A Common Life
Welcome to A Common Life where Morgan and Taylor offer month-by-month gardening advice to help your garden thrive. We also share our personal journey in seasonal living, aiming to foster a deeper connection with others, nature, and our Creator. Our hope is to encourage and equip others who are on a similar journey and to provide a space for community around these ideals.
A Common Life
Spoonfuls of Storytelling with a Side of Socialist Studies and Soundtracks
"Ever found yourself chuckling at the peculiarities of podcasting, like the great "podcast voice" debate? That's just a slice of what's on the menu in our latest episode. As we swap stories about our kitchen experiments, you'll hear about my chimichurri triumphs and why strawberries on ice cream with a sprinkle of homemade granola is the new dessert du jour in my home. But it's not all about the savory victories; there's a candid share about the health journey I'm on, including a switch to decaf lattes for a blood sugar reset. These lifestyle tidbits are just the appetizer to a hearty discussion filled with personal anecdotes and revelations from the nooks and crannies of daily life.
Turning the page, we honor the extraordinary lives of Will and Ariel Durant, whose partnership in life and literature paints a vivid tableau of Western civilization. The Durants' exploration of socialism, as detailed in "The Lessons of History," offers a stimulating backdrop for our chat about how societies balance the scales between the individual and the collective, especially in times of strife. And because a conversation with us isn't complete without a nod to current reads and rhythms, I open the book on "Homesteading" by Jean Logsdon and the story of Paint Rock Valley, followed by a reveal of my indispensable 'garden jams' playlist. Just as a garden blooms with diverse flora, so does this episode with a bouquet of topics from history and literature to the sweet symphony of life's simple pleasures."
Thanks Jenkins!
If you haven't already, go SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter, The Common, where we go in depth on what we talk about here and more. Check it out here!
Mentioned in this episode:
Restorative Kitchen
The 7 Silly Eaters
One Morning in Maine
NT Wright - Surprised by Hope
Paint Rock Valley article
Gene Logsdon Homesteading: How to Find New Independence on the Land
The Lessons of History
Garden Jams
Drew and Ellie Holcombe
Jess Ray
Find us Elsewhere:
Instagram - @_ACommonLife - Morgan
Community Newsletter - The Common
Twitter (X) - @_ACommonLife
Twitter - @Taylor__Myers
LinkedIn - Taylor Myers
DM us on the Socials or email us at Taylor@acommonlife.co
Music on the podcast was composed by Kevin Dailey. The artist is Garden Friend. The track is the instrumental version of “On a Cloud”
So first thing I need to address what are you doing? You can't do that. You can't rub your nose on the microphone.
Speaker 2:I just felt like a dog that got in trouble.
Speaker 1:So the first thing I need to address is a. Sounded like a sissy in the last podcast.
Speaker 2:Why did you say that? Oh, because you're not the one who got the rooster.
Speaker 1:No, because my voice was high pitched.
Speaker 2:I did not have my podcast voice on Well you're like my dad, and whenever you go through a drive through, they're like yes man.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's true, but you have to remind me if I don't have my podcast voice on.
Speaker 2:I didn't notice. I didn't notice, so maybe you should just have your regular voice. Okay okay, why don't you?
Speaker 1:Welcome. Okay, here we go. Drop it down. Three, two. Hey, everybody, welcome to a common life podcast. I'm your host, taylor, and this is my beautiful bride, morgan. Should I go back?
Speaker 2:Hi everyone.
Speaker 1:And in today's podcast we oh my gosh, that was terrible. And in today's podcast, we're going to be talking about what we've been eating, reading and listening to, so get excited. And I don't know what you're talking about or what you're going to say, and you don't know what I'm going to say.
Speaker 2:Nope, I just have my notebook.
Speaker 1:Okay, so do you want to go first?
Speaker 2:Why don't we go? Why don't we go eating, reading, listening to it Like you do your, or I'll do my eating. You do your eating like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's do it. You want me to go first with eating? Sure, so two things Do you want to guess?
