Farming Is Life (2023) s01e06 Episode Script

1
(rooster crows)
INDY: If you've ever dreamed
of owning a farm, come with me.
BOB: Things are living
and things are growing on the rooftop.
INDY: I'm Indy Officinalis.
I'm a farmer who loves
helping other farmers.
My passion for farming
started in my teens,
working on a homestead
in North Carolina
and led me to urban
farming in LA.
I've worked on farms
from coast to coast.
But farming is hard work.
CRAIG: We planted about
ten variety of fruit trees
and they all died.
INDY: So I'm traveling the
country to offer some hope.
Hi.
JILL: Indy.
WOMAN: Oh, my gosh, Indy.
INDY: Join me as I transform
farms on rooftops,
in backyards, warehouses.
This is insane.
And even out on the ocean.
Farm rescue on a boat ♪
And on the way, we'll
get tips from some of
my expert farmer friends.
JILL: This is so awesome.
INDY: Yeah.
(screams).
Today, I'm traveling to
Concordia, Missouri,
home of the 40 acre farm of
Craig Heimsoth, Jill Steffensen
and their three young children.
The couple wants to transform
a parcel of their traditional
farmland into a really
unconventional food forest.
It's a radical idea and one that
I'm deeply passionate about.
But it comes with a huge risk
and they're going to need
my help, if they're going to
succeed in the long run.
JILL: Oh, my gosh, Indy.
INDY: Hey, hey.
JILL: Hello.
INDY: It's so
nice to meet you.
JILL: Thank you for coming.
INDY: Of course.
I'm so happy to meet you.
JILL: Yeah.
INDY: This looks awesome.
JILL: Yeah, I've been working
really hard out in the garden.
INDY: What is this?
JILL: This is the American
classic roadside farm stand that you see.
INDY: Gosh.
JILL: And it's off season
now, it opens in May.
INDY: And you put all
of your produce here,
everything that you guys grow.
JILL: Yes, I harvest in the
morning and I load this up
and throughout the day,
people come and shop.
INDY: Wow, that's so cool.
JILL: You're right
at the edge of town.
INDY: Yeah, you're in
the middle of everything.
JILL: Meet my partner, Craig.
INDY: Oh, hey.
CRAIG: Hi.
INDY: So nice to meet you, Indy.
CRAIG: Yeah, Indy, Craig.
INDY: Yes,
thanks for having me.
CRAIG: Yeah, we're excited.
JILL: I'd love to
give you a tour.
INDY: Yes.
JILL: I did plant
10,000 onions.
INDY: No way.
JILL: And that was my
goal and I did it in a week.
INDY: I love them.
JILL: Yeah.
INDY: Oh, did you
name all of them?
(laughs).
INDY: In addition to the
roadside farm stand at the
edge of their property, Jill
and Craig sell their produce
at a local market in town.
But for the business to be
viable, they need to sell
a lot more.
So how did you guys end
up living on this farm?
CRAIG: So, this was my
grandparents farm and we lived
in town, but we would always
come here on the weekends.
Growing up here as a kid, I
definitely had dreams and
fantasies of really
wanting to own this property.
When I started working
construction on the road and
I went away, well, I came
back to visit with my aunt,
she's like, "Well, grandma and
grandpa are selling the farm."
And I was like,
"Are you serious?"
I had a goal for the next six
months to work, you know,
100 hours a week, taking no time
off, save up the money and
then the whole family kind of
got together and agreed that
I was gonna be the right
person to buy the farm.
So that was the journey
to move back here and
start our family.
INDY: The idea that this is
the land that his ancestors,
that his family farmed,
like his grandfather tilled,
I think that it makes it
just that much more special.
Your family's
literal roots are here.
CRAIG: Yeah, it's
awesome to be able to keep it.
INDY: Yeah, yeah.
JILL: His height is measured
in the basement, his height is
like measured on the wall.
Yeah, when I moved here, I was
like, oh, there's Craig all
growing up on the wall.
INDY: In order to keep the
farm afloat, Craig and Jill
have leased the land to
corn and bean producers.
But they want to turn away
from that and transform their
land into something
radical and intriguing.
They want to leave it alone
so it can grow naturally,
the way nature intended.
They want to
grow with the flow.
But they've got a deep
connection to this land,
which makes the stakes even
higher if the farm fails.
So right now, is the farm
bringing in an income,
is it profitable?
JILL: We're getting there.
I'm trying to build
this business,
I'm five years in
to building it.
CRAIG: There is kind of a
sense of urgency for us
to try and make this place
what in our eyes it
potentially could be.
JILL: I do not want to have
my kids come home to an
empty house after school.
I'm the main caregiver and I
really wanna be present and
I want to, you know, be there
for those moments,
be part of their life.
INDY: Is that what
you grew up with?
JILL: My mom worked all the
time, I was always home alone.
She had to be the provider,
she had to make that money.
INDY: Right.
JILL: I've been putting my heart
and soul in this for years,
so like, really, what's
on the line is like me having
to go and out and get a job,
or like, be able to have this
be my job.
It's everything to me.
INDY: Yeah.
JILL: I have such a passion to
grow food and I see that need
in my community.
I just want it to be as self
sufficient as possible and
be a producer more
than a consumer.
INDY: They need the property
to be profitable, so that Jill
can stay home with her kids.
But right now, their plantings
are only using a fraction of
their 40 acres.
