Off The Beaten Path Homestead

A Tiny Homestead

Today I'm talking with Val at Off The Beaten Path Homestead.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Val at Off the Beaten Path Homestead. Good morning, Val. How are you? Good morning. I'm great. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. As I was telling Val before we hit record, I discovered Val on...

00:29
on Facebook through her videos and I fell in love with her immediately because she has such a great personality. Thank you so much for that. Yes, absolutely. So tell me about yourself and what you do. Well, my name is Valerie Bias and I live in Virginia. I've been here most of my life. I

00:55
I grew up in a small town in Virginia, in Buckingham County, and six sisters, so my mom and dad had seven girls. And I watched them garden and take care of livestock. And of course, feeding seven children was quite a feat. And so they had to do whatever they had to do to stretch what we had.

01:24
And so they garden and they preserved food and we had livestock, hogs and chickens and goats. And, uh, that's what we did to survive. And, um, so when COVID hit, you know, my, me and my husband were talking and, and we started thinking, you know, this is different and, and, and we've got to do something, um, because.

01:52
Our world had changed and so we moved from our home in North Chesterfield, Virginia, and we purchased a piece of property in a rural area. We're only about 20-25 minutes from amenities. We can still, you know, get to the grocery store. And so we moved out here and we started doing what I learned to do as a child, which was

02:21
We only have chickens right now. We've only been out here since 2021. And so we just love it out here and we love what we do. We garden and raise our own food. And we also have a farm store that we put our excess products in. We are just a shed and.

02:48
We stock that with food that we preserve for long-term use. And so that's what we're doing out here and we're trying to get our community involved and so that we can learn from each other. That's been a bit difficult because we don't know anyone out here trying to find people who do what we do and who wanna learn from us and so that we can learn from them.

03:15
And so that's what we're doing out here. We just. I love it. I'm so excited that you decided to do that. We did the same thing. We moved from in town to out in the country in 2020. So, Ben, where you are. So your videos on your Facebook page are so fun. And the way that you say hello to your viewers and then.

03:42
Identify who you are is adorable. Could you could you do it for me? Well, I mean it's part of my personality and who I am and when I Meet people or I'm introduced to people. It's hi, sweetie. How are you? And so I start my videos off with hey sweet people. It's mama Val and so That's who I am My my daughter she's 41

04:12
and all of her friends, they refer to me as Mama Val. And I love it and that's who I am now. And most people who know me, they're younger, they call me Mama Val, so. Yes, and your accent is a little bit more pronounced on the videos too. And that was the thing that really caught me because I am a big, I don't know, I'm obsessed with people's.

04:38
accents. I think that it's so fun when people talk in a way that's different than I do. Oh, wow. I've never noticed that. Yeah. And I don't know if it's a southern accent or what it is. And it probably has to do with my stepfather was in the Navy and we moved around so much. He was in the Navy for 36 years. And we moved all over and

05:07
I'm sure it has something to do with moving around. Yeah. Yes, I would say that your accent is a generic Southern drawl in the best way possible. And basically to me, you sound like a warm hug and a glass of sweet tea. Oh, you are so sweet. That's how it sounds. Yes. It makes my heart sing, so hearing that. Yeah.

05:34
I just, I don't know, I just, I saw your video and I just sat there and I was like, I love this lady. She's amazing. Thank you, Mary. Thank you. Um, yeah. You're welcome. And I'm not typically this effusive, but when people grab me, they grab me hard, like grab me in full and you're one of them. I don't know why. So any, anyway, um, you're okay.

06:01
your videos that I've seen one was making two pennies into a dollar and one was something else and I can't remember but the two pennies into a dollar one really struck me because I have raised four kids. My youngest is 22 and he still lives with us. Back when they were young, we were a family on one income. I was a stay at home mom and I was trying to cook for six people total.

06:31
And so I cooked for an army basically every time I cooked and we would, we would have leftovers and the kids never blinked at eating leftovers because it tasted better the second time you ate it anyway. It does. So, and so I was so excited to see you do something that was touching on using up what you have. And so if you want to, if you want to talk a little bit more about that, I would be tickled. Well,

07:00
As I said, my parents had seven girls and it was hard. And mom did not work. She stayed at home and took care of us in the house as women typically did back then. And so she used everything. We ate what we were fed. And if there were leftovers, they did not go in the trash.