Speaker 2:Um, no chimichurri.
Speaker 1:Okay, Gosh, that feels like forever ago, making chimichurri sauce out of our parsley.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And the other one is ice cream with strawberries and granola. Yeah, so the chimichurri we still are partially. It's like incredible, it's thriving. It's like we grow some parsley. So we had some friends that made some parsley for us. I'm sorry made some chimichurri for us, and the main ingredients parsley, so it's kind of like pesto, but with parsley and garlic, red pepper, olive oil, what else we went?
Speaker 2:heavy. You went heavy on the garlic when you made it. I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're still dialing in the recipe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you liked it. It was delicious and I don't really like raw parsley, the flavor much, but once you add the oil and the yeah.
Speaker 1:I love good sauces, Like when I went to Guatemala. Every meal had like they would bring out two cups of like a red sauce and a green sauce, and one was hot, one was hotter.
Speaker 2:It can make a meal. A sauce can make a meal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially, you put it on your protein, you put it on your.
Speaker 2:I really liked the chimichurri with steak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is good, yeah, that was good. And so then the other thing is the strawberries that we put up last year. We're trying to eat them because we're like, coming up on strawberry season Cannot, and so strawberries that we saved. So all we did was cut them up and we stewed them on the stove, added a little bit of sugar, cooked them down and then put them in Ziploc bags and froze them. So now we're taking them out and we're putting them on primarily ice cream with some of Morgan's granola. Y'all. That is a triple threat, right there.
Speaker 2:We had our friend over Natalie last night and she said it was her top in her top 10 desserts and she's a connoisseur.
Speaker 1:She loves desserts and she would know. I'm telling you because the kicker is the granola. Really, because your granola is really simple, but it's like a perfect blend of salt and sweet, so it has a little bit of sweetness. So when you put it in there with the ice cream and the strawberries, it has a little salty flair and it gives some crunch and some texture. It's really good. I would be eating it right now, but it would not do well on a podcast for you to hear me smacking. But I'm going to be eating that after this. It's good. What about you?
Speaker 2:Well, I was going to say I did not have that for dessert last night, sadly. So, really, it's more of like what am I not eating, you know? Yeah, so I'm doing this blood sugar reset protocol. If you listened to our last podcast, I talked more about my body and kind of going through some healing right now. So, as always, warm-up culture, all right, thank you. I'm not eating a lot of things or drinking a lot of things, things that I thought I would never be able to, not, for example, coffee. I am not waking up and like going straight to the coffee pot. Can you believe that that's crazy?
Speaker 1:How do you feel about that?
Speaker 2:I actually feel very accomplished. I am still alive here. I am Alive and anyway. I just felt so bad that it really wasn't hard to do and I think I'll go back to drinking it or having a cup with a friend or whatever. But we've been doing some decaf lattes at home and that's been a real treat for me.
Speaker 1:Morgan makes a killer decaf latte.
Speaker 2:So I just do. We have an espresso machine, we do decaf Usually. I really, really my favorite coffee, just flavor wise, is the counterculture decaf. It's so good, it's just good so that. And then some of our friends, some raw milk, a little bit of maple syrup and vanilla. I'm still working on my latte art.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got a ways to go on that.
Speaker 2:But anyway, do a heart A heart, not a fancy heart.
Speaker 1:It's like a first grader heart.
Speaker 2:But it's a heart with milk on top of your coffee. Yeah, okay, so, um, yeah. And then something else I never thought I would give up is gluten.
Speaker 1:Girl, you have not been eating gluten.
Speaker 2:I've been eating gluten, lots of meat. I've been eating a lot of protein Been. No wine.
Speaker 1:No wine.
Speaker 2:Man.
Speaker 1:I know no coffee, bread or wine.
Speaker 2:What is life, even about?
Speaker 1:That's rough, but you're doing a great job and I think it's working. I mean, I think.
Speaker 2:I think it's helping.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We'll see.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking Do you go back?
