Sarah Roland - STV: 29

Marc sits down with Sarah Roland of Bayou Sarah Farms to talk about life on the land, her growing herd of water buffalo, and her passion for farming with purpose. It’s a warm conversation about food, stewardship, and supporting local agriculture.

Learn more about Bayou Sarah Farms [Website]

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Greetings to y'all. This is Mark Charbonnet on Steve the Ville, our podcast here in St. Francisville. Hello everyone. We are so happy to have Sarah Rowland of Bayou Sarah Farms today, and that is a fantastic addition to our parish. Hello, Sarah.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Hello, Mark.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

We've known each other for a few years, and I've always been impressed with your work ethic. You work really hard and you have a lot of passion. Um your Instagram posts are great. So Sarah has water buffalo on her property, and she also has. Well, tell us about your products and your produce.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Um well, we have, like you said, a herd of water buffalo. So I lease land from my family, and I have about 40 head of water buffalo. Wow. Started with five in 2020. Um, and so we've been breeding naturally. We have a bull, just replaced him and have a have another one now. Um we've we've had pigs on a few occasions, but we just butchered the last one, and I won't be doing that for a little while. There's kind of a pain, but honestly, we'll probably get back into it once we run out of pork because we do love eating that. And having pigs is great whenever we're making cheese because we can feed them way, and whenever we have events, if we have any leftovers or scraps, you know, everything goes into the compost pile, but it's nice if it goes into an animal first. And pigs are great for that. Um, but we also have bees and chickens. Um, the chickens are for eggs, and we move them around the pastures to fertilize the pastures. And so we use a full rotational grazing system, rotating different animals to make certain impacts on the pasture, whether it's fertilizer or impact with the hooves. Um, and that kind of helps to build soil, which is the whole purpose of why we farm.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

And you mentioned when we were visiting before we started recording that before you started Bay Usara Farm, you were working on different farms, learning different things.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

I was. Um I knew that I wanted to have a farm and knew that I needed to have a lot of experience to get there. And so I saved up some money after college, working for a couple years, and then took off, gave myself a two-year time frame to go work on different farms and find different opportunities as intern or apprentice, mainly working for no money, just living in a house and being fed in exchange for labor.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Where did that uh experience take you?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Everywhere. It started in Costa Rica. I um was just on a trip there, kind of between life stages, you know, this was kind of before the whole journey. And that maybe well, not really what fully started it. I knew that I wanted to go in that direction, but didn't necessarily know how. And so that was where I wound up on a farm through woofing, woofing, which is worldwide or worldwide opportunities in organic farming. Oh, how great. Um, and so it's worldwide. You can choose countries and get become a member, and you can find farms. And if you're a farm, you find people who are traveling and would like somewhere to stay, and there's certain structure depending on the farm, you know, whether you work four hours a day or five hours a day in exchange for food and or a place to stay.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Do you have are you a member of that organization?

SPEAKER_00 3:15

I am. And I'm about, I'm not, I don't know that I'm live as a farm for people to find me, but I've I've begun a um, I've started to build my profile, but I don't know if it's fully live yet. But we would like to be, and we we intend to be because that was a formative experience for me, and I'd like to be able to offer that to other people too. But that was kind of the beginning and wound up on a on a um cattle ranch in Costa Rica where I was the only female and the only person who spoke English, and I didn't speak very well Spanish or very good Spanish at the time. And um, and so I would saddle up a horse every morning with these guys and ride fence lines and clear them with machetes and build ditches and trenches and manage cows and do all that without speaking the language, which was so beautiful in that concept, in that uh context, because it's it was really reassuring that that's what I wanted to do. Um, and that was for beef cows. Um, and so in doing that, I I decided there that I wanted to do that same thing. I wanted to focus on soil and I wanted to focus on the pastures um and inviting wildlife to where whatever land I was having the opportunity to steward. Um, and but I wanted to do it in dairy. And at the time I thought I was gonna be in a goat dairy. And so that experience literally on a day off, I was drinking a margarita at a place somewhere near the farm and called someone who I'd met randomly in France at some other travels during college and knew through Instagram that they had uh did food and farm tours in Sonoma County. And so they did a dairy thing post one time. And so I just called them while working at this cattle ranch in Costa Rica and said, I know you know some dairies. You know, if you know anybody who needs extra help, if they have somewhere for me to stay, I will come work however many hours a week, just exchange for somewhere to live and food. Um, I have a lot to learn. And she said, I actually am with a bunch of dairy owners right now at a wine tasting. Oh, how wonderful. I got an email that Monday and drove out there and lived in an airstream and worked on a goat and sheep dairy and uh and loved it. And it was when I was out there that I met water buffalo at a neighboring farm. And uh, and so then upon meeting them, kind of fell in love with the animal and looked more into the quality of the milk and what they're used for and then started down that journey.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

So, what are your dairy products that you sell now?

