Ron Wilson 11/15/2025 Hour 2

The Queen Bee and Author Jeremy Hill.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight

(00:38):
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy, talking about yardening. And as I promised,
she is back.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
And who is she?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, of course she is our queen. We call her
our Queen Bee. She was our retired Ohio state apiarist,
an entomologist. She's been working, you know what, We've been
working together for a long time, trying to edge okay,
more folks about bees, not only honey bees, but the
native bees as well. I can't think her enough for
all the information. It's so much fun to have her

(01:08):
on the show. Ladies and gentlemen, our Queen Bee. Barbie Blecher,
what are you doing up so early?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Boy?

Speaker 3 (01:21):
That's a lot of applause. I haven't even spoken yet.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
I tell you got your fans are everywhere. And when
you even have bees that came out, it's still dark out.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
I know, it's not crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
All over the windows.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Send it.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Where's Barbie?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
I'm here, I'm trying to stay warm.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Have you had your coffee yet?

Speaker 4 (01:40):
Mm hmm, okay, yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Just making sure you know, Buggy Joe takes at least
three or four before you know, and that's it eight
thirty in the morning.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Oh, and I would be jumping all over the walls
if I had that much, okay caffeine.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
So you do it? Do you sweeten your coffee with honey?
I would absume.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Absolutely homegrown honey. You can't beat it.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Is it homegrown?

Speaker 3 (02:05):
It is homemade, homemade made honey. Yes, by my very
own workers.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
By your own, by your own workers. And by the way,
if let's just get this out right right off the bat.
If I'm buying some of that honey off the shelf
at the grocery store, doesn't say locally grown or anything
like that, local beekeepers. Is that homemade honey? Or is
that homemade syrup?

Speaker 3 (02:30):
It is a syrup product, and it's more than likely
not to pick on Canada. But a lot of these
foreign countries will dump their honey products into Canada and
then they will bottle it and sell it here. The
problem that they're finding is not only does it have
rice syrup, corn syrup, any other kind of a syrup,

(02:52):
it's not honey at all. And there's all kinds of
other inert ingredients in there that you do not want
to eat. So you want to find a local beekeeper,
and almost every county and every state has a beekeeper
beekeeping club. You can go on there. You can find

(03:13):
local beekeepers and buy directly from them. It's got nutrients,
it's got all the nutrients and the proteins that we
need for body health. And it's so much better force
than that junk that they sell a secondhand in the stores.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, and I still, you know, I remember you turning
me onto this ten to fifteen years ago and I
couldn't leave it. And I mean we used to tell
folks back then, and they were just like, are you
kidding me? And I said, well, just look at the label.
I'll tell you on that. And it's amazing, you know
how that happens, But it does and it's allowed. But
again that's why we always say support your local beekeepers,
support your support your local growers, no matter what it is,

(03:51):
but local beekeepers as well. And you'll find a lot
of these in some of your local farm markets and
places like that as well. But look at the bottle
and make sure that it is locally homegrown, and support
your local beekeepers very very important to them as far
as financing them as well. So and it's good stuff.
Now what's the difference between raw honey and processed honey.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
So raw honey and there we use that term a
little loosely. Raw honey should be right out of the hive.
We will filter it to get all the extra body
parts and wings and stuff out that might you know,
get into it, but we'll filter it. We might heat
it just so it will run through the filter better,

(04:38):
but then it's right out of the beehive. Commercial beekeepers
will heat their honey, which cause that makes sorry processed honey.
It means that it's been heated, so it destroys all
the nutrients, It destroys the proteins, and that's when you
get into issues with non honey products, you know, because

(05:00):
you can't identify the proteins. So if I took a
jar honey, or if you took your jar honey to
to like a professor with a microscope, he can tell
you every flower that's in that honey. But what happens
when they process that they destroy those destroy the pond,
destroy the proteins, so you can't identify. There's no palen

