S2, E5: Moonshadow Farm - Andrea Morgan

What if your favorite restaurant’s best dish started as a quiet decision at dawn—harvest now, while the sugars are high? We sit down with Andrea Morgan, the farmer behind Moonshadow in Hoytsville, to explore the winding path from ballet shoes to biodynamic soil, from student activist saving UBC’s farm to Utah landowner supplying kitchens like Urban Hill and High West. Her story pulls you into the real engine of “farm to table”: relationships, timing, and the stubborn will to grow food that tastes like the place it’s from.

Andrea opens up about the years she spent learning on diversified farms across British Columbia, the business reality of small market gardens, and the craft of serving chefs who write menus around the field. Then everything changes—a devastating road cycling crash and traumatic brain injury force her to rebuild reading, balance, and memory. The farm becomes therapy: hours of weeding, crew support, and the slow return of rhythm. A sabbatical follows, then a surprise chance to buy the historic Ranui property. With grit, settlement funds, and a vision for soil, Ranui’s “abundant sunshine” evolves into Moonshadow—a new chapter rooted in biodynamics, stewardship, and flavor.

We dig into practical takeaways you can use tonight. Learn how to ask better sourcing questions at restaurants, why terroir makes greens and carrots taste unmistakably local, and how CSAs give farms winter cash flow while giving you peak-season produce all summer. Get names of Utah restaurants that truly partner with growers, hear what’s in season and why, and discover how organic practices—certified or not—protect water, soil, and our bodies.

Hungry for food that tastes like where you live? Hit play, then share this with a friend who loves great meals. Subscribe, leave a review so others can find the show, and if you’re ready to back local agriculture, join a CSA and tell us what you cooked first.

Moonshadow Farm Webite and CSA: http://www.moonshadowutah.com

50% Off Minky Couture Blankets: softminkyblankets.com/SMALLLAKECITY

Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time 

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Why Sourcing Matters
• 5:53 Dining Culture, Local Food, And Questions To Ask
• 13:23 Andrea’s Path From Ballet To Soil
• 21:38 Saving UBC Farm And Early Farming Lessons
• 31:03 Touring Farms Across British Columbia
• 39:33 Returning To Utah And Joining Ranui
• 48:13 Taking Over The Business
• 51:13 The Accident And TBI Recovery
• 1:01:23 Healing Through Work And Community

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:53

It wasn't I wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna be a gardener, I'm gonna be a farmer. I was a ballet dancer. You know, I started taking like soil science classes and agriculture courses. I was like, okay, I kind of like this. I and I I like the lifestyle that I was seeing. I became the president of the the student-run club that set out to save this farm. And I decided to get another farm job. We wanted to kind of explore the world of agriculture. Dude, we need someone to still operate the the farm. So I ended up taking over the business and became the business owner. And then, and then uh I was in an accident. I got to see other farms in operation. That's that's something that farmers don't often get to do in because you can't freaking leave your farm. So I sent them this list and they came and looked at it. And eventually, in this discussion, they were just like, you know what, Andrea, make us an offer. It's the terroir, too. You know, you're like, you're tasting what is coming from the piece of earth that you are living on.

SPEAKER_01: 1:57

What is up, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Nilsen. Now, you may have wondered where do some of the best restaurants, grocery stores get the best produce that we can to create the best food for us. Now, this week we are joined by Andrea Morgan, the owner of Moon Shadow Farms, someone who sources some of the best restaurants and grocery stores in the state with the best produce grown locally. Now, we talk of her story of growing up in Park City, actually as a ballet dancer, to finding herself in Canada at school at UBC in Vancouver, Canada, all towards owning her own farm here in Utah. Now, let's jump into it because Andrew is someone who truly is trying to make Salt Lake better through everything that she does for the community. So let's jump into it and I'll see you on the other side. And then you chase the energy of it and had a podcast called it, and then And it gets even crazier. Um and it was just like the moments that happen are like Like I used to get very like, oh my god, no way that happened. And then now it's just like, yeah, I know. Like Right. Of course. It's like, of course, of course, you know my cousin. Like, there was the one recently that was kind of funny is I had this one friend of mine on, and he is, I mean, really successful like business person, but the thing he does that's really unique is he kind of has this like great Gatsby aspect to him, where it's like he so he has a successful business, but he also loves like house music and concerts. And so he like literally bought like essentially a tank and just put like a DJ booth on it, and now he like throws raves in his um back, like kind of a junkyard and warehouse, and then drives other places. And so I post the episode and my my cousin who is like as like LDS as could be, like, we're not that it's it's the older sister of the oops babies I was telling you about.

SPEAKER_00: 3:47

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 3:48

And she just comments on the post. She's like, Oh, that's my neighbor. And I was like, sure. Yeah, that makes of course it is. Why not?

SPEAKER_00: 3:55

I can assume how you feel about it.

SPEAKER_01: 3:58

Yeah. So just one of those, like, yep, how you feel.

SPEAKER_00: 4:00

You know what's going on.

SPEAKER_01: 4:02

So he's like, Oh, Lori, so nice, so nice to see you in the comment section of a podcast about me. I was like, Yeah, of course I have been. So it's uh But it's fun though. It's fun to like because all like always feels smaller than it is because of that. Yeah. But then when it's like really starts to feel smaller, and like as I like again, like have these like kind of like ADHD rabbit holes I go down in very particular like areas, yeah. Then I start to see like, oh, well, he like the one I go to the most is probably like beer and brewing, is like, oh, so cool. Everybody at one point worked at Red Rock, and then Kevin Templin went to TF, and then Isaac Winsor went up to High Wet. And so you just kind of put all these things together, and everybody kind of knows everybody, but they're all friends and help each other, and it's not this like weird thing.

SPEAKER_00: 4:44

Yeah, I know. It's cool.

SPEAKER_01: 4:46

And the next thing I know, it's like I know them all and their stories, and we get to hang out and do cool stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 4:50

Right. You're gonna go drink beer together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 4:53

It's not a bad way for everything to end up, is ending up with a cold beer with one another, especially in Eastalt Lake, but no, I'm excited. So Andrea, I'm excited because um the the the way this all kind of started off is there was one night I was laying in bed scrolling TikTok, and a reel came up of someone being like, Well, you have to realize that like the restaurant industry today is essentially who can cook Cisco the best. And I was like, and my like little brain started going, I was like, well, like, yeah, but like no. And so that's when, and I know like I have enough restaurant friends and chef friends that know that they use a lot of local ingredients, local farms directly sourced from here, but there's so many people that go to these restaurants. And I mean, I'm not the person, and I'd be one of the people most likely to to go to a restaurant and be like, well, where's this from? Yeah, who's this source from? And so I wanted to help everybody understand where the food is coming from, especially the good food, so that they can appreciate it more if appreciate. I mean, it's a kind of a term that gets overused like that farm to table and understand the the hands that really do bring it from farm to the table.

SPEAKER_02: 5:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 5:58

So I'm so excited for the journey that I mean, obviously you've been on, but excited to hear more about it and help everybody else understand it more.

