01x06 - Nature's Bounty

[bunniefuu]

(rooster crows)

INDY: If you've ever dreamed

of owning a farm, come with me.

BOB: Things are living

and things are growing on the rooftop.

INDY: I'm Indy Officinalis.

I'm a farmer who loves

helping other farmers.

My passion for farming

started in my teens,

working on a homestead

in North Carolina

and led me to urban

farming in LA.

I've worked on farms

from coast to coast.

But farming is hard work.

CRAIG: We planted about

ten variety of fruit trees

and they all died.

INDY: So I'm traveling the

country to offer some hope.

Hi.

JILL: Indy.

WOMAN: Oh, my gosh, Indy.

INDY: Join me as I transform

farms on rooftops,

in backyards, warehouses.

This is insane.

And even out on the ocean.

Farm rescue on a boat ♪

And on the way, we'll

get tips from some of

my expert farmer friends.

JILL: This is so awesome.

INDY: Yeah.

(screams).

Today, I'm traveling to

Concordia, Missouri,

home of the 40 acre farm of

Craig Heimsoth, Jill Steffensen

and their three young children.

The couple wants to transform

a parcel of their traditional

farmland into a really

unconventional food forest.

It's a radical idea and one that

I'm deeply passionate about.

But it comes with a huge risk

and they're going to need

my help, if they're going to

succeed in the long run.

JILL: Oh, my gosh, Indy.

INDY: Hey, hey.

JILL: Hello.

INDY: It's so

nice to meet you.

JILL: Thank you for coming.

INDY: Of course.

I'm so happy to meet you.

JILL: Yeah.

INDY: This looks awesome.

JILL: Yeah, I've been working

really hard out in the garden.

INDY: What is this?

JILL: This is the American

classic roadside farm stand that you see.

INDY: Gosh.

JILL: And it's off season

now, it opens in May.

INDY: And you put all

of your produce here,

everything that you guys grow.

JILL: Yes, I harvest in the

morning and I load this up

and throughout the day,

people come and shop.

INDY: Wow, that's so cool.

JILL: You're right

at the edge of town.

INDY: Yeah, you're in

the middle of everything.

JILL: Meet my partner, Craig.

INDY: Oh, hey.

CRAIG: Hi.

INDY: So nice to meet you, Indy.

CRAIG: Yeah, Indy, Craig.

INDY: Yes,

thanks for having me.

CRAIG: Yeah, we're excited.

JILL: I'd love to

give you a tour.

INDY: Yes.

JILL: I did plant

10,000 onions.

INDY: No way.

JILL: And that was my

goal and I did it in a week.

INDY: I love them.

JILL: Yeah.

INDY: Oh, did you

name all of them?

(laughs).

INDY: In addition to the

roadside farm stand at the

edge of their property, Jill

and Craig sell their produce

at a local market in town.

But for the business to be

viable, they need to sell

a lot more.

So how did you guys end

up living on this farm?

CRAIG: So, this was my

grandparents farm and we lived

in town, but we would always

come here on the weekends.

Growing up here as a kid, I

definitely had dreams and

fantasies of really

wanting to own this property.

When I started working

construction on the road and

I went away, well, I came

back to visit with my aunt,

she's like, "Well, grandma and

grandpa are selling the farm."

And I was like,

"Are you serious?"

I had a goal for the next six

months to work, you know,

100 hours a week, taking no time

off, save up the money and

then the whole family kind of

got together and agreed that

I was gonna be the right

person to buy the farm.

So that was the journey

to move back here and

start our family.

INDY: The idea that this is

the land that his ancestors,

that his family farmed,

like his grandfather tilled,

I think that it makes it

just that much more special.

Your family's

literal roots are here.

CRAIG: Yeah, it's

awesome to be able to keep it.

INDY: Yeah, yeah.

JILL: His height is measured

in the basement, his height is

like measured on the wall.

Yeah, when I moved here, I was

like, oh, there's Craig all

growing up on the wall.

INDY: In order to keep the

farm afloat, Craig and Jill

have leased the land to

corn and bean producers.

But they want to turn away

from that and transform their

land into something

radical and intriguing.

They want to leave it alone

so it can grow naturally,

the way nature intended.

They want to

grow with the flow.

But they've got a deep

connection to this land,

which makes the stakes even

higher if the farm fails.

So right now, is the farm

bringing in an income,

is it profitable?

JILL: We're getting there.

I'm trying to build

this business,

I'm five years in

to building it.

CRAIG: There is kind of a

sense of urgency for us

to try and make this place

what in our eyes it

potentially could be.

JILL: I do not want to have

my kids come home to an

empty house after school.

I'm the main caregiver and I

really wanna be present and

I want to, you know, be there

for those moments,

be part of their life.

INDY: Is that what

you grew up with?

JILL: My mom worked all the

time, I was always home alone.

She had to be the provider,

she had to make that money.

INDY: Right.

JILL: I've been putting my heart

and soul in this for years,

so like, really, what's

on the line is like me having

to go and out and get a job,

or like, be able to have this

be my job.

It's everything to me.

INDY: Yeah.

JILL: I have such a passion to

grow food and I see that need

in my community.

I just want it to be as self

sufficient as possible and

be a producer more

than a consumer.

INDY: They need the property

to be profitable, so that Jill

can stay home with her kids.

But right now, their plantings

are only using a fraction of

their 40 acres.