07:30
She would use them up and what she was so great at was converting those leftovers into an entirely new meal. And we had no idea that they were last night's leftovers or that to us it was a different meal from the night before. And we just loved it and we ate it and that's how we grew up. And so that's what I do now. I have

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only been married since 2012. And so I raised my two daughters by myself, the youngest having autism and, you know, paying child care and taking care of a child with so many health issues and trying to work. And I had to stretch what I had.

08:26
And that's what I did. And I learned that from my parents. And so, when things get rough or things get tight, I go back to what I grew up with. What would mom do or what would dad do? And that's pretty much what I've done all of my life as an adult. And that's what I'm doing now. Groceries are so high and...

08:54
what we get in the grocery stores, it's not healthy. They are putting all sorts of things into our food. And if we can grow it ourselves and produce a healthier quality of food to nourish our bodies, why not? Why not, you know? Yes, and it's not that hard to grow your own food.

09:20
No, what we've ran into here on this land is that our land is so heavily laden with clay, is that we are having to remediate our land. And so while we're doing that, we use raised beds, we grow in our greenhouse, we use containers, we use whatever we have to produce our food. And it's working out so far.

09:49
To correct the soil, we are using wood ash, compost, wood chips, whatever we have, we use.

10:02
Yes, and trying to amend soil that is clay is really difficult and I commend you for doing the work because it's not easy and you've got to commit to it. Oh yes, you know what we do is we actually work in sections. When we moved here there was a Finston area and the lady who we purchased the property from I actually had the opportunity to meet her.

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And she said they had goats in that area. And so the soil was a little bit better in that area, but still needed some work. So we started there in ground. And like I said, we added raised beds outside of that area. So we could use the land that we had. We're only on three acres, and I'd say about an acre and a half of it is wooded. Can you hear me, Mary?

11:00
Okay. Um, and so, uh, we also, um, grow up, we use, uh, I'm not sure what you call them. They're stackable pots. We use those to grow up. Um, we trellis a lot of things, our tomatoes, um, we try and grow up. We actually had a tomato plant this year that was about 10 feet tall because it grew up on, um,

11:29
we found some old bamboo poles and we use those. And so whatever we can do, and I'm gonna tell you, YouTube is amazing for learning a lot. I set up half the night on YouTube, researching and watching what other people do, other homesteaders, and you can learn a lot from YouTube.

11:56
You sure can. My husband is addicted to all the farming channels and all the gardening channels. Yes, there is a couple. I think they are in Georgia and the name of their channel is Homestead Heart and I watch her a lot. Yeah, so the community, you know, which stretches across the US on YouTube and and it

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These, the homesteaders, people who homestead and are going back to the old ways are so inventive and creative. And it's working, it's working. And if we could spread this throughout our communities, wouldn't it be wonderful if everybody just grew their own food and we shared what we have with each other? That would be awesome. You're singing my song, Val.

12:56
Yeah, and we are currently working on and learning about food forests and how to do that. How to intermingle plants and grow those together so that one plant benefits another. That's what we are researching and studying right now. And so hopefully that works out for us.

13:25
Isn't it fascinating when you start digging into the food forest thing? Isn't it fascinating how that all works together? Yes, and the other thing Mary that we found here on the land is the plants the the plants that naturally grow here as an example, I harvested last spring chickweed and We we make tea out of that we

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dry it and then we cure it in the oven and we actually make tea from that. And the wild lettuce, we use that to make medicinal, that access, it's sort of nature's opioid. And so it takes care of pain because I suffer with rheumatoid arthritis and I was getting

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all this different medication from the doctors and nothing was helping. In fact, it was causing more issues. And so I started delving into how can I heal my own body? What can I do? God gave us everything that we need here on this earth to take care of our bodies and our health. And so I've started sort of venturing off into that world and it's actually working.