SPEAKER_00: 6:05

Yeah, you don't want to be my uh server at a at a restaurant because I ask all kinds of crazy questions and some, you know, it depends on the restaurant, but sometimes they can answer the question that I have for them, and i especially depending, you know, if their chef is really involved and their owner is really involved in talking to them and like letting them know like here's our philosophy, here's where we source, this is why we do this. Let your let your customers know. Um, but yeah, I I often ask questions that I can just tell they're it goes way over their head and they're just like, uh we go ask someone. Yeah, I'll I'll talk to my manager, I guess. And the manager doesn't know. You know.

SPEAKER_01: 6:43

So I like just to go in there a little more. I mean, what questions are you asking? Which what should I be asking?

SPEAKER_00: 6:48

Oh my gosh. I I it just depends on what kind of food it is and where I am. You know, I'm uh a lot a one that's one that's really common for me these days is if there's salmon, I'm like, where's the salmon from? Is it wild? Is it from Alaska? Is it from Norway? Is it farmed? Um that? And then if you know, if I see something that I'm questioning, I'm like, okay, well, this like could be in season, but I don't think it is. I mean, I I try not to be too annoying because I've also been a server before. So I just, you know, I I try to walk the line. But if it's in a restaurant where I know they are willing to answer those questions, then I will I'll go all out and I'll I'll say, hey, like it says local beef. What what ranch is that from? Or like do you actually know where this is from? And I I can tell pretty quickly if it's just BS and it's just on the menu. Yeah. Or if it's real and they're really committed, really dedicated. Those are the restaurants I try to work with.

SPEAKER_01: 7:45

Totally. Like I'll never forget. So my sister played uh someone said football, soccer up at Utah State. And so we'd go up there a lot for games, and like the place in the middle that's nice for dinner sometimes is Maddox. And I remember when I was like, I was like some like shithead snot-nosed 16-year-olds and so we go to Maddox, I was like, So where's this beef even from? And the server kind of like leans back a little bit, points out the window, he says, right around there, I think is where that one came from. I was like, God, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02: 8:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 8:15

So it's but it's like important because again, like you don't know how long things have been sitting there, what has been dyed, what's been farmed. Because I mean, I I'm thankful for the re like the renaissance of food within the last, I mean, let's call it better part of a decade, where people have decided to care more about what's going into their body. Because I mean, the I mean it's no secret, like the FDA has kind of failed us, especially when you look at any other country and is like, oh, like, so they can can't have this, but we're gonna like market this to everyone. Like, this doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_02: 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 8:42

And so it's become the personal responsibility of the consumer to do this. But I mean, I'm curious about your story, because again, like if you were to be like, Eric, would you ever want to be a farmer, be like, no, respectfully, because I've been around farmers enough. Like, I did my mission up in Washington in like uh kind of like Yakima area, where like I mean, I was around asparagus farms, grape vineyards, I mean, every stone fruit you can imagine uh down a soy and then have family in the Midwest. Like everywhere, like I have a good idea of what it is, and I know I'm like, that's not for me. I respect everybody that does it, but not. And so I'm curious. I mean, where does the story start with this inkling of like, hey, it's it's time for me to make this part of my journey.

SPEAKER_00: 9:20

Oh my gosh. Farming. So you're asking me where where my farming journey began?

SPEAKER_01: 9:25

Yeah, I mean, did it start here or was it not until you got up on the left over a little bit?

SPEAKER_00: 9:30

Yeah, so you know, I I grew up in Park City. Um, we always just had a little tiny garden out back. My dad is from a family that ran a nursery. Um, and he was just he grew up as a young kid working on farms, like vegetable farms. He grew up picking tomatoes every summer, like really working hard picking tomatoes. Um, I don't know if child labor laws would allow that anymore, but anyway. Uh we had a garden growing up, and I just I remember I think one of the first crops I ever grew was a potato, and I was just so excited by it. I loved it. I loved pulling like literal gold nuggets out of the ground.

SPEAKER_01: 10:09

Yeah. Like, what do you mean we planted this and now we pull it out and there's that's we can't even go eat it?

SPEAKER_00: 10:13

Yeah, and it they're just they're beautiful and then they were tasty, and that was cool. But you know, that that kind of came and went. It was something nice that we did, but it wasn't I wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna be a gardener, I'm gonna be a farmer. I was a ballet dancer.

SPEAKER_01: 10:27

Like I talk about like complete opposite pendulum swing.

SPEAKER_00: 10:31

Yes. It's funny, there are actually like quite a few farmers out there in the world who were ballet dancers or you know, still kind of do it. Um, I'm sure you've heard of Ballerina Farm. Anyway, we'll we'll maybe get there, but I never put that together until right now. Oh yeah. Okay. She was a ballet dancer. Um, much better than I was. Anyway, I uh I grew up, you know, doing ballet. I was really into into environmental sciences and kind of thought I might become a marine biologist because I was obsessed with sea turtles. I was all over the place. Um, so I went to college, got I I I went to a big school. I went to University of British Columbia, which is a big school.

SPEAKER_01: 11:14

Yeah, the cousin that went there. And I mean, I love Vancouver to begin with, but then I can't think of the name of the park off the top of my head. But the one that's like right Stanley Park. Stanley Park, like if anybody like don't get me wrong, like Central Park is great. I mean, like all of whatever park you've been to, Hyde Park in London, whatever it is, like you're like, oh my god, it's amazing. Like, no, go to Stanley Park. Stanley Park is because you're like, oh, do you want to go on a horseback riding trail? Do you want to go on a mountain bike trail? Do you want to go on a like a dogs-only trail? Like, yeah. And it just goes on forever in the middle of the woods. It's not like this perfectly curated thing, but it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00: 11:46

Old growth trees, it's like right on the water. I mean, yeah, it's beautiful there. Um, yeah. So anyway, I went to University of British Columbia. That's a huge school. I think, I think they're undergrads and grads altogether. Everyone, everyone on campus is like 70,000 or something.

SPEAKER_01: 12:05

That's insane. Because I think they use around 35. So for context, like twice as big.

SPEAKER_00: 12:09

It's big. So I was just kind of lost in general arts, like da-da-da. I kind of like school. I'm kind of doing some biology classes on the side, but whatever. Didn't didn't really know what I was doing. And then I think after my second year there, I was just, I can't really even remember how I found it, but I found a really small program in the faculty of agriculture that they call land and food systems there. Um, and it was called Global Resource Systems. And it was just like, yeah, you can, you can kind of create your degree. You can focus on a part of the world. So you kind of study that culture, that language, and then a natural resource, a resource. It's called global resource systems. Um, but it's usually based in food or land, um, wellness of sorts. Um, so you know, I started taking like soil science classes and agriculture courses, and you know, we'd all of a sudden be on field trips at farms, and I was like, okay, I kind of like this. I and I like the lifestyle that I was seeing um from the farmers that we would visit and everything. And and there was a uh student-run organic farm on campus called the UBC Farm. Um and so I kind of started going out there a lot because the faculty of agriculture was very naturally paired with the farm. And I went and volunteered one summer and harvested sweet potatoes out there. And I that I remember that afternoon. I I didn't even want to wash my hands at the end of the day. I was just like, I love having soil on my hands like this. I'm just gonna go ride the, you know, I'm gonna take the public transit home on the bus and just be like dirty and have this dirt on my hands and just be like, yeah, I was a farmer today. So I just kind of fell in love with it. And then um, yeah, there there was a big uh political movement at at UBC because UBC wanted to turn their endowment lands, the UBC farm, into uh commercial space, housing. They wanted to develop it. There was a lot of development going on when I was a student there because the 2010 Winter Olympics were gonna be coming and there was just there was lots of development, and you know, farming was not as sexy as it is now back then in 2009, maybe. Um so yeah, the university just really didn't see any academic value in it. They didn't see they certainly didn't see any financial value in it. At that time, it was still it was a very like grassroots student-led movement. The the faculty of agriculture was supportive of the farm and and the faculty of forestry. Um, you know, the there were there were professors who were supportive of the UBC farm and doing classes out there and integrating it. Um the indigenous faculty there was doing a lot of programs as well, uh, faculty of education. Um but it still just it didn't have that like that girth that that a big university was looking for. So they were gonna develop it. And long story short, there's a student-run movement um to save the farm, and we freaking won. Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't know. And I actually I became the president of the the student-run club that set out to save this farm.

SPEAKER_01: 15:51

And my hands are dirty and they will stay dirty. Exactly. Don't take my farm, they can't have my farm.

SPEAKER_00: 15:56

Exactly. Yeah, I mean, we were all so impassioned about it, and and we really read led a movement, you know. We we brought the city in, like the city of Vancouver got involved. The the food scene, the local food scene was just kind of coming on at that point. Like there were a lot of chefs that the UBC farm was working with in Vancouver who were like some of the you know nicest chefs in Vancouver, some of the w most well-known chefs in Vancouver. Um and then there were a lot of just community members. We used to have like a huge or they still do the a huge farmers market, the the city of Vancouver, it was it was open to the public. And so there was just a lot of support, and we we did it.

SPEAKER_01: 16:42

I always loved those moments of like, hey, we have something we want to fight for. There's a lot of like people who are so many levels above, again, being the ones getting their hands dirty in it, where they're like, Oh yeah, it's land, we need so many spaces for athletes to stay, people who are gonna be here to stay, and like they have a problem to solve, which is a real problem, but they don't they've never had their hands dirty in it, and they don't understand the value it is for for people in finding themselves in being part of a community around campus, especially in such a big campus that it's hard to find yourself. And so you have these people being like, No, like this is our space that we've literally tilled with our hands and grown and developed, and to you it's just like in a number of that needs to be checked off for the Olympics.

SPEAKER_00: 17:24

Yeah, exactly. And and there was just there was so much valuable stuff coming out of the farm, like on an academic level too. I mean, there there were, you know, PhD projects going on out there. There were there was a really big indigenous um food sovereignty program out there. There were kids like learning how to garden and yeah, it just the list goes on and on. So yeah, so that was cool. And and I as soon as I graduated, I got a job at the farm. I was like, you know, I I kind of want to work on this farm that I just Opera, I'm gonna make studies paper while you're so I applied for the job and got it. Cool. And and then yeah, and then I just fell in love with farming.

SPEAKER_01: 18:10

And then where did I mean so you so you stay in Vancouver for a little bit, you're working on a farm, and I mean, at what point did you get pulled away? And I mean, how did that play a part in making your own farm?

SPEAKER_00: 18:21

Yeah. So I worked at the UBC farm for three years after graduation, and it just became became my life. It became, you know, something that that I was just very dedicated to, and it was a year-round position, which was great. You don't if you if you start off just getting a job at a farm, especially a market garden like like this, like I'm talking about right now, um, it's very seasonal, you know, it's rare to find like a salary-paid job that is year-round. Uh, so I was very lucky to do that. And I also was just really able to apply everything I learned in academia on the ground at the farm. And I was just able to be part of like bigger projects with a bigger vision behind it. It wasn't, I wasn't just cultivating food and growing it and selling it, I was doing all kinds of other things. So I worked there for three years with some of my best friends. It was great. Yeah, experience. Yeah, it was it was just awesome. And, you know, eventually we were all like, okay, well, we've graduated, we're growing up, we're moving on, and everyone kind of started doing their own things. Uh, so my boyfriend at the time and I decided to get another farm job. We wanted to kind of explore the world of agriculture uh in real time. So we we applied for a job at a farm that wasn't just a market garden. They also did meat, they did dairy. Well, they did it all. They did it all. It was just this older couple who lived in a pretty remote part of British Columbia, and we moved there.

SPEAKER_01: 20:07

Uh see, my brain instantly goes like this is the setting of a horror movie. Oh, they just need these like two people to come help out on the forum out. Where's it be? And next thing you know, you're the ones being butchered for Sunday.

SPEAKER_00: 20:16

That just takes two Aries to get there. You're out in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_01: 20:20

Why are our cell phones working? There's no internet.

SPEAKER_00: 20:23

Here's how you use a knife really well. Um, yeah, no, so we we went there and that was a great learning experience. Uh that was amazing. I learned how to milk goats and cows really well, and we learned how to yeah, it was slaughter and butcher pigs. Like, I just wanted a farm. I don't know if you're not. I mean, it was we just we dove right in, and and that was amazing. But uh there were just some other dynamics that were not playing out so well there on that farm. You know, like we sensed that we were gonna get murdered. No, I'm just kidding. What about that room?

SPEAKER_01: 21:01

We don't go in that just kidding.

SPEAKER_00: 21:03

No, but it we we bailed, um, which we never thought we would do. You know, we just we couldn't believe that we were leaving there mid season, but we did. Uh, and so we we quit that job and then just kind of explored around British Columbia to a lot of other different farms. We uh I I really uh attribute that year to me being able to just see so many different farms. We went on to biodynamic farms, we went on to hops, hop farms, we worked on a hop farm slash microbrewery for a couple of months. Uh we were on a fruit farm, we were picking tons of strawberries, we were just all over the place. Um, and then, you know, we were just like, oh, what are we doing? Where do we go? And that was the first time I came back to Utah. I was like, well, let's just go home and you know, we'll make some season.

SPEAKER_01: 21:54

You get so much like because again, going from you as a kid pulling up potatoes, be like, well, this is cool, and then to being like pulling up sweet potatoes in the farm, you're like, this is better. Yeah, yeah. And then getting this experience. Because like I can't imagine a lot of people get that experience being like, Oh, well, we're gonna go just like tour from place to place. Every because like every farm has its like uh specialization. I mean, even I mean, hops reminded me of when I was up in I mean, like Sila and Yakima Valley, and like I remember driving past them at first, like, why are all those strings tight? Yeah, and they're like, You'll see as we keep driving by throughout the next three months. Yeah, and that makes sense. And then you drive past the orchards, you're like, Well, what are those? Like, well, let's go walk through them and you'll see, I mean, peaches, plums, I mean, everything.

SPEAKER_02: 22:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 22:34

And so that's so fun that you get to have like all of this experience because all of it's so different from the setup to everything. So, I mean, that's fun. And then eventually come back to to Utah for a breather and in and home base. But did you have any appetite at that time to start your own farm, or is it mostly just kind of regroup and and think about what the next phase looks like?

SPEAKER_00: 22:52

You know. I think I since of since very early on when I started farming, I was just like, I need to get some land. I want to farm. This is what I want to do. Um the question is how, you know, it or it was how. Uh but yeah, I I knew I needed to get some land. And and even even back then, even in, you know, 2011, 2012, whenever that was, 2013, I was just like, I don't know how I'm gonna do this, but I'm just gonna I'm just gonna keep going for it and working on various farms and networking, putting my putting my name out there and it'll happen.

SPEAKER_01: 23:37

Some I mean good positive thinking.

SPEAKER_00: 23:39

Yeah. I mean clueless or positive, who knows?

SPEAKER_01: 23:42

The w the the difference between the two is usually just some sort of success that comes out of or not. It's illusional until it becomes a reality, and then you get to tell everybody I told you so.

SPEAKER_00: 23:53

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so so we moved uh back to Park City, just got some winter jobs, made some money, um, broke up that spring, but I just found myself in Park City again, and I was like, I now need to find a farm, like where I don't really know of too many farms in Utah. Oh, I remember this one farm that I went to when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_01: 24:20

That one field trip from fourth grade. I've got to go back.

SPEAKER_00: 24:22

Well, it's funny. I it actually wasn't a field trip. It was friends of my parents from way back in the day, way back in Park City days. Uh and it, you know, I was like, ah, I kind of think it's like out near Colville or something, somewhere out there. I should get in touch. And my mom was still actually like shopping with that farm, Renui Gardens is what it was called, uh, at the farmer's market every summer. She'd buy basil from them because she was just like, Yeah, it's not my friends who are running it anymore, but I've been been shopping with this farm forever. So yeah, like I I can get you in touch with with the people who are running it, like, sure.

SPEAKER_01: 25:01

Come to come down to the farmer's market with me. I'll introduce you.

SPEAKER_00: 25:04

Yeah, so so I did. I I met this couple, John and Sue. Uh and I I remember I remember going back to Renewe for the first time, and I was like, you know, I it was all kind of coming back to me. I was like, oh yeah, I I have been here before. It's been a really long time, but I remember walking around this property and John, John and Bill were getting a field prepared and rock picking, which is like a pretty unfortunate bummer of a time when you're, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 25:44

Sounds as exciting as it sounds.

SPEAKER_00: 25:46

You're just picking rocks out of the field. And I just j I was like, hey, I'm Andrea. I'm, you know, here to talk to you about maybe I can volunteer. I don't know. And I just started like picking up rocks with them and putting them in the wheelbarrow and moving them out of the field. And I think they both were just like, Whoa, what? We weren't expecting this like young girl to come and tell us that she wants to volunteer on the farm and then just like step in and start picking rocks out of the field with us. Cool. Uh so anyway, they they allowed me to come and volunteer with them. They they they were kind of like, uh, I don't know, I don't know how to say they weren't too enthusiastic about having volunteers come out because often, you know, people are so enthusiastic about farming, but they don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_01: 26:35

You have to redo everything they did or this fee stuff, like micromanage and watch things. It's like having an intern.

SPEAKER_00: 26:42

You're like, Yeah, oh yeah, that's so we're gonna put this on the fridge.

SPEAKER_01: 26:45

I love what you did, but now I'm gonna go clean up your mess. Yep. No, no, no, please don't help. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 26:50

Right. No, I I got this. I'll be faster. Um yeah. So anyway, I started volunteering. Uh and at the end of that, I knew I had a I had a great time, and it was perfect for me because I was just like, Yeah, I'm like back in Utah. I get to like rock climb and I'm, you know, working at a restaurant at night and making money. And then I get to like volunteer on this farm and I still have access to really good food. And this is great. Um, so at the end of that season, John was like, So what kind of money do you make at the restaurant? And I told him, and he's like, Ooh, well how would you like to not make as much money here? I'm gonna offer you a job, but it's not gonna be that much. And I was like, Oh, great, like, yes.

SPEAKER_01: 27:34

Dream Come true, perfect. I'm in John.

SPEAKER_00: 27:35

Yeah, I don't care.

SPEAKER_01: 27:36

Let's go Pixie Ox.

SPEAKER_00: 27:37

It's all about the food. Um, so yeah, I started working uh full time the next season and then did a season after that. Uh, and that was that was great. I learned a lot. I learned a lot about just like running a small market garden business. Uh, because you know, er what I had seen was even though it was very grassroots at the UBC farm, uh, it still was associated with a university. There was still all kind of funding coming in from grant.

SPEAKER_01: 28:10

You didn't have to worry about as much of like the business itself. Yeah, you just at the end of the day, like it's all gotta make sense. Whereas at the UBC, you're like, yeah, like they give us stuff and we do these and this goes there, and not as much like oversight. But then here it's like, yeah, there's a reason we can't pay you that salary restaurant, and this is why we have to go to the farmer's park, and this is how this all kind of works out, which is an important part of it, especially if your goal at some point, because I imagine the back of your head of all this is like, this is great, but like how do I get my own land and work on a farm?

SPEAKER_00: 28:36

Yeah, yeah. I was just like, all right, yeah, time, time to enter the real world of farming. Here we go. Uh so yeah, that was great. But then um, I actually had permanent residency in Canada from uh having been a student up there. Yeah I then was able to get like a work visa and then become a permanent resident. Uh so that that time period was coming up where I had to get back if I wanted to maintain that status. So I packed my bags up and moved with my partner at the time up to British Columbia. And once again, I like found myself landing in a ski town, getting a restaurant job, and I was just like, I don't know, I just have to be in Canada, so here I am. Like, we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01: 29:22

Like it feels oddly similar to me being in Park City working at a farm, but now I'm in British Columbia skiing and working on a farm.

SPEAKER_00: 29:29

Yep, yeah. It's actually it's funny uh telling you this story. I'm like, huh, that's a pattern.

SPEAKER_01: 29:35

I mean, it's not a bad pattern. Like, if if you're gonna do it, might as well do it with good skiing and vod climbing and snow and seasons and I mean cool small mountain towns. I mean, like I hate to bash on the Midwest more than I oh, I dupe it a lot anyway. But like of like I can't imagine again going to like let's use Iowa just because the first thing that came to mind being like, all right, well, we just got done farming and there's uh I just guess I'm gonna go uh do what everybody else does. We're just gonna go drink.

SPEAKER_00: 30:00

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, drink. Uh maybe there's some like hockey to play somewhere. I don't even know if there are that many lakes in Iowa.

SPEAKER_01: 30:08

There's not much, there's just like a lot of corn and soybeans. I drive I've driven through it and ironically, and so in 2022, when I was in the van, I had to go because I had a Winnebago that was bought new and it had like warranties, so but I had to get warranty work, which is in a place called Forest City, Iowa, which is a town of like a couple hundred people, it's where their service center is, everybody commutes in for it. But so I'm in this like town of like a couple of hundred people for like a week on the way to the east coast, and then some other things broke, so I had to go back on the way there. So I spent two weeks in this like small town in Iowa and like kind of drove around more for just exploring too. But I was like, I told someone from Iowa that they're like, why the hell were you in Iowa for three weeks? I was like, there's a reason, but now I know like I don't need to do this again.

SPEAKER_00: 30:50

Right. I I won't be booking a flight back there.

SPEAKER_01: 30:53

Iowa, okay, British Columbia. I'm picking British Columbia too.

SPEAKER_00: 30:56

Oh man, BC is amazing. It is, it's so good. So anyway, we uh yeah, spent the spent the winter up there. Um I did start a farm up there. It's kind of a long story how I how I like managed to find this piece of land, but I did. I found a little chunk of land that I could just start my own market garden on. It was kind of already all set up for a market garden. That's nice. Yeah, but I I just got to do that. Um ended up having a baby, and uh that was really one of the the main reasons why we were both just like, you know what, we need to go back to Utah closer to family. Uh yeah, just a little more support than just like up here running our own business in Canada, uh dealing with immigration status, like let's just go back to Utah.

SPEAKER_01: 31:45

Like no one wants to move home until they have a kid and they're like, wait, my parents can help. Are we a family here who can help? And like we have resources, like yeah, pack up the truck, it's time.

SPEAKER_00: 31:55

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01: 31:56

But then it's like, okay, we'll go back to our other mountain town skiing, but now we have a plus one.

SPEAKER_00: 32:01

Not so bad, not so bad. So yeah, so we came back and I I just called John up and I was like, hey, coming back to Renewy. Let's let's do this. And so we did. I managed the farm the next season when I came back. And uh at that point, John and Sue were becoming fairly like burnt out, you know, they're they're a little bit older than I am, and so uh they yeah, they kind of were just getting ready to be done. Um and the owners, the owners of the land who were like the old hippie friends of my parents.

SPEAKER_01: 32:41

So were they releasing the land from them to farm? Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 32:44

Yeah, they they were leasing the land, um, but basically bought the business and were operating the same business off of it. So they were they were the owners of the business, um, but not the land. The land owners uh moved to New Zealand. Um I don't know, like 25, 30 years ago, something like that. Um they're farmers there. They they do awesome, amazing biodynamic farming in New Zealand. Um anyway, they were just like, you know, we we need someone to still operate the the farm. So I ended up taking over the business and became the business owner. And yeah, John and Sue stayed on with me for another couple years. And then and then and then uh I was in an accident.

SPEAKER_02: 33:37

No what? Yeah, what happened?

SPEAKER_00: 33:39

A big bad accident. Um I was on my road bike at about 2:30 in the afternoon, just getting some exercise uh one spring morning, and I was run over by a very intoxicated side-by-side driver.

SPEAKER_02: 33:58

Jeez.

SPEAKER_00: 33:59

Yeah. And uh yeah, completely knocked out, uh, lifelighted. I ended up spending three weeks in the hospital recovering. I had a traumatic brain injury. Luckily, my body wasn't too broken. I had like hairline fractures on my femur and like a couple other things, some like, you know, big open scab wounds.

SPEAKER_01: 34:26

But uh yeah, I I always like hearing these stories as I'm like looking at you and know that you're alive and like at least from sitting and talking with you from enough time knowing that you're okay. But yeah, I was actually ironically talking to someone about road biking yesterday because that this run club banquet, which is a whole other topic. But we were talking about how like the comparison of mountain bike injuries versus road bike injuries, and it came up of like, yeah, well, full on a road like road bike, you kind of were like, All right, I will there will be something at some point.

SPEAKER_02: 34:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:53

And then we were talking about like road rashes and about how it's like almost more painful than a bone break because bones like, okay, it hurts, put in a cast, heal is done.

SPEAKER_00: 35:01

But like when you have like a huge like open wound on your thigh for weeks, months, that it just yeah that you have to like keep clean and make sure it doesn't get infected. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 35:13

Then you go run your day and you feel it open up and it itches and it hurts with pain, like, yeah, not bad.

SPEAKER_00: 35:17

Skin, skin hurts injuring it. Um so do brains, but yeah, in different ways. In different ways. Um, yeah, so that was kind of crazy. Um, you know, I where where do I even begin? I I was in the hospital for three weeks, like didn't see my daughter for three weeks, um, you know, had to go through all kinds of occupational therapy and other therapies just to like bring me back. I had to re-r relearn how to read and write and like even walking, I they put me in like a harness for a while to just make sure I wasn't gonna lose my balance because they really don't ever, you know, they they can they can tell um in an MRI where your brain injury is, and so they know they they know roughly like what the issues are gonna be. Uh, but they don't really know and they don't know how you're gonna react to it and what your anger level is gonna be. Um lots of TBI patients just really go through a long period of being super inflammatory and uh off our rockers. Yeah. Um so yeah, so anyway, recovery, recovery was a long, slow process. I couldn't drive for seven months.

SPEAKER_01: 36:39

Which like I can't like because it's one thing like if I got hit by a side-by-side on a road bike, like other people can manage things if I had like a job, like typical corporate America thing, whatever that could be, but like the farm still has to go on. If crops then get gr grown and sold and processed, like then it doesn't happen. Yeah. And so I imagine there's part of you that's like, I gotta get back to the farm. And then everyone's like, whoa, you are um put on this harness, we've got to take this slow. And I mean, it's gotta be a long road to recovery. I mean, it's not just three weeks in the hospital, it's gotta be I mean months and years before you actually feel like you're back to your I mean, especially with a brain injury.

SPEAKER_00: 37:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 37:19

Like to be like you're back in your own self and head.

SPEAKER_00: 37:22

Yeah. Oh yeah. No, I'm I mean, I'm I'm still recovering, but I have to uh yeah, I'll I'll I'll totally give a shout out to my now ex, but my my partner at the time was talking to John, because John, John was still my, you know, basically my my partner in the field in the business. Um I own the business, but John was still running the farm with me. And I know that he was just like, oh man, what do we do? Like Andrea is like out. Do we just like call it call the season off, or what do we how do we go ahead? And uh my partner at the time was just like, no, no, I I think we should just I think she would want this to continue on, so let's do it. And and they they decided to continue the farm, the season, and I had already planned out the season. I had already like hired people and done the crop plan and ordered the seed, like it was pretty much ready to go. Um, and so yeah, they all made it happen. John, Sue, Will, uh, and it was actually super therapeutic for me once I was back on the farm and I couldn't drive. And you know, I'm I'm living in basically rural Utah, even though even though Hoytesville, which is where I where where the farm is, is 20 minutes from Kimball Junction and Park City, it's rural. Like you're out there, you're you really are.

SPEAKER_01: 38:53

You get too like because I lived in like Oakley Camas area for about six months. And like in the middle of winter, too. And like again, like I can hop in my car 20 minutes, I'm at Kimball Junction at Walmart Smith, whatever. But when you're out there, it doesn't matter how I mean, especially if you can't drive or get anywhere. It could be two hours, it could be 20 minutes, it could be two days. Yeah, and there's you're still alone in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, you're not you're not getting on a bus, you're not getting on a train, like and ironically, it comes back to uh you like British Columbia slash Vancouver, but uh I don't know if you've ever watched the show Alone, uh, where they put people like in Vancouver Island, and it's like, all right, what last man standing wins? And like there is this one guy who like built this amazing house. He actually even like created a string instrument, and then one day he's like, Yeah, I'm going insane. I need to go home.

unknown: 39:45

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01: 39:46

And like, and he was like set up to win, but he's like, Yeah, I'm I'm I can't do this, I'm gonna go insane and go home.

SPEAKER_02: 39:51

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 39:51

And so, in the same way of being like, Okay, I'm in the middle of nowhere, I'm I'm in a farm alone in my thoughts, can't go anywhere. Like, that's gotta eat at you a lot.

SPEAKER_00: 39:59

Yeah, well, you know, I I don't even know if I was there yet, like mentally. I was gonna be like blessing or a curse, it talked about it. Yeah, well, yeah, and be and I I was actually so fortunate to be on the farm because it was so therapeutic for me to be able to just go out there and weed. I mean, I it that's funny. Farming came right back to me. I knew exactly what I was doing, I knew how to do all the things, and I I would go up to John in the morning, you know, thinking that I was like kind of running the place still. Yeah. Like, well, so so what do we need to do today? And he would just be like, You do whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_01: 40:40

You just go try.

SPEAKER_00: 40:41

You go weed.

SPEAKER_01: 40:42

Like the kid with the video game controller that's not plugged in and like, I'm winning, Daddy. Like, yeah, I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_00: 40:47

Yeah, yeah. He's like, cool, yeah. No, but he he knew he was just like, You just you just go wherever you want to go. And you know, on a farm, there's always something to do. So like it doesn't he's just like, go do whatever. Yeah. So and and I would just weed for hours, and it was so therapeutic for me. It was so good just to be outside and there were people around.

SPEAKER_01: 41:07

I mean, if it had been winter, it would have been a different story, but but the farming Especially in spring, beginning of this like season when it's like, again, you just plan everything out, you've hired everybody, you've gotten the seed, like that's like when it's like ever the the the table is set, it's time, it's like go time, and then have an accident. Yeah. But then also like I love that you have this kind of story along it where you go to UBC, you work there, you go to these other farms, and in the back of your head, there's always this voice of like, I want my own land, I want my own farm, I don't know how this is gonna happen. And then you come back to Park City, you get connected with Renewe and Bill and them, and then you finally have this access to have your own farm, and that more or less gets taken from you the way that you thought it was going to, but at the same time, it becomes yours more than it ever was because it became this place of healing and exactly what you needed at that time in life to keep you sane and become like this next phase of you.

SPEAKER_00: 41:59

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you know, and and I was still I was I was still the business owner, so I still had to I I don't even know how I got through it. I mean, my my mom really helped me. Um, but I was still, you know, managing the finances and making sure we weren't going in the red and paychecks were being written and things like that. It and it it was a it was a little bit of a struggle at first, and I definitely needed assistance um doing math, like just keeping track of like passwords and how to log into your bank account, and all it it was just a lot.

SPEAKER_01: 42:33

Lots of posted notes.

SPEAKER_00: 42:34

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Lots of put posted notes. Um yeah, I had occupational therapists just telling me, like, all right, you just need to make like daily lists and keep yourself organized. You need a calendar that you actually look at physically every single day, and here's some tips, here's some ideas. And so yeah, I was just doing all that, but it was it was amazing to be able to take a break from all of that and just go outside and have nature heal me.

SPEAKER_01: 43:00

Just go back to that same person that got their hands in the dirt and dirty and happy as could be.

SPEAKER_00: 43:06

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know, soil, soil really is healing. There is so much microbiology in soil that it grounds you like nothing else can. And so just to have your hands in it is is healing in and of itself.

SPEAKER_01: 43:21

Cool.

SPEAKER_00: 43:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 43:23

So I love that I'm gonna back up a little bit. So you finally have you get a farm. You the thing that has come your way, you've you have thankfully like some good people who have been working the land for so long, who are willing to stick around. But I mean, talk to me about what made that farm yours. I mean, was it mostly just continuing from what they had done before, or what did you do to be like, this is the farm I want to have, this is what I want to grow, and this is how I want to do it.

SPEAKER_00: 43:46

No, you know, I never really I never really had that much intention with it. I was just like, yes, this is like a great opportunity. I actually have access to land right now, even though it's not mine. I don't own it. Uh, but I have enough autonomy out here to be able to do what I want to do. And I'm walking into a business that has been running since 1984, so it has a legacy. Like it's it's pretty easy to just walk into it because there are a lot of committed customers. Uh, but you know, I I also wanted to like experiment and try some new things that I had seen at other farms that I was working on throughout the years and uh just just try some new stuff. And yeah, it was it was all just kind of a big long learning process. It still continues to be, you know. I'll I'll be learning my whole life with farming. Um yeah, it it it's funny, like looking back, I I never really had a plan. I was just kind of going with it. And yeah. And then we like fast forward to today and I do own the land now.

SPEAKER_01: 45:02

Oh no way. That's exciting.

SPEAKER_00: 45:04

Yeah. Yeah. So I, you know, we we had that season uh where I was very much recovering from my brain injury and John was still helping me run the business, run the farm. Uh but then the at the end of that season, John and Sue and I Sue Sue is John's uh partner and and they were operating another property in Oakley.

SPEAKER_02: 45:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 45:32

Um that we would just kind of merge with the Hoysville property and we would we would market everything together and that was Renewy Gardens. Uh so that was kind of our setup for I don't know since 2018. Um but we we talked at the end of 2022 was when that season was and we were all just kind of like you know what we just kind of we need to like take some time. We need to take a break like think about this possibly dissolve Renewy gardens. Uh you know at at that time both John and I had been told that that that land wouldn't be sold to anybody that it would just be handed down uh in the owner's family. Yeah. Um they have a they have a daughter who also lives in Canada. She lives in Toronto. Um and we were just under the impression that it was all that it was going to go to her. Um so neither one of us ever really thought that the land was going to be for sale. Uh I know John and Sue had tried to buy it a couple of times and it just it wasn't going anywhere. So we all looked at each other and we were just like what are we doing? Like we're we're kind of making it but not really I mean farming is a struggle financially uh and just with my my TBI and everything we we were just ready to take a break. So we took a sabbatical year uh which was great I just kind of traveled and helped my friends on their farms and took a went back up to Canada did a road trip you know did I get no I actually didn't go to Canada or I was just uh I was just helping out my farmer friends in Utah like all over the the valley and that's fun though. Yeah it was it was great. I got to see I got to see other farms in operation. That's that's something that farmers don't often get to do is like see other farms in operation because you can't freaking leave your farm. But you're very tied to you are very tied. Uh so that was awesome and then you know at that point I was just like oh I don't know I'm gonna have to like find something else I'm gonna have to continue searching for my land or maybe I'm not gonna be a farmer. I don't know like I'm gonna have to figure out an the next career move. I I knew I wanted to be in agriculture but I also was feeling like where the heck am I going to find land? I don't know um how's this gonna happen? Uh but at the end of that year, you know I I kind of I don't know I I I sent a list of big items that needed to be dealt with on the land and with the house and with the buildings on the property to the owners Steve and Jenny uh and we just kind of like started talking about those things they they came out and visited you know the the house needed a new a new roof that was that was like the the big thing that was really coming down the pipes. Um the house was built in like 1857 I think so and and it had had new roofs before obviously it was not the original one but yeah it had to be done. Uh so I sent them this list and they came and looked at it and eventually in this discussion they were just like you know what Andrea make us an offer and I was like whoa what? Like did you expect any of that or was it from out of left field yeah no it it kind of was out of left field um and I had just gotten some settlement money from the man who ran me over and I was like well it's now or never here we go and and they they really wanted it to stay in agriculture um and I think they knew their their daughter uh she she doesn't want to be a farmer like she she respects farming she understands farming she grew up doing it um but I think they knew that if if they left it to her that she would just have to sell it eventually. So they were like all right we want to we want it to stay in agriculture they're very committed in that way and so they I think they saw that it was it was me or or no one there just really aren't that many young farmers out there in Utah right now especially so so yeah so when you purchase the land is that when Moonshadow came to be or was it already moonshadow before that? Yeah no it was Ranui Gardens until I purchased the land and then I was just like you know what it's just time for a new chapter. Let's let's do this. And so Moonshadow comes it comes from a lot of different places but uh Ranui Gardens is Maori for abundant sunshine uh because Jenny the former owner she's from New Zealand she's a Kiwi so it's Maori for abundant sunshine so I was just like oh okay I I'm gonna go with like the yin yang it's you know biodynamic farm like we're gonna just like keep the energy in.

