Eggcellent Adventures Ep. 54 Ft. Matt @GreenhornGrove

Matthew and Reec link up in Atlanta for a concert—but what starts as a casual meetup turns into an epic podcast episode. The two dive into how they first connected online, became farm buddies, and share what it's really like transitioning from city life to the homestead grind.

Matt, now a social media phenom with millions of followers across multiple platforms, opens up about the highs and lows of growing an online presence in the agriculture space. Together, they discuss how the digital world intersects with farm life, their nonprofit missions, giving back to the community, and of course—some hilarious chicken stories.

From growing gardens to growing impact, this episode of EGGcellent Adventures is packed with insight, laughs, and real talk.

Episode Transcript

Reec (00:48):
Welcome to another episode of Excellent Adventures. Reese
right here. This is a veryspecial episode. I got one of my
friends, my buddies, my homies.Matt Greenhorn Grove is in the
building.
He's also has a wonderfulfoundation. These guys are doing
some amazing things, but how wemet was on the Internet. I lost
some chickens. A puppy got tothem, made chicken nuggets out

(01:09):
of them. Matt saw the post, andhe sent me hatching eggs, and
we've been cool ever since.
My brother from another. What'sgoing on?

Matt (01:15):
Hey, man. What's going on? What's happening?

Reec (01:17):
Been like, I don't know, looking forward to it. We've
been talking about this for aminute.

Matt (01:21):
Yeah. This is I mean, I'm pretty excited about this. This
is like I told you, this is myfirst, like, real podcast
experience. I'm I'm excited tobe here.

Reec (01:28):
In studio. This is this is our our sub studio until we move
back to the farm and have ourfarm studio. But like I said,
I'm excited to get here. So whatwe ask everybody getting into
this is what is their old cluckmoment? What was the moment that
you knew I'm doing this backyardchicken thing or farming thing
or homesteaded thing oragriculture thing?

Matt (01:48):
You know, it's funny is like, we bought the farm and we
got there and like, I had noidea what I was doing at all.
None those do. Got there. Imean, I come from the city and
I'm like, all of a sudden I have25 acres and I have farm
buildings and all this stuff.And I was going to Tractor
Supply for something else.
And my wife said to me, shesaid, You know they have
chickens there. And I was like,Okay. I got down there. I looked
at the chickens and I was like,All right, I'll get some of

(02:10):
these. And I was like, How manychickens should I get?
And she goes, I don't know, adozen?

Reec (02:15):
Like eggs, right? Yeah, exactly.

Matt (02:17):
And I was like, All right, cool. So I got a dozen chickens
and then I get them home and wegot the brooder and all that
stuff set up, the guy tried tohelp me out. And then she's
like, okay, now you have tobuild a coop. I was like, Oh.

Reec (02:31):
So you got chicken mats early. Didn't have

Matt (02:34):
a coop, didn't know how to take care of them. I had one bag
of food and 12 chickens.

Reec (02:38):
Wow. So

Matt (02:39):
this is gonna get ugly quick.

Reec (02:41):
That's funny. Had no idea that that was not gonna work.

Matt (02:45):
No. And then in me, very me fashion, I spent like 3 or
$4,000 total, like building outthese elaborate chicken coops
with hatcheries and automaticdoors. Like, I I have my my
chicken coop has, I think 18nesting boxes in it, like for a
dozen chickens.

Reec (03:03):
And they probably pile all into one box. They

Matt (03:05):
do, they use like two box and put all the eggs in there.

Reec (03:08):
That's hilarious, man. So how much stuff did you build
before I get back on task? Howmuch stuff did you build in
there that you don't use?

Matt (03:16):
I think right now I'm using most of

Reec (03:18):
it. Okay.

Matt (03:19):
Nowadays, it only took me five years to get there, but I
didn't use most of it at first along time.

Reec (03:24):
Yeah. Man, it it's stuff like that that this is what this
podcast is about. It's it's justinspirational to the person that
wants to get into, like,backyard agriculture, whether
it's gardening or raisingchickens. Because our background
is similar. Collegiate sports,athletes, nightlife, right?
Yep. Nothing to do withagriculture or growing. Had you

(03:46):
ever even owned plants beforeyou got into this?

Matt (03:50):
I think I had some like table cactuses.

Reec (03:52):
Same cactus. You

Matt (03:55):
see them at the at the checkout aisle at Home Depot and
they're coming like a fancy youknow, like, I'd get I'd keep
that alive probably.

Reec (04:01):
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. It's a cactus. Yeah.
What could go wrong?

Matt (04:04):
Even even if even after it dies, it still looks like a
plant. So it just sit there.

Reec (04:08):
That's cool, man. Five years later, now you you have a
foundation that's helping buildgardens around the country.
You're sending free seeds topeople. I feel like I could
learn how to plant an entiregarden ecosystem, self
sustainability situation just bywatching your post.

Matt (04:28):
I mean, I see people tell me that all the time and I'm
like, realize I don't know thatmore than you.

Reec (04:33):
I can't tell. I've just kept notes, you know, and I

Matt (04:37):
put it in these nice little scripts and I talked
about this stuff and and so itsounds like I really know what
I'm talking about and I do, Imake sure I do the research, I
make sure everything's accurate.Right. It's real important to
me, but I'm I'm we're all doingthis together

Reec (04:49):
Right.

Matt (04:50):
At the same time.

Reec (04:50):
Right. Like Man, that's cool, man. I I just enjoy I
enjoy seeing the journeys ofpeople, yours especially, it's
extremely inspirational. BecauseI get it from my people all the
time like, I wanna get started,I just don't know where to
start. We none of us do.
Yeah. We just do it. Like yousaid, you went to you went to
grab some stuff, you came backwith a dozen chickens.

Matt (05:11):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean your story, I feel the same way about
yours. Because I mean, I've beenwatching you since the beginning
and now you're buying it, thenyou got the bigger property, now
you're buying another biggerproperty. Yeah.
You know, it's actual farm andyou got you got more livestock
than I do.

Reec (05:23):
Yeah. Well, I hope they're happy.

Matt (05:26):
Yeah, mean, from what I've seen, you're a great steward for
your animals.

Reec (05:29):
Appreciate that. Yeah, I try to be they count on me to
depend on me to whether they'regonna live or not, you know what
I mean? I take it serious. And Imean that I mean, it's fun. It's
fun, rewarding work, that's whatI get from it.
The other stuff that I did withradio, music, all that stuff, it
was cool. It was it was glitzy.You know what I mean? Other

(05:50):
people really like it, but thisis way more rewarding for me
even though I still enjoy thatside a little bit. You know what
I mean?

Matt (05:56):
Yeah. You know, it's it's weird. I have I was always
thinking I needed to be a bigdeal in the world. Like that was
important to me.

Reec (06:03):
Yeah.

Matt (06:03):
You know? And I would try to, you know, I buy fancy cars
and I'd I'd we'd go out to thesebars and I would buy the most
expensive bourbon, just sopeople could see how big my tab
was

Reec (06:13):
at the

Matt (06:14):
end the night,

Reec (06:14):
you know? Right.

Matt (06:16):
Now, I'm, you know, on the social media. I have all these
really super cool people thatmessage me and talk to me.

Reec (06:21):
Yeah.

Matt (06:22):
That I was I never would have thought people like that
would be friends with me.

Reec (06:25):
Yeah.

Matt (06:25):
And it it makes me happier to be able to help them grow a
tomato

Reec (06:29):
Mhmm.

Matt (06:29):
Than to be able to brag into somebody about everything I
have or what I know.

Reec (06:33):
I love that point. And I feel very close to that point
because like I'll be in a feedstore and I'll spark up a
conversation with somebody aboutchickens or about goats now
because I'm just getting somegoats, right? And this
conversation is with a person Iprobably would have never spoken
to. I thought they would havegiven me the time of day to give
me some advice or vice versa. Soit's pretty cool, man.

(06:54):
I love that. So with you justsaying that, wanna segue into
social media because you're hugeon social media. I'm not gonna
let you downplay it todaybecause it does it all the time.
Not gonna let them downplay itover a million followers,
multiple social media platforms,people love your content. You do
spark some very controversialsubjects sometimes in a very

(07:18):
palatable way, in a veryconscious way.
You don't make anybody feel badabout what they may should be
looking at. I'll put it thatway. I love your approach, but I
will say this, my experience inthis social media world coming
from the entertainment world hasbeen so different. It's been
much more helpful. People are alittle bit more happy on this

(07:40):
side.

