November 3, 2024 • 24 mins
It's the very first episode of Yard to Table! Ellen Scherer Crafts and Trevor Crafts talk about their life changing transition from California to Connecticut and how they ended up on 11 acres in a house with a name - Stonebrook House. They give love to changing seasons and the riches to be found in the local farm and food community. Hear some highlights of their journey from being career-driven to becoming avid "yardists" (yes they made that term up). This is the kick-off to the world of Yard to Table so grab your seat!
And to see what's happening with Ellen and Trevor at Stonebrook House follow @stonebrookhouse on Instagram today!
Questions? Ideas? Things you need to say? Message us!
Follow Yard to Table on Instagram at @yard_to_table_podcast 🌱🍽️ and see what’s happening with Ellen and Trevor by following @stonebrookhouse. And don't forget to follow, like and leave a review wherever you listen to the show! TY 💙
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Trevor (00:14):
Well, hello there Ellen.
Ellen (00:16):
Well, hello there Trevor.
Trevor (00:18):
This is fun. This is a little something different.
Ellen (00:21):
We are podcasting.
Trevor (00:23):
It's our own little podcast. Welcome everybody to
yard to table.
Ellen (00:28):
I'm Ellen Scherer Crafts.
Trevor (00:30):
I'm Trevor Crafts, and this is a podcast that is about
food. It's about gardening. It'sabout community all in and
around the yards of our 11 acreConnecticut homestead called
Stonebrook, if you're a seasonedgardener, if you're just coming
into it, we like to call it.
There's a lot of farm to tablemovements out there. We like to
(00:50):
look at this as yard to table.
Ellen (00:54):
Why is it yard to table?
We're literally making things inour yard and bringing it to our
kitchen table every day, andwhether that's flowers or
vegetables, herbs were soinspired by the things that were
growing. And what we have foundthat our neighbors are growing
in their backyards. Who knewwhen we moved here how
(01:14):
incredible the things that weregoing on right besides people's
back doors.
Trevor (01:22):
Yeah, it's, it's almost like a little quiet revolution
of
Ellen (01:27):
self sustainability, organic growing. It's good
stuff, and, by the way, alsoentertaining and community and
bringing people together.
Trevor (01:36):
That's what we've really, we've really learned to
love about this place that we'reliving in is that there's so
many different people that aregrowing amazing things in their
yards and their small farms, andjust how much Connecticut
agriculture is a very, verylocal, very personal thing that
(01:58):
we've really discovered andreally started to fall in love
with
Ellen (02:02):
Totally and I think, you know, we're located in Western
Connecticut. We're part of NewEngland.
Trevor (02:07):
What are we? 7A, we are growing. That's our area. 7A
Ellen (02:10):
I think that's our new update.
Trevor (02:12):
We're East Coasters originally. That's right at a
little time out in in LA. Butthen came back the call of the
seasons,
Ellen (02:22):
would you say it's coming back to our roots? No pun
intended
Trevor (02:25):
indeed. This isn't going to be a podcast full of puns
about vegetables, but they willhappen. They were going to dig
in. We're going to we're goingto get right down to the root of
it. It's funny. A lot of people,I think, said to us, oh gosh,
moving to from California backto the East Coast. Oh, the snow,
the snow. We like snow.
(02:46):
We love snow. We loveweather. We love seasons. And I
Ellen (02:46):
We love it.
think one of the things that youcan't beat a New England fall,
no, you cannot beat a NewEngland fall. And Connecticut
falls are gorgeous, and I thinkthat's one of the things that is
so interesting about living herein Connecticut is, and on the
East Coast again, is thatthere's a reason to go out every
(03:09):
day. Yes, because in LA it'sgorgeous and it's beautiful, and
the weather is amazing, and thebeach is there, and the beach is
always there, because it'salways the same, and it's gets
very sort of static in terms ofthe time and and your sense of
urgency to go and do something.
But here, you know, you've got agrowing season. There's a time
that you can harvest. There arethese moments where time to
(03:31):
plan, time to plan, time toplant, time to harvest, you
know, time to enjoy. And it'sthese moments that you have to
grab on to, which is, I think,so unique about living here
again.
Yes, I mean, and I thinkwhat we hadn't really realized
is how much we miss thatseasonality, you know, that
(03:51):
sense of it's absolutelygorgeous outside. We need to be
there. We need to be doingsomething. And I again, we, we
got this property. We did itwith our parents. I know that
sounds crazy to a lot of people,but we pulled our family,
Trevor's parents, my mom, fromthree different states, and we
came together in our familycompound.
Trevor (04:14):
Now, just for everybody that's listening, I have a
question, true or not true whenI said, let's move here, meaning
stone Brook, you said,Absolutely not.
Ellen (04:26):
Yeah, that's true.
That's 100% true. Yeah, that isnot.
Trevor (04:33):
What do we need 11 acres for? That's right? And I said,
Well, there's a lot of space togrow. And that was, I think,
something that we didn't even100% realize how much we needed
yes in our lives. Yes.
