March 21, 2025 • 44 mins
Join us for another special episode as we celebrate the remarkable women who have graciously shared their stories. In this throwback episode, we’ll revisit some of the inspiring moments from The Rural Woman Podcast. We’re shining a spotlight on the incredible, resilient women who are making a difference in agriculture.
This episode features: Sherri Pauls, Katie Steere, Amy Hill, Arlie Laroche, Bridgette Readel, Paige Stewart, Jessica Garza, Victoria Lee, Courtney Witt and Kristine Beck.
For full show notes, including links mentioned in the show, head over to wildrosefarmer.com/tbpt17
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:20):
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban and thisis the Rural Woman Podcast. I'm a
first generation farmer whomarried into agriculture. Born and
raised in a city, I was sounfamiliar with where my food came
from, but I was determined tofigure it out. Through my journey
into agriculture, I saw womenwho were strong but humble, often
(01:44):
taking a backseat. To me.These women were leaders who deserved
a seat at the table. I createdthe Rural Women Podcast to share
the voices of women in anindustry whose stories often went
untold. The ruralentrepreneurs who live and breathe
their work full of grit andpride. We come here to share our
(02:07):
stories, to be in communitywith each other, to be challenged
and inspired, but mostimportantly, to be celebrated and
to be heard. We may not alllive farm, ranch or homestead the
same, but we are allconnected. We are rural women and
(02:27):
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey friends. We are celebrating
the fifth anniversary of theRural Women Podcast this year and
we are taking a look backthrough the inspiring stories that
have been shared with usthroughout the years. Looking back
(02:49):
through these interviews,there are women who have been successful,
who have persevered and whohave been resilient. There are women
who have shared their storieswho may not farm or ranch or homestead
or work in the business thatthey used to. Things may be different
for them now. But I know theirstories have impact and I hope that
(03:10):
this is a solid reminder forthose of you who have shared your
stories or who are inspired toshare your stories. Our stories are
forever changing, and justbecause we may not farm, ranch or
homestead the same, our livesmight not look the same. There has
been growth here through thegood, the bad and the ugly. I think
(03:31):
it's a solid reminder for allof us to look back to see how far
we've come. So, my friends, Ihope you enjoy these throwback podcast
episodes coming your way. Andthank you for being here and for
helping me celebrate theincredible stories of women in agriculture
through the Rural WomanPodcast over the last five years.
(03:51):
Enjoy. Today you'll meetSherry Pauls. Yes, I'm Sheri. On
Instagram, I am the ginger momor the G mom. And I have been in
like. I grew up in a farmingtown in southern Manitoba, but I
never was a part ofagriculture until 20 years ago when
(04:14):
I fell in love and got marriedand was thrust into the world that
is generational farming. I aman incredibly passionate person.
I am a natural ginger. So allthe red flags are there and. And
I'm incredibly stubborn anddetermined. I am fully saved by grace
and I'm not A huge fan ofreligion, but I'm a big fan of Jesus.
(04:38):
So if that's really. If Icould think about something that
would sum me up, I would saythat I will say exactly what's on
my mind. But I will love youso fiercely no matter what. Because
I have been loved no matterwhat. So now my passion is talking
to mostly to the agriculturecommunity as a motivational speaker.
But slowly but surely mypassions are growing into more like
(04:58):
women's mental health andespecially like I said, the in law
factor, which is somethingthat I'm very passionate about. Right.
And we're gonna dive all intothat today. So, you know, being an
in law at the age of 19 andcoming on to a multi generational
farm is obviously challengchallenging in so many ways. Can
(05:21):
you share your experience andthe ways that you have grown over
the last 20 years when itcomes to being that in law on the
farm? This I could write abook on and I would hope that that
book would never be done justwith how I am still, still learning
and still making the samemistakes, but also making successes.
(05:46):
I was my in law's probablyworst nightmare. I was not traditional
like a traditional like in apatriarchal sense. I was not. I met
my husband in the mechanicshop I was working in. I was working
on his car and it was exactly.It was like Hallmark movie romance.
Like it was. It was very likenot your average small town. It's.
(06:10):
It was a country song. Ialways joke but when I got married
and had that first year andgranted we also were pregnant and
having a baby, I almost ran. Ialmost ran for the hills. I spoke
my mind and was met with brickwalls. And I tried to know everything
and tried to be confident andI was extremely humbled very quickly
(06:33):
and I. I'm lucky enough to bein a farming family where they have
family meetings and theycommunicate as good. Like when I
think about all the storiesI've heard myself and the journeys
that I've been on from otherfarming families, I am incredibly
privileged with the farmingfamily that I married into. The males
in this family are incrediblysecure and very open to hearing what
(06:57):
we have to say. With respect.I did not those first years, I did
not have respect. When I wastalking about things that we were
doing, trying to learn. I justwanted to be in like, just get me
in there, just put me in apiece of machinery. And they're like,
well, whoa, you need to firstthere's a little bit of a. There's
a journey here. And thatwasn't the role that, that they needed
for me, they said, like, wehave lots of people to drive machinery.
(07:20):
We need you in the dreadedword for me, kitchen. And I bucked
at that as hard. And I,because I've never been a natural
talent in the kitchen, I havecome to realize that love is not
a feeling, love is a choice.And if I love my family and I can
do this beautiful thing forthem, then that is a success in itself.
(07:49):
Today you'll meet Katie Steer.So I'm Katie Steer and I am currently
and hopefully forever incentral Vermont, raising grass fed
beef and lamb with my husband.I'm from Rhode island and lived sort
of in Ireland and thenCalifornia, then back in Rhode island
and then we found our dreamfarm here. And yeah, we've. We bought
(08:09):
the farm two years ago and webought it 0% down with the USDA loan.
And we've just been on thisadventure of like, okay, how do we
make this work? So we have twoAirbnbs on the farm, we live in our
Airstream and we rent out ourhouse. And we're sort of just always
coming up with new ideas onhow to be small farmers and make
(08:32):
a living in this day and age.That's amazing. So tell us more about
your farm now and what you andBen have built and what you've grown
in the last two years. Yeah,sure. So we decided when we moved
here that we would just dograss fed animals because we had
100 acres of pasture here,which seems like a lot then. It doesn't
(08:54):
seem like enough now. So westopped raising pigs and chickens
and we got sheep. And I thinkit was like two days before our closing,
our bank called us and theysaid, oh, so it's a joint. We have
a joint mortgage. So like, theFSA gave us half and then the bank
gave us half. The FSAguarantees the bank's mortgage. The
(09:17):
bank called us and said, oh,we forgot about these two fees, which
were $12,000 more dollars. Andso our closing costs were almost
$30,000. And we realized inthat moment, okay, we need a plan
to make more money veryquickly. So we're really lucky that
(09:38):
the house was pretty nice. Sowe ended up moving into the Airstream
Shell that Ben was renovatingand Airbnb our house and we have
a yurt that we Airbnb to. Sothat's sort of been, I call it our
off farm job. That's sort ofbeen the thing that has like floated
(09:58):
us through the first two yearsas we've built fences on the whole
farm. And just water lines andall of our infrastructure and gotten
like, yeah, we had to move thefarm across New England, which was
quite the feat. And we had tosort of like take a dip in our production
during those first two years.And so we're going back up and yeah,
(10:20):
this year we're going to bedoing a couple of women's retreats,
women in wool retreats. Andthen I also just started making wool
dish sponges, which have beenreally fun and cool. So we're always
scheming how to make moneyhere. Today you'll meet Amy Hill.
(10:43):
My name's Amy and I own SnowyRiver Farms, which is located in
Cooksbrook, Nova Scotia, whichis pretty smack dab in the center
of Nova Scotia, honestly. AndI actually got my start in agriculture
back. Well, in 2003, I went tothe agricultural college in Truro
and I'm actually a city girl.I grew up in the suburbs in Dartmouth
(11:05):
and I had a real interest inagriculture, in growing food in animals
specifically. I went for myanimal science degree. I sort of
intended on doing wildliferehabilitation, rehabilitation, likely
for my whole life and having asmall farm on the side. And I did
do wildlife rehabilitation forsix and a half years. But I think
(11:26):
I caught the bug quitestrongly when I was at college and
I just had more and more of adrive to, to really just be growing
food. So in, in 2010, I quitmy job and started farming full time
and just jumped whole hog, Iguess you could say, into it. I certainly
(11:48):
jumped too hard into itoriginally and thought I was just
going to do everything. And inthe last few years I've sort of stepped
back a little bit of. From thethings that took too much time and
didn't give enough payback,whether that was financially or even
just for my heart, what was,what wasn't speaking to me as much.
