Bright Acres Homestead

Today I'm talking with Jenn at Bright Acres Homestead. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Jen at Bright Acres Homestead in Florida. Good morning, Jen. How are you? Good morning, Mary. Well, thanks. How about yourself? Well, I'm good.  I have a runny nose that's been driving me crazy. Oh, yes. And so if I'm sniffly, that's why. ahh How is the weather in Florida this morning?

00:29 It is doing all right. We've had some really nice cooler mornings lately, but  by midday it's back in the  90s.  It's crazy. The swings are crazy.  Yeah. Where are you in Florida? We are just south of Tallahassee,  right on the Gulf.  Okay. Yep. So you get the ocean breezes.

00:49 I kind of feel like the Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of America, whatever you want to call it these days, is like a dust bowl  for allergies. Okay. Yeah.  It's kind of wild. It's different than living on the East Coast for sure.  Yeah.  My parents still live in Maine. I grew up in Maine and my dad is always talking about how the winters are so much warmer now  because of number one, global warming. But number two, because of global warming, the oceans are staying warmer so they get the

01:20 the insulation of the warmth of the ocean in the wintertime. And every time he explains this to me, I'm like, you've told me this a thousand times. And he's like, yes. And I'm like, I still don't quite understand how it works.  And he said, does anybody really understand how nature works? And I'm like, no, if we did, I would be much richer.

01:39 Um,  is, it is overcast in Minnesota again this morning and we were fog locked for the second day this morning. could not see more than eighth of a mile down the road and my husband had to go to work and I was like, please be careful. Please. Yes. Yes. Completely understandable. Do not want to lose that man. And, and, and every time it gets foggy like this, I'm like, please don't let somebody hit him or please don't let him hit somebody. Oh, I totally understand the fog.

02:08 It happens here too, especially like down the road from us, because there's such a change between we're right near  what we the Springs. And so like the Springs are, you know, the river runs through town and  it's much cooler. And then you have like the Gulf, which is very warm. And so it creates like this, I don't know what you want to call it, but like this tunnel where the two collide and the fog is crazy. um So it's kind of wild.

02:35 Yeah, I don't like it. I really don't. I like to be able to see a mile away. It makes me happy. I want to take a moment before we dive in to thank you and all my other guests that have been on the show and my listeners because this podcast is one of my favorite things I've ever done and I appreciate everyone's time so much. I love that. Happy to be here. Good. I'm happy to have you. So tell me a little bit about yourself and Bright Acres Homestead and I love the name.

03:05 Oh, thank you. um So we  see my husband and I, guess way back before we even knew each other, always both really loved farms.  I remember my parents used to tease me at some point I'd live on a farm and I'd have all the things. um And my husband also felt the same way.  His family kind of grew up that way.  A lot of canning and  they've lived in Florida before it was even a state  way back in the day.  so

03:33 There's a lot of tradition there. And so between the two of us, after we met, we always had this dream of, let's do it. And so we're kind of living that dream. We both have real jobs on the side, of course. And so I should say real jobs for most of the time. This is the on the side deal, but it's been pretty incredible. We have 27 acres and we have 11 cows and five.

04:00 pigs  and we garden pretty much year round in Florida as possible. so, um you know, having three to four garden