SPEAKER_02: 50:29

Cool.

SPEAKER_00: 50:29

Uh so I yeah so I went with the moon.

SPEAKER_01: 50:34

And now it's yours.

SPEAKER_00: 50:35

Moon shadow yeah that's so exciting.

SPEAKER_01: 50:36

Yeah I always love stories that like it starts off wanting something and it doesn't happen right away which usually means you appreciate it so much more especially working so much of that land and having all the experiences on land that you did to finally be like I just signed for it all to come true. And like not to say it's like happily we're after because again like you still have to operate a farm and get a roof fixed and all the other things that I'm sure were on this list. Oh yeah. But that's amazing. I love so many fun story. So I've I want to come back to kind of the thing I started with is the food that we consume and the places that really do bring us the the best of it all but I'm curious I mean if someone wants to eat food coming from Moonshadow Gardens where do we go?

SPEAKER_00: 51:23

Okay well this is it's kind of an ongoing uh question for me because I I love we used to go to the Salt Lake Farmers Market and the Park City Farmers Market and I love serving people. I love meeting the people who are like using my food loving my food appreciating it uh and I I'm just not able to do that anymore really um retail sales are are pretty difficult in my situation at the moment so I'm mostly just doing wholesale uh so I love supplying Urban Hill in Salt Lake I love working with Nick Zocco he's one of the best chefs uh to be working with I love working with Jordan Harvey who's at High West um Rebecca from Rebecca's Kitchen which does private catering up in Park City um I work with the Pizza Yard in Midway Matt is fantastic um Hidden Peak provisions in Midway best sandwiches in Utah uh some people don't realize how good of like so every year me and my friends do a whole day of golfing at Washatch and we'll always get food after and every time I go somewhere I'm like this is way better than I was gonna be for Midway so people don't people need to appreciate food in Midway more. It's I think it's coming online. I think I think people are gonna know about Midway really soon here especially because of ballerina farms so there's yeah there's a there's a lot of food stuff happening in Midway um there are rumors of other restaurants opening up I've I've worked with Midway Merck I've worked with uh in Park City I've I've freaking worked with a lot of restaurants in Park City Firewood, Loma, Twisted Fern um yeah I I just I love working with the chef community that is that is dedicated to food.

SPEAKER_01: 53:24

And that's one thing I love it's almost like the I don't want to call it like the Iron Chef approach but we'll call it the iron chef approach where it's like because again like someone could go to Cisco and like cool online I'm gonna order this much this much this much is going to be delivered but it's an another experience be like okay Andrea what do you have coming up in the next month because I've got to do a new menu. Yeah. And it's like well we've got this is this you're like all right then I guess we're gonna make this this and this.

SPEAKER_02: 53:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 53:49

Um which I'll always appreciate and because then it's seasonal you don't have to have questions of oh well I know if I'm having strawberries in December this isn't from anywhere nearby where is this coming from? Yeah and makes those conversations a lot easier but then also just like supports the local community which is way better than anything else you can support. Sorry Cisco.

SPEAKER_00: 54:06

Yeah but yeah it's a well yeah you're it's it's the terroir too you know you're like you're tasting what is coming from the earth the piece of earth that you are living on and so I love these chefs that are just like creating all of this cool stuff and doing crazy ferments and being creative with greens and I like I love hearing about what they're what they're doing with my food. It's so cool.

SPEAKER_01: 54:30

Yeah it's like you hand them this one little thing like hey what are you doing over there? You look at the menu like oh so that's what she turned into. So proud of her what I paid.

SPEAKER_00: 54:37

Exactly it's so it's so cool to watch it and and to know that people then eat it and and those those customers who truly really appreciate like nutrient dense food that has a certain flavor like I'm I'm not kidding it's a it's like a terroir of you know people people know my carrots people know my spinach like and and you can kind of tell if it's like from from my farm or from the farm in Midway or it's cool.

SPEAKER_01: 55:04

And I love that because like I grew up my grandpa was a big like his backyard was always a farm always gave us tomatoes I mean kind of I mean corn potatoes kind of typical stuff. And it was always interesting because I always took it for granted because it was just always there. But then it wasn't until it's like that side by side of like oh well here's from grocery store here's from grandpa's garden like oh these aren't even the same tomato like not even the same like food.

SPEAKER_00: 55:28

Yeah no they really aren't you yeah it's a totally different experience.

SPEAKER_01: 55:32

Yeah yeah this is why when you go to restaurants ask where it came especially like a good restaurant or like something that you would call nice obviously go to like Olive Garden that's not yeah don't ask them. They don't know and if they do you're gonna be let down. But yeah if you're going to somewhere that you would deem subjectively nice ask where it came from ask why they use it yeah because they should have a reason.

SPEAKER_00: 55:52

Yeah I mean it's it's all about the experience right like it's sometimes sometimes you do just need your calories like I just need to eat I need food in my belly. But yeah when you're when you're going for that experience and you really want to become intimate with the food that you are eating it's so nice to to be able to like taste those differences.

SPEAKER_01: 56:16

Yeah so talk to me about because a lot of people don't know what's going on I mean like locally in industry I mean talked about how we can support locally versus like I mean call it the corporate farms the manufactured farms I mean how do we support the people that we want to support um well a lot of it just takes going to the farmers market and getting to know what the names of the local farms are.