To fulfill the promise of

the farm, Craig and Jill

are redefining their

relationship with the land.

CRAIG: We're more of a steward

of the land here and

as opposed to where conventional

farming with mono crop,

we're trying to work with the

land and help it along.

INDY: Uh-huh.

CRAIG: Instead of trying to

force it to do what we want.

INDY: That makes sense.

Craig might have this tough

hard exterior, but hearing him

talk about being a steward

of the land is beautiful.

They're making the daring

decision to deliberately turn

away from modern

farming practices.

And I just really love the

idea of like, instead of

industrial farming we're

like indigenous farming.

And instead are

embracing old school

and even ancient methods.

JILL: There's a Mandala garden

over there that I'm working on

for my medicinal herbs.

INDY: Oh, my gosh, awesome.

Like a little herb spiral?

JILL: Yeah.

Like, farming, there's so many

straight lines and there's no

rules that say that you have to

do things in straight lines.

It's kind of fun to do

these different shapes.

INDY: Yeah.

JILL: It's like my dream to be

able to forage out here and to

be able to have my kids like,

picking fresh berries,

like all through the seasons.

INDY: I love foraging,

so when you're talking

JILL: Yeah, I know that about

you on social media.

INDY: Yes, yes, I love

foraging so much, because

JILL: like, what is she eating,

what are you eating now,

where did you find that?

INDY: Yeah, that used to

terrify my mom when I was kid,

but I was like,

"No, trust me."

By simply encouraging edible

plants, herbs and mushrooms

growing naturally on their

property, Craig and Jill are

entering into the challenging

and often profitable

world of foraging.

CRAIG: It's a little tricky to

walk up to a mushroom that you

don't know and be brave enough

to try and eat it, I think.

INDY: Right, right.

CRAIG: And I know they

have a lot of apps that

you can take pictures.

INDY: Never trust the apps.

CRAIG: I don't, I don't.

INDY: Well, no, the apps are

cool, but they don't take into

account some really important

things when it comes to plant

and mushroom identification,

like time of year,

climate, rainfall, proximity to other trees.

JILL: Totally.

INDY: But we can identify so

many things that you guys can

eat that are just

naturally growing here.

And not only eat, but like

turn into a product that

you can sell.

Foraging is the act of looking

for sustenance, medicine or

other useful material

in the wild,

just as animals

scavenge for food.

The making of a delicious salad

may be outside your back door,

but those who forage

must study all types of plant,

fungus, weeds and fruit, to

confidently identify what is

safe to touch or eat

and what is poisonous.

Foraging could be quite

profitable for Jill and Craig,

but with the right amount of

research, anyone can learn to

safely supplement their meals.

Wow, this is awesome.

As we make our way, Craig

and Jill introduce me to

a seven acre parcel they

hope to transform from

traditional farmland into

what is evocatively known as

a food forest.

This is so beautiful,

I need to get closer to this sea of purple.

JILL: Right?

INDY: I love this.

Do you just do

cartwheels in this field?

CRAIG: Yeah, we should.

We're really hoping to establish

a forest in this area,

with a mix of

different varieties of trees.

Nut trees, fruit trees.

JILL: And we're not trying to

plant an orchard, we want it

to feel like very natural

and I wanna put like

medicine plants different

places and berries.

INDY: Planting traditional

crops, Jill and Craig are only

seeing profits of around

$1200 from this field.

But starting a food forest

that yields a wide variety of

fruits, vegetables, nuts

and herbs could potentially

generate thousands

more in annual income.

It's just going to take

some time to get there.

However, with the hot summer

months quickly approaching,

now is the time

to make it happen.

I mean, I think when most people

think of the idea of a forest,

you mostly, you know,

you think of trees,

but there's so much

happening in the under story.

The food forest is

multi layered, composed of

predominantly

perennial plants.

There are smaller plants and

root crops, shrubs and large

trees that grow

fruits and nuts.

With the proper research and

planning, you can transform

your surroundings into your

own personal food forest.

But it's not always easy.

CRAIG: We've tried to plant

some trees once already,

we planted about ten,

a variety of fruit trees

and they all died.

And it's kind of defeating to,

you know, put that time and

money into something and

then get nothing out of it.

So we really lack the

experience on how to

even go about it.

JILL: And I'm like,

where do you even start?

Like where is the beginning?

INDY: I get why Craig and

Jill are feeling overwhelmed.

Farming can be frustrating,

but I've got some ideas that

are going to

turn things around.

CRAIG: Every year that

you don't plant a tree,

like you lose that time,

like completely.

But we need to get to where

we're taking those first steps

to make it into something.

And for us, another really

important part is what we're

leaving our kids, so that

when they are older,

they'll have something and they

don't have to start from scratch

like we did.

INDY: Hearing about how

different they want to be from

other farms, how different

they wanna make this land from

what it used to be, this

really kind of radical idea of

a food forest, it was, the whole

place just opened up to me.

I saw all of the potential.

Foraging is one of

my biggest passions.

This is a long term plan

requiring essential

short term improvements.

Craig and Jill need to be able

to locate and identify all of

the edible vegetation

and mushrooms already

growing on the farm.

They need to develop and

market added value products to

sell alongside their produce.

And then there's the

staggering leap into

designing, planning and

planting a massive seven acre

food forest.

It's a lot to get done.

But their

passion is infectious.

JILL: I'm so excited

that Indy wants to help us.