Ellen (04:48):
I mean, listen, this is a lifestyle choice, right? We
brought together our parents,who are older. We have a
daughter. She was younger. Yes,she was five at the time that we
moved and. You know, this was athis was a decision. We were
coming out of COVID, we werestill in COVID. We all remember
that time, and it was reallyabout what's important. You
(05:09):
know, our families were livingseparately. We didn't have each
other to lean on, to supporteach other, both in hard times
and good times, there was a lotof that during COVID. There's a
lot of that in life, right? Andso it was, let's make a decision
that's good for all of us. Andwe did it. And somehow I got
convinced. Somehow we all gotconvinced. Because once
Trevor (05:29):
we I'm an incredible salesman. You are. I'm an
incredible
Ellen (05:32):
that is 100% true, yes, but we have and we're here, and
we all, you know, have our homeson the property, but we're all
contribute to this special placethat we live. And I think the
inspiration that we've gottenfrom the land literally has just
(05:53):
changed, sort of the trajectoryof our life, which is kind of
incredible. Yeah, I think aboutit, we
Trevor (05:57):
went from being very uh, career driven, uh, entertainment
people. And now, although thatis still a big part of our
lives, we're plant nerds. Now,soil nerds. Soil nerds, that's a
good one. Soil flower nerd.
Ellen is a huge flower nerd.
That is 100% true.
Ellen (06:17):
By the way, Trevor is, if you look at something, how do
you know it's a piece of artworkor a pattern or anything that I
like, what's usually on that aflower?
Yes, that's right,
Trevor (06:28):
it's a flower.
Ellen (06:29):
That's right.
Trevor (06:30):
It's probably a red flower,
Ellen (06:32):
usually a red flower.
Yeah. In fact, I have to giveback to ordering tulips after
this. So for next year,
Trevor (06:38):
it's always something as a plan. But I think that's one
of the things when we, when wegot here, you know, we came
because there was, it was thisopportunity for our family to
come together and be together inone place. But then in, you
know, there's, we inherited someformal gardens which were
covered in plastic. There was,they were sort of in disrepair.
(07:03):
They had not been used for acouple of seasons. And we go
right in. We dug in, by the way,this is not a podcast entirely
full of plant puns, althoughthere will be some plant puns in
this one, like digging in andthings like this.
Ellen (07:22):
We like puns. They're funny, yeah, and you're full of
dad humor.
Trevor (07:25):
I am. I am a dad. So that's probably why, when we
were in California, we realizedhow much we wanted to pursue
local growing.
Ellen (07:37):
That's 100% true, I think, you know, and it wasn't
something that we came tocompletely out of nowhere. We
were both people that reallylove food and cooking and
respected the work of chefs and,you know, organic food and but I
don't think we really had a fullconcept of what that meant from,
you know, from the beginning ofthe cycle to the plate, right?
(08:00):
And so in California, you know,we had an amazing Farmer's
Market in our town, and we spentevery Sunday at the farmer's
market shopping, first as acouple and then as a couple with
a baby, and we got to know thefarmers and the growers and the
vendors, and talked about theirstories. And, you know,
California is got a pretty muchan eternal growing season. And
(08:22):
it is supplies the country withso much of the things that all
of us use it, from vegetables tofruit, you know. So that was a
very unique but plentifulexperience of really, but, you
know, I think our maininspiration in the very
beginning, you know, came fromour lemon tree.
Trevor (08:42):
That's right, we had a lemon tree and a rosemary plant
on, you know, at our house inCalifornia. And I think it was,
and first time I had ever had,you know, of course, herbs and
like, simple things that weregrowing, you know, in around, in
pots or whatever. But to havesomething that had an abundance
of whatever that thing, thatlemon tree, was incredible. That
(09:03):
lemon tree, we got so manylemons off that lemon tree,
amazing. But I think one of thethings that was so surprising to
us was that so many people werekind of in awe or amazed or
impressed. Yeah, the fact thatit came out of our yard.
Ellen (09:19):
A lot of moments like that. You need this
Trevor (09:22):
It's from your lemon, a lemon from your tree. And it was
so interesting. It was veryclear memory of people being
very interested by this sort ofmysterious object called a lemon
that came from a tree,
Ellen (09:36):
because they're everywhere in California, you
know, but this whole idea thatyou actually could pick it,
squeeze it and use it and cutthe rosemary from the bush in
your backyard. That was just, itwas, it
Trevor (09:47):
It was almost like we would say, Hey, can you go out
and get some? I'll go out andget some. We'd say to friends,
you know, I'll go out and getsome. Oh, I'd love to how many
do you need? Should I take two?
I don't want to take too many.
I'll take one. Should I taketwo? One or two, three,
whatever. Just.
Ellen (10:00):
Get them take some home.
You know,
Trevor (10:02):
That was always the thing, too. Oh, I get to take
lemons home, yeah, but it was,for us, it was such a fun
experience to share that
Ellen (10:11):
yes and the and the amazing connection that you have
when you're sharing a meal withpeople. You know, one of the
greatest things that we love todo is have our friends and
family over and and share ameal. We love to cook for our
friends. We love to cook for ourfamily, because those are the
(10:31):
moments. Those are the momentsof laughter, sometimes tears,
great conversation, and that iswhat builds the bonds for us
with, you know, our community,with ourselves. And, yeah, it
was so it's so special to beable to say that this came, you
know, from right outside, right
Trevor (10:49):
outside, from your yard, your back door, yeah. And I
think, for for me, moving hereto Connecticut and being here
our yard, I think, is so muchbigger than anything that we've
ever managed before. 11 acres isnot a small amount of space.
Ellen (11:09):
Is why I said no,
Trevor (11:11):
but then you said yes, and here, and you're so happy
now you are so
Ellen (11:16):
I think it comes back to I think it was the thing I
didn't know that I really wantedyou know it isn't. It was
intimidating. This is not achoice for all. I would say the
11 acres of it all,
Trevor (11:28):
everybody should be gardening in their yard.
Ellen (11:31):
Everybody should be gardening in your yard. And that
comes from, I mean, it doesn'tmatter how that's happening.
Trevor (11:37):
You don't have to be clinically insane like us and
have 11 acres.