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Well, we technically cannot sell any dairy products because we are um we can sell raw milk for pet consumption. Um, and then if you are a member of our private membership, you can buy cheese and ice cream. Um, but because our animals, there's a bunch of regulations to be able to sell dairy products for human consumption.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Let me interrupt and just say, so people listening, how do you join your just send an email, show up at the farm by appointment? What's the email?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Um Bayusarafarms.org or BayuseraFarms at Gmail. And the website's BayuceraFarms.org.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

And that's Sarah with an H, Bayucera Farms.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

At Gmail.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Mm-hmm. And so with that, you know, we're starting a little milk subscription where we'll deliver a half gallon or a full gallon every week.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

And what cheeses do you produce?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Um it depends on the season. We have a I have a dear friend in Guatemala who comes and stays for a month or two each year. She'll be here in November of this year, um, and we'll be hosting a cheese class. We do every time that she comes, um, and we make mozzarella di bufala, which is the famous Italian mozzarella, which is made of the milk of the buffalo. Um, and we have that as well as a fresh, just a fresh farm cheese that's kind of a similar consistency of Chev goat cheese, but made with water buffalo milk, and it's delicious. Um, and we've experimented with a few other cheeses. We've made a blue cheese and a few other things, but it's a lot very time consuming. Um, and I've realized after starting the farm that I'm more of a farmer than a cheesemaker. I would think that some restaurants would like to uh become members of your I think that they're they can, and I welcome that. Um, but that that is then a whole series of them, any resale situations.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Um but the issue with the whole thing about it, it and I could go on forever and I'm I won't do that, but it's that the animal is not standing on a concrete slab while she's being milked. I have a mobile milking parlor because I lease land and I lease land across the highway, so I have to all my infrastructure is mobile. Um, and so it's very clean. I hand milk.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

I know, I would think it's much cleaner than standing on a concrete.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

It is a lot of bureaucracy. Um, you know, it's a it's it's not illegal to consume. It's not illegal to give to the children at the local high school. It is not illegal to offer at the church. Um, but if I exchange a dollar for it, now all of a sudden it is unsafe for human consumption. And so that's a policy thing. Um keeping small farms out of rural America, um, which is kind of an issue because it certainly is. Yeah, the taking the family cow away from from small families. Um, you know, cows these days produce a whole bunch of milk and you you can't sell it to your neighbor any excess. And so that's that's kind of sad. I wish there was some exemption for smaller farms.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

How much milk does one of your uh mature cows produce?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Depends on the buffalo, but anywhere from Buffalo. Right. Well, they're cows, same way that a an elk is a bull elk or a cow is a female. Um, they are produced produce anywhere from three to six liters a day, which is significantly less than a cow. Um, they produce more around the quantity of a goat. Um, but their milk is so much richer, has a lot more fat, a lot more nutrients in it. So the animal, even though it's bigger than a goat, does not need as much volume to raise a calf. And then we also share our milk with the calves. So the calves are with their mom for the duration of the lactation cycle. Instead of pulling them away, we give them half the milk and we take half the milk.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

I like that. That's great. I remember once when you butchered a calf and it was so it kind of you know, it it kind of freaked me out a little bit just because I'm ignorant and and you know, about oh, don't don't kill the cat. But I eat beef. But it was really beautiful. You had that talk of I mean you talked about the process and how you all made it almost like a ceremony to have that that uh meal. And it was really moving. I remember that. I I still remember that. How long ago was that?

