The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast is dedicated to supporting and empowering farmers by recognizing that their greatest assets are the knowledge, experience, mind and health. Hosted by husband-and-wife duo Jesse and Dr. Leah, this podcast combines their unique backgrounds to provide valuable insights. Together, they explore topics that help farmers thrive both personally and professionally. Tune in for a blend of practical advice, real conversations, while having a little fun along the way as they talk about all thing's agriculture and family.
The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
The Rhythm of Rural Life: Planting and Growing Together
Jesse and Dr. Leah share updates from their farm life, discussing their new high tunnel greenhouse project and the seasonal transition from planting to summer maintenance. They explore the physical and mental health benefits of growing your own food, getting your hands in the dirt, and connecting with the natural world.
• Installation of a 3,100 square foot high tunnel greenhouse after receiving an NRCS grant
• Extensive companion planting with herbs and vegetables to enhance flavor and deter pests
• Growing tomatoes, peppers, berries, green beans, and many other crops for self-sufficiency
• Completion of field crop planting season with successful soybean establishment
• Experimenting with electroculture using copper wires to harness atmospheric energy for plants
• Discussion of the Mitochondriac Manifesto and the importance of connecting with the earth
• Benefits of grounding (walking barefoot) for releasing negative energy from the body
• Using plant trimmings to create natural foliar feeding solutions
• Summer plans for hay making, county fairs, and preserving the garden harvest
• Upcoming wellness trip to Okoboji Wellness Clinic
Visit our website at thefarmersgreatestasset.com to get your copy of the workbook – the most important book you'll ever write.
the farmer's greatest asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer, their knowledge, knowledge, experience, mind and health. Well, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse.
Speaker 2:And I'm Dr Leah.
Speaker 1:So today we're just going to kind of wing it and tell you what's going on on the farm and what we've been doing. So what do you got going on, babe?
Speaker 2:This March we put up a large high tunnel.
Speaker 1:It is large.
Speaker 2:It's very large. But you know me, go big or go home. Oh wait, we are home. Yeah, go big at home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are.
Speaker 2:I applied for a grant from the NRCS for four years and I finally received that grant last year. We were able to put up the high tunnel this spring.
Speaker 1:So it's not a greenhouse because it doesn't have automation or fans in it right Right. It looks like a greenhouse, but it's just a big plastic building.
Speaker 2:It's all naturally ventilated. I have been working quote unquote in my free time to fill the green. Well, I call it the greenhouse, but it's a high tunnel. This year I am really trying to raise as much of the food that we eat as possible for numerous reasons. Number one health reasons. It's good for us to dig in the dirt to get dirty. It's healthy for us to grow our own food.
Speaker 1:And we don't have all the other chemicals on it either right.
Speaker 2:So I do a lot of companion planting, and so that's using various herbs and vegetables together to both enhance the flavor of the vegetables surrounding it and to protect it from predators and to bring in beneficial insects.
Speaker 1:Keeps the bugs away.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And maybe it's just because it's undercover. But you walk in there and there's like no bugs.
Speaker 2:Well, I have a lot of aromatic herbs in there. A lot, a lot.
Speaker 1:It is full of aromas.
Speaker 2:So a lot of basil, lavender, marigolds, calendula, sage, thyme, lots of it.
Speaker 1:Are you going to divulge how many tomato plants you have in there?
Speaker 2:I actually have not counted. Are you going to allow me to know how many tomato plants you have? Well, I'm not gonna keep it a secret. I will be. I'll be honest I have not counted them.
Speaker 1:I don't know what we're gonna do with all these tomatoes if anybody wants tomatoes, come on by worst case scenario.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm sure there's a lot of food pantries that would love to have them, so, so many tomatoes I also have a very large row of green beans, so we're gonna have a lot of tomatoes and peppers. We're just gonna have a lot. There's a a lot and it's only, like I don't know, two thirds full maybe right now. Um, so it is a little over 3,100 square feet and I have been feverishly planting. I just put in 500 strawberry plants in the last week.
Speaker 1:So I am not a strawberry fan, but maybe it's because all of the store-bought strawberries are nothing like the strawberries you got out here, because these little bright red strawberries are amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's candy. It's like candy. They're awesome. They are, they are amazing. So I've been working on that in my free time, when I am not also helping run the farm and take care of the kids. I mean they don't really need me to quote unquote take care of them, but manage them chase them down make sure they are learning responsibilities in their role on the farm and their teenagers.
Speaker 2:So it is all done with reluctance. So then I have to to manage my emotion around their reluctance. I don't know how mama Sally did it, but man, I I would never have spoken to her like that. She would not have allowed it, she would have put the smack down. But I probably did more and she just had to keep it in tow and she, I know, did not bother her at all.