14:50
out in the farm store, we sell a lot of, I don't want to call them medicinal, but herbal products that we get from the land that we then convert into tentures and teas and sabs. And our customers that come to the farm store actually love that and they try it once and they come back again for it. And so it's working.

15:17
What what we get from the farm store, we don't make a lot of income from that is we have the opportunity to Teach our community What they can do to heal their own bodies how they can live a more healthy and sustainable life And so that's what we that's the purpose of the farm store is to let people know what we are doing to draw people To us so that we can meet others

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like-minded people and learn from each other and feed off of each other. Yep, and you're in Virginia. I know there are like-minded people around you because Virginia is the land of homesteading and farming. Oh yes, yes. Have you heard of Polyphase Farm and Joel Saladin? Who is that?

16:14
gonna write that down no I have not. He's in Virginia or West Virginia I can't remember right now but he has an open door policy for his farm and so people can just come and see what he's doing and he's been doing it for a very long time and he's big into the regenerative farming so you might want to go find him on YouTube and see what he has to say because you'll probably learn a lot from him too. I certainly will that's gonna be my

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what I do this evening. That's my relaxation is searching YouTube and learning and finding new people. And so we'll find him tonight. It'll be really easy. He's very well known in the home setting. And that's Sallison? S-A-L-I-S-O? Nope, S-A-L-A-T-I-N. S-A-L-A-T-I-N. Thank you for that. Yeah.

17:13
Yep, he's very, very famous. And if you want to go look on my podcast episodes, I got to interview him months ago. He's super nice. You're wonderful. So anyway, just wanted to throw another one at you so you have something else to delve into. So would you, this has been on my heart for a month now. And I think you might be the right person to ask. Are you into the being prepared part of homesteading and farming? We are.

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Um, we are, are working towards that. Um, we purchased a, a shed. Um, and we have started, uh, we put shelving in it and we are, you know, stocking that up, um, with water and medication foods that are canned and preserved and ferment it. Um.

18:09
So we are into that. I wouldn't say we are by any means doomsday preppers, but we are prepping for whatever is coming down the road. Okay, so the reason that I asked and the reason I bring this up is because I've been wanting to talk with someone on one of the episodes about the preparing for the unknown. And it's been driving me crazy because I didn't know who to talk to about it. And...

18:38
Do you mind if we talk a little bit about that for a minute? Sure, that's fine. Okay. With everything going on in the world right now, we're rolling into winter time. And I know you're in the South, but it gets cold in the South too, in the dead of winter. And ice storms happen and snow sometimes happen and sometimes the power goes out. And so I really feel like with winter coming on and the election coming up here next week,

19:09
And the world is just a little topsy-turvy that maybe people should be considering if they're going shopping, maybe they buy two of something that they use a lot instead of one thing, you know, an extra if they can afford it and put it away for the future. And medicines, my husband takes a medicine that is prescribed, my son takes a very important medicine that's prescribed.

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get down to the very last of your medicines, stay on top of your prescriptions, that kind of thing. So what would you suggest for being on top of things as much as you can be right now? Well, my husband and I were having a conversation the other evening about just that thing, medication, and the problem with prepping or storing up prescription meds is that you can't get...

20:06
your medication refilled until you almost ran out of what you have. And so yes, making sure that your medicines are always, that you always have them on hand, definitely. But that's why I went off into trying to find natural things that were sort of comparable to what I'm taking. Like other things I can use for the rheumatoid arthritis.

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or for pain because you may not always be able to stock up enough of your prescription meds to get you through. If something happens and the pharmacy was closed and you couldn't get it, well what do you use in place of that? Is what we have been looking at. That makes sense. Yes, absolutely.

21:01
And I'm not saying stock up for a year. I'm just saying don't get to the point where you have two tablets left and there's a blizzard coming your way and you can't get to the pharmacy. No, absolutely not. Um, I just lost my train of thought. Um, it happens. Yeah. The other thing you were, you just mentioned, you know, if you're going to the grocery store, instead of getting one or something, uh, get two or three, or if you find something on sale to get that because

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A lot of people who they, you can still stock up even if you don't grow from grocery store items. For instance, I use Azure standard. And we order a lot of things from there. We know it's good quality food. It doesn't have the antibiotics, herbicides and pesticides in it. And so we order in bulk from there.