CRAIG: I really hope Indy is

able to help lay everything out

and put us on the right

path and guide us

in the right direction.

INDY: Usually, when I'm

helping out fellow farmers,

I go visit other farms, but

this time, I'm bringing the

inspiration right

to their doorstep.

♪

JILL: Oh, it's Indy.

INDY: Hey.

JILL: Hey, Indy.

INDY: This is my friend,

Bo Brown.

JILL: Hi, Bo Brown, I'm Jill.

BO: Hi, Jill.

JILL: Great to meet you.

CRAIG: Bo, Craig,

nice to meet you.

INDY: Yes, so he's an

incredible local forager and

I really wanted to show

him the field that you guys have down there.

CRAIG: Cool.

JILL: Awesome.

INDY: Are you guys

doing anything right now?

JILL: No, let's go shop.

CRAIG: No, it's good.

BO: Great place,

man, this is amazing.

INDY: Bo is one of the

nation's leading experts on

foraging and a published

author on the subject.

And what's even cooler,

Bo knows this area like

the back of his hand.

He's the sort of person who

walks out onto what would

otherwise look like just a

patch of grass and he can

immediately identify

six different plants.

And not just identify them,

but know whether or not

you can eat them.

BO: She was telling me a

little bit about your farm.

And that you're growing

for a roadside food stand, is that correct?

CRAIG: Yeah, that's

Jill's full time job.

BO: Uh-huh.

With all the stuff you're

growing out here, have you

thought about incorporating

some of the weed things that

not a lot of people have access

to, that have different flavors.

JILL: Wow, yeah, never really

thought about that before.

INDY: Jill and Craig could

already have a wealth of food,

herbs and medicinal plants

growing naturally in the land

right beside their house, that

they can not only use at home,

but sell and boost

profits at their farm stand.

BO: You have a common burdock

there, you can buy that root

in Asian food stores as Gobo.

JILL: Okay.

INDY: But first, it's

essential to safely and

accurately

identify what's out here.

BO: There's a toxic plant,

it's called Jimsonweed.

JILL: It kind of looks like

that plant that might eat you.

Just looking at that, that

looks like a don't touch me,

to me, you know, it doesn't

look like something that

I'd wanna eat.

BO: My goal is to educate

people about all the different

things that are out there,

that were historically and

prehistorically eaten

and you're getting so many

nutrients and medicine.

CRAIG: For free.

BO: And for free and it's

easy, you walk out your

backyard and there it is.

JILL: I'm glad we're with a

trusted source, 'cause I would

hate to try some

random flowers.

BO: I always warn my students,

be 120% sure of your

identification and use

three different sources of

confirmation for your ID.

INDY: So you can be our third

source of identification.

JILL: I'm gonna be calling

you, give me your number.

BO: I get to play

that game a lot.

JILL: Do you?

BO: Yes.

INDY: Bo is local, so I think

that it's helpful just to know

that there's someone within your

community that can help you

identify plants and that is

already doing this kind of work.

CRAIG: We're

obsessed with wood chips.

BO: The food items that grow up

in some of these wood chips,

look at this,

that's Japanese Knotweed.

It's an invasive but it's

a super good edible and

it'll come in with wood chips

and dirt and stuff like that.

Check that out.

JILL: Oh, gosh.

BO: It's kind of slimy.

It's that family, Polygonaceae,

which is buckwheat.

So if you've had a buckwheat

pancake, you had this.

A lot of these plants like the

dead nettle, crush those up

with nuts and a little bit of

oil and some other seasoning

plants and it makes the pesto

that you wish you'd known about.

JILL: Oh, okay.

CRAIG: That's awesome.

INDY: This is magical patch

that I was telling you about,

Bo, I feel like it's

just filled with food.

I mean, even things

like clover you can eat.

BO: Uh-huh.

JILL: Clover is edible?

INDY: Yeah. Yes.

JILL: I'd never

think to eat that.

INDY: Yeah, well people take

the flower blossoms, right?

Of the purple clover.

And throw it into a vinegar.

BO: There's chickweed, try

that little white flower job

right there.

That one.

Take a taste of that.

INDY: It's like broccoli.

JILL: Yeah.

BO: That's a mustard.

JILL: Oh, it does,

yeah, it's got good flavor.

BO: Uh-huh, people are paying

money to get rid of the things

they should be eating.

JILL: Yeah.

And food is so

expensive these days.

BO: Exactly.

There's hundreds of

species of mustards.

One of the characteristics

is it will always have a four

petaled flower

arranged in a cross.

JILL: Okay.

BO: Everything here except for

the hemlock and the grass,

I would put in my salads.

And free food, good food.

JILL: There's like a

whole salad in my backyard and I had no idea.

BO: Everything we're seeing here

is more disturbed ground stuff.

When you get out of this habitat

and into a forest habitat,

everything changes and it's

a whole different environment.

INDY: Well, could you take

us out into the forest today?

Do you have time?

BO: I do.

INDY: Everywhere Bo looked

on the farm, he saw potential

food, herbs and medicine.

JILL: We're here.

INDY: It's beautiful.

Now that we're in the nearby

woods, Bo can point out a

whole host of fungi and plant

species that could potentially

be found in Craig and

Jill's future food forest.

JILL: So usually, we

only forage for morels.

BO: Really tasty, but they're

just highly overrated and

there are so many other

things that are out there.