SPEAKER_00: 56:44

And from there you can you can just go all down all kinds of wormholes you know like join a CSA and and I actually do a CSA I didn't even mention that CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported agriculture and so it's usually there are all kinds of different models out there but um basically the customer pays the farmer up front for a season's worth of produce or you know meat, dairy. There are full diet CSAs out there too. But you pay up front and then you receive like weekly or biweekly, yeah, bi-monthly uh just what is fresh off the farm like the best that the farm has. And so my CSA, you know, I I usually get the money in uh February or March. That's when my customers sign up uh and then I and then I deliver them a weekly box of the freshest best produce from the farm every single week from June through October. Yeah that's cool. I mean that's that's like the most direct way to support your farmers as well as going to farmers market. Like a subscription farmers market almost yeah totally yeah and then you and you get to know you know it depends on which farm you sign up with and what kind of newsletters or just kind of public public interactions they have uh but you you get to know them. I mean I I try to make sure to put a weekly newsletter out um explaining just kind of what's going on on the farm. You you kind of become more aware of like agriculture you know you you understand how the weather affects the farmer you understand why this crop failed like what insects are coming on and then all of a sudden just like oh it's a bumper crop of heirloom tomatoes. Great like I get to benefit from that. I'm gonna just have heirloom tomatoes in my box every week. Great.

SPEAKER_01: 58:42

Yeah just like it turns into like a reality TV show that you get to participate in and get all the benefit.

SPEAKER_00: 58:48

Yeah totally no it's CSAs are awesome farmers markets um you know go to those farm to table restaurants because they really are supporting us. I mean there there's a fair bit of uh overuse of the word out there but you can you can usually tell if someone if a if a restaurant's being genuine about that.

SPEAKER_01: 59:08

Yeah and if they're gonna again the overuse comes with the questions to follow. Like if a restaurant be like oh yeah we're farm to table's like yeah you are which one? Where did this come from? Yeah Rutabago where is it?

SPEAKER_00: 59:20

Yeah see if they put the farm's name on their menu. They sometimes they do or or ask and they better be able to tell you.

SPEAKER_01: 59:27

And if they don't I'd be like then why it's funny that you put this here because it sounds like this is one step between them and you and you can't seem to say like and also like I would always like I don't like to grill a server unless I'm at a ration you should know this. Yeah. I'm asking you questions and I'll be like yeah yeah of course this came from here this was from there this like this is in season this is why totally get to you don't you only know if you ask questions and get to know it. Otherwise you will never know but then with knowledge becomes great like not great responsibility but like a a more profound understanding and appreciation for what you are consuming.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:01

So interesting I'm gonna look at CSA next year I didn't know about that because completely in.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:05

Yeah and there are there are quite a few more CSAs down here in the valley than there are on the Wasatch back, but they're they're popping up all the time everywhere. I mean that is one of the most uh financially secure things for small scale market gardeners especially to do because it it guarantees it guarantees income up front.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:27

Yes. And then it's up to you to be the best way to support a local farmer. But then also if you think you're such a good chef or you think you're such a good cook, then you get to wait and see what's delivered on your doorstep and then you get to look at it and say oh looks like I can't make the one thing I know how to make anymore.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:43

Or what is this? I don't even recognize this vegetable. Like I I get that all the time people are just like I don't I don't think I've ever eaten this fennel or fava beans or you know whatever it is. There's yeah. This isn't white rice. What am I supposed to do yeah you learn you learn all kinds of stuff about food and and hopefully it's enjoyable for you and yeah and we you know a lot of the times farmers will send out recipe ideas like hey look this comes from this part of the world and this is how you use it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:14

So cool.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:15

No I'm definitely doing that next year.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:17

Yeah there's there's a lot of yeah you have you have good options down here.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:22

Well I was if my dumbass was thinking it's like well that's like eight months away but I'm like it's the middle of December idiot.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:28

Right well it but you'll need to be signing up soon I mean farmers every farm is different but a lot of farmers say CSA signups are open now anywhere between like January and June because that's when they need the money.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:42

You know a lot of us don't have crop sales support a local farm join a CSA get great food support a farmer support local I'm in.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:53

Yeah no it's it's real and and you will all of a sudden start to learn so much more than just like oh these are vegetables this is how I cook with them.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:03

Like you'll you'll start to kind of understand agriculture the pulses especially if you do it year after year you're like oh it's March I think this is going to start to come around like because again like when I was living in Washington on my mission it was like because like I mean the I was Spanish speaking so a lot of people I was teaching were the ones picking the fruit. Yeah. And it was wild to like actually see like oh yeah yeah it I mean uh like cherries are in season right now and then this like then it's a honey crisp and it's red then it's gala then it's Fuji. I'm like oh like there's so much more to this than no what do I want to get this week at the grocery store put in a plastic bag and take up to the counter.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:38

Yeah exactly you will start to be like oh okay there's kind of like a season for greens like greens are better in the spring and the fall and the winter and oh like tomatoes really do have a pretty like if you want to if you want a good real tomato they have a pretty limited season like it's short but beautiful and you know yeah like hot crops like zucchini cucumbers those are only around for a certain time and they are so much better than what you get in the grocery store. Yeah I can't even I mean I cannot buy garlic at the grocery store now I just won't I can't buy spinach I can't buy carrots I can't buy a lot of the yeah exactly like uh it's it's hard to do that now they just don't taste the same totally yeah so yeah the the industrial food system we we have a long way to go with that with fixing it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:37

Yeah but it starts with us yeah it does it it starts starts on the ground with real farmers Andrea this is amazing I didn't know how amazing story that you have and it's fun to see hear how much has gone into it still goes into it and yeah now you have your own land that you get to plant everything and and feel supported and we need to support that but uh before we wrap up want to ask the two questions I end every episode with uh number one if you could have someone if you could have someone on the Smalling City podcast and hear what they're up to or their story who would you want to hear from oh man uh I really want to know more about James Loomis.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:21

Okay. He runs Wasatch Community Gardens and he just does a lot of uh really important social work around gardening in in Salt Lake City. Um and he's yeah he's just a super interesting guy. I don't know him that well but I I want to know more. Um or Chandler and I'm blanking on her last name but she runs Utah Food Coalition and she's doing a lot of really important work with the Great Salt Lake right now. Two very important things. Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:54

Love it and then lastly if people want to find more information about Moonshadow Farms get on the newsletter uh join the CSA uh what's the best place to find information?

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:05

So I do have a website uh moonshadow.com and I I'm not the best at social media but I'm decently active on Instagram and it's moonshadow underscore farm underscore Utah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:22

Do yeah so go sign up go get some good produce ask your server restaurant wherever you go where it's coming from and let's support a local community and local farmers.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:33

Absolutely I'm gonna I'm gonna throw one more thing in there. Please try to make sure it's organic or at least taught if it if it's not certified because a lot of us are not certified it's really expensive to certify and it's a lot of paperwork. A lot of small farmers just don't have that bandwidth uh but talk to them just talk to them about their practices and just try to make sure that the food you're eating is clean because we need to stop polluting our soil and our water and ourselves our environment our bodies all of it uh so yeah just talk talk to your farmer try to go for organic yeah deal no totally agree no thank you Andrew I'm excited you're gonna join the TSA gonna get some good food cool and everybody else would you say yeah awesome you'll feel better absolutely