Ellen (11:40):
Allow us to tell you the clinically insane stories so
that you don't have to do
Trevor (11:45):
what this is for. That's what yard to table is for.
Ellen (11:48):
Yeah, no. I mean, yes, yard to tables for everybody.
Because if you have a if youhave a back deck, if you have a
patch of land, if you have awindow sill there, if you have a
countertop, there's so many waysthat you can be growing things
in your home that you can use,and it's such an incredible
feeling.
Trevor (12:08):
And even thing that you don't think, Oh, I'll be able to
use this. There's a lot of funthings that we're going to talk
about. So much fun to find out,like making Allium vinegar. Take
these. You take, you know, yourchives, and they have these
beautiful purple flowers, andyou cut those off, and the those
are your Allium flowers, and youjust take some white wine
(12:31):
vinegar and stick them in there.
And two weeks later, you've gotthis beautiful purple, floral,
fragrant vinegar, spicy that youcan use. And it's amazing. And
you think, Oh, that wassurprisingly easy to do this.
You know, plant chives are theeasiest thing on earth to plant.
(12:52):
They grow in pretty much anypossible configuration. They're
incredible.
Ellen (13:00):
And I just saw this thing that I'm excited to try,
because we are bursting withherbs in the garden right now,
Herb bombs, where you just takeall of these fresh herbs that
you chop up, and you make icecubes with olive oil, and you
put them in the freezer. They'rethere for the whole year. I
mean, it's incredible. Thethings that you can do and make
good idea, right? I'm going tobe doing that after this, after
(13:21):
I order my tulips, I'm gonnamake some herb bombs.
Trevor (13:23):
See, this is the thing.
When you do yard to tablegardening and cooking it,
there's always another thing
Ellen (13:29):
The list is long, and I think that's the thing that I
that you get to do.
didn't realize. You think, Oh,I'm so intimidated. I don't
really know what I'm doing. Idon't know how to operate. But
once you get into it, there'syou're gonna make mistakes,
you're you're gonna, you know,but you're gonna make so many
successes, and you're gonna haveso much fun, and it's so
renewing to really be soconnected to the land and to the
(13:53):
things that are growing, and tounderstand where your food comes
from and how healthy that is foryou and for your Family. And
what we hope from this podcastis that in sharing the stories,
and we have some incredibleguests that are going to be
coming onto the podcast that arefrom our local food, culinary,
entertaining community here inConnecticut, New England,
(14:15):
they're going to share reallywonderful stories and
backgrounds around yard totable, and their view on this.
We just want you to feelinspired and to enjoy it and to
have some fun, because we have alot of fun, an enormous amount
of fun. So what we have found isit's been so inspiring. It's
been incredible to meet thepeople that care so deeply about
(14:37):
where their food comes from, into see what they're doing, to
learn from them, to tosupplement, because we all can't
do everything in our yards. So,you know, I don't want to grow
mushrooms, but I'm really gladthat my our friend and neighbor
does, you know, and so and wesupport each other in this
community. People say, Hey,listen, I got a dozen eggs. I'm
(14:59):
going to drop them. Off, or Ileft a bunch of basil on a jar
and your back door, it'sincredible.
Trevor (15:05):
And I think that's for us what yard to table is all
about. It's about connecting allof us in our own communities,
through food, through theproduce that we grow, through
the things that we grow in ourown yards.
Ellen (15:22):
And it's also about the things that we're not growing,
the things that are growingnaturally. It's about
understanding the natural worldaround us and and really being
inspired by that. You know,Violets growing in the spring
time in your yard that you canturn into violet syrup, which
we've done. And it's amazing.
It's amazing. Our neighbor toldus, oh, have you ever tried
(15:42):
violet syrup? I was like, No, Ihave never tried violet syrup.
She's like, Oh, go out. Go outwith your daughter, and go pick
some and you're gonna put themin hot water, and you're gonna
let it sit overnight, and thenyou're gonna add a little sugar,
and it's gonna make a beautifulsyrup that you can use in
cocktails, or you can make pinklemonade. And we did it, and it
(16:03):
was incredible.
Trevor (16:07):
Yeah it was awesome. And I think the next year we were
like, waiting for the waitingfor the violet. Are they up yet?
Are they up yet? Are they upyet? And you know, we said we're
not going to mow that area atall. That's right, you got to
keep the violets, protect thepatch, protect it and and we
did, yeah, and I think that'sone of the fun things, is that
for us, yard isn't just the areathat we have, our main growing
(16:33):
garden, our main kitchen gardenand our growing That's exactly
right. Yard for us is really thewhole property. Yeah, you know,
we have maple trees. We have alot of sugar maple trees. We
have a lot of Norway maple wehave a lot of sugar maple as
well. So we tap our own mapletrees, and we get this amazing,
beautiful, wonderful maple sapthat comes out of them, and then
(16:56):
I boil that down into thislovely, luscious maple syrup, or
Ellen (17:01):
big maple syrup loving family over here?
Trevor (17:03):
Yeah, generations of maple loving family members.
That's
Ellen (17:07):
true for sure. Pop up is a is has been known to drink
directly from a bottle
Trevor (17:12):
that is 100% true, maybe not untrue. 100% true a bottle
of maple syrup.
Ellen (17:16):
I just want to clarify that, but I think it's a really
important point, because it'slike it is about the fact that,
yes, we're talking aboutintentional planting and
growing, but it's alsomaximizing the things that are
in your immediate area,foraging, utilizing plants,
vegetables and trees that grownaturally in ways that you never
(17:37):
thought about we certainlyhadn't thought about it.