INDY: It's all about

identification and education.

So, being able to go out

in your forest and educate

yourself and know what you

can eat and what you can't and

what's poisonous, you know, it

never hurts to get to know the

plants that are around you.

JILL: Yeah.

BO: My native American

mentor had a saying,

"Knowledge is incomplete

till it's passed on."

Like she said, obligation,

when you learn something,

you're obligated

to pass that on.

And so, you can't learn it all

at once, so it's just like,

little bites of it, it's like

building a repertoire,

it's just, it's a

journey of discovery.

INDY: I like to think of

foraging as picking our

ancestors' harvest, 'cause a

lot of our ancestors brought

plants either intentionally,

or non intentionally,

that you'll see

growing here today.

Oh, look at these little guys.

BO: What do you see in here?

INDY: And do you

know what that is?

BO: I do.

This is one of the

garlics, 'cause it's flat.

JILL: Okay.

So it's wild garlic?

BO: Uh-huh.

JILL: Okay.

I love garlic.

BO: This is something you might

want to put in your farm garden.

JILL: This right here?

BO: Yeah.

That is gooseberry.

JILL: I've heard of

gooseberries, but I've never had one before.

BO: They're so tart, they'll

take your head off almost,

but you cook 'em and mix 'em

with sugar and make a pie

out of it and it's to die for.

INDY: Even though it's late

winter, this forest is still

teeming with things to

eat, like mushrooms.

And it's a perfect place

to show Craig and Jill

that potential profits for

the farm stand could be

right under their noses.

So, I'm like, mostly thinking

of where I am in the country.

And then I think about the

time of year, like spring,

obviously, everyone's

looking for morels,

but oyster mushrooms

kind of go all year long.

So I'm always looking

for those on downed logs.

JILL: So now that you pointed

out the gooseberry,

I see gooseberries

like everywhere.

INDY: After hiking around, Bo

sends us out to find a common

medicinal fungi, sought

out by seasoned foragers.

Turkey tail mushroom.

JILL: What's this?

CRAIG: Hey, Indy, check

this is out, is this it?

JILL: Did I find it?

♪

JILL: So is this turkey tail?

BO: Good job, yes.

JILL: I'm the winner!

(laughs).

BO: Good eye.

JILL: They're so pretty.

They're pretty to spot, you

know, there's a whole log

full of them over there.

BO: Uh-huh.

JILL: Foraging is slowing down

and observing what's around you.

We are animals, we

are part of nature.

This is our food, like this

is growing here for a reason.

INDY: Foraging

is a lot of fun.

Once you start doing it, it's

one of those things that you

kind of get addicted to.

JILL: Oh, well, thank you

so much for showing us this.

BO: Sure.

INDY: Like anyone learning to

forage, it will take more than

one lesson for Jill and

Craig to know what's what.

But Bo definitely set them on

the right path and pointed out

some unusual products they

could sell on their farm stand,

to draw in

more customers.

Before we leave, Bo has a

couple of things for us to

take back home.

BO: I want you to have that.

JILL: Oh, thank you.

It's your book that you wrote?

BO: Yes.

And this is some pickled

Chanterelle mushrooms.

JILL: Oh, wow.

BO: There you go.

JILL: Thank you.

INDY: Seeing Bo's gifts, it

occurs to me that I may have a

way to help increase production

at Jill's farm stand.

After dropping everyone off,

I set out on my next task,

getting advice for

planting a food forest.

For that, I'm headed to nearby

Warrensburg, Missouri,

home to architect, designer and

permaculturist, Robert Glinn.

Hey.

I reached out to Bob after

discovering that he planted

his own food forest on his

land about 12 years ago.

Wow, thanks for having me.

BOB: Yeah, I'm

glad you're here.

INDY: And who's this?

BOB: This is Rumy.

INDY: Oh.

He's awesome.

Oh, ha ha!

There's baby chicks.

BOB: Yeah, two weeks old.

INDY: I've gotta hold them.

Hi, little friend.

I sent Bob some photos and

a description of Jill and

Craig's seven acre plot,

hoping he can offer advice on

the best way to

actualize their vision.

Okay, this looks amazing.

BOB: So, this is their

seven acre property.

There are these terraces

that are already established.

And I put this other layer of

the topography or the contours

over the site and I came up

with this concept of dividing

the land, based upon the soil

conditions and based upon

the topography.

And separated this into

two categories,

restoration through reforestation.

And restoration

through cultivation.

Craig could manage this

and Jill could manage this.

INDY: I love this,

his and hers farm.

(laughs).

BOB: Yeah, yeah.

The goal is, we wanna divide the

land up into smaller parcels,

so that it's more manageable.

INDY: Yeah, and it's also

easier to conceptualize,

I think for them too, right now

it feels really overwhelming.

BOB: Yeah, no, for sure.

INDY: What can they

actually begin planting here?

BOB: We need to be putting

in the long term tree system.

INDY: Okay.

Even though it's still early

in season, Bob wants to show

me his food forest, before

everything is in bloom,

so I can have a better idea of

what Craig and Jill's farm might

look like in the future.

BOB: So I'm on three acres.

And before I moved here, this

was nothing but a hay field,

nothing but grass.

The whole concept is to

introduce as much native

species as possible on the

perimeter of the property.

And then as we move closer to

the house, have more cultivated

varieties and diversity of

fruits and vegetables and nuts

and things of that nature.

