Episode 132: Season 6 Premier – Stirring Things Up

Opening & Welcome

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Homestead Education Podcast. This is the first episode of season six. I cannot believe we are on six seasons now.
Meaning that I have been doing this podcast since… I think it’s 2022. I should have looked that up. I know I’m coming up on a year mark.
Must be 22 because I did it in like six or maybe it was 21. You guys gotta love me, right? Anyways, I am so excited that, I mean, we’re still here after six seasons.

Why I Started the Podcast

When I originally started this podcast, it was because I had a podcaster that I loved.
And I felt like I was finally… It was like, I don’t know, getting to talk to my best friend every week. Even though I had no clue who she was. She’s a friend of mine now.
But that just happens when you emerge yourself into the place that you want to be. But I needed someone to talk to while I was learning about homesteading and homeschooling.
And learning from the whole different kind of agricultural background that I have.

Feeling Alone & Finding Community

And it felt good to have that person every week.
And I could go back and listen to her old episodes and she had so much great information.
And none of my friends were going through the same things that I was.
I was definitely the only one going down this path. We had just moved to a new area. I had no one to talk to about what I was doing.
And I felt like what she was providing me was exactly what I needed.

The Purpose That Drives Me

And so from the time I first… I mean, I had never even listened to a podcast until I found this girl. And now that I have my own… I mean, that was the goal from right that moment.
There were so many times that I felt alone in what I was doing and the changes that my husband and I were making.
And just kind of going against the grain and against… I don’t want to say against society because a lot of people have been turning this way. But it’s definitely different from where our society has been over the last 25 or 50 years.

A Channel to Help Others

So pretty much everything I had known most of my childhood or my whole life.
And so when I was able to start this podcast, it felt like I had a channel to help someone else.
And this has turned into such an amazing experience. Getting to travel the country and speak to you guys in person.
Having some of the most amazing guests on.

My Mission Statement

And it all just comes back to a couple of really core purposes.
The first one was I really wanted to teach people the questions they didn’t know to ask.
Because I had been there in so many places of my life.
That when I felt like I had things to share… this background in agriculture and business… this unique look at life…
There was somebody that needed to hear the things that I was willing and ready to teach.

My mission: helping you and your kids grow your own food and grow as a person.

Looking Back at the Impact

125 episodes. Six seasons. Almost 300,000 downloads.
More than 100 in-person speaking experiences.
I feel like I have met my purpose.
And I’m going to keep doing it. I’m not saying goodbye — I’m saying, “let’s take this and roll with it.”

Looking Ahead to the Future

I’ve always felt like I was made for something more.
And I’m ready to stir some things up.
I’ve been careful in the way I cultivated this community.
But now I’m seeing opportunities to make real change —
in how we educate our children,
in how people view rural communities,
and in how we reach a whole generation on being self-sufficient.

Winter Break & Reset

So let’s jump right into what’s happening this year.
What I’ve been doing over the last six weeks while I took time off and reset.
I really enjoyed my winter just being winter.
I mentioned in my last podcast I was struggling with SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder — basically the winter blues.
But people are acknowledging there’s something physiological to it.

I asked you guys for help. And help was received.
A therapy light was suggested. Vitamin D.
I’ve been using those. I bought myself a therapy light for my birthday, and I’ll link it in the show notes because it has made such a difference.

A Cozy Moment

Right now it’s supposed to be negative 12 tonight here in North Idaho.
This episode won’t be coming out for a week.
But I kind of wish I had my camera set up differently and I had a big armchair and a cup of cocoa to talk to you guys.
Because it feels like sitting down with friends for a great chat.
And yes, my friends get my crazy rants too — so you guys are front line for that one.

Starting a Mother–Daughter Cookbook

One of the things we’ve been working on — my daughter and I — is putting together a cookbook.
It’s something we’ve talked about for a long time.
A lot of what I do is homeschool curriculum… but there’s more to us.
I’ve always felt connected to home cooking.

The Story of My Grandma’s Recipe Box

When my grandma passed away, she was the big cooker in our family.
She had this rusted metal recipe box with faded, stained recipe cards in her handwriting.
I wanted it so badly.
I was in my late teens.
My mom and aunt said, “You’re just a teenager. We’re still the ones cooking.”
I thought, you have your recipes — I’m the one entering adulthood who needs these.

I ended up getting her kitchen table instead.
I kept that table through young adulthood and starting my family. I only got rid of it about ten years ago because there were no legs left.

My mom got the recipe box. So 16-year-old me sat down and hand-copied all the recipes I thought were important from her box.