Speaker 2:I don't think so, but I think I do Reintroduce and, like at church, the other morning I had to cup of coffee and it was fine, but it was at 11 o'clock.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Introducing it the right time, right. And then we have a wedding this weekend. I would really love to have some. A glass of wine. You know, just seeing how my body reacts.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's mainly.
Speaker 1:Well, you're going to be making your own bread with some Ion Corn Flour, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, I just got some Ion Corn Flour. I'm going to try to make some sourdough with that, which is really low on the gluten index.
Speaker 1:I think gluten affects me too. I really do.
Speaker 2:Gluten and nightshades affect you. You don't want to believe it, but they do.
Speaker 1:I know, sometimes I get this random itch. It's not random, no.
Speaker 2:Well, one it's not sometimes. Here's one. It is Tomato season. It's when you eat BLT's Taylor for lunch and dinner and every single year you're like oh, my nerves, I got this thing, my arms are like they itch and I got a nerve problem. I did.
Speaker 1:It's a nerve thing.
Speaker 2:Eating too many tomatoes and your body's freaking out.
Speaker 1:No, I think I have a nerve problem. It's what?
Speaker 2:my dad had. Your dad's probably allergic to tomatoes too.
Speaker 1:I don't know what are you reading.
Speaker 2:Okay, there's a gap between what I want to be reading and what I'm reading, okay, okay. So what do you want to be reading? What I want to be reading right now is a book I have I don't know if I've mentioned it on here, but it's by NT Wright. I heard him on a podcast and really enjoyed it. We listened to it together and he has a book called Surprised by Hope, and the subtitle is Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church.
Speaker 2:So if you want a little light reading before Resurrection Sunday to just shift up your whole way of thinking about it this is my suggestion. Yeah, but really what I'm reading is my favorite lately has been the Seven Silly Eaters. Okay, okay, I think it's by Mary and Hoberman, so this is a picture book.
Speaker 1:You know what Morgan told me last night? I said do you ever like count our kids and you count five? And she was like yeah, I do. And she was like you know, I've been reading Seven Silly Eaters and seven doesn't seem like that much.
Speaker 2:You're gonna freak our whole family out now and thanks.
Speaker 1:I know somebody was it your dad that listened and told on us about Granny B?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm Listen.
Speaker 1:It's the term of endearment.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah no, seven kids is a lot. But when you look at the picture on the back of the book, you're like, oh, it doesn't seem like so much, but all of our family is freaking out right now if they're listening to this. So this is what I'll say. I'm ready to seal the deal, guys. I'm done having children grow inside of my body. So if you have a good recommendation for a snipper, what do you call him?
Speaker 1:I think a urologist.
Speaker 2:Someone to do the deed for Taylor.
Speaker 1:Please shoot us a recommendation so the guy that I talked to today and I told you about he's not so. He's down in Miami and he has a urologist down there. He's a 34-year-old lady.
Speaker 2:No, we'll skip on that. No, but hey we could also go to Miami for the surgery and have to stay Well. Uh-oh, you want to take an intermission.
Speaker 1:Well, don't worry, everybody, calm down, I'm going to get snipped here soon, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Okay. Anyway, the seven silly eaters is one of our family's favorite picture books. It's wheelers favorite right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, sorry about that, folks. I had a little break there. Our youngest needed some attention, and so did my belly. I ate some ice cream, strawberries, granola, perfect, all right. So where do we leave off?
Speaker 2:Okay, I was talking about the seven silly eaters.
Speaker 1:That's right, all right, and you're talking about how you wanted seven kids.
Speaker 2:No how it didn't seem like. It didn't seem that many kids like that many kids, right? Anyway, I don't want to be a spoiler of what the book's about. So anyway, it's about this. It's about how each of her kids is particular, about what they eat, and then she's making all this different food for each different kid, which is really familiar, and anyway, it's a really sweet book, if you know, if you have a three year old I don't know three to seven, Virginia even likes it, she's nine or you know someone, that's a good little gift.
Speaker 1:The seven silly eaters. Yes.