(05:23):
left in the honey, so at that point it's it's processed.
It's just a sweet liquid that might have honey in it.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Interesting, so try to find it. And then and then
when we're looking at these different honeys that are on
the shelf, and you see all different colors from a
really dark color to a very light and almost see
through the honey type color. That just varies on what
what there what was in flour at the time that
the honey was being made.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, well, those bees brought in and that's the fun
thing about buying from your local beekeepers. We'll have spring honey,
we'll have like summer wildflower honey, and fall honey. But
a lot of beekeepers like when we have a black
locust that blooms in early spring, or the the bassward trees,
they have a beautiful light honey. So if we take

(06:14):
our honey off, if we take our honey off right
after that bassward is finished blooming, you're gonna have the
most beautiful, clear honey and it has a specific taste
that is unique to black locusts or basswood. Go ahead, Yeah,
if you have your you're lucky enough to have your

(06:34):
apiaries near a clover field where they're raised in clover
for animals or for seed, it has the most a wonderful,
deep flavor. All kinds of different flavors in there, but
it's it's unique to that clover. So whatever the bees
went to, whatever pollen and nectar they brought back, that's

(06:55):
what is becomes your honey.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
And if it's a buckwheat, beautiful.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Example, buckwheat is produces a very dark honey, but wonderful, deep,
heavy flavor, very unique.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
And golden rod.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Golden rod produces a wonderful, darker honey with a deep flavor.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
I always thought the buckwheat honey tasted more like almost
like sorghum glasses. M talking with Barbie Butcher. She is
our queen bee, getting our our usual update on how
we're doing with the bees out there. What about spotted
lantern fly honey? Real dark color.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
It is dark, it's got a little bit of a
red to it.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
You know. I was just kind of joking there because
it's beep there, you know, spotted lantern fly poop.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, it's it's excreted. So when the spot of lantern
flies are feeding, they have a sucking mouth part and
they excrete the extra liqu would since you know, stuff
that they don't want extra liquids and sweets. So the
bees pick that up and they do it because they're hungry.
So we you know, when we have a drought like this,
they're looking for anything that might pass as nectar. So

(08:15):
they picked that up. And it can have different flavors
because the spot lantern flies are feeding on things that
not necessarily that bees that wouldn't necessarily go to, So
it does have some unique flavors. They say it kind
of smoky. I don't really taste a big difference, but

(08:35):
it is definitely sweeter.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
H I cracked up when I started seeing the articles
going about that, and then you sent me an article.
I was like, that's pretty funny. But I never thought
about it. But it's true. I mean, you know, we
talk about describing, you know, how can you tell you
got magnoia scale? And you know, you're just like if
you see wass and bees all you know, flies flying
around and you know that's part of the deal, and
sure enough that's you know, but anyway, so they take

(08:58):
advantage of the spotted lantern fly as well. So there
you go. But that all of these factors are what
will cause the different flavors and the different colors and
shades of all of the honeys that are available out
there today from your local independent beekeepers.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
And it's fun because a lot of beekeepers will go
travel all over the United States and we buy other
people's honey from different states, like mangrove honey or you know,
wild orange honey, orange blossom. Orange blossom honey has a
wonderful clave and it tastes like oranges.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah, So, I mean it's fun. And why buy that
junk in the store that all tastes like syrup when
you can have that experience of tasting the local fauna.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
There you go. Hey, by the way, happy bee lated birthday.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Oh well, thank you. It was sweet.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Thirty one forty.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
One, sure double the thirty one.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah right, talk about Barbie. But you're our queen Bee.
We're gonna take a break.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
We come back.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, let's take a look now at what's going on
with our bees. We had a warm fall so far.
How are they doing. What we're going to do is
we go into the winter season. Brand new be discovered
this year in the United in the world. I think
it's kind of interesting. It's got horns. We'll talk more
about that as well after the break here in the
Garden with Ron Wilson.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
How is your garden growing?

Speaker 5 (10:21):
Call Ron now at one eight hundred eighty two three.
Talk you're listening to in the Garden with Ron Wilson.