Matt (07:40):
Yeah.

Reec (07:41):
Have you noticed that or what's been your experience?

Matt (07:43):
Oh God, so much, man. I mean, just like there's I I I
said this, was interviewed forthis article that got done about
me and I they they were askingme about it and they said, what
makes your audience different?

Reec (07:54):
Mhmm.

Matt (07:54):
And I said, you can have two people that are sitting at
opposite sides of the politicalspectrum. Mhmm. And then you
start a conversation aboutcompost. And they're sitting
there chatting with each otherMhmm. And laughing and joking,
and they don't realize they'resupposed to hate each other for
five minutes.
Yes. Okay. Like, I I believethese common experiences are so
much more powerful. Commoninterests are so much more

(08:14):
powerful than common enemies.

Reec (08:16):
I like that. That makes so much more sense because I can
have a conversation that a guyy'all know I'm black. So I have
a conversation with a guy thatpulls up with a big beard and
and a a MAGA hat on. And, youknow, we come from different
sides of the political agreementcircle or or line. Right?

(08:38):
And we'll have a conversation,very, very nice conversation
about raising chickens. Yeah.You know what I mean? Or what
pig feed is gonna be the bestYeah. Or something like that.
And we can sit there and have aconversation. It's like a common
ground. It's almost like music.Yeah. Two people singing the
same song.
They might not even even speakthe language the song

Matt (08:58):
is in, but we agree about something. That's so that's
that's a big part of why I dowhat I do the way I do it.

Reec (09:05):
Mhmm.

Matt (09:06):
And it's I've I noticed that early on. You know, I
noticed it pretty early onbefore I even hit big, I could
tell that there was somethingspecial about this. Yeah. You
know, that it's just I and atthat time we were even more
divided. Like I think we'vestarted to recognize the
misinformation and the visionfor what it is.

Reec (09:22):
Yeah.

Matt (09:23):
Which is, it's really empowering the people who want
to control us more. Yeah. But byus taking it back and saying,
no, we're gonna find things welike with each other.

Reec (09:31):
Yeah. I like that. You know? No, that that's a great
point. I think the more that wetry to murder that division with
our own platforms, I thinkthat's really important.
That's why I really appreciatewhat you do because you're doing
that. You're making people notonly giving them a different
perspective, but also tellingthem do their own research.
Yeah. You know what I mean?Like, don't believe me, go look
it up and then see if we reallyneed to be arguing about stuff.

Matt (09:54):
I call it normalizing kindness. Yeah. I like that.
Just normalize kindness, youknow what I mean? It's it's
setting an example, you know,you can't fight darkness.
Darkness wants you to fight it.

Reec (10:05):
Yeah.

Matt (10:06):
You can't do that. You then you become darkness.

Reec (10:08):
Yeah. That's true.

Matt (10:09):
The only way to to fight darkness is to embrace the
light.

Reec (10:12):
There you go. Sounds like a Jedi warrior. It's fine. I'm
not I am I am like a

Matt (10:17):
super nerd. I own a lightsaber.

Reec (10:18):
I got it. Also I do too. And a full size r two d two
drinking cup. Yeah. I do.
I have that. We have thosethings in common as well. But,
man, also so let's talk aboutthis too because social media
with you having such a wideplatform, right, and the

(10:39):
megaphone on social media. Whatwas that moment that it started
building up and you were like,wow, I'm really becoming a
social media creator. It's

Matt (10:49):
it happened overnight. Like almost literally overnight.
So since 2021, when we boughtthe farm until almost the very
end of 2023, it was likeDecember.

Reec (10:58):
Mhmm.

Matt (10:59):
I I had spent years trying to build it up and I did all
these voice overs, it's allabout vanity and ego. Yeah. And
I was gonna make people laugh, Iwas gonna become famous and
that's what I wanted.

Reec (11:07):
Yeah.

Matt (11:07):
And then in then in 2023, my wife said, you have to stop
drinking. She said, you're adrunk and you are angry when
you're drunk and you're nothelping yourself and it's not
making your life better. Shesays, you have to stop drinking.
And I said, yeah, she's right.And so I did.
And then you look at yourcontent, you look at what you're

(11:28):
doing, you see it through adifferent lens. Yeah. You know?
And I looked at everything I doand I was like, this is trash.
Mhmm.
Like I'm not doing anything foranybody. But then you look in my
comments, and the people in mycommunity are just helping me
helping each other and givingeach other advice. And now like
they're they're doing it fornothing. Yeah. They get nothing
in return.
And so I looked at that and Isaid, what would they do if they

(11:49):
had 25,000 followers? Mhmm. Andand I said, they would probably
do something nice for people.And they would do something good
with it and something useful.And so I said, okay, here it is.
I'm giving myself thirty days.Mhmm. I'm gonna use my own
voice. I'm gonna stop the dumbvoice overs. I'm gonna stop
trying to make people laugh.
And I'm just gonna speak from myheart Yeah. About things that I
think that matter, like thevision Yeah. And about us coming

(12:09):
together and about, you know,using positivity and growing
stuff. I said, if people stopfollowing me, I said, I'll just
I'll quit. You know, like thirtydays if people stop following
me, if people leave my channel,I'll quit, and I'll be I'll
focus on things.
Right. And in in thirty days, Igained 50,000 more followers.

Reec (12:25):
That's crazy. Just being yourself.

Matt (12:27):
Yeah. 25,000 to 75,000. I've been doing it for years.
Mhmm. I was lucky to gain athousand followers in a

Reec (12:33):
month. Right.

Matt (12:34):
That was a big month for me. Instead I gained 50,000 in
one month. And then the nextmonth I gained 75,000. The month
after that I gained over a100,000. Yeah.
And then by the end of the year,was I think I was almost I was
over a million probably by theend of end of last year.

Reec (12:47):
Wow. That's amazing, bro.

Matt (12:48):
Yeah. And it's and it that was that moment was when I
stopped trying to be funny orstopped trying to be interesting
or stopped trying to get famous.Mhmm. And I started just
focusing on doing good for otherpeople.

Reec (12:59):
Yeah. That's incredible, man. And that that goes to show
that it is a market for peopleactually trying to do something
positive. Mhmm.

Matt (13:06):
I I think it's more than that. I think people are hungry

Reec (13:09):
Mhmm.

Matt (13:09):
For goodness. Like we're all sick of it. We're all sick
of like people being ugly toeach other. Yeah. We just want
love again.
Like we want people to love eachother again and care about each
other. You know what my biggestpost is that Six Pillars of
Homesteading. I gained, I thinka quarter million followers of
that one post. Yeah. And at theend of the post, I say, help the
people that care about you, andthe ones that don't.

(13:29):
Mhmm. And it's like, I got somany comments from people who
would just quote that one lineand that was their whole
comment.

Reec (13:35):
Yeah.

Matt (13:35):
Because it was just it hit them so hard.

Reec (13:37):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it hits me hard just hearing it and
I've I've heard it a lot oftimes. Yeah. You know what I
mean?
That's dope, man. It's just it'sreally refreshing. I hope people
take that away. If if anythingelse from this podcast, I hope
they take that away. Yeah.
That one line right there. Hecopyrights everything, so don't
try to steal it.

Matt (13:56):
That's That's right, TM.

Reec (13:57):
That's it, man. That's cool. So let's talk about
getting into this wholehomesteading journey, right? You
buy the farm. What jolted you tobuy the farm in the first place?

Matt (14:06):
Well, ironically, it was being a drunk.

Reec (14:09):
Okay. So we would sit on

Matt (14:11):
the back porch, me and she was my girlfriend at the time.
She was my wife yet. She's mygirlfriend at the time. And we I
had moved into her house becauseit was COVID. So I got rid of my
townhouse, we moved into herplace, which is a whole other
interesting story.
But so we'd sit out back atnight on the back porch and we
would drink beer and sit andchat and just being drunk, like,

Reec (14:31):
we should buy a farm.

Matt (14:34):
I'll tell you, it would solve everything.

Reec (14:36):
We bought a farm. Not to worry about nothing. Yeah. Grow
food? Yeah.
That'd be essential. Yeah.That's it. And so

Matt (14:46):
I started a garden like that there. It was like, I grew
a tomato and I ate that tomato.Was like, that is a delicious
tomato.

