New Frontier Farms LLC

Today I'm talking with Maggie at New Frontier Farms LLC. You can follow on Facebook as well.

 

Muck Boots 

Calendars.Com

If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee 

https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes

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 Maggie at New Frontier Farms LLC in Lonsdale, Minnesota. Good morning, Maggie. How are you? Good morning. I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I would ask how the weather is, but since I'm only about 15 miles away from you, it's gray and cloudy and may might rain, right? Yes. That seems to be the theme this summer.

00:29 Yes, and thank God it's not just constant pouring rain like it was last year. I don't know how you guys did, but our garden did really poorly last year.

00:40 Yeah, so I actually had a baby in March and I really underestimated how having a March baby would impact the farm compared to a September baby.  And so we didn't plant a garden.  But oh,  because I had the baby and it was just it was a lot between kidding and camming and farrowing and the baby.  The garden did not get planted. But everyone told me my garden did terrible this year. And I was like, you know, maybe this was a good year to not not plant a garden.

01:08 Yes, we, my husband's the gardener. I've talked about this a lot on the podcast and he planted tomatoes three different times. And I think we got our first tomato at the end of August last year. Oh goodness, that's crazy. Yeah. I like to joke. Um, I grew bacon seeds instead, cause I have to put my piglets on my garden. Um, things are growing great this year. So I think they did a good job of fertilizing, but it was all we could manage last year was bacon seeds. Well, you're only one person.

01:37 and you were growing a human and then birthing a human, so that is completely understandable.  Okay, so I'm really excited to chat with you this morning because I looked at your Facebook page and you have so many things going on, so tell me about yourself  and your farm. Yeah, so  my husband and I have wanted to be farmers our entire life. We both grew up  one generation removed from production agriculture, and so our grandparents farmed, but our parents had chosen to not.

02:05 And my mom had always wanted to be a farmer, but she was  turning 18 during the 80s farm crisis and my grandpa just didn't want that. It was not a  lucrative career at the time. And so my mom has always worked in agriculture.  And then we always had beef cattle on our farm.  was my grandpa's retirement gig. And so he retired from dairy cattle and got a hundred beef cows.  So I grew up spending my summers in the pasture with the cows and fell in love with.

02:34 with everything to do with farming. I was very involved in 4-H,  which just kind of fostered that love. And  I went to South Dakota State University and I studied dairy production and speech communication  with a minor in animal science,  all with the goal of someday owning my own farm.  While I was there, I met a man in a similar situation.  He wanted to have his own farm someday too. And  so we fell in love and that's my hu