Trevor (17:39):
No, not at all. I mean, obviously we have to say, like
we say sometimes to ourdaughter, don't eat it if you
don't know what it is, veryimportant. But if you do, I
think generally that's a rulefor life. Yeah, true on like an
airplane or the street corner oryour backyard, you don't know
what it is, really, don't put itin your mouth. Yeah, that good
(18:02):
choice, agreed. But there's alot to be said for when you do
know what something is, evenacorns, which I know sounds this
is not a foraging podcast, bythe way, but you know, we do
plan to have a forager. Come on,that is true. We will have a
foraging guest a little later onin the season. But I think that
that's one thing that is veryunique, is that if you look at
(18:26):
things from a differentperspective, if you find a way
to get some open space and lookaround, there's a lot that's
there. There's a lot that youdon't that you don't think
about, even the simple and veryhumble dandelion, which most
people will 100% eradicate withvengeance, with a deep vengeance
(18:48):
and visceral hatred. You cantake the flowers of a dandelion
and you can make dandelion icecream, which has a very honey
floral flavor. You can makedandelion jam. Same. It has this
very surprising floral nature.
Ellen (19:05):
And the greens are a, you know, a classic for salad,
classic staple for salad. Youcan make it dandelion tea. And
by the way, they're the firstsign in spring for a lot of our
pollinators, right? You know,for them to be able to feed
themselves and to start theprocess that we all need to
happen for all of our gardens togrow.
Trevor (19:23):
And as we watch our pollinators, scooch around, you
know a lot of bees that we havearound our tomato plants and our
zucchini flowers and all thethings that we have that grow,
you start seeing because it isyour yard, because you're there
every day, you start seeing theinterconnected nature of how all
(19:46):
of these different parts cometogether from the right kind of
soil, which we'll talk about,the right kind of chemical
balance that you have in yoursoil.
Ellen (19:56):
And how to manage that, all organically, without
chemicals, pesticides. Sides,you know, is a lot of bug
picking and crushing, which isnot my favorite, by the way, you
can get help for that,
Trevor (20:09):
but you do do it. I do.
You do. You do crush them as youneed to, as I need to. You keep
the good ones and you crush thebad.
Ellen (20:16):
That's right, and recognizing what that is, what's
the good? Where were the goodguys? And here are the bad guys?
Yeah, unfortunately, some of theones that I thought were the bad
guys were the good guys.
Trevor (20:24):
That was very early on, though, yeah, we're good now,
yeah, but have but understandingthat all of these different
parts coming together is whatcreates this ecosystem. Of the
things that we eat, yeah, youhave all of these different
elements that transfer from thesoil to the plant, to the fruit,
back to us again, back to thesoil. It's this very unique and
(20:46):
interesting thing that becauseit's in your yard, it's coming
from your yard to your table,you get to really experience
that and see that in a way thata lot of other people don't get
to have that opportunity?
Ellen (21:02):
Well, I think it's, it's because we're so we have been so
taken far away from the chain ofwhere the food is coming from to
where it comes to us, in grocerystores, right in our and that is
not something that even maybeour parents, or parents, parents
had people grew gardens. Thatwas a very important thing, and
(21:23):
and there's lots of people whocontinue to do it, but there's a
lot of us that got have gottenaway from it. And when you don't
really understand that cycle ofof food and growing and the
impact on the environment, it itreally, once you do understand
it really changes your, youknow, your perception of of
(21:44):
food. And you know, we have somevery old apple trees in our
property that we were very luckyto inherit. But I remember the
first season that we were here,and no one even knows the
varietal of it, because it's soold, we think it's probably from
1930 or earlier, we're unsure,but
Trevor (22:06):
it's a French green apple, but does not taste like a
Granny Smith, no.
Ellen (22:10):
And it is ugly.
Trevor (22:13):
Yeah, The fruit is not pretty. No,
Ellen (22:15):
it is not pretty. It's not pretty, but that's what
organic fruit looks like.
Trevor (22:18):
But it's delicious. It's delicious.
My mother makes a mean apple piewith that and apple sauce and
apple jelly and Apple, you know,butter, and that's delicious,
Ellen (22:29):
yeah, but you look at it and you go, I'm not going to eat
that, but we do, but you do,and, yeah, and that's, and
that's, again, what we see inour stores are things that have
been engineered and created andbecause
Trevor (22:41):
I tried to grow a plastic bag tree, and it did not
take it's weird. There are no itjust didn't work, because most
fruit comes in a plastic bag. Sothat's kind of you thought that
was, that was the originalstory. Origin of it comes in
plastic bags. So obviously youstart with the plastic bag tree,
but that does not work, sothat's what the podcast is going
(23:06):
to be. So every single week,we're going to come out with
another little bit ofinformation. We'll have guests
on every other week, we'll havestories, we'll have recipes,
we'll have information for youabout all of our local
Connecticut growers. I think alot of the things that you can
take away from what we're goingto give you is it's not just
(23:28):
Connecticut based. You know,that's right, you can use these
principles pretty much anywhere,possibly not Antarctica. I'm not
sure what the growing season isthere, but I think that pretty
much everywhere else. Yeah,
Ellen (23:41):
it'll work.
Trevor (23:41):
I think it's gonna
Ellen (23:42):
work. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think that's the
important part. There's nothingyou know. It's all stuff that
you can take and use however youwant, or you can just listen and
have fun.
Trevor (23:52):
Yeah? Because we're fun people,
Ellen (23:54):
we are fun people.
Well,we think we're fun people, we
Trevor (23:57):
know we're fun people.
We actually are fun people.
People. Have told us that we'refun people.