But yeah, now I'm inCooksbrook and I run a farm on just
(12:11):
under 10 acres. But I do anorganically minded market garden
with some greenhouses and thenwe also raise poultry as broilers
and as lay hens and we also dohogs out on pasture. And then I've
also got a dairy cow thatshe's just for the family. So, Amy,
how in terms of marketing yourproduct and the growth of that, what
(12:34):
have you been doing that'sbeen successful to market your products
to your community? Yeah, sowe, I remember when we first started
and we printed off a wholebunch of flyers and I like walked
around places in Halifax andput up all these flyers. And now
when I Think about it. I thinkit's so silly because social media
is such a huge part ofeveryone's life that a lot of our
(12:56):
marketing has just moved tosocial media. I can post on Instagram
or Facebook, you know, aboutour egg shares or our chicken shares
or things like that. And theytend to just get sold very quickly
because it's just word ofmouth. But on Instagram, which travels
much faster than, you know,are the old way that we had word
(13:17):
of mouth. Yeah. So the vastmajority of how I'm essentially getting
my product out is througheither Facebook or Instagram. And
then we do have a few other,like, stores, and someone who goes
to market, that's anotherfarmer who goes to market, but he
also brings our product withhim. And so we've also got them marketing
(13:38):
our product essentially aswell. And then we can get out to
everybody. Today you'll meetArlie Laroche. Yeah. So I grew up
on a small farm, like youmentioned, near Yorkton, so near
the Manitoba border. And itwas a mixed farm. It was beef and
(13:59):
grain farm. So that certainlyset me up with a, you know, a strong
connection to nature and a.And a passion for food and a love
of animals and all that goodstuff. But after I graduated high
school, I. After traveling fora while, I went to college and I
studied water resourcesengineering technology at sios. And
(14:24):
so I pursued a career inenvironmental consulting for a while.
So I did that for almost 10years, and I really enjoyed it. And,
you know, kind of the mainreason why I decided to go down that
path was because I hadconcerns about the environment and
just really wanted to do whatI could to help that. So that's what
(14:49):
took me down that path. But Ifound out after I worked in that
field for a while that I justdidn't feel like I was getting the
full, you know, experience ofmaking a difference. I just didn't
feel like I was doing what Iset out to do. And at that same time,
around 2007 is when my husbandand I moved out to a small farm just
(15:13):
outside of Saskatoon, and westarted kind of a hobby farm there.
But we started doing somehomesteading, growing a garden, and
growing a couple of animalsjust for our own consumption. And
it was kind of around thattime also when I discovered people
like Alan Savory, who justshow how regenerative agriculture
(15:35):
can be beneficial to theenvironment. And so I just felt like
what I could do at the farmfor the environment was probably
more powerful and impactfulthan the work that I was doing in
the environmental consultingworld. And so that's kind of what
pushed me to come back to myfarming roots and do that instead.
(15:58):
So you've actually taken yourofferings off of the farm even further
off of the farm and you openedyour own restaurant. So tell us about
your restaurant and thatexperience and how it's going today.
Sure, yeah. So I guess therestaurant kind of was born out of
(16:18):
those farm dinners as well. Imentioned that I started doing them
with a chef from Aden, andthen at the time I was also working
with the Hollows, which alsosadly does no longer exist in Saskatoon.
But it was another fantasticrestaurant. And the head chef there
was Scott Dix, and he tookover doing the farm dinner for me
(16:42):
in about, I don't know, 2018.And the night that we did the farm
dinner with him, it just wentso well and everybody was so happy.
And Scott and I and, andBrett, and Brett is my husband. We
all just got on really well.And then my husband and I had thought
it could be interesting to, todo our own restaurant and meeting
(17:07):
Scott, working with Scott alittle bit. We just thought if we
were ever going to do one,this would be a great guy to do it
with. So just started kind ofhaving those conversations with Scott
as he understood therestaurant industry far more than
my husband and I did. Andyeah, that's kind of how the idea
was born. Today you'll meetBridget Riddell. So I am a lifelong
(17:36):
farm kid extraordinaire. Wegrew up with dairy and grain as well
as beef animals. And I'velearned that that's because my parents
obviously were bad at makingdecisions, so they thought they'd
just do everything. And whenyou do that growing up, you just
learn to balance a lot ofthings all at one time. And I think
that prepares us really wellfor adulthood. It gives us that foundation
(17:59):
of how to be parents and fulltime employees and then do fun things
like podcasts, etc. And wejust get the opportunity to do a
variety of things just likefarming might have looked like back
at the time frame. I wasgrowing up in the 80s and into the
90s. I grew up in NorthDakota. My brothers still operate
(18:21):
our family farm. My version offarming was being ag chem rep for
one of the large companies inthe US and then about two years ago,
I decided to retire. I had had25 years in and my husband and I
decided it was time to dosomething different. Kids were grown
and out of the house. They'repretty much off the payroll now,
(18:44):
which also everyone. I hopeyou strive for that this empty nesting
kids off the payroll thing,it's fabulous. And we decided that
I could pursue some otherdynamics in ag. So I now host an
ag radio show. I spend plentyof time doing things on social media
and promotion for variouscompanies and or just getting out
(19:07):
in front of pretty muchanything that has to do with rural
mental health. And thenadditionally I have the opportunity
to get out in front of groupsto speak. I'm actually headed to
one of those events tonight.And sometimes those topics are anything
from myth busting in ag torural mental health to just simply
sharing that story of others.And that's the most fun. You know,
(19:30):
you've had your whole life inagriculture and your professional
career in agriculture. Can youshare some insight into the role
of women in agriculture andhow that has changed during your
professional career? Well,just the number of us, the sheer
number has increased andthat's been outstanding. I think
(19:51):
the role of women has alsochanged in the fact that we bring
that teaching skill with us.Whether you understand that you do
or not, when you're workingwith a group of farmers, you often
are able to teach versus tell.And it's probably, you know, that
masculinity thing. Men don'twant to be told what to do, but they'll
(20:11):
listen to you as a femalebecause you seem more like one of
their teachers. Right. Makesit a little bit easier. I could go
on field calls to diagnosefields where I thought there was
a problem. And oftentimes thereceptivity of the farmer, the farm
family was way better with methan it was with one of my male counterparts.
Just based on that delivery,that made a difference. But I also
(20:33):
think more women coming intothe industry, we made it more of
a family. When I first startedit was trade shows and we were always
going out for beer afterwardsand there were all these late night
events and because it was alittle bit of an old boys club, now
people instead of doing that,they are bringing their families
(20:54):
with for baseball games or fora supper meeting, something where
they're involving everyone.And women, they aren't just the wife
of a farmer. They are activelyinvolved in making those decisions.
What seed do we buy? Where dowe get our equipment? They want to
be treated as an equal on thefarm. And I think that's incredibly
important for all of us toremember. Today you'll meet Paige
(21:23):
Stewart. Hi everyone. My nameis Paige Stewart. I green farm with
my husband in Fillmore,Saskatchewan. I'm a native to Manitoba,
so I'm an import. I neverthought I was going to be in agriculture.
I loved sports and my familywas all in the public service. My
mom was an RCMP officer, mydad was a customs officer, my brother's
(21:44):
a corrections officer. So Ialways thought I was going to end
up in that realm of work. ButI had grown up on a small hobby farm,
which is where some of myhappiest memories are. Cleaning out
the barn with my family on aSaturday morning for the horses and
the cows and chickens and allof that fun stuff, or running the
rake for my dad at a veryyoung age. We moved off the farm
(22:06):
and eventually kind of endedup in Winnipeg. And I took conflict
resolution at university,which everyone goes, what is conflict
resolution? And why did youtake that? Because I thought I wanted
to maybe go into lawenforcement. My mom said, you know,
don't take criminal justice.You're going to learn that when you
get into depot or whateverarea you go to or get accepted to,
(22:26):
hopefully take something thatmakes you stand out. And so that
was conflict resolution forme, which turns out conflict resolution
is just life skills that havebeen maybe just warming up for the
life that I was supposed tolive. Once I finished school, I just
took a job. I just took thefirst thing I could get into, and
that was at an ag input dealerat a very floor level. I shoveled
(22:50):
fertilizer. I didn't know whatglyphosate was. Fortunately, the
farmers around me gave me theopportunity to learn and stumble
and work my way up. Andeventually I kind of fell in love
with it once I sort of knewwhat I was doing and got promoted
to sales rep and theneventually got offered a job as an
account manager in southernSaskatchewan, which was going to
take me away from my home,which I was excited about. I was
(23:12):
single, no attachments, andjust wanted to go with the flow.
So when I got to Weyburn,didn't know anybody. I wasn't part
of the agriculture community,But I just. The opportunity to be
an account manager means youget to meet people. That's what you
do. You jump in your truck andyou meet people. And so that's what
I did. My manager at the timesaid, don't fall in love with a farmer
(23:34):
and get married. It's exactlywhat I did. But I don't take direction
well. So there we have it.What's some advice that you could
give specifically for women inthe type of role that you had for
that? I guess gumption to beable to say yes to these opportunities
instead of shying away fromthem? Well, I think first I'd have
(23:55):
to point to my mom. She wasone of the first women through the
rcmp. So she kind of carvedthat way for me to say, you got to
go. You just got to go getwhat you want. You can't wait to
be asked. But if you see it,you take it. And don't be humble
about that. I think the peoplewho know me best would say I come
off very sure of myself, whichI think is hilarious. But it's just
(24:17):
that I take risks. It's justthat I just do it. So I don't know
what to say to other womenthat maybe haven't had the same,
that same push. Right. Thesame support. I think it's just we
have to advocate for ourselvesand we have to have the self talk
to know that we are more thanwe, we even know. Today you'll meet
(24:42):
Jessica Garza. So I was bornand raised on the ranch that we call
Moose Valley Ranch. My parentsbought it in 1980 and I was born
in 1980, 89. And they werethere full time. So I don't remember
any time where there wasn't,you know, growing up, learning to
feed, right. They would turnthe truck down to the lowest gear
(25:03):
and then put me on the seatwith the steering wheel and my brother
on the floor pushing the gaspedals in low one. And then my mom
would be like pushing hay offthe back. And so that's where I really
started. And it continuedthrough high school. I was involved
in everything under the sun 4HFFA, your livestock show, interstate
(25:23):
fair boards, public speaking.It was just anything and everything
I could do to be involved. Sofrom there, I mean, now I'm a wife.
I'm a mom of two amazinglittle boys who are just, we call
them terrors because they'reamazing. But they are so much and
so busy. And I work full timeoff the ranch. My husband does as
(25:49):
well. So this is actuallytechnically kind of our side business,
but we treat it as a full timebusiness. I'm just not sure where
I squeeze all the hours out oftruthfully. And look back and it's
just like we'd get a lot done.We do do a lot. So the ranch is where
we call home now. I left for awhile. I became a police officer
(26:11):
in Montana and was off on mygrand adventure, you know, college,
all of those things. I sort ofleft the agricultural realm and thought
I was going to be an attorney.And then it turned into a cop and
then it was, I'm moving out ofstate. I'm never Coming home plot
twist. I came home. Right.Isn't it so funny how we make plans?
Exactly. We make plans. Andthen isn't the saying then God laughs
(26:33):
at us, at our plans? So. Ohyeah. I never intended on returning
to the ranch when I left the,you know, for that like adulthood
experience. But we had, and myhusband's family is from back over
here and I was from over hereand it just made sense to come home.
So we did. Absolutely. So takeus back to when you decided to come
(26:56):
back on the ranch and whatyou've decided to do with it. Yeah,
so we moved home to just havea better family life and work, work
life, and still weren'tintending on physically being at
the ranch. So we moved to ahouse just like 10 minutes away.
And it wasn't until we startedrealizing sort of in that succession
(27:19):
planning that eventuallylikely half of the ranch at least
was going to come to us. Andit's a lot, it's a lot of property,
It's a lot of property taxes.And we strongly were like, we're
not working our butts off topay off our home and then retire
and end up having a landpayment. That's more than what our
(27:41):
mortgage was. Right. Becausewe had very traditional jobs, retirement
after 20, 25. And so yourgoal, Right. When you're in those
sorts of careers is like topay the house off before you retire
because then you have thatwhole. But we're looking down the
barrel at something that wasgoing to be by that point even more
than our mortgage. And welooked at each other and said, if
this is going to work, it hasto pay for itself. And not knowing
(28:04):
any of the current financials.My brother was still farming the
property. He still does do thetraditional agriculture. And it was
this conversation of, there'snot any more ground for me to farm.
There's no room for me in thefarming. There's no room for me.
He has a small herd of cattle,nothing like what my parents used
to run, but just enough tokind of keep him going. And it was
(28:25):
like, well, what else can Ido? Quite frankly, I don't want to
sit in a tractor and go incircles all day. I'm a very high
functioning, high speed kindof person. And I would probably crawl
out of the cab walls just deckmowing. Sometimes I'm like, get me
out of the tractor. So we juststarted brainstorming and I had a
(28:46):
friend who really encouragedme, look at the aesthetic value of
the property. Because peoplecome out here and they do. They tell
you, oh, My God, this isamazing because we sort of get used
to it, it's just what it is.And then you'll have a friend come
out for the first time andthey're like gobsmacked. Holy cow.
This is so cool. This isincredible. And so I just started
(29:07):
exploring that and I had afriend who asked if her, her daughter
essentially could get marriedat the ranch. And I thought, well,
here we go. And it took offfrom there. Today you'll meet Victoria
Lee. So I guess I could startwhen I was a kid. I think my inspiration
(29:30):
probably came from mygrandfather. When we grew up in the
suburbs, we just had a typical50 foot lot house. And my grandfather
tore out all the grass andactually turned the backyard into
an urban farm. And back thenit wasn't very, it wasn't done at
all. So we would probably getmaybe by the kids that would come
(29:51):
through and see the giantvegetable garden. And with my background,
I'm a Chinese Canadian. So wewould preserve our food by drying
it out in the sun. So a lot ofour fresh produce was sun dried.
So we'd have vegetableshanging on the laundry line, things
like that. And we'd be runningthrough the yards and the kids would
(30:14):
be like, what is that? So Iguess that's where I kind of got
my start from. My grandfather,he kind of inspired it and I didn't
really, really know how much Iloved it until I got older. So I
do regret a little bit notlistening and watching a little bit
more carefully. But since thenI kind of had a interesting work
life and I just didn't reallyfind anything that was fulfilling
(30:36):
to me. And my friend of mineowned the Basil Ranch in Calgary
and she had had it for about16 years and she wanted to sell and
move out to the coast and soshe contacted me and asked me if
I was interested in purchasingand I said yes. Back then the Basel
Ranch was an importdistribution company. And when I
(31:00):
purchased it it was a boomyear in Calgary and it was the last
boom year in Calgary. So saleswere great. But we had a lot of trouble
in the summertime fightingairlines for cargo space because
everyone was traveling and wehad boxes and boxes and hundreds
of pounds of produce go badand I just couldn't handle it. I
(31:21):
thought I have gotten into thewrong business, I cannot handle the
waste here. I was thinkingthat I was doing something good in
trying to provide freshproduce for people here in Calgary.
But it didn't work out sowell. We mostly supply to restaurant
and grocery and hotels and sothe Quality. The demand or the quality
is quite high. So my parentswould come and try to help us dry
(31:43):
as many herbs as we could forour own use. But I mean, that happened
a couple weeks, and then we'relike, we can't use all this. So I
just had to find a differentsolution. And so that winter, I looked
into hydroponic growing, and Ithought that, you know, based on
our climate here north, youknow, that's really our solution
here to provide food yearround. So that's what we did. We
(32:06):
tested a few things in thegarage, and once we had the right
systems in place, and I got awarehouse, and we started growing
in a 2,000 square footwarehouse. So that's how the hydroponics
started. That is very, veryinteresting. What type of flowers
are you growing? What's onyour roster? Oh, my goodness, so
(32:27):
many. Like, the best ones areprobably cosmos, bachelor buttons,
zinnias, dahlias, snapdragons.Oh, geez. We also grow herb flowers.
So like basil flowers,oregano, dill, cilantro, all of that,
you name it. I'm also lookingat possibly doing some growing for
(32:54):
dying, so we're gonna look alittle bit better. Not I have space
for it, but so, yeah, possiblydoing plants per dying. And there's
some people who are looking atmore medicinal things too. So there's
some chefs who are lookinginto that. So I'm looking into some
(33:17):
more medicinal. But all ofthat's a little bit touch and go
because it's hard to educateeverybody on that. So I don't want
anyone getting poisoned. Andthere's also interesting regulations
with that kind of thing that Ihave in quite looked into. So that's
another rabbit hole that I'llhave to go down as we go through
(33:39):
the season to see how muchtime I have. Today you'll meet Courtney
Witt. My name is CourtneyWitt. I was born and raised in Southern
California, and my husband andI started dating around 21, 22, 23,
(34:00):
somewhere in there. We grew upin the same city. We lived in, like,
what we call track zones. Soevery third house is like the same
model. They're pretty closetogether. And I was dog sitting for
these ladies, and they hadbackyard chickens. And so I told
(34:21):
my husband, who was myboyfriend at the time, like, hey,
you got to come with me totake care of these dogs and chickens.
This is so neat. And so weconvinced his dad to let us build
a chicken coop in hisbackyard. And we collected all these
pallets from local grocerystores, built this chicken coop.
(34:42):
Four suddenly Turned into ten,which I'm not sure we were allowed
to have that many. And all ofthe neighbors around it would, you
know, watch over the fence orwe'd give them eggs. And the neighbors
next door that had backyardchickens themselves, they were actually
missionary pilots in Africa.And they said to my husband, you
(35:05):
love this. This is your hobby.Like, you two get off work and this
is what you do. You're so goodat this. You're a natural. At this
point, we had gotten a littlelike miniature pig in his backyard
too. I mean, it was turninginto a farm. And he said, you need
to go to school for livestockproduction and management. And my
husband is like, I don't likethey offer that around here. Where.
(35:30):
So we went to this localcommunity college up the road and
we're like, let's just go inand just kind of see what it's like.
And out walks this guy incowboy boots and a cowboy hat, and
he had an accent. And we'relike, who is this guy? So we sat
down and talked to him and myAndrew was like, look, I'm not really
(35:50):
interested in the degree. Assoon as Courtney finishes school
to become a special edteacher, we want to move to Texas
and start a farm. He said, Ireally just want to learn what I
need to learn to be able to dothat. I love that story, Courtney.
Just the slow journey into itand having it as kind of an interest
(36:12):
and then it turns into ahobby. And then it sounds like it
turned into the all out planthat you, you were going to make
this happen whether it was inTexas or in Arkansas. I'm always
curious to ask, as a fellowcity kid who grew up in town, what
are some of your firstmemories around food and food production?
(36:35):
I know in California there'sso many different crops grown, but
what are your first memoriesaround food and where food came from?
I was never a huge vegetablefan as a kid. I remember one time
my mom like steamed broccoliand I almost like gagged and she
(36:55):
thought I was being dramaticand I was like, no, I'm serious.
I just can't eat this. It waslike really soggy and watery. And
When I was 18, my aunt took meto Ireland to visit family friends.
And she grew a little gardenin her backyard. And she had made,
you know, salad and vegetableson the side, all from her garden.
(37:19):
And I loved it all. I thoughtit was delicious. I couldn't get
enough. And that was kind ofwhen I realized there is a difference.
Obviously how you cook, ithelps too, but I Think that kind
of sparked something in meyoung and I just started to kind
of appreciate gardening. Ijust, you know, I lived at home and
(37:41):
we had an in ground pool inour backyard and a barbecue and it
there really wasn't any roomto garden. But I just remember being
so fascinated by hers and Ijust noticed such a difference in
the taste of the food that shegrew herself. Today you'll meet Christine
(38:03):
Beck. Now I'm from Clarendon,Quebec. So I grew up just 10 minutes
down the road here and fromthe Pontiac County. So we're about
an hour from Ottawa, but onthe Quebec side in western Quebec.
And I'm a dairy and cash cropfarmer in cahoots with my husband.
So he's my business partner,life partner, co parent of course.
(38:24):
And I got my start in farming,I married into agriculture, so he's
a fourth generation farmer.But I grew up with self employed
parents in a small town. But Igot my start veering into the industry.
You mentioned that you are inthe process and you've started switching
over to robotics, which as anon dairy farmer I think is absolutely
(38:47):
incredible. And recently I wasjust at a farm show and I was looking
at the robotic features thatare now available in the forever
changing world of technologyand agriculture. So take us through
what that transition has beenlike for you guys and what led you
to wanting to go down therobotics route? Well, that's a good
(39:09):
question. So we're not thereyet. Like we're still in the construction
phase. So the cows are stillgoing through the parlor and we kind
of have our barn half tore upon one side and we have one robot
room ready. But if I go to thebeginning of what led us to that.
So then, so as we made thetransition, so 2019 is when we moved
(39:30):
to the freestyle that we're atnow. And it was originally built
so my in laws built that in2008. They built that while we were
out west and they moved intothat barn then. So we moved in in
2019 and you know, it's justkind of like anything else. The infrastructure
was starting to age and youknow, as you start thinking about
(39:50):
scalability and what yourgoals are and what your growth goals
are and how can we add animalunits and still be effective and
how can we increaseproduction, you know, with the footprint
that we have in the interim,you know, that would say well we'll
probably have to think aboutmilking three times a day so then
what the staffing look like.And you know we have a front exit
(40:11):
parlor. So there were a lot ofdifferent considerations about increasing
efficiency and looking at theinfrastructure that we currently
had. So then we decided, well,and we knew that the technology that
we could get out of it was,you know, dated. So we wanted to
be able to have more tracking,more data on the cows, on production,
so a little bit morestreamlining. So we started, we did
(40:33):
a huge list of pros and consbecause we weren't necessarily sold
initially on going like forsure with robotics. So we wanted
to consider, would we replaceit with a parlor? Would we go robotics?
We weren't really sure. So wedid the whole list of pros and cons.
And I guess where the tippingpoint really was for us was that
we had to upgrade and changeour bulk tank. And so when the supplier
(40:56):
came, the owner of the companycame and they also sell Lely robots.
And so we talked about whetherwe would change for a parlor or a
robot and have a conversationwith him. And then he explained to
us some of the constructionwork that we would have to do to
the front of the barn. And werealized we would have to take down
a portion and rebuild theentire parlor front of the barn,
(41:18):
which would probably make theproject be like 50% more cost than
it would be to retrofit ourbarn and to put three robots in.
And then we started to thinkof, well, if we wanted to start mowing
the cows three times a day,that's an increased staffing challenge.
So rather than address orrather than have to go down the path
of looking at how we weregoing to staff it and you know, also
(41:42):
the increased constructioncost, we thought, no, I think it's
just time. The fit for us andwhere we wanted to go with the herd
led us to choosing to put inthe robots. Thanks for listening
to the Rural Woman Podcast.The Rural Woman Podcast is more than
(42:05):
just a podcast. We are acommunity. A huge thank you to the
Rural Woman Podcast team,Audio editor Max Hofer. A special
thanks to our Patreonexecutive producers, Sarah Riedner
from Happiness by the Acre andCarrie Munven from Laystone Farms
to learn how how you canbecome a Patreon executive producer
(42:27):
or other ways to financiallysupport the show. Head on over to
wildrosefarmer.com to learnmore. Be sure to hit the follow or
subscribe button wherever youlisten to the podcast to get the
latest episodes directly onyour playlist. And if you are loving
the show, please be sure toleave a rating and review on Apple
Podcast or any other platformthat that accepts ratings and reviews.