22:00
And I ordered some rice not long ago and we used mylar bags to separate that and put it in. So we've probably got rice and beans enough to last us for maybe a year and a half. So yes, buying in bulk or stocking up on things that you find on sale is definitely a good way to go. Yes. And since you mentioned

22:29
rice and beans. Here's the thing that I want people to know about if things go real bad and you have to live on what you have in your home or on your property, the variety of foods is going to be real slim because you're not going to just be able to go to the store and get something that's completely out of season. So what I would suggest is if you have to live on pasta, beans and rice and whatever you manage to store in a

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a canning jar, like if you can meat, that meat is not the same as a steak on the grill. You need to have seasonings. You need to have salt. You need to have pepper. You need to have herbs that are dried. You can grow herbs and dry herbs and put them in canning jars that are sealed tight and they will last for over a year. And they taste way better than the ones you buy at the store. So there are things that you can do to plan ahead.

23:27
for if you're stuck in your house for three days because a blizzard comes through, an ice storm comes through, and you literally can't drive anywhere. But there are also things you can do to handle like a week and a half without power. I just have had this on my heart so much because my daughter just moved to Florida last winter. Wow, wow. And so she was in St. Petersburg through Helene and Mark and what was it, Melvin?

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Milton, Milton, Milton, a couple weeks ago. And I was quite beside myself with worry about her and come to find out she and her husband live on one of the highest points in St. Petersburg. So they were fine, but they could have just as easily not been fine. And when, when the first one was announced, when Helene was mentioned on the news a week before it hit, I messaged her and I said, are you prepared for this?

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And she said, oh, yeah. And like three days before it was coming, I said, my darling daughter, are you prepared for this? And she said, well, yeah, we've got. And I said, you need to have bottled water. You need to have stuff that you could eat out of the can or the package without heating it up. If the power goes out and your water doesn't work, you need those things. I said, I raised you better than this. And she's like.

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We're going to the store tomorrow. I'm like, good, please do. I'm really worried about you. Helene was a cakewalk. They were totally fine. Milton was a little worse. They were out without power and water for a week, I think. And they were, they were better than lots of people who went through both of those hurricanes, but she thanked me.

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later, she was like, thank you for reminding me that you used to draw water when there was a storm coming and you used to do all these things. I'm like, yes, there's a reason that we prepare for emergencies. So she was quite reminded of why that is. I certainly can relate to that. My daughter, my oldest, who's 41, she teases me all the time, Mom, if something happens, we're going to come out there.

25:49
You guys are gonna take care of us, like, no, dear. You and your husband need to learn how to do these things. And although she really doesn't participate much, the awesome thing, Mary, is that the grandchildren are interested. And they come out and spend time and they're learning these things.

26:15
They're learning what to do and how to do it. And they're learning from my husband and I. But you're absolutely correct. Being prepared is very important. And we are trying to do that, as you were saying, drying herbs and things to season with. There are Mylar bags. There are food-grade containers you can use to store stuff in.

26:43
You use some of those oxygen absorbers and put those in. There's a lot you can do to prepare yourself for all types of situations. My husband and I are currently looking into solar because yeah, what if the electric goes out? What are we going to do? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, our generator has a dead battery right now.

27:12
And my husband told me this two evenings ago. And I said, you are going to get a new battery for that, right? And he said, yes. And I said, okay, good, because I don't want to go into the middle of winter with no alternative power source. And he said, no, no, I'm going to get a battery for it this weekend and get it put in. And I was like, great. And then they started predicting two days ago. So that same day, they told me the battery was dead, that we were going to get snow today. And

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I was like, please God, don't let the power go out today. Because if it does. Have you noticed that happen recently? The power went out last winter for like four hours, but the generator had a battery, so it was fine. And it kicks on. As soon as the power has been off for like four or five minutes, the generator just automatically kicks on and sends the power to the house. It's amazing. So I. Yeah.

28:11
Yeah, the whole house just runs just like if it was the power from the electric company. It's fantastic. And so of course, last night I'm laying in bed thinking, please don't let the power go out tomorrow because the generator's dead. But you know what, Marie? I hear a little bit of, you know, please don't let the power go out because the battery's dead. I think...