So these are p*ssy willows, we

have mulberry, false indigo,

hazelnut, black walnut, sumac,

you know, the

soil's good here.

So we start infilling

herbs and wildflowers.

INDY: Oh, wow.

BOB: And this place in the

summer is just, you can't see

through it because of the

wildflowers and all the

vegetation.

Just try to fill in everything

with some sort of ground cover

that's beneficial to the land

and beneficial to the insects

and everything.

And a food forest should

be a mature forest with a dense canopy.

INDY: A food forest canopy

cover plays a unique role in

building a rich and

diverse edible food forest.

By incorporating seasonal

ground covering plants and

shrubs under the taller trees,

the soil conditions are more

likely to be optimal because

of the constant regeneration.

The way Bob filled out his

food forest, it's not just a

hodgepodge of trees, it's

very well planned out,

really beautiful.

It's not just about design for

him, it's about function and

everything works perfectly

together in the system.

So you're thinking from

the top down is kind of

how you wanna approach.

BOB: Thinking from the top

down and I'm thinking, 30, 50 years out,

moving backwards in time.

INDY: Interesting.

You know, you're emulating

nature here, but you're also

kind of training it, so that

it's not just taking over.

BOB: You don't need to

over-complicate things

at the beginning stages.

Nature's gonna complicate

things for you, so, a more

simplistic approach

that is easier to manage.

The thing to keep in mind is,

think about the food forest in

50 years and what's

that gonna look like?

INDY: It's helpful to see what

Bob's farm looked like this

time of year, because it kind

of gives me a reference point.

I'm excited to share Bob's

plans with Craig and Jill.

I hope that they like

what he's come up with.

♪

JILL: Hey, Indy.

INDY: How's it going?

This is my friend, Bob.

BOB: Hi.

CRAIG: Hi, Bob.

Nice to meet you.

JILL: Hello, nice to meet you.

BOB: Nice to meet you all.

INDY: Yeah, so he's a great

edible landscape designer.

JILL: Cool.

INDY: Having Bob with me

is going to go a long way

explaining how this food

forest is going to look on

Craig and Jill's land.

And with summer right around

the corner, we've got a short

window to get this right.

So this is the place that

we're envisioning the oaks,

the Concordia oaks that

you were talking about.

And Bob, you said this would

be a good spot for the more

timber production.

BOB: This would be a great spot

for dense, more dense planting.

CRAIG: Right.

BOB: You know, you need to

think about 30 years from now.

INDY: This is the trees,

where do the nuts starts?

BOB: Kind of on the other

side of those bales, I guess,

follow that line across.

As I've seen the terraces

and, you know, this contrast

between the purple and the

green, imagine if that purple

were, you know, a row of

trees, or two rows of trees,

or three rows of trees.

INDY: It's time to get down to

the details on how we're going

to make this food

forest a reality.

BOB: Indy sent me videos and I

went ahead and pulled out the

aerial of your property, I

started sketching over it,

to kind of get a sense of

what's existing here.

And looks like this has just

been an agricultural field,

is that right?

CRAIG: Yeah, it's been corn

and beans for probably the

last ten years, in rotation.

BOB: So, the first step I

took was identifying where the

existing elements are, the

pond, the terraces, the trees,

the outbuildings, your house.

Cause with the forest design,

you know, we wanna have a

strong interaction

and connection to what's already here.

I was able to generate the

soil profiles and the soil

types that are

actually on your land.

JILL: Whoa, cool.

BOB: And you have an area

that's prime agricultural land

and you have these two areas

kind of in this valley here,

which are two

separate soil types.

But what it's telling me is

that there's a nice foundation

to then start translating that

conservation strategy into

more of a permaculture,

edible forest garden strategy.

JILL: Wow, honey,

this is exciting.

Yeah.

BOB: And the idea is, you

got a big seven acre property,

we've now divided

it into two pieces.

From that two pieces, we're

now gonna start dividing it

into smaller sections.

It's gonna be easier for you

to start wrapping your head

around how to plant it,

how to take care of it,

where it's going to be on

your seven acre site here.

CRAIG: I feel a lot more

comfortable getting into this

project with a plan.

JILL: Yeah.

CRAIG: I probably would have

never identified the different

zones and all that's helpful.

JILL: Oh, it's just so

cool, I'm so excited.

I can just see it now.

Yeah, it's all

coming together.

INDY: So, like, what kind of

timber trees could we put there?

BOB: Black walnut, a

red oak, or white oak,

you have pines and pecan trees.

JILL: Wow, this is so awesome.

INDY: Yeah

(screams).

(laughs).

INDY: That's awesome.

CRAIG: She's always like this.

(laughs).

JILL: I wanna do it,

can we do it soon?

INDY: Yeah.

I knew that Craig and Jill

were a bit overwhelmed, trying

to get their heads around

their project, but I think it

clicked and to see Jill

so excited is awesome.

I even got Craig, the big old

teddy bear, to crack a smile.

CRAIG: Bob has an artistic eye

that I really appreciate and

I hope I'm able to get

that to come out the way

he's planned it,

'cause it's beautiful.

JILL: Having someone say,

"Okay, this is the plan",

I was like, "Yes", 'cause I

don't wanna have to be the one

that's planting the

tree in the wrong place.

So, he seemed really

confident and knowledgeable.

CRAIG: I'm ready to

plant a tree, so.