Reec (14:52):
That was your old cluck moment. That tomato changed your
Yeah, really did. That's crazy.So it was the best tomato you've
ever had in your life. It reallywas.
And garden was sad.

Matt (15:07):
I had these like one gallon or like one pound or
whatever, one cubic foot bags ofdirt and I put three tomato
plants in there and try to

Reec (15:15):
frame them all. Then

Matt (15:17):
I'd overwater them every single day, so they got rot. And
I like, what is this diseasething on there? My wife knows
better than it. She's like,yeah, that's fungus.

Reec (15:26):
I was like,

Matt (15:27):
oh, we'll just clip that off. Alright.

Reec (15:29):
It's alright. Let's peel it off.

Matt (15:31):
It's still growing tomatoes. That's all

Reec (15:32):
that matters. It's fine.

Matt (15:33):
It's fine. It's happening.

Reec (15:35):
Oh man. So a conference, a moment in drunk history brings
you to the idea of the farm. Atwhat point did it become
serious?

Matt (15:42):
2020, we were talking about it. And then, you know, we
knew that she had to My wife's adoctor. So she was finishing her
residency and we needed to lookto move before she would take up
her first permanent position.Right. And so when we were
looking, she was like, Well,what do you think about South
Carolina?
I said, I don't really have anopinion.

Reec (16:00):
Yeah.

Matt (16:00):
She says, well, one of the areas so she had is big student
loans. You're a doctor, you get

Reec (16:04):
big student

Matt (16:04):
And one of the ways to pay off your student loans is by
working in areas that areunderserved, like rural
communities.

Reec (16:09):
Right.

Matt (16:10):
And so it was an option on the table. Mhmm. Like we can
move this rural community and wecould have just bought a regular
house. But I was like, no. We'retalking about buying a farm.

Reec (16:17):
Let's do this. Might as well. And then you're in in in a
a rural community, which itcomes with its own perks if you
go certain routes. Yeah. Mhmm.

Matt (16:25):
Well, I tell you that I've been I've never been happier.
The smaller town I moved to, thehappier I get.

Reec (16:30):
Wow. Say it again for the people in the back. The smaller

Matt (16:32):
town I moved to, the happier I get. I was I grew up
in Chicago.

Reec (16:35):
Mhmm.

Matt (16:36):
I I lived in San Francisco. I lived in Las Vegas.

Reec (16:39):
Mhmm.

Matt (16:39):
And my just before this, was in Charlotte. And, you know,
it's like Charlotte was asmaller town than

Reec (16:44):
Yeah.

Matt (16:44):
Than Vegas was a smaller place than San Francisco,
smaller than Chicago. And it'slike, now I'm in county with
16,000 people.

Reec (16:51):
Wow. Yeah. I'm at 17,000 where I am now.

Matt (16:54):
Oh, yeah. You guys are big town.

Reec (16:55):
Yeah. Bet you

Matt (16:58):
guys got a Walmart, I

Reec (17:00):
think we do. That's fancy.

Matt (17:03):
We don't got that.

Reec (17:04):
You don't go to Walmart? No.

Matt (17:05):
We got a Wendy's.

Reec (17:06):
There you go. There go. You go something.

Matt (17:09):
But yeah, I'm just so happy in the small town area.

Reec (17:14):
Yeah. It's funny how things perspectives will change
what happiness is. Right?

Matt (17:19):
Oh my god. So much. Wow. What makes you happy?

Reec (17:23):
Seeing these animals, having these conversations,
learning, and then teachingpeople things that I've learned.
In this space especially. Iliterally told somebody asked me
about building a studio spacebecause I've had several
studios, right? And I told themeverything he needed that made
me kind of happy, but I had gotso much more joy telling this
young lady what to put in herchicken brooder. She had

(17:45):
ducklings and I was like, Hey,if you get a paint tray, put the
water over the paint tray sowhen they splash, it goes in the
paint tray and you won't ruinyour bedding every day.
And she was like, Oh my God,that is a great idea. I said, I
got it from somebody else andnow you have it.

Matt (17:59):
That is a great idea.

Reec (18:01):
And I have ducks right

Matt (18:02):
now and

Reec (18:02):
I

Matt (18:02):
change out the bedding every No,

Reec (18:04):
you put a paint tray in there and sometimes it's gaps.
So I just put a little gorillatape on the gap so they won't
get the little feet. Becausethey have the little nails on
the little feet. Right?

Matt (18:14):
Yeah.

Reec (18:15):
Yeah, just put a paint tray and then put the water on
top of the paint tray.

Matt (18:20):
I'm to build them a, they're big enough now. They're
about to get their own duckhutch. Okay. There's gonna be a
whole new YouTube series.

Reec (18:28):
I I can't wait. Duck it. Do it. Oh, it's gonna be it's
not just about

Matt (18:31):
the ducks. It's gonna be all long form content. So it's
like new I I do shorts. I'm theking of shorts.

Reec (18:36):
Yeah, you are.

Matt (18:36):
My sixty second video is like

Reec (18:38):
They go platinum every time.

Matt (18:39):
I tell you what, it's it's so hard to script it down to
sixty seconds and people arealways like, you forgot to, so
was like, I didn't forget it,

Reec (18:46):
sixty sixty seconds, it's like, there's so much I can do.
And it's no dead space.

Matt (18:50):
Yeah.

Reec (18:50):
It's like, boom, boom, boom, every frame has meaning.
You know what I mean? You'retalking through every frame. I
think I called you once, I waslike, how the hell did you do
that? Because I was like, bro,how do you keep pace and don't
forget going from this scene tothat scene, I know the camera's
moving, it looks like a StevenSpielberg produced picture, I
love it, man.

(19:11):
But yeah, I can't wait for that,I can't wait to see that.

Matt (19:13):
You know what's crazy is when I, it takes me three to
four hours to script it, becauseI practice the script over and
over.

Reec (19:19):
Yeah.

Matt (19:19):
Read it out loud, over and over. That's why it's so clear
when I get to the garden andstuff. Yeah. I've already read
it fifty, sixty times out loud.Right.
And I've, this word soundswrong, and it doesn't flow. I'm
gonna change this word. Let meget my thesaurus and find
something that's a better fitfor this.

Reec (19:33):
Yeah.

Matt (19:33):
But yeah, I mean, it's like the long stuff is gonna be,
I think a lot better and it'sgonna be more concise. And I'm
the first series I'm doing is, Ihave no idea how to build blank.

Reec (19:45):
Okay.

Matt (19:45):
So it's all kinds of stuff I don't know how to do.

Reec (19:47):
Like I

Matt (19:47):
have no idea how to build a duck hutch. I don't, I have no
idea. I don't know how to put apaint tray

Reec (19:51):
down under water. But you know now. I do now. But the
thing is that you say that whenI believe you think it's true,
but you've built other things.So I know you know, you'll
figure it out and you're gonnaknow what to do.

Matt (20:04):
Well, that's the video. The video is me doing the whole
process of how I figure stuffout so people can see it. It's
gonna be me researching onYouTube. It's gonna be me
looking up ideas. It's gonna beme coming up with a plan.
Me going to the store to getwhatever I need. And I'm gonna
set a budget for these things.Like it's gonna be like, it'll
be like, I'm gonna build a duckhutch and it's gonna cost me a
$100 or I can spend a $100 oranything I find on my property.

Reec (20:24):
There you go. I like that. I can't wait to watch those
series. I just built a dogkennel like that. Gotta watch
the YouTube.
I was like, so I went and sawdog runs and they were like six,
dollars seven thousand for athree bay run, right? I got
those big great Pyrenees. I gotthe German shepherd who's
getting older and I'm like, Iwanted something nice for them.

(20:45):
It was a lean to on our barn,but it was enclosed. Mhmm.
I said, we could turn this intoa kennel, a kennel run with the
retriever kennels I already had,and we did.

Matt (20:56):
Do know that's where my chicken coop came from, right?

Reec (20:57):
That's crazy.

Matt (20:58):
Same thing, was an add on shed side on the side of my pole
barn.

Reec (21:05):
Yeah, so same, yep. I didn't even know what a lean to
was until I figured it Yeah,because the guy, it's a guy at
our property that knows all theterms. He was like, it's lean
to. And I said, what? He said,it's lean to.

Matt (21:24):
And I

Reec (21:25):
said, Okay, I get it. It leans to me. Right? I said,
Alright, I'm gonna turn thislean to into a dog kennel. And
that's what happened.
We got it done. With weight matsthat are stall mats now And a
little ingenuity. How

Matt (21:43):
hot do get out there for?

Reec (21:44):
It gets pretty warm, but it has so much shade that it's
cooler in the rear, like underit. So we have a run out. So
what I learned with my Rabbitat,we made a rabbit hat, right?

Matt (21:56):
It

Reec (21:57):
would rain in there and then it would get soggy. So I
figured if I just left a smallportion that is not shaded,
right? The sun can hit it andit'll dry out faster. And that's
what's been happening. Nice.
Yeah. That works. Yeah, itworked. So I was like, wow,
mistakes are making the thingsthat we're doing now better.

Matt (22:19):
Oh yeah. That's the number one thing is like, so I built
that chicken coop when I firstbuilt it, I set up like $34 into
it, spent way too much money.And then down the road, I knew
all the things that I'd donewrong. So like I built in doors
that I could shovel straight outthe side of the the lean

Reec (22:34):
to. Yeah.

Matt (22:35):
Apparently is what it's

Reec (22:36):
Right. Apparently.

Matt (22:36):
I filled doors like and I built doors in the back of my
chicken coops later or my my egg

Reec (22:42):
Yeah. Yeah. Egg boxes. Yeah. So I

Matt (22:43):
can get right to the egg boxes, right inside the coop
without walking through chickenpoop.

Reec (22:46):
Yeah. That's it.

Matt (22:47):
You know? So like the kids can run out there in their
pajamas in the morning andgather eggs. Yep. And that's all
that stuff like, they were allcheap, small fixes that I did
that made it so much better.

Reec (22:56):
Yeah. I'm doing the same now because obviously I'm moving
in a temporary like spot to workand I'm building things and
making sure that I don't buildthem in the wrong spot. So we
got like dog kennel now of a 40by 20 or 10 or 15 dog kennel
that we've turned into a chickenrun right now. And I've got like
egg boxes in there and stufflike that. And I was like, you

(23:19):
know what?
Let me put one of the kenneldoors on the side so I can get
in here fast and change thewater and the food. Let me put
this in the front. We weretrying to figure out how to make
a makeshift roof on the back. Iwas like, I'm just gonna buy
another gate, Lay the gate onthe top, use the kennel the
little pieces that hold thekennel together, and just lay

(23:41):
the gate on the top like a roof,and then run tin on top of that.
And I didn't have to buy anywood or anything.

Matt (23:47):
Yeah. Good.

Reec (23:47):
Alright. And it was, like, quick and easy.

Matt (23:50):
I tried to do as much have a do you have a room of doom
yet?

Reec (23:53):
Not yet. It's coming though. I already know. If I've
seen you and yours, I know yougot like saws and clamps and all
types of stuff.

Matt (24:01):
Oh man, it's even, it's so much in there now. Like, it's
just like I I've talked to mywife about just getting a
dumpster and just cleaning thatroom. Because I have like

Reec (24:09):
Yeah.

Matt (24:10):
So I had this bad habit. If I see a broken TV on the side
of the road Mhmm. I'll stop andgrab it because I know how to
fix

Reec (24:15):
Okay.

Matt (24:15):
So I fixed TVs like crazy and I just gave them away to
people.

Reec (24:19):
That's crazy. How did you learn how to fix TVs? I was
poor. Hey, that's how I learnedhow to make radio commercials.
I'm not even gonna lie to you.
I was like, y'all will pay mehow much? Oh, I'm about to learn
how

Matt (24:32):
to do this. Yeah, I was poor. I was watching TV on like
a little 30 inches screen orsomething like And I'm driving
down the road and there's this45, 50 inches huge TV on the
side of the road. And I said,I'm gonna take that. Yeah.
I took it, I got it home, thescreen was fine. I ended up
watching some internet videosand bought a $30 part on eBay.
At the time it was thoseexpensive TVs.

Reec (24:52):
They are, they still are. I mean, anything over $500 to
me, I don't care how manymillions I have is expensive. So
if I can get something for free,put $30 into it and now it's,
come on bro,

Matt (25:05):
that's perfect. I still own those TVs, my whole house is
all TVs.

Reec (25:09):
All TVs from side of the road TVs? Yeah, road TVs, which
is good. Love road TVs, That'scool. Well, being being broke
could definitely teach you somethings. It's either gonna make
you or break you.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's what's up,man. That's that bro, we got a
lot in common. A lot in common.
That's crazy. That's how I gotmy dealer's license, my car
dealer's license.

Matt (25:29):
Is that right?

Reec (25:30):
Being broke. Yeah. Yeah. Being broke and have a high
insurance. I was like, wait aminute.
Hold on. You mean to tell me Ican get four cars insured for
the same price as one car beinginsured?

Matt (25:41):
I'm gonna

Reec (25:41):
get my dealer's license. That's what happens. That's
crazy, man. Wow. Alright.
So let me get back on task. MyADHD takes over. So you get this
farm. Mhmm. And at what point doyou start being a farmer or you
start farming?

Matt (25:59):
So I don't know that I've ever really would call myself a
farmer, more than a homesteader.

Reec (26:03):
Okay. Homesteading. Yeah. Let's politically, I guess
verbally correct. I would put it

Matt (26:08):
as like the first time I started profiting and making
money was off the chickens.

Reec (26:12):
Okay.

Matt (26:13):
So I was my, my big plan before I knew what I was doing
was to sell eggs. And then Ispent $34,000 in the coop. And I
was like, all right, let's dothe math here. Yeah.

Reec (26:20):
Carry the one. One dozen is $3.06

Matt (26:24):
it'll take me sixty seven years to pay off the chicken
coop by selling eggs.

Reec (26:27):
$33,000 coop. Yeah.

Matt (26:30):
I was like, okay, well that's not effective. Uh-huh. So
I I I ended up finding forcheap, we found these rare birds
like the Ayam Samannis, the ones

Reec (26:37):
that sent you. Yeah.

Matt (26:38):
And I saw that Purina commercial where they were
talking about it, it's like,well you got the Ayaem Somanis
in there, or the what was hisname,

Reec (26:44):
doctor? Yo, Doctor. Biggs. Yeah, he came out,

Matt (26:48):
was good. Yeah,

Reec (26:49):
thank you. I appreciate that. I like that one.

Matt (26:51):
But he's like, he's like, they're not

Reec (26:52):
really, you know, they're they're fancy. They're fancy. I
sell the eggs, the fertilizedeggs.

Matt (26:57):
Yeah. I started selling fertilized eggs for exotic birds
Mhmm. On eBay.

Reec (27:01):
See, there you go. And that's that's thinking outside
of the shell.

Matt (27:04):
Yeah. I like Well, It's because I I went looking for how
do I get more of these birdsbecause I had two of them. Yeah.
And I found somebody that wasselling the eggs and I was like,
they're selling these eggs for a$100. Yeah.
And then the live breeding pairsof I am Simonees.

Reec (27:16):
Oh, they can go up to $56,000.

Matt (27:18):
Yeah.

Reec (27:19):
Or higher. Yeah.

Matt (27:20):
It's crazy. Yeah. So I was like, that's a pretty good
income stream. Yeah. So, youknow, was I tell people if you
wanna be a a homesteader, have aprofitable homestead, you're not
gonna do it doing one thing.
No. It's it's like it's like abundle of side hustles.

Reec (27:32):
Yeah. And that's what kind of ours is going agro tourism.
So I definitely appreciate whereyou come from with that. So you
made some money sellingfertilized eggs, the Ninja
Chicken's eggs. So they're allblack for those who might not be
familiar.
But you get into thishomesteading space, right?

Matt (27:51):
And

Reec (27:53):
now you're pushing it, like you're pushing it to other
people to be more selfsufficient. Was that the point
of that?

Matt (28:02):
At the beginning, no. Mhmm. The beginning, I just
wanted to be famous.