Speaker 6 (10:44):
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Speaker 1 (12:57):
Fucking ardening at eight hundred and eight two three eight
two five to five Barbie. But let your our queen
Bee is with us this morning, give us a little
bee update and of course hope you take her tips
about the honey and which ones you purchase. Just buy local,
that's the bottom line. By locally produced honey and you're
you're in good shape and support all of your local beekeepers.

(13:18):
So we've had a kind of dry in some areas
that was dry up until three or four weeks ago,
pretty dry, and then of course warmer temperatures continue. Finally
got a little bit of snow this week, cooling back down.
Where do our bees stand at this stage.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Well, you know, it's interesting because the bees had been
flying every one day. The bees are flying yesterday. We
are out flying around just looking for something to eat.
So there's nothing flowering. So when you see these bees
flying around this time of year, you know they're robbing
from other weaker colonies. They're looking, you know, at the

(13:55):
food tross at the farms, and the bird feeders are
looking for anything that they can find that they think
is nectar or pollen to take back to their colony.
So it's hard on them. They're spending a lot of
energy foraging and not really finding anything that's nutritious. But

(14:15):
we you know, some parts of Ohio, I think down
your way, especially in the eastern Ohio, they're dry. They
had a dry fall. They didn't get they didn't get
anything from the golden rods to speak of. And there's
a gentleman up in the northwest Ohio and they're they're

(14:36):
low up there. They didn't get the harvest that they
usually expect because they didn't get anything out of the
golden rods. So these these dry falls that we've been
having are are tough on the bees, you know, and
other pollinators as well.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Obviously we talk about planting things that flowered late in
the season, keeping water out for the for the bees,
things like that, but there's nothing really at this stage
in the game that a homeowner can do correct uh.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
Beekeepers me your humming bird feeder out, but it might freeze.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, so the hummingbird feeder could be a source of
of some sugar water, I guess for them to uh
to benefit from. And if somebody's listening saying, why would
they go to uh farm troughs or my bird feeder?
Why do I see bees around there? It's not there's
no pollen there.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
There's no pollen, but it looks like pollen. It's fine,
it's around. They can pick it up and carry it
back to their colony. So what happens. They take this
stuff back. It looks just like pollen to them, and they,
you know, offload it to the gal whose stores in
the cells. And they said, well, that's that's not pollen,

(15:45):
you dummy. So they just they just seal it off
and wait for more.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
To be brought.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
So they can't eat it, they can't use it.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Kind of like the three stooges and they get the
little two fingers to the eyes or smack upside that. Yeah,
just like that, slaintly yep, get back out there, back
out there, try it again, Try this again.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
So if you see those out there and they don't
chase the birds away from the bird feeder, no they don't.
As a matter of fact, could be a source of
food for some birds if they're interested.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Oh yeah, a lot of birds love eating bees.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
So there you go. So again, you know, we had
our we sometimes on a nice day, we'll leave the
back door kind of cracked open so Miley, our dog,
can go in and out freely. And it's amazing still
how many bees come in that back door and you know,
fly around a little bit and they realize they're in
the wrong spot and head back out again. But it's
a boy, they've just been so active up like you said,
to even know a couple of days ago, still seeing

(16:41):
them flying around out there. So how about when they
get caught all of a sudden with that, like the
snowfall or the colder tempts? They know what's going on, right.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
Bees are amazing, you know, their their brain is basically,
you know, five nerves are stuck together. The things that
they know. They know it's gonna starts getting colder. They
know basically an hour before it rains it's going to
be raining. They all head back to the colony. If
it's gonna get cold, they will cluster and they detached

(17:11):
their wings and they buzz, and that buzzing creates heat.
So because of course it takes a lot of honey
to produce that heat, but they will buzz and keep
the core of the colony warm and believe it or not,
even if when it's zero outside, a cozy ninety five
or no, ninety four down where the queen is. So

(17:31):
they're able to keep their colony warm just by buzzing
their wings.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
And when you say detached, they don't take their wings off, Oh.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
No, sorry, but they just sort of disconnect them so
that they can buzz in a different way instead of flying.
They buzz it up and down.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Because if they were still connected, they'd pick up the
hiven and take off.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, you just see this behind.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Going outside of flying away. And then you know what
I see beehives that are handed all different colors. Is
there a particular color that's best for them? Or you know,
I mean, white's obviously the prominent color, but I'm more
and more saying, you know, greens and yellows and reds
and all that out there.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, they like the earth tones. And for two reasons. One,
so when the bees are flying around and coming back,
if you have all your hives in a row and
they're all white, they they don't always go back to
the same colony. They might drift to the right or
drift to the left. So your colonies on the ends
always end up having more bees in them because the

(18:31):
bees they don't remember exactly which high they came out of.
So we paint them different colors and they know, okay,
that hive is mine, and they'll go right back in.
And that the earth tones hold more heat in the wintertime,
So the browns and the greens and the tans, we've
actually used that heat detector and pointed them at the

(18:54):
hives and the ones that are painted earth tone colors
they retain more heat, which is really fort in the
winter time.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
Cool.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Or you can just get Nina Bagley's I've covers.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah, keep them.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
And by the way, I want to thank you and
Teresa and Nina for sending me all the videos and
all the information you guys send me on a regular basis.
Keep me up data with his bee keeping. I tell
you what, you guys do a great job.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
You're the three star our favorite drone. We appreciate our
favorite drone.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
We got about thirty seconds. Did you see the new
bee they discovered in Australia with the horns on it?

Speaker 3 (19:26):
Yesler, Lucifer, it's got horns.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
I'm assuming that we have long.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Horn bees in Ohio that have little horns, but not
like this little guy. She's got pointed horns.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, and it's only the female from what I read. Yeah, yeah,
that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool, very cool, Barbie Bletcher.
Always a pleasure, our queen Bee. Thank you for all
so much, for all the information, and we will continue
to hear more from you as we go along.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
Thank you, thank you so much. Enjoy your day, all.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Right, thanksgiving to you, Barbee. You coming up next. The
one of the authors, co author from The Preserver's Gardens,
Jeremy Hill's gonna join us here in the garden with
Ron Wilson.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
Screen Tom or.

Speaker 5 (20:16):
Not Ron can help add one eight hundred and eighty
two three talk, they says in the Garden with Ron Wilson.

Speaker 6 (20:40):
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(21:02):
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(21:23):
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Speaker 1 (22:05):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson. You
know every now and then to come across a book
that I just absolutely love and I like to share
it with you. I highly recommend it. I'll tell you
what I've just found another one that was a pleasure
to read through. I've taken notes. It's a if you
grow your own vegetables, or maybe you don't. Once you
read this book, you'll want to if you've never canned

(22:28):
your own vegetables or preserve them or save them for
a later date. You've never done that before. After you
read this book, you're going to want to. And if
you've never done any of this stuff before and you
read this book, you're gonna enjoy it so much you're
gonna want to. Trust me. Well written, great pictures, great instructions.
Easy if I can read it and understand it. You

(22:49):
know it's easy to read. It's absolutely wonderful. It's called
The Preserver's Garden. How to Grow a Garden for fermenting, canning, pickling, dehydrating,
freeze drying, and more. Co written by Stacy and Jeremy Hill,
and with us this morning is mister Jerry Hill. Good morning,
good morning. Thanks for having me, hey, my pleasure, and

(23:09):
thanks for spending time. I know you guys are headed
out to a big farmers market today and you got
stuck staying back to talk with me.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
Yeah, I want to thank you for that. It got
me out of going in early, So thank you. Thanks.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Well.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
You know, after I read through that text, I went,
wait a second, I'm saving him from all the work
getting set up.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
Absolutely, you understand. I love it.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Hey, Jeremy, thank you so much. Seriously, what a great
book and by the way, co written by your wife Stacy.
And from what you told me yesterday, you really were
responsible for just about everything in this book.

Speaker 7 (23:44):
Oh yeah, I mean that's pretty much how it normally works.
But now, really she's the brains of the operation. I
just do the do the back end work more than anything.
So well, it is a team, I've heard. And it's
not just her and me, it's actually our six kids
all have a role in it as well.

Speaker 4 (24:02):
It's truly a family affair.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Unbelievable. I tell you what, Seriously, you know, whether you
if somebody got this book, you could read this book,
enjoy it, enjoy the story behind it, and never grow
anything and never preserve anything, just enjoying the book. But
if you've never done it before, once you get through
this thing, I'm ready to dive in head first. And
I've been growing things for years and I used to

(24:25):
help my mom. I don't do much canning and preserving myself,
but used to help as a kid growing up. But
this thing, this book, I tell you, makes you want
to grow more, to get out there and do this
so kind of real quick. I love the stories behind
things like this, and you too have a great story.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah, well, I appreciate that.

Speaker 7 (24:44):
We've been preserving food since we got married twenty one
years ago.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
On a small scale, and then just kind of worked
up over the years to preserving pretty much all of
our fruits and vegetables that we consume as a family.
As our family.

Speaker 7 (25:04):
Grew, our needs grew, the size of our garden grew,
the size of our pantry grew, and it all just
became a matter of scale. And we started out living
in Springfield, Missouri, which you know, now we're in Rogersville,
which is just a neighboring town. But I did a
little research to draw a comparison in Springfield would compare

(25:27):
pretty much to Dayton, Ohio.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
In size and metropolitan area. So we went from just
basically your.

Speaker 7 (25:35):
Suburban street on the end of the cul de sac
home and bought a little bit of land. We're on
twelve acres, and when we got this farm nine years.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
Ago, we were really able to step it up and
grow a lot more. And it's just a little more
every year, all right.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
So when you and Stacey got married, was this your
goal at that time too? You know, of course you've
got a great family, large family, But was that your
goal to eventually get to a point where we're somewhat
self sustainable and we're going to grow our own and
our own food. And had the small farm.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Not even a little bit not it wasn't even on
the radar.

Speaker 7 (26:17):
You know, we had a little backyard garden and I
think we were in our first home. We had a
three foot by six foot bed behind our duplex that
we lived in and grew a couple of tomato plants
and that was it. So it's really grown from there.
It hm, it starts from a lot of different things.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
I mean one, saving money is a a is a goal.
Eating clean is probably our main goal that led us here.
Being able to know what's in your food.

Speaker 7 (26:52):
We grow everything organically using organic practices at least, and
you know, there's just really never know what's in your
food that you get from the groachery store.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
So we decided that just a little by little, we
would grow more and more.

Speaker 7 (27:07):
And you know, tomatoes, if you read the book, you
know we kind of gush on tomatoes is our favorite,
our favorite thing, and we can you know, it's sixty
to eighty quarts of tomato sauce, and just to keep
our family going and not to have any backstock, and
not to mention salsa. Doopes excuse me? So many things

(27:32):
that were made out of tomatoes. They're a favorite thing.
And having clean, good quality heirloom tomatoes preserved throughout the
year is it's a real treat to open up really
good tasting tomato sauce or salsa in February.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Sure it's something else.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
You know.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
I look back at my roots and my grandparents, great grandparents,
they all had the storm the sellers into the hillside,
and of course my grand mothers and grandfathers they all
did all this kind of canning. But then I look
at at your book, and of course it's wonderfully illustrated.
The picture you're outstanding. I look at your pantry. That
thing is phenomenal.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
Yeah, it's that's like a grocery store, it really is.
The the pantry itself was actually a dining room when
we bought this old house. The house we live in
is a It was originally built in eighteen eighty and
it's been built onto a modernized of course, and this
room was added on as a dining room. So it's

(28:35):
like twenty feet long and seven or eight feet wide.
It's a really odd narrow room.

Speaker 7 (28:41):
So we put shelves down both sides or down three
sides really to make it a big u And it's
got five shelves, and we made it all out of
heavy lumber, plywood and two by fours, and it is
because it does to be heavy to hold all these
glass jars and the food inside of them.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
So we really made it into our own little family
grocery store.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
I would imagine you don't throw any jars away at
your house.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
Oh no, And I still buy jars. Keep an eye
on Craig's List, Facebook marketplace. If I see somebody selling
a bunch of.

Speaker 7 (29:17):
Old jars, I'm on it because a lot of these
jars are one hundred years old and you can still
use them after all these years.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
That's a great talking with Jeremy Hill. He and his
wife Stacey has written a book that's absolutely outstanding. And
by the way, I want to mention this coming up
as Christmas. You can buy this for yourself or as
a gift. It's called The Preservers Gardener Garden How to
Garden for Fermenting, canning, pickling, dehydrating, freeze drying and more.
It's Ashley Wonderful pictures are great. Their website check this

(29:45):
out Gooseberry Ridge dot com. Gooseberry Ridge dot com. That's
their farm and we're going to take a break. When
we come back, we'll talk more about that and a
lot of the things that you're going to find in
this book. The Preservers Garden by Stacy and Jeremy Hill.
Here in the garden with Ron.

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Speaker 1 (31:42):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson and
we are talking with mister Jeremy Hill. He is a
co author of a great book and it's a perfect
for Christmas, for yourself or somebody else. But it's called
The Preserver's Garden, How to Grow a Garden for fermenting, canning, pickling, dehydrating,
freeze drying and more. He and his wife wrote this together.
It's absolutely wonderful. The pictures are outstanding. You will love it.

(32:06):
Very well written, and we have Jeremy with us this
morning talking with about that. By the way, their website
is Gooseberry Ridge dot com. That's Gooseberry Ridge dot com
to learn more about them and all the great things
that they do. By the way, you mentioned at the
very beginning here Jeremy talking about, uh, you know how
much you guys like tomatoes, didn't I read in here?
That's at the beginning. Stacey wasn't a big tomato lover.

Speaker 7 (32:29):
Yeah, she actually didn't like tomatoes when we when we
first got together, and because she had only had you know,
the pink, hard store potato tomatoes that are designed for
travel and not taste in flavor.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
And once I introduced her to.

Speaker 7 (32:48):
You know, some some really good heirloom tomatoes, ones that
are designed to be eaten right off the plant, Erkie
purples and Millionaire tomatoes, things like that, it changed your
perspective to realize that. You know, what I realize is
most people think a tomato is that little pink disk
that you get on a hamburger at Wendy's.

Speaker 4 (33:10):
And it's really, you know, that's that's not the same thing.
Those are.

Speaker 7 (33:15):
Those are grown and shipped thousands of miles and sometimes
they've been picked for weeks, if not months. They're they're
designed for for travel, not for flavor.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Right, you know, Look, I look at that sometimes, and
I gotta admit some of the grocery stores are doing
a better job today than they did thirty years ago,
There's no doubt about it. But on the same token,
it's still not like picking that cherry tomato or that
airloom tomato out of the garden and put popping that,
you know, dusting it off a little bit, or not
dusting it off and popping it right into your mouth.
The flavor is totally unbelievable. And for those that never

(33:49):
wind up growing any food whatsoever, and of course container
gardening makes it so easy for anybody to try something.
You never know the difference. So I said, you know,
people are gonna they eat this from the you know,
the produce in the grocery store or whatever. They never
know the difference, you know, because that's all they've ever had.
But you know, if you get out to local farmers market,
to a farm like yours or whatever, and once you

(34:10):
taste that, you know, you it's hard to go back.
There's no I remember my parents and grandparents always complaining
about the tomatoes in the winter time, you know, because
they were just nothing. But and so that's where by
canning and preserving and all the different methods that you're
teaching all of the folks here how to keep that
going you can enjoy those flavors year round.

Speaker 7 (34:30):
And the other thing to know about tomatoes that you know,
I try to spread the word on tomatoes should never
be refrigerated, right, Never put a tomato in a refrigerator.
Even if you cut a tomato in half and only
eat half of it, if you put that other half.

Speaker 4 (34:47):
In the refrigerator the next day, the flavor is going
to be changed.

Speaker 7 (34:53):
That The texture is what a lot of people associate
with tomatoes, and it's a grainy, gritty, not good texture.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
And that's a result of refrigeration. And most tomatoes that
are shipped in from outside of you know, wherever they're consumed,
are shipped in a refrigerated truck and with other vegetables
that need to be refrigerated, so the tomatoes fall victim
and then people think, oh, tomatoes are gross.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
Good. Great point. Talking to Jeremy Hill, co author of
The Preserver's Garden, absolutely outstanding book. You're gonna want this one,
trust me, even if you are.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
I jumped in and tell you one other thing too.
You've given our website a couple of times. It's actually
Gooseberrybridge dot com.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
Not rich Bridge. I don't know why I wrote down Ridge.
My bad, no worries. But if they Google, if they
put that in there, you'll probably wind up getting it anyway. Oh,
it'll probably end up getting there.

Speaker 7 (35:48):
But Gooseberry Ridge won't get you anywhere, but it'll probably
get you close.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
You would have an online Bridge I don't know why
I have it, and at Gooseberry Bridge Farm as well
to learn more about them. But anyway, the book is
outstanding and you can find that on your website right
if folks want to order it right from you.

Speaker 4 (36:05):
Yeah, and I don't know that we actually have the
book on our website yet, Okay, but we we We
should have it up there pretty quickly. But it is
available for pre order right now.

Speaker 7 (36:15):
It actually comes out on December second, so you've got
a pre release copy thanks to our I'll.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Sure I'm a lucky I'm a lucky person. I know
several of my friends now are going to be asking
for this book, which I'll be.

Speaker 7 (36:28):
Saying, Amazon Book Books, a million, Barnes and Noble, and
it'll be in a lot of local bookstores too.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
After December.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Second, all right, Danny, our producer, said he went and
looked and it is on your website. So there you go.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
Oh well, fantastic up and going.

Speaker 7 (36:45):
And I should tell you too that my my wife
Stacy runs the website among any many other things.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
So go Hur and go Stacey, and it's it's it's
a great website. So once you get there, and don't
forget it's Bridge, not Ridge, but the Gooseberry Bridge dot com.
You'll be on there for a while because of all
the great things you do. And I would want to
talk about that very quickly, but again, looking at pictures
of your garden, you do about every type of gardening

(37:12):
from raised beds and ground you got cold frames, you
got containers, you got high tunnels, you got it all.

Speaker 4 (37:21):
They try to do a little of everything.

Speaker 7 (37:24):
We're actually an agriturism destination here in southern Missouris, so
people come out to our farm for various things that
we won't get into all of right now, but we
wanted to try to have a representation of a lot
of different kinds of gardening, not just for people to see,
but also for us because it gives us the highest
yields on produce to be able to try different things

(37:47):
and have to utilize high tunnels along with no till,
along with the.

Speaker 4 (37:53):
Containers and cold frames and everything else. So it gives
us the best results, and it gives people did sampling
of what they could do in their backyard garden.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
And of course the book does as well. It's called
The Preservers Garden, How to Grow a Garden for fermenting, canning, pickling, dehydrating,
freeze drying and more. And by the way, I you know, again,
it's so well written. Anybody can do this. Once you're done,
you really do want to just dive into it. You've taken,
you know, done all the homework for us. I'm assuming
there's a little bit of trial and error through all

(38:24):
of your processes here, but you sure simplified it for
everybody absolutely.

Speaker 7 (38:31):
I mean, this is the labor of over twenty years
of trial and error. And the other thing that we
really tried to do with this is to implement a
lot of modern techniques. It's not just canning, you know,
don't just think that this is going to be about
standing over a canner like your grandma did.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
We get into modern dehydrating freeze drying.

Speaker 7 (38:54):
We actually have two freeze dryers here that we you know,
once you have a free dryer, you'll never not have one.

Speaker 4 (39:00):
An amazing appliance and we use it constantly.

Speaker 7 (39:03):
So one of the things we get into in the
book is for each produce profile, what preservation methods work
the best for different situations and different pieces of produce.
So you know, some things just don't can well and
they freeze dry well. Some things dehydrate well, but they
don't freeze dry well. And we cover a lot of

(39:24):
that in the book, so you'll know how to properly
preserve and get the most out of the food, not
just eating fresh, but over the winter when your garden's dead.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, and you walk and you walk us through actually
the growing process of best location and then take us
into the best way to preserve them. And of course
you've got all the different message dehydration, salting, fermentation, freezing,
water bath, canning, pressure canning, freeze drying. I noticed you
really focus on the freeze drawing. If there was one

(39:54):
method through here, it seemed like I read a lot
about that we're able to freeze dry and not too
many things all in the category that you could not.
That's you guys use that quite a bit. It seems
like even looking at your pictures here a lot of
freeze drying.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yeah, it really is a great method. It stores well.

Speaker 7 (40:13):
We store a lot of our freeze dried food in
mason jars with a vacuum steeler and an oxygen disorber.
If you store that method or in mil our bags,
it can save a lot longer than pressure or water
bathcnned foods. It does change to the texture, sometimes positively,

(40:33):
sometimes negatively, so you could rehydrate those foods. The other
cool thing about freeze drying is you can freeze dry
prepared food.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
It doesn't have to be just raw veggies.

Speaker 7 (40:46):
We went on a trip last week and on a
vacation for end of season, and we took along stir
fried veggies that have been freeze dried and ate them
just chips, eat and my potato chips and they're delightful.
So you know, you can get really creative with how

(41:07):
how you eat this stuff after you prepare it and
free stry it.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Where's the family of six kids go on vacation.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
We actually went up in the Smokies, oh Coo, North Carolina, Tennessee.

Speaker 7 (41:18):
Smoking Mountain National Park, did a little hiking and just
kind of got away for a little bit.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
It's kind of our become our tradition.

Speaker 7 (41:26):
After the first freeze of the year kills the garden,
we just go get away for a week.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
I was in North Carolina last week myself. It wasn't nice.
It was a nice weather. Talking with Station and Jeremy.
We're talking with Jeremy Hill, co author of the book
The Preserver's Garden. And this thing is absolutely outstanding. You're
gonna love it. Taking pre orders for the book. It's
not readily available. I happen to get a copy early
and it is again, like I said, absolutely outstanding. I
love your final chapter achieving success. I think that's outstanding.

(41:54):
And I think the biggest thing here is when it's
all said and done, you said, fine, know yourself, find
ways to motor self, motivate yourself, and stay on track.
And man, that's really does sum it all up. Jeremy Hill,
thank you so much for spending time with us. Tell
Stacy we appreciate you leaving her, leaving you back so
that you know, stayed out all all heavy work. And

(42:14):
thank you so much for this book. It is wonderful.

Speaker 4 (42:18):
Thank you all right, get you having us on.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Thank you. Jeremy Hill. The name of the book, The
Preserver's Garden had the garden for a girl garden for fermenting, canning, pickling, hydrating,
free drawing, and more. I totally enjoyed this one and
I did read it front the back. Great story as well.
Check it out again. Get your pre orders in The
Preservers Gardener Stacy and Jeremy Hill. After the break, we'll

(42:42):
come back talk more about yarding here in the garden
with Ron.

Speaker 8 (42:44):
Wilson, Landscaping Ladiesier with your personal a yard boy. He's
hitting the gardens and he's Ron Wilson, Sat