(42:52):
You can connect with us onsocial media, the worldwoman Podcast,
and with me, ildrosefarmer.One of the best ways you can support
the show is by sharing it.Send this episode to a friend or
share on your social media.Let's strengthen and amplify the
voices of women in agriculturetogether. Until next time, my friend,
(43:15):
keep sharing your story.
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban and thisis the Rural Woman Podcast. I'm a
first generation farmer whomarried into agriculture. Born and
raised in a city, I was sounfamiliar with where my food came
from, but I was determined tofigure it out. Through my journey
into agriculture, I saw womenwho were strong but humble, often
(01:44):
taking a backseat. To me.These women were leaders who deserved
a seat at the table. I createdthe Rural Women Podcast to share
the voices of women in anindustry whose stories often went
untold. The ruralentrepreneurs who live and breathe
their work full of grit andpride. We come here to share our
(02:07):
stories, to be in communitywith each other, to be challenged
and inspired, but mostimportantly, to be celebrated and
to be heard. We may not alllive farm, ranch or homestead the
same, but we are allconnected. We are rural women and
(02:27):
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey friends. We are celebrating
the fifth anniversary of theRural Women Podcast this year and
we are taking a look backthrough the inspiring stories that
have been shared with usthroughout the years. Looking back
(02:49):
through these interviews,there are women who have been successful,
who have persevered and whohave been resilient. There are women
who have shared their storieswho may not farm or ranch or homestead
or work in the business thatthey used to. Things may be different
for them now. But I know theirstories have impact and I hope that
(03:10):
this is a solid reminder forthose of you who have shared your
stories or who are inspired toshare your stories. Our stories are
forever changing, and justbecause we may not farm, ranch or
homestead the same, our livesmight not look the same. There has
been growth here through thegood, the bad and the ugly. I think
(03:31):
it's a solid reminder for allof us to look back to see how far
we've come. So, my friends, Ihope you enjoy these throwback podcast
episodes coming your way. Andthank you for being here and for
helping me celebrate theincredible stories of women in agriculture
through the Rural WomanPodcast over the last five years.
(03:51):
Enjoy. Today you'll meetSherry Pauls. Yes, I'm Sheri. On
Instagram, I am the ginger momor the G mom. And I have been in
like. I grew up in a farmingtown in southern Manitoba, but I
never was a part ofagriculture until 20 years ago when
(04:14):
I fell in love and got marriedand was thrust into the world that
is generational farming. I aman incredibly passionate person.
I am a natural ginger. So allthe red flags are there and. And
I'm incredibly stubborn anddetermined. I am fully saved by grace
and I'm not A huge fan ofreligion, but I'm a big fan of Jesus.
(04:38):
So if that's really. If Icould think about something that
would sum me up, I would saythat I will say exactly what's on
my mind. But I will love youso fiercely no matter what. Because
I have been loved no matterwhat. So now my passion is talking
to mostly to the agriculturecommunity as a motivational speaker.
But slowly but surely mypassions are growing into more like
(04:58):
women's mental health andespecially like I said, the in law
factor, which is somethingthat I'm very passionate about. Right.
And we're gonna dive all intothat today. So, you know, being an
in law at the age of 19 andcoming on to a multi generational
farm is obviously challengchallenging in so many ways. Can
(05:21):
you share your experience andthe ways that you have grown over
the last 20 years when itcomes to being that in law on the
farm? This I could write abook on and I would hope that that
book would never be done justwith how I am still, still learning
and still making the samemistakes, but also making successes.
(05:46):
I was my in law's probablyworst nightmare. I was not traditional
like a traditional like in apatriarchal sense. I was not. I met
my husband in the mechanicshop I was working in. I was working
on his car and it was exactly.It was like Hallmark movie romance.
Like it was. It was very likenot your average small town. It's.
(06:10):
It was a country song. Ialways joke but when I got married
and had that first year andgranted we also were pregnant and
having a baby, I almost ran. Ialmost ran for the hills. I spoke
my mind and was met with brickwalls. And I tried to know everything
and tried to be confident andI was extremely humbled very quickly
(06:33):
and I. I'm lucky enough to bein a farming family where they have
family meetings and theycommunicate as good. Like when I
think about all the storiesI've heard myself and the journeys
that I've been on from otherfarming families, I am incredibly
privileged with the farmingfamily that I married into. The males
in this family are incrediblysecure and very open to hearing what
(06:57):
we have to say. With respect.I did not those first years, I did
not have respect. When I wastalking about things that we were
doing, trying to learn. I justwanted to be in like, just get me
in there, just put me in apiece of machinery. And they're like,
well, whoa, you need to firstthere's a little bit of a. There's
a journey here. And thatwasn't the role that, that they needed
for me, they said, like, wehave lots of people to drive machinery.
(07:20):
We need you in the dreadedword for me, kitchen. And I bucked
at that as hard. And I,because I've never been a natural
talent in the kitchen, I havecome to realize that love is not
a feeling, love is a choice.And if I love my family and I can
do this beautiful thing forthem, then that is a success in itself.
(07:49):
Today you'll meet Katie Steer.So I'm Katie Steer and I am currently
and hopefully forever incentral Vermont, raising grass fed
beef and lamb with my husband.I'm from Rhode island and lived sort
of in Ireland and thenCalifornia, then back in Rhode island
and then we found our dreamfarm here. And yeah, we've. We bought
(08:09):
the farm two years ago and webought it 0% down with the USDA loan.
And we've just been on thisadventure of like, okay, how do we
make this work? So we have twoAirbnbs on the farm, we live in our
Airstream and we rent out ourhouse. And we're sort of just always
coming up with new ideas onhow to be small farmers and make
(08:32):
a living in this day and age.That's amazing. So tell us more about
your farm now and what you andBen have built and what you've grown
in the last two years. Yeah,sure. So we decided when we moved
here that we would just dograss fed animals because we had
100 acres of pasture here,which seems like a lot then. It doesn't
(08:54):
seem like enough now. So westopped raising pigs and chickens
and we got sheep. And I thinkit was like two days before our closing,
our bank called us and theysaid, oh, so it's a joint. We have
a joint mortgage. So like, theFSA gave us half and then the bank
gave us half. The FSAguarantees the bank's mortgage. The
(09:17):
bank called us and said, oh,we forgot about these two fees, which
were $12,000 more dollars. Andso our closing costs were almost
$30,000. And we realized inthat moment, okay, we need a plan
to make more money veryquickly. So we're really lucky that
(09:38):
the house was pretty nice. Sowe ended up moving into the Airstream
Shell that Ben was renovatingand Airbnb our house and we have
a yurt that we Airbnb to. Sothat's sort of been, I call it our
off farm job. That's sort ofbeen the thing that has like floated
(09:58):
us through the first two yearsas we've built fences on the whole
farm. And just water lines andall of our infrastructure and gotten
like, yeah, we had to move thefarm across New England, which was
quite the feat. And we had tosort of like take a dip in our production
during those first two years.And so we're going back up and yeah,
(10:20):
this year we're going to bedoing a couple of women's retreats,
women in wool retreats. Andthen I also just started making wool
dish sponges, which have beenreally fun and cool. So we're always
scheming how to make moneyhere. Today you'll meet Amy Hill.
(10:43):
My name's Amy and I own SnowyRiver Farms, which is located in
Cooksbrook, Nova Scotia, whichis pretty smack dab in the center
of Nova Scotia, honestly. AndI actually got my start in agriculture
back. Well, in 2003, I went tothe agricultural college in Truro
and I'm actually a city girl.I grew up in the suburbs in Dartmouth
(11:05):
and I had a real interest inagriculture, in growing food in animals
specifically. I went for myanimal science degree. I sort of
intended on doing wildliferehabilitation, rehabilitation, likely
for my whole life and having asmall farm on the side. And I did
do wildlife rehabilitation forsix and a half years. But I think
(11:26):
I caught the bug quitestrongly when I was at college and
I just had more and more of adrive to, to really just be growing
food. So in, in 2010, I quitmy job and started farming full time
and just jumped whole hog, Iguess you could say, into it. I certainly
(11:48):
jumped too hard into itoriginally and thought I was just
going to do everything. And inthe last few years I've sort of stepped
back a little bit of. From thethings that took too much time and
didn't give enough payback,whether that was financially or even
just for my heart, what was,what wasn't speaking to me as much.