Copying Grandma’s Recipes & Early Cooking

Looking back on it, I really wish I had more. And I believe my mom still has it. But there’s some challenges there in being able to get it.
So I have maybe four of her recipes that I thought were super important — meatloaf, zucchini bread…
There was a frosting recipe made out of Crisco that I used to like putting on graham crackers as a kid — probably some throwback from the 40s when they thought you put Crisco on everything.
And I made some notes on her spaghetti card because I didn’t really like spaghetti, but I always knew I liked grandma’s better.

Those recipes formed the basis of my early cooking as a young wife.
I have a wooden recipe box now, and you can flip through it. The ones that say “Grandma’s Meatloaf” or whatever — those are the ones that I sat down and wrote at that table.
They’re in my 16-year-old left-hand scrawl.
And I won’t get rid of them.
I was heartbroken over losing my grandmother and felt like writing those recipes down was something special.

Why a Family Cookbook Matters

Maybe one day I’ll get that recipe box.
Maybe one day my daughter will.
But what she and I have built over the last several years — learning to cook completely from scratch for my husband’s health, then realizing we needed it for all of our health, then growing our own food — all of that has given us a huge collection of recipes.
We really don’t feel like there’s anything we can’t cook.

She’s the same age now as I was when my grandmother passed, and she takes so much ownership in the kitchen.
So this feels like the perfect time to put together our family’s recipe book, especially since we don’t have grandma’s complete recipes.
That’s a story I hear over and over — families not keeping old recipes because “we don’t fry chicken in lard anymore” or “we don’t need that old-fashioned stuff.”

But those recipes mattered. Those stories mattered. And we want to bring that back.

Honoring Earlier Generations of Cooking

There’s an entire generation — especially the 50s — who replaced real food with gimmicks.
They thought you made Jell-O out of Vienna sausages.
We really need to skip that decade of cooking and go back to the 30s and 40s, maybe earlier, where people cooked from scratch using real ingredients, many of which they grew themselves.

That style of home cooking has allowed us to find a rhythm in our lives where we don’t live in the kitchen.
We live full lives — homeschooling, running businesses, traveling, running the farm — and we still eat 75% from scratch.

Our Health Transformation

My husband has a completely healed liver.
Our cholesterol levels are down almost 200 points.
I went looking for the exact numbers to share with you guys but couldn’t find them.
But I’m getting bloodwork soon, so maybe I’ll have those updates later.

And yes — I’m eating fried chicken in lard.
This is just a different style of eating. A better one.

What the Cookbook Will Include

This family cookbook isn’t just for us — I want it available to you.
It will include:

• a full month of meals
• over 100 recipes
• not just instructions, but stories
• lessons learned from memoirs and homesteaders
• insights into how families used to cook from scratch
• how we manage it without living in the kitchen

It will be something you read — not just flip through.

It will be digital first, then print, because it’s something you’ll want to keep in your kitchen and cozy up with in a chair.

The title will be:

Grandma’s Old Recipes: The Rhythm of a Homestead Kitchen

You basically just heard the intro to the book in what I shared today.
The waitlist will be linked in the show notes, and there will be freebies and sample recipes to try.

Homestead History Update

The next thing — something I’ve been working on for two years — is Homestead History.
I keep promising it’s coming.
It is coming.
This book has so many layers.
Every year more information comes out.
Food and agriculture are deeply connected to politics — not modern politics necessarily, but the building of civilization, laws, society… everything.

I can explain how agriculture formed nearly every part of our world.
So when big changes come, I want those reflected in the book.
I’ve had to reevaluate things I previously wrote.
I want this curriculum to be truthful and awakening — not politically slanted, but deeply aware.

My lens is a mix of:

• someone awakened to how the system works
• someone with a deep love for agriculture
• someone committed to truth

I want adults and kids to read Homestead History and be able to talk about these topics with anyone.

Why It Takes Time

It will be out as soon as it’s out.
You might wonder why I’m making a cookbook when I should be writing the history book.
But creators sometimes need to step away and come back.
And creating is what I do. It drives me.

History will be finished before I start anything else — but you may see smaller projects pop up in the meantime.

Reviving Home Economics & Vocational Agriculture

You’re going to see me revisiting old-school vocational agriculture and home economics.
These subjects were stripped from schools and we were indoctrinated into believing they’re unnecessary.
But they’re foundational.
Even if you don’t grow your own food, you should understand where it comes from.
You’ll waste less. Eat cleaner. Be healthier.
And be a more well-rounded human.

I’m working with agencies to bring this knowledge to more people — public schools, programs, organizations.
They’re excited. I’m excited.

Mini-Courses Coming Soon

I’m going to offer more mini-courses like Survival Basics —
15 lessons, wide age range, separated by younger kids/older kids instead of rigid grade levels.
Homeschool kids vary wildly in maturity, reading levels, math levels — so flexible courses work better.

Some courses will include hands-on kits.
Others will be more bookwork.
For example, Ag Accounting — helpful for teens needing business math and adults running small farms.

Lots of cool things coming this year.

Making Room for New Projects

To get all this done, I’m restructuring things.
I’ve added more labor help.
I go back and forth on doing it all myself, but this year I’ve built a really good team.
I’m excited to see where that goes and how it helps me support you better.

I’ve said the word “excited” way too much — but come on, it’s season six and we’re heading into seed-starting time!
You’re excited. I’m excited. We’re all excited.

Celebrating a Friend’s New Podcast

One of my friends who’s been on the podcast a couple of times, Rachel Hester — we had her on talking about homestead dairy sheep, then again about nutritional health — she has started her own podcast.
I’m really excited for her.

It’s launching Thursday of this week, which I believe will be the 13th.
I don’t have a link yet, but I’ll try to put it in the show notes by the time this comes out.
If not, you can go to Whoopsy Daisy Farm — W-H-O-O-P-S-Y-D-A-I-S-Y.com — or search for Rachel Hester.
She has a homestead dairy sheep book.

Her podcast is called The Woolly Way — “Whey” spelled W-H-E-Y.
How cute is that?

I’m looking forward to hearing what she teaches, who her guests are, and I think it could be a great one for you guys too.
Go give her some support.
She’s been a wonderful guest on my podcast, and I hope you can learn from her as well.

Stepping Into a New Era of Education

Part of the “stirring things up” that I want to do this year…
We have a new administration.
I’ve been careful to keep this podcast neutral.
I don’t think anyone questions where I stand on some things, but that’s not been my goal.
My goal is educating a generation.

If I’ve already said that in another episode — forgive me — I recorded another podcast right before this and now I can’t remember what I said where.

But what this new administration is seeing is that we have moved away from educating people about food and agriculture, rural education, all of that.
Even if they aren’t saying it outright, you can see it in grassroots movements — removing food dyes from foods, small-scale farming becoming popular during COVID, egg shortages pushing people toward local food systems.

An Opportunity to Reintroduce Agriculture Education

This is a great opportunity to start stepping into public schools and other platforms.
I’m already working with some people on what that could look like.
I have ideas — lots of ideas.
I don’t know yet if that means pursuing educational grants or doing it grassroots.
It depends on what’s realistic.

Even though I have assistants, I’m one person.
This is an LLC, our family business.
And when you’re working with schools, you have to keep prices low because the goal is education — not profit.

So I’m evaluating what direction is best.

Grants vs. Values — The Dilemma

If anybody works with grants or educational programs and has thoughts, I would love to hear them.
Because here’s the thing:
I don’t want to reach children using funding that makes my followers uncomfortable.
Many homeschoolers don’t want government involvement in homeschool or in food.

And I get that. I do.
Budget cuts are everywhere — but there is money earmarked for rural education and regenerative farming.
And as far as I’m concerned, if the money already exists in the Farm Bill (which has plenty of ridiculous things in it), why shouldn’t we use the parts that actually help?

Still, it’s a moral dilemma for me.
So if you have thoughts — pro or con — I genuinely want to hear them.

Preparing You for Next Week’s Big Episode

I’m not going deep into the ag show I went to last week because next week’s episode is going to be entirely about that.
There were some extremely eye-opening moments that deserve more than a five-minute update in this intro.

Requests From Community Leaders

At that show, I was approached by:

• Farm Bureau
• WSU (Washington State’s land-grant college extension)
• The Grange
• Multiple ag teachers

All of them said, very clearly:
“This is the education we need. Parents want this. Schools want this. We don’t have the resources. Can you help?”

So conversations are starting — and I’m cautiously optimistic about where this might lead.

Even if nothing comes from it, I’ll still be here teaching and spreading awareness.
This is still a grassroots movement.

Opening Up Sponsorships

Now for a personal shameless plug…
I want to use this platform to bring more awareness to food, farming, and how deeply this affects everyone — while still keeping my content the same quality.

So I’ve opened up a few more sponsorship spots.

This helps cover:

• research materials
• administrative help
• outreach to programs
• providing educational resources

A lot of people invite me to speak to co-ops, charter schools, and community programs — and I genuinely want to.
But those are often volunteer opportunities I can’t afford to do regularly.

Sponsorships make that possible.