JILL: Yeah.

INDY: Now, I think we

can all together get a good start on this.

JILL: Yeah.

INDY: Let's do it.

CRAIG: Yeah.

INDY: I'm thrilled that Jill and

Craig are so game for this plan.

The next steps are getting our

list of desired trees together,

putting in an order

for delivery and gathering

an army of friends to help.

JILL: I'd love to try to

get some echinacea out there.

I think it'd be cool to get

some pine trees, like some

Christmas trees out there.

INDY: Ooh.

JILL: Peaches grow

really well around here.

So, that's something that I'm

really excited about trying.

INDY: What else

am I missing? Hey.

CRAIG: You guys tried to

run away from me, didn't you?

JILL: Yeah, well, we're just

coming up with a list of trees

and plants that we wanna get.

CRAIG: Cool.

Looks good.

JILL: And then I know like,

paw paws and Persimmons are

native that grow

really well around here.

INDY: Uh-huh.

JILL: Cool.

Man, that list is awesome.

INDY: Craig and Jill are one

step closer to making their

dream food forest a reality.

But with seven acres to cover,

we'll need as many hands

on deck as possible.

JILL: Do you have some free

time that you'd be able to

come out and help us

plant a food forest?

Awesome.

Hi, this is Jill Steffensen

from Heimsoth Farm.

Are you free to come out?

WOMAN (over phone):

Yeah, count me in.

JILL: Hey, Jill.

We're gonna plant a

food forest tomorrow.

Do you have some

time to come volunteer?

WOMAN (over phone): Oh, that

sounds awesome, I would love to.

INDY: How many

people do you think?

JILL: I'm gonna try to get

like ten to 15 people together.

Many hands make light work.

INDY: Exactly, yeah, because

I'm making my way through this

list of trees and I think

we're gonna have a lot.

JILL: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

INDY: It's a lot to pull off in

such a short amount of time.

I really hope Jill's

friends come through.

If not, we might have bitten

off more than we can chew.

♪

(laughs).

JILL: What?

Oh, my gosh.

What?

(laughs).

INDY: Hi, guys.

JILL: Indy, what

are you doing?

What have you got there?

It's so cool.

INDY: Right.

CRAIG: How did you come

up with two donkeys, Indy?

INDY: I know,

it's pretty funny.

JILL: What's

going on right now?

INDY: Well, I met Jeff, who's

an agroforestry farmer

and he has a bunch of

amazing local trees.

He agreed to help me bring

some of these trees that

I couldn't fit into my car.

JILL: This is so cool.

INDY: Back here, we've

got a bunch of the trees you guys talked about.

We've got some pear trees.

What else do we

have back here?

JEFF: Elderberries here.

INDY: And then around here,

peaches, we talked about doing

peaches too and then

apple like you mentioned.

JILL: Yeah, this

is so awesome.

INDY: I know.

JILL: Great.

CRAIG: Are you excited?

INDY: I am so excited.

JILL: Yeah, I can't wait.

INDY: Jill's gathered friends

from the neighboring farms and

we come up with a plan

to divide and conquer.

Starting with the pecan trees.

We've marked out where

they'll go with orange flags.

And it's time for the planting

party to officially begin.

JILL: Heimsoth Farm

on three, ready?

One, two, three,

Heimsoth Farm!

Yeah, let's go.

INDY: Alright.

CRAIG: Starting this project

today, we've definitely

changed the landscape

of this farm for

the foreseeable future.

My grandfather's passed, but I

think if I had an opportunity

to explain to him like how we

were doing this and for what

reasons, he would

support us big time.

INDY: This is what

I love the most.

Getting out in the field.

Feeling the soil in my hands.

And connecting with the land.

BOB: Hard to imagine that

little stick turning into an

80 foot tree.

(laughs).

JILL: Do you wanna

go do the next one?

CRAIG: This up here is

like cover crop for Jill to expand elderberries.

INDY: With your help, it's

amazing that you're right down

the road and you make

light work of this.

I can't believe we're

almost already finished.

It's wild to think that the

dozens of tiny twigs that we

just planted will one

day be a forest of trees.

I have another long term idea

to share with Jill, that will

not only one day make great

infill for the new trees,

but pay off big

time for the farm.

I brought a mushroom spawn!

JILL: Cool.

INDY: This is a great

sized log, so we're working with oak, right?

JILL: Yeah.

INDY: Alright.

So, we're gonna drill holes to

put our mushroom spawn that's

pre-made to fit just

straight into a log.

So you want them to be evenly

spaced, and you want them all

to have space to

pretty much eat.

I mean, this is

their dinner table.

JILL: Sure, yeah.

INDY: Mushroom inoculation is

the process of delivering a

combination of mushroom

mycelium and a specific

growing medium, together known

as mushroom spawn, directly

into hardwood trees.

Once inside, the mushroom

spawn feeds off of moisture

within the wood, causing

wood fibers to break down and

eventually rot, in a

process typically taking one to two years.

What I love about this is it's

really not an exact science.

You know, you might find that

this becomes one of your big

moneymaking

products on the farm.

JILL: Yeah, and it's nice,

because it's passive, it's not

like I have to be out weeding

it and, you know, nurturing it

and trimming it, it's like,

these are just gonna fruit and

I just have to harvest.

INDY: Yeah.

JILL: So we go like this?

INDY: Yeah.

Exactly, aw.