SPEAKER_00 9:51

I think that was two or three years ago.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Yeah, I still remember that.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah, that uh it's a you know, a lot of people ask, how do you how do you kill an animal that you spend so much time with or that you love or that you've been raising for two years? Um, and for me, I would much rather raise an animal who has a wonderful life and know that it has one bad day at the end than to go to the grocery store and pick up meat that an animal lived its entire life in a miserable conditions just to feed me that day. Um and so for me it's that's a great perspective.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

So is all the beef you eat that you produce?

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yes. Um, or a friend produces, you know, and I'll go out to eat. I'm not a purist entirely. Um, but if you know, if I have a preference, it's it's something raised regeneratively or wild caught or or hunted.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

And you have what, 40?

SPEAKER_00 10:44

I have 40, and I'm gonna have 26 calves this year.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Wow. I know it's uh And they've all just regenerated themselves on your property. You haven't brought in except for the bull?

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Um I I bought I came in with five in 2020, and then I bought three pregnant heifers, so a young cow that had not had a calf yet, um in 2022. And then this New Year's I bought two bulls and two cows from some, I bought the two bulls in New York, drove all the way up there to get them. And then on my way home at midnight on the road trip, loaded the trailer with two more cows from a dairy that I follow who's going out of business, you know, and water buffalo are kind of hard to come by and we already had a trailer and it seemed right, and so we did it. But those two ladies are not with our program. They, whenever I move them around the pastures, I move with a string, you know, into new pasture, and they are always the last two coming out of that pasture, and they just look at me and we're gonna we're gonna find a groove, but we're not there yet.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

We're gonna find a groove. How old is uh the like how old are those cows?

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Um, the older one is probably four years old, but uh the other one's three. And my oldest cow is 14. Her name's Stevie Nix, and she was the first water buffalo I ever met.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

That's wonderful. What does a water buffalo cost?

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Uh, you know, it kind of depends. If you you could buy a pregnant heifer for 4,000, 4,500, um, which kind of seemed crazy five years ago, but now the cattle market's so out of the box. Like you could you could go to the sale barn right now and find a three-day-old bottle-fed calf for a thousand to twenty five hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Uh the we have the smallest uh herd in the United States that we have ever had since the 50s. And but we're consuming multiple times more than we ever were then. And so all of our beef is being imported and with just different conditions and drought, and our average age of farmers is 65. So farmers are exchanging farms are exchanging hands. A lot of the younger generations don't want to follow, you know, mom or dad in the farm. Uh, and so farms are getting sold and people are selling herds, and it's it's kind of a dire situation that no one really knows about.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Sounds like it. Yeah, just to have you say that, it really gives you something to consider. I mean, I studied the periphery of that sort of thing, but I hadn't thought about beef itself. I'll tell you though, I was in Portugal and I was surprised by the that that beef was expensive. Well, it's gotten so expensive here though, recently. But I mean, I'd always heard beef was more affordable here because of, you know, regulations with the government, but uh and more expensive in other countries. And it was expensive in Portugal.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Yes, it was, I mean, with the new presidency, they signed on something that I don't know exactly the wording of it, but it can be repackaged here and say a product of the United States or something. I don't know exactly. You quote, don't quote me on that, maybe look it up. But there's something about the labeling about it that it's very confusing as a consumer, even if you want to support uh beef grown in the United States, you may not be able to decipher when you're in the grocery store.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

You know, the French did that a while ago. They uh sell truffles, and on the can they'll say product of France. And what's a product of France is the can.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

The truffles are from China.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

That is, see, it's little things like that that are very difficult as a consumer, which is why it's important to support your local small farms. Um, and small farms are going to become extinct soon. It's so expensive to maintain things in the physical world. I mean, as you know, owning homes, it's you know, the plumber, the electrician, these are all jobs that are wonderful and should be kept. Um, but just, you know, human labor to do things on the ground versus, you know, different things that you can do online that have increased in value so much, it's kind of hard to keep up with it all.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

It's expensive.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Oh, yeah. But uh, but we we sell a lot of beef, water buffalo.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Um what is it a pound about?

SPEAKER_00 14:57

The water buffalo meat, we sell direct retail at $12 a pound.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

That's not bad.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Which seemed crazy 10 years ago. Um, and our prices have not changed. We were at $10 a pound six years ago or $12 now.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Ground meat, steak. How does that work? No, how much is steak?