Ellen (24:01):
So come take a seat at the table with us. And if you
want to see what's going onevery day at Stone Brook, then
you can follow us on Instagram@stonebrookhouse
I like that. Me too.
I'm excited.
Trevor (24:13):
This is going to be great.
Yard To Table is a production ofmacrocosm entertainment. Don't
forget to rate us and subscribeanywhere you listen to podcasts
and for tips and moreinformation, follow us on
Instagram at Stonebrook houseyou.
Well, hello there Ellen.
Ellen (00:16):
Well, hello there Trevor.
Trevor (00:18):
This is fun. This is a little something different.
Ellen (00:21):
We are podcasting.
Trevor (00:23):
It's our own little podcast. Welcome everybody to
yard to table.
Ellen (00:28):
I'm Ellen Scherer Crafts.
Trevor (00:30):
I'm Trevor Crafts, and this is a podcast that is about
food. It's about gardening. It'sabout community all in and
around the yards of our 11 acreConnecticut homestead called
Stonebrook, if you're a seasonedgardener, if you're just coming
into it, we like to call it.
There's a lot of farm to tablemovements out there. We like to
(00:50):
look at this as yard to table.
Ellen (00:54):
Why is it yard to table?
We're literally making things inour yard and bringing it to our
kitchen table every day, andwhether that's flowers or
vegetables, herbs were soinspired by the things that were
growing. And what we have foundthat our neighbors are growing
in their backyards. Who knewwhen we moved here how
(01:14):
incredible the things that weregoing on right besides people's
back doors.
Trevor (01:22):
Yeah, it's, it's almost like a little quiet revolution
of
Ellen (01:27):
self sustainability, organic growing. It's good
stuff, and, by the way, alsoentertaining and community and
bringing people together.
Trevor (01:36):
That's what we've really, we've really learned to
love about this place that we'reliving in is that there's so
many different people that aregrowing amazing things in their
yards and their small farms, andjust how much Connecticut
agriculture is a very, verylocal, very personal thing that
(01:58):
we've really discovered andreally started to fall in love
with
Ellen (02:02):
Totally and I think, you know, we're located in Western
Connecticut. We're part of NewEngland.
Trevor (02:07):
What are we? 7A, we are growing. That's our area. 7A
Ellen (02:10):
I think that's our new update.
Trevor (02:12):
We're East Coasters originally. That's right at a
little time out in in LA. Butthen came back the call of the
seasons,
Ellen (02:22):
would you say it's coming back to our roots? No pun
intended
Trevor (02:25):
indeed. This isn't going to be a podcast full of puns
about vegetables, but they willhappen. They were going to dig
in. We're going to we're goingto get right down to the root of
it. It's funny. A lot of people,I think, said to us, oh gosh,
moving to from California backto the East Coast. Oh, the snow,
the snow. We like snow.
(02:46):
We love snow. We loveweather. We love seasons. And I
Ellen (02:46):
We love it.
think one of the things that youcan't beat a New England fall,
no, you cannot beat a NewEngland fall. And Connecticut
falls are gorgeous, and I thinkthat's one of the things that is
so interesting about living herein Connecticut is, and on the
East Coast again, is thatthere's a reason to go out every
(03:09):
day. Yes, because in LA it'sgorgeous and it's beautiful, and
the weather is amazing, and thebeach is there, and the beach is
always there, because it'salways the same, and it's gets
very sort of static in terms ofthe time and and your sense of
urgency to go and do something.
But here, you know, you've got agrowing season. There's a time
that you can harvest. There arethese moments where time to
(03:31):
plan, time to plan, time toplant, time to harvest, you
know, time to enjoy. And it'sthese moments that you have to
grab on to, which is, I think,so unique about living here
again.
Yes, I mean, and I thinkwhat we hadn't really realized
is how much we miss thatseasonality, you know, that
(03:51):
sense of it's absolutelygorgeous outside. We need to be
there. We need to be doingsomething. And I again, we, we
got this property. We did itwith our parents. I know that
sounds crazy to a lot of people,but we pulled our family,
Trevor's parents, my mom, fromthree different states, and we
came together in our familycompound.
Trevor (04:14):
Now, just for everybody that's listening, I have a
question, true or not true whenI said, let's move here, meaning
stone Brook, you said,Absolutely not.
Ellen (04:26):
Yeah, that's true.
That's 100% true. Yeah, that isnot.
Trevor (04:33):
What do we need 11 acres for? That's right? And I said,
Well, there's a lot of space togrow. And that was, I think,
something that we didn't even100% realize how much we needed
yes in our lives. Yes.
Ellen (04:48):
I mean, listen, this is a lifestyle choice, right? We
brought together our parents,who are older. We have a
daughter. She was younger. Yes,she was five at the time that we
moved and. You know, this was athis was a decision. We were
coming out of COVID, we werestill in COVID. We all remember
that time, and it was reallyabout what's important. You
(05:09):
know, our families were livingseparately. We didn't have each
other to lean on, to supporteach other, both in hard times
and good times, there was a lotof that during COVID. There's a
lot of that in life, right? Andso it was, let's make a decision
that's good for all of us. Andwe did it. And somehow I got
convinced. Somehow we all gotconvinced. Because once
Trevor (05:29):
we I'm an incredible salesman. You are. I'm an
incredible
Ellen (05:32):
that is 100% true, yes, but we have and we're here, and
we all, you know, have our homeson the property, but we're all
contribute to this special placethat we live. And I think the
inspiration that we've gottenfrom the land literally has just
(05:53):
changed, sort of the trajectoryof our life, which is kind of
incredible. Yeah, I think aboutit, we
Trevor (05:57):
went from being very uh, career driven, uh, entertainment
people. And now, although thatis still a big part of our
lives, we're plant nerds. Now,soil nerds. Soil nerds, that's a
good one. Soil flower nerd.