Reec (28:05):
Yeah. And

Matt (28:06):
I was out on a farm and I just wanted to I figured I'll
get famous on social media.Yeah. And I'll I have something
interesting to show people andI'll do that and then I'll be a
big deal and people will thinkI'm important. Yeah. That was my
goal.
And then somewhere along the waythat all changed, and it was
more about helping people andbeing a good person. Mhmm. And I
mean, don't even know like, nowI push it out to people because

(28:27):
I see the benefit. This is Ididn't even know how much was
wrong with me Mhmm. Until I gotaway from needing to be
Validated?
Yeah. Because your chickensdon't care. At all. They don't
care what kind of shoes you haveor what kind of car you drive.
What kind of and neither do mostpeople in a small town.
Mhmm. And neither do most peoplein this community. They don't

(28:47):
care. So it's like, it itchanges your way of thinking and
it it keeps you it's it's likeyou have more balance.

Reec (28:55):
Yeah.

Matt (28:55):
You have more balance.

Reec (28:57):
Yeah. I like that, man. I I I love the shift in mind frame
in this in this space. Becauselike you said, they don't care.
They don't care what you'rewearing unless it's
functionable.
Mhmm. They go, oh, how manypockets is on on those pants?
Where can I get some? Yeah.That's where you keep your eggs
when you're walking around.
How do I get one of those? LikeI could probably got more

(29:18):
comments on an egg apron I'veworn and a newer pair of
sneakers. Unless they're askingme, why did you wear those
sneakers and that coop?

Matt (29:26):
No one you're gonna

Reec (29:27):
get chicken poop on

Matt (29:29):
Did you get one of the Rue aprons?

Reec (29:31):
Yeah. Yeah, are really awesome. Then Purina gave me a
cool one too. So yeah, that'spretty cool, man. What was the
funniest thing you've grown sofar?
Funniest thing

Matt (29:42):
I've grown, I think it was corn.

Reec (29:44):
Okay, talk to me about it. So I wanna grow corn.

Matt (29:46):
Yeah, so I learned that there's a couple of different
ways to grow corn and you know,you think of corn like just grow
it in rows, but if you're notdoing a big enough area, you
can't just do a row of corn orwon't pollinate, got to grow
them in squares. Okay. And thenan even better way is the three
sisters method.

Reec (30:00):
Okay, I've never heard of this. This isn't exclusive. So
if you're listening to thisthirty minutes into the
interview, the three sistersmethod.

Matt (30:09):
Well, it's it's I wish it was my thing, but it goes back
to the Native Americans. Okay.So they grew the three sisters,
which was you do a mound. Mhmm.You grow the corn in like a
spiral

Reec (30:19):
Okay.

Matt (30:19):
Going up the mound. Yeah. And then you also plant it with
squash and beans.

Reec (30:24):
Okay.

Matt (30:24):
And so the beans, pole beans, the bush beans. The pole
beans climb the corn Mhmm. Andthey stabilize it. Oh. And they
use the corn as a trellis.

Reec (30:31):
Okay.

Matt (30:32):
So you don't need a trellis. Yeah. And then you grow
squash around the bottom like

Reec (30:35):
Okay.

Matt (30:35):
Like you know, crookneck squash or or butternut squash.
Yeah. And the leaves areprickly.

Reec (30:40):
So it keeps things out. Yeah. Woah. That is a that my
friends is home steady.

Matt (30:47):
Yeah. And the beans are a nitrogen producer, so they're
fixing the soil back. Mhmm. Forthe for the corn, that's a huge
nitrogen absorber.

Reec (30:54):
Okay. So that everybody's symbiotic. Symbiotic, man.
That's so dope. Yeah.
I'm gonna I think I'm gonna usethat method. You're gonna have
circles of three sisters allaround the property. It'd be
great.

Matt (31:03):
But the favorite part for me was I grew this stained glass
corn. And it's so pretty, butthen also you can make popcorn
out of it.

Reec (31:10):
Oh, cool. Okay.

Matt (31:11):
So get different different corns. Yeah.

Reec (31:13):
That's pretty cool, man. That's pretty cool. I was
watching a TikTok video aboutdifferent And somebody was like,
yeah, this is the white corn.This is sweet corn. And this is
and I was like, I didn't know itwas that many corns.
So many. There's so many. That'scool, man. I can't wait to see
those videos.

Matt (31:29):
Oh, yeah. What the the thing is that, like,
industrialized agriculture hastaken so much of the variety out
of our crops Yeah. And killedoff so much of biodiversity. You
know, like 95% of wheat issimple wheat. Like that's 95% of
our crop and we've grown it sohomogeneously.
I mean, there used to bethousands of varieties of crops
like every or wheat, every areaYeah, different. Yeah. That had

(31:50):
its own resistances andtemperatures and it had more
nutrients

Reec (31:53):
Mhmm.

Matt (31:53):
And it was better for you.

Reec (31:55):
Yeah.

Matt (31:55):
And this isn't the best wheat in the world.

Reec (31:57):
Mhmm.

Matt (31:57):
It's just the most it can grow in the most places. Yeah.
But we've narrowed it down tothe where like if if we a single
disease gets that wheat, that'sa keystone's crop. Mhmm. If a
single disease comes out and itdoesn't have resistances to it,
it can wipe out the wheatworldwide.
Wow. And we billions of peoplewould die.

Reec (32:13):
Because there's no variety. Because there's no
variety. Wow. And that makes somuch sense when when I was
talking to my granddad before hepassed. Right?
He was telling me, you know, Iused to eat this, this, and
this. I've been healthy my wholelife. And now things upset my
stomach. Mhmm. And I'm like,it's because the food is not the
food you ate.
It's a different food. It'sdifferent quality. It's

(32:34):
different things in it. You knowwhat I mean? I I know that has a
lot to do with why there's somany health issues out here.
That's why I'm so excited whenyou're, you know, getting people
to Grow. Here we grow. That'show it's like on your shirt.
You're getting people to growthings because you start to
learn those, what you're talkingabout now, you get that
biodiversity, you get those thedifferent nutrients, different

(32:54):
types of wheat, the differenttypes of corn, we don't know
about it.

Matt (32:58):
That's the best part about researching these videos is that
I learned so much stuff thatdoesn't even make it in the
videos. Yeah. Because I justread a ton.

Reec (33:04):
Yeah.

Matt (33:04):
But the you know, it's I actually was talking to a doctor
recently about this and he wastalking about how a lot of our
inflammation stuff is beingcaused by the lack of
biodiversity. Yeah. And therewas this, I can't remember the
name of it, but they basicallyfound a body in a bog. Mhmm. And
it was so well preserved, theythought it was like somebody who
had been murdered or something.
Turns out it was a guy from, youknow, I don't know ten, 20
thousand years ago. It was aprehistoric man or whatever. And

(33:26):
they found in his stomach like30 different 39 different kinds
of grains. Wow. From one mealthat you And they were like,
well this is this led to thembeing more diverse.
They didn't have glutenintolerances and all this stuff.
Right. They because they couldhandle it because they had so
much diversity in their diet.

Reec (33:42):
Yeah.

Matt (33:42):
And our diet is so homogenous. That's why that's
why the why we've seen the riseof like, you know, gluten
deficiencies and Right. Dairydeficiencies. Like I could go on
for days.

Reec (33:51):
No, got you. I was telling my best friend who's a lawyer,
she's has a gluten allergy. I'dmake fun of her. I'd say you
have glu media, but she has agluten allergy. And I was like,
you need to go to Europe and eatbread so you can eat bread.
Cause I was like, it's adifferent type of wheat and
stuff like that. They're usingdifferent things. They're
actually probably using actualgrains.

Matt (34:12):
Oh, you know, you know what it is?

Reec (34:14):
Talk to me.

Matt (34:15):
It's not even just the actual grains like they do all
this stuff. I just saw a postwith this, I can't even take
credit

Reec (34:19):
for But

Matt (34:20):
I watched this post and it was fascinating because the guy
talks about, well they irradiateit Mhmm. To get rid of this. And
then they they they bleach it,which breaks down the structure.
Like all the stuff that they doto process our wheat Mhmm. And
and make our grains and make ourflours Yeah.
Destroys all the nutritionalvalue in it. And and and
actually some of the they hadall these additives and stuff
that they put into it Mhmm. Tomake it more palatable and make

(34:41):
it last longer on a shelf.That's actually some of the
reasons that we have some ofthese issues like digesting

Reec (34:46):
it now. That makes so much sense that we're not supposed to
eat bleach and there has to besomething left over.

Matt (34:50):
I heard that also, you're not supposed to eat bleach.
Yeah. That does does make sense.

Reec (34:56):
It's so crazy. It's so simple, but it's so true. You
hear

Matt (34:59):
it and you're like, that does, I get it.

