catches my eye and
I follow it. Sure enough, I see a sandy brown
horizontal line out of place among the black burnt lines
of dead trees. Then my eyes focus and there she
(33:14):
is a white tail dough I silently yelled to my
dad to stop. I spotted something. He hit the brakes.
We're only going about five miles an hour, and in
an instant we slipped out of the truck, get in position,
confirmed that it is indeed a white tail deer, and then,
without thinking, I take the shot. I could see her
through the scope of my rifle, head up, alert, munching
(33:35):
on something, standing sideways, but head pointed in our direction.
More curious than anything. Then in an instant she jumps
up in the air and runs off. I definitely shot her,
and she ran away. This was the cardinal sin of
a hunter. This is the one thing you are not
supposed to do. Do not maim an animal and let
it run away and die a slow, terrible death in
(33:57):
the woods. I was in a complete panic. I dropped
my rifle in the dirt and started to cry. Of course,
she was on the other side of one of those
deep gaps between the hills, and there was no road
access over there. I got myself together and we started
walking over there. It was actually a lot further away
than any of us had realized, and it took us
nearly an hour through dense steep terrain to reach the
(34:18):
site where she had been standing. If we had realized
just how far away she was, I would not have
taken the shot. It was too risky and didn't assure
a good shot. Thankfully, though we found her, she had
died instantly due to how steep that side of the
hill was. She had lost her footing and fallen. I
was relieved, but also sad. I thanked her for her life,
(34:39):
and that was the last time I ever hunted. She
was very tasty, fat from eating apples, wheat, barley, and
rye from nearby farms and orchards. Honestly, the deer that
eat farm crops are the best not too gamy. Deer
that have to fend more for themselves end up having
an overpowering gaminess to them. A farm raised deer, though,
(35:00):
while the meat is pretty like wild deer, Lauren, if
it has no flavor at all, you might as well
just buy beef and save the money. My favorite way
of eating venison was often as stroken off yeager schnitzel,
or as a German style gulash, not that weird thing
people call gulash in the United States. I also loved
(35:20):
doing a roast with red wine and gingerbread sauce for
the holidays. Organ meat and scraps were always excellent a sausage,
especially summer sausage. I am happy to share recipes if
you like, and you can substitute beef or wild mushrooms
for venison. Next time you do a deer episode or
wild game episode, I will tell you how it is.
In Germany we have employed hunters and you can buy
(35:41):
fresh killed game meat at grocery stores, plus much more
like the origin of yaegermeister ps. Could you do an
episode on gulash please? Why is the American nothing like
Hungarian goulash?
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Well, yes, one, I have a Hungarian gulash recipe and
it is very specific and distick from American gulage. I
don't know the answer, but yeah, we could do an
episode on Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Been on the list for a very long time and
I yeah, and I don't know why we haven't done
it yet, but here we go. I spoiler alert, this
might be a spoiler even for Annie. But we do
have a Stroganoff episode coming up.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
So oooh. I learned things along with you listeners sometimes.
I also Stroganoff does have a different it's got like
an americanized version as well. Absolutely. Yeah, well, thank you
so much Rose for sharing this, and yes, send recipes
(36:49):
always welcome.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Oh yeah, oh please, Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yes, that's that's a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I feel like I would similarly have a lot of emotions,
especially at the age of thirteen, about being like good
to go slightly before sunrise and being out all day
and just the entire thing right feels very I mean,
you know, like what a beautiful story it makes, like
(37:20):
what a formative experience. But yeah, I'm I don't know,
I don't know how upset I would be about it.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, yeah, I feel like I mentioned in passing all
the time, and perhaps I should explain better. But the
neighbor I often call the survivalist, he hunted deer and
he had like rubber like fake deer all around, and
he would do he had bow and arrow, and that
(37:51):
was how he, oh wow, hunted, and that was how
he taught his family. I kind of like came in
as a friend of his daughters. So I learned from him,
but very little. But it was like one of those
things where I think I was enchanted by the idea
until I considered it fully realities of it. Yes, yeah,
(38:16):
I was enchantit of the idea of knowing how to
use a bone arrow. Oh sure, living off the woods maybe,
but yeah, yeah, those adventure books that you read when
you're a kid exactly. Yeah. But everything after that, no, no, no,
no, no no. But yeah, I'm glad the deer, the single
(38:40):
deer that you hunted in this case, Yeah, it was good.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Yeah, I'm glad that she was delicious, and I'm glad
that she did not suffer.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Both.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yes, both excellent things.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Both excellent things. Well. Thanks as always to Listener Rose
for writing in. If you would like to write to us,
you can You can email us at Hello, atsavorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver Pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Savere is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
(39:26):
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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