Speaker 1:So a lot of stuff going on in the greenhouse. You're planting lots of stuff, a lot of good food coming in the greenhouse. You're planting lots of stuff, a lot of good food coming.
Speaker 2:Blackberries, raspberries, green beans what else there's more.
Speaker 1:So much you don't even know what you got.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, lucy, she planted all my seedlings and oh yeah, there's like broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cucumbers, cabbage. Oh, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeyddew. Yeah, yeah, we got lots of, lots of good things coming our way, it's so much fun. I I love to garden between that and good steak oh yeah we got chickens coming and ducks coming.
Speaker 1:Yes, lucey has been preparing to build her coop.
Speaker 2:She is waiting for her papa so she can learn a little construction and build her chicken coop. She has big plans. Daddy-o Scares me. She has been researching her chicken coop and chicken care and her duck coop and duck care.
Speaker 1:She's got a binder full of information Like a hundred pages of information.
Speaker 2:She's a good researcher. It's good Good stuff. All right, Daddy-O, what have you been doing on the farm?
Speaker 1:Well, planting season has officially come to an end for 2025. Woo-woo, yeah right, finally. So that means we got our triticale chopped for cattle feed, woo-woo and the manure hauled, got some good organic fertilizer going on, so we plant beans in after that. So we got the beans planted on a Sunday. It actually worked really good. The ground was pretty mellow, there was good moisture. We're talking rain coming, so those beans ought to do pretty well. So we got the planter cleaned out and put away already.
Speaker 2:How did the bushels go last year on our soybeans that followed the triticale? What was our yield? Do you remember?
Speaker 1:Off the top of my head no Asking hard questions.
Speaker 2:Sorry, too early, too early for hard questions.
Speaker 1:Those were well, that's where we had that plot, so I think they averaged 72 72 69 to 72 was in that. That's what that plot did, so yeah did you use a shorter season bean?
Speaker 2:no and they were still ready at the same time as the others, maybe just a little later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean. So actually, rule of thumb on beans is don't go shorter season the later you get in the season. I don't remember exactly what number they were, but they still did really well.
Speaker 2:And we used that extra sugar. Well, that trial that we did had a sugar product, part of it.
Speaker 1:That's where we're trying to put more sugar on because of that trial, because what had the sugar application? The moisture content was half a percent more, something like that.
Speaker 2:Maybe not quite a half a percent, that's only half a percent, but it's a half a percent it increases your, your bushel right, that's moisture that you're retaining and that lately has been one of the hardest things for us to manage with our dry falls.
Speaker 1:That was one factor of why we planted fewer beans this year, because they tend to get so dry, so quick.
Speaker 2:And prices.
Speaker 1:This last summer. Right and prices. Last summer it got hot and dry July and August, but then it kind of. We got some beneficial rains that helped bushels. Everything got so dry so fast. Beans were eight, 9%, corn was 12%, so we gave up a lot of bushels. Just on moisture, anyway, I digress. So, yeah, planters put away, we actually brought the combine. So where we parked the planter, we switched it around and brought the combine. So where we parked the planter, we switched it around and brought the combine up to the shop. So and start going through it, move on to the next thing. But we're still spraying post herbicide on the corn. Beans will be next, but then we're. We've made some foliar passes on corn, so some corn is v4, v5 ish, so it got some extra 318, 18 and micros and some more sugar so yeah I've got to get some more corn posted, then we'll move on to beans post-herbicide and keep running the sprayer and baling.
Speaker 1:They're talking rain this week, so we're holding off on mowing hay, but we've already done the first cutting of alfalfa. But we've got to do grass hay. We're not 4x4 farmers.
Speaker 2:What do you mean? 4x4 farmers? They used to say farmers farm four weeks in the spring and four weeks in the fall. When, when was that? Because I mean I've been on a farm my entire life. I don't remember it being like that when I was a kid and I know since being married to you and you farming full time. It is like we have three months off in the winter.
Speaker 1:And we really don't have time December, January, February Because we're still feeding cattle, but we just take the time in the winter to slow down.
Speaker 2:But usually you would start calving in January.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we push that off.
Speaker 2:We have been pushing that date back and back and back which is great. It has definitely improved your rest in the winter.
Speaker 1:So now we use that for traveling, if we can. We've always. You grew up on a farm with livestock, whether horses or cattle or whatever pigs do, so we've always said the same thing cattle and hogs, and so there's always something to do we know it's.
Speaker 2:What's that? That uh meme that's going around right now.
Speaker 1:It's something about Farming is. After tomorrow it'll slow down.
Speaker 2:Over and over and over again. After this week, that's what it is. After this week it'll slow down. And you keep saying it over and over and over again. It's uncanny how much it was like obstetrics. You know, I did not want to marry a farmer. I was not going to be on a farm because it was like 24-7, and you had to have somebody cover you while you were gone and you never got a break unless you left town. And that is exactly how rural obstetrics was. Holy moly, it was bonkers, it was bonkers. It's so much like farming, just a little different but definitely a very much needed thing.
Speaker 1:Kind of got wrapped up this week, but then we're just moving on.
Speaker 2:Now we're starting our summer schedule.
Speaker 1:We'll just make hay and fill some straw. Hopefully we're starting our summer schedule. We'll just make hay and some straw, hopefully.
Speaker 2:County fair, state fair and lots and lots of vegetable and fruit preservation.
Speaker 1:So much stuff that you're going to have to can.
Speaker 2:So I talked with my cousin at a graduation party and he was. He too has a very large garden and he and his wife do a lot of preservation and he was saying how he's sold some of his tomatoes to a grocery store and I thought, oh my gosh, I could totally do that.
Speaker 1:I did that.
Speaker 2:It was like a full circle moment because my third year of college between my sophomore and junior year I had what my mom and dad called a truck farm and we planted an acre of sweet corn and I had 200 tomato plants. We I sold sweet corn at farmer's markets and I sold a lot of it to a local grocery store and then they took a lot of my my good tomatoes as well and I actually made a fair amount of money with that that year and I thought you know what I'm gonna have all this extra. I guess maybe we'll see if we can do that and it can be a project for one of the girls.
Speaker 1:They want to make a little extra money. Here we are again.
Speaker 2:Here we are, full circle. Never thought it'd come back to me, but I can't tell you how much I love spending time planting, yes, playing in the dirt. So you're just a big kid playing in the dirt too.
Speaker 1:So you're just a big kid playing in the dirt too.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I really love hiking, but in the summer I don't want to be taken away from my garden, I just love being in the garden. I would strongly encourage everyone to just plant a few plants. There is nothing better than spending time in nature to clear your head and just stand barefoot in the dirt. Well, and you're reading that book, the Mitochondriac Manifesto, right and it's all about raising your own food and eating.
Speaker 1:well, it's not really about raising your own food.
Speaker 2:It is about eating the, the food that is in season and is that is local.
Speaker 2:That is local because our microbiome in our guts, which really is the first defense of your immune system and helps process vitamins and minerals and what gets in and goes out of your body and clearing of waste. It needs to be fed good things, not just from I don't believe that it's just the food, it's also. Our gut needs dirt. I know I've said that before. So just going out and you know in the morning I'll go out, and right now we have strawberries, so I'll have a handful of strawberries on my way out to the greenhouse when I get up it's important to reset your circadian rhythm and get up and get light in your face and not a screen light in your face and not a screen and go out and be outside for 10 minutes in the morning to just take it in, take in the sun and and it's important to do that at night too, so you can get back on on that appropriate clock.
Speaker 1:It's about the connection, too, with the earth and eating what is grown here, and it is beneficial for you to grow something of your own, whether it be a tomato plant or whatever, and have that good homegrown food, because it's a connection, it's good nutrition.
Speaker 2:I'm also dabbling a little bit in electroculture, which I'm kind of excited to do this year.
Speaker 1:What is?
Speaker 2:electroculture. Electroculture is and it really fits the mitochondriac manifesto's suggestion that we are energetic beings. It's all about healthy mitochondria, which are like the powerhouses of the cell and the powerhouses of your body. They're what create all of the energy in your body and and how a lot of us have sick mitochondria, and how we can change that for ourselves. And grounding, which is, like you know, being barefoot on the dirt or in, you know, wet sand, that type of thing you can release a lot of the negative energy, the negative electrons that are that needs to be released and you're holding onto and, like all the plastic in our clothes, increases that static electricity within and on our bodies and that we collect a lot of that. And when we're just sitting and not being outside and we wear, you know, sold shoes, we are not allowed to pass that energy back to the earth. And that is the grounding effect. That has to do with the health of our bodies and the health of our mitochondria, which process all of our energy so the electroculture.
Speaker 1:So back to the electroculture, the electroculture.
Speaker 2:So back to the electroculture. The electroculture is you use basically copper wires and pipe Right.
Speaker 2:Or you can just put it on a piece of wood or bamboo or something and you put it up in the air and down into the ground and it collects energy from the air environment around it and puts it into the ground to give the ground the appropriate charge to then release all of what the plants need. And I am going to use that instead of fertilizer this year and I'm also going to be using foliar feeding that I am making from all of the extra stuff that I'm cutting off of my plants. So I do a lot of trimming of my tomatoes to have them put more energy into the fruit and not as much into the leaves, and then I chop that off and I will basically bake it in the sun and water and then I'll use that to spray back on onto the plants in my foliar feeding.
Speaker 1:It's a feedback system.
Speaker 2:It is totally a feedback system, just like what happens in the human body. Our nature does the same thing, you know. It drops all the stuff right there and it gets rained on and everything goes back into the earth and it's just cycled.
Speaker 1:So the feedback system like in sow farms, they'll grind up the afterbirth and feed it back to the sows, because in a, you know, modern farrowing house the sows are in a crate. They can't turn around and eat their afterbirth like cows do I mean? It's just a natural thing horses do that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a natural thing I am so glad I did not have to do that, but how healthy would that?
Speaker 1:be.
Speaker 2:There's so much good stuff in there like so much good stuff, but like saying that is gross sow farm I worked at, we actually had a garbage disposal on the wall.
Speaker 1:We'd run it through the garbage disposal and then mix it in with the feed I did not know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very, very interesting.
Speaker 1:Good for those sow farmers yeah, we do it for our animals, but we don't do it because we think it's gross the paths we go down on our podcast Right.
Speaker 2:I didn't think we'd be talking about electroculture today, but it's exciting. I love all that natural science. I guess it is fun, and to see what's going to come of it is really exciting as well.
Speaker 1:Lots of good things happening on the farm. We're growing our own stuff. We actually are going to try to take care of our health a little bit too this week.
Speaker 2:We're going to go visit our friends at Okoboji Wellness Clinic in Okoboji, Iowa. Dr Brad Meyer and his amazing wife Carrie. They've gotten to be good friends.
Speaker 1:So we're going to go take care of ourselves and see what we need to do to get better.
Speaker 2:That's where we got our hyperbaric chamber that helped you with your healing from your hip.
Speaker 1:So if you're in Iowa so Okoboji from us is five hours, so we're willing to take the trip. But if you're, you know northwest Iowa, anywhere in that area, like look them up, they're doing some pretty amazing things just trying to make people better, get people better live healthy.
Speaker 2:Some really amazing things.
Speaker 1:So again, kind of like we've said before, you know, we try to take the opportunity to take a break, and here's our opportunity to go up and see Brad and Carrie.
Speaker 2:And, let's face it, we love to travel. Like if we have a three day break, we're like, okay, where can we go? What can we do? We need to get away.
Speaker 1:Well, we've been planning on this, and then this morning I said well, we're going to drive through Des Moines and we're going to do a little shopping. I haven't broken to you yet. Well, here's the breaking news, babe.
Speaker 2:I want to stop and look at something on the way. Oh, I'm shocked.
Speaker 1:I'm shocked that you weren't just wanting to go to the clothing stores.
Speaker 2:Uh, such a farmer thing, right, if there's one thing that jesse loves to shop for it's coats, shirts and most of all equipment. There is an implement dealer on the way we are driving through. Yeah, I'm not the only one.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm sure of it as an implement dealer on the way we are driving through. Yeah, I'm not the only one this way, I'm sure of it.
Speaker 2:No, I'm sure of it as well. Oh, that's funny.
Speaker 1:Anyway.
Speaker 2:I love my well-dressed farmer. Always looking good babe. Yeah, and I digressed into bibs most of the time. Where does that go?
Speaker 1:You were practicing medicine. You were wearing pajamas all the time.
Speaker 2:Well it was scrubs and then I wore dresses a lot Like when I was just in the clinic. I wore scrubs on call and when the kids were little.
Speaker 1:The scrubs are like pajamas. They're so comfortable.
Speaker 2:Oh it is, it's pajamas, and then went to dresses and now I'm in bibs most of the time.
Speaker 1:And you didn't want to be married to a farmer.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I guess I never really thought I would be the farmer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're just a farmer yourself.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. It's amazing how God brings things into your life, everything that you needed and didn't even know that you needed.
Speaker 1:Just got to be looking for them.
Speaker 2:Got to be open.
Speaker 1:God's showing you what you need.
Speaker 2:And if you don't look, he'll hit you over the head with a two-by-four.
Speaker 1:And if you don't look, he'll hit you over the head with a two by four. So with that we are. We're going to head to Okoboji and report back next week. Thanks for listening. Subscribe, tag a friend or five or 20.
Speaker 2:Spread the word, send us a message at farmersgreatest, greatest asset, at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:We'd love to hear what you'd like to hear more of. Check out all of the socials instagram, facebook. There's a little bit on tiktok. Go check it out.
Speaker 2:A lot of good things father's day is coming up, so if you're not sure what to get, we have the workbook the workbook is on the website the farmers greatest asset dot com. Click on the workbook link the most important book you'll ever write well with that.
Speaker 1:It is a good day to have a great day bye.