But yeah, now I'm inCooksbrook and I run a farm on just
(12:11):
under 10 acres. But I do anorganically minded market garden
with some greenhouses and thenwe also raise poultry as broilers
and as lay hens and we also dohogs out on pasture. And then I've
also got a dairy cow thatshe's just for the family. So, Amy,
how in terms of marketing yourproduct and the growth of that, what
(12:34):
have you been doing that'sbeen successful to market your products
to your community? Yeah, sowe, I remember when we first started
and we printed off a wholebunch of flyers and I like walked
around places in Halifax andput up all these flyers. And now
when I Think about it. I thinkit's so silly because social media
is such a huge part ofeveryone's life that a lot of our
(12:56):
marketing has just moved tosocial media. I can post on Instagram
or Facebook, you know, aboutour egg shares or our chicken shares
or things like that. And theytend to just get sold very quickly
because it's just word ofmouth. But on Instagram, which travels
much faster than, you know,are the old way that we had word
(13:17):
of mouth. Yeah. So the vastmajority of how I'm essentially getting
my product out is througheither Facebook or Instagram. And
then we do have a few other,like, stores, and someone who goes
to market, that's anotherfarmer who goes to market, but he
also brings our product withhim. And so we've also got them marketing
(13:38):
our product essentially aswell. And then we can get out to
everybody. Today you'll meetArlie Laroche. Yeah. So I grew up
on a small farm, like youmentioned, near Yorkton, so near
the Manitoba border. And itwas a mixed farm. It was beef and
(13:59):
grain farm. So that certainlyset me up with a, you know, a strong
connection to nature and a.And a passion for food and a love
of animals and all that goodstuff. But after I graduated high
school, I. After traveling fora while, I went to college and I
studied water resourcesengineering technology at sios. And
(14:24):
so I pursued a career inenvironmental consulting for a while.
So I did that for almost 10years, and I really enjoyed it. And,
you know, kind of the mainreason why I decided to go down that
path was because I hadconcerns about the environment and
just really wanted to do whatI could to help that. So that's what
(14:49):
took me down that path. But Ifound out after I worked in that
field for a while that I justdidn't feel like I was getting the
full, you know, experience ofmaking a difference. I just didn't
feel like I was doing what Iset out to do. And at that same time,
around 2007 is when my husbandand I moved out to a small farm just
(15:13):
outside of Saskatoon, and westarted kind of a hobby farm there.
But we started doing somehomesteading, growing a garden, and
growing a couple of animalsjust for our own consumption. And
it was kind of around thattime also when I discovered people
like Alan Savory, who justshow how regenerative agriculture
(15:35):
can be beneficial to theenvironment. And so I just felt like
what I could do at the farmfor the environment was probably
more powerful and impactfulthan the work that I was doing in
the environmental consultingworld. And so that's kind of what
pushed me to come back to myfarming roots and do that instead.
(15:58):
So you've actually taken yourofferings off of the farm even further
off of the farm and you openedyour own restaurant. So tell us about
your restaurant and thatexperience and how it's going today.
Sure, yeah. So I guess therestaurant kind of was born out of
(16:18):
those farm dinners as well. Imentioned that I started doing them
with a chef from Aden, andthen at the time I was also working
with the Hollows, which alsosadly does no longer exist in Saskatoon.
But it was another fantasticrestaurant. And the head chef there
was Scott Dix, and he tookover doing the farm dinner for me
(16:42):
in about, I don't know, 2018.And the night that we did the farm
dinner with him, it just wentso well and everybody was so happy.
And Scott and I and, andBrett, and Brett is my husband. We
all just got on really well.And then my husband and I had thought
it could be interesting to, todo our own restaurant and meeting
(17:07):
Scott, working with Scott alittle bit. We just thought if we
were ever going to do one,this would be a great guy to do it
with. So just started kind ofhaving those conversations with Scott
as he understood therestaurant industry far more than
my husband and I did. Andyeah, that's kind of how the idea
was born. Today you'll meetBridget Riddell. So I am a lifelong
(17:36):
farm kid extraordinaire. Wegrew up with dairy and grain as well
as beef animals. And I'velearned that that's because my parents
obviously were bad at makingdecisions, so they thought they'd
just do everything. And whenyou do that growing up, you just
learn to balance a lot ofthings all at one time. And I think
that prepares us really wellfor adulthood. It gives us that foundation
(17:59):
of how to be parents and fulltime employees and then do fun things
like podcasts, etc. And wejust get the opportunity to do a
variety of things just likefarming might have looked like back
at the time frame. I wasgrowing up in the 80s and into the
90s. I grew up in NorthDakota. My brothers still operate
(18:21):
our family farm. My version offarming was being ag chem rep for
one of the large companies inthe US and then about two years ago,
I decided to retire. I had had25 years in and my husband and I
decided it was time to dosomething different. Kids were grown
and out of the house. They'repretty much off the payroll now,
(18:44):
which also everyone. I hopeyou strive for that this empty nesting
kids off the payroll thing,it's fabulous. And we decided that
I could pursue some otherdynamics in ag. So I now host an
ag radio show. I spend plentyof time doing things on social media
and promotion for variouscompanies and or just getting out
(19:07):
in front of pretty muchanything that has to do with rural
mental health. And thenadditionally I have the opportunity
to get out in front of groupsto speak. I'm actually headed to
one of those events tonight.And sometimes those topics are anything
from myth busting in ag torural mental health to just simply
sharing that story of others.And that's the most fun. You know,
(19:30):
you've had your whole life inagriculture and your professional
career in agriculture. Can youshare some insight into the role
of women in agriculture andhow that has changed during your
professional career? Well,just the number of us, the sheer
number has increased andthat's been outstanding. I think
(19:51):
the role of women has alsochanged in the fact that we bring
that teaching skill with us.Whether you understand that you do
or not, when you're workingwith a group of farmers, you often
are able to teach versus tell.And it's probably, you know, that
masculinity thing. Men don'twant to be told what to do, but they'll
(20:11):
listen to you as a femalebecause you seem more like one of
their teachers. Right. Makesit a little bit easier. I could go
on field calls to diagnosefields where I thought there was
a problem. And oftentimes thereceptivity of the farmer, the farm
family was way better with methan it was with one of my male counterparts.
Just based on that delivery,that made a difference. But I also
(20:33):
think more women coming intothe industry, we made it more of
a family. When I first startedit was trade shows and we were always
going out for beer afterwardsand there were all these late night
events and because it was alittle bit of an old boys club, now
people instead of doing that,they are bringing their families
(20:54):
with for baseball games or fora supper meeting, something where
they're involving everyone.And women, they aren't just the wife
of a farmer. They are activelyinvolved in making those decisions.
What seed do we buy? Where dowe get our equipment? They want to
be treated as an equal on thefarm. And I think that's incredibly
important for all of us toremember. Today you'll meet Paige
(21:23):
Stewart. Hi everyone. My nameis Paige Stewart. I green farm with
my husband in Fillmore,Saskatchewan. I'm a native to Manitoba,
so I'm an import. I neverthought I was going to be in agriculture.
I loved sports and my familywas all in the public service. My
mom was an RCMP officer, mydad was a customs officer, my brother's
(21:44):
a corrections officer. So Ialways thought I was going to end
up in that realm of work. ButI had grown up on a small hobby farm,
which is where some of myhappiest memories are. Cleaning out
the barn with my family on aSaturday morning for the horses and
the cows and chickens and allof that fun stuff, or running the
rake for my dad at a veryyoung age. We moved off the farm
(22:06):
and eventually kind of endedup in Winnipeg. And I took conflict
resolution at university,which everyone goes, what is conflict
resolution? And why did youtake that? Because I thought I wanted
to maybe go into lawenforcement. My mom said, you know,
don't take criminal justice.You're going to learn that when you
get into depot or whateverarea you go to or get accepted to,
(22:26):
hopefully take something thatmakes you stand out. And so that
was conflict resolution forme, which turns out conflict resolution
is just life skills that havebeen maybe just warming up for the
life that I was supposed tolive. Once I finished school, I just
took a job. I just took thefirst thing I could get into, and
that was at an ag input dealerat a very floor level. I shoveled
(22:50):
fertilizer. I didn't know whatglyphosate was. Fortunately, the
farmers around me gave me theopportunity to learn and stumble
and work my way up. Andeventually I kind of fell in love
with it once I sort of knewwhat I was doing and got promoted
to sales rep and theneventually got offered a job as an
account manager in southernSaskatchewan, which was going to
take me away from my home,which I was excited about. I was
(23:12):
single, no attachments, andjust wanted to go with the flow.