To fulfill the promise of
the farm, Craig and Jill
are redefining their
relationship with the land.
CRAIG: We're more of a steward
of the land here and
as opposed to where conventional
farming with mono crop,
we're trying to work with the
land and help it along.
INDY: Uh-huh.
CRAIG: Instead of trying to
force it to do what we want.
INDY: That makes sense.
Craig might have this tough
hard exterior, but hearing him
talk about being a steward
of the land is beautiful.
They're making the daring
decision to deliberately turn
away from modern
farming practices.
And I just really love the
idea of like, instead of
industrial farming we're
like indigenous farming.
And instead are
embracing old school
and even ancient methods.
JILL: There's a Mandala garden
over there that I'm working on
for my medicinal herbs.
INDY: Oh, my gosh, awesome.
Like a little herb spiral?
JILL: Yeah.
Like, farming, there's so many
straight lines and there's no
rules that say that you have to
do things in straight lines.
It's kind of fun to do
these different shapes.
INDY: Yeah.
JILL: It's like my dream to be
able to forage out here and to
be able to have my kids like,
picking fresh berries,
like all through the seasons.
INDY: I love foraging,
so when you're talking
JILL: Yeah, I know that about
you on social media.
INDY: Yes, yes, I love
foraging so much, because
JILL: like, what is she eating,
what are you eating now,
where did you find that?
INDY: Yeah, that used to
terrify my mom when I was kid,
but I was like,
"No, trust me."
By simply encouraging edible
plants, herbs and mushrooms
growing naturally on their
property, Craig and Jill are
entering into the challenging
and often profitable
world of foraging.
CRAIG: It's a little tricky to
walk up to a mushroom that you
don't know and be brave enough
to try and eat it, I think.
INDY: Right, right.
CRAIG: And I know they
have a lot of apps that
you can take pictures.
INDY: Never trust the apps.
CRAIG: I don't, I don't.
INDY: Well, no, the apps are
cool, but they don't take into
account some really important
things when it comes to plant
and mushroom identification,
like time of year,
climate, rainfall, proximity to other trees.
JILL: Totally.
INDY: But we can identify so
many things that you guys can
eat that are just
naturally growing here.
And not only eat, but like
turn into a product that
you can sell.
Foraging is the act of looking
for sustenance, medicine or
other useful material
in the wild,
just as animals
scavenge for food.
The making of a delicious salad
may be outside your back door,
but those who forage
must study all types of plant,
fungus, weeds and fruit, to
confidently identify what is
safe to touch or eat
and what is poisonous.
Foraging could be quite
profitable for Jill and Craig,
but with the right amount of
research, anyone can learn to
safely supplement their meals.
Wow, this is awesome.
As we make our way, Craig
and Jill introduce me to
a seven acre parcel they
hope to transform from
traditional farmland into
what is evocatively known as
a food forest.
This is so beautiful,
I need to get closer to this sea of purple.
JILL: Right?
INDY: I love this.
Do you just do
cartwheels in this field?
CRAIG: Yeah, we should.
We're really hoping to establish
a forest in this area,
with a mix of
different varieties of trees.
Nut trees, fruit trees.
JILL: And we're not trying to
plant an orchard, we want it
to feel like very natural
and I wanna put like
medicine plants different
places and berries.
INDY: Planting traditional
crops, Jill and Craig are only
seeing profits of around
$1200 from this field.
But starting a food forest
that yields a wide variety of
fruits, vegetables, nuts
and herbs could potentially
generate thousands
more in annual income.
It's just going to take
some time to get there.
However, with the hot summer
months quickly approaching,
now is the time
to make it happen.
I mean, I think when most people
think of the idea of a forest,
you mostly, you know,
you think of trees,
but there's so much
happening in the under story.
The food forest is
multi layered, composed of
predominantly
perennial plants.
There are smaller plants and
root crops, shrubs and large
trees that grow
fruits and nuts.
With the proper research and
planning, you can transform
your surroundings into your
own personal food forest.
But it's not always easy.
CRAIG: We've tried to plant
some trees once already,
we planted about ten,
a variety of fruit trees
and they all died.
And it's kind of defeating to,
you know, put that time and
money into something and
then get nothing out of it.
So we really lack the
experience on how to
even go about it.
JILL: And I'm like,
where do you even start?
Like where is the beginning?
INDY: I get why Craig and
Jill are feeling overwhelmed.
Farming can be frustrating,
but I've got some ideas that
are going to
turn things around.
CRAIG: Every year that
you don't plant a tree,
like you lose that time,
like completely.
But we need to get to where
we're taking those first steps
to make it into something.
And for us, another really
important part is what we're
leaving our kids, so that
when they are older,
they'll have something and they
don't have to start from scratch
like we did.
INDY: Hearing about how
different they want to be from
other farms, how different
they wanna make this land from
what it used to be, this
really kind of radical idea of
a food forest, it was, the whole
place just opened up to me.
I saw all of the potential.
Foraging is one of
my biggest passions.
This is a long term plan
requiring essential
short term improvements.
Craig and Jill need to be able
to locate and identify all of
the edible vegetation
and mushrooms already
growing on the farm.
They need to develop and
market added value products to
sell alongside their produce.
And then there's the
staggering leap into
designing, planning and
planting a massive seven acre
food forest.
It's a lot to get done.
But their
passion is infectious.
JILL: I'm so excited
that Indy wants to help us.