Ellen is a huge flower nerd.
That is 100% true.
Ellen (06:17):
By the way, Trevor is, if you look at something, how do
you know it's a piece of artworkor a pattern or anything that I
like, what's usually on that aflower?
Yes, that's right,
Trevor (06:28):
it's a flower.
Ellen (06:29):
That's right.
Trevor (06:30):
It's probably a red flower,
Ellen (06:32):
usually a red flower.
Yeah. In fact, I have to giveback to ordering tulips after
this. So for next year,
Trevor (06:38):
it's always something as a plan. But I think that's one
of the things when we, when wegot here, you know, we came
because there was, it was thisopportunity for our family to
come together and be together inone place. But then in, you
know, there's, we inherited someformal gardens which were
covered in plastic. There was,they were sort of in disrepair.
(07:03):
They had not been used for acouple of seasons. And we go
right in. We dug in, by the way,this is not a podcast entirely
full of plant puns, althoughthere will be some plant puns in
this one, like digging in andthings like this.
Ellen (07:22):
We like puns. They're funny, yeah, and you're full of
dad humor.
Trevor (07:25):
I am. I am a dad. So that's probably why, when we
were in California, we realizedhow much we wanted to pursue
local growing.
Ellen (07:37):
That's 100% true, I think, you know, and it wasn't
something that we came tocompletely out of nowhere. We
were both people that reallylove food and cooking and
respected the work of chefs and,you know, organic food and but I
don't think we really had a fullconcept of what that meant from,
you know, from the beginning ofthe cycle to the plate, right?
(08:00):
And so in California, you know,we had an amazing Farmer's
Market in our town, and we spentevery Sunday at the farmer's
market shopping, first as acouple and then as a couple with
a baby, and we got to know thefarmers and the growers and the
vendors, and talked about theirstories. And, you know,
California is got a pretty muchan eternal growing season. And
(08:22):
it is supplies the country withso much of the things that all
of us use it, from vegetables tofruit, you know. So that was a
very unique but plentifulexperience of really, but, you
know, I think our maininspiration in the very
beginning, you know, came fromour lemon tree.
Trevor (08:42):
That's right, we had a lemon tree and a rosemary plant
on, you know, at our house inCalifornia. And I think it was,
and first time I had ever had,you know, of course, herbs and
like, simple things that weregrowing, you know, in around, in
pots or whatever. But to havesomething that had an abundance
of whatever that thing, thatlemon tree, was incredible. That
(09:03):
lemon tree, we got so manylemons off that lemon tree,
amazing. But I think one of thethings that was so surprising to
us was that so many people werekind of in awe or amazed or
impressed. Yeah, the fact thatit came out of our yard.
Ellen (09:19):
A lot of moments like that. You need this
Trevor (09:22):
It's from your lemon, a lemon from your tree. And it was
so interesting. It was veryclear memory of people being
very interested by this sort ofmysterious object called a lemon
that came from a tree,
Ellen (09:36):
because they're everywhere in California, you
know, but this whole idea thatyou actually could pick it,
squeeze it and use it and cutthe rosemary from the bush in
your backyard. That was just, itwas, it
Trevor (09:47):
It was almost like we would say, Hey, can you go out
and get some? I'll go out andget some. We'd say to friends,
you know, I'll go out and getsome. Oh, I'd love to how many
do you need? Should I take two?
I don't want to take too many.
I'll take one. Should I taketwo? One or two, three,
whatever. Just.
Ellen (10:00):
Get them take some home.
You know,
Trevor (10:02):
That was always the thing, too. Oh, I get to take
lemons home, yeah, but it was,for us, it was such a fun
experience to share that
Ellen (10:11):
yes and the and the amazing connection that you have
when you're sharing a meal withpeople. You know, one of the
greatest things that we love todo is have our friends and
family over and and share ameal. We love to cook for our
friends. We love to cook for ourfamily, because those are the
(10:31):
moments. Those are the momentsof laughter, sometimes tears,
great conversation, and that iswhat builds the bonds for us
with, you know, our community,with ourselves. And, yeah, it
was so it's so special to beable to say that this came, you
know, from right outside, right
Trevor (10:49):
outside, from your yard, your back door, yeah. And I
think, for for me, moving hereto Connecticut and being here
our yard, I think, is so muchbigger than anything that we've
ever managed before. 11 acres isnot a small amount of space.
Ellen (11:09):
Is why I said no,
Trevor (11:11):
but then you said yes, and here, and you're so happy
now you are so
Ellen (11:16):
I think it comes back to I think it was the thing I
didn't know that I really wantedyou know it isn't. It was
intimidating. This is not achoice for all. I would say the
11 acres of it all,
Trevor (11:28):
everybody should be gardening in their yard.
Ellen (11:31):
Everybody should be gardening in your yard. And that
comes from, I mean, it doesn'tmatter how that's happening.
Trevor (11:37):
You don't have to be clinically insane like us and
have 11 acres.
Ellen (11:40):
Allow us to tell you the clinically insane stories so
that you don't have to do
Trevor (11:45):
what this is for. That's what yard to table is for.
Ellen (11:48):
Yeah, no. I mean, yes, yard to tables for everybody.
Because if you have a if youhave a back deck, if you have a
patch of land, if you have awindow sill there, if you have a
countertop, there's so many waysthat you can be growing things
in your home that you can use,and it's such an incredible
feeling.