Reec (35:00):
Right, man. I'm like, okay, you make a GMO stock of
corn, right? You make a crop, aGMO corn. And it's great because
these bugs won't eat it. Theywon't eat the corn.
So the corn doesn't get, youknow, attacked by pests. If the
pests won't eat it, why should Ieat

Matt (35:19):
it? Yeah.

Reec (35:20):
That's what I'm trying to figure. I don't understand how
nobody like stinks that way.Like the pests don't eat it. Why
should I?

Matt (35:28):
I feel like this this bug will land on a on a pile of cow
dung and he's happy with that.Yeah. He sees this corn. He's
like, no. Oh, I'm not touchingthat.
Oh.

Reec (35:37):
I'm like, my goat my goat will eat a lot of things. Yeah.
He will not eat a Ritz cracker.He won't touch it. He sniffs it
and he goes, he won't he won'ttouch it.
So now I won't touch it.

Matt (35:51):
That's smart.

Reec (35:52):
It is, man. So wow. Talk to me about because I know you
said it. I I I have more animalsthan you. Mhmm.
But what is what is your dreamanimal? Like, you can get
anything over there. What wouldit be? I know you got chickens.
Mhmm.

Matt (36:07):
Now we got ducks.

Reec (36:08):
We got ducks.

Matt (36:09):
We are getting next is I grow my animals slowly because I
believe stewardship of youranimals is so important. So
until I'm ready to handle ananimal, until I've done the
research, I won't get them.

Reec (36:18):
Yeah.

Matt (36:19):
Because I made a mistake once with chickens.

Reec (36:23):
We won't talk about this. It worked it worked out in the
end. Yeah.

Matt (36:27):
But Kunis, the pigs.

Reec (36:29):
Oh, cool. Yeah. I love I

Matt (36:30):
have a forest, wanna clear it. And so I have a buddy, he
has Kuni Kunis and so he's gonnasell me some and I'm pretty
excited about it.

Reec (36:37):
That's

Matt (36:38):
cool. And but I have to get this the fence system and so
Yeah. But they're gonna clear myforest for me.

Reec (36:42):
Yeah. Are you gonna get the the movable electric fences?

Matt (36:45):
I think so. I think so. I'm still not a 100%. I've
talking to a couple more people.Mhmm.
I've considered just fencing inthe entire forest area because
there's plenty of the space.

Reec (36:54):
Oh, and just let them go ahead and just go crazy.

Matt (36:56):
Yeah. Just go nuts.

Reec (36:57):
That's cool. That's cool. But then I

Matt (36:59):
would also be keeping up the deer in the other life, so
I'm like, I don't know if Iwanna do that.

Reec (37:02):
Yeah. I understand. So, I've seen people do it with
those electric fences. That'swhy as they move it, you know,
piece by piece and let it clearout piece by piece, they root
everything, they eat everything.Mhmm.
And then they also fertilize asthey move. Mhmm. So then if
you're gonna plant in that area,then you can go ahead and keep
it going. I saw a guy, no lie,he's like, this is where I tried

(37:23):
to grow squash and pumpkins.This is where I tried to.
And it was just dead,everything. This is where the
pigs cleared out and squash andpumpkins are just growing now
because they were eating seedsand pooping and then the stuff
just started growing like crazy.So he was like, I'm just letting
them plant everything. So that'spretty cool.

Matt (37:43):
Tomatoes apparently work really well that way. Okay.
Because the acid in theirstomach won't break down tomato
seeds. That makes sense.

Reec (37:48):
Yeah. Okay.

Matt (37:49):
So those are growing, you get a lot of volunteers.

Reec (37:51):
A lot of volunteers.

Matt (37:51):
Yeah. I mean, that's that's exactly the theory is I I
wanna work them through myforest and then set up a food
forest. Okay. You know, juststart planting a bunch of stuff
with like, you know, the thesun, the sunchokes, the sun
artichokes out there, they growpretty flowers and stuff. But
then there's the tuberunderground that's very edible.

Reec (38:08):
You

Matt (38:08):
know, it lasts a long time and it grows like crazy. Nut
trees and fruit trees andpassion fruit plants. Okay. So
just create a, you know, agarden of food out there in the
forest.

Reec (38:18):
Right. That makes sense. I mean, sustainability at its
finest.

Matt (38:21):
Yeah. I mean, just I don't have to work at it. It takes
care of itself. I'm like,alright, cool.

Reec (38:25):
That's it.

Matt (38:26):
Sounds good.

Reec (38:26):
That's pretty cool. And pigs are super cool. I have a
couple of pigs now, Supertrainable creatures. Well,

Matt (38:32):
they're so smart.

Reec (38:33):
They are so smarter than dolphins. They're great. I train
train one to hit a button whenshe wants treats. I have to now
take the button because she is aglutton. But yeah, it's pretty
cool, man.
So I can't wait to see yourjourney on that. I don't have a
lot of pig information, but Ilearn on the go. So if you need
anything, call me brother. Will.That's pretty cool, man.

(38:57):
What is your dream, about thethe homesteading space? Like, if
it's all said and done, you hadto give somebody a quick liner
of what you want out of this?

Matt (39:08):
I want everybody to take back a little piece of our food
sovereignty. Mhmm. You know,because the Green Revolution was
this amazing thing that happenedand provided food for so many
people and we needed it at thetime.

Reec (39:20):
Yeah.

Matt (39:21):
You know, the billions of people would starve without the
Green Revolution. Mhmm. But nowwe've gotten past that and it's
time to stop corporatizing food.Mhmm. Because what was a good
idea turned into a great profitmargin.
Yeah. And now we need to takethat back a little bit and say,
okay, well thank you so much forall the things that you, people
you fed, but now we need todecentralize this system. Mhmm.

(39:44):
Because we've taken it too farin the other direction. Yeah.
And we need to do it by, if Icould have one thing come out of
the space, be for more people tocreate their own self
sufficiency in food, we couldtake back a little bit more
control of our food system.

Reec (39:57):
That's dope. I like that. I think, like you said, this
went too far trying to monetizeit. And now we've taken the
quality out of it. Yeah.
And it's hurting people. Yeah.On a wide scale. So I I can
appreciate that sentiment.Speaking of you wanting to help
people and get to a good space,tell me about the foundation.
How did that come about? Tell meabout the stuff that's going on
in Asheville, and then tell meabout where you would like to

(40:18):
see it going.

Matt (40:20):
Well, we in June of of twenty twenty four, I put out a
post and I said, had this crazydream that I could feed people
in the world by buildingcommunity homesteads. And I was
like, I'd love to make thathappen. And I I said, I think I
said something in post like,people have already told me that
this is impossible, but luckilyMhmm. You know, I like doing the

(40:40):
impossible. Yeah.
And so, two months later we welaunched it. We launched it as a
nonprofit. We got our five zeroone c three. Mhmm. We launched
the Greenhorn Guides, which isit's a totally free website that
provides e books and e learninginformation.
You know, we're actually gonnabe expanding upon that this
year. That turned into we'regonna be building community

(41:02):
homesteads and care farms.

Reec (41:03):
That's awesome.

Matt (41:04):
Like these whole we're planning on buying 45 acre farms
where, you know, people were thevictims of domestic violence or
PTSD for veterans or kids withspecial needs can come and
experience eco therapy firsthandand work with their hands in the
dirt. Patients with dementia cancome work there and it actually
slows the progress

Reec (41:23):
of the disease. Yes, does. I read that too.

Matt (41:25):
It's amazing. It's amazing. And so like, we want to
build these places. And then inOctober of last year, Hurricane
Helene came through and just didso much damage in Western North
Carolina. And a friend of mine,Sean Hendrix, he used to work
for MrBeast.
Now he's on with BarbarianFoundation. Mhmm. But he and

(41:45):
some friends got together andstarted Operation Shelter, which
was helping provide homes andstuff for people, getting them
tents and starlings. And Italked to Sean, I said, know,
I've got a charity. You've gotthis initiative.
I said, let's merge the two.Yeah. So Sean brought Operation
Shelter into Here We Grow and wekind of took over the getting
insurance and all the, you know,I spent a lot of time doing

(42:06):
office work essentially, whichwas super fun, I love that.

Reec (42:10):
Right, not being in a garden, gotta go out and do
office go back inside, but it'shelping people.

Matt (42:16):
Yeah, is. We've done so much. I mean, now we're part of
a coalition that we just helpedbuild a volunteer camp for 150
people. Amazing. We spent$50,000 putting water into it to
give all these guys hot showersat the end of their day of
working.
We're building 100 homes forpeople. Man, that's incredible.
Yeah. It's it's amazing. Andthis all started from just some

(42:36):
silly post.
Right. You know? And andobviously Sean's hard working,
those guys hard work withOperation Shelter starting that,
we've merged it and married it.And now, it's just growing and
growing and growing.

Reec (42:45):
Right. Here we grow. I like it, man. Here we grow. How
do people support those causes?

Matt (42:49):
You can go to thegrowsquad.org.

Reec (42:52):
The Grow Squad. I like it. You know what I really like?
That encompasses what this stuffis all about. What I see so much
helping in community.
Two people who have two totallyseparate things, right? Both
independent, both successful,but say, let's get together and
make it bigger. And partnershipis the key. And that's what co
oping is really a big thing inthis space. And I see why.

Matt (43:16):
That's how Sean found me initially. His wife was a fan of
my homesteading page.

Reec (43:19):
That's cool. That's really cool. Because usually somebody's
wife's a fan, he's not gonnalike you, But that's cool, man.
That is really dope. That'scool.
What is the three of the mostinteresting things that you've
learned Gosh,

Matt (43:37):
that is like, that is a tough question. Learned crazy
stuff all the time. I think oneof them is that originally they
thought tomatoes were poisonousbecause they were eating them
off pewter plates, like the richpeople in the 1700s and 1600s,
they're eating them off ofpewter plates. Tomatoes are
acidic. And so the acid in thetomatoes was leaching lead from

(44:00):
the pewter plates.
And so the people were gettinglead poisoning and they blamed
tomatoes. I was like, that'scrazy. That is. And then it was
the Italian peasants who werelike, they didn't they didn't
have any pewter plates. They'rethey're peasants.
Right. They're like, no, you'restupid. Is Yeah.

Reec (44:13):
This is it. Beautiful pasta. You love this. I love it.
Yeah.

Matt (44:17):
I'm I'm a tag it so I

Reec (44:18):
can do that. You can do that. I can. Made him an offer.
Can't refuse.
It's pretty

Matt (44:24):
good though.

Reec (44:24):
It's a man.

Matt (44:26):
Was like, alright.

Reec (44:26):
It's a pretty good brand though. Alright. So I'm gonna
give you number two. Number two,

Matt (44:34):
man, I don't even know. I don't even

Reec (44:37):
know how Well, me, all right, so let's do this. I steal
stuff all the time. Like I said,I stole the paint tray situation
with the ducks, right? And itworked and I pass it along. So
what's one thing you've stolenlately that's worked for you?

Matt (44:49):
Oh, DIY Ollas. Okay. Ollas are these terracotta pots that
people bury in the ground andthey put water in them, it's
like been using for thousands ofyears. And so I did this, I
bought these, they're like $50like they're not cheap, you can
buy the real ones. And I boughtthem and I did a video about it
to talk about it.
People were like, no, you canjust make that with a a
terracotta pot, you put a cork

Reec (45:10):
in the

Matt (45:10):
bottom and you're done. I was like, Oh, that's great. And
it's like $15. The next video Imade was, Hey, guess what?

Reec (45:16):
Right, throw $35 out the window, get $15 pot and a cork.

Matt (45:21):
And the DIY Oya one, that video was huge. Everyone liked
the Oya video and they saw theDIY Oya one, I was like, Hey,
I'm an idiot.

Reec (45:28):
I mean, but that's transparency. That's what I
think that's what makes you you,right? You're genuinely
transparent and not afraid tosay, Hey, I didn't do that
right.

Matt (45:36):
Oh, yeah. I mean, I do it all the time.

Reec (45:38):
Yeah. And I think it makes people more confident in their
ability to mess up to to dosomething right.

Matt (45:44):
Oh, yeah. I mean, it's so important. I mean, failure is
not a failure unless you stoptrying.

Reec (45:48):
Yeah. I like that. He's probably copywriting that one
too. Yeah. Cool, man.
What was the, I guess, mostrewarding thing you've grown?

Matt (46:04):
That tomato.

Reec (46:05):
Okay. That that's the first tomato. You know, that's
fitting because you're Italian.Yeah. Really is.
Yeah. It didn't give you leadpoisoning or nothing. It's
because

Matt (46:15):
I don't use pewter plates. There

Reec (46:16):
you go.

Matt (46:16):
Some rich fancy guy with a pewter plate.

Reec (46:19):
Nah. Cool. No, mean,

Matt (46:21):
that tomato was, but I mean, I think some of the
biggest rewards have come alongthe way just from things that I
wasn't good at growing. Youknow, I wasn't good at growing
this when I first started, tookme three, four or five tries.
Yeah. I tried garlic like threeyears in a row. Okay.
Didn't get it right. Didn't getit right.

Reec (46:40):
It's because you're a vampire. That's right.

Matt (46:41):
It makes

Reec (46:41):
I do spend a lot of time up late at night.

Matt (46:44):
I feel how do get up in the morning?

Reec (46:46):
I'm like, oh, I'm still up. Morning, I'm still up. This
is last night for me. I spentall

Matt (46:51):
night working on scripts and

Reec (46:52):
I just wander out

Matt (46:53):
and feed the chickens and I go to bed like a normal
person. Isn't that what you do?Just climb in my coffin.

Reec (46:58):
That's it. So garlic is it. Garlic was it.

Matt (47:02):
Think was great because like, you know, you try twice
and you you don't get it.

Reec (47:05):
And then

Matt (47:05):
the third time you do it, it's like,

Reec (47:07):
yes. Yes. That's it.

Matt (47:08):
Now I understand. Now I know how to do this. Mhmm.

Reec (47:10):
And it can't be taken away.

Matt (47:12):
No. It can't be. Yeah. Yep. It's like the Ruth you know
what

Reec (47:14):
the Ruth Stop Method is? No. Talk to me.

Matt (47:16):
Super cool, man. So like, when I first had the gardens,
was putting plastic down overeverything. Yeah. You know, I do
the plastic, dig

Reec (47:22):
the holes, I thought it

Matt (47:23):
was great. Because the first year I did it, no plastic,
weeds everywhere, tons of work.I figured out, okay, you can use
plastic. So, you put the plasticdown, and then everybody in my
comments was like, you shouldn'tuse plastic, you're gonna eat
microplastics. Yeah.
I was like, that can't be true.I looked it up and I was like,
well, holy golly. That is true.Okay. So, I don't wanna be made
of plastic.
I'll look at the next thing.This lady Ruth Stout was this

(47:44):
lady who just threw a bunch ofshe's like, just planted, I
throw a bunch of straw over thetop of it and I'm done. Uh-huh.
I was like, this can't work.

Reec (47:50):
I did see that video. Yeah.

Matt (47:52):
Yeah. And it's great. I gotta tell you, I've done it
this year for like the firsttime.

Reec (47:56):
Mhmm.

Matt (47:56):
And I just put it over everything and like my I have
almost no weeds.

Reec (48:00):
Wow. That's crazy.

Matt (48:02):
It's nuts. And the soil underneath Mhmm. It stays so
moist. Yeah. Because it keepsthe sun from hitting the soil.
Mhmm. It's not heating it up.It's like it's like it's got a
lot of angles, it breaks it up.It's almost like a house fort.
That's amazing, dude.
It's like this, you I dig upunderneath it and then the straw
is breaking down slowly too.

Reec (48:18):
Mhmm.

Matt (48:19):
So that's just adding more organic matter into my soil.
It's just Mhmm. It's beautiful.Like it's I like it. Yeah.

Reec (48:26):
I like it. Because I'm thinking about trees and I'm
like, I I was telling myneighbor, I was like, you should
I was like, I was trying to getin business, but you should rake
all the leaves around the tree.Don't bag them because those
leaves are falling and refeedthe tree. Right? And they had a
fruit tree.
I was like, it's refeeding thetree. Now it's talking about

(48:46):
straw that makes sense becauseit breaks down. Yeah. That makes
so much sense.

Matt (48:50):
Yeah. Leaves do the same thing essentially. I mean, it's
although I did see a cool oneabout protecting your trees
lately, especially your fruittrees.

Reec (48:58):
Okay.

Matt (48:59):
You're pine cones on your property? Yes. Okay. If you pile
up pine cones around the base ofthe tree

Reec (49:04):
Uh-huh.

Matt (49:04):
It keeps like rodents and stuff from climbing the tree
because they don't want to walkacross the spiky pine cones.

Reec (49:25):
Property I'm trying to save.

Matt (49:26):
Oh yeah, we have pear trees. I tell you what, once you
get that thing going, we produceso many pears, we don't know
what to do with it all.

Reec (49:31):
I got those those pigs, we'll love them once you get
them. Oh yeah, for sure.

Matt (49:35):
Yeah. And I'll send you I'll send you V's recipe for
pear butter.

Reec (49:38):
Perfect. I need it.

Matt (49:39):
You're making a crock pot. It's like cinnamon cinnamon pear
butter. It's so good. It's likespiced pear butters. I put it on
sandwiches all year long.

Reec (49:46):
That's cool, man. I do like I do love how I'm a say how
emotionally and lovinglyconnected you talk about your
family. Right? Because we'rewe're we talk outside of this.
Right?

Matt (49:59):
Yeah.

Reec (50:00):
And on social media, you keep it separate. I understand
why because I would do the samething because people are nuts.
Yeah. But how is it and I I'venoticed, like, all my neighbors
because now my neighbors arefarmers or they have a lot of
land. I see those relationshipsare long lasting relationships.
Mhmm. Has this space helped withthat?

Matt (50:22):
Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. Mean, it's it's a
lot more work. Yeah. My my wifeis just now about to start her
own practice.

Reec (50:30):
Okay.

Matt (50:30):
Which is gonna allow her to work from home more. Yeah.
And we're so excited about thatbecause she can be around more,
she can be around the propertyand the kids more.

Reec (50:37):
Yeah.

Matt (50:38):
But for a long time, there's she come home from a
long day at work Yeah. And it'slike she doesn't wanna

Reec (50:41):
do anything. She's drained. And then she's dealing
with a lot of as a as aphysician, you're dealing with a
lot of people's Psychiatrist.Too many people's problems.

Matt (50:49):
Yeah. I mean Wow. That I don't I don't I don't wanna like
trauma dump on people, but likewhat she has to deal with, with
like just the the doing therapyfor kids and stuff, and she
can't even tell me about any ofit. Yeah. But like, she'll
mention I had a child patienttoday, it was very on me.
Yeah. And you could see how muchthis stuff eats at her. Yeah.

(51:10):
And she has to carry that withher. And the other thing is,
she's the smartest person I'veever met in my life.
She's absolutely brilliant.Yeah. And so she sees the world
in a way that I'll never see it.And she knows a lot of things
that I don't know.

Reec (51:23):
Yeah.

Matt (51:24):
And she has a perspective of she sees the worst people go
through.

Reec (51:29):
Yeah.

Matt (51:30):
And so it's so hard on her. So this is gonna this is
gonna give her more air and morespace.

Reec (51:34):
That's cool. And I'm I'm sure just sometimes being able
to come out on some acreage andbeing connected to nature can
help too with the mental space.Because it helped me. I know it
helped me with my mental mentalhealth just being outside.

Matt (51:45):
Yeah. And now she's gonna be able to enjoy it the right
way.

Reec (51:47):
Yeah.

Matt (51:47):
Now for the boys? Yeah. Because we have we have it's
from they're from her firstmarriage, but my twin boys, I've
been raising them since theywere two. Right. And they are
God, they're such great suchgreat kids.
Yeah. They're twins, but they'retotal opposites. Yeah. But I
mean, just the getting to spendtime with them every day and be
around them all the time, it'sso special. Yeah.
You know, it's so special and sogreat like and you know, being

(52:11):
on social media, everyone thinksthat's such a big deal, but my
kids don't see that. Yeah. Youknow?

Reec (52:15):
They just know you you're a big deal to

Matt (52:17):
them. Yeah.

Reec (52:18):
Yeah. You're their hero.

Matt (52:19):
Oh, gotta hope so.

Reec (52:20):
Yeah. No. I I can tell. Yeah. I can tell.
And we we were out of

Matt (52:24):
the store one day and this lady recognized me and she goes,
are you him? Are

Reec (52:27):
you Greenwood And

Matt (52:28):
I said I said, yeah, that's me. Hi. And then she was
talking, she's very excited tomeet me and she leans down to
one the boys and she goes, doyou know what your daddy does?
And he said, my daddy helpspeople. And I was like,

Reec (52:39):
that's it. That's why I say you're their hero. That's
it. I was like, oh God, It'sstill my beating heart. Clutches
pearls.
I mean, it was just so

Matt (52:49):
to hear that from your kid, like that's how your kid
sees you in the world. My dad'sthe guy who helps people.

Reec (52:54):
That's awesome, man.

Matt (52:55):
And he wouldn't have seen that guy five years ago.

Reec (52:57):
Yeah. But that but all this came from a drunk
conversation and one tomato.Yeah. Conversation and one
tomato. And now you're sober andyou grow garlic.

Matt (53:05):
And that's the name part of our our upcoming podcast,
ladies

Reec (53:08):
and gentlemen. Drunk conversation and one tomato. I
love it, E Series coming out.That's cool, man. We almost hit
that hour mark, man.
I appreciate you, All the wayfrom South Carolina. We enjoyed
a great concert last night. MaryCutter, I would have not known
of her artistry until you toldme.

Matt (53:29):
Man, she has a good time with her on stage. She's a great
crew. You know the guy with thehat on stage?

Reec (53:34):
Okay. Yeah. James. His name is James.

Matt (53:36):
So James played for Mr. Bungell. That was Tom Patton or
Mike Patton with Faith No More.

Reec (53:42):
Okay.

Matt (53:43):
And they started mister Bungell. He was in mister
Bungell. So I was

Reec (53:46):
like, oh, he's in a I used listen to them. It's crazy. That
is crazy, man. Was and that'sanother thing like I enjoy about
this space, meeting new people,getting in different areas.
Yeah.
I'd never been to a rock countryconcert before today, before
yesterday. And I went, I waslike, I'm the only black guy
here. Oh, no. The sound guy'sblack. But it was cool, man.

(54:08):
It was real fun. It was it was agreat experience. Meet some new
people. And and I had a goodtime. And I appreciate that
invite, man.

Matt (54:15):
Yeah. For sure. I I do not we had we've been talking about
getting together for so long.Uh-huh. I like to support, you
know, I'd like to use myplatform to try to uplift people
whenever I can.
And so Mary was out, it's herfirst headlining show. So I
wanted to come and show that Iwas going to support her for
that.

Reec (54:29):
Yeah. That was an important moment for her. Yeah,
it was great. It was a good, itwas a great moment. It was a
sold out show.
Yeah. Glad I could come.

Matt (54:35):
Yeah, was definitely sold out. It felt sold out.

Reec (54:37):
Yeah, it did. It was sold out. Cover to go on, man. I
appreciate you, For the 17people that aren't following
you, where's your Instagram andFacebook and TikTok and all
that?

Matt (54:48):
Greenhorn Grove. Everywhere, all one word,
Greenhorn Grove because we haveno idea what we're doing.

Reec (54:53):
How did you come up

Matt (54:55):
with that name? So, you know, I mean, I always loved
that show Green Acres when I wasa kid. And I like alliteration,
I like plays on words and stuff,you know? And so I wanted
something that had alliteration,g g Mhmm. Or or anything
anything like b b g g whatever.
Yeah. And it was we're justbombing through names. We were
watching that show DeadliestCatch and they called this guy a
green horn. What about GreenHorn Grove?

Reec (55:16):
Yeah.

Matt (55:17):
And we've gone through 50 to a 100 names. My wife had been
like, no, that's stupid. No. Ihate it. No.
It's terrible.

Reec (55:23):
And I said, what about

Matt (55:23):
Greenhorn Grove? And she goes,

Reec (55:24):
oh, that

Matt (55:25):
might be there

Reec (55:26):
we are. Get it right at the house.

Matt (55:28):
That's the one. There it is.

Reec (55:31):
Oh, that's cool, man. So this has been another episode of
Excellent Adventures. Matt,Greenhorn Grove. I'm so glad. I
I hate that how we met for realhappened, but I'm so glad it
did.
I'm so glad it did. We're aboutto go check the farm out. So if
you listen to this episode, goon our social media and see some
of the behind the scenesfootage. We gone.