Affordable Sponsorship Opportunities

The prices are intentionally affordable because I want small businesses, nonprofits, and local makers to have access.
The link will be in the show notes:

thehomesteadeducation.com/podcast/sponsorship

If you’re interested or want the info sent directly, email:

hello@thehomesteadeducation.com

Podcast Reach & Stats

I printed out my numbers because I never remember them:

• Top 10% home & garden podcast globally
• Frequently in the top 10 of the home & garden charts
• Over 2,000 downloads per episode in the first week
• Between 5,000–10,000 lifetime downloads per episode
• Facebook: 14,000+ followers, 1 million+ monthly reach
• Instagram: 70,000 followers, 50,000 monthly reach
• Newsletter: 12,000 subscribers
• Website: 20,000+ sessions per month
• 125 podcast episodes
• 2 major homestead/homeschool/ag conferences per month

Lots of opportunities for visibility.

What to Expect This Year

So like I said, if you want to head over and check that out, or if you need me to send you the information, you can reach out to us at hello@thehomesteadeducation.com.

I want to talk a little about what the rest of the year will look like — what you can expect when tuning in.
I talked about the products I’m going to have coming out and the messages I want to bring you.
I want to work more on helping kids understand where their food comes from.
Some of that will be outreach. Some will be right here on the podcast.

I’m not 100% sure how it’s all going to unfold yet.
The last six weeks have been very eye-opening for me.
I’ve taken a lot of notes, reached out to a lot of people, and now I’m seeing where that takes me.
But you’ll see all of it here.

Upcoming Guests & International Perspectives

I have some amazing guests already lined up.
I’ve already recorded some episodes where we look at agriculture in other countries — what homesteading looks like in other parts of the world — because someone asked, and I agreed it would be a great topic.

Guests I Am Looking For

I am looking for a couple more guests.
I might find them before this episode comes out, but if not:

1. A farm and ranch insurance expert — specifically someone familiar with small farms, cottage food sales, raw milk, etc.
   It is very difficult for small farmers to find this kind of insurance.
   I’ve struggled myself, and people in my business courses have struggled too.
   I want someone who can clearly explain how homesteaders can protect themselves.

Usually when you tell an insurance agent you’re making money on your farm, you immediately become ineligible for what they offer.
Yet the federal definition of a farm is anyone who intends to make at least $1,000 a year.

So if someone knows a great ag insurance agent, or if you are one, please reach out.

2. A CPA familiar with farming.
   I have business degrees, including one in accounting.
   I do my own books.
   But even I run into questions that are nearly impossible to find answers to.

Farm accounting books often don’t fit small homesteads.
Hobby farm guides don’t fit either.
I need that “middle ground” — QuickBooks, proper allocations, deductions, etc.
This would make an extremely useful episode.

Again, if you or someone you know fits that description, email:

hello@thehomesteadeducation.com

Answering Listener Questions on the Podcast

I also want to start answering your questions more — on the show and on social media.

That might mean:

• insurance
• bookkeeping
• food safety
• homestead planning
• business
• homeschooling
• or quick, easy questions people are too shy to ask

If you have a question, submit it at:

thehomesteadeducation.com/helpmegrow

Where I’ll Be Speaking This Year

If you go to:

thehomesteadeducation.com/events

You’ll see everywhere I’m speaking this year.

Here’s the cool part:
At nearly half of these events, my husband will be speaking with me.

Many of you caught him on the podcast episode we did together — Good Food and Stubborn Wives.
He has spoken on stage with me before, but this is the first time we’re doing it officially.

Topics We’ll Be Speaking On Together

We have two main presentations:

1. Homeschooling on the Homestead

He’ll give the dad’s perspective —
the perspective of a veteran,
someone who was initially skeptical,
someone who has now fully embraced our lifestyle.

This resonates with a lot of husbands (and wives).

2. Good Food and Stubborn Wives

This talk is about changing your nutrition, growing your own food, and healing your health —
with the honesty of how hard it can be to get a spouse on board.

We thought he was terminal nine years ago.
Now he’s healthy and healed.
We want to help others make that same transition.

So if you see us on the speaker list somewhere, come say hi.

Setting Goals, No Matter the Month

I did an episode at the beginning of the new year about goal setting.
And I don’t care if it’s the middle of February —
if you have goals, you need to set them.

If you don’t speak them, they aren’t going to happen.
You need to write them down.
You need to tell the people in your life.
And you need to hold yourself accountable.

Not by punishing yourself —
but by committing to growth.

Whether your goals are:

• starting a homestead business
• beginning homeschooling
• managing your home better
• creating financial systems
• restructuring your family routines

I offer both business and life coaching.
It’s on my website.
A one-hour introductory call is $97, and it includes a business plan or a family plan and follow-ups.

Sometimes during digital sales, I offer it for less.
We hop on Zoom, work through your goals, and I write a customized plan for you.

Closing Encouragement

I’m so excited for where this year is going — for all of us.
And I want to remind you: keep growing.