JILL: Perfect.

INDY: Cute.

And then this is the fun part,

when the hot wax comes in.

JILL: Okay.

INDY: So, do you wanna grab

that paint brush and just

dip it in your wax?

JILL: What's the wax for now?

INDY: It helps keep the

moisture in and it also keeps

other fungus spores from

floating by and coming in.

JILL: Okay.

That's easy.

INDY: Yes, super easy.

JILL: So this one's done?

INDY: Perfect.

One log down.

JILL: Alright,

many more to go.

INDY: Yes.

Craig and Jill can utilize the

logs on their land, to grow an

assortment of

mushrooms right in their yard.

But there's one more thing I

want to show Jill that would

be a big hit on

the farm stand.

JILL: Those look

like jelly jars.

INDY: Exactly.

I know that making money on

the farm and creating actual

products is really important

to you and to any farm.

So I was thinking when we were

talking to Bo, that we could

start fermenting some of

the mushrooms like he did.

JILL: Oh, cool, yeah.

INDY: Have you tried?

JILL: No, I didn't try 'em,

I was a little bit scared.

INDY: Yeah, let's try them.

I love mushrooms.

JILL: Let's get 'em, grab

'em out of the fridge here.

Oh.

Oh, yeah, these

are Chanterelles, I recognize the shape.

INDY: Uh-huh, so

foraged mushrooms.

JILL: Yum.

INDY: You like it?

JILL: It is good.

It is really good.

It's a very different flavor

than anything I've tried.

INDY: I love it.

And mushrooms, honestly,

are one of the best things to

pickle, because they already

have all the ingredients.

And then you have a delicious

product that you can put right

out on your farm stand.

JILL: And I've got the garlic

and the onions down pat.

INDY: Exactly.

JILL: So adding

mushrooms is perfect.

INDY: With all the different

ways Jill can market her

mushrooms, it's definitely

going to have a huge impact on

her farm stand.

Time to check in on

planting the food forest.

It looks like you have plenty

of helping hands and with your

help from Bob, I think

you're off to a great start.

CRAIG: He gave us a

great plan, for sure.

I think we can take over.

JILL: Thank you.

BOB: Yeah, my pleasure.

CRAIG: See ya.

BOB: I'll see ya.

INDY: Bye, Bob, thanks.

This has been such

an incredible day.

It's amazing to see what a

community can do when everyone

pulls together

towards the same goal.

And I know that with all

the support around them,

this forest is going

to be spectacular.

JILL: Honestly, like you have

really given us a whole new

perspective and a lot more

work to do, but a great new

resource for the farm.

So I'm so grateful to you.

INDY: Oh, thank you.

CRAIG: It's a lot of work,

but work we're looking forward to do, for sure.

INDY: Yeah, I'm looking

forward to seeing all of this in action.

Anyone can take steps to

plant food bearing trees.

But Craig and Jill are taking

a bold, unconventional leap.

And although I've set them

up with a great start,

the success of this

endeavor rests in their hands.

I'm gonna give them a couple

of months to continue

working the land and

then come back to see

how the farm is progressing.

I have no doubt that this

unique farm is the start of

something really magical.

♪

INDY: It's been seven weeks

since I visited Craig and Jill.

Even though I've been able

to set them up with local

resources that can take their

food forest to the next level,

at the end of the day,

it's still farming and

anything can happen.

JILL: Indy!

INDY: Hi.

JILL: Welcome back.

INDY: It's so good to see you.

Hi, what's up?

Everything looks so

green and beautiful.

CRAIG: Yeah.

JILL: It is spring, finally.

CRAIG: We've done quite a

bit since you've been here.

INDY: Well, I

can't wait to see.

CRAIG: Yeah, let's go

to the mushrooms first.

INDY: Yeah?

Oh, perfect.

I'm so excited.

Almost immediately, I can not

only see the changes,

but I can smell them.

The pungent aroma of wet

logs resting in soil means

something

wonderful is on the way.

Oh, my gosh, yay.

JILL: Well, I made these

cute little labels for them.

INDY: Oh, that's so cute.

I love that.

So everything looks good, I

mean, they're not fruiting yet,

but I feel like the best

thing we can see is that they

haven't been taken over by

any other kind of mushroom.

These mushroom logs

have a ways to go.

Depending on the species of

mushroom, it can take a few

months, or even a

year to begin to fruit.

But, once they're producing,

they should be active for

several years and make

excellent infill underneath

the canopy of the

new food forest.

JILL: Come check

this out here.

INDY: Oh, yeah.

JILL: So there's

some pineapple weed.

CRAIG: Right.

JILL: And then

dandelion greens.

INDY: And so you've been

harvesting this recently?

JILL: Yeah, and

drying it for teas.

CRAIG: This is like a

whole Bo moment, right there.

One square foot.

INDY: Exactly.

CRAIG: And it's like, 40

plants here and it all looks

like what people would

say weeds or tall grass.

INDY: Craig and Jill

have come a long way.

Having the knowledge to

identify the resources around

all their property, I'm sure

will bring in more profits

at the farm stand.

JILL: There's some wood

ear over here on these logs.

INDY: Oh, my gosh.

I love wood ear.

I feel like it's a

really underrated mushroom.

This is awesome that you have

these growing right here and

you have tons of them.

JILL: Yeah.

INDY: I know that you've

taken some of the logs and you inoculated them.