CRAIG: I really hope Indy is
able to help lay everything out
and put us on the right
path and guide us
in the right direction.
INDY: Usually, when I'm
helping out fellow farmers,
I go visit other farms, but
this time, I'm bringing the
inspiration right
to their doorstep.
♪
JILL: Oh, it's Indy.
INDY: Hey.
JILL: Hey, Indy.
INDY: This is my friend,
Bo Brown.
JILL: Hi, Bo Brown, I'm Jill.
BO: Hi, Jill.
JILL: Great to meet you.
CRAIG: Bo, Craig,
nice to meet you.
INDY: Yes, so he's an
incredible local forager and
I really wanted to show
him the field that you guys have down there.
CRAIG: Cool.
JILL: Awesome.
INDY: Are you guys
doing anything right now?
JILL: No, let's go shop.
CRAIG: No, it's good.
BO: Great place,
man, this is amazing.
INDY: Bo is one of the
nation's leading experts on
foraging and a published
author on the subject.
And what's even cooler,
Bo knows this area like
the back of his hand.
He's the sort of person who
walks out onto what would
otherwise look like just a
patch of grass and he can
immediately identify
six different plants.
And not just identify them,
but know whether or not
you can eat them.
BO: She was telling me a
little bit about your farm.
And that you're growing
for a roadside food stand, is that correct?
CRAIG: Yeah, that's
Jill's full time job.
BO: Uh-huh.
With all the stuff you're
growing out here, have you
thought about incorporating
some of the weed things that
not a lot of people have access
to, that have different flavors.
JILL: Wow, yeah, never really
thought about that before.
INDY: Jill and Craig could
already have a wealth of food,
herbs and medicinal plants
growing naturally in the land
right beside their house, that
they can not only use at home,
but sell and boost
profits at their farm stand.
BO: You have a common burdock
there, you can buy that root
in Asian food stores as Gobo.
JILL: Okay.
INDY: But first, it's
essential to safely and
accurately
identify what's out here.
BO: There's a toxic plant,
it's called Jimsonweed.
JILL: It kind of looks like
that plant that might eat you.
Just looking at that, that
looks like a don't touch me,
to me, you know, it doesn't
look like something that
I'd wanna eat.
BO: My goal is to educate
people about all the different
things that are out there,
that were historically and
prehistorically eaten
and you're getting so many
nutrients and medicine.
CRAIG: For free.
BO: And for free and it's
easy, you walk out your
backyard and there it is.
JILL: I'm glad we're with a
trusted source, 'cause I would
hate to try some
random flowers.
BO: I always warn my students,
be 120% sure of your
identification and use
three different sources of
confirmation for your ID.
INDY: So you can be our third
source of identification.
JILL: I'm gonna be calling
you, give me your number.
BO: I get to play
that game a lot.
JILL: Do you?
BO: Yes.
INDY: Bo is local, so I think
that it's helpful just to know
that there's someone within your
community that can help you
identify plants and that is
already doing this kind of work.
CRAIG: We're
obsessed with wood chips.
BO: The food items that grow up
in some of these wood chips,
look at this,
that's Japanese Knotweed.
It's an invasive but it's
a super good edible and
it'll come in with wood chips
and dirt and stuff like that.
Check that out.
JILL: Oh, gosh.
BO: It's kind of slimy.
It's that family, Polygonaceae,
which is buckwheat.
So if you've had a buckwheat
pancake, you had this.
A lot of these plants like the
dead nettle, crush those up
with nuts and a little bit of
oil and some other seasoning
plants and it makes the pesto
that you wish you'd known about.
JILL: Oh, okay.
CRAIG: That's awesome.
INDY: This is magical patch
that I was telling you about,
Bo, I feel like it's
just filled with food.
I mean, even things
like clover you can eat.
BO: Uh-huh.
JILL: Clover is edible?
INDY: Yeah. Yes.
JILL: I'd never
think to eat that.
INDY: Yeah, well people take
the flower blossoms, right?
Of the purple clover.
And throw it into a vinegar.
BO: There's chickweed, try
that little white flower job
right there.
That one.
Take a taste of that.
INDY: It's like broccoli.
JILL: Yeah.
BO: That's a mustard.
JILL: Oh, it does,
yeah, it's got good flavor.
BO: Uh-huh, people are paying
money to get rid of the things
they should be eating.
JILL: Yeah.
And food is so
expensive these days.
BO: Exactly.
There's hundreds of
species of mustards.
One of the characteristics
is it will always have a four
petaled flower
arranged in a cross.
JILL: Okay.
BO: Everything here except for
the hemlock and the grass,
I would put in my salads.
And free food, good food.
JILL: There's like a
whole salad in my backyard and I had no idea.
BO: Everything we're seeing here
is more disturbed ground stuff.
When you get out of this habitat
and into a forest habitat,
everything changes and it's
a whole different environment.
INDY: Well, could you take
us out into the forest today?
Do you have time?
BO: I do.
INDY: Everywhere Bo looked
on the farm, he saw potential
food, herbs and medicine.
JILL: We're here.
INDY: It's beautiful.
Now that we're in the nearby
woods, Bo can point out a
whole host of fungi and plant
species that could potentially
be found in Craig and
Jill's future food forest.
JILL: So usually, we
only forage for morels.
BO: Really tasty, but they're
just highly overrated and
there are so many other
things that are out there.
INDY: It's all about
identification and education.
So, being able to go out
in your forest and educate
yourself and know what you
can eat and what you can't and
what's poisonous, you know, it
never hurts to get to know the
plants that are around you.
JILL: Yeah.
BO: My native American
mentor had a saying,
"Knowledge is incomplete
till it's passed on."
Like she said, obligation,
when you learn something,
you're obligated
to pass that on.
And so, you can't learn it all
at once, so it's just like,
little bites of it, it's like
building a repertoire,
it's just, it's a
journey of discovery.
INDY: I like to think of
foraging as picking our
ancestors' harvest, 'cause a
lot of our ancestors brought
plants either intentionally,
or non intentionally,
that you'll see
growing here today.
Oh, look at these little guys.
BO: What do you see in here?
INDY: And do you
know what that is?
BO: I do.
This is one of the
garlics, 'cause it's flat.
JILL: Okay.
So it's wild garlic?
BO: Uh-huh.
JILL: Okay.
I love garlic.
BO: This is something you might
want to put in your farm garden.
JILL: This right here?
BO: Yeah.
That is gooseberry.
JILL: I've heard of
gooseberries, but I've never had one before.
BO: They're so tart, they'll
take your head off almost,
but you cook 'em and mix 'em
with sugar and make a pie
out of it and it's to die for.
INDY: Even though it's late
winter, this forest is still
teeming with things to
eat, like mushrooms.
And it's a perfect place
to show Craig and Jill
that potential profits for
the farm stand could be
right under their noses.
So, I'm like, mostly thinking
of where I am in the country.
And then I think about the
time of year, like spring,
obviously, everyone's
looking for morels,
but oyster mushrooms
kind of go all year long.
So I'm always looking
for those on downed logs.
JILL: So now that you pointed
out the gooseberry,
I see gooseberries
like everywhere.
INDY: After hiking around, Bo
sends us out to find a common
medicinal fungi, sought
out by seasoned foragers.
Turkey tail mushroom.
JILL: What's this?
CRAIG: Hey, Indy, check
this is out, is this it?
JILL: Did I find it?
♪
JILL: So is this turkey tail?
BO: Good job, yes.
JILL: I'm the winner!
(laughs).
BO: Good eye.
JILL: They're so pretty.
They're pretty to spot, you
know, there's a whole log
full of them over there.
BO: Uh-huh.
JILL: Foraging is slowing down
and observing what's around you.
We are animals, we
are part of nature.
This is our food, like this
is growing here for a reason.
INDY: Foraging
is a lot of fun.
Once you start doing it, it's
one of those things that you
kind of get addicted to.
JILL: Oh, well, thank you
so much for showing us this.
BO: Sure.
INDY: Like anyone learning to
forage, it will take more than
one lesson for Jill and
Craig to know what's what.
But Bo definitely set them on
the right path and pointed out
some unusual products they
could sell on their farm stand,
to draw in
more customers.
Before we leave, Bo has a
couple of things for us to
take back home.
BO: I want you to have that.
JILL: Oh, thank you.
It's your book that you wrote?
BO: Yes.
And this is some pickled
Chanterelle mushrooms.
JILL: Oh, wow.
BO: There you go.
JILL: Thank you.
INDY: Seeing Bo's gifts, it
occurs to me that I may have a
way to help increase production
at Jill's farm stand.
After dropping everyone off,
I set out on my next task,
getting advice for
planting a food forest.
For that, I'm headed to nearby
Warrensburg, Missouri,
home to architect, designer and
permaculturist, Robert Glinn.
Hey.
I reached out to Bob after
discovering that he planted
his own food forest on his
land about 12 years ago.
Wow, thanks for having me.
BOB: Yeah, I'm
glad you're here.
INDY: And who's this?
BOB: This is Rumy.
INDY: Oh.
He's awesome.
Oh, ha ha!
There's baby chicks.
BOB: Yeah, two weeks old.
INDY: I've gotta hold them.
Hi, little friend.
I sent Bob some photos and
a description of Jill and
Craig's seven acre plot,
hoping he can offer advice on
the best way to
actualize their vision.
Okay, this looks amazing.
BOB: So, this is their
seven acre property.
There are these terraces
that are already established.
And I put this other layer of
the topography or the contours
over the site and I came up
with this concept of dividing
the land, based upon the soil
conditions and based upon
the topography.
And separated this into
two categories,
restoration through reforestation.
And restoration
through cultivation.
Craig could manage this
and Jill could manage this.
INDY: I love this,
his and hers farm.
(laughs).
BOB: Yeah, yeah.
The goal is, we wanna divide the
land up into smaller parcels,
so that it's more manageable.
INDY: Yeah, and it's also
easier to conceptualize,
I think for them too, right now
it feels really overwhelming.
BOB: Yeah, no, for sure.
INDY: What can they
actually begin planting here?
BOB: We need to be putting
in the long term tree system.
INDY: Okay.
Even though it's still early
in season, Bob wants to show
me his food forest, before
everything is in bloom,
so I can have a better idea of
what Craig and Jill's farm might
look like in the future.
BOB: So I'm on three acres.
And before I moved here, this
was nothing but a hay field,
nothing but grass.
The whole concept is to
introduce as much native
species as possible on the
perimeter of the property.
And then as we move closer to
the house, have more cultivated
varieties and diversity of
fruits and vegetables and nuts
and things of that nature.
So these are pussy willows, we
have mulberry, false indigo,
hazelnut, black walnut, sumac,
you know, the
soil's good here.
So we start infilling
herbs and wildflowers.
INDY: Oh, wow.
BOB: And this place in the
summer is just, you can't see
through it because of the
wildflowers and all the
vegetation.
Just try to fill in everything
with some sort of ground cover
that's beneficial to the land
and beneficial to the insects
and everything.
And a food forest should
be a mature forest with a dense canopy.
INDY: A food forest canopy
cover plays a unique role in
building a rich and
diverse edible food forest.
By incorporating seasonal
ground covering plants and
shrubs under the taller trees,
the soil conditions are more
likely to be optimal because
of the constant regeneration.
The way Bob filled out his
food forest, it's not just a
hodgepodge of trees, it's
very well planned out,
really beautiful.
It's not just about design for
him, it's about function and
everything works perfectly
together in the system.
So you're thinking from
the top down is kind of
how you wanna approach.
BOB: Thinking from the top
down and I'm thinking, 30, 50 years out,
moving backwards in time.
INDY: Interesting.
You know, you're emulating
nature here, but you're also
kind of training it, so that
it's not just taking over.
BOB: You don't need to
over-complicate things
at the beginning stages.
Nature's gonna complicate
things for you, so, a more
simplistic approach
that is easier to manage.
The thing to keep in mind is,
think about the food forest in
50 years and what's
that gonna look like?
INDY: It's helpful to see what
Bob's farm looked like this
time of year, because it kind
of gives me a reference point.
I'm excited to share Bob's
plans with Craig and Jill.
I hope that they like
what he's come up with.
♪
JILL: Hey, Indy.
INDY: How's it going?
This is my friend, Bob.
BOB: Hi.
CRAIG: Hi, Bob.
Nice to meet you.
JILL: Hello, nice to meet you.
BOB: Nice to meet you all.
INDY: Yeah, so he's a great
edible landscape designer.
JILL: Cool.
INDY: Having Bob with me
is going to go a long way
explaining how this food
forest is going to look on
Craig and Jill's land.
And with summer right around
the corner, we've got a short
window to get this right.
So this is the place that
we're envisioning the oaks,
the Concordia oaks that
you were talking about.
And Bob, you said this would
be a good spot for the more
timber production.
BOB: This would be a great spot
for dense, more dense planting.
CRAIG: Right.
BOB: You know, you need to
think about 30 years from now.
INDY: This is the trees,
where do the nuts starts?
BOB: Kind of on the other
side of those bales, I guess,
follow that line across.
As I've seen the terraces
and, you know, this contrast
between the purple and the
green, imagine if that purple
were, you know, a row of
trees, or two rows of trees,
or three rows of trees.
INDY: It's time to get down to
the details on how we're going
to make this food
forest a reality.
BOB: Indy sent me videos and I
went ahead and pulled out the
aerial of your property, I
started sketching over it,
to kind of get a sense of
what's existing here.
And looks like this has just
been an agricultural field,
is that right?
CRAIG: Yeah, it's been corn
and beans for probably the
last ten years, in rotation.
BOB: So, the first step I
took was identifying where the
existing elements are, the
pond, the terraces, the trees,
the outbuildings, your house.
Cause with the forest design,
you know, we wanna have a
strong interaction
and connection to what's already here.
I was able to generate the
soil profiles and the soil
types that are
actually on your land.
JILL: Whoa, cool.
BOB: And you have an area
that's prime agricultural land
and you have these two areas
kind of in this valley here,
which are two
separate soil types.
But what it's telling me is
that there's a nice foundation
to then start translating that
conservation strategy into
more of a permaculture,
edible forest garden strategy.
JILL: Wow, honey,
this is exciting.
Yeah.
BOB: And the idea is, you
got a big seven acre property,
we've now divided
it into two pieces.
From that two pieces, we're
now gonna start dividing it
into smaller sections.
It's gonna be easier for you
to start wrapping your head
around how to plant it,
how to take care of it,
where it's going to be on
your seven acre site here.
CRAIG: I feel a lot more
comfortable getting into this
project with a plan.
JILL: Yeah.
CRAIG: I probably would have
never identified the different
zones and all that's helpful.
JILL: Oh, it's just so
cool, I'm so excited.
I can just see it now.
Yeah, it's all
coming together.
INDY: So, like, what kind of
timber trees could we put there?
BOB: Black walnut, a
red oak, or white oak,
you have pines and pecan trees.
JILL: Wow, this is so awesome.
INDY: Yeah
(screams).
(laughs).
INDY: That's awesome.
CRAIG: She's always like this.
(laughs).
JILL: I wanna do it,
can we do it soon?
INDY: Yeah.
I knew that Craig and Jill
were a bit overwhelmed, trying
to get their heads around
their project, but I think it
clicked and to see Jill
so excited is awesome.
I even got Craig, the big old
teddy bear, to crack a smile.
CRAIG: Bob has an artistic eye
that I really appreciate and
I hope I'm able to get
that to come out the way
he's planned it,
'cause it's beautiful.
JILL: Having someone say,
"Okay, this is the plan",
I was like, "Yes", 'cause I
don't wanna have to be the one
that's planting the
tree in the wrong place.
So, he seemed really
confident and knowledgeable.
CRAIG: I'm ready to
plant a tree, so.
JILL: Yeah.
INDY: Now, I think we
can all together get a good start on this.
JILL: Yeah.
INDY: Let's do it.
CRAIG: Yeah.
INDY: I'm thrilled that Jill and
Craig are so game for this plan.
The next steps are getting our
list of desired trees together,
putting in an order
for delivery and gathering
an army of friends to help.
JILL: I'd love to try to
get some echinacea out there.
I think it'd be cool to get
some pine trees, like some
Christmas trees out there.
INDY: Ooh.
JILL: Peaches grow
really well around here.
So, that's something that I'm
really excited about trying.
INDY: What else
am I missing? Hey.
CRAIG: You guys tried to
run away from me, didn't you?
JILL: Yeah, well, we're just
coming up with a list of trees
and plants that we wanna get.
CRAIG: Cool.
Looks good.
JILL: And then I know like,
paw paws and Persimmons are
native that grow
really well around here.
INDY: Uh-huh.
JILL: Cool.
Man, that list is awesome.
INDY: Craig and Jill are one
step closer to making their
dream food forest a reality.
But with seven acres to cover,
we'll need as many hands
on deck as possible.
JILL: Do you have some free
time that you'd be able to
come out and help us
plant a food forest?
Awesome.
Hi, this is Jill Steffensen
from Heimsoth Farm.
Are you free to come out?
WOMAN (over phone):
Yeah, count me in.
JILL: Hey, Jill.
We're gonna plant a
food forest tomorrow.
Do you have some
time to come volunteer?
WOMAN (over phone): Oh, that
sounds awesome, I would love to.
INDY: How many
people do you think?
JILL: I'm gonna try to get
like ten to 15 people together.
Many hands make light work.
INDY: Exactly, yeah, because
I'm making my way through this
list of trees and I think
we're gonna have a lot.
JILL: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
INDY: It's a lot to pull off in
such a short amount of time.
I really hope Jill's
friends come through.
If not, we might have bitten
off more than we can chew.
♪
(laughs).
JILL: What?
Oh, my gosh.
What?
(laughs).
INDY: Hi, guys.
JILL: Indy, what
are you doing?
What have you got there?
It's so cool.
INDY: Right.
CRAIG: How did you come
up with two donkeys, Indy?
INDY: I know,
it's pretty funny.
JILL: What's
going on right now?
INDY: Well, I met Jeff, who's
an agroforestry farmer
and he has a bunch of
amazing local trees.
He agreed to help me bring
some of these trees that
I couldn't fit into my car.
JILL: This is so cool.
INDY: Back here, we've
got a bunch of the trees you guys talked about.
We've got some pear trees.
What else do we
have back here?
JEFF: Elderberries here.
INDY: And then around here,
peaches, we talked about doing
peaches too and then
apple like you mentioned.
JILL: Yeah, this
is so awesome.
INDY: I know.
JILL: Great.
CRAIG: Are you excited?
INDY: I am so excited.
JILL: Yeah, I can't wait.
INDY: Jill's gathered friends
from the neighboring farms and
we come up with a plan
to divide and conquer.
Starting with the pecan trees.
We've marked out where
they'll go with orange flags.
And it's time for the planting
party to officially begin.
JILL: Heimsoth Farm
on three, ready?
One, two, three,
Heimsoth Farm!
Yeah, let's go.
INDY: Alright.
CRAIG: Starting this project
today, we've definitely
changed the landscape
of this farm for
the foreseeable future.
My grandfather's passed, but I
think if I had an opportunity
to explain to him like how we
were doing this and for what
reasons, he would
support us big time.
INDY: This is what
I love the most.
Getting out in the field.
Feeling the soil in my hands.
And connecting with the land.
BOB: Hard to imagine that
little stick turning into an
80 foot tree.
(laughs).
JILL: Do you wanna
go do the next one?
CRAIG: This up here is
like cover crop for Jill to expand elderberries.
INDY: With your help, it's
amazing that you're right down
the road and you make
light work of this.
I can't believe we're
almost already finished.
It's wild to think that the
dozens of tiny twigs that we
just planted will one
day be a forest of trees.
I have another long term idea
to share with Jill, that will
not only one day make great
infill for the new trees,
but pay off big
time for the farm.
I brought a mushroom spawn!
JILL: Cool.
INDY: This is a great
sized log, so we're working with oak, right?
JILL: Yeah.
INDY: Alright.
So, we're gonna drill holes to
put our mushroom spawn that's
pre-made to fit just
straight into a log.
So you want them to be evenly
spaced, and you want them all
to have space to
pretty much eat.
I mean, this is
their dinner table.
JILL: Sure, yeah.
INDY: Mushroom inoculation is
the process of delivering a
combination of mushroom
mycelium and a specific
growing medium, together known
as mushroom spawn, directly
into hardwood trees.
Once inside, the mushroom
spawn feeds off of moisture
within the wood, causing
wood fibers to break down and
eventually rot, in a
process typically taking one to two years.
What I love about this is it's
really not an exact science.
You know, you might find that
this becomes one of your big
moneymaking
products on the farm.
JILL: Yeah, and it's nice,
because it's passive, it's not
like I have to be out weeding
it and, you know, nurturing it
and trimming it, it's like,
these are just gonna fruit and
I just have to harvest.
INDY: Yeah.
JILL: So we go like this?
INDY: Yeah.
Exactly, aw.
JILL: Perfect.
INDY: Cute.
And then this is the fun part,
when the hot wax comes in.
JILL: Okay.
INDY: So, do you wanna grab
that paint brush and just
dip it in your wax?
JILL: What's the wax for now?
INDY: It helps keep the
moisture in and it also keeps
other fungus spores from
floating by and coming in.
JILL: Okay.
That's easy.
INDY: Yes, super easy.
JILL: So this one's done?
INDY: Perfect.
One log down.
JILL: Alright,
many more to go.
INDY: Yes.
Craig and Jill can utilize the
logs on their land, to grow an
assortment of
mushrooms right in their yard.
But there's one more thing I
want to show Jill that would
be a big hit on
the farm stand.
JILL: Those look
like jelly jars.
INDY: Exactly.
I know that making money on
the farm and creating actual
products is really important
to you and to any farm.
So I was thinking when we were
talking to Bo, that we could
start fermenting some of
the mushrooms like he did.
JILL: Oh, cool, yeah.
INDY: Have you tried?
JILL: No, I didn't try 'em,
I was a little bit scared.
INDY: Yeah, let's try them.
I love mushrooms.
JILL: Let's get 'em, grab
'em out of the fridge here.
Oh.
Oh, yeah, these
are Chanterelles, I recognize the shape.
INDY: Uh-huh, so
foraged mushrooms.
JILL: Yum.
INDY: You like it?
JILL: It is good.
It is really good.
It's a very different flavor
than anything I've tried.
INDY: I love it.
And mushrooms, honestly,
are one of the best things to
pickle, because they already
have all the ingredients.
And then you have a delicious
product that you can put right
out on your farm stand.
JILL: And I've got the garlic
and the onions down pat.
INDY: Exactly.
JILL: So adding
mushrooms is perfect.
INDY: With all the different
ways Jill can market her
mushrooms, it's definitely
going to have a huge impact on
her farm stand.
Time to check in on
planting the food forest.
It looks like you have plenty
of helping hands and with your
help from Bob, I think
you're off to a great start.
CRAIG: He gave us a
great plan, for sure.
I think we can take over.
JILL: Thank you.
BOB: Yeah, my pleasure.
CRAIG: See ya.
BOB: I'll see ya.
INDY: Bye, Bob, thanks.
This has been such
an incredible day.
It's amazing to see what a
community can do when everyone
pulls together
towards the same goal.
And I know that with all
the support around them,
this forest is going
to be spectacular.
JILL: Honestly, like you have
really given us a whole new
perspective and a lot more
work to do, but a great new
resource for the farm.
So I'm so grateful to you.
INDY: Oh, thank you.
CRAIG: It's a lot of work,
but work we're looking forward to do, for sure.
INDY: Yeah, I'm looking
forward to seeing all of this in action.
Anyone can take steps to
plant food bearing trees.
But Craig and Jill are taking
a bold, unconventional leap.
And although I've set them
up with a great start,
the success of this
endeavor rests in their hands.
I'm gonna give them a couple
of months to continue
working the land and
then come back to see
how the farm is progressing.
I have no doubt that this
unique farm is the start of
something really magical.
♪
INDY: It's been seven weeks
since I visited Craig and Jill.
Even though I've been able
to set them up with local
resources that can take their
food forest to the next level,
at the end of the day,
it's still farming and
anything can happen.
JILL: Indy!
INDY: Hi.
JILL: Welcome back.
INDY: It's so good to see you.
Hi, what's up?
Everything looks so
green and beautiful.
CRAIG: Yeah.
JILL: It is spring, finally.
CRAIG: We've done quite a
bit since you've been here.
INDY: Well, I
can't wait to see.
CRAIG: Yeah, let's go
to the mushrooms first.
INDY: Yeah?
Oh, perfect.
I'm so excited.
Almost immediately, I can not
only see the changes,
but I can smell them.
The pungent aroma of wet
logs resting in soil means
something
wonderful is on the way.
Oh, my gosh, yay.
JILL: Well, I made these
cute little labels for them.
INDY: Oh, that's so cute.
I love that.
So everything looks good, I
mean, they're not fruiting yet,
but I feel like the best
thing we can see is that they
haven't been taken over by
any other kind of mushroom.
These mushroom logs
have a ways to go.
Depending on the species of
mushroom, it can take a few
months, or even a
year to begin to fruit.
But, once they're producing,
they should be active for
several years and make
excellent infill underneath
the canopy of the
new food forest.
JILL: Come check
this out here.
INDY: Oh, yeah.
JILL: So there's
some pineapple weed.
CRAIG: Right.
JILL: And then
dandelion greens.
INDY: And so you've been
harvesting this recently?
JILL: Yeah, and
drying it for teas.
CRAIG: This is like a
whole Bo moment, right there.
One square foot.
INDY: Exactly.
CRAIG: And it's like, 40
plants here and it all looks
like what people would
say weeds or tall grass.
INDY: Craig and Jill
have come a long way.
Having the knowledge to
identify the resources around
all their property, I'm sure
will bring in more profits
at the farm stand.
JILL: There's some wood
ear over here on these logs.
INDY: Oh, my gosh.
I love wood ear.
I feel like it's a
really underrated mushroom.
This is awesome that you have
these growing right here and
you have tons of them.
JILL: Yeah.
INDY: I know that you've
taken some of the logs and you inoculated them.
Have you been putting them
in the Mandala garden too?
INDY: Oh, really?
JILL: Yeah.
We'll check it out.
INDY: This is incredible.
Dude, you have a bunch of the
Schizophyllum commune
split gill mushroom
growing here too.
So you're growing a bunch
of these medicinal herbs,
are you able to
sell them as well?
JILL: Yeah, I've been
selling some that I've dried.
INDY: Oh, cool.
CRAIG: This is all
out of my element, but I just work here, so.
(laughs).
Let's go to our
orchard and our food forest.
INDY: I think that my biggest
concern in coming back to
Jill and Craig's farm is that
the trees didn't survive.
Because we put them in in the
winter and there's still this
chance that the trees didn't
make it through the spring.
JILL: Remember how like
the rye was like this big?
And now it's up to here.
INDY: Yeah.
It's going to be a few years
before their food forest
looks like a forest.
All they can do now is
safeguard their baby trees.
CRAIG: Since you were here,
Indy, we put the tree tubes out.
INDY: One way to do that
is with protective tubing.
It keeps the deer at bay and
helps preserve moisture for
the tree.
Wow.
This has such a different feel
than when I was here before.
In the short time that
I've been back here,
I've really been able to see
Jill and Craig take this idea of
a foraging farm and run with it.
JILL: Indy really transformed
this farm into a foraging farm.
We put in like, 400 trees and
1,000 bushes and really gave
this a huge makeover.
It went from a quarter acre in
production to seven and a half
acres in just a
few short weeks.
It's like a savings account
out there, with all these
different plants that are
gonna produce crops every
single year, which is awesome.
Because as my kids get older
and are at school, I'm able to
dedicate more and more time
to really grow this business.
CRAIG: This is completely
different out here, for sure.
INDY: Peaches.
I love how you're just
continuing to plant things and
be able to harvest them and
enrich the soil all around
your little trees.
JILL: I've got some
things that are gonna bring
pollinators in.
I have some things that
are gonna repel pests,
like the chives and the garlic.
INDY: This is awesome that
you've just taken some of the
plans and made it work for
this farm, that's so nice.
Wow, oh, all the
little elderberries.
JILL: Yeah, so these were just
sticks, but as you can see,
they've rooted and
they're growing leaves.
INDY: Wow, these
look really great.
JILL: And they
need no irrigation.
INDY: Wow.
I can see how much work you
guys have put into the farm
since I was here last.
JILL: Yeah, this is just
the beginning and this is a long process.
This is a
lifelong legacy here.
INDY: The diversity on
this farm is amazing.
They've got so many unusual
plants and it's really going
to set them apart from any
other farms in the area.
CRAIG: Hi, honey.
(laughs).
Where'd you come from?
DAUGHTER: In the house.
CRAIG: Where you been hiding?
Inside all day?
DAUGHTER: Yeah.
INDY: This is so beautifully
branded, what a difference.
CRAIG: We've gotten better
at filling it out early.
INDY: This is awesome.
Dandelion jelly, dude, what?
So cool.
JILL: I've got all these like,
dried herbs, but I've got
like, Mullen leaf.
INDY: Wow.
JILL: And then some dehydrated
turkey tail mushrooms.
INDY: This is amazing.
JILL: And then catnip.
And that was all like
foraged on the farm.
And then I've got the pineapple
weed, it's all dehydrated.
INDY: That smells so good.
JILL: Bo Brown gets people so
excited about eating plants
that they never would
have thought they'd eat.
People are stopping,
they're asking questions, they're excited.
CRAIG: With Indy's help and
everyone that she brought out,
we were able to make
this farm 100% better.
JILL: And then of
course, my onion bunches.
People get usually excited to
see the red, you know,
'cause they're so pretty.
Not gonna find that
in a grocery store.
CRAIG: Yeah, those
are my favorite.
INDY: Wow, this looks great.
JILL: And these are the
Luffa Gourds that I grow.
INDY: Yeah, that's so cool.
JILL: You know, and they
feel like, they're like back scratchers
or sponges, or for cleaning.
INDY: I love how many unique
products that you offer.
JILL: When you're on a small
farm like this, having things
that the other big farms don't
have is like my little niche.
This has really increased
the earning potential for me.
And we're
investing in our children.
And those things
are priceless.
INDY: Like, just all the
improvements, everything
that's happened on the farm
since I've been gone is so cool.
You guys have really
put in some extra work.
CRAIG: You wanna go
in the house, honey?
Alright, go ahead.
INDY: I'm just so impressed.
JILL: I've definitely taken a
different approach to my farm
because of all of the things
that we learned from you.
More than anything in
this world, I wanna see this farm succeed.
CRAIG: Yeah, we were super
happy to be able to have you
come out here and
teach us so much.
It was awesome, very
grateful and thankful.
INDY: Thank you for having me,
it's been so great, just like
seeing what a huge
change there's been since I was last here.
CRAIG: I was really fortunate
to keep this farm in our
family and being able
to continue and pass it on to my children.
JILL: The farm is like the
glue that holds us together
and it's a beautiful thing,
like look at what we've done.
This is awesome, yeah.
INDY: This has been an
incredible journey and
although Craig and Jill may
have a long road ahead of them,
their new food forest is
a shining example of what can
happen when a
community comes together.
Just like any ecosystem,
we are all connected.
Farm to farm and
person to person.
And that's what
matters the most.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.