Speaker 2:And the other one is one morning in Maine. It's classic. I've been reading that one.
Speaker 1:To who Wheeler?
Speaker 2:Wheeler.
Speaker 1:Does he like it?
Speaker 2:He did. Well, he didn't, so the illustrations are black and white. So when I first opened it, he's like I don't want to read this book and I was like, okay, we'll just read the first page. And so I read the first page and then closed it and he's like I want to know what happens. So, yeah, he really liked that one.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:I'm just these books, I know.
Speaker 1:We, if Morgan and I had a store, we could curate a killer store. Bookstore or just store. I mean, I think we could have some children's books and some adult books and some other stuff too. Nicknack, patty Wax, we could definitely a children's bookstore. That would be fun, that's another life for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, bookstore For sure.
Speaker 2:And then the last thing is the restorative kitchen by Ashley Turner. It yeah, dr Ashley Turner, it's about eating for your body with an autoimmune disease and to help reverse it as well, and that's why you bought a bunch of chopped up beats. And that is why I got a bunch of chopped up beats. Actually, I don't know if beats are even on her protocol. I don't even know if you can eat beats. Who's protocol on hers? Why did you buy the beats then? Because they were already chopped, already peeled. I'm so confused right now.
Speaker 1:You said you were buying them because they were a part of Dr Ashley Turner's protocol for autoimmune, and trying to get your body.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe they are then, I don't remember.
Speaker 1:I don't remember.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, oh, I know something I'm going to roast them.
Speaker 1:We haven't eaten beats in 10 years.
Speaker 2:Well, I will say when we did eat beats 10 years ago, when we first started farming.
Speaker 1:Can we tell all these people this?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you got to now.
Speaker 2:Well, the first farm we ever farmed together farmed together. We had a lot of beats, a whole lot of beats. We ate a lot of beats, beats and eggs, beats and eggs. Let me tell them. I won't tell it. We had beats and we had eggs and we were eating them every single day and we would roast them, we would put them in our quiche, we would do all kinds of stuff. But I mean y'all, we ate so many beats that our P turned purple Red.
Speaker 1:It legit turned red.
Speaker 2:The color of beats.
Speaker 1:It was crazy.
Speaker 2:Good times. Good times, okay, what are you reading?
Speaker 1:Well, I am reading the Lessons of History.
Speaker 2:Ooh, tell me more.
Speaker 1:About Will and Ariel Durant, so this is kind of cool. They were both born like 13 years apart or so in the late 1800s and they died in 1981, 13 days apart from each other.
Speaker 2:Wait they were born 13 days apart or 13 years no?
Speaker 1:they were born. They were born the late 1800s, so I don't remember how many years exactly. In between them I saw the number 13 that I had written down and I said 13 years apart, which might be right, but they were born in the 1800s. One was born, I think, in the 80s and the other was in the 90s, 1880 something, 1890 something, but they only died 13 days apart from one another. I just thought that was interesting. They spent like their whole marriage working on this yeah 11 volume. Yes 11 volume series that covers the history of the western civilization from ancient times to the early 20th century.
Speaker 2:I'm not. Where are you?
Speaker 1:I was gonna say I'm not reading that but they, they, they work their whole lives doing that and putting that together. So when I'm reading the lessons of history, it's a distillation of the key themes and patterns they observed while producing the 11th, the 11 volume work. I heard it mentioned on some podcasts and they talked about it, like you know, will and Ariel or you know, at the top of the top when it comes to historians, and so I checked out that book. It's really good and I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 2:Do you have like a snippet of or something really interesting you learned so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do. So this is in the chapter called socialism and history and he, he goes through, or they go through, and they talk about the different cultures and and the different governments and history, so that you know the Greeks and the Romans and the Egyptians and they talk about in China and they talk about how socialism kind of wove its way into it and and like, for instance, you know, egypt, they talk about Egypt where that was Totally centrally planned Egypt, the pyramids, like every everybody there did it for the, they worked for the Pharaoh and they turned all of their wheat and their harvest into the Pharaoh and the Pharaoh redistributed, it took what he wanted, kepa, what do you want it and then, and they, they did what they were told. Basically, right. So there have been successful civilizations that that were, you know, socialist. But they talk about other civilizations, like even the democratic civilizations, like Greece and Rome, and how eventually they you know this socialist concepts wove their way into it. This was just something that was really interesting to me. So Rome had its socialist interlude under Diocletian, okay, and Faced with increasing poverty and restlessness among the masses and with imminent danger of barbarian invasion, he issued an 8301 on Edictum de pratis, which denounced Monopolist for keeping goods from the market to raise prices, and he set maximum Prices and wages for all important articles and services.
Speaker 1:So he goes on to say extensive public works were undertaken to put the unemployed to work and food was distributed gratis or at reduced prices to the poor. The government, which already owned most mines, quarries and salt deposits, brought nearly all major industries and guilds under detailed control. Quote in every large town, we are told, the state became a powerful employer, standing head and shoulders above the private industrialist, who were in any case crushed by taxation. End quote. Now, this is what I highlighted.
Speaker 1:Listen to this when businessman predicted ruin, diocletian explained that the barbarians were at the gate and that individual liberty had to be shelved until collective liberty could be made secure. The barbarians were at the gate and that individual liberty had to be shelved until collective liberty could be made secure. It's like it's all being repeated right now. I don't want to get too often to politics, but I thought that was really, really interesting, and there's other things that I highlighted, but we might bore people if I start reading too much more of that. So Lessons of History is one, and then I'm also reading Jean Logsdon's Homesteading, how to Find New Independence on the Land, and that's what I have beside my bed at night.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll keep it around forever and just turn to it.
Speaker 2:We've had that book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, For a long time it was given to me by my seventh grade history teacher, science teacher and Mr McGrady.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, special man in my life, and so it definitely has a special place in my library.
Speaker 2:And you love Jean.
Speaker 1:Oh, jean is the man. This was written in the 70s. He talks about homesteading in a very non-technical, easy to understand way. It's not, it's just an easy read and you tell stories so at night before I go to bed, when I'm exhausted. But I want to read something, I can pull it out. The other thing that I wanted to mention I talked about all of this in the newsletter, but I read a really awesome article about the Paint Rock Valley. It was written in the 90s, 1999.
Speaker 2:And I just thoroughly enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:It talks about the history from Can you link it? From yeah, oh yeah, we'll put all these in the show notes, okay, but it talks about the history of the Valley from like when it was first settled by a white man and before that the Cherokees had it, and it's just really good. It's a good article. It talks all the way going through Civil War and then reconstruction, and then the dam that they built in Gunnersville, and then kind of all the way up to the 90s, and it's just really good. I love the.
Speaker 1:Valley. So those are the things that I'm reading. What?
Speaker 2:are you listening to?
Speaker 1:What am I listening to? Do you want to guess?
Speaker 2:I have, brick by Brick, ellie Holcomb, those three songs. Is that on yours too?
Speaker 1:So I shared in the newsletter. I shared my garden jams playlist.
Speaker 2:What is it called Growing Garden jams?
Speaker 1:Oh, garden jams, so that's kind of a it's got Wilderwoods Ben. Rector Jordy Cersei.
Speaker 2:Drew and Ellie Holcomb.
Speaker 1:Drew and Ellie Holcomb. I don't know what genre, what you would call that, but it's kind of like middle aged men and their acoustic guitars singing about women in life, Like that's good.
Speaker 2:It is really a good playlist you had it going yesterday?
Speaker 1:Yes, we did so. You had Drew and Ellie Holcomb, and I'm still jamming to Jess Ray. Yep, she's solid, so we will definitely link all of this in the show notes. And is that going to be it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like starting to fade tired.
Speaker 1:It's that time. It is All right. Well, good night everyone, or good morning Good day.
Speaker 2:Until next time, happy gardening.
Speaker 1:Good day, bye.