Have you been putting them

in the Mandala garden too?

INDY: Oh, really?

JILL: Yeah.

We'll check it out.

INDY: This is incredible.

Dude, you have a bunch of the

Schizophyllum commune

split gill mushroom

growing here too.

So you're growing a bunch

of these medicinal herbs,

are you able to

sell them as well?

JILL: Yeah, I've been

selling some that I've dried.

INDY: Oh, cool.

CRAIG: This is all

out of my element, but I just work here, so.

(laughs).

Let's go to our

orchard and our food forest.

INDY: I think that my biggest

concern in coming back to

Jill and Craig's farm is that

the trees didn't survive.

Because we put them in in the

winter and there's still this

chance that the trees didn't

make it through the spring.

JILL: Remember how like

the rye was like this big?

And now it's up to here.

INDY: Yeah.

It's going to be a few years

before their food forest

looks like a forest.

All they can do now is

safeguard their baby trees.

CRAIG: Since you were here,

Indy, we put the tree tubes out.

INDY: One way to do that

is with protective tubing.

It keeps the deer at bay and

helps preserve moisture for

the tree.

Wow.

This has such a different feel

than when I was here before.

In the short time that

I've been back here,

I've really been able to see

Jill and Craig take this idea of

a foraging farm and run with it.

JILL: Indy really transformed

this farm into a foraging farm.

We put in like, 400 trees and

1,000 bushes and really gave

this a huge makeover.

It went from a quarter acre in

production to seven and a half

acres in just a

few short weeks.

It's like a savings account

out there, with all these

different plants that are

gonna produce crops every

single year, which is awesome.

Because as my kids get older

and are at school, I'm able to

dedicate more and more time

to really grow this business.

CRAIG: This is completely

different out here, for sure.

INDY: Peaches.

I love how you're just

continuing to plant things and

be able to harvest them and

enrich the soil all around

your little trees.

JILL: I've got some

things that are gonna bring

pollinators in.

I have some things that

are gonna repel pests,

like the chives and the garlic.

INDY: This is awesome that

you've just taken some of the

plans and made it work for

this farm, that's so nice.

Wow, oh, all the

little elderberries.

JILL: Yeah, so these were just

sticks, but as you can see,

they've rooted and

they're growing leaves.

INDY: Wow, these

look really great.

JILL: And they

need no irrigation.

INDY: Wow.

I can see how much work you

guys have put into the farm

since I was here last.

JILL: Yeah, this is just

the beginning and this is a long process.

This is a

lifelong legacy here.

INDY: The diversity on

this farm is amazing.

They've got so many unusual

plants and it's really going

to set them apart from any

other farms in the area.

CRAIG: Hi, honey.

(laughs).

Where'd you come from?

DAUGHTER: In the house.

CRAIG: Where you been hiding?

Inside all day?

DAUGHTER: Yeah.

INDY: This is so beautifully

branded, what a difference.

CRAIG: We've gotten better

at filling it out early.

INDY: This is awesome.

Dandelion jelly, dude, what?

So cool.

JILL: I've got all these like,

dried herbs, but I've got

like, Mullen leaf.

INDY: Wow.

JILL: And then some dehydrated

turkey tail mushrooms.

INDY: This is amazing.

JILL: And then catnip.

And that was all like

foraged on the farm.

And then I've got the pineapple

weed, it's all dehydrated.

INDY: That smells so good.

JILL: Bo Brown gets people so

excited about eating plants

that they never would

have thought they'd eat.

People are stopping,

they're asking questions, they're excited.

CRAIG: With Indy's help and

everyone that she brought out,

we were able to make

this farm 100% better.

JILL: And then of

course, my onion bunches.

People get usually excited to

see the red, you know,

'cause they're so pretty.

Not gonna find that

in a grocery store.

CRAIG: Yeah, those

are my favorite.

INDY: Wow, this looks great.

JILL: And these are the

Luffa Gourds that I grow.

INDY: Yeah, that's so cool.

JILL: You know, and they

feel like, they're like back scratchers

or sponges, or for cleaning.

INDY: I love how many unique

products that you offer.

JILL: When you're on a small

farm like this, having things

that the other big farms don't

have is like my little niche.

This has really increased

the earning potential for me.

And we're

investing in our children.

And those things

are priceless.

INDY: Like, just all the

improvements, everything

that's happened on the farm

since I've been gone is so cool.

You guys have really

put in some extra work.

CRAIG: You wanna go

in the house, honey?

Alright, go ahead.

INDY: I'm just so impressed.

JILL: I've definitely taken a

different approach to my farm

because of all of the things

that we learned from you.

More than anything in

this world, I wanna see this farm succeed.

CRAIG: Yeah, we were super

happy to be able to have you

come out here and

teach us so much.

It was awesome, very

grateful and thankful.

INDY: Thank you for having me,

it's been so great, just like

seeing what a huge

change there's been since I was last here.

CRAIG: I was really fortunate

to keep this farm in our

family and being able

to continue and pass it on to my children.

JILL: The farm is like the

glue that holds us together

and it's a beautiful thing,

like look at what we've done.

This is awesome, yeah.

INDY: This has been an

incredible journey and

although Craig and Jill may

have a long road ahead of them,

their new food forest is

a shining example of what can

happen when a

community comes together.

Just like any ecosystem,

we are all connected.

Farm to farm and

person to person.

And that's what

matters the most.