Trevor (12:08):
And even thing that you don't think, Oh, I'll be able to
use this. There's a lot of funthings that we're going to talk
about. So much fun to find out,like making Allium vinegar. Take
these. You take, you know, yourchives, and they have these
beautiful purple flowers, andyou cut those off, and the those
are your Allium flowers, and youjust take some white wine
(12:31):
vinegar and stick them in there.
And two weeks later, you've gotthis beautiful purple, floral,
fragrant vinegar, spicy that youcan use. And it's amazing. And
you think, Oh, that wassurprisingly easy to do this.
You know, plant chives are theeasiest thing on earth to plant.
(12:52):
They grow in pretty much anypossible configuration. They're
incredible.
Ellen (13:00):
And I just saw this thing that I'm excited to try,
because we are bursting withherbs in the garden right now,
Herb bombs, where you just takeall of these fresh herbs that
you chop up, and you make icecubes with olive oil, and you
put them in the freezer. They'rethere for the whole year. I
mean, it's incredible. Thethings that you can do and make
good idea, right? I'm going tobe doing that after this, after
(13:21):
I order my tulips, I'm gonnamake some herb bombs.
Trevor (13:23):
See, this is the thing.
When you do yard to tablegardening and cooking it,
there's always another thing
Ellen (13:29):
The list is long, and I think that's the thing that I
that you get to do.
didn't realize. You think, Oh,I'm so intimidated. I don't
really know what I'm doing. Idon't know how to operate. But
once you get into it, there'syou're gonna make mistakes,
you're you're gonna, you know,but you're gonna make so many
successes, and you're gonna haveso much fun, and it's so
renewing to really be soconnected to the land and to the
(13:53):
things that are growing, and tounderstand where your food comes
from and how healthy that is foryou and for your Family. And
what we hope from this podcastis that in sharing the stories,
and we have some incredibleguests that are going to be
coming onto the podcast that arefrom our local food, culinary,
entertaining community here inConnecticut, New England,
(14:15):
they're going to share reallywonderful stories and
backgrounds around yard totable, and their view on this.
We just want you to feelinspired and to enjoy it and to
have some fun, because we have alot of fun, an enormous amount
of fun. So what we have found isit's been so inspiring. It's
been incredible to meet thepeople that care so deeply about
(14:37):
where their food comes from, into see what they're doing, to
learn from them, to tosupplement, because we all can't
do everything in our yards. So,you know, I don't want to grow
mushrooms, but I'm really gladthat my our friend and neighbor
does, you know, and so and wesupport each other in this
community. People say, Hey,listen, I got a dozen eggs. I'm
(14:59):
going to drop them. Off, or Ileft a bunch of basil on a jar
and your back door, it'sincredible.
Trevor (15:05):
And I think that's for us what yard to table is all
about. It's about connecting allof us in our own communities,
through food, through theproduce that we grow, through
the things that we grow in ourown yards.
Ellen (15:22):
And it's also about the things that we're not growing,
the things that are growingnaturally. It's about
understanding the natural worldaround us and and really being
inspired by that. You know,Violets growing in the spring
time in your yard that you canturn into violet syrup, which
we've done. And it's amazing.
It's amazing. Our neighbor toldus, oh, have you ever tried
(15:42):
violet syrup? I was like, No, Ihave never tried violet syrup.
She's like, Oh, go out. Go outwith your daughter, and go pick
some and you're gonna put themin hot water, and you're gonna
let it sit overnight, and thenyou're gonna add a little sugar,
and it's gonna make a beautifulsyrup that you can use in
cocktails, or you can make pinklemonade. And we did it, and it
(16:03):
was incredible.
Trevor (16:07):
Yeah it was awesome. And I think the next year we were
like, waiting for the waitingfor the violet. Are they up yet?
Are they up yet? Are they upyet? And you know, we said we're
not going to mow that area atall. That's right, you got to
keep the violets, protect thepatch, protect it and and we
did, yeah, and I think that'sone of the fun things, is that
for us, yard isn't just the areathat we have, our main growing
(16:33):
garden, our main kitchen gardenand our growing That's exactly
right. Yard for us is really thewhole property. Yeah, you know,
we have maple trees. We have alot of sugar maple trees. We
have a lot of Norway maple wehave a lot of sugar maple as
well. So we tap our own mapletrees, and we get this amazing,
beautiful, wonderful maple sapthat comes out of them, and then
(16:56):
I boil that down into thislovely, luscious maple syrup, or
Ellen (17:01):
big maple syrup loving family over here?
Trevor (17:03):
Yeah, generations of maple loving family members.
That's
Ellen (17:07):
true for sure. Pop up is a is has been known to drink
directly from a bottle
Trevor (17:12):
that is 100% true, maybe not untrue. 100% true a bottle
of maple syrup.
Ellen (17:16):
I just want to clarify that, but I think it's a really
important point, because it'slike it is about the fact that,
yes, we're talking aboutintentional planting and
growing, but it's alsomaximizing the things that are
in your immediate area,foraging, utilizing plants,
vegetables and trees that grownaturally in ways that you never
(17:37):
thought about we certainlyhadn't thought about it.