So when I got to Weyburn,didn't know anybody. I wasn't part
of the agriculture community,But I just. The opportunity to be
an account manager means youget to meet people. That's what you
do. You jump in your truck andyou meet people. And so that's what
I did. My manager at the timesaid, don't fall in love with a farmer
(23:34):
and get married. It's exactlywhat I did. But I don't take direction
well. So there we have it.What's some advice that you could
give specifically for women inthe type of role that you had for
that? I guess gumption to beable to say yes to these opportunities
instead of shying away fromthem? Well, I think first I'd have
(23:55):
to point to my mom. She wasone of the first women through the
rcmp. So she kind of carvedthat way for me to say, you got to
go. You just got to go getwhat you want. You can't wait to
be asked. But if you see it,you take it. And don't be humble
about that. I think the peoplewho know me best would say I come
off very sure of myself, whichI think is hilarious. But it's just
(24:17):
that I take risks. It's justthat I just do it. So I don't know
what to say to other womenthat maybe haven't had the same,
that same push. Right. Thesame support. I think it's just we
have to advocate for ourselvesand we have to have the self talk
to know that we are more thanwe, we even know. Today you'll meet
(24:42):
Jessica Garza. So I was bornand raised on the ranch that we call
Moose Valley Ranch. My parentsbought it in 1980 and I was born
in 1980, 89. And they werethere full time. So I don't remember
any time where there wasn't,you know, growing up, learning to
feed, right. They would turnthe truck down to the lowest gear
(25:03):
and then put me on the seatwith the steering wheel and my brother
on the floor pushing the gaspedals in low one. And then my mom
would be like pushing hay offthe back. And so that's where I really
started. And it continuedthrough high school. I was involved
in everything under the sun 4HFFA, your livestock show, interstate
(25:23):
fair boards, public speaking.It was just anything and everything
I could do to be involved. Sofrom there, I mean, now I'm a wife.
I'm a mom of two amazinglittle boys who are just, we call
them terrors because they'reamazing. But they are so much and
so busy. And I work full timeoff the ranch. My husband does as
(25:49):
well. So this is actuallytechnically kind of our side business,
but we treat it as a full timebusiness. I'm just not sure where
I squeeze all the hours out oftruthfully. And look back and it's
just like we'd get a lot done.We do do a lot. So the ranch is where
we call home now. I left for awhile. I became a police officer
(26:11):
in Montana and was off on mygrand adventure, you know, college,
all of those things. I sort ofleft the agricultural realm and thought
I was going to be an attorney.And then it turned into a cop and
then it was, I'm moving out ofstate. I'm never Coming home plot
twist. I came home. Right.Isn't it so funny how we make plans?
Exactly. We make plans. Andthen isn't the saying then God laughs
(26:33):
at us, at our plans? So. Ohyeah. I never intended on returning
to the ranch when I left the,you know, for that like adulthood
experience. But we had, and myhusband's family is from back over
here and I was from over hereand it just made sense to come home.
So we did. Absolutely. So takeus back to when you decided to come
(26:56):
back on the ranch and whatyou've decided to do with it. Yeah,
so we moved home to just havea better family life and work, work
life, and still weren'tintending on physically being at
the ranch. So we moved to ahouse just like 10 minutes away.
And it wasn't until we startedrealizing sort of in that succession
(27:19):
planning that eventuallylikely half of the ranch at least
was going to come to us. Andit's a lot, it's a lot of property,
It's a lot of property taxes.And we strongly were like, we're
not working our butts off topay off our home and then retire
and end up having a landpayment. That's more than what our
(27:41):
mortgage was. Right. Becausewe had very traditional jobs, retirement
after 20, 25. And so yourgoal, Right. When you're in those
sorts of careers is like topay the house off before you retire
because then you have thatwhole. But we're looking down the
barrel at something that wasgoing to be by that point even more
than our mortgage. And welooked at each other and said, if
this is going to work, it hasto pay for itself. And not knowing
(28:04):
any of the current financials.My brother was still farming the
property. He still does do thetraditional agriculture. And it was
this conversation of, there'snot any more ground for me to farm.
There's no room for me in thefarming. There's no room for me.
He has a small herd of cattle,nothing like what my parents used
to run, but just enough tokind of keep him going. And it was
(28:25):
like, well, what else can Ido? Quite frankly, I don't want to
sit in a tractor and go incircles all day. I'm a very high
functioning, high speed kindof person. And I would probably crawl
out of the cab walls just deckmowing. Sometimes I'm like, get me
out of the tractor. So we juststarted brainstorming and I had a
(28:46):
friend who really encouragedme, look at the aesthetic value of
the property. Because peoplecome out here and they do. They tell
you, oh, My God, this isamazing because we sort of get used
to it, it's just what it is.And then you'll have a friend come
out for the first time andthey're like gobsmacked. Holy cow.
This is so cool. This isincredible. And so I just started
(29:07):
exploring that and I had afriend who asked if her, her daughter
essentially could get marriedat the ranch. And I thought, well,
here we go. And it took offfrom there. Today you'll meet Victoria
Lee. So I guess I could startwhen I was a kid. I think my inspiration
(29:30):
probably came from mygrandfather. When we grew up in the
suburbs, we just had a typical50 foot lot house. And my grandfather
tore out all the grass andactually turned the backyard into
an urban farm. And back thenit wasn't very, it wasn't done at
all. So we would probably getmaybe by the kids that would come
(29:51):
through and see the giantvegetable garden. And with my background,
I'm a Chinese Canadian. So wewould preserve our food by drying
it out in the sun. So a lot ofour fresh produce was sun dried.
So we'd have vegetableshanging on the laundry line, things
like that. And we'd be runningthrough the yards and the kids would
(30:14):
be like, what is that? So Iguess that's where I kind of got
my start from. My grandfather,he kind of inspired it and I didn't
really, really know how much Iloved it until I got older. So I
do regret a little bit notlistening and watching a little bit
more carefully. But since thenI kind of had a interesting work
life and I just didn't reallyfind anything that was fulfilling
(30:36):
to me. And my friend of mineowned the Basil Ranch in Calgary
and she had had it for about16 years and she wanted to sell and
move out to the coast and soshe contacted me and asked me if
I was interested in purchasingand I said yes. Back then the Basel
Ranch was an importdistribution company. And when I
(31:00):
purchased it it was a boomyear in Calgary and it was the last
boom year in Calgary. So saleswere great. But we had a lot of trouble
in the summertime fightingairlines for cargo space because
everyone was traveling and wehad boxes and boxes and hundreds
of pounds of produce go badand I just couldn't handle it. I
(31:21):
thought I have gotten into thewrong business, I cannot handle the
waste here. I was thinkingthat I was doing something good in
trying to provide freshproduce for people here in Calgary.
But it didn't work out sowell. We mostly supply to restaurant
and grocery and hotels and sothe Quality. The demand or the quality
is quite high. So my parentswould come and try to help us dry
(31:43):
as many herbs as we could forour own use. But I mean, that happened
a couple weeks, and then we'relike, we can't use all this. So I
just had to find a differentsolution. And so that winter, I looked
into hydroponic growing, and Ithought that, you know, based on
our climate here north, youknow, that's really our solution
here to provide food yearround. So that's what we did. We
(32:06):
tested a few things in thegarage, and once we had the right
systems in place, and I got awarehouse, and we started growing
in a 2,000 square footwarehouse. So that's how the hydroponics
started. That is very, veryinteresting. What type of flowers
are you growing? What's onyour roster? Oh, my goodness, so
(32:27):
many. Like, the best ones areprobably cosmos, bachelor buttons,
zinnias, dahlias, snapdragons.Oh, geez. We also grow herb flowers.