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Oh, steak, it kind of depends. We don't really do so many cuts that way. You know, we'll do the tenderloins, but we'll mainly do, you know, a farm-to-table dinner and I'll save the tenderloins of four animals for that whole dinner. Um, but I think the ribey's are, I don't remember, 18 a pound. You know, chuck roast is 16 a pound. It's not crazy. Um, but it's 100% grass-fed, no hormones, no antibiotics.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

No dewormers even. And we had all of our fecal samples done through the um vet school, and we had no parasites or anything crazy. I mean, they were so surprised that I had never dewormed in six years and that our that everyone looked so healthy.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

And you can really tell the difference of your beef as opposed to beef that's, you know, not treated as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Yes. And with the, I mean, cortisol is present in meat as the same component as it is found in our bodies. And so we're actually consuming that if we're eating an animal that was very stressed out. Um, and so, I mean, that's one factor, but is is also the water buffalo have not been genetically selected so seriously as uh uh beef have in the United States. And so they are very efficient at metabolizing the different things that they're eating in the pastures. And so their meat has a lot more minerals and nutrients, and it's it's rather um lean. So, you know, it's like 90% meat, 10% fat versus 80-20 on your typical grass-fed beef.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Uh, is hay considered grass-fed?

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

So you use hay and we do hay. And they also oh, but do they don't they also kind of roam around and eat the grass?

SPEAKER_00 16:51

They roam and eat the grass, but in the summers, I mean in the winters when the grass is dormant, we put them in certain areas of the fields that need a lot of disruption, and we'll bring in tons of hay, you know, one ton at a time through one bale. And um, and then it adds a lot of impact from the hooves, and then they're going to the bathroom around there. They're any hay that they're not eating is falling down there. So you're adding a lot of organic matter to a part of the pasture that needs to build soil. You know, we'll put it somewhere where we have a lot of weeds or something undesirable just to change things up and to add value to the soil and to the soil life.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Tell me about the ice cream.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Oh man, the ice cream's outstanding. We I actually figured out the ice cream recipe during COVID because it was the first time that I was ever milking anything. And I had, you know, I mean, we were starting a farm, so uh it wasn't that we had all the time on our hands, but we had time because there was no weekend or no going to a barbecue or no going anywhere else.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

And um, and so I perfected an ice cream recipe that's outstanding. And we use our egg yolks and um and Louisiana cane sugar and vanilla beans are actually one of the crazier crops.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Are you growing them?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

We're not, but we use a fair trade, very expensive farmer-owned um vanilla bean paste called singing dog vanilla for any bakers out there. That is done first and it's put into a paste. Okay. So the whole all the beans and everything are in it. Um, that was part of the experiment that summer was do we want to use the bean, do we want to use the paste, or do we want to use the extract? And so we tried it all different ways. Um, but vanilla vanilla beans require um hand pollination. Every flower has to be hand pollinated with a little brush by a human for nine months.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Really?

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Yes. You should check my fact on that. But that is how I understand it. And so it's important to find vanilla uh products that are fair trade or farmer owned because it's a a real good place for human trafficking and terrible child labor situations.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

I'm sure. Uh so what is your personal favorite product?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

I like the the raw milk personally. I mean, I probably drink a gallon or a gallon and a half of milk by myself a week. Um, but the ice cream's delicious. I mean, I'll have it every night if I can.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Are there flavors? What flavors?

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Uh well, so last year at the um food and wine festival, we won second place, I think. Oh wow. Or maybe third place, I don't remember. But it was um, we made a chocolate pot de creme with water buffalo whipped cream on top. Oh. And so that chocolate pot de creme is very similar to our ice cream recipe. And so we just tweaked the pot de creme, like it's basically pot de creme with a little more milk and eggs. Uh or no, yeah, milk and eggs to make it a pot of creme ice cream. And that chocolate ice cream is so smooth and delicious. And you can mainly only get it if you come for a farm tour and then can get the ice cream after. Um, you know, or if you do a private event or certain things like that, you can order in advance a gallon of ice cream.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

And how does one tour your farm?

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Uh, if you go on our website, you can see, you know, contact us and you can do tours by appointment. You know, we do small groups, we can do school groups. We've had high schools out there, the um LSU dairy students have come out a couple times. You know, we're happy to do any size and kind of accommodate whether you want lunch or whether you just want a tour. And um, on June 6th, we're actually doing a tour with water, and then afterwards you have the option to purchase water buffalo burgers and ice cream. And it's very family friendly.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

And so how much is that?