Trevor (17:39):
No, not at all. I mean, obviously we have to say, like
we say sometimes to ourdaughter, don't eat it if you
don't know what it is, veryimportant. But if you do, I
think generally that's a rulefor life. Yeah, true on like an
airplane or the street corner oryour backyard, you don't know
what it is, really, don't put itin your mouth. Yeah, that good
(18:02):
choice, agreed. But there's alot to be said for when you do
know what something is, evenacorns, which I know sounds this
is not a foraging podcast, bythe way, but you know, we do
plan to have a forager. Come on,that is true. We will have a
foraging guest a little later onin the season. But I think that
that's one thing that is veryunique, is that if you look at
(18:26):
things from a differentperspective, if you find a way
to get some open space and lookaround, there's a lot that's
there. There's a lot that youdon't that you don't think
about, even the simple and veryhumble dandelion, which most
people will 100% eradicate withvengeance, with a deep vengeance
(18:48):
and visceral hatred. You cantake the flowers of a dandelion
and you can make dandelion icecream, which has a very honey
floral flavor. You can makedandelion jam. Same. It has this
very surprising floral nature.
Ellen (19:05):
And the greens are a, you know, a classic for salad,
classic staple for salad. Youcan make it dandelion tea. And
by the way, they're the firstsign in spring for a lot of our
pollinators, right? You know,for them to be able to feed
themselves and to start theprocess that we all need to
happen for all of our gardens togrow.
Trevor (19:23):
And as we watch our pollinators, scooch around, you
know a lot of bees that we havearound our tomato plants and our
zucchini flowers and all thethings that we have that grow,
you start seeing because it isyour yard, because you're there
every day, you start seeing theinterconnected nature of how all
(19:46):
of these different parts cometogether from the right kind of
soil, which we'll talk about,the right kind of chemical
balance that you have in yoursoil.
Ellen (19:56):
And how to manage that, all organically, without
chemicals, pesticides. Sides,you know, is a lot of bug
picking and crushing, which isnot my favorite, by the way, you
can get help for that,
Trevor (20:09):
but you do do it. I do.
You do. You do crush them as youneed to, as I need to. You keep
the good ones and you crush thebad.
Ellen (20:16):
That's right, and recognizing what that is, what's
the good? Where were the goodguys? And here are the bad guys?
Yeah, unfortunately, some of theones that I thought were the bad
guys were the good guys.
Trevor (20:24):
That was very early on, though, yeah, we're good now,
yeah, but have but understandingthat all of these different
parts coming together is whatcreates this ecosystem. Of the
things that we eat, yeah, youhave all of these different
elements that transfer from thesoil to the plant, to the fruit,
back to us again, back to thesoil. It's this very unique and
(20:46):
interesting thing that becauseit's in your yard, it's coming
from your yard to your table,you get to really experience
that and see that in a way thata lot of other people don't get
to have that opportunity?
Ellen (21:02):
Well, I think it's, it's because we're so we have been so
taken far away from the chain ofwhere the food is coming from to
where it comes to us, in grocerystores, right in our and that is
not something that even maybeour parents, or parents, parents
had people grew gardens. Thatwas a very important thing, and
(21:23):
and there's lots of people whocontinue to do it, but there's a
lot of us that got have gottenaway from it. And when you don't
really understand that cycle ofof food and growing and the
impact on the environment, it itreally, once you do understand
it really changes your, youknow, your perception of of
(21:44):
food. And you know, we have somevery old apple trees in our
property that we were very luckyto inherit. But I remember the
first season that we were here,and no one even knows the
varietal of it, because it's soold, we think it's probably from
1930 or earlier, we're unsure,but
Trevor (22:06):
it's a French green apple, but does not taste like a
Granny Smith, no.
Ellen (22:10):
And it is ugly.
Trevor (22:13):
Yeah, The fruit is not pretty. No,
Ellen (22:15):
it is not pretty. It's not pretty, but that's what
organic fruit looks like.
Trevor (22:18):
But it's delicious. It's delicious.
My mother makes a mean apple piewith that and apple sauce and
apple jelly and Apple, you know,butter, and that's delicious,
Ellen (22:29):
yeah, but you look at it and you go, I'm not going to eat
that, but we do, but you do,and, yeah, and that's, and
that's, again, what we see inour stores are things that have
been engineered and created andbecause
Trevor (22:41):
I tried to grow a plastic bag tree, and it did not
take it's weird. There are no itjust didn't work, because most
fruit comes in a plastic bag. Sothat's kind of you thought that
was, that was the originalstory. Origin of it comes in
plastic bags. So obviously youstart with the plastic bag tree,
but that does not work, sothat's what the podcast is going
(23:06):
to be. So every single week,we're going to come out with
another little bit ofinformation. We'll have guests
on every other week, we'll havestories, we'll have recipes,
we'll have information for youabout all of our local
Connecticut growers. I think alot of the things that you can
take away from what we're goingto give you is it's not just
(23:28):
Connecticut based. You know,that's right, you can use these
principles pretty much anywhere,possibly not Antarctica. I'm not
sure what the growing season isthere, but I think that pretty
much everywhere else. Yeah,
Ellen (23:41):
it'll work.
Trevor (23:41):
I think it's gonna
Ellen (23:42):
work. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think that's the
important part. There's nothingyou know. It's all stuff that
you can take and use however youwant, or you can just listen and
have fun.
Trevor (23:52):
Yeah? Because we're fun people,
Ellen (23:54):
we are fun people.
Well,we think we're fun people, we
Trevor (23:57):
know we're fun people.
We actually are fun people.
People. Have told us that we'refun people.
Ellen (24:01):
So come take a seat at the table with us. And if you
want to see what's going onevery day at Stone Brook, then
you can follow us on Instagram@stonebrookhouse
I like that. Me too.
I'm excited.
Trevor (24:13):
This is going to be great.
Yard To Table is a production ofmacrocosm entertainment. Don't
forget to rate us and subscribeanywhere you listen to podcasts
and for tips and moreinformation, follow us on
Instagram at Stonebrook houseyou.
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