28:39
We don't want to, or at least I don't want to, I don't want to scare people. I mean, it's important to do what we're doing, but I think if when we're prepared, it puts our mind at ease so that we can focus on focus on other things. Um, and I don't want to veer off topic here, but, uh, I know that.

29:04
since my husband and I have started doing this and actually not just doing it as a hobby, it's become a way of life that we seem to be a little less worried about things. We can enjoy life more because we know that in the event something happens that we are probably one of the few families who can make it through.

29:32
and hopefully help someone else. Yes, absolutely. And before you go any further, the reason I didn't want the power to go out wasn't because I was worried about the power going out. I really wanted to talk to you today. If the power had gone out, I wouldn't have been able to use my computer to connect with you. You're absolutely correct. That was part of the reason why I was like, I really wanna talk to her tomorrow. I really would like the computer to work.

30:00
If the power was out, I wouldn't be talking to you, number one. And number two, we have hurricane lamps and we have leggings and sweaters and blankets if it got cold in the house. And we have water and we have food that I could heat up on our gas stove because with a gas stove, you can turn the burner thingy on and light it with a lighter and it works. I wasn't worried about it for actually surviving it. I just wanted to talk to you. Well, thank you so much.

30:29
I'm glad you said that. Now we don't have a gas stove. We are a total electric here, which I don't like, but what we have done is prepared or built alternative things outside that we can cook on. Learning how to make a stove out of things that we find around the house. Learning those things. So if you don't have gas.

30:59
and your power does go out, that you do have another way to cook. So that's what we're doing here. Yes, and some of us have like 18,000 ways to cook and that's a big journey, big, big stretch. We have, we have a old tire rim from a tractor that the former owner left here that they use as a burn ring. Yes.

31:27
We don't actually use that anymore. We did start a fire in it when we first moved here and it was really fun. And you can put a grate over that and cook over that. And we did, we made percolator coffee on it and we made burgers and hot dogs on it, cause it was fun. We have an actual really pretty fire ring that we bought the second summer we were here. And that has a grate on it for cooking as well. We have one of the little folding

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fire stands, I don't know what they're called, they look like a notebook and they open up in a V and you can put wood and stuff in there and start a fire in there and it has a grate. If you have fire and a way to keep it contained, you have a way to cook. Absolutely. And I'm glad you said that because this past weekend, that's why I haven't done any videos. It's been maybe two weeks since I've done a video.

32:25
The reason I have in it is I was preparing for an event that we had this past Saturday. We actually had a visit the farm sort of day and we taught people how to cook outside. The kids were making hot dogs on alternative heating sources outside. Just being able to share that.

32:53
with the younger generation. I mean, we made it a day of fun and they had a great time, but our whole purpose for doing that, having that event that day was so that people can learn, you know, in a fun, entertaining way. And I think they did. And I think quite a few of the younger folks actually took something away that they could use. And so, yeah, just sharing with our community.

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what we do in a fun way. You know, because if you learn, if you're learning and it's fun, you'll probably remember what you learned and be able to use it. Should you need it? Yes. And I'm glad you said that because you don't want to be learning how to start a fire when you need a fire. You want to know how to do it before you need it.

33:49
So I love your heart. I love that you did that because there's so many people who are like, oh, I could start a fire if I needed to. And then they're trying to do it in a panic. And it's not as easy as you would think. It's not just sticking a lighter under some newspaper. Right. All right. So. So yeah, I love what you're doing. I'm so.

34:11
Happy that you took the time to talk with me today Valerie. I'm gonna I'm gonna let you go because I try to keep these To half an hour and we're almost 35 minutes because it's been So fun talking to you. Thank you again George speaking with you Thanks for the opportunity and you know, I hope to talk to you again in the future We'll have to talk in the spring. I'm gonna try that it sounds wonderful. In fact, and I know we've got to go

34:36
In the spring, we will actually start teaching classes here on the property, how to do these things we've been talking about. So yeah. Fun. Let's do that. Probably like end of April. Sounds great, Mary. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye.