Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I could not stop shaking for hours, literally. And for years after that, I had panic attacks and night sweats at the thought of what would happen if there was suddenly no food available. It would just be horrific. If you can grow your own food, you are not nearly as manageable. I've spent the last 20 years figuring out how to take somebody who knows absolutely nothing. They're older, maybe they're out of shape, and how to get them producing food very, very quickly in just a backyard sized space. I mean, even just the size of three parking spots, there's like $9 trillion worth of debt that has to be refinanced from the US Government this year. It is coming up before June, so we're in just this incredible world of hurt. I know since I was knee high to a grasshopper, they all talked about how unsustainable and what this was and that someday it would all fall apart. It was a house of cards. I think it was Roy Rogers who said, you know, it happens slowly until you go broke all at once. And we are at that where it's going broke right now.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Welcome, Marjorie Wildcraft. We're really glad to have you today and we're going to jump right in. So you've spent years empowering people to grow their own food. Why do you think right now is such an important time for skills like that?
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Rick and Shelley, first of all, thanks for having me on the podcast. And the reason I'm on this podcast today is that it is so vital to get more people growing food right now. So as we're recording this, it's April 2025.
The US dollar is in dire, dire trouble. The banking system is bankrupt. The Federal Reserve, which the banking system backs on, is bankrupt. And the government, U.S. government, which the Federal Reserve backs up on, is bankrupt. I mean, the whole thing is completely done. The bond market, they've been trying to sell more debt and it's. People are not, they're not buying it anymore because Trump made tariffs, right? So we've got this whole. There's like $9 trillion worth of debt that has to be refinanced from the US Government this year, and most of it is coming up before June. So we're in just this incredible world of hurt. And I know since I was knee high to a grasshopper, they all talked about how unsustainable and what this was and that someday it would all fall apart. It was a house of cards. I think it was Roy Rogers who said, you know, it happens slowly until you go broke. All at once. And we are at that where it's going broke right now. And I think even we're already seeing it. You're seeing incredible volatility and prices of everything from eggs and chocolate and whatever going up and down. And the market's going crazy up and down. This is a sign of systemic instability.
And one of the big consequences of, say, for example, the banking system shutting down is you will not be able to get food, grocery stores will be closed, credit cards won't work, that kind of thing. And we really are headed into that type of scenario here very soon. So I'm not wanting to go down the, the fear porn road.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Right?
[00:02:55] Speaker A: This is the reality road. It might be a little harder.
But the thing is, I've spent the last 20 years figuring out how to take somebody who knows absolutely nothing. They're older, maybe they're out of shape, and how to get them producing food very, very quickly in just a backyard size space. I mean, even just the size of three parking spots. So you can do this. I just want to let you know that you can do this. And yeah, that's what it's, it's. The situation is dire. We're at the, we're at the 9th hour and the 59th minute, so you need to get on this right away.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Do you, do you see a change? Do you see people like seeing that? Is it moving from fringe to mainstream? Like, are you, is the message resonating from where you sit, where I'm.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: The way I see it is, I'm just. All kinds of podcasters are calling me up, hey, can you come on the show? We realize that things are changing fast and we need, we need more self reliance.
I train jiu jitsu and at the gym, you know, people are like, we know something big is coming, we just don't know what it is or when. So there's this real sense of unease.
And then of course, you know, I don't shop at the grocery store that much, but, you know, I'm seeing the prices going up and up and everybody sees the prices going up and up.
So it's, you know, it's happening. And I am seeing more and more people suddenly becoming very, very interested. I run a, every other month to build local community and service to the community. And then to really try to strengthen my community, I, I host a plant and seed swap party. And people, you know, if you, well, you guys know, you grow, right? And there's always extra plants and extra seeds and like, you know, all right, I often grow three times as Many starts as I need because stuff happens, but then I have a whole bunch of that. So everybody always has extras. And so every other month I host this event, which is wonderful, and lots of people show up. And I've just been noticing a real heightened interest in it, greater participation in that, people becoming more and more concerned and going, yeah, I really need to. To figure out this food growing thing. And I'm like, yes, you absolutely do. Here, let me show you.
[00:05:20] Speaker C: Right, that's fantastic. So the, your. The grow network you started.
Tell us just a little bit about that and how has the community developed over the years?
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you.
So if, if you never grew food before, I can totally relate. So, you know, I grew up in somewhat of a poor family in, in South Florida in my North Miami.
And as. As kids that a lot of kids that grow in up in that kind of condition, I was very, very interested in money. I ended up getting an electrical engineering degree and scoring. I'd always wanted to travel overseas, so I scored a position in Hong Kong, and I ended up being the section manager of engineering for Motorola there. And Hong Kong is like ultra capitalistic. Like, the Hong Kong Chinese are incredible business people. And they said, hey, Marjorie, you got to take this course with this guy named Robert. And I'm like, okay, it's all about wealth. And that course just blew my mind so much. This guy was teaching things I'd never heard about, you know, really explaining it. And it inspired me so much that I left engineering and ended up creating a real estate investment business in Austin, Texas. I made my first million by the time I was 40. And my business was so successful. Successful, that Robert asked me if I'd be on his infomercials. So for four years, I was on a rich dad, poor dad infomercial, selling Robert Kiyosaki's books and courses. And you'll notice there's no food growing in here. I had no, you know, I hadn't done anything right about like a lot of people, you know, more of a corporate kind of focus. And I was volunteering on a project to get locally grown food into an elementary school. Just a good volunteer project. I thought, it's so innocent. I had no idea it was going to completely change my life.
That project was an utter failure. And I will never forget the night that it absolutely failed. I mean, I couldn't stop shaking. And what we realized was there were not enough local organic farmers to provide even part of the vegetables to one small rural elementary school. And this is in Central Texas. Texas has Some big counties, they're just all the Willie Nelson concerts to save. The small family farm had not worked like.
And the drive from Austin to Red Rock, about an hour drive suddenly made so much sense. I mean, you see some woods here, a new Dollar General over there, a new subdivision, you don't see any food growing out. Maybe a few places with a little bit of cattle, but it's all gone. And I knew that for food, there's only four days worth of food in the inventory in the grocery store, but it travels to you 1500 miles. And at that time I was surrounded by 20 million Texans who are armed to the teeth.
And I had two kids, two small kids. And I'm like, oh my God. There are situations where no amount of money can buy you what you need.
And I also, you know, I mean really, literally, God just picked me up and shook me. I could not stop shaking for hours, literally. And for years after that I had panic attacks and night sweats at the thought of what would happen if there was suddenly no food available. It would just be horrific. I mean, really.
So I just said, okay, universe, I get it. You know, there's plenty of people who know how to make money. I don't need to do that. There's not hardly anybody who knows how to grow food. So let me figure that out. And then as you know, I'm sure once you get into it, you immediately realize how you need community for genetics and all sorts of support.
And so I started building a self reliant community out there and teaching people. And then I started figuring out some systems and how it worked and I started teaching people and they said, you got to make a video out of this. I took a year off back then. This is like 2008, 2009.
Videography was way more expensive and time consuming than it is now and made a video and I thought that'll be it because I love the growing food part and good, it'll sell itself.
No, it doesn't sell.
But we'd spent 30,000 of the family savings I had, like, okay, I got to figure out how to sell these videos. And you find out that a one product is not a good business model and. But there were also so many other things that we're learning that were vitally important, like how to treat infections without antibiotics, you know, you know how to grow things in apartments and condominiums or basic home medicine. How do you take care of your family when, when there are no drugstores or even if you don't, just don't Want to go to a drugstore now? Right. So I ended up kept making more products and doing more things and you know, trying to figure it out. And that's how the grow network got, got built.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Wow. Give us some tips for a first time gardener to like, how do they not get overwhelmed?
We, we grow our own garden. It's very important for us.
We basically eat mostly meat. We follow a ketogenic lifestyle and diet. And the, the garden is more important for us because we were wanting to build the soil that it takes to grow food. And so like the first year though, we did not do very well. Like the soil was young and it wasn't great and it was a drive for us just to be self sufficient on a food perspective that made us, forced us to keep going. But what do you, what do you see with people as they start and that the, what do you say when that discouraging first failure happens?
[00:11:15] Speaker A: Well, actually I'd back up a second. And I know most people think of me as all about gardens, but honestly, and I'm glad you're on the carnivore thing.
Meat, animal products are much, much easier to grow. And of all the different ways to produce food. And there are thousands of ways to get food right. I've cherry picked the three easiest and simplest and I put it in that free webinar.
But the first thing I recommend people do is get a small flock of laying hens.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Yeah, get, get them at, you know, six months old so they're laying, they're mature enough to lay eggs. And really you can do this in even a couple of weekends. You know, build a coupon run, you know, get the feed set up, get the feed and water set up before you buy the hens.
Remember that, Marjorie.
I know you guys have done something like that before and then you're like, where's the hose? Anyway, do it beforehand and you know, if you're not, they're pretty to build. We've got some different plans and stuff at that webinar, but you know, get somebody to build it. It can be done in a couple of weekends and go on Craigslist or wherever. Buy a set of laying hens and after a few days, when they've settled in, you're gonna have breakfast handled like for the rest of your life. Right. Six laying hens, just to give you a snapshot, they lay an average of 250 eggs a year. Right. So they take some time off to molt or because it's too hot or too cold, 250 eggs so 6 laying hens eggs in a year. So that's going to be three egg omelets for you for every morning for breakfast. So you've now got breakfast completely handled, which apparently is the most important meal of the day.
And you've got 33 dozen eggs to share or trade or give away.
And honestly I find that the three component system I have has chickens and a garden and a rabbit tree. But really the chickens and the rabbits are way easier than the garden. And I really recommend people start with chickens first. Also. You can start with chickens any time of year. Right. It can be bold, you can still build it and do it, you know, whereas the gardening you re that is a little more nuanced. You want to get that at the right time. So yeah, I really recommend chickens.
[00:13:28] Speaker C: And you still need protein even when you can't grow a garden, because many people, a lot of our viewers, they live in Canada or they live up north. You know, you're not gardening. Yeah, you can garden and you can, can. But they're really limited on their grow season and if it doesn't go well, maybe their soil wasn't good enough. You've still got an immense amount of food just in your chickens. We advocate for chickens.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: So hard up north of ducks might be a better breed just because they're more adapted to the cold and very similar, you guys know, it's a very similar thing. But yeah, they produce, you know, and they're wonderful, they're wonderful entertainment. When we first talked to the land.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: We love duck eggs. We think they're great and they are very fun to watch. When you give them a new pool.
[00:14:16] Speaker C: Full of water, they are. So rabbitry as well, huh?
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah, well, a rabbit. The last big push for rabbits was in the 70s here in the United States. And the 70s was a very dicey decade. Right. Nixon took us off the gold standard. You had to wait for hours around the block because of the whole oil OPEC thing going on. It was a mass shooting at the Olympics in, in Russia. It was a crazy, crazy decade, like crazier than what we're getting into now. And yeah, and everybody got rabbits. And it's very simple. They're very small animals are quiet and they reproduce like rabbit.
The other reason I like them is, and it's the reason why people say, well, Marjorie, why don't I have raised chickens for me, and the distinction is, is chickens are omnivores. Like they, they like to eat grain, they like to eat vegetables, they like to eat meat, they like to eat you know, and they do eat some greens, whereas rabbits are herbivores. And you can re. It's pretty, pretty easy to come up with an entire diet for rabbits. You know, when you're pruning your trees in the wintertime, they love the bark, they'll chew on that. You know, they love the fresh leaves. You know, a lot of times just your landscape trimmings is a wonderful thing. It's pretty easy to grow some nice protein rich plants for them.
I used to use a scythe in the morning and just cut them some either grasses or forbs and toss it in when you're weeding. I had my rabbit tree right next to my garden and when you're weeding, the rabbits would be like yay, yay. Because they knew that those weeds are going to be coming and they, they loved it. So again, let me go over some, some numbers is I recommend a buck and three breeding does and that again will fit in like a parking lot size space, maybe 120 square feet.
And that will produce 75 to 85 rabbits a year.
And I, you could push it like industrially. They push them a lot more. But I don't like to breed my does too hard. You know, you want to give them some break in between and a see a rabbit, a rabbit, a typical rabbit. I often harvest mine a little bit late. The optimal feed to weight ratio is somewhere around like similar to chickens, like around six weeks.
But I tend to let mine get a lot bigger for two reasons. And one is I'm not particularly fond of butchering so I just procrastinate. Yeah, sure, that I'll do that tomorrow. I, I'll do that tomorrow, I'll do that tomorrow. You know, like it goes on and then finally okay, yeah, this rabbit's pretty fat. But the other reason is the most difficult macronutrients to produce anywhere, but especially a backyard is going to be fat fat on them. There's no fatty vegetables in your garden.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: You know, and so I like to let those rabbits put some fat on as you really need, you really need fat in your diet.
The other most difficult thing to produce is protein. And we do have vegetables and things like that in the garden with beans or legumes and all that. But it's much, much easier to raise chickens for eggs and rabbits for meat to get your protein. In fact, a buck and three breeding does will provide the protein requirements for a family of four.
So if you think about it ends up being like, let's say it's you know, 7585 rabbits a year. A rabbit. Every rabbit is just exactly equivalent to what you do with cooking chicken.
And in fact, I've often served rabbit and forgot to tell people, and they just assumed it was chicken. And so if you think about it, that's like a chicken and a half every week.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: Every week, yeah.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Which is a pretty good amount of food. You know, we would. I would roast the rabbit, and then we didn't quite all eat it, except for if my son came home with his friends. Boys, they are astonishing. How much impact. But, you know, there'd be some left and we'd, you know, I'd keep that in a stew pot and make a really nice stew out of it. And then, of course, save the bones and make a bone broth. And the organs. Oh, my God. I know in our culture that eating organs is not a thing, but it should be like, liver is going to be the most nutritionally dense food that you can create in your backyard. It's unbelievable. What's in. Look it up. I don't have all the numbers in front of me now, but it's incredibly. It was. It was the most highly valued part of the animal among all indigenous populations around the. Around the planet. And. But I would never trust eating a liver from a commercially grown. Even if a farmer says it's organic or. I really need that animal to be something that I have absolutely certain because, you know, the organs tend to be filter.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Right, right. So you don't. You don't want to eat that. So we want to make sure that they're really clean and pristine and preferably young. Yeah. But amazing food source. Amazing food source. And they're. You. If you've got an HOA problem. No. Nobody's going to know you have rabbits back there.
[00:19:41] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: You're so quiet. Sure.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: So you wrote the Grow System book.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:19:47] Speaker C: And if you have it, would you. Do you have one with you? Yes.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Okay, good.
[00:19:52] Speaker C: Okay. And we'll put a link to that for sure in the show, in the. In the description.
What do you believe is the biggest lie that Americans have been told about our food system?
[00:20:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I believe that there's actually been an intentional psychological operation to convince you not to grow, that you can't grow food and that it's. Growing food is demeaning work or something like that.
And my evidence for that is pretty much every movie or sitcom or television or most books that you read, they portray the farmer as an idiot. You know, if somebody's gardening, it's. They're a doddering old person that has lost their mind or they're a desperate migrant worker that has, can't afford to do anything else. And they just really portray it as.
Yeah, again, you know, demeaning or beneath someone. And nothing could be further from the truth. You know, it's such a wonderful activity. You know, it's, it's, it's just wonderful and it's so healing and the food is so good and the process of growing food is healthier than even the products. So.
But I, I believe it's been intentional because if you can grow your own food, you are not nearly as manageable as if you are dependent on that grocery store, that credit, social credit score or your real ID or whatever they're tracking us with. You know, if, if you're, if you have that degree of freedom from. It's a revolutionary act to grow your own food. And I believe that the powers that be that know that.
Yeah.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: So dig a little deeper into the process of growing your own food is more important than growing your own food. What, what are you, what are you thinking?
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Oh yeah. So, you know, eating healthy food is really good, but going outside and being outside in the sunlight for a minute.
The gentle exercise that comes with most backyard. No, this is not farming. Farming is a little more than gentle exercise, but backyar production is generally pretty gentle exercise. Your electronics and soil and water don't mix. So you're gonna put that device away, which is very good for you.
And you're connecting, you're connecting. You're creating something that nourishes yourself and you're connecting with it. And all the, I think that, and then doing that every day, it's like peace of mind. I did, did a series. I've been trying to get people to grow food forever. I did. One thing I did was this whole series of interviews with these really high, high level people that groove, you know, half an hour to an hour a day. And so this would be like a CEO of a high tech startup with 25 million in, in seed funding, you know, and, or a high level director of a health insurance company with a division of 2,000 people underneath him, you know. You know, I'm talking about these kind of people.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Right, Right.
[00:22:54] Speaker A: Oh yeah. They could afford anything they want. They're not doing it for that, but they loved it because it just, they're still very highly productive people. So they want to produce something.
But this was going out in the garden and they loved it. Like the salsa or their multicolored eggs or whatever it was that they were into, you know, they were just so proud of that because it was tangible and it was real. And they said over and over again, you know, they're in extremely stressful jobs. And they said that was the time that they could really, truly decompress was when they were out there working with whatever it was that they were producing.
[00:23:32] Speaker C: Well, I remember. Quick story. I remember when he was working in the Pentagon, and it was a very stressful time, those particular years. And we had a backyard garden. And we've always had some. If we were able to, we had some semblance of a backyard garden and chickens. And chickens in the suburbs. We did. And so we had that going. And he would come home in the evening, evenings. And that would be his therapy, if you will, was getting out there working, tending to the garden, picking the vegetables, planting whatever was going on. And just that decompression of having your hands in the dirt. And you haven't mentioned this yet, but to me also, it's, you know, having our skin touch the actual soil and the biology and all of the things that are in the soil and the smell of soil. When you're out there working in the garden, you can smell the life in soil. And I think I read somewhere there's a. We have a net. Our brains can smell soil similar to a shark smelling blood. And when we smell that, it's because we're supposed to know that that life is there and, you know, bring us life as we plant. So, yeah, it is really, really therapeutic.
[00:24:51] Speaker B: It was.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: There's something wonderful about the smell of good, rich soil. You're right. It's really therapeutic just smelling it.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Yeah, we're actually working our garden right now. We use the chickens over the wintertime. We put them in the garden area so they clean up what's left. After the fall garden is final picking, the chickens go in, and then they spend their winter in the garden, cleaning it up and revitalizing the soil. And they moved out a couple of weeks ago. We let it rest, and now we're tilling and getting it ready to plant this year.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: Beautiful. I used to have my rabbitry right next to the garden. And so not only when I weeded, but then, you know, every now and then, the right underneath the rabbit tree was a. A compost pile. And I would just, you know, just use a pitchfork because rabbit manure is cool enough. Right. Chicken manure is a little bit hot. You need to let that compost. But rabbit, herbivore, pure herbivore manure. And I would just, just Use a pitchfork and just throw it. Right. I mean, ergonomics is so important. You know, we.
None of us has as much time as we'd like to spend out there, so you really need to structure systems. That's why also, I really recommend people, like, start small, right?
It's. You're going to have a lot more success that way. And it's. It's astonishing how much you can. Can grow. Like that simple system that I have, you know, with two garden beds, 100 square feet of garden, the six laying hens, and then. And then the small rabbit tree. You know, it can fit into three parking spots. It would be better if you had more room, for sure, but you can grow half of your own food in, I don't know, half an hour a day. An hour a day, maybe less, you know, so.
And I laid that out in that webinar with the calories and the portions and show you what 100 pounds of potatoes looks like and, you know, or what rabbit. What. What meals I've cooked with rabbit, or so that's.
[00:26:50] Speaker C: That's sweet. So you've become associated with the Make America Healthy Again movement.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: I have not. Officially there, we're just. Okay. Yeah. And I. I gotta say, I was really disappointed with RFK on his reversal on the vaccine stance, you know, before getting elected, you know, oh, we don't, you know, measles, mumps, and rubella. You don't need that. You know, vitamin A will do it. All of us got it when we were kids. I did, too. We were fine. And then right afterwards, oh, my God, no, there's a pandemic. Everybody needs to get vaccinated. So I don't know. You know, I mean, we're, like I said, we're still in a lot of discussions, and I'm wanting to be very careful about that. One thing that did sort of pushed me over in that direction was I got to hang out with Joel Salatin a couple of weeks ago. We were both speaking at an event, and we know each other from years from. From all the Mother Earth News circuit that we used to do together. And I said, joel, so you're a consultant now for the usda, huh?
What did you do there, buddy? You turned coat and all that, you know, and he was. I was giving him a hard time. He was like, you know, he said when they first made him an opera, he was like, no way, I'm not touching this. And then his son took him out behind the barn, said, dad, you've been bitching about these people for Decades and they have reached out a hand and you need to take it and see what it's all about. So, I mean, my whole mission is to make America healthy again. That's all I've been doing for all these years. Because you have to have homegrown food as a part of that or really good quality food to be healthy. You can't do it with supplements and all these other cryogenics and whatever else they coming up with.
But I don't know that that organization, they've definitely got an integrity problem.
[00:28:50] Speaker C: Well, I do, I do agree that Joel needs to at least did need to at least check into that because we do need people who it. If they're asking someone who knows how to farm like that to be involved, it's worth looking into.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: The encouraging thing to us, I think is if, if the, if anytime they're interviewed and they keep drilling down and asking more and more and more questions about the, okay, well, how, how do you do this? How do you make America healthy again? Oftentimes it comes down to good food and getting off of the ultra processed crap that is pushed on us a lot and getting back to real food, real good food. And for us, that, that focus that even if it's not every time that they're asked, at least the focus on getting back to real food is so important. And that that for us is, is a, I think, a definite plus with where they're going with it.
[00:29:54] Speaker A: Well, we'll see. In fact, the latest twist of events with that is like, you know, Bobby's got to do something politically to get this whole vaccine thing off his back. And so shifting over toward focusing on helping people to grow food and backyard food production is what people resort to in any type of crisis. And we are crisis. And so they're like, well, maybe this would be a good way to like divert the Maha movement into something that's empowering and focused and productive. But then on the other hand, you know, I believe Kennedy and all these guys are tied in with the same narrative that has been pumping out those movies and all that stuff. So I don't think they fundamentally want you to be growing your own food. So it's going to be very interesting to see what happens.
I'll. Yeah, I'll probably engage with them, but I have to say I'm very nervous about it.
[00:30:46] Speaker C: Oh, understandable.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: So what do you say to folks when they, when they come to you and they're like, I'm afraid, like, I, I just, I don't know if I can do this, they're gonna. People are gonna call me crazy. I'm gonna fail. Like, whatever the excuse is for. I just can't do this.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Yeah, okay, you are gonna fail. Let's just get over that.
We've all accidentally killed chickens and plants and all kinds of stuff. I mean, it just happens from time to time.
You. You actually are a survivor. And you have this in your genetic and in your heritage. Because other than the anomaly of maybe the last 50 to 100 years prior to that, everybody had a kitchen garden and chickens and something, and everybody was involved with food production or foraging or something, right throughout all of history. So all of your ancestors did this. And you know, it. It's. It's in you. It's in you, even if you've not ever activated it. And I will say that's actually one of the really delightful things, that when you do start getting into this, you'll find there's, like, this resonance you didn't even know about, and that this rightness, you know, like, this is right. This is good. This is what I'm meant to do, you know.
The other thing is. So I got into it. I told you my story. I was completely freaked out. Panic attacks, you know, shaking, actually, people calling me crazy.
That's another story.
Definitely a change in income.
[00:32:28] Speaker C: We get it.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: But it has healed me on every single level that you can be healed. So the physical level, I had horrible allergies and, you know, some things going on, that's all gone. And then the good nutrition and the lack of toxicity because you're growing clean food will heal you. It's just. Even just growing half. And you'll. It will heal you. And the gentle exercise and the outside. On the emotional level, you know, if the grocery stores are boarded up and the trucks stop running, I mean, you know, we're gonna all be in for some change. But I'm not upset about that, right? I'm very calm about that because I have some fundamental skills not only for myself, but to help other people in my community, you know, so on the. On the mental level, there's studies, reams and reams of studies that show that children who eat better quality food score higher on intelligence tests and they have less behavioral problems.
So mentally, you'll be much sharper and clearer. And I find that is true. When you eat really good food, you're able to do it. You're on it. Right? When you're eating junk, oh, heaven help me, on, like, after Christmas or something, you know, I don't want to think about anything.
And then spiritually and gosh, we could do many shows on this. And I'm sure you've had all kinds of wonderful things happens. But you think about it, your hands, you're working directly with forces of creation.
And regardless of what religion or spirituality you come from, you're working with these really, really amazing, you know, you're working with creation and magical stuff happens. Like just incredible things happen with, either with a relationship with your livestock or plants or it's just, it's just really, really wonderful. So on every single level you can imagine, you will be healed. And no, you're not going to get it all perfectly. Things are going to die. You'll make mistakes, there'll be some problems. But you know, you're you, you weren't born knowing how to walk, right? You got right, you got to take some step. And so community is so good. You know, hang out with other people who do it. Go to, go to gardening clubs or if you see a neighbor that's actually got a good garden and maybe you never talk to them, bring them a small gift like a little hand shovel or some gloves or something like that. I have found the most ornery, you know, curmudgeon type grumpy people.
When they get in their garden, their personality changes completely and they're, they're way calmer and more relaxed. And most gardeners and people who are producing in their backyard, there's an abundance and you, you feel that way and you live that way and they're more than willing to share. So some other possibilities are like 4H is open to adults. You know, you can find people there, Future farmers of America, you just start searching for it or find a community garden and start hanging out. So you know, build community. Or when you buy your laying hens, go to the person's house or and hang out with them for a while, you know, so build a community to help support yourself for when. Oh my God, those mites on that chicken. What is that? What do I do? You know, you'll.
Things do come up, you know, want to build some community around that?
[00:35:51] Speaker B: Pitch us your book and your website. Like give us the. How can we follow you? How can we learn more about you and what you're doing?
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Okay, sure. I really recommend that webinar because I have had so many people that wanted to learn this system and it's a three part system for how to grow half of your own food in your backyard. Even if you have no experience, you're older and you're out of shape And I will show you exactly. This is not clickbait. This is something that I have actually taught. Actually, I've taught millions of people. And I know that there have been hundreds of thousands of implementations. And I've taught it to little kids and I've taught it to Elders, and it's really designed for that. And once you can grow half man, that's huge, right? That is really, really huge. And you'll notice it in your health and you'll notice it in everything. That system is easily replicable, by the way. So that way you'll be able to share it and teach it to other family and friends and neighbors. And I hope you do. And the book, by the way, when you get done with the. When you get done with the webinar, I'll make you an offer for a book and a training bundle package. But, yeah, I was super happy Penguin Random House published this. And if you know anything about publishing, that's a really big score. Like, they're. They're the biggest publisher around, and in this sure is. Yeah, Yeah. I go through the grow half system and I also have a little bit on home medicine. I had a use herbs to treat the 12 most common ailments that come up in a family. And there's some really wonderful graphs and charts and, you know, plans for chicken coops. And there's this really great nutrition versus disease chart. You take a look at that and you'll never eat anything out of the grocery store again, which you shouldn't anyway. So, yeah, I would really recommend also, if you have kids, chapter nine.
So I got bit by a copperhead snake doing something stupid. Copperheads are generally pretty docile snakes, but we treated it all at home, and it's a potentially fatal snake bite. And I get a really good dose.
And we just treated it all at home with natural techniques. And I go through that whole story, and a real important part of the story was my daughter Kimberly, who helped. She knew I raised her to know this stuff, right? So she helped out a lot. And I found kids. That's chapter nine. I found kids love that chapter.
So before it was in the book, it used to be a little tiny book by itself. And fourth grade teachers would come back to me after giving them one a copy or two, and then they'd come back and I'd say, listen, the kids love that. Every year they all read that. Everybody in the class reads it. Could you get me another copy? Because that one's kind of, you know, torn up. And I'm like, sure, you know, so the kids really resonate, and they love a role model of another kid who can play such an important role as in helping save her mom's life, you know, using herbal medicine. So it's a very empowering story. So. Yeah, so that's the book. The webinars at backyard food production.com Come on over. Once you sign up, we'll get you rolled on into the Grow Network. And we have a whole gigantic blog in a store and all kinds of courses, and we give a loyal out for free. And we're just trying to get people to, you know, grow food. And the more people that are producing their food, the easier this transition is going to be. And we're in a big transition. And so that's why I'm, you know, out here talking to you today and all your family and friends.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Perfect. Well, and I'll leave links to all of those things that you just mentioned down in the description of this. And as we wrap up, is there any message. Is there anything that you would want to leave us with?
[00:39:37] Speaker A: Yeah, Again, growing. I. I started out with this in fear and in panic and having no experience.
And I will say it has it. I even I will always be growing my own food. It is such a delightful and wonderful activity. You're. You're gonna love it. So just jump in and do it.
[00:39:59] Speaker C: And we encourage people to practice. You know, we might not be strapped right now for. At the grocery store. We don't eat that either. But you're not strapped right now. But the day can come. We saw it in 2020. We lived in just outside of Washington, D.C. and we saw meat rations, we saw empty grocery store shelves. We were not fearful. We had just put a whole beef in our freezer right before the world shut down. So we were fine. But we felt that. And we encourage people to learn how to stock up, learn how to grow.
It can happen. So having seen it, we encourage people practice, get the skills. You might not need it right this second, but the day can come where you need to know how to grow your own food.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: And just like you said, how important community is to that, because even if you don't have the space to grow a cow, you might have the space to grow a tomato. And I'm willing to trade some hamburger for a tomato, you know, like, so just the importance of community in that whole. In that whole thing.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: Beautifully said. Yeah, we're in it, y'all. It's. It's happening now. We are. We are well into collapse. The dollar. The dollar will never die, but they'll just make so many of them that it's worth nothing. So we're going there?
[00:41:27] Speaker C: Yes, it does. It does appear that way, doesn't it? Yes. Hey, this has been a fantastic conversation. We thank you so much for hanging out with us today.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Shelly, Rick, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for letting me talk to you and your community.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: Of course. Yeah. Thank you.