So like basil flowers,oregano, dill, cilantro, all of that,
you name it. I'm also lookingat possibly doing some growing for
(32:54):
dying, so we're gonna look alittle bit better. Not I have space
for it, but so, yeah, possiblydoing plants per dying. And there's
some people who are looking atmore medicinal things too. So there's
some chefs who are lookinginto that. So I'm looking into some
(33:17):
more medicinal. But all ofthat's a little bit touch and go
because it's hard to educateeverybody on that. So I don't want
anyone getting poisoned. Andthere's also interesting regulations
with that kind of thing that Ihave in quite looked into. So that's
another rabbit hole that I'llhave to go down as we go through
(33:39):
the season to see how muchtime I have. Today you'll meet Courtney
Witt. My name is CourtneyWitt. I was born and raised in Southern
California, and my husband andI started dating around 21, 22, 23,
(34:00):
somewhere in there. We grew upin the same city. We lived in, like,
what we call track zones. Soevery third house is like the same
model. They're pretty closetogether. And I was dog sitting for
these ladies, and they hadbackyard chickens. And so I told
(34:21):
my husband, who was myboyfriend at the time, like, hey,
you got to come with me totake care of these dogs and chickens.
This is so neat. And so weconvinced his dad to let us build
a chicken coop in hisbackyard. And we collected all these
pallets from local grocerystores, built this chicken coop.
(34:42):
Four suddenly Turned into ten,which I'm not sure we were allowed
to have that many. And all ofthe neighbors around it would, you
know, watch over the fence orwe'd give them eggs. And the neighbors
next door that had backyardchickens themselves, they were actually
missionary pilots in Africa.And they said to my husband, you
(35:05):
love this. This is your hobby.Like, you two get off work and this
is what you do. You're so goodat this. You're a natural. At this
point, we had gotten a littlelike miniature pig in his backyard
too. I mean, it was turninginto a farm. And he said, you need
to go to school for livestockproduction and management. And my
husband is like, I don't likethey offer that around here. Where.
(35:30):
So we went to this localcommunity college up the road and
we're like, let's just go inand just kind of see what it's like.
And out walks this guy incowboy boots and a cowboy hat, and
he had an accent. And we'relike, who is this guy? So we sat
down and talked to him and myAndrew was like, look, I'm not really
(35:50):
interested in the degree. Assoon as Courtney finishes school
to become a special edteacher, we want to move to Texas
and start a farm. He said, Ireally just want to learn what I
need to learn to be able to dothat. I love that story, Courtney.
Just the slow journey into itand having it as kind of an interest
(36:12):
and then it turns into ahobby. And then it sounds like it
turned into the all out planthat you, you were going to make
this happen whether it was inTexas or in Arkansas. I'm always
curious to ask, as a fellowcity kid who grew up in town, what
are some of your firstmemories around food and food production?
(36:35):
I know in California there'sso many different crops grown, but
what are your first memoriesaround food and where food came from?
I was never a huge vegetablefan as a kid. I remember one time
my mom like steamed broccoliand I almost like gagged and she
(36:55):
thought I was being dramaticand I was like, no, I'm serious.
I just can't eat this. It waslike really soggy and watery. And
When I was 18, my aunt took meto Ireland to visit family friends.
And she grew a little gardenin her backyard. And she had made,
you know, salad and vegetableson the side, all from her garden.
(37:19):
And I loved it all. I thoughtit was delicious. I couldn't get
enough. And that was kind ofwhen I realized there is a difference.
Obviously how you cook, ithelps too, but I Think that kind
of sparked something in meyoung and I just started to kind
of appreciate gardening. Ijust, you know, I lived at home and
(37:41):
we had an in ground pool inour backyard and a barbecue and it
there really wasn't any roomto garden. But I just remember being
so fascinated by hers and Ijust noticed such a difference in
the taste of the food that shegrew herself. Today you'll meet Christine
(38:03):
Beck. Now I'm from Clarendon,Quebec. So I grew up just 10 minutes
down the road here and fromthe Pontiac County. So we're about
an hour from Ottawa, but onthe Quebec side in western Quebec.
And I'm a dairy and cash cropfarmer in cahoots with my husband.
So he's my business partner,life partner, co parent of course.
(38:24):
And I got my start in farming,I married into agriculture, so he's
a fourth generation farmer.But I grew up with self employed
parents in a small town. But Igot my start veering into the industry.
You mentioned that you are inthe process and you've started switching
over to robotics, which as anon dairy farmer I think is absolutely
(38:47):
incredible. And recently I wasjust at a farm show and I was looking
at the robotic features thatare now available in the forever
changing world of technologyand agriculture. So take us through
what that transition has beenlike for you guys and what led you
to wanting to go down therobotics route? Well, that's a good
(39:09):
question. So we're not thereyet. Like we're still in the construction
phase. So the cows are stillgoing through the parlor and we kind
of have our barn half tore upon one side and we have one robot
room ready. But if I go to thebeginning of what led us to that.
So then, so as we made thetransition, so 2019 is when we moved
(39:30):
to the freestyle that we're atnow. And it was originally built
so my in laws built that in2008. They built that while we were
out west and they moved intothat barn then. So we moved in in
2019 and you know, it's justkind of like anything else. The infrastructure
was starting to age and youknow, as you start thinking about
(39:50):
scalability and what yourgoals are and what your growth goals
are and how can we add animalunits and still be effective and
how can we increaseproduction, you know, with the footprint
that we have in the interim,you know, that would say well we'll
probably have to think aboutmilking three times a day so then
what the staffing look like.And you know we have a front exit
(40:11):
parlor. So there were a lot ofdifferent considerations about increasing
efficiency and looking at theinfrastructure that we currently
had. So then we decided, well,and we knew that the technology that
we could get out of it was,you know, dated. So we wanted to
be able to have more tracking,more data on the cows, on production,
so a little bit morestreamlining. So we started, we did
(40:33):
a huge list of pros and consbecause we weren't necessarily sold
initially on going like forsure with robotics. So we wanted
to consider, would we replaceit with a parlor? Would we go robotics?
We weren't really sure. So wedid the whole list of pros and cons.
And I guess where the tippingpoint really was for us was that
we had to upgrade and changeour bulk tank. And so when the supplier
(40:56):
came, the owner of the companycame and they also sell Lely robots.
And so we talked about whetherwe would change for a parlor or a
robot and have a conversationwith him. And then he explained to
us some of the constructionwork that we would have to do to
the front of the barn. And werealized we would have to take down
a portion and rebuild theentire parlor front of the barn,
(41:18):
which would probably make theproject be like 50% more cost than
it would be to retrofit ourbarn and to put three robots in.
And then we started to thinkof, well, if we wanted to start mowing
the cows three times a day,that's an increased staffing challenge.
So rather than address orrather than have to go down the path
of looking at how we weregoing to staff it and you know, also
(41:42):
the increased constructioncost, we thought, no, I think it's
just time. The fit for us andwhere we wanted to go with the herd
led us to choosing to put inthe robots. Thanks for listening
to the Rural Woman Podcast.The Rural Woman Podcast is more than
(42:05):
just a podcast. We are acommunity. A huge thank you to the
Rural Woman Podcast team,Audio editor Max Hofer. A special
thanks to our Patreonexecutive producers, Sarah Riedner
from Happiness by the Acre andCarrie Munven from Laystone Farms
to learn how how you canbecome a Patreon executive producer
(42:27):
or other ways to financiallysupport the show. Head on over to
wildrosefarmer.com to learnmore. Be sure to hit the follow or
subscribe button wherever youlisten to the podcast to get the
latest episodes directly onyour playlist. And if you are loving
the show, please be sure toleave a rating and review on Apple
Podcast or any other platformthat that accepts ratings and reviews.
(42:52):
You can connect with us onsocial media, the worldwoman Podcast,
and with me, ildrosefarmer.One of the best ways you can support
the show is by sharing it.Send this episode to a friend or
share on your social media.Let's strengthen and amplify the
voices of women in agriculturetogether. Until next time, my friend,
(43:15):
keep sharing your story.
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