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Uh the tour is a I think it's a sliding scale from um 15 to 30 dollars, you know, just pay what you can. Um, and of course, if you want to come and can't afford it, just come anyway.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Oh, that's very kind.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Yeah, and we, you know, for all of for us, we try to do um tours to kind of supplement the farming side because it's not um it the most unsustainable part of sustainable agriculture.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

My calendar because I I've never gone and I'm really dying to see it.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Oh yeah, we'd be happy to have you.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Ever since I saw Brandon, didn't he ride one of your bull your He might have, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, they're very friendly.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Are they? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Um, but yeah, I mean, all of our products I'm I'm pretty proud of, and it's it's not I'm not the one making them. I'm just letting the animals live their best lives. And um, you know, with our honey, we don't feed sugar water through the winter, which a lot of beekeepers, especially if you're doing this for a living, you kind of have to. So you can take all the honey and then uh um give the the bees sugar water. For us, we only take a little bit of the honey and let them store up their own honey for the winter. Um, number one, we don't want to deal with the labor of having to give them sugar water, but also the all of the nectar and pollen, everything in the uh plants is what is feeding them and giving them natural antibiotics and all of the things that they need that sugar water just does not do.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Have you noticed since you've been um having the honey that you haven't had uh Hay fever or problems that a lot of people none of that. And the milk. They say that because they're in your they're in your world. I I know I'm not phrasing that correctly, but it's true.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

I mean, it's what's in our immediate surroundings. And we are all living beings of the earth and of everything that is happening around us. And we have kind of created these ideas and structures that we are separate from that. And and we're not. And the closer, even just walking barefoot on the soil, produce, you know, consuming the honey from a bee that's buzzing around you and your environment, drinking the raw milk of an animal that's also eating the grass that your feet are in. You know, it sounds all woo-woo to say.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

No, but it makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

It's because we're alive. I mean, the earth itself is alive. Um, and and us believing that we are separate from it, I think was the the largest problem that ever ever happened in humanity. And we've been going downhill ever since.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

And just to toss it in, these AI um plants that are coming in, they may seem like a financial benefit to a small town, but we are going to see the quality of our water and our environment decline incredibly. And I'm very, very sad to see that it's happening in our town.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

I am too. You know, there have been promises that it won't, but uh from what I read about the everything in the nation, it doesn't seem like I bet you my best buffalo in five years that everyone will be eating their words. And you do know that the Trumps are the who are going to be producing their Bitcoin there.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, I don't even know the ins and outs of it. I just I I know it. You know, it reminds me, it brings me to the you know, famous saying from the Native American chief during the colonization of the United States, and um, saying when the white man realizes that he can't eat money, it'll be too late. And we are past that point, and now we're at a point where we are um choosing to give up clean water and we simply cannot live without it. And and it's like, oh, well, it's coming from the river. Well, the rivers are where the water in the aquifers is coming from and where it's going. And so if we're taking it from up top, it's not going down bottom. And um, and I it's it's really sad. And I think it's a lot more problems. But anyway, not to go too dark into that deep dark hole. It's just something that really saddens me about our community.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

No, it's a strong opinion that I'm glad has been expressed. I mean, I we had Kenny, the president of the Parishon, explaining, you know, the the the process that he's gone through, but you've given a a opinion that a lot of other people have as well.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Mm-hmm. I got no problem saying it.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

I like that about you. Gutsy girl.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Oh, yeah. Well, you know, it is what it is, and we're only gonna be here for so long, might as well share it.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

It's true. So, um, how did you avoid becoming an antique dealer?

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Well, my sister has? Yeah, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

No, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Um Fireside Antiques is a premier antique uh dealer in Baton Rouge, and everyone knows about it, and it's beautiful stock, beautiful things. And your was it your grandmother as well?

SPEAKER_00 25:21

My mom and grandmother started, I think 43 or 44 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

And now your sister is running the show, and she's also a designer.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Yep, she went to school for interior design, and so now she's running the shop and her has her own interior design business and does great work. I mean, every single project she's ever done, I'm I'm shocked. She actually renovated my bathroom, and I I just can't believe how different it is.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Is she one of the quads?

SPEAKER_00 25:46

She is. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Now to throw in the quad story, even though you're not a quad.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, it it shaped me, I'll tell you that. Going home from the hospital with four two-year-olds, you know, the whole thing. Observing life or deciding who I am and who I want to be from watching, you know, two females and two males just two years older than me was a real gift. I'm grateful for it.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

So where do you live uh out at Lake Rosemound, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:28

It's near, yep, kind of on the way to Lake Rosemound, and I'm there and working on the farm full time.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Are you on 61 or are you off of it?

SPEAKER_00 26:35

On 61, but um kind of between 61 and Rosemound loop. You know, it's not, it's just that loop there.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Um how many acres do you have?

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Uh the farm itself is 52 acres, and then I have um some land where I lease a blueberry patch. Um, and we kind of have a little you pick word of mouth situation, you know, all organic hand weed, hand pruned, everything. Um and then yeah, I'm there on the farm. And then we also graze across the street um some hay pastures on my dad's property a few months out of the year. And so that's just kind of in our grazing rotation, but we're not there full time.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

And that's not across the highway, that's across the road.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Across Rosemound Loop. He's a little closer to Rosemound Loop. Um, but that Shiners, that new uh grocery store or little corner store just opened up on um on the way to Lake Rosemound on the Loop Road. And I think it they just renovated, which they did a great job. It's a really cool little shop, but um, I think it's been the doors have been opened since the fifth, like 1953, even between owners. It's never ever had its door closed. So after Captain Doug died, that was the first time that it was ever closed. And now they just reopened and it's real exciting to have them back. And they're doing a great job with different frozen foods. They sell our blueberries and our milk and our meat and um and our eggs there, and and of course, all the bait shiners and um and crickets and everything you need to go fishing, and cute little shop there, and so happy to have them in the little community too.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

They'd be cool people to have on the podcast too, talking about their new shop.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

I think you're right. I'm so glad you gave me the idea. Thank you. Um so uh I want to ask you another question, and that is you grew up in St. Francisville. I can see your passion, and um not to go back to the data center, but uh I you made me think about it, it's very concerning. Um I'm only here nine years, but I'm from Louisiana. Uh and it it is something to think about. It's very concerning.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

It is. I mean, I grew up, my grandmother bought property here in the 70s. Um, and so we grew up coming out here. We I lived in Baton Rouge in the younger years, and we would get off school on Friday, get picked up, taken, taken straight to St. Francisville, spend the whole weekend here at my grandmother's place, and then go back on Sunday night. And uh, I mean, I remember going down 61 when there was no um no stoplights anywhere. Like there was only a Sonic, there was no McDonald's or Burger King or only one gas station, you know, that whole subdivision right inside town, that little shopping center on the right, that was all just woods we used to ride four-wheelers in. And so it's, you know, I'm I'm only 37, but to hear, like to hear myself talking about it like I'm an old timer, you know, it's just amazing how quickly things change. And I think that um that these data centers are gonna are gonna be a lot, a lot more dramatic of a change than than we have any idea. And it's it's already too late.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

I agree. Mm-hmm. Can you tell me some information about where people can purchase your products in the area?

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Of course. Um, so we have a lot of things at Audubon Market. You know, you can buy our uh meat and eggs there. And at Shiner's, you can buy our and blueberries, and at Shiner's Little Rosemound Grocery, you can buy meat and eggs and blueberries as well. And you can also find things in Baton Rouge, you know, at Calandro's and Calvin's and Maxwell's and Las Brujas Coffee. And then we also have things available for purchase off of the farm, and we do private farm tours you can sign up for and bring a small group, bring your family, or just you and someone, or just you. Um, and we'd be happy to share what we what we have. And you can buy things from the farm by appointment, whether you do a tour or not. Um, and you know, that's where you can get some more of the off-menu items, like the dairy, because we can't sell that in stores. Um, and so it's just a a little $1 membership to be able to join the group and and be able to purchase any dairy products.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Great. Well, Sarah, I'm so glad you came in and talked about some very serious things and about your passion and about your farm. It was really delightful having you on, and I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Thank you. And I appreciate you having me here and um love being in this community and being able to support the community through some farm products.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Great. Today's episode was brought to you by Ellen Cannon Design and O Spectrum Bank Let's have a lot of people.